Chapter 23: The Boy who Cried
Di Tou paused for a second trying to figure out what the sound was. Wu-Wu coming out of an abandoned alley, was it a ghost? Err… It shouldn't be right? So far this seemed like a Xianxia world, not a supernatural one there wouldn't be ghosts would there be?
While Di Tou was right in thinking that this specific sound didn't come from a ghost, it should be noted that ghosts did exist in this world.
Of course, they weren't a typical occurrence, as the typical person's will was too weak to gather the necessary resentment and Yin energy required to form a spirit body, further powerful cultivators who had reached the nascent soul realm, as well as monks who focused more on spiritual cultivation were able to purify ghosts and send them on their way.
Weaker cultivators could also "kill" ghosts, although this would typically lead to the ghost dispersing and requiring quite a bit of time to reform, as opposed to the purification performed by monks.
"Wu-wu. *sniffle* Wu-wu."
Now that he was paying a bit more attention to the commotion, Di Tou realized the sound was of someone crying.
Hesitating for a moment, Di Tou decided he should probably ignore the situation and just get along with his day. Although it made him feel a little bad, this really wasn't a situation where he had the luxury of interfering on someone else's behalf.
*Step*
"Mmm, the weather is really nice here."
"Wu-wu."
*Step*
"And these fritters are quite nice."
"Wuuuu-wu."
*Step*
"I'll have to find Old Wang's shop again tomorrow."
"Wu-wu, I'm sorry mother… wu-wu, father."
*Step*
"Come on Di Tou, this isn't your problem."
"Wu-wu. I'll have to pay you back in my next life. Wu-wu"
"F*CK."
Slapping himself in the head mentally, Di Tou turned around and re-traversed the two or so meters he had managed to progress in the last thirty seconds or so.
Stepping into the alleyway, Di Tou saw the back of a young man wearing a light blue robe that looked rather dirty and was ripped in spots here and there.
From Di Tou's perspective he could see the young man's back and that two of his hands were held up in front of him clasping something.
In conjunction with what he had just heard, Di Tou immediately assumed the worst.
Sprinting up to try to stop the young man from taking his own life, Di Tou managed to reach a speed that surpassed his highest speed when he was Di Tou on earth, but in the rush of the moment Di Tou didn't realize he had done so.
Reaching the young man, Di Tou went and… shoved him.
As for why he shoved him… well it seemed like the most natural course of action at the moment.
The youth sprawled on the ground looked up at Di Tou with an aggrieved expression. While Di Tou himself stood dazed for a second, surprised that he had pushed the youth. F*ck was he here to help or hurt the kid?
But in reality Di Tou's action wasn't all that bad of a choice, after all to someone who's truly resolved themselves to die… just words are oftentimes not enough to stop them from staying their hand. In reality, the majority of suicides that take place successfully tend to fall into one of two categories, unintentional, in the case of overdose, or are premediated and hard to prevent.
The cases that we hear about in TV or in novels where the victim is reaching out, or where the protagonist manages to talk the individual out of suicide, are rather rare. In those cases, they aren't actually quite at the point where they want to kill themselves yet, but rather are still clinging on to hope for life, and are actively searching for a reason to stay alive.
To put it crudely, it was a show and a desperate act for attention at risk of their lives. Of course, this isn't to say that these individuals aren't pitiful, after all to be pushed to a spot where one values attention over one's life is already quite a tragic situation.
As for those who really wanted to die, do you think they would put themselves in a situation where a friend was visiting in the evening, or that they would call the suicide hotline? And in the case of the situation where Di Tou was in, in a society where honor was often valued above one's life… well.
To come back to the main point, if the youth had really been planning to stab himself, the best course of action was to snatch the knife out of his hands, although this would put the assailant at risk, the second best situation was to put the youth in a situation where he was unable to easily hurt himself.
Di Tou's push had managed to do just that, intentionally or otherwise. While it was still possible that the youth would suffer a cut, at the very least he wouldn't be in a position to hurt himself quickly, and the shock of the event might give Di Tou some time to try to resolve the situation.
Back to reality…
"Young man what do you think you are doing? Don't you know there's so much more to life, how could you try to kill yourself? You think you're sorry to your parents? Then repay them by staying alive…"
After another few minutes of talking, Di Tou started to lose steam and trail off, "all in all, no matter the situation killing yourself is never the solution. All you're doing is running away from the situation, hurting those who care about you, while those who don't care about you will continue to not care about you."
The youth on the other hand, had remained sprawled on the ground for the entirety of the lecture with a dazed look in his eyes. "What the hell, where did this naggy old man come from?"
It was only at this point when Di Tou had calmed down a little, that he realized that the youth… had never been holding a knife, but rather a jade pendant that had been cracked.
Ah?
Ahh?
AHHH!?
It suddenly just occurred to Di Tou that perhaps… Perhaps he had severely misunderstood the situation and instead of having rushed in to help a young man find the correct path in life, he had instead just run in, assaulted the youth, and broke his pendant.
"Ah, er this youth, it seems I might have misunderstood, were you trying to…"
Di Tou struggled to find the words now that he realized that the youth may not be suicidal, and all his gusto dissipated.
"Err, I didn't mean to break your pendant, I thought I was helping er… Forget it, I'm sorry, I'll pay you for the damages, how much does that pendant cost." Di Tou felt rather despondent in his heart. Haish, who let him be such a busybody. He had just been happy that he had enough money to survive for a little while, and in a moment of impulse he had gone and done something to potentially lose it. Aiya, what a fool.