Chapter 48: Money Over Life

Chapter 48: Chapter 48: Money Over Life

On the following Monday morning, Yu Zhiming arrived at the county hospital for work and first went to check on Qin Fang.

Although half of the guy’s body was wrapped up like a mummy, he was young and sturdy. After a day and a night, his spirits had recovered quite well.

After confirming that Qin Fang’s liver was no longer bleeding and his right kidney had mostly recovered, Yu Zhiming offered a few words of concern, made some small talk, and then returned to his office.

He happened to run into his third sister, who was dropping off his lunch.

"Braised chicken, green beans with pork, cucumber and wood ear mushroom with egg, and a dozen or so zucchini dumplings."

Yu Xinyue listed the dishes, then asked, "Are Eldest Sister and Xiaoxue going to Binhai with you this weekend?"

Yu Zhiming put the lunch in the mini-fridge. "That’s the tentative plan, but it’s not set in stone yet."

"Eldest Brother-in-law and Xiaobo are both in Binhai now. Binhai Jiaotong University requires them to register next Saturday, so they might as well go to Binhai with me early."

Yu Xinyue nodded and asked, "What about Xiaoxue’s school advancement banquet?"

"Eldest Sister said she’ll set up a table or two in town and invite some relatives and friends from our hometown."

"As for us, just our immediate family—Mom, Dad, and the rest of us—will get together at my place this Saturday. That’ll be enough."

Yu Xinyue murmured an "oh" and asked with concern, "Fifth Brother, what about your resignation procedures?"

Yu Zhiming chuckled lightly. "They’re almost all taken care of."

"In the next few days, I just need to hand off a few of my long-term patients, and then I’ll be all set."

Just then, Yu Zhiming saw Li Yifan, the so-called criminal investigation expert from the provincial capital, appear at his office doorway.

Yu Zhiming quickly went to greet him, and Yu Xinyue left to get back to her own work.

"Officer Li, is the case solved?"

Li Yifan nodded. "Just as I expected. He broke down this morning and confessed everything."

"Prosecutor Qin wouldn’t let go of that child’s ruptured kidney case, which made them unable to eat or sleep in peace. They decided to teach Prosecutor Qin a harsh lesson, so they hired that motorcyclist."

A sudden realization dawned on Yu Zhiming. He asked for confirmation, "With that confession, their conspiracy with the victim’s family to provide false testimony and make a private settlement—that’s all been completely exposed, right?"

Li Yifan grunted in affirmation, then changed the subject. "The main reason I came over was to talk to you, Dr. Yu, about that group from last night—the ones with the man who faked his death."

"So there really was something going on with them?" Yu Zhiming asked, a little surprised.

Li Yifan chuckled and, instead of answering, posed a question. "The man who faked his death was revived last night."

"Dr. Yu, take a wild guess. How many times has that guy been ’electrocuted’ to death?"

Yu Zhiming was taken aback. "Don’t tell me that guy fakes his death to extort money?" he said in disbelief.

"He’s treating his own life like a joke. If he’s not careful, one of these times he’s going to get himself killed for real."

Li Yifan held up three fingers and shook them gently. "Three times," he sighed. "He’s been ’electrocuted’ to death a full three times."

"The man is, in fact, an electrician."

"He confessed that the first time he was ’electrocuted,’ it was a genuine accident. He ended up getting over 400,000 in compensation from his employer."

"After he woke up, he realized it was a pretty good way to make money. So he started wandering around the province, working odd jobs while looking for suitable targets to extort."

Yu Zhiming was baffled. "Did he say why he does it?"

’He’d rather have money than his life? That’s just foolish.’

Li Yifan let out a soft breath and said with a sigh, "He really does value money more than his life."

"He confessed that he has three sons, and the two youngest are twins."

"It was only because of that 400,000-plus from his ’life money’ that he was able to buy a house and a car, and barely managed to afford a wife for his eldest son."

"But his two younger sons are now approaching the age of marriage, and he couldn’t come up with that much money even if he sold himself."

"He said he was so worried and saw no other way out, so he had to risk his life to make money."

"He also said that if he really did die from the electrocution, it would be a final end to his troubles, a complete release."

Li Yifan’s voice was filled with sorrow. "When he spoke of death and release, his expression wasn’t just calm; it held a hint of yearning."

"He genuinely doesn’t care about his own life."

Yu Zhiming suddenly felt a suffocating tightness in his chest and, for a moment, didn’t know what to say.

Take himself, for example. If it weren’t for the help of his three older sisters, even with his decent job, buying a house in the county seat would not have been an easy task.

After a moment of silence, Yu Zhiming said grimly, "Housing prices are so high, getting a wife is expensive, and education and healthcare aren’t cheap either."

"And making money is even harder!"

"The country keeps encouraging people to have a second and third child, but how can an ordinary family afford it?"

Li Yifan said slowly, "His life is hard, but so are other people’s. Regardless, faking his death to extort people is against the law."

"According to his confession, the second time he faked his death, he extorted 260,000."

Then, Li Yifan changed the subject again. "Dr. Yu, I came by this time for two reasons: to inform you about these two cases, and to say goodbye."

"My work here has been successfully concluded with your help, and I’ll be returning to the provincial capital shortly."

"Dr. Yu, it was a pleasure to meet you. I hope we have the chance to meet again."

Yu Zhiming shook the hand Li Yifan extended and chuckled. "I’m a doctor, and you’re in criminal investigation..."

"I hope our next meeting isn’t because of our respective jobs."

Li Yifan laughed heartily. "I hope so too..."

After ten-thirty in the morning, Yu Zhiming received a call from Teacher Qi Yue.

He was told that the patient’s case file was very interesting, and Teacher Qi had decided to take the case.

Teacher Qi asked Yu Zhiming to inform the patient to come to Huashan Hospital next Monday to complete admission procedures.

Teacher Qi also mentioned excitedly that this would be the first patient he and Yu Zhiming would be jointly responsible for diagnosing...

Not long after Yu Zhiming ended his call with Teacher Qi, the pediatric nurse Liu Min ran into his office, panting.

"Dr. Yu, SOS! A chubby kid came in, and even our Nurse Chief Ni can’t handle him..."

The pediatrics department was the one place Yu Zhiming most disliked going. The reason was simple: it was just too noisy.

Therefore, whenever he went to pediatrics, he always tried to get things done as quickly as possible.

Yu Zhiming endured his discomfort and went to the pediatric infusion area, which was filled with the rising and falling sounds of crying. There, he saw the six-year-old emergency case.

It was quite an eye-opener.

He wasn’t just a chubby kid; he was a jiggling mound of flesh.

The little guy’s cheeks were so plump they nearly squeezed his mouth shut, and his little hands were too fat to even form a fist.

As soon as Yu Zhiming grasped the chubby kid’s arm, he knew that besides the excess fat making the veins hard to find, the boy’s blood vessels were also noticeably thin.

But that wasn’t a problem for Yu Zhiming.

The moment he held the arm, Yu Zhiming had a perfect sense of the depth and location of the basilic vein.

Disinfecting with an alcohol swab, inserting the needle, securing the catheter...

The series of actions was fluid and seamless. Without the slightest hesitation or delay, it was over in one smooth motion, and Yu Zhiming departed like the wind.

The chubby kid and his mother, who was beside him, both seemed not to have processed what happened, staring blankly at Yu Zhiming’s briskly departing back.

"It’s... over already?"

Liu Min said proudly, "When it comes to inserting a needle, if Dr. Yu says he’s second best in our county, no one would dare claim to be first."

"It’s a shame he’s leaving for a career at Binhai Grand Hospital and not staying in our small county town."

Just then, Liu Min noticed the chubby kid’s mouth twist as if he was about to cry and quickly reminded the mother, "Don’t let the child move around..."

The most difficult part of giving this chubby kid an IV wasn’t the amount of fat or the thinness of his veins, but the fact that the boy was extremely restless.

He was also unusually strong; Liu Min and the boy’s relatively thin mother couldn’t hold him down together.

But Yu Zhiming’s speed, precision, and decisiveness simply gave the chubby kid no chance to squirm away from the needle...

At lunchtime, Yu Zhiming received a call from his classmate, Zhu Yan, and learned something...

That guy, Li Ao, had been beaten up. Quite badly.

As Yu Zhiming put down his phone, he felt no surprise at all that the guy had been beaten up...