Chapter 32: Suffering That Should Never Have Been Endured

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The whole affair began when Zhu Fei drew the attention of passersby by crawling on her knees all the way along Hefang Street. Then, when “The First Deeply Devoted Su Chen” broke his promise online, people were so furious that they gnashed their teeth in anger.

On one side was a mother and daughter who had suffered through endless hardships, struggling desperately to survive. On the other was a vicious influencer with no moral limits, willing to do anything for attention and traffic.

These two events had originally been unrelated, but once they were connected, the immense public uproar they caused was bound to be anything but small.

Yet it was precisely because the matter attracted such enormous attention that Zhu Fei was able to raise enough money to pay for her daughter’s medical treatment.

The outcome was just as countless kindhearted netizens had hoped.

The impoverished single mother and her daughter successfully received the aid they needed, while the vicious influencer, shameless and devoid of even the most basic decency, was banned and became a rat everyone condemned and attacked.

But what if the truth was not like that at all? What if that young man had deliberately done everything?

What if he had intentionally provoked an explosion of public opinion, deliberately made that humiliating demand, and then broken his promise afterward—all so that the poor mother and daughter could receive more attention and assistance?

If that were true, then, just as Pingping had said earlier, without that young man, they would never have received help or managed to gather enough money for the medical expenses.

To accomplish this, the young man had been willing to shoulder all the blame alone and bear the entire burden himself.

He had been misunderstood, despised, and cursed. Even the account he relied upon to make a living had been banned online...

Thinking of all this, Gu Yeling could not help feeling sorry for the young man. Her breathing even grew heavier before she realized it.

After reviewing the entire incident and analyzing how it had begun, she felt that she had essentially confirmed the truth. The next step was to verify it.

Steadying her mind and calming herself a little, Gu Yeling walked toward Zhu Fei and Su Chen with an expressionless face.

When Zhu Fei suddenly saw Gu Yeling return, a trace of panic appeared on her face, and she instinctively looked toward Su Chen.

Su Chen was momentarily stunned, but he quickly realized who she was. He smiled and nodded in greeting.

“You must be Reporter Gu. Thanks to your kind help, Pingping was able to undergo surgery here so quickly.”

“You are too kind. It was nothing,” Gu Yeling replied.

Her eyes fixed directly on Su Chen, she asked in a solemn voice, “You are the First Deeply Devoted Su Chen, I presume?”

Seeing that she had directly named his online alias, Su Chen no longer tried to conceal it and simply admitted, “Yes, that’s me.”

“So you deliberately said those things online in order to raise donations for Pingping and her family?” Gu Yeling’s eyes widened as she asked, her face filled with shock.

Su Chen smiled indifferently. “If you mean the matter of making a promise online and then going back on it... then yes, that was deliberate.”

Although she had more or less determined the truth from her own deductions, hearing Su Chen admit it in person still filled her with tremendous shock.

Trying to restrain her excitement, Gu Yeling hurriedly asked the question that had been troubling her. “I’m sorry, but may I ask what exactly happened at the time?”

Su Chen was not annoyed. He merely smiled and declined. “Let’s talk about it after Pingping’s surgery is safely over. Not now.”

At present, he was worried about Pingping’s operation and had no mind to discuss anything else.

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Only after he was certain that Pingping’s surgery had truly succeeded and everything had been settled would he know that all he had done and sacrificed had not been in vain.

“I’m sorry. I was too eager,” Gu Yeling said apologetically, glancing at Su Chen before nodding. “All right. We’ll wait here together for Pingping to come out.”

Waiting was always especially agonizing, and waiting outside an operating room was harder still.

Pingping entered the operating room in the morning. It was not until after six in the evening—more than seven hours later—that the doors finally opened before them, and a doctor in his sixties stepped out.

Su Chen and the two women immediately surrounded him and anxiously asked about the operation.

The doctor smiled reassuringly. “Don’t worry. The little girl’s surgery was a complete success. The anesthesia hasn’t worn off yet, so she hasn’t regained consciousness. She should wake up in another half hour or so.

“You’ll be able to see her when she comes out, but tonight she’ll need to spend another night in the intensive care unit for observation.

“If no cerebral hemorrhage, inflammation, or other complications appear within twenty-four hours, she can be transferred to a regular ward.”

The moment they heard that the operation had been successful, the tension in all three of them finally eased. Zhu Fei had been holding herself taut for so long that, when she suddenly relaxed, she nearly collapsed.

“All right. It’s over now. Everything will get better...” Su Chen quickly caught her and comforted her softly.

“A-Chen... thank you. Thank you so much!” Zhu Fei clutched Su Chen’s hand tightly, unable to hold back her emotions as she sobbed.

No one could know how much pressure and suffering she had endured over the years.

For the sake of her daughter, she had been forced to put away all her weakness and muster every ounce of strength to keep going. She could not retreat, and she never would.

Only when she heard the doctor say that the surgery had succeeded did the emotions she had suppressed for years finally burst free.

Once everything had been arranged, Zhu Fei ate a little and then quietly kept watch over her daughter in the regular ward, hoping that the twenty-four-hour danger period would pass as quickly as possible.

Su Chen and Gu Yeling, meanwhile, had not eaten all day and were beginning to feel hungry. They decided to go outside and find something to fill their stomachs. They had been so anxious about Pingping’s operation that they had not even felt like eating dinner.

They found a noodle shop nearby. The instant Su Chen saw the menu, he froze.

Even the most ordinary fried bean-paste noodles cost thirty-five yuan here? What a shameless profiteer!

He had known for a long time that prices in Yanjing were high, and this restaurant was near a hospital besides. But did an ordinary bowl of fried bean-paste noodles really have to cost that much?

While he was still staring blankly, a young waitress saw the new customers and came over with a smile.

“Handsome, what would you like?”

Su Chen raised his head and glanced at her indifferently. Without the slightest hesitation, he replied, “To leave.”

The waitress fell silent.

[Anger received from Wang Xijin, +666]

Seeing the young woman standing there awkwardly at a loss, Gu Yeling could not help laughing as she smoothed things over.

“Don’t mind him. He’s joking. We’ll have two traditional bowls of fried bean-paste noodles, two meat pies, and a bowl of lamb offal soup. Thank you.”

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After ordering, Gu Yeling turned to Su Chen with a smile.

“My treat. Don’t be shy.”

“It’s not really about who’s paying,” Su Chen said helplessly. “The main issue is that the prices are absurdly high.”

Gu Yeling smiled and explained, “There’s nothing we can do. Rent in this area is extremely expensive, so the prices have to be like this.”

“A-Chen... can you tell me what the situation was like at the time?”

After chatting for a while, Gu Yeling finally felt the moment was right and brought up the donation incident again.

“Actually, there isn’t much to say. It was more or less what you imagined,” Su Chen said calmly. “I wanted more people to learn about the situation so we could raise the medical expenses, so I put on a little performance for everyone.”

He spoke so casually, without mentioning the abuse he had endured, that Gu Yeling could not help feeling a little sorry for him.

How could he make it sound so easy? He had used himself as bait, deceiving countless netizens and manipulating them as though they were toys in the palm of his hand.

To have considered every possible detail and planned everything so far ahead—and to have done all of that at barely twenty years of age—was enough to leave anyone stunned.

“So from beginning to end, everything happened according to your plan?” Gu Yeling asked, still shaken.

“Mm. I had no other choice. If there had been another way, I wouldn’t have used myself as bait to set the whole thing up.” Su Chen sighed helplessly.

“When I first saw the story on TikTok, I was so furious that I nearly wanted to slap you a few times myself!” Gu Yeling said with a light laugh. “You were infuriating.”

Su Chen smiled indifferently. “I’m used to it. Before this, some streamers were even shouting that they were going to come find me in person and teach me a lesson.”

Gu Yeling looked at him with complicated emotions and asked softly, “Was it really worth it?”

All that, merely for a stranger—he had nearly ruined himself.

Su Chen’s expression turned solemn. “What do you think? Between a person’s life and a job that pays only a few thousand yuan a month, which is more important? I think anyone would know how to choose.”

Gu Yeling smiled and shook her head in disagreement. “That’s easy to say, but when the moment truly comes, not everyone would actually do it. That’s why I truly admire you.”

Life was precious, but it was not her own. A few thousand yuan might not be much, but it would still end up in her own hands. Regardless of anyone else, Gu Yeling knew very clearly that she could never do what he had done.

“You flatter me,” Su Chen said with a gentle smile. “If you keep praising me, I’ll become conceited.”

Gu Yeling smiled without replying. Then she asked softly, “May I report the truth of this matter?”

In her eyes, a good person should not be buried beneath misunderstanding. Someone as kind and selfless as Su Chen should not continue to be cursed by everyone. Otherwise, who would still be willing to do good deeds or lend a hand to people in such desperate circumstances?

Su Chen pondered silently for a moment before finally agreeing.

Obviously. Otherwise, why would I have told you so much? It’s not as though I have nothing better to do!