Chapter 176: Like Two People Pieced Together

Chapter 176 -175: Like Two People Pieced Together

At nearly five in the morning, Binhai was still shrouded in the dim light of dawn.

Carrying his briefcase, Qi Yue walked out of the apartment building and saw the electric Cayenne parked out front.

Standing in front of the car were Yu Zhiming and Qiao Lei.

The next moment, Qi Yue couldn’t help but smile as he watched Yu Zhiming pull open the car door with a fawning eagerness.

“You two don’t have to put on a show like this. Next time, just wait for me in the car.”

Feeling quite pleased, Qi Yue said this as he got into the back seat of the Cayenne and casually fastened his seatbelt…

After the car left the residential complex and merged smoothly onto the main road, Qi Yue saw Yu Zhiming reach into the back and pull out a rather large, multi-layered thermal lunch box.

Then, a container of steaming hot dumplings was passed to Qi Yue.

“Teacher Qi, would you like some?”

Having woken up so early, Qi Yue didn’t have much of an appetite and had planned to just make do with the airline meal to tide him over.

But the unique, savory aroma of the dumplings made his mouth water, and a wave of hunger washed over him.

He took the dumplings and chopsticks.

“Zhiming, your sister really dotes on you, waking up in the middle of the night to prepare food for you.”

Yu Zhiming smiled happily but didn’t explain.

His Fourth Sister had cooked these dumplings for him.

However, the seaweed, egg drop, and dried shrimp soup that went with them was made by a constantly yawning Gu Qingning.

Qi Yue ate a dumpling and complained, “My wife didn’t even wake up. She was sleeping like a log.”

“Mm, pork and scallion filling. Not bad, very fragrant.”

“Hey, Zhiming, these taste a little different from last time. The flavor is noticeably lighter.”

Yu Zhiming swallowed the food in his mouth and explained, “My third sister made these dumplings.”

“She came to Binhai with Dean Wu and just went back yesterday.”

Qi Yue grunted in understanding, then said glumly, “Zhiming, please tell Dean Wu that from now on, if he’s sending food and drinks, he can just send them to your place.”

“He shouldn’t send them directly to my house anymore.”

Suppressing a laugh, Yu Zhiming asked, “Did your wife confiscate it all?”

Qi Yue sighed softly. “She said she’s getting some flab on her stomach and wants to lose weight, so she’s making me eat healthy, nutritious meals with her.”

He lamented, “This is the misery of marrying a wife who has a great figure and is constantly watching it.”

Qiao Lei, who was driving, couldn’t help but chime in, “Director, it’s rare to have the best of both worlds. I can’t imagine how many people are filled with envy, jealousy, and hate for you.”

“If I could marry a beautiful wife with a great figure, I’d be happy to eat leaves every day.”

“Just focus on your driving. Don’t go hitting any more dogs or cats.”

Qi Yue chided him before taking the disposable cup of seaweed soup from Yu Zhiming and taking a sip.

“About that child… any thoughts?”

Yu Zhiming shook his head and answered honestly, “Teacher Qi, based on the case files alone, I really can’t see anything.”

Qi Yue said slowly, “The fact that so many medical experts couldn’t find anything indicates one thing…”

“Either there’s truly nothing wrong with the child, or the problem is extremely well-hidden, or rare.”

He ate two more dumplings in succession and took another sip of soup.

“Zhiming, the reason I dared to accept the father’s request, my source of confidence, is your diagnostic art—your ability to perceive the bigger picture from the smallest details.”

“I’m not so arrogant as to think I alone am better than all those medical experts who have already tried and failed.”

Yu Zhiming said in an exaggerated tone, “Teacher Qi, now that you put it that way, I’m suddenly feeling a lot of pressure.”

Qi Yue laughed heartily. “Don’t put pressure on yourself. Just treat it as a routine physical examination for the child.”

“If you find a problem, great.”

“If you don’t find a problem, that in itself is a discovery.”

“As doctors, we must be pragmatic. If you know something, you know it. If you’re not sure, say you’re not sure.”

“The worst thing is to spout nonsense just to save face or show off, misleading the patient and others.”

Qi Yue instructed in a solemn voice, “Zhiming, we must have the courage to admit our own ignorance and incompetence. We cannot gamble with a patient’s health and life.”

Yu Zhiming nodded emphatically. Just as he was about to voice his agreement, he heard Qi Yue add another sentence.

“Unless, of course, the situation is urgent and there are no other options.”

Qi Yue glanced at the stunned Yu Zhiming and explained further, “When it really comes down to a life-or-death gamble with no other choice, we cannot back down.”

“As professionals, if we take action, the chances of success will be at least somewhat higher than just letting nature take its course and leaving everything to fate.”

Yu Zhiming let out a sound of understanding, as if he’d had a revelation…

At 6:20 AM, the plane carrying Qi Yue and Yu Zhiming took off smoothly from Binhai International Airport.

This was Yu Zhiming’s first time on an airplane.

To prevent any issues with the noise, he had put on not only noise-canceling earplugs but also noise-canceling earmuffs.

As it turned out, his precautions were justified.

He personally felt that the noise on the plane was significantly louder and more piercing than on a train.

But with his ears so heavily protected, he was unable to communicate with Teacher Qi, who was sitting next to him.

So, one of them read a book while the other closed his eyes to rest.

The nearly one-and-a-half-hour flight passed quickly as Yu Zhiming read his book.

At 8:20 AM, having arrived in the Capital City, the two of them boarded a Mercedes luxury van that had come to pick them up and quickly left Beijing Capital International Airport.

The van’s interior was luxurious and the seats were exceptionally comfortable, but Yu Zhiming was more interested in the child’s father, who had come to greet them personally.

This Mr. Ge Yunlun had a square-jawed face and looked to be about thirty-seven or thirty-eight. Although his slicked-back hair was meticulous, it couldn’t hide the exhaustion on his face.

Qi Yue was still annoyed that this man had hidden his true intentions, so he responded to his enthusiasm with cool indifference.

Ge Yunlun didn’t press the issue. After a few words of greeting to Qi Yue, he proactively started a conversation with Yu Zhiming.

They talked mostly about the child.

Through their conversation, Yu Zhiming finally understood why the father had been in such a hurry to contact them again.

The child’s condition was truly not optimistic.

Although the child was living at home, it was in a room that had been specially modified to be like a sterile hospital ward.

Since returning to the Capital City from Binhai, the child hadn’t been able to get out of bed and was eating very little each day.

If not for the nutritional IV drips sustaining him, he probably wouldn’t have lasted this long.

Ge Yunlun said with a bitter expression, “Dr. Qi, Dr. Yu, to be honest with you, more than one expert has said that in the child’s current state, he wouldn’t even be able to withstand a minor illness like a cold or a fever.”

“You are my child’s last hope.”

As he said this, the rims of Ge Yunlun’s eyes turned red.

Seeing this, Qi Yue, himself a father of six, finally let go of his dissatisfaction with Ge Yunlun.

“Mr. Ge, we will certainly do our best…”

Nearly forty minutes later, the Mercedes van stopped in front of a villa that occupied three to four hundred square meters.

After getting out of the van, Qi Yue and Yu Zhiming exchanged a few brief pleasantries with Ge Yunlun’s family, who had come out to greet them, then entered the villa and headed straight for the child’s room.

Getting into the child’s room was not easy.

After washing their faces and hands, undergoing a full-body air shower for decontamination, and being disinfected, the two of them put on sealed sterile suits before they were allowed to enter.

On an enormous bed in the room, the small child seemed to float, as if he had no weight at all.

His small face was truly only the size of a palm, so pale it was almost colorless.

Only his large eyes, which tracked their movements, gave Yu Zhiming any sense that he was truly alive.

‘Like a candle in the wind,’

Yu Zhiming sighed to himself. Making his voice as gentle as possible, he said to the boy, “We are doctors from Binhai, and we’re here to give you a physical examination.”

The child didn’t speak, but simply blinked his eyes.

A woman in her thirties standing by the bed explained, “That means the Young Master agrees.”

“Doctors, you may begin…”

At Yu Zhiming’s instruction, the thin blanket covering the child was lifted, revealing an emaciated, skeletal body.

Seeing this frail frame, Yu Zhiming subconsciously lightened the force of his taps, afraid he might actually break the boy.

Yu Zhiming began to perform a full-body examination on the child, starting with the head, then the neck…

The chest and abdomen…

The arms…

The legs and feet…

After completing one such pass, Yu Zhiming’s next actions puzzled Qi Yue.

He saw Yu Zhiming repeatedly feeling the child’s arms and thighs, rather than the organs in his chest and abdomen.

‘He’s found something,’ Qi Yue realized.

“Zhiming, what did you find?”

Yu Zhiming said, perplexed, “Teacher Qi, the child’s organ functions are extremely weak, but I haven’t found any problems worth noting.”

“But… but…”

“But what?” Qi Yue asked expectantly.

Yu Zhiming said after a moment of thought, “Teacher Qi, the bones in the child’s upper body are relatively slender, while the bones in his lower body are somewhat thick.”

“It gives me a sense of incongruity.”

“It’s like… it’s like…”

Yu Zhiming thought for a moment but couldn’t find the right words, so he just said it plainly, “Teacher Qi, it feels as if two different people’s bodies were pieced together.”

“Pieced together from two people?!”

Qi Yue repeated the phrase, then suddenly raised his hand and clapped Yu Zhiming firmly on the back.

“Zhiming, have you ever heard of human chimerism?”