Electronic Nezha

Chapter 27 Mind Maps
"Huh?" I froze on the spot. Strictly speaking, I had never actually met Chen Zihan. My impression of her was that crisp "Goodbye, Liu Zhenhua," followed by the overturned bicycle and the blood on the ground. She was involved in the incident a few days after her midterm exams in November, when people could go out wearing just a thick coat. Now it's almost the end of December, and she must have gone through a lot in the past month or so. But apart from her "hairstyle," this ordeal doesn't seem to have affected her much.

"I was just about to say hello to you, but you asked me about it, so I was just joking with you." The girl still had a smile on her face, and she was graceful and poised. If you ask me, she was "basically fine."

"Are you all better?" I was still a little uneasy, as I was right there when the doctor talked about the aftereffects.

Chen Zihan stopped laughing and said seriously, "Thank you for your concern, Uncle Liu. I'm fully recovered now and can come to class tomorrow. My parents are talking to the teachers at school, and I have nowhere to go, so I asked my old deskmate to come and find out what's going on at school lately, so that people won't think I'm out of touch when I go back."

I took a quick look at this girl. She was a little over 1.7 meters tall, with pretty features and a refreshing and neat demeanor. She must be a very outstanding student in the entire No. 3 Middle School.

Before I could ask, Chen Zihan continued, "My surgery was very successful. My dad invited his teacher, but it left a scar. You see—" She lowered her head to show me the light white scar on the top of her head. No wonder, Chen Zihan's father is an expert; his teacher must be a renowned figure, perhaps even internationally.

I asked, "When did you wake up?"

"I woke up not long after the surgery. The reason I took so long to go back to school is that I had to wait for my hair to grow a little longer," Chen Zihan said to Liu Zhenhua. "I wanted to wear a wig to school, but Wang Aili wouldn't let me."

Liu Zhenhua said, "You really dare to say that."

"I even wore my school uniform to please her, but she wouldn't even agree to this small request. I don't wear anything too extravagant, and even a regular haircut won't do."

“Speaking of wigs, I do have one.” Liu Zhenhua picked up a bright red thing from behind the door and put it on Chen Zihan’s head. It was a punk-style wig. It was actually just a bunch of plastic threads. Liu Zhenhua and I got it as a freebie when we were shopping at the night market.

When Chen Zihan put on this thing, she instantly transformed into a spirited young woman.

“I’m going to wear this to school tomorrow, just to piss Wang Aili off.”

Then the two of them laughed.

I chuckled awkwardly twice, then suddenly realized I seemed a bit superfluous...

Why did I have to come back at this time?

"Well, you two chat first, I have something to take care of—" I quickly went back to my room and called Lao Wang, "Brother Wang, hurry up and pick out the best cherry from the stall and bring it to me."

Old Wang didn't ask any questions, just answered and hung up the phone.

There's no time like the present. Since they're already at my doorstep, I need to hurry up and repay the favor. A carton of cherries costs a little over four hundred, which is acceptable.

Inside the room, Liu Zhenhua had already put the punk hood on his head, and the two continued watching bizarre videos together. Liu Zhenhua chuckled from time to time, and Chen Zihan laughed along, but most of the laughter was due to being infected by Liu Zhenhua's laughter.

The way Liu Zhenhua interacts with the opposite sex makes me think it's unlikely he's in a relationship at a young age...

If I didn't hide, I was afraid the two of them would feel awkward, but if I did hide, it would be too deliberate. I wandered into the kitchen and saw that Yuan Yuan (Yuan Yuan was probably hiding in the closet again) had made a pot of cola chicken wings and had also set aside enough rice for tomorrow's fried rice. I filled a big plate and added two bowls of rice, then took it into Liu Zhenhua's room and said, "You two eat first."

Chen Zihan said, "No, Uncle Liu, my parents will come to pick me up later so we can go back and eat."

"Are you worried that Uncle Liu's cooking won't be good?" I joked.

"Then I won't stand on ceremony."

The little girl took the bowl of rice, picked up a chicken wing, took a bite, and said with shining eyes, "Mmm, so delicious!" Then she whispered to Liu Zhenhua, "I've been hungry for ages."

Liu Zhenhua said, "Me too."

"If you have such delicious chicken wings, why didn't you offer them up sooner—"

The young people started eating. Liu Zhenhua ate carelessly, while Chen Zihan ate delicately and gracefully, and they ate their food at a very fast pace.

"Uncle Liu, how did you make these chicken wings? My mom always makes them with a fishy smell."

I smiled without saying anything; you'd have to ask AI.

Just then, there was a knock on the door. Chen Zihan said, "Oh no, my parents are here. I haven't finished eating yet."

"You eat yours." I opened the door, and a couple stood outside. I'd seen the woman over a month ago; she was Chen Zihan's mother, still wearing her well-fitting business suit. Compared to the last time I saw her, she looked radiant. I'd also seen the man—on the wall. Chen Zihan's father wore glasses, was refined and stern, exuding an air of unquestionable sophistication. Chen Zihan also came to greet me at the door. Seeing her daughter devouring chicken wings, Chen Zihan's mother chided her, "You really don't know how to be polite anywhere!"

Chen Zihan picked up a piece of meat and held it to her mother's mouth: "Mom, try this chicken wing, remember the taste, and make it for me next time."

Chen Zihan's mother sidestepped her daughter's attempt to feed her and said to me apologetically, "This child... is such a little foodie."

I said, "Let the child finish eating before you leave." I had to keep this family of three occupied until Old Wang's cherries arrived.

The seemingly serious Director Chen then said, "Anyway, there's no rush, so let's wait a bit." He held out his hand to me, saying, "Liu... Liu..."

"My name is Liu Chuanfeng, you can just call me Lao Liu."

Director Chen shook hands with me. Usually, people my age would smile knowingly when they hear the name "Liu Chuanfeng," but Director Chen didn't say anything. It seems that his teenage years were both fulfilling and boring.

“Old Liu—” Director Chen pointed to my room and said, “Let’s talk in private. I have something to tell you.”

I was a little confused. Did they have something to tell me? Could it be that they've come to propose marriage?

It's not that I'm overthinking it. I have a little bit of interaction with this Director Chen, and this is the first time we've even met. He said he had something to tell me very seriously. What could it be?
Director Chen and I walked towards my room. The two children continued to watch the computer while eating. Chen Zihan's mother didn't seem to want to be a nuisance. Just then, a phone call came in, and she strolled to the balcony to answer it.

As soon as I entered the room, I expressed my gratitude: "Director Chen, thank you so much for my father's matter."

Director Chen said, "Don't mention it. I heard from Lao Du that he wasn't much of a help either."

"You can't say that. They're running around in the middle of the night because of you." I took out a cigarette and offered it to him.

Director Chen hesitated for a moment but still took it: "I've quit smoking for many years, but I'll still have one."

Director Du ran away because of Director Chen's sake, and Director Chen smoked because of me, huh? Does he think I'm Liu Huaqiang?

The two men smoked silently. Amidst the swirling smoke, Director Chen spoke first: "Did Old Liu used to work in medicine?"

Director Du had also had this misunderstanding, and he cleared it up back then.

"No."

Director Chen said, "I know you don't do it anymore, I mean before... Did you change careers because of some medical malpractice incident?"

How did this misunderstanding get even deeper? Tony Leung starred in a movie called "The Rogue Doctor," where the protagonist is a highly skilled but dissolute doctor who practices medicine without a license in the red-light district because he can't stand the corrupt and unfair medical system. The protagonist's surname is also Liu...

"That's even less true. Let me put it this way, I was already selling fruit when you first entered medical school."

"Oh, I heard from Director Du that—"

I knew that was the root of the problem, so I quickly explained, "It was just a coincidence, a lucky accident."

"Hmm." Director Chen stubbed out his cigarette after taking two puffs and suddenly said, "There's something for you to look at." He took out a piece of paper from his pocket, about the size of a cigarette pack. The paper was laminated and covered with a bunch of lines and symbols drawn on it, which seemed to have a vague order. When put together, they vaguely resembled a human brain, with a large black dot painted over one part.

I picked it up and glanced at it, then casually asked, "What is this thing?"

"It's hard to define. If I had to describe it, it's like a mind map—" Director Chen pointed at it, "That black dot is the location of Chen Zihan's brain hemorrhage."

I was taken aback and said, "Chen Zihan?"

“Yes, Chen Zihan discovered this before the surgery, right in the bag containing the films.” He continued to explain methodically, “The lines and symbols are incomprehensible to laymen, but to experts, they encompass almost all the steps in the surgical procedure, even indicating what instruments are used.”

Regarding the timing of Chen Zihan's surgery, there might have been some confusion due to a lack of clarity in the writing. As mentioned in the text, Chen Zihan's accident occurred shortly after the midterm exams. Liu Chuanfeng then wasted a considerable amount of time playing duo queue with Yuanyuan, and a month had passed by the time his father suffered a heart attack. Therefore, I deliberately included a description of this timeframe at the beginning of this chapter. I also added a sentence to the section in the previous chapter where Liu Chuanfeng exits the elevator to clarify the timeline.

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(End of this chapter)