Chapter 703: The Girl Who Tolerates No Sand in Her Eyes

"Doctor, we need an X-ray!" Adrian Hawthorne knocked lightly on the window.

The female doctor was helping a girl with her homework. She walked to the window and held out her hand. "Where’s the request form?"

Adrian Hawthorne pulled the form written by the clinic doctor from his pocket and handed it to her, hoping it would pass muster. If not, he was prepared to offer a piece of cashmere cloth.

The doctor paused. The form clearly wasn’t from the hospital, but she recognized the familiar handwriting. It was her husband’s.

"Give these kids an X-ray. I’ll explain when I get home."

The doctor hadn’t seen Dollar yet. She assumed Adrian Hawthorne and the others couldn’t afford medical care and that her husband was being a soft touch again, his sympathy getting the better of him. Ever since her husband had been transferred to a grassroots clinic for training, he would send poor country folk her way for X-rays every so often. Generally, she would help out. It wasn’t her money, after all, and the equipment would just be sitting idle otherwise.

"Come in. Take off anything metal."

"Thank you."

Adrian Hawthorne thanked her profusely. The three of them went inside. Jim Thorne was holding the barely breathing Dollar, and Adrian Hawthorne was holding Tang Xiaonan’s hand. The doctor glanced outside; there were no adults, just three children.

"Did your parents not come with you?"

"We can handle it ourselves. We don’t need an adult," Adrian Hawthorne replied.

The doctor gave him a few extra glances. He was quite handsome, and his clothes didn’t look like they belonged to a poor family’s child. This was especially true for the down jacket on the little chubby girl; you could tell at a glance it was high-quality material, even better than the one she’d bought for her own daughter. Plus, she didn’t think she’d ever seen that style in Vessaria.

She couldn’t help but frown. ’These three kids are clearly from a wealthy family. Why would my husband need to pull strings for them?’

"Why did you bring a dog in here? Get it out, now!"

The chubby girl doing her homework also turned around. Seeing Dollar in Jim Thorne’s arms, she scolded him unhappily.

The girl had a stern expression and seemed even more imposing than her mother, possessing a natural air of authority. Tang Xiaonan quickly said, "Big sister, we’re here to get an X-ray for Dollar. We can’t take him out."

The girl’s expression softened slightly. She gave Tang Xiaonan a faint twitch of her lips that barely counted as a smile. She then said to Jim Thorne, whom she believed was named Dollar, "Take your dog outside. It’s improper to bring an animal in here. Then you can come back for your X-ray."

She thought Jim Thorne was the one named Dollar. She found the big, burly boy to be utterly improper—it was one thing to own a dog, but to carry it around all the time showed a complete lack of discipline.

"You’re the one named Dollar! My name is Jim Thorne."

Jim Thorne yelled in frustration. He wasn’t a dog. ’This girl, who looks meaner than my own mom, must be blind. She can’t even tell a person from a dog.’

"Then who is Dollar?" the girl asked, her face expressionless.

Her name was Karen Ford. She had been the class monitor since kindergarten, as well as the Young Pioneers brigade leader and the school’s discipline officer. She couldn’t tolerate the slightest infraction. At home, even her parents had to listen to her lectures on discipline. Her name, which evoked "square and circle," came from the idiom, "Nothing can be accomplished without rules and standards."

Her maternal grandfather, an upright and incorruptible judge, had given her the name. She had lived with her grandparents since she was little and had only moved back in with her parents last year. However, her bossy, unyielding personality had already been set in stone. Her parents were helpless against her and could only do as they were told.

"He is!"

Jim Thorne shouted, pointing at Dollar in his arms. Dollar weakly lifted his head, glanced at Karen Ford, and then quickly let it drop again.

"It’s getting an X-ray? Are you people nuts?"

Karen Ford cried out in shock, then her expression turned to anger. ’How outrageous! Using medical equipment meant for humans on a dog? What has the world come to? These people must be here to cause trouble!’

"Dollar is the one who’s sick, not me!" Jim Thorne yelled even louder. He had taken an instant dislike to this chubby girl. ’She’s as much of a busybody as my homeroom teacher.’