Under Chen Ziyuan’s persistent request, the four of them went to the movies at a cinema.
Xu Shuangyu chose the movie ‘Us and Them’.
Zhou Wen did not have the courage to tell her that he had already watched it, so he pretended that it was his first time watching the movie and watched it in all apparent seriousness from the start to the end.
They discussed the plot together when they left the cinema and headed for supper.
Zhou Wen smiled on the outside and felt that he was becoming more and more hypocritical in his heart. Could this be the price of growing up?
By the time he returned to his house in the Maple Leaf housing estate, it was already 12 midnight.
It was all quiet upstairs, and it seemed that Shen Xue and Zuo Mengmeng were asleep.
Zhou Wen washed up quietly before he laid on the bed to check his gains today.
The few missions he took on today were unexpectedly simple, especially the specimen-processing mission.
Frankly, he was actually panicking in his heart at the time.
The biopsy specimen processing was way more troublesome than the processing of those larger samples.
This was because the inspection material was too small in amount. If there was any mistake, it was highly possible that a new sample needed to be taken again.
In that case, not only would the patient needed to suffer twice, it could also implicate Sun Jing, as she would be penalized for his mistake.
It could be said that Sun Jing bore a very high risk on his behalf. Fortunately, the mission was accomplished smoothly in the end.
He chose the wooden loot box first. This was the loot box he received as a reward for helping Dai Haidong.
[Would you like to open the loot box now? Yes/No]
[Yes]
After confirming his choice, the key was inserted into the keyhole, and the treasure chest opened up slowly; a stack of cash notes emerged from the inside.
[Congratulations, you have received 100 RMB.]
This was within Zhou Wen’s expectation, and he was not disappointed by the result.
Soon afterward, he opened the second box, which was a black metal loot box.
The same procedures took place. A ward of cash noted emerged from the inside of the chest once again after it was opened up slowly.
“Huh, why is it money again?” Zhou Wen was amused.
It was the black metal loot box rewarded by the system for helping Ye Ziyao.
[Congratulations, you have received 1,000 RMB.]
Zhou Wen was delighted.
The system was quite impressive for knowing that he was poor and rewarded him with 1,000 bucks on purpose to recuperate his finances.
It was down to the final loot box.
A cracker box appeared from the inside when the treasure chest was opened.
[Congratulations, you have received fragrant, sweet, tasty cracker X10.]
“What the heck is a cracker?” Zhou Wen uttered out of curiosity. Then, he brought up the inventory and looked at the cracker box there. There was a description behind the item saying ‘Consume it within 24 hours upon retrieval, ineffective upon expiry.]
Zhou Wen took out a piece from the inventory list and noticed that it looked exactly the same as a Wang Wang snow rice cracker, even including the packaging.
He wanted to unwrap one and give it a taste, but he immediately stopped his damned hands from opening the package as soon as he remembered about the chewing gum that was ten times more bitter than gall.
He must always act with caution and vigilance at any consumable food given by the system.
Even though Zhou Wen wanted to find out the effect of the cracker, he still managed to suppress his curiosity. It would not be too late for him to experiment with the cracker later when he was mentally prepared for it.
He checked his XP points and the remaining two missions before he shut down the system and closed his eyes to sleep.
…
At seven in the morning, in the oncology department of the First People’s Hospital – “Chief Liu, I suppose your mother’s case is considered fortunate amongst the misfortuned! You should understand that for most cases of pancreatic cancer, the tumor’s location is mostly on the head of the pancreas, and very few cases appear on the tail of the pancreas. If it’s the head of the pancreas, the tumor will certainly press onto the bile duct when it has grown to a certain size. This will trigger jaundice. As a result, it’s easy to discover it at an early stage. However, if it’s the tail of pancreas carcinoma, the condition is only discovered when the tumor has grown to an extremely large size due to the surrounding space being bigger. By then, it is already at a late stage of diagnosis and it’s utterly inoperable.” The attending doctor, Feng Qingli, explained the situation to Liu Aiping with a very calm expression.
Liu Aiping listened to it quietly with her heart hanging in her throat. It was universally acknowledged that pancreatic cancer was known as the king of cancers. It was a type of malignant tumor that troubled oncology specialists because it was highly invasive and resulted in a high fatality rate as well.
“Due to it being discovered early, the cancer cells have yet to metastasize to the veins and arteries around it. In my evaluation, you can consider removing the tumor surgically from the blood vessel…”
Liu Aiping and the attending doctor chatted for a full half an hour before she was finally at ease.
“Thank you for taking the trouble to do this, Chief Hu.”
“You’re welcome! A case like your mother’s is truly very rare; the ability to discover and diagnose it at once gives us adequate time to treat it.”
Liu Aiping nodded with lingering fear and made some small talk before she left the oncology department.
Then, Liu Aiping called her husband and told him about the situation on the way back.
She had only remembered something important after she hung up the phone. Had it not been for the two young girls in her department that brought her attention to this, she would never have thought of taking her mother for a health checkup.
On the other hand, if she were to miss the best treatment time, due to the extent of pancreatic cancer’s severity, her mother would have…
Liu Aiping did not have the courage to think further from that train of thought.
At the gynecology department, Liu Aiping called Shen Xue and Zuo Mengmeng into her office.
“Please take a seat.” Liu Aiping pointed to the stools opposite her office table and said with a pleasant countenance.
Shen Xue and Zuo Mengmeng sat down, anxiously.
As the newcomers of the department, the distance between the chief doctor and them was extremely wide. The disparity was truly too huge to neglect.
It would be a lie for them to say that they were not afraid when a notable figure like her sought for a chat with them.
Liu Aiping chuckled and said, “Don’t be anxious. I called both of you in mainly to thank you.”
“Ah…”
Shen Xue and Zuo Mengmeng were rather dumbstruck with bewilderment. The chief doctor called them in on purpose just to thank them?
What was going on?
Before they could voice their puzzlement, Liu Aiping took the initiative to tell them the truth.
“I’m really thankful to both of you. Had it not been your timely reminder, the result will be simply unimaginable.”
Shen Xue and Zuo Mengmeng felt astonished yet surprised because they had not expected this to happen.
They had never expected that their reminder out of goodwill would actually make Liu Aiping find out that her mother had pancreatic cancer. It was simply too miraculous.
Both of them immediately recalled how Zhou Wen insisted that they reminded Liu Aiping in the cafeteria the other day. He wanted Liu Aiping to take her mother for a health checkup so they could not refrain from wondering if Zhou Wen could tell that Chief Liu’s mother had cancer at the time.
“All in all, I’m really thankful to both of you. If you encounter any issues at work from now on, feel free to come over and consult me anytime.”
“Thanks, Chief Liu.”
“You’re welcome. Work hard; I believe that both of you will do well…”
“Mmhmm, mmhmm, mmhmm…”
After leaving the office, Shen Xue and Zuo Mengmeng were overjoyed.
Chief Liu had always been known for having a high demand for professionalism and being strict with her staff members in the department.
She had actually said something so unprecedented to them, so one could imagine how important their reminder was to her.
…
At ten in the morning, in a tea parlor with antique style decor not far away from the Maple Leaf housing estate – at the south side of the hospital, a middle-aged specky man was seated next to the window facing south. He was savoring his Oolong tea leisurely.
One would discover under close inspection that this middle-aged specky man was precisely the colleague of Editor Liu that Zhou Wen encountered in the Food City previously.
Just as the specky man was tasting the tea calmly, he heard footsteps coming from the stairway. It was from Zhou Wen, who came up from the ground level.
Zhou Wen turned his head to look around before he walked toward the middle-aged specky man seated next to the window.
He had constantly been thinking about looking for a formal journalist over the past few days to carry out an academic interview with him. However, he had been rather busy. In addition, he could not find a suitable journalist, so he did not take action all this time.
He refused to seek help from the we-media channels.
However, he suddenly remembered about Chief Liu from the Jiangzhou Post right before he slept yesterday night.
Even though he was deceased, Zhou Wen was still acquainted with Editor Liu’s colleague. Hence, he went over to the Jiangzhou Post’s official website to search for the man’s contact when he woke up in the morning.
As a result, he discovered from the official website that the specky man whom he was acquainted with previously had actually become Jiangzhou Post’s editor in chief now.
Hence, he attempted to give the man a call. Unexpectedly, the man was very willing to honor his request by agreeing to perform the interview with him personally.
“I’m sorry, Editor Huang. I was held up by some urgent matters in the hospital earlier…”
“It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ve just arrived too…”
They engaged in small talks with each other enthusiastically before they took their seats soon afterward.
Hung Hongda, also known as Editor Huang, poured a cup of tea personally for Zhou Wen.
Zhou Wen hastily stood up and said, “You’re too kind, Editor Huang. It’s fine for me to do it myself.”
“It’s okay; it’s okay… Take a seat…” Huang Hongda extended a hand to beckon Zhou Wen to sit down. “I’ve always wanted to find an opportunity to treat you to a meal, Doctor Zhou. This is to express my gratitude to you. Yet, work in the department has been busy, and that is why I didn’t manage to find the time…”
Zhou Wen nodded to express his understanding.
There was a saying that ‘a new broom sweeps clean’. Even if he was not busy, he had to act the part.
Huang Hongda spoke courteously over here, but he could not help but recall the events that took place that night in his mind. He felt rather sad about what happened that night.
Liu Bin’s passing made him realize deeply how fragile life was. A living person could pass away in the blink of an eye. It was truly terrifying.
However, it was precisely due to this event that Huang Hongda could tell how skillful the young man before his eyes was.
He was present at the scene at the time. Liu Bin was already suffering from severe respiratory failure symptoms and was utterly incapable of waiting for the emergency rescue ambulance’s arrival.
However, this young man had only applied his skill ever so slightly, which allowed Liu Bin to make it to the hospital alive. Moreover, Liu Bin managed to live all the way until four in the morning before he passed away.
One could imagine how brilliant this young man’s skill was!
His instincts were telling him that if this young man was given permission to partake in the treatment plan at the time, perhaps Liu Bin would have made it out alive.
What a waste that there was no second chance in life.
Liu Bin did not stand a chance anymore, but he still did.
He used his identity as the editor in chief of Jiangzhou Post to come over and personally interview Zhou Wen. In reality, he wanted to use this opportunity to form a good affinity with Zhou Wen.