Electronic Nezha

Chapter 137 The Old Man with a Broken Feeling
Huang Jiaoming looked at the words in his hand without making any comment.

The assistant opened the door, Huang Jiaoming walked in front, and I followed behind.

The assistant asked in confusion, "Professor Huang?" He didn't know whether to stop him or let him go.

"Xiao Li, go to the restaurant and see if there's any food left." The meaning was quite clear.

After Xiao Li left, Huang Jiaoming sat down on the single sofa by the bed. He looked at me and asked, "What do you want to say?"

This was my first time meeting Huang Jiaoming up close. He was in his mid-sixties, with mostly white hair, which ironically gave him a scholarly air. He must have been an ordinary-looking person in his youth, but after a lifetime as an academic giant, a certain arrogance had settled on his face.

Without a doubt, top figures in any industry, who have been admired their entire lives, can easily turn pride and confidence into arrogance if not handled properly. Even if you're the best fried dough stick maker on the street, you're not immune to this.

Huang Jiaoming now exudes a mixture of arrogance and dejection. If you've been arrogant your whole life, and you lose your integrity in your old age, you deserve the backlash, which will be amplified. There's a term now called "brokenness"—have you ever seen a man in his sixties radiating a brokenness?
Huang Jiaoming sat there looking up at me, his gaze condescending and wary.

I said, "Don't you want to know who drew that mind map?"

Huang Jiaoming shook his head: "You used to be able to extort some money from me with this word and this sentence, but I don't care anymore." If you don't care, why did you let me in?

I suddenly pointed at him and said, "You drew it."

Huang Jiaoming looked at me like I was an idiot.

"You've performed so many surgeries in your life, but not one of them really resembles Chen Zihan?"

Huang Jiaoming subconsciously said, "Of course there is, but what does that prove?"

"Based on experience, we made a bold prediction. Chen Zihan's situation was very dangerous at the time. We first assumed the bleeding point and then took targeted measures. This approach was correct."

"The logic is correct, but now it's precisely because we guessed correctly that we can't explain it."

"Let me explain—" I started reciting long passages. After all, I still have a foundation in humanities. Although I couldn't recite in order, and I could tell from Huang Jiaoming's expression that some words were inaccurate, reciting "臣本布衣" first and then "今日天下三分，益州疲累" should still convey the same meaning for someone with literary skills.

"...Having identified these factors, we avoided the nerves and used electric heating to stop the bleeding."

"Electrocoagulation, electrocoagulation."

"Hmm, it's pretty much the same idea. Is there anything else you don't understand?"

Huang Jiaoming suddenly pulled out the mind map, his hands trembling violently, as if he were holding a hot brick that had just been fired, or as if an emperor was holding the imperial seal.

He pointed to the diagram and said, "Ultimately, we can't get around this question: How dare you do so much work from the very beginning around this predicted bleeding point, what if it's not here?"

"It doesn't matter. Even if you misjudge, you haven't wasted time. When two armies go to war, the ammunition is prepared for the other side anyway. If you guessed the location of their general, is it wrong to concentrate fire first?"

Huang Jiaoming's eyes grew brighter and brighter, and he asked a few more questions. I could only repeat what Liu Zhenhua had said based on the keywords. In the middle of the conversation, it was Huang Jiaoming who kept correcting my statements. In the end, he was actually talking to himself.

"It's working! It's all working!" he exclaimed, standing up. "So, who drew this diagram?"

"I've said so much, do you still understand? I'll give you one more chance. Tell me, who drew this?"

Huang Jiaoming's eyes looked as if someone was forcing him at gunpoint to accept a huge sum of 1000 million yuan. He asked with a mixture of surprise and fear, "It's me?"

"Yeah."

Huang Jiaoming took two quick steps and grabbed my hand, tears streaming down his face, saying, "Thank you! Thank you!" He seemed to feel that the word "thank you" was not enough to express his feelings at this moment, and suddenly his knees buckled and he was about to kneel down. I pulled him back. He was the one who caused the trouble. After all, it was Liu Zhenhua who was not careful enough. I am now giving him a title and honor, but I also have my own selfish reasons. The education we received since childhood does not support an old man of such an age kowtowing to you.

Just then, the door to the room opened, and Chen Zihan's father walked in carrying several lunch boxes. Huang Jiaoming's face was covered in snot and tears, and he was half-kneeling. I grabbed the old man's hand and helped him up.

"Teacher!" The scene was too bizarre, and Chen Zihan's father looked at Huang Jiaoming helplessly.

I quickly told him, "Professor Huang is getting old and his legs aren't as nimble as they used to be."

"Liu... Liu Zhenhua's father!?" So he finally realized who I was.

Huang Jiaoming asked in surprise, "You two know each other?"

Chen Zihan's father said, "This is Hanhan's parent."

Huang Jiaoming tried to calm himself down and said to him, "You go out first, let's talk for a while."

“Okay… teacher.” Chen Zihan’s father glanced at the mind map, gave me a deep look, and left.

Huang Jiaoming couldn't care less about these trivial matters at the moment. He stared at me and said, "It's you! Who are you? How do you have such abilities?"

I patted his hand and said, "It's just some silly hobby. I was just guessing that my son's classmate was suffering."

"You didn't answer my question!" The old man wasn't stupid.

"Just consider it a hidden master among ordinary people. Let's stop discussing this issue now. Even if we talk about it at length later, it's still your work."

Tears welled up in the old man's eyes again: "This is truly... I've spent my whole life loving fame, it's shameful." He suddenly let go of my hand and rushed towards his suitcase, "Tell me, what do you want?"

I was speechless. What, was he trying to repay a debt by giving me some old clothes? Then I realized that his bank card might also be in his suitcase. A neurosurgeon who has performed 7000 surgeries must have some savings.

"Didn't you ever suspect that I deliberately practiced that word 'refine' to fool you?"

The old man smiled sheepishly, "You can't practice writing characters that ugly and unique." Only then did I realize that he had somehow rubbed all the characters off his hands...

I told a joke to break the awkward silence. I said, "I really do have something to ask you."

"Name your price."

"It's not about the money. Since you said you painted it, why did you change your mind later?"

Huang Jiaoming's eyes suddenly filled with fear, and he whispered, "Can we not talk about this?"

"Sure, but never mention that picture again in your life. If you dare to utter a single word about it in any situation, I'll hold up a banner with the word 'Refine' and slap you in the face."

Huang Jiaoming sighed and said, "I was afraid you wouldn't believe me if I told you—not long after I performed the surgery on Chen Zihan, when I was riding high, two men suddenly broke into my apartment and kidnapped me!"

"Not for the money?"

"No, they tied me up and took me to an operating room. There was a patient lying on the operating table with a head injury who was already anesthetized. His condition was exactly the same as Chen Zihan's. Then those two people forced me to operate on him or draw a mind map based on his condition."

If Liu Zhenhua weren't a super AI, I would definitely think he was talking nonsense. But at this moment, I believed him and asked, "What do those two people look like?"

"They were a man and a woman. All I could tell about the woman was that she had very fair skin and a good figure... The man walked awkwardly and didn't talk much. All I remember is that his eyes looked like dead fish eyes!"

I breathed a sigh of relief. My trip today wasn't in vain: the Queen and the strange fish were indeed in cahoots!

(End of this chapter)