Preston Yao, the director of this hospital and its head surgeon, had arrived outside the hospital room where the four men had gathered a while ago.
However, just as he was about to enter the room, he heard an interesting conversation taking place inside.
This led him to lean against the wall next to the door as he listened in on their successful brainstorming session.
He wished to know just how long it would take for his dim-witted younger brother and his friends to reach the conclusion they were seeking.
However, when the three men had reached a dead end, he decided that it would be the best time for him to enter.
Yet once again paused when he heard a weak voice coming from the fourth person in the room.
Within a second, the eavesdropping doctor knew that this voice belonged to the patient who had been brought in earlier this evening.
Being three years older than the men inside, Preston had watched them grow and hence knew a lot about them and what was happening in their lives.
Therefore, it was easy for him to keep up with the next conversation that ensued after the initial shock of the patient's awakening dissipated.
Preston continued to be a silent observer and only when he thought that he had listened enough of their nonsense did he enter the room.
His little brother who had jumped away from him as though he was avoiding the plague did not amuse him so he shifted his attention to his patient for the night.
Aaron Song, a talented individual who had a bright future ahead of himself, was ruining his life and his body for something that was meant to be left in the past.
This wasn't the first time that Aaron was brought to the hospital after getting overly drunk so Preston decided that it was high time someone took the initiative to change this lousy behavior of his.
Therefore, soon after he had ensured that his patient's vital signs were steady with a quick glance at the equipment next to his bed, he had landed the blow which was meant to shake Aaron out of his stupor.
"She got married last week." He revealed the news he had heard from someone he knew and trusted.
Hearing this news, the rest of the men in the room had displayed signs of bafflement and shock but the same expressions were missing on his patient's face.
"But you already knew that, didn't you?" Doctor Preston pressed on, ignoring the worried look on his younger brother's face.
The reason Aaron was brought to the hospital tonight was due to his habit of drowning his sorrows in alcohol which got worse around this time of the year.
The woman he had loved and the one with whom he had decided to spend the rest of his life had unilaterally ended their relationship and left him only a few weeks before they were set to get married.
Though this event had taken place many years ago, Aaron, who had given his entire heart to her, had never been able to cope with the grief that was buried within him.
Thus he took the help of alcohol and women to get over her sudden disappearance from his life.
The once loyal and loving fiance whom everyone looked up to and envied had overnight turned into a booze-riddled womanizer who moved from one meaningless relationship to another.
None of the women he found himself with lasted for more than a week, causing his reputation to worsen with each passing day.
However, his friends did not know how to comfort him as this was his own twisted way of grieving the love he had lost.
Each year around the time when she had left him, Aaron would go overboard with his drinking and often was brought to hospitals just like this one.
It had become a common occurrence for the friends to go looking for him in the dead of the night only to find him unconscious in some club or bar.
Tonight was the same but the men knew better than to scrape old wounds by mentioning the woman who was the cause of their friend's miserable state.
They were annoyed to hear him talking about her but never would have imagined that Preston would disclose such shocking information out of nowhere.
Thus they alternated their gazes between the doctor and the patient who were now facing each other.
"Yes…" Aaron muttered in defeat when he could no longer continue staring down at the older man standing before him.
For someone who still could not let go of his first love, he was well-informed regarding everything she was up to though they were on different sides of the world.
She had left him and moved out of the country but Aaron had not been able to forget about her even now.
Therefore, the lover, who had secretly turned into a stalker, had already heard about her wedding.
She had broken their engagement off and left the country right away but in no time, had found someone else she thought was worthy of sharing the rest of her life with.
Yet here he was, unable to forget about her and the future they had envisioned together.
This was the cause for his foul mood which could subside only when he was drowning himself in alcohol.
Every time he thought of her loving another man, he could not push down the burning jealousy that raged within him and he emptied another body of liquor.
He did not know when he had passed out but when he woke up, he found himself in this hospital room with his friends around him.
He knew that his friends blamed her for his current state so he had never planned to reveal the news of her marriage to them.
It would only make them despise her more and that was not something he wished to witness.
After all, he could not deny the fact that he was still in love with her now just as much as he had been back when they were a couple.
Therefore, despite knowing about her marriage to someone else, he chose to suffer through his misery in silence rather than disclosing this news to them lest they spoke ill of her which was not something he was comfortable with.
However, never would he have thought that Big Brother Preston, who was known for being aloof, would be the one to expose his secret before his friends.
It explained the reason for the state he was currently in, so the older man did not think that he had done anything wrong by breaking this news to the youngsters.
"Since she has so clearly moved on with her life, I think it is time for you to do the same." The doctor kindly advised his patient while patting his shoulder.
However, no reply was heard as the room was filled with silence.
Aaron pursed his lips, neither agreeing nor rejecting the words the doctor, who was also a big brother figure, had spoken.
Deafening silence filled the room as no one else dared to make a single sound right now.
"If I find you in my hospital again…" Finally, this silence was broken when the speaker from before decided to continue what he wished to say.
Having stopped midway, Preston leaned closer to the youngster and applied pressure on the shoulder still in his grasp.
"I will see to it that you do not get treatment." He smiled but those words sent numerous shivers down Aaron's spine.
Their eyes met in the next second and there was a cold light that passed across the doctor's eyes as he stared down at his patient.
"Not just my hospital but every single one in Andrasia." He ended the threat he had casually made with that sweet smile still visible on his face.
However, that threat of being refused treatment in the future if he did not mend his ways sounded very much like a declaration not just to Aaron but to everyone else in this room with him.
If Preston Yao sent out an order then no hospital in this city would dare to go against him.
Therefore, if Aaron truly wished to continue living then it would be better if he stopped over-drinking from this moment forward.