Iceberg's Deep Love - Chapter 17

“Hiss—” The male doctor seemed to sense a shift in the atmosphere and recoiled in fright, forgetting all about admiring the beautiful female doctor.

Li Mingyue watched the entire surgery with unwavering focus, her fingers twisting and untwisting in her white coat pocket. Finally, she sighed.

“What’s wrong, Doctor Li? Is there a problem?” the male doctor whispered. “Everything looks fine to me. Did you notice something I missed?”

This male doctor wasn’t from Cardiothoracic Surgery and hadn’t even signed up to observe the public surgery yesterday. He had only squeezed his way in today after hearing that the lead surgeon had been replaced by a beautiful female doctor. While he couldn’t fully grasp the intricacies of cardiothoracic procedures, he could still recognize Gu Jihuan’s solid surgical fundamentals and the absence of any major complications.

“Hmm…” Li Mingyue murmured vaguely, patting his shoulder. “I’m leaving now. I’ve seen enough.”

“Huh?” The male doctor stared in disbelief. Leaving halfway through? What could be so wrong that she couldn’t even finish watching?

Li Mingyue hurried out of the room, her head down as she walked, pulling out her phone and scrolling through her contacts.

“Professor Gu just arrived, so his team must be short-staffed. I need to secure a spot before they realize it…”

Li Mingyue was anxious. She didn’t care if the surgeon was a “beautiful doctor.” A heart transplant completed in just four and a half hours? Even Shi Nanfeng would take five to six hours. That half-hour difference spoke volumes.

She pushed up her glasses, her eyes gleaming with excitement. I’ve struck gold!

Yu Hong’s number appeared on the screen. Li Mingyue quickened her pace toward the end of the corridor.

I can’t call here. I need to find a private place to beg Yu Hong and finalize this deal.

Bang! As Li Mingyue rounded the corner, her eyes glued to her phone, she collided head-on with someone coming from the opposite direction.

She grabbed the corridor railing, wobbled twice, and regained her balance. But it was clear the other person wasn’t so lucky.

Li Mingyue was moving at a breakneck speed, her momentum sending her crashing into the person opposite her. The woman, wearing high heels and carrying something in her hands, stumbled and landed hard on the floor with a thud.

“I’m so sorry!” Li Mingyue immediately reached out to help her up. “Are you alright?”

“Sss—” Lu Yuqiong hissed, drawing in a sharp breath as pain shot through her ankle. She suspected she’d sprained it.

Lu Yuqiong couldn’t help but marvel. She considered herself quite energetic, but compared to this whirlwind of a girl, she felt positively demure.

Li Mingyue had practically flown across the floor, her speed bordering on superhuman.

“Little potato, why were you running so fast?” Despite the throbbing in her ankle, Lu Yuqiong’s playful nature couldn’t be suppressed. She instinctively teased.

Li Mingyue’s eyes darkened, and the air around them seemed to grow heavy. “Who are you calling ‘little potato’?”

“You, of course,” Lu Yuqiong replied casually, twisting her ankle gingerly. Another wave of pain made her wince.

Li Mingyue’s expression turned stormy as she lifted her head to meet Lu Yuqiong’s gaze.

Lu Yuqiong blinked. Hmm, this is an excellent vantage point, she thought, realizing she could see the top of Li Mingyue’s head perfectly.

Even in high heels, her height… “Little Potato” really was the perfect nickname.

Li Mingyue stared wide-eyed at Lu Yuqiong. The woman before her had short, ear-length hair, her features sharp and slightly masculine, yet her curved eyelashes hinted at a touch of allure.

After taking in Lu Yuqiong’s appearance, Li Mingyue’s expression darkened further.

Just as I thought, she thought bitterly. The beautiful ones are never good people.

“Attempt defibrillation. Restart the heart,” Gu Jihuan instructed, her gaze fixed on the heart visible in the surgical field. She couldn’t help but hold her breath.

No matter how complex the heart surgery, the final, most critical moment always came down to this. Even the most flawlessly executed procedure would be for naught if the heart failed to resume beating.

Beep— The flat line on the monitor gradually began to fluctuate, initially with shaky, hesitant curves.

Then, slowly but steadily, following the rhythmic thump-thump, the heartbeats grew stronger. Bl00d oxygen levels normalized, flow rates stabilized, and the heart rate returned to normal.

Despite having repeated this process countless times throughout her career, Gu Jihuan approached each instance as if facing a formidable enemy. Only when all parameters returned to normal could she finally relax.

The circulating nurse leaned in with a smile. “Doctor Gu, Vice President Yu just called. She asked me to take you to your office.”

“Alright, thank you,” Gu Jihuan replied, stepping away from the operating table. She watched as the second assistant took over her position to close the chest.

It was her habit to stay in the operating room until the entire procedure was completed, unless there was an urgent emergency.

The circulating nurse, still clearly fascinated by Gu Jihuan, moved closer to strike up a conversation. “Doctor Gu, let me tell you about the Cardiothoracic Surgery department at Qingnan Hospital.”

“Sure,” Gu Jihuan replied with a gentle smile, her eyes brimming with warmth as her thick lashes fluttered softly.

The nurse was momentarily stunned. She had seen beautiful women before, but Gu Jihuan’s eyes were truly captivating and unforgettable.

Her pupils were deep black, dominating her irises and making her eyes appear luminous. The corners of her eyes tilted upward in a slightly flamboyant arc, yet the effect wasn’t domineering or intimidating. Instead, they radiated a brilliant, welcoming warmth.

“Professor Li goes without saying. The other two are Professor Shi Nanfeng and Professor Wei Shu. Professor Shi is quite humorous and only forty years old, so we can chat easily. Professor Wei is more serious…” The circulating nurse kept an eye on the operating table while rattling off the names like precious treasures.

Gu Jihuan couldn’t help but smile. It was clear that every hospital had its gossip hub.

At Jianghuan Hospital, it was Jiang Min. At Qingnan Hospital, it seemed to be this circulating nurse who knew every department inside and out.

Midway through her list, she paused as if remembering something. “There’s one more doctor you should watch out for, Professor Gu.”

“Who?” Gu Jihuan’s interest was immediately piqued. Before coming to Qingnan, she had researched their Cardiothoracic Surgery department, but she only knew the three professors.

“Doctor Li Mingyue,” the nurse whispered, leaning closer. “Virgo, obsessive-compulsive, and quite the troublemaker.”

She added as an afterthought, “Last time she assisted Professor Wei in surgery, she kept pointing out his mistakes. Professor Wei’s beard was practically bristling with anger!”

Professor Wei’s beard was so crooked with anger—he must have been furious. Gu Jihuan paused, then chuckled, “So, was she watching today’s surgery from outside? Oh no, she’ll be picking apart my technique as soon as I step out. I’d better prepare myself.”

Despite her words, Gu Jihuan felt a different kind of hope stirring within her.

Professor Wei’s beard might have been crooked with anger, but he hadn’t kicked Li Mingyue out. She was still thriving in Cardiothoracic Surgery, still relentlessly finding fault.

This proved at least one thing: Qingnan’s Cardiothoracic Surgery wasn’t controlled by a single hand. It was more open than Jianghuan, closer to the essence of medicine itself. Perhaps she had made the right choice after all.

Gu Jihuan and the nurse chatted and laughed all the way back to the office. The nurse waved goodbye at the door.

A private office was a rare privilege.

Gu Jihuan looked up and saw her name already printed on the doorplate. Qingnan had clearly gone to great lengths to welcome her.

Pushing open this door meant a new beginning. Gu Jihuan smiled softly and grasped the handle.

Creak. The door swung open, but Gu Jihuan froze.

A figure sat in the office, bathed in the golden light streaming through the window behind her, casting a halo around her silhouette.

She was dressed in black, her shoulder-length dark hair cascading over her shoulders. A faint chill radiated from her as she seemed to be flipping through several paper documents in her hands.

At the sound of the door opening, she looked up. In that instant, the coldness around her seemed to dissipate, replaced by a gentle smile in her eyes. Even the brown beauty mark beneath her lower eyelid appeared softer.

“The surgery’s over?” Lu Shinian put away his materials, stood up, and asked, “Want to grab a bite to eat?”

“It seems like every time we meet, it’s always during mealtime,” Gu Jihuan blinked, stretched languidly, and took off her white coat.

Her coat and bag were on the office sofa, likely brought over by someone Yu Hong had arranged.

Her fingertips brushed aside the long hair tucked beneath her coat, causing her sleeves to slide down slightly, revealing a glimpse of her slender wrist. Her fingers were long and delicate, her hands exquisitely beautiful.

Lu Shinian couldn’t help but recall the calm, composed gaze he had glimpsed above her mask when they passed each other earlier. Her air of effortless poise… the renowned “one-knife” surgeon of Jiang City’s Cardiothoracic Surgery, sharp and decisive, yet privately as passionate as a rose.

Lu Shinian felt his heart skip a beat. His gaze paused momentarily before he replied, following Gu Jihuan’s train of thought, “It does seem that way. Always around mealtime. Quite a coincidence.”

“Perfect! I absolutely love eating,” Gu Jihuan said with a cheerful smile. Having just undergone major surgery, she was both happy and ravenously hungry.

She seemed completely unfazed by the revelation of their true identities, maintaining the same casual and comfortable demeanor as before.

Lu Shinian hesitated before saying, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hide my identity. It’s just…”

“I didn’t tell you my name either,” Gu Jihuan interjected, completely unbothered. “Tsk, tsk… I knew you were rich, but I never imagined you were this rich. That’s definitely a surprise.”

In Jiang City, the Lu Family was the wealthiest, and Lu Shinian was its rightful heir. In other words, he wasn’t just any wealthy person; he was the wealthiest person in the entire city.

However, considering Lu Shinian’s previous behavior, it was hard to reconcile him with the image of the city’s richest man. At least, in the common understanding, a billionaire shouldn’t enjoy eating roadside teppanyaki tofu…

Lu Shinian’s unfinished sentence was cut short as his gaze locked with Gu Jihuan’s radiant, smiling eyes. For a moment, it felt as if nothing had changed at all.

Lu Shinian still felt a lingering unease and added, “You said before you wanted to distance yourself from the Lu Family. Now… are you still willing to be my friend?”

He had carefully rehearsed this question in his mind for a long time before finally asking it.

Friend.

Many people sought to flatter and curry favor with Lu Shinian, but when it came to true friends, he likely only had Lu Yuqiong.

Now, perhaps Gu Jihuan could be added to that list.

“Of course,” Gu Jihuan replied without hesitation. “Any hesitation on my part would be disrespectful to Jiang City’s wealthiest man.”

Her tone was clearly teasing. After all, her friendship with Lu Shinian had nothing to do with his money.

She believed in earning wealth through hard work and hadn’t even accepted the 500,000 yuan compensation. She certainly wouldn’t covet Lu Shinian’s wealth.

Her playful remark was simply a way to ease his awkwardness.

Beneath his domineering CEO facade, Lu Shinian was actually a sensitive and insecure person.

Over something as simple as a name, he had twisted himself into mental knots, clearly having undergone considerable internal deliberation.

But this down-to-earth and endearingly awkward CEO was undeniably likable—soft, malleable, and impossible not to adore.

Gu Jihuan’s playful banter had its effect. Lu Shinian couldn’t help but chuckle softly, saying, “Alright, I’ll treat you today as a welcome dinner. Welcome to Qingnan.”

“Then I won’t fight you for the bill today.” Gu Jihuan, genuinely starving, grinned mischievously. “Believe it or not, I could eat two cows right now.”

Lu Shinian chuckled again. “Alright, if you can manage it, I’ll buy you two cows.”

Gu Jihuan truly didn’t care that Lu Shinian was a Lu, just as she hadn’t resented Lu Yuqiong before.

Though she had casually complained about the Lus before, her real aversion was only toward Lu Bei.

And strangely enough, the usually clingy Lu Bei had been unusually well-behaved lately, leaving her alone.

Just as Gu Jihuan was about to grab her bag and head out with Lu Shinian, a cheerful, smiling voice called from outside: “Jihuan, I heard you finished surgery. You must be tired. I brought you coffee.”

Jihuan, a very intimate way to address her, but given their relationship, it didn’t seem inappropriate. After all, she couldn’t call her “Doctor Gu” at a family dinner with Grandma.