[Today's Intel: While technological advancents bring convenience, they also leak our personal information—especially our phones...]
After reading the intel, Li Xu had an epiphany. "So that's how it is..."
He'd had similar experiences in his daily life.
It always seed like his phone's apps could precisely capture his conversations. Whether it was a casual chat with a friend or a call with a stranger, the apps would react accordingly, as if they possessed so kind of extraordinary "hearing."
They would even use big data to push related products.
For example, say you were planning to buy an air fryer.
Before this, you definitely hadn't searched for anything about air fryers on your phone.
You just ntioned the idea to your family.
But the next ti you opened a shopping app, product listings for air fryers would pop up like crazy.
And that was just comrcial software.
The forces behind the hospital must be even more powerful.
Over the past two days, his phone calls with Xia Lei, as well as their conversation at the clinic yesterday afternoon, had all been bugged.
That's why they were able to send soone to threaten him so quickly.
All sleepiness vanished as Li Xu analyzed the situation in his mind. 'They must have been monitoring Xia Lei initially... His trip to the hospital, his visit to my clinic—he was being watched the whole ti... And now, I'm being monitored too.'
But now that he knew their thods, he could co up with a counter-plan.
'I can't let Xia Lei go to the provincial capital anymore.'
'Otherwise, they might actually kill him on the way.'
'I also need to find a way to let Xia Lei know the truth as soon as possible. If he makes a scene, a big one, they won't be able to keep a lid on this.'
Li Xu quickly thought of a plan.
「The next morning.」
He called Xia Lei. "Mr. Xia, are you free to co by the clinic again today? I made a mistake in my diagnosis yesterday. Your problem isn't serious. I can prescribe so dicine that will cure you."
...
"Sir, that traditional Chinese dicine doctor has given in."
The young man stood before a large desk and pushed a phone across to the middle-aged man opposite him. "This is a recording of a call from this morning. He told Xia Lei to go to the clinic today to pick up dicine, saying it wasn't a big deal."
The middle-aged man tapped his fingertips on the mahogany desktop.
He was in his early fifties, with impeccably trimd silver-grey sideburns and eyes slightly narrowed behind gold-rimd glasses.
"Are you sure it's his voice?"
"The voiceprint match is 98.7%." The young man's lips curled into a smirk. "He should understand the consequences of opposing us now."
The middle-aged man took off his glasses and began to slowly and deliberately wipe the lenses with a silk handkerchief. "Continue monitoring Xia Lei for at least a year. As for that traditional dicine doctor's clinic..."
"We can have him shut down anyti."
The young man nodded in understanding.
...
When Xia Lei pushed open the clinic door, his displeasure was obvious. "Doctor Li, what the hell is going on? Yesterday you told to go to the provincial capital, and today you're saying it's not a big deal?"
Li Xu didn't answer imdiately. Instead, he glanced outside and saw there were no other patients for the ti being.
"Sisi, keep an eye on the door."
"Mr. Xia, please follow ."
He lowered his voice and gestured for Xia Lei to enter the inner consultation room.
Inside the consultation room, all electronic devices had been powered down.
The curtains were drawn tight, with only a single ergency lamp providing dim light.
Xia Lei noticed that even the Wi-Fi router had been unplugged.
"What's this...?"
"SHHH—" Li Xu raised a finger to his lips. He took a tal box from a drawer. Inside was a piece of paper on which was written: "Turn off your phone, then put it in here."
Puzzled, Xia Lei did as he was told.
Li Xu placed both their phones into the tal box—it was a Faraday cage, capable of completely blocking all wireless signals.
"We can talk now," Li Xu said, letting out a long breath. "But we still need to keep our voices down."
"What on earth is going on? Why all the secrecy...?" Xia Lei's brow was furrowed.
Li Xu no longer held back and got straight to the point. "Based on my diagnosis, I suspect your left kidney... is gone."
"What?!" Xia Lei shot to his feet, both shocked and terrified. "Doctor Li, you... you can't be serious."
Li Xu shook his head, his expression grave. "Of course I'm not joking. This is why I kept telling you to get it checked at a hospital."
"That... That's impossible..." Xia Lei's voice was fragnted. "The ultrasound clearly showed..."
"It's simple. They could have given you soone else's ultrasound results, and you wouldn't have known the difference," Li Xu analyzed.
"But..."
Xia Lei's mind was in chaos, a whirlwind of anger and indignation.
'No wonder I've been feeling so weak all this ti.'
'Fucking hell, I've only got one kidney.'
He turned to run out. "I'm going to find them."
Li Xu stopped him just in ti. "You have no evidence. What will you confront them with?"
Xia Lei cald down slightly, his face a mask of misery. "Doctor Li, what should I do now?"
Li Xu offered him a plan. "You need concrete evidence. So, you have to get another ultrasound, but this ti, you absolutely must avoid them."
"How can I avoid them? They can even listen to our phone calls!"
Li Xu: "Listen carefully. Here's the plan..."
...
「Two hours later, in a residential complex in the eastern part of the city.」
Xia Lei knocked on the door of his friend, Song Qiang.
Song Qiang was his college classmate, and the two were very close.
"Old Xia? What's with all the secrecy?"
Song Qiang stared at Xia Lei, who was standing outside his door wearing a baseball cap and a face mask, with a baffled expression.
Xia Lei slipped into the apartnt, shut the door behind him, and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket. It read: *Don't talk. Turn off your phone.*
"Huh?"
Song Qiang had no idea what was going on.
But seeing Xia Lei's furtive deanor, he took out his phone and turned it off.
Xia Lei let out a sigh of relief and said in a low voice, "Qiangzi, you're the only person I can trust. I need you to do a favor. Don't worry, you won't be in any danger."
Song Qiang's playful expression vanished. "Tell ."
...
Ten minutes later, Song Qiang nodded, his face grim. "Damn it, those bastards! I'll help you!"
The two of them left their phones at Song Qiang's apartnt.
However, Xia Lei brought a miniature cara with him.
Song Qiang took his ID card, and he and Xia Lei went downstairs together.
Then they drove to the City Hospital of Traditional Chinese dicine.
Song Qiang used his ID to register. "Urology departnt, a regular appointnt."
After registering, Song Qiang handed the registration slip to Xia Lei.
Wearing a mask, Xia Lei walked into the examination room and said bluntly that his stomach felt uncomfortable and he wanted an ultrasound.
The doctor on duty didn't think much of it and wrote him a requisition for the test.
The Hospital of Traditional Chinese dicine wasn't crowded.
Xia Lei didn't have to wait long before he was called into the ultrasound room.
Throughout this process, he kept the miniature cara recording the entire ti.
In the examination room, a middle-aged female doctor was preparing the equipnt.
"Lie down, pull up your shirt," the doctor said without looking up.
Xia Lei's palms were slick with sweat.
He lay down as instructed, and when the cold coupling gel was applied to his abdon, he almost started to tremble.
As the probe glided over his skin, the doctor's expression began to change.
She adjusted the angle several tis, her brows knitting tighter and tighter.
"Have you... had kidney surgery before?" the doctor finally asked.
Xia Lei's heart was pounding like a drum. "Yes. My kidney was bad, so I had an operation."
The doctor was silent for a mont, then continued the examination.
Five minutes later, she printed out the report and handed it to Xia Lei. "Go see your attending physician."
Xia Lei took the report. It clearly stated:
No renal image detected in the left renal area;
Right kidney exhibits compensatory hypertrophy, mild dilation of the renal pelvis, further examination recomnded.
...
P.S. Thank you to 'Rui GS' for the 100-coin tip.
Also, I can't really expand on this plotline... What I wrote last ti (Chapter 74) still hasn't been unbanned.
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