I said excitedly, "That's great! Let's head straight to Zhang Bing's grandfather's house now."
Li Shishi looked at Xiang Yu apologetically and said, "Brother Xiang, let's think of another way."
Xiang Yu sensed something was amiss and asked, "What's wrong? What's going on?"
“Zhang Bing’s grandfather…”
We all crowded around and pricked up our ears to listen.
“Zhang Bing’s grandfather is completely paralyzed. Zhang Bing said that his grandfather had been injured before, which affected his spinal nerves and has now reached a very serious stage. The old man can only lie in bed every day and can no longer communicate with people.”
"Where is her grandmother?" I asked.
“Her grandmother passed away many years ago, and there is only an old nanny taking care of the old man.”
Xiang Yu exclaimed "Ouch!" and slumped back into the sofa, remaining silent for a long while. I quickly comforted him, "Brother Yu, don't be discouraged. This is what they call good things coming to those who wait."
Li Shishi sat there silently drinking water. Xiang Yu suddenly stood up and said, "I still want to go see him."
"Huh?" I said in surprise, "You actually expect the old man to be able to fight with bows, swords, stones, horses, and arrows?"
Xiang Yu said slowly, "Well, he is, after all, A Yu's grandfather, so it's only right that I go and see him."
Li Shishi nodded and said, "That's fine, but don't expect him to like you."
My mind raced, and I immediately said, "It doesn't have to be that he likes you. A kind young man often visits a paralyzed old man and thus wins the heart of a young girl—Brother Yu, you're something else! That's a way to pick up girls too."
Li Shishi's eyes lit up, and she said with a charming smile, "Cousin, you're so cunning. This is indeed a solution, but it might take a while. At the very least, you won't be able to meet Zhang Bing until next Saturday."
Xiang Yu shook his head and said, "I didn't think that much about it. If it weren't for A Yu's grandfather, there would be no A Yu. I should go and thank him."
Isn't that obvious? Without him, we wouldn't even have steamed buns. Should I thank him or hate him?
I said, "Let's go, let's take action."
On the way, Xiang Yu asked me, "What kind of gift do you think I should buy for our first meeting?"
I said, "Just buy something casually. It's our first meeting, and we're only doing this under the guise of visiting someone on the way. It wouldn't be appropriate to give anything too expensive." Xiang Yu nodded.
We bought a box of honey and a carton of milk at a gift shop and continued on our way.
As we approached our destination, our car got stuck on a dirt road. Pedestrians, bicycles, and taxis completely blocked what was originally a wide road, and when we tried to back up, the cars behind us had already blocked our way.
I saw a large circle forming ahead, so I stuck my head out and asked a passerby who had arrived before me, "Hey buddy, are you fighting?"
A passerby pointed upwards, and I looked in the direction he was pointing. I saw a person standing on the sixth floor rooftop, with their feet on the eaves, their clothes swaying wildly in the wind, and I couldn't see their face clearly.
Someone is about to jump off a building.
I immediately became very interested and asked the passerby, "What's going on with this guy?"
Passerby A: "He said his wife was divorcing him, and he stood on it half an hour ago, saying he was going to jump. Then he asked us to move aside, but even after we moved aside, he still wouldn't jump. I was holding in my pee and couldn't bear to leave."
I said, "Exactly, that bastard is really dishonest."
At this moment, Li Shishi also poked her head out and exclaimed, "Cousin, let's find a way to save him!"
I said, "Don't worry, if I was going to jump, I would have done it already. We'll talk to the police when they come, and then I can see my wife and kids one last time before I come down."
I lit a cigarette and offered one to the passerby. The passerby, puffing out smoke, said, "What's this bastard thinking?" His words reminded me. I took out my phone, pointed it at the rooftop, and dialed 7474748. The passerby even said, "Dude, you think you can take a candid photo with a phone like that?"
The phone screen wasn't displaying anything, which meant we were too far away. Li Shishi, clinging to the back of my and Xiang Yu's seats, said, "We can't just stand here and watch, can we?"
I said, "Then go save him. He's only trying to jump because his wife is threatening to divorce him. Go tell him you're willing to marry him, and maybe he'll come down."
Xiang Yu rested his arm on the carriage window and said calmly, "If he doesn't want to live, why bother saving him?"
Li Shishi was really angry. She opened the car door and got out, saying, "Fine, I'll go."
I quickly reached out and grabbed her belt, pulling her back. I said helplessly, "Fine, I'll go. If you really do that, who's going to be responsible if he falls in his excitement?"
Li Shishi smiled sweetly and said, "Cousin is so kind."
"What the hell! You were pretending to be Guanyin Bodhisattva behind the scenes, making me rush to the front lines to be a gigolo, uh, a pageboy." I glared at her, but she didn't see me, busy straightening her clothes that I had messed up. Li Shishi's waist is so supple and white—
I got out of the car, glanced at the person on the sixth floor, and started walking towards the stairwell. A kind-hearted passerby grabbed my arm and whispered, "Brother, let's just watch the show. If you actually trick him into jumping, that's illegal."
I shook him off, cursing, "F*** you, I'm not kidding, I'm going to go up there and kick that son of a bitch down."
I made my way to the rooftop entrance without any trouble. Everyone in the building who knew about it had gone down to watch the spectacle, making the whole building seem lifeless, shrouded in a noisy and ominous atmosphere.
I nimbly climbed the stairs to the passageway, and as soon as I peeked out, I saw this brave man standing alone on the edge of the roof with his back to me. His clothes were fluttering and his hair was messy, but his attire did not suggest that he was living in poverty.
He spotted me the moment I climbed out, turned around nervously, and said, "Don't come any closer!"
I pulled my phone out of my pocket, dialed, and pointed it at him, ready to use my mind-reading ability at any moment. This guy pointed at me and said, "What are you holding in your hand?"
I casually replied, "What do you care what I'm holding? Even if it were a handgun, would you be scared?"
My joke didn't amuse him; he merely nodded slightly. I realized this man was truly abnormal. He was a middle-aged man in his forties, with a deathly gray face and porcelain-like eyes. It seemed my initial assumptions might have been wrong; this man genuinely wanted to die.
I lit another cigarette and waved the pack at him. He shook his head and said, "I have some."
"Why? Can you tell me?" I asked casually, exhaling smoke.
"Don't come any closer, I'm going to talk to you."
I nodded vigorously and simply sat cross-legged on the spot.