Chapter Nineteen: Turning a Blind Eye to Death

By the time Tang Wei felt she had shopped enough and absolutely had to return home, it was already the afternoon of the following day. She couldn't put it off any longer—it simply wouldn't do to leave the children with her mother forever.

"I haven't been home for two days. I wonder how the kids are holding up," Tang Wei suddenly felt a pang of emotion. "Have they been crying, being apart from me for so long?" The thought made it impossible for her to linger any longer. She immediately began packing her things to head home.

After getting off the bus in the county seat, she needed to transfer to another bus to the town. The two stops weren't close—about a fifteen or twenty-minute walk apart. Usually, she would walk, since it was quite convenient, but today, eager to return quickly, she flagged down a motorized tricycle to take her to the departure point.

Few people in the county seat took taxis; they were considered too expensive. The fare for these motorized tricycles was only about a third of a taxi's, and those prone to carsickness found them much easier to bear. These vehicles were the most popular means of transport in town, buzzing through the streets everywhere.

However, halfway through the ride, the tricycle came to a halt. Tang Wei pulled back the curtain and saw a traffic jam ahead. She didn't pay it much mind, though she grumbled inwardly, "If I'd known there'd be a jam, I might as well have walked. Now we've taken a detour, and if I walk from here, it'll be even farther. What a bother!"

She waited a minute or two in the vehicle, but when she noticed they hadn't budged an inch, she found it odd. "Even with a traffic jam, usually the vehicles creep forward. Why is everything at a complete standstill today?" Still, she didn't think to get out and check—traffic jams were nothing out of the ordinary.

It wasn't until two women walked past, chatting as they went, that Tang Wei paid attention to their conversation. "So pitiful, that old woman and the child. No one to look after them, hit by a car and nobody cares. Blood everywhere—doesn't look like they'll make it."

"Yeah, and that driver—no conscience at all, just hit and ran! No one even took them to the hospital!"

"You must be crazy to get involved these days. You never know if you'll be blamed for something. It's not like it hasn't happened before!"

"Exactly, I heard there are people who..." Their voices faded as they walked on, and Tang Wei couldn't catch the rest.

She quickly pieced together what had happened: an old woman and a child had been hit by a car up ahead, and no one was helping. When she heard "an old woman and a child," a wave of panic surged through her for reasons she couldn't quite explain. She had a terrible feeling something was wrong. Pulling out a five-yuan note, she handed it to the tricycle driver and ran forward without looking back.

A crowd had gathered, several rows deep, making it nearly impossible to squeeze through. When she tried to push forward, people snapped at her, "Why are you shoving? Trying to get yourself killed?"

Tang Wei pushed and pulled, enduring rebukes several times before finally making it to the front. Squatting down, she saw the ground slick with blood—and recognized, to her horror, the grandmother and granddaughter she had seen on the bus just yesterday.

She jumped up and grabbed the arm of a man nearby. "Sir, could you please help me take these two to the hospital?"

The man hurriedly shook his head and backed away. "Miss, don't drag me into this! I'm not anyone's fool!"

The crowd started murmuring. "Yeah, who knows if you two are in cahoots?"

"Just a few days ago, someone did a good deed on XX Street, took the victim to the hospital, and ended up being blackmailed for it!"

"There are so many scammers these days. You can't be too careful!"

"Ah, people nowadays will do anything for money!" The onlookers chattered endlessly, but not one person stepped forward to help.

So much time had passed since the accident, yet no one had taken the victims to the hospital, and the police hadn't arrived either.

Utterly helpless, Tang Wei called emergency services. After giving the address, she squatted down and called, "An'an, An'an, wake up!"

She called several times, but there was no response. Blood still trickled from the child's lips. Tang Wei cursed her own powerlessness—she could do nothing but repeat the call.

She then turned to the elderly woman. Fortunately, after calling her twice, the grandmother stirred, saw Tang Wei, and seemed to recognize her. With great effort, she stammered, "Miss... help... help An'an..." before slipping back into unconsciousness.

Tang Wei called out again, but the grandmother did not wake. She was terrified—afraid that the two people she had seen alive and well only yesterday would die before her eyes. In her panic, she didn't know what to do. She checked their breathing—both still had faint breaths. That calmed her a little, but as the ambulance still hadn't arrived, her anxiety mounted. She feared they might not hold on until help came.

The distant wail of the ambulance finally reached her ears, soothing her nerves. The hospital staff had arrived; the grandmother and granddaughter would be saved, she thought, rising with relief.

The nurses parted the crowd and lifted the two onto the stretcher, performing emergency aid. They asked who had called for help. Once they confirmed it was Tang Wei, they brought her along in the ambulance.

Tang Wei waited anxiously outside the emergency room, her nerves as taut as when she had once clung to a tree branch on a cliff edge.

The emergency light above the door glowed steadily. From the far end of the hallway, a woman hurried toward her, asking directions to the emergency room.

Tang Wei approached her. "Are you An'an's aunt?" she asked. The woman, probably in her thirties, looked haggard, sweat beading her brow, and her clothes suggested a life of hardship.

Hearing An'an's name, the woman turned and replied, "Miss, hello, I'm An'an's aunt. Where are An'an and her grandmother? How are they?"

Tang Wei quickly answered, "Sister, they're still in surgery and haven't come out yet." She then recounted everything that had happened. She was careful with her words, remembering the suspicions voiced at the scene and fearing she, too, might be misunderstood.

But An'an's aunt responded warmly, "You must be Sister Weiwei—the one who gave An'an an apple on the bus yesterday. She told me all about you when she got home. Thank goodness she met you today, or who knows what might have happened to them. Thank you so much, Miss Weiwei. I'm Jiang Xiaomei." With that, she sank onto a chair by the emergency room door, head bowed, lost in thought.

After more than an hour, the emergency room doors swung open. Tang Wei hurried to the doctor. "Doctor, how are the patients?"

The doctor glanced at Tang Wei. "Are you a relative?"

Tang Wei quickly pulled Jiang Xiaomei forward. "This is the patient's daughter."

The doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry, we did all we could. The patient has passed away. She had already lost too much blood when she arrived. Even before we could administer a transfusion, it was too late. If she'd been brought in just a few minutes earlier, she might have made it."

At this news, Jiang Xiaomei collapsed to the floor, sobbing. Tang Wei, thinking of how An'an had sat laughing on her lap just yesterday, now seeing her in such a state, couldn't hold back her own tears. Seeing the devastation on Jiang Xiaomei's face, she realized just how deep her feelings for An'an's grandmother must be.

Tang Wei bent down to comfort her. "Miss Jiang, the dead cannot return. Please accept my condolences and take care of the funeral arrangements," she said, helping her to a seat.

Only after Jiang Xiaomei's husband arrived did Tang Wei leave the hospital, her heart heavy. Before she left, she deposited two thousand yuan at the payment counter, a final gesture of farewell. Judging by the couple's situation, that sum would surely help them a great deal. She could have given more, but too much would only give rise to suspicion.

On the way home, Tang Wei felt none of the joy she had anticipated. She sat on the bus, her expression blank.

She couldn't help but wonder, "How has society come to this? Faced with life and death, people stand by, indifferent, detached, as if none of it concerns them. Is it that there are too many bad people now, or simply too few good ones?"