This chain of accidents happened in the blink of an eye, leaving no time for anyone to react.
By the time the passersby snapped out of their shock, the car was already upside down in the riverbed.
Although it was summer, there hadn’t been any rain recently, and the water level had dropped sharply. The river hadn’t completely dried up, but even standing in it, the water didn’t reach past a person’s calves.
With so little water, it was impossible for it to flood the car—let alone drown anyone.
But the car had plunged straight down and flipped over completely. Wang Anquan and Chen Wan hadn’t been wearing seat belts, so they were probably badly injured.
Qiao Zhenzhu supported her aching lower back and hurried forward as if panicking, tears streaming down her face, looking utterly frightened and helpless.
“Can someone please help?! My dad and Aunt Chen are still inside the car!”
“Please, somebody call the police!”
“Waaah… my dad isn’t going to die, is he?!”
Hearing the commotion, everyone turned toward Qiao Zhenzhu.
When they saw her enormous pregnant belly swaying as she walked, along with her deathly pale face and lips, they were all alarmed.
“Oh dear, don’t cry! You’re pregnant!”
“There’s barely any water in the riverbed. Your father won’t drown. Don’t worry so much—focus on the baby!”
“Do you have any other family? Get them to help!”
“I’ve got a bicycle and I’m fast—I’ll go notify the police!”
Qiao Zhenzhu wiped at her tears, but they just kept falling.
“I… I have a younger sister. She got married today and married into the Xie family. She’s at the Xie residence now.”
“The Xie family? Which Xie family?”
“Which one could it be? Obviously that Xie family!”
“That’s not far. I’ll ride over and inform them!”
An older woman walked over and helped Qiao Zhenzhu sit down somewhere nearby. Softening her voice, she comforted her gently.
“Don’t cry anymore! You look ready to give birth any day now. Crying like this isn’t good for the baby. The police and your sister will be here soon. They’ll definitely save your father.”
Qiao Zhenzhu’s eyes turned redder still. Hearing those words, she covered her face with both hands, her shoulders trembling.
The older woman felt even sorrier for her.
Just look how worried this poor girl was for her father!
Only Qiao Zhenzhu herself knew that she was already smiling so hard she could barely suppress the corners of her mouth.
If she didn’t cover her face, people might see it.
The police arrived quickly.
More than a dozen officers rushed over. Without even asking what had happened, they all climbed down into the riverbed and gathered around the overturned car.
After a tremendous amount of effort, they finally managed to pry open the doors.
Wang Anquan and Chen Wan were both covered in blood from head wounds and had already lost consciousness.
The officers struggled for quite a while before finally dragging the two of them out and carrying them up to the road.
The moment they laid them down, another car screeched to a stop nearby.
Before the vehicle had even fully stopped, the passenger door flew open and Wang Sinian stumbled out in her little Western-style dress.
“Dad! Mom! What happened to you?!”
Her makeup hadn’t even been removed yet. Her exquisite cosmetics, pretty dress, and shiny little leather shoes clicking against the pavement silently told everyone how pampered she had been.
The older woman standing beside Qiao Zhenzhu looked at Wang Sinian—who resembled a little princess—then looked back at the heavily pregnant Qiao Zhenzhu in her plain blue cotton clothes, utterly dumbfounded.
Were these really sisters?
They didn’t look alike at all.
“Girl… is that really your biological sister?” the older woman asked sincerely.
Qiao Zhenzhu had already raised her head to look toward Wang Sinian. Hearing the question, she nodded.
“Yes. She’s the daughter of my father and Aunt Chen. She’s six years younger than me.”
The older woman instantly understood.
So it was a biological father and a stepmother.
Sure enough, once there’s a stepmother, there’s also a stepfather.
What a pitiful girl…
At that moment, Wang Sinian looked over.
“Qiao Zhenzhu! What exactly happened? Why did something happen to my parents while you’re perfectly fine?!”
Qiao Zhenzhu stared at her in disbelief.
“Sinian… what do you mean by that? Are you saying you wish something had happened to me and my baby too?”
The crowd’s expressions immediately changed as they looked at Wang Sinian.
As expected of a stepmother’s daughter—her heart was vicious!
Feeling everyone’s strange stares, Wang Sinian’s face instantly flushed red.
“That’s not what I meant…”
She wanted to explain further, but a police officer interrupted her.
“Are these your parents? They need to be taken to the hospital immediately!”
As he spoke, the officer looked at Wang Sinian suspiciously.
Was this really their daughter?
Her parents were lying there covered in blood, and instead of rushing them to the hospital, she was standing around arguing with someone.
By the time she finished arguing, her parents might already be dead.
At that moment, Xie Chenggong got out of the car as well.
“Sinian, we should take Father-in-law and Mother-in-law to the hospital first.”
“Okay!” Wang Sinian looked at Xie Chenggong with teary gratitude in her eyes. “Chenggong, thank goodness I have you. Otherwise, I wouldn’t know what to do.”
Xie Chenggong smiled dotingly.
“We’re husband and wife. This is what I should do.”
With the police helping, Wang Anquan and Chen Wan were placed in the back seat of Xie Chenggong’s car.
Wang Sinian and Xie Chenggong then got into the driver’s and passenger’s seats respectively.
Xie Chenggong started the engine, turned the car around, and just as he was about to accelerate—
Bang! Bang!
The tires exploded.
The car immediately lost control and slammed toward the guardrail at the roadside.
The guardrail was made of wood and couldn’t withstand the violent impact from the car at all.
The car smashed through it and plunged straight into the riverbed.
As it fell, it rolled twice in a full three-hundred-sixty-degree spin before the front of the car stabbed directly into the mud, leaving the rear sticking high up into the air.
Police: “……”
Crowd: “……”
What the hell was going on?
Was the car cursed?
Why did it drive into the river again for no reason?!
The police were going numb. The mud on their shoes hadn’t even dried yet!
But no matter what they thought, they could only resign themselves and climb back down into the riverbed.
After tremendous effort, the group finally managed to force the raised rear of the car back down. Exhausting all their strength, they pried open all four doors and dragged the people out one by one.
The first person carried up was Wang Sinian.
Her pretty little dress was stained with blood and mud, no longer the spotless white it had been before.
On her once delicately made-up face was now a horrifying wound so deep that bone could be seen, blood still pouring out of it.
The gash stretched across her right cheek, from the corner of her eye all the way to the corner of her mouth.
Such a deep wound, contaminated with mud… no one knew how many stitches it would take. Even after healing, it would definitely leave a scar.
The crowd sighed endlessly.
Just moments ago, she had been as proud as a peacock, chin lifted high in the air.
From now on… she probably wouldn’t even dare show her face in public again.
How unpredictable fate was indeed.