"Senior, are you alright?"
Recovering slightly from her shock, Hui Yin looked towards the old man. The moonlight made his head full of white hair look silver, and Hui Yin stifled the impulse to touch it. His left hand was still clutching a bottle of beer.
He waved her concerns away. "I'm fine, I'm fine. You should worry more about yourself. You collapsed so suddenly."
Hui Yin's knees had already stopped shaking and she wanted to stand up, but she didn't want to leave the old man sitting by himself on the sidewalk.
"I'm okay," she said, slightly blushing at her brief show of weakness. "I was in shock, I guess. Senior, you should really stop drinking. It's not good for your health."
"Don't worry about this old man. I've lived enough, and if it's my time to die, then it's my time to die." He scrutinized her. "Girl, do you want a reward?"
Hui Yin blinked. "Reward?"
Then her mind caught his meaning, and Hui Yin fervently shook her head. Although she was poor, she could still afford to help an old man and not ask for compensation!
"No, no, it's alright, Senior doesn't need to reward me."
"No need to be so embarrassed, I'm just going to give you a small token of appreciation. But...ah?"
His eyes suddenly focused on her left hand, his expression turning into one of deep shock. Hui Yin frowned and looked at her hand as well, but she could see nothing there, only her own bare skin.
"Uh...Senior?"
Surprising her, the old man began to laugh uproariously, slapping his thigh and splashing the contents of his beer into the ground.
Hui Yin looked at him weirdly. Perhaps this man had already turned senile?
"Girl...hahaha! I was going to give you a gift, but it seems you have already received it, eh? Hahaha, what a coincidence!"
Hui Yin inched away. She respected her elders, but she feared the crazy ones. What if he abruptly attacked her? And he was still holding a bottle of beer.
Hui Yin had seen on the news how drunkards sometimes fight with each other by smashing beer bottles on their bodies, and the jagged pieces of glass that stabbed deep into their skin as they were rushed into the emergency room.
What a humiliating obituary it would be, for her to have survived nearly being hit by a bus only to end up being killed by the senile drunk old man whom she had saved.
The old man finally stopped laughing and took another swig from his bottle. The creases on his face became deeper as he glanced at her with a contemplative look.
"Hmm...but I still think that I need to give you a reward, girl. It seems that you have forgotten me, though you would remember it after a while. No helping it, I suppose. We'll have to see each other again."
"Senior, there's really no need..." began Hui Yin, but he cut her off.
"Do you think I'm ignorant? I already gave you a gift, but you're still having some problems. Tsk, tsk. If I gave it to you, you should have been certain about that person for sure. Now, if you want a new one, you have to break the old one."
Hui Yin stood up. She was starting to feel scared of this old man, since he looked so serious while talking nonsense.
"You'll recall me soon. And you'll seek for my help. But before that, there's no harm in a re-introduction. When we next meet, you have to call me by my name."
Hui Yin had already backed a few steps away. "Your name, Senior?"
She had no plans in telling him her name, but there shouldn't be any harm in hearing his.
The old man saluted her with his bottle.
"Girl, just call this old man of yours Yue Lao."