不愿拖累父母，中國26歲藥劑師患癌后離家出走

ZHANGJIAJIE, China — Tang Chunwu set off from his room in a ramshackle inn just after sunrise, the beginning of Day 92 in his search for his son.

中國張家界——太陽剛剛升起，唐純武就從一個破舊的小旅館房間出發(fā)了，這是他尋子的第92天。

Winding through a route calculated to take him through the busiest parts of town, Mr. Tang stopped to put up posters asking if someone, anyone, had seen the round-faced young man with glasses. The poster described his son in clipped phrases: named Tang Gongwei, 26 years old, about 5 feet 7 inches tall.

唐純武彎彎繞繞地穿過一條能直接讓他通過城里最繁忙地段的路線，他停下來張貼尋人啟事——詢問是否有人或者任何人見過一名戴著眼睛的圓臉年輕男子。尋人啟事用簡潔的語言描述了他的兒子：唐功偉，26歲，身高170厘米。

It also described why he went missing. He discovered he had stomach cancer. He didn’t want to burden his parents. His only option, he felt, was to vanish.

尋人啟事上還描述了他失蹤的原因。因查出身患胃癌，不愿拖累父母。他覺得自己唯一的選擇就是消失。

Mr. Tang’s quest has captivated China in part because of a cruel irony: His son was not a common laborer like him but a pharmacist, working in China’s vast health care system. If anybody could get treatment, the thinking goes, it is someone like him.

唐純武的尋人之路引發(fā)全國關(guān)注，部分是因為一個略帶殘忍的諷刺：他的兒子并非像他那樣的普通勞動者，而是一名藥劑師，在中國龐大的醫(yī)療保健體系內(nèi)工作。外界的認(rèn)知是，如果說有誰能獲得治療，那就是像他這樣的人了。

“Manual labor was tough and tiring, but nothing compares to the struggles right now,” said Mr. Tang, a 55-year-old farmer whose son has his chin and cheekbones.

“以前干活再苦再累，都沒有現(xiàn)在這么艱難，”55歲的農(nóng)民唐純武說。他的兒子有跟他一樣的下巴和顴骨。

Nearly a decade after the rollout of an ambitious $130 billion health care reform plan, millions of people cannot afford the treatments they need for serious illnesses. Insurance coverage of major illnesses like cancer is low, and many cancer-related drugs are not covered at all. Local governments, strapped for cash, sometimes fail to reimburse patients.

在一項雄心壯志、耗資1300億美元的醫(yī)改計劃實施近10年后，數(shù)百萬人仍無力支付重癥治療的費用。像癌癥這樣的重大疾病的保險覆蓋范圍很低，許多與癌癥有關(guān)的藥物完全沒有納入保險范圍。缺乏資金的地方政府有時會無法為病人報銷。

“China’s health care system must find a way to reduce its costs,” Li Ling, an economics professor at Peking University who advises China’s cabinet on medical reform, said. “It is too expensive now and has surpassed what most ordinary people can afford.”

“總的來說，中國醫(yī)療一定要將成本價降低，”北京大學(xué)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)教授李玲說，她為中國政府的醫(yī)改提供咨詢。“現(xiàn)在太貴了，已經(jīng)超越老百姓可以承擔(dān)的了。”

Cancer diagnoses in China are soaring, and survival rates are low. About 4.3 million cancer cases were diagnosed in 2015, or almost 12,000 cases a day. That is nearly double the rate five years before, according to official figures.

中國確診的癌癥病例正在猛增，存活率很低。2015年，約有430萬癌癥病例確診，每天約有1.2萬個。據(jù)官方數(shù)據(jù)顯示，這比五年前翻了近一番。

In rural China, where about 41 percent of the population lives, only about one-fifth of cancer patients survive five years past their diagnosis. In urban areas, about 40 percent survive, according to China’s National Cancer Prevention and Research Center. In the United States, by comparison, more than two-thirds survive through that period.

在41%的人口所生活的農(nóng)村，癌癥患者的五年存活率只有約五分之一。據(jù)中國國家癌癥中心的數(shù)據(jù)，在城市地區(qū)，這個比例達(dá)到約40%。相比之下，美國有超過三分之二的人能活過該階段。

Tang Gongwei’s disappearance was widely reported in the Chinese media, with some outlets mistakenly saying that he was a doctor. The fact that he was a medical professional fueled the discussion about him online, and many internet users said they would also have left because they didn’t want to burden their own parents.

唐功偉的失蹤在中國媒體得到了廣泛報道，一些媒體誤稱他是醫(yī)生。他是醫(yī)學(xué)專業(yè)人員這件事在網(wǎng)上催發(fā)了討論，許多網(wǎng)民表示他們也會出走，因為不想為父母增添負(fù)擔(dān)。

Like many other Chinese children, Tang Gongwei grew up without siblings. Local officials enforced family planning rules zealously, tearing down houses of couples who had more than one child, according to his mother, Liao Mandong.

他的母親廖滿冬說，與許多中國孩子一樣，唐功偉長大時沒有兄弟姐妹的陪伴。地方官員積極執(zhí)行計劃生育政策，拆毀了那些擁有一個以上孩子的夫婦的房子。

“At least if you gave birth to a girl, you were allowed to have another one,” she said. China’s one-child policy allowed rural residents to have a second child if the first one was a girl, unlike their counterparts living in urban areas.

“至少如果你生了女兒，就能被允許再生一個，”她說。如果農(nóng)村居民第一胎是女孩的話，中國的獨生子女政策允許他們生二胎，這與對城市居民規(guī)定不同。

From early on, the Tangs found their son to be introverted and studious. He enrolled in the prestigious Yali High School, one of China’s top high schools, in the city of Changsha.

從小時候開始，唐家就發(fā)現(xiàn)他們的兒子性格內(nèi)向，勤奮好學(xué)。他進(jìn)入長沙市著名的雅禮中學(xué)就讀，這也是全國最好的中學(xué)之一。

After graduation, he joined a public hospital in the city of Hengyang as a pharmacist. He had medical insurance from the hospital, but earned just over $300 a month.

畢業(yè)后，他進(jìn)入衡陽市一家公立醫(yī)院擔(dān)任藥劑師。醫(yī)院給他繳納醫(yī)保，但他每個月的薪水剛剛超過300美元。

On Feb. 15, Tang Gongwei told his father that he had stomach cancer. He apologized repeatedly to his parents for adding to their burdens. Mr. Tang, who earned just over $150 a year farming rice, told him not to worry, saying he was willing to borrow money.

2月15日，唐功偉告訴父親他患上了胃癌。他為自己給他們添了負(fù)擔(dān)而不斷向父母道歉。唐純武每年種植水稻僅能掙150美元，他告訴兒子不要擔(dān)心，說自己愿意去借錢。

But Tang Gongwei could not live with that. On Feb. 21, he placed a letter on top of his pillow. In it, he asked his parents for forgiveness.

但唐功偉不能忍受。2月21日，他在枕頭上留了一封信，請求父母原諒他。

“If I leave my parents not only overcome with the grief of losing their son but also struggling financially in their twilight years, then it’s a sin that can’t be forgiven,” he said. “Even if I die more than 10,000 times.”

他說：“如果讓父母在晚年面對喪子之痛的同時還要有經(jīng)濟(jì)上的負(fù)擔(dān)，那將是我萬死莫辭的罪孽!”

Mr. Tang later discovered that his son had bought a train ticket to Zhangjiajie, a popular tourist spot in central China with the ethereal mountain landscape that many in China say resembles the Hollywood blockbuster “Avatar.” He and his wife scoured parts of the city but to no avail.

唐純武后來發(fā)現(xiàn)兒子買了一張去張家界的火車票，那里是中國中部的一個熱門旅游景點，中國有很多人認(rèn)為那里超凡脫俗的山地風(fēng)光很像好萊塢大片《阿凡達(dá)》(Avatar)里的景色。唐純武和妻子搜遍了城市的部分地區(qū)，但沒有結(jié)果。

The only clue that his son was still alive came when his uncle dialed Tang Gongwei’s mobile number on May 16. Someone picked up the phone, which was previously turned off. There was noise. Then nothing.

兒子還活著的唯一線索來自他的叔叔，5月16日，他撥打唐功偉的手機(jī)號碼時，有人拿起電話，之前這個電話已經(jīng)關(guān)機(jī)。電話那頭傳出噪音。然后什么都沒有了。

When the Tangs heard that, they rushed to Zhangjiajie again. It was the sixth time in three months that they had come to the city. His son must still be here, Mr. Tang felt.

聽到消息后，唐純武夫婦再次趕到張家界。這是他們?nèi)齻€月里第六次來到這個城市。唐純武覺得兒子仍在這里。

He noticed that an arrow icon appeared next to several of the text messages that he had sent daily to his son. He believes that meant those messages were delivered.

他注意到他每天發(fā)給兒子的幾條短信旁邊都出現(xiàn)了一個箭頭圖標(biāo)。他認(rèn)為這意味著這些信息送到了。

“You are the son of heaven,” Mr. Tang wrote in one of those messages. “Good people will help you through this calamity, but you must have the confidence and determination to survive this catastrophe.”

“你是金命天子，一路有好人相助，讓你渡過此次災(zāi)難，但是你自己一定要把握好，要有信心，堅強(qiáng)挺過這一劫難，”唐純武在一條信息中寫道。

“Child, I have destroyed you,” he wrote in another one. “I haven’t fulfilled the responsibility of being a father. I spent all this time trying to make money and I had no time to talk to my child.”

“孩子是爸害了你，沒有盡到做父親的責(zé)任，我為啥要這么忙掙錢，沒時間陪孩子聊聊，”他在另一條信息中寫道。

In the three months since his son disappeared, Mr. Tang has spent almost every day printing posters, talking to people who thought they had seen his son, and fielding questions from reporters.

自兒子失蹤后的三個月里，唐純武幾乎每天都在打印尋人啟事，與認(rèn)為見過他兒子的人交談，應(yīng)付記者的提問。

His wife, Ms. Liao, a former cleaner at a mall, bristled at questions about their search.

他的妻子廖滿冬以前是商場的清潔工，對那些關(guān)于尋找兒子的問題感到憤怒。

“Sometimes when they go out to search for him, I just sit at home and cry all day long,” Ms. Liao said, weeping.

“有時候他們出去找他了，我就在家里整天整天地哭，”廖滿冬哭著說。

Many people they approach have no interest in helping. Others are sympathetic. Zhang Ciping, a retiree and a stomach cancer survivor, was so moved by Ms. Liao’s story that she offered to let them stay in her apartment, rent-free, the next time they were in Zhangjiajie.

他們接觸的許多人都沒興趣幫助他們。還有些人同情他們。退休人員張慈平是胃癌幸存者，被廖滿冬的經(jīng)歷打動，提出他們下次來張家界時，可以免費住在她家。

“These parents are so pitiful,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes.

“這父母太可憐了，”她擦著眼淚說。

All this time, Mr. Tang had begged the authorities to help. Now, he decided his next best shot was the state-run broadcaster in Zhangjiajie.

唐純武一直懇求當(dāng)局幫忙。現(xiàn)在，他認(rèn)為下一個最佳機(jī)會是張家界的廣播電視臺。

Luo Heng, the general manager for the new media section of the broadcaster, was surprised to hear that the couple still had not found their son. Didn’t several readers of the broadcaster’s website send in some leads?

該臺新媒體部門總經(jīng)理羅恒聽說這對夫婦還沒有找到他們的兒子，感到很驚訝。廣播電視臺網(wǎng)站的幾個瀏覽者不是提供了一些線索嗎?

Mr. Tang said they had all turned out to be the wrong person. Ms. Luo promised to rebroadcast the story and encouraged Mr. Tang to go to the police.

唐純武說這些線索都弄錯了人。羅恒承諾重播這個故事，并敦促他們?nèi)ゾ炀帧?/p>

The Tangs then walked two miles to a police station. An officer told Mr. Tang that he could not track his son’s phone records because of privacy reasons.

然后唐純武夫婦走了三公里來到派出所。一名警官說，由于隱私原因，他無法跟蹤他兒子的電話記錄。

The police, he said, could not classify this as a missing-person case because Tang Gongwei “voluntarily left home.”

他說，警察無法將此案件歸類為失蹤人口案，因為唐功偉是“自愿離開家的”。

It was almost dusk when the Tangs returned to their rented room in an inn, next to a fish and chicken market. They were exhausted. Their savings of about $3,000 were nearly wiped out. But their search would continue.

天色已近黃昏，唐純武夫婦回到活禽市場旁的旅館房間，筋疲力盡。他們的兩萬元積蓄幾乎花光了。但他們的尋找將會繼續(xù)。

“He was very filial,” Mr. Tang said of his son. “He really did not like to bother other people.”

“他很孝順，”唐純武談到兒子。“他最不喜歡麻煩人。”