Red Tears Ballad

Although he had a rare full day off yesterday, Hu Shaoqing still felt exhausted. Even when Wang Sen from his department tried to persuade him to go out for a big meal after work, he couldn't resist. The thought of having to work the night shift made him too lazy to even walk.

Around six o'clock, the hospital was unusually quiet; the sounds of children crying all day still faintly echoed in his ears. Hu Shaoqing draped his white coat over a stool, went down to the supermarket on the second floor of the hospital, bought a piece of bread, and sat listlessly outside the empty waiting room.

"Hello, I'm a student from N University, conducting a survey. Do you have time now?" a voice came from above and to the side. Even though it sounded quite gentle, Hu Shaoqing just wanted to sit quietly for a while. "Excuse me, I..." he instinctively refused, but hesitated when he looked up and saw the owner of the voice.

The girl seemed to sense Hu Shaoqing's hesitation and quickly took out a 6A-sized notebook from her bag, handing it to him along with the questionnaire. "This questionnaire is quite interesting, and you'll get a free notebook after you finish it." She smiled slightly, her lips parting slightly.

Hu Shaoqing looked at it, his heart fluttering with instant attraction.

Perhaps it was due to his limited social circle after starting work; in recent years, he had only encountered noisy children or equally exhausted medical colleagues in the hospital who didn't want to say a word. Although he had been arranged to go on many blind dates since breaking up with his girlfriend a year ago, he had never been enthusiastic. After all, those blind date partners had nothing to offer besides their jobs and families. His work was already tiring enough; did he really want to come home to a wife he couldn't even be bothered to look at?

"Sir? Do you have a moment?" The girl gently interrupted Hu Shaoqing, who was lost in his disappointed memories, and handed the questionnaire forward a little more. "It's a survey about WeChat usage, it's quite interesting." "Okay, I don't have anything else to do anyway, I'll help you with it." Hu Shaoqing couldn't believe it himself. One second he was impatiently trying to cancel everything and be alone, and the next second he would so easily agree to a stranger's survey request. He took the questionnaire and habitually reached for his jacket pocket, only to realize after a while that he had taken off the white coat with the pen clipped to it.

"I have a pen here." The girl sat down on the chair next to Hu Shaoqing and handed him the pen she had prepared earlier.

"Oh, thank you." Hu Shaoqing glanced at the girl's slender, delicate hand and forced himself to focus on the questionnaire. "This questionnaire... it's quite long." He flipped through the questionnaire and found that it was a full six pages long. Looking at the densely packed questions and options, he couldn't help but break out in a cold sweat.

"Haha, yes, so we'll give you a notebook as a gift to thank you for taking the time to cooperate with our survey." The girl explained while tidying up the remaining questionnaires and notebooks. Because her long, loose hair kept slipping down, she raised her hand to tuck it behind her ear, revealing her delicate, white ears.

Hu Shaoqing was so engrossed in looking at her that he momentarily forgot his manners and stared blankly to the side.

The girl noticed something was off, stopped what she was doing, and turned around to meet Hu Shaoqing's unabashed gaze. She didn't seem to mind, but instead smiled gently, "Is there a problem with the questionnaire?" "Oh, no, it's nothing." Hu Shaoqing quickly averted his rude gaze, awkwardly lowering his head, wishing he could disappear into the ground.

"It's alright, feel free to ask me any questions." A long silence followed, occasionally broken by the sound of footsteps as someone walked past them. Hu Shaoqing diligently completed the questionnaire for a while, but still couldn't help stealing glances at the girl so close to him. She looked to be under twenty, wearing a cream-colored wool coat. Her straight hair, almost waist-length, was a pure, silky color that seemed to shimmer softly against the light-colored coat. The girl would occasionally purse her lips, gazing absently out the window across the street.

Hu Shaoqing was somewhat captivated. He casually struck up a conversation with her, "What year are you in, young lady?" "I'm a second-year graduate student."

Hu Shaoqing felt the girl's gaze burning into his heart, as if it carried a heat. But he didn't look up, maintaining his posture as if carefully filling out a questionnaire. "Second-year graduate student? Graduating next year?" "My major only takes two years, I'll graduate this year."

"Really? But you look so young, I thought you were an undergraduate." Hu Shaoqing was inwardly amazed, but also secretly pleased: since you're graduating this year, the age difference isn't that much, maybe four or five years at most.

"I started school early and skipped a grade, so I'm not very old." Hu Shaoqing stopped writing in surprise. "And how old are you this year...?" "I just turned twenty."

"You really are quite young." Hu Shaoqing said casually, but his heart sank. His carefully laid plans crumbled: so young, a full ten years younger than me. It seems I'm destined to be alone forever.

"Excuse me, I need to fill this out too." Hu Shaoqing said dejectedly, having missed a question. The girl noticed and pointed it out. A faint fragrance wafted past Hu Shaoqing's nose. He sniffed it discreetly; it smelled nice.

"You're very observant." Hu Shaoqing finished writing the missed question and said casually.

"This is the data source for my graduation thesis. I couldn't be careless." The girl shrugged, a hint of helplessness in her voice.

"So how many copies do you need to collect in total?"

"Four hundred copies," the girl answered briefly.

Hu Shaoqing couldn't help but exclaim, "You're distributing all four hundred copies by yourself?" "Haha, no, the junior girls in the lab are also helping. But they're all three or four years older than me, yet they have to call me 'senior sister' and do all this work for me. I wonder if they'll dislike me." The girl tilted her head and laughed, her playfulness undeniable.

"How could I dislike such a cute senior sister? When I was in school, all the senior brothers were scruffy-bearded, that's what I disliked."

"That just proves that like repels like," the girl pointed out his weak argument and smiled kindly.

"Looks like when you're not studying, your thinking becomes less rigorous." Hu Shaoqing chatted happily with the girl, even finishing the long questions quickly.

"Finished? Thank you."

Before Hu Shaoqing could react, he had already finished the last question. He couldn't help but silently scold himself for being so stubborn; he should have written slower and chatted with the girl more.

"This is your notebook." The girl put away the questionnaires, stood up, and placed the notebook on her seat, seemingly about to leave.

"Um..." Hu Shaoqing blurted out anxiously, not even knowing the girl's name, and she was about to turn and disappear into the crowd. Although the huge age difference between them made him see no possibility of a future relationship, he still felt unwilling to let her disappear like this.

"Hmm?" The girl turned around at the sound of his voice and stopped.

"If you still have questionnaires to distribute, the hospital will be crowded after 10 a.m., so it will be easier for you to finish distributing them quickly." Hu Shaoqing cautiously probed whether the girl would come to the hospital tomorrow.

"Thank you, then I'll try coming at 10 a.m. tomorrow." The girl waved gratefully at him, picked up a bag of questionnaires, and left.

*** *** *** ***

*** Hu Shaoqing had never looked forward to going to work so much. Before leaving home in the morning, he carefully considered his attire, shaved his stubble, and even picked up a comb to tidy his hair, something he hadn't done in a long time. Why did it feel like he was going on a blind date? When he realized he had been standing in front of the mirror for a full ten minutes, he couldn't help but laugh out loud. She was just a girl he had met by chance, and they hadn't even made plans to see each other again. Why was he taking it so seriously?

Even as he jokingly remarked on his bizarre second spring in love, Hu Shaoqing left home full of hope, practically singing "The birds sing to me, the flowers smile at me." But the next ten long hours shattered his dreams—the girl handing out questionnaires never showed up, not even by dinnertime.

Wang Sen changed his clothes and came to find Hu Shaoqing for dinner, only to find him still slumped dejectedly at the table in his white coat. He nudged him, "Hey, what's wrong? Let's go eat." Hu Shaoqing glanced at his watch and sighed helplessly, "It's already this late." "You were quite energetic this morning, why are you so listless now?" Wang Sen tapped on Hu Shaoqing's table, urging him on. His own stomach was already growling loudly, and he couldn't wait even half a minute longer. "I heard that the upscale restaurant on the corner is having a discount on the two-person meal today, shall we go?" "I have no appetite, I'll just grab something quick and go home early." Hu Shaoqing had no interest in Wang Sen's suggestion. After all, nothing is more disheartening than being met with disappointment when you're full of hope.

"How can we be 'drinking buddies' like this? We only have this one common interest, and you're turning us away." Wang Sen wouldn't give up, still trying to persuade him. "What's wrong? Is there something wrong with your kidneys?" "You're the one with kidney problems." Hu Shaoqing frowned and punched Wang Sen, completely unmoved by his joke.

"I heard it from Xiao Wu. She said you went to the bathroom more than ten times today. Do you want me to introduce you to Director Huang from the urology department?" Wang Sen continued jokingly, failing to make Hu Shaoqing laugh, but instead bursting into laughter himself.

Hu Shaoqing was too lazy to explain, so he simply changed out of his uniform and walked out with him. "I'm going out because I have something to do, not to the restroom."

"Good lad, not to the restroom? Why didn't you just tell Xiao Wu? You've learned to slack off, have n't you?

But out of loyalty to my drinking buddies, I won't report you. Come on, treat me to a big meal." With that, he put his arm around Hu Shaoqing's shoulder and pointed ahead.

Hu Shaoqing was both amused and exasperated. He shook off him and teased, "Eat, eat, eat. Why didn't you go to the gastroenterology department back then? If you ask me..." Before he could finish speaking, a familiar figure suddenly appeared in his eyes, and he stopped abruptly.

Hu Shaoqing's sudden stop caused Wang Sen, who was rushing forward, to stumble and almost fall. "Hey, you..." He was about to speak when he saw Hu Shaoqing staring straight in one direction, as if he had been bewitched. Wang Sen curiously peeked out and followed his gaze.

In the sparsely populated lounge area, a girl in a white coat was diligently organizing a stack of papers.

Wang Sen nudged the dazed Hu Shaoqing and asked, "Do you know her?" "Why don't you go first, I..." Hu Shaoqing dismissed Wang Sen's question, making up an excuse before hurrying towards the girl.

"Damn, he forgets his friend for a pretty face." Wang Sen, naturally, wouldn't miss such a good gossip opportunity and followed.

Perhaps Wang Sen's voice was too loud, for the girl looked up and met the approaching Hu Shaoqing. She clearly recognized him too, waving to him, "Hi, we meet again." "Yeah, what a coincidence." Even Hu Shaoqing himself wanted to laugh at this. He had been waiting all day, but "heaven rewards the persistent," and he had finally "waited" for her.

"You two know each other?" Wang Sen suddenly appeared from the side like a ghost, completely shattering the pleasant atmosphere of their chance encounter, emitting a blinding glare like a brand-new incandescent bulb.

If it weren't for the girl's presence, Hu Shaoqing would have definitely launched into a tirade, but now he could only kick Wang Sen hard from behind, ignoring his question.

"How's the questionnaire going?" Hu Shaoqing looked at the paper bag stuffed full of papers and asked with concern.

"One more is needed." The girl pulled out a blank questionnaire from the side, looking a little dejected.

"One more is needed? That's perfect, Wang Sen, you fill it out." Hu Shaoqing's attitude immediately changed 180 degrees.

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Red Tears Ballad

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