Chapter 245: 244: Rising to the Challenge
Chapter 245: Chapter 244: Rising to the Challenge
Yu Zhiming was utterly disgusted by Feng Sisi’s actions and had no desire to get dragged into this mess.
Faced with the questions from Feng Sisi’s father, Yu Zhiming mulled it over for a moment before saying, “Uncle Feng, this falls under the purview of a legal disability assessment. What I say is irrelevant and carries no legal weight.”
Feng Sisi’s mother spoke up.
“Dr. Yu, some people these days will intentionally worsen their own injuries through self-harm to get more sympathy and a larger settlement.”
“Sisi has to take responsibility for her actions, but she shouldn’t be framed, right?”
Feng Sisi’s father chimed in, “Dr. Yu, you’re not just any doctor. You’re a renowned physician, an expert, and you’re especially skilled at physical examinations and assessing injuries.”
“Your words would get the police’s full attention and make them commit resources to a thorough investigation.”
“If there’s really something shady going on, they’re sure to find it. Then, of course, the charges against Sisi will be reduced.”
Yu Zhiming looked at the couple. He knew what they were thinking: they still wanted to save their daughter by any means necessary.
’But aren’t they afraid this will just backfire?’
Yu Zhiming’s voice was grave. “Uncle, Auntie, try to see it from the other side. If it were Sisi who was bullied and humiliated like this today, how would you feel?”
“What would you do to get justice for Sisi?”
Without waiting for them to respond, Yu Zhiming continued, “Let’s assume—and this is just a hypothetical…”
“Let’s say they did inflict those fractures on themselves. How ruthless would they have to be toward themselves, and how much must they hate Sisi and her friends, to be capable of that?”
“If—and I mean *if*—they can’t effectively vent this burning rage through the legal system… Uncle, Auntie, have you ever considered the extreme possibilities?”
“Committing a crime is also an option.”
Yu Zhiming didn’t mince words with his scare tactics. “These days, you see quite a few of those family annihilation cases popping up online.”
Sure enough, his words struck terror into Feng Sisi’s parents. The color drained from their faces.
“Dr. Yu, that… that…”
Yu Zhiming sighed softly. “When you’ve done something wrong, you have to stand up straight and take what’s coming to you. Just admit your fault and focus on compensation.”
“If you stir the pot any more and something extreme really does happen, it’ll be too late for regrets.”
After saying his piece, Yu Zhiming didn’t wait for the couple to respond. He simply turned and headed for the stairs.
Gu Qingning hurried to catch up.
“Zhiming, I tried to talk them out of it.”
“But they saw the fractured forearm as a potential breakthrough, a chance to get a lighter sentence, so they insisted on seeing you.”
“I… I couldn’t stop them.”
Yu Zhiming grunted in acknowledgment. “That’s just how parents are. I can understand them wanting to bail their daughter out.”
As they spoke, the two of them left the neurosurgery department.
The world was bathed in the pale light of dawn, and Huashan Hospital was much quieter now than it was during the day.
“Qingning, do you think what I said was enough to scare them?”
Gu Qingning nodded emphatically. “Definitely. If I put myself in their shoes… if my own child were bullied like that in the future, I’d definitely have murder on my mind.”
“And if, during the aftermath, the other party tried to play games and make excuses to lighten their sentence, that would just be pouring fuel on the fire. I might do something irrational in the heat of the moment.”
Gu Qingning sighed. “Zhiming, you weren’t just scaring them. you were warning them about a very real possibility.”
“From what I know of my aunt and uncle, they’ll take what you said to heart…”
「Back at his apartment in Zijin Garden.」
Yu Zhiming went to bed and didn’t wake up until after ten the next morning.
When he got out of bed and left his bedroom, he found Gu Qingning alone in the living room.
“Third Sister went to the hospital to check on the patient placements. Then she’s taking the discharged patients and their families back on the coach bus.”
“Xiaoxue went back to school.”
“Fourth Sister went to look at houses with Zhang Bai.”
After explaining where everyone was, Gu Qingning added, “Zhiming, my aunt and uncle really took your advice to heart. They were incredibly thorough about it, too.”
“Oh? What did they do?” Yu Zhiming asked, curious.
Gu Qingning sighed softly. “They both knelt down right in front of the girl and her family. They apologized on Sisi’s behalf and said they had failed as parents.”
“They also promised to accept any punishment, to unconditionally accept whatever sentence the court hands down, and to pay an additional five million on top of whatever compensation the court orders.”
Yu Zhiming was stunned for a moment. “Sounds like they were really scared. But this is what they should be doing.”
“After what she did, no amount of compensation is too much.”
“So, have the girl and her family softened their stance at all?”
Gu Qingning let out a long sigh. “My uncle said the girl’s side has warmed up to them a little.”
“It’s just…”
“Just what?” Yu Zhiming pressed.
Gu Qingning said glumly, “Besides Sisi, there were two other girls involved in the incident.”
“The parents of one of the other girls keep pleading poverty. They’re saying their daughter was just dragged into it, that she was only an accomplice and a victim herself.”
“The subtext is that they want Sisi and my uncle’s family to take on all the legal responsibility and pay all the compensation.”
Gu Qingning elaborated, “That girl is the one who supposedly had her boyfriend ’stolen’.”
“My uncle said that girl is a two-faced schemer, always playing the pitiful, innocent victim. He says she’s the one who instigated the whole thing.”
“Sisi was just a pawn she used. She’s the real mastermind.”
“Under these circumstances, there’s no way my uncle is going to be the fall guy and shoulder all the compensation.”
“So, this legal battle is far from over…”
Sure enough, Yu Zhiming and Gu Qingning received a call from the police, asking them to come to the station for a follow-up interview.
「A little after two in the afternoon.」
The two of them went to the district police station in the same district as Binhai Foreign Language University and gave another statement.
At the station, Yu Zhiming stated in all seriousness…
…that when he saw the girl’s condition, he was both shocked and furious.
He first performed a quick examination of her brain and internal organs. Once he determined there were no life-threatening injuries there, he focused on treating the wounds on the lower half of her body.
By the time he had stopped the bleeding and treated her lower-body injuries, the ambulance had arrived.
The girl was transferred away right after that.
From start to finish, he never had a chance to perform a detailed and comprehensive examination of her entire body.
Therefore, he knew nothing about the girl’s bone fractures.
“You really didn’t perform a full-body examination on the girl?”
The officer questioning Yu Zhiming looked incredulous. “There was plenty of time for you to do an exam before the ambulance arrived.”
“Dr. Yu, we’ve heard all about your medical skills.”
Yu Zhiming repeated, “I did not!”
He then put on an expression of shame and elaborated, “To be perfectly honest, the girl was completely naked, and it was obviously a criminal case.”
“On top of that, I was called here by one of the parties involved…”
“I wanted to avoid trouble, so I figured since the girl’s life wasn’t in danger, it was best not to get any more involved than I had to.”
“Plus, time was genuinely tight, so I didn’t perform a further full-body exam.”
Yu Zhiming looked self-reproachful. “Sigh, I have to admit, I was being selfish and cowardly.”
The officer warned, “Dr. Yu, you need to understand that committing perjury carries legal consequences.”
Yu Zhiming put on an innocent expression. “Officer, where exactly did I commit perjury?”
Just then, a senior-looking police officer entered the interview room and glanced over the transcript of Yu Zhiming’s questioning.
With a friendly expression, he said, “Dr. Yu, thank you for taking your valuable time to come down here.”
“We just needed to conduct a follow-up investigation on a few details of the case.”
“Now that we’ve cleared everything up, Dr. Yu, you can sign your statement and be on your way.”
Yu Zhiming signed the statement, met up with Gu Qingning—who had finished her own statement a bit earlier—and they left the police station by car.
Gu Qingning’s face was full of guilt. “Zhiming, I’m so sorry for dragging you into this mess.”
Yu Zhiming replied nonchalantly, “Don’t worry about it. Life is just one damn thing after another, big and small.”
Even so, he couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.
The statement he gave at the police station was one he had carefully considered beforehand.
While his testimony didn’t have the legal weight of a formal disability assessment, his current reputation and status in the medical community meant it could still be influential.
To avoid controversy, coupled with his sympathy for what the girl had endured and his own desire to stay out of trouble, Yu Zhiming decided to wash his hands of it and simply claim to know nothing about the fractures.
This testimony was designed to extricate himself as much as possible, leaving the final court verdict to be based primarily on the facts of the police investigation and the official forensic assessment.
’But judging by how things went today, I’ll probably still have to testify when this case goes to trial.’
’Sigh. What a pain…’
“Zhiming, were you ever bullied in school?”
Gu Qingning’s question made Yu Zhiming involuntarily recall the years when his Fourth Sister would hold his hand on the way to school.
He had to admit, some kids were just plain vicious.
He would just be sitting there quietly after class, and someone would come over to mess with him or bully him.
Fortunately, he wasn’t such an easy target.
The rocks he kept in his pocket hurt a lot when they hit someone, and could definitely draw blood if you aimed for the head.
Yu Zhiming smiled. “My Fourth Sister was really tough. With her looking out for me, nobody dared to bully me.”
Gu Qingning murmured an “oh.”
Just then, Yu Zhiming got a call from Zeng Yan.
“Zeng Yan, what’s up? Can’t take it anymore?”
“I can handle it, it’s just…”
Zeng Yan’s voice was indignant over the phone. “Sister Bao’s days are just so hard. She’s busy until eight or nine at night and has to be up by a little after five in the morning.”
“Every other doctor can order her around, and sometimes she can’t even keep up with it all.”
“And some people, instead of being understanding, just chew her out—really harshly, too. I even saw Sister Bao secretly wiping away tears.”
Yu Zhiming grunted. “That’s how it is for doctors at the bottom of the ladder. You’re not just overworked, you have to take a lot of crap, too.”
“All doctors are under a lot of pressure, and it’s easy to take it out on the junior staff as a way to relieve it.”
A thought suddenly occurred to him. “Do the others not know you’re related to me?”
Zeng Yan replied in a low voice, “Sister Bao introduced me as her younger cousin. She told them I was visiting her during the National Day holiday to get a feel for a doctor’s life because I’m thinking of applying to medical school.”
Yu Zhiming made a noncommittal sound, then asked, “Feeling a bit disillusioned, are we? If you go to medical school, you’ll basically face the same thing when you become an intern and then a resident.”
“Doctors make mistakes all the time when they’re just starting out. Getting criticized and yelled at is part of the job.”
“Not at all, Uncle!”
Zeng Yan said, full of fighting spirit, “I’m not the type to back down from a challenge. It just makes me want to face it head-on.”
“Uncle, I won’t let you down…”