Nurses and patients bustled about, moving back and forth in a hurried rhythm, yet no one noticed Xu Zhi. He walked through the Beijing Oncology Hospital, a place from his past. He had spent a significant amount of his savings for treatment and hospitalization here before, and the place brought back many memories. "I wonder if any of my old fellow patients are still here?" he thought, a flicker of emotion crossing his face.
A murmur of voices reached his ears. "Doctor, how is my son's condition?" "We still have money at home, don't worry about the treatment..." Thousands of sounds from the entire building flooded his mind but were instantly filtered by the immense processing power of his demon core brain. As a god transcending humanity, he felt no sense of chaos or sensory overload. Conversations, consultations, urgent pleas, shouts of anger, cries of pain – all these sounds reached him. A vast hospital, a social space existing between life and death, truly reflects the myriad facets of human existence.
Xu Zhi passed by one patient room after another when he suddenly spotted a familiar nurse. "Nurse Zhang?" Xu Zhi called out.
The nurse paused, took a moment to remember, then turned and looked him up and down. His appearance was even more gaunt, his hair thinner, and a flicker of sympathy crossed her eyes. "Haven't seen you in three months. Are you here for a follow-up? Just came from Professor Li's?"
Xu Zhi did not contradict her.
"How were the results? Well..." The nurse suddenly stopped herself, then looked in the direction Xu Zhi was heading. "Are you here to see Old Li and the others? Only Old Li is left in that room now."
Xu Zhi said goodbye to the nurse, turned the corner, and walked upstairs to his old familiar ward. He pushed open the door to find mostly new faces, but the expressions of bewilderment, despair, and dullness remained unchanged. By the window, one familiar face remained.
A gentle and composed middle-aged man lay on the hospital bed, wearing a gown, his face pale, his head shaven. He was engrossed in his tablet, but at the sound from the doorway, he sharply turned his head.
"Xu Zhi?" he said, surprised. "Three months, and you've aged quite a bit, haven't you? Still alive?"
"It's me," Xu Zhi replied, sitting on the edge of the bed and placing the fruit on the nearby table.
"Here for a nostalgic visit, I presume? Everyone else is gone; it's just me in this room." He clearly wasn't new to this situation. "Little Chen from the next bed, only twenty-one. He passed away suddenly one night, about half a month after you left... His parents went bankrupt trying to save him, and they cried terribly for days."
He spoke with a calm expression. "Uncle Qiang ran out of money and went home to recuperate, saying he wouldn't continue treatment... On the other hand, Little Cheng, whose family is well-off, couldn't afford to stay hospitalized and didn't want to. He went home when his condition stabilized and only comes back for chemotherapy... He even visited me in the ward yesterday after his chemo, just like you... If you want to see him, ask the doctors or nurses; they can tell you when he'll be back at the hospital."
The middle-aged man sat up in bed and briefed Xu Zhi on the situation, clearly a seasoned individual. Having been hospitalized for several years, it was clear that this wasn't the first time he'd encountered such situations or had visitors looking for former patients. Even Xu Zhi was just a minor ripple in his long hospital stay; he had witnessed countless patients come and go, experiencing many partings and deaths. Most of his fellow patients had left, yet he remained resilient in the ward. His family was well-off; this 'big brother' from the south, a seasoned socialite who had come to the capital for treatment, was also a small business owner with a fortune of tens of millions, running bars and KTVs. He wasn't unable to afford a private room; rather, he enjoyed socializing and was a unique character. He had even helped Xu Zhi contact doctors and provided some financial assistance back then. Xu Zhi lowered his gaze, finding it all quite interesting. Three months really wasn't enough to change much about reality.
Xu Zhi glanced at his tablet and saw he was watching a fan-made movie from the "Spore Evolution" forum. The man chuckled, his face filled with anticipation. "'Spore Evolution,' have you seen it? It's really popular lately. The mythical civilization history in it is so fresh! When I think about it, it feels so real. You don't think Earth could be the only civilization in the vast universe, do you? That would be ridiculous. The universe is so immense; there should be countless possibilities. Perhaps even those ancient gods and Buddhas were simply manifestations of physics and chemistry. It's quite wondrous."Xu Zhi simply listened."It's been a while since we last met, and I've had many thoughts."
He continued, "After all, I don't have much longer to live. I made too many mistakes in my youth, and now it's time to pay for them. No wife, no children, so dying is fine... Oh, right, how's your treatment going? It would be a pity for you, a young man, to die. And your girlfriend from work ran off too! Weren't you supposed to go back to your hometown to live out your remaining days? Tickets to Beijing aren't cheap, you know."
The surrounding patients' expressions subtly changed, uncomfortable with him revealing such painful truths. Yet they pretended not to hear, as they seemed to have become accustomed to his character over the past few days.
Xu Zhi paid him no mind, sitting down and asking, "Has anyone come to see you recently?"
"Someone came this morning, to be honest, some people these days are quite heartless," he said. His gaze was complex as he raised his head. "For over twenty years, I've sponsored so many people's education, probably hundreds. Ninety-nine percent of them don't even come to see me; they think getting sponsored is a given. I've seen through those people; human nature is cold and harsh. But I still have to help. I have no wife or children, so doing charity is my personal pleasure."
The surrounding patients secretly admired him. This Li Li was a straightforward person, a frank and easygoing boss from Guangdong, a good man.
"You ask me why I don't go back to my big villa in Guangdong? This place is great! There are nurses in the ward, and people to chat with. Everyone here is interesting and speaks so well. If you ask me, those of us in the same ward, if we like someone, we give them a hand. Many in our ward have been helped, and you helped too. Young people's lives are still worth fighting for. Like Little Chen, twenty-one, why shouldn't we help? That person was no good, and his parents weren't good either. Karma! They knew it was karma themselves. They cried terribly back then, and I was laughing next to them. His parents picked up their pillows and threw them at me..."
Pfft! A patient who had just been admitted and was drinking water beside him instantly choked.
"What are you laughing at? Tell me, in this society, many people nowadays don't show gratitude, right!?" Li Li looked around at the other beds, his face serious as he sought opinions.
The other patients dared not utter a sound.
"Yes, yes, yes," someone agreed.
"The world is cold and harsh; not a single one shows gratitude."
Li Li continued, "On the contrary, back in my early years, right after I graduated from university, I was full of entrepreneurial drive. The group of young women I was with – even though I led them into the flesh trade, and everyone looked down on them, calling them lowly... But twenty-odd years have passed, and they've all grown old like me. They traveled thousands of miles to Beijing to see me. Just yesterday, seven or eight of them gathered in the ward, and the uninformed patients thought I was quite lucky with women."
The nearby patients were utterly stunned! He had been talking about *them*! So he wasn't a good person himself, engaged in such morally bankrupt business, cursed others before, and even laughed aloud when someone died? What a scoundrel he must be. And those women he brought into the trade, they traveled all the way to Beijing to see him after more than twenty years? Yet they brought vegetables and fruits, offered peaceful condolences, and some even choked up and cried. The other patients had witnessed this; those expressions couldn't be faked. What kind of situation was this?
This was a man with a story.
"What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen someone use money from the flesh trade to do charity every year?" Li Li glared, his eyes wide. "You young folks are too naive! And you, don't think you've seen a lot of people just because you're a taxi driver! Don't be fooled by my easygoing demeanor; it's a disguise. I've dealt with quite a few people, you know. And yesterday, when those women came to see me, they're all seasoned pros at entertaining men. Do you really think their emotions were genuine? Actually, when I saw them walk into the ward, I was crying bitterly inside, but they were probably laughing out loud inwardly. Didn't you see me try to drive them away with a pillow? And before they left, they were blubbering, calling me a good person, putting on quite a show!"
The patients beside his bed were bewildered once again. The world is truly full of wonders. By now, no one knew whether what he said was true or false. He was a deeply layered character, yet everyone still respected him—respecting this eccentric man who had endured hardships and whose life was surely filled with legendary tales of struggle and endeavor.
Xu Zhi simply offered his condolences, listened to the man's boisterous rambling for a while, and then left. He then walked around the hospital again, passing by patient rooms one by one, carefully sifting through them until his choice of candidate was finally settled. Except for those with extraordinary talent, Xu Zhi generally did not consider young people. After all, someone in their twenties was akin to an infant in the relatively long-lived transcendent world. Only individuals with extensive experience could truly carve out possibilities in that realm.
[33 seconds ago] Chapter 641: Two Great Rivers
[2 minutes ago] Chapter 792: Destiny Begins
[9 minutes ago] Chapter 1443: 龘
10557 · 0 · 17
14639 · 0 · 36