บทเพลงแห่งความเงียบ(The Symphony of Silence)

"Hi everyone, welcome to St. Jude’s Hospital! I'm a senior resident here, so to show you the ropes, I'll sign off on your observer permits tomorrow so you can access the specialized surgical suites. It's all on me; consider it a little welcome gift."

Hearing Chloe Vance speak those familiar words, a cold shiver ran down my spine. I realized I had been reborn, back to the day the new interns came to tour the hospital.

The other interns immediately started showering her with compliments.

"Seriously, Chloe, you are an absolute angel!"

"Chloe, showing such a huge group of us around is going to take so much work!"

Chloe just smiled and said, "It's no problem. You've all come so far to do your residency here, it's only right that I show you around."

Someone then turned to me.

"Serena, if I remember correctly, you're a senior resident too, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Welcome to St. Jude’s, everyone."

Suddenly, Chloe grabbed my arm.

"Serena, my access badge doesn't work for the main OR. Since you're a chief surgeon now, can I borrow your badge?"

I froze as if I had been doused in ice water.

In my previous life, Chloe used the same excuse to borrow my access badge.

The result? Chloe operated recklessly in the main room, breaching safety protocols. She ended up causing a fatal hemorrhage that killed a prominent patient on the table.

Three fellow interns then collectively testified against me, claiming I was the one who botched the procedure and fled the hospital afterward.

When the medical board came to confront me, I desperately tried to explain that Chloe was the surgeon.

But Chloe just burst into tears and threw herself into the arms of my boyfriend, Lucas Miller.

"Serena, I know you don't like me, but you can't frame me like that!"

Lucas slapped me hard and pulled out the operating room's surveillance footage.

The video showed me holding the scalpel, causing the hemorrhage, and killing that patient.

Before I could even explain, the victim's family members, enraged after seeing the video, savagely beat me to death.

Recalling the pain, I couldn't help but tremble.

Before I could react, someone snatched my coat.

Lucas immediately rummaged through it, pulled out my smart ID badge, and handed it to Chloe.

"Here you go, Chloe."

Hearing that, I snapped back to reality and grabbed my coat and badge back.

"Sorry, I need to use my badge tomorrow. Borrow someone else's."

Lucas immediately became annoyed.

"What could you possibly need it for? I think you just don't want to lend Chloe your badge."

I glared at him.

"That's right, I don't want to lend it to her. So what?"

Chloe acted as if she were deeply aggrieved.

"Serena, I don't know why you hate me so much. I just want to borrow your badge to give everyone a tour of the main OR. Why do you have to be so mean?"

I scoffed. I merely refused to lend her something that belonged to me, but suddenly I'm "mean"?

The other interns took her side and chimed in:

"Serena, we're all colleagues. You're so heartless."

"Chloe just wants to borrow your badge. Why are you being so hurtful? Chloe has never done anything bad to you."

Lucas pushed me.

"Serena, can you stop being such a spoiled brat? It's the first day of our rotation and you're already bullying Chloe."

I fell to the ground, hitting the back of my head hard on the metal edge of a medical cart. The pain made me gasp.

Before, I might have let Lucas's words manipulate me into second-guessing myself, but now I felt nothing but pure, unadulterated venom. I wanted to drag him straight to hell.