Chapter 6 The Richest Man, the Shaw Family

"Knowing Pierre's name is nothing special — just look it up online. Why act like it's such a big deal?"

The assistant rolled his eyes nearby.

"She doesn't know Pierre at all. Get someone to throw her out now. If Michael's treatment gets delayed, we can't afford to take the blame."

Elara ignored him.

She patiently studied the data, and the jumbled, seemingly unconnected symptoms began to form a clear picture in her mind.

Soon, one detail caught her eye.

No wonder they couldn't find the root cause and could only watch the condition keep coming back. The real problem wasn't in the organs — it was in the blood vessels.

"Can you even understand any of this? Country bumpkin!" the assistant said smugly.

Elara turned and looked at him, her gaze ice-cold.

While the assistant was still throwing out threats, the two specialists had already called Pierre.

The call went through quickly.

One of the specialists spoke with great respect. "Professor Johnson, I have a case I'd like to ask you about. A young woman just came in and told us our research direction is wrong. She also mentioned your name."

He gave a brief rundown of what had happened.

A long silence fell on the other end of the line, broken only by the steady scratch of a pen on paper.

The assistant couldn't help cutting in. "This woman is talking nonsense. If my teacher couldn't figure it out, how could she spot it at a glance?"

"She's obviously just trying to get everyone's attention and get close to Pierre. I've seen plenty of people like her."

He could hardly wait to watch Elara get thrown out.

Pierre stayed quiet for a while.

The assistant grinned. "See, I knew this woman came here to cause trouble. She doesn't know anything. Professor Johnson must be furious! Let's hurry up and get rid of her!"

"Wait!" Pierre's excited voice came through the phone.

"She's right!"

"I knew she was wrong—" The assistant's smile slowly froze on his face.

Only then did he realize what he'd just heard. He shrieked, his voice shooting up. "You're saying she's right? That's impossible!"

The two specialists leaned in closer.

On the other end, Pierre had already guessed who Elara was, and his tone turned serious.

"You people are idiots! She's my—"

"Ahem."

Pierre was about to reveal her identity. Elara gave two quiet coughs.

Pierre caught on immediately and changed course. "This lady is no ordinary person. One day learning from her is worth ten years by my side. You really are a bunch of fools!"

The usually mild-mannered Pierre couldn't hold back and let them have it.

The two specialists looked even more embarrassed.

They never expected this young woman to spot the problem at a glance — and to know Pierre on top of that. Whatever the case, they couldn't afford to get on her bad side.

The call ended.

The two specialists dropped their earlier air of superiority and put on their most agreeable smiles.

"Please, we'd really like you to stay and guide us. We were out of line earlier, and we sincerely apologize."

Both men, well past sixty, bowed respectfully and handed Elara the most recent test results. "We'd be grateful if you could take a look and help us out."

The assistant's expression turned sour.

Pierre must be getting old and losing his mind to say something like that!

Elara took the files and flipped through them quickly.

Soon, her finger landed firmly on one page of abnormal results, and her brow furrowed slightly.

"Top medical experts? Is this really the extent of your medical knowledge? How could you make such a basic mistake!"

"Here — and here — there have been multiple signs of blood abnormalities, and you've still been treating the internal organs!"

"We..."

The specialists stared at the subtle numbers on the page, too ashamed to say a word.

Just then, the sound of applause came from outside the door.

Ethan walked in slowly, supporting Michael.

The assistant quickly put on a fawning smile and went to greet them. "Mr. Shaw, why are you out of bed?"

Michael didn't acknowledge the assistant. He looked at Elara, his eyes full of warmth. "That's my granddaughter for you. Tell me who gave you trouble — I'll stand up for you."

Elara looked at him. This old man had appeared in financial magazines many times — the man who ran the Shaw family empire, one of the wealthiest families around. And he was her grandfather.

Which meant the Shaw family... was the richest family of all?

Thinking about how Jasmine had told her that her birth parents lived in the slums, Elara couldn't help but laugh.

She looked at Michael. His body was worn down by illness, but his eyes carried a deep, all-seeing weight.

Elara smiled — a genuine one. "Grandpa."

Michael's expression was gentle, nothing like the fierce man people talked about.

The assistant felt like the ground had dropped out from under him.

Had he heard that right? Was this woman Michael's granddaughter?

That meant he had just made an enemy of her.

His knees buckled, and he sank to the floor, face drained of color, begging without any dignity. "Ms. Shaw, please forgive me for my rudeness. I was jealous of your talent — I was talking complete nonsense earlier..."

Before Elara could say a word, Michael kicked him aside. "You dare disrespect my granddaughter!"

"Get out. The Shaw family has no use for you."

The assistant fell to the ground, then scrambled up and grabbed onto Elara's leg.

"Ms. Shaw, please give me one more chance. I really didn't know who you were!"

"Get him out of here."

The bodyguards who had been waiting outside poured in and hauled him away.

A flicker of warmth moved through Elara. In the West family, no one had ever stood up for her like this.

The assistant cursed and struggled, then broke down begging.

"You little nobody! Let me back in! I earned my place here on my own — I didn't get in through connections! Let go of me!"

"You're only here because of your family name! Without the Shaws, you're nothing!"

"Please, Ms. Shaw, let me off the hook. I know I was wrong! Don't do this to me — I don't want to leave!"

His voice faded into the distance. The two specialists wiped the cold sweat from their foreheads.

"Ms. Shaw, from now on, you're the one we look to in this clinic. We'll follow your lead in everything."

If anyone outside had seen these two giants of the medical world bowing and scraping before a young woman, they wouldn't have believed it.

But that was exactly what was happening.

Elara didn't use the moment to gloat. She let out a quiet sigh.

"In medicine, what matters most is actually helping the patient get better. If you're too focused on your reputation, you lose sight of why you're here. Clean this place up, compile all the test data from the past few days into a running report, and let's have a short meeting at 3 this afternoon."

The more Michael looked at his granddaughter, the more pleased he was. "How do you know so much about medicine?"

"I studied it for a few years."

At that, the two specialists couldn't quite hide their reaction.

A few years?

What did that make their entire careers?

Ethan didn't press further. "Then we'll leave Grandpa's health in your hands from now on."

"Of course. I'll just—" Elara was about to say something more when a sharp, rapid beeping erupted in her earpiece.

Her expression changed instantly. She bolted toward the restroom.

The door slammed shut behind her.

She grabbed her phone. A glaring red light pulsed in the center of the screen.

There was a bomb in the building.