Chapter 1: The Office's Unspoken Rules...

  "But..."

  "There's no buts, just watch from the side. Go ahead and call Zhou Chuang." Hu Dong directly pushed the surgeon off the stage and let Zhou Chuang take over.

  Zhou Chuan's movements are also quick. As soon as he entered the operating room, he immediately started making incisions with his scalpel. It can be seen that he has made tremendous progress. His basic movements are very much in place.

  "How is it?" Yang Zongbao asked with a shrug of his shoulder as he stood idle at the bottom of the stage.

  Yang Zongbao knew what he was going to say was that Zhou Chuan's current skills were quite good, and could only echo: "Not bad."

  "There's a rumor in the hospital..." Hu Dong shook his head, unsure if he should say anything.

  "It's not a rumor, it's true, so maybe this is my last surgery." Yang Zongbao looked ahead with an expressionless face, unable to tell if he was angry or not: "This lifetime."

  "No way, I remember when I was in the operating room, I knew you were going to stop the surgery, this thing is known by many operating rooms. The hospital wouldn't do that, would it?" Hu Dong's tone of voice became increasingly uncertain, and his words grew softer and smaller as he spoke.

  "This hospital is more interesting than I thought," said Yang Zongbao with a smile.

  Zhou Chong's gaze was drawn to Yang Zongbao's laughter for a moment as he finished the operation on stage.

  Hu Dong looked at Yang Zongbao in disbelief: "Can you really solve it? This matter is either big or small."

  Yang Zongbao stopped laughing and said, "Can't. Let's take it one step at a time, even if I don't become a doctor, I can still make a living. In the future, you can just send me food through the iron window as a favor for our past friendship."

  "You're really calm." Hu Dong also admired Yang Zongbao's strong self-control: "Don't worry, I'll go take a look."

  No matter whether Hu Dong's words were perfunctory or not, Yang Zongbao felt grateful enough. He thought for a moment and asked: "It seems we don't have much in common, why do you think so highly of me?"

  "You didn't ask me, I hadn't thought about it. Now that you mention it, I really don't know why you caught my eye...". Hu Dong clapped his hands and stopped thinking: "It just means you look good to me."

  "Got it, stay in touch."

  Yang Zongbao's last words gave Hu Dong a faintly bad premonition. However, looking at Yang Zongbao's expression which was still alright, he didn't pay much attention to it.

  Yang Zongbao had just finished sending off the patient and was preparing to get off work, but he himself was still in the observation period, so this time it was absolutely impossible to slip away perfectly.

  Director Mao's side has no news, and it's estimated that there's no hope either. However, if Yang Zongbao is to follow the hospital's arrangement obediently, that's impossible. Even a clay figure has three points of softness, let alone Yang Zongbao, a living person. But where should he start? The medical records were obviously altered, and going back for evidence would not yield any results. As for authentication, the hospital would naturally find people to testify against him. Thinking this way, Yang Zongbao felt that he was indeed pushed into a dead end, but he couldn't bring himself to swallow his pride and ask the Yang family for help.

  Back in the top floor of Guomao, Yang Zongbao locked himself in his study without disturbing Zhou Yi who was still sleeping off his hangover, and gulped down a bottle of Hongxing Erjiao that he had picked up on the way.

  Yang Zongbao usually doesn't drink, only when it's time to drink. Now is the time to drink. Yang Zongbao can count the number of times he has drunk in his life on one hand.

  The first time was Monk Doro, the lifelong mentor and benefactor of Yang Zongbao, who gave him his first shot of vodka. The second time was when he left the mental hospital to visit his mother's grave, where he drank on her tombstone. The third time was with Yu Tiannan's grandfather. And the fourth time is today, Yang Zongbao feels cornered to death.

  The fiery liquor left a scorching trail down Yang Zongbao's esophagus, igniting his internal organs. His frozen heart also regained its warmth and began to beat rapidly.

  Yang Zongbao held a bottle of liquor in one hand, without any side dishes, and directly poured it into his stomach. Tears were even brought out by the spiciness. In the blurry vision, Yang Zongbao's right hand picked up a pen to fill in the relationship web that only had "Yang Zongbao" in the middle.

  Yang Zongbao would write down a name and the family background it represented every time he took a sip of wine. By dawn, there were already seven or eight empty bottles at his feet. The 6A paper on his desk was filled with names and their explanations.

  After drinking down the last mouthful of white wine, Yang Zongbao fell to the ground and fainted.

  When Zhou Yi opened the door and entered the study, he saw Yang Zongbao lying under the desk with 7 or 8 empty wine bottles beside him. The white paper on the table was covered with dense black characters that looked like ants, which should be the result of his master's work for a day and a night.

  Zhou Yi walked over, looked down and was shocked beyond words. The three characters "Yang Zongbao" occupied the center of the entire page, with names that Zhou Yi couldn't imagine on either side, above and below, indicating their relationship with Yang Zongbao. Some were people he knew, others he didn't. Those he recognized were mostly names he had heard in the news. Those he didn't recognize were mostly foreign names. All the relationships were very clear except for the top left corner, which only had the name of a hospital - Seattle St. Mary's Center Hospital.

  "What are you doing?"

  Zhou Yi was startled by Yang Zongbao who suddenly sat up.

  "Master, are you awake?" Zhou Yi retreated slowly and went back.

  "Did you see that?" Yang Zongbao had actually woken up as soon as Zhou Yi entered the door, but just to see Zhou Yi's reaction. So he didn't make a sound all along.

  "Look... I see." Zhou Yi said with a stutter, and immediately seemed to have found something funny, leaning in close to Yang Zongbao with a smile: "Master, where did you meet these people?"

  "It's a secret." Yang Zongbao was impatient with the kid's evasive nature and didn't want to waste his breath explaining. After Zhou Yi looked at the list again, he didn't have any thoughts beyond his initial surprise. This made Yang Zongbao feel somewhat reassured.

  "Master, you're the ugliest." Zhou Yi exaggeratedly covered his nose.

  "Hmm..." For the first time, Yang Zongbao was left speechless by Zhou Yi. Zhou Yi was indeed a talented person.

  "Master, what happened to you yesterday? You never drink, do you?" Zhou Yi started picking up the empty bottles on the ground.

  "Ran into some trouble, someone died in the hospital and they want me to take the fall." Yang Zongbao stretched his sore body. Yesterday, he had drunk too much and fallen down hastily, losing control of his body's posture, which resulted in some parts of his body currently being out of his mind's control.

  "Uh, isn't that a big deal? Hurry up and call Guo Ge." Zhou Yi was shocked and prepared to make a phone call to Bao Guo.

  "Who wants to call me?"

  "Come out quickly, I've brought some good food for you. This room stinks to death."

  Bao Guo disdainfully drove Yang Zongbao and Zhou Yi out of the room, slamming the door shut behind them.

  "Pig's trotters? Which place is it from?" Zhou Yi's eyes lit up upon hearing "pig's trotters".

  "Yes, go eat." Bao Guo patted Zhou Yi's head and sent him stumbling.

  "Ahhh..." Zhou Yixue howled like a wolf and ran off to find food.

  "How's it going? Drinking like this?" Bao Guo pulled Yang Zongbao and lit a cigarette right at the door of the study.

  "It's nothing, just calm down." Yang Zongbao said, scratching his head.

  "I heard something happened to you at the hospital, do you need help?"

  "You're well-informed!" Yang Zongbao said coldly.

  "...Baoguo was taken aback for a moment, then directly extinguished the cigarette on his own hand: "Sorry, I overreacted.""

  "You don't have to report everything to him." Yang Zongbao was not very happy.

  "On the day you were on duty, Yang Shuo brought Su Xiaomei back home." Baoguo mentioned it as if unintentionally.

  "Uh-huh, got it." Yang Zongbao responded.

  "Miss Mei wanders around the company with Yang every day." Bao Guo was reporting to Yang Zongbao about the events that had taken place in the Yang household over the past few days, as if he thought Yang would be interested.

  "Has Mei Wenxin entered the Yang family?" Yang Zongbao thought that this movement was really fast.

  "Hmm, you're taking it back, the old lady is quite giving face - the assistant of the financial manager still thinks that woman is worth looking at."

  "Oh, I'm going to take a bath."

  "Uh."

  Bao Guo was indifferent to Yang Zongbao's coldness and made way for him.

  Yang Zongbao almost endured until he reached the bathroom, closed the door, turned on the shower, and vomited heavily over the toilet.

  Drinking on an empty stomach is really not a human thing to do. The stomach was completely emptied, and the urge to vomit could not be controlled. The whole body was so dirty that Yang Zongbao directly lay down in the bathtub, letting the shower water splash onto his face, and then flow into his nose, eyes, and ears.

  Until the whole person slipped into the water, looking at the world on the surface of the water, Yang Zongbao's heart finally settled down. Last night, he sorted out all his relationships. He had unintentionally gotten to know some people over the years, but it wasn't time to expose them yet. As for this matter, there was not a single relationship that could be directly used. Perhaps he should borrow from the Yang family background, so as to make his useless image more deeply rooted in people's minds. Old Lady Yang had said that as long as no one died, it would be fine, but he hadn't agreed.

  A debt must be repaid with money, a life with another life. The two lives of his mother and sister will certainly require two lives in exchange. One is Yang Tianming, and the other is Shen Rou. Of course, the family's reputation that thinks it's invincible must also be defeated thoroughly to make sense. Originally, Yang Fenghuang was not a woman who interested Yang Zongbao at all, but who let her get involved with money? There are many people who want to overthrow the power of the Yang family, and he just needs to dig up something and reveal a little bit about the dark transactions behind the Huaxing Group. It's no wonder that there will be blood-sucking mosquitoes coming after them.

  Having thought things through, Yang Zongbao's breath finally ran out, and he quickly floated to the surface of the water, feeling the fresh air fill his parched lungs. Yang Zongbao felt like a man reborn.

  Suddenly, something soft landed on his head, and a towel was covering his own head.

  "How did you get in?" Yang Zongbao asked.

  "You've been in here for too long." Baoguo had just entered the bathroom and saw Yang Zongbao waiting underwater. Of course, Baoguo wouldn't think that Yang Zongbao would commit suicide, so he simply stood there holding a towel.

  "Protect the country." Yang Zongbao suddenly shouted.

  "Huh?"

  "Do you want to be a housekeeper for someone all your life?" Yang Zongbao looked at Bao Guo's expression from under the wet towel.

  "If I were Brother Bao..."

  "Don't spout nonsense, I can see you're also sincere. Just say what height you want to reach." Yang Zongbao interrupted Baoguo's words.

  "Brother, I'm telling the truth. What you said is what everyone wants, to dominate and control, but one must have the ability and capital for that. Besides, this territory already has you." Bao Guo said sincerely.