The most fleeting scenery often leaves the deepest impression. Although the Empress was immediately shrouded in mist after she rose, you still caught a glimpse of a view that set your blood racing in that instant.
"Cough, I’ll step out for a moment."
"No need, I haven’t exactly been shy from your gaze since we were kids."
"Never mind, just pretend you didn’t hear what I just said." With that, the Empress’s slender legs created ripples as she emerged from the bath. Three steps later, the mist around her body dispersed, replaced by a thin gauze that barely covered her graceful and enchanting figure.
Walking up to you, the Empress met your gaze directly, a stern expression replacing her previously relaxed demeanor as she asked, "What did you mean by saying Zhao’er’s Life Force is fading away?"
"You really don’t know?"
"Would I be asking if I knew?"
You nodded and told the Empress everything you knew. After hearing it, she fell silent.
"From what you’ve said, does that mean Zhao’er only has a decade or two left in this world?"
"As long as I’m alive, I won’t allow such a thing to happen."
You knew the Empress wouldn’t lie to you, for she had no reason to.
After learning about the situation, the Empress first looked shocked, but soon regained her composure and said, "I can’t do anything about this. However, if you truly want to find out the cause, you might start by investigating Zhao’er’s identity."
"Yes, Zhao’er’s identity is extraordinary. I took the opportunity of this trip to have my people investigate, but they’ve made little progress, or rather, they’re completely clueless." At this, the Empress sighed lightly and continued, "I reckon the only person who really knows about this is my elder sister. Unfortunately, with Grandma Meng Soup, her memories of past lives have already been erased, leaving no trace."
"Grandma Meng Soup? Alright, I’ll go find Grandma Meng right away and see if there’s a way for Er Ya to regain her memory!"
Saying this, you turned briskly and left under the Empress’s complex gaze.
After leaving the private courtyard of the Empress, you drove to the Beibei Kindergarten where Grandma Meng was last seen. However, by the time you arrived, kindergarten had already ended for the day.
After lingering for a moment, you turned and walked out of the alley, heading toward a chain supermarket not far away.
Before leaving home, you had promised to buy Zhao’er "Little Lover" cookies. Although it was said in jest, you felt obliged to fulfill your promise.
To your surprise, you actually found a box of cookies branded "Little Lover" in the supermarket. The cookies were shaped like a kissing couple, and the packaging stated that the "standard" way to eat them was for a man to hold the female-shaped cookie in his mouth and for a woman to do the same with the male-shaped cookie, leading to a natural kiss when they came together.
"What a lewd way to eat."
That was your first reaction upon reading the cookie instructions.
However, being equally lewd, you bought them anyway—and even grabbed an extra two packs.
With New Year’s Eve just two days away, the supermarket was bustling with people buying goods for the celebration. Checkout lines, usually serene, were now as frantic as ants, the cashiers wishing they had ten hands and feet.
Idle and bored, you stood among the crowd and began observing the people around you with your Sen Luo Eye.
Through the Sen Luo Eye, you noticed that threads of Life Force were fading from every person. Among these people, the elderly were losing it the most severely, followed by those with dark circles under their eyes, pale complexions, and weary expressions. These individuals likely belonged to the tribe of night owls who stayed up late into the night, reveling without sleep during holidays. Their Life Force was depleting faster than that of middle-aged people, almost on par with the elderly, and some were even worse off.
After the Life Force drifted away, most of it dissipated into the air, seeping into nature with the wind, infiltrating the clouds, and eventually rehydrating the earth as rain and dew.
Leaving the supermarket, as you carried a big bag of snacks and prepared to head home, you noticed an old man rummaging through a trash can not far from where you parked.
In the bitter cold of the late winter month, the elderly man’s clothing seemed extremely thin. He looked emaciated, as if he were merely skin over bones.
With his back to you, he was lifting some black trash bags out of the garbage can and opening them on the street, carefully searching through them. Soon, he found a partially eaten biscuit and an apple that had been bitten into and then discarded.
The old man resealed the black trash bags and returned them to the bin, then moved on to another trash can a few dozen meters away.
It wasn’t until the old man was far away that you realized his Life Force wasn’t fading at all!
You blinked, increasing the power of the Sen Luo Eye, but even after a thorough examination, you found that although his body emanated the breath of life, none of it was leaking out. Instead, it tightly wrapped around his seemingly hunched, gaunt, near-death physique.
You hastily threw your bag into the car, locked the door, and followed the old man.
The old man was not walking fast, and you didn’t barge up to him haphazardly. Instead, you followed at a discreet distance, observing his every move.
From his appearance, the old man didn’t look like a hermit master of any sort. No hermit master would be this unkempt, let alone scavenge through the trash for food!
In this manner, scavenging and picking, roughly half an hour passed, and the old man’s hands were now full with a plastic bag of "food," heading toward the overpass not far off.
The old man lived under the overpass, in a concrete hollow. While not warm, at least it provided some shelter from the wind.
Having followed him all this way, you simply walked up and stood outside the concrete hollow, peering inside.
As you had anticipated, the interior was dirty and disordered, yet strangely, it did not stink.
"Young one at the entrance, you’ve followed me all this way. Since you’re here, come in and take a seat," the old man in the hollow called out with an aged voice.
Without much thought, you walked right in.
"Hello, sir, sorry to disturb you."
Seeing your politeness, the old man couldn’t help but show a grin full of yellow teeth and said with a laugh, "Young fellow, this place isn’t bought or built by me; it’s public property. You can come and go as you please, no need to be courteous with an old wreck like me."
You scratched your head and said to the old man, "Sir, may I ask you a few questions?"
"How old are you this year, sir?"
"I was born in 1915, you do the math. How old does that make me?"
You were immediately dumbfounded; 1915 meant the fourth year of the Republic of China. Thus, the disheveled elderly man before you was astoundingly ninety-nine years old!