Chapter 58

Chapter 58

“Wisdom Biotechnology…” Wen Miao murmured under her breath. “Doesn’t Professor Xu Lei work for Wisdom Biotechnology?”

Nan Mu was about to warn Wen Miao not to act rashly or approach Xu Lei without caution when his phone suddenly rang.

“Who is it?”

Nan Mu pulled his phone from his pocket and saw that it was Yu Jingtong calling.

“I need to take this…” Before Nan Mu could finish his sentence, he saw Wen Miao picking up her own phone. She mouthed the words “Wen Xin’s calling” and stepped out of the hospital room to answer.

Nan Mu answered Yu Jingtong’s call, his mind momentarily dazed. He couldn’t help but wonder how it was such a coincidence that Wen Xin and Yu Jingtong were calling at the exact same time.

“Hello? Are you there? Why is there no sound? Is my signal bad?”

It wasn’t until Yu Jingtong’s puzzled voice came through the line that Nan Mu snapped back to reality. “I’m here, I’m here. The signal might have cut out for a second. What were you saying?”

“I said that Doctor Jia seems to have gone abroad. From what my mom says, he probably won’t be back for several years.”

“Gone abroad?”

Nan Mu was surprised. Why had another one gone abroad? Gu Zhishu’s primary physician, Doctor Liu, had gone abroad, and now Doctor Jia, who had made a mistake, had also gone abroad…

If Doctor Liu was a ‘flying surgeon’ who traveled for consultations, his departure might be considered normal, but why Doctor Jia too?

“Yeah, I heard he left in a real hurry. He didn’t even settle many of his affairs at home; he just suddenly took his whole family out of the country without any warning… Because they left so abruptly, I heard he even entrusted a friend to sell his real estate. My mom heard the news from that friend.”

Usually, moving abroad requires preparation; after all, it wasn’t a short trip or a brief business assignment. To move so many people, including his family, he would have had to prepare and apply for schools for the children in advance, not to mention the couple’s jobs… Leaving so hastily felt more like they were fleeing.

However, Yu Jingtong couldn’t possibly dig up the finer details, so Nan Mu simply thanked her, planning to investigate from another angle.

Just as he was about to hang up, Yu Jingtong suddenly remembered something. “Oh, right, there’s one more thing I should tell you!”

“It’s like this-my dad had been wanting me to contact Gu Zhishu to have him come in for another check-up. So, after I heard from you that Gu Zhishu was missing, I told my dad about it. While we were chatting, I found out that Gu Zhishu had actually contacted my dad in early April. It seems he was helping a friend schedule a physical exam…”

“A physical exam is normal enough, but the strange thing was that many of the tests his friend requested were specifically targeted at the brain. After the results came out, my dad looked them over and said Gu Zhishu’s friend was perfectly healthy. But both Gu Zhishu and his friend repeatedly asked my dad the same question…”

“They both asked: ‘Are you absolutely certain there are no diseases?'”

Perhaps sensing that this sentence didn’t fully convey the problem, Yu Jingtong elaborated, “My dad thought it was odd because Gu Zhishu’s friend was only in his early twenties. That’s not exactly a high-risk age for diseases. My dad checked the results several times, and there really was nothing wrong, but Gu Zhishu’s friend kept pressing him, asking if it was possible he might have the same disease as Gu Zhishu.”

“My father denied it immediately. Firstly, because the imaging showed absolutely no signs of brain disease. Secondly, my father already believed that Gu Zhishu’s brain condition was ninety percent likely to be a new medical phenomenon-an extremely low-probability disease. It was impossible for two cases to appear simultaneously by such a coincidence. And even if it wasn’t a misdiagnosis, Gu Zhishu’s specific brain disease wasn’t something easily contracted. Things just don’t happen that way.”
“I might not have thought much of it before, but looking back now, it’s actually quite strange. Why would a young man in his early twenties think he suffered from the same condition as Gu Zhishu?”

Nan Mu felt his heart sink. “Does your father remember the name of Gu Zhishu’s friend?”

Yu Jingtong replied, “I think his surname was Su. Su…”

“Su Yu?”

“Yes, yes, that’s it. Su Yu.”

Nan Mu hung up the phone and fell into deep thought. He felt he might have been mistaken about something before.

He had always assumed Su Yu’s disappearance was because of Gu Zhishu-that he had simply been caught up in the case. Consequently, his investigation had always revolved around Gu Zhishu. But what if Su Yu hadn’t been implicated because of Gu Zhishu? Perhaps, just like Gu Zhishu, he was a target in his own right. Even if he hadn’t known Gu Zhishu, he might still have been killed…

He was so lost in thought that he didn’t even notice when Wen Miao finished her call and walked back in.

Before he could tell her about Yu Jingtong’s call, Wen Miao had already unlocked her phone and handed it to him.

Nan Mu didn’t react for a moment, looking at her gesture with confusion.

“Wen Xin sent this over.” Wen Miao moved the phone closer to him and sat down on the edge of the bed. “He retrieved all the chat logs between Gu Zhishu and Su Yu.”

As Nan Mu took the phone, she continued, “There are no signs that any messages were deleted, but I didn’t see anything in the logs regarding Gu Zhishu’s disappearance. However, one part is quite strange…”

Wen Miao gestured for Nan Mu to scroll the chat history back to April.

“During that period, the two of them seemed to be discussing a brain disease and some physical exam reports. Unfortunately, they didn’t go into detail, but there are records of voice calls here. I suspect they might have discussed it directly over the phone.”

Nan Mu skimmed through the messages. There wasn’t much of substance in the WeChat logs, but Gu Zhishu and Su Yu had indeed mentioned physical exam reports and follow-up appointments. Looking at this section alone might not have revealed anything special, but he had just received the call from Yu Jingtong. Putting the two together, he could more or less guess what they had been talking about.

Nan Mu shared his theory with Wen Miao.

“So, it’s very likely that Su Yu was also diagnosed with Gu Zhishu’s condition, but after going to Yu Jingtong’s father for an exam, he discovered he didn’t actually have it?”

Wen Miao was somewhat shocked. She had seen Gu Zhishu during an episode, and it was incredibly painful. She had heard that this kind of disease was rare, so why would someone be misdiagnosed with it?

“Yeah.” Nan Mu repeatedly read a sentence Su Yu had sent to Gu Zhishu. “Su Yu said the reason he went for that physical exam was because of a collective internship organized by his school. The company provided a free pre-employment medical check-up.”

Wen Miao didn’t have any experience with internships yet, so she didn’t immediately catch Nan Mu’s drift.

Nan Mu explained, “Generally, these company-provided check-ups are just routine physicals. They’re meant to ensure that new employees don’t have infectious diseases and that their personal health won’t affect other staff. Usually, aside from standard internal medicine, surgery, blood work, and EKGs, they don’t include brain scans.”

Wen Miao frowned. “Then this company…”

“Exactly. Don’t you find it strange?” Nan Mu’s voice grew low. “Why would they check that? And how is it such a coincidence that they just happened to find Brain Diseases in Su Yu?”