Part 4. No good people to trust

Ricky remained silent for a while until he heard the cat meow, he regained his senses and looked down at the cat.

"I'd love to take care of you, but even I need to be taken care of, HEI!" Ricky grimaced as the cat clawed at his hand and jumped down. The cat ran away, leaving Ricky grimacing in pain.

[Because you were still willing to take care of the cat despite the pain, you get an extra 500$]

[Now you can heal your wounds with the remaining potion]

Ricky cleaned his wound first with clean tap water, and then applied the potion to his injured hand.

"Can I ask you a question?" Ricky muttered, feeling like a crazy person for talking to a transparent hologram screen that only he could see.

[Please, master!]

"That... how do I check if the money is real or not? I mean -"

[So you doubt whether the money is real or not?]

"I'm sorry, I'm just confused, maybe it's all in my imagination, I drank too much poison, there must be some side effects that make me have weird fantasies, because there's no way I'm getting an apartment worth 600,000$, it's like impossible."

Even then, Ricky seemed to be talking to himself, it was a good thing that he was in a quiet place, no one would come and think he was crazy for talking to himself.

[No problem]

[It's very normal to maintain the authenticity of the handsome prince system]

Then the system's screen changed to a map that showed a red dot where Ricky was. There was also a blue dot, Ricky knew he was the red dot, because the red dot was in the park beside the hospital, while the blue dot was in front of the hospital.

[In front of the hospital there is an ATM machine, there you can check whether your bank account is real or not]

[You can also withdraw cash]

Ricky got up and went back to his room, taking his bank account book and ATM card.

[You can withdraw at the storage system if you're afraid of losing your items]

Ricky nodded and placed his items in the system storage.

After that, he followed the system's screen instructions to find the ATM machine.

"Wait! Where are you going?" a nurse stopped him.

"I just want to walk around to the front," Ricky said.

"Okay, but you're only going to the front, right? Because I'm going to deliver some food, I have your favorite fried chicken, so you should come back soon."

Hearing there was fried chicken for lunch, Ricky smiled broadly, "I'll be right back!"

"Alright, be careful, or would you like some company?" the nurse asked. Ricky shook his head, "no need, I'm fine on my own."

Ricky left carefully, so that the nurse wouldn't get suspicious of him. If the nurse knew Ricky had a bank account, she would be suspicious of him.

One thing was for sure, Ricky couldn't be caught with any money, let alone an apartment, at least not until he was out of the hospital and free.

After arriving at the front of the hospital, Ricky could see the ATM machine which happened to be deserted, probably because it was lunchtime, so no one was queuing at the ATM machine.

Ricky quickly got in before his skin got sunburned because the sun was above his head. Ricky's skin was much different from what it used to be before he was sold. Ricky's skin used to be light brown, the kind of skin that people in other tropical countries usually have.

But after several years of being locked up and drinking poison, everything had changed.

That beautiful light brown skin became pale white. His brown hair also turned into a silver color.

The only thing that didn't change was the color of his dark eyes, that's all.

The system screen gave instructions on how to use the ATM machine.

[First insert the ATM card]

[Then fill in the password, which is 012345]

Ricky did all the system commands carefully, until he could see that the account balance was already 2000$.

Ricky tried to withdraw money, but only 50$.

He was very surprised when real money came out of the machine.

"This is awesome, is this real money?"

[Of course, do you trust the system now?]

Ricky nodded, "I do!"

[Now you should go back to your room and eat your lunch]

***

Ricky lay down and stared at the 50$ bill intently, he flipped through it with a big smile on his face.

He was glad he had gotten that much money.

For Ricky, the most money he had ever seen was only 50$ and also 100$.

He didn't know the price of goods at the time, but eight years ago, 50$ was a lot and the price of basic food was still cheap. One kilo of rice was only 0.8$. A kilo of chicken meat was also only 1$.

But Ricky was sure that after eight years, the price of goods would rise.

"This much money, is it still a lot, or is it a little?" Ricky muttered.

It was already late, the wall clock read 8pm and Ricky couldn't sleep even though he had read the books lent to him by the nurse.

So far, Ricky had read about eight books, some of them classic fantasy and romance novels. But since Ricky said he was bored with novels, today the nurse gave him a thick science book.

Ricky read about a third of the book, he would read it again the next day.

Since he was bored, he decided to take a walk around there. Ricky had pretty much memorized the ins and outs of the hospital.

When he passed by the nurses' rest area, he just wanted to pass by and go to the side garden. However, when his name was mentioned, he stopped and listened to their conversation.

"Do you know Ricky? That young man in the VIP room..."

"What about him? I think he's quite handsome, don't he?"

"But he's a pity, you know the news, that the Harvert family has been using him as a poison taster, and some of them are deadly. But because he survived, a lot of people want him, one of them is the CEO of a big company. He said people were trying to poison him, and he needed Ricky to be his food taster. The man is old and will be retiring soon, but since there is no suitable heir for the company, he doesn't want to die quickly."

"How do you know this?"

"I know that when I gave the hospital owner a drink this afternoon, the hospital owner wanted to give Ricky to the president director, and the president director will donate a lot of money to this hospital."

"Oh, that's tantamount to a sale, isn't it? If all the money goes to Ricky, it still makes sense."

"I can't believe the hospital owner would sell Ricky."

"Poor guy."

Ricky quickly retreated and returned to his room in a hurry, then he bumped into one of the nurses, who hadn't gathered in the room earlier.

"Ricky, what's wrong with you?" the nurse asked.

Ricky shook his head, then entered his room and immediately laid down, covering himself tightly.

He thought the hospital owner was very kind for giving him free treatment and a nice place.

It turned out that he had another purpose.

"Are there no good people to trust in this world?" muttered Ricky.