"I'm not going back."

Her slender white waist and delicate figure were accentuated by the black T-shirt, making her fair and tender skin even more noticeable. Just one glance was enough to make it impossible to look away.

Shi Lin's gaze fell on her slim waist, then on her hips, calves, ankles...

Lin Mian didn't pay any attention to the man's aggressive gaze.

After taking the measurements and recording them in the notebook, she was about to put away the tools when suddenly her feet slipped and she fell forward.

Lin Mian widened her eyes and instinctively let out a scream.

As she was about to fall, a large hand suddenly reached out from behind and deftly caught her waist.

The man's handsome face was close to hers, and his white coat was pressed against hers, with a faint smell of disinfectant lingering around his nose.

"Th-thank you."

Blushing, Lin Mian propped herself up and thanked him.

However, Shi Lin did not let go of her, his large hand holding her waist, and he asked a strange question.

"Are you not short of money lately?"

Lin Mian was stunned for a moment, then quickly reacted to his meaning, her face uncontrollably embarrassed.

She pushed Shi Lin away forcefully, keeping a distance from him, and said firmly:

"I don't need it anymore, I won't need it in the future. Dr. Shi, thank you for helping me in my difficult time, but it was just a transaction. Let's end it here."

Shi Lin had expected her to say that, and his cold face showed no emotion.

Just then,Lin Mian's phone rang, and she glanced at the screen to see that it was her mother calling.

Not wanting to stay any longer, Lin Mian packed up her toolbox, held her phone, and hurriedly left the clinic room.

As the room emptied, Shi Lin looked at his empty hands, took a deep breath, and suppressed the inexplicable urge inside him.

She was just a green girl, just two short nights, yet he found himself strangely addicted.

This was really beyond belief.

Alone in the hallway, Lin Mian sat on the stairs, holding her phone as the familiar voice came through the receiver.

"Your brother found a job with a formal position. He can start work in half a month, but it requires a 60,000 yuan introduction fee. Your father said you are now a big designer? Try to come up with some money to send over."

Lin Mian felt a headache coming on after listening. "Mom, I just started working. Where am I supposed to get so much money?"

"Don't play dumb. Your school is full of talented students. I heard that graduates go out and make millions a year. How come you don't have any money? You can't even come up with a measly 60,000 yuan?"Lin Mian explained while feeling a headache, "I'm just a design assistant now, receiving a fixed salary, and still in the learning stage. It's not easy to make money. My brother started working before me. He should have some savings, right?"

Upon hearing this, Lin's mother became even angrier.

"I don't care. You have to come up with the money for your father's surgery, and also give money to your brother. You are the college student the whole family supported. You can't just ignore your two male siblings."

Lin Mian remained silent.

Her mother continued to scold her, "Let me tell you, either you send me the money, or you come back immediately to get married. The girl next door, Xiao Zhao, received a dowry of three hundred thousand. What use is a poor girl like you!"

Lin Mian grew angrier as she listened, mustering up her courage to refute, "I'm not going back!"

After studying hard for twelve years, she had finally escaped from that suffocating place, and she would never go back to get married even if it meant death!

She used to endure being scolded and mistreated for her father's sake, but now that her father's leg had healed, she didn't want to endure it anymore.

"Ungrateful girl, have you gone too far? Feeling empowered and challenging me? If you dare, come back and see if I won't beat you to death!"The phone on the other end continued to rant and rave, the emotions extremely intense, as if they were about to tear her apart in the next second.

Lin Mian decisively hung up the phone.

The world was finally quiet.

She leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath, and it took her a while to recover. Although she had grown accustomed to those hurtful words, every time she hung up the phone, she couldn't help but feel stifled and uncomfortable.

The phone kept ringing incessantly, like a death knell.

As long as she didn't answer, it would continue relentlessly.

Lin Mian simply turned off her phone.

She sat in the hallway for a while, gathering her thoughts, before carrying her toolbox and heading out.

At lunchtime, she bumped into Shi Lin who was leaving work at the elevator lobby.

His hands were in his pockets, and he was waiting for the elevator with Lu Zhibai at a leisurely pace. At this moment, he had changed out of his white coat and was wearing casual gray attire, his long legs straight, exuding a cool aura.

Easily attracting the attention of a group of young nurses.