Chapter 39 — After Doctor Diep Disappeared

Every day he pushes a broken turtle cart to wander through caves and alleys. He asks everyone he meets.

“Do you know my wife, she is a doctor, the best kind, doing heart surgery.”

The street vendor aunt waved her hand to shoo him away.

“Go away, here you go again, you psycho.”

He wasn't angry either, smiling widely, revealing his empty gums missing his two front teeth.

“Really, she performed a surgery that saved one life, and saved three hundred people a year.”

No one believes him. Their eyes looking at him were exactly like looking at a stray cat on the side of the road. Co Tu Mac was eighteen years old. After leaving the reformatory, he went to work at an auto repair factory in the East. He no longer slept under the bridge, he rented a room in the basement. Every month when he gets paid, he will spend five hundred yuan to buy two cases of wine. When he was drunk, he dragged Co Han Chau out and beat him. The fist pounded on that skinny, bony face, the bridge of his nose collapsed.

“It's all because of you.”

Co Tu Mac gasped, grabbed Co Han Chau's collar, picked him up, then threw him on the ground.

“If it weren't for you, would I have ended up in a reformatory for three years?”

“If it wasn't for you, would my mother have abandoned me?”

Co Han Chau cowered in the corner, holding his head with both hands, not fighting back. Mouth still mumbling.

"Nam Sanh, sorry... Nam Sanh, I'm hurt..."

When Co Tu Mac heard this name, he got even angrier and kicked him straight in the ribs.

“Shut your mouth, don't call her that name, she's not your wife, she hasn't been your wife for a long time.”

Co Han Chau was kicked down and rolled, the blood foam at the corner of his mouth broke, and a mouthful of foamy blood gushed out. He still didn't fight back. His eyes were cloudy, staring at the flickering light bulb on the ceiling.

“Nam Sanh…”

In prison. Tham Moc Ngung's legs were completely disabled. During that prison escape, the guards caught up with him. The rubber stick smashed his left kneecap and his right shin bone to pieces. She can only sit in a wheelchair, facing the wall every day in a cell three meters by four meters wide. On the wall is a newspaper, stolen from the reading room. The newspaper printed a photo of Diep Nam Sanh, wearing a white suit standing in front of the podium, behind a large sign with the "Jane" logo printed on it. Tham Moc Ngung stared at that face, her nails scratching white scratches on the armrest of the wheelchair.

“Based on what?”

The corners of her mouth drooped down, and she didn't even bother to wipe it with drool.

“Based on something, it is what it is.”

The prisoner passed by, glanced at her, then walked faster. Everyone knew that the woman in room number six was crazy, and would stand up in the middle of the night and talk to the newspaper taped to the wall until morning. Transoceanic. Wall Street. 67th floor of Jane Financial Group headquarters building. Diep Nam Sanh sits in front of the camera lens. Global livestream. She wore a black turtleneck sweater, her hair tied neatly behind her head, and small pearl earrings in her ears. Left hand placed on the table, fingers tapping rhythmically.

"Dear Ms. Diep, the cardiovascular disease treatment drug researched and developed by your financial group has now passed FDA approval. Can you tell me a little about its meaning?"

“Reduce the need for heart transplants by 70%.

Her voice very light, like saying the weather is very nice today.

“Every year globally two million people die while waiting for a heart transplant, this number will drop to less than six hundred thousand.”

The host asked: "Someone said you used to be a leading cardiovascular surgeon, but now you have switched to the pharmaceutical field. Can you share about this change?" The corner of Diep Nam Sanh's mouth moved slightly.

“A scalpel can only save one life.”