Sorry for the slow updates. I ended up breaking three of my fingers and can barely type right now.
On top of that, the medical bills have been pretty overwhelming. If you're able to support me, I'd really appreciate it. My Patreon is $10/month, and you'll get access to 20 chapters ahead.
https://www.patreon.com/cw/Thanarit
"So, so, so, so, sooooooo." Chu Xinghe set his tea down with great deliberateness. "My beloved Doctor. Who was that lady?"
Ren looked at his menu.
"She works here," he said.
"She called you mister."
"People call me things."
"She called you mister," Chu Xinghe said again, "in a specific tone. Not like how staff call a customer mister. More like how someone calls a person mister when it's already an inside thing between them."
"Order your food."
"I'm just saying what I observed."
Martinez leaned forward on both elbows. "Father. She said future children."
"She was joking."
"She said it twice."
"She's talkative."
"She also said husband," Lily added.
"That was also a joke."
"She drew a sun on your order pad," Martinez said. "With a face. The face was smug."
Ren put the menu down. "Are you going to keep doing this."
"We haven't even started," Martinez said.
Chu Xinghe lifted his tea. "I want to ask something, and I want you to know I'm asking this with complete sincerity and zero ulterior motive."
"No you don't."
"How long have you known her?"
Ren looked at the wall.
"A while," he said.
"A while," Chu Xinghe repeated, nodding as if this were very informative.
"She's a student. I know her from the area. It's not a situation."
"I didn't say it was a situation."
"You were thinking it."
"I was thinking nothing," Chu Xinghe said. "I was simply listening and drawing no conclusions whatsoever."
Martinez was trying not to smile. Lily had given up trying.
"She said your future children would be born on a pile of gold," Martinez said. "That means she's thought about it enough to have a specific opinion on the financial circumstances."
"She was making a joke about me being a guild doctor."
"She seemed very comfortable with you," Lily said. "Like she's been comfortable with you for a while."
"We've talked a few times."
"She flicked your receipt back at you," Martinez said. "With a drawing on it. People don't do that with someone they've just met a few times."
Ren opened his mouth.
He closed it.
Chu Xinghe said nothing, which was extremely loud.
"She's a friend," Ren said. "That's it. She's a second-year political science student who works two part-time jobs and makes good takoyaki. That's all I know about her."
"You know her course," Lily said.
"And her major year," Martinez said.
"And her specific skill set," Chu Xinghe said, "apparently including exceptional takoyaki."
"I know things about a lot of people."
"You didn't know what I had for breakfast this morning," Martinez said.
"I didn't ask."
"You know her breakfast apparently."
"She made me takoyaki one time. That's not breakfast. That's takoyaki."
Lily tilted her head. "Where did you meet her, Father? Like, how did you actually meet her?"
A pause.
"She was having a difficult time," Ren said. "I was nearby."
The table went quiet, something a few degrees softer than the teasing had been.
"Did she get better?" Lily asked.
"She seems like she did. She's working two jobs, going to university, drawing smug suns on order pads." He looked at the table. "I think she's okay."
Martinez nodded slowly, the funny gone for a moment.
"That's good," he said.
Then: "So she owes you one."
"She doesn't owe me anything."
"But you saved her."
"I was nearby," Ren said again.
Chu Xinghe looked at him over his tea. He said nothing. He didn't need to.
"Does she know what you actually do?" Martinez asked. "Like the real stuff."
"She knows I'm a guild doctor."
"Not the other stuff."
"No."
"Are you going to tell her?"
"When it's relevant," Ren said.
"She called the clinic haunted," Martinez said. "She thought you were joking."
"Most things are easier when people think they're jokes."
Lily looked at him. The quiet look, the considering one. "She won't run when she finds out. I don't think she's that type."
"You met her for twenty minutes."
"I'm naturally observant," Lily said. "You've said so."
"I said you were observant in combat situations."
"This is a combat situation," Martinez said. "Emotionally speaking."
Ren pointed at his menu. "Food. Order."
They were all quiet for a moment.
Chu Xinghe picked up his menu.
"She seems nice," he said, mildly.
Ren exhaled and looked at the ceiling.
"She does," Lily agreed.
"Hardworking," Martinez said.
"Funny," Lily said.
"Cares about things," Martinez said.
"Nice face too," Chu Xinghe added, with perfect timing.
Ren slowly turned to look at him.
Chu Xinghe was reading the menu with great focus.
"I'm just saying what I observed," he said.
Ren stared at him for another three seconds. Then he looked at his own menu.
The table was quiet for a while, the comfortable kind after something has settled without needing to be said.
Then Martinez said, very quietly, "So we like her?"
Ren did not answer.
"That's a yes," Lily said.
"I didn't say anything," Ren said.
"You didn't say no either," she said.
Ren put his menu down. "Order your food."
They ordered their food.
. . .
He dropped the kids at their room around nine, made sure they had everything they needed, and told Martinez his black eye would need ice tonight. Martinez said he was fine. Ren told him that was not the point.
By the time he got back to the clinic it was past ten.
"What a headache," he said, to the room.
A pause.
"Bone Saw. Stop hiding in the closet."
Silence.
Then, slowly, the grafting room closet door opened and Bone Saw emerged, the red light in his eye sockets directed at Ren with the caution of something re-emerging from cover.
"You're always in there," Ren said.
"I'm considerate of the patients. Being bony and all."
"That was reasonable the first time. At this point you're sleeping in there."
"It's become something of a safe space," Bone Saw said.
Ren stared at him. "Why is a closet your safe space. Are you a gay son who hasn't come out of the closet yet?"
Bone Saw laughed. It was a dry sound, not quite a laugh, the laugh of a skull with limited facial range. "You're the one to talk, Father. You and the Guildmaster seem like a very complementary pair."
Ren pointed at the closet. "Do you want another grafting."
Bone Saw went back into the closet.
The door clicked shut.
Ren looked at the closed door.
Is this guy a turtle, he thought. A Legendary-rank turtle. Legendary-rank bone turtle.
He went to bed.
. . .
Ring. Ring. Ring.
"Aghhh. Who the fuck is calling at this hour."
"It's already ten in the morning, Father."
"It's still morning. Shut up."
He picked up the phone.
"Hello."
"Are you still sleeping." A pause. "Should I cut your salary."
"Go ahead, Brother Lu. My commission is already more than I know what to do with."
A helpless sigh came through the phone. "Come to the Guildmaster's office. Top floor."
"Why?"
"There's an annoying guest who wants to meet you."
Ren stared at the ceiling. "Aghh."
. . .
He knocked on the Guildmaster's office door.
"Come in."
He pushed it open.
Lu Changcheng was at his desk. Across from him sat a bald old man in a purple alchemist's robe, elaborate, sitting forward in his chair with the readiness of someone who had been waiting and had things to say.
The moment Ren stepped through the door the old man stood up.
"I have long heard of your name, Doctor!"
He crossed the room and wrapped both arms around Ren before Ren had finished processing that he was moving. The bald head pressed against Ren's white mask. Both of them were roughly the same height and it was not a comfortable hug.
Ren stood there.
Why, he thought, do I always attract men.
Lu Changcheng smiled from behind his desk.
"Let me introduce you," he said. "Sage Stone Guild's Guildmaster."
The old man stepped back, still gripping Ren's shoulders, and beamed.
"Mythical rank. Transcendent Biologist. Silas Mordane."