“I am not from any organization or agency, I just want to know the information personally,” I said while shaking my head.
“That is impossible! The medical records are a secret so I cannot help you with anything!” Zhou Zhiping shook his head.
“How about this?” I took out the 50,000 Yuan that I had prepared beforehand, putting it on the table.
“What is the meaning of this?” Zhou Zhiping looked at the money and his complexion turned bad as he said, “Put these back immediately, we don’t welcome you here!”
“Director Zhou, if you think this is too little then there isn’t an issue, you just have to say the number! I will give you an empty cheque!” I smiled and pulled out a cheque-book from my pocket.
“Young man, you have found the wrong person for this!” Saying that Zhou Zhiping calmed down a bit and said, “I, Zhou Zhiping, have a bottom line and morals that I always follow! If I am going to take patients, I am never going to sell them out! Don’t even think of bribing me!”
“This…” I looked at Zhou Zhiping’s angry look and was at a loss of what to do. Could it be that I really misunderstood him? Was he really not that sort of person? But just now, the leader of the Finance Department had said…… Suddenly, it dawned upon me and I understood the meaning of the leader from the Finance Department. It turned out that he meant that Zhou Zhiping will never accept the bribe, it was I who had misunderstood it as a lack of money!
“Director Zhou, I am sorry to have misunderstood you!” I quickly took the money and the cheque-book back from the table and put them back, “Director Zhou, I could only turn to the best way I knew when in my situation. I just want you to tell me about the patient to whom this receipt belongs to. I have gone up and down and found many people for help, giving out a lot of bribes, therefore, I naturally mistook you as the same as them. But it seems that I was mistaken!”
Listening to my explanation, Zhou Zhiping could only shake his head helplessly, but soon, the expression on his face returned to normal! He also knew how the officials in the hospital were, there was no one that could put a leash on them!
As I saw that Director Zhou wasn’t trying to expel me anymore, I decided in my heart to now convince him, “Director Zhou, I am also having a hard time and don’t have any other choice. You see, I am the relative of this patient but she isn’t willing to tell me the result of her medical inspection. I was very worried, so I came here to see you. Telling the patients family their results shouldn’t be a violation of the rules, right?”
“So that’s how it was!” Listening to my words, Zhou Zhiping breathed out a sigh of relief, “You could have just said that from the start, why turn the matter into something this big? I thought that you wanted me to kill someone!”
“Hehe, you don’t have to worry, I will never do something like that! Also, I can understand that asking for a medical record isn’t a big deal so long as there isn’t anything shady involved in the matter!” I smiled.
“Yes. I am a cardiologist, not a surgeon. There are only patients that have gunshots and involved in some crime that we need to keep fully confidential. As for other patients, there isn’t much that needs to be kept a secret!” Zhou Zhiping also said with a nod. {TL: This is messed up.}
“Then, Director Zhou, can you help me with this matter now?” I quickly asked.
“First, you should tell me the name of the patient. Only when the I know who the patient is can I try something. Even then, if the patient has asked to keep the matter confidential, even if you are a relative, we can’t reveal anything to you!” Zhou Zhiping said.
The patient’s name? I don’t know if Yang Mei was getting herself treated or someone else, but I still said, “She is called Yang Mei and she’s almost the same age as me!” In fact, Yang Mei was older than me.
“Yang Mei? Oh, it turned out to be her!” Zhou Zhiping looked at me and said, “Young man, you wouldn’t be lying to me, right? What is your relationship with Yang Mei? A middle-aged woman had also come here to learn of her situation. Since you are also her relative, then have you not heard anything from her?”
“Woman? Are you talking about Li Xiaohong?” I thought about it and the probability of it being Yang Mei’s mother was high.
“Li Xiaohong? Yes, that woman was surnamed Li. I don’t know what her full name is but since you know her, why come to me? Young man, it isn’t good to be lying to others!” Zhou Zhiping looked at me and said seriously.
“This…” Zhou Zhiping’s words made me somewhat not know what to reply with. People like him could only be persuaded and not coerced, so I thought about it and decided to exaggerate my relationship with Yang Mei!
“Director Zhou, I didn’t want to say it but Yang Mei is my girlfriend. I had been on a trip for the last few days but when I returned, Yang Mei had disappeared completely. There was no one at her home either. I went to her office and found this registration receipt when looking for clues!” I made myself appear to be depressed.
“Do you have any evidence to prove what you just said?” Zhou Zhiping wasn’t a stubborn old man. As he saw my appearance, he thought that I might have some truth in my words. After all, it was no use for any bad person to come here and ask for Yang Mei’s records!
“Oh, right! Here, I have a letter that she left for me through someone else!” I took out Yang Mei’s letter and showed him. Actually, I didn’t bring it along on purpose, it was just with me at the time. Before my mood wasn’t very good, so I conveniently kept the letter on me.
I deliberately placed the end of the letter in front of Zhou Zhiping.
Zhou Zhiping was a man in his sixties, so it was natural that he wasn’t very good at reading the love letters written by the younger generation. He just hurriedly saw the words Yang Mei at the end of the letter and believed what I said.
“Alright, I will believe your words! You can put the letter away!” Zhou Zhiping stood up and said to me, “Follow me downstairs, the records are kept downstairs!”
“I will have to trouble you then. Director Zhou, can you tell me about Yang Mei’s condition first?” I followed Director Zhou out of the doctor’s duty room and got on the elevator.
“You really don’t know anything at all?” Director Zhou looked at me and said in a soft voice.
“Director Zhou, I just guessed that my girlfriend might have gotten sick, I really don’t know anything else,” I shook my head.
“Then you have to be mentally prepared,” Zhou Zhiping said with a sigh.
“Director Zhou, you can rest assured that since I know she came to the Cardiology Department, I had already prepared myself,” I nodded.
“The situation is like this, Yang Mei is suffering from a congenital (from birth) heart disease. With her sickness, a person can’t be stimulated or excited, they won’t be able to live like a normal person and their lifespan isn’t very long either. Theoretically, for the patients to live the longest, the patients are prohibited from exercising, getting angry, and even falling in love. Even certain small matters in love can affect the patient’s mood, causes the aggravation of the disease!” Director Zhou said, “What I am saying might not be very pleasant to hear. I don’t know what happened among the two of you, whether you quarrelled or something else, but Yang Mei’s condition had been getting very serious during this year.”
Congenital heart disease? Why had Yang Mei never told me that! Can’t fall in love, can’t get excited? Could it be because of me that Yang Mei’s condition got so serious?
Although I wasn’t willing to think like that, listening to Zhou Zhiping’s words I could tell that I certainly had something to do with her condition! Especially since it had nearly been a year that I have known Yang Mei!
“Did she know already that she had that heart disease?” I couldn’t feel good. If Li Xiaohong already knew about Yang Mei’s condition yet still wanted her to be with me, then that was really a bad thing to do. Which mother would do something like that!
“No, she didn’t know about it beforehand. Actually, unless the sickness flares up too much, the patient can go on living as a normal person without any distinguishing signs!” Zhou Zhiping shook his head, “You also know that majority of the normal people don’t even get their heart’s condition checked even once in their entire life! There’s nothing too strange about it!”