Pre-order opened on 2024.10.04. Synopsis written on 2024.10.22.
Introverted orthopedic surgeon gong x aloof operating-room nurse shou. Also known as The Orange Years.
With physiology and biochemistry, someone's bound to fail.
Before she even got to the second-year classes she was sure to fail, first-year cell biology was already more than Gu Xiang could handle.
Fifty-nine points!!!
No
Gu Xiang woke with a start, as if she were back in her first year, fretting over midterms.
Forced into medical school, she drifted through her days in a daze. Back then, she was content with scraping a passing grade, until she saw that slender figure in the exam hall.
Ruan Zhi, the undisputed campus beauty of A University Medical School, was in fact the most unforgettable among all the goddesses in the nursing department. Focused and diligent, she was a real-life Miss Nightingale, like a saint.
Like most people at the medical school, Ruan Zhi spent all her time outside class in the library study rooms. Lazy Gu Xiang didn't get her first proper look at her until the end of the first semester of freshman year, in the exam hall.
Love at first sight, then losing her mind the next time they met. A third meeting? No, there was no third meeting. Having the clinical medicine and nursing students take an exam in the same room was lucky enough to happen twice. Lazy Gu Xiang, who never went out, had little chance of running into Ruan Zhi.
One day, Gu Xiang made an unusual trip to the library and saw Ruan Zhi studying intently.
For the first time, she wanted to pursue someone.
Go up and strike up a conversation? She was ranked last in GPA.
She wasn't worthy!
She worked hard to catch up, watching from afar in silence.
At last, with her grades perfect as she approached her second year, Gu Xiang decided she would ask Goddess Ruan about studying as soon as the semester began.
Well, which unlucky administrator came up with that reform? To test which teaching method worked best, they sent one nursing class to study at the affiliated hospital. As luck would have it, it was Nursing Class One, where Ruan Zhi was.
Luckily, nursing hadn't yet been reformed that year, so, like clinical medicine, it still required five years of study.
Gu Xiang waited and waited, thinking she'd find out which hospital Ruan Zhi chose for her internship and apply to the same one.
Who knew Goddess Ruan would find her own internship placement?
Then what was the point of Gu Xiang keeping her GPA at the top among all those competitive students for years, just to earn the right to choose her internship hospital first!!!
Gu Xiang consoled herself: It was fine. Confessing after graduation would be good, too.
She watched Ruan Zhi after the graduation photos were taken, too timid to do anything but look from afar. In the end, she didn't dare take the confession letter out of her pocket.
The reason singles stay single isn't just laziness. It's also cowardice.
Gu Xiang stayed single and eventually finished her master's degree, thinking she'd probably be alone for the rest of her life.
After graduation, she went to the top-tier hospital where her senior worked, planning to keep her head down and live a quiet life under her mentor's wing.
"Xiao Gu, say hello to Sister Ruan." Her senior poked her. Today was Gu Xiang's first solo surgery at the hospital, and her senior planned to assist.
"She's the best nurse in the operating room. You'll have an easier time working with her. She was on leave recently, so you're lucky she came back just in time to be assigned to your team."
Gu Xiang was about to obediently call her Sister Ruan when she looked up.
Although the other woman was dressed in the operating room's standard green uniform, with a surgical mask and cap on, Gu Xiang recognized her instantly.
Ruan Zhi!!!
After searching high and low, she had finally found her. She'd actually run into Ruan Zhi.
But even though they were the same age, how had the other woman become Sister Ruan?
There was no helping it. She had started working several years earlier, and her clinical experience and seniority in the operating room were both greater than Gu Xiang's.
In the operating room, the young Dr. Gu asked as she held the scalpel, "Sister Ruan, is this okay?"
At home in bed, the young Dr. Gu asked, shamelessly, "Can I have another go?"
May this heart's longing find peace, while pure Zhi remains in Yuanxiang., Jiang Yan, Poem for the Lantern Night with Senior Yin
A fair maiden lives in the south, like the fragrant Zhi and orchid of Yuan and Xiang., Qu Yuan, Songs of Chu
Theme: Growth and courage.
