Chapter 104
Secretary Meng’s family arrived first. Only after hearing that he was out of danger did they feel relieved.
Driver Li’s family and Secretary Huang’s family arrived one after another.
Secretary Huang’s family consisted of his father and his wife. His mother must have been left at home to take care of the three children.
Driver Li’s family was extremely anxious, as if they had committed a grave mistake.
Yan Lei arrived a bit later; he also brought Yan Xiang and Secretary Gao from Xiahekou.
Secretary Gao greeted her and asked after her with concern. Knowing she was fine, he hurried off to see the hospital director to inquire about Secretary Meng’s condition.
Yan Lei pulled Qiao Wei over and looked her up and down. “Are you okay?”
Qiao Wei said, “I’m fine.”
She breathed a huge sigh of relief. Seeing Yan Lei gave her a sense of relaxation.
“Why did you bring Xiangxiang along?” she complained to him.
Yan Xiang was being held in Yan Lei’s arms, already asleep.
“If I didn’t bring him, he would have been afraid,” Yan Lei said.
Qiao Wei felt heartache and wanted to take him, but Yan Lei wouldn’t let her. “Don’t switch him over, he’ll wake up.”
The two found an empty hospital room, and Yan Lei asked what had happened.
Qiao Wei had already recalled the events. “It seemed to be a horse or a donkey, anyway, it had four legs and suddenly bolted onto the road. Driver Li must have jerked the steering wheel, and the car flipped. Sigh, that’s the scariest thing when driving.”
In fact, if the object isn’t very large, it’s actually safer for the driver to just hit it.
This is the reason why many truck drivers in later generations don’t step on the brakes.
Just hit it and kill it, then pay the compensation for a dead animal.
Stepping on the brakes makes the car prone to flipping. A truckload of goods, plus the costs of towing and repairing the vehicle, and the lost business—sometimes that costs more than the compensation for a dead animal.
“I was the only one in the car wearing a seatbelt, so I only bumped my head.” Qiao Wei explained the general sequence of events and told Yan Lei, “The Secretary had internal bleeding, but he received a blood transfusion and is now out of danger. Driver Li has a head injury, possibly a concussion. Secretary Huang had his leg punctured.”
As long as she was fine, Yan Lei didn’t really care about the others.
The point he was focused on was something else. “You drove the car?”
He repeated the question, “You drove the car to the hospital?”
He stared at her. “You know how to drive?”
“I don’t know how to drive.” Qiao Wei knew she couldn’t show any hesitation, so she insisted firmly, “I only knew that stepping on the brake stops the car and stepping on the gas makes it go. It turned out there was also a clutch to press. I asked Secretary Huang, but he didn’t know how to handle the clutch either. I tried a few times, and every time it started to move, the engine stalled. Every time it started to move, it stalled.”
“When it finally got moving, Secretary Huang said I needed to shift gears. I tried shifting, but it made a clanking sound and the car jerked and jolted. I was so afraid it would stall again.”
“Secretary Huang was bleeding a lot and looked like he was about to pass out. I was crying and calling out to him at the same time…”
These were her true feelings at the time.
No matter what era people are from, they would feel the same way when encountering a car accident. Being a transmigrator didn’t give her any advantage.
As Qiao Wei spoke, the tension and fear from that moment surged back, along with a tinge of grievance—’Why did I have to encounter such a shitty thing?’—and tears welled up in her eyes.
Yan Lei’s heart softened, and he freed one hand to hold her. “Alright, alright, it’s okay now.”
Having held it together for so long, Qiao Wei buried her face in his chest and cried, venting all the pressure and tension brought on by the car accident.
After crying, she felt much better and said, “There’s a bed here, let’s put Xiangxiang down.”
The two gently placed Yan Xiang on a hospital bed, then sat down to talk.
Qiao Wei had to talk about the other matter; if she didn’t have someone to talk to about it, it would be really unbearable.
It was about Secretary Huang donating blood to Secretary Meng.
She said, “The hospital director actually agreed to it.”
In her heart, there was still anger. After all, she had only navigated the corporate world, not the political arena. If you couldn’t make it in the corporate world, you could just resign and leave; it wouldn’t cost you your life.
She was angry at Secretary Huang for not valuing his own life, and she was angry at the director for only caring about Secretary Meng’s life and not Secretary Huang’s.
Yan Lei didn’t even need to think much; he punctured the issue with one sentence: “Couldn’t other doctors or nurses have donated blood to Secretary Meng?”
Qiao Wei was suddenly stunned.
When one is in the middle of a situation, one can truly be blinded by a leaf and develop a blind spot.
Yan Lei said, “I remember there are only a few blood types, what was it, A-type, B-type, O-type?”
“Type A, Type B, as well as Type AB and Type O,” Qiao Wei said.
“Right, just those few. It’s impossible that among so many people, not one matched, right? Did it have to be him?” He raised an eyebrow.
Qiao Wei was stunned again.
Subconsciously, she tried to justify it: “There were three injured people, and there were very few medical staff on duty. Maybe they couldn’t afford to be short-handed…”
Yan Lei said, “Then they should have gone to the staff quarters and woken everyone up. If that didn’t work, they could have mobilized the nearby streets. The county’s top leader needs a blood transfusion; I don’t believe they couldn’t find anyone.”
Qiao Wei couldn’t say anything more.
She had a modern mindset. If the blood bank didn’t have blood, there was no blood to transfuse. That’s how it was in later generations, wasn’t it?
She had seen enough of that in hospital wards.
Family members would take the blood test results and line up to fight for blood. For blood that arrived fresh every day, the nurse would call out the blood type, and people with that blood type would hand over their test results to compare values. Priority was given to those with the lowest values; those with high values often didn’t get a turn.
The family members would be anxious to death, but they had no way around it.
In later generations, it was impossible for doctors, nurses, or even the families of medical staff to come and donate blood for you.
Yan Lei added, “The dignified county hospital director must know Secretary Meng, and would he not know Secretary Huang?”
Qiao Wei didn’t speak for a long time. After a while, she sighed, “Am I not suited for the political arena?”
Yan Lei glanced at the hospital room door and corrected her, “What ‘political arena’? Don’t talk nonsense.”
Qiao Wei immediately tapped her mouth lightly, indicating she knew she had said the wrong thing.
“You’ve just experienced it, so you didn’t think of it,” he comforted her. “Once you’ve seen enough, you’ll know that it’s not surprising what people will do.”
Qiao Wei’s perception of Secretary Huang was truly complicated now.
“Was it worth it?” she said. “What you could think of, the Secretary wouldn’t have failed to think of either. He’s not me.”
“So what?” Yan Lei said. “What he saw was Secretary Huang’s wholehearted devotion to him.”
Qiao Wei sighed.
She tugged at Yan Lei. “Don’t be like that. No matter the situation, you must take care of yourself. No one else is more important than you.”
Her expression was very serious, and her gaze was focused.
A wave of tenderness surged in Yan Lei’s heart, and he really wanted to kiss her eyes.
Unfortunately, the door was open, and there were always people walking back and forth in the corridor.
He could only hold back and promise her, “Okay.”
Qiao Wei also curled up on the empty hospital bed and took a nap. When she woke up, it was already dawn.
Yan Xiang was still sleeping, and Yan Lei was not there.
She rubbed her eyes and got up, checking on Yan Xiang first. Fortunately, he was dressed warmly and was covered with a quilt.
Yan Lei came in. “Awake?”
He told her, “Everyone who should know the news knows it now; the hospital will be busy today. Division Commander Pan will also come on behalf of the Military District.”
It caused quite a stir. After all, he was the top leader of a county.
“Secretary Meng has woken up and even asked about you,” he said. “Go wash your face and see the Secretary.”
Qiao Wei went to find the faucet.
There was running water in the hospital, but it was ice cold. Her handkerchief had been used to stop Secretary Huang’s bleeding, so she used Yan Lei’s handkerchief to wipe her face.
She rinsed her mouth before going to see Secretary Meng.
When she arrived, she saw that Secretary Gao was also in the room, along with Secretary Meng’s wife and son. His three daughters had all married into families in Lin City; they were all well-matched families, and it was a marriage of equal status.
“Qiao Wei, come here!” Secretary Meng was very happy to see her. “Are you okay? Little Li is fine, and Zengyue is also doing well. I said I wanted to go see you all, but they wouldn’t let me move.”
Not only would they not let him move, they even had his leg suspended while he lay down.
Qiao Wei explained the situation at the time to Secretary Meng: “…It must have been that a local villager’s livestock wasn’t tied up properly and ran out. I couldn’t tell if it was a donkey or a horse.”
Secretary Meng’s focus was the same as Yan Lei’s: “They say it was you who drove the car here?”
Qiao Wei explained, “At that time, I was the only one still capable of moving. You and Driver Li were both unconscious, and Secretary Huang was bleeding. If I had gone out in the dark to find a village and gotten lost, the probability of the situation worsening would have been higher. I had no choice but to take the risk.”
Secretary Meng was very interested: “You actually know how to drive?”
Yan Lei, standing behind Qiao Wei, interjected: “She’s a half-baked driver; she just rides with me often and has seen it a lot. Qiao Wei, hurry and apologize to the Secretary.”
Qiao Wei immediately apologized: “I was too reckless.”
Secretary Meng didn’t mind: “Young comrades should have a spirit of learning and adventure. In some situations, sticking to the rules doesn’t work. If you hadn’t taken that risk, it’s hard to say whether I’d still be alive. Right, call Little Li’s family in; I want to say a few words to them.”
Driver Li’s family had been terrified all night.
If Driver Li’s driving had caused the county’s top leader to kick the bucket, the sin would have been too great.
Secretary Meng had obviously thought of this, so he called the Li family in and comforted them: “It was a sudden cause; it would have been the same for anyone. Don’t think too much about it.”
The Li family members were shedding tears.
Secretary Meng also met with Secretary Huang’s father and wife, assuring them: “He will definitely be fine.”
He was very kind to Secretary Huang’s family.
Qiao Wei watched from the side and naturally couldn’t help but take an extra look at Secretary Huang’s wife.
She was a woman of similar age and appearance to him, with a hint of scholarly air between her brows. It reminded Qiao Wei of all the things Secretary Huang had said to praise her.
But compared to her delicate features, her figure appeared slightly bloated in this era where one rarely saw fat people. The damage of consecutive childbirths to women was truly too great.
Having gone through a life-and-death experience with Secretary Huang, she felt their relationship was different from before. Qiao Wei thought about finding a suitable opportunity to advise him—they already had three kids, so they should stop having more.
She really couldn’t bear to see it.
Secretary Meng told Qiao Wei to take two days off to rest.
By the time Qiao Wei left, various well-informed people had begun to flock to the hospital one after another.
She followed Yan Lei and Secretary Gao, bringing Yan Xiang, and returned in a jeep.
“Qiao was also frightened,” Secretary Gao said. “Get some good rest.”
Yan Lei let Secretary Gao sit in the passenger seat, while he and Qiao Wei squeezed in the back with Yan Xiang.
Secretary Gao turned his head and said, “You really are impressive; you can even drive a car without knowing how.”
“When a person is highly nervous, the adrenal glands secrete a hormone. Under the stimulation of this hormone, a person’s various abilities—such as the speed of brain function, or strength and running speed—will suddenly increase as if they’ve been injected with adrenaline.”
“There is a saying called ‘the power of a fire scene,’ which means that if a fire breaks out, in order to save your family’s property, you can move a large wardrobe out by yourself. But usually, or after the fire is over, you find that you couldn’t possibly have moved that large wardrobe. This suddenly acquired strength is caused by adrenaline stimulating the human body.”
“As for me,” Qiao Wei said, “If you let me touch a car now, I’d be completely bewildered. At that moment, my mind was blank. I only remember the engine stalling again and again, and then the car finally started moving. I also remember Secretary Huang shouting’Shift gears, shift gears’ in my ear; I don’t remember anything else. Once the fire is over, I can no longer move that large wardrobe.”
Secretary Gao exclaimed, “How magical.”
“It’s because of reading more and knowing more.”
