OFBL Chapter 1

Yanjing had seen several depressing autumn rains in a row, forcing the yellow trees to wither under the cold wind. Finally, the first snow fell at the end of November, marking the official start of winter.

At 8 p.m., in the cardiac surgery department of Yanjing Artillery Hospital, Zhang Yuze, the chief surgeon, finished his work dead tired. Looking at the dark sky outside the window, he could only sigh in resentment. His car was restricted that day, so he had to take the subway home, battling the old and nasty northern wind.¹Because of the large number of cars in China, every city implements some sort of restriction, allowing people to drive on certain days only

Damn, damn it!

Can this terrible weather in Yanjing leave a way for those who are afraid of the cold to survive?!

After changing out of his white coat and turning off the lights in the office, Zhang Yuze walked into the elevator. Just a second before the elevator door was about to close, a hand shot straight in.

“Wait a minute!”

The door opened again, and Zhang Yuze’s eyelids jumped.

“Dr. Zhang, how do you plan to go back?” Xiao Wei, his surgical assistant, walked into the elevator, pressed the button for the basement, and promptly began to ramble.

Zhang Yuze truly regretted not closing the door earlier just now, otherwise, he wouldn’t have had to sit and talk awkwardly. He politely bent his lips and answered: “I’ll take the subway.”

Xiao Wei gave a “heh” and turned his face, making Zhang Yuze believe that the conversation was finally over and he could now peacefully go home and spend time with his mother.

However, Xiao Wei was suddenly possessed by an overly kind spirit. In the style of flattering his leader, he proposed: “Dr. Zhang, how about I drive you home? Where do you live?”

Zhang Yuze’s eyelids jumped again, and that time around, even his temples protruded.

“No, thank you. My house is not on the way.”

Xiao Wei said oh again.

Zhang Yuze raised his eyes and started counting the blinking floors in his heart. Finally, the elevator door opened on the first floor. He happily raised his feet intending to walk out and end that awkward conversation. However, who would have thought that Xiao Wei would also follow?

“Dr. Zhang, I’ll see you off!”

“…”

After a lot of wasted effort, Zhang Yuze finally walked alone on the way to the subway station. Xiao Wei was a surgical assistant who just came last month, so he didn’t know his personality yet. If only he paid a little bit of attention, he would have discovered a long time ago that Zhang Yuze was an extremely cold-faced and blunt person, someone who was most annoyed by others singing in his ear.

What one should do is work quietly, not talk enthusiastically all day long! Poor Zhang Yuze could only sigh.

When he finally got home and as soon as he took off his scarf, Zhang Yuze saw a book placed crookedly on the coffee table. In fact, he had a bit of a cleanliness fetish and a standard ISTJ personality²ISTJ indicates a person who is energized by time spent alone (Introverted), who focuses on facts and details rather than ideas and concepts (Sensing), who makes decisions based on logic and reason (Thinking), and who prefers to be planned and organized rather than spontaneous and flexible (Judging), so it was truly impossible for him to allow something to be placed like that!

However, he was curious about whose book it was. After washing his hands and changing out of his dirty clothes, he sat on the sofa to look through it.

Very good! Just looking at the cover, Zhang Yuze almost fainted. The title of the book was: “The peerless little doctor forced his scum ex to repent and walk through the Crematorium“.

Good boy… That title was even longer than his life!

Looking at it again, it turned out to be a book published by Green River Literature City… And just like that, the case was solved. It was truly a title characteristic of a book belonging to the Green River. Although Zhang Yuze was gay, he was 100% sure he never developed the habit of reading gay literature.

So… Was that book his… Mother’s?!

Skimming through it, the book was not thick at all. In addition, Zhang Yuze studied medicine for many years and read a lot of books, so he quickly finished it.

It was roughly the story of a scumbag’s redemption. Some plain Little Bottom was the youngest chief physician in a big hospital, specializing in the field of cardiac surgery (what a coincidence) and enjoying a successful career. However, he was late on the road to emotional enlightenment, never finding a partner until his 30’s. In addition to that, he also just found out that he liked men, so he promptly went to a gay bar to find true love.

Zhang Yuze felt choked by heavenly thunder.

On what kind of motherf**-ing peerless little day could one think of looking for true love in a gay bar?!

And so, (obviously), the story lived up to expectations. Little Bottom did not find true love but met his own surgical assistant, Xu Li.

The two were quite satisfied with each other, sleeping together several times. Little Bottom was feeling complacent. Thinking that he found true love, he began to grovel desperately for Xu Li.

Giving up a promotion and the transfer of his life for him… Thinking about him every day… Cooking him love meals without getting tired for a second… Even moving out for him and abandoning his family.

Etc., etc., etc.!!!

And as a result, during an operation one day, his anesthesiologist who was truly fed up with him said: “Assistant Xu’s bed has been run through but you still feel good about yourself, don’t you?!”

Little Bottom then tearfully went to Xu Li to question him and ask why the anesthesiologist said such a thing… As a result, Xu Li replied carelessly: “Isn’t it normal for me to look for another man? Why do you care about it?”

And just like that, the child who firmly believed that true love was the supreme answer in life was completely hurt, becoming distracted every day…

…Sometime later, he even rushed to Xu Li’s house, drove away the new lover in his bed, and cried while hanging himself from the scum’s collar.

“Weren’t we true love?! Aren’t we each other’s boyfriends?! Why did you betray me?!”

As for the scum Xu Li, he also became angry after meeting such a difficult person for the first time in his life. He turned over and pressed Little Bottom’s neck under his body, knocking him hard to the ground.

“You’re sick, aren’t you?! Seeing that you look good, I slept with you a few more times. Did you really think you’ve met your true love?!”

“I told you that love is shit, but you still believed it!”

Seeing that development, Zhang Yuze understood the routine of the whole book. Combined with the title, one could be sure that it was the cool drama of a perfect counterattack. The story of poor Little Bottom who relied on his own charm to make his scum ex repent and chase him through the so-called crematorium.

Normal people should be looking forward to the reversal, excited for the plot of slapping the scum’s face, right?

But Zhang Yuze didn’t.

He raised his eyebrows, not at all surprised to discover that he actually agreed with the scum’s remarks in the book. That’s right… Only fools believe in love. And so, he was too lazy to read the rest, choosing to throw the book into the waste paper pile and go to bed.

Every day, he was as tired as his mother’s dead dog. Zhang Yuze’s head touched the pillow and his consciousness promptly went offline.

…………

“Why are you hunting me?! Stop following me, okay?!”

Damn, what was that?!

Not even sure if he fell asleep or not, Zhang Yuze suddenly heard a barrage of words floating in his ear from afar away. Then… His neck was strangled, his body left what he thought was his bed and met the ground, and the back of his head went numb.

The instinct of survival made him quickly open his eyes, only to collide head-first with a man full of fire. People’s emotions were often revealed through facial expressions and we, as human beings, are naturally trained to perceive them… Zhang Yuze’s brain went through some sentences from his medical books and promptly diagnosed the man in front of him as “angry and furious.”

“You dare mention true love to me, Dr. Zhang?! How cheap are you, looking for true love in a bar like that?!”

While getting angrier and angrier, the man raised his fist, preparing to hit him again. Although Zhang Yuze still didn’t understand the situation, he was not a passive person either. Reacting quickly, he caught the punch and used his other arm to hammer that person from the side, unexpectedly hitting his head.

The opponent who pressed him on the ground went blind for a second, and his hands subconsciously relaxed. Zhang Yuze seized the opportunity to get rid of the uninvited guest, kicking him away while standing up and raising his fists to defend himself.

“Are you sick?! If you have something to say, just use your mouth! Why are you moving your hands?!” Zhang Yuze said while rubbing his wrist and staring at that strange man.

However, his opponent quickly sneered and howled back: “I have talked to you before! Did you listen?!”

Zhang Yuze rolled his eyes around the surrounding environment only to be shocked.

It was not his home either!?

He remembered going to bed and falling asleep in his room, right?!

What was going on?!

Poor Dr. Zhang went silent for a moment, only managing to mumble: “…Say that again?”

He needed to figure out the situation and he needed to do it quickly.

However, the man in front of him was pissed off by his words again. He rushed over with the clear intention of smashing his head in: “Go ask your mother to say it again!”

Looking at the fist that moved straight to knock on the door of his brain, Zhang Yuze took a step back and put on his posture. He was not a vegetarian either… At least he still had a black belt in taekwondo in the past, so it should not be that difficult to clean up such an indiscriminate thug.

And so, he unceremoniously went for the face.

Despite his best efforts, that man turned out to be unexpectedly resistant to beating. The two of them fought from the living room to the bedroom, and then from the bedroom back to the living room. They almost dismantled the ceiling.

It could even be said that they were evenly matched, just like Zhang Fei and Lü Bu³Zhang Fei is one of the major characters in the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which dramatizes and romanticizes the events before and during the Three Kingdom period. In the novel, Zhang Fei is a Chinese military general and politician. Lü Bu is another real-life military general, politician, and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of Imperial China. Lü Bu is regarded as the greatest warrior of all time. He appears in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but the details of his life are dramatized and some fictitious elements – including his romance with the fictional maiden Diaochan – are added to portray him as a nearly unchallenged warrior who was also a ruthless and impulsive brute bereft of morals.

Later, neither of them emerged victorious, so they both sat on the ground awkwardly and rolled their eyes at each other. Soon enough, that weird man’s white eyes were about to turn to the sky, but Zhang Yuze did not admit defeat, staring straight back at him in response.

Five minutes later…

The man made a pause gesture and said: “Fuck, stop, my eyes are about to fall out!”

Pleased, Zhang Yuze took the opportunity to quickly close his own eyes and moisten his dry eyeballs. Taking advantage of the half-time break, he finally found an opportunity to take a look at the appearance of the person in front of him.

Needless to say, that dog was really good-looking.

A pair of double eyelids, with eyes that were neither too big nor too small, just right. And to make matters worse, the rest of his facial features were also correct. If one insisted on nitpicking on something, it was maybe the fact that his chin was slightly sharp, making him look like a flexible fox.

Although the other party’s face was now full of “I’ll fuck you up!”, one still had to admit that it was a very amazing face.

“Damn you, Zhang Yuze, what kind of little white flower did you pretend to be before?!”

At the end of their half-time break, the opponent showed signs of wanting to attack first. Although he didn’t understand how the other party knew his name, Zhang Yuze still couldn’t swallow any losses. He crossed his legs on the ground and scolded: “What’s wrong with you?!”

So under his anger, the man who rested enough rushed up again, and Zhang Yuze happily threw himself back into the battle. Both of them came and went, punching flesh and playing nice with each other. Zhang Yuze even had the leisure to think about his life… It seemed that he hadn’t fought so happily in a long time. In his impression, his last fight was back in college, when he was blocked at an alley’s entrance by that pompous “elder brother” who also liked Shen Mo…

Ahhh, his damned, stupid youth!

“Fuck, I won’t fight anymore! Your father is exhausted…” The man waved the truce flag first.

Zhang Yuze wiped the sweat from his forehead but still looked at him on guard.

However, his opponent was truly resigned: “What’s the point of fighting with you? Zhang Yuze, I really beg your eight generations of ancestors… Can you let me go?! Stop pestering me with your true love bullshit!”

“That’s amazing!” Zhang Yuze readily agreed, patted his buttocks, and stood up: “I’m leaving now. Please make sure to never appear in front of my eyes in this lifetime!”

Anyway, it was all a dream, right? Could it be possible to dream about such an unlucky thing for the second time?

The man stared at him with a “You’d better…” look, and finally waved his hand and said: “Get out!”

So far, Zhang Yuze, a staunch materialist fighter, was fully convinced that he was just dreaming…

…Although the dream was powered by a real physics engine, even more real than VR devices.

But he still believed that everything was just a strange nightmare, otherwise, how could he explain his teleportation from home all the way here?

And so, he stood up straight and wanted to leave. However, as soon as he opened the door, he was almost blown away by the roaring old northern wind from the corridor.

So he returned silently.

Zhang Yuze suddenly thought that since he was dreaming anyway, how about teleporting back to his home? Just thinking about it, he clapped his hands and thought to himself: Go home now!

And… Nothing happened (obviously).

The man said coldly: “Is not useful to get nervous here. Just leave already.”

Zhang Yuze was so bored that he didn’t want to look at him anymore. He said angrily: “I’m afraid of the cold! If you give me a coat, I’ll leave!”

“Damn it…” The man scolded, his voice quite weak. He raised his finger and pointed to the motorcycle jacket resting on the hanger by the door. “Just take that and go.”

Zhang Yuze glanced at it and asked: “Is it clean?”

“Damn it!” The man raised his volume this time, obviously entertaining the idea of rushing to fight again.

The way-too-tired Zhang Yuze reluctantly pinched the jacket, wrapped it around his body, and left the apartment. He went out to catch a taxi, never expecting that the driver would ask him for the taxi fare before he could even climb in the car.

And so, Zhang Yuze thought: This dream is fucking logical!

After paying the fare, he even had the heart to laugh at himself. Who dreams about paying for a taxi?!

…Can this ride be reimbursed?!

Arriving home, Zhang Yuze threw away the motorcycle jacket, went upstairs to take  a shower, changed into his pajamas, and promptly fell asleep (again).

That dream was a very small episode, something that Zhang Yuze didn’t think much about. He even slept extremely well that night, only to be almost late in the morning, barely managing to successfully punch in to work at the last second.

However, that return to the office found him in a depressed mood. While he was taking off his jacket and changing into his white coat, a man wearing a face mask walked through the door.

Zhang Yuze subconsciously thought that his little babbling assistant Xiao Wei had come to find him. He turned around, about to explain that day’s work, when his eyes suddenly fell on the nameplate on the other party’s chest…

…Xu Li?!

T.N: Started a new project! The chapters are refreshingly short!

• 1
  Because of the large number of cars in China, every city implements some sort of restriction, allowing people to drive on certain days only
• 2
  ISTJ indicates a person who is energized by time spent alone (Introverted), who focuses on facts and details rather than ideas and concepts (Sensing), who makes decisions based on logic and reason (Thinking), and who prefers to be planned and organized rather than spontaneous and flexible (Judging)
• 3
  Zhang Fei is one of the major characters in the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which dramatizes and romanticizes the events before and during the Three Kingdom period. In the novel, Zhang Fei is a Chinese military general and politician. Lü Bu is another real-life military general, politician, and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of Imperial China. Lü Bu is regarded as the greatest warrior of all time. He appears in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but the details of his life are dramatized and some fictitious elements – including his romance with the fictional maiden Diaochan – are added to portray him as a nearly unchallenged warrior who was also a ruthless and impulsive brute bereft of morals