After warning his sister, Yu Zhiming saw the man open his car door for a moment, glance back at him and his sister, then slam the door shut with a BANG and stride away from the parking area.
The woman broke into a jog and followed behind him.
’They’re trying to get away!’
The thought had barely surfaced before it took firm hold of Yu Zhiming’s mind, growing stronger by the second.
He grew anxious. He wanted to run over and stop them, but a wave of fear rooted him to the spot, his legs refusing to obey.
Seeing the pair about to leave the parking area and head toward the service area entrance, Yu Zhiming panicked and shouted, pointing right at them.
"Stop them! They’re human traffickers!"
Yu Zhiming had put all his strength into the shout, his voice cracking from the effort.
It might not have been a clap of thunder, but his voice easily carried across at least half of the service area.
Yu Xiangwan felt her ears ring as the noisy service area fell silent in an instant.
She saw nearly ten people who had just gotten out of their cars or were walking through the lot all freeze and turn in unison to look at her and her brother.
Forgetting her phone call with the police, Yu Xiangwan quickly raised her hand and pointed at the couple as well.
"That’s them!"
"They’re human traffickers! Get them!"
Yu Xiangwan’s words were still hanging in the air when the couple she was pointing at broke into a run.
By running, they all but confirmed the siblings’ accusation, and five or six people immediately gave chase.
Soon, another seven or eight young people sprinted past the first group as fast as rabbits and joined the pursuit.
Only then did Yu Xiangwan notice a large tour bus parked nearby, from which three more people emerged to join the chase.
"Officer, they’re running onto the highway! A lot of people are chasing them, but you need to send someone, quick!"
After saying this into her phone, Yu Xiangwan looked around but couldn’t find her brother, who had been right beside her a moment ago.
She glanced down and saw Yu Zhiming squatting on the ground, clutching his head with a pained expression.
"Fifth Brother, Fifth Brother, what’s wrong?"
Yu Zhiming’s head and ears were ringing violently. He could only see his Fourth Sister kneeling in front of him, her face full of concern and her mouth opening and closing, but he couldn’t hear a word she was saying.
He struggled to calm his discomfort and steady his mind, controlling the airflow from his lungs, his tongue, and his mouth to say, "Sis, don’t worry."
"I just shouted too loudly and stunned myself. I’ll be fine in a minute."
The answer left Yu Xiangwan at a loss for whether to laugh or cry. She did her best to stifle her laughter as she stayed by her brother’s side.
A few moments later, several men in work uniforms approached and introduced themselves as service area staff.
Seeing that her brother hadn’t recovered yet, Yu Xiangwan pointed to the silver-gray minivan.
"There are people in the van! Get them out first!"
The men rushed over to the minivan. After circling it once and finding no way in, one of them decisively smashed a window and opened the door.
"Hey, there really are people in here!"
"It’s two kids! Two kids!"
"Hey, they’re both passed out."
"Not passed out. The traffickers must have drugged them."
"Dammit, if we catch those traffickers, I’ll be the first to break both their legs..."
Hearing this conversation drift over on the warm night breeze, Yu Xiangwan finally felt a weight lift off her chest.
They had caused such a huge scene; if it had all turned out to be a misunderstanding, she and her brother would have had a lot of explaining to do.
She noticed Yu Zhiming’s expression had relaxed considerably and asked softly, "Fifth Brother, are you feeling any better?"
Yu Zhiming nodded and stood up.
"Much better, Sis. Let’s go check on those kids..."
He identified himself as a doctor to the service area staff and began to perform a physical examination on the two children, who both had shaved heads.
They were two boys. The older one was about three or four years old, the younger one just over a year.
Fortunately, aside from a red rash covering their bodies and being unconscious, the two children showed no other adverse symptoms.
The service area staff carried the children inside the building, and Yu Zhiming went with his Fourth Sister toward the restrooms.
"Fifth Brother, how were you so sure they were human traffickers?"
Yu Zhiming chuckled, a little smugly. "I wasn’t sure they were human traffickers."
"I just sensed they were about to bolt. I figured that since human traffickers are like rats everyone wants to squash, I’d have a flash of inspiration, rally the masses, and get them caught."
He turned to look at the dark highway and muttered, "So many people went after them. I wonder if they’ll be able to catch that couple..."
The outcome did not disappoint the siblings.
When they came out of the restrooms, they saw seven or eight young men escorting the couple back to the parking lot.
In no time, the couple was surrounded by a crowd of thirty or forty people that had gathered.
Sounds of pleading and pained cries soon followed.
Unable to contain her curiosity, Yu Xiangwan excitedly squeezed into the crowd of onlookers to get a look...
A minute or two later, she came trotting back.
"Fifth Brother, those two have their hands tied and the crowd is beating them! Their faces are already black and blue."
She lowered her voice. "Hee hee, I went up and gave each of them a kick, too."
"Human traffickers are despicable!"
Yu Zhiming just chuckled and said, "Sis, let’s go get some gas. It’s time to leave."
Yu Xiangwan let out a reluctant "Oh," and said, "Fifth Brother, are we really just going to leave like this?"
"You get huge credit for saving those kids and catching the traffickers."
"You might even make the TV news."
Yu Zhiming shot his Fourth Sister a sidelong glance. "Sis, we still have a two- or three-hour drive ahead of us. We don’t have time to waste here."
"We’re doing a good deed and not seeking recognition!"
Yu Xiangwan pouted. With a hint of regret in her voice, she said, "Fine, fine. Do a good deed and don’t seek recognition. Let’s get going..."
As the siblings returned to their Baojun, they were surprised to hear cries of "Ouch! Ouch!" and saw a chubby man being supported by two others as he walked over.
Out of professional habit as a doctor, Yu Zhiming called out, "What’s wrong with him?"
One of the men supporting him called back, "He got a stitch in his side from chasing those traffickers just now. He ran a bit too hard, it’s nothing serious."
Yu Zhiming looked at the chubby man crying out in pain. His face was pale, and sweat was constantly beading on his forehead.
Moreover, his right hand was clutching his left chest so tightly that his fingers were digging deep into his flesh.
This didn’t look like a simple stitch; it was more like a heart attack, something like angina.
Yu Zhiming immediately strode forward. "I’m a doctor. Let me take a look at him..."
Yu Zhiming placed his right hand on the man’s sweat-soaked shirt, over his left chest, and focused his perception for a moment.
After a few moments, a faint smile appeared on his face.
"You must have felt some discomfort or pain in your chest even before you started chasing the traffickers, right?"
The chubby man nodded. "I did feel a little uncomfortable, but now it’s excruciating."
Yu Zhiming then asked, "Did you eat a lot tonight?"
The chubby man was taken aback for a second, then said, slightly embarrassed, "We had a team-building dinner tonight. I guess I ate a little more than I realized."
It was way more than ’a little’!
A normal human stomach, when empty, is only about the size of two fists.
But in Yu Zhiming’s perception, this man’s stomach had expanded to fill most of his abdominal cavity, swelling to seven or eight times its normal size.
Yu Zhiming explained, "Your earlier chest discomfort was because you ate too much."
"All that food was stuck in your stomach. When you added the intense exercise from just now, it triggered your body’s distress, including the severe pain in your stomach."
This left the young man dumbfounded.
He asked for confirmation, "Doctor, are you saying this severe pain is just because I ate too much?"
Yu Zhiming nodded.
The two men supporting him, as well as Yu Xiangwan, couldn’t help but try to suppress their laughter.
Yu Zhiming said with a serious expression, "I’ve detected that your stomach has been stretched to the point that it has lost all motility. It’s barely contracting at all."
"This is not a good sign."
"You need to try and vomit up the food in your stomach first. If you can’t, then you’ll have to go to the hospital."
He added a warning, "Don’t delay. The longer you wait, the more damage you’ll do to your stomach..."