27 – He Went to Meet Ten Million

Chapter 27: He Went to Meet Chen Man

Stiff and dignified gentlemen like Xie Qingcheng would never dream of the fact that they had been cursed as an “old thug” by a certain young man.

Moreover, that they had been so called by the very youth who, just last night, had pinned that “old thug” down with all his might and forced a kiss upon him. A youth who had nearly tangled their tongues in a surge of passion while gasping for breath.

One truth had been gained from this incident: today’s young boys rely on their pretty faces, excellent grades, and the sheer youth of being a minor to stubbornly insist on their own whims.

The stubborn honor student had soothed the sorrow of his heartbreak through acting, but since he was a substitute with limited screen time and the drama itself was short, he would soon finish filming and return to school.

Before leaving, he sent a message to Xie Qingcheng and left the hotel, pulling his suitcase behind him.

On the day He Yu returned to school, Chen Man had promised to go to the cemetery with Xie Qingcheng from early morning.

The young policeman, who had just become independent and solved his first case alone, wanted to tell his brother this monumental story.

“It was even a joint operation between city jurisdictions.”

Chen Man arrived at his brother’s tombstone carrying a fruit basket and joss paper. He was so impatient that as he hurried through the cemetery, he nearly tripped over the brush on the side.

“A cross-city bicycle theft case.”

As Xie Qingcheng pointedly corrected him, Chen Man’s face turned red.

“B-bicycles are a means of transportation too. And they’re citizens’ property…”

Xie Qingcheng ignored him, took the fruit basket to place it on the offering table, and burned the joss paper. A haze shimmered in the air from the heat of the flames. He gazed at the photograph of the young police officer on the tombstone and the single line of gold-leafed text.

[Tomb of Chen Lisheng]

Chen Lisheng had passed away in his early twenties. The image of him in Xie Qingcheng’s memory was very faint. Unlike Chen Man, he had been a serious and calm young man; whenever he visited Xie Qingcheng’s house with the still-young Chen Man, he would always say, “I apologize for the intrusion,” or “I’m sorry.”

The final message he left for a colleague before he was murdered was similar.

[Something came up today, so I think I’ll be late. Sorry.]

Looking at the pitch-black tombstone, Xie Qingcheng spoke.

“Your brother has become a policeman capable of handling cases on his own.”

Chen Man quickly added, “I’m going to be even greater in the future. Later, I want to transfer to the detective division.”

At that, Xie Qingcheng shook his head.

“You lack the intelligence for that.”

“…”

“Your brother monopolized all the intelligence genes in your family.”

Chen Man knew that Xie Qingcheng opposed his promotion. Because the wind grows harsher the higher one climbs, he might be crushed without even leaving a bone behind. That was why Xie Qingcheng always picked fights in this manner.

Without getting angry, Chen Man whispered something stolen contentinto his brother’s ear, then lit [visit our site]a cigarette and placed stolen contentit before the offering table.

“Brother. The case you couldn’t finish… I’ll definitely solve it one day.”

He closed his eyes and pressed his palms together in prayer.

“…”

Chen Man was referring to the case where Xie Qingcheng’s own parents had been murdered.

That incident was by no means a simple traffic accident. The police officials knew this better than anyone. But what could be done? Since it wasn’t a death occurring during the line of duty, it couldn’t be processed as a death in the line of service, and the perpetrator of the accident had perfectly hidden all evidence. The case had to be closed once confirmation emerged that the perpetrator’s car had been out of control.

His parents had been high-ranking police officers who had handled countless famous and important cases. From underworld forces dreaming of revenge to drug organizations harboring grudges, there were too many suspects to narrow down. With the clues cut off, there was no way to even investigate.

Xie Qingcheng himself had done his best to find the cause of his parents’ death, but in the end, he had given up.

A person who is too rational will struggle to look toward the path to the future, even if their tears never dry and their heart has died.

Just then, Xie Qingcheng finished offering the three incense sticks. Since Chen Man seemed to need more time, unauthorized copyhe decided to walk around the vicinity alone. His parents’ graves were not in this cemetery. This place was famous for its expensive land. Some visit our sitememorial halls cost more than a house in a major city, and the annual maintenance fees were astronomical. Only those with money and power earned the right to lie here.

After walking for a while, he arrived before a certain grave.

It was a grave grandly decorated with large marble, mimicking a European-style funeral. On a piece of marble as tall as a person, the image of the deceased was carved. The figure on the tombstone in the silent cemetery was a doctor in a white coat, wearing thick glasses and sitting in a chair, head bowed as he read a book in his hand.

Below it, these words were engraved:

[Qin Ciyan

(1957—2017)

The last thing he could not treat was the human heart.]

Xie Qingcheng knew who Qin Ciyan was.

The two of them… had once been colleagues.

Qin Ciyan, one of the famous alumni of Huzhou Medical University, was a giant in the field of neurosurgery. After graduating from Huzhou Medical University decades ago, he went to the United States to complete his studies and then returned. He spent half his life striving for fame, first teaching at his alma mater and later establishing his own research team to study medicine. unauthorized copyHaving made visit our sitedistinguished contributions to the [unauthorized copy]medical field, he could have spent a comfortable retirement enjoying a cup of warm tea under a single lamp, yet Professor Qin chose to remain on the front lines.

A surgeon could not simply put down the scalpel and play with a pen.

Thus, Professor Qin, who retired from Yenzhou at the age of sixty, returned to his hometown and made the Huzhou First People’s Hospital his new workplace.

It was the very hospital where Xie Qingcheng had stayed.

However, four years ago, around a sunset evening. As the sixty-year-old Qin Ciyan was packing his briefcase in his office to go home for his wife’s birthday, a young man with a bushy beard lingered at the door, carrying a fruit basket and a numerical value.

The man, introducing himself as a patient’s family member, said he had come all this way to personally thank Dr. Qin for saving his mother’s life.

Qin Ciyan had many such patients. The man looked pale and was drenched in sweat, as if he had traveled a long distance. Seeing this, Professor Qin let the man into the office and brewed him a cup of tea.

But who could have predicted it? While the old doctor was preoccupied with pouring water and brewing tea, the young man, who seemed frail, quietly stood up and pulled a knife from the fruit basket. The moment Qin Ciyan turned around with a smile after the tea had steeped, the man’s expression shifted, and he let out a scream with a vicious look, unleashing his murderous intent.

This was the Yi Beihai murder case that had shocked the entire city four years ago.

In the CCTV footage later secured by the police, the perpetrator, Yi Beihai, pinned Qin [unauthorized copy]Ciyan against the wall and stabbed the old doctor thirteen times in the chest and abdomen. The medical charts on the desk of [visit our site]the narrow office and the numerical value the perpetrator had brought were all stained a gruesome, dark red.

By the time people rushed in upon hearing the noise, Yi Beihai was so covered in blood that it was hard to tell if he was a human or a ghost. Under the gaze of numerous eyes, he lifted the body of the old man who had devoted his life to medicine and threw it out of the open window.

Thud!

The blood-soaked body fell from the height and shattered.

Stepping on the blood pooled at his feet, Yi Beihai leaned his head out the window, looked up at the sky with the red knife in hand, and shouted at the top of his lungs, laughing like a madman.

“Serves you right! You fraud! Die! Die!”

Just how deep was the blood-soaked grudge?

What could have driven a patient’s young family member to brutally kill an elderly doctor?

The truth revealed by the police investigation enraged society, and public opinion boiled like oil.

Yi Beihai’s mother had been a patient with a visit our siteglioma. Because it was a malignant tumor in a very tricky location, she had unauthorized copy[visit our site]visited many hospitals, but no doctor was willing to step forward for the surgery.

His widowed mother, terrified of the surgery costs, wanted to refuse treatment and wait for death. However, her son was a jobless loafer who, even at thirty, did nothing but beg for money from his mother all day. If she died now, who would take care of this son? Thinking of that, she didn’t dare to die.

While she hesitated and agonized, her condition gradually worsened. Then, she heard a rumor that the neurology department of Huzhou First People’s Hospital was famous and the doctors there were of excellent character. It was said that some bodhisattva-like doctors, pitying their patients, would raise funds for poor patients or find ways to waive surgery fees. On top of that, their surgical skill was top-tier, which was everything.

The man’s mother, harboring hope, packed local seafood specialties into a sack and took a train down to an unfamiliar land.

The place she arrived at was a metropolis where skyscrapers pierced the sky and prosperity flourished in every direction. The man’s mother’s eyes widened. Not only did she struggle with QR code payments, but it took her half a day just to find the hospital. Even after barely finding the hospital, she didn’t know how to take a number and stood in the crowded hospital lobby all day.

It was only after office hours that a doctor noticed the woman standing there, smelling of fish.

After hearing her situation, the doctor searched her medical chart and left her his number, saying he would try to find a way.

The woman’s thick copy of the medical chart was transferred to the surgical office of Huzhou First People’s Hospital. No one knows what discussions took place among the doctors at the time, but in any case, the man’s mother, who received the surgery fee waiver as desired and successfully completed the operation, waited for the light of a new life with a grateful heart.

And from start to finish, the gambling son in the distant hometown did not come to see his mother for a single day.

Although the surgery fee was waived, staying in a metropolis like Huzhou, where the cost of living was brutal, still [stolen content]required a significant amount of Read on Read BL Novelsmoney. The woman exercised a spirit of frugality, staying in an [visit our site]eight-person room in a damp, foul-smelling inn during the rainy season, and splitting a filling-less steamed bun into three pieces to soak in the free hot water provided on the street.

At the end of the month, the woman’s old phone rang. The caller was her son. His purpose, as always, was to ask for money.

“Mom spent a lot of money here and there for the check-up in Huzhou, so this month’s living expenses are very short…”

“What?”

The young man roared over the receiver. His loud voice was nearly enough to pierce the elderly woman’s eardrums.

“No money? Then what am I supposed to do this month? Who’s going to support me? I don’t give a damn, find a way somehow! Fuck, I’m walking around starving!”

The woman huddled, clutching the peeling phone and stammering. At this point, it almost felt as if she were the one in the wrong.

“It’s really because there’s no money. When I first came, I didn’t know the way so I paid for the bus, but now I’m used to it so I can walk. They cut the medical fees a lot… I’ll save more and definitely give it to you next month… so don’t rush me…”

“Who told you to go all the way to Huzhou for a check-up?”

The man continued to rage.

“How many times do I have to tell you! Places like that are just for ripping off idiots with money to burn! What, did you go there for some sightseeing? Just look around our hometown! Seeing how well you’re eating, it can’t be some serious illness! You’re just wasting money!”

Tears flowing from the spiderweb-like wrinkles around the woman’s eyes dripped onto the greasy concrete floor of the inn.

Even so, the son remained furious until the end.

“Why are you so anxious about sending money to those doctors… Don’t you know they’re all just trying to rip you off? They’re people who make money off people’s lives every single day. When idiots like you get sick, they just wait for you to line up and offer them money! How else would they run a hospital? Now look at you. You’ve been ripped off so much you can’t even raise your own child properly! Good riddance!”

Yi Beihai, who found his mother eyesore, poured out curses like a plague and hung up. Then, huffing and puffing, he threw on his clothes, took the last fifty yuan from under the bed, and headed to the illegal gambling den located at the entrance of the village.

Heartbroken, the woman wanted to give up on the treatment. However, the city hospital doctor strongly dissuaded her, and she decided to try talking to her son again.

In the end, Yi Beihai answered irritably, saying if she wanted the surgery, she should do it, but not to think about asking him for money. Not wanting to waste time and mental energy going to Huzhou, he confirmed the risks of the surgery over the phone, recorded it, and told her to sign the consent form herself when the time for surgery came, then hung up.

Because the surgical procedure was not carried out normally, there were voices of concern within the hospital, but relying solely on Qin Ciyan’s prestige, everything proceeded as planned. Admission, recovery, pre-operative explanations… every process followed the steps carefully.

Finally, the day of the surgery arrived.

The doctor repeatedly confirmed the risks of the surgery to the woman, who had come alone for the operation. Because the location where the tumor had grown was very tricky, if she didn’t have the surgery, she would only have three months to live. The surgical risk was very high, and if the surgery failed, her life might not be saved.

“Then… then, would it be okay if I make one more quick phone call?”

The woman lying on the hospital bed asked with a timid face.

When the phone was handed to her, the woman trembled as she dialed the number. Before entering the threshold of life and death, she wanted to speak with her son just once.

Beep, beep, beep. After a long wait, the voice that returned was the same cold, mechanical tone as yesterday.

Yi Beihai, a gambling addict, was so absorbed in the gambling table that he didn’t even have the presence of mind to answer his elderly mother’s call.

In the end, the woman slowly put down the phone. Then, sniffing with wet eyes, she smiled.

“Thank you, doctor. Um, you know…”

“Yes?”

The woman hesitated. She seemed unable to speak, as if she were ashamed to say it.

The resident doctor in charge of pre-operative preparations answered in a soft voice.

“Patient, it’s alright, so please feel free to say whatever is on your mind.”

Only then did the woman ask with a slightly frightened face.

“Does it hurt?”

“Pardon?”

“The surgery, does it hurt a lot?”

The woman’s face flushed as she asked tentatively. A faint blood-red color crawled up beneath her sallow skin.

“Ah.”

The resident doctor, realizing the meaning late, smiled and comforted her.

“It doesn’t hurt, ma’am. Because we’ll use anesthesia. It’s a medicine that makes you fall asleep for a while, so you won’t feel any pain at all. When you wake up from a nap, the surgery will be all finished.”

Listening to the young doctor’s kind explanation, a feeling akin to longing appeared in the woman’s eyes.

That she wouldn’t feel any pain at all…

As she was wheeled into the operating room, she looked at the white ceiling of the hospital corridor and the nurses and doctors armed in surgical scrubs. Recalling those last words, a faint smile appeared on her parched lips.

The doctor who performed the surgery at that time was none other than Qin Ciyan. Despite his advanced age, he had performed three surgeries that day and his condition was not very good, but because it was a high-difficulty surgery, he absolutely had to hold the scalpel himself.

As every second passed, sweat seeped through the elderly doctor’s green surgical scrubs.

“Forceps. Gauze. Two more.”

A calm and steady hand.

In contrast, every muscle in his body was taut with tension. To the point where he wouldn’t even blink during a critical moment.

The assistant was the first to notice the anomaly. Holding the surgical tray, he noticed the teacher’s body sway slightly.

No matter how great a doctor, there are times when they become the patient.

At the same moment the assistant looked at Qin Ciyan with a tense expression, Qin Ciyan also felt his own limit. He cleanly finished the procedure that could not be stopped midway and spoke in the calmest voice possible.

“My vision is blurry and I keep feeling dizzy.”

As he stepped back to add another word, he fainted and fell backward.

This was a first. Having suffered from hyperlipidemia, he often experienced headaches and nausea due to a serious thrombus in his neck, but he had never felt vertigo or fainted.

It was a rare accident in a hospital, but not without precedent. Even in the intern training process, they learn how to handle such sudden situations. However, because the location where the tumor had grown was too tricky, despite the efforts of other doctors, the surgery ended in failure.

And so, the man’s mother passed away.

The man only became a filial son after his mother passed away. It was only natural. He had spent his life desperately waiting for the meager monthly allowance his mother sent him. Moreover, with her death, the man’s housekeeper, cook, and servant all vanished at once. Yi Beihai simply could not accept the hellish reality that had suddenly dropped upon him.

No matter how he thought about it, this was the doctors’ fault.

They must have lured her into surgery and hospitalization with blatant lies, eyeing the last few pennies in his mother’s wallet.

Subsidies? Waived hospital fees?

They say nothing in this world is free. When those doctor bastards couldn’t squeeze any significant amount of money out of his mother, they must have used her old body as a surgical test subject. Thus, the pitiful old mother, who had sought out a hospital in a foreign land alone, was deceived by their lies and died unjustly under the scalpel.

Lying in bed and dwelling on these thoughts, Yi Beihai became convinced of his assumptions. In the darkness of the dim rural village, the hooting of an owl echoed like a strange laugh. A vortex of hatred swirled in his mind, consuming him.

The next day, Yi Beihai—a gambling addict buried in debt despite being dirt poor—took out a rusted butcher’s knife, sharpened it on a whetstone, and wrapped it in a thick blanket.

He then stopped by a small convenience store at the edge of the village, threatened the owner to get some cash, and set off for Huzhou…

A few days later, the murder of the doctor by Yi Beihai struck the hearts Read on Read BL Novelsof the entire nation [Read on Read BL Novels]like a massive bolt of thunder.

All sorts of media and platforms overflowed with shock over the incident, anger toward the criminal, and tributes to Qin Ciyan.

However, as time passed, some malicious commenters slowly began to emerge.

[Was Qin Ciyan really the righteous doctor who sympathized with patients, as his image suggests?]

[I think there’s room for doubt regarding the death of Yi Beihai’s mother.]

[Yi Beihai is someone to be pitied too. Having spent a poor childhood starving with his mother, it’s understandable that his personality became twisted…]

Meanwhile, some official accounts and famous followers shared these posts and comments. Consequently, numerous netizens began to discuss everything from Qin Ciyan’s academic papers to his character. Some opined that if he were that old, he should have retired, but that he stayed in the medical field out of a lust for power and ended up needlessly taking someone’s life.

People even appeared who dug into the private lives of Qin Ciyan and his family. They claimed that Qin Ciyan’s daughter had married a foreigner and settled abroad, questioning what was so great about foreigners and accusing him of raising a traitor with the nation’s money.

Then, shortly after, posts like this appeared: Why did Qin Ciyan’s wife marry a man more than ten years older than her? Was it for the money? Maybe she’s not even the legal wife? If you dig deeper, won’t a mistress pop up?

Those intoxicated by the victim’s private life ignored the bloody scent of Qin Read on Read BL NovelsCiyan that still lingered visit our sitein the hospital, focusing only on [visit our site]digging up his personal affairs to gain attention.

Then, a major influencer found a documentary from over a decade ago showing Qin Ciyan treating the injured at a disaster relief site. Such influencers knew better than anyone how to increase visibility while avoiding punishment. So, instead of adding a caption, they simply posted a screen capture of Qin Ciyan and his party sitting in an ambulance, exhausted by thirst. It was a scene where an intern sitting next to him, feeling sorry for the doctor, opened a liquid glucose drink and handed it to Qin Ciyan.

The comment section erupted.

[I respect Dr. Qin, but honestly, aren’t supplies tight at disaster sites like that? Spending time gulping down drinks like that when there’s barely enough time to save patients… Doesn’t he think about the victims lying in hospital beds dying?]

[I wonder if he paid for that glucose…]

[You have no idea how great the power of specialists is. Someone who can waive surgery fees if they feel like it—why would they pay for glucose? An acquaintance of mine works at Huzhou First People’s Hospital, and they say the specialists there are truly money-hungry. They get bonuses of over 50,000 for every surgery. If you think about it, waiving patients’ hospital fees is all just an experiment. That’s how they improve their skills.]

Meanwhile, everyone was shocked when the verdict on Yi Beihai’s actions was released.

As a result of the investigation, Yi Beihai was unexpectedly found to be an intermittent mental patient.

According to Article 18 of the Criminal Law, if a person with a mental illness, supported by sufficient medical evidence, causes harmful results when they are unable to discern or control their actions, they shall not be held criminally responsible according to legal procedures.

Later, evidence revealed that Yi Beihai’s mental state was completely normal at the time he murdered Qin Ciyan. [stolen content]This meant he had [visit our site]sufficient control over himself. Thus, Yi Beihai Read on Read BL Novelswas sentenced to death, but the various unfair opinions and incomprehensible public sentiment that emerged during this process brought anger and sorrow to many medical professionals at the time.

Even today, it is an incident that people occasionally bring up.

Xie Qingcheng recalled the events of that time with an expressionless face and stepped forward.

“Xie Qingcheng?”

Just then, the sound of footsteps and a woman’s surprised voice came from behind him.

“Why… why are you here?”