1 In the dead of night, my best friend Jen Blake burst into the emergency staff room in tears. She grabbed my white coat, her voice shaking. “Audrey, the old woman out front has lost it. She brought a bunch of relatives from the sticks, smashed a tray, and started cussing everyone out.” “I’m scared. We’re short-staffed tonight. Can you go restrain her for me?” I opened my drawer, took out my fingerless sparring gloves, and carefully wiped them down with antiseptic. I was fully prepared to deliver a round of knuckle-based sedation. Then several glowing lines drifted across my vision. 【LMAO, the villainess has no idea the old lady’s son is a tech billionaire, and those “country relatives” are plainclothes bodyguards he hired.】 【In her last life, she rushed in and punched the old lady out. Bennett Shaw got her medical license revoked and sued her into bankruptcy. Delicious.】 【She never figured out the old lady was just hypoglycemic and cranky, and only knocked over the tray by accident.】 【Our heroine Jen already knows Bennett wants to hire a doctor who can fight. She’s removing Audrey, the combat champion, in advance.】 I read the comments, slid the gloves back into the drawer, and smiled at Jen. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.” Well, hello there. At the healthiest age of my life, I had finally met the person I most wanted to protect. Myself. “Audrey, don’t go easy on her. That old lady is crazy. Just knock her out and be done with it.” Jen hid behind me, clutching the hem of my coat. Her voice was low, but the excitement beneath it was impossible to miss. I ignored her and calmly pushed the gloves deeper into the drawer. “You’re not wearing them?” Jen froze. Panic flashed across her eyes. “To deal with an old lady? I don’t need those.” I casually pulled two tubes of high-concentration oral glucose from the medicine cabinet and slipped them into my coat pocket. The floating comments went wild. 【Hahaha, this idiot isn’t even wearing gloves now. Is she planning to deliver herself barehanded?】 【Jen’s borrowed-knife murder plan is smooth. If the old woman gets hurt, Audrey’s life is over.】 【Can’t wait to see Bennett’s bodyguards pin Audrey to the floor.】 I walked out of the staff room without a word. The ER lobby was a mess. Several broad men in black suits surrounded a stretcher, anxious and helpless. Beside it, a gray-haired old woman clutched her chest, cold sweat pouring down her face. Her hands spasmed uncontrollably. With one wild sweep, she sent a medical tray crashing to the floor. Gauze, forceps, and stainless-steel tools scattered everywhere. “Get away! All of you, get away from me!” Her voice was weak but irritable. One of the men in black shouted toward the intake desk, red-eyed with panic. “Where are the doctors? Is everyone in this hospital dead?” Jen shoved me from behind. “Audrey, go! That guy in black is yelling at us. Put him in an arm lock!” She sounded outraged, but her voice trembled like a leaf. I took two steps forward with the momentum of her push, my gaze locking on the old woman’s pale lips and trembling fingertips. Classic severe hypoglycemia with palpitations. “Sir, calm down.” I strode forward and pushed past the largest man in black. He frowned and reached out to block me. “Who are you? Don’t touch Mrs. Shaw!” My eyes sharpened. My left hand caught his wrist, pressed precisely against his pulse point, and redirected his force downward. A clean defensive release. The two-hundred-pound man dropped to one knee. 【Holy crap, that technique was actually hot.】 【Hot? She touched Bennett Shaw’s bodyguard. She’s dead.】 The other men in black closed in. The air turned tense. I ignored them. With my right hand, I caught the old woman’s jaw and pressed hard into the pressure point between her thumb and forefinger. She cried out, and her clenched teeth loosened. I immediately bit open the glucose tubes and poured them neatly into her mouth. “Swallow,” I said, calm and firm. “What the hell are you doing?” The bodyguard I had pinned broke free and swung at me. A gust of wind brushed past my ear. Just as his fist was about to hit my face, the old woman suddenly sucked in a breath. Some clarity returned to her cloudy eyes. “Stop… Aaron, don’t…” The man froze mid-punch and stared at her in shock. “Ma’am? Are you feeling better?” The old woman panted heavily. Color finally returned to her face. She waved weakly and looked at me with gratitude. “Sugar water… thank you, young doctor.” I released her and straightened my coat. “Hypoglycemia can cause agitation and confusion. Next time, keep candy or glucose tablets with her.” Aaron wiped sweat from his forehead, embarrassed, and thanked me repeatedly. The crisis passed. The tension in the lobby loosened at once. I turned to Jen, who was hiding several yards away. Her face was livid. She bit her lip hard, her eyes full of disbelief and resentment. The comments exploded too. 【What’s going on? The villainess didn’t hit anyone? She knows medicine?】 【Duh, she’s an ER doctor. But the plot wasn’t supposed to go like this!】 【Jen’s plan failed. She must be losing her mind right now.】 I looked at Jen and smiled. “Jen, the danger’s over. Are you still hiding over there?” Jen stiffened. Her expression shifted rapidly. Then she suddenly rushed forward, only to “slip” in the most theatrical way possible. She crashed straight into the imported defibrillator that had just been wheeled out beside the stretcher. Bang. Crack. The six-figure defibrillator toppled to the floor, its screen shattering like a spiderweb. Jen let out a piercing scream. She clutched her ankle, collapsed on the ground, pointed at me, and sobbed. “Audrey Vale! How could you randomly feed something to a patient?” “I only wanted to remind you to wait for the attending physician. Why did you push me?” Everyone froze. Rapid footsteps came from the end of the hall. The ER head nurse, Wendy Collins, hurried over with several security guards. The moment Jen saw her, tears poured down her face. She scrambled forward and hugged Wendy’s leg. “Head Nurse Collins, please do something about Audrey!” “She was violent with the patient’s family, and because the equipment was in her way, she smashed the new defibrillator our department just got!” 2 The ER lobby fell deathly silent. Only Jen’s heartbroken sobs echoed down the corridor. Wendy looked down at Jen, then at the defibrillator lying there like scrap metal. Her face darkened instantly. “Audrey Vale, what exactly happened here?” She pointed at my nose, her voice sharp enough to cut glass. I stood where I was, calmly watching this clumsy performance. “Head Nurse, you can ask the family what I was doing.” I turned toward Aaron. Before he could speak, Jen cried out and cut me off. “She almost attacked this gentleman! That’s why I rushed over to stop her!” She clutched Wendy’s pant leg, sobbing so hard she could barely breathe. “Head Nurse, Audrey has been under a lot of pressure because of the Excellence Award. Her emotions have been unstable. I tried to talk her down, but she took it out on the equipment.” “That machine was the department’s biggest purchase this year!” The moment Wendy heard “Excellence Award,” disgust flickered across her face. Everyone knew the only Outstanding Young Physician slot in the ER this year would go to either me or Jen. And every metric, every exam score, every case record I had, left hers in the dust. The comments rolled across the air, gloating. 【Amazing. Jen’s ability to flip black into white is wasted outside acting.】 【Now Audrey can’t explain herself. Who would believe a violent unstable doctor?】 【Wendy is Jen’s distant aunt. The villainess is done for.】 Looking at Wendy’s obviously biased face, my thoughts drifted back three years. It was my first day in the ER. I didn’t know the workflow yet and got yelled at by a difficult patient for half an hour. Jen had walked over with a warm milk tea and shielded me from the mocking stares around us. “Don’t mind them. From now on, we’re sisters. I’ve got you.” She had smiled so sincerely back then, her eyes bright. If only life had stayed as kind as that first meeting. Too bad that kindness had been rotted hollow by jealousy and greed. “This nurse is lying!” Aaron finally reacted and stepped in front of me. He pointed at Jen and roared, “Dr. Vale saved Mrs. Shaw. That woman tripped and knocked the machine over herself. How are you blaming the doctor?” Jen shrank back, making herself look even more pitiful. “Sir, I know you’re afraid Audrey will retaliate. She won a state fighting championship. Even you men are scared of her. How could I dare make things up?” With a few sentences, she twisted Aaron’s defense into proof he had been intimidated. Wendy snorted and cut him off impatiently. “That’s enough. Sir, this is an internal hospital matter. It doesn’t concern you.” She turned to me, voice cold and authoritative. “Audrey Vale, you will take full responsibility for the six-hundred-thousand-dollar device.” “Also, given your vile behavior tonight, I’ll report this to Medical Affairs. You are suspended pending review.” “And as for tomorrow’s Excellence Award presentation, don’t bother attending.” A clean combo. She stripped me of my work, my honor, and dropped a massive debt on my head. I didn’t argue. I only looked at Wendy, then at Jen behind her. At moments like this, explanations were useless. You can’t wake someone pretending to sleep, and a referee who already picked a side does not need evidence. I took off my white coat and draped it over the nurses’ station chair. “Fine. I accept the punishment.” My voice was flat. The instant I said it, Jen’s eyes lit with wild joy. The comments boiled over. 【What a loser. She’s swallowing this too?】 【Audrey really is a doormat. Bullied this hard and not even a fart.】 【Beautiful. Jen gets the award slot, removes her obstacle, and dumps the blame.】 I ignored the mocking words and turned toward the locker room. Jen quickly scrambled up and chased after me. “Audrey, don’t be mad at Head Nurse Collins. She’s just thinking of the department.” She leaned close to my ear. Only I could hear the triumph in her voice. “You can’t pay thirty grand, can you?” Then she finally threw out her real bait. “As long as you give me the research data for your Cardiovascular Emergency Pathway project and put my name as first author, I’ll cover the money for you.” I stopped and looked at her pretty, false face. That research project was built from countless sleepless nights. I had dug through five years of emergency cases and created the database line by line. Once published, it would shake the emergency medicine world. She wanted to step on me, climb upward, and squeeze out every last drop of my blood. I stared at her for several seconds, then smiled. “Jen, you’re so good to me.” I looked her in the eyes, enunciating every word. “Sure. Come copy the data from my computer tomorrow morning.” Jen froze, clearly not expecting me to agree so easily. Then her smile bloomed. “Audrey, I knew it. We’ll always be best friends.” 3 The next morning, sunlight filtered through the blinds and scattered across the ER office floor. The office was quiet, except for the crisp clicking of a mouse. I stood beside my workstation and watched Jen sitting in my chair. She had done a full face of makeup today, sprayed on expensive perfume for once, and ironed her white coat until not a single crease remained. She excitedly inserted a silver flash drive into my computer and dragged over an encrypted folder named “Cardio-Neuro Emergency Core Pathway.” The progress bar crawled across the screen. 30%. 50%. “Audrey, I knew you were smart enough to understand.” Jen stared at the progress bar while sighing with fake sympathy. “In our field, people without backing can’t go far. You give me the data, I win the award, and when I become deputy director later, I won’t forget you.” She said it like charity was her birthright. I leaned against the filing cabinet, my eyes cold. “Really? Then let me congratulate you early, Dr. Blake.” The comments bounced beside the screen. 【LMAO, Audrey is so easy to manipulate when she’s swallowing her anger.】 【Once Jen gets this data, she can interview as medical consultant for Bennett Shaw’s med-tech company. Million-dollar salary incoming.】 【Audrey lost hair and sleep building this, and now she’s just handing it over. That’s fate.】 My gaze followed the progress bar as it hit 100%. I felt no regret. If anything, there was a secret anticipation in my chest. The data she copied was real, of course. Not only real, but flawless. I had simply buried a “core variable” inside the massive underlying code and inference formulas. A fatal medical logic loop designed especially for her. It was like handing her a legendary sword. With poison smeared all over the hilt. “Done.” Jen pulled out the flash drive and clutched it tightly, as if she had seized the whole world. Just then, the office door was pushed open. A man in a tailored suit and gold-rimmed glasses strode in. His expression was cold, his features sharp with the authority of someone used to power. Behind him followed Wendy, suddenly humble, and several hospital administrators. “Mr. Reed, this way. This is the ER office.” Wendy, who usually strutted around the department, was smiling so hard she looked ridiculous. The man called Mr. Reed scanned the office, then his gaze landed on Jen, who stood in front. “Which doctor saved Mrs. Shaw last night?” His voice was not loud, but it carried unquestionable force. The comments exploded. 【Here he comes! Bennett Shaw’s chief assistant is here!】 【The male lead is looking for the savior. Here comes the climax!】 Jen’s eyes lit up. Without hesitation, she moved past me and approached Mr. Reed, lowering her head slightly with a gentle, professional smile. “Hello, Mr. Reed. I was on duty last night.” She pointed at the badge on her chest. Her voice was sweet enough to drip honey. “Mrs. Shaw’s condition was very dangerous. I was the one who intervened in time.” In that moment, I became the extra person in the office. Mr. Reed studied her and nodded with satisfaction. “Dr. Blake, young and capable, calm under pressure. Mr. Shaw appreciates that.” He paused, then looked past Jen and shot a cold glance at me. “However, I heard another doctor attempted to assault the patient’s family and deliberately destroyed medical equipment.” Wendy immediately chimed in, pointing at me. “That’s her! Audrey Vale!” “Mr. Reed, don’t worry. We’ve already suspended this unethical doctor.” Jen turned and looked at me with feigned sorrow. “Audrey, I told you so many times. To be a doctor, you have to have compassion first.” “How could you take your anger out on a patient’s life?” She stood on moral high ground and nailed me to a pillar of shame. Mr. Reed looked at me with open contempt. “Someone like you does not deserve to wear a white coat.” His judgment was cold, like he was looking at unrecyclable trash. I met his scornful gaze and suddenly laughed. The sound was jarring in the quiet office. “What are you laughing at?” Mr. Reed frowned. I straightened and dusted off my hands. “Nothing. I just think those gold-rimmed glasses are wasted on you, Mr. Reed.” My tone was calm but sharp. “After all, glasses on a blind man are only decoration.” 4 “What did you say?” Mr. Reed’s expression darkened instantly. Behind his lenses, his eyes narrowed with danger. As Bennett Shaw’s most trusted right hand, he was used to being respected in Northbridge’s business circles. No one had ever dared call him blind to his face. Wendy went pale and rushed forward to grab my arm. “Audrey, are you insane? Apologize to Mr. Reed right now!” I sidestepped her hand. “Am I wrong?” I looked coldly at Mr. Reed. “You can’t even identify the person who saved Mrs. Shaw. You didn’t bother checking the basic facts. This is the level of Bennett Shaw’s chief assistant?” The comments were a carnival. 【She’s lost it. The villainess is attacking everyone now.】 【Who does she think she is, talking to Mr. Reed like that?】 【Waiting for Audrey to get blacklisted forever. Idiots who don’t know death is coming should be kicked out of medicine.】 Joy flashed through Jen’s eyes, though she put on an anxious face. She grabbed Mr. Reed’s arm, her voice shaking just enough. “Mr. Reed, please don’t take it personally. Audrey… she might be mentally unstable because of the suspension.” She turned to me, tears appearing on command. “Audrey, I’m begging you. Stop making a scene. Everyone saw what happened last night. Why are you still denying it?” Mr. Reed shook off her hand in disgust, unwilling to look at me again. “If she has mental issues, send her to psychiatry. The ER isn’t a garbage dump.” He straightened his cuff and turned to Wendy. “Head Nurse Collins, I don’t want to see this person at the awards event this afternoon.” Wendy nodded repeatedly. “Of course. I’ll have her removed at once.” At two o’clock that afternoon, Northbridge’s largest medical technology forum opened in the hospital’s thousand-seat auditorium on the top floor. This was not just an academic exchange. Bennett Shaw’s medical group had arranged it specifically to select a chief medical consultant. The audience was full of Northbridge’s senior physicians, professors, and media reporters. Jen wore a custom business suit and immaculate makeup, seated in the first row like a rising star. As for me, two guards forced me to stand in the dim back corner of the auditorium. Worse, Wendy had deliberately stuck a white label on my chest. “Statement of Apology: Audrey Vale.” The humiliation was obvious. The lights dimmed. The host opened with enthusiasm. “Next, please welcome tonight’s focal figure, the true savior of Mrs. Shaw, Dr. Jen Blake!” Thunderous applause filled the room. Jen lifted her skirt and walked elegantly onto the stage. Under the spotlight, she looked like a shining goddess of medicine. “Thank you for the applause.” She bowed deeply, her voice gentle and firm. “As an emergency physician, saving lives is my duty. Last night’s situation was critical, but I always remembered the original purpose of medicine…” She spoke smoothly, reciting my emergency treatment from last night word for word, even adding some moving details of her own. The senior experts nodded approvingly. After describing the rescue, the big screen lit up. It showed the Cardio-Neuro Emergency Core Pathway data model I had spent half a year building. “Since I have this opportunity, I’d also like to share my recent research results with all of you.” Jen clicked through the slides with ease and stole my work without blinking. Watching those familiar codes and curves appear on screen, I slowly clenched my hand in the dark. The comments went insane. 【Wow, Jen has this in the bag. That data is stunning.】 【The heroine’s halo shines on the world. The villainess can only eat dust in the corner.】 【Public execution time. Make the villainess kneel and apologize. So satisfying!】 Sure enough, after Jen finished the data presentation, her tone suddenly shifted. She looked sadly toward the dark corner at the back. “Actually, standing here today, I carry a deep regret.” “My colleague, and once my best friend Audrey Vale, gave in to greed and jealousy. She nearly endangered a patient’s life and smashed expensive department equipment.” Every eye in the room turned toward me like a searchlight. Whispers rose like a tide. “So that’s the disgraced doctor?” “Shameless. How dare she show up here?” Wendy had somehow reached the front. She grabbed a microphone and spoke loudly. “Audrey Vale! The hospital has already shown you mercy. Come up here immediately and apologize to Dr. Blake and Mr. Shaw’s family in front of all the experts!” The two guards shoved me hard. I stumbled two steps out of the shadows and stood in the aisle. The white “Statement of Apology” label on my chest looked glaring under the lights. “Apologize!” “Kneel and apologize!” Someone shouted first. Soon the whole room was swallowed by the chant. Jen stood high on the stage, looking down at me, her mouth curved in triumph. I stood where I was, watching her coldly. Just as the guards were about to force my head down, the auditorium’s heavy carved doors were kicked open from outside. Bang. The sound shook the room. Everyone gasped and whipped around. Against the harsh white light of the hallway, a tall man in a black custom suit walked in, step by measured step.
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