Chapter 300: Chapter 300 Lonely
"Oh my God, did you say he actually had no children?"
"Yes, I heard it from my sister who’s a nurse. That old man seemed to have been cremated by the hospital, but indeed there were no children to claim him, and he didn’t have a spouse either."
"Good heavens, that’s just too pitiful, isn’t it? To be of such an age and yet to have not even one relative."
"Yeah, nobody knows where he originally came from or how far he’d traveled."
...
Everyone felt very sorry about this and had never thought such a thing could happen.
In the face of such an event, they also felt a great sense of helplessness.
Because this incident gained widespread attention in a short amount of time, everyone started discussing it enthusiastically.
Meanwhile, Liu Zhengzheng thought of having a meal at a small restaurant.
There, he overheard people discussing the matter.
"My gosh, that’s just too sad."
"Yeah, I felt so sorry for him at first, but later I realized it was much worse than we could imagine."
"I never would have thought he lived under such tough conditions."
After hearing them talk about it, Liu Zheng immediately joined in and asked,
"What are you talking about?"
He was very curious and wanted to understand better.
The group then started to explain.
"Someone from the hospital said that the old man who died on the street today had no relatives, no children, no spouse, just alone and unclaimed."
"Yeah, it seems he wasn’t from around here, as if he came from far away. Who knows what drove him to travel all this way only to die here."
"Thinking about it now, it really is so pitiful. How did he manage to endure all by himself, particularly at his old age?"
...
Everyone shook their heads, feeling very sorry about the situation.
After all, they too had thought that this old man had not a single relative.
When Liu Zheng heard this conversation, it struck him as incredible.
He had already felt the old man was pitiful enough, dying right there on the street at his advanced age.
But having heard what the others said, he felt even more helpless.
It was just too upsetting.
"Oh my, how could it be so tragic?"
As he spoke these words, the others around him nodded in agreement.
"Yes, we never imagined his situation was so dire. And now we don’t even know his name. The hospital is looking into it, but it seems they haven’t found anything because the old man apparently didn’t have a household registration."
"That’s right, and they’ve actually found out that he had no friends or relatives whatsoever."
This lonely person had traveled so far, only to die here in the end.
It made everyone present feel quite upset.
After all, we are all human and have the capacity for empathy.
So facing such a situation, it’s natural to feel somewhat helpless.
However, Liu Zheng didn’t dwell on it too much.
There are plenty of unfortunate people in this world.
Everyone has their own woes, each has their own difficulties and setbacks.
While it’s true the old gent was rather pitiable, everyone has their own set of problems.
So he didn’t pay it too much mind.
That night, as he prepared to go to sleep,
a few patients with the flu arrived.
He took them seriously and, after prescribing their medicine, the patients finally left.
And soon,
he was ready to get some rest.
The main reason was that it was no longer early in the day.
Moreover, having seen so many patients today, he indeed felt somewhat exhausted and now wanted to rest well and relax.
No sooner had he lain down than he heard a slow sequence of footsteps coming from outside the door.
It was late at night, and being winter, he had no idea who would still be walking outside.
And the sound of these footsteps was really too slow.
It felt as if the person had some issue with their legs or feet.
Any normal person would not walk so slowly in the wintertime; they would certainly want to head home quickly.
After all, it was indeed too cold.
But at this moment,
he was really so sleepy that his eyes could barely stay open.
Perhaps because he was truly too tired today.
So, he didn’t pay too much attention and quickly closed his eyes to sleep.
Before long, he slowly drifted into dreamland.
But it was different for some people.
Originally, they too were preparing to sleep at home.
But they had come down with the flu.
So, their body was extremely uncomfortable.
Almost every part of them felt very unpleasant.
Despite half a day in bed, they hadn’t fallen asleep.
Unexpectedly, at this hour of the night, there were still people walking slowly outside.
It sounded as if they were dragging their shoes.
Very slowly.
And the sound of their steps was loud.
This made the person feel particularly uncomfortable.
Already feeling ill at heart to have someone making noise outside for so long.
In that moment, they couldn’t help but open the window, intending to urge that person to hurry home.
But unexpectedly, just as the words reached their throat,
he saw that the person walking on the street was the very old man he had seen that day.
After witnessing this scene, he was completely stunned.
And the next second, he immediately reacted and closed the window.
But unexpectedly, someone else with the same experience opened their window at this moment.
They quickly began to scream.
Some people were already asleep and naturally didn’t know what had happened.
Whereas two or three people happened to open their windows at this time, saw what was outside, and started screaming.
Another two or three people saw what was outside and immediately closed their windows, thinking they must have seen wrong.
They felt very scared, completely unsure of what was going on.
Wasn’t this person already dead? How could they suddenly appear outside?
And when waiting for the next day,
they began to tell others about everything they had seen the night before.
"Don’t be telling tall tales, how could that be possible?"
"I’m telling the truth, I really saw it last night, why would I lie to you? I saw it late at night!"
"And at that time, it might not have just been me seeing this, I also heard someone screaming."
"Don’t scare people, with everyone not feeling well recently, you’ll make it hard for us to sleep at night..."
"I’m not lying to you, I really saw it, if you don’t believe me you can ask other people in the village, see if anyone had the same experience!"
Unexpectedly, at this moment, another person at a different table immediately leaned over.
