Chapter 154
Chapter 154
Meanwhile, Liu Ye returned to the ward. Just as he was about to enter, he saw the young nurse from earlier beckoning to him.
“Did you need something?” Liu Ye asked as he approached.
“Something good!”
The nurse smiled and handed him a booklet.
“This is a hospital examination form. In recognition of your outstanding performance, the hospital has decided to award you a medical examination package worth 1,888 yuan.”
Liu Ye was overjoyed. The money was not even the important part. This gesture represented enormous recognition of his work.
“Thank you! Thank you!”
Tears nearly spilled from his eyes. In all the time since he had left the village, he had never held a job for long. The longest had lasted less than half a month.
His big brother and the Old Man were such good people! They worried so much about his employment that they spent entire nights unable to sleep, filling one bucket after another with cigarette butts.
Apparently, the Old Man’s account on all those job-hunting websites had already reached the highest tier of membership.
Liu Ye saw their suffering and felt it in his heart. To show his gratitude, he could only help in whatever small ways were within his power.
Things like cleaning the house and cooking. He often made late-night snacks for his big brother and the others too.
Yet no matter how much nourishment he provided, they continued to lose weight.
What touched him most was that even then, they remained considerate of one another, always yielding their own food to someone else. Truly, Liu Ye still had so much to learn from them.
And now, at last, he had secured a stable job.
The nurse stared at him.
It was only a medical examination form. Was there any need to cry like this?
“All right, stop crying and come with me. If we’re late, the doctor will leave for the day.”
Liu Ye hurried into the elevator with her. The floor indicator kept descending, finally stopping at Basement Level Eighteen.
“After you, Mr. Liu Ye!” A smile that belonged on a Fiend’s face spread across the nurse’s lips.
She had expected the elevator display to frighten him. Instead, Liu Ye remained perfectly calm.
The nurse stared at him.
Liu Ye was busy wondering what he should buy for his big brother and the others when he went home on his next break. When he looked up, the nurse had already stormed out of the elevator.
His head filled with question marks. What was wrong with her now?
Liu Ye stepped out and found a row of examination rooms lining both sides of the corridor.
When he saw the nurse enter one of them, he quickly followed.
“Doctor, the patient is here,” the nurse told the man inside.
The doctor seated behind the desk nodded, looking very pleased when Liu Ye entered.
“Sit down.”
Liu Ye obediently took a seat.
“You’re Liu Ye, correct? Listen, your condition is extremely serious. If you’d come any later, it would already have been too late.”
Liu Ye was baffled. How could it already be almost too late when he had only just arrived?
“Doctor, you haven’t examined me yet.”
“Nonsense. I’ve practiced medicine for many years. One glance is enough for me to tell that your body is unhealthy.”
The doctor set down the examination form.
His ominous words frightened Liu Ye. Who did not fear illness these days, especially when they had little money?
“Th-then, Doctor, what illness do I have?”
“Hmm… I’ll need to conduct a detailed examination first. Come, lie down on the bed.”
Liu Ye obediently lay on the examination bed.
The next moment, a series of metallic clicks rang out as shackles locked around his wrists and ankles.
“Heh, heh, heh… Don’t be afraid. It will all be over soon…”
The doctor chuckled as he raised a massive sledgehammer and smashed it viciously toward Liu Ye’s chest.
Clang!
The hammer rebounded and struck the doctor in the head instead, cracking his skull open on the spot.
Liu Ye stared at him.
What… what kind of medical examination was this? He did not dare speak. He did not dare ask.
The doctor’s head swayed. Then he collapsed to the floor, and blood rapidly spread everywhere.
“Doctor!”
Liu Ye hurriedly broke free of the shackles and climbed off the bed. Though forged from high-grade steel, the restraints opened like tofu in his hands the moment he moved.
Hearing Liu Ye shout, the nurse outside rushed through the door. The moment she entered, she saw the doctor lying on the floor with blood pouring from his shattered head. His body twitched, and he was clearly on the verge of death.
The nurse stared blankly at Liu Ye.
“What did you do?” she demanded in shock.
“I didn’t do anything. I lay on the bed like he told me to, and then he picked up a hammer and hit himself with it.”
“Do you honestly expect me to believe that?”
“But it’s true!”
Liu Ye felt terribly wronged. Why did this keep happening to him? Then a thought struck him. Could this whole thing have been a setup?
Were they trying to drive an outstanding caregiver like him out of the hospital?
The nurse examined the doctor on the floor, and panic soon seized her.
This was the only doctor on the entire floor who could treat patients. If someone came seeking treatment later, what were they supposed to do?
Those people could not be reasoned with. When she imagined the consequences, despair spread across her face.
“It’s over. Everything is over.”
Her reaction terrified Liu Ye even more. She could not give up now. What would happen to him if she did?
Just then, the bell on the doctor’s desk suddenly rang.
The nurse immediately grew frightened.
“What do we do… What do we do… What…”
Seeing her panic, Liu Ye looked around. Finally, he slipped the doctor’s employee badge over his own neck.
“What are you doing?”
“Pretending to be the doctor. I know a little medicine. I picked up a few tricks from the doctor in our village.”
Liu Ye pulled on the white coat as he spoke.
“Can you actually do this?”
“Whether I can or not, this is what we’ve got. Do you have a better idea? Besides, you’ll still be here. You can give me pointers if I need them.”
He finished buttoning the coat. Surprisingly, it fit him perfectly, almost as if it had been tailored for him.
Together, they carried the doctor into the bathroom. They had barely stepped back out when the door opened and a man entered with three knives embedded in his skull.
“Doctor, I need treatment.”
Liu Ye stared at him.
Yes, he could see that.
“Sit down.”
Liu Ye appeared perfectly calm. Brother Guiwa had taught him that the bigger the occasion, the less he could afford to panic. He must never let the other party spot his weakness.
Liu Ye tugged at the nurse’s clothes and whispered, “What am I supposed to ask him?”
“Start by asking what’s wrong with him,” the nurse whispered back.
Liu Ye fell silent.
Did that really need asking?
Still, if the nurse said to ask, then he would ask.
“So… what’s wrong with you?”
“My head hurts,” the man replied faintly.
Liu Ye looked at the three knives protruding from his skull. Good grief. How could it not hurt?
“How… how long has this been going on?”
“More than ten days, I think.”
Liu Ye stared at him.
The man had walked around for more than ten days with three knives sticking out of his head, and only now had he thought to see a doctor. He certainly knew how to take things in stride.
“Then how did this happen?”
The man was silent for a moment before slowly asking, “Doctor, have you ever been bullied?”
“Of course. I was a very honest child, and Brother Guiwa used to play tricks on me all the time.”
Nostalgia appeared on Liu Ye’s face. Those childhood friends of his had truly been terrible. They were always abandoning him in the middle of their games. Honestly…
“Doctor, that’s not the kind of bullying I mean…”
The man spoke slowly.
“Doctor, I was an ordinary Office Worker…”