Chapter 103

The lights in the corridor of the county People’s Hospital are dim.

The doctor on duty at the emergency department is dozing off at the desk when he’s suddenly startled awake by the screeching sound of tires.

In this era, a county town can only have a few cars. Even bicycles are considered luxury items.

It must be a big shot, a cadre.

The emergency doctor and nurses rub their eyes and rush out to see what’s going on.

An unfamiliar Volga car stops at the hospital gate. A young woman with a wound on her forehead jumps out of the car and shouts loudly, “County Committee Secretary Meng has been in a car accident!”

“We have three injured! Two unconscious! One with a leg injury!”

“Bring three stretchers!”

She succinctly briefs the situation, without the usual useless chatter like “Doctor, please save him,” “Doctor, think of something quickly,” “Doctor, how is he, is he in danger?”

The emergency doctor secretly gives her a thumbs-up in his heart.

In a flurry of activity, all the staff on duty in the hospital, regardless of department, are mobilized.

The person being brought in is the county leader, unconscious; this is a test for everyone!

They even send a male doctor to ride a bicycle specifically to the director’s house to fetch him.

Doctors live in the hospital staff quarters, right behind the hospital, very close by, making it convenient to summon them.

Three beds on wheels are brought out, and all three people are transferred onto them.

Secretary Huang is the only one of the three who is awake.

Qiao Wei follows his bed inside.

“It’s okay, you’re here now, everything will be fine. Trust the doctor!” Qiao Wei places her hand on the side of the bed and reassures him.

She lets go of his hand, stops in her tracks, and watches as Secretary Huang is wheeled inside.

But he keeps staring at her with his eyes wide open.

The dim light falls on her face, still bloodied but now without visible traces of tears. She has regained her composure.

She’s a reliable and trustworthy colleague.

With all three people handed over to the doctor, Qiao Wei suddenly feels exhausted.

She sits down heavily on a bench, her hands still shaking.

Many people are running around in the hallway, their footsteps hurried.

At that moment, a nurse arrives with a tray and says, “Comrade, let me take care of your wound for you.”

Qiao Wei manages a smile and says, “Thank you.”

The nurse helps clean her wound, “Comrade, are you also from the County Committee?”

“Yeah. I’m a clerk in the County Committee’s Office, my name is Qiao Wei,” she replies. “Those three are our county’s Secretary Meng, our office’s Secretary Huang, and the driver.”

The nurse is surprised, “So you’re Comrade Qiao Wei. I’ve read your articles, you’re really talented.”

Qiao Wei says, “I’m worried that Secretary Meng and the others might have internal bleeding. None of them were wearing seat belts when the accident happened. Our car seemed to roll over, and even though I had my seat belt on, I still hit my head. They would have hit their heads even harder. Can you please remind the doctors?”

The number of cars on the road correlates with people’s awareness of accidents.

It’s highly likely that the doctors have rarely treated accident victims and may not fully understand the injuries that accidents can cause.

After hearing her explanation, the nurse quickly dresses her wound and rushes to inform the doctors.

Qiao Wei presses on the bandage wrapped around her head, closes her eyes for a few minutes, and relieves the adrenaline-induced exhaustion before standing up, grabbing hold of someone, and asking, “Where’s the phone?”

Yan Lei looks at the sky and at his watch several times.

Yan Xiang also asks several times, “Dad, why isn’t Mom back yet?”

Yan Lei says, “Mom is in a meeting and will be back later. She’ll have a car to take her back.”

It’s already late, and there are no more buses. The leader will definitely have the driver take Qiao Wei home.

“As long as we hear the sound of the car, it means Mom is back.”

But they didn’t hear the sound of the car.

Yan Lei feels a slight unease in his heart, but he can’t show it in front of the children.

It’s not until there’s a sudden knocking on the door in the dark of the night, “Captain Yan? Is this Captain Yan’s house? Is it Qiao Wei’s house?”

Yan Lei’s heart tightens suddenly.

Qiao Wei calls the duty office of the Xiahukou District Committee.

There’s always a telephonist on duty at night, and when the call is connected, they sound impatient, obviously still sleepy.

Qiao Wei immediately identifies herself, “This is the Bocheng County Committee Office, please transfer me to the duty office.”

The telephonist finally wakes up and quickly connects her call.

Government agencies always have someone on duty; it’s necessary.

They also provide a bicycle for the duty officer as a means of transportation for emergency contacts. When the duty officer receives the call, they ride straight to the old staff quarters according to the address Qiao Wei provided.

“First, there’s been an accident, and now she’s at the County People’s Hospital.” The duty officer takes out a small note, on which Qiao Wei asked him to jot down the message to be relayed to Yan Lei.

“Secondly, she was wearing a seatbelt, only sustaining a minor injury to her forehead. She’s fine. You don’t need to worry or come over. Stay home and take care of the children.”

“Thirdly, the others are more severely injured and are undergoing emergency treatment. She won’t be able to return for a while.”

“Was it her who made the call?”

“Yes, it was her, directly transferred to the duty office.”

Yan Lei’s contracted heart relaxes upon hearing this.

Knowing she’s okay is all that matters.

The fact that she thought to send a message so clearly and succinctly also confirms that she’s okay.

“Okay,” he says in a low voice, “thank you for your trouble.”

However, the duty officer doesn’t leave, and he asks further, “Who was she riding with?”

Yan Lei replies, “She went to the district with the leaders today for a meeting. There was a direct superior leader and also an office secretary.”

Although he didn’t explicitly mention Secretary Meng, it still provided the duty officer with an answer.

“I need to inform Secretary Gao,” the duty officer says.

He didn’t know before, but now that he does, if he doesn’t inform Secretary Gao and something happens in the future, Secretary Gao might hold him responsible.

Yan Lei nods, “Go ahead. Tell Secretary Gao not to move, wait for me.”

The duty officer rides away on his bike.

Qiao Wei informs Yan Lei via message and also reports the information to the county committee duty office.

Secretary Meng, Secretary Huang, and Master Li are all being treated. Their families must be worried and sick if they haven’t returned home.

The inconvenience of communication is truly unbearable.

At that moment, the hospital director arrives, his clothes and buttons all mismatched. Someone hands him a white coat, which he hurriedly puts on. After listening to the report from his subordinate, “…internal bleeding.”

Qiao Wei arrives just in time to hear this.

The group rushes in. Qiao Wei grabs hold of someone, asking, “Who has internal bleeding?”

The person she grabbed hurriedly responded, “It’s Secretary Meng!”

Qiao Wei immediately lets go of her.

Another flurry of activity ensues. Qiao Wei naturally wants to know more information, but she restrains herself, not wanting to disrupt the medical staff.

She took off her cashmere coat and wrapped it around herself, sitting on the bench in the corridor waiting.

Unintentionally, she fell asleep and suddenly woke up, still in the dark night with the dim yellow lights in the corridor.

However, the hurried footsteps were gone, and the overall tense and anxious atmosphere dissipated.

Rubbing her eyes, Qiao Wei approached someone to ask about the situation.

“Only Secretary Meng has internal bleeding, the other two are fine,” the doctor said. “Secretary Meng is stable now, and he has received a blood transfusion.”

Qiao Wei breathed a sigh of relief, but the doctor added, “Secretary Huang donated blood to him.”

Qiao Wei was stunned.

Secretary Huang’s thigh was cut, and it was unclear if it hit a major blood vessel. But at the time, blood was gushing out from the glass wound.

Qiao Wei had used a belt to stop the bleeding for him.

“Secretary Huang himself has lost blood! How could he donate blood to someone else?” she questioned.

Even she couldn’t control her voice, raising it.

People in the corridor turned to look.

“There’s no blood of that blood type left in the blood bank, and Secretary Huang happens to have that blood type,” the doctor avoided her gaze. “And it was his own initiative to donate, approved by the hospital director…”

The doctor said, “The priority is to ensure Secretary Meng’s safety.”

He quickly assured, “Once the blood arrives tomorrow, he will be given a transfusion first.”

Qiao Wei gritted her teeth.

She didn’t know which point she should be angry about.

None of it was her damn business!

But all of it made her angry!

“Where is he?” she finally asked. “Can I see him?”

The doctor breathed a sigh of relief and directed her to his room.

Qiao Wei went in to see Secretary Huang.

Secretary Huang was resting with his eyes closed, but he was awake. He opened his eyes when he heard footsteps stop at his bedside.

It was Qiao Wei.

Qiao Wei stared at him with tightly pressed lips.

She was angry.

Even this comrade who smiled every day had times when she was angry.

“Qiao Wei…” Secretary Huang forced a smile.

It was a very forced smile, his face as pale as paper.

He seemed to be on the verge of passing out at any moment.

Qiao Wei looked at his terrifyingly pale face. “Are you out of your mind?”

Secretary Huang understood exactly what she meant.

“The blood will arrive in the morning. Besides, the doctor said the body can continuously produce blood on its own. I’m still young, with a strong recovery ability…”

He stopped there, realizing that these words were not enough to convince her.

Secretary Huang sighed.

“Qiao Wei, without Secretary Meng, there wouldn’t be me.” He finally opened up.

To maintain his grip on the office, Secretary Meng sidelined and marginalized other standing committee members. That’s how politics works; everyone wears a smile, but beneath those smiles lies a world of daggers and shadows.

“Everyone in the county knows I’m his man,” Secretary Huang said. “You know his style of doing things.”

“If something happens to him, all the things he did before will be pinned on me,” he continued.

Secretary Meng was authoritative.

Authority meant offending people and damaging their interests.

While Secretary Meng was around, he was both the spear, able to attack and seize, and the shield, able to protect his own people.

Without him, there would be no one to shield the backlash from those who resented him. Secretary Huang, as his right-hand man, would be the first target.

It could be said that if there were no other options, Secretary Huang’s career path was tied to Secretary Meng.

If, however, there were no other options.

Qiao Wei understood.

Qiao Wei just felt stifled.

The political arena was not something ordinary people could endure.

It was different from the freedom to choose one’s job in the future. At this moment, the concept of “resignation” did not even exist.

Your job was arranged by the organization. Everyone belonged to an organization and was assigned a role. It was not up to your personal will.

“Qiao Wei,” Secretary Huang looked at her sincerely. “Thank you.”

The doctor had already told him.

The belt stopped his bleeding and saved his life.

If she hadn’t decisively stopped his bleeding and bravely driven straight to the hospital, if she had really listened to him and walked in the dark to find villagers for help… There was a high probability that both he and Secretary Meng would have been finished.

Master Li, on the other hand, was the least injured.

When the accident happened, he was conscious and instinctively grabbed the steering wheel tightly against the seat back in an attempt to stabilize himself. His main injury was external head trauma. There might also be a concussion, but it didn’t seem life-threatening at the moment.

Secretary Meng’s internal bleeding was caused by his briefcase.

If the briefcase only contained documents, this wouldn’t have happened. But when they were departing, someone gave Secretary Meng two bottles of Maotai.

The heavy ceramic bottles filled with liquid added weight to the briefcase.

During the rollover, that thing violently impacted Secretary Meng’s abdomen.

It was fortunate that Qiao Wei had the nurse remind the doctor. Even the doctor himself had little understanding of the injuries that could result from a car accident.

The doctor said, “Was it her who stopped your bleeding? And she can drive too? She’s really amazing.”

Secretary Huang remembered how Qiao Wei’s hands were trembling, blood streaming down her face, yet she was loudly asking him how to work the clutch.

She didn’t even know how to shift gears.

But she managed to drive to the county hospital.

She was truly amazing.

“Qiao Wei,” he said, “I owe you my life.”

Without her, he, Huang Zengyue, would have disappeared from the world.

His struggles, his grievances, all would have been meaningless.

First and foremost, people needed to live well.