To pray for our sick child, my wife fell into a snow cave while climbing a mountain. Her fate was unknown. Meanwhile, I stood by calmly, taking in the scenery. A few minutes later, Ryan, our guide for this trip, ran over in a panic. “Jack, your wife fell into a snow cave. You’re the only one with rescue experience. Come with me quickly to save her!” He looked at me with an extremely anxious expression. After all, I was the most experienced captain of the mountain rescue team. No matter how dangerous the situation, I could always rescue people successfully, never failing. But looking at the blizzard outside, I calmly said: “In this weather, the rescue fee would be $500,000.” “Jack, are you crazy? The one who needs rescuing is your own wife! And you’re asking for money?” Ryan looked at me in disbelief, his eyes nearly popping out of his head. “Even for family, we need to be clear about money. Since it’s my wife, it’ll cost more! $1 million!” I shrugged, smiling shamelessly. “Jack, Amber came to climb this mountain to pray for your child’s safety!” Lily, my wife’s best friend, said angrily. “A life is worth more than money. No matter how greedy you are, you can’t joke about your wife’s life!” “Amber and I are like sisters. I’m begging you, please save her!” After her anger subsided, realizing that only I could save Amber, she started to kneel down to plead with me. I looked at the gloomy sky outside. To them, I was just a poor guy. Risking my life for rescue shouldn’t require payment. “I’ll pay! Just go and save her!” A flicker of an unclear emotion flashed in Ryan’s eyes. He quickly glanced around at the other climbers and said firmly. At this point, I pointed to my twisted leg and said with a smile: “It’s too late to pay now. I can’t rescue her because my leg just broke.” Lily was stunned for a moment, her eyes immediately filled with doubt: “How could someone from a rescue team get injured so easily? Are you making this up because you don’t want to save Amber?” “That’s the person you swore to love for a lifetime in there! How can you be so cold now?” “Are you going to let her die slowly in that snow cave?” Lily cried hysterically as she spoke. Obviously, she couldn’t accept that her best friend might die so close by. Hearing this, the other climbers looked sympathetic, feeling distressed. I just smiled helplessly and said calmly: “A blizzard is coming. Life and death are up to fate. The child can’t lose both mother and father.” After saying this, I looked back at the falling snow outside. From my years of experience, I knew that not only would there be a blizzard, but also strong winds. In this familiar environment, I felt strange and cold. “Thud!” Seeing my cold attitude, my wife’s brother Tom also begged me: “Brother-in-law, my sister came to the mountain for your child. I’m begging you, please save her!” “Even if you can’t go down yourself, you can at least give some advice on site!” Some of the climbers who came today couldn’t stand by anymore and stood up to speak for Lily and Tom. “Jack, you’re the only one here from a rescue team. Even if it was a stranger in danger, you’d have a responsibility to save them!” “Let alone your own wife. If you can’t even protect your own wife, what kind of man are you?” “Without timely rescue, the death rate for snow cave accidents is 100%! Are you really going to watch your wife die just for some rescue fee?” Hearing this death rate, Lily and Tom turned pale and both collapsed to the ground. “It’s hard to make money these days. If you want money, fine, I’ll give you all my money! Just go and direct the rescue for Amber!” After hearing about the death rate, Lily quickly said. “That’s right! If you want money, I’ll give you our family’s house and car too!” Hearing Lily’s words, Tom seemed to wake up a bit and also anxiously promised. “This is bad, Amber is about to get hypothermia!” Before I could respond to them, one of the climbers ran over and said anxiously. He was sweating profusely from anxiety. “Jack, have you made up your mind? You really won’t go save Amber?” A trace of anxiety and hatred flashed across Ryan’s face. As he spoke, Lily grabbed my hand, trying to drag me away. Looking at my twisted leg, I shook off Lily’s hand and said coldly: “I’m not going.”
Lily couldn’t hold back anymore and burst into tears. “Amber loved you so much. When you wanted to start a business, she gave you all of her dowry. No matter how we tried to persuade her to keep something for herself, she wouldn’t listen.” “She said she wanted to share joys and sorrows with you for life, to weather storms together. And now you won’t even save her…” “If I had known this would happen, even if it meant ending our friendship, I would have urged her to be with Ryan, her childhood sweetheart from a similar background, instead of you, this ungrateful bastard!” Lily’s heartfelt crying made the surrounding climbers even angrier. “Captain Jack, even if you’re injured, you can still direct the rescue! Your wife loves you so much, how can you bear to do this?” “That’s right! You’re the only one here with rescue experience. If you go, the chances of saving her will be much higher!” “The startup funds for his business all came from his wife’s dowry. Now that his wife is in danger, he won’t even try to save her. What an ungrateful bastard!” “His wife sacrificed so much, and he’s still so cold. There must be something wrong with this guy…” The people around went from trying to persuade me to gradually getting angry. The accusations grew louder, and some hot-tempered guys were getting ready to beat me up. I stared at the snow outside, motionless, like a cold, hard stone in a latrine. Tom knelt on the ground with a handwritten IOU, gritting his teeth as he said: “I only have one sister. As long as you’re willing to save her, all the family property will be yours in the future! This is the IOU I wrote. Everyone here can be my witness!” I took the IOU from Tom’s hand and looked at it carefully. It indeed represented the total assets the family could liquidate. “Alright, I can go rescue her.” Tom and Lily’s faces lit up with joy, and Ryan also looked relieved. “But you need to find a lawyer to sign a liability waiver. You can’t blame me if anything goes wrong.” My words made everyone’s expressions change. Where could they find a lawyer here? “The situation is urgent now. Where can we find a lawyer? Isn’t it enough for everyone here to be witnesses?” Tom couldn’t hold back anymore and grabbed my collar, about to hit me. But he didn’t follow through. The situation in the snow cave was tricky, and I was the only one capable of rescuing her. “I’ve even written an IOU. Isn’t that enough sincerity? What else do you want?” Tom roared. I removed his hand from my collar. Helplessly but firmly, I said: “Without a lawyer’s notarization, everything you say is just empty words.” Just then, a climber rushed over and said: “It’s bad! Amber has lost consciousness!” “Before she passed out, she asked me to tell you not to force Jack to save her. She knows Jack isn’t afraid of death, but afraid that the child would be left without a father to care for them.” Lily cried until she fainted, and Tom also collapsed to the ground, devastated. He regained a bit of consciousness and quickly kowtowed to me, his forehead bleeding after just a few bows. “Brother-in-law, my parents have always treated you like their own son. As long as you try your best, we definitely won’t blame you. I’m begging you!” Seeing Tom like this, I hesitated for a moment. Ever since I got together with Amber, her whole family had treated me like one of their own. Ryan’s parents had originally wanted to form a marriage alliance with Amber’s family. At that time, I had just started dating Amber and thought her parents would look down on me, a poor boy from a mountain village. But to my surprise, they firmly rejected Ryan’s parents, willing to marry Amber to me even without a bride price. I didn’t want Amber to suffer or lower her standard of living, so I started my own business. The early days of the business were tough, but Amber gave me all of her dowry to support me. Her parents helped me build connections, and Tom would come help out whenever he had free time. During Chinese New Year, when Amber’s relatives looked down on me, calling me a “phoenix man” (a poor man who marries a rich woman), The four of them – Amber and her family – all protected me. “Jack is capable and filial. He’s truly outstanding.” “If you keep mocking him, we won’t associate with you anymore!” I was so moved at the time that my eyes turned red. I silently vowed to treat Amber well for life and never do anything to betray the trust of anyone in her family. I was grateful for their acceptance of me, their respect for my background, how they protected and loved me. And now… I looked at Tom’s anxious face, his eyes revealing disappointment and anger. I didn’t dare meet his gaze, silently looking at my twisted legs. It hurt, but I couldn’t tell if it was the pain in my legs or the pain in my heart. Ryan helped Tom up from kneeling before me and angrily berated me: “Jack, Tom has always treated you like a real brother. You refuse to save a life for money and even push Tom to this state. Are you even human?” “Indeed, men who marry above their station are all ungrateful bastards! How can you face Amber and her whole family?” After saying this, he turned to face everyone and said loudly: “He’s afraid to die and won’t save her, so I’ll do it! I’m willing to risk my life to save her! Not because I’m trying to show off, but because I have a conscience!” Ryan’s words made everyone admire him, with some even shouting that he should be named the most admirable rescue worker. I just smiled calmly. “Good luck to you.” Before leaving, Ryan glared at me fiercely, then turned and walked towards the snow cave. I could no longer bear the pain and felt my vision go black as I passed out.
When I woke up again, I was already in the hospital. My assistant, who had been watching over me by the hospital bed, excitedly said, “Boss, you’re finally awake!” “You’ve been unconscious for a day. You really scared us!” I felt a splitting headache and knocked on my head a few times. With a hoarse voice, I asked: “How is Amber doing?” The assistant hesitated, seemingly unsure whether to speak, but finally answered me. “Ryan insisted on not letting others take risks. He conducted the rescue alone for 3 hours, and the boss’s wife was successfully rescued…” I couldn’t tell if I felt relieved or depressed. After all, a snow cave can truly take a person’s life… I picked up the crutches by the hospital bed, preparing to go out. “Boss, don’t go!” The assistant stopped me, his face full of conflict and anxiety. “It’s all over the internet now. They’re saying you built your career on your wife’s back and then abandoned her in a life-or-death situation. Everyone online is calling you a modern-day scumbag…” I interrupted his words, ignoring his well-intentioned warning, and went directly to Amber’s hospital room. By now, quite a few people were already standing by Amber’s bed to visit her. Amber’s parents were gratefully praising Ryan, while some investors and judges for the Outstanding Youth Award stood around. “Ryan, your selfless act of saving a life this time truly sets an example for all the youth in our city! I think you must be the National Outstanding Youth this time!” Seeing me come in, everyone went quiet for a moment. Amber, with a pale face, managed to speak, “Your leg is injured. Why aren’t you resting properly?” “Jack, your recent reputation is not good. You should lay low for a while. The investment in your company will have to wait.” Investor Wang coldly and stiffly said to me when he saw me. At this moment, a reporter who had come to get first-hand material for the Outstanding Youth award Silently turned the live broadcast camera towards me. I noticed but didn’t stop it. After all, I had once rescued countless people on snowy mountains and was an undisputed candidate. And now, embroiled in scandal, the heat was even higher… I curled my lips into a smile and repeated the investor’s words. “Recent reputation not good?” “Are you referring to me abandoning my wife in danger? Or that I’m after my wife’s family’s wealth?” Sure enough, the viewers who had been angry at me when they saw me exploded after hearing my words. They started passionately typing in the comments, not even minding that this was an official media account. “He still has the nerve to come? He wouldn’t even save his own wife. Was all his past rescue work just for show?” “A man more disgusting than a scumbag deserves to be cut into a thousand pieces!” “Without the support of Amber’s family, what is he? How dare he treat their daughter like this!” Hearing my calm words, Tom could no longer contain his anger. Amber held back the impulsive Tom who wanted to come hit me. She looked at me with tears streaming down her face like broken strings of pearls. “Jack, I don’t blame you for not saving me in the face of life and death.” “Ryan saved me. He’s our family’s benefactor. How can you not even show the most basic gratitude?” The number of people in the live broadcast room was growing rapidly, with the hashtag already reaching the top of the trending list. I looked at the popularity and smiled with satisfaction. “Of course I’m grateful to him.” “Not only am I grateful, but I also have a surprise for you all.”
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