Chapter 105 - 105 – A Difficult Case

And thus, with the accelerated course, Ren and Fang much faster than their fellow students, and there were often times when Ren (and sometimes even Fang) were called in to demonstrate or take a lecture instead of the professors, and it enhanced their reputations even more.

As for the publicity on the stellar performance of Ren and Fang in medical school, even the public was well aware. It started out as word of mouth from their fellow students and professors, but soon enough, big pharmaceutical companies and medical research laboratories from the world over came looking for them to discuss collaborations and projects and many different things – and thanks to this, even Pax had to start visiting SIMS once a week.

And Sirocco was flourishing beautifully under Pax's able hand. Ren had always expected this – after all, even when Ren was the CEO, all the execution still fell on Pax's shoulders.

Then came a big day – Ren was asked to perform a surgery!

The patient, who was a young girl with a very serious condition that required immediate surgery, was actually the daughter of one of the older members of the Blue Wolves called Tom.

Tom was a widower, and only had this one daughter that was the apple of his eyes. His little girl had always been quite healthy, until, one day, she had suddenly fainted in school. The teachers had called Tom immediately, and seeing how panicked and unsteady Tom was, Wolf himself had accompanied the man to the little girl's school.

"Boss Wolf – what could be wrong with my little girl?" Tom cried pitifully, sitting in the navigator seat in the car – Wolf didn't trust him to drive in his present condition.

"Was she sick before?" Wolf asked.

Tom shook his head. "She has always been healthy – in fact, she rarely even gets a fever or the flu. She did say that her head hurt a little last evening, but it went away immediately after I made her a cup of her favourite hot chocolate. She slept well also, and I asked her in the morning, too. She was perfectly fine at the time…" he murmured and then burst into tears.

"Don't panic unnecessarily," Wolf said sternly. "We will pick her up in a few minutes, and then we will take her to SIMS, all right? We have our Ren and Fang there, they will help."

Tom nodded gratefully and wiped his face. "Chairman Ren is doing very well in medical school, isn't he? I heard that some of his professors have even said that he is already become so good that he has surpassed them! Is that true, Boss Wolf?" he asked hopefully.

Wolf didn't want to commit to anything definite since he didn't understand medicine and had no idea about the situation with Tom's little daughter – but then, he didn't want Tom panic even more than worsen his current situation. "Well, you know that Ren has always been extraordinary, don't you?" he said instead. "And he has always been interested in medicine – so I wouldn't be too surprised if that were to be true."

Tom nodded. "That's right," he said. "I remember, when you were teaching him to fight, he was always so annoyed and he never wanted to fight and get sweaty or get his hands dirty – but he can still hold his own in a fight! He was so cool during that abduction incident in Sand Country!" he gushed.

"If you ask me, it was only because of Fang that we were able to get Ren to learn a little bit of combat training," Wolf muttered. "Do you remember how he was initially, before Fang came into the picture?"

Tom frowned, remembering the days he had spent with Ren-the-villain. However, Tom had no idea that the Ren he knew had changed – so he could only come to the conclusion that all the changes he saw in Chairman Ren these days could be attributed to Fang.

"I think Chairman Ren is much better now," Tom said honestly. "He was a bit strange before, but now, with young Fang staying with him, he is much better. He even smiles, and he has stopped doing a lot of stupid things that he used to do before."

"Very true," Wolf agreed whole heartedly. Of course, Wolf knew the truth, and while he had been fond of the original Ren-the-villain, he definitely liked the new Ren more. And Wolf held on to the hope that just like this Ren had crossed over from that world to this one, maybe the original Ren here had crossed over to the other world – and he would probably be happier there, with parents and siblings who loved him and doted on him. That had been the dearest wish of the original Ren – a family that truly loved him. And since they didn't know what had happened, Wolf, who was a perpetual optimist, chose to believe in the best possible outcome.

By now, they had reached the school gates, and a teacher and the school nurse were waiting for them. Tom's little daughter was still unconscious.

"What happened?" Wolf asked, seeing that Tom was again panicking at the sight of his unconscious daughter.

"She suddenly fainted in class," the teacher spoke up.

"One of the students mentioned that she had been hit by a ball when they were playing in the basketball court earlier – but she was perfectly fine at the time," the school nurse said. "It could be a mild concussion."

"She was hit on the head?" Wolf asked sharply.

The school nurse nodded. "But the ball which these children use is quite soft. It would not be enough to cause more damage than a mild concussion," she told him.

Wolf frowned, but didn't say anything to them. Being hit on the head with anything was never a good thing – and this was something he knew very well. Nonetheless, what he wanted to prioritise right now was to take the child to SIMS and get Ren to have a look at her.

"Tom, pick up your daughter and let's go," Wolf ordered.

Tom obeyed silently, his face still a picture of distress. He immediately made up his mind not to send his daughter back to this stupid school where she was hit on the head with a ball and the teacher and the school nurse had a cavalier attitude towards it!

The two men left quickly, and soon enough, Wolf and Tom arrived at SIMS. Wolf had notified Ren on their way out of the school, and they found Ren and Fang waiting for them in the lobby as soon as they arrived.

Ren frowned as soon as he saw the unconscious child in Tom's arms. Wolf and Fang immediately understood from his expression that the matter was more serious than they had imagined before.

"Chairman Ren – will – will my little one be all right?" Tom asked in a trembling voice. "She is all I have left in this world…"

Ren immediately switched into his Dr. Ren persona – it was an involuntary thing which Ren didn't even notice – but the others around him did.

"We will make sure that she is all right," Ren told Tom, exuding a calm and gentle aura that came naturally to the best of the best doctors.

Tom calmed down immediately, and Wolf was stunned.

Ren quickly arranged for the little girl to be taken for various scans and tests, and Fang's eyes widened in shock when he saw the tests listed by Ren.

This was definitely a much more serious affair than they had imagined – the ball that had hit the child on the head was simply a trigger; the underlying cause was far worse, if Ren's intuition was anything to go by!

And Fang had great faith in Ren's intuition. He knew that Ren was worried, too, and that made Fang worry as well.

However, Fang marvelled at how well Ren, who called himself socially awkward most of the time (and he was a bit, that much was true), handled the panicking father and made him calm down with just a few words. He spoke quietly and authoritatively, letting Tom know that they were running tests, some to check for the cause and some as a precautionary measure, and that they would do their best for the little girl.

The man had come begging Ren to save his daughter – and Ren definitely wanted to protect the little girl. If his instincts were right, the little girl was in the early stages of a rare neurological condition that stemmed from a contusion or a rupture in her brain, and the only way to cure her was a very complicated surgery. The reports soon proved that Ren was right. And Ren didn't know whether this world had an expert who would be able to perform such a difficult surgical procedure.

And thus Ren gathered all the key relevant people at SIMS to discuss the case. All the international experts and the professors who had gathered in the room were aghast.

"There is nothing we can do to save her, then," one senior professor mumbled, shaking his head sadly.