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墨書 Inktalez
Chapter 99: The Mystery of the Alley (Fifteen)
"That's fine!" I declined the Street Office's offer to pay for me and peeled an orange, handing half of it to him. "Try this."
The Street Office didn't refuse, eagerly accepting the piece of orange with a smile and enjoying it.
I took the opportunity to signal to Qin Jian, who was approaching us from across the street, and gestured for him to come over.
Qin Jian understood immediately and walked over to invite the Street Office to check out something nearby. He also took the oranges I had bought with him. "The workers have been working hard; you can share these with them."
"Sure thing."
Qin Jian left with the old man from the Street Office.
I hurriedly turned to Elder Liao Yunhua. "Liao Granny, you still haven't answered my question."
"When I went to the restroom that time, it had just been repaired. It looked great—clean and shiny, you could even see your reflection on the floor. But when I entered, I heard strange noises coming from the men's restroom, like bricks being taken apart—crackling and banging sounds. I was puzzled; why would they be dismantling a newly repaired restroom?"
The old man seemed a bit agitated as he recounted this incident, as if he had been holding it in for too long.
"Take a breath," I said quickly, turning around to see if there was a grocery store nearby where I could buy a bottle of mineral water for him. However, after looking around, I found only fruit vendors, meat sellers, and seafood stalls—no grocery store in sight.
The elderly man continued his story: "I heard those noises coming from the men's restroom, so I went out to check. I saw someone going in, and I asked what was going on inside—why were they taking apart bricks? The person I questioned looked confused; he said everything was fine with the restroom and that it couldn't possibly be dismantled. When he came out, he looked at me strangely, almost like he wanted to run away. I thought maybe he thought I was crazy."
"Are you sure you heard those strange sounds and it wasn't just your hearing playing tricks on you or hallucinations?"
"That's not possible! My hearing is just fine; look at all my teeth!"
Indeed, the old man appeared to be in his sixties or seventies, full of energy with a complete set of teeth, speaking fluently and moving about briskly.
"You're over seventy?"
"I'm seventy-three."
"Aren't you afraid of complaints from your family at your age?"
"I have no family; to be honest, I'm a lonely old man."
"Oh. Can you tell me more about Bao Hui?"
"Sure, poor Bao Hui. Her husband's mother, her mother-in-law, is an old acquaintance of mine. We just have different views on life, so we rarely interact. Bao Hui is a good daughter-in-law; she treats the elderly well and is kind to the neighbors. Everyone likes her and calls her Zhu. Life hasn't been easy for her; she has no children after several years of marriage. Her mother-in-law treats her poorly, and her husband looks down on her. She fell into depression and was later diagnosed with an incurable disease. I saw how distracted she was while running her business, and once when she went to the restroom, she came out looking dazed, saying she heard someone calling her name from the men's restroom next door. She thought it was someone familiar and responded, only to find out later that the person who came out wasn't calling for her at all. That scared her, and she spent the whole afternoon in a state of anxiety. When I was closing up for the day, I reminded her to go home early since she's not well and should rest more instead of worrying about other things. But she didn't listen and ended up dying in the restroom!"
"How did her mother-in-law and husband treat her?"
"It's hard to say; family matters can be complicated. Now that she's gone, it doesn't really matter."
"Thank you, Liao Granny." I pulled out a red bill and quietly handed it to Liao Granny. "You are truly a good person. Please accept this as a token of our meeting. If you don't mind, consider me your grandson from now on."
The old lady refused my money and told me, "Young man, you're a good person. I have enough money for myself. The fate arranged by the heavens cannot be changed. My life may not be perfect, but I've done well in business and donated all my earnings to homeless children in earthquake-stricken areas."
That's wonderful; there are still good people like her, though they are few and far between. Someone as kind as her is truly rare. I gave her a thumbs up and said, "You are a good person."
"Don't rush to give me a 'good person' card; I once adopted a child too, but unfortunately, I wasn't meant to keep him. The child died from a high fever when he was just over six months old."
"How tragic." Seeing the old lady's eyes redden made my heart ache, so I smiled awkwardly and decided it was best to leave.
Just as I turned to go, the old lady suddenly called out to me: "Actually, there's one more thing I haven't mentioned."
"What else is there?"
"It's really unfortunate that Bao Hui couldn't have children; it's partly her mother-in-law's fault. I remember when Bao Hui was dating Zheng Kai before they got married; she got pregnant several times, but her mother-in-law never agreed to have a child unless it was a boy. Whenever Bao Hui got pregnant, her mother-in-law would consult someone to predict the baby's gender and then insist that Bao Hui get an abortion if it wasn't a boy. Bao Hui firmly refused, but her mother-in-law teamed up with Zheng Kai to pressure her into it. After several abortions, her mother-in-law finally calculated that this pregnancy should be a boy, but after that, Bao Hui could never conceive again. Such cruelty!"
I hadn't expected to hear so much from Liao Granny during this visit; it turned out to be quite enlightening. When I returned to the site, we were just about to start tearing down the wall.
During this time, Qin Jian quietly asked me, "How's it going?"
"Not bad."
The restroom wall was separated from the houses along the street, so even if we demolished the entire restroom, it wouldn't affect anything else. On the contrary, I felt that removing this restroom would greatly improve the feng shui here; the fruit business would only get better.
"Do you think we'll find anything interesting?"
"Let's see! Next up is pouring the foundation."
"This foundation work won't be easy!"
"It's not easy; you have to break it into pieces to examine it carefully."
"What did the old man give you?" I noticed that the old man from the Street Office was not around, so I casually asked Qin Jian, "Where did that person go just now?"
"It would be rude to refuse. He is treating us today."
"What the hell, did you agree?" Although I rarely interacted with these so-called humans, I understood well the saying about how a mouthful of food can bind people. The Street Office probably wanted to bribe us with a meal so we would include the situation on this street in our work report. In short, we couldn't accept this meal.
"You either don't understand me or you're pretending to be confused. Do you really think I would agree? And who are you calling 'grandpa'? You're my grandpa."
"Haha!"
"Stop playing dumb and hurry up."
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