Chapter 146: A Doctor Just Wants to See More Smiles

The suspect has another question for Evan.

Evan stared at the suspect, a little dazed.

Outside the door, the two officers exchanged a glance.

The suspect turned to Evan. “Tell me, if I don't say where those people are, will the police never find them? Can I just keep being happy like this?”

Evan's expression froze.

Outside, Marcus Cao's eyes narrowed, his gaze suddenly sharp.

“Doctor, are you a good person?” the suspect asked.

Evan thought about it. “I think so.”

“Then do you think good people are rewarded?”^[1]

For some reason, Evan suddenly remembered being fired for trying to save someone. He remembered those six dark months, the shame of hiding like a rat, afraid to face anyone.

His heart grew heavy.

But then he thought of everything that had happened since. He had saved so many more people, helped so many families hold on to their happiness, seen so many smiling faces.

A smile of gratitude and relief returned to his face. Yes, gratitude. He wasn't grateful to that family. He was grateful for the hardship.

The suspect was puzzled to see him smile like that. “Have you never seen a good person go unrewarded?”

“I have. It nearly ruined my whole life.”

“Then don't you hate him?”

Evan shook his head.

“Why not? I hate the trafficker who abducted me. He's the one who made me like this!”

“Actually, it isn't the trafficker you hate,” Evan said. “It's yourself—the person you were back then, who couldn't fight back.”

This time, she was the one who froze.

Evan looked at her. “You've done all these terrible things because you've put yourself in the role of the trafficker who abducted and sold you. You've been punishing yourself all along. It's your old self you hate most.”

She was stunned again and said nothing for a long time.

Outside, Marcus gave a small nod as he listened.

After a while, the suspect came out of her daze and shook her head. “I don't know. I don't really understand what you're saying.”

Evan lowered his head a little.

She was quiet for a while too. Then she turned to him. “Actually, I went back later. I found my home.”

Evan looked up at her.

A self-mocking smile appeared on her face. “I stood right in front of my mother. I kept looking at her. She saw me too. We looked at each other for a long time.

“I wanted so much for her to recognize me. If she'd just called out to me, I'd have left everything behind. I wouldn't have wanted anything else. I could have gone home. I could have gone back.

“But she didn't recognize me. She didn't. She looked at me like I was a stranger. Then a little girl ran over and called her Mom. She… she'd become someone else's mother.”

The suspect shook her head and smiled. She tried to raise a hand to wipe the corner of her eye, but found it was handcuffed. There was nothing she could do but lower it.

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Evan's breathing grew a little heavier.

“After that, I cared even less,” she continued. “I abducted more people, sold more people. Whenever I wanted to do something bad, I did it.

“But good people aren't rewarded, and bad people don't seem to be either. My man died of his illness. Then I got sick too. At first I kept coughing and coughing. Then I coughed every day. Later I couldn't even breathe. I couldn't get a sound out of my throat.

“That was when I knew it was retribution. I was going to die of illness too! Those people wanted to kill me. They didn't want me dragging them down. I ran… After that I got sicker and sicker. Then I didn't know what was happening anymore.

“I thought I was dead. That was when I saw the old Chinese medicine doctor who'd saved me all those years ago. He'd come again. Then I woke up and found I was here, and learned you'd saved me. A coincidence, isn't it? You're a Chinese medicine doctor too.”

Evan looked at her.

She was looking at him too. “You're a good person. Like that old doctor. You're both good people. I don't care what anyone else thinks. To me, you're the only two good people.

“He saved my life, and so did you. You two are the best people I've ever met. You're the only ones who've ever shown me any warmth. I don't know what his name was. I don't know whether he was rewarded. But he's the only person I ever hoped would be.

“I know I haven't got long to live. I know what those police want to know too. If I refuse to talk, they can't do anything about it. I'm dying. What have I got to be afraid of?

“But I want you to decide. He saved me, and so did you. I never used to believe good people were rewarded, so I never repaid anyone.

“Now I want to repay him, just once. And you too. You decide. If you tell me to talk to those police, I'll tell them everything. If you tell me not to, I won't.”

Evan was visibly taken aback.

Outside, Marcus looked surprised too. The suspect had been stubbornly uncooperative. Knowing she had only a few days left, she wouldn't be persuaded by talk of leniency for confessing.^[2]

She was still very weak and couldn't withstand intensive questioning. Marcus had thought it would be hard to get anything out of her. He hadn't expected her to leave the choice to Evan.

Was there a trap in what she was saying?

Marcus thought it over.

Evan hardly hesitated. “I think you should tell the police everything.”

“Why?”

Evan smiled. He thought of many people, and of everything he had been through lately.

“That old doctor didn't save you because he wanted you to repay him. The thought never entered his mind. He just wanted to see more smiling faces. He wanted to see a better world.”

The suspect went quiet and lowered her head. There was no telling what she was thinking.

After another little while, Evan opened the door and stepped out.

Marcus looked up at him in surprise.

“Go in,” Evan told him. “She's willing to talk.”

Delight and surprise immediately showed on Marcus's face.

That settled things at the Chinese medicine hospital. Evan wrote her another prescription, then left.

As he walked back, he had a great deal on his mind.

He had suffered so much injustice for trying to save people…

But through it all, his wholehearted commitment to his patients had never changed. Doctors see more sorrowful faces than most, but they are also the ones who most want to see smiles…

Evan slowly raised his head toward the blue sky, as though he could see one smiling face after another.

Reader Notes

Reader Notes

1. ↩︎ Good returns and retribution. As in the preceding conversation, “rewarded” refers to good coming back to someone who has done good. The related proverb pairs good returns for good deeds with bad returns for wrongdoing. Bao, the idea of a return or recompense, can thus be favorable or unfavorable; “retribution” conveys the punitive sense. This is everyday moral language here and does not establish the speakers' religious beliefs. Source: Taiwan Ministry of Education — “Good deeds bring good returns; bad deeds bring bad returns,” Revised Mandarin Chinese Dictionary (in Chinese).
2. ↩︎ Leniency for confessing. Tanbai congkuan means that confessing can be grounds for more lenient treatment. Article 67 of China's Criminal Law distinguishes voluntary surrender from truthful confession and provides that even a suspect who has not voluntarily surrendered may receive a lighter punishment for a truthful confession. This helps explain why a suspect who expects to die soon might find the appeal unpersuasive. The passage describes Marcus's difficulty obtaining information; it does not promise this suspect a particular sentence. Source: Supreme People's Procuratorate — Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, Article 67.