Chapter 175 Helper
In the darkness, the cold wind was biting. The wound on his head had stopped bleeding. He lay in the snow, the sticky liquid on his face exuding a faint iron smell, almost dried up. He moved his fingers and crawled forward two steps with difficulty. The severe pain in his legs made him give up trying to survive.
He knew how barren and desolate this place was. The nearest house was at least three kilometers away. It was freezing cold and late at night. No one would go out so far, let alone come to save him. He was injured and had been unconscious in the snow for an unknown period of time. His legs seemed to be broken. He couldn't tell where he was hurting all over his body. His cell phone was also stolen. Perhaps today was the day when his life should really end.
Looking back on the past, I was mediocre and did nothing. I used to think that I was the only one who was awake while the rest of the world was drunk. Now I know that his dreams, his ambitions, his enthusiasm, were all so naive and ridiculous. Not being understood is not the most painful thing. The most painful thing is that the person you thought you could devote your life and future to help can betray you without hesitation because of stupid greed.
Just as his consciousness was becoming increasingly blurred and he was hazily recalling various small fragments of his life, a sound in the snow was getting closer.
“Crunch, crunch, crunch…”
A man walked up to him quickly and steadily, and lifted up his upper body with his warm and strong hands.
…
“Beep—beep—beep—”
The waves of the electrocardiogram jumped up and down, and the unique smell of disinfectant in the hospital filled his nose. When he opened his eyes, he was still a little confused. He struggled subconsciously and immediately felt pain all over his body. His head was wrapped in gauze, the back of his hand was tied with an IV, and one leg was hung up in a plaster. The ward was very quiet. There was no one else except him, but the pager was placed at hand.
He pressed the pager, and soon several doctors and nurses came in. After giving him a basic examination, the doctor told him about his injuries, but he didn't pay attention to them. His eyes were fixed on a man standing by the door.
He had short hair, dark complexion, sharp eyebrows, and looked to be in his thirties. There were shallow crow's feet at the corners of his eyes and an inconspicuous scar on his face. He was very tall, leaning against the wall, with his head almost at the same height as the top of the door frame. He was dressed very lightly in the middle of winter, with a black woolen coat over his shirt, with the collar open, as if he couldn't feel the cold outside. He looked cold, but there was an indescribable warmth in his eyes. When his eyes met, he smiled, and there was a family feeling.
But the person lying on the hospital bed couldn't laugh, and his eyes even avoided.
The doctor and the nurse left after they were done, and before they left they reminded the tall man of the things he should pay attention to, as if he was a family member of the patient. In fact, this was the first time they met.
After the ward was quiet again, the man came over and said, "Hello, Yuan Qibo, I am..."
"I know who you are." Yuan Qibo, still feeling dizzy, interrupted him rudely, looked into his eyes and said word by word: "Tang Chen'an."
Tang Chen'an frowned slightly, having a premonition of what he was going to say, and sighed silently in his heart.
"Thank you for saving me, but I messed up and lost the money. I died once, so I won't die again for this." Yuan Qibo said in a self-destructive way: "I will pay back the lost money even if I sell everything I have, but I don't want to do this anymore."
He came with a passion to help these people who have always lived below the poverty line. Many of them don't even have a good piece of clothing at home, and many children don't have the opportunity to go to school. They endure hunger most of the year. The food they eat on weekdays can only be fed to pigs for people with a good life, and they can only eat meat during the New Year. Before coming here, Yuan Qi Bo had never thought that there was such a poor place in Sugar Country. He thought he could change the living conditions of the people here and bring them a better life. However, sake makes people's faces red, and money makes people's hearts move. The people he was going to help broke into his temporary residence, hijacked him to the barren mountain, tortured him out of the bank card password, and was afraid that he would call the police, so they knocked him unconscious and threw him on the mountain. And the family who had been very enthusiastic about him in the past few days also watched him being dragged away indifferently, and didn't even find someone to go to the mountain to save him later. There was snow on the mountain, and there were footprints on the snow. Even if only one person tried to find him, he would never almost freeze to death in the snow on the barren mountain.
Tang Chenan said, "You don't have to worry about the money. I have already caught the person who robbed you and sent him to the Public Security Bureau. I have also recovered the money. But do you really want to give up? Then why did you accept Skynet's special invitation in the first place?"
"That's because I was too stupid! But now I know, and I would like to advise you that some people in this world are not worthy of help at all. They choose to stay in the mud!" Yuan Qi Bo said coldly.
Tang Chenan tried to persuade him a few more times, but seeing that his decision could not be changed, he finally gave up with regret and said, "Don't worry about the medical expenses and car expenses. They will all be paid by Skynet, and we will deposit three months' salary into your card later. I hope you can write a summary of your experience and post it on your blog, so that it can be a guide for others."
"Even if you didn't tell me, I would still do this." Yuan Qi Bo said, "But it's not guidance, it's a warning - to warn everyone that they may also encounter the same thing as me."
Tang Chenan looked at him and said, "Do you think you are the first person to encounter this kind of thing?"
…
Just like the black chess pieces call themselves crows, the white chess pieces certainly do not consider themselves chess pieces, but rather helpers. Before Skynet issued the special invitation, many of them felt very lonely. It was not that they had no relatives and friends around them, but that they felt that the beliefs they held and the principles they adhered to were so incompatible with the people around them, and that they were not tolerated by this world that laughs at poverty but not at prostitution. However, after becoming Skynet helpers, they discovered that there were so many people in the world who were just like them, and that they were not alone. They established a communication platform online to exchange their past thoughts and experiences in dealing with things, discuss the people they are helping, complain about many social phenomena and policies, and share some heartwarming stories that happened around them. They felt that they had finally found a sense of belonging.
Therefore, the departure of each companion was very difficult for them to accept. When they learned that Yuan Qibo was going to give up, many people left messages online, called, and sent text messages, constantly encouraging him, retaining him, and trying to impress him with their own stories of hard struggle. However, Yuan Qibo encountered a life-and-death crisis and was discouraged. After a few hasty replies, he never showed up again. Half a month later, he published his last diary in his personal blog on Tianwang, recording his experience in detail. Although there was no accusation or blame in his words, the grief and pain between the lines lingered. Since then, no one has asked him why he left.
…
"It's no wonder that you encountered such a thing. Is that why you didn't try to keep him?" He Miaomiao said vaguely while sitting in the car and eating bread.
"Well. It's a pity that Xinru Township will continue to be poor in the future." Tang Chen'an said. He thought of the villagers he saw when he left. They were wearing tattered cotton jackets and single shoes with exposed toes, squatting lazily by the wall to bask in the sun, not knowing what opportunity they had missed.
——Perhaps they will not necessarily cherish such an opportunity.
Xinru Township is one of the poorest places in Sugar Country. In order to improve the current situation here, Yuan Qibo originally had many plans. The first one was to build roads. Xinru Township only has a highway built by the country in the past. The roads in other places are basically built by more people. Some remote villages are deep in the mountains. Children need to walk several kilometers of mountain roads to go to school. Sometimes they have to pass through cliffs, which is very dangerous. Therefore, Yuan Qibo’s first batch of funds is to rebuild and level some of the main roads in Xinru Township, and add guardrails to dangerous sections. In the future, schools will be built, teachers will be invited to teach, the health of villagers will be improved, and mountain specialties will be developed. But now, all plans have come to an abrupt end at the first step.
He Miaomiao stopped chewing the bread and turned to ask Tang Chenan, "Isn't Skynet sending anyone else?"
Tang Chenan smiled bitterly and said, "Do you think there are a lot of helpers? The Sugar Country is so big, but there are only 1,382 helpers in total. The places that need help far exceed this number. One carrot per hole is still too little, not to mention that 19 people have given up halfway. It will be impossible to spare any more manpower for at least a few years."
He Miaomiao was astonished. There were seven helpers in her city. They had become good friends with each other. When they communicated online, they felt like they were part of a large group. She never felt that Skynet had a shortage of manpower.
However, what He Miaomiao didn't know, but Tang Chen'an had a vague sense of, was that Skynet was not a saintly organization that would turn the other cheek after being slapped on the left. In individual point-to-point assistance missions, if problems arose due to the inability of the helper, Skynet would immediately send other people to assist or take over; but in cases like Xinru Township, where the locals refused to cooperate or even murdered the helpers, Skynet had no precedent of sending helpers a second time.
"Hey, look, it's coming out!" He Miaomiao suddenly lowered her voice and said hurriedly, throwing away the half-eaten bread, putting on her glasses and staring at the two men in front of her who had just walked out of the restaurant with bulging bellies.
The two men got into a dark blue pickup truck, and the back of the truck was covered with a brown-green tarpaulin. He Miaomiao glanced at the truck, and a bit of anger appeared in her eyes.
A few minutes after the pickup truck drove out, Tang Chenan slowly started the car. At this time, the pickup truck could no longer be seen on the road, but on the flatbed in front of him, there was a small red dot flashing forward.
He Miaomiao bit her finger and asked worriedly, "Why don't you follow up a little bit? What if they change cars halfway?"
"They are just a bunch of thieves and dog thieves. Do you think this is a spy movie?" Tang Chen'an said speechlessly. He felt it was a waste to install trackers on these people's cars. He Miaomiao also thought that they had the intention to change cars to get rid of the tracking. Not to mention whether they would think that someone would follow them for the lost dogs, even to avoid the trouble of moving more than a dozen unconscious cats and dogs, these lowest-level criminals would not go to such lengths.
As expected, after tracking the other party's vehicle for more than two hours, the tablet showed that the small truck had stopped. Tang Chen'an stopped the car about two or three hundred meters away and said to He Miaomiao, "Stay in the car and wait for my news."
"Oh." He Miaomiao nodded nervously. She was not the kind of little girl who would cry and shout "I want to go with you". She knew that with her physical condition, she would only be a hindrance if she went. It would be better for her to stay in the car as a backup. In case Tang Chenan did not come back, calling the police or asking Skynet for help would be much more useful than falling into the enemy camp together.
Tang Chenan gave the car keys to He Miaomiao and asked her to lock the car after he got out. Seeing the girl holding the keys tightly and nodding to him, he counted his equipment, opened the door and got out.
He Miaomiao switched to the driver's seat and stared ahead, but the high wall blocked her view and she could not see anything. She checked the time on her phone every two minutes, waiting eagerly, and felt her heartbeat getting faster and faster in the dark car.
“Ding ding dong… Ding ding dong dong dong…”
The cell phone suddenly rang. He Miaomiao answered it in a panic, and then she heard Tang Chen'an's low voice: "Everything has been handled. Come over here."
He Miaomiao started the car and followed the GPS into a high-walled courtyard. She was somewhat surprised but not surprised to find that five or six men on the ground had been knocked unconscious and tied up. The tarpaulin on the truck's cabin had been torn off, revealing a dozen unconscious cats and dogs, two of which still had exquisite tags on them.
From a dark house on the left, bursts of dog barking were heard. He Miaomiao walked in and saw that it was filled with iron cages. Each cage was crammed with one or two cats and dogs that didn't even have space to turn around. When they saw someone coming in, they barked even louder, and there was undisguised fear and anxiety in their barking.
Tang Chenan stood at the door of another room, frowning and looking inside, but he did not go in, and there was no sound from inside. He Miaomiao curiously poked her head out, but was immediately stopped by Tang Chenan, who said, "You'd better not look."
However, as soon as He Miaomiao squatted, she saw the scene inside from under his arm. She widened her eyes in shock, and then a feeling of nausea came over her. She hurriedly ran to the side and vomited while holding onto the wall.
Inside the room was a slaughterhouse. Not to mention the dark brown bloodstains and the fur and internal organs of various animals, a skinned dog's body was hung upside down on a rack, and the red flesh covered with blood was horrifying.
Tang Chenan closed the door and patted He Miaomiao on the back. After she finished vomiting, he handed her a bottle of mineral water to rinse her mouth.
"Brother Tang, how can people be so cruel?" He Miaomiao murmured, holding the water bottle.
Tang Chenan didn't say anything. To him, this scene was nothing. He had seen many people who did more cruel things to their own kind.
After all, He Miaomiao is not a child, nor is she the little girl who was at a loss when she first became a helper. She does not need Tang Chen'an's answer to continue. After a moment of distraction, He Miaomiao wiped her tears and said, "Thank you, Brother Tang." After that, she took out her mobile phone and methodically called the police, notified the media, and asked the staff of the animal rescue station she established to drive to pick up the rescued cats and dogs here. At this time, the girl spoke clearly and logically. She said what she could say and did not reveal a word of what she could not say. She was completely different from her previous fragile and fearful appearance.
Before the media arrived, Tang Chen'an confirmed that she could handle it herself and left alone.
Several police cars roared past him. Tang Chen'an, with a backpack slung over his shoulder and a layer of dust on his face, looked like an ordinary hiker, except that his back was straighter and his steps were more solid.
Tang Chenan thought that Skynet had really changed the fate of too many people, including himself.
He was originally a retired special forces soldier, who found a bodyguard job through the relationship of his comrades. His daily task was to protect some playboys who wasted their lives and made him want to break their necks. But since he received the recruitment from Skynet, he found the excitement and excitement of crossing the rain forest in the middle of the night to carry out missions again, and wandered all over the world.
As far as Tang Chen'an knew, Skynet's helpers could be divided into two categories. One category was people like He Miaomiao and Yuan Qibo who were helping others on the front line. They might not have enough ability, but they were honest, enthusiastic, kind, and actively tried to help others. This type of people was the majority. There was also a very small number of people, like Tang Chen'an, who were above average in both force and intelligence and could handle a variety of problems. They were a group of people who provided assistance specifically to the helpers.
For example, when Yuan Qi Bo encountered mortal danger, although he did not ask for help, Skynet could judge that he was in danger, so it notified Tang Chen'an, who was closest, to help him; there are also times, such as with He Miaomiao, although there was no danger, she encountered a situation that she could not solve by herself, and after sending a distress signal to Skynet, Skynet would send someone who could solve the problem to help her according to the situation.
Because of the nature of this work, Tang Chen'an has met many aid workers, and he has seen more than one person give up like Yuan Qibo. There is a big gap between dreams and reality. Many people have made passionate and lengthy statements about their future plans, believing that they can definitely change the world, and then one day, they suddenly disappeared from the communication platform. Some people even delete and block all their friends, change their mobile phone numbers and email addresses, and cut off contact with all their former friends, admitting their failure in the face of reality.
However, there are more people who encounter obstacles everywhere but keep fighting again and again. No matter how many times they fail, they can get up from the ground again with full energy and continue to fight for their dreams. Tang Chenan understands the choice of the former, but emotionally prefers the latter. He helps them step by step towards success and is happier than if he had achieved his own success.
"Ding Dong", his phone notified him of a new text message. Tang Chenan opened it and saw: "Shen Chi is looking for help, address: Yuehe Affordable Hospital, No. 308, Yuehe Road, Jianglan District, Q City."
New tasks, new problems, new experiences. Tang Chenan raised his hand to stop a taxi and said, "Go to the airport."
