"It's getting totally ridiculous now! What am I supposed to do with all these lemons? Make pickle?" ~ Dr. Sang Tian
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In the lounge area for the doctors at the hospital, Sang Tian was seated opposite the police officers who come knocking at her door. Alina, as expected, had lodged a complaint of theft against her and as Yu Xin had instructed her while they were working on her cover story, Sang Tian remained calm and collected while answering the questions that were thrown her way.
She told them the same story of how upset she was on finding that her boyfriend was cheating on her and how she only wanted to scare them a little. Sang Tian told the police officers that she was going to return Li Si Han and Alina's cards and money but then she got drunk and was later robbed while walking back home.
Sang Tian informed them about the fact that even her belongings were stolen. She had the alibis to prove her story including the complaint that she had filed the very next morning detailing the mugging incident. Seemingly satisfied with her answers, the police officers went away after warning her to not act impulsively as she did.
By the time they left, Sang Tian still had three hours remaining to start her shift. She went back to the on-call room, plopped down on the bed, and instantly fell asleep. She was so tired that the moment her head hit the pillow Sang Tian was fast asleep.
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The shrill tone of the alarm woke Sang Tian up from sleep. Her headache had fortunately vanished by that point and she was feeling refreshed after the three-hour sleep. Wiping the sleep off her eyes, Sang Tian went to the adjoined washroom to wash her face before starting her shift.
She was assigned to assist in the pediatric ward today. Unlocking her tablet, Sang Tian opened the pediatric folder where she had stored the details of the patients in the said ward. Today, she was tasked with evaluating and planning treatment plans for two particular patients. A 9-year-old little boy and a 15-year-old teenage girl.
Pulling up their case files, Sang Tian made her way toward the pediatric ward to meet up with her assigned patients when suddenly she was pushed against the wall and slapped hard across her cheek.
"Ah!" Sang Tian used her arms and the tablet that she was holding to shield her face from the attacker who continued to hit her frantically. The force of the blows was such that Sang Tian lost her footing and fell down on the floor, her eyes closed and ears filled with the yells and screams of people around her.
Someone pulled her attacker away from her and it was then that Sang Tian moved her arms away from her face and raised her head to look at the person who had assaulted her.
Alina. Bloody. Chen.
Sang Tian's misty eyes were filled with rage as she spotted Alina struggling to free herself from the hold of two ward boys. Seething in anger, Sang Tian walked up to Alina taking long strides, and slapped the woman back for her earlier actions.
"What is your problem?!" Sang Tian whisper yelled while glaring at Alina who was still struggling to break free.
"You!" she yelled, "You are my problem, bitch! You destroyed my life, and I won't leave you!" with that Alina managed to slip away and tried to grab Sang Tian's hair but before she could do so, Li Si Han came to stand between the two women.
He wrapped his arms around Alina, blocking her from hitting Sang Tian again, "Do not create a scene here, Alina." he warned but Alina was not the one to listen.
"She destroyed the life I worked so hard to build! I am not letting the bitch go!" shouted Alina and again tried to grab onto Sang Tian but this time the latter was alert and moved away before Alina could touch her again.
"She was the one who sent that video to my husband, Si Han, don't you know? Your career is also in danger because of her and you still are trying to protect this slut!" Alina exclaimed loudly and angrily.
Sang Tian scoffed, "Are you talking about yourself, Alina?" she taunted while staring directly into the other woman's eyes, "Considering what you had done, I believe that term is more applicable to you than anybody else." she taunted, her eyes still red with rage.
"You -" started Alina but was interrupted by the roaring voice of her husband, a member of the board and one of the directors of the MedCARE Hospital and Medical University.
"What the hell is going on here? Don't you people have work to do and patients to tend to?"
Unlike his wife, Mr. Jiang Chen was a good man. Sang Tian did not know him personally but her father spoke quite highly of him. An authoritative man in his late 50s, Jiang Chen was not only the director at MedCARE Hospital but was also a renowned general surgeon whose career Sang Tian was familiar with.
As the crowd dispersed and only Sang Tian, Alina, and Li Si Han remained, Mr. Jiang Chen stepped forward and pulled his wife out of Li Si Han's arms, "Alina, it seems that my warnings fell on deaf ears." he glared at Alina first before glancing at Li Si Han.
"This hospital is a very sacred institution. We save lives here, we help people. You two have already done enough, now just get lost!" Mr. Jiang Chen admonished, the disgust that he felt towards Alina and Li Si Han was evident in his eyes.
"But -" Alina tried to protest but was silenced by her husband, "Go back home, Alina. We will talk later. Now go!"
Alina glanced at Sang Tian with a murderous gleam in her eyes before letting out a huff of breath and stomping away.
"Go back to your duty, doctors." said Mr. Jiang Chen before walking away.
Once he was out of sight, Sang Tian closed her eyes and exhaled deeply. She pressed a gentle hand to her cheek, wincing slightly as her fingers touched the hot and tingly skin. She would need to apply an ice pack later.
Gathering her stuff, Sang Tian was about to leave but stopped in her tracks when she heard Li Si Han ask, "Did you do it?"
"What?" she asked without turning around. Sang Tian knew that he was talking about the video of him and Alina, the video that Yu Xin had sent to Mr. Jiang Chen.
"You recorded a video of us that day." he reminded before continuing, "Were you the one who blackmailed Mr. Chen and Alina using that video and asked them to give you 3 million dollars for the video?"
"What?!" Sang Tian was genuinely shocked this time. She was aware that Yu Xin was going to send that video to Alina's husband but asking them to pay the price of it wasn't a part of the plan.
"How dare you?" Sang Tian stormed off, deliberately saying nothing more. She decided to talk to Yu Xin about the 3 million dollars later.
"Inu, what did you do!" she muttered to herself as she rushed over to the lounge to check on her cheek before reporting to the pediatric ward.
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Later that evening, Sang Tian was in the lounge surrounded by a bunch of medical books as she evaluated the various methods to treat the two young patients when a nurse came there to inform her about a visitor.
Sang Tian frowned in confusion but nonetheless followed the nurse to the waiting room where she found a woman about her age waiting for her as she fidgeted the hem of her top with her fingers.
"Hello." the woman stood nervously from her seat and introduced herself, "I am Qin Lan." she looked towards her left and then to her right before continuing, "Can we talk somewhere else in private?"
Sang Tian could see how visibly nervous Qin Lan was. She wondered what important thing she wanted to talk about that had her literally shaking. Understanding the unspoken and undescribed seriousness, Sang Tian guided Qin Lan to the general surgeon's lounge.
Locking the door for privacy, Sang Tian offered Qin Lan a glass of water as they sat on the table opposite to each other, "So, what did you want to talk about?"
"Your marriage." Qin Lan blurted, still a lot nervous.
With a curious tilt of her head and a frown between her brows, Sang Tian asked, "Eh, what?"
"Zhang Ri Shan." Qin Lan said the name in a soft, fond tone, "His grandfather and your grandfather had an arrangement when they were in that war they fought together. Your grandfathers want you two to get married."
"I am aware." replied Sang Tian rather curtly, "I wonder why that concerns you though."
Qin Lan drank the glassful of water before continuing, "Ri Shan and I are in a relationship, romantically involved and he proposed as well. But -" she paused for a few seconds, "I have been married before and have a son from a previous marriage. My husband died in a car accident the day my son was born. After him, it was just me and my son until Ri Shan."
Qin Lan's eyes turned misty, and her throat choked up with emotions as she continued, "We were happy, content, just the two of us. Then Ri Shan came into our lives and we fell in love."
Sang Tian offered her tissues but said nothing and let Qin Lan continue, "I am a widow with a child, there was no way the Zhang family was going to accept me easily and we knew of it. But Ri Shan's mother had been greatly supportive of our relationship, his father and grandfather though are of different opinions."
Sang Tian felt sympathetic towards Qin Lan. She seemed genuine and in case if her story was really true then it would only work in her favor, "They are adamant to have Ri Shan marry you. When he protested, they locked him up and made sure that he wouldn't be able to communicate with me or you or anybody else."
"What the?!" Sang Tian was appalled that someone would treat their own family member like this.
"Yeah." Qin Lan let out a mirthless chuckle, "That's why his mother contacted me in secret and told me about you. That's why I came to visit you here, to convince you to please refuse to this alliance. Please." Qin Lan pleaded and Sang Tian did not have the heart to say no.
"I will see what I can do." said Sang Tian, in an effort to comfort and assure her that she would do her best to help them.
"Thank you."
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The next morning, after her shift ended, Sang Tian drove herself to a nearby restaurant where she had called Yu Xin to join her for breakfast. She did not reveal to Yu Xin that she knew about the ransom money that Yu Xin asked for in that video because she wanted to confront her friend face to face.
"Hey!" Yu Xin greeted her with a wave of her hand as she saw Sang Tian enter the restaurant.
Sang Tian did not respond to her as she sat on the chair opposite to Yu Xin's, "I ordered your favorite -" Yu Xin stopped mid-sentence as she noticed the expressions on Sang Tian's face.
"Tintin." she had an inkling as to why her dear friend was looking at her with disappointment marring her beautiful features.
"I see you know what you did wrong." crossing her arms in front of her chest, Sang Tian glared at Yu Xin like an admonishing parent, "Now tell me, why do you do that?"
Yu Xin looked a little bit conflicted while trying to explain her reason behind asking for ransom regarding the private video that featured Sang Tian's ex and the hospital director.
"I had to do it to make it look original. What thief would just randomly send the husband a scandalous video of his wife without asking for monetary or any other kind of benefit? If I hadn't done that then you would have become the main suspect in this case."
"3 million dollars." spoke Sang Tian interrupting Yu Xin's explanation, "You asked for 3 million dollars!"
Yu Xin had the decency to look sheepish as she said, "I asked an ex-convict to play the part. He did all the blackmailing, I only watched."
Sang Tian rolled her eyes in annoyance while Yu Xin continued, "He needed money for his daughter's operation and I promised that I would help him get out of the prison in case he gets caught. But I also made sure that nobody would ever be able to trace it all back to him. We are safe." she added quickly.
Sang Tian did not know what to say so she settled on, "You cannot do things like that Inu else one day you will land in some major trouble."
Yu Xin was apologetic but at that moment Sang Tian did not know just how much trouble Yu Xin was going to be in the future.
So much trouble that Sang Tian herself was going to get dragged into.