Chapter 151 - A Painful Teaching Pt.4

It was one of the most horrific sights a young child could see at her age. From suddenly meeting a good a.d.u.l.t and feeling warmth, it was all ripped from her hands just as quickly. A second ago she was enjoying the warm flame with food and water while having conversation with the old man. All it took was the appearance of this one man to have ruined the atmosphere. It was as if fate was mocking her to be alone forever.

Her body shook as the tears continued to flow down her face like a waterfall. The tears made her eyes blur but she quickly wiped it away. She did not even dare to blink afraid that she would miss a second of what was going on. There was no way to look away either when you saw someone you like being brutally murdered. The concept of murder was never taught to her but directly shown as a practical example. 

Due to her height and being hidden behind the bin, she did not see the specifics of the attack. Only that every time the young man pushed something at the old man, the other would make a grunt of pain in response. There was a weird smell filling the air and it felt like there was metal burning, it was only later in her life she knew it was the smell of blood. 

"Now before you're completely dead, give me the food and water you have. I could take it off a dead body but it would be nicer to get it when you're alive. What do you say?"

The angry appearance the younger man held faded back into his playful one. It was probably from the elation of having murdered someone and the adrenaline pumping in his veins that prompted him to be like this. Even ignoring those reasons, the man could have easily just enjoyed killing and it calmed him down to return to his normal psychotic state. 

The switch in personality made her tears still with fear again. This man kept switching between personalities and moods that it was hard for her to keep up. All of his expressions were evil but when he spoke to the old man she at minimum felt the other was alive.

She could not see his face but the sounds of his pain faded out slowly. Without his voice to reassure her she was not able to determine his status. She did not expect him to speak to a dead body after all. The key words she caught onto were "food" and she glanced at the bag she had stashed away in the boxes. If that was what he was after, would he come after her as well?

Her little mind was not so clear that she could make such a decision herself in such a situation. She came to an assumption that the old man had been murdered for food and it was by someone that he knew personally. There was a part of her that debated giving the food directly.

'Will he leave him if I give the food? I have food, I don't need, old man is in pain...'

Those were the repeating thoughts in her head but above them all was the old man's voice telling her to hide. He warned her not to come out till he called her, the child in her naturally trusted that sentence more. That is what made her stay in her place and wait with bated breath for the call. 

The younger man tossed something heavy in his hand to the floor and gave a kick towards the old man. The motion look light but the result was the old man being slammed into the wall. 

"Aiya so boring, is that how you treat an old friend? Look at you hiding your food, come on tell me where it is and I'll let you go."

There was a pause as the younger man stared at the other. 

"Oh come on, staying silent? What use is that, I know you have food laying around. You want me to search for it? Or have you given it to some other lost child? Like you had done for me...haha if so, you really haven't changed old man. Let me look around then..."

The younger man started walking around the alleyway, casually kicking items aside and trying to check for this food. He had completed his search on one side and was now walking over to hers. There was no way to explain her feeling in that moment except for impending doom. She could not run nor could she move at risk of being caught, there was no other option than being a sitting duck waiting for slaughter. 

The closer he got the more helpless she felt, when he had gotten close enough she had shut her eyes in fear while holding her hand tightly over her mouth to silence her breaths. Just as he was to walk over and discover her, there was a weird sound coming out from the man. 

The sound continued for a couple of seconds before stopping, then it started again with the same ringtone. She watched as the younger man pulled out a clunky option out of his pocket. It was small and grey but had a lit up screen. The sound also came out of this device, only when the younger man clicked some buttons did it stop. 

While she did not recognize the device but she knew that many of the richer people had one. She had seen people walk around with things that looked like that, they would always stare at it and talk to it as if it was a human. It was something that she could only see from afar but it was also the one thing that had saved her life today. 

She  knew that without that device making noise, he would have found her within the next five minutes. There was silence as the younger man continued to push buttons and then raised it to his ear. 

"Hello, what are you calling me for?" The voice was still in its leering tone as he spoke into it. 

She could not hear the other person speak but she knew that he was hearing something. He made occasional nods and a couple of grunts as a response. 

"Okay, when do you need it?" 

He looked down at the old man against the wall, "I'm kind of busy right now."

There was a random shout coming from the other side as the young man held the device away from his ear. "Okay okay I'll be there right away then, bye." 

He said his ending greetings to whoever was on the device with anger before pushing it back into his pocket. There was an irritated look on his face, as if he was denied his meal. The expression was fine if he was not looking at the old man on the floor. 

After that statement, he started walking away out of the alleyway. It was still in her direction but he completely by passed her this time as he left. She stood in place for a couple of minutes since she was afraid he would come back. The second she realized he was really gone, she ran out of her hiding spot towards the old man. Her body had been so stiff that her limbs had froze, she fell a couple of times before she was able to make it to him. 

The tears resumed on her face when she saw the state he was in. There was a striking red colour pooling out of his stomach and staining the floor, the old man did not move as his eyes remained closed. She forgot her hesitancy to speak and immediately started trying to shake him while speaking. 

"Hey hey old man old man, wake up." Her voice was hoarse from the amount of crying she did and it sounded painful to hear. That did not stop her from continuing, the longer he did not respond the more her urgency rose. 

"Please wake up, I promise Ying Ying won't take your food. I won't take water either, please wake up. Wake up....W..ake.....up....wa...wahhh." At the end she could not take it and she just completely went into tears. Getting up she ran towards the boxes and pulled out the bag he had given her.

Holding it up with all her strength she ran back towards him and placed it next to him. Pulling out the water she opened the lid and tried to feed him. 

"Here water, drink. Drink" Her hand could not hold it up stably and dropped a couple drops on his face. He still did not respond to that and her heart started to accept something her mind didn't. It was only when she placed her hand on his c.h.e.s.t and there was no feeling did she break completely. She did not know how much time had passed but she stayed behind his body and cried until she felt faint. 

That was the very moment she became determined to not trust others or help them, only she could help herself. It was the most painful lesson she learned in her life and set up her expectations for the future. She also promised to keep people away from her, if she cared for them God would only take them away as they did today. Feeling the cold wind and remembering that the younger man said he would come back, she finally found the energy to get up. 

Looking at the old man one more time she felt herself want to cry again but she held it back. Picking up the bag she started to leave the area but every couple of steps she would look back at the other man. She was reluctant to leave but she knew she had to, it was not safe and he had kept her safe while dying. 

Her only regret was that she never had the opportunity to thank him.