Chapter 7 Unexpected Events

  Time slowly passed, and in the blink of an eye, it was already October. The poetry and essay writing competition between our school and Yi Hua University is also approaching.

  This afternoon, students from Yi Hua University will come to our school to prepare for the poetry and essay writing competition that starts the day after tomorrow.

  The school originally arranged for Vice President Min Zhongyi, as well as Du Yifei and Li Chang to represent the school in welcoming the teachers and students of Yi Hua University. However, at yesterday's final meeting, Du Yifei firmly requested a change in the list of reception personnel. For some unknown reason, Principal Min agreed to Du Yifei's request after brief consideration. So I was also included on today's afternoon reception personnel list.

  Du Yifei and another student member Ma Feifei were in charge of arranging the accommodation for all female teachers and students at Yi Hua University; Li Chang and I were responsible for the accommodation of all male teachers and students who came to Yi Hua University this time. We also have a clear division of labor, each taking care of our own responsibilities.

  Principal Min's wife, also a teacher at our school, is law professor Gong Yuan-yi. She is also one of the leading teachers who welcomed the students from Yi Hua University this time. Her personality is enthusiastic and her temper is fiery, making her a well-known figure in the school, almost everyone knows her.

  Mr. Gong had us four, Li Chang, Du Yifei, Ma Feifei and I, called to the school's conference room early on. He carefully reminded us of some relevant matters and finally said to me specifically: "Jin Cang, you've always been someone who doesn't like to talk much, it's just your personality. But this makes our school seem unfriendly, so I'm asking you to take the initiative to communicate with the students from Yi Hua University this afternoon, introduce some of our school's history and honors, be more enthusiastic, okay?"

  I'm not really a talkative person, I still have some words to say when I'm with familiar people, but when it comes to strangers, I rarely take the initiative to speak up, and as a whole, I seem to be lacking in passion, often giving others a sense of unfamiliarity.

  "Alright, I'll be careful." I glanced at Li Chang with a tilt of my head and saw the disdain on his face, which immediately sparked a thread of anger in my heart. So I decided to make a change, at least to be more popular among the teachers and students than Li Chang: "Teacher Gong, I suggest that Li Chang and I divide our work. I'll take care of the accommodation for male teachers and students from Yihua University, while Li Chang takes care of their meals. Since all activities are uniformly arranged, we can cooperate on this aspect together. What do you think?"

  Mr. Gong thought for a moment, nodded very affirmatively: "Let's do it this way. Yifei and Feifei will also divide the work, take their respective responsibilities, and strive to make the teachers and students of Yi Hua University happy."

  Du Yifei and Ma Feifei went to work on their own, so I took out a piece of paper and wrote down some detailed things for everyone to refer to.

  Li Chang seemed disdainful of this, looking up at the roof with his head raised, still whistling in his mouth.

  Mr. Gong didn't say much, and after discussing some details with us, he went to class. The four of us confirmed a few more things and then split up, waiting for 3 pm to welcome the teachers and students from Yi Hua University to our school.

  Today's weather is still quite satisfactory, although it didn't shine brightly, but it wasn't the torrential rain of the past few days either. The afternoon weather seemed to have improved a bit, with the sun slowly revealing its smiling face in the sky, and the gloomy mood brought by the rainy day suddenly improved a lot.

  I quietly stood at the school gate, waiting for the teachers and students of Yi Hua University. Next to me was also our school's dormitory administrator, surnamed Guo Fugui, whom we students generally called Director Guo. Director Guo wasn't actually a real director, the actual logistics department director was surnamed Zou, who was quite old and usually worked in the office. The specific logistics matters of the school were all handled by Guo Fugui, so over time, we started calling him Director Guo.

  "Jin Cang," Guo Fugui was getting a bit anxious, he had many things to attend to: "I still have something to do later, when are those people from Yi Hua University coming? It's already 3:30 now, wasn't it agreed upon at 3 o'clock?"

  I frowned: "It was supposed to be three o'clock, I don't know what's going on, and it's already half an hour late. No one even notified us about the situation."

  Guo Fugui turned around and looked at Li Chang in the same way, wanting to ask Li Chang something, but he endured it and stopped talking, with a face full of unspoken words.

  I saw the situation and had no choice but to call Teacher Gong: "Teacher Gong, when can the people from Yihua University come? Director Guo has something urgent and can't wait any longer."

  Mr. Gong lowered his voice on the phone: "Wait a bit, they encountered some unexpected things on the road, we'll send a car immediately, all of you go and help."

  I was startled and a sense of foreboding suddenly appeared in my heart: "What's wrong?"

  Mr. Gong said in a low voice: "Don't ask, they are on the phone with Principal Min, I'm not convenient to talk now, let's talk later when I come out."

  Mr. Guo hung up the phone, and I hesitated for a moment before saying to Director Guo: "Teacher Gong said that someone from Yihua University has encountered an unexpected situation, let's take the school car to go help immediately."

  Director Guo exclaimed "Ah" and hastily pulled out his phone to notify the logistics department: "Drive to the school gate immediately."

  Li Chang, Du Yifei and Ma Feifei all looked at me, seemingly wanting to ask what had happened. I shook my head, indicating that I didn't know either, and they stopped looking at me.

  Mr. Gong quickly arrived at the school gate, letting us get on the car while saying: "The bus of Yi Hua University was hit by someone on the road and three students were injured. We are going to help now. Jin Cang and Li Chang, after you arrive, immediately drive the injured to the hospital - the ambulance is stuck in traffic and can't come through. Yifei and Feifei, you are responsible for bringing other personnel back to school to settle them down. I will go to the hospital with Jin Cang and others, Director Guo will help settle the rest of the people."

  We all promised and rushed to the scene of the accident. On the way, no one spoke a word, everyone felt that it was most important to rush to the scene as soon as possible.

  The accident scene was frightening, with a university bus from Yi Hua University being hit by a large cargo truck and overturning on the highway. The vehicle was severely deformed, with almost all of the windshield shattered, and debris scattered everywhere. On the highway lay three students, one male and two females, all with serious injuries and blood flowing everywhere. The boy's face had obvious external wounds, narrowly avoiding injury to his right eye. Both girls had multiple bloody wounds, with one girl having a fractured right arm, crying in pain. The other girl was slightly better off, with many external injuries but no apparent fractures or major trauma, although she lay motionless and it was unclear if she had any internal injuries.

  The truck driver was also injured and sat on the ground to rest. Many onlookers gathered around, almost forming a large circle, pointing and discussing.

  We squeezed through the crowd, dispersing the onlookers as we hastily lifted the injured person into our car and rushed to the nearest hospital.

  The journey was relatively smooth, the school driver knew that lives were at stake and stepped on the gas pedal all the way. Along the way, we met an ambulance rushing over, the doctors and nurses on the ambulance hurried over to help with simple first aid while contacting the hospital. We arrived at the hospital quickly, the doctors and nurses inside had already received the notification and were waiting outside. As soon as we arrived, we sent the four injured people into the emergency room in the shortest time possible.

  I, Gong teacher and Li Chang were busy rescuing people, all of us were covered in bloodstains, with sweat on our foreheads, looking very dirty. A teacher from Yihua University who came together was also covered in bloodstains, his expression was very heavy, not saying a word.

  Mr. Gong wanted to wipe the sweat from his forehead, but his hands were covered in blood, so he smiled wryly and said to me and Li Chang: "Go wash up in the bathroom, we look too terrible like this."

  After we finish washing, Teacher Gong said: "Jin Cang stays behind, if there's anything, contact me. Li Chang and I will head back to school first to prepare some things to bring over, and later arrange for a few people to come over and take care of the injured classmates."

  I nodded and sat down quietly outside the emergency room. Mr. Gong and Li rushed away, saying nothing more. The teacher from Yi Hua University sat silently beside me, head bowed, not moving or speaking, lost in thought.

  Time passed minute by minute, and soon it was five o'clock in the afternoon. I didn't know whether to talk to that teacher or not, anyway he didn't plan to talk to me either, so we continued to wait silently.

  "You..." Suddenly, the teacher raised his head and asked me: "What's your name?"

  I was taken aback for a moment, looking somewhat stunned: "My name is Kimura. Teacher, you..."

  He sighed and said: "Don't call me teacher anymore, my surname is Li, and my name is Zheng. With something like this happening, the school will definitely expel me, and I won't be a teacher anymore. Just call me by my name."

  I involuntarily let out an "ah": "No way? This isn't your responsibility, it's just an accident, how could they fire you?"

  Li Zheng sighed and said, "You don't know the rules of our school. Teachers who take students out on trips are responsible for everything that happens... Ah, we're a private school, so many of our rules are different from those of public schools like yours..."

  I nodded vaguely: "Don't think too much about it either, maybe it's not as serious as you thought."

  Li Zheng sighed and muttered to himself, "I hope they're all okay, if... then I'm done..." He said that and lowered his head again, resuming his motionless and silent posture.

  I didn't know how to comfort him, so I also lowered my head and stopped talking.

  At 7 o'clock in the evening, the first student was pushed out, it was that male student. I hurriedly stood up: "Doctor, how is he?"

  "The doctor's voice was calm: 'It's okay, don't worry. Wait a while for the anesthesia to pass and he'll wake up. When he wakes up, remember not to let him drink water.'"

  I also wanted to ask two other classmates, but the doctor had already turned around and left.

  Li Zheng saw the boy who came out and asked me with some excitement and fear: "How... how is it?"

  I forced a smile: "The doctor said it's nothing serious. When he wakes up later, don't let him drink water for now."

  Li Zheng silently let out a long sigh and slowly sat back down.

  I also sat down, just wanting to talk with Li Zheng, when the door of another emergency room opened. This time, it was that female classmate with a fractured right arm who was pushed out.

  I rushed to ask the doctor about the specific situation, and the doctor's answer gave me a fright: "The right arm and rib fracture have been treated. However, the other patient has internal bleeding in the thoracic cavity, and there is also brain damage, coupled with severe trauma and excessive blood loss... Our initial diagnosis is that the patient is currently in great danger. We need to perform multiple surgeries on the patient, but whether the surgery can be successful, we cannot confirm for now, please prepare yourselves mentally."

  I was startled by the doctor's words and suddenly didn't know what to do, because I had never encountered such a thing before, and I was immediately at a loss.

  Li Zheng was also frightened, his face changed greatly, and he swayed as if he was about to fall. I quickly reached out to support Li Zheng and sat him down, trying to calm myself first, then said to Li Zheng: "Calm down, the doctor will do his best, I need to inform the school leaders of the situation immediately, you wait here, if there's any development, call me right away."

  I don't know if Li Zheng heard what I said or not. His face was deathly pale, his lips were white, and he didn't say a word or make any movement.

  I didn't wait for him to respond, and hastily called Teacher Gong, telling her about the situation here. After listening to my words, Teacher Gong also seemed to be frightened, and remained silent for a long time. I waited for a while before hearing her say: "We're almost at the hospital now, you take care of Teacher Li Zheng first, other things... we'll talk about later."

  I responded with a sound, just hung up the phone, and heard someone shouting loudly: "Come quickly, someone has fainted!" I rushed to the emergency room outside, only to see a nurse squatting on the ground, trying to help Li Zheng get up from the ground.

  Li Zheng suddenly fainted, and my mind went blank in an instant. The nurse tried several times to lift Li Zheng up but failed, then turned her head to see me and shouted loudly: "You! Come over and help!"

  I felt a sudden jolt all over my body, came back to my senses, and rushed over to help lift Li Zheng up.

  The nurse directed me to put Li Zheng on a hospital bed and then told me: "Quickly go find the doctor, this person needs emergency treatment..."

  Before the nurse could finish speaking, I ran out and grabbed a passing doctor, pulling him into Li Zheng's ward without explanation.

  When the nurse drove me out of that ward, I finally came to my senses. As soon as I touched my forehead, it was a head full of sweat again. My back was also cool for a while, and I felt like all my clothes were soaked in just a moment.

  I'm not someone who hasn't encountered such things, on the contrary, I've had several experiences like this before. However, none of those times were as tense and confusing as this one. After all, in my previous experiences, there were always others helping me, and I was handling things with other people. But this time, it's just me facing this sudden event alone.

  It seems that I still lack the ability to handle unexpected events on my own, otherwise I wouldn't be so flustered and at a loss.

  Sat down and calmed down for a while, Gong teacher and the others arrived at the hospital. After listening to me roughly describe the current situation, Gong teacher hurried back again.

  Li Zheng has come round after the doctor's rescue, his face is pale, he doesn't say a word, lying on the hospital bed as if in a daze, like a living dead man.

  Another team leader from Yi Hua University came over, she was relatively calm and introduced herself as Liu Yifang. Liu Yifang was very young, probably around 24 or 25 years old, tall and slender, with a serious expression on her face, but it could be seen that she was a very confident person.

  After Teacher Gong left, the school arranged for several teachers and students to come over and help take care of the injured. I was then free, so I quietly told a few classmates that I was going back to school to change my clothes. The clothes on me were stained with blood, dirty, and looked terrible.

  But unexpectedly, Du Yifei also came over. She stared at me and said: "It's so busy now, that fellow student is dead or alive, you have the nerve to leave first?"

  Du Yifei's words immediately pushed me to the forefront, and all my classmates looked at me with the same gaze, making me want to find a seam in the ground to crawl into, but I had no choice, so I stayed.

  Du Yifei's face was full of anger, but her eyes had a hint of three parts amusement. I inadvertently saw it, and after a moment of stunned silence, my heart suddenly became even more afraid of her.

  I was already afraid of her three parts because her mouth is too poisonous. Now these three points have become five points all at once, due to her cunning.

  The most seriously injured student is named Zhang Shuang, a somewhat androgynous name. Zhang Shuang's surgery lasted until 2 am, almost ten hours in total, but the doctor still hasn't come out of the operating room, and we don't know what the outcome is yet.

  Du Yifei is now asleep on the chair, what she says and does are not quite the same, I go to change my clothes and she can say it's "heartless", but she herself falls asleep first.

  Liu Yifang didn't talk to us, she stood outside the emergency room, pacing back and forth, her anxious expression becoming more and more apparent.

  At this time, the emergency room door opened and a nurse rushed out: "The blood bank doesn't have enough blood, who among you is type O?"

  I hesitated for a moment, just about to speak, when Du Yifei jumped in and said: "Jin Cang is type O blood." I don't know if she was pretending to be asleep or not, but as soon as the nurse spoke, she woke up and even jumped in to speak on my behalf.

  The nurse didn't say another word and pulled me into the emergency room, saying "Hurry up, the patient needs a blood transfusion right away."

  I didn't even have a chance to say a word, and they directly treated me as a blood bank. Alas... I had just been injured not long ago, although the blood loss was not much, but this body is not very suitable for donating blood either. However, there's no choice, who made me an O-type blood? The best blood donor!

  When I walked out of the emergency room, I felt a bit dizzy and my body was somewhat weak. Du Yifei seemed to regret pushing me to donate blood, after all, she knew that I had been injured not long ago. So as soon as I came out, she hurried forward to support me: "Are you okay? Sorry, I forgot that you were just injured..."

  I didn't dare accept her kindness, so I quickly found a place to sit down: "It's okay, you don't have to take care of me."

  Du Yifei seemed stunned for a moment, then his mouth slightly raised, coldly saying: "A dog bites Lu Dongbin, not knowing the kindness of others..."

  I wanted to retort, but I was really afraid that she would continue to lecture me endlessly, so I had no choice but to pretend not to hear her and close my eyes to meditate.