Chapter 58: Handling the Accident???? Bao Yufeng was discussing with her mother in the hospital how to handle this traffic accident when the door of the ward quietly opened. Wang Hong and the political commissar of the detective team, accompanied by colleagues from the Pan Shi County Traffic Police, walked in.

  In the troops, during peacetime training exercises, it is common for people to get injured, and in severe cases, deaths can occur. However, when dealing with such issues internally, they usually try to identify problems and avoid similar incidents from happening again. But as an active-duty soldier, one inherently takes on a high-risk profession. No one dares guarantee that unexpected situations won't arise during training. For example, the simulated hand grenades used in attack-defense exercises are essentially large firecrackers. Their power far exceeds that of ordinary firecrackers we play with, and if you're unlucky, it might explode right next to your ear, causing normal hearing damage. If you're extremely unlucky, it could even put your life at risk. But just because something has a certain level of danger doesn't mean you can't use it, right? Therefore, some injuries or casualties in the troops are considered normal situations.

  Generally speaking, the military has a very tough attitude towards ordinary things. However, it's not without its weaknesses. The military is particularly afraid of casualties when dealing with local authorities, after all, they are under two different judicial systems, and many situations don't apply, but still, they bear the name of the People's Liberation Army. Therefore, handling local affairs can be quite inconvenient. Especially for a high-ranking officer like Wang Hong, traffic accidents are a serious issue. The military has always been very strict in managing these troublesome problems. When dealing with them, it tends to be heavy-handed, especially when involving injuries to local personnel. To avoid entanglements, the usual approach is to mete out punishment, ranging from disciplinary action to expulsion and imprisonment.

  After the accident, Wang Hong also became worried. He wasn't very concerned about how much medical expenses to pay, but he was afraid that the elderly person's family would make excessive demands and cause trouble for him later on.

  Back at the station, Liu Feng was furious when he heard about it. He pointed directly at Wang Hong's nose and said: "I'm telling you, Captain Wang. How can you be so stupid? Don't you know that after hitting someone, you're supposed to keep the scene intact? Now look what's happened, your car is gone and the scene is gone too. Later on, no matter what you say, others will just say whatever they want. What if things get out of hand, even if you're in the right, you won't be able to explain it clearly."

  Wang Hong thought about it after arriving at the camp and felt a bit too careless. However, he justified himself in his mind: "I didn't think much of it either way. Whether I was wrong or not, she's an old lady with broken legs. After all, my car hit her, so helping her pay for medical expenses is the least I can do."

  "My Captain Wang, if things were as simple as you think they are, that would be great. You're not unaware of this. Don't mention that there's no scene now, you can't explain it clearly. Even if there was a scene, those people would entangle you and you wouldn't be able to take it. Haven't you heard? A young man saw an old lady get hit by someone on the road, kindly sent her to the hospital, but unexpectedly the old lady bit back, saying it was the young man who hit her. The young man couldn't explain himself clearly, spent over a thousand yuan to resolve the matter. You're good, you can clearly divide responsibilities, but you gave up. Later someone will extort you, and it'll be nutrition fees, lost wages, and who knows, maybe even high blood pressure and diabetes expenses will all come out of your pocket. What will you do? Can you afford it?" Liu Feng's face turned anxious.

  "What should I do with you?" Wang Hong was at a loss. After all, it was his first time encountering such a thing.

  "What else can we do, let's find the traffic police!" Liu Feng sighed: "This Pan Shi County Traffic Police Team has a retired officer from our unit, I'll contact him, hoping it will be of some use." At this time, they could only treat a dead horse as if it were alive.

  The most solid friendship is the comradeship. When Wei Pingjing, a traffic police officer in Pan Shi County, heard that it was related to his former battalion commander, he agreed to help without hesitation, although he knew it would be difficult. According to Wang Hongdi's description, Wei Pingjing worked hard and produced a document using some ambiguous terms, with the final conclusion being: both parties bear 50% of the responsibility for the accident, and regarding the medical expenses of the elderly family, they will be shared according to their respective responsibilities.

  After reading the judgment of liability for half a day, Wang Hong basically didn't understand it except for the last part about liability determination and medical expenses. Under his confusion, he asked Wei Pingjing: "Little Wei, I've been reading this thing for half a day and still don't get it, do you think the injured party and their family can agree to this?"

  Wei Pingjing said with a smile, "Commander Wang, don't worry, we have experience in handling these things. If everything is written clearly, we will be left with no room for maneuver. We need to make them not understand, first calm them down, and then we can talk later. If everything is made clear at once, I won't be able to help you speak."

  Wang Hong thought for a moment, Wei Pingjing was right. As long as they were careful, at most they would sign the mediation agreement and pay the medical expenses themselves. If they were cheated, it would be troublesome.

  "Little Wei, I think that old man's daughter seems to have some background, don't mess things up and affect you." Wang Hong was a bit worried that he would implicate Wei Pingjing.

  "It's nothing, I'll take care of whoever it is, no big deal. At most, I'll just help her pay the medical expenses and that's it. Don't worry, I have experience." Weiping Jing patted his chest and guaranteed it. In his opinion, if there were people with connections, they would have already made a scene at the traffic police station by now. Since the traffic police station was still so calm, it meant that the problem wasn't serious, or maybe this family simply didn't know how to pursue the matter.

  Then, Wang Hong, Liu Feng and Wei Pingjing brought the hospital together. On the way, Wei Pingjing repeatedly instructed that under the current situation, the most optimistic thing is that Wang Hong only needs to bear the medical expenses for the old man's leg injury treatment and give some compensation. Other issues depend on the attitude of the injured person and their family members. Fortunately, ordinary people are a little afraid of the police, so if they can be fooled by speaking in an official tone and signing off the case, that's it. If not, there is only one way to go - drag it out! Drag it out until they can't take it anymore. At that time, paying a bit more money will settle the matter.

  Wei Ping Jing had grown accustomed to handling such matters and had gained a lot of experience. He instructed, "Once we arrive at the hospital, neither of you should speak up. Let me handle everything."

  Wang Hong and Liu Feng could only nod in agreement.

  It turned out that way. Three people came to the hospital. As soon as they entered, they heard the old man talking about Wang Hong's affairs and also heard the old man say that he would return the money to Wang Hong, and everyone immediately felt at ease.

  "Auntie, I and Commissar Liu Feng from our unit have come to visit you." Since he heard the other person's attitude, Wang Hong felt that he should still be more magnanimous. So he opened his mouth and said.

  Although her mother had spoken up, Bao Yufeng couldn't help but feel a pang in her heart as she looked at her mother's pained expression. Although the money didn't matter to her, it was still her own mother who was suffering. So whenever Bao Yufeng thought of Wang Hong, she felt angry.

  After all, Bao Yufeng has been in the county committee for a while and now has some experience. When the county committee goes to the countryside to inspect, they often see the towns below making preparations to deal with the inspection. They would bring some police ahead of time to arrange everything. Those police didn't have any better methods, they just intimidated the common people, telling them what to say and what not to say. If someone had an opinion, they would casually assign a crime name, take the person back to the police station, and under the guise of "assisting in the investigation" or "requiring voluntary provision of clues", make them stay at the police station for a day. When the inspectors left, everything would return to normal. No one could do anything about it. Bao Yufeng and others knew about the small actions taken below, but this was just the way things were. However, this made Bao Yufeng have no good impression of the police, especially those who showed obvious bias in certain situations.

  If Wang Hong had come alone, or if they were all soldiers, to comfort his mother, Bao Yufeng might have let it go and not bothered with Wang Hong. But when she saw that a police officer had also arrived, she knew that Wang Hong and the others wanted to use the police presence to get rid of this trouble as soon as possible. This made Bao Yufeng feel uneasy.

  "Is it Comrade Bao Yufeng? I am from the Pan Shi County Traffic Police, based on the report of the People's Liberation Army comrade and our on-site investigation results, the county traffic police have made a determination of responsibility for this morning's accident and issued a ruling. I came to inform you specifically." Wei Pingjing felt that he should take some action now, so he put on an official and serious expression.

  Bao Yufeng was annoyed as soon as he heard this. What's the reason? How could the traffic police have made a determination of responsibility and issued a ruling without even knowing themselves? From the tone of the traffic police, others were just coming to notify him, in other words, the matter had already been settled.

  "Officer, may I see some of the verdicts?" Bao Yufeng was clear-headed after all, it was an accident involving multiple parties, and it was possible for the PLA to file a separate report. But she was also clear that by then, there was no longer a scene to investigate, so how did the traffic police conduct their investigation? Moreover, wasn't it a bit sudden to issue verdicts without even questioning the parties involved?

  "Of course, this ruling is for you, and if you have any opinions about it, you can still raise them." Wei Pingjing said this with some lack of confidence, after all, this ruling was not formal yet and had not been agreed upon by the team, but if the parties involved agreed to it, then that would be the end of it.

  Bao Yufeng looked at the mediation letter, and many vague words on it made her unable to understand. The only thing she could understand was the last paragraph. The mediation letter showed that for this accident, her mother also had to bear 50% of the responsibility, and for medical expenses, the old man also had to bear 50%. What's more infuriating was that at the time, Wang Hong's car damaged a headlight, which was also included in the losses. The mediation letter clearly stated that because Wang Hong did not want to pursue it, the cost of this headlight was not calculated. Bao Yufeng felt indignant, how could her mother's leg be compared to a car light bulb?

  "Officer, I'd like to ask you, have you really gone to the scene and taken a look? Or are you just listening to what those two soldiers say?" When someone's temper flares up, their words become less restrained.

  "Hey, I'm telling you, comrade, don't talk nonsense. How can you distort the image of our police like this? Can we just randomly say things that aren't confirmed? Let me tell you, the accident determination book is a legal document, and determining responsibility is the duty of our traffic police team. You sign this document, and when the time comes, bring the invoice to our traffic police team, and we will naturally give you the part of the money that should be yours according to the determined responsibility. Don't bother with anything else."

  Wei Pingjing had been a policeman for some time now. Every day he was dealing with accidents at intersections, and on top of that, he spent all day mixed in with a group of criminal police, so his tone and temper had also increased, not to mention that normally people were asking him for favors, so he naturally became a bit overbearing.

  Bao Yufeng was a strong-willed person, otherwise she wouldn't have had the perseverance to graduate from university in just three years as a junior high school student. In Bao Yufeng's opinion, it didn't matter if she suffered a little loss, but she had to be clear about it, and couldn't afford to suffer an unclear or unjust loss.

  "Officer, please speak more politely. What do you mean by 'shut up'? Am I not entitled to know what happened as a family member of the person involved? Besides, I didn't see the situation at the time, my mother is still in hospital now, and I'm just asking a few questions, what's wrong with that? Moreover, I don't understand the traffic police's verdict, and no one from your department came to investigate the situation. And yet, you've issued a verdict. Of course, I think it's unreasonable. Is there something wrong with what I said? I don't care how things are handled, but I must get to the bottom of this. Besides, I'm not concerned about how much compensation we'll get, but the issue must be clarified." Baoyu Feng spoke out a torrent of reasoning like a machine gun.

  And don't even mention Wei Pingjing being stunned, Wang Hong and Liu Feng were also shocked into silence. No one expected to run into such a master. He's completely an idiot.

  "I'm telling you. Don't be so arrogant, we're on official business now. If you continue like this, I'll have you cuffed and taken back to the station!" Wei Pingjing was furious, he had never seen a woman as fierce as this before. Usually when dealing with traffic police, it's just mutual scolding, but he had never met anyone who dared to be so fierce towards a policeman.

  "Handcuff me? What law have I broken, you just handcuff whoever you want? Try handcuffing one person and see if it works! I don't believe this, is this a place where reason doesn't exist?" Bao Yufeng was really angry.

  On the other side, Wang Hong, Liu Feng and Bao Yufeng's mother were all stunned by these two people. No one had expected that in just a short while, the two of them not only quarreled but also reached the point of wanting to fight each other. Everyone knew that if they really started fighting, things would get complicated.

  Wang Hong and Liu Feng hastily pulled back Wei Pingjing, while Bao Yufeng's mother was also calling out to Bao Yufeng on the bed.

  Bao Yulin took a French airline flight to Hong Kong and then transferred directly to Beijing, where he boarded another plane bound for Guanglan. At this point, describing his mood as "homesick" would not be inaccurate at all. In order to get to Panshi County as soon as possible, Bao Yulin looked up some information on the plane and found out that the Guanglan City Tourism Company had a car rental service. He knew that if he took public transportation back home, he would have to spend one night in Guanglan City, which wouldn't be worth it compared to renting a car directly to Panshi County. This way, he could see his mother and sister earlier.

  Out of the airport, Bao Yulin found the Guanglan City Tourism Company. Who knew that he hadn't even entered the door when he was stopped by the security guard.

  "Hey, I'm talking to you. Don't just hang around here if you don't have business. This place is off-limits, so hurry up and leave." The middle-aged doorman said with a lot of attitude. It's not hard to understand why - in the early days of reform and opening-up, the tourism department was a great place to work, not only were salaries and bonuses high, but if you had a bit of nerve, you could even earn some foreign exchange coupons."

  "Oh, I have something on, and I'd like to rent a car from you." said Bao Yulin.

  "Rent a car? Just you?" The middle-aged doorman looked up and down at Bao Yulin, thinking he was joking.

  No wonder, Bao Yulin learned in the letter that his sister Bao Yufeng had been transferred to work at the Township Enterprise Bureau of Panshi County. He knew that government officials pay special attention to their image, and in order not to cause trouble for his sister, before returning home, he deliberately went to the market to buy a pair of unremarkable blue pants and a white shirt. Unexpectedly, this outfit made the middle-aged doorman mistake him for a country bumpkin.

  "Yes, I heard that your company has car rentals. I'd like to rent a car here to go to Panshi County, but I don't know how to proceed?" asked Bao Yulin cautiously. After all, it had been several years since he left China, and he wasn't quite clear about the current situation in the country.

  "We have cars, but they're very expensive and not everyone can rent them. You need foreign exchange coupons. Do you have foreign exchange coupons?" The middle-aged doorman looked at Bao Yulian and asked after seeing that he wasn't joking.

  "Foreign exchange coupon? I don't have a foreign exchange coupon, but I can pay with francs or US dollars. Will that do?" Having transferred flights at several airports, Bao Yulin had never even left the airport, and when passing through customs, he didn't bother to listen to what the customs officer was saying, so he hadn't exchanged any currency. Fortunately, he wasn't carrying much cash, so no one paid attention to him.

  "You only have US dollars and French francs?" The middle-aged doorman was excited when he heard this, if the foreign exchange coupons still had a chance to get, the real foreign exchange was not so easy to get, the national price was far from the market price. How many people want it, but there is no place to get it.

  "Hey young man, where are you from? I think your accent sounds a bit like ours." The middle-aged doorman tried to make small talk. "I just got back from France and was in a hurry to get home, I don't know what foreign exchange certificates are." Bao Yulin really hadn't had the chance to come into contact with foreign exchange certificates before, so how would he know about such things?

  "This won't do, or rather, I have some foreign exchange vouchers here, I can exchange them for you at the card price, and then you can use them to rent a car later." The middle-aged man had a kind face.

  "That's great." Bao Yulin actually understood that if there was no benefit, this person would not help him, but at this time he didn't care either. The most important thing was that he had to find a car that could take him back to Panshi County as soon as possible.

  "Go on, go on, you wait." The middle-aged doorman turned back to the guard room and somehow pulled out several hundred foreign exchange bills, calling out to Bao Yulin.

  "Come on, come on, I still have some foreign exchange coupons here, I'll give them all to you."

  A middle-aged doorman led the way, and Bao Yulin successfully rented a Crown car. Originally he wanted to see if there were any Peugeot or other cars available, after all, he was used to it. But after searching for half a day, he didn't find any, and when he asked, he found out that in China, renting a car comes with a driver, so the type of car didn't matter anymore.

  When they arrived at the county town enterprise bureau, it was almost closing time. Seeing that Bao Yulian had come by taxi, the staff of the township enterprise bureau were relatively polite and told Bao Yulian that Bao YuFeng and her mother were now in the hospital, and gave Bao Yulian the hospital bed number.

  Bao Yulin didn't know what was going on, but as soon as he heard that his mother had been hospitalized, he became anxious and urged the driver to hurry up all the way.

  When Bao Yulin arrived at the hospital, he happened to see Wei Pingjing about to handcuff Bao Yu Feng.

  Bao Yulin didn't have time to think carefully, and directly rushed up, grabbing Weiping Jing's collar and pulling him back, while kicking his leg with one foot. In an instant, he was thrown to the ground.

  If Wei Pingjing had discovered Bao Yulian's entry and was on guard against his movements, Bao might not have succeeded so easily. After all, he was a man from the reconnaissance corps. But Bao came in from outside, without saying a word, and struck at once; no one was prepared for this. Wei Pingjing was caught off guard and fell heavily.

  Wang Hong and Liu Feng saw someone coming in from outside, and before they could figure out what was going on, they knocked down Wei Pingjing. At that moment, they were startled and made a defensive move due to conditioned reflexes.

  Bao Yulin noticed Wang Hong and Liu Feng as soon as he came in. Now that he saw the two of them move, he also became cautious and guarded.

  Bao Yufeng was thinking that if Wei Pingjing took her back, there would be no one to take care of her mother in the hospital, and she felt that at this time, she should give in. In fact, according to her mother's idea, she had never planned to ask for Wang Hong's money. Who knew that just as Wei Pingjing was about to refuse, he suddenly fell to the ground. She looked closely and saw that standing opposite her was her long-awaited brother. Suddenly, all the grievances, longing, and worries surged up in her heart. Bao Yufeng didn't move, but tears couldn't stop flowing down her face.

  "Yu Lin, you're back!" On the hospital bed, Yu Lin's mother trembled her lips and finally spoke out after a long time.