不愿拖累父母，中国26岁药剂师患癌后离家出走
中国张家界——太阳刚刚升起，唐纯武就从一个破旧的小旅馆房间出发了，这是他寻子的第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.
唐纯武弯弯绕绕地穿过一条能直接让他通过城里最繁忙地段的路线，他停下来张贴寻人启事——询问是否有人或者任何人见过一名戴着眼睛的圆脸年轻男子。寻人启事用简洁的语言描述了他的儿子：唐功伟，26岁，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.
寻人启事上还描述了他失踪的原因。因查出身患胃癌，不愿拖累父母。他觉得自己唯一的选择就是消失。
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.
唐纯武的寻人之路引发全国关注，部分是因为一个略带残忍的讽刺：他的儿子并非像他那样的普通劳动者，而是一名药剂师，在中国庞大的医疗保健体系内工作。外界的认知是，如果说有谁能获得治疗，那就是像他这样的人了。
“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，都没有现在这么艰难，”55岁的农民唐纯武说。他的儿子有跟他一样的下巴和颧骨。
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.
在一项雄心壮志、耗资1300亿美元的医改计划实施近10年后，数百万人仍无力支付重症治疗的费用。像癌症这样的重大疾病的保险覆盖范围很低，许多与癌症有关的药物完全没有纳入保险范围。缺乏资金的地方政府有时会无法为病人报销。
“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.”
“总的来说，中国医疗一定要将成本价降低，”北京大学经济学教授李玲说，她为中国政府的医改提供咨询。“现在太贵了，已经超越老百姓可以承担的了。”
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.
中国确诊的癌症病例正在猛增，存活率很低。2015年，约有430万癌症病例确诊，每天约有1.2万个。据官方数据显示，这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%的人口所生活的农村，癌症患者的五年存活率只有约五分之一。据中国国家癌症中心的数据，在城市地区，这个比例达到约40%。相比之下，美国有超过三分之二的人能活过该阶段。
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.
唐功伟的失踪在中国媒体得到了广泛报道，一些媒体误称他是医生。他是医学专业人员这件事在网上催发了讨论，许多网民表示他们也会出走，因为不想为父母增添负担。
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.
他的母亲廖满冬说，与许多中国孩子一样，唐功伟长大时没有兄弟姐妹的陪伴。地方官员积极执行计划生育政策，拆毁了那些拥有一个以上孩子的夫妇的房子。
“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.
“至少如果你生了女儿，就能被允许再生一个，”她说。如果农村居民第一胎是女孩的话，中国的独生子女政策允许他们生二胎，这与对城市居民规定不同。
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.
从小时候开始，唐家就发现他们的儿子性格内向，勤奋好学。他进入长沙市著名的雅礼中学就读，这也是全国最好的中学之一。
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.
毕业后，他进入衡阳市一家公立医院担任药剂师。医院给他缴纳医保，但他每个月的薪水刚刚超过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，唐功伟告诉父亲他患上了胃癌。他为自己给他们添了负担而不断向父母道歉。唐纯武每年种植水稻仅能挣150美元，他告诉儿子不要担心，说自己愿意去借钱。
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.
但唐功伟不能忍受。2月21日，他在枕头上留了一封信，请求父母原谅他。
“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.”
他说：“如果让父母在晚年面对丧子之痛的同时还要有经济上的负担，那将是我万死莫辞的罪孽!”
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.
唐纯武后来发现儿子买了一张去张家界的火车票，那里是中国中部的一个热门旅游景点，中国有很多人认为那里超凡脱俗的山地风光很像好莱坞大片《阿凡达》(Avatar)里的景色。唐纯武和妻子搜遍了城市的部分地区，但没有结果。
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.
儿子还活着的唯一线索来自他的叔叔，5月16日，他拨打唐功伟的手机号码时，有人拿起电话，之前这个电话已经关机。电话那头传出噪音。然后什么都没有了。
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.
听到消息后，唐纯武夫妇再次赶到张家界。这是他们三个月里第六次来到这个城市。唐纯武觉得儿子仍在这里。
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.
他注意到他每天发给儿子的几条短信旁边都出现了一个箭头图标。他认为这意味着这些信息送到了。
“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，让你渡过此次灾难，但是你自己一定要把握好，要有信心，坚强挺过这一劫难，”唐纯武在一条信息中写道。
“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，没有尽到做父亲的责任，我为啥要这么忙挣钱，没时间陪孩子聊聊，”他在另一条信息中写道。
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.
自儿子失踪后的三个月里，唐纯武几乎每天都在打印寻人启事，与认为见过他儿子的人交谈，应付记者的提问。
His wife, Ms. Liao, a former cleaner at a mall, bristled at questions about their search.
他的妻子廖满冬以前是商场的清洁工，对那些关于寻找儿子的问题感到愤怒。
“Sometimes when they go out to search for him, I just sit at home and cry all day long,” Ms. Liao said, weeping.
“有时候他们出去找他了，我就在家里整天整天地哭，”廖满冬哭着说。
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.
他们接触的许多人都没兴趣帮助他们。还有些人同情他们。退休人员张慈平是胃癌幸存者，被廖满冬的经历打动，提出他们下次来张家界时，可以免费住在她家。
“These parents are so pitiful,” she said, wiping tears from her eyes.
“这父母太可怜了，”她擦着眼泪说。
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.
唐纯武一直恳求当局帮忙。现在，他认为下一个最佳机会是张家界的广播电视台。
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?
该台新媒体部门总经理罗恒听说这对夫妇还没有找到他们的儿子，感到很惊讶。广播电视台网站的几个浏览者不是提供了一些线索吗?
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.
唐纯武说这些线索都弄错了人。罗恒承诺重播这个故事，并敦促他们去警察局。
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.
然后唐纯武夫妇走了三公里来到派出所。一名警官说，由于隐私原因，他无法跟踪他儿子的电话记录。
The police, he said, could not classify this as a missing-person case because Tang Gongwei “voluntarily left home.”
他说，警察无法将此案件归类为失踪人口案，因为唐功伟是“自愿离开家的”。
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.
天色已近黄昏，唐纯武夫妇回到活禽市场旁的旅馆房间，筋疲力尽。他们的两万元积蓄几乎花光了。但他们的寻找将会继续。
“He was very filial,” Mr. Tang said of his son. “He really did not like to bother other people.”
“他很孝顺，”唐纯武谈到儿子。“他最不喜欢麻烦人。”
