The Brain Science Case 128

Chapter 128: The Collapsing Tower – 9

The hour-long press conference came to a perfect end. Sitting in his office, the director, recalling the content, couldn’t help but smile.

The expansion plan had been finalized, and as long as it went smoothly, the medical standards of the municipal hospital would not only be the top in Taiwan, but also in Asia… no, the world. And with fame would surely come crowds, and “money.”

But the proud smile did not last long, for he immediately remembered what Yan Ruiyang had said before he had left—

‘You’ve taken the money, and you’ve enjoyed the spotlight. Don’t forget what you have to do.’

Needless to say, he was referring to Yan Kaiwei’s heart surgery.

Taking a deep breath, he called Cui Jinlong.

In less than five minutes, Cui Jinlong hurried over. “You were looking for me, Director?”

“Yes,” he pointed to another glass of whiskey on the table, “drink.”

“Uh, it’s still working hours. I have a surgery to observe later. If I drink now, I’m afraid…”

“I told you to drink.”

Cui Jinlong was taken aback and took it with trepidation.

He stood up and walked to the window. “Did you watch the live broadcast of the press conference just now?”

“I watched a little.” So the director is in a good mood. Cui Jinlong agreed with a small lie. “You looked very imposing in front of the camera, Director.”

“Is that so?” he adjusted his bow tie, “ahem, let’s not talk about this. How is Chairman Yan’s son’s condition?”

“Although we’ve inserted an ECG recorder, we haven’t been able to observe it yet…”

“Hm? So you haven’t found the problem yet?” This was not the answer he wanted to hear.

“That’s right.”

“You were already hesitant when I asked you yesterday when the surgery could be performed, and you’re still like this today?” The director frowned and walked closer. “The press conference has already been held. Although we’re very glorious now, we still have to be careful every step of the way, especially this step. We absolutely cannot make a mistake… he is Chairman Yan’s son.”

“I know, Director, I know.”

“Jinlong, in terms of surgical experience and ability, there’s probably no one in the hospital who can compare to you. Chairman Yan’s son’s surgery not only has to be successful, but it also has to be perfect.” The director stared at Cui Jinlong and put a hand on his shoulder. “You won’t make the same mistake as before, will you?”

Holding the whiskey, Cui Jinlong’s eyes widened, and he couldn’t help but think of the accident last year when he had been operating on a patient to remove cancer cells and had accidentally injured an abdominal blood vessel, which had caused a massive hemorrhage…

The right hand holding the wine glass began to tremble uncontrollably, and with a slight twitch of the facial nerves on his right face, he lowered his head and took another sip of wine.

“Jinlong?” the director noticed the unnatural trembling of his right hand, “what’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing. I’m just a little emotional.” He quickly put his right hand behind his back and drank the wine in his glass. “I know… this is too important for the hospital. I can’t make a mistake… I can’t make a mistake.”

“Last time, someone else took the fall for your mistake. I’m sure you must have felt bad.” Taking the wine bottle, the director poured him another half-glass. “As the saying goes, you get up where you fall, but for someone in your position, a fall is not just a fall on the ground, but a fall into a cliff. I was able to help you up last time, but if you fall again this time… even if I want to pull you up, it will probably be difficult.”

Cui Jinlong’s face was pale. “I know.”

“If it’s successful, the credit will all be yours.” He smiled and squeezed Cui Jinlong’s hand, which was holding the glass. “Don’t let me down.”

Looking at the amber liquid, Cui Jinlong gritted his teeth and drank it in one gulp.

**

“Wenyu, if you can hear me, squeeze my hand.”

Because of the intubation, Yao Wenyu could not speak, but Tang Zhichao clearly felt the pressure from his fingers, and he announced to Ye Manzhi with unconcealed joy, “He has indeed regained consciousness.”

“So you’re saying he can hear us?”

He nodded. “Although his motor or speech abilities will have to be accurately judged based on the follow-up situation, at least he’s awake now… that’s good news.”

Ye Manzhi hugged her son and cried with joy, and also said a lot to Yao Wenyu.

Even though the meeting time was already over, Tang Zhichao still gave them a little more time. When he left the ICU, Ye Manzhi hurriedly thanked him.

Yingli stood silently on the side. Ye Manzhi approached and handed back the handkerchief, saying with gratitude, “Thank you for your company, Miss Tang.”

Pushing up her glasses, she looked away. “Ah, it’s nothing. You should thank my brother.”

After Ye Manzhi had left with her son, Tang Zhichao approached. “So you do know how to comfort people,” he said, staring at the handkerchief.

“Comfort?” she shrugged, “to understand the facts, I just tried to make Mrs. Yao relax as much as possible. It’s not really comforting, is it?”

What an unfrank person. He chuckled, and then heard Yingli say, “I’m also free this afternoon. If you’re willing to continue our conversation from just now, I can prepare for my class while I wait for you to get off work.”

“That will be a long wait.” It was almost three in the afternoon.

“Don’t worry, the time I spend preparing for my class is no less than the time I spend investigating a case.”

So she’s determined to get the truth out of him. He had once again witnessed Yingli’s unique stubbornness. “Then alright. You wait for me. I’ll go home with you after work.”

“Have Mom and Dad been nagging me recently?” she crossed her arms.

“Mom often does. And,” he paused slightly and smiled at her, “didn’t you say you wanted to get your ring?”

“That was your wishful thinking, wasn’t it?” Yingli pursed her lips. “I don’t remember saying I wanted to be ‘Mrs. Tang’.”

“In any case,” he waved his hand and strode away, “see you in the evening.”

**

What Tang Zhichao had said about “a long time” was really a long time. When Yingli stepped into the house, the clock on the wall was already pointing to nine at night.

While she was preparing for her class at the hospital, she had also received a message from Fang Zijun. The main content was only one thing—Jinglin had gone to Zhou Zengxiang to have a showdown. I don’t know if she’s reckless or courageous.

‘Although the director was very surprised, he was not particularly unhappy, and only said that Jinglin had shown the pride and confidence of a detective.’

Before Yingli could even breathe a sigh of relief, he changed his tune. ‘But she also clearly stated that she would not give up on the investigation of Li Yuejiao’s case… what a headache.’

That’s Jinglin’s style. She could only say that.

And Yingli also took this opportunity to report on the situation she had investigated at the hospital. On the way home, Tang Zhichao had also finally revealed the information she wanted.

‘Li Yuejiao did indeed have surgery to remove the cancer cells, but in the middle of the surgery, the surgeon, for some reason, accidentally injured the diaphragm, which caused a massive hemorrhage. The assistant at that time was very inexperienced, and his condition was also not right, so they could only stop the bleeding and bandage it. After that, because she was in a hurry to be discharged, they only made another appointment for a follow-up, and the surgery could only be postponed.’

What about the stored blood?

‘I have heard of cases where the blood lost during surgery was used as stored blood, but that did not happen at that time… besides the anticoagulant, the blood sample collected by the Criminal Investigation Division should not have tested positive for any other contaminants, right?’

The liver is very close to the diaphragm, but if it were a very experienced and skilled surgeon, how could they have made such a mistake?

But to this, Tang Zhichao could not give a perfect explanation, and the doctor in question had not undergone any physical examination afterward.

‘In any case, someone has to take responsibility for such a surgical error. So…’ his grip on the steering wheel was very tight, ‘so they found Yao Wenyu, who was relatively junior in the hospital and did not belong to any faction.’

And just like that, Yao Wenyu became the scapegoat.

The name of the real attending physician?

‘Cui Jinlong.’ Tang Zhichao gritted his teeth and spat out the words, ‘the current head of surgery.’

With Tang Zhichao’s testimony, everything was clear. And she also understood that the stored blood was Li Yuejiao’s own and not from the surgery.

At this point, Yingli could already deduce a few key factors about Li Yuejiao’s motive—

One, Li Yuejiao’s condition was not optimistic, and perhaps it was worse than she had imagined, so she had changed her original plan and had become proactive.

Two, from the cases she had committed so far, most of the purpose was to strengthen her own organization and to collect evidence of crimes. Only the case against Zhou Zengxiang clearly exposed her intention of personal revenge.

The actual connection between Zhou Zengxiang and Li Yuejiao was still unclear unless the parties were willing to disclose it, but it was definitely not just “acquaintances.”

Three, because the plan had changed, including cooperating with Wu Jianxiong and faking her death, had all become options. The reason she had cooperated with a seemingly unreasonable person, and had even used her own daughter as an “eyewitness”… behind these plans, there must have been a main goal.

But what was it?

Was it just to uncover the dark secrets of the previous authoritarian rule? Or was it a large-scale revenge campaign brewed from a disagreement in ideals?

What kind of topic did she want to create? How wide was the scope of her intended revenge? Behind this seemingly unreasonable combination—a criminal organization of former secret agents and gangsters—what kind of ideal was it based on? What reason had brought these two groups together to act?

“Not enough.” Yingli threw down her pen and rubbed her temples. “I feel like… I’m missing the most crucial piece.” Staring at the various analyses written on the paper, she sighed, stood up, and got a bottle of sparkling mineral water.

The golden hamster, seeing its owner’s movement, quickly made a noise in its cage. Yingli noticed and couldn’t help but smile wryly. “I’m sorry, I forgot about you… you must be hungry.”

She sprinkled some food, drank her water, and returned to her seat. She was about to take out her phone to listen to the recording of her conversation with Tang Zhichao when her hand first touched something velvety.

Right, he had given it to her, the wedding ring.

‘It was originally for you.’

If it weren’t the truth, Tang Zhichao probably wouldn’t have been able to say that with such confidence. Or he had secretly learned how to lie.

The style of the ring was quite special, a twisted design of gold and platinum… but it looked a little old-fashioned, yet it was quite in line with his aesthetic.

It was a rare occasion to go home and see Shao Wanjuan and Tang Yuzhong today, and it was a rare occasion that they hadn’t mentioned anything about blind dates or marriage, but she didn’t dare to probe them… she still didn’t believe they would agree to Tang Zhichao’s absurd proposal to her.

Pressing the play button on the recording, Yingli carefully examined the ring in the light. There were no scratches, which meant the ring was not only new, but had even been picked up for the first time today, and there were no fingerprints.

She held out her left hand, and the ring rested on her fingertip, but she was hesitant to actually put it on.

‘What’s wrong with you and Officer Zhou?’ The beginning of the recording was still in the small talk stage, and Tang Zhichao had happened to ask about her relationship with Jinglin. ‘You two even came to see that little girl with the brain injury together before, but this time you’ve been here for two full days, and I haven’t seen her at all.’

‘Her…’

‘Did you have a fight?’

At that time, she had been silent for a while before she had said, ‘There was a little argument. I hid some things from her… oh, a lot of things.’

‘You’ve also hidden a lot of things from me and Mom and Dad. Like your diary and your recordings.’

‘That’s my privacy.’

‘Yes, privacy that doesn’t need to be shared with family. Yingli, do you know? The closer you are, the harder it is to grasp the line between honesty and concealment. What should be shared? And what shouldn’t be said? It’s not because you care a lot about a person and desperately want to be good to them that they will know. And it’s not that what you think is good is good. Other people also have the ability to think for themselves, don’t they?’

She had been silent, and Tang Zhichao had continued, ‘You study the brain and you also understand psychology. I think this is superfluous, but I still have to remind you—unless you say it, no one will know what’s on your mind.’

‘Ah, I know.’

‘The sentence that popped out of my mouth in the ICU just now was because I thought of something you had said in your diary a long time ago… didn’t you feel it? I’ve always been particularly concerned about you, this sister, only because I know you don’t like to be lonely… but you always use this method to hurt yourself.’

‘How is that hurting…’

‘Loneliness is a slow suicide,’ he had retorted, ‘you said so.’

She had been speechless again, and finally, she had deliberately changed the subject. ‘Let’s get to the point.’

‘Okay, okay. I just wanted to express that I really care about you, and I like you. Not just as family.’

‘You…’ she had almost wanted to speak up for Ren Liqiong, but had stopped herself at the last moment, ‘never mind. The first question, what on earth happened with Li Yuejiao’s surgery…’

She stared at the pinky ring, and then at the flawless, beautiful wedding ring.

With a sigh, she decisively put the ring back in its box.

**

The next morning, Yingli received a message from Tang Zhichao. As expected, Cui Jinlong had scheduled a catheter ablation for Yan Kaiwei today to cure his arrhythmia.

‘The estimated time is three in the afternoon. If the previous surgery finishes early, it will be moved up.’

She had a class at the university today, which ended at three. “For the municipal hospital, this is a surgery that cannot fail.”

‘You’re right. But the director has decided to trust Director Cui one more time.’

She secretly calculated the time. “I’ll be there as soon as my class is over.”

‘You’re coming to watch?’ he asked in a strange voice.

“Yes, you said yesterday that when he was operating on the cancer cells, that Director Cui made a serious mistake that a senior surgeon would never make, right?”

‘That’s right. Wait, you don’t think…’

“If he really had a medical malpractice because of his physical condition,” she stepped onto the stairs of the station, and her high heels made a light, pausing sound, “then isn’t Yan Kaiwei in danger? Who can guarantee that he won’t make a mistake he doesn’t want to make at a critical moment?”

Tang Zhichao was silent. “Senior, with your eyes, as long as you witness his condition at that time, you should be able to judge his illness, right?”

‘Maybe. Provided he really is sick.’

She frowned, feeling that Tang Zhichao was being particularly dismissive of Yan Kaiwei’s case.

Was it her imagination? “Can you personally observe this surgery?”

‘Probably not… I can’t talk anymore. I have to get ready for work.’

“Brother? Brother.” He hung up. Pressing her lips together, Yingli strode into the office.

She had come particularly early today, so for a very rare occasion, Zhou Jinglin’s seat was still empty.

‘The closer you are, the harder it is to grasp the line between honesty and concealment… other people also have the ability to think for themselves, don’t they?’

Remembering Tang Zhichao’s words from last night, Yingli looked at the paper in her hand, which was covered in writing, folded it neatly, and placed it under Jinglin’s work keyboard.