Chapter 32: The Figure That Suddenly Rushed Out
The owner of Jiajia Fast Food Restaurant had been sourcing her ingredients from Anxin Food Processing Company for the past four or five days.
During that time, not a single customer had complained of feeling unwell after a meal, which put her mind at ease.
An idea began to form in her mind. ’Should I switch all the meat in the restaurant over to supplies from Anxin Food Processing Company?’
’The food is safe, it would lower my costs, and I wouldn’t have to make pickups from two different suppliers.’
’But with my order volume increasing so much, it wouldn’t make sense to keep paying the original wholesale price.’
’I should go talk to their manager and see if I can get a better price.’
At two-thirty in the afternoon, after the lunch rush was over, the owner of Jiajia Fast Food Restaurant rode her electric scooter toward Qianhai Town.
The road was lined with lush, leafy mango trees, which formed a dense canopy that blocked out the hot afternoon sun. The moving scooter generated a steady, pleasant breeze.
Carried by the gentle breeze, a wave of drowsiness washed over her. She must have yawned at least ten times, each one bringing tears to the corners of her eyes.
Without realizing it, her scooter was going faster and faster. The breeze felt more and more pleasant, and her drowsiness grew heavier.
Unable to fight the heavy drowsiness, the owner opened her mouth for another long, deep yawn.
Suddenly, a figure shot out from the side of the road up ahead, running straight for the other side.
The sight was so jarring it cut her yawn short. Her eyes snapped wide, and she stared straight ahead, trying to process the situation.
The figure was running incredibly fast, but after just two steps, he tripped on a crack in the pavement. His body pitched forward uncontrollably, and he fell hard, landing on the road right in front of the owner’s electric scooter.
The owner reflexively slammed on the brakes, squeezing them as hard as she could in an attempt to stop.
But the scooter was going too fast. Even with the brakes engaged, inertia caused the rear of the vehicle to flip up and over. The owner was thrown onto the road, where she face-planted hard.
Her forearms and knees, which had hit the ground first, were scraped raw and bloody. Her head also struck the pavement with a sickening thud. The owner was instantly dizzy, and everything in her vision became a blur.
The back of the scooter flipped completely over, landing with a CRUNCH on the right leg of the person who had fallen. A piercing, agonized scream tore through the air.
The entire sequence of events took only a few seconds. A group of children playing marbles on the roadside jumped at the sound of the scream and immediately whipped their heads toward the street.
What they saw was a little boy pinned under the electric scooter and a woman lying motionless on the pavement nearby. The sight left them frozen in terror.
The little boy groaned in agony, his eyes filled with terror, despair, and helplessness.
After some time—she couldn’t say how long—the fog in the owner’s vision finally began to lift, and her eyes could once again make out her surroundings.
She turned her head and saw her electric scooter pinning a child. A large pool of red liquid was seeping out from beneath him, staining the ground.
The owner trembled violently. She fumbled for her pocket, but her hands were weak and wouldn’t obey. After several tries, she finally managed to pull out her phone.
With trembling fingers, she dialed 120. Her teeth chattered as she spoke.
The town hospital wasn’t far, and an ambulance arrived less than five minutes after she hung up.
The owner let out a sigh of relief as she watched the little boy being loaded into the ambulance.
It was only then that she became aware of the throbbing pain in her arms, knees, and head. She looked down; the skin was scraped completely off her arms and knees, and fresh blood was welling up from the wounds.
She lifted a hand to wipe at her face, which felt strangely itchy, and her fingers came away wet with blood.
Only after getting the little boy into the ambulance did the paramedics notice the blood-soaked woman nearby. The doctor on board hurried over to check on her.
After carefully examining the owner’s injuries, he breathed a sigh of relief. Her hands and knees were just scrapes. The head wound looked frightening, but it was just a cut. She might have a concussion, but her injuries weren’t life-threatening.
The doctor took out his phone and had the hospital dispatch another ambulance. He left a nurse to wait with the owner, then departed with the first ambulance back to the hospital.
Many of the medical staff at the hospital were locals and knew most of the kids in town. They recognized the boy as Zhang Tian, the son of the owner of the Anxin Food Processing Company, and immediately called his family.
The first to arrive was Zhang Tian’s mother. She was wearing pajamas, her hair was a mess, and one side of her face still bore the marks of a pillow—she must have been woken from a deep sleep.
Whether she had left in such a hurry that she forgot her shoes or had simply run out of them on the way, she ran barefoot into the hospital.
The moment she saw a nurse, she collapsed to the floor. She grabbed the pant leg of the nearest nurse, her words slurring with anxiety, "Doctor, Doctor, how is my child? Is he still alive? Please, I’m begging you, save him! He’s only six years old! He’s only six!"
By the end, Zhang Tian’s mother was sobbing uncontrollably.
Zhang Tian’s father, Zhang Daoyi, arrived right after his wife.
His hair, normally slicked back with gel, was disheveled from the run. A button had popped off his jacket, he had ripped his tie off and was clutching it in his hand, and his mouth wouldn’t stop trembling.
He grabbed a nurse by the shoulders and shook her, rambling nonstop, "My son, where’s my son? How is he? I have money—a lot of money! Just treat him! Don’t worry about the cost! You have to fix my son, you have to save him! Do you hear me!"
His last words came out as a roar.
Suddenly, a nurse poked her head out of the operating room at the end of the hall and shouted to everyone, "The blood bank is almost empty! The patient’s family is here, right? Have them go donate blood, now!"
Supported by two nurses, the couple made their way to the blood-draw room on the third floor.
Having vented their initial panic, the couple’s emotions had stabilized for the moment. They were no longer as frantic as when they had first arrived at the hospital, nor as utterly distraught as when they had first received the call.
"What are your blood types? If you don’t know, we’ll have to test you first."
"A."
"O."
The couple answered at the same time.
The doctor nodded, made a mark on the form with his pen, and set it down to prepare the necessary medical equipment for the blood draw.
His gaze happened to land on the blood request form a nurse had just delivered; the patient’s blood type was listed as AB.
"Is Zhang Tian your son?"
The couple nodded in unison.
The doctor’s hands paused. He slowly raised his head to look at the two of them, then hesitated for a moment before saying nothing and continuing with the preparations for the blood draw.
The doctor’s hesitation was brief, but as a man who navigated the world of business, Zhang Daoyi was highly sensitive to such subtle actions.
He sensed that something was wrong; the doctor’s reaction made him uneasy.
But saving his son was the most important thing right now. Zhang Daoyi could only suppress his doubt and cooperate fully with the doctor and nurses.