Everyone knew how complicated the case of Bed 9 was. If it were simple, they would not have been discussing it for so long with no solution.
Sidell paged through his notes and asked Sheffield, "What's your opinion, Dr. Tang?"
He knew they were trying to set him up, so Sheffield raised his eyebrows to Pablo. "Since Dr. Wang thinks so highly of me, let me perform the operation!"
The look in Sidell's eyes was complicated. He really didn't know which was greater, Sheffield's skills—or his arrogance. "I hope you aren't just being stubborn."
Sheffield smiled, "Of course, I'm not! The sooner the operation is performed, the better. I will come to the hospital tomorrow morning to do the surgery. Someone needs to let his family know."
The meeting ended soon.
After a dozen doctors walked out of the office, Sheffield stood up from his chair, put his arm around Pablo and asked, "Hey, man, what did I ever do to piss you off?"
Pablo glanced at his hand and said, "Nothing."
Sheffield feigned a ponderous look. "Then why do I think you're trying to bring me down?"
"You wound me, Dr. Tang. Why on earth would I do that? I really admire your medical skills," answered Pablo, in a voice dripping with sarcasm.
"And yours are quite good as well. You just have to apply yourself sometimes!" Sheffield said in a lukewarm tone. Then he turned around and left.
Looking at his back, Pablo sneered.
'You are so arrogant! We'll see how proud you are when you fail to save the patient.'
After leaving the office, instead of rushing to the outpatient department, Sheffield took out his phone and sent a message. "Darling, I'm performing major surgery tomorrow."
Evelyn was answering a phone call when she heard a new message alert from WeChat.
'Darling? Surgery?' The message was from someone named "Prince Tang." Who else could it be beside Sheffield Tang?
'But I don't remember friending him on WeChat. How did this happen?'
Actually, Sheffield had only recently decided to friend her on WeChat. He wanted to respect her, but she would never give him her contact info willingly. He had to find a way to get it himself.
So before he left her apartment, he took Evelyn's phone, friended himself on WeChat, and exchanged phone numbers. It was a genius way to do it, and, as underhanded as he was, it was preferable.
After hanging up, Evelyn stared at the WeChat message Sheffield had just sent her.
When she was hesitating as to whether to reply to his message, another message from him popped up. "And I'm being set up, too. If the surgery goes south, we can't be together."
There was a crying emoji at the end of the message.
Evelyn sent a message with only one word: "Okay."
Soon, he sent a sad face and asked, "Hey, are you free today? I'd like to go out to lunch with you. How about it, my princess?"
"No," Evelyn answered. Again, one word only.
Sheffield smiled resignedly at the cold message. "What happened to the passionate woman I was with last night? I miss her."
Evelyn's face was burning with embarrassment. She was angry and embarrassed at the same time. She blocked him.
Two minutes later, Sheffield saw a red exclamation mark beside his message. Only then did he realize that she had blocked him. There was also a tip which said, "You are not friends yet. Please friend the person first before chatting."
He clutched his aching heart. 'Ouch! She's so heartless! And it only makes me love her more.'
But he was not in a hurry. He tucked his phone back in his pocket and then went to the outpatient department.
When he got off work in the evening, he hopped on his computer, and hacked into WeChat using a malicious app. He got into Evelyn's account, unblocked his account, and added himself to her WeChat contact list.
It was already quite late by the time Evelyn got off work. She hammered her sore shoulders with her fists and left the office with her bag.
Sheffield's car was waiting for her at the entrance of the office building, its rear facing the gate.
Seeing her come out, he waved happily at her. "Hi Evelyn, I'm here!"
Evelyn was rendered speechless. She wasn't blind!
When she came over, he led her around the back of his car. He opened the trunk and said, "Voila! Surprised? They're for you!"
The trunk was full of flowers, 99 heart-shaped pink roses surrounded by pink baby's breaths.
There was a card on it, which read: to my love, EH.
Below the card was a square brocade box. Sheffield picked up the box and handed it to her. "And another gift, just to say I love you."
It would be a lie if she said she wasn't moved. With trembling heart, she took the box from him and asked, "What's this?"
"Open it and have a look!"
She opened the box and saw a blue tourmaline jewelry set: a dragonfly-shaped brooch and a dragonfly-shaped hair clip.
After a bit, she said, "A present for each night?"
Sheffield was shocked. He exclaimed, "Wow, seriously? The blue tourmaline is very rare, you know. I spent a long time looking for it before I found these items in Siberia. They just arrived in Y City this morning. I brought them to you as soon as I could!"
It was indeed rare to see blue Tourmaline. Evelyn had only one blue tourmaline jewelry piece—a pendant. Carlos had paid a high price for it at auction.
Sheffield took out the hair clip and helped her put it in her hair. He couldn't help but say, "Wow, it's so beautiful!"
Evelyn's tone was indifferent. "Are you sure it's not for Dollie?"
"Of course, it's not. She can't hold a candle to you. Let's stop talking about her. Come to dinner, my treat. We've known each other for so long, but I've never bought you a meal."
"No, thank you—" Evelyn tried to refuse.
"We've done everything. I just want to take you out to dinner. Why do you have to do me like this?" He pretended to be sad and displayed it perfectly.
Looking at his puppy dog eyes, Evelyn thought she had gone too far this time. It was just dinner. "Where are we going?"
"It's nearby!" Sheffield grinned. He took the pink roses from the trunk, put them into her arms and closed the trunk.
After half pushing and half pulling her into the passenger seat, he drove off.
They walked into a restaurant. Sheffield had booked the entire glass flower greenhouse on the second floor. There were only the two of them, and the atmosphere was very romantic.
Sheffield knew what she liked, and ordered a glass of wine. "Evelyn, it's our first official date. I'm a little excited. What should I do?"
The smile on his face made her heart soften. "This is not the first time I've eaten with you," she said softly.
"This is different!" Those were not real dates. This time, it was.