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Chapter 9
“When Mr. Lu was first brought here, you did a blood test. Did it reveal any drug use?”
At 9 o’clock in the morning, a silver Mercedes-Benz abruptly stopped by the side of the tree-lined road outside a private nursing home.
“There is still half an hour left.” Yang Mei turned her head and asked, “Should I accompany you while you wait?”
“No need. It’s just a follow-up appointment, and I’m not disabled.” Jiang Ting unfastened his seatbelt and got out of the car. “Go ahead and do your thing.”
Yang Mei quickly rolled down the car window. “Then wait for me to pick you up after you’re done!”
Jiang Ting walked into the gate of the nursing home without looking back, waving his hand from a distance.
Yang Mei sighed with a touch of disappointment, her carefully applied peach blossom makeup drooping. She reluctantly continued driving along the road.
—What she didn’t see was a black Bentley silently stopping at the spot where she had been just moments ago.
Yan Xie, sitting in the driver’s seat, extinguished his cigarette and watched her disappear into the traffic. Then his gaze shifted to the building of the nursing home across the road.
“Here you go—your light porridge and side dishes!”
The breakfast shop on the ground floor of the inpatient department wasn’t crowded. Jiang Ting sat in a corner, glanced at his watch, and opened the disposable wooden chopsticks.
In his early years, he worked day and night on cases, often going hungry or eating too much at once. As a result, his stomach suffered. When a person reaches a certain age, all the neglect from their youth comes back twofold. After experiencing severe hypoglycemia a few times, he no longer dared to neglect his meals. He forced himself to develop the habit of eating something in the morning.
His phone vibrated on the table—a message from Yang Mei: “Have you had breakfast?”
Jiang Ting replied with a simple “Yes” and tapped send. Just as he did, something caught his attention in the corner of his eye.
He looked up and saw someone’s gaze that didn’t have enough time to retract, colliding with his own for an instant.
It was a man in his forties, wearing a white short-sleeved T-shirt and a baseball cap. His muscular physique strained against the shirt, and the cap was pulled down low, obscuring his face from a distance. Their gazes only crossed for a brief moment before the man casually lowered his head and continued eating, flipping over the newspaper as if it had been an illusion.
Jiang Ting’s eyes flickered slightly, but his expression remained unchanged.
A few minutes later, he put down the half-drunk porridge and barely touched side dishes, paid the bill, and left.
“Before you lost consciousness, your muscle condition was quite good. Even after being bedridden for three years, it didn’t completely deteriorate. Have you experienced dizziness, back pain, or limb pain after leaving the hospital?”
In the examination room, Jiang Ting leaned on the white bed with his ten fingers naturally resting on his abdomen. “Sometimes I get muscle cramps if I walk for too long.”
The doctor nodded. “That’s normal. We need to continue following the recovery training plan we established earlier. We shouldn’t rush things.”
This expensive private nursing home didn’t have many patients to begin with, and there were even fewer people during this time before lunch. The examination was quickly completed, and the doctor prescribed some medication, instructing Jiang Ting to take it on time. They also scheduled the next follow-up appointment. Suddenly, Jiang Ting casually asked, “Has anyone come to visit me during these few days since I left the hospital?”
“Oh, there was indeed someone,” the doctor was reminded by Jiang Ting’s question. “Your relative passed by on a business trip and wanted to visit you. Unfortunately, you had already been discharged the day before. He even asked for your girlfriend’s contact information.”
Jiang Ting paused for a few seconds, then seemed slightly surprised. “Relative? What’s his name?”
The doctor was probably also thinking about how distant and unrelated this relative seemed, someone who hadn’t shown up for three years. He smiled and said, “He’s a man in his forties, quite strong—do go to the reception and ask the nurses, they should have his name. He said he’s your distant cousin. Do you remember him?”
“Is he over 1.8 meters tall and wearing a baseball cap?”
“Yes, yes! Is he really your cousin?”
Jiang Ting recalled the gaze from the breakfast shop earlier, his expression slightly darkened, but he neither confirmed nor denied it. “Did the nurse give him Yang Mei’s number?”
The doctor said, “No, how could she? Nobody knew who he was. Our nurse asked if he wanted to leave his contact information, but he didn’t give it and just left.”
Jiang Ting got off the examination bed, bent down to tie his shoelaces, and buttoned up his shirt one by one. He absentmindedly adjusted his collar.
As the doctor finished signing, he happened to look up. In the morning light, Jiang Ting stood by the window, his black hair contrasting with the snow-white on the sides of his face. His back formed a straight line flowing smoothly from his narrow waist to his slender legs, like a taut bowstring.
The doctor felt a hint of surprise.
Originally, they thought the patient in bed 538 was a countryside bumpkin living off someone else, but after recovering, their first encounter revealed that Jiang Ting’s manner of speaking and his physical demeanor were significantly different from the rumors in the hospital.
“If someone comes to see me again,” Jiang Ting said, “don’t acknowledge them and don’t ask for their name.”
The doctor finally couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer. “Um… Is he really your cousin?”
“No,” Jiang Ting rolled up his sleeves and said lightly, “he’s a creditor.”
The doctor: “…”
Jiang Ting finished the examination, bid farewell to the doctor who had a strange expression, and left with the results.
Most of the people who came to this nursing home were either comatose patients whose lives depended on machines or elderly patients who had difficulty walking. They would be pushed out into the corridors by the caregivers for a stroll when they had free time. Jiang Ting patiently waited for several elderly people in wheelchairs to pass by. Just as he saw the elevator doors closing ahead, he didn’t wait any longer and headed down the final flight of stairs in the middle of the corridor to the ground-floor lobby.
The building was bustling with noise, and nurses moved back and forth in the lobby while family members dealt with admissions and discharges. Jiang Ting turned the corner of the stairs, about to descend the last flight of stairs, when he suddenly stopped.
Across the entire lobby, near the wall close to the entrance, there was an advanced personal display case.
A tall and burly man, wearing a black baseball cap, stood with his back to Jiang Ting, staring intently at the glass display.
—In the reflection of the glass, Jiang Ting, who had just stopped on the stairs, suddenly stood still, then took a half step back.
The man turned his face, and it was the same person from the breakfast shop earlier.
Their gazes met again through the crowd, and it seemed that both of them understood something at the same time. The next second, Jiang Ting abruptly turned around and went straight upstairs, while the man followed closely behind!
Meanwhile, in the top-floor office of the hospital building.
The door was tightly closed, and there were only two people inside the spacious suite. Besides the slight sound of flipping through medical records, their breathing was clearly audible.
“…” The hospital director unknowingly stretched his neck, examining the police badge on the coffee table and stealing glances at the police captain sitting across from him, who looked more like a handsome and wealthy playboy than a police officer. The director’s mind was filled with doubts.
Was being a police officer really that profitable nowadays? Could he really wear such attire in the office?
Or was he being deceived? Was this guy not a detective at all but someone from a small TV station filming a reality show?
“Ahem!” Yan Xie cleared his throat.
The hospital director immediately retracted his neck and put on a gracious and friendly smile.
Yan Xie pointed to the medical record and asked, “It says here that the patient suffered a severe head injury due to a violent impact. How can you be sure it was a car accident and not an explosion?”
The hospital director smiled, seemingly saying, “Don’t tease me like that.” He replied, “Look, a car accident and an explosion can’t be the same thing, right? We doctors would never make a mistake like that.”
“What about the burns?”
“Well,” the hospital director pondered for a moment, “Mr. Lu, when he was transferred to us by his girlfriend, was already in a minimally conscious state. He was just one step away from being in a true vegetative state. Although we admitted Mr. Lu, his condition was indeed very poor. In addition to the severe head injury from the car accident, he had many other injuries. Relative to those, the burns on his limbs had already been carefully treated before he was transferred to our hospital, so they had recovered quite well.”
Yan Xie asked, “What were the other injuries?”
“There were quite a few: various infections, malnutrition, dislocation and misalignment in the left elbow that hadn’t been properly set, skin ulcers and damage to tendons and nerves in the right wrist, and large abrasions all over the body. These injuries occurred before the car accident. It took about six months of care for them to gradually improve.”
Yan Xie fell into deep thought, his expression devoid of emotion. Then he suddenly asked, “Most injuries to tendons and nerves in the wrist are usually caused by cuts, right?”
“Yes, that’s correct. But Mr. Lu…”
“What is it?”
The hospital director hesitated, then finally answered, “It looks like his injuries were caused by someone’s teeth.”
Yan Xie’s hand holding the medical record trembled slightly.
The hospital director chuckled, “So at the time, we speculated that this patient had just escaped from a pyramid scheme organization and was driving fast on the road. Otherwise, how could the impact be so severe?”
“Why didn’t you report it to the police?”
“Oh, come on,” the hospital director smiled, “we’re a private nursing home. We have a reputation for protecting patient privacy and respecting the wishes of family members. We follow a high-end market route.” He rubbed his hands nervously and lowered his voice with a smile. “It’s not that we don’t actively cooperate with your police work, but Yang Miss refused to report the incident and didn’t want anyone to know, so she transferred him to our hospital. The private nursing home business is highly competitive, and we also consider our reputation…”
Yan Xie interrupted him. “What is the relationship between Yang Mei and Jiang… Lu Chengjiang?”
“They’re boyfriend and girlfriend,” the hospital director said. “Honestly, we thought it was true love. After all, Miss Yang has such good conditions, and she’s also good at maintaining appearances. Generally, we don’t allow our staff to gossip about clients’ private matters, but after Mr. Lu woke up, he did seem a bit strange.”
“Oh?” Yan Xie murmured, “Strange?”
The hospital director hesitated for a few seconds and smiled, “It’s just that… it looks like Miss Yang is more involved with her boyfriend than usual.”
Yan Xie didn’t respond, but he let out a nearly silent chuckle through his nose.
It was clear that Yang Mei wasn’t an entirely honest “presentable person.” She might not have committed any crimes, but she definitely operated in the gray area. She must have relied on Jiang Ting to smooth things over for her in the cases in Gongzhou and Jianning. And considering Jiang Ting’s qualifications and achievements, he was a strong contender for the next captain of the Anti-Drug Division of the Gongzhou Public Security Bureau.
At that time, it was a miracle for Yang Mei to be able to latch onto Jiang Ting’s thigh.
The hospital director couldn’t figure out the meaning behind Yan Xie’s chuckle and cautiously observed him. “Um… Captain Yan, is there anything else? We will fully cooperate, speak the truth, and hold nothing back…”
However, Yan Xie waved his hand, returned the medical record to him, and stood up.
The hospital director immediately stood up to see him off, just about to say a few polite words when Yan Xie suddenly said, “One last question.”
“Uh, yes, go ahead.”
But the next sentence from Yan Xie left the hospital director dumbfounded. He heard Yan Xie ask slowly,”When Mr. Lu was first brought here, you did a blood test. Did it reveal any drug use?”
The author has something to say:
Yan Yin walked out of the Criminal Investigation Brigade office, gripping his gun tightly. Coming towards him was a handsome man, impeccably dressed, with only the stub of a cigarette left in his hand. It seemed like he had been waiting for a while, and as soon as he saw Yan Yin, he approached him eagerly, saying, “Brother, wait a moment! Please listen to the words of a senior first!”
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