Chapter 18 The Hypocrisy of the World
There’s a line from ‘A Chinese Odyssey’(1), “I know that one day, he will appear in a dazzling and eye-catching manner, clad in shining armour and saintly robes, riding on seven-coloured clouds to marry me”, there’s also a following line, “This isn’t lunacy, this is the dream.”
This wasn’t just Zixia’s(1) dream, any other girl would have similar dreams too. Right now in Su Yuxin’s eyes, Jiang Han could not be considered a heroic knight in shining armour. Even if she wanted to understand the reason for his actions, she was only an ordinary girl and under those circ.u.mstances, Jiang Han still chose to keep silent and do nothing, she found it hard to let the matter go.
Su Yuxin’s mood was quite sulky after that incident, and Jiang Han who was practically a wooden geek evidently did not notice the reason for this change. It felt like there was an ominous shadow cast upon their first ‘date’, which obviously wasn’t what either of them wanted.
However, Su Yuxin was a girl and even if she was a little more astute, there were a lot of things that a girl should not be the one to take an initiate with, and right now Jiang Han was a geek who couldn’t read the mood. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to lighten the mood, he just had no idea how to go about it.
They had a meal together, but it was insipid. Neither of them were in high spirits, and if this were to continue then the end of the date would certainly be undesirable. This outcome was not what Jiang Han had intended. His purpose for inviting Su Yuxin out was so that he could thank her for helping him out twice. With regard to her ident.i.ty though, if she wasn’t willing to speak about it, then neither would he bring it up.
After their meal, Jiang Han received a text message. The message was from Director Tao and it was to inform Jiang Han that he didn’t need to give Ms.Jiang a ma.s.sage tonight since she had urgent matters to attend to and has left the hospital.
Jiang Han frowned, diabetes wasn’t to be taken lightly. If the patient’s condition wasn’t stable then they shouldn’t leave the hospital, in the event their condition suddenly deteriorate then the consequence would be dire. The hospital would have already warned Jiang Peiqi, but she still decided to leave the hospital anyways. Jiang Han couldn’t figure out what could be so important for her to take such risks.
When Su Yuxin saw Jiang Han’s reaction, she casually asked him about the matter out of curiosity. This served as an icebreaker and when Jiang Han explained the situation in detailed from the beginning to the end to her, the conversation between them went on and on without end.
At this point in time, Jiang Han really wanted to look for the voice from before for help. But things don’t often turn out the way you want, he had no idea how to contact the voice, he wasn’t even sure if the owner of the voice was around.
When Jiang Han thought about the last thing that rude man said, it made him sick. But when he took the time to think about it some more, he found that he wasn’t entirely wrong. If he had sufficient wealth then he could have just bought that clothing store if only just to see the smile on a Su Yuxin’s face.
When he thought up to that point, Jiang Han seem to have gained an understanding of sorts. Why was it that king’s from days long past would raze cities and wage wars just to see the smiles of the beautiful woman by their side. That sort of feeling was too difficult to bear and for a king, it was probably easier to discard a city than to be in such a situation.
Sigh, at the end of the day it all came down to power and money. A wise man once said that money was rotten, but no man of the world can escape its allure.
“Thank you Yuxin for your a.s.sistance the last two times. If there is anything I can do for you in return, I will not hesitate.” Jiang Han brought up the matter with his residency and the matter at the police station, and sincerely express his grat.i.tude.
This was the first time since they left the clothing store that Su Yuxin finally broke out a smile, “It wasn’t a big issue, don’t worry about it. However if senior sincerely wants to thank me, then I shan’t be polite, how about you give me a present.”
“Well, I’m right here in front of you. Take a look and see what you can exchange me for, no need to be civil about it.” Jiang Han yielded to her, he responded to her joke with a joke of his own.
“Senior, you’re a mere man, no one would want you.” Su Yuxin covered her mouth and started giggling.
After their meal, Su Yuxin still couldn’t decide on a present that she wanted, so they went for a walk while talking about it. It was presently precisely noon, with the sun bright and piercing and even though they walked under the shade, they could still feel the sun.
Both of them had a cold cup of “boba” in their hands, and the atmosphere between them had improved significantly. When they got to the commercial square, they found that there was a crowd gathered around something. With this country’s people love for being nosy, something newsworthy must have had happened.
Jiang Han originally did not intend to get involved, but Su Yuxin was in a good mood and he did not want to do anything to jeopardise that. Without saying anything, he followed her as they walked closer.
They were in the middle of the shopping square and the crowd were surrounding a bald fat man who was lying on the floor. When Jiang Han and Su Yuxin approach the man they instantly recognise him, it was precisely the man with the gold chain. He was perfectly fine earlier, so how was it that he’s lying here just a short while later.
The young lady by his side was sobbing incessantly, obviously she had just cried and was now waiting for the ambulance. None of the bystanders dared to get involve and lend a helping hand, they were afraid that one misstep would affect them for the rest of their lives.
If Jiang Han hadn’t seen the situation then he wouldn’t care but now that he did, he couldn’t just walked away without lending a helping hand. He had a conscience and he was a doctor, if there was a human life at risk in front of him, then he would take it as a personal challenge, he would not cower.
Jiang Han walked out from the crowd of people and towards the two in the middle. Su Yuxin was a little taken back, her father was the Governor, and there wasn’t a scene or situation in the entire city that could essentially shake her. That was why she wasn’t as worried about getting ‘scam (2)’ as the others. But she did not imagine that the Jiang Han who kept silent at the clothing store would walked up to help without an ounce of hesitation.
When she saw what he did next, a shadow suddenly appeared in the depths of her heart, and the shadow’s figure was of Jiang Han. She saw Jiang Han promptly walk over towards the man with the gold chain and bend over to check on him.
Before at the clothing store, the man with the gold chain ridiculed Jiang Han, and Jiang Han couldn’t have forgotten about it this quickly. However, when it came to a choice between his own pride and someone’s life, he would always choose to save the person’s life.
Based on Jiang Han’s brief inspection, he discover that the man with the gold chain had a high fever and his whole body was in shock. Strictly speaking, his condition wasn’t too dire, with just a simple treatment and with plenty of rest, he would be able to make a full recovery. The key question was why he was unconscious.
Jiang Han question the young lady, and she told him that they were having lunch at a luxurious restaurant nearby, then the man had planned to rent out a location to watch a movie, but when they arrived at this commercial square, the man with the gold chain suddenly fell onto the floor. His whole body started to burn up, and the crowd only called #120(3), no one stepped forward to help and she could not move him on her own, so the only thing they could do was to wait for help.
From this, he felt that the one’s who were sick were far more than just the man with the gold chain. The bystanders were also sick with an incurable disease.
(t/s: Just in case it wasn’t clear, the crowd’s ‘incurable disease’ was referring to their ‘look but no help’ att.i.tude. A man was lying unconscious in the middle of a public area and no one came forth to help)
The more Jiang Han heard the more he felt something was wrong. He couldn’t think of any sickness or disease that match the symptoms where one had a sudden fever and then lost consciousness and without a proper examination it wouldn’t be possible for him to determine. However, for someone with a high fever to lie on the ground was inappropriate. Jiang Han didn’t care what anyone would say, he picked the man with the gold chain up, and placed him gently on the long bench by the side.
“You guys wait here for the ambulance, then quickly get a proper medical examination at the hospital. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.” After he said what he needed to, he turned around and walked away with Su Yuxin.
They had just met each other earlier, the young lady couldn’t have forgotten about them already, she naturally recognise Jiang Han. She never imagine that at this time, the only one to stand out to help them was the one that the man next to her had just made fun of. Oh worldly affairs, who could predict what would happen.