Song Qing’s second software had already passed review, and people had started to download it one after another. The number of online users reached several thousand, but at present many people were still in the trial stage, so it was temporarily unclear what the outcome would be.
The new software had a three-day trial period. From the time it went online to Android and Baidu, up to now, it happened to be the third day.
Once it passed twelve o’clock, the first batch of downloaders would have to subscribe monthly in order to continue using it.
Song Qing deliberately took a look — the number of online users was still a lot, and still steadily increasing. But the payment receiver wasn’t him — it was Nan Zhi. And as long as they didn’t uninstall it, even if they didn’t buy VIP, they would still count as online users. So he also didn’t know if anyone from the first batch spent money to purchase services — how many people there were was also unknown.
All he knew was that during these three trial days, there were a lot of issues with operations and maintenance.
He had originally thought it would be just like the first software — very leisurely. So after settling the resignation of his meal-cooking job, he planned to take on a few more hours of tutoring per week. Right now tutoring was still quite cost-effective — 300 yuan an hour, adding two hours a week, and that would be over 2,000 a month.
But he hadn’t had time for it yet, already tripped up by constant maintenance problems being reported. Every day a lot of people contacted him, saying that after using the profanity-blocking software, they still got cursed at.
Screenshots were sent over — the client was hurling insults back and forth with someone else. The other party, after realizing the client was using a plug-in, changed tactics — added other words between the curse words, so they still got sent over.
After soothing the client, Song Qing added that case into the data. Those with extra words inserted in the middle — as long as combining both sides formed a curse — would also be included in the blocking range.
But soon, someone else gave feedback, saying normal language from the other side got blocked — over-blocking and so on.
He could only make adjustments, again and again looking for a compromise method. These past few days he was busy every day until five or six in the morning, sometimes seven or eight.
Luckily the cooking job had already ended. Recently Nan Zhi also had always been on night shifts. Sometimes she had a night shift plus a “xia ye” [the shift after a night shift] together — starting work at five in the evening, until eight the next morning — saving up rest days.
During the day she would only wake up around two or three, or three or four in the afternoon at the earliest. Following Nan Zhi, he also didn’t have to get up early anymore. Every day he slept until two or three, three or four in the afternoon.
His routine was becoming more and more irregular.
Sometimes after finishing work, he would feel dizzy and faint. He had gotten thinner — a bit malnourished — but his health had always been good. Following Nan Zhi’s schedule, even he couldn’t take it, let alone Nan Zhi herself — who was already physically weak and mentally not in a good state.
Sometimes after finishing a night shift and “xia ye,” she’d still be called in for a meeting in the early afternoon, around one or two, and the meeting would go on for several hours.
Every day her step count would be at least ten thousand, often over twenty thousand — her body was severely overdrawn.
They had to quickly make money, so she could feel at ease quitting early.
Their routine also had to be adjusted — both him and Nan Zhi together.
Nan Zhi had a night shift plus a “xia ye” one day, and a night shift the next — today was a night shift. She got off work at two. Song Qing saw it was about time and was just about to cook when he suddenly received a message — it was from Nan Zhi, saying she was eating outside today, would be back later, and he didn’t need to wait for her.
Song Qing paused slightly — he knew this person had a strange notion — that was, blessings must be shared together. If there was another person at home, no matter going out or doing something, that person must be brought along.
She felt that going out to play or eat something delicious was enjoying — and it had to be shared with the other person. Not asking him to go together — most likely something had happened again, and she went out to find a place to digest her bad mood. She would need a long time to adjust, then come back with red-rimmed eyes, pretending she hadn’t cried, pretending everything was fine.
After hesitating for a moment, Song Qing opened Nan Zhi’s alternate account — wanted to see what had happened on her end again.
Nan Zhi had many public accounts. If she didn’t deliberately post private life stuff, everything would be picked apart with a magnifying glass. Some private matters and words naturally couldn’t be put out in the open — otherwise, she might get doxxed — so she registered an alternate account.
The alternate account was specifically for letting herself go, roaming around, and chasing after other “tai tai” [literally “madams,” here a slang term in fandom for creators or favorite writers/artists], wildly confessing love to them. Of course, also used for venting about personal life.
He knew because Nan Zhi usually left traces — private posts used the alternate, public ones used the main. If the main account encountered something fun, she’d forward it to him, or flip the tablet or phone over to show him directly. Sometimes she’d switch to the wrong account — so he naturally came to know.
Song Qing started watching from the content he hadn’t seen yesterday, skipping over her forwarded giveaways, and some social news, including her circling other “laosi,” long sections of confessions. After flipping through more than ten posts, he got to the latest update.
【Do you really feel sorry for the elderly? If you really feel sorry, you wouldn’t keep cursing nonstop while the procedure is happening. Who can stand it? Those with bad tempers would’ve stripped off their clothes on the spot to fight.】
【Doesn’t listen to people at all. I explained last time that the nasogastric tube is inherently uncomfortable, resisting it is normal, still cursed me, said I was shirking responsibility.】
【Explained that wearing a urinary catheter for over a day, the friction between the catheter and the urethral mucosa causing bleeding is very normal — still didn’t listen. The teacher and I talked until our lips were worn out. The doctor said it too, but they still wouldn’t listen. If it weren’t for a 1.95-meter-tall male nurse being there, probably would’ve escalated to physical confrontation. Totally breaking down.】
【Old age plus diabetes, wounds don’t heal well, still need to stay hospitalized for a while. I’m about to switch shifts, by then it’ll probably all be me doing the procedures. What kind of worldly suffering is this — already have a feeling I’ll be scolded every day.】
【Just these kinds of people who don’t know a thing yet think they understand everything and care about their family so much — you never see them being filial when no one’s around, but once there are outsiders, they start performing. In reality, they even think the patient’s urine bag is dirty and refuse to change it, tricking us nurses into changing it for them every day. It’s these kinds of family members that make it unbearable. Every day I want to resign.】
【Crying to death. Those who can endure it are all warriors.】
【What to do, what to do — next time there’s bleeding, it’ll definitely be more serious, and they’ll blame me again.】
Song Qing roughly sorted it out: recently, Nan Zhi encountered a patient who needed long-term hospitalization, and the patient’s family was extremely difficult to deal with. While she was changing the patient’s nasogastric tube, she was scolded and complained about. When she changed the urinary catheter, she got scolded for the previous time too. They wouldn’t even listen to her explanations, and even cursed during the procedure.
And going forward, it would likely be her handling all the tube changes.
Being scolded while changing the nasogastric tube made her lose confidence, so she practiced on herself. As for the catheter…
The nasogastric tube, that one is really mainly uncomfortable. Just think about it — not even inserting a tube into the stomach, even if a finger lightly touches the area near the throat, you’ll instinctively gag. Even he, a healthy person who knows he needs to cooperate, can’t help biting the tube during the procedure and doesn’t want to let it go down — let alone a semi-conscious patient who still has awareness.
They would definitely struggle and flail. Nan Zhi said that for patients like this, inserting a tube requires someone to hold them down. The family members couldn’t bear to do it, didn’t apply enough force, and that made the process torturous. After finally getting past the throat, the patient ended up yanking the tube out, making it even worse.
But they wouldn’t think like that. They wouldn’t think they had even the slightest problem — they pushed all the blame onto others. She not only got scolded, but also got complained about, had money docked from her pay, and afterward was forced by the hospital to apologize to the family.
During the standardized training internship period, after deducting the five insurances and one fund, the salary was already just a bit over a hundred yuan. Each month they deducted here and there — as long as she didn’t end up paying out of pocket, it was already lucky. Don’t even think about getting a cent of actual salary.
With this kind of ecosystem and salary condition, it’s really baffling how hospitals even have the courage to blindly take the side of unreasonable family members without any sense of right or wrong, not protecting their own staff at all.
It’s exactly because of those upper management people who don’t understand real human suffering that the escape rate from this profession is so high. Many professionals would rather go drive Didi [ride-hailing], deliver takeout, or carry plates than work in their own field.
Song Qing was just a bystander, and even just listening to her daily life every day made him feel suffocated.
And she still had to hurt her own body just to gain experience through bleeding.