Eight Uncles' Beloved Treasure (Lily)

Chapter 365 The Old Woman’s Intentions

Not long after the old lady had left Zachary’s room, the nurse came by for another routine check.

Noticing Zachary still fast asleep in his bed, she tapped him gently on the shoulder to wake him.

Zachary opened his eyes and blinked a few times dazedly. Did he fall asleep again? It felt like he had

just woken up not long ago. Was he still dreaming? These days, he could barely differentiate his

dreams from reality. Things that happened in his dreams happened in real life too, like his alarm clock

ringing and hist morning routine which include brushing his teeth and washing his face… It was usually

halfway through his dream when he would wake up unexpectedly and realizing it was all a figment of

his imagination. Sometimes, he would even feel the urgency of needing to use the toilet while stuck in

his dream, only to find that he had wet the bed.

Zachary felt that same strange feeling right now, like he was caught in between a dream and reality. He

recalled waking up to look for his father, but he could not say how he had ended up in bed again.

Perhaps it was all a dream from the beginning…

T

Noticing that Zachary was caught up with his own thoughts in his world again, the nurse shook her

head sympathetically, thinking the poor child must be going through a lot right now. She said a silent

prayer for his surgery to be successful so he could lead a normal life once more before leaving the

room.

As the nurse left. Liam entered the room and looked at the time. It was 7.50am. He had left the room

for barely ten minutes and Zachary had already woken up. Liam wondered why his son had woken up

so soon after falling asleep just a while ago, but he decided against saying anything. “Have some

breakfast, Zac. It won’t taste exactly like home, but it’s pretty good!” Liam said as he unpacked a giant

takeaway food box filled with an egg and cheese burrito, some yogurt and hot cocoa.

His father was right, Zac thought. Nothing else could compare against homecooked food, but he ate his

breakfast obediently anyway. As the father and son ate quietly, the room was so silent that Gilbert

almost thought there was no one in the room when he dropped by.

“Zac, your surgery has been set for tomorrow at nine in the morning. Don’t eat too much today.” Gilbert

reminded his nephew as he looked at his watch. “Don’t worry too much, son. The surgeon is one of my

mentees. He’s a great, meticulous guy!” Gilbert reassured.

Zachary swallowed in fear as he automatically translated his uncle’s words to mean, “Don’t worry too

much, son. The surgeon has plenty of experience cutting heads wide open”.

Gilbert was already used to his nephew’s lack of response by now. “It’s just a simple procedure to

remove the blood clot from your brain. There’s a 95% success rate for the surgery, and my mentee has

never botched any of his surgeries before!” he added.

Zachary considered his uncle’s words. That meant that he had to prepare himself for a 5% chance of

dying. Uncle Gilbert said a few more reassuring words to Zachary and his father before returning to his

ward rounds.

After eating breakfast and going through his routine morning check-up by the nurses, Zachary took out

a pen and paper and began writing his will. Even though he had already stopped gaming, his main

“crowzee” account was still worth at least millions. He had a side account that would easily sell for

$10,000 since he had bought so many characters and limited-edition skins. He also had about

$500,000 left in savings. He decided he would leave it all to Lilly, together with any money he made

once he sold off all his gaming character figurines. He would leave his two unfinished textbooks to

Hannah.

Zachary frowned as he realized that was about all the assets he had. He thought about how adults

usually left their children land or houses or cars when they died, but he had none of those at all. Well,

he could not just die like that with nothing to his name, could he He had to live for a few more years

and work

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hard to buy a house and car for Lilly, along with a few plots of land.

Lilly and her family arrived just as Zachary finished writing his will. Sharp-eyed Josh immediately

caught sight of the paper Zachary was holding and made a grab for it. “What is this?” he asked

curiously. “Let me see it!” Zachary quickly pulled back, preventing Josh from grabbing the paper.

“Fine, I don’t need to see it,” Josh rolled his eyes.

Lilly tilted her head as she looked at Zachary. “Zac, are you okay?” she asked out of concern.

Pablo too noticed the defeated look on Zachary’s face and shook his head. “The kid hasn’t even gone

through the surgery yet and he’s already looking like he’s going to die…”

Lilly still felt like something was not right. “Master, did Zac get cursed by an evil spirit or something?”

she whispered.

“Of course not! Don’t say things like that blindly,” Pablo shook his head. Even though the hospital had a

bad aura and spirits wandering around, Pablo would have easily been able to tell if Zac was struck by

an evil spirit, Pablo figured the boy was just more likely overly hopped up on medication, not realizing

that the old lady had drugged him. Pablo and Lilly were too used to supernatural spirits being the cause

of trouble that they completely forgot that human beings were perfectly capable of evil too.

Lilly climbed onto Zachary’s bed and peered at him curiously. “Zac, did you see anything untoward? Or

met with any strange incident?”

Zachary stiffened. “No, why would you say that? Don’tjinx me,” he retorted, having completely forgotten

about his encounter with the old lady.

Lilly quickly put her hands to her mouth. “That’s not what I meant, Zac!” she said apologetically.

“Hmph!” Zachary let out an annoyed sound before stuffing the handwritten will into Lilly’s hands. “Keep.

this properly. You can only open it up after the surgery, got it?”

Lilly looked at the piece of paper curiously. “What is it she asked. She wanted nothing more than to find

out what was written on the inside, but she respected Zac’s wishes and put the piece of paper into her

little. bag pack.

The very next day, it was almost time for Zachary’s surgery. His nerves began to kick in as he was

wheeled closer and closer toward the operating theater. A little hand reached out for his as Lilly’s sweet

voice filled his ears. “You can do this, Zac! You’re the best! You’ll come out of the surgery just fine!” she

said as she tied something around his wrist.

“I made you a good luck bracelet! Don’t take it off!” Lilly told him. The bracelet had little triangle charm

threaded together by a red string. In that moment, Zachary felt all of his fears and nerves dissipate. He

looked into Lilly’s eyes without saying a word, searching for the calm reassurance she always brought

him. It was just moments before the anesthesia kicked in and he lost consciousness when he finally

muttered, “Okay, Lilly…”

During Zachary’s surgery, the old woman was in the last ward at the end of the corridor. She held a

small wooden stake in her hands as she chanted some indecipherable gibberish and hopped around

the room. as if in a trance. There was a little straw man with a piece of paper stuck on it placed in front

of her, with Zachary’s name and date of birth written on it. Her young grandson had suffered through

various calamities and bouts of bad luck since his birth. She was performing a ritual to transfer all her

grandson’s bad luck onto Zachary, so that Zachary would bear all his misfortune instead. Her poor

grandson was