Chapter 698: Wonderful Idea
After another week of hospitalization, both Zess and Jake had almost completely recovered.
The doctor did a final check on them before he said, "All good. They can be discharged today."
"Thank you, doctor." Wendy said. "Thanks for taking the time to help them recover."
Michael followed, "Don’t hesitate to come find me if you need help with anything in the future."
"Thank you, Mr. Lucas." the doctor nodded with agreement instead of being humble.
Michael was the most powerful person in Lake City, so the doctor might actually need his help in the future.
"What if I need your help?" Milo shouted while walking into the hospital room.
Michael beamed with joy seeing Milo walk in and gave him a long hug.
"How could I ever forget you?" Michael said. "Tell me, how many medical appliances do you want?"
"You know me too well." Milo smiled and said. He took out his phone from his pocket and found the information he had prepared before coming here, and he gave it to Michael. "I want ten of these, oh and ten sets of these..."
Michael didn’t understand any of the medical appliances that were on Milo’s phone.
He said, "Just tell me how much do the appliances cost in total."
"Perfect." Milo said while waving his palm at Michael.
"Five hundred thousand?" Michael asked.
Milo shook his head.
"Five million?" Michael asked again.
Yet Milo shook his head again.
The smile on Michael’s face waned immediately.
"Seriously, Mr. Lucas?" Milo pouted like a child and said. "You gave each person on the research team ten million dollars, and there were eleven of them, so you gave the research team one hundred and ten million dollars in total. I’m just asking for fifty million, and the money isn’t even for me..."
Michael couldn’t pull off the poker face anymore. He burst out laughing and asked, "Are you taking this opportunity to import all the appliances your hospital needs?"
Seeing Michael laugh, Milo handed him his phone again and said, "Check out the prices and the breakdown. I’m not making the amount up. These are all the best medical appliances from all over the world, and they can save lives in crucial moments."
Michael saw on the screen that there were more than one hundred medical appliances that Milo wrote down, so he was sure that Milo came here because he had bought all those appliances and wanted him to reimburse him.
"Fine. I’ll pay you back all the costs." Michael said.
"Thank you, Mr. Lucas." Milo couldn’t stop smiling after hearing that.
His hospital had been wanting to buy those appliances for a long time, but they didn’t because of how expensive they were.
Now, they could finally purchase them without having to worry about the costs.
"You’re so kind and handsome. Wish you all the best with your family, career and everything!"
Michael interjected before Milo could finish buttering him up, "Stop it. You’re just happy that you found a sugar daddy."
Milo then shut up.
"By the way, there’s another thing that I want to talk about with you, Milo." Michael said while suddenly looking much more serious.
"Go ahead." Milo said.
"I want to set up a charity with your hospital." Michael said. "Don’t worry. I’ll pay for all the costs of the charity and your hospital won’t bear a dime. Since almost losing Jake and Zess, I realized, all the more, just how fragile we humans can be and how important it is for people to stay healthy. I want to set up a terminal disease charity fund, so that those who unfortunately catch these horrible diseases will have money to receive proper treatment."
He then continued, "But I’m not experienced in the medical field, so I want you to take charge of the charity fund. What do you think?"
...
"I think that’s a wonderful idea!" Milo couldn’t hide his joy and a broad smile appeared after hearing what Michael said.
Michael was the richest person in Lake City. If he was to establish a terminal disease charity fund, it would be a blessing to countless people in dire need.
People outside of the medical field couldn’t feel it, but as a doctor, Milo had seen many people who had to give up on their treatment because they couldn’t pay for it.
Initially, Milo would help by paying for their medical costs, however, there were only a handful of people that he could help as he didn’t earn enough money to help everyone he wanted.
The most that he could do was to perform the best surgeries he could.
However, he couldn’t do anything to help those who couldn’t even make it to the operating rooms.
Some of the patients couldn’t make it because they were too sick to be treated.
However, there were a large number of people who were curable but couldn’t afford the tremendous medical costs.
Milo thought about establishing charity funds to help the patients, unfortunately, he didn’t have enough money himself to do so.
He did research on it before and he found out that charity funds like that required a large sum of initial investments. The financial burden could be alleviated if he could find enough donors who made continuous donations, otherwise, the charities had to keep investing money in them.
Milo didn’t have enough money to establish a fund like that, and he was only a doctor who wasn’t prominent enough in Lake City to call on the wealthy to make donations.
As for Michael, he had both wealth and social influence, so he could be said to be the perfect person to establish such a charity fund.
Milo grabbed Michael’s arm as if he was afraid that Michael might slip away from him, and said, "Come to my office. Let’s talk about this issue now."
Michael felt slightly awkward seeing how keen Milo was.
"Come with me." Milo said while dragging Michael.
Michael slapped Milo’s hand away and said, "My son is being discharged today, so I need to go home with him."
"I’ll ask someone to drive you home." Milo said.
"Let’s talk about it another day. We need to delve into the details." Michael said.
It was just an idea that he had. Had he known how much Milo was looking forward to it, he should’ve waited for a couple of days until he brought it up.
"Don’t wait until another day," Milo thought and said. "How about this? I’ll head to your place and talk about the charity fund there."
"Damn it. I shouldn’t have told you about that," Michael said, frowning as he was slightly irritated.
Today was the day when Jake and Zess were discharged, so he wasn’t in the mood to talk about work.
"Uncle Milo..." Jake walked towards Milo, looked up at him and said. "That’s a fantastic thing. Come home with us."
Milo patted Jake on his head and praised him, "Such a good kid, Jake."
Milo then looked up at Michael and said, "Your son is on board."
Michael smiled and shook his head as he regretted bringing it up with Milo today.
"Fine. Since Jake wants you there, then let’s go back to my place together." Michael said.
"Sure. I’ll go finish the discharge forms for you." Milo then took out his phone and called his assistant who would help Jake and Zess finish the procedures required for them to be discharged.
Then, Milo took the bag in Wendy’s hand and the suitcase that Michael was carrying and said, "I’ll help you two carry these."
...
Michael got suspicious after seeing how Milo ingratiated himself to him.
Michael smiled and said, "Why are you so happy that I’m going to set up a charity fund?"
Milo immediately started explaining with a straight face upon hearing that, "Don’t worry, Mr. Lucas, I’m not in it for myself and I promise that I will manage your funds well. If you don’t trust me, then you can send someone from your company to act as my supervisor."
Milo was worried that Michael might suspect that he wanted to pocket money for himself from this fund.
"What are you talking about?" Michael said. He had absolute trust in Milo’s character, otherwise, he wouldn’t have brought it up with him.
They had been friends for years, so Michael knew exactly what kind of person Milo was.
And besides, Milo could’ve chosen to become a businessman if money was what he wanted. Milo had always had an incredible knack for entrepreneurship, and he might’ve become the most powerful businessman in Lake City if he chose that path.
Milo sighed with relief upon hearing that.
He then said, "I’m a doctor, and I want to save everyone. I’ve conducted numerous successful surgeries that saved a great number of people, but I also have my fair share of failures. I’d be sad if I had a surgical failure, but I knew that I had already tried my best. However, there are many patients who can’t even afford to pay for their surgeries. Many of them stand a great chance of recovering, yet they don’t even have the opportunity to be in the operating theatre. Now that they will have that opportunity, I’m certainly ecstatic."
Milo sounded sincere as it came from the bottom of his heart.
Michael sighed and nodded.
He wouldn’t have empathized so deeply if it weren’t for Jake and Leah falling victim to poison and illness.
"Although I’m just a materialistic businessman and not a doctor, I want to try to help those who are in need," Michael said.
Milo wanted to pat Michael on his shoulders, but then he realized that both of his hands were occupied.
He then smiled and said, "When a businessman only wants profits, he is indeed materialistic, but when a businessman is kind enough to spend the money he earns on helping those in need, then he’s no longer just materialistic. To those people who are in dire need, you’re like an angel to them."
"D*mn it. I can’t even take it back anymore," Michael said and laughed.
"Don’t even think about taking it back. It’s a done deal," Milo said.
"Of course."
On their way back home, Milo and Michael kept talking about the details of setting up the charity fund.
As he listened to Milo talk about his ideas for the charity fund, Michael knew that he had asked the right person.
It was lunchtime when they got home.
The second they got into the house, they smelled the dishes that had been prepared.
Mary didn’t go to the hospital for Jake and Zess, instead, she stayed home and cooked a table full of dishes as a celebration.
"Wendy, Michael..." Yonina walked out of the kitchen carrying the dishes.
She walked toward them with a broad smile and said, "Jake, Leah, Zess..."
"Are you Yonina?" Wendy frowned when she saw Yonina, and past memories started flashing back in her mind.
Sensing the confusion in Wendy’s tone, Yonina said, "Seriously? We met each other not too long ago. Have you forgotten me already?"
Wendy explained, "Sorry. I had an accident that caused me some memory loss, but I do remember who you are. You’re Yonina Collins, the CEO of Collins Group."
