Chapter 1 The Essence

It's actually very difficult to describe the old man, Xu Qinglang's master, in simple terms.

If a person lives to be 70 years old, they will have lived for 70 years, 613,200 hours, 36,792,000 minutes.

It's often inaccurate to summarize a person in just a few words.

However, one thing is certain: he was annoying, but at the same time, he seemed to live purely.

But Zhou Ze really didn't want to encounter this guy again.

Who knew what he would turn into next time, or what tricks he would come up with?

This bead,

should provide some clues,

to find the true essence of that old man,

and then,

completely destroy him.

As for what kind of person he was, Zhou Ze didn't need to define him, and there was no need to worry about this or that influence. He wasn't writing a history book where every word had to be carefully considered.

From a purely personal point of view,

the best outcome for Zhou Ze

would be for the old man to disappear completely.

"Boss, drink your oral liquid first."

Yingying brought the bottle of oral liquid to Zhou Ze's mouth and slowly poured it in. Then, an embarrassing thing happened. Zhou Ze felt a chill on his face.

Because a large area of his face was missing skin and flesh, exposing the bone, the oral liquid leaked out from the side of his face.

"Sigh..."

Zhou Ze himself was a little dumbfounded.

"Ah!"

Yingying immediately took a tissue to wipe Zhou Ze's face.

"Forget it, I don't want to eat it, I don't have much of an appetite."

Eating halfway, and not even having time to swallow, and then half of it leaks out of his face, this feeling was even more pathetic than those bedridden old people in nursing homes.

As for the option of inserting a feeding tube, Zhou Ze directly rejected it. That was also very painful. To put it bluntly, it felt like a chicken in a closed chicken farm, with no room to turn around, just eating and drinking every day, and then laying eggs that were sent away on an assembly line and gathered together.

He hadn't reached that desperate point yet, and didn't want to suffer that torment.

"Boss, how about I feed you with my mouth?"

Zhou Ze shook his head.

"Go see how everyone else is doing, and come back and tell me."

"Okay, boss."

Yingying got up, checked Zhou Ze's bedding again, and left the room.

……………

"I say, why are you so stubborn?"

"What can't you figure out?"

"You're not even a human, just a monkey. You're a good monkey, you have nothing to do, you eat bananas, you cosplay your ancestors, at worst you play with stealing peaches.

Aren't you happy?

You have to find trouble for yourself;

tsk tsk tsk,

you heartless thing,

I'm over seventy years old,

and I don't have many good years left.

I was hoping you could see me off in the end,

and during festivals, I would have to rely on you to burn some paper money on my grave as a gesture, so that I wouldn't have raised you in vain.

But now you're like this,

forcing me to send off a young monkey as an old man?"

The old Daoist muttered softly as he took the towel off the monkey's head, washed it in the water next to him, squeezed it out, folded it, and placed it back on the monkey's head.

Immediately afterwards,

the old Daoist took out alcohol and wiped the monkey's body.

The monkey now not only had malnutrition problems, but it also had a persistent high fever, constantly frowning and closing its eyes, baring its teeth from time to time, looking very uncomfortable.

But the old Daoist knew,

it had something on its mind, it was having a nightmare.

It was a spirit monkey, naturally intelligent, but the more intelligent something was, the more difficult it was to get out once it got stuck in a rut, and the more serious the torment and harm would be.

Others just had malnutrition, they would slowly get glucose drips, and after some nursing and care, once their bodies recovered their vitality, they would be fine, but only his own monkey...

The old Daoist was really worried.

"Think it through, think it through, you've lived for several lifetimes,

and you're not as clear-headed as a young man like me.

Have you lived these lifetimes all in vain?"

The old Daoist sighed,

but the monkey's condition was still not good.

At this time,

the old Daoist's phone rang.

He looked at the caller ID and found that it was a Tongcheng phone number without a name saved.

"Hello."

The old Daoist answered the phone.

"Grandpa Lu, it's me."

"Uh, who is this?"

The old Daoist really couldn't figure out who it was.

He turned on the speakerphone and checked the call history. This number had called him twice, the last time being a year ago.

However, since someone was calling him Grandpa, the old Daoist could roughly guess who it was.

He didn't have any children of his own, so naturally he couldn't have any grandchildren. Many of the children he sponsored would call him Grandpa.

"Grandpa Lu, it's me, Xiaoguang. Grandpa Lu, don't you remember me?"

Xiaoguang?

Which Xiaoguang?

Why can't I remember at all?

"Ah, so it's Xiaoguang. How could Grandpa not remember you?"

"Grandpa Lu, I don't want to live anymore."

"Oh, then don't live... Ah!

What? Child, don't do anything stupid, don't do anything stupid!"

"Grandpa, I'm very confused now, really confused. I'm standing on the roof of the school building, and I want to jump down."

"Child, don't think so negatively. Life is hard-won, you have to be worthy of your parents."

"Grandpa, the reason I applied to Tongcheng University was because I wanted to be closer to you, to repay you for your sponsorship all along.

But now I really find that,

this society, is really unfair, no, it's completely devoid of fairness.

My family is poor, but I'm still a person. I have my own dignity, and I have my own personality. I thought that when I got into college, everything would be changed, but until today I realized that nothing can be changed, everything has been fixed."

"Child, what exactly happened to you? Don't scare me."

"Grandpa, I want to see you one last time, can you come?"

The old Daoist held the phone and looked at the monkey still lying unconscious on the bed.

He hesitated for a moment,

and said, "Child, Grandpa has something urgent right now and can't leave for the time being. If you have anything to say, just say it."

"It seems that I am indeed an insignificant, a superfluous person, hehe..."

The voice on the other end of the phone sounded very desperate and desolate.

The old Daoist rubbed his nose,

put the phone next to him and spoke, while continuing to wipe his monkey's body.

The monkey's body suddenly trembled, which scared the old Daoist. He immediately looked at it nervously, stroking its head, and for a moment he didn't even care about the situation on the other end of the phone.

It seemed that the person on the phone had been waiting for a long time,

and seeing no response,

the person on the phone said:

"Grandpa, are you still there?"

The little monkey finally calmed down,

and the old Daoist also breathed a sigh of relief.

Whew…

Only then did he notice the phone,

and replied:

"Yes, Grandpa is here."

"Grandpa, have you ever liked a girl?"

"Yes, I have."

"I also liked a girl, and I think she likes me too. We have that kind of pure mutual affection."

"Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, that's good, that's good. What's there to be upset about? If you like someone, just go after them."

"But today, I encountered something that made me feel very ashamed. I asked her to go to the study room with me, and she came too. There was also a friend of hers next to her. She and her friend sat down and chatted on their phones, and then pointed at my phone and said, 'Why are you still using such an old phone?'

Grandpa, I know this is wrong, but at that time I really wanted to find a crack to crawl into. I shouldn't have thought it was embarrassing, but I really felt so embarrassed at that time.

After all, I'm just a mortal, really."

"Mm."

"I feel like the way she looks at me has also changed."

"It's not that serious, really not that serious. If two people like each other, what does it have to do with a phone?"

"I know this idea of mine is wrong, but I really can't take it. I suddenly feel like my life has been very meaningless, too meaningless.

Grandpa, if it weren't for your sponsorship, I wouldn't have been able to walk out of the mountains, or get into college, or come to the city.

Sometimes, I also think, if I hadn't continued my schooling, but had come out to work instead, maybe my life might have been happier and freer."

"You're being biased, you're being biased. Life is earned by yourself. Even if your conditions are not good right now, you can still rely on your own hands to fight for a better future!"

The old Daoist took the towel off the monkey's forehead, washed it, wet it, and folded it again.

"Grandpa, I'm very grateful to you, really, I've always been very grateful to you. It was you who allowed me to walk out of the mountains and see the prosperity of this world.

But, Grandpa, I also hate you very much. It was also you who let me know just how poor I am."

"Uh…………"

The old Daoist put the towel back on the monkey's forehead and carefully watched the monkey's reaction.

"Grandpa, I don't want to live."

"Don't have that kind of thought."

"Grandpa, I want to jump down. I think, if I jump down, everything will be over."

"Child, don't, don't. In this world, there's no hurdle you can't overcome, really, there's no hurdle you can't overcome.

You have to know, those debtors who owe millions can still live happily;

you have to learn from them... I'm going to jump."

"Don't, everything can be discussed, can be discussed!"

"Grandpa, it's so cold here."

"Silly child, go back to the dorm, it's not cold in the quilt in the dorm."

"Grandpa, after I jump down, I won't know anything anymore, right?"

"Uh, no..."

"Grandpa, I don't want to die, actually I don't want to die yet."

"Mm, that's right, you can't die, really can't die."

"Grandpa, I want the latest iPhone.

With it, I can choose not to die."

The old Daoist was stunned for a moment,

and asked:

"What do you like to eat?"

"What?"

"I'll prepare it for you."

"Grandpa, did you promise to buy me a phone?"

A joyful voice came from the other end of the phone.

"No, it's that Grandpa's phone is about to run out of battery."

"What?"

"So, quickly order your food, and then jump quickly, hurry up!"