Chapter 1 The Woman in the Hospital

Zhang Lin watched Wu Peng take the elevator downstairs. He knew he wouldn't just leave like that, but there was nothing he could do to stop him. Recalling Wu Peng's serious instructions, Zhang Lin hesitated for a few seconds before calling his superior to report the situation.

After the colleague who was taking over his shift arrived, Zhang Lin returned to the police station. Old Man Li, the fisherman who found Zhao Di, had already arrived. He needed to go back and get a clear understanding of the situation.

Wu Peng did not leave after going downstairs. He waited for a while and then took the elevator back up.

This time, he planned to ask the doctor in charge of Zhao Di. He had already seen the doctor's appearance from the doorway of the ward.

When he arrived at the floor where Zhao Di was staying, he saw an introduction to all the doctors in the neurology department posted at the corner of the corridor. He immediately recognized Doctor Tan, who was treating Zhao Di, and then walked towards the doctor's office.

There were two doctors in the office, but Doctor Tan was not there.

Wu Peng asked the doctor next to him, "Hello, is Doctor Tan here?"

A female doctor said, "What do you need him for?"

"I'm a family member of the patient and want to ask about the situation."

A female doctor got up and went to Doctor Tan's seat, saying, "Doctor Tan is not here right now. Which patient's situation do you want to ask about? I'll help you check."

"Zhao Di's."

The female doctor looked a little wary: "Are you a family member of Zhao Di?"

Wu Peng blurted out, "I'm her cousin."

Hearing that he was a relative from Zhao Di's side of the family, rather than her husband's, the female doctor breathed a sigh of relief. Then she told him about the trouble Zhao Di's in-laws had caused in the hospital earlier.

"Tell your brother-in-law and his family later that this is the inpatient department, and yelling affects others."

"Okay, okay." Wu Peng nodded repeatedly.

The female doctor was about to check Zhao Di's medical records when she looked up and saw a male doctor walking in.

"Doctor Tan, this is a family member of Zhao Di who wants to know about her condition."

Doctor Tan looked at Wu Peng, his face not very pleasant. "What do you want to know?"

This doctor had just been cornered by Zhao Di's husband's family about medical expenses. He thought the man in front of him was also here to ask about money, so his attitude was a little cold.

Wu Peng smiled ingratiatingly. "Doctor Tan, I want to ask what the situation is with my cousin's body and when she will wake up."

The doctor glanced at him. "The patient is in a deep coma, similar to a vegetative state."

Wu Peng's expression froze. "Vegetative state? Can she still wake up?"

He didn't expect Zhao Di's condition to be so serious.

The doctor moved further away from Wu Peng as he spoke. "The current situation is not optimistic. It's hard to say whether she can wake up."

He had just finished explaining the situation to the patient's husband's family, and the other party had grabbed him and said they would not continue treatment. Therefore, Doctor Tan had to be wary of the man in front of him.

Wu Peng frowned. "Doctor, what are the chances of her waking up? If she wakes up, will she still remember what happened before?"

Doctor Tan frowned. "The patient had already been treated in a hospital in a neighboring city before being admitted here, and she has not woken up. There is an external injury to her head, and this injury has caused some blood clots to form in the cranium. The previous hospital records said that this patient was immersed in seawater for too long and suffered from severe hypothermia, which has exacerbated her intracranial injuries."

After speaking, Doctor Tan pointed to Zhao Di's brain scans and told Wu Peng, "Look here. If the position was even slightly off, she would have completely lost consciousness. From the current situation, there is a chance of waking up, but it's small. As for when she can wake up and whether she will remember what happened before, I can't answer you at all right now."

Wu Peng frowned deeply. The doctor asked him to communicate with the patient's family and have them pay the medical bills as soon as possible, otherwise, follow-up treatment would be impossible.

Seeing that Wu Peng didn't speak, the doctor added, "I heard that this patient is a victim. Although her chances of recovery are slim, there is still hope. If the suspect is found, they can be made to pay for medical expenses as soon as possible. Otherwise, the longer it drags on, the less hope there will be for treatment. The hospital in the neighboring city only maintained the patient's vital signs because no one paid the medical bills, and they couldn't continue treatment."

"Okay, thank you, Doctor Tan."

Wu Peng walked out of the doctor's office, feeling somewhat depressed. If Zhao Di couldn't wake up, could Jia Wenjun's conviction still be cleared?

At this moment, in the police station office, Zhang Lin looked at the somewhat nervous and helpless man in his forties or fifties. His wife was sitting next to him, both with dark skin and rough hands, sitting uncomfortably on the chairs, constantly rubbing their palms.

They had rescued the woman back then and sent her to the hospital, but because they didn't have the money to pay her medical bills, they left her behind. The couple didn't know if it would cause them any trouble.

Zhang Lin and Xiao Xia went in, and he poured a glass of water for each of them. "Li Fumin and Song Ailian, right? Don't be nervous. Just tell us what you saw and experienced at that time."

The couple looked at each other. Old Man Li moved his mouth and spoke, "We are fishermen living near Turtle Back Island. We found that woman that day because we wanted to take advantage of the time after the storm to go out to sea and catch some big fish."

Zhang Lin knew that the sea was unusually calm before and after a storm. At this time, low air pressure would cause small fish to float to the surface. Especially after a storm, many small fish would be disoriented by the big waves, which was the best time for big fish to hunt small fish and for fishermen to catch big fish.

Old Man Li continued, "But it was strange that day. We didn't see any white waves caused by big fish chasing small fish all the way. We knew the weather wasn't good when we went out to sea, and there would definitely be a second storm. We didn't expect the weather to change so quickly. Before our boat could come back, the storm had already arrived. I knew the situation was bad at the time, so I sailed back, but the darkness, side winds, and undercurrents caused our fishing boat to deviate from its course."

Old Man Li and his wife had been drifting at sea for many years and had seen many big storms, but they were still frightened when they thought of that one. At that time, the wind rolled up rain and seawater onto the boat, and the sky was like a huge black curtain. Water vapor on the sea surface condensed into a water curtain, making them, who made a living at sea, tremble with fear. They searched for directions in the dimness. After an unknown amount of time, just when they thought they could not escape disaster, a faint red dot suddenly appeared in the hazy mist.

The red light reminded Old Man Li of the buoy used for seawater detection at the hydrological station. The buoy was anchored, and there were thick iron chains under the buoy that could firmly hold the buoy that swayed with the waves. Even the biggest waves could not blow or move the buoy away.

When they saw the buoy, it was already very close to their boat. With the buoy as a reference, the old man finally understood the position of his boat.

"At that time, our boat was blown off course by the wind and waves and kept blowing towards the buoy. I turned off the engine to save fuel and went into the cabin to get the compass."

Hearing Old Man Li say this, Zhang Lin was a little puzzled. "You use a compass at sea?"

"That sea area often doesn't have a signal, and mobile phones and those electronic products don't work well. At critical moments, old things like compasses can still be useful. As soon as I went in, I heard my wife say that she saw something on the buoy, not knowing if it was a person or a ghost. I was scared at the time, so I picked up a harpoon and went to see."

Zhang Lin frowned. "Are you saying that Zhao Di was on the buoy at that time?"

"Yes, we didn't know it was a person at the time. We only vaguely saw a white thing hanging vertically on the buoy that swayed back and forth, floating and sinking on the sea surface. When we got closer, we could see it was a person. We thought it was a dead person at the time, and we thought it was unlucky, so we thought about sailing away quickly and telling the coast guard when we got back. We didn't expect that woman to move at that time. She saw our boat, and we couldn't leave her to die, so we had to find a way to get her on the boat."

Zhang Lin found it incredible. "Was she holding onto the buoy the whole time?"

Old Man Li's wife interjected, "She wasn't holding on. She was almost dead from her injuries. There was a strap on her body, and the iron chain fixing hook on the buoy hooked onto that strap, so she wasn't washed away by the waves."

"Did you bring the strap?" Zhang Lin asked.

The woman quickly opened her bag and took out a nylon strap that had been cut off. "We had to cut the strap on her body to save her."

Zhang Lin picked it up and looked at it carefully. He found that it was a strap for a sports camera. He deduced the situation at the time. Zhao Di was wearing this strap on her chest. After she was pushed into the sea, she may have struggled to survive and encountered the buoy. The strap on Zhao Di's chest that was once used to fix the sports camera happened to be hooked on the iron chain fixing hook on the buoy. It was because of this strap that Zhao Di survived for so long that night without sinking. She was lucky enough to encounter a fishing boat.