Chapter Ninety-nine: Takeoff

Chen Cao suddenly reached out and grabbed Karisa by the throat, his gaze slowly focusing. "I told you, I'm a desperate man. Everything I needed to say has been said. Our deal is off. Understand? Under no circumstances will I kill anyone for anyone else. I only kill for myself. Got it? Besides, your father was nothing more than a demon who harvested and trafficked people's organs."

But at that moment, Karisa, with Chen Cao's hand around her neck, showed not a trace of fear. She said coldly, "Fine. You say this is a game. Alright, I'll tell you the entry ticket to this game right now. My condition is that I get to participate in this game as well. When the time comes, I'll cut down my enemies with my own hands. Whether I live or die has nothing to do with you. Deal?"

Chen Cao loosened his grip slightly. Karisa's eyes didn't seem to be deceiving him. And if what she said was true, he could avoid a lot of detours and a lot of danger.

["I don't think you're a man who goes back on his word!" Karisa's gaze drifted to the young girl lying unconscious in bed, hooked up to an IV drip.

Chen Cao released his hand and lit a cigarette. "Speak. If it checks out, I'll consider it."

Stanley also stopped packing his bags. This news was indeed too exciting to ignore.

Karisa snatched the cigarette from Chen Cao's hand and took a deep drag without the slightest regard for her image. "I'll tell you this—if you've opened that box, you should know the code. That code is actually a set of coordinates, just incomplete. The map was redrawn. In other words, only when you match that map with the coordinates will you find the location!"

Chen Cao spread his hands and lit another cigarette. "I just want to know—what's at that location marked on the map? Does it have something to do with the gem?"

Karisa said, "I don't know either. I've only heard that the location is connected to the gem. The day my father got into trouble, he was extremely nervous. He told me this secret and instructed me that if something happened to him that day, I was to cut off all contact, destroy the token he'd given me, take the inheritance he left behind, leave Husum, and go live abroad."

Chen Cao glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and said to Karisa, "If my guess is right, the token left to you should complete the full set of numbers."

Hearing this, Karisa suddenly took a step back. "Yes. And right now, that thing is on me!"

Stanley, pistol in hand, smiled faintly and took two steps forward, his eyes narrowing into slits. "Little darling, come on now—tell me where that token is!" He had completely lost all reason when it came to money. Killing a person or two no longer mattered to him at all. What mattered most was that his fiancée was gravely ill, probably already undergoing surgery abroad. She might marry that elder's son at any moment. He had to race against time, scrape together more money, and get to Mainz to find his fiancée and bring her back to his side.

Karisa pressed a hand to her chest, yet her voice remained calm. "I knew you people would go back on your word. You keep checking the time—you have to leave Laiyi soon, don't you? You have to take me with you. Otherwise, I'll destroy the token. And it's on me, in a place you'd never expect!"

"Stanley, stop. Pack up. We're leaving." Chen Cao waved Stanley off. It was clear that this girl, though frail-looking, was anything but simple.

"But boss, we only have three plane tickets!" Stanley looked at Chen Cao. Clearly, he'd planned from the start to kill Karisa once Chen Cao got the information out of her.

"No problem. Money always solves things." Chen Cao looked at Karisa.

Karisa detected the softening tone in Chen Cao's words but shook her head. "Don't count on the inheritance my father left me. Those bastards seized all of my father's assets. I'm flat broke right now!"

Chen Cao ignored Karisa, walked to the bedside, strapped Meimei onto his back, and secured her. Then he said to Karisa, "I hope this isn't a losing deal for me."]

The plan suddenly shifted because of Karisa. Chen Cao, who had originally intended to purchase weapons, no longer needed to risk returning to Husum, so he abandoned that plan and made other arrangements, which left him with some surplus cash. But precisely because of the extra person—Karisa—Chen Cao spent two thousand US dollars to persuade the smuggler to take Karisa along, and another three thousand US dollars for Stanley to convince the military officer to add an extra slot. By the time they boarded the commercial flight, the three of them were completely dead broke.

Whoosh—the plane lifted into the sky, and Chen Cao let out a long breath.

"You can't keep going like this. She's very weak. An IV drip alone won't cut it—she needs surgery as soon as possible!" Karisa touched Meimei's forehead, then continued, "During your fight yesterday, I saw that man slash your shoulder with a blade. If you don't treat it in time, it'll get infected."

Chen Cao had overlooked one thing: Karisa was a nurse—and a dedicated one at that.

So, facing Karisa's concern, Chen Cao neither refused nor responded. After all, having one more woman around meant too much talk.

"Hey, hey, seriously though—the view from this plane is something else!" Stanley, sitting by the window, held a chicken leg from the in-flight meal and stared at the scenery outside. Having never flown before, he was ecstatic, gnawing on the drumstick as he shouted, "I wonder how far heaven is from here!"

A vein bulged on Chen Cao's forehead as he said to Stanley, "Enough, Stanley. There's no heaven in this world."

Hearing this, Stanley pinched a piece of pork chop and said gravely, "Boss, don't say that! Allah will punish you!"

Having spent some time with them, Karisa also smiled and said to Chen Cao, "You shouldn't insult other people's beliefs like that."

Chen Cao leaned his head back slightly, trying to rest. He didn't want to argue with this woman, Karisa, over Stanley, that fake believer. He knew there were two kinds of people in this world you must never offend: first, women; second, ruffians. And Allah? Had anyone ever seen a follower of Allah eating pork? Besides, wasn't it Stanley himself who'd said he didn't believe in religion?

The plane quickly glided across the sky. Fortunately, in a poor country like Husum, not many people could afford to fly. There were few passengers in the cabin, and aviation regulations were lax. The sight of Chen Cao and his group carrying a patient and being rowdy drew little attention—even the flight attendants assumed the two men, along with the nurse and the patient, were simply wealthy Husum residents going abroad for medical treatment.

At Sanford International Airport, the moment they got off the plane, an ambulance promptly picked up Chen Cao and the others and delivered them to a nearby hospital. In truth, Chen Cao had already used the in-flight phone to call the Sanford International Airport from a magazine he'd found on the plane, requesting that an ambulance be dispatched to aid a patient.

This was an ordinary hospital in Domado, the capital of Sanford. But in Chen Cao's eyes, although it couldn't match the top-tier hospitals of Dachen, it surpassed the level of most hospitals in Dachen's current material conditions. This made Chen Cao sigh—Dachen was constantly improving, but it still had a long way to go before catching up with a developed country like Sanford.

The hospital was very responsible. They immediately arranged a ward for Meimei and switched her medication without delay.

The doctor was a white woman in her forties, a middle-aged physician. She walked out of the ward and strode over to the corridor with a serious expression, where Chen Cao was sitting in the waiting area.

"Doctor!" Chen Cao shot to his feet.

"Are you the girl's relative? Why didn't you bring her in for treatment sooner?" The doctor's tone was somewhat stern.

"This..." Chen Cao was at a loss for words and could only remain silent.

"Sigh. I'm aware of the situation in small countries like Husum. But fortunately, this girl has a remarkably strong will to live. The fact that she's been sustained by IV fluids all this time is nothing short of a miracle." The doctor took off her mask, her expression still grave. "Her condition is not optimistic. The girl has suffered severe physical and psychological trauma. First, I must express my strong condemnation of the criminal who committed such violence. Second, surgery must be performed as soon as possible."

"Alright, doctor. Please arrange it as quickly as you can." Chen Cao's words betrayed his urgency.

"Very well, I'll arrange it right away. However, surgery carries risks, and a family member must sign the consent form. Also, we can perform this operation, but our confidence is limited. However, we can invite the lead surgeon from Domado General Hospital to do it. Either way, we'll do our best." The female doctor looked at Chen Cao.

"Um... will the cost be—"

"Sir, mind your words!" The female doctor eyed Chen Cao sternly. "Do you realize this is a life? It is our duty to treat every critically ill patient. Yes, fees must be charged, but can money buy a life? That's where you're wrong!"

"This... Doctor... yes." Chen Cao felt deeply ashamed. He lowered his head—perhaps the first time in his life he'd bowed his head, and before a true angel in white.

The doctor studied Chen Cao more closely. She noticed his clothes were plain, even shabby, and her expression softened somewhat. "Tell you what—any patient who enters Sanford's airspace receives a partial subsidy from our government, enough to cover three days. We can perform the surgery first. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"I understand." Chen Cao replied in a low voice. "Rest assured, doctor. I will pay the full medical costs. Whatever you need to use, whatever you need to spend—don't skimp on my account."

"That's not what matters most. What matters most is saving this girl's life." With that, the female doctor hurried off toward the other end of the corridor. In her eyes, treating the patient was the top priority now.

Chen Cao glanced at Karisa and Stanley beside him, then sat back down. For now, everything else had to be put aside. He could only wait for Meimei's surgery to finish.

Sunlight streamed through the hospital windows, illuminating a sign on the wall written in multiple languages—"Silence."

Karisa suddenly turned around, rummaged in her clothes for a moment, and pulled out a slip of paper, handing it to Chen Cao. "It's not much, but it's enough to cover the surgery."

Chen Cao looked at Karisa, then at the paper in her hand. He could see clearly—it was a bearer check for one hundred thousand US dollars from Sena International Financial Bank.

Chen Cao paused for a moment, then accepted the check without hesitation and tucked it into his chest pocket.

Stanley eyed the check, seeming to want to break the tension. "What's the point of this? Once the surgery's done, we just sneak Meimei out of here, and we don't pay a single cent!"

"Shut up!" Chen Cao and Karisa both snapped in unison, righteous and stern.

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