Chapter 258 Old Man
"What are you going to do next?"

"Huh? What?"

"I mean, where are you going to live in the future? It's not very safe here, right? Do you want to live in my house?"

Li Zhuangsheng looked into Zhu Zhixue's eyes, but his gaze moved slightly downward.

"I still want to live in my own house." Zhu Zhixue was silent for a moment, pursing her lips.

"There's no one else at my house. My parents are usually in the city, so it's just me and Li Xiuyu at home."

"It's okay with me... The main thing is..." Zhu Zhixue blushed, showing an embarrassed smile on her face, and said softly, "I don't want my uncle and aunt to look down on me."

She is also a person with self-esteem. She knows her family situation and can feel that Li Zhuangsheng's family is not bad. She wants to be with Li Zhuangsheng, but she doesn't want to live under someone else's roof now. She has a place to live, although it is no longer her house, but having a place to stay at least looks like a "normal family".

She could be looked down upon by everyone, but she didn't want Li Zhuangsheng's parents to look down on her or have any special opinions about her.

Although she knew that this was like trying to cover one's ears while stealing a bell, and that even if she pretended to be nice, she would not be able to change her current miserable situation. However, with those two pieces of gold, even Li Zhuangsheng's parents would look at her more squarely.

Li Zhuangsheng was slightly startled. He originally thought Zhu Zhixue would be happy to accept this proposal. He really underestimated her.

"Okay, I understand. There's no rush for this matter." Li Zhuangsheng said, "Then I'll go home first and pick you up later. Then we can go out for a walk. There will be people on the street in the afternoon."

Zhu Zhixue's answer made him secretly relieved. When he asked Zhu Zhixue for her opinion, he also asked himself, is this really a good idea? Letting a girl who hasn't even graduated from high school live in his house, will it affect her future reputation... Of course there are other reasons, reasons he can no longer think of.

"Uh-huh!"

Zhu Zhixue wanted to send Li Zhuangsheng downstairs, but Li Zhuangsheng only asked her to go to the door and not go down. Zhu Zhixue nodded obediently, then pouted slightly at the door.

Li Zhuangsheng hugged her and pecked her lips lightly, then Zhu Zhixue smiled, hugged Li Zhuangsheng and kissed him again, before reluctantly letting him go.

"I go first……"

Li Zhuangsheng was about to close the door when he was suddenly grabbed by Zhu Zhixue.

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Zhu Zhixue finally spoke hesitantly, "You and Lin Yuehua..."

"...She and I didn't have any relationship, we were just classmates." Li Zhuangsheng lowered his head and smiled.

What can we do now that things have come to this?

Li Zhuangsheng gently closed the door, and Zhu Zhixue's smile gradually relaxed. She quickly ran to the kitchen window and stretched her head to look down.

After a while, a familiar figure appeared in the corridor. She waved hurriedly, and Li Zhuangsheng seemed to have sensed something. He looked up and saw her. He also waved with a smile, then rode away slowly on his bike.

Zhu Zhixue kept looking at him until Li Zhuangsheng's figure completely disappeared. She still lay blankly by the window, looking at the place where he disappeared.

After a long time, she finally woke up from her dream, closed the window, and slowly returned to the room.

Looking at the empty bed, she lay down on it directly, then hugged the quilt that Li Zhuangsheng had covered her with and buried her face in it.

She felt a little uneasy, and she felt a little mean, as if she had stolen something that did not belong to her.

...It was really cold during the New Year. The bright sky was like a sharp knife. The cold wind made people's faces hurt, as if the knife was scraping their faces.

Today is the first day of the Chinese New Year, and people generally stay at home, especially in the morning. Every household is closed, and there are few people or ghosts on the street.

The electric bike was speeding on the street where Zhang Hong was injured. Li Zhuangsheng shrank his head and thought that if he had a scarf, he wouldn't be so cold... He actually had a scarf, but he didn't wear it last night, and he probably wouldn't be able to wear it again in the future.

Soon they were on a familiar road, the way home. Li Zhuangsheng suddenly remembered something that happened two years ago.

To be precise, it was two years ago when he was reborn, which is the future for him now... It was also the noon of the first day of the Lunar New Year. He went out on foot for some reason, and when he returned home, he met an old man at the gate of the community.

The man was dressed cleanly, carrying a bamboo pole on his shoulder, with a bag of steamed buns or dumplings hanging behind him. It was rare to meet someone on the street at noon on the first day of the Chinese New Year, but Li Zhuangsheng didn't think much about it and just wanted to go home early. But when the man saw him, he hurriedly greeted him, saying that he was lost and asked Li Zhuangsheng to take him back.

Li Zhuangsheng naturally extended a helping hand. After asking for the approximate location of the other party's community, he led him to find the way.

The old man talked to him a lot on the way. He said he was 83 years old and had a daughter who was married in Shanghai. But his daughter's house in Shanghai was only 70 square meters, and after the birth of the child, it could not accommodate so many people, so he came back.

He said proudly that his daughter bought him an apartment in xx community for him to live in, but due to special reasons this year, his daughter could not come back and he could not go to Shanghai, otherwise his daughter would definitely come back to visit him.

The elderly always show off their children's "filial piety" to maintain their own dignity. Li Zhuangsheng felt that the old man's words might be exaggerated, but he didn't take it to heart. He just asked him curiously what he was doing out during the New Year.

You have to know that the place where Li Zhuangsheng discovered him was quite a distance away from where he lived.

The old man said that he was going to his sister's house for dinner. Before dinner, a relative came to pick him up. After dinner, he felt embarrassed to trouble others and wanted to walk back by himself. However, he was old and his brain was not very good, so he got lost. Fortunately, he met Li Zhuangsheng.

Li Zhuangsheng didn't take it seriously and just echoed the old man's words. As the old man walked slowly, Li Zhuangsheng led him for nearly half an hour before the old man recognized the next road... At that time, they were not far from where the old man lived.

The old man kept thanking Li Zhuangsheng, but Li Zhuangsheng shook his head to show that he didn't care and just vaguely told the old man to pay more attention to safety.

Finally, the old man suddenly asked for Li Zhuangsheng's phone number, and said that he hoped Li Zhuangsheng could visit his house with his friends when he was free.

"I am alone and very lonely," said the old man.

"Haha, no need..."

Li Zhuangsheng was startled as if a basin of ice water was poured on him. He was so flustered that he even spoke without thinking.

He didn't give the old man his phone number, nor did he agree to his request. The old man also sensibly didn't mention it again, and the two broke up.

How lonely is the old man on a daily basis? How long did he prepare himself mentally for him to say "I'm lonely" to a young man he had only known for half an hour.

But these words only made Li Zhuangsheng feel scared, as if they were too heavy. He did not dare to bear the expectations of this empty-nest elderly. He could only flee in disgrace.

His heart, which was originally full of confidence because he had done a good thing, was instantly poured with a bucket of cold water. He no longer felt any sense of satisfaction, but only shame, as if others had exposed his hypocritical mask.

Actually, it's okay to save each other's numbers, and it's okay to occasionally invite Zhang Qixiang and Li Xiuyu to his house. No one asked him to be responsible for the old man's life... On the way home, Li Zhuangsheng felt a little regretful, but it was too late.

"oops!"

With a bang, Li Zhuangsheng's electric bike hit the curb. He came to his senses, cried out in surprise, and quickly stretched out his legs to support himself on the ground, almost stumbling and falling.

(End of this chapter)