The Secrets of Harrison's Domain Chapter 3

Ever since the creation of One Two Three Four, Asher Cheng’s alarm clock has retired.

He opened his eyes in the morning to the heart-wrenching calls of the splAsher Chengs. He stretched, got out of bed, walked to the window, drew the curtains, gestured with his fingers, fired four shots at the balcony opposite, then turned around to wash up.

While brushing his teeth, his mother called. Asher Cheng answered the phone and pressed the speakerphone.

"Are you up?" asked my mother.

"Yeah, I'm brushing my teeth." Asher Cheng said with a mouthful of toothpaste foam.

"Open the window for ventilation. You've been covered all night," his mother instructed him. "The air quality index is excellent today."

"Oh." Asher Cheng looked outside. The sky was a little cloudy, snow was still falling, and it was very cold, but he still opened the window as his mother instructed.

The window here was parallel to the bedroom window. Once it was opened, the sound of "one, two, three, four, splashing" suddenly became louder.

"Are you making soy milk?" The mother was stunned. "This soy milk machine is of poor quality. Why does it make such a noise? Be careful of explosion."

"I haven't bought a soymilk machine yet," Asher Cheng spat out the toothpaste foam, "This is the parrot on the opposite building."

"Too noisy..." Mom sighed, then raised her voice, "Didn't I ask you to buy a soy milk maker? It's been a month and you still haven't bought it? Nutrition must be balanced and comprehensive, breakfast is so important..."

"I'll buy it after get off work today," Asher Cheng said quickly, "I'll buy it after get off work, promise."

"If you're busy, I'll just buy one and take it over. Your aunt brought some fresh Dendrobium officinale yesterday, so I'll just give it to you at the same time." said my mother.

"Why do I need that?" Asher Cheng sighed.

"It can enhance your immunity. You are busy with work all day, and your life is irregular. You go to bed late and get up early. Eating this every day is good for your body..."

"Got it," Asher Cheng interrupted his mother. It was hard to describe the feeling of having a nutritionist at home. "I'll go get it after work today. Don't run away."

"You're probably afraid that I'll see you living a messy life when I go there." Mom smiled.

In fact, Asher Cheng felt that his current situation was quite rare among single men.

Thanks to his mother's obsessive-compulsive disorder, his room was kept clean and tidy, without a speck of dust. He wiped his hands with disinfectant when entering the house, and put his clothes in a separate closet when going out. He never ordered takeout unless it was absolutely necessary. He usually ate horrible food made according to his mother's various nutritional recipes using her poison chef-like skills...

Asher Cheng finished his breakfast and went out. His breakfast was a pot of mixed bean porridge made with various beans and coix seeds. It was very nutritious and the taste was... The taste cooked by his skills was really lingering.

Asher Cheng is in the inpatient department this morning and in the outpatient department in the afternoon, so his schedule is quite tight.

When he passed by the restroom, he ran into Dr. Li from the Radiology Department. After he said hello, Dr. Li called him over and said, "Xiao Cheng, didn't you say yesterday that a patient with a fracture would come over for an X-ray? Why didn't he come?"

"Huh?" Asher Cheng was stunned. "He didn't come? He's seriously injured. I think he'll need to be hospitalized."

"Yes, he didn't come. The three people who came later didn't have fractures," said Doctor Li.

Is this really a scam?

Asher Cheng suddenly felt a little depressed. Nowadays, the scammers are more dedicated than each other. When they get hurt, they rush to the streets to find victims. Before coming to the hospital, they may have extorted several people. In the end, they can pass by the hospital without going in. No, they pass by the hospital without getting treated...

He remembered Lucas Zhan's confused and innocent eyes, and the obedient "brother". What a good acting!

You still have grand plans, grand plans of committing fraud!

He was indeed depressed, but when he changed his clothes and went to make rounds, Asher Cheng couldn't help but think about this matter, to be exact, the injury of Lucas Zhan.

I don't know how many days this job of scammers can last. It's not difficult to recover from a simple fibula fracture, but if you keep jumping and hopping on the street with your leg and crashing into cars over time, the bones will be seriously dislocated, and it's hard to say.

"Good morning, Doctor Cheng." Someone called him.

Asher Cheng turned his head and saw a little girl in the ward leaning against the head of the bed and greeting him. The girl was 17 years old and had been admitted there for a week.

"Good morning," he smiled and walked in. "How are you feeling today?"

"It still hurts," the girl frowned and pointed at her thigh, "near the knee. Is it bone cancer?"

"We have to do a biopsy tomorrow to confirm this," Asher Cheng looked at her, "Have a good rest. What time will your mother come over?"

"I'm here. I'm going to buy a magazine for me," the girl said with a smile, then lowered her eyelids. "Doctor Cheng."

"Hmm?" Asher Cheng looked at the chinchilla placed on her bedside.

"It must be bone cancer," the girl raised her head and waved her phone. "I checked it and it looks very similar."

Asher Cheng's heart twitched for a moment, he bent down to take her phone and put it on the bedside table next to him, and said with a smile: "You can find out why you need a doctor, have a good rest, Director Liang will come to talk to you today, he is very experienced, don't worry."

The girl smiled and nodded, without saying anything else.

The patient was first considered to have osteosarcoma at the lower end of the left femur. All preoperative examinations and preparations were completed, and an open biopsy of the lower left femur tumor was performed within a specified period of time to confirm the diagnosis.

This is what the little girl's attending physician wrote in the ward rounds record.

Osteosarcoma. This was the first time in Asher Cheng's life that he had come to know the name of a malignant tumor, and it was also the one he remembered most vividly.

Every time he saw these three words, he felt uncomfortable.

After following the director to make rounds, report, write medical records, and talk to several patients, it was almost noon. Asher Cheng felt his calves swell a little, so he sat on a chair and lifted his legs to move around.

He ate a lot during meals. He felt that the most enjoyable meal he had every day was the meal in the hospital cafeteria. Compared with what he prepared, it was simply a feast.

After taking a quick twenty-minute break at noon, he started working again. It was not until before getting off work that Asher Cheng finally took the time to pick up his mobile phone and look at the text messages he had received two hours ago.

Set aside time this weekend to wait for the call.

There are news about class reunions on my phone. It’s our small circle in high school, with seven or eight people, and we meet once a year, very regularly.

Anyway, we have started making appointments in advance. In the future, there will basically be various gatherings, with relatives, friends and classmates. Those who are from other places will come back, and those who are local will go back to their hometowns.

Eat, eat, eat. Drink, drink, drink.

Fat fat fat.

He wanted to reply quickly, but clicked delete in a daze. When he wanted to reply again, the next patient walked into the clinic.

"Doctor," an uncle came in, held his waist and sat down, put a film and medical records on his desk, "I've been here before, can you take a look at this film?"

"Let me see." Asher Cheng took a small waist pillow from the side and placed it behind the uncle.

"I sneezed while holding a basin of water yesterday. When I stretched my leg, it hurt so much that my leg hurt and I couldn't move." The uncle repeated his illness.

"Look, your third, fourth and fifth vertebrae are all protruding, and your lumbar disc is bulging. Your leg pain is probably due to compression of the nerves..." Asher Cheng explained to the uncle.

"Then what should we do? How should we treat it?" the uncle asked with a frown, "Do we need surgery?"

"Your condition does not warrant surgery..." Asher Cheng shook his head, "You need to go to our physical therapy department for treatment."

"No surgery?" The uncle seemed a little disappointed.

"Why do you still want surgery?" Asher Cheng smiled.

"They all have to serve me during the operation," the uncle said with a sigh, "I'm just enjoying it."

"That's why," Asher Cheng said as he wrote on the medical record, "It's the same with your physical therapy. Tell them that the doctor said that they will pick you up and drop you off, and you won't have to do any work. You just have to eat and drink well."

"Okay! That's what I say!" the uncle slapped his thigh.

"Don't be so violent. You need to be more graceful and take it slow," said Asher Cheng.

After the uncle left, Asher Cheng looked at the time, stood up and moved around for a while, then looked outside the clinic. There were no patients left.

get off work.

He changed his clothes, drank a large glass of cold water, and walked out of the clinic.

Just a few steps out of the hospital gate, snowflakes began to fall from the sky. Asher Cheng pulled his scarf and trotted into the parking lot.

The radio in the car told him sadly that the road home was blocked for almost one kilometer.

He thought for a while, then turned onto another road and took a detour back to his grandmother's house, where the traffic was less congested.

He listened to the radio all the way, thinking about what to eat in the evening.

I'm a little tired today and really don't want to go back to do it.

Beef noodles? Barbecued pork rice? Mixed bean porridge? No, I just had mixed bean porridge this morning...Single-person spicy hot pot? Hot and sour noodles? Mixed bean porridge? Why is there mixed bean porridge again? It tastes so bad...Noodles with soybean paste? Stewed pancakes? Mixed bean...porridge? Mixed bean porridge? Mixed bean porridge? Mixed bean porridge? Mixed...

"Hey!" Asher Cheng slapped the steering wheel in annoyance. This thing was like a single loop in his brain, once it started, he couldn't stop. His mind was full of mixed bean porridge.

There was a traffic jam ahead, so while he was waiting, he took out his cell phone and dialed his grandmother's number: "Grandma, have you eaten?"

"Eat now," grandma shouted loudly, "Are you off work? Don't you have anywhere to eat? Come here, grandma will make it for you!"

"I'll be there in about half an hour." Asher Cheng smiled and looked again. There didn't seem to be a normal traffic jam ahead. There were a lot of people squeezed in.

After hanging up the phone, he got out of the car and walked forward a few steps to see what was going on.

A red car was parked in the right lane. A little further ahead was a zebra crossing, and a group of people were standing on the crossing and shouting.

The stuck cars began to gather together, and some people honked their horns, not knowing what was happening up ahead.

Hit someone?

Or... maybe influenced by Lucas Zhan's previous experience, Asher Cheng's first reaction was, did he hit someone? Was he being scammed?

He didn't like to join in the fun, nor did he like to meddle in other people's business, but when he was about to turn around and go back to the car, a very eye-catching face entered his field of vision.

A mohawk and band-aids under the eyes.

A grand plan?!

Asher Cheng hesitated for two seconds and walked over there.

Different from the calm and well-behaved boy in the hospital that day, Lucas Zhan in front of him had an impatient expression with a bit of banditry on his face. With a few people chiming in, he looked like someone who was not easy to mess with.

The driver was a woman in her twenties, and she looked annoyed being surrounded.

With the cars behind them rushing in, Asher Cheng hadn't even walked to the side yet. She grabbed a handful of money from her bag and threw it in front of the people, shouting, "Take it! Get out of the way! Get out of the way!"

Asher Cheng was stunned, and was shocked and frightened by being harassed so much that he finally paid money to make it quiet.

He stopped, went back to the car and opened the door. If he knew this girl, he might give her a lesson about the various negative consequences of fraud and condoning fraud.

Idle.

Logan Xiang didn't see Asher Cheng outside the crowd. After taking the money, they had to evacuate quickly in case the victim reacted and called the police.

He put his arm on Owen's shoulder and jumped to the small alley next to him. Owen pushed out an electric car from the entrance of the alley. He sat on it and patted Owen: "Go."

"Where are you going?" Owen drove out. "To the hospital? Didn't Uncle Harrison tell you to go to the hospital today?"

"Internet cafe." Logan Xiang said.

"What?" Owen turned his head away, "Are you sick?"

"I have been ill all along. It's not like I suddenly got sick today." Logan Xiang pressed the band-aid on the corner of his eye. "Let's go."

"Xiao Zhan," Owen didn't insist on going to the hospital. He shrank his neck and drove to the Internet cafe. "You are the best example I've ever seen of someone who lives one day at a time, and you're not willing to live a good life."

"How many people have you seen on that street in Wodawali, including the dead?" Logan Xiang said, "They all live worse than dogs, and yet they are still living well."

Owen opened his mouth, took a mouthful of air, and said nothing more.

After staying in the Internet cafe until midnight, Logan Xiang stood up and jumped to leave. His legs were hurting and he couldn't enjoy the game.

The two of them returned to Dawali in the middle of the night against the strong north wind. There was a big pit at the corner of the street and they had to get off the car and walk over it. This pit had been there for two or three years and no one cared about it. Every time Logan Xiang passed by, he would study it to see how much wider and deeper it was, to witness the growth of this pit.

Today he took a look as usual, and there was not much change. Just as he was about to go in, a dark shadow suddenly moved by the wall.

Logan Xiang was frightened, and before he could even scream, his injured leg was hugged.

"Fcuk!" he yelled, trying to pull his legs out, but the man held him tightly and his legs hurt so much that he couldn't move. "Did you take the wrong medicine?"

After the man showed his face from the darkness, Logan Xiang saw clearly that this was the tenant of the house next door. He had lived here for nearly a year, and was addicted to drugs. Recently, his health had broken down, and he no longer had the energy to do the eating, drinking, gambling, whoring, and drugs, but he still persisted in smoking.

When Owen abandoned the car and was about to come over to help, Logan Xiang slapped the man in the face, and he let go and fell to the ground in the snow.

"What a damn bad luck!" Logan Xiang cursed.

"You'll freeze to death if you lie here all night," said Owen.

"Dead," Logan Xiang frowned, "Do you think he's alive like that?"

When Logan Xiang woke up the next morning, he heard people chatting outside the window. That person was really dead.

As to whether he died of cold, poison, or... of being slapped to death by himself, no one knows, and no one cares. This topic will not be brought up again until noon at most.

Logan Xiang washed his hands very carefully when he was washing up.

When I put on my coat, Uncle Harrison held the teapot and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Hospital." Logan Xiang said.

"You didn't go yesterday?" Uncle Harrison stared at him. "If your bones can't be reconnected, people will say that I don't care about you."

"If I can't connect, I couldn't connect even if I went there yesterday." Logan Xiang opened the door.

Levi was standing outside the door and was about to come in. When he saw him, he sneered: "If you can't connect, then don't connect. Just keep your brother Owen company."

Logan Xiang glanced at him and curled his lips: "That's all you have."

Before he slammed the door and left, he heard Levi come in and say loudly to Uncle Harrison: "Why keep this thing with all those barbs on it? It's going to cause trouble sooner or later!"

Logan Xiang spat on the ground. He was not afraid of Levi. When Uncle Harrison picked him up, Levi was still scamming people like nobody's business.

What did concern him a little was Uncle Harrison's silence after he said this in the second round.

The only reason why Uncle Harrison remained silent was because Levi expressed his thoughts.

But Logan Xiang didn't care, he had seen too many people coming and going.

The world is so big and there are so many people. In this way of living that many people can't even imagine, who would care what happens to someone they hate?

So there is nothing much to complain about.

Sometimes people just live to "exist".

There were a lot of people in the hospital. Logan Xiang didn't expect that there would be so many people in the orthopedics department. He fell asleep twice while watching silent TV on the bench before he finally heard his name.

Ambition. The fourth clinic.

He stood up and went into the fourth consulting room.

Asher Cheng was stunned when he looked up and saw the patient coming in. The man smiled at him and said, "Doctor, you look familiar. Have you seen him before?"

"Are you not going to work today?" Asher Cheng couldn't describe his feelings.

"What are you saying?" Lucas Zhan sat down on the chair with a thump, and said in a low voice, "Who wants to lie down on the street in such a cold day?"

"You look quite worn out from touching porcelain," Asher Cheng glanced at his red, frozen fingers, "lift up your trouser legs so I can see."

"Brother, don't say that. I don't want to either... My dad is sick," Lucas Zhan lowered his eyelids and sighed softly, slowly pulling up his trouser legs, "I can't just watch him die."