The Apple of My Eye
Chapter 1333 Doctor Ricky Checked On Melissa

Finally, Nancy broke the silence.

She asked, "Mr. Lu, the doctor is waiting for you downstairs. May I bring him up for you to see now?"

"Sure, you can go and bring him to us." "Okay, great!"

Shortly after, Nancy returned with Ricky. Instead of putting down his medical kit first, Ricky walked over to Melissa briskly. He cast a courteous smile towards Melissa, which was just his way of showing his professional politeness. The doctor then started to size up her complexion.

"Doctor, can you please take a close look at my mother's physical health? She's been feeling rather uncomfortable these last couple of days. I hope you can replace out what's wrong," Charles added. "Okay, there's no need to be worried. I will give her a checkup."

After an unusually long while of waiting, Ricky finally finished his checkup. However, before he concluded her diagnosis, he hesitated to speak for a moment. In fact, he didn't replace anything wrong with Melissa whatsoever. In his many years of medical experience, he found that Melissa was in a very good physical condition, but to his recollection, he remembered when he received the phone call from the Lu family, which was why he initially thought that he might have a tricky task.

Besides, while he was performing his check up on Melissa, she kept complaining about pain in many different parts of her body. Even until he finished checking her, she still looked as though she was sick, which had him worried.

Since Ricky always had a responsible attitude towards his profession, he decided to conduct a brief, yet effective full-body check yet again. Still, however, he failed to replace anything wrong with her health. Melissa's body functioned as well as any other regular person.

Frowning, Ricky got frustrated and wondered, 'This is so weird. She looks well to me. Even her face is glowing brightly. She doesn't have any signs of illness whatsoever. Were my checkups incomplete? Did I miss anything?

No, that's not possible at all!' Ricky was 100% confident about his medical expertise. If he wasn't, he wouldn't have become famous enough to be hired as a private doctor by many blue-blooded families, particularly the Lu family.

Suddenly, a stupid thought flashed in his mind. 'Could it be that she is just pretending to be ill?' Ricky thought as he found it absurd to believe otherwise. Nevertheless, he still couldn't discourage himself from this crazy idea. Even though Melissa complained about her unbearable pains, he noticed that she wasn't really being specific about it at all.

Thus, with a suspicious look in his eyes, Ricky probed carefully, "Mrs. Lu, could you tell me when exactly the pain started to discomfort you? I need you to tell me exactly where you are experiencing pain. Can you be more specific?"

Hearing the doctor's question, Melissa got extremely alert. Suddenly, doubt filled her mind. 'What on earth is wrong now? Why is this doctor asking me these kinds of questions? He's even observing me strangely. How am I supposed to respond to his questions now?'

The more she thought about it, the more she tensed up at Ricky's questions. Finally, her mind went completely blank. Acting on reflex, she answered blandly without even thinking carefully, "Oh, regarding the time, I don't have any clue. It must have started just after lunchtime! Since then, I started to feel rather uncomfortable and then it proceeded to get worse and worse."

Melissa purposefully made her descriptions as ambiguous as possible, which aroused Ricky's suspicion even more. Still, even before he could get any hard evidence to prove his assumption, he didn't want to upset her by jumping to any bold conclusions. After all, no one in their right mind would make attempts and pretend to be sick. What could any given person gain from that? The slightest thought of it could be considered only stupid!

As the clock kept on moving and struck 2 o'clock in the morning, everyone had developed black circles around their eyelids. Their drowsy eyes betrayed their attempts to hide the fact that they were tired. Even Melissa got too tired to perform her play as well as she did before. However, Ricky was still full of energy and vigorous to solve her medical mystery.

Still, Ricky felt torn. One part of him wanted to be straightforward and tell everyone in the room that Melissa was indeed not sick at all objectively; the other part was telling him that it wasn't a good idea to tell the truth. Although the truth could resolve Charles' anxiety, it might be offensive to Melissa. Thinking about it, Ricky didn't know whether she was intentionally behaving unwell or not.

Finally, Ricky spoke to Charles, with a serious look. "Mr. Lu, about the result of your mother's checkup, I think it's best to speak to you in private."

Melissa had an extremely guilty conscience, and even though she was tired, she remained alert. The moment Ricky's words spread into her ears, her mind turned into a complete mess. Instantly, horror exploded like a firework inside her mind. Her drowsiness immediately disappeared at once. She then thought in a paranoid state, 'Did he notice that I was pretending to be sick after all? Is that why he's attempting to tell Charles about my health in private?' She couldn't help but tremble at the thought.

In quick response, she said nervously, "Doctor, why don't you just say what the results are right here so that everyone can hear it together. Besides, don't forget that I am the patient after all. I need to be informed of what is the matter with my body first." Despite her abnormal nervousness, from Charles' understating, he simply considered that his mom was possibly too scared to accept Ricky's suggestion. The way Ricky had chosen to share her results, in other people's opinions, seemed to insinuate that something serious was wrong with Melissa.

However, Melissa tensed up at that moment. She wasn't about to allow her plot to be exposed to Charles.

Hesitating for a while, Ricky learned what her act was all about. Not wanting to offend Melissa, he said in front of everyone, "Alright then, here is what I have found. I ran the physical examination on her twice and tried my best, however, I found that nothing is wrong with her. I think that her health status is normal. As for the pain, I really don't have a clue, but it may be caused by factors other than her physical health Still, we can't be too cautious. I suggest that you take her to the hospital for a more extensive examination, just to be reassured."

"Okay, but Doctor, why do I still feel weak? I don't have any strength, so how can I not be ill? Besides, I have this feeling of a hammer that keeps punching in my head. It gives me a headache," Melissa whined. To justify her words as true, Melissa even turned her face and yelled out a mourn.

Ricky was at a loss for words. With an awkward smile, he turned his head towards Charles, waiting for him to respond. Charles didn't think any progress could be made, even if he had asked Ricky to run a full checkup on Melissa once more. So, he then thanked Ricky and let him leave after Ricky prescribed some pain-killers for her.

The setting left everyone sinking into their deep thoughts. A long silence lingered in the room.

After a long while, Charles comforted her with a faint smile, "Mom, the doctor prescribed you some drugs to relieve the pain, for the time being. I will, however, replace some time to take you to the hospital for a full checkup next time." Despite Charles' attempt to show that he was serious and attentive, concerns had already started to run off his mind at Ricky's report. Since Ricky was well known in the medical community, his words seemed more worthy than Melissa's claims could ever be. That was why, no matter how Melissa thought she felt, Ricky's report displayed that she had no signs of being ill whatsoever. Charles thought, 'Well, perhaps it's because Mom just left the hospital, and she still hasn't completely recovered yet. Besides, she has been exposed to air-conditioning for the entire afternoon. The low temperature may have been the reason for making her feel ill.' He thought about his conclusion and considered the thought that Melissa just needed a little time to get better.

He then said, "Mom, it's too late now. It's best that you go to sleep. Besides, we also need some sleep. So, good night and rest well."

Charles instructed Nancy to call several servants to work a shift and take care of Melissa. He then left the room with Sheryl.

Sheryl felt exhausted. She stayed in Melissa's room all night, just to look after Melissa with Charles, only to now replace out that there was indeed nothing wrong with Melissa. She couldn't help but doubt her mother-in-law and think that she was acting as before.

The more she thought about it, Sheryl was convinced that there might have been a plot in Melissa's mind. It was the only thing that made sense. Otherwise, why could she claim to be ill when she clearly wasn't? However, she was unsure about how Melissa thought she'd benefit from acting sick this time around. For Sheryl, it was a headache every time Melissa got sick.

Although she really wanted to tell Charles about her suspicion, she quickly retracted the idea from her mind. She told herself, 'He has been very protective towards his mom all of this time. There's no way that he would take my words seriously. Once I tell him about my suspicion, he may consider that I am stupid or paranoid. He will surely only side with his mom, as always.'

Dangling with her thoughts and conspiracies, she decided not to share her thoughts with Charles. Instead, Sheryl felt exhausted and had a broken heart. She then decided to call it a night.

The following morning, Charles and Sheryl got up early. He immediately called up Nancy to ask how his mother was doing. Making sure that no major problems occurred during the night, he exhaled a deep breath of relief.

Sheryl went to the children's room and woke Shirley and Clark up from their sound sleep with her gentle voice.

"Alright, my lovely babies, it's time to get up now. There is a wonderful breakfast waiting for you!" Sheryl cheered, as soon as she swung the door open.

Hearing their mom's announcement, both of them woke up and rubbed their beady eyes. Seeing them sit up slowly and awkwardly, she felt like they were two adorable-looking sheep. This left her heart-melting instantly on the spot.

"Good morning, Mom!" Shirley and Clark greeted their mother together. The two of them then rushed towards their mom. Shirley ran into Sheryl's arms and brushed against her with their tender red cheeks. With a big smile, Sheryl caressed both of their heads and kissed them gently on their foreheads one by one. She then said, "You should get dressed! After breakfast, you will go to school as per usual, and meet your school friends!"

Shirley and Clark were both incredibly obedient children, so much so, that they acted quickly on their mother's words. Sheryl stood beside them and waited for them to dress themselves. However, she was ready to reach out whenever they might need help. After the twins got ready, Sheryl took them to go downstairs hand in hand, for breakfast.

"Good morning! Breakfast is ready now. You'd better get started before it gets cold," Nancy turned towards the children and greeted with delight.

"Okay, thanks, Nancy!" Sheryl appreciated.

Charles was ready at the table, too. However, he didn't raise his chopsticks to start eating yet, as he was patiently waiting for Melissa.

The kids were in big a hurry to get to school on time, hence why Sheryl didn't wait for Charles. She took a pair of chopsticks and began to feed her children. She thought that Melissa would come soon. However, to her amazement, even when the kids were finished eating, Melissa still hadn't shown up for breakfast.

Nevertheless, Charles still didn't eat breakfast. He decided to wait for Melissa. Observing his mom's illness last night, he couldn't possibly leave her alone.

Even though Sheryl observed Charles' intentions closely, she was focused on the kids. Before putting the kids in the driver's car, she didn't waste any time. Watching the car drive away in the distance, she returned back to the table and waited with Charles.