"Yueyue, why are you up so early today? Couldn't you sleep a little longer?"
Su Lin Yue turned to look at Su Li, then her eyes went wide in an instant.
"Bro... y-you..." Su Lin Yue's voice trembled, as if she'd seen something horrifying.
"What did you do last night?!"
Su Lin Yue rushed over and grabbed Su Li by the shoulders, squeezing so hard she nearly crushed his bones.
"Huh? I didn't do anything..." Su Li looked completely baffled. "I just played games last night..."
"Played games?!" Su Lin Yue's voice shot up eight octaves. "Go look in the mirror! Get over here!"
Without giving him a chance to object, she dragged Su Li straight to the mirror.
Su Li glanced at the mirror helplessly. Yesterday, he'd only had a bit of a dark circle under each eye. Surely it wouldn't be that bad today?
But when he got a good look at his face in the mirror, he froze.
"Holy shit..."
His face was so pale it was almost translucent, completely drained of color.
And the worst part was the area around his eyes. Those dark circles weren't just bad anymore—they were purplish-black, practically shining.
With a face like that, it wasn't just that he looked like he hadn't slept in days. He looked like a corpse that had just been dragged out of the morgue and come back to life!
"This..." Su Li touched his face. "I feel pretty alert, though?"
"Alert, my ass!"
Su Lin Yue was nearly in tears. "Su Li! Are you feeling sick? Don't hide it from me! You look worse than a dead person! We need to get you to the hospital, now!"
"Hey, hey, don't cry, Yueyue."
Su Li felt fine himself, but looking at his reflection, he knew this was like telling someone you weren't drunk when you were already dancing on a table—no one would believe him!
"Okay, okay, we'll go to the hospital. We'll leave right now."
Su Li quickly reassured his sister. "Just to be safe, I'll get checked out. That way you won't have to worry."
"Then hurry up and get changed! I'll change too!"
Su Lin Yue gave Su Li a shove, then rushed back to her room.
Su Li sighed and returned to his bedroom.
He grabbed a hoodie he wore all the time and pulled it on.
"Hmm?" As soon as he put it on, Su Li sensed something was off.
The sleeves seemed a little too long, and the shoulders felt loose.
"Did it get stretched out?"
Su Li looked at himself in the full-length mirror and saw that the hoodie did seem a bit baggier.
"Have I really gotten thinner from staying up late?"
He felt his arm. The muscle definition still seemed to be there, but his arms did look a little slimmer.
"Never mind. Getting to the hospital comes first."
After a moment's thought, Su Li rummaged through a drawer, put on a mask, and pulled a Baseball Cap down over his head, covering himself from top to bottom.
With a face like his, if he went outside, some well-meaning busybody would probably call an ambulance and the police.
When he came out of his room, Su Lin Yue had already changed.
"Bro, let's go! I've got the car keys!" Su Lin Yue grabbed Su Li and hurried downstairs.
Underground parking garage.
The black SUV sat quietly in its spot. It was an inheritance from their dad. Ever since their parents had passed away, Su Li had kept it in good shape, treating it like a member of the family.
Su Li got into the driver's seat and fastened his seat belt with practiced ease.
Click. The moment he put his hands on the steering wheel, that strange feeling returned.
He'd adjusted the seat countless times over the years to find his "perfect driving position." With his hands on the wheel, his arms should have been slightly bent, just right for applying force.
But today...
He had to stretch his arms a little straighter than usual to reach the steering wheel.
And why did the view seem just a little different? He used to be able to see the rearview mirror without lifting his head. Now he had to raise his eyes a little.
"What's going on?"
Su Li was at a loss. "Did Yueyue sneak into my car and adjust the seat?"
He glanced at Su Lin Yue in the passenger seat.
She was anxiously searching for the hospital's number on her phone and hadn't noticed anything.
"Never mind. Maybe it's because I haven't driven in a while."
Su Li shook his head and adjusted the seat again.
"Mm, that's much better."
He started the engine, and the black SUV drove out of the garage.
It was the weekend, and the registration hall at City Center Hospital was packed.
Luckily for Su Lin Yue, a renowned specialist was seeing patients that day, and she managed to snag an appointment with lightning-fast reflexes.
Su Li and Su Lin Yue pushed open the door to the Consulting Room and went inside.
The specialist sitting behind the desk was an elderly man with graying hair and thick glasses. He looked very authoritative. A young male assistant stood beside him.
"Have a seat. What seems to be the problem?" The specialist didn't even look up as he wrote in the medical record.
Su Li hesitated, then took off his mask and hat.
"Gasp..."
The moment he did, the air in the Consulting Room seemed to freeze.
The specialist had been looking relaxed as he prepared to explain the case to his assistant, but his pen suddenly stopped in his hand.
The young assistant beside him sucked in a sharp breath, his eyes instantly filling with alarm.
That complexion, those dark circles—was this really a living person?
The specialist's face turned grave. He pushed up his glasses and studied Su Li's face closely, looking at him as if he were already dead.
"Sir, are you experiencing any particular discomfort?" The specialist's voice had grown cautious.
Su Li awkwardly scratched his head. "Doctor, I actually feel pretty good. Aside from my complexion, I feel full of energy. I've got a great appetite, and I didn't even feel sleepy on the drive here."
"You feel fine?" The specialist's brow furrowed so deeply it could have crushed a fly.
"Could it be a last burst of energy before death?" the assistant muttered.
"What nonsense are you talking about?" The specialist shot him a glare, then turned back to Su Li and said solemnly, "Mr. Su, your case may be rather complicated. I can't say for sure just by looking at you."
He quickly typed on the computer. "Here, start with a full-body examination. Get these tests done too, and these."
The printer whirred as it spat out a long list, the paper nearly trailing along the floor.
"This much?" Su Li stared at the list, which seemed longer than his life, and looked bewildered.
The specialist handed it to his assistant. "Xiao Hu, take Mr. Su for his checkup yourself. Make sure you follow Procedure 1."
"Procedure 1?!" Xiao Hu's expression changed, then he nodded solemnly.
"Of course, Chief. Understood."
He turned to Su Li and gestured for him to follow, his manner almost excessively respectful. "Mr. Su, please come with me. We'll take the express route."
Su Li and Su Lin Yue exchanged a look, both of them bewildered.
"Have hospitals gotten this good at customer service? They even assign someone to escort you? Have I been out of touch for staying home so long?"
Over the next hour, Su Li experienced what it meant to receive "emperor-level treatment."
No waiting in line, no waiting for his turn. Even the head nurse drew his blood personally, handling him as gently as if she were caressing a lover.
One high-tech machine after another put him through its paces. He went in and out of the CT scanner, and ECG leads were stuck all over him.
By the time he'd finished the last examination, Su Li felt as if the whole ordeal had nearly worn him out.
While they waited for the results, Su Li finally couldn't resist stopping Assistant Hu, who'd been rushing around taking care of everything.
"Um... Doctor Hu, can I ask you something?"
Su Li pointed to the pile of test forms. "I came in because I looked unwell. Was it really necessary to run all these tests? How much is this going to cost?"
They had a decent amount of savings, but even that wouldn't last if they kept spending like this.
Assistant Hu stopped and glanced at Su Li, then at Su Lin Yue, who looked worried.
He hesitated, then lowered his voice to reassure them:
"Don't worry, Mr. Su. Your case is unusual."
"It's a bit complicated, but according to the latest regulations, all expenses for cases like yours are fully covered by the national healthcare system. You won't have to pay a cent."
"What?!" Su Li and Su Lin Yue exclaimed in unison, loud enough to startle passersby in the corridor.
"Unusual? It's free?"
Had they just stumbled into a windfall?
But Su Li's heart sank, and a sense of foreboding rose within him.
After all, in this world, what came free often ended up costing you the most.
An unusual case? Fully covered? That usually meant one of two things: either you had a disease of tremendous research value, or...
"Could it be..."
Su Li touched his face, and a thought that made his scalp crawl surfaced in his mind:
"Am I actually about to die?"
Before you continue