Cafeteria No. 1, located in the hospital's comprehensive services building, could seat five to six hundred people and provided round-the-clock food service.
A little after noon, Yan Feifan met up with Yan Ziruo, who was waiting at the cafeteria entrance, and they went to get their food.
He got three dishes—fried fish fillets, stir-fried lotus root, and wood ear mushrooms with egg—along with a side of rice and a bowl of complimentary seaweed and egg drop soup.
Yan Ziruo, on the other hand, ordered a bowl of wontons and a steamer basket of dumplings.
The siblings carried their trays to a relatively secluded corner and sat down.
"Feifan, around nine this morning, someone suddenly sent me a private message with three high-definition photos of Zhao Yuqi."
"Can you take a look?"
Yan Feifan took the phone his sister handed him. On the screen was a close-up photo of Zhao Yuqi wearing a faint smile.
He swiped the screen, zooming in on the photo again and again until the lines and pores on her skin were clearly visible.
Yan Feifan nodded. "The resolution is good. It's clear enough, the skin texture isn't obscured by makeup, and there's no distortion."
"This image quality is high enough for me to make a few assessments."
Yan Ziruo urged happily, "Feifan, hurry up and take a look! Did she get plastic surgery or not?"
Yan Feifan pulled a tablet from the large pocket of his white lab coat, transferred the photos from the phone, and began to slowly swipe through them on the screen...
Yan Ziruo took back her phone and looked at the picture on the screen, sighing with envy. "She wears heavy makeup every day and is constantly under bright lights for her shows, yet her skin is still this amazing!"
"That's what you call being naturally beautiful."
She sighed and touched her own face, which could generously be described as fair. With a meaningful tone, she said, "You know, Feifan, I've heard that celebrities spend hundreds of thousands, even millions, on skincare every year, and that's just for starters."
"Meanwhile, your poor, pitiful sister here only spends about one or two hundred a month on her face…"
Seeing Yan Feifan's eyes glued to the tablet, completely ignoring her, Yan Ziruo grew indignant.
She picked up her chopsticks, snatched the biggest piece of fried fish from Yan Feifan's tray, and popped it into her mouth.
After finishing the fish, Yan Ziruo took a sip of her hot wonton soup and continued her lecture. "My dear brother, taking care of you cost me two precious years of my youth."
"Time is priceless and youth doesn't return, but I will allow you to repay me with money and material things."
"My demands aren't even that high…"
Yan Ziruo counted on her fingers. "A house in a bustling part of the city, a car worth at least half a million, and an allowance of, say, thirty to fifty thousand a month. That should do it."
This time, Yan Feifan finally responded.
His gaze lifted from the tablet. He rolled his eyes at Yan Ziruo and said, "Sis, with demands like that, my only suggestion is for you to use your feminine wiles to marry some rich heir."
Yan Ziruo gave him a wounded look. "If you hadn't held me back for the best two years of my life, I would've found a rich-heir boyfriend long ago."
"Shouldn't you take some responsibility and compensate me? It's only fair, right?"
Yan Feifan put down his tablet. "Sis," he said, his voice laced with resignation, "just spit it out. What unreasonable demand do you have this time?"
"I have a request, not a demand! And it's definitely not unreasonable!"
Yan Ziruo giggled, picked up a steamed dumpling with her chopsticks, and popped it into Yan Feifan's mouth.
"Bro, Junchi Auto Sales is holding a group-buy event at the hospital. They're offering three-year, interest-free financing and a huge discount on the price."
In a wheedling tone, Yan Ziruo added, "Bro, squeezing onto the bus and subway to get to and from work every day is so, so exhausting."
"Besides, you're working now. Once things get busy, you won't have a set time to get off."
"And in your current condition, you can't just crash in the hospital lounge for the night if you miss the last bus or subway, like you used to. It would break my heart, it really would."
"Please, bro? Let's just buy a car, okay?"
Looking at his sister's pleading expression, Yan Feifan swallowed the dumpling and called her out. "You make it sound like it's all for my own good, but don't you just want a car for yourself?"
He paused for a moment before relenting, "If you want to buy one, then let's buy one."
Seeing the irrepressible joy on Yan Ziruo's face, Yan Feifan quickly added a warning, "Sis, you need to stay within our means."
"Our savings are pretty much gone, right?"
"I'm still just a resident, so my salary isn't exactly high."
Yan Ziruo waved a dismissive hand. "ROAR! Feifan, have you forgotten? I work in finance! Of course I'm going to be meticulous with the budget. I'd never let us go bankrupt."
He felt her words weren't entirely reliable and reminded her again, "Sis, my take-home pay is less than ten thousand a month right now, and my income isn't likely to change much over the next six months to a year."
"Your salary isn't even as high as mine…"
Yan Ziruo cut him off with another wave of her hand. "I know exactly what your salary is, probably better than you do."
"You can rest easy. Just focus on your recovery and your work."
"I'll take care of everything else."
Then Yan Ziruo quickly asked, "Hey, Feifan, so did Zhao Yuqi get plastic surgery or not?"
"Can you actually tell from the photos?"
"I was bragging to someone about it."
"What's the rush? Just a minute!"
Yan Feifan picked up the tablet again.
This time, however, though his eyes were on the screen, his gaze was unfocused.
Three lifelike and minutely detailed 3D models of Zhao Yuqi's face had materialized in his mind.
After a quick but detailed comparison, his gaze refocused, and he looked across at Yan Ziruo.
"Sis, in one of the three pictures, she's smiling broadly, which makes it easier for me to see the inconsistencies in her skin texture."
Yan Feifan said confidently, "I can tell you with certainty that this Zhao Yuqi has had work done. And in more than one spot."
Yan Ziruo urged excitedly, "Quick, tell me! Where did she have it done?"
"The most obvious one is surgery to reduce the tip and wings of her nose."
"The nasal bone between her eyes was likely shaved down to make the bridge look straighter and more defined."
"And…"
Yan Feifan continued his analysis, "Her jaw was probably shaved down. The corners of her eyes have been opened by two to three millimeters each, and she's had minor work done on her double eyelids."
"The lower lip has been slightly augmented…"
When Yan Feifan suddenly stopped, she couldn't help but press him again. "Feifan, is there more…?"
Yan Feifan was about to say that was all when Yiyi's voice suddenly echoed in his mind. 'The muscles in her cheeks have also been treated to make her facial contours smoother.'
Hearing the voice, Yan Feifan immersed himself in his mind once more, meticulously comparing the skin texture on the cheeks of the three models.
Sure enough, after a moment, he found some inconsistencies.
"The muscles in her cheeks have also had some minor cosmetic work done."
"That's everything."
With that said, Yan Feifan was about to start eating his lunch, but he saw Yan Ziruo holding her phone out to him.
"Bro, say that all again. I need to record it."
"The person who sent me the photos had only one request: that I give them the detailed results of the assessment."
Yan Feifan had no choice but to repeat himself…
After lunch, the two siblings left the cafeteria together.
As they were about to part ways, Yan Feifan said casually, "Hey, Sis, just so you know, I'll most likely be studying under Mr. Qin."
Yan Ziruo said nonchalantly, "Medicine, career development… those are things you can decide for yourself!"
"You know a lot more about that stuff than I do."
Yan Feifan just grunted in acknowledgment. "Well, I'm heading back to the diagnostics department. I have another case file to review, and a patient is coming in this afternoon."
Yan Ziruo chuckled. "And I need to hurry back to the office and do some more research on the car models for the group-buy."
And with that, the siblings went their separate ways.
Yan Feifan had walked a hundred meters or so when he suddenly heard the sound of urgent footsteps approaching from behind.
He moved to the side of the path to let them pass, but his arm was suddenly seized in a powerful grip.
"Feifan, that Mr. Qin you mentioned... which doctor is he, exactly?"