Reboot the heyday

Time flies! Three days have passed in the blink of an eye.

Today, Wang Taika was in his office listening to Duck King report on the latest progress of the investigation into the Zhao family when the phone rang.

When Wang Taika picked it up, he was stunned. It was a call from the person in charge at the hospital. This was strange, considering how little time had passed.

"You answer the phone first." The Duck King stopped reporting.

As soon as Wang Taika answered the call, the person in charge said, "Mr. Wang, Ms. Quan is very earnestly requesting to see you. Also, today's colonoscopy has been completed, and everything is healthy!"

What the hell.

Wang Taika raised an eyebrow and gestured for Duck King to wait a moment: "Sincere? What were the exact words?"

The person in charge paused, seemingly choosing his words carefully: "The exact words were, 'Make that bastard get over here right now! Otherwise, I'll smash the IV stand and jump out the window! But if he's really too busy, I can wait a bit.'"

Duck King couldn't help but chuckle, but Wang Taika glanced at him and he quickly suppressed it.

"You call this sincerity?" Wang Taika said irritably.

“Mr. Wang, for someone as emotionally unstable as Ms. Quan, her recent behavior has been very good. Her willingness to discuss things is already quite sincere.”

That's what you mean by being crazy.

"Okay, tell her to wait." Wang Taika hung up the phone and continued discussing with Duck King for another twenty minutes before leisurely picking up his coat.

Speechless all the way.

Upon arriving at the hospital and stepping into the ward again, the atmosphere was completely different.

Quan Meng'er lay half-crawling on the bed, her face still pale, but her eyes were no longer empty and lifeless. Instead, they burned with a mixture of humiliation, anger, and a trace of barely perceptible fear.

The ward was very clean; there were no water cups to throw away, and even the corners of the bedside table had been covered with protective strips by the nurses.

"Why are you lying down? It's putting pressure on your heart. It's better to sit up," Wang Taika reminded him.

When she saw Wang Taika enter, Quan Meng'er's lips turned white, and her chest heaved a few times, as if she was having a fierce internal struggle.

Finally, she managed to squeeze out a sentence, her voice dry and strained: "I can't take it anymore."

"What can't you stand?" Wang Taika asked knowingly, dragging over a chair to sit down, not too close to the bed. "Not comfortable in the VIP ward? Or can't you get used to the soy milk? I specially had it air-freighted from our country's capital, the real deal. Do you know how much this costs?"

Quan Meng'er's face contorted, and her stomach churned as if by reflex. The taste of that stuff was definitely a psychological attack. She had already gone on a hunger strike, but after drinking it, she kept vomiting and finally had to beg for some normal food.

"Can those inspections be stopped?" Quan Meng'er practically spat out the words through gritted teeth, her voice carrying a pleading tone that she herself loathed.

"Oh, you mean colonoscopy?" Wang Taika said with a sudden realization. "You can't handle it after only three times? Looks like your intestines are quite sensitive. But that's good, being sensitive means you'll remember the lessons."

Is this even human language?
"Violent maniac! Wang Taika!" Quan Meng'er suddenly raised her voice, her eyes instantly reddening, not from crying, but from anger: "Do you know how painful that was! You're a complete pervert! A demon!"

Wang Taika nodded: "It seems you've recovered quite well, you even have the energy to curse. Indeed, hate lasts longer and is more healing than love. By the way, I talked to the hospital director, and he felt your emotions were unstable, so he suggested you do a comprehensive imaging examination. I also suspect that you might have a bad heart, otherwise how could you do so many hateful things? Let's do a chest CT scan to see how your heart is."

Quan Meng'er was startled at first, but after thinking about it carefully, what's wrong with a chest CT scan? It's just standing there and getting scanned, right? What's so scary about that? "Try a colonoscopy if you're so capable!" Wang Taika said slowly, "I'm really curious to see if there's anything wrong with your heart, how could you do something so boring and troublesome. So, a comprehensive one, ten times a day. This stuff isn't cheap, but I'll reimburse you, in full!"

Quan Meng'er was taken aback: "What do you want to do?"

Wang Taika said to himself, "Ten times isn't enough, so let's do a hundred. Maybe you'll become the first person this century to die from excessive radiation exposure due to medical examinations. That would be quite memorable."

Quan Meng'er froze, her pupils dilating in terror. She had no doubt that Wang Taika was capable of such a thing. The repeated colonoscopies had already caused her both physical and psychological collapse; what if she had to undergo ten or a hundred more CT scans? So this was the purpose! Radiation—that was truly torture, a living hell.

"You, you can't," Quan Meng'er's voice trembled. Her previous fierceness and anger deflated like a punctured balloon, leaving only the most instinctive fear.

"I can, and I can very well."

Wang Taika stood up, walked to the window, his back to her, his voice cold and cruel: "And I will, very much so. If you continue to waste your energy on acting crazy, testing my limits, or putting on your 'I'm in so much pain, the whole world owes me' act, my time and patience are very limited. I don't have time to play this kind of low-level emotional tug-of-war with you."

Quan Meng'er was truly terrified. Sometimes when she had a fit of madness, she knew she was acting erratically; it wasn't that she couldn't control herself. It was just that she felt it was unfair, that she shouldn't have to bear this pain alone, and she wanted others to know how much she was suffering.

But when a person with epilepsy encounters a person with mental illness, there is still no way to deal with them; it's like they are natural enemies.

"I won't do it, I won't die, at least I can't die like this, I'm not going, I'm not going!" Quan Meng'er shouted, "Colonoscopy, that's fine too."

As a last resort, they're even willing to have colonoscopies now. You could say that's just being cheap. While it's inappropriate to say this about female idols, that's essentially how people are.

Wang Taika didn't really want to kill Quan Meng'er. He turned around and looked at her pale face and slightly trembling body: "Now, I'll give you two choices. First, I'll arrange a CT scan package right now, ten times today to whet your appetite. Second, I haven't had lunch yet, and I'm a little hungry. You can choose to change your clothes, something pretty, a short skirt and high heels, and come out with me for a quiet meal."

"Let me make this clear beforehand! During meals, no crying, no fussing, and no mentioning anything irrelevant to you. You answer my questions, and you eat what I tell you to eat. If you behave well, the next few tests can be paused. If you don't behave well, for the next seven days, we'll do a colonoscopy one day and a gastroscopy the next, plus a CT scan on the weekend. It'll be a cycle of extremes, giving you a taste of both extremes."

Quan Meng'er was overwhelmed by a tremendous sense of humiliation.

Going to dinner with him? What would that be like? Like a tamed dog forced to wag its tail and beg for mercy? This was more unbearable than any physical torture. She gripped the sheets tightly, her nails almost digging into her palms.

"Don't even think about it. I can only wear eight-centimeter heels at most."

Quan Meng'er's stubbornness lasted only a moment before she had to succumb to the latter part of her statement. After all, the shadows of the colonoscopy and CT scan were truly looming over her. It wasn't just about pain and discomfort; it was a complete trampling and manipulation of her body and mind.

Because of this series of events, Quan Meng'er had no doubt that Wang Taika would use that calm and cruel attitude to watch her being pushed into the examination room time and time again, record her breakdowns, and derive some kind of perverse satisfaction from it.

Hatred reached its peak at this moment, but accompanied by a deeper and colder sense of helplessness. In front of this man, all her resistance and all her emotions were futile, and might even become an excuse for him to torment her even more.

The instinct for survival, along with the fear of mental illness and the terror of torture, ultimately overwhelmed that pitiful sense of self-esteem.

Quan Meng'er lowered her head, avoiding Wang Taika's scrutinizing gaze, and said in an almost inaudible voice, "Here, find me a pair of stockings."

It's not that I want to look pretty right now, it's because I've been suffering a lot lately, struggling with all sorts of things, and I have a lot of bruises on my legs, so I want to use stockings to cover them up.

She ultimately loved beauty and didn't want to go out like a beggar.

"Speak louder, I didn't hear you." Wang Taika showed no mercy. (End of Chapter)