His eyes narrowed, his pupils contracting like startled flower petals, as the suddenly bright neon light pierced his retinas, blinding his still blurry vision. His head throbbed, his instinct urging him to raise his hand to massage his temples.
However, his movement was halted by a gentle tug on his arm. He looked down, finding his right arm wrapped in a clean white bandage, connected to an IV drip that was infusing clear fluid.
His still dazed eyes stared at the white-painted ceiling of the hospital room. The familiar scent of antiseptic stung his nostrils.
He tried to move his fingers, feeling a strange numbness.
Slowly, his focus returned. He turned his head, and his hand reached out to the side, searching for his phone.
However, instead of finding the flat object, he found his father sitting upright in a chair beside the bed. His face was hard and expressionless. There was no warmth and no look of concern.
"What are you doing after waking up? Rest,"
"Phone... where?"
His voice was hoarse and almost inaudible, like the whisper of the night wind. He tried to gather his strength, but his voice sounded weak and broken.
Reluctantly, the old man took the phone from his jacket pocket, handing it over with a stiff motion. The screen was cracked in several places, evidence of a hard impact. After giving the phone, his father looked at him once more, before getting up from the chair.
"After you leave the hospital room, we need to talk."
Karel watched his father's back slowly receding, his silhouette shrinking and finally disappearing behind the door. He took a long breath, trying to ignore his father's words and focused on the phone in his hand.
He pressed the call button, his fingers trembling, hoping for a voice to answer on the other end. However, all he heard was a long ringing tone.
He kept trying, repeatedly, but the result remained the same.
The dizziness attacked him again, this time stronger. His vision began to blur, making it difficult to focus on the dim phone screen. In frustration, he lay back down on the hospital bed, his hand holding the phone hanging limply by his side.
o0o
After a month of unconsciousness and other treatments, Karel was finally declared healed and able to return home.
With a sullen face, he began to spoon the bland porridge into his mouth.
"I've registered you at Loey University"
Suddenly, his father's voice broke the silence, and his eyes widened upon hearing his father's last words.
"I don't think your abilities need to be questioned, and one more thing, the SAT will be held two months later. Don't disappoint."
Loey? He dared to look at his father with a mixed expression, a faint hint of anger.
"Didn't grandpa say I should go to a local campus?"
What about Arthur? Would Arthur be willing to follow him? Thinking about Arthur, who couldn't be contacted at the moment, made his chest feel tighter.
"What does that old man know, this is all I have to say"
Hars wiped the corner of his mouth with a handkerchief. After that, he stepped towards his car to go back to work.
Karel, left alone at the dining table, stared silently, his eyes filled with anger. He gripped the spoon tightly.
When he could no longer control his emotions, he immediately threw the spoon, creating a loud clatter.
Without wasting time, he rushed out of the house and strode quickly towards the car.
The driver, noticing his master's presence, immediately approached.
"Bigcy Apartment , go there,"
The driver simply nodded, aware of his master's foul mood.
The car sped off, rushing through the city streets with a loud engine roar.
Leaning his head back on the seat, he closed his eyes for a moment, trying to calm his thoughts.
Upon regaining consciousness, he had asked all the hospital staff if Arthur had ever visited.
However, they all just shook their heads.
He couldn't believe that Arthur hadn't visited him at all, so he insisted on checking the CCTV, hoping the hospital staff were mistaken, but it seemed Arthur really hadn't come.
Remembering that, he just smiled bitterly. He wouldn't stop here, he had to get a satisfactory answer directly from Arthur's mouth, why he had left him alone.
Suddenly, a cynical smile spread across Karel's pale face, "I won't let you go that easily," he whispered with a tone full of anger and hatred.
Upon arriving at Arthur's apartment door, Karel took a deep breath, trying to calm his racing heartbeat before pressing the bell.
However, after waiting for a while, there was no sign of a response from inside.
His eyes shifted to the keypad next to the door. He frowned, as if thinking about something.
Realizing his foolishness, he immediately hit his head, then opened his wallet and looked at his ID card.
After that, he re-entered the pin '191103'. Entering this body's birthday, and it turned out to have the same date as his own birthday, only the year was different.
When his fingers pressed the last button, a "click!" sound signaled that the door had opened.
Karel immediately stepped inside quickly, greeted by the darkness that enveloped the apartment.
He immediately searched for the light switch with trembling hands, carefully touching the wall.
The familiar scent of tea from the apartment returned, a scent that stirred mixed feelings in him.
His eyes scanned the room, surrounded by various beautiful memories that began to flood his memory, leaving a deep pain in his heart.
His gaze then fell on the paper calendar hanging on the wall, showing the date of his accident a month ago.
His steps were heavy as he approached the calendar, the room seemed to have been uninhabited for a month.
The dining table looked dusty, and a glance at the plants near the window that had dried up made his eyes narrow in surprise.
As far as he knew, Arthur loved plants and would never forget to water them.
A sense of anxiety began to haunt him, and he immediately hurried towards Arthur's study.
He opened the documents on the desk, trying to find clues or information that might explain Arthur's whereabouts.
Finding nothing, he immediately turned to the computer on the desk, turning it on in hopes of finding something useful.
When the computer screen lit up, he began to re-enter his own birthday, then a wallpaper of his face appeared clearly.
His hands continued to scroll through thousands of emails on the computer, opening them one by one in a hurry.
However, there was still no information about Arthur. He bit his lip anxiously, then his gaze fell on the email account name with the domain.
'Arthur.maximilian@Lichoin.com'
"Maximilian? The second lead?"
"Hahaha, Maximilian is a common name, it's not Arthur"
He laughed bitterly, trying to calm himself, but the panic only increased.
Immediately, Karel turned on his phone, typing 'Lichoin Group' into the search engine. His eyes widened when he found a photo of Arthur with the name "Maximilian" listed on the site.
His heart beat faster, and fear began to grip him, making it difficult for him to breathe.
"Calm down, Karel, calm down" he tried to calm himself.
However, he couldn't calm down at all, without thinking, he ran out of the apartment, forgetting all the pain in his head.
"Central Hospital, quickly!" he urged the driver.
Maximilian, the blind second lead, who lived a miserable life, an accident, a bankrupt company. Those thoughts kept entering his head, causing pain to arise in his head.
With anger rising, he accidentally clenched his fist tightly and hit the car window next to him hard. The impact caused the glass to shake.
The driver in front looked terrified, shrinking in his seat and staring at the glass with anxious eyes, not daring to move or say anything.
As if that wasn't enough to vent his anger, he also hit his own head for all his foolishness.
"Aishhhh"
o0o