Bone-Attached Disaster - Chapter 45:

Chapter 45: The Truth

Fu Jia’an’s surgery began at 5 AM on Sunday and lasted 15 hours, finally concluding around 8 PM. Lu Jie was anxiously waiting downstairs at the hospital. Before he even received a message from Fu Jia’an, a trending topic popped up on his phone: Zhan Qionglou’s surgery was successful, but he has not yet woken up.

Clicking on the news, Lu Jie saw that although the topic’s heat hadn’t fully peaked, it already had two to three hundred comments in a matter of seconds.

This headline makes it sound like some famous bigshot. I searched, and it’s a murderer. Is this necessary to be trending? What a waste of time.

The person upstairs must not have been online recently, right? Go find out how cruel his murder methods were and how innocent the victims were, and look at the progress of his second trial. Do you still think it has nothing to do with you? The situation now is that Zhan Qionglou might not be sentenced to death. If he gets out after serving his sentence and commits more crimes, this doctor is an accomplice to a murderer. He saved the murderer’s life, understand?

Can you still tell right from wrong? A doctor shouldn’t save a patient? Did he have a choice?

I heard that half of the cost for this major surgery on Zhan Qionglou was paid by the detention center because he has no family… no one to pay… but they can’t just let him die without care.

I’m speechless. How many patients are waiting in line who can’t get help, yet medical resources are being given to a person like this!

Insider news: the doctor who performed the surgery on the Demon Head Zhan is at the Second Municipal Hospital, surname Fu. There’s only one Dr. Fu in neurosurgery at the Second Municipal Hospital, who was also in the news before. Search for him, and you’ll know. My friend is a doctor at the Second Municipal Hospital. He told me that Dr. Fu proactively expressed the desire to treat the Demon Head Zhan.

He’s just a glory hound who takes any patient for fame. Now he can certainly be considered the number one famous doctor at the Second Municipal Hospital.

Medical student here. You’ll understand how complex this surgery is if you click this link: xxxxx. Why would anyone be naive enough to think this Dr. Fu’s career would be affected after incurring public outrage? It’s not like running a restaurant, where you have to close down if your reputation is ruined. On the contrary, after this, all those rich patients will be scrambling to get an appointment with Dr. Fu. His career is on a rocket ship now.

….

What is all this? How did the discussion become so skewed? Lu Jie usually wasn’t someone who paid attention to public opinion online, but this time he was truly enlightened. If people want to criticize you, they will find a reason to blame you no matter how convoluted the logic is.

Someone who didn’t know better might think Fu Jia’an was the murderer. Is the world this awful because the doctor didn’t perform a moral screening before treating the patient?

Although he knew this displaced anger wouldn’t have a substantial impact on Fu Jia’an, and might even be what Fu Jia’an desired, Lu Jie grew increasingly angry as he read. But there was nothing he could do but watch as comments filled with twisted reasoning were liked to increasingly prominent positions.

When the car door opened, Lu Jie was furious. Fu Jia’an hadn’t changed out of his white coat, likely having come straight downstairs to find him after the surgery was completed.

Based on Fu Jia’an’s expression, he probably didn’t know what was happening in the outside world. Although Lu Jie felt frustrated, looking at it from another perspective, as long as Fu Jia’an didn’t look at the news, those malicious comments wouldn’t hurt him.

“Why do you look so worried? Did something happen?” Fu Jia’an had a slight smile on his face as he sat down, buckling his seatbelt while talking to Lu Jie in a relaxed tone.

Lu Jie shook his head. “Nothing. How long will you be home to rest this time?”

“Let me think, at least three days.”

The car started, and as it drove out of the entrance, they could still see some reporters with cameras staking out the hospital gate.

“Really?” Lu Jie tried hard to sound calm. “You were so busy before, I thought it would be difficult for you to take time off.”

Fu Jia’an said, “As soon as I came out of the operating room, Director Jin came to express his concern, saying I’ve worked hard recently and should rest well this time at home. He loves to set a trap for people and then play the good guy.”

Lu Jie made up his mind: as soon as they got home, he would persuade Fu Jia’an not to look at his phone for the next few days. Worst case, he’d take time off to stay with him. Although he didn’t think Fu Jia’an would be so vulnerable as to be defeated by external criticism, Lu Jie simply didn’t want him to see it.

Closing the front door, and before even turning on the lights, Lu Jie couldn’t help but give Fu Jia’an a hug. He buried his head by Fu Jia’an’s ear, catching a whiff of hospital disinfectant. Fu Jia’an leaned into Lu Jie’s broad embrace and said something, his voice muffled. The friction of his breath against Lu Jie’s clothes made Lu Jie feel numb in his chest.

Lu Jie slightly loosened his embrace. Fu Jia’an’s eyes were exposed, like a quiet lake in the night, with moonlight flowing in them, revealing a candid desire.

This time, Lu Jie heard the words clearly: “I missed you so much. Just a hug isn’t enough…”

Lu Jie lowered his head to kiss Fu Jia’an, kissing him very lightly and softly, unlike the last time when they kissed as if fighting, biting till there was a bloody taste. This time, he kissed him dearly, lingeringly, as if unwilling to press any more weight onto the other person.

For some reason, neither of them closed their eyes this time. They looked earnestly at each other’s face in the gradually clearing night. The entire apartment was too quiet; only the sound of kissing could be heard. The sound was very similar to Fu Jia’an sucking on a lollipop, a little wet, with a slight clink of teeth, slow and deep, reaching the height of intimacy.

When the kiss ended, it was more exhausting than a fight. Lu Jie’s breathing was heavier. As he tried to pull away, Fu Jia’an chased him and kissed him again, his hands being somewhat mischievous. Lu Jie felt his waist being encircled and a weighty object placed in his pocket.

“…You,” Lu Jie switched on the wall lamp by the door and was surprised to see the brick-like object in his hand. “Are you leaving your phone with me?”

“Mhm. For the next three days, I won’t look at anything. I already told my brother that if there’s any news I absolutely must know, he should call you.”

“I was going to try and persuade you, but I didn’t expect you to think the same way,” Lu Jie was genuinely relieved. “Are you hungry now? What do you want to eat?”

“I don’t really want dinner, but as for other things…” Fu Jia’an hugged Lu Jie from the side and whispered in his ear, “What do you think?”

That rush of hot air tickled Lu Jie, a sensation that seemed to travel along his nerve lines to his heart. Fu Jia’an let go, smiling. “Then I’ll go take a shower first.”

“Okay.”

Lu Jie took a shower in his own room, too. After rinsing off the soap, he brushed his teeth in front of the full-length mirror. Droplets of water ran down his hair, gathering in a shallow pool at Lu Jie’s collarbone before flowing down his well-developed muscles.

Mhm, the abs are still there…

Regarding what to do next, Lu Jie had actually looked into it. He had no prejudice against any knowledge, and besides, biomedicine and human anatomy aren’t easily separated. Moreover… he was thirty; the information he had inadvertently overheard was enough for him to deduce the specifics.

He might have to take the initiative then. Of course, Lu Jie didn’t want Fu Jia’an to be in too much pain. He would be patient and take it slowly.

After drying his hair, Lu Jie put on a simple white T-shirt and loose grey sweatpants. He lay on the bed for a while, feeling he could use the time to search for some experience tips, but before he could open his phone, there was a knock on the door.

“Lu Jie.”

As he opened the door, Lu Jie could hear his own deafening heartbeat. “Um, do you want to come in?”

Fu Jia’an didn’t come in. Instead, he took Lu Jie’s arm. “Come on, let’s go to the study.”

“Huh?”

Lu Jie first thought of the study being full of books… but the next second, he realized Fu Jia’an had something he wanted to talk about.

The study had a desktop computer, which Lu Jie usually used to read textual documents at home. Fu Jia’an asked him to turn it on and then entered his email account on the web page.

Lu Jie saw over a dozen emails from the same sender, whose name was “Qing.”

Fu Jia’an slightly tilted the screen toward Lu Jie. “You asked me to tell you everything about Zhan Qionglou. The most important secret about this case wasn’t convenient to talk about before. First, there wasn’t time for details. Second, if the surgery had failed today, the secret would have lost its meaning. So what I’m about to tell you now is something you cannot share with anyone once we leave this room.”

Lu Jie nodded, his expression instantly becoming serious.

It turned out that last week, on the first day Zhan Qionglou was admitted to the hospital, Fu Jia’an received an email from “Qing.” The email’s IP address was unknown, and the content was highly encrypted.

Fu Jia’an spent a few hours decrypting the message, which contained only a few words: Zhan Qionglou is innocent.

Lu Jie asked, “How can you be sure this isn’t a prank?”

“I can’t be sure, but if Zhan Qionglou is truly innocent, this will cause an even bigger sensation. So I replied to the email.”

Fu Jia’an replied to the email using “Qing’s” encryption method, stating his identity in the message. He initially worried that the other party would waste time with back-and-forth probing, but “Qing” sent a lengthy narrative in the second email, still highly encrypted.

She said she was Zhan Qionglou’s younger sister, Zhan Qingluan. She is currently abroad, and her specific location cannot be disclosed. She claimed Zhan Qionglou never killed anyone but actively agreed to take the fall for someone else, so all the evidence was erased.

“Then who is the real killer?”

“The second son of the Han Group, Han Qirun,” Fu Jia’an said. “In fact, Han Qirun had an argument with two other rich kids at a party. Late that night, after the party ended, Han Qirun killed both drunk men in an alleyway, outside the view of surveillance. It was a crime of passion.”

Lu Jie asked, “But why would they choose Zhan Qionglou? They couldn’t just randomly pick a poor boy who would agree to it… Is it because Zhan Qionglou has a terminal illness?”

Fu Jia’an nodded. “And Zhan Qionglou met another condition: he had a previous dispute with the two victims. Before the party started that night, Zhan Qionglou brought two thugs to the area to collect a debt and crossed paths with the rich kids, leading to a minor verbal altercation.”

“But how did Zhan Qingluan, who is far abroad, know all this?”

Fu Jia’an explained, “She and her boyfriend abroad worked together to hack into the investigating prosecutor’s computer.”

“That means the prosecutor knows the entire truth,” Lu Jie let out a sarcastic laugh. It wasn’t hard to imagine how powerful the Han Group was to be able to solidify a criminal case with so many loopholes. “What is Zhan Qingluan’s purpose in contacting you? To ask for your help? That’s a huge gamble.”

“All public security and judicial personnel she could reach were bought off. Finding me was her only opportunity. She managed to gather some money and said she would give me a generous reward if I could help. Furthermore, what she asked for wasn’t difficult or very risky. She just wanted me to contact Zhan Qionglou. Zhan Qionglou wants to die, and Zhan Qingluan wanted me to persuade him to accept treatment,” Fu Jia’an said. “And I replied that I would help, with no reward.”

“But how did Zhan Qionglou and his sister completely lose contact? And logically, if the Han Group wanted to cover up the crime, they should have been rigorous enough to monitor his sister, right?”

“Zhan Qionglou’s sister went abroad at age 15. She’s been studying and working part-time to earn money abroad, and her contact with her brother was indeed minimal. One day, she suddenly received 500,000 USD in her account, which Zhan Qionglou had wired. Actually, if she had used that account even once, the Han Group could have located Zhan Qingluan. But Zhan Qingluan is very frugal and only uses the money she saved herself. She never used the card her brother wired money to.”

“And then Zhan Qionglou was imprisoned.”

“Exactly. That’s why Zhan Qingluan went to great lengths to contact me. She can’t return to the country; coming back would only hinder her brother. She can only find someone to relay messages for her while ensuring her own safety.”

“Just to persuade Zhan Qionglou to get the surgery? While he still carries the name of a murderer? That doesn’t make much sense.”

Fu Jia’an said, “So, Zhan Qingluan’s true goal is to overturn the case.”