去年9月，河南省太康县2岁半的小朋友王凤雅被查出患有视网膜母细胞瘤，其父母利用多个网络众筹平台为她募捐治病。尽管如此，今年5月4日，不到3岁的小凤雅还是重症不治，不幸去世。
On May 4, Wang Fengya, a three-year-old girl from Taikang County, in central China’s Henan Province, died from retinoblastoma, a type of eye cancer that occurs mostly in children under two years of age.
Too poor to afford the medical expenses, her mother, Yang Meiqin, raised money twice through a crowd-funding platform called Shuidichou in November and March, according to Red Star News, Chengdu Economic Daily’s new media platform.
这件悲剧遭网友曝光之后，舆论铺天盖地袭来：网友纷纷怀疑小凤雅的父母通过水滴筹、火山小视频、快手等平台募捐到15万元之后，并没有将善款用来治疗眼球已经脱出眼眶的小凤雅，而是用来治疗病情并不严重的、患有“唇腭裂”的哥哥，并最终导致小凤雅的死亡。
小凤雅的母亲杨美芹的一条朋友圈，则真正点燃了网友的怒火：“大的地方就是不一样干净。”这条朋友圈配了6张北京某医院的照片；而在评论中，杨美芹则回复道，“北京给儿子去看病地方”。
网友注意到，看病的不是小凤雅，看的病也不是视网膜细胞瘤。猜测于是纷至沓来——或许这个妇人正在挪用善款，她甚至还打车去北京高端民营医院！
一石激起千层浪， 5月24日，某自媒体发布的一篇名为《王凤雅小朋友之死》（内容发布者已删除）的文章引发了舆论的高度关注。该文罗列了上述猜测，质疑王凤雅家属将善款用在兔唇的儿子身上、未对小凤雅尽心治疗，表示在医院告知女儿“还有救”的情况下，杨美芹多次放弃治疗。同时，文章也在追问剩余捐款数额及去向。
紧接着，网络沸腾了。当日微博话题“#王凤雅去世#”一度占领热搜榜第5、第10位，讨论量达33万次。
随着各路机构媒体、自媒以及围观网友的持续跟进，事件持续发酵——网络舆论延伸到了现实中。“爱心人士”报警，寻找小凤雅的父母；上海的一个公益组织，则是特地赶到了河南农村，对杨美芹进行“监督”，双方甚至发生了冲突。
However, after fundraising, some netizens doubted whether Yang had actually spent the money on her daughter and speculated that she had instead spent it on medical costs for her son.
Where did the donation go?
People later discovered that Yang had three other daughters and one son who has a cleft palate.
On May 4, before the truth was discovered, the girl died. This only made onlookers more angry.
People started to believe that the girl only received conservative treatment without any chemotherapy or surgery.
Does it mean that the family abandoned the treatment of a tumor with a survival rate of more than 94 percent?
Some people suggested that the family had inappropriately abused the kindness of donors. Voices calling for better supervision over crowd-funding in China became louder over the following days.
“We will ask the family to explain the details of the medical treatment, traffic and living expenses for the girl”, Zhang Leiluo, the head of the publicity department with the public security bureau in Taikang County, Zhoukou city, said on May 24, “we can only know some medical treatment costs based on the receipts from the hospital.”
没想到，也就是在当地警方、媒体等相关机构的介入下，事情随后发生了反转：
1. 小凤雅的父母在水滴筹平台并没有筹集到15万（这里的15万只是筹款目标），而是35689元，这一点得到水滴筹的证实，并表明该机构已派人和律师赴当地协助有关部门调查。
2. 所募集到的款项，并没有挪作他用。王凤雅的爷爷表示，5月25日已向当地公安机关说明善款的使用情况，并提供了相关票据，有票据和没票据的开支一共有37337元。在王凤雅使用的医药费、寻医差旅费、生活费、丧葬费等支出后，善款剩余1301元，并已捐赠太康县慈善会，办理了相关手续。当地警方在经过调查后也认为，募集到的款项并没有被挪用。
3. 网络爱心人士最大的指控，就是小凤雅的母亲杨美芹把爱心善款用在了治疗儿子的唇腭裂上。而根据媒体《红星新闻》的报道，此事不成立。
5月24日下午，红星新闻记者致电由演员李亚鹏创立的北京嫣然天使儿童医院，得到证实：小凤雅的弟弟（并非哥哥）到北京治疗唇腭裂的费用，是嫣然天使基金会出的。“术前检查和手术都是全部免费的，家属只要承担往返交通费用和住宿费用即可。”
One day later, Shuidichou released a statement saying that it was working with the police to figure out if there was any misappropriation and how much money had been used for the girl’s treatment.
The family has gathered 39,638 yuan (around 6,224 US dollars) in total, including 35,689 yuan (around 5,586 US dollars) donated through the fundraising platform and 2,949 yuan from WeChat as well as some live-stream platforms, said the local police on May 25 to Red Star Newspaper.
真相接近大白，至此，网友的情绪从先前的“愤怒谴责”，开始转向缓和、纷纷道歉，不少网友提出了需要反思“自媒体”、“大V”等对舆论的引导作用。
The controversies and fights have finally ended with apologies from netizens but the family claims they will sue the culprit behind the rumor.
“My daughter-in-law has been afraid of turning on her cell phone for days”, the grandmother of the little girl told the Legal Newspaper on May 27.
The whole discussion has triggered reflections on the nature of public opinion on social media platforms in China.
“Only a transparent charity system can truly help the poor who really need help,” Xuezhong Hongmei said.
“Even though bloggers and media have deleted their posts, who will answer for this crime?”,Lantian said.
It is easy to make conclusions based on fragmented pieces of information, but when it comes to serious issues like this, people should be more cautious in their judgments, at least until solid evidence is discovered. Without this, it is unfortunately very easy to "bring damage to innocent people and their family," said a writer from CCTV News.
2016年牛津词典年度英文关键词为“后真相（post-truth）”。根据牛津出版社的解释，“后真相”指的是“情绪和个人理念影响公众意见，而事实真相反而无足轻重的氛围"。在这次令人大跌眼镜的反转中，指责王凤雅的父母挪用善款，“用女儿的命来治儿子的病”，在证据确凿之前，情绪已经跃然纸上。
一场众口铄金的舆论风暴，受影响最大的是本已伤痕累累的王凤雅家庭。汇聚善心不能仅仅靠情绪和冲动，而是要有坚持和探索真理的理性和专业。