Chapter 184 Drinking The Sorrows Away
“Why move to Chanaea all of a sudden?” Oscar asked while drinking straight from the bottle.
“I’ve actually been thinking of doing so for a few years now, but I had to postpone those plans because I haven’t been able to hand my work there to someone else. Now that we have an exchange program with Chanaea, I applied to be an exchange doctor here in Chanaea,” James replied while chugging away at his drink.
“Don’t they have better employee benefits over there?”
“They do, but working there isn’t challenging at all. I heard Chanaean medicine is famous for acupuncture, so I decided to move here and learn it. I could just move back after mastering it, anyway. Who knows? I might even stay here if I end up marrying a Chanaean woman! While I may not seem like it, I’m actually in my thirties now. It’s about time I settle down and start a family.”
“James… We’re friends, right?” Oscar asked when he noticed that James seemed to have something on his chest.
“Yeah, why? Do you doubt our friendship?”
“Then tell me, did something happen to you?”
James paused for a moment before bursting into laughter. “Oh, it’s nothing, really! I just thought I’d have a change of scenery, you know? Chanaea is a huge country filled with lots of amazing people and good food, after all! Food in Erihal is really greasy and could easily lead to cancer.”
“Pfft, that’s no problem at all! Just let me know if you need anything!” Oscar said.
James gave him a thumbs-up. “My man!”
The owner of the restaurant came over with two bowls of soup and said, “Hey, handsome! I thought I’d make you two some soup since you’ll be having a lot to drink. It’s on the house, and only handsome people get this special treatment! Feel free to come again if you like it!”
“Thank you for being so kind, beautiful. I wish you all the best in life!” James said with a smile.
The owner chuckled in amusement. “Your Chanaean is really fluent, handsome! Had it not been for your foreign appearance, I would’ve mistaken you for a local!”
“I may look foreign, but I’m a Chanaean at heart, so you can just treat me like one!”
“All right, you two carry on! I’ll get back to work now!”
“See you around, beautiful!”
Oscar waited until she left before carrying on eating.
“Hey, Oz, I remember you complaining about how dirty this place was when I got you to eat here with me back then. Heck, you even refused to take a single bite and just glared at me the whole time! So, what’s changed you, huh?” James asked.
“She likes the food here,” Oscar replied, obviously referring to Amelia.
James too, continued stuffing his face with steak before putting on a more serious look as he said, “Listen, Oz… The blood clot in Amelia’s brain is exerting pressure on her optic nerves, so there’s a possibility that she’ll end up blind even after a full recovery.”
Oscar froze when he heard that, and his expression turned gloomy. “What blood clot?”
“The car accident left some pretty nasty injuries on her. I’m talking about fractured ribs, ruptured organs, and serious trauma to the brain. The blood clot in her brain is too close to her nerves, so we can’t remove it just yet. If it does cause damage to her optic nerves, it could very well lead to blindness. Of course, I’m just assuming the worst-case scenario here. There is a chance that we can remove it surgically after her recovery without her going blind beforehand. Oz, it’s practically a miracle that she even survived this car accident. As brilliant as Professor Schweitzberg may be, Amelia’s strong will to survive is what really helped her pull through,” James explained.
Oscar kept his head low and continued to down his drink in silence.
James clinked his bottle with his own and said, “Hey… Don’t be like this, Oz…”
“How likely is she to go blind if the blood clot isn’t removed?” Oscar asked as he took a chug.
“Eighty percent.”
Oscar took another few chugs from his bottle. “Is it curable?”
“Well… Unless she can find a suitable donor for a corneal transplant…” James didn’t have to finish his sentence for Oscar to understand what he meant to say.
“You’re a brilliant surgeon, James. If you were to carry out that surgery, what would you say your chances of success are?”
“Thirty percent.”
Oscar’s heart sunk when he heard that.
“What about your mentor?”
“Forty percent.”
“If I recall correctly, you’ve performed this sort of surgery before. Why the lack of confidence this time?”
“Amelia’s condition is a very tricky one, Oz. The blood clot is located in a spot where most of her nerves are concentrated, and the slightest error could result in her death due to a rupture of the surrounding blood vessels. On top of that, her current physical condition is too weak for such a surgery, so we have no choice but to go with a more conservative form of treatment. For now, we’ll just keep her situation under control through medication and decide our next course of action when she’s all better. I’m sure we’ll be able to come up with something if all the local and foreign experts work together!”
“Keep it a secret from Amelia.”
James nodded. “I will, but she has to find out sooner or later. Oz, I suggest you tell her about this when she wakes up. That way, she can be mentally prepared for anything. It’d be a lot better than to have her find out by suddenly going blind someday.”
Oscar shot him a glare and said, “She won’t go blind.”
James kept quiet after that.
Oscar kept downing bottle after bottle that night in hopes of getting himself drunk, but ended up feeling a lot more sober than before. The owner of the diner began to worry when she saw them ordering their third round of beers.
“Guys, I know you’re probably in a lot of pain and all, but you shouldn’t be ruining your health over a woman like this. It’s just not worth it! There are plenty more fishes in the sea, so I’m sure you’ll find better ones out there! Given how handsome you both are, I’m sure a wink is all it takes for women to throw themselves at you! Please go easy on the booze or you’ll be in for a world of pain the next morning!”
James chuckled.
“Thanks for your concern, but my friend here is already married. He’s worried about his sick wife, so he got me to drink with him. Don’t let his handsome face fool you, though. He’s actually really loyal to his woman!”
The owner nodded and gave Oscar a thumbs-up. “It’s great to see a man this handsome being so loyal! Still, you really shouldn’t drink so much. Don’t worry, I’m sure your wife won’t want to leave a handsome man like you anyway! She’ll definitely get better!”
In the end, the two of them left with the owner sending them off at the door.
“Hey, you okay?” James asked while holding Oscar steady.
Oscar shook his head and said in his most confident voice, “I can still drink!”
Sometimes, attempting to drink one’s sorrows away would only lead to one becoming more sober.
James frowned. “Are you trying to drink yourself to death or what? Come on, we’re going back to the hospital! What if Amelia wakes up and thinks you’ve left her because you weren’t there by her side, eh? Women take this sort of things very seriously, you know?”
Oscar pushed him aside. “I want to go to the beach and feel the ocean breeze. It helps me sober up.”
Looks like I’m going to be spending the night with him…
James thought to himself as he said, “Get in the car. I’ll keep you company for tonight.”
The two of them got into the car, and James took the wheel as he was the more sober one of the two.
“I’m literally driving without a Chanaean driver’s license and under the influence of alcohol here, so you’d better back me up if we get pulled over.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take full responsibility for anything that happens. Besides, no one would dare arrest a member of the Clintons!” Oscar reassured him while leaning against the passenger seat.
“All right, then!”
Fortunately for them, they didn’t encounter much traffic on the road, let alone any policemen.
The two of them arrived at the beach within half an hour.
“The beach is a great place for men and women to hang out at, and yet here I am, stuck with you. What a waste of a potentially romantic night…” James exclaimed as he stretched his arms out and felt the sea breeze, only to apologize when Oscar rolled his eyes at him, “Okay, sorry… Forget I said that…”
Oscar then sat down by the beach and listened to the sounds of the waves without saying a word.
James followed suit, and the two of them spent the next few minutes just sitting there before James broke the silence, “Well? You’ve felt the ocean breeze, Oz. Have you sobered up yet? Can we leave now? It’s pretty chilly here at night…”
Oscar ignored him and simply stared at the sea, surprising James with how unusually quiet he was.
“What’s on your mind, Oz? This isn’t like you.”
“Nothing much, really. I was just thinking of how long it’s been since I sat down and stared at the sea like this…” Oscar replied.
“You’ll have plenty of opportunities to do so with Amelia when she gets better. This whole depressing act just isn’t your style, man. Come on, let’s go!”
“Now that you mentioned it, I haven’t brought Amelia to the beach despite us being married for so many years now.”
“I bet she must feel so dissatisfied with you, man.”
Oscar pursed his lips. “Yeah, probably.”
James tugged at his arm. “Come on, stop thinking about this crap! This isn’t your style!”
“All right, let’s go,” Oscar said as he stood up.
James let out a sigh of relief and wrapped an arm around his shoulder. “That’s more like it, Oz! If you feel guilty towards Amelia, just treat her better when she wakes up! I think she’s a really amazing woman, so you’d better up your game or I’ll steal her from you!”
Oscar shot him a glare and brushed his arm off, knocking James off balance and causing him to almost trip over himself.
“Hey! Not cool, Oz!”
Oscar grinned at him as he said coldly, “Amelia is mine, and mine alone. She isn’t someone you can afford to steal.”
James shrugged at him. “What can I say? Excellent men tend to go after amazing women!”
The two of them then burst into laughter as they made their way back to the car. “Don’t worry about the blood clot, okay? I’ll have a discussion with my mentor on how we can minimize the risk of the surgery,” James said as he opened the car door.
“Thanks.”
