NOVPUBRacing all the way, Xu Aiguo soon arrived at Licheng Park in a taxi.
From a distance, he saw a large crowd gathered opposite the fountain, and he knew his son must be there. He quickly pulled out the keys and hurried out of the car.
Spotting Xu Aiguo, who stood out from the crowd like a pole in a potato field, Xu Qingfan shouted with surprise, "Dad!"
"Uncle Xu!"
The three of them, as if they had found their mainstay, stood next to Dad Xu.
Seeing that the troublemaker’s parent had arrived, the previously verbal crowd immediately turned their guns, "He looks decent, but look at what beasts he has raised!"
"Your son deliberately pushed this old lady down the stairs; your family is in big trouble now!"
"What kind of people are these..."
Luckily, having cultivated a good impression for over a year, Xu Aiguo did not believe these vicious words. He patted Xu Qingfan, "What happened?"
"This old hag fell down herself, we were just trying to help her up, and then she falsely accused us of pushing her!" Initially, Xu Qingfan, fearing escalation of the conflict, had said, ’it seemed like they pushed her’ before his backing arrived. Now that Xu Aiguo was here, he naturally told the truth.
"You! You!! It was you who pushed me down; I’m an old woman over seventy, I wouldn’t lie!" the old woman, clutching her chest in fury, pointed at Xu Qingfan.
"Ah!!!"
Possibly because she had been sitting too long and her blood pressure hadn’t adjusted, the old lady suddenly felt dizzy and began to shake unsteadily.
"Quick, call an ambulance!"
"If anything happens to the old lady, you guys will be waiting!"
"Don’t let them get away!"
"Yes, don’t let them leave!"
In that moment, the crowd was feverishly excited. Some people came forward to surround Xu Aiguo and his group, while others tended to the old lady by pinching her philtrum.
"Uncle Xu, she fell down by herself, Ningning didn’t push her!"
Xu Aiguo pulled the three youths behind him, and abandoned the idea of driving the old lady to the hospital himself. Faced with these irrational strangers, he preferred to believe what his son said.
"Hmm, Uncle understands."
It appeared that someone had called the police, as before long, the sirens of police cars and ambulances crescendoed in the background.
"The ambulance is here, move aside, move aside!" The crowd quickly cleared a path to let the ambulance in smoothly.
"Doctor, come quickly, this old lady was maliciously pushed down the stairs, and she’s badly hurt!"
"Don’t touch her, we’ll handle it!" Seeing some bystanders attempting to help lift the injured old lady, the medical staff, worried about causing secondary injuries, hurriedly shouted a stop.
The three medical staff members moved the old lady onto a stretcher and carefully lifted her into the ambulance.
"Is there any family member of the injured? Come with me in the ambulance. We’ll need you to advance the medical fees at the hospital!"
All eyes suddenly focused on Xu Aiguo, "Doctor, they pushed the old lady down. Let them advance the costs!"
"Exactly, let them pay!"
The doctor frowned, "If you pushed her, get on quickly. If the treatment is delayed, your problem will be even bigger!"
Xu Aiguo’s temper also flared. "If you spoke properly, even though it wasn’t them, he’d be happy to advance the medical fees. With this attitude, you want him to pay?"
No way!
"Whoever wants to pay, let them pay. My son said that this old lady fell down herself. He was just trying to help her, and now he’s being falsely accused. Let’s wait for the police to handle this!" He put a cigarette in his mouth and coolly said, single-handedly in his pocket.
"Rich and unkind, a beastly act, wait till you end up in prison. Doctor. I’ll go with you in the ambulance!" Two young men with a strong sense of justice exclaimed indignantly.
"Right!"
"Well said!!"
The crowd immediately erupted in applause.
"We all saw these kids push the old lady down. Remember to testify for the old lady when the police arrive!" The two likely college-aged youths threw down these words and followed the medical staff into the ambulance.
Xu Qingfan sneered disdainfully, thinking that this was apparently the early form of cyberbullying he had always been curious about, and now he might find out what the consequences of perjury were.
Xu Aiguo, smoking his cigarette, looked around subconsciously for any CCTV cameras, and thought worriedly, "This is troublesome!"
After the ambulance left, the police car quickly arrived. Three uniformed male officers got out, and loudly addressed the crowd, "Who called the police just now?"
A young man with a backpack came forward from the crowd, raised his right hand holding a pager, "Officer, I called the police! I saw them push an old lady down here, and after pushing her, they hit her as well. The grandma has already been taken to the hospital!" He pointed to the spot where the old lady had just fallen and then at Xu Qingfan and his group.
"Uncle, making false testimony can lead to detention, are you sure you saw it was us who pushed the old lady down?" Xu Qingfan retorted.
"Such an ill-mannered child, we all saw that it was you who pushed her, and you still want to deny it!" The crowd immediately started to make noise again.
"Hello comrade, my son said that they saw the old lady fall and kindly went to help her up, but then she falsely accused them of pushing her," Xu Aiguo, after putting his cigarette back into the pack, nodded and spoke to the officers.
The officer looked up and saw no cameras nearby, "Anyone who saw this old lady being pushed by these kids, or saw her fall by herself can come forward. We need to go back to the station for a statement first!"
Watching was fine, but no one wanted to waste time giving statements, "Why give a statement? We all saw these kids push her, just arrest them straight away!"
"Exactly!"
"Officer, I’ll come with you!" said the same young man, stepping forward righteously.
"Alright!"
"Well done, young man!!"
"Fan Bing, I’ll go with you!" the girl who came with him said, looking at him admiringly.
"Sabi~"
"Fan Bing~"
"Pfft!" Xu Qingfan’s mouth twitched, damn, you really are a genius with that name.
"Did you two actually see these kids push the old lady down the stairs?" Since no one else came forward, the officer proceeded with the routine questioning.
"Yes! We were originally there enjoying the view, when these three kids recklessly ran around, then tripped the old lady, and this boy, after pushing her, wasn’t satisfied and slapped the old lady!" Fan Bing accused fervently.
In fact, he had been busy dating and had only heard the scream and seen the old lady fall down the stairs and Xu Qingfan hitting her, but overwhelmed by emotion, he didn’t think much about it.
"I also saw him hit her!" Sabi pointed at Xu Qingfan and told the officer.
The situation seemed quite clear, the three kids, afraid of taking responsibility after pushing, were lying, the officer nodded and said to the couple, "Thanks for your cooperation, please come with us back to the station to record your statements, and if your accounts are true, we’ll also have a gift as a token of our gratitude."
"No problem!" They responded in unison.
Xu Aiguo got anxious; even without much formal education, he knew the situation was extremely unfavorable for them. He loudly asked the crowd, "I believe it wasn’t my son who pushed her, if anyone saw what really happened, please come forward as a witness, offering 500 yuan to those who provide the truth!"
"Keep your dirty money, we don’t need it!"
"The truth is your son pushed her down!"
"Exactly! Officer, please arrest them and put them in jail so they can’t harm anyone else!"
"Please get on the van and come with us to the station for a statement," the officer interrupted Xu Aiguo still wanting to shout, motioning forcefully.
They gradually got into the police van that seats up to eleven people, and the drama at the park quickly dissipated.
Inside the van, Xu Aiguo anxiously stomped his feet, while Xu Qingfan comfortingly patted his thigh, "Don’t worry Dad, truth will always remain the truth, if we didn’t push, then we didn’t."
"Hah! The truth is your morally corrupted spawn pushed the old lady down the stairs. Just wait to pay up!"
The officer sitting behind them observed Xu Qingfan with interest, thinking this kid had a really good mindset for criminal investigation.
"Officer, if it turns out these two made false testimonies later, do they need to face any punishment?" Xu Qingfan, not bothering with the intellectually deficient couple, turned his head and asked the officer behind him,
"This is a civil dispute, and perjury is a crime in criminal cases, but depending on the severity, detention for 3-15 days and a fine of 500 yuan could also be applied,"
Upon hearing this, Fan Bing gulped, realizing he hadn’t actually witnessed the kids push the old lady down the stairs, but then thought since there were no cameras in that area, it was his word against theirs!
[I am acting heroically here!] he encouraged himself inwardly.
"Heh! Both my eyes clearly saw you push her down the stairs, and the onlookers said so too, you can’t deny it!" He said boldly, thinking of two righteous people on the ambulance who could testify for him.
"Oh."
Xu Qingfan, without even glancing at him, continued asking the officer behind, "Officer, if I can prove this uncle framed me, will he be detained? Also, that old lady is demanding 200,000 yuan from us for compensation, is that considered extortion?"
"Haha, you are quite amusing! If you can indeed prove your innocence, you could sue her in court. A demand of 200,000 yuan is classified as severe extortion, which is no longer just a simple civil dispute."
"Good, thank you, officer!" Xu Qingfan politely nodded at the officer.
[Can’t bring out the video too soon, better to settle this with everyone involved in one sweep.] Xu Qingfan thought to himself.
The sensational "Peng Yu case" would not occur for another three years. Perhaps he was also ringing the alarm bells early for everyone, contributing to society in his way.
