After a brief National Day holiday (one day and a half), we came back to school on the afternoon of October 2, 2018. We were studying on our own in the classroom. By dinnertime, an emergency had arisen.

Song, a boy, reported having a bad bellyache. He was hurting so much that he collapsed onto the floor. Some classmates, greatly alarmed, hurried over to fetch our class director, Miss Mo, from the teachers’ office. After the teacher was brought in, I volunteered to assist her in taking Song to hospital.

Song was suffering so terribly at the time. It being the rush hour then, we waited by the road for what seemed like an hour, but no taxi came up. Then a black limousine pulled over. The driver, concerned, asked what was going on. After we explained our predicament, he offered to take us in his private car to Taihe Hospital.

On the way, hold-ups were here and there. Feeling the urgency, the driver turned on his emergency flashers. Bumper-to-bumper traffic on the road ignored his signals, though. In the end the driver managed to pull off Beijing Road and turn into a lane that I had not even known exists in town. So fast was the car streaking along the alley that I felt we were flying through the air. It was just like a chase scene in movies. We had a couple of near misses on the way. Song’s pain getting severer, his face twisted into a grimace. The wretched boy was clutching at my hands so tightly that I was worried that he might be breaking them any minute.

Less than half an hour later, we made it to the gate of the hospital. Without delay, we had Song rushed into the Emergency, where, with some right treatment, his suffering was, to a great extent, relieved. Miss Mo took out her purse to pay the driver for the ride, but he declined it, saying that doing his bit was his greatest pleasure. A witness to the act of kindness, I could not help but admire the gentleman for his noble character.

The whole experience has raised my awareness that generosity still abounds around us, despite recent horror stories of taxi rides and hitchhikes on social media. All the classmates who came to Song’s aid, and the complete stranger who went out of his way to give us a free ride amidst traffic congestion, they all deserve a shout out.