Professor Qi lived in Evergreen Garden, Hankou, which was not too far from the Maos' place.
The night before the holiday, Lu Chenchen set the rice porridge cooker to cook overnight. The next morning when she got up, she steamed buns with roast pork filling, steamed buns with fresh meat filling, corn dogs and egg drop soup.
Mrs. Mao had been having bird's nest every morning for many years, but now she was tired of it after having it three times a week. However, although the matriarch had taken a liking to regular human food, she was still a matriarch - she liked picking and choosing from a variety of foods.
Mao Yuanning's apple breakfast was gradually being replaced by fresh corn. Sometimes she would even drink a small bowl of rice porridge.
Before leaving, Lu Chenchen poured a ladle of hot oil over Mao Yuanning's tossed noodles and put half the usual amount of sugar in his coffee.
When Mao Yuanning came out of his room, he saw her feeding an egg yolk to Li Li and smiled, "If you don't leave now, I won't be able to bear to let you go."
Lu Chenchen ran off at that.
The metro was very convenient, and with shared bikes as well, it only took Lu Chenchen forty minutes to get from her place to downstairs of Professor Qi's home at eight o'clock after setting off at seven.
His home was on the second floor with an empty first floor. Lu Chenchen waited until seven fifty before ringing the doorbell to his home. No one answered. She waited another two minutes and rang again but still no one answered. After waiting another two minutes, just as she was about to ring again, she saw him coming up from the first floor.
With his hands behind his back and a completely puzzled look on his face, Professor Qi took out his keys and opened the door, ignoring Lu Chenchen as if she was thin air.
"Good morning, Professor Qi," Lu Chenchen waved at him.
He looked at her for a long while before asking, "Who are you?"
Lu Chenchen touched her face. Did she look that different from the video call?
"It's me, Lu. We video chatted the day before yesterday. You asked me to come by eight o'clock this morning." Lu Chenchen reminded him.
Professor Qi didn't say anything. He opened the door and before Lu Chenchen could even lift her foot to walk in, he closed the door again.
Lu Chenchen didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She didn't understand what was going on.
After about ten seconds, Professor Qi opened the door again and said curtly, "Come in."
Before coming, Boss Chen had briefed her on the house situation. It was a three bedroom, two living room apartment and Professor Qi lived alone. There were no special requirements on housework or hygiene, it was just that he had spent his whole life researching medicine that he had become a little obsessed. He was also highly dependent in daily life.
In the past two years, Lu Chenchen had gotten used to listening without prying, such as why Professor Qi lived alone. Whether he had told Boss Chen these things himself or if it was something others said, she wasn't interested in those stories at all.
"Have you had breakfast?" Lu Chenchen guessed that someone "highly dependent in daily life" wouldn't make his own breakfast, so she asked this first.
"Breakfast?" He muttered to himself and habitually reached to touch his chest where, Lu Chenchen suspected, he was used to having a pen. Finding nothing there, he peered behind the door.
Lu Chenchen followed his gaze. There was a large vertical rectangular magnetic glass board behind the door. A few paragraphs were written neatly on it in whiteboard marker. The first paragraph read: April 30th, Little Lu arrives at 8, make an egg pancake with corn flour for breakfast, no green onion, put half a sausage in it.
The words "Little Lu" were circled in black marker once, twice, three times.
Professor Qi turned around and bellowed at her, "I haven't eaten yet. You make me an egg pancake with corn flour, no green onions, put half a sausage in it."
Lu Chenchen...she tried asking where the sausages were.
As expected, Professor Qi was stumped. After thinking hard for a while, he said uncertainly, "See if there are any in the fridge."
Boss Chen was a very dedicated boss. Although he couldn't organize training or learning for the domestic helpers because of work, he often sent them some knowledge related to domestic services - taking care of babies, caring for patients, and even self-protection common sense.
Lu Chenchen remembered that he had sent a link about dementia in the elderly, which seemed to be called something like Alzheimer's. The symptoms were very similar to Professor Qi's situation - lucid at times but might even forget who he was when the sickness hit.
"Why are you still standing there staring? If I see patients like you do, at your pace I wouldn't get through ten a day. Don't do anything else." He scowled at her, looking exactly like he did during the video call the other day.
Professor Qi...are you back to normal?
She didn't dare ask out loud, only dared to huff and puff angrily at the wok. Damn Boss Chen, when she had asked if there were any issues with this job, he had actually fobbed her off saying it was "just a bad temper". This flipping between confusion and lucidity wasn't an issue, it was a big issue!
She should have asked if there were any big issues!
They're bullying her for being too honest, aren't they? Even that Mao person said she was honest and fun to tease. Let them have their fun, let them have their fun...
Lu Chenchen angrily stirred the batter, angrily cooked the pancakes, and angrily asked Professor Qi, "No green onions, but do you want sesame seeds?"
After warming a glass of milk for him, Lu Chenchen angrily placed the pancake - sprinkled with black sesame seeds, smeared with a bit of sweet bean paste, and more like a scallion pancake - in front of Professor Qi. Like when Li Li ate the food she fed her for the first time, he first lowered his head to sniff at it before heartily tucking in.
In a bad mood, Lu Chenchen went to look at the other words on the luxurious instruction board.
There were two more paragraphs.
The second paragraph read: Go for a walk outside twice every day, Little Lu must accompany.
The words "Little Lu" were circled in black marker once, twice, three times.
The third paragraph: Go to bed at 9:30 at night, Little Lu must turn on the corridor light before going to bed.
The words "Little Lu" were circled in black marker once, twice, three times.
Who was so thoughtful of her? Professor Qi?
The smooth writing on the glass whiteboard demonstrated great skill with the pen. The structure of the characters was even, the style fluid. The individual characters had form and connected together in a coordinated and unrestrained way. It was obviously written by someone skilled in both regular and cursive scripts.
Could Professor Qi, a veteran doctor used to scribbling prescriptions, write such neat and beautiful characters?
Lu Chenchen looked at Professor Qi. He was eating seriously, face calm, hands steady, eyes unblinking, taking bite after bite in a cultured and refined manner.
Alright, he was unconventional.
While Professor Qi was eating breakfast, Lu Chenchen familiarized herself with the rooms and household items. It was a standard three bedroom, two living room apartment. The small living room near the master bedroom had been converted into a maid's quarters. The previous domestic helper was quite good - she had removed and replaced all the bedding before leaving, and left a new set on the bed which warmed Lu Chenchen's heart. She made a mental note to do the same when her time here ended.
Professor Qi had a lot of books, mainly medical texts. He had two studies, one of which was clearly a converted bedroom filled with nothing but books.
There were also many books on the cerebrovascular system and nerves.
Some were even English editions.
Seeing this made Lu Chenchen's heart skip a beat.
At noon, she steamed a bass fish for Professor Qi and cooked a small bowl of vegetable soup. Shell peas were cheap at 5 yuan for 2 jin with pods, so she bought some back, removed the pods and skins. When Professor Qi saw, he scolded her for being extravagant. Lu Chenchen said, you can eat the pods, let me eat the skins, okay? He shut up after that. When cooking, Lu Chenchen first boiled the pods till soft before stir-frying them in oil. After tasting it at the table, Professor Qi noisily wolfed down most of it with his old man teeth and told her to make it like this again for him tomorrow.
Professor Qi chewed slowly and carefully. His appetite was pretty good. Worried that he couldn't see clearly, Lu Chenchen used the public chopsticks to remove the fish meat and place it in the broth so he could easily eat it. She removed one piece, he ate one piece, and after finishing the belly portion, he mercifully said she could have the rest.
Seeing how much he enjoyed the meal, Lu Chenchen pretended to chat and asked which department he worked at before retirement.
"Neurology," he answered curtly.
"Neurology? That's a wide field, which aspect were you specialized in? Cerebrovascular? Or spinal nerves? Or some other area? Oh, epilepsy, Parkinson's, and what was it, they are all neurology right?"
"Thwack!" He slammed down his chopsticks, giving her a huge fright.
Seeing his now darkened expression, Lu Chenchen was puzzled. What happened? Did she annoy him by chattering too much? Had she talked a lot?
Professor Qi gave a cold snort. "I'm done eating, I want to go for a walk."
With that said, he got up and walked out the door.
What had she done wrong? She had served him diligently all morning and even attended to him during the meal, yet her fawning had been for naught?
Professor Qi slammed the door shut with a loud "bang", making the glass whiteboard vibrate and give out a "buzz".
Glass whiteboard? Lu Chenchen looked at the words above, recalling Professor Qi's vague reference to some Ash Sea syndrome, cough! That also belongs to the category of neurological disorders, doesn't it? Professor Qi can heal others but not himself, who knows how tormented he must feel inside, and she had to go and foolishly pour oil on the fire. He'd be lucky not to explode into a rage.
Idiot! Lu Chenchen slapped herself on the forehead and grabbed the umbrella by the shoe cabinet to chase after him. With this rain, she'd be in deep trouble if she let him get drenched on the way back.
