My Bamboo
Xiao Liu was hitting hard. The broom lashed Bamboo’s body with a loud “whoosh” that cut through the air.
Bamboo bared its teeth and kept growling in warning, looking like it could pounce back at any second. Its ears stood up then drooped, and finally, it lowered its head, allowing the broom to strike its body again and again.
The Samoyed’s fur was long and fluffy; with every hit, the broom tangled in it. Bamboo shrank into the corner, trembling, its tail tucked tight, gray-white fluff drifting through the air.
Xiao Liu scolded as he hit: “This is for disobeying! You hear me? For disobeying!”
It didn’t fight back, didn’t bark—if even this doesn’t count as obedience, then what does?
Xia Xinghe couldn’t take it anymore and shouted sharply, “What do you think you’re doing?!”
Xiao Liu’s hand froze. He instinctively tossed the broom aside.
Bamboo immediately whimpered and limped over to Xia Xinghe. It clearly wasn’t the first time it had been beaten, but this time had been too much—it could barely walk. Even so, it ran as fast as it could to Xia Xinghe, its pink tongue stretching out, gently licking his palm.
“Woof! Awooo\~”
Its beautiful eyes were brimming with tears.
Xia Xinghe’s heart ached terribly. He comforted the dog, stroking its head, rubbing its ears, and giving its damp nose a soft kiss.
He looked up at Xiao Liu, who was trying to sneak off, and asked again, “What were you doing just now?”
Bai Qingzhou had said Xia Xinghe was his friend, so Xiao Liu didn’t dare run. He just stood there, awkward and rigid, his face stiff and his earlier arrogance completely gone.
“I… I was just…”
Xia Xinghe looked at him coldly. “Just what?”
Xiao Liu stiffened his neck, then suddenly found an excuse and glared at Bamboo. “It wasn’t listening. I just wanted to teach it a lesson.”
“How wasn’t it listening?”
“It barked at me! It tried to bite me!”
Xia Xinghe almost laughed in anger. “If it really wanted to bite you, do you think you’d still be standing here in one piece?”
Bamboo hadn’t even retaliated when it was beaten so cruelly, and he dared to use that as an excuse?
Xiao Liu wasn’t backing down and argued, “At the end of the day, it’s just an animal. Who knows when it’ll go crazy?”
Xia Xinghe asked, “If you don’t like dogs, why did you agree to look after Bamboo?”
Xiao Liu choked for a moment, then said stubbornly, “It’s not like I don’t like it… I just hit it a couple times to teach it a lesson.”
Looking at Bamboo, limping and whimpering softly, Xia Xinghe found he couldn’t keep his composure anymore.
Never mind love—this person didn’t even treat the dog as a living creature. When happy, he’d pat and praise it like he was the world’s most loving owner. But when unhappy, he used it to vent and excused it with righteous words.
Just because dogs aren’t human—because they don’t speak or think like people—does that mean people can treat them however they want?
Xia Xinghe couldn’t bear it anymore. He opened WeChat and quickly typed a series of characters.
Four years had passed. Bai Qingzhou had long changed his phone number, but WeChat IDs rarely change.
An unfamiliar yet familiar contact card popped up. Xia Xinghe took a deep breath and clicked Add Friend.
…..
Bai Qingzhou saw the message about half an hour later.
He had just finished a surgery. The whole team was exhausted. It had gone smoothly at first, but complications came up in the final stage during the warming process. As the patient’s body temperature rose, gas would be released from the blood. If not properly expelled, it could cause serious coronary blockage or even stroke. Bai Qingzhou made a quick call, and thankfully, everything turned out fine—but it still took nearly eight or nine hours.
By the time it was over, several people had sweat-soaked uniforms.
Once he confirmed the patient was stable, Bai Qingzhou took off his protective gear and leaned against the break room wall to rest.
He rubbed his brow, tired, and took out his phone to check messages—only to spot something he hadn’t even dared to dream of.
[Little Bamboo has sent you a friend request. Message: I’m Xia Xinghe.]His long fingers brushed over the screen, and Bai Qingzhou smiled silently.
He finally understood why Xia Xinghe had been upset when he’d heard the dog’s name.
Back then, he’d saved Xia Xinghe’s contact under a remark, but after Xia Xinghe deleted him, he never saw it again—and had no idea when it had been changed.
Little Bamboo.
Bai Qingzhou murmured softly, “My little Bamboo.”
His finger hovered over the screen, about to tap accept, but suddenly he pulled back.
If he accepted too quickly, it would seem like he was being too eager—undignified.
Bai Qingzhou cleared his throat, put on a serious face, and turned to his assistant. “Are the case files all done?”
“All done.”
“What about the surgery notes?”
“Didn’t get to those yet.”
“Give them to me.”
“Sure, here they are.”
The assistant respectfully handed him a thick stack of papers and whispered to the nearby nurse, “Is Dr. Bai even human? He just finished a marathon surgery and he’s already writing records again. No break at all.”
“That’s the world of the elite… Wait—”
The nurse suddenly leaned in with wide eyes and nudged the assistant. “Am I seeing things? Was Dr. Bai… smiling just now? Look again!”
The assistant quickly glanced at Bai Qingzhou. The light cast a gentle shadow across his nose; his eyes were lowered, expression unreadable. The assistant quickly looked away and shook his head. “You’ve been on your feet too long. Hallucinating. Even in his dreams, Dr. Bai doesn’t smile.”
Another half hour passed as Bai Qingzhou wrote up the surgery notes. He handled all his WeChat messages, poured himself a glass of water, and finally, sat back down and reopened the friend request.
I’ve accepted your friend request. Now we can start chatting.
Not even two minutes after the request was approved, Xia Xinghe’s message came through.
At first, Bai Qingzhou acted as if he hadn’t seen it. His fingers hovered over the WeChat interface, hesitating and sliding back and forth, but he didn’t tap the message. After two minutes, he finally swiped his finger and opened the chat.
And when he saw the string of messages Xia Xinghe had sent, his expression turned serious.
[Bai: Go back now.] [Bai: Wait for me.]