Chapter 4

On the screen, my hoodie was carelessly tossed on the floor. Liam was standing on my bed, pinning his grinning skiing photo to the wall.

The camera abruptly shifts to a bowl of steaming, brownish medicine being mercilessly poured down the drain. It was the traditional Chinese medicine my mother used to brew for me.

Immediately afterwards, he disdainfully picked up a tattered little teddy bear with two fingers and tossed it precisely into the trash can. That was the only comfort item my mother ever bought for me when I was five years old and couldn't sleep because of the pain.

“Your aunt doesn’t seem to like you at all,” Liam said gleefully, chewing his gum. “They’d rather take me skiing than come see you.”

He suddenly leaned close to the camera, his face full of malice: "Can't you just kowtow and admit your mistake? I've raised you for over twenty years, and you're such an ungrateful wretch."

The sharp alarm from the electrocardiogram monitor went off frantically. I stared intently at the little bear lying in the trash can on the screen, the anger in my chest completely burning away my last memory.

With trembling hands, I opened the social media app and typed in my new ID: 【Ethan, the guinea pig】. Without hesitation, I clicked upload.

I sent the diagnosis of severe organ failure, the three years of experimental data that I had secretly intercepted, and all the videos of Liam's provocations with a single click.

"Is it acceptable to use another child as a guinea pig in an experiment just to save one child?"

The flood of notification sounds nearly crashed my phone. It was shared 50,000 times and topped the trending searches. Before I could even finish reading the first comment, the ICU's sensor door was violently forced open.

"Smack!" My mother rushed in like a whirlwind and slapped my phone away.

Her once-proud, meticulously styled hair was now a mess, and she roared with bloodshot eyes, "Delete it right now! Liam has been doxxed! Someone even went to his school! He just recovered, are you trying to kill him?!"

I stared at the shattered screen on the floor and forced a weak, cold laugh: "I'm lying in the ICU, on the verge of death, and you can stand him sending me videos every day to provoke me?"

“That’s Liam concerned about your condition!” the mother argued hysterically.

"Concerned?" I coughed up a mouthful of bloody saliva. "Concerned about when I'll die, so he can completely take my place?"

The mother's raised hand froze abruptly. She took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing her anger, and put on the face of a cold-blooded researcher.

“Ethan, the rumors you spread while in a fit of emotion have seriously affected the pharmaceutical company’s stock price and my reputation.” She straightened her white coat. “Delete the posts, issue a public apology, and I can let this matter go.”

"Not going to pursue this?" I stared at her mockingly. "How are you going to pursue it? Like before, stop paying my medical bills?"

The mother's eyes flickered slightly; her anger at being exposed made her completely lose her composure. She turned sharply to look at Dr. Anderson beside her, her voice as cold as ice.

"From today onwards, Ethan is being discharged. This hospital will not accept patients who engage in disruptive behavior and smear the medical system."

"Dr. Hart! He'll die if he goes out now!" Anderson exclaimed in shock, standing in front of the bed.

“Then transfer him to another hospital! We can’t accommodate him here!” The mother pushed Anderson aside and bent down abruptly.

She leaned close to my ear, her voice extremely low, like a venomous snake spitting its tongue: "Delete the post, apologize, and admit that you made up the story. Otherwise, no hospital in this country will dare to admit you."

This face, which once anxiously pressed its forehead to check my temperature when I had a fever, and which once cried and promised to cure me, now only shows the cruelty of driving me to the brink of despair.

I looked directly into her threatening eyes and softly uttered two words: "Whatever."

The mother suddenly stood up straight, and turned back coldly as she walked to the door: "Don't blame me for being heartless, you ruined Liam's life first."

The door slammed shut. The footsteps in the corridor faded away completely. Dr. Anderson, his eyes red-rimmed, grasped my hand: "Ethan, I'll contact a hospital in Canada for you. We'll leave tonight!"

I stared at the stark white ceiling, then wearily closed my eyes: "Thank you, but I'm really tired."

This exhaustion, this feeling of being completely drained, lasted until the next morning. I wasn't surprised to receive the $30,000 payment demand. My mother, as expected, terminated my medical insurance.

I emptied the last twenty dollars in my phone and signed that shameful IOU.

The moment I dragged my heavy suitcase out of the hospital gate, the early winter wind swept through like a knife. My legs went weak, and I collapsed heavily to my knees on the rough cement floor, my vision blurring.

"Ethan!" came her mother's urgent call from behind.