Page 146 of He Is My Bride

Damn, I was too nervous: I forgot to use my revenge fantasy for Wang Guosheng!Maybe on the next cadaver.

At the end of Li Ying’s shift, he was drinking coffee in the break room with his supervisor, discussing Li Ying’s learning goals for the rotation.

“Why pathology though?” the supervisor asked. “It’s definitely not everyone’s first choice. Most become doctors to help people, right?”

“Aren’t we helping? Maybe not the dead, but the next of kin, because they want to knowwhy,and the justice system, because they need to knowhow. I think that’s helping.”

“M-hm, I think so. Otherwise one couldn’t keep doing this. But is there a reason why you want to choose this way of helping, specifically? The things you see here get to you, and it changes you. You see the direct result of the cruelty of man first-hand. And it’s not like we’re the superstars of the doctoring world, and the pay could be better… Is it the ‘I don’t like to talk to people?’ Because that’s not a good reason. If you don’t talk, you will go crazy in here.”

“No, no, I like talking to people! I’ve heard that sometimes I talk too much, haha! It’s…”

Fascination with pathology just fit the picture of a former teen goth, didn’t it?

Li Ying had grown up surrounding himself with dark imagery, watching horror films, and making macabre art. He’d been trying to cope with some formless darkness inside him:

Little Li Ying had often had nightmares. Dreams where he was left alone in the dark, and things would appear to haunt him.

After Mrs. Qian had called him disturbed due to his drawings, Uncle Qian had put Li Ying in therapy for a short intervention. Inhindsight, Li Ying wasn’t surprised that his mental landscape was deemed the result of his abandonment trauma.

Li Ying shrugged. “I guess I’ve watched too much Criminal Minds.”

Wasn’t it about time he grew out of his phase though, Li Ying thought. Maybe he wouldn’t mind becoming a family doctor instead. He could even see himself working to develop new medicine: perhaps he could work for Wu Pharma in research?

“It’s good to give it some thought,” the supervisor said.

The senior pathologist came to fill his coffee cup. “What did you find out about that stab victim?”

Li Ying hurried to answer, “Multiple gastrointestinal perforations, laceration of the pancreas and the liver, with the cause of death being blood loss.”

“Hmm, impressive! And did you figure that out all by yourself?”

Li Ying smiled, not caring if it was a jab. “Of course not, I had to confirm everything from my supervisor, but with that much haematoma in the abdominal cavity, it was a pretty easy guess.”

“Mm-hm.” The senior drank his freshly poured coffee and instantly grimaced. “Who brewed this poison?!”

Li Ying raised his hand and grinned. “Thatwas all me!”

Li Ying’s phone rang. He checked and saw the Chinese area code.

“Excuse me, I have to take this.” Li Ying left the break room.

He shut himself in the morgue and answered in his feminine voice:

“Hello?”

“Is this Li Ying speaking?”

“Yes, and who is this?”

“Good day, Miss Li! This is Shanghai Exclusive Wedding Services…”

And so began the planning for Li Ying’s and Hanjun’s big day.

—

The wedding agency had the same contact person follow up with Li Ying from then on, asking him about his wishes and keeping him updated on the plans.

Li Ying hadn’t really put much thought into the actual wedding ceremony, which was odd considering how much he’d dreamed of it before. Wu Yiheng’s past comments had kind of put him off.