Chapter 315: Pretty Big Sister and Uncle
Aidan Donovan’s ears perked up, and his gaze subconsciously drifted toward Arabella Donovan.
Elder Lyons quickly noticed the siblings acting strangely. When he saw Arabella staring blankly at him, he couldn’t help but feel a little offended, and his expression darkened.
"Aidan, your sister is..."
"She..." Just as Aidan was about to explain, Arabella interrupted him. "Grandpa Lyons, have you been having stomach problems lately?"
The elderly Lyons couple froze. Forgetting Arabella’s earlier offense, Elder Lyons frowned and said, "I have been having some stomach discomfort recently. But it’s the New Year, after all. There’s so much food at home, and I’ve been eating all sorts of things. It’s normal to get an upset stomach from that."
"Have you had it checked out?"
"A checkup?" Elder Lyons and his wife exclaimed in unison.
Before Elder Lyons could react, Lyons had already walked over and anxiously grabbed Arabella’s hand.
"Child, why on earth would you ask a question like that? Did you see something? Is there something wrong with your Grandpa Lyons?"
Lyons had barely finished speaking when Elder Lyons angrily tapped his cane. "What could a young girl possibly know? Don’t listen to her nonsense and scare yourself. What could be wrong with me? I get a physical at the school every year. I’m in perfect health, there’s absolutely nothing wrong!"
Aidan was always protective of his family and couldn’t stand hearing anyone speak ill of his precious sister. Moreover, this was about his mentor’s health, and he couldn’t let the old man avoid seeing a doctor out of stubbornness.
He immediately muttered under his breath, "That checkup at the school... besides measuring your height and weight and checking your vision, heart, and lungs, it doesn’t look for minor problems and can’t find major ones. No offense, Professor, but at your age, you should have been paying for your own comprehensive checkup at the hospital every year."
The moment Aidan finished speaking, Elder Lyons shot him a death glare. "Nobody will think you’re mute if you keep your mouth shut! Your professor is in excellent health!"
Aidan: "..." ’Why is this old man so stubborn?’
Arabella actually knew that for a younger person to visit during the New Year and immediately suggest her host might be sick was incredibly rude. It sounded almost like a curse.
No wonder her host was displeased. If the roles were reversed, she would have considered it restrained not to throw the person out on the spot.
But the condition of the man before her simply couldn’t be ignored any longer. She had no choice but to brace herself and press the dangerous issue.
"A full-body checkup might not be enough. After all, it doesn’t include a gastroscopy or a colonoscopy."
"Hm?" As soon as Arabella said this, everyone’s eyes focused on her again.
Elder Lyons glanced at her suspiciously. "Are you a doctor, child?"
"...No."
Elder Lyons’s face fell instantly. "Then what are you spouting all this nonsense for?"
"While I’m not a doctor, I can discern logic, determine good and bad fortune, promote morality and law, and spread love and peace."
"Speak plainly."
"Oh, I’m a student of fortune-telling."
Elder Lyons: "..."
Lyons: "..."
"Don’t hold me back! Just watch me beat some sense into this wretched kid today! Conning people, and now he’s conning his own professor! It’s outrageous..." Elder Lyons raised his cane to teach Aidan a lesson, but Lyons quickly stopped him.
"How many times have I told you? Don’t be so hot-tempered. The kids probably didn’t mean it like that. It’s all a misunderstanding."
"What misunderstanding?! He walks in the door and says I’m sick! If that’s not what he meant, then what did he mean?"
Aidan looked at the man, red-faced and so furious he looked ready to disown him as a student on the spot. Aidan felt like his head was about to explode.
"For crying out loud," he pleaded, "can’t you be a little more tactful?"
Arabella blinked, her face a mask of innocence.
’She wanted to be more tactful, but circumstances wouldn’t allow it.’
’The situation with my brother’s mentor was only mentioned in passing in the original story. It said he died suddenly, which left Dr. Donovan—who was sitting on the crucial research for a miracle cancer drug—like a child holding a bar of gold in a den of thieves. Countless vultures swarmed in and tore him to shreds.’
’When Arabella first learned of this, she had just assumed Aidan’s mentor had died in some unfortunate accident.’
’But seeing him in person today, she realized that this "sudden death" could have been from external factors, or it could have been from internal ones—like a disease.’
’Elder Lyons’s lower abdomen had a faint yellow tinge, which meant that part of his body was diseased. The color wasn’t very deep, which indicated that the condition wasn’t yet severe.’
’However, the crucial detail was the faint blackness tinging the edge of the yellow area. This meant that if it was discovered and treated in time, there was still a high chance of a full recovery.’
’But if the person ignored it and let the condition worsen, then at a certain point, the illness would very likely become life-threatening.’
’There are a lot of organs in that area—large intestine, small intestine, appendix... What kind of life-threatening illness could it be? Appendicitis, enteritis, an intestinal obstruction, a tumor, or...’
’Cancer!’ The word leaped, unbidden, into Aidan’s mind. His breath hitched, and any thought of scolding his sister evaporated.
The room was still a noisy, chaotic mess when a knock suddenly sounded at the door. Through it, they could hear the voice of Elder Lyons’s daughter.
"Dad, Mom! Marcus, Sheldon, and I are back! Open the door!"
"It’s Pearl and Marcus," Lyons said, tugging at her husband to get him to compose himself and not make a scene in front of the kids.
Only then did Elder Lyons back down for the moment. He shot Aidan a glare that promised they would settle this later.
Aidan: "..." ’Talk about being wronged.’
Elder Lyons’s daughter, Pearl Lyons, entered with her husband and child. Seeing the two extra people in the room, she paused. "We have guests?"
Elder Lyons just snorted without a word. Aidan awkwardly rubbed his nose and introduced himself. "I’m one of Elder Lyons’s students. My name is Aidan Donovan, and this is my sister, Arabella Donovan."
"Oh, so you’re one of Dad’s students." Pearl Lyons smiled. "Why are you all standing? Please, sit down. Make yourselves at home."
Aidan’s expression stiffened. ’You must not have seen the look on your father’s face a moment ago,’ he thought. ’Do you think we’d dare to sit down?’
Just as the atmosphere in the room turned awkward and stalled, a child’s voice suddenly piped up, "Mommy, it’s the pretty lady and the uncle from yesterday."
Arabella and the others looked toward the source of the voice and saw it was Pearl Lyons’s daughter, Sheldon.
"The pretty lady and the uncle?" Pearl Lyons glanced at her daughter, then looked closely at Arabella and Aidan. A spark of recognition lit up her eyes. "Ah, I recognize you! You’re the two ’Chosen Ones’ from yesterday! The ones who almost got into that car crash near the food street but were saved when a bolt of lightning struck the other car out of a clear blue sky!"
The little girl heard this and nodded eagerly. "Yes! The pretty lady and the uncle from yesterday."
Arabella: "..." ’Chosen Ones? That sounds so juvenile. How embarrassing!’
Aidan: "???" ’Wait a minute, why is she the "pretty lady" while I’m the "uncle"? There isn’t that big of an age gap between us, is there?’