That Miss Qiao had not told a single soul about her discharge. Not a single member of the Qiao family had known about it. That could only mean that Miss Qiao had her own plans, and she was deliberately avoiding the Qiao family.

  The kind nurse had no idea about the specifics of Qiao Nan’s plans, but since Qiao Nan was trying to avoid the Qiao family, the nurse would do all she could to help Qiao Nan buy some time so that the Qiao family would only find out about this as late as possible.

  It was nothing more than a lunch box. It was no big deal. Although her colleague did not really understand her intentions, there were too many patients to take care of in the hospital. As such, within a minute, that nurse had already completely forgotten about this matter and had gone off to work.

  The next morning, Qiao Dongliang came to deliver breakfast to Qiao Nan with a haggard expression. Obviously, the news that there was something wrong with Qiao Nan’s health and that she might not be able to donate her kidney to Qiao Zijin in time had taken its toll on Qiao Dongliang, who was now worried sick. Qiao Dongliang had only had a few hours of sleep the previous night.

  “Hello, I’m the family member of one of your patients. I’ve brought breakfast for her. Please give me the lunch box from yesterday.” Because both his daughters had been hospitalized at the same time, the Qiao family had many thermal lunch boxes. They had prepared four lunch boxes so that they would be able to use them interchangeably. When delivering breakfast, Qiao Dongliang had to ensure that he took along the lunch boxes from the previous night. Otherwise, he would not be able to send lunch over.

  “Oh, all right.” The nurse was already familiar with Qiao Dongliang by now. Seeing that there was a familiar thermal flask on her work station, the nurse immediately picked it up to hand it over to Qiao Dongliang. But when the nurse picked up the thermal flask, she could feel that it felt different from usual. “Oh, there’s still something inside. It seems that she didn’t eat much.”

  \r \r \r

  “Let me take a look.” After exchanging the lunch boxes with the nurse, Qiao Dongliang opened up the lunch box from the previous day. It was not that she had not eaten much. She had not even touched this at all! Qiao Dongliang’s expression stiffened. “Is my daughter feeling unwell? Is that why she has a poor appetite and didn’t eat?”

  The nurse did not think much about it and laughed. “That might not be the case. If my memory serves me well, your daughter has been hospitalized for two months. You must know that our patients move around much less than an average person. Since they expend less energy, it’s only natural that their appetite is poorer than the average person’s. I’ve always been curious about how your daughter has such a great appetite, seeing that your family sends so much food at every mealtime. Some healthy people occasionally can’t digest well or are too bloated to eat the next meal after a heavy meal. If you’re really worried, maybe you can check on her or ask her doctor about how she’s doing.”

  Perhaps even the heavens were on Qiao Nan’s side. Some nurses knew about Qiao Nan’s discharge, but it so happened that the nurse that Qiao Dongliang had met did not. She thought that Qiao Nan was still hospitalized. As such, she had delivered a reasonable answer very calmly.

  Qiao Dongliang could not tell that the nurse had been lying, and even the nurse herself did not know that she had unwittingly told a lie. The patient, Qiao Nan, had already been discharged the previous afternoon and was no longer a patient in their hospital.

  The nurse’s answer was well-founded. And because Qiao Dongliang was not entirely without a conscience, he still could not find it in himself to face Qiao Nan calmly, as should be the case for having asked Qiao Nan to donate her kidney even after she had gotten into an accident and provided money for Qiao Zijin’s treatment.

  He only hoped that he would be able to decrease his contact with Qiao Nan before everything blew over. He was worried that he would not know how to react should Qiao Nan decide not to donate her kidney and even start crying in front of him.

  Qiao Nan herself had to agree to the kidney donation. As long as Qiao Nan refused to sign the agreement, the doctor would not conduct the surgery even if he and Ding Jiayi signed it on her behalf. He was afraid that he would be unable to face a weeping Qiao Nan and that he would be softhearted and relent. Then, Qiao Nan would not donate her kidney, and his elder daughter would be in trouble. He was worried that he did not have such a glib tongue to convince Qiao Nan to sign that agreement.

  Qiao Dongliang knew that Ding Jiayi had to be the one to handle such a complicated matter.

  So when the nurse suggested that he visit Qiao Nan himself, Qiao Dongliang did not even think for a moment before shaking his head. “No, that won’t be necessary. I still have to rush off to work. Your nurses and doctors are all extremely capable. I have no worries leaving both my daughters in your hands. Since that’s normal, I don’t think I’ll go see my daughter. I’ll come again at noontime.”

  “All right, goodbye.” Only after Qiao Dongliang left did the nurse mumble under her breath. “This Qiao family is really weird. Since he cares so much about his daughter, why wouldn’t he take just one more minute to go see her personally since he’s already here?”

  “Since their behaviors are so illogical, this can only mean that their concern toward the patient is fake. It’s not genuine, so there’s nothing to be confused by.” The nurse who had helped Qiao Nan happened to hear her words, and she let out a sarcastic smile. “I was on the night shift last night. I’m completely exhausted. Can you take over? I have to go back and get some rest.”

  As for the breakfast that Qiao Dongliang had sent over, the kind nurse did not even bother taking a look at it.

  “All right, you’d better hurry home to get some rest.” If their concern was fake, then why were they still sending her three meals a day? Was this for real?

  “Oh right, I’d better tell you about this. The younger daughter of the guy who sent the meal over just now was discharged yesterday.” The kind nurse stripped off her nurse’s uniform and put on her usual clothes. After packing up her belongings, she picked up her bag.

  “Discharged? Then, why didn’t you tell me about that when her family member was around? What should I do about this breakfast?”

  “What do you mean? There’s nothing to remind you about. His daughter has already been discharged for almost twenty-four hours, yet he still knows nothing about it. Do you think we’re to be blamed, or is it their fault? Besides, our hospital is so big. There are so many patients coming through our doors every day. Who can remember whether his younger daughter is still being hospitalized in our hospital or whether she’s already been discharged? In short, if even her dad doesn’t know, it’s only normal that we nurses forget about it since we’re so busy.”

  Humph, was she really going to take the Qiao family seriously? The Qiao family was not worth their time.

  “Oh, all right.” What the kind nurse had said was the truth and the colleague did not argue with her over it. It was true that if a father did not know that his own daughter had been discharged, less so nurses who had to take care of so many people in a day. They would not remember who had been discharged.

  After handing over her work, the nurse who was supposed to knock off finally left.

  Thus, it was only when Qiao Dongliang sent lunch over to Qiao Nan that he finally realized that Qiao Nan was no longer in the hospital. “Nurse, something’s not right. I went to my daughter’s ward, but she isn’t there.”