Chapter 49 I Am a Doctor
Chapter 49 I Am a Doctor
Raymond was silent for a moment before saying, "I'm a doctor. I can't bear to see patients suffer."
Seeing that Cordelia clearly didn't believe him, Raymond added, "Ignoring a patient goes against professional ethics."
This reason was so forced it was hard to accept. Cordelia was silent for a moment, then reached out and picked up the recovery plan and medicine bag.
"Thanks."
An extremely awkward word of thanks, as if squeezed out through clenched teeth.
The corner of Raymond's mouth twitched slightly, the movement so small it was almost invisible. Then he stood up and said, "I'll be going then."
He walked to the door, his steps pausing for a moment. Without turning back, he left only one sentence: "Take the medicine on time."
The door closed. Cordelia leaned against the wall, holding the paper in her hand, her thumb unconsciously rubbing the writing on it.
She admitted that Raymond was different from Ryan.
Ryan's feelings were like a raging flood—fierce and overwhelming but all foam, leaving nothing behind when they receded. Raymond's kindness was as precise as medicine, with no extra words and no expectation of gratitude.
But the more it was like this, the more she needed to keep her distance.
She didn't come back to be warmed by anyone. She came back to settle scores with her enemies.
Cordelia folded the paper and put it in the bedside table drawer along with the medicine bag.
On the other side, Julie sat in her room. She had looked at those secretly taken photos on her phone screen at least ten times.
She knew now wasn't the time to be impulsive. She made a phone call, and when the other party answered, she lowered her voice: "Keep watching Cordelia, especially any contact between her and Raymond. Record every detail for me."
After hanging up, Julie leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.
She wondered what Ryan would do if she told him about Cordelia and Raymond.
The answer was obvious—he would go crazy and make a scene with Cordelia.
That would give Cordelia a chance to get tangled up with the Perez family.
No, what she needed to do was cut off all possibilities of Cordelia getting close to the Perez family!
How could she make Raymond keep his distance from Cordelia?
Julie suddenly thought of it—let Raymond know about Cordelia's past.
Julie opened her eyes and picked up her phone, scrolling to an overseas number. She hadn't dialed this number in three years.
The last time she called was when she arranged to have Cordelia kidnapped.
When the call connected, the man's voice was hoarse: "Ms. Fox, it's been a while. Why the sudden call?"
"Help me look into someone's information in the Empire of Upheaval."
Julie lowered her voice: "Cordelia, the woman who was sent there three years ago. I want all the negative information about her in the Empire of Upheaval—real or fake, doesn't matter. The more explosive, the better."
The other end was silent for a few seconds, then the man's tone changed, carrying an unusual caution: "I recently heard some news. People from the Empire of Upheaval are searching all over the world for a woman called Phoenix. The bounty is posted on the dark web, and the amount is ridiculously high."
Julie froze: "Who's Phoenix?"
"Not sure about her real identity. Only know she's a woman who lived in the Empire of Upheaval for three years. When she left, she killed the leader of a gang in the Empire of Upheaval. The people there hate her with a passion."
Julie's fingers slowly tightened. She wasn't sure if Phoenix was Cordelia, but the timeline matched—Cordelia had stayed in the Empire of Upheaval for three years and had just returned home recently.
If Phoenix really was Cordelia, then what she had in her hands wasn't just negative information.
"Find out for sure."
Julie's voice dropped to its lowest: "Whether Phoenix is actually Cordelia, and the specific details of that bounty—get me everything."
The man on the other end said, "Alright, but this will cost extra."
"Money's not a problem."
After hanging up, Julie stared at the ceiling, her eyes churning with an excitement even she couldn't control.
If Cordelia really was the Phoenix being hunted with a bounty by people from the Empire of Upheaval, then she wouldn't need to target Cordelia herself. She'd only need to pass this information to the right ears, and Cordelia would disappear forever.
More completely than she disappeared three years ago.
After showering, drying her hair, and getting into bed, Cordelia's last thought before closing her eyes was about the recovery plan with its cool handwriting in the bedside table drawer.
"Take the medicine on time"—this phrase kept flashing through her mind.
She threw off the covers and sat up straight.
Opening the drawer, the paper and medicine lay there quietly. Since she couldn't sleep anyway, she might as well take it.
With this thought, Cordelia reached into the drawer, took out the medicine, and put it in her mouth.
After taking the medicine, Cordelia lay back down, closed her eyes again, and fell asleep.
The next day, Cordelia left early in the morning.
The sky wasn't fully light yet. Street lamps cast orange spots of light on the wet asphalt road.
She wore a dark gray short jacket with her hair tied in a low ponytail—clean and efficient.
Today she was going to a biotech company in the suburbs called GeneVita Innovations. As the car drove along the road, Cordelia habitually glanced at the rearview mirror.
A black Buick was following her, not too close, not too far, for at least two intersections.
Cordelia didn't speed up. She turned on her signal and took the nearest exit ramp, turned into a commercial street, ran two red lights in succession, then suddenly turned right into a one-way street before entering an underground parking garage.
From entering the ramp to disappearing into the garage entrance took less than a minute.
The black Buick was blocked by a car at the one-way street entrance. By the time it got around, Cordelia's car was nowhere to be found in the parking garage.
Cordelia drove out from another exit of the garage and got back on the main road.
She checked the rearview mirror and, confirming there was no tail, relaxed her shoulders slightly.
The person following her couldn't be from the Empire of Upheaval—those people's skills wouldn't be this terrible, and they wouldn't have arrived this quickly.
That left Julie or Ryan, but Cordelia didn't take them seriously at all.
An hour later, Cordelia appeared on time in the seventh-floor conference room. Today's topic was the Phase III pre-clinical data for the new sustained-release painkiller NR-7.
"The drug structure stability test results are in."
Chief R&D Officer Jerry Lane pushed over a report. "But in high-temperature environments, the drug degradation rate exceeds expectations. Current coating technology can't handle it."
Cordelia opened the report, her fingertip pointing to the data table on page four: "What about switching the coating material to HP material?"
The people across from her all froze at once. Jerry pushed up his glasses: "The material you're talking about is very expensive, and—"
"But its drug release properties can solve your high-temperature degradation problem."
Cordelia closed the report. "I'll cover the increased cost. Run the data again and give me results within two weeks."
The conference room fell quiet. Jerry whispered something to the pharmacist beside him, who nodded seriously.
After the meeting ended, Cordelia didn't linger and left promptly. The elevator stopped at the basement parking level. The moment the doors opened, her steps froze, and she looked at the man before her with some surprise.
Why was Raymond here?