Chapter 372 - 334: What Are Your Standards for a Partner?

Chapter 372: Chapter 334: What Are Your Standards for a Partner?

Lanuo, who had just walked into the conference room, followed a doctor back to the hospital room.

"It’s swollen. I’ll have to use the other hand," the doctor said, looking at the back of Gu Ning’s bruised right hand. He didn’t have the heart—nor the nerve—to try sticking a needle in it again.

Gu Ning offered him her other hand, glancing at him. It was the same doctor from the emergency room.

A circle of Beastmen surrounded Gu Ning, watching as the doctor kept his head down, repeatedly swabbing the back of her hand with disinfectant. His eyes were practically glued to her skin.

Lanuo stood back, intending to observe how the local doctor would treat her. After a moment, he noticed the doctor’s ears were turning red.

He narrowed his eyes. ’Alex sure knows how to pick them,’ he thought. ’Beastmen are patients first, their gender is secondary. How can a doctor get distracted while treating a patient? This is utterly unprofessional.’

"Are you going to insert the needle or not?" Barto asked, unable to watch any longer.

"Yes, yes." The doctor set down the cotton swab and picked up the needle.

Gu Ning felt the hand holding her wrist tremble. Her eyes widened slightly as she swallowed hard.

’Doctor, why are your hands shaking?!’

In the past, getting an IV drip at the hospital for a cold or a fever had been a simple affair. She was never particularly scared, and the needle pricks barely hurt.

But the IV needle the doctor was using now was thicker than any she’d ever seen before. And he was shaking! She hadn’t been scared, but she was now. The jolt of fear made her feel much more alert.

Her stare only made the doctor’s hands tremble more noticeably. Both Alex and Barto frowned.

Just as the needle was about to pierce the skin on the back of Gu Ning’s hand, a voice broke the silence. "Let me."

Lanuo placed a hand on the doctor’s shoulder and guided him back.

"Yes, of course." The doctor wiped the sweat from his brow and stepped aside to make way.

Barto’s gaze shifted to Lanuo, his expression scrutinizing and faintly critical.

Lanuo sat down on the edge of Gu Ning’s bed, took her left hand, and examined it closely. "Her veins are this thin?"

The doctor at his side wiped his sweat again. It was true... the young female’s veins were exceptionally thin. Most of the patients he’d treated had been males, whose veins he could find and stick with a single glance. Back in school, female classmates had helped them practice, but opportunities for hands-on experience were rare. On top of that, he was just incredibly nervous in her presence, and so...

Sigh.

It was completely inexcusable.

"Mhm," Gu Ning replied to Lanuo, having noticed the doctor’s frustrated expression. "Ever since I was little... at the hospital... every doctor... has had a hard time finding a vein."

Lanuo looked at the young female before him, a little surprised.

Both what she said and the way she said it struck him as... off, in a way he couldn’t quite describe.

’Then again,’ he thought, ’it could just be that her tonsillitis is so severe her voice is too hoarse to speak properly.’

Hearing her words, a grave look appeared in both Alex’s and Barto’s eyes.

’Going to the hospital and getting shots since she was a child...’ They couldn’t imagine what kind of life she must have led at Sky Watch Point.

Only the emergency doctor beside them breathed a sigh of relief at Gu Ning’s words. In truth, when they had set up her IV the day before, it had taken four of them crowding around her a long time to find a vein, terrified they would miss.

"Well then, you’ve finally met someone with a good eye for it," Lanuo said to Gu Ning in a lighthearted tone.

Gu Ning managed a smile.

Barto, off to the side, curled his lip.

Lanuo held the young female’s hand up, his thumb gently pressing and rubbing the back of it a few times. Then he looked up and asked, "So, what are your standards for choosing a mate?"

Gu Ning: "Huh?"

In the split second she was caught off guard, Lanuo deftly and smoothly inserted the IV needle.

Seeing this, the other doctor started sweating again.

"All done." Lanuo taped the IV tube in place for the young female. He smiled. "I was just making small talk. Don’t mind me, Miss Ningning."

Alex shot him a look.

"Go to the meeting," Lanuo said to the doctor still standing dumbfounded beside him, his smile gone and his voice turning cold. He then turned and strode away, as if he had no reason to linger.

Gu Ning watched him leave, then looked down at the IV needle in her hand. ’The doctor Alex found really is skilled,’ she thought.

’But... why did he call me Miss Ningning? Did Alex tell him my name was Ningning? Why not use my full name? It sounds strangely embarrassing.’

"Time to eat." Barto opened a food container, sat down beside her, and held up a spoon, ready to feed her.

The container held things like vegetable and meat porridge and a boiled egg. Gu Ning had no appetite, but she ate a little so she could recover faster. She tried to take the bowl to feed herself, but Barto pulled it back, insisting on feeding her.

Gu Ning couldn’t argue with him, so she had no choice but to let him.

"After I’m done feeding you, I have to go feed Cook," Barto said. "I’ll just pack his food in this same container after you’re done. He’ll definitely eat with more gusto than you."

Hearing that, Gu Ning started eating with more enthusiasm.

The corners of Barto’s mouth curved up.

After eating, Gu Ning quickly felt drowsy again. She asked Barto to let her see Philinos for a moment, and then she fell back asleep.

During the night, she continued to cough intermittently, her sleep fitful. She didn’t know how long she’d been asleep when she groggily felt herself being turned onto her side. Something pricked her rear, but the pain vanished in an instant.

Then she heard low voices talking:

"She’s still running a bit of a fever. Let’s bring it down first."

"Is there any way to help her get some decent sleep?"

"The new medicine I mixed has a calming and sedative effect. We’ll try it for half a day. If it doesn’t work, I’ll adjust the formula."

After a few more muffled words, the sharp sound of a curtain being pulled open rang out—

"...What the hell!"

"Keep your voice down." Alex saw Gu Ning stir and nearly slapped a hand over Lanuo’s mouth.

"What are you people doing?" Lanuo demanded in a hushed voice, pointing at the person lying in the bed next to the young female. "Why is there someone else lying here?!"

His attention had been focused entirely on the young female, and between that and his lack of sleep for the past few days, he hadn’t even noticed the half-dead male in the room.

Alex whispered, "He’s on our team. We have him to thank for protecting Ningning this time."

Lanuo: "That’s not... I’m asking why you put him in the same room as Ningning. Is this hospital so small it can’t even free up a private room for a female?"

"Her name is Gu Ning."

"Is that the point right now? Get him into another room. Now."

Just as Alex was about to speak, the door to the room was pushed open. After two soft knocks, a female with a profound presence, wrapped in a scarf, appeared in the doorway. She looked at them with kind eyes. "Child, I’ll have to trouble you to look after Philinos as well."

Lanuo froze. His gaze flickered between the woman and the young female in the bed, then over to Alex. He immediately understood.

’Looks like my concern was unnecessary,’ he thought.

"It’s no trouble at all." Lanuo gave the mysterious, older female a polite and proper smile. "And you are...?"

"My name is Windsor."

Windsor took off her coat, still cold from the outside air, and placed it on a chair by the door. She walked over to Gu Ning’s bed and sat down, then said to the two males standing there, "Come and lend a hand. We need to get these things off Ningning."