Chapter Twenty-Six: Kindness

"Old man, why don't you come home so late?" The object of Liu Dong's inquiry was an old rural woman wearing a navy blue blouse with a few patches on the cuffs, black pants with patches on the knees of the lower body, but very clean, and black cloth shoes common in the countryside on her feet, with gray hair and a shriveled face.

Hearing his words, the old woman, who was huddled in the dim light on the side of the road, quickly wiped the corners of her eyes with her thin right hand, and then raised her head to look over.

At this moment, standing from Liu Dong's point of view, and then the bright light of the street lamp, he could clearly see the traces of time on the old man's face like a knife and an axe, the dark and thin cheeks, the towering cheekbones on both sides, and the deep wrinkles on his forehead that were tangled together like old bark, all of which showed that this was an old man who had tasted the tribulations of life and the devastation of time.

"Young man, are you talking to me?" After looking left and right, and seeing that there was no one else around, the old woman couldn't help but look at it, and the young man who was standing in front of her at the moment asked in a cautious and soft tone.

"Yes, auntie, it's getting dark, why don't you go home!" asked Liu Dong with a smile. Born in the countryside, he is very aware of the difficulties of life in the countryside, so his face is full of pleasantness.

After listening to his words, the old woman sighed deeply and suddenly, the sad look on her face became a little heavier, and the corners of her eyes that had just cried appeared a trace of crystalline color. Both hands subconsciously tightened the small burden of white flowers on a blue background in his arms.

"Auntie, if you have any difficulties, just tell me, maybe I can really help!" Liu Dong said with a pleasant face.

After the old woman heard this, she subconsciously looked up at him, she had been in the city for two days, except for when she took the initiative to talk to others when she was shopping, there was really no other person who took the initiative to help him so far.

Also, although looking at the young man in front of him dressed up, he didn't look like a rich man. But the old woman could feel an inexplicable sense of security in him. In addition, I have eaten too much closed-door soup in the past few days, and I feel a little depressed, so after hearing Liu Dong's question again, I couldn't help but tell the things hidden in my heart one by one.

It turned out that this old lady was from the suburbs of Quancheng, a small mountain village called Liujiayao. The surname is Jia, the ancestors of the three generations are farmers who do their duty, but the ancestors of the wife still have some origins, there were big officials in the Qianlong Dynasty, but later the family fell into the middle of the road, and then returned to his hometown.

However, now that many years have passed, although the family no longer has the ancestral scenery, it is not difficult to live with the beautiful carpenter work of his wife and a few acres of land at home.

However, the family, which was originally considered solid, had problems with the education of its children. A handful of and a handful of urine, almost none of the three children who worked hard to raise them were filial, not only did they divide the land under the name of the old couple, but the property they earned over the years was divided up by three unfilial sons, and finally they were driven out of the house.

Although such a lack of morality has made the people in the village poke their backbones openly and secretly, and the village has mediated from it many times, but this is a family matter, and it is difficult for outsiders to interfere. Therefore, after several ineffective peace talks, the village had no choice but to give up.

In the end, I just found another old house where no one lived and let the old couple go in. Fortunately, the carpenter in the hands of the old man at home has good craftsmanship, and with the care of the villagers, the two of them don't have to worry about eating and drinking.

However, 'there are unforeseen circumstances in the sky, and people have good fortune and misfortune', and people are going to be unlucky, and they really drink cold water and stuff their teeth.

One afternoon, the old man, who was about to go home from his carpentry work, suddenly foamed at the mouth and collapsed to the ground. Then, after the villagers who rushed to the county hospital with a tractor, the old man was diagnosed with high blood pressure.

According to the bills issued by the hospital, the hospitalization fee alone costs 30,000 yuan, and if you add medical expenses and other miscellaneous expenses, it will cost at least 100,000 yuan.

100,000 yuan, even for the city people whose income is quite good now, is a huge amount of money, let alone a mountain village with a per capita annual income of less than 5,000.

This amount of money, which is almost astronomical, the old lady who is almost impoverished in the family naturally can't come up with so much money, but fortunately, the people in the village came forward and borrowed almost from door to door, and barely scraped together 10,000 yuan. Then, to put it mildly, and the doctor's medical ethics are not as bad as they were later, so seeing that they are pitiful, he let the old man be admitted to the hospital first.

However, the next medical expenses have become a big problem in front of the old lady, but fortunately, the antique market has continued to heat up in recent years, and people in the village often come to collect antique cultural relics. This reminded the old lady of a calligraphy and painting and a few books that her old man treasured, which is said to have been handed down by his ancestors. When he was kicked out of the house by his son, the old man brought almost nothing with him, just these few things.

After thinking of this, the old lady also held the mentality of a dead horse as a live horse doctor, and showed it to a few people who came to the village to dig up old goods, but their level was limited, and they couldn't see the authenticity of these things at all, so they gave a few hundred yuan at most. And this is naturally too far from the value in the heart that the old lady expects.

Later, she was still a little antique dealer with a good heart, and after listening to her family, she was also moved by compassion, so she pointed out that she came to the antique market in Quancheng to try. She said that maybe her things could be sold for a high price here, enough to cover the huge medical bills.

In this way, the old lady took a village tractor and traveled dozens of kilometers of mountain roads to Quancheng. Although she asked for directions and found the Quancheng antique market in the center of the city, none of the antique owners were willing to pay a high price after seeing the things in her hand, and basically none of them exceeded 5,000.

Although 5,000 yuan is a lot, it is still too little for the old lady who urgently needs a huge amount of money to save her life, so the things are left in her hands, seeing that two days have passed, if she doesn't make up the rest of the money, the hospital will start to drive people out, so the old lady is now unable to advance or retreat, and can only stay in the provincial capital with the hope of just in case.

"If he's gone, then I don't want to live anymore!" said the old man's eyes, cloudy tears appeared in the corners of his eyes, and his face showed a deep sadness.

Mourning is greater than life and death, which may be the truest portrayal of the old lady's heart now.

After listening to her words, Liu Dong couldn't help but sigh deeply, if her son is not filial, and her only husband who depends on her life dies again, then this old woman will almost completely lose her livelihood, and it is better to die clean than to live in pain. It's no wonder that the old man has thoughts of suicide in his heart.

"Auntie, let's do it, I want what you sold, what do you think of 150,000?" Liu Dong said without hesitation.

If this kind of thing happened before, then he might give a few hundred dollars out of sympathy. But now he has money in his hands, although 150,000 is more, but for the current Liu Dong, it is not a lot of money.

"Little man, are you telling the truth?" the old woman looked shocked, her face was full of excitement, the tears in the corners of her eyes had not yet dried, and even her body trembled slightly.

"Of course it's true, you come with me!" Saying that, Liu Dong parked the car again, led the old woman to a commercial bank ATM not far away, took it out of his pocket, and with a thought, the bank card that was originally placed in the mustard seed space immediately automatically appeared in his hand, after inserting it, entering the password, and clicking on the query, a series of long numbers appeared on the display screen, a total of 3,655,500 yuan, in addition to Liu Dong's own more than 100,000 yuan, the remaining 3.5 million yuan is the money earned from selling snuff bottles this afternoon.

Looking at this number, although he had known it before, but now when he really saw this money and the real appearance in his bank card, Liu Dong couldn't help but feel a little excited.

After taking a deep breath and calming down his mood a little, Liu Dong tapped the withdrawal with his right index finger. 150,000 yuan is not something that can be withdrawn at one time. It took Liu Dong five minutes before he took out the money.

"Auntie, you order!" Although it was the first time to take so much money, Liu Dong couldn't bear to let go. But looking at the old lady next to him with a nervous and excited look, he still quickly handed over the money.

"Young man, don't order it, thank you, you really saved the lives of our old couple!" As she spoke, the old lady had tears in her eyes, trembling her body, and knelt in front of Liu Dong with a 'poof'.