The Nutrition is Too Good - Chap 21.2

Although it was Zhong Yi who brought him to a private dental clinic that had good privacy, and the environment was warm and clean, it didn’t look much like a hospital.

But Rong Mian’s most sensitive sense was actually his sense of smell. As soon as he stepped inside the clinic’s door, he smelled the unsettling scent of disinfectant.

Rong Mian’s previous experience at the hospital had become a shadow for him in this lifetime, back when he had just been picked up by Yun Min and hadn’t fully transformed yet.

Rong Mian was stuffed into a cat carrier by Yun Min and taken to the pet hospital. He received a vaccination there. At the time, Rong Mian hissed and furiously puffed up at the veterinarian holding the syringe, but in the end, he couldn’t escape his fate.

The doctor also noticed the wound on his tail from when he was a stray, so Rong Mian had to wear a strange collar around his neck for a long time. He wouldn’t be able to lick the fur on his tail.

Rong Mian felt uneasy at this moment.

The doctor briefly examined Rong Mian’s mouth and asked about his symptoms. The conclusion was exactly as Zhong Yi had expected – acute wisdom tooth inflammation.

For now, they needed to clean the abscessed area and then extract the wisdom tooth later.

However, at this moment, Rong Mian had only one thing on his mind.

He looked up and asked the doctor anxiously, “Can I still eat meat in the future?”

The doctor chuckled and replied, “You will need to follow a certain diet restriction, but the tooth extraction can only happen after the inflammation subsides. It will be a short-term inconvenience and won’t affect your quality of life in the long run.”

Private clinics have higher fees, but the chief physician is more patient. So, the doctor started explaining the specific procedure to both of them. Rong Mian listened with a bewildered expression, but suddenly, he remembered something and asked, “Will it hurt?”

The chief physician remained strangely silent for a moment.

The nurse next to him replied somewhat ambiguously, “Um, in this situation, because pain perception varies from person to person, some people may not feel anything at all…”

Rong Mian seemed to understand something.

He turned his head and looked at Zhong Yi, saying unhappily, “I don’t want to do it.”

“The doctor just said that there will be local anesthesia1, so it won’t hurt at all.”

Zhong Yi casually responded, “I’ve had my wisdom teeth pulled before, and it was no big deal. First, let’s treat the inflammation so you won’t feel any pain for now. Then, in a couple of days, we’ll extract the tooth, and there won’t be any more problems.”
Rong Mian had no idea what local anesthesia was, but he only heard that it wouldn’t hurt, so he thought there wouldn’t be any needles involved and felt relieved.

He stared at Zhong Yi for a while, then finally nodded and reluctantly agreed.

So Zhong Yi was asked to wait in the nearby lounge.

There were posters on the opposite wall about dental hygiene, which made Zhong Yi feel a bit melancholic.

He felt that this child’s only concerns were whether he could eat meat and if it would hurt, clumsy and absent-minded, completely unlike someone who would take care of himself.

And those guests he had before, his so-called benefactor, would they really be able to treat him so well in the future, just like he is doing now? Will they take care of every little thing, tolerate his picky eating habits, and bring him to see a doctor?

Zhong Yi’s heart began to feel uneasy again.

After pondering for a while, he sent another message, asking Xu Youyou to buy some ice cubes or something to prepare. He didn’t know how Rong Mian’s swelling would progress, and if he couldn’t perform in the play, he might need to rest for a day or two. So he also sent a message to Liu Yuanfeng to inform him.

Just as Zhong Yi put down his phone, he saw the nurse coming out of the treatment room in a somewhat flustered manner.

“Mr. Zhong, please come over here,” the nurse said. “The patient seems to be somewhat uncooperative…”

Zhong Yi was taken aback.

He didn’t understand the current situation, but followed the nurse into the room, only to find that there was no one lying on the treatment chair.

Zhong Yi turned his head and saw Rong Mian squatting on the floor, curled up in the corner of the room.

Rong Mian had one hand covering his cheek, huddled with his knees pulled up, bowing his head, resembling a frightened little animal.

Zhong Yi was momentarily at a loss.

“He was cooperating obediently during the oral cleaning just now.”

The nurse next to him was also a bit at a loss. “Just as we were about to administer anesthesia for the abscess treatment, his expression changed. He was lying fine, but as soon as the anesthesia needle was halfway in, he suddenly lost control, and…”

Rong Mian crouched in the corner of the treatment room, covered his cheek and stared blankly at the patterns on the tiles, contemplating how he could escape from here.

He heard footsteps approaching again, thinking it was another nurse trying to convince him. So he raised his eyes sharply, only to see Zhong Yi standing in front of him.

Zhong Yi was hesitating about what to say, but he looked at Rong Mian, who had tilted his face up, widened his eyes, and stared at him blankly for a while.
And then Rong Mian started crying.

Tears welled up in his eyes, falling one by one, and then they couldn’t be stopped, pitter-pattering down. He just stared at Zhong Yi with wide eyes and cried quietly.

Zhong Yi: “….”
Zhong Yi was dumbfounded on the spot.

“No.”

Zhong Yi hurriedly squatted down, lifting Rong Mian’s face and asking, “Where does it hurt? Or is something bothering you, doctor…”
Rong Mian broke free from Zhong Yi’s grasp, turned his face away, but still continued crying.

Zhong Yi knew that Rong Mian’s emotions were overwhelming and that he couldn’t stop crying for the time being, so he realized it would be best not to say anything.

After crying for a while, Rong Mian stopped.

He lowered his head, raised his hand, first wiped his eyes haphazardly, then sniffed his nose. Just as he was about to say something, he heard a nurse nearby quietly asking the doctor, “Doctor, do we need to prepare another injection?”

Zhong Yi: “….”

However, Rong Mian had sharp ears. He heard every word clearly and couldn’t control his emotions that he had barely held back, causing them to collapse again instantly.

So Zhong Yi saw the boy whimper very softly, his eyelashes quivering, then he raised his hand to cover his cheek, and tears started pouring down once again.

Zhong Yi was truly at a loss. He felt the discomfort in his own chest and could only clumsily continue to console him, “Child, please don’t cry…”
Suddenly, Rong Mian mumbled something indistinct: “Liar.”

Zhong Yi was taken aback, doubting whether he had heard correctly, and instinctively asked what he meant.

Rong Mian was crying so much that he was gasping for breath.

But he still raised his eyes, tears blurring his vision, and repeated to Zhong Yi word by word, “Zhong Yi, you are a liar.”

Author’s note:

I am a tearful cat, I don’t curse, I just shed tears.

Footnotes
Local anesthesia, also called local anesthetic, is usually a one-time injection of medicine that numbs a small area of the body.