A Bad-Hearted Doctor is Unbearably Beautiful - Chapter 36

Lu Xiao knocked on Li Limin’s door, carrying two boxes of premium wild mountain ginseng.

The moment the door swung open, Lu Xiao flashed his most harmless, goofy grin.

“Hello, Uncle Li!” Lu Xiao beamed as he stepped inside. “My parents are always talking about you.”

“Come in, come in! You really shouldn’t have brought anything, kid. We can’t keep this—take it back with you when you leave!” Li Limin and his wife hurriedly ushered Lu Xiao inside, inviting him to sit for tea.

“Don’t be so polite, Uncle, Auntie. It’s nothing expensive, just some wild ginseng. It’s good for your health!”

Li Limin sat on the sofa with a smile and began brewing a fresh pot of aged ripe Pu-erh tea.

“You youngsters really are thoughtful nowadays. I heard you’ve already been promoted to Captain at such a young age? Your parents must be so proud to have raised such a fine son.”

“Not at all. I give them plenty to worry about. You should have seen me when I was a kid; I was a real troublemaker!”

“Here, have some fruit,” Li Limin’s wife added, busily slicing a platter. “Life is better these days—there are so many fruits I don’t even recognize, but I hear you young people love them. Go on, try a piece of sugar apple. It’s very sweet!”

The three of them laughed and chatted, exchanging pleasantries for a few minutes.

“Xiao Lu,” Li Limin said, sipping his tea with a kind smile as he patted Lu Xiao on the shoulder. “Your father mentioned on the phone that you wanted to look into something. What is it? Don’t be shy; since you’re already here, just speak your mind.”

“In that case, I won’t stand on ceremony. Thank you, Uncle, Auntie.” Lu Xiao paused, then asked tentatively, “It’s about Director Shen from your hospital—Shen Zhao. Do you remember him?”

“Hmm, Little Shen? He’s the youngest Chief Physician in our department. Very capable and hardworking. Why do you ask?”

Lu Xiao gave an embarrassed smile. “It’s nothing major, really. Dr. Shen and I are friends, but he’s a man of few words and tends to keep to himself. I’ve noticed him looking troubled lately, and I’m a bit worried. I heard a while back that a friend of his died five years ago? I get the feeling he’s still deeply affected by it. I don’t know the specifics, so I thought I’d ask you—maybe I can help him find some closure.”

Upon hearing this, Li Limin fell silent. He poured another cup of tea for Lu Xiao and reflected for a long moment.

“It’s alright,” Lu Xiao added. “If you don’t know much about it, we can just drink tea and talk about other things.”

“It’s about that incident…” Li Limin recalled slowly. “Five years ago… the person you’re referring to is likely Wen Yu. Yes, I remember now. Wen Yu was also a doctor at our hospital. He joined as an assistant shortly after graduating, worked hard, and eventually stayed on. Little Shen… Little Shen basically grew up following him around. You could say Wen Yu was half a guardian to him.”

“He grew up with him? How old was Shen Zhao back then?” Lu Xiao recalled Shen Zhao mentioning he had no family.

“I believe I first saw him at the hospital when he was thirteen or fourteen. Wen Yu himself was only about twenty-three at the time; it was like he was raising a child of his own. Wen Yu filed a report saying the boy had no parents and that he wanted to look after him, at least until he finished university. After school, Little Shen would occasionally come to the hospital to do his homework. Once he was finished, he’d help the nurses with odd jobs. He was a good kid—well-behaved, never caused trouble. All the nurses liked him.”

As he listened, Lu Xiao began to picture scenes of Shen Zhao as a young boy.

“Wen Yu… did he die five years ago?”

“Sigh. He was only in his early thirties. It was very sudden. The symptoms pointed to sudden death from overwork. He was just… gone. It caught everyone off guard.”

“Sudden death? Was there a pathological analysis or an autopsy?”

“There was. They didn’t find anything unusual,” Li Limin sighed.

“Are you aware that Shen Zhao has always believed it was a calculated murder?” Lu Xiao asked, finding it hard to believe.

“Little Shen couldn’t accept it, which we all understood. Wen Yu died so quickly, so suddenly—no one had time to process it. We can understand why he would think that way.”

“How did he react at the time?”

“I remember Little Shen was at school preparing for his graduation thesis defense. The nurses didn’t dare tell him. By the time he rushed back, he didn’t even see Wen Yu’s body; it had already been cremated. He locked himself in Wen Yu’s office and wouldn’t speak to anyone. He didn’t eat for days, only drinking a few sips of water. He looked like he’d lost his soul.”

Li Limin sighed again. “Little Shen likely became a doctor because of Wen Yu’s influence. He grew up in the hospital, studied medicine, and followed in Wen Yu’s footsteps.”

Lu Xiao felt a surge of emotion. When Shen Zhao said he had “no family,” it was far more complicated than simply having no parents…

“I understand, Uncle Li. Thank you. Oh, one more thing—do you know where Shen Zhao lived or how he got by before he met Wen Yu?”

Li Limin shook his head. “I don’t know the specifics. I only recall that both of those boys seemed to come from Dongxi Town.”

Dongxi Town…

It sounded so familiar. Who had just mentioned that place?

Tang Jin had said that Dongxi Town was the hometown of Zhang Dalong and Li Tiangui.

Is that place cursed? Lu Xiao thought. He decided he would have to visit Dongxi Town in person soon.

After leaving Li Limin’s house, Lu Xiao wanted to share the news about the case closing with Shen Zhao. He sat in his car and tried calling him twice, but there was no answer.

Is he in surgery again?

Suddenly, his phone rang. Lu Xiao snatched it up immediately. The screen read: Zhang Zhen.

“Hey, Brother Zhen?”

A raspy voice came from the other end. “The USB drive… I finally cracked the encryption…”

“Holy crap, you’re a legend, Zhen! Go get yourself a nice meal, my treat!”

Zhang Zhen had spent the last few days using a dedicated computer to run decryption programs. Common methods included brute force, dictionary attacks, rainbow tables, social engineering, and remote intrusion. Because the drive belonged to Zhang Dalong, Zhang Zhen had first attempted social engineering. He combined passwords provided by Zhang Dalong’s wife, Tang Jin, with common naming habits, chat logs, email accounts, and birth dates. After multiple failed attempts, he had no luck.

Eventually, Zhang Zhen reluctantly initiated a dictionary attack. This process used massive databases of common passwords, such as Chinese Pinyin combinations, English names, and sequences like “666888” or “123456.” It was an exhausting process for the hardware; Zhang Zhen feared either his CPU or the USB drive would burn out first.

Characters flickered rapidly across the screen. After running for dozens of hours, the program suddenly halted.

Zhang Zhen initially thought the computer had crashed. He leaned in closer.

Success.

Zhang Zhen let out a long breath, finally feeling like he could clock out. “Captain Lu, I’m transferring the files to you now.”

Tucking the phone between his ear and shoulder, Zhang Zhen dragged the files into a folder. On the screen, amidst the lines of code, the decrypted password for the USB drive was displayed—five simple English characters:

wenyu