The doctor and the nurses were surprised. They looked at each other and saw the same astonishment and disbelief in each other's eyes.
"I'm sorry?" The doctor asked for a confirmation, afraid that he was mishearing things. After all, the guardian of the patient had been so adamant before about not wanting the prescribed medicine.
Now he's changed his mind?
The doctor found it baffling.
Geo confirmed his decision. "Yes. I want my mother to resume her medication. It was wrong of me to oppose before. I have thought it through now, so, doctor, please continue my mother's medicine supply."
Though puzzled, the doctor agreed. It's for the good of the patient after all. It's good that the patient's guardian thought it through.
That afternoon, the prescribed medicine was delivered to Geo's mother.
And just as Ian had guessed, someone's bad hand interfered.
The medicine brought to Geo's mother had been tampered with.
Geo felt a chill in his heart.
Knowing it and guessing it was one thing, but actually living in that situation would make anyone panic. Thankfully, he and Ian already had a plan. He only needed to act according to what they had planned. Ian will do the rest.
Geo comforted himself.
The same nurse from before approached Geo and Geo's mother with a tray in her hands. On the tray was the day's supply of medicine.
Those tiny pills were blue in color with an imprinted mark. No one can spot the difference between them and the real medicine pills.
It was only by a coincidence that Geo was able to tell them apart a few days ago. Now he took a pill and looked at it carefully. Comparing it with the authentic pills his mother took initially, Geo discovered a slight color difference that most people wouldn't have noticed.
Hospital A was a big, famous hospital. Almost no one would question the medicines its staff gives out. Even if someone notices something, they would never think in the direction of illegal drugging and blackmail.
But Geo did. Maybe because of his experiences at school, a place that was supposed to be pure and clean yet was filled with malice, his guard was always subconsciously raised to protect himself.
Geo narrowed his eyes. He placed the pill back onto the tray.
The nurse was silent as she watched Geo's series of operations. She looked calm on the surface, but internally, she was freaking out. Cold sweat drenched her back. She was new to all this and she couldn't help feeling nervous, especially since she failed the first time.
But she really needed the money from this.
She secretly took slow and steady breaths to calm herself down. She wore a smile on her face to appear friendly and kind as she placed her tray on the table beside the patient's bed.
"Here is your medicine for the day, ma'am."
"Thank you, nurse." Geo's mother smiled and thanked politely. But she made no move to take the medicine. To be honest, Geo's mother herself was confused and clueless as to what her son was aiming for. He stopped her from taking the medicine, and now he agrees in public to let her take the medicine while telling her privately to not swallow the medicine.
All this going around in circles was making her dizzy.
No matter, though, Geo's mother still listened to her son.
She didn't move to take the medicine.
The nurse felt awkward.
The nurse unconsciously fiddled with her fingers. "Aren't you… going to take your medicine?"
Geo's mother instinctively looked at her son.
Geo raised his head to look at the clock. Seconds ticked by followed by minutes. It wasn't until Geo saw what he wanted to see that he suddenly smiled and said, "Mom, go ahead. Eat the medicine."
Confused, Geo's mother reached out to the nearby table and grabbed two pills. The nurse handed the glass of water on the tray to Geo's mother.
The nurse watched with her eyes fully opened, anticipating the moment the pills entered the patient's mouth. Her heart beat rapidly in her chest.
Geo's mother opened her mouth as she moved her hand to throw the pills into her mouth.
Suddenly, something flashed past.
Bang!
The glass of water fell to the ground and broke into pieces.
The nurse was stunned and turned to look at the culprit.
Aqua hair. Midnight blue eyes. A young and handsome fellow.
It was Geo.
Question marks popped out all over the nurse's head. What's going on? Why did he smash the glass of water?
At the same time, the nurse was panicking. Did he find something wrong with the medicine this time too?! But he clearly aimed for the glass of water and not the medicine.
While the nurse was doubting her life, Geo calmly said, "I saw a bug in the water."
The nurse, "...??"
"This student, there was no bug in that glass of water. I checked beforehand."
"Oh. Then maybe I saw it wrong." Geo brushed her words off.
The nurse sighed. She hurriedly turned to check on the patient's situation and saw the patient's empty hands.
Phew! It seems that the switch was successful. The patient has taken the addictive drugs disguised as the medicine. Finally, she can report back to her friend with the good news. Last time, because she failed, she got scolded a lot by her friend who referred her to this business.
"Sorry about the cup. How much did it cost?"
The nurse smiled. Now that her mission was accomplished, her heart felt much lighter and her mood brightened up. Seeing the patient and her guardian, she felt somewhat guilty since she was getting money in exchange for their misery, so she said, "No need. It was an accident. You don't have to pay for it."
"That's fine." Geo nodded.
"Then I'll be going now." The nurse took the tray and quickly left.
Geo walked up to the door of the ward, leaned out, saw no one eavesdropping, and went back in after closing and locking the door.
"Mom, you didn't really swallow the medicine, right?" Geo worriedly asked.
Geo's mother rolled her eyes. "Silly child, you made it very clear that mom should not eat the medicine. Of course I didn't swallow it. Here." She showed Geo the pills she pretended to take but actually she switched it to her other hand while Geo distracted the nurse.
"Awesome, mom!" Geo broke out into a smile and praised his mother. He took the pills from her palm and put them in a plastic bag provided by Ian. He was to give the pills prescribed to his mother to Ian for a drug test. This will serve as evidence of the hospital's crime against its patients. That way, when Geo testifies in court, he will have evidence to support his statement, instead of being accused of making unsupported claims.
"But what's going on, Geo?" Geo's mother asked with concern in her eyes and voice. Although she cooperated with her son's performance, she still had no idea what her son needed the pills for. She had been well-protected by her father and her husband in her early years, besides the suffering she endured when she had to take care of Geo alone, she was still very naive about the world and its true darkness.
Now she has her son to protect her.
Geo didn't want to let his mother know so as to save her from worrying. Although she would know eventually, that eventually is not now.
"You'll know later, mom. I've gotta go. Take care. I'll be right back!" Geo said goodbye to his mother and ran out of the ward to meet up at the appointed place with Ian.
***
"Here, the pills." Geo handed the small plastic bag containing the blue pills to Ian.
Ian received it. He slightly shook the tiny pills inside, causing the pills to bump back and forth against the edges of the bag.
"Good." Ian smiled and suddenly commanded to seemingly no one, "Take it to one of our group's testing centers. Instruct them to get it done fast." Then Ian threw the plastic bag up into the air. The plastic bag vanished when it reached the shadows.
It was like magic, making Geo's eyes widen in shock.
'What happened? How come the plastic bag disappeared in thin air?' Geo thought bewilderedly to himself.
Ian noticed Geo's shock and comforted him, "Don't worry. The pills will go where they should go."
"You-you know magic?!"
"No. It's not magic. Just one of my subordinates. Enough about that, we should begin the next phase of our plan."
Geo nodded in a daze, still confused as to how the bag disappeared.
But he quickly regained his focus. How the plastic bag disappeared wasn't important, what really mattered was exposing the rotten, dark side of Hospital A.
It was time to start the next phase of their plan.
Geo returned to his mother's side and a day passed just like that.
The next time the nurse came to deliver the medicine was twenty-four hours later.
It was time to start.
Geo knew it was time and stepped forward.
He first made sure that the pills this time were problematic as well and started making a fuss.
"These pills are not the medicine my mother should take. Are you trying to harm her?!"
"N-no."
"I don't believe you. There's something wrong with the medicine you brought. You obviously do not have good intentions."
"What?"
"Don't try to fool me. I know what's going on, you're working with the hospital to cheat us patients out of our money, aren't you? You tried to make my mother addicted to the drugs that's in the medicine you're giving her. You guys are planning on having us spend more money on 'medicine' to treat the addiction symptoms by calling the drugs 'medicine', right?"
"...no!"
"You're lying!"
"No! Sir, calm down!"
His erratic attitude confused the nurse who thought everything was fine again. Why did the patient's guardian change his face again? She felt her head hurting.
The nurse didn't feel panicked at first; she remained professional. She only thought that the patient's guardian changed his mind again, not that there was a ploy at work. This patient's guardian had a record of doing that after all.
It wasn't until Geo started accusing her of colluding with others in the hospital in swindling patients and their families for money by causing patients to become addicted that she started to panic.
'How did he know?!' The nurse had an internal melt-down. 'It's impossible. No one should know!'
Deep down, she knew she was in trouble, but the nurse still wanted to deny the allegations. The other party had no proof or evidence after all. And even if the drugging of the patient was tested to be true, no one can prove that it was her who did it.
He had nothing against her. He was bluffing or lying.
She tried to convince herself and finally calmed down.
She recalled what she saw before she agreed to do this black business.
The nurse was 32 years old and had elderly parents. No siblings. Her mother was diagnosed with cancer and she didn't have the money to treat it. She confided in her friend, who also worked at Hospital A, about her difficulties and the latter introduced her to a side of Hospital A the nurse had never known about.
Surprisingly, some of the colleagues she knew also helped Hospital A in running this black business.
Some of them participated in organ trafficking. Illegally cutting out certain patients' organs for wealthy or powerful people who need it.
Some of them took part in human experimentations. Using patients to test unsafe drugs without consent or giving surgeries which patients don't need by taking advantage of patients and their families' ignorance.
Some of them skillfully falsified certificates such as birth certificates and death certificates. As long as they were given the right amount of money, they would get it done flawlessly. Someone who's alive was pronounced dead and someone who's dead was declared living.
Some of them deliberately switched real medicine with similar looking medicine, which were actually addictive drugs, in order to get patients or their families to pay more to cure another "unexpected" illness.
The nurse remembered what she had seen on the day she went with her friend to deliver "medicine" to a sick patient who had actually been drugged but didn't know it.
What the patient and their family thought was the onset of the new illness was actually just the withdrawal symptoms the patient was experiencing from not taking the addictive drug for a while.
The patient thrashed around crazily even under the restraint of their family members. Their eyes were red with blood veins. They screamed from an unknown pain they felt in their body.
The patient's family cried from sorrow and pain. They could only helplessly watch as their beloved family member fell into such an agonizing state.
Then the nurse and her friend arrived.
As soon as the patient was fed with the fake medicine, they became well again and the patient and their family gratefully thanked the nurse's friend.
The nurse was astounded by all that. And terrified.
But thinking about her family situation, she gritted her teeth and decided to join the dark side.
Now she was regretting it.
Regret is regret, she still had to carry on with her mission.
The nurse tried to reason with Geo, but Geo wouldn't have any of it. He simply refused to listen. He argued with her.
Then, the nurse became more and more terrified. Her hands began to tremble and her tongue became stuck on the roof of her mouth. Her pupils shook crazily. Her heart was pounding like it was about to break out of her ribcage. At that point, although there was no evidence for any of the things the other said, she knew that the other party knows what's going on behind the scenes in Hospital A.
Most importantly, the other party knew she was in on it.
The nurse's psychology was not very strong, and her mental defense was slowly crumbling, yet she tried to hold on.
She deluded herself into thinking that as long as she could hold on and not admit her guilt, she would be safe.
That was until the media broke into the ward.
Flashing lights and cameras.
Microphones and chattering mouths that spat out question after question accusing her of things that she has genuinely not done yet made the weak and untrained woman's mentality collapse.
But it wasn't until Geo slapped something in her face, breaking her last line of defense that she truly had nothing she could say as an excuse.
In front of all the media people, Geo produced a piece of evidence from nowhere that almost made her kneel down.
It was the drug test result of the medicine the nurse gave to Geo's mother a day ago. The nurse thought Geo's mother had taken it, but in reality, Ian had the pills taken for a test and got the results he wanted. Now the nurse had nothing to say.
Her brain was fried.
All the commotion here alarmed the hospital.
By the time the people who were in the same business as the nurse heard the news, it was too late.
In a daze, the nurse admitted to her crimes.
The police soon came and took her away.
Then it became a one-man show.
Geo cried in front of the cameras and news reporters about how he discovered something wrong with the medicines given to mother and confronted the nurse. He repeatedly emphasized inconspicuously that there was something wrong with Hospital A, both explicitly and implicitly in his words.
He also vowed to testify against Hospital A in the court. He believed that the nurse didn't have the ability to do such a thing alone.
All that was streamed live on the news broadcast.
Things escalated from there.
After Geo, more and more victims and their families stood up to testify to Hospital A's malicious and illegal activities, hammering in Hospital A's new, disgraced reputation. No matter how Hospital A's representative tried to quibble, most people did not believe anything they said.
Their guilt was clear to all.
After the case was made, countless pieces of evidence floated down like snowflakes onto the desk of the law enforcement people. Though confounding, thanks to the evidence from an anonymous source, it became easy to convict Hospital A of its crimes.
The government became busy arresting those involved in the black business happening within Hospital A. Those who were innocent and ignorant of what was happening were released after they were strictly interrogated, while the guilty ones were sentenced according to the law.
Every wrong doing committed by Hospital A was exposed to plain sight. Like a person stripped of all their clothing.
This scandal caused a public outcry and, for a while, everyone was wary of going to hospitals for fear that the hospital they visit would also be a participant in shady dealings in the background.
Fear and unease settled in the bustling city during this period of time.
A few weeks later, Geo appeared on national television.
Many eyes from all over the country watched him as he spoke of his touching experience of almost becoming one of Hospital A's victims.
One of those eyes was cold, as if looking at a corpse.
Another pair was sharp and burned with fury that was not aimed at Geo but at the ones who caused Geo to almost suffer. Within them also contained a unique tenderness, like what one has for one's child, directed at the teenager inside the 120" TV screen.