Andrew turned restlessly in the foggy haze of sleep and slowly woke up halfway.
He instinctively grabbed the phone nearby. The screen suddenly lit up, and a string of messages popped up, sharpening his originally blurry eyes.
He sat up abruptly, back straight, brow deeply furrowed into a tight line.
His fingers lightly tapped open Weibo. What he saw was an overwhelming flood of exposés: Wang Yaowen, the chief surgeon at Xiehe Hospital, taking bribes, abusing his power in drug procurement and surgery scheduling, secretly making profits in many areas. It even involved inappropriate relationships with female doctors in the department.
Wang Yaowen also deleted hospital surveillance and medical records without permission, including evidence of Katherine being framed by colleagues.
Pictures and text, every word like a heavy bomb. Once thrown, it quickly stirred a storm online. The heat surged exponentially. Comments filled with outrage and condemnation flooded the discussion section.
Andrew squinted slightly, the dark light in his narrow eyes flickering. The first image in his mind was Katherine's face. He thought silently, "This must be Katherine asking Joshua for help."
As the thought appeared, an indescribable frustration and anger rose in his heart, like being deliberately ignored and bypassed.
He raised his arm, the phone cutting through the air in an arc, hitting the corner beside the bed with a dull thud.
Through clenched teeth, he spat out, "Katherine, you actually went to someone who has nothing to do with you and didn't come to me."
Katherine's words once echoed in his ears: "Andrew, do we even have any relationship left? We are more like strangers than strangers!"
The coldness and decisiveness in her tone felt like a sharp ice blade stabbing straight into Andrew's heart. It seemed he could still feel it clearly now.
Outside the window, the thick black night spread wildly, tightly wrapping the whole city in silence.
Inside the room, Andrew looked at the Weibo trending posts and completely lost his sleepiness. He suddenly felt too awake, almost confused.
Those posts were like countless thorns stabbing sharply into his heart, making his thoughts messy and tangled.
He clearly could have done it too.
He didn't even need to work hard to reveal the truth.
But he did nothing.
After sitting still for a while, he mechanically threw off the blanket. His feet touched the floor, not cold but his heart was cold.
Dragging his somewhat heavy steps, he walked to the living room sofa. His figure looked lonely in the dim light, like a lost shadow in the vast night.
On the coffee table beside the sofa lay a pack of cigarettes quietly, the only "noticeable" comfort in the dark.
Andrew slowly reached out, his fingertips rubbing the rough surface of the pack. After a short pause, he pulled out a cigarette. The lighter clicked sharply, and a flame leapt out.
In an instant, the small spark caught fire. The orange-red glow spread in the darkness, lighting up his tense side profile. His eyebrows and eyes were half-hidden in shadow, looking deeper and harder to read.
He slowly exhaled. Rings of white smoke rose and floated, blurring the view before his eyes, as if trying to carry away all the troubling worries.
But the knot of worries between his brows stayed stubbornly tight, like carved deeply into his skin, becoming even clearer with the rising smoke.
In the dim light, Katherine's name echoed uncontrollably in his heart. "Katherine, why do you affect my mood so much?"
At the same time, Joshua had been sitting still at the computer since he entered the room.
He sat upright, focused expression, his dark eyes locked on the screen. His fingers occasionally clicked the mouse, scrolling the page, closely watching the online public opinion.
As the online heat kept rising and the criticism spread like a tidal wave, his thin lips curled into a slight, barely noticeable smile. Inside, he sighed quietly: Using the internet was really an effective move.
He knew this strike hit the target perfectly. The power of public opinion would become an invisible shackle, firmly trapping those who acted dishonestly in the shadows.
At three in the morning, the hospital director was still deep in sleep when the sudden ringing of the phone, sharp like an alarm, broke the silence instantly.
Sleepy and groggy, the director reached out and fumbled on the bedside table for a while before finally grabbing his phone. With a bit of annoyance from being woken up, he put the phone to his ear and said hoarsely, "Hello?"
From the other end came an anxious and trembling voice: "Director Wang, something bad happened. The hospital is in trouble. There are online rumors exposing Chief Surgeon Andrew accepting bribes. All the messages are negative, and the public opinion is about to spiral out of control!"
The director's cloudy mind cleared immediately. His hand tightened unconsciously around the phone, cold sweat appeared on his forehead, and his voice rose a bit: "How did this happen? Immediately gather the hospital leadership for a meeting. Do everything possible to control the public opinion. We can't let this get worse!"
After hanging up, he hurried to get dressed and head to the hospital.
When the director arrived, he quickly looked around but didn't see Andrew anywhere. He immediately shouted sharply, "Call Andrew right away. Get him here now."
"Yes." The director's secretary quickly got up and went outside to call Andrew.
Inside a private room at a club, Andrew's phone screen flickered wildly, notifications pouring in like a heavy rain, wave after wave. The screen lit up then went dark repeatedly.
After struggling several times in the dim room, the bright screen finally gave out and fell silent.
The room returned to stillness, with only Andrew's heavy snoring breaking the quiet.
At that moment, a waiter in a neat uniform quietly pushed open the door. Seeing Andrew drunk asleep on the sofa, he frowned slightly.
Out of duty, he walked quickly to Andrew's side, gently shaking his shoulder and politely but firmly saying, "Sir, please wake up."
The sudden voice echoed sharply in the quiet room, but Andrew seemed not to hear it. He just pulled his head deeper into the sofa back and said irritably, "Go away, don't bother me."
Then he turned over, covering his eyes with his arm and kept snoring loudly, completely shutting out the outside disturbance.
The waiter sighed helplessly. Just as he was about to leave to get help, Andrew's phone suddenly rang loudly again, the sharp ringtone breaking the silence.
After hesitating for a moment, the waiter walked over, picked up the phone, cleared his throat, and politely asked, "Hello, may I ask who's calling?"
On the other end, the director's secretary, anxious and eager to reach Andrew, was surprised to hear a strange voice and quickly asked, "Who are you? Where is Andrew?"
Usually calm and steady dealing with various hospital matters, the secretary was now very worried. The online scandal was like a wildfire, burning the hospital's reputation. Andrew, the one at the center, was missing. This made him frantic.
The waiter, a little confused by the fast questioning, glanced at Andrew snoring on the sofa and truthfully replied, "I'm a waiter at the Dark Night Club. Mr. Andrew is drunk and won't wake up no matter what."
Hearing this, the secretary took a deep breath, controlled his anger, said quickly, "Understood," then ended the call and rushed back to the director's meeting room.
In the meeting room, Director Wang was frowning deeply, staring at the ugly, damaging reports on the computer screen. His fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white. Veins throbbed on his forehead, and his face was full of gloom.
The secretary bent close and whispered everything he just heard in the director's ear.
The director's restrained anger exploded like a volcano. He slammed the table with a bang and shouted loudly, "Take people and bring him back to me! The hospital is almost ruined because of him, yet he's still drunk at a club!"
The secretary nodded quickly, knowing time was critical. He turned and hurried out to gather people to go to the club and bring Andrew back.