Chapter 221: 220: The Conditions Are Too Generous
Chapter 221: Chapter 220: The Conditions Are Too Generous
The next day, Tuesday morning, Yu Zhiming arrived at the Qi Yue Medical Research Center around his usual time.
Before he could even enter the main office, he was led by Professor Qi Yue to a room in the inpatient ward.
Inside the room, aside from the patient and his accompanying family member, were Doctor Xie Jianmin, Doctor Wang Zhijin, and Doctor Wang Zejia.
Just as Yu Zhiming was about to greet them, he heard Professor Qi Yue’s voice.
“Zhiming, this patient had an attack of abdominal pain at 4:36 AM this morning.”
Qi Yue said with a strained expression, “Come and examine him. See if you can find anything.”
“Yes, Professor!”
Yu Zhiming quickly agreed, doing his best to keep a straight face and not let any other expression show.
This patient from Capital City, who suffered from sporadic and unexplained abdominal pain and intestinal cramps, had been hospitalized for nearly a week.
On the patient’s first day at the center, Yu Zhiming had examined him once but found nothing.
After that day, he hadn’t been involved in the patient’s treatment and wasn’t even allowed to attend the case conferences.
Thanks to Zhou Mo, the well-informed busybody, Yu Zhiming of course knew the reason he’d been excluded.
All the doctors at the center, even Professor Qi Yue, were in the middle of a full-blown campaign to break their dependency on Yu Zhiming.
They wanted to rely on their own skills to find the cause of the patient’s mysterious abdominal pain, without Yu Zhiming’s help.
’Judging by the situation today, their progress isn’t looking good.’
Yu Zhiming first regulated his breathing, then his emotions, doing his best to regain his usual composure. Then, he placed his hands on the patient’s lower abdomen…
To avoid disturbing Yu Zhiming’s examination, Qi Yue, Xie Jianmin, Wang Zhijin, Wang Zejia, and the patient’s family all left the room and waited in the hallway outside.
Not only did they stand perfectly still, but they also tried to make their breathing as quiet as possible…
Yu Zhiming had already constructed a map of the patient’s abdominal blood circulation in his mind.
Pain is generally related to nerves and blood circulation.
Because his ability was sound-based, Yu Zhiming’s greatest strength was examining blood circulation, so he naturally chose to start there.
After establishing a three-dimensional, real-time, dynamic model of the abdominal circulation, Yu Zhiming focused his mind further, following the blood flow to examine every vessel in the abdomen…
As his focus followed the cheerful rush of blood through a branch artery, Yu Zhiming suddenly noticed something. The section of the vessel he had just passed seemed slightly different.
His focus snapped back. He examined it again, a second time, a third time…
This five-to-six-centimeter-long section of the vessel truly was subtly different.
When the blood flow reached this point, it seemed to become a little more cheerful.
It was as if…
Yu Zhiming thought for a moment before coming up with a reasonably fitting description.
It was as if a stream had flowed from a sandy riverbed onto one of smooth pebbles, the sound of the water becoming livelier and more cheerful.
Having finally caught a small abnormality, Yu Zhiming wasn’t about to let it go. He began a more detailed examination of this short section of the vessel, as well as the surrounding muscles and nerves…
More than ten minutes later, Yu Zhiming called Professor Qi Yue, Doctor Xie Jianmin, and the others back into the room.
“Zhiming, did you find something?”
Qi Yue looked at the slightly fatigued Yu Zhiming, his feelings conflicted.
He both hoped Yu Zhiming had found something and hoped he hadn’t.
Yu Zhiming explained softly, “I examined his abdominal circulation, nervous system, abdominal organs, and lumbar spine. I only made one minor discovery, if you can even call it that.”
“Here…”
Yu Zhiming gestured to the patient’s right flank.
“A small section of a branch artery, about seven or eight centimeters long, feels as if it was squeezed tightly, and it still has some faint, wrinkle-like marks.”
“Squeezed?”
“Wrinkle-like marks?”
Qi Yue repeated the keywords, his gaze turning to the thoughtful faces of Xie Jianmin, Wang Zhijin, and Wang Zejia.
“Does that make you think of anything?”
“A vasospasm?” Wang Zhijin’s eyes lit up.
Doctor Xie Jianmin also blurted out, “Raynaud’s phenomenon! No, no, it should be Raynaud’s disease.”
Seeing Yu Zhiming’s somewhat confused look, Qi Yue explained softly, “Raynaud’s phenomenon refers to the spastic narrowing of small arteries supplying blood to the extremities, triggered by exposure to cold temperatures or emotional stress, leading to ischemia in the ends of the limbs.”
“It manifests as successive color changes—turning white, then blue, then red—in the body’s extremities, like the fingers and toes. It can be accompanied by localized pain, numbness, coldness, or a burning sensation, and can last from a few seconds to several tens of minutes.”
“The symptoms can return to normal after warming up or when the emotional stress subsides.”
Qi Yue paused and looked at Xie Jianmin.
Doctor Xie took over, continuing the explanation, “Dr. Yu, Raynaud’s phenomenon is often secondary to other diagnosed diseases.”
“Rheumatic diseases are the most common cause, but it can also be seen in vascular and neurological diseases. In these cases, it’s often called Raynaud’s syndrome or secondary Raynaud’s phenomenon.”
“If a patient only exhibits the signs of Raynaud’s phenomenon without any identifiable underlying disease causing it, it’s called primary Raynaud’s phenomenon.”
“This is also commonly known as Raynaud’s disease.”
At this point, Wang Zhijin voiced his doubt, “Director, Doctor Xie, Raynaud’s phenomenon most commonly affects the fingers, but it can also occur in the toes, earlobes, and the tip of the nose.”
“But this patient’s attacks are in his abdomen.”
Doctor Xie chuckled softly. “That’s why this patient’s case is so rare. There are no external signs during an attack, which is why we’ve been unable to make a diagnosis.”
Wang Zhijin wanted to argue further, but Qi Yue cut him off.
“Alright, whether it’s a vasospasm or Raynaud’s disease, it’s all just analysis and speculation for now.”
Qi Yue then assigned a task, “The three of you, hurry up and perform a provocation test to either confirm or rule it out…”
Yu Zhiming returned to the main office and was surprised to find a well-dressed middle-aged couple waiting for him.
“You are?”
“Dr. Yu, I’m Liu Qilun, the father of your niece’s roommate, Liu Yiyi. This is my wife, Tian Ling.”
After the middle-aged man, Liu Qilun, introduced himself, he quickly added, “Dr. Yu, please don’t be so quick to refuse. Could we find a more private place to talk?”
At that moment, Qiao Lei, who should have arrived much earlier, still hadn’t shown up for some unknown reason.
So, Yu Zhiming called Zhou Mo over to act as a witness and led the couple, Liu Qilun and Tian Ling, to an empty examination room.
“You have five minutes, tops. Say what you need to say,” Yu Zhiming said, his tone rather blunt.
Liu Qilun pondered for a moment, then said in a low voice, “Dr. Yu, the gemstone that was swallowed by the plaza pigeon is a rare sapphire that, despite its small size, is worth no less than a million.”
Hearing this, Zhou Mo’s jaw dropped.
Liu Qilun continued grandly, “If it were just a matter of a million, that would be nothing. We can afford the loss.”
“But that sapphire was passed down from my wife’s grandmother. It has tremendous sentimental value.”
“And another thing…”
Liu Qilun emphasized heavily, “Dr. Yu, there’s a very high chance this incident can’t be kept quiet.”
“It will eventually get out.”
“Human nature is greedy.”
“If a lot of people find out a plaza pigeon swallowed a million-dollar gem, you can imagine the fate of those pigeons.”
“Even if someone is lucky enough to find the gem, they certainly won’t say a word.”
“It could lead to flock after flock of plaza pigeons suffering.”
Seeing that Yu Zhiming remained expressionless and unmoved, Liu Qilun quickly started laying out his terms.
“Dr. Yu, I’m a partner at Qimingxing Fund Company, a well-known domestic private equity fund.”
“Your niece, Fu Xiaoxue—I can arrange an internship for her at Qimingxing or another well-known securities firm.”
Liu Qilun then said in a rapid-fire tone, “I recently bought a new luxury apartment, nearly three hundred square meters, and I can have your nephew’s company handle the renovations.”
“Also, if you are willing to help with the search, even if you don’t find it in the end, I’m willing to pay you one hundred thousand as a fee for your trouble.”
“If we’re lucky enough to find the gem, I’ll double that and pay you a fee of two hundred thousand.”
“Dr. Yu, please, lend us a hand.”
As he said this, Liu Qilun and Tian Ling were about to bow to plead with him.
Yu Zhiming held up a hand to stop them. “I can’t just abandon my patients in the middle of the day to go look for a gemstone.”
Liu Qilun’s eyes lit up with joy. “Dr. Yu, you don’t need to go during the day! We’ve already spoken with the plaza pigeon management.”
“The pigeons will all be kept in their coops today, until tomorrow morning.”
“We still have the entire evening tonight.”
Yu Zhiming let out a soft “Oh,” then asked, “Do you have a model of the gemstone, or a photo?”
“Yes, yes, we do!”
Liu Qilun replied hastily, pulling a small, exquisite jewelry box from his pocket and handing it to Yu Zhiming.
“We had this made yesterday. The color is different, but the size and shape are identical.”
Yu Zhiming opened the jewelry box and saw a transparent, circular cabochon, about the size of a large soybean.
He took it out and rubbed it between his fingers for a moment.
“I’ll hold on to this model for now. I’ll leave the hospital at seven tonight.”
“Great! I’ll come pick you up then,” Liu Qilun said with a nod.
Just then, Tian Ling, who had been silent the whole time, suddenly spoke up. “Dr. Yu, are you confident you can find it?”
Yu Zhiming looked at Tian Ling’s worried face and said frankly, “I have no experience with this kind of thing. I can only say that since I’ve agreed, I’ll do my best.”
“But I can’t guarantee the result.”
Liu Qilun chimed in, “Doing your best is enough, that’s enough. Dr. Yu, you’re a renowned doctor. We trust you.”
After seeing Liu Qilun and Tian Ling off, Zhou Mo stopped Yu Zhiming and said with a mischievous grin, “Something this interesting… I want to come along tonight and see what happens.”
“Dr. Yu, you wouldn’t say no, would you?”
Yu Zhiming smiled. “Suit yourself.”
“But I’m warning you, don’t blame me if you get covered in pigeon droppings and end up reeking.”
“I won’t, I won’t!”
Looking pleased, Zhou Mo asked again, “Dr. Yu, did you agree to help them mainly to save that flock of pigeons from a terrible fate, or because of the terms they offered?”
Yu Zhiming answered honestly, “Mainly because the terms were too generous to refuse.”
“Putting everything else aside, who would refuse the chance to earn at least a hundred thousand for a single night’s work that doesn’t even require much brainpower? Only a fool would.”
Zhou Mo pouted. “Dr. Yu, there are hundreds of beautiful plaza pigeons. Are you really not concerned about their fate at all?”
As they spoke, the two of them arrived back at the main office.
Qiao Lei was still nowhere to be seen.
Even though it wasn’t officially time to start work yet, the guy should have been there long ago, based on his usual routine.
Seeing that Zhou Mo was still pestering him for an answer about the pigeons, Yu Zhiming deflected by telling her to contact Qiao Lei.
“Ask him if he’s run into some kind of trouble.”