The Pride Game

Chapter 6

"Hahaha! Why should I believe all that stupid analysis of yours! There are no invites! There are no games! There are no challenges, okay! And most importantly, no one is waiting for us!" Jonathan snapped. He looked at Samuel with disgust. "Why should I believe everything you say! I should have trusted my intuition instead of asking you! Huh! Why have I been so stupid lately! Damn it! I'll take your wheelchair first!" exclaimed Jonathan in a high voice; he felt stupid for asking Samuel what Samuel could see from the invitation card. He shouldn't have to ask and throw the useless card away. It must be just a prankster trying to toy with him! he cried to himself again. 

"Wait! Why are you in such a hurry! Look over here first!" shouted Samuel from the bed. "Hey! At least you should hear what I have to say now!"

Samuel was always number one when he was working, with many fellow detectives and superiors who always depend on Samuel's profiling skills. He has good analytical skills and can be trusted, but that is also what causes many of his other co-workers to dislike Samuel; many want to destroy him, even kill him because he is brilliant. 

"Forget it! You better rest!" Jonathan chuckled, his voice disdainful. 

"Listen first!" The refusal had Samuel's pride trampled on, but he was determined to get an answer to this invitation as soon as possible. Then only Jonathan laughed at the door after he made it out of the room. Samuel's face became languid before he had been eager to solve this case. However, no one wanted to listen to him. Samuel's memory was fixed on the newspaper the nurse had brought some time ago. "Oh, damn it! I've got to get that newspaper back," he said in a low voice. Samuel discovered that the person who had invited him must have used the national newspaper to ask all the former CDA detectives, and the answer to the time and place was in the newspaper with the correct time. He had to check all the newspapers for the past week, or least for the past month. That person well thought out this invitation.

He pressed the nurse's help button. A voice, "Is there something I can help you with," came from the speaker he had just packed. Samuel's mind was working fast; seconds later, he asked, "Can I read last week's issue of the newspaper?" 

The nurse was silent for a moment before replying, "You can go to the children's playroom. We provided newspapers until a week ago." 

"Does this hospital still keep the newspaper from one month ago?" 

The nurse laughed at Samuel. "Only if you are lucky will you get a newspaper up to the last month's edition." 

"Where do you usually keep all those old newspapers?"

"We replace them regularly; at least they've been there until the last week. You can ask the office boy. The General Affairs Department handles that. You'd better ask them." 

The conversation ended with, "Okay, thanks," from Samuel. 

"What are you doing there? Why don't you get ready?" Jonathan frowned; he saw Samuel, still glued to the bed; Samuel still had the invitation card in his hand. 

"I'm going to the children's playroom first." 

"Don't be stupid. You have to go home right now--" The conversation was cut off when Jonathan's cell phone rang. Jonathan's eyes blinked twice as he realized who was calling him right now. The phone was still ringing a few times; Jonathan was fixated on the name on the screen. 

"Aren't you going to pick up the call?" Samuel looked at Jonathan. He noticed Jonathan's strange behavior.

Then Jonathan started walking outside to take the call, but when Jonathan had not yet reached the door and was still in Samuel's room, a loud voice shouted, "Why is there no payment from you today! Pay your debts!" This voice reached Samuel's place. Jonathan's feet stopped in place. His eyes looked down, and his mind went blank.

"Are you going to run away from your responsibilities! Pay it to our company, or I promise you will end up in jail!" Samuel recognized this voice, and it was the voice of their leader, a woman who was so proud and so arrogant. She has a savings and loan business with a large nominal. The woman had many aides and was very well known in the area where they lived. The woman was young and very beautiful, her clothes were sexy and attracted many men, she always carried a calculator everywhere in her left hand, while her right hand was a cigarette. No one dared her, and no one ever thought of messing with her. It was no secret; anyone who ran away from the woman would be searched for and tortured by the female executioners. She is a cold-blooded woman. Very scary and dangerous. Jonathan was silent for a few moments; he couldn't answer the woman's question, but when the woman said, "At the end of this month, if you don't pay half of the company's losses, then my executioner will torture you to death, and we will throw your body into the sea so that you can kill it. eaten by sea predators, and if there is any meat left in your body, I will send it to your mother!"

Jonathan immediately answered with a squeak, "O-okay, I'll pay it off." 

"No installments, loser! You just walked away after costing my company so much money. According to our agreement, you still have to pay half of the loan, and I'll wait until the end of the month." 

"End of the month?" Jonathan's eyes widened; he was shocked, even until now, he didn't have any money at all. The money was gone to help Samuel. "You are a filthy dog! Why can you still eat like a pig when you can't pay your debts at all!" A nurse came into Samuel's room with a pile of newspapers. Jonathan was so embarrassed, and he lowered his face so that his long hair covered his face. The nurse could hear the vicious woman's voice calling Jonathan, but she pretended not to listen to it and immediately spoke to Samuel. Jonathan left the room.

"You're going home today, right?" asked the nurse as she walked over to Samuel. Samuel's eyes couldn't take his eyes off the pile of newspapers; one corner of his lips lifted, then he nodded and said, "Yeah, right. I'm leaving the hospital today." Samuel paused, his eyes too mesmerized by the object in the nurse's hand, "But I thought I'd take a break first. I haven't read the news in a few days. Thank you." 

"Go ahead," and the nurse left Samuel alone. Jonathan is outside. There were quite a few newspapers, and the nurse had brought him a pile of newspapers from a week ago. Samuel opened the first newspaper. His hand traced the newspaper's contents one by one, matching the letters and words with the notes and observations on the invitation card. Not this ... Not this ... Not this ... Not this ... It's also not... And lastly also not here... Unlucky! Samuel finally thought. He'd checked all the newspapers in the past week; there wasn't a word he was looking for in them, but for a moment, Samuel was silent, his attention was drawn to something interesting there, and he began to read the report. "One month ago," he said in a low voice. "Then I have to get a newspaper with that issue." Samuel took his cell phone, and his heart sliced when he saw the severe crack on his cellphone. He opened the cellphone screen and was grateful to find his still active cellphone. He wanted to take pictures of the parts he deems essential. Government events are inviting important officials from several countries. The event was held at the government hall with five hundred and fifty-six guests. "That's suitable with the estimated number of participants," Samuel said to himself with a floating smile. He calculated that the number of participants from next year's past totaled five hundred and fifty-six. "Surely all the answers are in the paper by this date, but I'd be hard-pressed to find a paper by that date," he thought again. He opened his phone, opened the sales app. In the "search" field, Samuel typed the item he was looking for, while the estimated day was tomorrow. He immediately went into purchasing.

"Why can not?" he asked in a panicked voice. Samuel repeatedly pressed the "buy" button listed there. "Hey! Why can't this be!" he asked himself. "Hey! Hurry up! Sent! This phone is so stupid!" he shouted angrily, he raised his hand to slam the phone again, but this time he remembered that the screen of his phone had cracked due to the slamming of it earlier. "Argh! Damn it!" he cried. 

"What the hell are you!" Jonathan snapped; he had just entered the room in a wheelchair, which he finally managed to find; Jonathan's face looked unfriendly. "What kind of i***t are you screaming at a cheap cell phone! See if you have enough balance or not! Don't be like a wild monkey, yelling like that!" Jonathan took Samuel's cell phone and saw what had made his friend go crazy like that. "What are you going to do?" Jonathan asked, looking at the phone screen. "Would you like to buy a bra?" 

Samuel sighed; he looked elsewhere; he hated his cell phone. "Give it to me," Samuel begged, holding out his hand for his cell phone back. "This is none of your business." Jonathan returned the phone to Samuel. "Come on, and I'll help you get home." Jonathan had brought the wheelchair closer to Samuel's bed. Just as Samuel tried to get out of bed, the two men's cell phones rang. "Tit... tit...."