129: Chapter 129 Don't get trapped in the well

The emergency doctor from the 120 service lay over the hole to look down for five seconds, then shrank back a bit.

"The bleeding point is towards the back of the head, and the rate of seepage is increasing."

Cheng Songyan handed over his phone; the screen showed the video just recorded by lowering it down on a rope.

The image quality wasn't high, but it was clear enough to see the child curled up at the bottom of the pit, with a dark, wet patch on the side of his head.

The doctor played the video back and forth twice.

"Thirty minutes." He held up three fingers.

"The bleeding must be stopped within thirty minutes, otherwise, a three-year-old child cannot withstand this amount of blood loss."

The child's mother's crying rose another octave; two workers held her arms, practically dragging her to keep her from crawling toward the pit opening.

Li Li squatted nearby, shining a flashlight downwards, the beam hitting that small silhouette ten meters deep.

The crying at the bottom of the pit was growing weaker.

It wasn't because he was tired of crying.

It was blood loss.

He Manzhou took a step forward.

Qi Wanyin reached out and grabbed her sleeve.

"Manzhou."

Her voice was very low, low enough that only the two of them could hear.

"Going down there is too dangerous. It's ten meters deep, going down upside down—what if you get stuck?"

She didn't finish the sentence.

He Manzhou turned to look at her and smiled. It wasn't the kind of smile used in social situations; it was very light, carrying a hint of indifference.

"Sister Yin, I know you have my best interests at heart."

She patted Qi Wanyin's hand, which was resting on her sleeve.

"But there is a three-year-old child down there."

Qi Wanyin's fingers loosened.

He Manzhou turned and walked toward Cheng Songyan. Her pace wasn't fast, but there wasn't a single step of hesitation.

"Captain Cheng, let me go."

Cheng Songyan turned back to look at her.

"Secure the safety gear on me, and then teach me how to secure it on the child. I'll go down and save him."

"This requires going down upside down." Cheng Songyan's hand pressed against the safety rope, pausing for a moment. "Headfirst, ten meters, surrounded by earth walls, extremely small space—any issue in any step..."

"Captain Cheng."

He Manzhou interrupted him.

"I am an Olympic silver medalist in diving."

She raised one hand, fingers together, palm facing down, making a gesture of entering the water.

"Handstands are what I've practiced the most, bar none. On a ten-meter platform, all rotations are completed in a fraction of a second from takeoff to entry."

She looked down at the hole.

"To be honest, this hole is more spacious than I imagined."

Cheng Songyan stared at her.

An extremely faint whimper came from the bottom of the pit.

Cheng Songyan turned around.

"Han Su, get a full-body safety harness, the smallest size. Qin Xiaoshan, get another set of children's emergency safety ropes."

Han Su paused for half a beat, then turned and ran.

Cheng Songyan squatted down, rummaged through the equipment box for the safety harness, laid it on the ground, and checked every buckle one by one.

"Come here."

He Manzhou squatted opposite him.

Cheng Songyan held the harness up to her, tightened the waist webbing, then tightened it another round, and another, until it fit perfectly.

"After you go down, the first thing is to use your headlamp to confirm the child's position. The safety rope set is a quick-release type; wrap it under the child's armpits, lock the buckle on the chest, and it only counts as locked when you hear a 'click'."

He demonstrated with the child's safety rope.

He Manzhou stared at his hands, not blinking at a single movement.

"After it's buckled, pull the rope three times, and we'll pull you up. If the child is struggling too much and you can't buckle it, pull twice, and we'll pull you up first. If the earth wall loosens and debris starts falling, pull four times for an emergency withdrawal."

"Understood."

"The child's head is bleeding; can I press on the wound first after I go down?"

"Just use the heel of your hand to press the bleeding point; don't use too much force, he's only three." The emergency doctor nearby added.

He Manzhou nodded, stood up, and stretched her wrists and shoulders.

Qi Wanyin walked over, not trying to persuade her again.

"Just do your best, don't force it."

He Manzhou nodded at her, turned, and walked to the edge of the hole.

Two small spotlights were fixed to her collar with Velcro, and a miniature camera was clipped to the neckline. She checked everything once, then patted the set of children's safety ropes in her hand.

Then she squatted beside the hole, braced her hands on the ground, and went into a handstand. She was steady and motionless.

Li Li watched from the side, calculating in his heart; her core strength control was no less than any Firefighter in the station.

Qin Xiaoshan walked up, grabbed her ankles with both hands, and lifted her up.

"So light."

This sentence was completely subconscious, a sincere exclamation with a Guizhou accent.

With her legs held by him, He Manzhou was slowly lowered headfirst into the hole.

Just as her shoulders passed the edge of the hole, her body tilted slightly, adjusting the angle, and her thirty-centimeter shoulder width slid into the thirty-five-centimeter opening.

Two safety ropes extended down from the hole; Cheng Songyan, Han Su, and two other Firefighters each held one, their gloves digging into the ropes as the four of them controlled the descent speed simultaneously.

The ropes were fed down inch by inch.

Everyone above the hole fell silent.

The child's mother stopped crying, staring fixedly at the black hole. The onlookers stopped talking. The photographer's camera red light was on, the lens aimed at the hole, leaving only the rustling sound of the ropes rubbing against the hole walls.

Ten meters.

Ten meters headfirst.

He Manzhou's world turned upside down.

The earth walls retreated past her shoulders, and gravel occasionally brushed against her headlamp, making faint, crisp sounds.

Blood rushed to her head, her temples throbbed, and her eardrums were filled with the sound of her own heartbeat.

One meter, two meters, three meters.

The concrete lining ended here; everything below was bare earth. The walls became rough, and several protruding stones brushed against her arms, leaving shallow scratches.

Five meters, six meters.

She smelled blood.

Eight meters.

The light from her headlamp hit the bottom of the pit.

A tiny body was curled up there, knees hugged, head buried in his arms.

His hair was matted with a layer of dark red blood scabs, and there was a gash behind his left ear, still oozing blood, dripping onto the soil and soaking into a small dark patch.

The moment the headlamp's light shone on him, the little boy jerked his head up.

Then he started screaming.

Crying, kicking, and waving his arms, he thrashed desperately at the bottom of the pit, the back of his head hitting the earth wall, causing loose soil to fall down in a rustle.

He Manzhou's hand had already reached his back, but he was twisting too violently for the safety rope set to be put on him at all.

"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, big sister is here to save you."

It was useless; a three-year-old child had been trapped in the dark for who knows how long, and suddenly an inverted silhouette and blinding light appeared above his head—fear overwhelmed everything.

He Manzhou hung upside down half a meter away from him, blood constantly rushing to her head, and flickering lights began to appear at the edges of her vision. She closed her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again, she spoke.

"Twenty years ago, there was a little girl."

The little boy's crying paused for a moment, not because he was listening, but because someone was suddenly speaking, interrupting the rhythm of his sobbing.

"She was playing in the village and fell into a well."

He Manzhou's voice wasn't loud; speaking while hanging upside down, every word was squeezed out bit by bit from her chest.

"Just like you, she was scared. She didn't dare to call out."

The little boy's hands stopped.

"She was afraid that if her family found out, they would hit her."

The bottom of the hole was quiet for two seconds.

The little boy's crying turned from screaming into sobbing.

"Later, an uncle from the village came down to save her, but she didn't want to go up. Because her mother had already been crying and scolding on top for a long time; she would definitely get beaten if she went up."

The little boy raised his head, his face covered in mud and blood, his two eyes shining terrifyingly in the headlamp's light.

"But the uncle told her, 'It won't happen. Uncle will speak up for you; Mom and Dad won't hit you.'"

He Manzhou reached her hand out in front of him, palm up.

"The little girl believed him and went up with the uncle. The uncle blocked everyone for her, and no one hurt her."

The little boy stared at her palm.

The sobbing continued, but his body stopped moving.

"Big sister... will you help me?"

The voice was so small it was almost inaudible.

"Mom is fierce."

He Manzhou smiled.

She smiled while hanging upside down, her temples throbbing, but her smile was steady.

"I will."

The little boy released his hands from hugging his knees.

He Manzhou's movements were fast and steady. The safety rope set passed under his armpits, wrapped around to his chest, and the quick-release buckle clicked shut. She pulled it once to confirm; it didn't budge.

She pressed the heel of her left hand against the wound behind his left ear, grabbed her own safety rope with her right hand, and pulled three times.

Once, twice, three times.

Above the hole, Cheng Songyan's voice came down from ten meters away.

"Pull!"

The four men exerted force simultaneously, and the two ropes rose at a steady speed.

He Manzhou protected the child's head with one hand, braced against the hole wall with the other, her body moving upward along with the ropes.

The light grew brighter.

The air grew fresher.

The outline of the hole expanded, expanded, and expanded from a small white dot.

First, it was He Manzhou.

The moment she flipped out of the hole, her feet landed, she stumbled a step, and squatted on the ground, gasping for air.

Her hands were tugging hard on the rope tied around her waist, and several men pulled together.

The little boy's head emerged from the hole.

Qin Xiaoshan caught him, lifting him out by supporting the child's armpits with both hands. The emergency doctor rushed up, took over within two seconds, the stretcher was laid out, hemostatic gauze was applied to the wound, and an oxygen mask was put on.

Hanging upside down for ten meters for five minutes—all the blood had pooled in her head.

When she stood up, her vision went black for two seconds.

But her first action wasn't to lean against a wall.

It was to look for the child.

The little boy lay on the stretcher, the oxygen mask covering half his face, his eyes rolling around. Seeing He Manzhou stand up, he broke free from the nurse's hand holding him down and flipped off the stretcher.

The three-year-old child, still oozing blood from his head, his legs went soft and he almost fell, but he stumbled three steps, dove into He Manzhou's legs, and wrapped his hands tightly around her knees.

His mother rushed over.

There were tears on her face, but her mouth was already turned down. Li Li had seen that expression on many parents' faces; the next second would be, "Why are you so disobedient?"

He Manzhou stepped forward.

The little boy huddled behind her, holding onto her pant leg with both hands, refusing to come out.

"The child didn't do it on purpose."

He Manzhou blocked the middle, her right hand resting on the little boy's head.

"He is still bleeding, take him to the hospital first. Experiencing such long-lasting fear from falling down this time is already a punishment in itself; it's enough."

The child's mother's mouth was open, the scolding stuck in her throat—neither spitting it out nor swallowing it felt right.

The woman opposite her had just rescued her son by hanging upside down in a ten-meter-deep pit; she couldn't bring herself to scold him.

Finally, she squatted down, pulled her son out from behind He Manzhou, hugged him into her arms, and cried even harder than the child.

The 120 stretcher was brought over, and the mother and son were lifted onto it together. Before leaving, the child's mother bowed to He Manzhou.

The little boy lay on his mother's shoulder, reached out a mud-covered hand, and waved at He Manzhou. He Manzhou waved back.

Applause erupted from the onlookers, the workers.

Cheng Songyan was clapping. Han Su was clapping, and Qin Xiaoshan was clapping his hands loudly.

Shen Jue whistled, and was slapped on the back of the head by Ji Shen, "People are feeling moved, why are you whistling?"

Li Li stood three meters away, clapping gently.

Su Nianzhi walked over quickly, opened her arms, and gave He Manzhou a hug. She wrapped her arms around her shoulders, rested her chin on her shoulder, and tilted her body slightly toward the camera. The angle was just right.

Li Li saw her eyes sweep toward the camera position while she was hugging He Manzhou.

He didn't say anything, just lowered his head to take a sip of water.

Everyone was laughing, talking, and patting He Manzhou on the back.

Only He Manzhou herself, after the crowd dispersed, slowly walked to the edge of the pit and sat down.

She looked at the hole.

A thirty-five-centimeter black void, extending downwards, with nothing visible.

Her eyes grew hot.

She blinked twice, not letting anything fall out.

That story.

The story she told the little boy.

The little girl from twenty years ago had indeed been saved by someone coming down.

The uncle had indeed said, "I'll speak to your parents for you; they won't hit you."

The little girl believed him.

And climbed up.

Then the uncle accepted a pack of Furongwang cigarettes handed over by her dad, patted the dust off his pants, and rode away on his tricycle.

Her mom stood at the wellhead, still wearing the apologetic smile from begging for help earlier; the moment she saw her daughter come out safely, before the smile could even fade, her palm swung over.

"Told you to run! Told you to play! Looked for you all day! Do you know you wasted a whole day's work!"

That night she stood in the main room as punishment until midnight, her back covered in bamboo whip marks, which swelled up after soaking in water so that she couldn't even sit down the next day.

The year she graduated from elementary school, her report card was mailed home, and her dad didn't even look at it.

"What's the use of a girl reading so many books? Don't go next semester; your mom's health isn't good, and someone has to do the farm work."

Twelve-year-old He Manzhou stood on the grain-drying field, clutching that report card showing she was third in the whole township, not crying.

She had already learned not to cry.

That summer, she ran to the river behind the village to dive, jumping from a three-meter-high rock, flipping in the water by herself for an entire afternoon.

A coach from the provincial team drove past that river; the car drove three hundred meters, then backed up.

"Who taught this child?"

Learning that no one taught the child, and she was just jumping on her own, the coach squatted by the river for ten minutes, took the little girl to find her father, and dug out a business card from the car.

"If she is willing to come to the provincial capital for a trial, tuition and room and board will be free."

Her dad took the business card, flipping it back and forth for a long time.

"Can it make money?"

"If she achieves results, there are bonuses."

Her dad put the business card in his pocket.

As for what happened later: ten years of professional training, one hundred jumps every day, knee fluid drained three times, eight stitches for a torn rotator cuff, from the provincial team to the national team, from the national team to the Olympic stage.

A silver medal.

The night she didn't win the gold medal, she squatted in the bathroom of the athlete's apartment for forty minutes.

Not because of the silver medal.

It was because she remembered that well, the well that changed her entire destiny.

If it weren't for that experience of falling into the well, which deepened her parents' hatred for her daughterhood and their desire to make her drop out of school, there wouldn't have been the experience of being discovered by the coach later. She would probably be bending her back cutting wheat in the fields back home right now.

He Manzhou sat at the edge of the pit, her legs hanging outside the hole, her headlamp still on, the beam hitting the soil at her toes.

She told that little boy that the uncle blocked everyone for that little girl. She lied.

But some lies, when spoken, are better to hear than the truth.

Not everyone needs such a tragic experience; a ray of light might also change a person.

"Sister Manzhou."

Qin Xiaoshan's voice came from behind, holding a bottle of mineral water in his hand. He Manzhou looked up, took the water, unscrewed the cap, and took a big gulp.

"Thanks, Xiaoshan."

"You're welcome." Qin Xiaoshan squatted next to her, looking at the hole.

"When you went down just now, I felt like you were even braver than us Firefighters."

He Manzhou looked at him and suddenly smiled.

This time it was a real smile.

"Let's go, time to go back."

She stood up, patted the dust off her pants, and walked toward the fire truck.

After two steps, she looked back at the hole one last time.

Thirty-five centimeters.

About as wide as that well from twenty years ago.

She turned around and didn't look back again.