Chapter 82
Chapter 82 – North's Tianhe and the South's Hongya
Huainan and Huaibei were neighbouring provinces, and they were once joined together as Jiangnan Province. But despite being twin brothers, Huainan and Huaibei had distinct differences in their landscapes. Huainan was located in the centre of Yangtze River Delta, with flat land that made transportation easy. On the contrary, Huaibei belonged to the hills region.
Since they had to go on living with what the land gave, Huaibei was focused on developing agriculture. A decade ago, TCM Herb Industry was born, since the landscape was suitable for growing herbs. So, after their accumulation, Huaibei became one of the largest provinces for herbs in the entire country. At the same time, trading had been established with the market gradually taking shape, and the majority of the herbs were dealt in here.
It was a long-stretched mountain with mountains and water in the surroundings. The hill was only about three to four hundred metres in height. The sky was gloomy, covered in thick water vapour and green trees that could be vaguely seen through the window.
To save up on the expressway fees, the bus driver chose this rocky path. Su Tao was sitting in the bus and sneezed while he rubbed his nose. Beside him, Lu Shimiao rolled her eyes before looking out at the scenery.
The Jianghuai Hospital sent the two of them for this event. Initially, Qiao Dehao had shown strong objections against this, but Lu Shimiao was still sent together with Su Tao under Di Shiyuan's strong request. The reason why Di Shiyuan supported Lu Shimiao was because of her firm attitude.
The reason why she wanted to participate was partly due to her interest in TCM, since she had witnessed the miracles from Su Tao treating Jiaojiao. Thus, her interest in development shifted and started to research in TCM, hoping that her research could give her more inspiration. On another hand, she wanted to hide from the father-and-son duo, so she would have a brighter mood if she went to an unfamiliar place.
She's wearing a fitting professional attire with pale tailored clothes that outlined her impressive curves. Her skin was pearly-white and her hair was tied together, revealing her ears that were pierced with blue crystals. Looking from the side view, her entire face looked exquisite without any flaws, which caused Su Tao sigh at the miraculous ability of the creator.
"So how are you and Qiao Bo doing? Is he still pestering you?" Su Tao took out a greenish-yellow tangerine from his pocket and peeled it with a sour and sweet scent lingering in the atmosphere.
Seeing Su Tao handing her half of the peeled tangerine, Lu Shimiao briefly knitted her brows, but she still accepted it. She plucked a piece off and placed it in her mouth. She instantly felt her mouth moisten and no longer felt that thirsty, but had a bitter smile. "Qiao Bo was traumatised by you the other time, so he naturally doesn't dare to come and annoy me. It's just Qiao Dehao…"
"He's still sticking to his old ways?" Su Tao asked with astonishment in his eyes.
Lu Shimiao nodded with a bitter smile. "Yesterday when I got off work and was heading to the new apartment, I noticed Qiao Dehao following me with his car halfway…"
With surprise on his face, Su Tao sighed, "People can occasionally be cheap, but someone as cheap as him is disgusting."
The tangerine was juicy. It filled Lu Shimiao's mouth before she took a tissue from her purse to wipe her lips with a bitter smile. "He comes to my office to talk about Su Tao and Qiao Bo almost daily and would start ill intentions after a few words, trying to take advantage of me. This is also the reason why I looked for President Di and asked for me to be dispatched together with you."
Looking at the lipstick mark left on the issue, Su Tao nodded his head. "You're trying to infuriate him, right?"
Lu Shimiao was stunned from surprise before she nodded, "I'm sorry that I used you as a shield. But I'm also out of ideas, and I lack a sense of security. Right now, the only one that I can rely on is you. After all, they're currently suspecting our relationship. I have also figured it all out, he can guess all he wants, and I know that we're clean. So they won't find anything, anyways!"
Su Tao shrugged and smiled. "It's natural to shield the wind and rain for a woman."
Actually, Di Shiyuan had come to ask Su Tao about this matter. If Su Tao didn't want Lu Shimiao to follow him to Huaibei, then Di Shiyuan wouldn't have made such a decision. Seeing that Lu Shimiao was entirely in the dark about this matter, Su Tao was secretly delighted, since this small scheme of his had succeeded.
This time, Su Tao represented the Jianghuai Hospital to participate in the Physician King Tournament, so it's natural for the hospital to send logistics as support. With such a Bella accompanying him on this trip, Su Tao was instantly motivated.
The bus successfully reached the rendezvous city in Huaibei. Lu Shimiao looked to be a little carsick. She stumbled when she came down and nearly fell from the steps. But fortunately, Su Tao was quick enough to hold her so that she did not fall. However, she sprained her ankle and her forehead was covered in sweat.
Under Su Tao's strong request, Lu Shimiao sat down on a step and Su Tao took their luggage from the bus before walking back to her and teased, "President Di sent you over to take care of me for logistics, but you're dragging me down, instead."
Lu Shimiao already felt pain in her ankle, but she instantly felt extremely wronged when she heard Su Tao's words, so tears flickered in her eyes. "Then don't care about me and do what you must."
Su Tao was stunned, since Lu Shimiao had misunderstood him. With a sigh, he sat beside her and said, "Remove your shoe!"
"What are you trying to do?" Lu Shimiao couldn't react in time, so she asked in puzzlement.
Su Tao stretched his hand out to jab on her forehead and answered, "I'm a physician. You've sprained your ankle, so I'm naturally going to treat it for you."
Lu Shimiao's face blushed before she removed her pink leather shoe, before she softly muttered, "You could pay no attention to me and leave me to my own demise."
Su Tao held onto her foot with black stockings. Su Tao gave it a stroke and noticed it had a good texture. The sounds of bone clashing could be heard before Su Tao released her foot and he put her shoe back on for her with a smile. "Done, try and walk a few steps!"
Hesitation flashed on Lu Shimiao's face, but her ankle no longer hurt that much; however, it felt numb, instead. She pressed on her skirt while standing up and took a few steps before realising that it was totally fine now. "It doesn't hurt anymore!"
Su Tao dragged his luggage and replied, "If I can't treat such a small problem, how can I fight for the Physician King's title?"
Following behind her, a smile rose on Lu Shimiao's lips while looking at his slender body. She rarely felt admiration for someone, and before she encountered Su Tao, she had been holding reservations for TCM and felt that there were many pseudosciences in theory. However, Su Tao had completely changed her mindset. Take her sprain, for example. It would take ten to fifteen days to deal with such an injury with western medicine, but it was done in an instant by Su Tao.
They flagged a cab and they head towards the location of the event, Triumph Luck International Hotel. This hotel had a total of thirty-seven floors, located in the flourishing zone in the city. Thus, one can tell the high standard of this event.
Su Tao and Lu Shimiao walked to the registration counter when a group of people walked over. The one leading was a tall youth that looked under thirty and he said to the attendant, "We have more people, deal with ours first."
Lu Shimiao knitted her brows while looking in the direction of that youth and noticed that the young man was looking at her as well. She uncontrollably knitted her brows. "Don't you know the meaning of first come, first served?"
The youth smiled. "You two must be here to participate in the event, right? Let me introduce myself; my name is Ge Wen, the representative of Tianhe Hospital. since we have more people with us, please do us a favour, since we're all in the same field and will meet often."
Ge Wen could tell that the two of them were here to participate in the event, but since there's only two of them, that meant that they must be sent from a small hospital for them to experience society. So when he saw Lu Shimiao's outstanding appearance, he purposely teased her. In his view, beauties wouldn't throw themselves into his arms, thus creating a little friction between them was also beneficial for them to get closer.
There's a saying in the medical world, the North's Tianhe and the South's Hongya. In Yanjing, the Tianhe Hospital's name was a golden plaque and anyone in the medical world would give them a face or two.
No wonder they had such an atmosphere around them, they're from big hospitals. While she's hesitating in her heart, she heard Su Tao say to the attendant, "Is there any special rooms? Like a big round bed or something."
Lu Shimiao's ears instantly turned red before she secretly pinched Su Tao's underbelly and whispered, "What nonsense are you saying?!"
The attendant's face also turned red before she lowered her face and smiled. "I'm sorry, our rooms are standard, deluxe and presidential suites. As for the round bed that you mentioned, we do not have them for the time being."
"Two single rooms, then, same floor and side by side." Su Tao said helplessly as he shrugged.
Seeing that Su Tao paid no attention to him and even mentioning the round bed, Ge Wen's heart sank. But when he heard Su Tao taking two rooms, he instantly knew that the two of them weren't a couple, so he handed his identification card over and demanded, "The organiser has arranged our rooms for us, give us our keys, now!"
There were many attendants by the registration counter, but Ge Wen was purposely targeting the attendant that was helping Su Tao to create trouble on purpose. As he spoke, he also did not forget to catch a glimpse at Lu Shimiao and saw her brows knitted together.
Su Tao's brows were gently raised, but a cold light flashed in his eyes and he decided to teach this arrogant fool a lesson. But suddenly, he heard the attendant respectfully stand up and said, "Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Su. Your room has already been booked, and it's the presidential suite. I will hand the room key to you now."
When the attendant stood up, her attitude instantly turned warm and she looked at Su Tao with a smile, since there was only one presidential suite in the hotel.
To project nobility of the presidential suite, five stars hotel would only provide one. Su Tao was also caught by surprise, since he never expected Yan Jing to arrange this for him. Wasn't she investing a little too much on him? Just from the price alone, a presidential suite cost ¥28,888 for a night, a terrifying sum of money.
Ge Wen was also shocked, since he knew that he had made an error in judgement. He immediately toned down and kept quiet. Since this pair could stay in a presidential suite, that meant that the two of them certainly had a great background. Even if he had power back in his territory, this wasn't his territory, so he had to forbear.