Chapter 250: The Seventh Doctor
“Then how is your family doing?” Professor Lin probed cautiously.
“My eldest brother is dead,” Xu Huo said coldly. “Died from a gunshot. But right now, I can’t really tell what’s real and what’s fake. In my memory, he was killed by someone else, but memories can be wrong. Just like how all of you remember the Seventeenth Hospital, yet there’s no record of it anywhere.”
“Maybe the person who killed my brother in my memory is fictional.”
Professor Lin’s expression gradually stiffened, and finally tears flowed. He choked out, “Ordinary people might confuse imagination and reality, but you’re not an ordinary person…”
Xu Huo stared at him for a long moment before asking again, “Which doctor was it who received me when I was brought to the hospital?”
Professor Lin quickly pointed to the female doctor standing on his left in the photo. “Her son came to see me a couple of years ago, but her condition isn’t good.”
He glanced cautiously at Xu Huo as he spoke. “She has Alzheimer’s. Occasionally, she suddenly mentions things from when she worked at the hospital, which is why her son came to see me.”
Xu Huo’s face darkened as he remained silent. Professor Lin wrote down the address. “This is all I can do.”
“Thank you,” Xu Huo said, taking the address and preparing to leave. Just then, the old lady walked out of the kitchen. “Eat before you go.”
Professor Lin quickly shot her a look, but she glared back at him. “What’s wrong with you? How can you let the child leave without eating?”
Xu Huo turned back, and Professor Lin immediately put on a full smile. “Right, right, stay for a simple meal.”
So Xu Huo stayed.
The elderly couple’s financial situation was poor. They had bought cheap, filling food with no meat or fish.
“Eat more,” the old lady said kindly, putting food into Xu Huo’s bowl. “Our home isn’t well-off, so just make do. I still have a little private savings; you can take it to buy food.”
Xu Huo looked at Professor Lin, who smiled bitterly. “When you get old, it’s easy to be deceived. The loan shark debt isn’t ours. My wife was tricked out of her identification documents…”
So anything in the house that could be sold had been taken, and even now, debt collectors would show up from time to time.
“Slap, slap, slap!” As they spoke, someone pounded on the door. “Professor Lin, please open the door!”
The old lady grabbed her bowl and stood up. “Those little bastards, I’ll smash them to death!”
Professor Lin quickly stopped her. “Don’t throw it, don’t throw it! That costs five bucks each! Just pretend we’re not home!”
The last sentence was directed at Xu Huo, but Xu Huo had already opened the door. The few young men standing outside still had their hands raised. They paused for a moment. “Are you a relative of Professor Lin?”
“He’s not,” Professor Lin said quickly. “You all need to leave. There’s really nothing valuable left in my house. Go find Zhang Dong. The money was borrowed by him; it has nothing to do with us.”
The young man with dyed yellow hair said helplessly, “Professor Lin, you know our situation. If we could find Zhang Dong, we wouldn’t be coming to you. How about you tell us where he’s gone?”
“We don’t know!” the old lady got agitated. “Go call the police! Have them arrest him!”
“Old lady, look at what you’re saying. How can ordinary citizens just casually bother the police officers? Let’s stick to the old routine. We’ll wait here, you make the call, and we’ll be gone in two hours. Don’t get worked up, alright?” The yellow-haired young man tried to push past Xu Huo to get inside.
Xu Huo grabbed his shoulder. The young man yelped and dropped to his knees. The two men outside immediately threw punches, but Xu Huo slapped them aside and gave each one a smack across the face, sending them stumbling inside as well.
“Chasing debts without going after the actual debtor, but instead harassing two elderly people. Do you have nothing better to do?” Xu Huo sat down on a low stool. The three young men crouched with their heads down in front of him. The yellow-haired one said, “We didn’t mean to harass Professor Lin. Brother Jie went to look for Zhang Dong. We were just trying our luck here. The old lady had previously acknowledged Zhang Dong as her godson, and the loan was taken out using her documents!”
“Things aren’t exactly peaceful outside either. Running around looking for people over a mere two hundred thousand, aren’t you afraid of stirring up trouble?” Xu Huo glanced at the photocopied IOU. “Brother Jie, he used to run errands around the old Longxing underground market, right?”
The yellow-haired one cautiously lifted his head. “Big brother, do you know our Brother Jie?”
“We’ve dealt with each other before. Pretty good relationship,” Xu Huo said after a moment’s thought. “He even sent me a gift for New Year’s.”
The three young men’s faces lit up upon hearing this. The yellow-haired one quickly said, “So you’re a friend of Brother Jie! Then we won’t hide it from you. It’s actually because Zhang Dong robbed two bars and ran off. We heard he became an Evolver, and we couldn’t catch him, so we’ve been out looking everywhere.”
“Can you handle an Evolver?” Xu Huo took a photo of Zhang Dong and his ID information. “Alright, you can leave now. Don’t come back.”
The yellow-haired one wanted to say something more, but meeting Xu Huo’s icy gaze, he swallowed his words and led his two companions away.
“This won’t cause you any trouble, will it?” Professor Lin asked nervously. “Actually, those young men haven’t done anything too extreme. The things in the house were all taken before they came.”
“Find a new place to live,” Xu Huo said. “The government’s regulatory measures for Evolvers aren’t fully in place yet. Living in a mixed area like this isn’t safe.”
He took out a card. “There’s a few tens of thousands in here. I’ll leave you my phone number. Send me your address after you move. I might need to trouble you again in the future.”
Professor Lin was both grateful and afraid. Stammering, he said, “I really can’t help you with anything anymore…”
“Just stay alive,” Xu Huo said, and left Red Star District. Following the address Professor Lin had given him, he went to a sanatorium on the outskirts.
The female doctor’s son worked at this sanatorium. After explaining his purpose, the son took Xu Huo to where the female doctor was resting.
“My mother doesn’t really recognize people anymore,” Liao Xu said. “She used to mention the Seventeenth Hospital to me, but very rarely. I don’t know much either.”
“Everything she brought out when she was dismissed from the hospital was burned.”
“Burned?” Xu Huo looked at the old woman sitting by the bed, covered with a blanket. Her eyes were fixed ahead, but there was no content in her gaze.
“She burned it herself,” Liao Xu said. “I remember she was very angry back then. After her outburst, she burned everything she had brought out.”
“Do you know if your mother had a lover at the Seventeenth Hospital?” Xu Huo asked.
Liao Xu was taken aback. “My parents divorced a long time ago, but she never mentioned remarrying or anyone she was involved with over the years. However, she seemed relatively happy while working at the Seventeenth Hospital.”
“Did she never mention any other colleagues?” Xu Huo pressed.
“Occasionally. She complained about a female coworker being difficult to get along with,” Liao Xu thought carefully. “I can’t remember much else.”
Xu Huo walked over to the female doctor, bent down, and looked at her. “How many doctors were there at the Seventeenth Hospital?”