Chapter 23

Qin Yan did manage to stand up, but it only happened that one time. No matter how much he tried afterward, he couldn’t do it again. However, just that one moment was enough to surprise him.

Especially since Miao Shufang and her husband were so excited that they couldn’t sleep. If Qin Yan hadn’t calmed them down, they would have rushed to the hospital right away. As soon as dawn broke, Qin Zhengqing and Miao Shufang took Qin Yan to the city hospital for an examination, carrying his wheelchair up and down the stairs.

Qin Yan was deeply anxious and didn’t want to come to the hospital. But his parents assured him that the police had already made progress in investigating Jiang Ruan’s situation. Although rumors from the bus station claimed that Jiang Ruan had gone mad and hijacked an empty bus, the Qin family knew she would never do something like that. Once the police completed their investigation, her innocence would be proven.

In the meantime, Qin Yan’s examination had become the top priority for his parents.

Qin Yan’s former doctor, Mu Yongwang, accompanied them throughout the process and reviewed all the test results. He regretfully informed them that there was no change in Qin Yan’s legs; the herbal baths and massages from the young housekeeper could only delay muscle atrophy but could not help him stand.

“Home remedies are unreliable,” Dr. Mu said, “but the massages do have benefits, so it’s worth continuing.”

Miao Shufang wanted to ask why her son had been able to stand up, but Qin Yan had already told her not to mention it to anyone. Her hopes flickered uneasily, her anxiety increasing by the minute.

Qin Yan signaled his mother with his eyes, insisting she remain silent. “Mom, let’s not bother Dr. Mu anymore. We should head to the police station to get an update.”

“Dad, why are you here?”

Mu Xuehui had accompanied Han Qingqing to the hospital for a cold. It was a weekend, and the place was crowded, so they came to ask her father to squeeze them in. When she saw Qin Yan, she was pleasantly surprised, and her joy grew when she noticed her father talking to Qin Yan’s mother.

“Hello, Qin Yan,” Han Qingqing greeted, trying to sound composed.

Qin Yan, however, was in no mood for pleasantries and didn’t respond.

After overhearing her father’s analysis that the massage treatments were ineffective, Mu Xuehui finally felt relieved. If Qin Yan’s legs had recovered, it would have hindered her plans to bring her father and Qin Yan’s mother together as a family.

To ease the awkwardness, Mu Xuehui took out a beautifully decorated card and explained with a smile, “It was your birthday yesterday, and I couldn’t find you. I’m giving this to you today. Let’s go get your temperature taken with my dad.”

“Thank you, Huihui, you’re so kind.”

“No problem. By the way, you were born in this hospital, right? Maybe the head nurse still remembers you.” As soon as she said it, Mu Xuehui regretted it, remembering that Han Qingqing was not biologically related to the Han family, and this was an unnecessary remark.

A sudden flash of insight hit Qin Yan, leading to a bold hypothesis. Jiang Ruan and Han Qingqing were born on the same day, and Jiang Ruan had once said she was also born at the city hospital. When she was born, her father had been disappointed to learn she was a girl and left her and her older sister at the hospital to return to work at the factory.

His most cynical suspicion was that Jiang Ruan and Han Qingqing had been switched at birth. This secret was known to at least Jiang Ruan’s eldest sister, Jiang Jianchun, and Liao Chunxing, who was involved with her. Jiang Ruan’s mother might have known, too.

In his previous life, Mu Xuehui reported Liao Chunxing, and in a strange twist of fate, Liao had been able to use Han Qingqing’s secret to blackmail her into retrieving the report.

Who could have orchestrated the switch between Jiang Ruan and Han Qingqing at the hospital, and what motive did they have?

Although his theory seemed far-fetched, it explained a series of events, including why Liu Jinyun had always disliked Jiang Ruan.

Returning home, Qin Yan was still lost in thought when the police officer who had visited the night before returned with an update.

“Last night, during a visit to Jiang Ruan’s neighborhood, our officers noticed suspicious individuals. We set up a surveillance operation and apprehended six people with non-local accents. After a quick interrogation, they confessed they were human traffickers under orders to find an opportunity to abduct a girl coming out of the communal housing. We found a photo of your nanny in their possession. This was a planned and premeditated kidnapping.”

The investigation even revealed that due to Jiang Ruan’s strength, they had prepared six strong men to subdue her. Because of this, the police were able to apprehend almost half of the trafficking group.

The traffickers didn’t know why their leader had specifically targeted Jiang Ruan, and the detectives couldn’t figure out her connection either. Since Jiang Ruan spent most of her time at the Qin household, the police hoped she could provide some useful information once she returned.

“Besides her employers and family, did Jiang Ruan have any other significant relationships or conflicts? Has she made any enemies?” the officer asked.

Jiang Ruan had certainly offended people before, even receiving threats from her grandmother and aunt. However, there wasn’t enough of a motive for anyone to resort to human trafficking over such conflicts.

But if Jiang Ruan wasn’t the biological child of her family, and her true identity posed a threat to whoever had been switched with her, then the motive would be clear.

Qin Yan sneered, “Would you believe me if I told you?”

“Go ahead,” the officer said.

“I suspect Jiang Ruan’s mother or sister colluded with traffickers to kidnap her.”

“That’s impossible! Who would let human traffickers abduct their own daughter?” The officer was shocked. It seemed unthinkable that a mother would sell her daughter, especially since it was a criminal act.

Qin Yan replied, “You asked, and I gave you a lead. If you don’t believe me, don’t pursue it—but don’t regret it if you miss something.”

At daybreak, on a desolate mountain road, a bus swerved to avoid an overloaded tricycle and ended up rolling down a hillside, where it was caught by a tree. Though the passengers and driver were stranded, they were otherwise unhurt.

The tricycle’s driver fled without helping.

The bus driver, who had been “hijacked” by Jiang Ruan, was frustrated and said, “That whole busload was no good.”

Ever since the bus station, the girl had explained that she was chasing down traffickers. Throughout the journey, passengers got on and off, but she kept her eyes on a couple with a feverish, drowsy girl. She insisted that the girl, named Ran Xiaorong, was someone she knew and not their daughter.

When she tried to rescue the girl, the bus driver hesitated and held her back.

The human traffickers weren’t limited to just two people. Qin Yan wanted to track down their hideout and rescue as many victims as possible. The more traffickers they captured, the fewer women and children would fall into their hands.

Jiang Ruan immediately agreed. “Uncle, you’re truly a good person.”

The driver felt embarrassed. If it weren’t for this young girl’s incredible strength, being able to take on several men by herself, he wouldn’t have had the courage. He wanted to call the police and report the situation, but they were in a remote area with no villages or shops in sight, so they had no choice but to follow along.

The two of them had trailed the traffickers down a provincial road surrounded by farmland. The traffickers, who had switched to a tricycle, were driving against traffic, forcing an oncoming bus to swerve and overturn. Now, cries of pain were coming from down the hillside.

The driver quickly parked and got out to assess the situation. The overturned bus was about ten meters below, caught precariously in the branches of a tree. The bus had a rope onboard, so the driver tied one end securely to a tree by the roadside and encouraged the passengers to use it to climb to safety.

A man with minor injuries finally managed to climb up the rope, his legs trembling. “There are several injured people in the bus, and one man has a piece of glass stuck in his neck. We don’t dare move him. What should we do?”

Even if they were uninjured, the passengers were climbing too slowly. Going back to call for rescue would waste valuable time, so Jiang Ruan didn’t hesitate to descend.

She used the rope to secure a child to her chest and asked an elderly person to cling tightly to her back, rescuing two at a time. The man with the most severe injuries urged his elderly wife to go ahead, saying, “Go, hurry up. Don’t burden the girl who’s saving us.”

The large tree branch groaned under the weight, and the bus swayed dangerously, on the verge of breaking free and falling.

His wife clutched his wound and cried out, “Old Han, we’ve survived so much hardship together. You can’t die here; you can’t leave me alone.”

The man had the same surname as Officer Han. Without saying a word, Jiang Ruan secured his wife with the rope. The seven or eight passengers who could still move helped pull her up quickly, then lowered the rope back down.

During this ordeal, the driver and Jiang Ruan had forged a strong bond. He anxiously shouted, “Girl, get up here quickly!”

Jiang Ruan examined Uncle Han’s most critical injury: the shard of glass embedded in his neck had pierced a major artery. Using her supernatural ability, she could gradually repair the damaged blood vessels as she removed the glass.

In the post-apocalyptic world, this was considered basic surgery. Many warriors could heal themselves and didn’t even need healers for such injuries.

However, in this world, people didn’t have supernatural abilities and couldn’t repair such wounds. For them, this kind of injury was life-threatening.

Jiang Ruan’s power could heal but couldn’t relieve pain. She said, “Uncle, I’m going to remove the glass. It will hurt a lot, but once it’s out, you’ll be okay.”

“The branch could snap at any moment. Girl, I’m not going to make it. You need to go now.”

“You’re going to make it!”

Jiang Ruan gripped the glass protruding from his neck with one hand and supported his head with the other. Her healing energy continuously repaired the damaged blood vessels as she slowly removed the shard. The process took several minutes, and the uncle she was treating had already fainted from the pain.

Jiang Ruan admired his bravery; even though he fainted, he didn’t make a sound. After the glass was removed and the blood vessels were healed, there was still a wound about a centimeter deep that her powers couldn’t completely close.

At that moment, the tree branch holding up the bus finally gave way, and the bus tumbled down the cliff just as Jiang Ruan’s strength was exhausted.

Cries of horror erupted from the people above. Amidst the dust, they saw the young girl dangling from the end of the rope, holding the unconscious passenger in one arm while gripping the rope with the other, swinging precariously.

The driver choked up as he shouted, “Girl, hang on!”

With everyone’s combined efforts, they managed to pull Jiang Ruan and the unconscious passenger up.

The driver checked on the passenger and found that although there was a lot of blood, the wound was actually quite shallow, only about a centimeter deep. He quickly bandaged it and instructed everyone to carefully carry the injured onto his bus. Of the dozen passengers, only seven or eight had minor injuries, while the rest had varying degrees of more severe injuries, including fractures. They needed to get to the nearest hospital as soon as possible.

When Jiang Ruan didn’t get on the bus, the driver became anxious. “Girl, come with us. We’ll head to the county and alert the police. They’ll come.”

Leaning against a tree to regain her strength, Jiang Ruan replied, “I lost track of the traffickers. I don’t know when I’ll get another chance to save the person I know. Uncle, you should drive them to the hospital.”