Chapter 42: Listening to the Radio Play

Chapter 42: Listening to the Radio Play

"Auntie Lu might forget others, but she’d never forget you," Nurse Wang Wan, caught up in his cheerful tone, joked lightly, but soon a look of concern reappeared on her face.

She glanced at Xiao Wu, hesitated, unable to let go of Ye Man’s eye problem, wanting to ask for details, but unsure whether she should continue to inquire.

Xiao Wu smiled at her, "I’m Xiao Man’s personal assistant, surnamed Wu, named Wu Qing—just call me Xiao Wu."

Ye Man explained to the nurse about the event of being recognized by a wealthy family. Wang Wan exclaimed with surprise and slapped her thigh, "Xiao Man, this is such great news! Why didn’t you say it earlier? Oh, you kid, too busy to find time, but you should’ve called and told your sisters! Good news should be shared—it’s worrying when you don’t, wasting all the love we usually give you!"

"Quick, have some candy to celebrate!" She grabbed a handful of tangerine peel candy that Ye Man usually loved from under the desk and stuffed it into his hand.

This candy was usually placed at the front desk for visitors to eat. Ye Man loved it, and every visit, regardless of who was on duty, he’d leave with his pockets stuffed.

Ye Man never turned down his sisters, taking the candy without hesitation, accepting as much as was given, and then sweetly thanking them, making everyone happy with his words.

Wang Wan was truly happy for him. If someone else had been recognized by a wealthy family, she’d have wondered why it wasn’t her, but when it happened to Ye Man, she felt so energized she could eat two extra bowls of rice at the canteen later.

Good people deserve good things—life’s worth living with that kind of energy!

After grabbing the candy, Wang Wan remembered he was different now, and cheerfully added, "There’s nothing special here."

Seeing Ye Man take the candy, unwrap a piece, and eat it, his fair face beaming with pride, like he’d won a battle, Wang Wan joked with a smile, "Now that you’re a rich young man, you still love this?"

Tangerine peel candy—super cheap, just a few bucks for a big bag.

Ye Man smiled, his eyes crinkling, "It’s different—candy from my sister tastes sweeter."

Knowing he was a smooth talker, from eighty to eight, if he wanted to charm you, he could. Wang Wan was still beaming.

She tucked the pen into her shirt pocket and stepped out from behind the desk, "Follow me—Auntie Lu’s probably being pushed by Liu Ping, sunbathing in the garden."

Xiao Wu led Ye Man, following Wang Wan, through the corridor to the garden of the nursing home.

Ye Man released Xiao Wu’s arm, "Feel free to wander around—I’ll call you when it’s time to go."

Ye Man had been to the nursing home countless times—he knew it like the back of his hand, could walk it blindfolded, and with the help of a cane, he could manage on his own.

Xiao Wu responded, but didn’t go far, keeping a slight distance, keeping Ye Man within his sight.

Liu Ping, another nurse pushing Grandma Lu for sunbathing, saw Ye Man from afar and happily called out to him, "Xiao Man, you’re here—over here!"

Wang Wan brought him over but didn’t leave, hesitantly walking up to Xiao Wu, "Hello, can I ask what happened to Xiao Man’s eyes? How long will it take to recover? He was fine the last time he came here."

Remembering the scene, Wang Wan couldn’t help but smile, "He told us at that time that he was about to finish paying off his debts, and then planned to travel to other cities, settle down in a place he liked, and then he wouldn’t be able to visit Auntie Lu often. We hadn’t heard from him for so long, we thought he’d already left Jing City."

"...It won’t recover," Xiao Wu said.

Wang Wan was stunned, turned to look at Ye Man’s personal assistant.

Suddenly realizing something, the smile that had been on her face since earlier fell away.

Watching Ye Man slowly walk to Auntie Lu’s side from afar, squat in front of the wheelchair, and rest his head on Auntie Lu’s lap, she felt a bit suffocated.

Both of them fell silent.

After a while, Wang Wan murmured, "This kid, something happened and he didn’t tell anyone—he can’t see anymore, but he can’t just disappear without a word."

Well, now I’ve lost my appetite for lunch.

The system took a long time to regain its composure.

"Ye Man, you... you weren’t lying to me before, were you?"

"Huh? Which part are you talking about?"

The system: "..."

What else could it be!

Wait, did you lie about other things too?

"The part at the beginning, where you said you had a grandmother with Alzheimer’s, surnamed Lu—"

Ye Man blinked slowly and answered, "That... was made up, you already knew that."

Hearing this, the system was even more baffled, completely clueless about what was going on.

"Then who is this Grandma Lu?"

"She’s the grandma who lives next door to me. She used to live with her granddaughter, but later, due to some issues, her son and daughter-in-law took the granddaughter away, and the whole family moved abroad."

Ye Man spoke slowly, calmly recounting a very ordinary story.

"Grandma Lu has Alzheimer’s. As time goes by, her condition has progressed, and she forgets more and more. Her son’s family originally wanted to take her abroad to live with them, but Grandma Lu said that at her age, and with this illness, she didn’t want to move to a place full of strangers speaking a language she couldn’t understand. Plus, she said there were still things she cared about in the country, so she decided to move into this nursing home herself."

This nursing home has a great environment, top-notch facilities, and caring staff. It’s just a bit pricey, but her son and daughter are doing well abroad and can fully afford the costs here.

When it came to Grandma Lu, Ye Man knew her inside out: "Let me tell you, Grandma Lu was a teacher back in the day and knew a ton. After retiring, she even sponsored an orphanage and often went there to teach the kids. She poured a lot of heart into it. I guess she was worried that if she went abroad, no one would look after the orphanage, and she couldn’t bear to leave the kids, so she decided to stay."

The system listened quietly and hesitantly asked, "So what exactly did you lie to me about?"

It still couldn’t figure it out.

"Well..." Ye Man dodged the question.

Liu Ping was staring blankly at the white cane.

The elderly woman in the wheelchair had her silver hair neatly combed and pinned up. As her illness worsened, she wasn’t as lively as she used to be ten years ago. Her eyes were cloudy and vacant, and even as she looked at Ye Man, who was resting his head on her lap, it seemed like she was just zoning out.

Finally, it seemed like she realized something and slowly raised her hand, placing it on Ye Man’s head. Her frail voice called out to him haltingly, "Jun... Junjun..."

The system was baffled.

Did she mistake him for someone else?

But Ye Man, when called by a name that wasn’t his, responded cheerfully.

"It’s me, Grandma."

"Ye, Ye Man..." the system stammered, "why is she calling you Junjun?"

"Oh, that. She thinks I’m her granddaughter. Her granddaughter’s name is Lü Junxing. She went abroad and hasn’t come back for years, so I occasionally come over to act as her ‘granddaughter’ and chat with her." In reality, Ye Man had no relationship with Grandma Lu. When she was lucid, she probably didn’t even know who he was.

After saying this, Ye Man paused, hesitated for a moment, and then whispered, "I told you before that my dad passed away, I had no money for food, and I was starving, so the neighbor’s grandmother brought me food."

"...I lied. The food... I actually stole it."

He didn’t just do it once.

The system’s voice quivered, "What did you steal?"

Ye Man: "Seven... seven, seven hamburgers."

And all with different flavors...

He was nervous; it was the first time he had told someone his secret.

He had planned to keep it buried, to take it to the grave.

If people found out, who knows how much they’d look down on him.

But the system wouldn’t, right?

Slap. ...Slap, slap!

Ye Man waited, but instead of a response, he only heard the sharp sound of slapping.

"Little Man..."

Ye Man was puzzled: "Brother Tong, are you crying?"

"Wah wah wah wah!"

Ye Man: "?"

What’s going on? Why is Brother Tong wailing like a siren?

"You, you..." The system issued its first-ever accusation, filled with rage and heartache, "You—how can you mix truth with your lies!"

He was serious—why didn’t he just say so!

Ye Man breathed a sigh of relief; it wasn’t a regretful outburst.

He chuckled: "Brother Tong, you’re so naive. How can people lie about things they don’t know? It’s all about stitching things together here and there."

The system was furious: "Don’t you dare call me naive! Anyone can call me naive, but not you! You’re the real fool!"

Being mocked by Ye Man for being naive would be the system’s ultimate humiliation!

"Ye Man! From now on, you tell me the truth—no lies, not even half-truths. And if I misunderstand you, you explain it to me! You make things clear!"

Ye Man: "Heh heh."

The system: "Don’t think you can get away with that laugh!"

If the system could crawl out of his head, it’d kneel before this big shot!

Ye Man ducked his head: "Alright... alright."

Ye Man thought to himself, hadn’t he already come clean? His deepest secrets were practically out in the open. Why was Brother Tong still angry?

Moreover, what others wanted to hear mattered far more to Ye Man than what he wanted to say.

Brother Tong was angry, and Ye Man’s focus was on figuring out what would make him happy and how to calm him down, rather than clarifying himself if he was misunderstood for telling the truth.

As long as the person listening to him is happy, they will give him benefits. This is the survival strategy Ye Man has discovered.

Does it matter if what he says is true or false, or what he really thinks? Does anyone really care? Isn’t that just pointless? Who cares?

Ye Man suddenly remembered that night by the sea.

As if recalling something, he sighed softly to himself...

After spending some time chatting with Grandma Lü, Ye Man planned to leave. He had only occasionally made time to visit before, not doing much else.

When leaving, the nurses from the nursing home came out to see him off. They pulled him aside, laughing and crying as they spoke, even packing extra candied orange peel in a bag for him.

Ye Man repeatedly assured them that he was doing well now, with a full wallet and a full stomach, and that he would definitely not disappear without reason and would keep in touch regularly. Only then did they finally let him leave.

Wang Wan wiped her eyes and looked across the street: "Huh? Xiaoman, did you arrange for a friend to pick you up? There's someone over there who seems to be waiting for you."

Ye Man shook his head, and Xiao Wu glanced over and leaned in to say, "Master Xiaoman, it looks like Mr. Xu is here."

As autumn set in and the weather turned cooler, the man across the street wasn't wearing a suit but had changed into a long black coat, with the collar of his shirt unbuttoned and the sleeves rolled up to his forearms, revealing a section of strong and powerful arms, crossed in front of him. The tall, long-legged man leaned against the car door, having stood there for who knows how long.

Seeing that they had finished speaking, Xu Huaiting walked over.

Ye Man, holding the bag full of candies, looked up: "Mr. Xu? What are you doing here?"

Xu Huaiting: "Just passing by, what a coincidence."

Ye Man: "It is quite a coincidence...?"

Xu Huaiting nodded to the people around, noticing that Ye Man was thinly dressed and his fingers holding the bag were slightly red. His hand in his pocket twitched, but he restrained himself.

"Let me take you home."

"If you're busy, go ahead; don't worry about me."

"I’ve got nothing going on. Regarding what you said about going to the mountain, I have some questions I'd like to discuss with you."

Ye Man's attitude changed instantly, turning to Xiao Wu and saying, "You drive back on your own; I’ll ride with Mr. Xu."

"Master Xiaoman, this..."

"Ah, don’t worry about it; I’ve got some important stuff to talk over with Mr. Xu," Ye Man waved him off, "Go on, get going."

Xu Huaiting gave his phone number to Xiao Wu, "He's with me, don't worry, I'll take good care of him."

After seeing off Xiao Wu and saying goodbye to the nurses at the nursing home, Ye Man got into Xu Huaiting's car.

Xu Huaiting turned up the heater a bit, not starting the car immediately, and asked Ye Man, "Are your hands cold?"

Ye Man hadn’t noticed until Xu Huaiting pointed it out, realizing his hands were a bit stiff.

But it wasn’t a big issue.

Just as he was about to shake his head, Xu Huaiting grabbed his wrist, pulled it over, and slipped it into his coat pocket.

"To warm up?"

The pocket was already warm from his hand being held there for so long.

Nothing warms you up faster than body heat, and the leftover warmth in the pocket was just that.

Ye Man's fingers curled slightly in his own pocket, reluctant to pull them out, and he quietly shrunk further into the seat.

It was already such a small space, and he didn’t know where else he could possibly shrink himself.

Xu Huaiting glanced at him, noticing he hadn’t withdrawn his hand, and his eyes sparkled with amusement. "You can warm your other hand at the vent."

He leaned over to help fasten Ye Man’s seatbelt.

"Would you like to listen to music or watch a movie? What do you usually like to listen to? It’s rush hour, so it’ll take us over two hours to get there."

"Usually... I listen to short dramas, audiobooks, and radio dramas," Ye Man answered honestly.

The latter two were new to him. Before losing his sight, he mainly watched short dramas with the owner of a Luosifen shop. Now, without the visuals, he sometimes felt like something was missing. Occasionally, he struggled to follow the plot. The audiobooks and radio dramas, with their narrations, were easier for him to follow.

However, he had only recently started exploring them and hadn’t fully figured out the apps. He had only opened them a few times, randomly selected something from the rankings, and played it briefly to test the features.

"Do you have them on your phone? Show me."

Ye Man unlocked his phone and handed it to him.

Xu Huaiting tinkered with it for a while, connecting it to the car’s Bluetooth.

"This looks like a radio drama. Which one would you like to listen to?"

"Anything is fine. I’m open to anything."

"Then I’ll just keep playing it."

After two seconds, the car speakers filled with the sounds of fabric rustling and ambiguous wet noises.

A male voice emitted a muffled groan of pain.

Two seconds later, the same voice, now flustered and angry, hissed, "Let me go! How dare you!"

Another deeper male voice chuckled, "Why wouldn’t I dare? Relax, we’re on the 30th floor. No one can see through the floor-to-ceiling windows. Why are you so tense? It’s been five years, but it seems your body hasn’t forgotten me."

Ye Man: "..."

Xu Huaiting narrowed his eyes, studying him. "You..."

He seemed to be carefully choosing his words.

"Do you like floor-to-ceiling windows?"

Ye Man blinked at Xu Huaiting, his face turning redder and redder amidst the increasingly inappropriate sounds and dialogue.

A silent sob echoed within him.

"Brother Tong, please dig a hole and bury me. I never want to see Xu Huaiting again in this lifetime, wuwuwa!"