Chapter 48
Chapter 48
Wen Miao called Gu Zhiyu and managed to get the name of Gu Zhishu’s attending physician from him.
“Hello, is Nurse Xiao Ai in today?”
Wen Miao felt that Nurse Xiao Ai, who had been helping with Nan Mu’s treatment, was quite a nice person. She wanted to ask her about Gu Zhishu’s attending physician, but after waiting for a long time, Nurse Xiao Ai never appeared. Instead, a Short-haired Nurse approached her.
“Xiao Ai is on the night shift today,” the Short-haired Nurse said, noticing Wen Miao’s disappointed expression. “Is there something you need her for?”
Wen Miao hesitated for a moment. “I have a relative with a brain condition. I heard there’s a neurologist here named Liu Mingfang?”
“Doctor Liu?”
She did know him, but before Wen Miao and Nan Mu could celebrate, the Short-haired Nurse added, “But Doctor Liu has been abroad for several months now.”
“Abroad?”
“Yes. Doctor Liu originally came from overseas. There was a… I think he was a doctor… who was hospitalized with a brain condition. His family specifically invited Doctor Liu back from abroad to help with the treatment.”
“A doctor?” Wen Miao scratched her head in confusion. “Um, you might have the wrong person. I’m talking about a neurologist named Liu Mingfang. Liu, as in the character with the ‘literary’ and ‘knife’ components.”
“Yes, that’s exactly who I’m talking about.”
“But I heard the patient he was treating was a young man in his early twenties…”
“Oh! I see!” the Short-haired Nurse reacted quickly. “Doctor Liu did treat a boy later on. Let me think, I think his name was Gu something… Oh, right, it was Gu Zhishu.”
Wen Miao was disappointed to learn that the attending physician had already left the country. “Then when did Doctor Liu go abroad?”
“Around May, I think. That was when Gu Zhishu suddenly…” The Short-haired Nurse stopped mid-sentence and looked at the two of them. “Have you heard about it?”
“We know,” Nan Mu answered bluntly. “About Gu Zhishu running away from home, right?”
“Yes.” The Short-haired Nurse looked relieved. “Gu Zhishu’s condition was quite troublesome. When he was hospitalized, Xiao Ai and I took turns caring for him. Doctor Liu was the one who performed Gu Zhishu’s initial surgery. There was another patient undergoing surgery at the same time as Gu Zhishu-the one from the family that invited Doctor Liu back to the country. We all said back then that Gu Zhishu was lucky; otherwise, he never would have met such a specialist in brain diseases.”
As she spoke, the Short-haired Nurse sighed. “Who could have guessed that Gu Zhishu’s illness would relapse later… Actually, that’s just how these brain diseases are. The structure of the brain is so complex. There are many cases where surgery doesn’t result in a cure. You can only say it’s a matter of fate, something predestined… Actually, he really was quite lucky. Doctor Liu was originally a ‘flying surgeon,’ so naturally, he was supposed to go back abroad after the surgery. But because Gu Zhishu’s illness relapsed, Doctor Liu didn’t leave and stayed in the country instead. From the time Gu Zhishu was re-hospitalized until he ran away… it was nearly three years. Doctor Liu was his attending physician the whole time. He was constantly working hard to study Gu Zhishu’s symptoms, checking records, consulting experts, and doing research. He was trying every possible way to help treat him. He was truly responsible.”
“So, after Gu Zhishu went missing, he didn’t continue the research?”
“You don’t know, but something happened suddenly around May. Doctor Liu’s office caught fire, and all the records were burned to ashes… Because of that incident, Doctor Zhang and Doctor Jia resigned to take the blame.”
“Doctor Zhang and Doctor Jia?”
“Yes, they were the ones assisting Doctor Liu with Gu Zhishu’s case.”
Wen Miao’s eyes lit up. “Where are the two of them now?”
The Short-haired Nurse blinked, answering hesitantly, “I’m not quite sure about that… I really haven’t heard anything.”
Nan Mu asked, “Do you have their contact information?”
“Well, there are…”
The Short-haired Nurse looked a bit hesitant, so Wen Miao quickly explained, “We also saw that Doctor Liu has gone abroad, so we’re just looking for the next best thing. Since they were able to assist Doctor Liu back then, they must be experts in brain diseases as well. They should be quite capable. How about this? If you’re worried, you can call them now to ask which hospital they’re working at and if it’s convenient to give us the address.”
Persuaded by the two of them, the Short-haired Nurse dialed one of their numbers.
“We’re sorry, the number you have dialed is powered off.”
A cold, mechanical female voice came from the other end.
The Short-haired Nurse let out a surprised sound. “Why is Doctor Zhang’s phone turned off?”
As surgeons, they had to be ready to go to the operating table at any moment. Their phones were supposed to be on standby twenty-four hours a day, no matter the time.
“Maybe the battery died?”
The Short-haired Nurse muttered to herself as she dialed Doctor Jia’s number.
After a few seconds, the voice on the other end reminded her again that the phone was powered off.
“Huh!”
Now, even the Short-haired Nurse found it unbelievable. She even scrolled through her call history, wondering if she had accidentally dialed the same person twice.
However, the interface clearly showed that she had dialed two completely different numbers.
“That’s strange!” The Short-haired Nurse fiddled with her phone. “Did I run out of credit?”
She even topped up her phone with a hundred yuan until the telecommunications company sent a text confirmation.
“I’m not out of credit…”
Still in disbelief, she dialed both numbers again. Just like before, they were still powered off.
“I really can’t get through…” The Short-haired Nurse looked at Wen Miao apologetically for not being able to help. “Maybe they changed their numbers.”
By now, waves of shock were crashing through Wen Miao and Nan Mu’s hearts.
If Doctor Liu going abroad after Gu Zhishu’s disappearance could be dismissed as a coincidence, the fact that both Doctor Zhang and Doctor Jia’s numbers were unreachable at the same time could no longer be explained away so easily.
Although they hadn’t been able to find the three doctors to learn the inside story of Gu Zhishu’s illness, one thing was now certain.
Gu Zhishu’s death was definitely inextricably linked to his treatment at this hospital!
=
Wen Miao asked the Short-haired Nurse for the full names of Doctor Zhang and Doctor Jia. She then sent all the information she could gather to Wen Xin, hoping he could use the internet to track down their possible addresses.
But before she could make the call, Wen Xin called her first.
Wen Miao picked up. “I was just about to call you, and here you are. Let me tell you…”
But Wen Xin didn’t wait for her to finish; he interrupted her impatiently. “Whatever it is can wait. Let me speak first!
“I just recovered the deleted text messages from the phone and found a strange number. I’ve downloaded the message data from the computer and sent it to you…”
Wen Miao heard the “ding-dong” notification of an incoming message. Before she could click on it, Wen Xin continued, “You said Gu Zhishu likely went missing on April 19th, right? This number sent a message on April 19th, asking Gu Zhishu to meet at Guiziyuan Square.”
Since Wen Miao needed to look at the message, she had put the call on speakerphone, so Nan Mu heard everything clearly.
He practically bolted upright in his hospital bed.
His reaction was so violent that Wen Miao didn’t even have time to be surprised by what Wen Xin had said. She instinctively asked, “Wh… what’s wrong?”
“Guiziyuan Square…”
He repeated the name of the location.
Guiziyuan Square was in Jin’an District.
And Lion Mountain, where Gu Zhishu was buried, was also in Jin’an District!