Chapter 23 You Are Here?
Thirty minutes later, Wentworth showed up at the Gonzaga Group.
He entered the lobby and used facial recognition to access the CEO's private elevator.
The two secretaries at the front desk looked at him in surprise.
"Who's that? He looks kind of familiar. So handsome."
"He can use facial recognition for the CEO's elevator, so he must be from the Gonzaga family. Could he be Mr. Charles Gonzaga's brother?"
"Probably. Since he can use facial recognition to go up, we don't need to worry about whether he has an appointment. Let's just let him go!"
......
Wentworth took the elevator straight up to the 39th floor.
Past the entrance was an open office for secretaries and assistants—four female secretaries, two male assistants, and the oldest was Kai White, the executive assistant in his mid-thirties.
As soon as Kai saw Wentworth, he immediately stood up to greet him, "Commander Gonzaga, you're here?"
Wentworth frowned, "Don't call me that. It's not appropriate."
"Got it, Commander Gonzaga."
Wentworth gave him a cold look, and Kai quickly changed his tune with a grin, "Mr. Gonzaga."
Wentworth let it go—he could call him whatever he wanted.
"Mr. Wentworth Gonzaga, Mr. Charles Gonzaga is in a meeting with several shareholders. You can go right in."
Then Kai led him to the CEO's conference room.
When the door opened, several old shareholders saw Wentworth and called out one after another: "Our Commander Gonzaga is here!"
"Hello, Commander Gonzaga."
"Commander Gonzaga is looking more and more distinguished—just like your grandfather in his day!"
Wentworth's face turned cold again, "It's one thing for others to joke around, but you old guys need to watch it. Don't go too far."
Charles, sitting in the middle wearing a black suit, also said, "Stop teasing him like that. He doesn't like it. If word gets out, people might think our family is trying to break away or something. We can't afford that kind of trouble. Just treat Wentworth like a regular soldier."
After Charles spoke, the old shareholders stopped joking around.
Wentworth walked in and found a random seat.
Everyone else was dressed in suits and ties, but Wentworth wore casual clothes, completely out of place at this meeting.
Charles spoke again, "Wentworth, although I'm managing the Gonzaga Group, you also own quite a few shares. Since you have time, I'd like you to weigh in on some company matters."
Wentworth said bluntly, "But I'm just a rough guy. I don't really understand business, so I probably can't offer much advice."
"You can." Charles leaned back in his chair, slowly tapping his fingers on the table. "Recently our company has been developing a batch of life detection devices for hospitals and rescue operations. Don't you work with various detection devices in the military? Could you give us some technical guidance?"
Wentworth said, "As long as it doesn't involve military secrets, sure."
"Of course not. Ours is half public service, half commercial—we won't need any of your classified technology. I'll send you the R&D materials later. Take a look and see if there are any issues with the data."
"Sure." Wentworth agreed readily.
......
Matilda also arrived at the hospital.
Because of yesterday's incident, she felt anxious on her way to work, worried that her colleagues would judge her.
She had originally wanted to take a day off and wait until things completely died down before coming back to work. After all, things on the internet were like the wind—hot today, forgotten tomorrow.
But then she felt that taking time off would show weakness, and she shouldn't be weak!
So she bit the bullet and came to work.
However, after entering the hospital and running into colleagues on their way to work, she found that no one was looking at her strangely. Everyone either acted like usual or greeted her warmly.
A nurse at the front desk even gave her a small chrysanthemum. The nurse said, "Dr. Spencer, my boyfriend gave me these flowers today. I saved you a little chrysanthemum—chrysanthemums represent courage."
Matilda smiled, feeling touched.
When she got to her department, Wanda saw her arrive and quickly took out a bottle of water, then dipped a branch in it and patted it on her.
Matilda jumped, "Wanda, what are you doing?"
Wanda said, "This is sage I specially picked from my mother-in-law's backyard this morning, plus some lemon aromatherapy spray I mixed myself. Wave the sage around the room, spray some aromatherapy—it purifies the air, lifts your mood, brings good luck. Yesterday is over. Just focus on your work today."
Matilda couldn't help but laugh, "You're a doctor and you believe in this stuff?"
"If you believe, it works. Rituals are still important."
Just as Matilda was feeling moved, Tim, a young male doctor, brought over a cup of coffee and said to Matilda, "Dr. Spencer, I got a buy-one-get-one-free coffee this morning. I drank one cup, so you can have the other."
Matilda knew Tim meant well, so she accepted it. "Well, I won't be shy then."
"No need to be. You bought me fruit tea last month too."
"Did I? I don't remember."
"Well, important people forget things easily."
Wesley also arrived. Wesley, who was usually pretty snobbish, actually asked Matilda, "Dr. Spencer, do you want to work at the clinic or the treatment room today?"
Matilda said, "Whatever you arrange."
According to the schedule, she was supposed to be at the clinic today.
Wesley said, "You should go to the treatment room today. Let Dr. Barnes handle the clinic."
After yesterday's buzz, many people in the city had seen it. If Matilda was at the clinic, she'd inevitably be questioned by patients, so it was better to move her to the treatment room.
However, Irene wasn't happy about it.
"Dr. Cox, there's no need to switch shifts, is there? I already told several patients yesterday that I'd be doing their surgeries today."
Wesley ignored her. "That's how it'll be."
Irene immediately pouted.
Playing the victim online—who couldn't do that?
No matter how much she played victim, it couldn't cover up the fact that Matilda had abandoned her parents.
......
At noon, Matilda had lunch at the hospital cafeteria.
She had just filled her tray when several passing doctors actually put the chicken legs from their trays onto hers.
"Dr. Spencer, eat more."
Matilda quickly said, "But I already have a chicken leg. Look, it's almost overflowing."
"Mine is Southern-style fried chicken."
"Mine is BBQ sauce roasted."
"And there's spicy Nashville Hot Chicken too. Our hospital's food is famous—there are at least five or six ways to make chicken legs."
A female doctor also handed her a cup of iced fruit tea, saying she bought it from a shop outside.
Although Matilda wasn't used to being the center of so much attention and care, looking at the mountain of chicken legs piled on her tray, she felt warm inside.
She was biting into a chicken leg when Irene, sitting next to her, suddenly spoke up: "Dr. Spencer, who helped you deal with yesterday's situation? I think it was done by a professional PR company—otherwise, ordinary people couldn't fight back that quickly. I'm guessing you must know someone really powerful—is that person your boyfriend, or one of your patients?"