Everything I bought on online shopping platforms was genuine.

Chapter 1241 The man who sells straw mats sleeps on a bare kang , and the man who sells salt drinks

His hair turned white overnight; what a huge emotional trauma that must have been. No wonder when Lin Mo picked him up at the high-speed rail station a few days ago, he asked, "What kind of grievances have you suffered outside?" which broke Old Zhao's defenses.

In fact, Lao Zhao really wanted to say that he was wronged, extremely wronged. He had been out of school for more than a year, and not only was he being bullied, but he had also lost the person he loved most.

He didn't do well at work, he didn't meet his parents' expectations, and he couldn't keep his lover. He used to think that although he wasn't an outstanding person, he was ready to face social life.

But who the hell would have thought society would be so tough? He just left school and went for a short while, and when he came back, he had nothing left. He didn't even know why he was such a failure, because he couldn't even do one thing well.

Wang Chu and Chuan Mei also noticed the gray hair beneath Old Zhao's head, and for a moment, all four of them fell silent.

Old Zhao lit another cigarette and said with a smile, "It's all in the past. It's nothing!"

"It's not that it's over, nor that nothing happened, it's just that you swallowed it down," Lin Mo said, his head down.

For some reason, even though he wasn't Lao Zhao, he still felt like there was a stone pressing on his chest.

Both Director Wang and Chuan Mei lit a cigarette for themselves.

After a long while, when the cigarette in Lao Zhao's hand had burned halfway, he suddenly spoke in a low voice: "Last year, we went back to the Northeast together and found a job there."

I'm an intern programmer. As you all know, it's relatively easy to find a job in our field if you want to; the only issue is the salary. She hasn't been having a smooth job search.

We were struggling financially for the first two months, but thankfully my family was able to support me a little.

We rented a one-bedroom apartment in a remote area. There was no air conditioning in the summer, so we bought a small fan to keep warm. Later, she had no choice but to become an insurance salesperson.

The wages aren't much, and even though life is tough, we're both quite happy. We'll take it slow; things will get better eventually.

We can't afford to eat out, so we buy groceries and cook for ourselves every day. We also pick the cheapest fruits. When we get home, we can snuggle together, watch dramas and variety shows, and laugh without a care in the world. That's enough to make us very happy.

During that period, she didn't buy a single new piece of clothing; she was still wearing last year's.

But couples living together are bound to argue. That morning, we had a little argument over something trivial, and I didn't give in to her.

Normally, we could have resolved this minor issue the next day, but unfortunately, it was raining when I got home from get off work that night, and I also had a fever. The fever was quite high when I got home, and I just collapsed onto the bed in a daze.

When this girl saw that I was sick, she was heartbroken and insisted on taking me to the hospital. I said I didn't need to, but she couldn't persuade me otherwise. She went out in the rain to buy me medicine, and then she never came back!

It wasn't a car accident, nor was it some melodramatic scene of selflessly risking her life to save someone. It was simply that she wasn't feeling well at the time, but she endured it without saying anything.

As an insurance saleswoman, she wanted to earn more money to ease my burden, but she never vented her emotions in front of me. During that time, she worked very hard and her body was already exhausted. After leaving, she walked in a hurry and collapsed, hitting the back of her head on the corner of the steps.

When I heard the news and rushed over, she was already in the operating room. I comforted myself by saying that it wasn't a big problem until she was declared critically ill.

That very night, her parents rushed over. To be honest, I wished I was the one lying there. I was too ashamed to face her parents, and I hadn't protected her properly. She hadn't had a single good day with me.

That's life. Sometimes it's incredibly resilient, and other times it's incredibly fragile. You might just fall asleep and be gone.

Later, she was admitted to the ICU and needed surgery. I went back to my family and begged them for help. When my mother heard about it, she immediately gave me 50,000 yuan. After the surgery, she was briefly awake for half a day, then her condition worsened, and she was admitted to the ICU. During that time, my mind was completely blank, and I felt like an idiot.

As a result, she didn't make it through, and the family ran out of money to support her. I even sold the secondhand car my dad had given me, but it still wasn't enough.

Or rather, there's not much point in continuing to maintain it.

This silly girl, she works in insurance sales, bought insurance for me, but didn't buy any for herself. They say the person selling straw mats sleeps on a bare kang (heated brick bed), and the person selling salt drinks bland soup—it's absurd, but it really happened to me.

At this point, Old Zhao's voice had completely choked up. This was the first time he had told his friends about his experiences over the past year since he returned.

Then he roughly wiped his face a couple of times and continued, "To be honest, last year I saw that Chuanmei became popular online, and Lao Mo, you also got better. During that time, I even thought, why, why couldn't you two get better sooner? If you two had gotten better earlier, I would definitely have talked to you two."

But there are no "what ifs." Everything just happened so coincidentally. It just so happened that we had a fight that morning, it just so happened that I had a fever, it just so happened that I didn't go to the hospital, which made her go out in the rain to buy medicine for me, and it just so happened that she chose to be with me.

If only we hadn't gotten together, if only I hadn't pursued her, if only she hadn't come to this university.

During her brief period of lucidity, she smiled and told me she was fine. She said her mouth tasted bitter and she wanted to eat watermelon, but the doctor wouldn't allow it. So I bought her a watermelon and let her lick it. I told her that once she recovered, I would buy her watermelon every day.

But I never expected that in just that one moment, she wouldn't get to eat the watermelon she liked. I will never eat watermelon again.

The day she left, I went to see her off. I bought her several large watermelons, all pre-cut. I really wished she would suddenly wake up and tell me how sweet the watermelons were.

I get hungry quickly, and I didn't eat anything on the day I sent her off. But just as we were taking her to the cemetery, a small cake from the offering table rolled off and landed at my feet. Even after she's gone, she was still worried I'd go hungry.

At this moment, Old Zhao was crying so hard he could hardly breathe, and for the first time, he completely broke down in front of them.

Lin Mo and the other two listened silently without saying a word. It wasn't that they didn't want to comfort him, but just listening to Old Zhao's story made them feel suffocated. They didn't know what they could do to give Old Zhao even the slightest bit of comfort.

Then Old Zhao slapped his face hard, as if he wanted to tear his own face off, and continued:

"But do you know what? Just a few days ago, before I came back, I went to see her again. Next to her grave, a small watermelon, the size of a fist, had grown. It was as if it was specially left for me, because she knew that I also love to eat watermelons!"

She loves rapeseed flowers, so I planted a patch around her last year. This year, when the rapeseed flowers bloom, she lies among them.

This past year I've lived on memories; memories are like a book that can never be finished.

After saying that, Old Zhao could no longer hold back and buried his head in his knees, bursting into tears. This time, he didn't hide it and wasn't afraid of being heard.

There were only the three of them around, along with wildflowers and birds covering the mountains and fields, a gentle breeze, and the rising sun.

Lin Mo and the other two reached out and put their arms around Lao Zhao's shoulders without saying a word. But they knew that no one would feel emotional for a handful of yellow earth unless the person you love is in that earth.

In this story full of regrets, love is revealed in its purest form.

It truly proves the saying: all your scheming and plotting are no match for the swift strokes of fate; all your plans and schemes are no match for the will of heaven, which throws things around at will.

(End of this chapter)