Chapter 219: 218: Frightened
Chapter 219: Chapter 218: Frightened
While it was supposed to be Yu Zhiming taking Fourth Sister and Gu Qingning shopping, in reality, the two of them were excitedly dragging him into one shop to have a look, then another to browse.
His legs were about to give out. He felt even more exhausted than after a full, busy day at work.
Fortunately, the two of them didn’t get completely carried away and were still considerate of Yu Zhiming’s feelings.
They shopped until six-thirty in the evening, then found a hot pot restaurant and had a leisurely dinner.
After dinner, the three of them didn’t do any more shopping. Laden with bags of all sizes, they headed straight home.
They got back to their place at nearly nine o’clock and were met by a somewhat unexpected visitor.
It was Zhong Lin, the young woman they had met at Dai Kevin’s place—the one who had fainted in her kitchen a few days prior.
Zhong Lin arrived laden with bags and even presented him with a thick envelope, immediately saying it was to thank him for saving her life.
“Zhong Lin, you’ve made a mistake. We weren’t the ones who called 911 that day.”
Yu Zhiming said with utmost sincerity.
Zhong Lin gave a faint smile. “Officer Jin told me today that I was scammed out of those five thousand yuan.”
“Officer Jin said that on that day, it was actually one of his friends who called him, saying they heard a child crying continuously at my house and felt something wasn’t right.”
“Officer Jin immediately notified two of his colleagues patrolling nearby and asked them to come check on my place.”
“So, it wasn’t a 911 call.”
After a pause, Zhong Lin continued her analysis. “Today, when that man’s wife fainted, Officer Jin called you over.”
“So it’s clear, Dr. Yu, that you’re Officer Jin’s friend.”
“Besides, our buildings are right behind each other, which is the perfect distance to hear my child crying.”
“Dr. Yu, you might as well admit it, right?”
Since she had laid it all out so clearly, Yu Zhiming couldn’t very well insult her intelligence. He just gave a sheepish chuckle in silent agreement.
After a moment, Yu Zhiming changed the subject. “Forgive me for asking, but what about your husband?”
Zhong Lin sighed softly. “He’s a bridge engineer. He’s out of town working on a major bridge project, so he’s not home very often.”
“It’s just me and my sister-in-law at home.”
After a few more minutes of small talk, Zhong Lin excused herself, saying she needed to get back to her child, and left.
Yu Zhiming staunchly refused the thick envelope Zhong Lin offered as thanks, but he did accept the other gifts she had brought.
They were local specialties like cured duck, cured pork, dried bamboo shoots, and dried mushrooms…
「Time flew by, and soon it was Monday—time for Yu Zhiming’s shift at the outpatient clinic.」
Yu Zhiming was once again in Consultation Room 15.
He worked methodically, questioning each registered patient about their symptoms, performing physical examinations, sketching diagrams of the lesions he detected, and finally, filling out treatment or referral forms…
However, just before lunch, Yu Zhiming found himself stumped by the last patient of the morning.
The patient was a beautiful, twenty-four-year-old woman with long, flowing hair.
She had come in accompanied by her best friend.
The woman described her symptoms: over the last two or three weeks, she had been experiencing sporadic chest pain, a feeling of suffocation, and shortness of breath at night. It felt, she said, as if her heart was breaking.
Upon hearing this, Yu Zhiming suspected it was most likely a cardiac issue.
But when he examined the woman’s heart, he found no structural abnormalities whatsoever.
The woman’s heart was perfectly healthy.
Yu Zhiming then performed a full-body examination but still found no other physical issues worth noting.
This was a healthy young woman.
Temporarily at a loss, Yu Zhiming had no choice but to ask the woman some more basic questions.
“Any recent changes in your diet or lifestyle?”
The woman shook her head. “Same as always. I go to work, come home, and just stay in at my rental apartment.”
“My diet hasn’t changed either, though my appetite isn’t as good as it used to be. I’m not eating as much.”
Yu Zhiming asked again, “Do you have a boyfriend?”
The woman shook her head again. “No, I don’t.”
Her friend, her eyes lighting up, chimed in, “Dr. Yu, do you have a girlfriend?”
“If you don’t, maybe we could get in touch.”
Yu Zhiming cut her off with a stern reprimand. “I’m working. Please don’t interrupt with irrelevant matters.”
The woman’s friend playfully stuck out her tongue and fell silent.
Yu Zhiming thought for a moment, then asked the woman, “How long have you lived in that rental apartment?”
“Have you changed jobs recently?”
The woman replied softly, “Over two years. I moved in after graduation and haven’t moved since.”
“And I haven’t changed jobs either!”
With no physical abnormalities detected and no suspicious dietary or environmental factors identified, Yu Zhiming was once again unsure of how to proceed.
When his most trusted and proficient technique, the physical probe, yielded absolutely no results, Yu Zhiming felt somewhat helpless.
’Perhaps there really is nothing wrong with her body?’
’Are her symptoms—the chest pain, suffocation, shortness of breath, this “broken heart” feeling—just an exaggeration?’
’Or is she making it up?’
’Or could it be caused by some kind of psychological stress?’
“Dr. Yu, Dr. Yu…”
Seeing Yu Zhiming’s prolonged silence, the woman grew anxious and asked, “Is my condition… is it very serious?”
“Dr. Yu, you can just tell me straight. I can take it. I really can.”
Seeing the deep, unshakable worry on her face, Yu Zhiming said bluntly, “Don’t let your imagination run wild.”
“To be honest, the reason I’m hesitating to give a diagnosis is that I’ve found your heart to be perfectly healthy, and there’s nothing wrong with your other internal organs either.”
“For the moment, I can’t find a pathological explanation for your chest pain, suffocation, and shortness of breath.”
“Could it be a psychological stress issue?”
The woman sounded confused. “But I don’t feel like I’m under that much stress.”
Yu Zhiming pondered for a moment. He decided he should trust his own judgment and abilities.
His diagnostic probe had been proven accurate in countless cases; the chance of it being wrong was minuscule.
It was highly probable that the woman before him was, in fact, perfectly healthy.
In that case, there was a strong possibility that the physical symptoms she was reporting were either a fabrication or the result of a psychological issue.
With this in mind, Yu Zhiming said to the woman, “Alright, how about this? I’ll arrange for you to have a consultation with a psychologist.”
“If the consultation shows that you don’t have any issues related to psychological stress, then you can come back and see me.”
“At that point, I’ll arrange for my mentor, Dr. Qi Yue, to give you a diagnosis…”
After concluding this rather frustrating consultation, he and Qiao Lei went to the cafeteria for lunch.
At 12:50 PM, Yu Zhiming returned to the consultation room to begin his afternoon shift…
A little after two in the afternoon, just as Yu Zhiming was preparing to examine the patient on the examination bed, he heard a burst of gasps and commotion from outside the room.
He paid it no mind. His hand was already on the patient’s chest when he noticed the light dim as someone else entered the room.
An anxious nurse’s voice reached his ears.
“Hey, hey! What do you think you’re doing? With an injury like that, you should be in the trauma treatment room downstairs!”
When Yu Zhiming turned and saw the person, his gaze froze.
He was a man in his thirties or forties, about five-foot-six, and somewhat overweight.
The man stared fixedly at Yu Zhiming.
But beyond the man’s eerie stare, what truly shocked Yu Zhiming was the four-inch-long fruit knife sticking out of the man’s left shoulder.
Blood had already soaked the left shoulder of his light-colored T-shirt, with streaks running down his chest.
Qiao Lei, sensing something was wrong, stepped in front of Yu Zhiming to shield him.
“This is the Internal Medicine department.”
“You need to be downstairs.”
The man with the knife grinned. “I came to the second floor, to Consultation Room 15, specifically to find a doctor named Yu Zhiming.”
He sidestepped to the left, peering past Qiao Lei at Yu Zhiming. “You must be that Dr. Yu, right?”
Yu Zhiming also stepped to the left to face the man and nodded. “I am!”
“You came here specifically for me?”
“Who sent you?”
The man hissed in pain before grinning again. “My mom. You people treated her last week, and now she’s dead.”
“I don’t have a mom anymore.”
Hearing this, Yu Zhiming immediately recalled an incident at the center from the previous week.
A patient in the final stages of diabetes had died from organ failure after resuscitation efforts failed. Her family had caused a huge scene, demanding an explanation.
They had also made vague threats about a mentally ill relative who was “recuperating” in the suburbs.
’This has to be him!’
’Is he using self-harm to play up his ’mental illness’ and show how determined he is? Is this a threat?’
’Or is this his way of smuggling a weapon inside?’
Yu Zhiming knew perfectly well there were several security guards and metal detectors at the entrance to the ER and outpatient clinic.
Even if someone wanted to cause trouble, they’d never be able to get a weapon past security.
But of course, someone in this man’s condition would be an exception. They’d let him in.
’A clever psycho?’
At this thought, fear crept into Yu Zhiming. He quickly sidestepped to the right, hiding behind Qiao Lei.
The man’s eerie voice sounded again. “I don’t have a wife. I don’t have kids. And now, I don’t have a mother.”
“You could say I have nothing left. Oh, wait, that’s not true. I still have my illness. I’m mentally ill.”
“Don’t be scared, Dr. Yu. I’m not going to hurt you. I haven’t lost my mind… yet.”
“I just thought I’d take the opportunity, while I’m here getting this wound treated, to come and see you. Really, just to have a look…”
Just then, Yu Zhiming heard the sound of hurried footsteps approaching from outside.
The next moment, three or four security guards burst into the room.
The man with the knife didn’t resist, allowing the security guards to obediently escort him out.
After the man was led away, Yu Zhiming’s body went limp, and he sank into his chair.
Yu Zhiming knew this was a blatant threat from the family, and he had to admit, it was a very effective one.
He was genuinely terrified.
Just then, Yu Zhiming’s phone rang.
It was a call from Chi Yan, the director of the psychiatry department.
Yu Zhiming answered the call, and Director Chi’s voice came through. “Dr. Xiao Yu, that patient you referred is quite interesting. She has broken heart syndrome.”
Director Chi elaborated, “This broken heart syndrome is also known as stress-induced cardiomyopathy.”
“It’s typically triggered when a person experiences a major external shock, leading to extreme grief or anger. The body responds by secreting an excess of catecholamines, which causes the heart to contract abnormally.”
“This, in turn, produces heart-attack-like symptoms such as chest pain, a feeling of suffocation, and shortness of breath.”
Director Chi chuckled. “Dr. Xiao Yu, what’s most interesting is that the woman is showing signs of developing a second personality.”
“That personality is completely obsessed with a certain celebrity.”
“A while back, that celebrity announced their engagement, and that’s what triggered her broken heart syndrome.”
Yu Zhiming let out a long, drawn-out “Ohhh.”
“Director Chi, thank you for letting me know.”
“Hey, Director Chi… I just had a bit of a scare. Would a consultation with you do any good for that?”