21st Century Necromancer

After the promotion ceremony and taking stock of his accomplishments, Chen Yu finally returned to the hospital for work.

"Good morning, Doctor Chen!" As always, the nurses he encountered greeted him warmly.

"Good morning!" Chen Yu, too, greeted the nurses without breaking his stride as he headed to his office.

What Chen Yu didn’t notice was the lovestruck expression on the face of the nurse who had greeted him and the thick regret on the face of another nurse who hadn’t managed to greet him as she passed by.

"Doctor Chen is really so handsome!" Holding her patient’s medical record, the nurse who had greeted Chen Yu was utterly infatuated, as if still basking in the moment of greeting him: "And did you notice? He seems even handsomer than usual today!"

"No matter how handsome he is, you don’t stand a chance. Doctor Chen already has Doctor Jounouchi! Besides, he will soon go to the Eastern University Affiliated Hospital. Doctors from a place like that are out of reach for nurses like us," said the other nurse who hadn’t greeted him in time.

She seemed more grounded as she tapped the infatuated nurse on the head before pulling her to continue with their work.

Chen Yu, of course, was unaware of these nurses’ discussions. When he arrived at his office, Hiromi Jounouchi was already there, as usual, having arrived earlier than him, already in her white lab coat, reviewing her patients’ medical records.

"Hiromi, good morning." After calling out to his girlfriend, Chen Yu put down his backpack and began to put on his own white coat.

"Ah, Yu Chen, you’re here? Good morning!" Hearing Chen Yu’s voice, Hiromi Jounouchi finally snapped back to reality, greeted him, and then with a puzzled frown gave Chen Yu a thorough look, asking in confusion, "Yu Chen, you look... why do you seem particularly handsome today?"

"I look particularly handsome today? Are you saying I’m usually not handsome, Hiromi?" Chen Yu understood why Hiromi Jounouchi would say that, but he still pretended as if nothing was unusual and sat down at his desk, flipping through his medical records.

Since Chen Yu had taken a week off, his patients had been transferred to other doctors, but the records were still sent to him. Chen Yu needed to check them carefully and also to be aware of the treatment plans of the other doctors.

"No, not at all! You’re always handsome, Yu Chen! It’s just..." Hiromi Jounouchi continued to frown and even pulled her chair in front of Chen Yu, scrutinizing his face closely, trying to find the right words, "You just look particularly handsome today... and it’s a kind of indescribable feeling; it’s the same face, so why do I find today’s you especially heart-throbbing?"

Watching Hiromi Jounouchi’s face almost touch his, Chen Yu suddenly lifted his hand to support her chin and kissed her lips: "There, no matter how handsome, aren’t I still your boyfriend? Go on, get back to work peacefully."

After that, he gently patted Hiromi Jounouchi’s head twice, as if comforting a child.

"Wait a minute! I’m not a child anymore!" Hiromi Jounouchi frustratingly swatted away Yu Chen’s hand from her head, wrinkling her nose in dissatisfaction. While her eyes looked at him suspiciously, and the more she looked, the more doubtful she became, she ultimately didn’t pursue the matter further.

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The tense work of the morning was very demanding for doctors, and even though the hospital where Yu Chen and Hiromi Jounouchi worked wasn’t too busy, there were still many things to be done. It wasn’t until lunchtime that they could finally sit down for a break.

"Here, this is the bento I made myself this morning, Mr. Chen Yu, please try it. This is actually the first time I’ve made a bento for someone since high school!" Inside the office, Hiromi Jounouchi handed a cloth-wrapped bento box to Yu Chen, her face showing an unmistakable blush.

The rice balls before, and the bento today, were actually Hiromi Jounouchi’s ways of expressing her feelings to Yu Chen. In Japan, when a girl has a crush on a boy, the most common way to show it is by making him a bento by hand.

On one hand, it’s a way to convey her feelings through the lovingly prepared bento, and on the other hand, it’s to showcase her cooking skills, demonstrating her gentle and caring nature.

Of course, this kind of behavior is mostly found among school girls. For Hiromi Jounouchi, who was already in her thirties, making a bento for a man was something that only married couples would do, which is why she was blushing so much.

Yu Chen wasn’t very familiar with these details. He took the bento box from Hiromi Jounouchi, unwrapped the purple Chinese bellflower-colored cloth, lifted the lid of the bento box, and, looking at the exquisite dishes inside, couldn’t help but exclaim, "Hiromi, your cooking skills are amazing! This bento is so delicate that I hardly have the heart to use my chopsticks."

"Not at all, Mr. Chen Yu, please give it a try. If you think it suits your tastes, I’ll make it for you every day from now on." Hearing Yu Chen’s praise, Hiromi Jounouchi’s face flushed even deeper, but the sweetness in her heart compelled her to say something akin to a confession, offering to make bento for him every day.

"Wouldn’t that be too troublesome for you, Hiromi? This bento must have taken a lot of time to make, right?

You are so busy with work, it’s okay once or twice, but if you were to do this every day, wouldn’t it be too time-consuming for you?" Yu Chen failed to grasp the subtext in Hiromi Jounouchi’s words, but he understood her kind intentions and was instinctively reluctant to see her tire herself out.

Yu Chen’s response left Hiromi Jounouchi slightly disappointed. Still, considering that Yu Chen was Chinese, she told him, "In Japan, it’s perfectly natural for a wife to make bento for her husband. Why would it be tiring?"

"Ah! I see!" Yu Chen suddenly realized, and his expression became very embarrassed, not sure what to say next. He quickly changed the subject, "By the way, Hiromi, you mentioned the friend who could perform surgery on Naoki, he... no, you said ’she’. How confident is she about Naoki’s surgery? Did she tell you what the success rate is?"

"You don’t have to worry about that, Mr. Chen Yu," Hiromi Jounouchi said with a confident smile as Yu Chen brought up the question, "Daimon-san said if she agreed to do the surgery, it would certainly not fail, because she never fails."

"Never fails? That’s some strong confidence!" Yu Chen couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, impressed by the other’s confidence.