Chapter 30: The beginning of everything

When we put the bags of flour, noodles and other miscellaneous items in front of the old people, I could never forget the excitement in their eyes. I felt like I had done a good deed, and my aching fists seemed to have no feeling.

In fact, buying things in this town is not a pleasant experience. Chengxin and I had to use violence and beat up several storekeepers before we could successfully buy things.

As Ruoyue said, “Of course we bought it. We paid for it.”

Indeed, we found a small cart and emptied several small shops, but the money we gave out was more than enough.

“Thank you.” Looking at the piles of things in this room and the ones that couldn’t fit in the other rooms, Mr. Liu actually choked up and, with tears in his eyes, hesitated for a long time before he could only say these two words to me.

“Eat as much as you want today, you can eat as much as you want.” Brother Chengxin smiled so sincerely for the first time, and Ruoyue’s eyes also narrowed into crescent moons.

No matter what age you are, the psychological pleasure of doing a good deed will never diminish. This is the truth.

At this time, someone poured a few glasses of water for us. We had not had a chance to drink a few sips when we heard the sound of a few bells ringing in the room behind the door. I was wondering when I noticed that everyone in the room suddenly became quiet, their eyes full of anticipation and nervousness…

The old man Liu, who was talking to us, suddenly fell silent, then took out the key and turned to open the tight door to a gap that could only fit one person to go in… Although it was such a careful movement, I, standing outside, still saw that the room was a deep dark. Did Liu Weijun live in such an environment?

The three of us looked at each other, and we all had doubts in our eyes. But at this time, an old man took three bowls of rice out of the pot and said to us, “Eat a little first. Wei Jun will be able to see you in a while.”

You can’t eat hot tofu in a hurry, and there’s no hurry anyway. I gave Chengxin and Ruyue a look of “calm down” and suppressed my impatience and confusion. I took the bowl and sat down with these people and started eating.

Perhaps I was hungry, or perhaps I had just spent too much energy buying things, but this strange sweet potato and pork porridge was surprisingly delicious… But I was too embarrassed to ask for a second bowl, and I couldn’t bear to ask for a second bowl. I just waited silently against the wall after I finished eating.

While waiting, time always passes slowly. It may be twenty minutes, or half an hour, but it all feels like a long time.

But fortunately, when my patience was about to reach its limit, Mr. Liu walked out of the house with a rather serious look on his face. Everyone in the house looked at him, and he said to them, “We’re almost at the bottom line, but we’re still safe now. We… we can still live.”

After he finished speaking, everyone in the room was relieved, but I frowned. What did he mean? Could Liu Weijun be a cultivator who could protect everyone?

But before I could ask anything, Mr. Liu had already said to me, “Chengyi (I had mentioned my name in the previous chat), go in, but only you. Wei Jun is not in good condition and needs a quiet environment. He can’t adapt to too many people in his room. You…”

Grandpa Liu looked a little embarrassed, but I simply said, “Okay, I’ll go in alone.”

In fact, there is no big difference between me going in alone and the three of us going in together, so there is no need to make things difficult for Mr. Liu.

As Yue and Chengxin stayed outside, I followed Mr. Liu into the small, mysterious room. It was also a door that only allowed one person to pass through at a time. Mr. Liu first squeezed in, and I followed behind him.

As soon as I entered the room, everything went dark and I couldn’t see anything clearly… I had just gone from a bright environment to a dark one, and my eyes hadn’t adjusted yet. But my nose sensitively detected a very unpleasant smell in the whole room, a kind of musty smell mixed with an indescribable smell.

If I had to describe it, it would be like the smell of a person with bad body odor.

The smell made my nose itch, but I was too embarrassed to cover my nose. I always felt that there was a pair of eyes watching my every move in the dark, and I would be very rude if I covered my nose.

After a short silence of two seconds, a very unpleasant sound suddenly came from the room: “Uncle, light the candles for me. We have guests, and we can’t let them walk around in the dark.”

“Okay,” said Mr. Liu.

But I was stimulated by this voice, and a layer of goosebumps rose on my body, because this was not a normal sound from the vocal cords, but rather like someone with a laryngeal disease talking with a voice box against their throat.

The room soon became a little brighter. It was because Mr. Liu had lit the candles. He seemed to be very familiar with the place. Even in such a dark environment, he could easily find the candles and light them.

With the light of the candle, I finally saw the room clearly. The reason it was so dark was because it was surrounded by thick black cloth, wrapped in one or several layers, and the sunlight could not penetrate.

In addition to a bed, a table, two chairs, and a protruding square box-like object hanging on the wall, covered by a black cloth, it was unclear what it was. Apart from these, the entire room was empty.

The candle was placed on the table, and behind the old table sat a man, wrapped in a thick blanket, wearing a hat in such a room, with the brim of the hat lowered, sitting there silently. Could it be Liu Weijun?

“You guys chat, I’m going out.” After lighting the candle, Mr. Liu looked at Liu Weijun with concern and then went out.

For a moment, the room was just me and Liu Weijun. The strangeness between us made me feel a little uncomfortable. I had a lot of things to say, but I didn’t know what to say.

“Sit down.” Compared to me, Liu Weijun was naturally more comfortable. After Mr. Liu left, he turned around and said to me, “Sit down.”

His voice was as unpleasant as ever, but this time I didn’t know what to say. I had only wanted to describe his voice, but I didn’t expect him to really speak with that kind of voice-box against his throat…

I sat across from Liu Weijun as he looked up at me.

At this point, I realized that Liu Weijun was not old, just like an ordinary person in his forties or fifties. It was just that he looked strange with the voice-generating device and sunglasses.

“I’m sorry to make you laugh. Do you believe that I have at least a dozen diseases, all of them serious? Do you believe that? It’s too painful to live, but I have to live. If I don’t live, the people outside will have no reason to persist, and there will be no hope in life, and they may even die. I have the lives of so many people on my shoulders, so I am so sad and must live on with strength.” I didn’t say anything, but Liu Weijun said a long speech. He spoke very slowly, and he said every word of the speech, taking a full minute.

His voice was so uncomfortable to listen to, but the content of his words could not be ignored. I thought of those people last night, and then looked at him again. It was hard for me not to have a feeling of admiration for him. After a moment of silence, I said, “You live a wonderful life. Really, the right way that your father talked about has truly been passed down in you.”

“Haha, thank you… I’m not a Taoist, and many things are not entirely because of my father. I just want to thank him for making me a man with flesh and blood.” After saying this, Liu Weijun paused for a moment, and then said, “What do you want to know? Let’s get to the point. My condition is destined to mean that I can’t talk for too long or too much.”

I knew that Liu Weijun was not lying to me. Because of his physical condition, I said the story I had heard when I arrived, and then said to Liu Weijun, “I have a lot of questions about this place. Now I want to know everything. Can you tell me?”

Liu Weijun was silent for a moment, then said directly, “What my father did when he went out was originally a secret… and everything has to start with this person Wei Donglai.”