It was just an ordinary day, and the young and promising Peng Yu hurried to work as usual. Who would have thought that fate always likes to set a trap of impermanence around the corner.
Just as Peng Yu turned a street corner, an old man with a staggering step suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground.
Faced with this critical juncture, Peng Yu had an impulse to help in his heart. Without hesitation, he stepped forward and carried the old man on his back and sent him to the nearest hospital for first aid.
It would have been a trivial matter, as if everyone would do it. But no one expected that this small kind act would open the curtain of a difficult journey for Peng Yu's ordinary life.
In the hospital, Peng Yu learned that the old man's name was Xu Shoulan. Although the helpless old man Xu had mistaken Peng Yu for the person who knocked her down at first, in an emergency, Peng Yu could only properly settle her first and wait for her family to take over.
But it was this act of kindness that brought a protracted entanglement of unjust cases to Peng Yu in the future.
Pick up people's money and go to jail
Originally, it was just an ordinary small act of enthusiasm for public welfare. In Nanjing in 2006, after an autumn rain, the sky was still shrouded in a layer of gray fog.
Peng Yu caught a glimpse of an elderly man, Xu Shoulan, falling on the side of the road, and without saying a word, stepped forward to help her up, and carried her to the nearest hospital to the place of the incident.
In a brief conversation, the elderly Xu Shoulan mistakenly thought that Peng Yu was the one who knocked him down. But the situation is urgent, and Peng Yu can only settle her down first and wait for her family to take over.
Who would have thought that it was this small act of kindness that would become the beginning of a major incident that fell from the sky.
About two months later, a court summons slammed into Peng Yu, shattering his youthful dreams. It turned out that after a thorough examination, Xu Shoulan was diagnosed with both legs fractured and needed to pay up to 100,000 yuan in medical expenses.
Peng Yu was helpless, thinking back to the scene at that time, except for the old man, where could he accidentally bump into other passers-by? But everything was already useless, and no matter how he explained it, it was useless.
The resolute attitude of the Xu family made Peng Yu feel helpless and desperate.
It's a surprising word
As soon as the news of this unbelievable unjust case spread, it caused an unprecedented uproar in the city of Nanjing. Judge Wang Hao, as the presiding judge, originally just presided over the case step by step, but he said a sentence during the trial, which shocked the lungs of everyone present.
"If you hadn't hit it, why would you give in without hesitation?" I saw Judge Wang wrinkling his old face full of years and ravines, and his tone faintly revealed a certain taste of ridicule and suspicion.
As soon as this humble remark came out, the entire courtroom was instantly silent, as if someone had pressed the pause button.
It didn't take long for this sentence to spread in the online world, and the majority of netizens were furious after hearing it.
"With such an unsightly face as yours, you are also worthy of being a teacher?" It's even more deserving of death than a criminal!" The power of public opinion was surging, and all kinds of insults and curses against Judge Wang came one after another.
These words were too heartless, but they were also the choices Peng Yu was forced to make in despair. The crusade on social media made Judge Wang infamous for a while.
And this strange argument of "why do you want to help" also made the Nanjing people's praise for righteousness and courage begin to waver and become cold.
Smile generously
Such a complex case made the attack and defense of the trial more and more intense. After several repeated cross-examinations and verbal battles, the judge finally made a ruling that weighed the interests of all parties: Peng Yu should bear 40% of the responsibility and compensate Xu Shoulan's family for about 45,000 yuan in medical expenses.
After learning the result, the glimmer of hope that had been on Peng Yu's face dimmed like a lamp. Although he received a not guilty verdict, he had to bear the heavy financial compensation for a young man, which was simply worse.
Peng Yu let out a long sigh, tears rolling in his eyes. When he answered, his voice was low and dark: "I hope this will be the last time I will suffer this misfortune in my life, or I will avoid others."
This protracted case has only now settled, but its impact is far from over. Once upon a time, people yearned for righteousness and courage, which was regarded as a manifestation of noble character.
But since Judge Wang Hao's strange remark came out, everyone began to be afraid and hesitant about it, for fear that they would also become "the next Peng Yu".
Since then, even if the elderly fall on the street, passers-by have a wait-and-see attitude, for fear that once they help, they will become the "scapegoat" of breaking the law. For a period of time, the "porcelain touching" incidents in various places followed, making people regain confidence in whether they should lend a helping hand.
Old wounds have not healed
Time flies. In the blink of an eye, 17 years have passed since the sensational "Peng Yu collision case".
First of all, as the "protagonist" of the events of that year, Peng Yu, since that experience, he has stayed away from his original job. Perhaps he didn't want to bear the criticism and criticism of the world, or maybe he wanted to start a new chapter in his life elsewhere, in short, he finally resolutely quit his job and devoted himself to a new field.
Whether Peng Yu often recalls the experience of being hit hard in his life? Does he regret his choice? Or has he sealed the wounds of the past in his heart and continues to stride forward? We have no way of knowing.
But what is certain is that he was such a young and promising young man who was eager to help others, but unfortunately suffered the merciless tricks of fate.
Compared with Peng Yu, Xu Shoulan's family's situation seems to be more difficult. Even though they finally received a sum of compensation that is objectively not expensive, they were criticized and blamed by the world in this incident, and even the neighbors looked at them sideways and sighed.
In order to stay away from this vitriolic environment, the Xu family had to carry their bags, leave the familiar community, and settle down elsewhere.
As for the presiding judge Wang Hao at the time, his fate was far from smooth. Although the verdict made at that trial was based on maximum fairness and justice, his resounding "strange theory" in court still brought a lot of obstacles to his career.
In the end, Wang Hao had to leave his post from the judge's bench and be transferred to other positions in the judiciary.
Even though time has passed, Wang Hao's sentence "If it wasn't for you, why do you want to help without hesitation?" , but provoked a surging backlash of public opinion in society, making it infamous overnight.
To this day, this strange saying of "causing trouble" is still circulated as a proverb by people, and it is often used to criticize the warmth and coldness of the world's people's hearts.