novelraw Chapter 1251: Illness
Chapter 1251: Illness
At dawn, a white van sped along a suburban road.
Three men sat inside, along with two large sacks—something inside them seemed to be moving.
The three men chatted as they drove.
“Big bro, we’re still missing one. We’ve circled this road three times already… how about grabbing one near the train station? Plenty of beggars and vagrants there…”
“Are you crazy? Going somewhere crowded—what if someone sees us? If Boss Cheng says we messed up, who’s paying your wages?”
“Sigh… what do you think Boss Cheng wants these vagrants for? We’ve collected plenty of corpses before, but beggars? This is a first.”
“Who cares? No one misses these people. No one even notices when they’re gone. Cops don’t bother either… We get the money, then head to the nightclub to play with some Misses. Much better than picking up bodies outside the bar, yeah?”
“Heh heh…”
“Big bro, someone’s up ahead… What the—he’s naked. Is he some idiot?”
The van screeched to a halt. Two men jumped out and ran forward with flashlights.Sure enough, a naked man was walking down the road. His hair was a tangled mess, skin pale—
A foreigner.
But this foreigner didn’t react to the two men approaching with lights. He hunched forward, dragging himself with obvious exhaustion.
“What’s wrong with this guy? He won’t answer when we call, doesn’t react when we touch…” One man frowned and casually pushed him—only to send the tall foreigner tumbling to the ground.
Startled, they watched as he slowly, shakily crawled back up… but this time, instead of walking forward, he turned and headed straight toward their van.
The driver—“big bro”—stared as the foreigner crouched at the front of the vehicle and reached toward the halogen headlight.
The lamp had been burning all night—it was scorching hot. The man touched it and instantly recoiled, his expression twisted in pain. Yet he kept reaching out again and again, stubbornly repeating the action.
“This guy’s gotta be brain-damaged…”
“Maybe he got mugged and got his head smashed in?”
Big bro suddenly gritted his teeth. “Don’t just stand there! Get a sack—load him into the van!”
“Big bro, he’s a foreigner!”
“Doesn’t matter! Shave his hair and eyebrows clean!” Big bro sneered. “Dirty him up—he’ll fit the requirements. No one saw anything anyway! We get paid, end of story. Move!”
The two men shuddered. Boss Cheng’s price was high—200,000 for each body. With the money right in front of them, they hardened their hearts.
Following big bro’s orders, they bagged the foreigner, carried him into the van, then pulled out scissors and knives. They shaved his hair and eyebrows clean, collected dirt and dust from the roadside, and smeared it all over his body.
The foreigner just stared blankly, offering no resistance—almost like an idiot. That at least made their work easier.
Moments later, the van roared to life and sped away.
…
…
Osten Private General Hospital.
Owned by Osten Pharmaceuticals, it was a high-end private hospital with first-class equipment—far beyond what ordinary people could afford.
In the top-tier VIP ward, Mr. House lay connected to more than five medical machines, watched over continuously by two doctors and two nurses.
It was past 10 a.m.—more than five hours since his transfer.
Seeing his still-weak condition, Jimmy asked the doctors and nurses to wait outside. They were unhappy, but Jimmy’s stare silenced them.
He pulled a chair over and sat quietly at Mr. House’s bedside, rubbing his temples as if deep in thought.
After a long while, he stood up to leave—
But Mr. House’s fingers twitched. His eyelids trembled, then cracked open.
Through the oxygen mask, a weak voice called Jimmy’s name.
Jimmy stopped, turned back.
Mr. House was too weak to speak, but his eyes were filled with urgency—thousands of words trapped inside them.
Jimmy said calmly, “Relax. You won’t die right away. But it doesn’t look like you’ll last much longer.”
Mr. House’s gaze burned with anger—anger at losing his one chance after years of waiting, and anger at Jimmy’s tone.
“There’s no time to restart the experiment,” Jimmy leaned close and whispered in his ear. “You won’t live to see it completed.”
Mr. House’s eyes widened in shock and fury.
“You’ve lived long enough. No need to suffer anymore.”
Summoning strength from who-knows-where, Mr. House grabbed Jimmy’s collar, mouth opening desperately:
“You… you… why…”
Jimmy said nothing.
He simply removed the oxygen mask.
Deprived of air, Mr. House writhed, gasping like a drowning man. His bulging eyes fixed on Jimmy, and he screamed:
“Y-you are… you…”
But the words never came. His eyes rolled back, and his grip went limp.
Only then did Jimmy replace the mask, straighten his clothes, glance at the heart monitor, and shout:
“Doctor! Doctor, come quickly!”
The doctors rushed in and turned pale at the readings.
“Assistant Tang, what happened?!”
“I’ll leave it to you.” Jimmy whispered into one doctor’s ear, “I hope Mr. House doesn’t wake up anytime soon… The hospital director is retiring soon, isn’t he?”
The doctor stiffened, glancing at Jimmy in surprise but remaining silent.
Jimmy patted his shoulder and walked out.
Once outside, he took out his phone.
“It’s me. Pull our people back—stop monitoring Nan Xiaonan for now.”
Ending the call, he suddenly coughed, leaning against the wall weakly.
“So… my time’s almost up too…” he murmured.
…
…
…
…
Ding-ling—ding-ling—!
A bicycle bell rang near the park entrance. The bike rolled to a stop, drawing children and their mothers over.
The woman on the bike was around fifty, wearing a hat, white checkered apron, and sleeves—selling a well-known homemade yogurt drink from her bicycle.
Kids loved it. She handed out rows of bottled yogurt, collecting coins or scanning payments, working nonstop.
After the rush died down, she pushed her bike aside and sat on a bench.
From the front basket, she took out a lunch thermos—vegetables on one tier, steamed salted fish and pork on the next, warm rice on the bottom.
She began eating.
“Hm… haven’t had this in a while.”
Hearing the voice, she quickly put the lid back on and beamed.
“It’s cheap—twelve yuan a row! Want one, young man?”
“I’ll take one.” The young man smiled lightly.
She hurried to grab a row of drinks from the box, glancing at the pair in front of her—a young man and woman, likely a couple. They looked… unusual somehow. She couldn’t explain what was different, only that they were strikingly beautiful.
They carried several shopping bags, as if they’d just left a supermarket.
“Not many people buy these anymore,” the young man said casually.
She smiled as she said, “There aren’t many left. By next year, there’ll be none at all. When we go restock, they say selling this way doesn’t make much profit, so they’re stopping it. Now everything goes to supermarkets, convenience stores, or online.”
The young man smiled. “Back when I was a kid, these stalls were packed at the school gates.”
She hadn’t expected someone his age to be so easygoing, and the friendliness warmed her a little. Young people were usually impatient and rarely chatted.
It wasn’t that no young people bought from her, but most just paid, asked the price, said how many they wanted, and left. No one bothered to exchange more than a few words with a stranger.
“I’ve only got one row left. How about this—take the second row for ten yuan? Same as I get it for. That’ll help me clear this box.”
“Sure.” The young man nodded pleasantly, as if genuinely happy to get a good deal.
He reached for his wallet, while the blonde woman beside him sweetly took over the bags he was holding.
The vendor reached out to take the handful of change, full of joy.
But suddenly her vision went black. The world spun, and she felt herself collapsing… yet right before her head hit the concrete, it stopped—suspended unnaturally just a few centimeters above the ground.
No one saw this—except the couple who had just come from the supermarket.
“Master?”
“Mm…” The young man thought for a moment. “We sampled a lot of food at the supermarket. I’m not hungry, so we can go home later.”
The girl understood immediately, nodded, and gently lifted the woman, helping her onto the bench.
But the vendor didn’t wake, and her complexion turned terrible.
The girl placed two fingers on the woman’s wrist, checking her pulse. “Master, this lady’s condition…”
The young man silently shook his head. He snapped his fingers, and the woman’s phone floated out of her pocket, dialing on its own. “Let’s notify her family first.”
The phone displayed: Son.
…
In a meeting room, a discussion about a new product launch was underway.
Suddenly, a loud ringtone and vibration echoed in the room. Everyone looked toward the source. Feeling the project manager’s displeasure, Tao Kai’s face flushed.
He glanced at the caller ID: Mom.
Without thinking, he silenced the phone immediately. “Sorry… I forgot to mute it.”
No one in the project team minded much—he was new, fresh out of school. Young people forgetting things was normal. Everyone had been there once.
But the pace of life was fast—no one had time to give advice.
The project manager resumed from where he was interrupted, completely ignoring Tao Kai.
Tao Kai exhaled quietly and texted under the table saying he was in a meeting… but the project manager suddenly tapped the board twice, making him sit up straight in a panic.
…
“He says he’s in a meeting…” the beautiful blonde woman murmured softly.
The phone, untouched, began dialing another number: Daughter.
…
Outside an IT company’s office.
A sharp-looking woman in her late twenties, with short hair and an air of competence, was chatting with colleagues about weekend plans.
“Sis Tao Tao, you’re not going home this weekend?” a coworker asked affectionately.
Tao Tao replied casually, “Nah. It’s just two days—it’d take one day just traveling. I’ll go again when it’s my mom’s birthday.”
The coworker nodded. “True. You just went back on Mother’s Day. It hasn’t been that long. Anyway, let’s go shopping this weekend? Then a movie? Karaoke? I need to reward myself after this week, or I’ll die.”
“You poor thing,” Tao Tao replied with a small laugh.
Ring ring—ring ring.
Her phone rang. The caller ID read: Mom.
“Hello, Mom? …Who are you? What? My mom fainted on the street? Wait, who are you? Why should I believe you—”
Her voice tightened. She shot to her feet, her expression shifting rapidly between fear and urgency.
(End of Chapter)