Professor Luo Xia was already seated in the private dining room with a menu in his hands. Chen Nan heard his dish orders and shook his head, "Hold it on those orders."
After taking a quick skim through the menu, he decided on a few vegetable dishes and switched out the greasy meat ones. Professor Luo Xia frowned on the altered order while Chen Nan ignored his displeased expression and settled on the seat next to Ariana.
While waiting for the food, Chen Nan lectured Professor Luo Xia about his meal choices and ideal diet list. "Grandpa Xia, you should know better than anyone about your health and body condition. If I wasn't here to stop those dishes from being served, you would've ate all that grease and oil. Your open heart surgery was considered a miracle and your rate of recovery was impressive. Even then, you should hold back on those foods.
Being a doctor, Chen Nan had encountered countless patients who lied about their diets. There were many who were discharged in a decent condition and came back either too late or with their lives hanging on the line. When he first performed the surgery on Professor Luo Xia, he only had fifty percent confidence in saving his life. It took a long time, but he recovered up to this point.
Chan Nan continued explaining medical terms and complicated circumstances if Professor Luo Xia doesn't cut off his sneaky habits of eating behind everyone's back. After he said what he wanted to say all in one breath, he exhaled and chugged down the cup of tea that Ariana had poured for him.
Professor Luo Xia remained quiet the entire time, which made Ariana and Zi Yan think that he was angry at Chen Nan's words. Ariana even elbowed Chen Nan a few times, but nothing stopped him from lecturing the elder man. Finally, Professor Luo Xia's lips parted, and everyone was ready to hear his nonsense responses.
"Pfffft, Aahahahahahahaha!! That's why I treated you like my family! Hahahaa, that was just a test that I purposely set up to see if you were still the same, honest you from years ago. You haven't changed one bit." Professor Luo Xia laughed heartily and sipped his tea.
"Huhh....." Chen Nan and Ariana stared at the old man who finished up his tea.
"Now, for the real business. What did you two do today? Where did you go?" He already heard some information from the bodyguards, but they were kept outside the Chen residence and stayed in a different vehicle so they couldn't provide specific details.
"Ahhh, well, we went to Chen Corporations to meet my cousin, Chen Mu. After catching up with him about the recent years, we were going to head out for some lunch. Coincidentally, we ended up meeting Chen Mu's girlfriend, Yin Susu who was attacked by some dude from the Tian family. And a lot of things happened again, but Susu's best friend, what's her name? Lily? Yeah, she joined us at Chen residence after finding out something was wrong between the Tian family and Susu."
"What about the Tian family and Susu?" Zi Yan's body leaned forward and palms laid flat against the table.
"Well.. uh.. from what we understood, the Tian family's heir tried to attack Susu by the dock and we saved her just in time. She realized that her medicine container was gone, but I was sure that there weren't any containers when I gathered the stuff that were spilled out of her bag during the attack. Later, her friend, Lily, found out that Shen Wen, the mistress of Tian family was at the hospital's lab."
Chen Nan paused to swallow his saliva and inhaled another deep breath before continuing the story. "Then, Lily found Susu's medicine container at the lab in the hospital, contacted Chen Mu and successfully switched the pills. And we gathered altogether to figure out what was going on. At the end, we came to the conclusion that the Tian family wanted something from Susu and thought that she had it in her medicine or something."
"You mentioned medicine container...what is she..what does she have exactly? How come it didn't show on the investigation report?!" Zi Yan asked anxiously. Ariana was extra observant towards Zi Yan's reaction because she has never seen Zi Yan act so nervous before. Even when she waited for Professor Luo Xia's surgery to finish, she remained her composure.
"She has Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia." Ariana responded and made direct eye contact with Zi Yan.
"What stage?" Professor Luo Xia appeared to be calm, but his knuckles were already white and his nails were digging deeply into his palms.
"Most likely still in the early stage, but she had it for a while from what we heard from Chen Mu. She might be transitioning to the next stage," Chen Nan answered with his attention focused entirely on the elder man. He could tell that Professor Luo Xia's breathing was inconsistent after hearing about their day.
"What about a donor? I heard that bone marrow transplant is one of the ways to treat that cancer." Zi Yan's chest heaved heavily as she learned more about Susu that was somehow not mentioned in the investigation report.
Chen Nan shook his head, "She has the second to the rarest blood type, AB negative. As of right now, she is still in the pool of finding a match for a bone marrow. Her case is a bit special, but Chen Mu's medicine has worked effectively in stablizing her condition We just hope that a donor matches her soon."
Professor Luo Xia and Zi Yan frowned slightly with visible creases on their foreheads. After a few minutes, Ariana broke the silence and asked, "What relations do you two have with Susu?" She put her elbows on the table, folded her hands and leaned forward. Both of them revealed a surprised expression when they heard her question.
"Wh..Why would you think we are related to her?" Zi Yan asked.
"Well, the entire story was about Susu, and you guys are extremely concerned about her." Ariana's eyes wandered slowly from left to right repeatedly.
Sigh
Professor Luo Xia waved his fingers and said, "remember I talked about having a granddaughter whom I've never had the chance to meet? I only had a picture of her."
"Don't tell me, Yin, Susu is your granddaughter?!" Chen Nan started to suspect Susu's identity since the whole conversation revolved about her. Ariana's heart almost skipped some beats when she saw Professor Luo Xia's confirmation nod.
"Then.. Ms. Zi Yan, you are her aunt? Then the first miss who died young...was Susu's mother." Ariana gasped and connected the missing dots that they were all confused about.
Zi Yan sighed and nodded, "you could put it that way."
Throughout the entire meal, Professor Luo Xia and Zi Yan asked many questions about Susu, but many of them couldn't be answered because the couple had just met her so they didn't know too much. All they could tell them was how much Chen Mu did for Susu and how happy they looked together. The couple had many questions, but they knew that those were too personal to ask so they only focused on answering questions.
After a long dinner conversation, everyone went back to their suites. Zi Yan's chest felt heavy as if there was a thousand-pound dumbbell on top of it. Her eyes reddened followed by a few tears, "I definitely wont let that bastard off. I'm sorry."
She walked towards her luggage and took out a jewelry box. A small smile curved on her face as she hugged the box to her chest. "This was our promise and I came late. I'm sorry. If I tell you everything, would you be able to forgive me for leaving you with those monsters for all these years?"
Knock Knock
"Coming!" She quickly wiped her tears and hid the box. Professor Luo Xia entered her room and said, "You comfort me with your words and here you are just as scared as I am in meeting Susu."
"Dad, why aren't you resting? It's already midnight." She tried to change the topic.
"I'm here because of the investigation report we hired someone to do on Susu. Every single thing about her was mentioned, but her illness. Someone is trying to hide her illness from us, but I'm not sure who it is. I already have the person's name in my mind. I came here to see if you and I have the same idea."
She nodded, "only him. We'll greet him sooner than we expect."