Chapter 114
Chapter 114
The other man froze for an instant, then laughed despite himself. “No. Isn’t a person’s whole life about proving their worth?”
With that, he walked over to the patient waiting area, picked a chair, and sat down at ease, looking utterly confident. “Very few streamers can guess that I’m the one controlling this Instance. You’re very clever.”
Qiao Yu spread his hands indifferently. “That’s because you got lucky.”
Tang Shenghong caught the implication in Qiao Yu’s words and gave a cold laugh. “But your good luck might just run out today.”
“No, I’m blessed by RNG.”
Tang Shenghong raised his hand and pulled off the white glove already stained with blood. The malice in his eyes was now somehow even thicker than a vengeful ghost’s. “You yellow-haired brat. All you know how to do is run your mouth.”
Qiao Yu glanced at the faintly yellow hair over his forehead and couldn’t be bothered to waste any more words on him. He showed the square, simple card in his hand. “I want to do the review.”
Tang Shenghong rotated his wrist. The expensive luxury watch on it was set with diamonds, each one dazzling and extravagant. “Then you’d better hurry. I have a banquet to attend in an hour.”
After saying that, his gaze swept brazenly over Hua Mulan, Chi Shang, and Luo Ziwei, then circled back over Qiao Yu and Shang Yan’s faces. His meaning was obvious. “Why didn’t Director Zhou report the two of you? Maybe tonight’s banquet could still add two more dishes.”
He looked completely fearless, as if he wasn’t worried at all that Qiao Yu would succeed in the review.
Chi Shang had some brains, but not many.
He quietly reminded Qiao Yu from the side, “Looks like he has something up his sleeve.”
“What does he have up his sleeve?” That question came from the genuinely naive Luo Ziwei.
Qiao Yu would never ask such an amateur question. He could only helplessly glance sideways at the two people huddled together whispering.
Forget it. Every pot had its lid.
With a dumb son like his, if Chi Shang found someone too smart, he’d probably get conned out of his underwear.
Back to business. Qiao Yu looked at Tang Shenghong and began the review.
“Ningping County First People’s Hospital claims there isn’t a terminal illness it can’t cure.
“In reality, it replaces the real patients with clones, creating the illusion that the patients recover.
“And this hospital isn’t actually called Ningping County First People’s Hospital at all. A public hospital’s fees could never be so outrageously high.
“So this is a hospital under the Yuanyang Consortium: Ningping County First Private Hospital.”
Tang Shenghong nodded. Wearing the face of a refined scholar, he looked in Shang Yan’s direction with a vulgar gaze.
Qiao Yu noticed his stare and unhappily straightened, blocking “Beauty Shang” completely from view.
He might not have the height, but he could make up for it by standing on tiptoe.
Shang Yan lowered his head and looked at his brand-new AJ sneakers, which had only just been scrubbed clean and were now dirty again after being stepped on. The corner of his mouth twitched.
Over on Qiao Yu’s side, he seemed to have had enough of Tang Shenghong as a person. His little mouth started rattling off faster, speeding up the review. “The hospital’s exorbitant fees mean only a small number of patients have the possibility of being ‘cured.’
“And these recovered patients are the hospital’s… No, they’re the real targets the Yuanyang Consortium is hunting.
“Actually, unraveling the hospital’s mystery is very simple. It’s nothing more than a group of doctors controlled by the Yuanyang Consortium, voluntarily or otherwise, helping the consortium find tools that can rapidly accumulate wealth.”
He thought of Qiao Sihui, the little girl with leukemia, the only terminally ill patient in the hospital being treated with normal medical methods.
Qiao Yu closed his eyes.
In his mind, the psychologist’s humiliated, helpless gaze surfaced once more.
The psychologist’s surname was Qiao. When they first met, he had even joked that the two of them were from the same clan.
“To cure his daughter of leukemia, the psychologist willingly became the Yuanyang Consortium’s lackey. The dead mother and son on the second floor were a successful match, which is why his daughter Qiao Sihui’s life could be extended, right?
“And also…”
At that point, Qiao Yu thought again of the group photo he had seen in the director’s office.
Father and son had been standing on the lawn in front of the hospital, the atmosphere warm and intimate.
Qiao Yu suddenly turned to look at Shang Yan. “You’ve heard of Zhou Wenshu, right?”
Since they were already reviewing the case, there was no point hiding anything. He really hadn’t found any other clues.
“I have. He was a brilliant medical doctor who published several papers in SCI journals. But later, for some reason, he suddenly vanished without a trace.”
Why? Because he got detained in this hospital, obviously.
Sure enough, this guy knew everything.
Just like a few years ago, when Shang Yan had sat beside him and watched him do homework. He never interrupted, insisting on waiting until Qiao Yu asked on his own or finished and handed it over for checking before he would deign to speak.
Seriously, that personality… was really annoying.
If he weren’t so good-looking, Qiao Yu would have ditched him ages ago, life-or-death circumstances be damned!
“Qiao Yu, don’t test me.”
Shang Yan’s icy voice made Qiao Yu instinctively put on a smile. The words slowly ground out through his teeth. “Is your true form a roundworm?”
A roundworm… what a disgusting species.
“…I’m begging you. Please shut up.”
“No. I still have a case review to do.”
Qiao Yu looked at Tang Shenghong, whose face had darkened faintly from being ignored, and tilted his head. “Let’s just call him Junior Director Zhou for now, shall we?
“After all, Zhou Wenshu, Director Zhou, is already dead. How could this hospital, the cornerstone of the Yuanyang Consortium’s wealth, not have a successor who had mastered cloning technology?
“My guess is that the current Director Zhou is Zhou Wenshu’s son, and he’s also become a money-making tool for the Yuanyang Consortium, right? As for the tactics… nothing more than framing him, threatening him, and finally tempting him with benefits. That was enough to successfully drag him onto the ship.”
Tang Shenghong nodded again, showing no sign of anxiety at all. “I told you. You’re very smart. Your reconstruction is also quite reasonable, and most of it is the truth.”
Qiao Yu felt nothing at the other man’s unstinting praise. He sped up his review again and said concisely, “Now let’s talk about the Yuanyang Consortium.
“The Yuanyang Consortium was founded in 1978. Its chairman, Tang Wen, was actually a conscientious entrepreneur worthy of respect.
“He had a wife he loved deeply. Her name was Lin Xiuyun. But Ms. Lin Xiuyun was in poor health, and after giving birth to you, her life was in critical danger.
“Mr. Tang Wen loved his wife very much. In order to keep them from being separated by life and death, he repeatedly pleaded with, even begged, Director Zhou. In the end, he finally moved him, successfully extending the life of the terminally ill Lin Xiuyun.
“Because of her illness, the two elders neglected your upbringing, and you lived up to expectations by… growing up crooked.
“It’s clear you have always looked down on Mr. Tang Wen’s business philosophy. What you yearn for more is the management style of those cold-blooded Western capitalists.”
When Tang Shenghong heard this, disdain appeared in his eyes. “His business philosophy? What business philosophy did he have? Working himself half to death to make money, then giving that money to the poor? Even an idiot would be smarter than him.
“It’s honestly hilarious. He never understood his own position. He was a capitalist, not a philanthropist.
“If it weren’t for that old bastard, the Yuanyang Consortium would be standing even higher today.”
“I don’t know if you’ve ever heard this saying…” Qiao Yu’s slender fingers shifted, the white card flipping between them. His lazy posture made him look like some idle street punk. “I watched him raise his tower, watched him… what was it again?”
Well, he was cooked. Qiao Yu realized he had failed to pull off the act, so he looked to the straight-A genius from an elite university for help, scratched his head, and asked quietly, “What comes after that?”
Shang Yan held his forehead in pain. “Watched him feast his guests, watched his tower collapse.”
“Right, right, right.” Qiao Yu nodded repeatedly, then shrugged at Tang Shenghong. “Your tower’s about to collapse.”
Tang Shenghong: “…”