“I came here to tell you the truth!” Eric yelled again.
“Oh?” Alex smiled, a teasing look in his eyes. “The truth? You mean the truth that you are the guy who pooped on the street?”
“Screw you! I told you it wasn’t me!” Eric was furious. He pointed at himself, then pointed at Ann, who was lying in bed looking sickened. “I’m the one who cured this old hag’s late-stage liver cancer! The doctor you were talking about? That’s me! If I hadn’t stepped in to save her, she’d be long dead by now!”
Suddenly, Riley, the sweet, innocent girl who had been hiding behind Alex, shot out from behind him. She pointed angrily at Eric, “Who are you calling an old hag?!”
The normally soft, easy-to-trick girl now looked like an angry chicken with its feathers all ruffled up, neck stretched out in fury.
Everyone has lines that shouldn’t be crossed. Clearly, Riley’s line was her grandmother. This old woman was the last family member in the world who truly loved and cared for her.
Eric never imagined that the opening line he’d practiced in his head countless times would immediately piss off the goddess he was trying to impress.
“No… You misunderstood! That’s not what I meant!”
Eric completely panicked. Even when the young doctor played the video of him spraying poop everywhere, he hadn’t been this flustered. But now, he was stumbling over his words, unsure what to do or say.
“I really did save your grandma!” he pleaded. “I’m the one who came here every night to give her acupuncture treatments! You should know, with today’s medical technology, late-stage liver cancer is basically a death sentence! But I came to her room every night for seven days straight to treat her!”
Sensing the girl still didn’t believe him, Eric quickly added, “You have to believe me! I really am the one who saved your grandma! I trained at the mountains, and I know the Acupuncture technique! Late-stage liver cancer is tricky, sure, but for my Acupuncture, it’s just a piece of cake! It only took me a week to completely clear out all the cancer cells in her body!”
“Really?” Riley frowned, still half-hiding behind Alex.
Eric nodded wildly. “Yes, really! Absolutely!”
“I don’t believe it.”
[The Protagonist ‘Eric Vaughan’ has a Mental Breakdown. Congratulations, you have earned 999 Critical Points.]
Alex, quite pleased with the Critical Points he’d collected, stood up to twist the knife. “You said you saved her. So, tell me, how exactly did you save her?”
“I came to the ward every night! I used my unique Acupuncture technique on the elderly lady…” This time, Eric had learned his lesson and didn’t call her an ‘old hag’, using ‘elderly lady’ instead.
‘I’m being so polite now, surely you can’t stay mad?’ he thought.
“Bring up the security footage from the hallway outside this ward,” Alex instructed the promising-looking young doctor.
The doctor nodded and quickly ran out.
“To ensure patient safety, the hospital has cameras outside every ward. We just need to check the footage, and we’ll know the truth,” Alex said, looking amused at the helplessly furious Eric Vaughn.
‘You wanted proof? I’ll give you proof.’ Alex thought. ‘Of course, this version of the ‘truth’ was the one modified by middle-aged.’
Soon, the young doctor returned, holding a USB drive.
….
The USB drive was plugged into a laptop. The footage displayed covered the time from 5 PM yesterday to 8 AM this morning.
Alex looked at Eric Vaughn, still holding the unpleasant waste bags. “Any problem with this time frame?”
“No problem,” Eric Vaughn said confidently.
He always came after 10 PM, so this period should definitely show him coming up the stairs and entering the room.
He imagined proving not only his innocence but also establishing himself as the savior of the ‘goddess’s’ grandmother. Once that happened, people like Alex could just get out of this his way!
“Play it,” Alex ordered. The video started playing at high speed.
While the video wasn’t Blu-ray quality, it was still clear high definition.
Eric Vaughn stared intently at the rapidly skipping time counter. He worried that this bastard Alex had someone tamper with the video, maybe cutting out the few seconds where he entered the room.
But Eric wasn’t too concerned. He had been trained in deadly skills by his Master since he was young, and his observation skills were sharp. Even though the seconds flew by, he could see every jump. If even ten seconds were missing, he’d spot it instantly.
Eric almost hoped Alex had edited the video. That way, when Eric exposed him, the damned jerk would lose all face.
And he, Eric, would become the hero in his goddess’s eyes. He’d finally win the girl.
The laptop sat on a chair, surrounded by a crowd – doctors, other patients, and the strange sight of Eric in his patient gown holding the bags.
The fast-forward playback continued rapidly.
The hospital corridor remained empty. After the nurse did her routine checks, not a single person appeared. The video played until the very end, and Eric Vaughn’s figure was nowhere to be seen.
“Impossible! Absolutely impossible!” Seeing the footage freeze on the final frame, Eric panicked. He stumbled backward, almost falling.
The frozen image was indeed of him, peeking around the ward doorframe, one hand on the door, the other holding the waste bags, his heavily bandaged butt sticking out awkwardly as he eavesdropped.
He looked utterly pathetic.
“These are the facts.”
Alex dropped his amused tone and became serious. “The cameras outside the wards are monitored 24/7 specifically to prevent creeps from sneaking into patients’ rooms to cause trouble. You can doubt your own character, Eric, but you can’t doubt this hospital’s professionalism.”
Hearing this, Ann ‘the grandmother’ beamed.
‘See? That’s what you call professional!’ she thought. ‘You can tell a lot about someone by how they handle their work. This Alex kid is pretty good, serious and responsible. No wonder he’s a successful boss. Riley has good taste!’ The more Ann looked at Alex, the more pleased she felt. ‘As for this Eric Vaughn… what kind of psycho dares to mess with my future grandson-in-law!’