Sun Xiaomeng worried that Long Xian might not be able to handle the client, so she had to set the thing about Richard aside and said to Zhang Zian, "There's a client for emergency treatment, I must go now."
"Okay, let me walk you out," said Zhang Zian, "I need to go down anyway."
Sun Xiaomeng waved at Richard, "Goodbye, Richard. Tomorrow will be windy, and the temperature will drop, so don't go out. If you don't feel well, do tell us."
"Goodbye, Doctor. Take care of yourself too." Richard gazed at her.
Sun Xiaomeng felt heavy-hearted for some unknown reason, as if Richard’s words were it saying goodbye to her. But she might have it. Richard could not be that smart, right?
Zhang Zian opened the door for her, they left the living room and closed the door.
"Galaxy?"
Galaxy was sitting in the corridor as if it was waiting for them. Sun Xiaomeng felt strange. Galaxy was not on the first floor when she came in the shop. All the doors of the rooms on the second floor were closed when she arrived, and were still closed now, so how did Galaxy appear in the corridor?
The doorknobs of the rooms on the second floor were of the same type and needed to be opened by twisting them. Judging from Galaxy’s size, there was no way it could reach the doorknobs.
Galaxy looked beyond them and focused on the doorknob of the living room. It didn't say anything, it just raised its claw and waved at Sun Xiaomeng.
"Oh, Galaxy is so adorable." Sun Xiaomeng’s heart melted by Galaxy’s movement and her anxiety had been relieved.
"Goodbye, Galaxy." She also waved at Galaxy.
Zhang Zian reminded her to be "friendly": "I think it’s inappropriate for you to act cute at your age."
"Leave me alone! If you keep talking to girls this way, you will get killed someday." Sun Xiaomeng stared at him angrily, "Goodbye! No need to escort me out."
Sun Xiaomeng covered her nose and crossed the first floor that was filled with dust and noises. When she finally came outside, she deeply inhaled the fresh air. When she was about to head back to her clinic, she felt like someone was watching her.
She raised her head and saw that in the living room, Richard was looking at her through the window facing the street. Its image was so unreal, almost like an illusion.
"Goodbye, Richard." Sun Xiaomeng waved at it.
Richard also lifted one of its wings and fluttered it at her.
Sun Xiaomeng didn't feel very comfortable, as if a thorn was sticking in her heart. She had been hesitating in front of the door and then she got another phone call from Long Xian who urged her to come back quickly, so she had to speed up.
On her way back to her clinic, she had been absent-minded. Luckily, she had walked this street many times, and was familiar with every detail on the road. She would go in the right direction even with her eyes closed. Her mind kept wandering off until she almost walked into a car that was parked in front of her clinic. She looked around and no one had noticed her. It was not uncommon that cars hit people, but when people hit a car, it would be considered a fraud. She didn't want to cause any misunderstanding.
She looked at the car and was quite surprised.
The car that was parked in front of her clinic was a late-model Tesla Electric Vehicle, which was rarely seen in a middle-sized city like Binhai City. The streamlined body of the car was as smooth as a mirror, and the reflection of her face on the car was a little bit distorted.
Sun Xiaomeng thought to herself, could the owner not find a parking spot on the street and just parked casually? The fanciest car that had ever parked before her clinic was a BMW 3 series, but this vehicle was much fancier than that... There were plenty of vacant parking spots on the street, so why would the driver happen to park in front of her clinic?
She felt very lucky that
she hadn’t crashed into this fancy car when she walked over with her head down. Otherwise, all the money she had made this entire year probably could not cover the damage costs.
As soon as she pushed the door open, she could feel the warmth inside her clinic. She had been at Zhang Zian's place for only a short time, but she was frozen.
Behind the cashier, Long Xian was standing there awkwardly, and her face was wrinkled because of her anxiety.
A middle-aged man was standing in front of her and scolding her relentlessly.
On the long bench of the waiting area, a fully-grown Husky was lying there. Hearing Sun Xiaomeng come in the clinic, it raised its head and whimpered painfully.
Long Xian felt relieved to see Sun Xiaomeng back to the clinic.
"Sister Xiaomeng! You’re back!" Her eyes were filled with tears like her life had just been saved.
The middle-aged man turned around, stared at Sun Xiaomeng and said bluntly, "So you are the veterinarian here."
"Yes, I am. What happened?"
She took off her coat, hung it on a hook, picked her white gown and put it on. Her whole temperament had changed—she had returned to being a professional lady that appeared capable and experienced.
She quickly sized up the middle-aged man in front of her. He looked sloppy with a moustache on his face. He was wearing an old flying jacket and a wrinkled pair of casual khaki pants. Sun Xiaomeng felt relieved and thought he probably wasn’t the owner of the Tesla car outside; it must belong to some silver-spooned kid.
Confronted by Sun Xiaomeng, the middle-aged man sounded less aggressive, but he still said indignantly, "You should teach your nurse how to talk. She said my dogleg had a fracture. Wasn’t she cursing me?"
Long Xian said in a low voice with grievance, "That was a mistake. I was nervous."
Sun Xiaomeng tried to pacify his anger, "Don't be angry. She's just young and doesn't know what to say when she is nervous. Please don't mind her, let's check on the injuries of your dog, all right?"
Jin Er still felt very angry. Why did these coincidences keep occurring where people said his "dogleg" instead of "the leg of his dog".
Snowy had done that before, and now this new nurse had too. He believed the coincidences happened after he raised this Husky.
He suppressed his anger and brought Sun Xiaomeng beside his Husky and pointed to its front left leg, "You see that? It’s been hobbling, and every time it puts its left leg on the ground, it shrinks back as if in pain. Is it fractured?"
"I need to have an examination, help me hold it still."
Jin Er argued like he was insulted, "It doesn't bite."
"I know. Help me hold it still, or you can go visit another clinic," said Sun Xiaomeng cautiously. Faced with a middle-to-large-sized dog that was injured with no anesthesia, everyone should be more careful. Even if it was a Husky that seemed like it wouldn't hurt anyone, under extreme pain, it would start to bite hard.
Dog owners often claimed that their dogs didn’t bite. However, dogs would bite when they were in pain, no matter how well-behaved they were normally.
Jin Er wanted to grab his dog and walk away from the clinic, but his dog seemed to be really in pain. He could only listen to her order and held its body still.
Sun Xiaomeng wore a pair of disposable rubber gloves and touched the dog’s leg very gently. Even so, when her finger touched the muscle on the Husky’s leg, it still felt so painful to it that it whimpered. It turned around and looked at her, but didn’t struggle. Through palpation, she could tell that the wound was swelling, but didn't seem like a severe injury.
"Probably not a fracture, but a fissure fracture," she concluded and said. "If you are still worried, you’ll need to take it for an x-ray image. Since I don't have an x-ray machine here, you need to go to a large hospital for pets."