Origin

Fang Yi went to greet the prison officials, and Wu Zhongyuan also left the smoke-filled room and went outside to get some fresh air.

At this time, the prisoners in the prison area have already begun to have sex. Each of them has shaved his head, and there is an unconcealable decadence and helplessness between his eyebrows. For most people, losing their freedom is the most terrifying thing, which means they cannot see their loved ones. Friends also mean that you have no chance to participate in everything that happens outside.

There are many people who claim that they like quietness, but in fact they are just Ye Gong who loves dragons and just express their sorrows to write poems. There are very few people who really like quietness. Only those who are strong enough can enjoy quietness. Ordinary people cannot bear loneliness. They like They like to participate, like to be lively, and like to socialize. In their view, this meaningless busyness is about gaining and possessing. Not going out for a day is like suffering a huge loss.

The prison authorities were originally in awe of Wu Zhongyuan, fearing that they would complain if they did not cooperate well. When they heard that the two were leaving, they were instantly relieved. After trying to get the two of them to eat to no avail, the prison authorities sent a car to take them to the city.

The prison authorities sent the best cars in the prison, and they ran very fast and smoothly. Wu Zhongyuan had a sudden idea to pick a few good cars to send back, but he rejected this idea as soon as it surfaced. It was not because of lack of ability. , but the road conditions in ancient times were poor and there were no gas stations.

If a person is strong enough, even random thoughts will appear to outsiders to be thinking deeply. How could Fang Yi and the driver know that Wu Zhongyuan was in a daze and was considering whether to send a car back, and they thought he was thinking about some important issue.

It was around ten o'clock in the morning when we arrived in the city. Fang Yi was not in a hurry to go to the airport. Instead, he found a seafood market and let Wu Zhongyuan choose what he wanted to eat. Then he found a small shop and paid people to help make it.

Wu Zhongyuan had money, but Fang Yi refused to let him spend money and insisted on inviting him. Wu Zhongyuan had no choice but to let him go.

Nowadays, many people envy the iron rice bowl and nine-to-five job of public officials and hate them because of it. In fact, the salary of public officials is not high, which can only ensure that they have enough food and clothing, and the price they pay is that they will never become rich. , because their superiors do not allow them to do business, and if they want to gain both rights, they will face the risk of entering.

The meal cost Fang Yi more than 4,000 yuan, more than 1,000 yuan for food and more than 3,000 yuan for drinks. The two of them drank a bottle of Maotai. People often say what brand of cigarettes and wine they like, and this one is the best. Son, this is actually all self-deception. In terms of taste and quality, Moutai Zhonghua is indeed superior.

During the meal, Fang Yi played the emotional card fiercely, recalling the scene when the two of them searched for the mandarin turtle from Poyang Lake, and also told about the missions he and Wang Xinran had performed together. Wu Zhongyuan knew that Fang Yi did this for a purpose, but he was not disgusted because Most of the goodwill is actually for something. You cannot deny the other party's goodwill just because the other person has something for it.

The alcohol content in ancient times was very low;

It was not even 20 degrees. He suddenly drank more than 50 degrees and did not use his spiritual energy to suppress the alcohol. Wu Zhongyuan was a little tipsy. He carried a lot of qi-boosting pills with him and found a light blue one among them. He gave Fang Yi the Dong Xuan Spirit Pill, and then gave Fang Yi a ride, sending him directly back to the 18th Precinct.

After seeing Fang Yi off, Wu Zhongyuan began to think about where to go. He didn't go far away. When he saw a nursing home not far away, he went there invisibly. He didn't have any specific objects to observe when he came back this time. Any place or a random person would be there. May become the target of his observation.

When he went to the nursing home, the nursing home was serving meals. It was an ordinary nursing home with average food. The people living there were all elderly people in their seventies or eighties, with more old men and fewer old ladies.

Atmosphere and aura are real things. Places with many elderly people will inevitably have an air of twilight. The biggest characteristic of the elderly is that they are slow, slow to eat, slow to talk, slow to walk, slow no matter what they do.

After dinner, the old people began to bask in the sun. They could not avoid talking and chatting while basking in the sun. The topics were mainly divided into two types. One was talking about children. Everyone has vanity, and the elderly are no exception. They will talk about their children. How talented and busy you are, that’s why you can’t take care of them yourself and can only send them to a nursing home.

This is actually a kind of self-deception. It can be seen that they do not like nursing homes. The elderly who are sent to nursing homes all have the idea of ​​being abandoned, but they try their best to find excuses for their children to comfort themselves.

In addition to their children, the elderly talk more about the past, that is, recalling the past, what they did when they were young and worthy of showing off, and what they did themselves that others did not dare to do.

Wu Zhongyuan has good patience. He has been hearing the old people returning to their houses since about three o'clock in the afternoon. The conclusion is that these old people have not actually done anything out of the ordinary. There are very few things worth remembering and gratifying. In fact, they are doing the same thing at the same time. Education, under similar circumstances, most people have similar ideologies and life trajectories. Few people are truly different, and more people think they are different.

Wu Zhongyuan waited until dinner at the nursing home before leaving. He did not blame those who sent their parents to the nursing home because the elderly were depressed in the nursing home. There were very few truly unfilial children. Most of them were poor people who were busy making a living. I don't have much energy to take care of and accompany my parents, so I can only send my parents here.

In fact, everyone should go to a nursing home to see those aging people. Being mediocre is not guilty, but being willing to be mediocre and not making progress is really guilty, even if it is just to have more bragging rights when you are old. You have to muster up the courage to do something spectacular.

The reason why this nursing home is crowded is because it is close to the hospital. Not far away is a large hospital in a prefecture-level city. Wu Zhongyuan went there again after nightfall.

He did not enter the ward, but sat on the roof of the building. His senses are now extremely sharp, and he can listen to multiple people talking at the same time without losing his mind. The building he is in is the inpatient building of the oncology department, and most of the people living here are patients with malignant tumors. Tumor patients, to put it bluntly, are cancer patients.

Next to Wu Zhongyuan was a fruit basket and some dried fruits. He bought the fruit basket and dried fruits from the supermarket inside the hospital. This was a shady supermarket, and the things they sold were much more expensive than outside. If he ate this secretly, he would be cheated. of customers took revenge.

Everything in the world is condensed by breath, and everyone has a different breath. Because there are all patients with malignant tumors here, the air is gloomy and black. Wu Zhongyuan is like sitting on a large chimney with black smoke.

Wu Zhongyuan came at about six o'clock and sat there until about eleven o'clock in the evening. After eleven o'clock, almost all the patients and bedside companions fell asleep and could not hear anything.

In the five hours, he heard many different conversations, but they can be roughly classified into several categories. The most common ones were about the medical expenses. Most of them were rural patients, but there were also urban residents. Not to mention no medical insurance, even if there was medical insurance, there were many special drugs. There is no reimbursement. One person's illness can really bring down a family, and it can bring down the family in a short period of time.

At this time, people who believe in the value of the ordinary are blind. If you don’t have money, it’s useless to say anything. If you don’t have money, people won’t give you medicine. You can’t blame the hospital for being cruel, because the hospital also needs to survive, and from the perspective of equal exchange, treatment medicines are also important. We should give money to other hospitals.

Crying secretly, sighing, calling to borrow money, smoking cigarettes, all of these are of no avail. Everyone knows that work is tiring, and if you want to make money, you must put in more hard work and sweat. Who doesn't know that it is very comfortable to have a drink every now and then? I don’t know that it’s fun to play games after get off work. Who doesn’t know that fishing and playing on weekends are very pleasant, but comfort comes at a price, which is a reduction in income. Not only do you regret having less books when they are used up, but the same goes for money. Parents, wives and children need it when they need it. Being unable to pay yourself is a man's greatest sorrow and his greatest failure.

After five hours of listening, Wu Zhongyuan also heard a lot of lies. He was very puzzled that even though they were so ill, many patients still chose to believe the lies of their family members and believed that they were fine. They were overwhelmed by the strong desire to survive. Still afraid to face reality because of cowardice.

What should come will always come, and what should be faced sooner or later will not happen because of choosing not to face it. All patients have wishes and concerns, but after summarizing, Wu Zhongyuan discovered a pattern, that is, all regrets In fact, all dreams and wishes can be made before getting terminally ill. It’s not that God didn’t give them the chance, but that they kept delaying and slacking off, and didn’t start to worry until they got sick. This is obvious hindsight. If they don’t They may still be sick when they are in their 70s or 80s.

There are also some patients who are sober and can face reality bravely. They know that they are going to die soon and start to make funeral arrangements. The main manifestation is that they strongly demand to be discharged from the hospital and do not want to spend more money and harm their families.

As the saying goes, the Supreme Being is ruthless. The saint who guides the world must first detach himself from the emotions of the world. Only by detachment can he watch, and only by watching can he be fair. Logically speaking, Wu Zhongyuan should not take action to change anything, but in the end he still took action. Yes, it’s a female patient in the ward on the fifth floor.

This is a woman in her fifties, with her family by her side. They are all lying to her, saying that she is not seriously ill. However, the female patient knows that she has a terminal illness, but she does not expose her family's well-intentioned deception. , but cooperated with them fully, pretending as if nothing had happened, and in the subsequent conversation, he intentionally or unintentionally told his family how much savings he had at home and where he kept his jewelry.

When her family members forced themselves to smile, she was able to laugh along.

Unless you encounter a major change, you will never know who is a warrior and who is a coward. Wu Zhongyuan admires this woman's psychological quality, but what he admires more is her nobility. Most people will regard their family members as a trash can for negative emotions. Blindly pouring out her bitterness, hoping to get more care, this woman did not do that. She gave all her good emotions to her family, and took on the huge psychological pressure herself.

Zhuangzi said that gods have no merit and saints have no name. From this perspective, Wu Zhongyuan should quietly take action and retreat quietly without alerting anyone, not even the patient himself. However, Wu Zhongyuan did not do this, but showed up. He walked openly and openly into the ward where the woman was.

He was very touched by the woman's behavior, and he wanted to praise and praise her in front of her family and other patients in the ward, and he did so.

Before anyone could react, Wu Zhongyuan left the ward without giving the woman and her family a chance to thank him. The reason why he did this was not to get their thanks, but because he wanted to.

It was almost 11:30 when he left the hospital. Wu Zhongyuan was thinking about where to go again. Thinking of the bar that Big Nose had mentioned last night, he decided to go there and check it out. However, when he thought about it, it seemed a bit strange to always go to places where filth and evil were hidden. It was inappropriate, but after thinking about it again, it seemed that there was nothing wrong with it. The reason I came back this time was to observe the revelry and feasting.

After making up his mind, he got into a taxi in front of the hospital and said, "Go to the bar."

"Which bar?" the driver asked.

“The liveliest bar…”