As soon as Chen Zhou saw the figure, he immediately spoke to the middle-aged vendor and asked him to look in that direction as well. At first, the middle-aged vendor did not know what Chen Zhou was doing, but when he followed Chen Zhou's finger, he realized that there was a figure over there.
The middle-aged vendor exchanged a glance with Chen Zhou, then slowly started walking towards the man.
Both of them walked towards the person, and as they slowly approached, Chen Zhou realized that it was an old man.
Because he was hunched over and gripping the stove with both hands, as if he would fall if he didn't hold on, Chen Zhou and the middle-aged vendor continued to approach, but he seemed unaware and continued doing his own thing.
Was this person genuinely unaware of their arrival, or was he pretending?
The slamming of the door when the middle-aged vendor violently opened it was so loud; it should have been quite a commotion. So, Chen Zhou vaguely suspected that the old man was playing a trick on them. He pretended not to hear it.
However, the old man's behavior seemed too natural to Chen Zhou, and Chen Zhou found it difficult to tell that the old man was faking it.
"Bang...."
Just then, a loud crash made the middle-aged vendor and Chen Zhou stop in their tracks, both turning to look at the old man in front of the stove. He had accidentally spilled a bowl on the ground, leaving behind many shards. Looking at these fragments, Chen Zhou had an indescribable feeling.
Does this old man only have this one bowl?
The old man slowly bent down and picked up the largest piece of the bowl that remained on the ground. This piece was the bottom and part of the bowl, which was probably unusable at this point.
But the old man picked it up, reluctant to throw it away. It was at this moment that the old man stood up and saw Chen Zhou and the middle-aged vendor watching him from not far away.
The old man instinctively took a few steps back in terror, but didn't go any further, because his back was against the stove, and he had nowhere to retreat.
The old man's expression was one of terror, as if he had seen some evil spirit. Chen Zhou and the middle-aged vendor exchanged glances, touched their faces, and looked at each other in confusion: "What's on our faces?"
Aside from that reason, the two couldn't think of anything they had done to frighten that person.
The old man didn't stop there; he continued to step back, but kept bumping into the stove, unable to truly retreat. He muttered to himself, "I've already given you my pay for this month... why are you still bothering me... please let me go..."
Chen Zhou and the middle-aged vendor hadn't quite heard what the old man was saying at first, but now that they did, they exchanged another glance. Did the two of them look like they were robbing someone?
"We're not here to ask you for anything," Chen Zhou said sincerely, taking a step back from the middle-aged vendor.
After Chen Zhou finished speaking, he thought the old man's condition would improve, but to his surprise, the old man's reaction became even more intense! The old man grabbed a kitchen knife next to him, held it to his neck, and looked at Chen Zhou and the middle-aged vendor with a desperate expression, as if afraid that Chen Zhou and the middle-aged vendor would say something else.
"I told you, I've already given you my share for this month. Why are you still bothering me? If you come any closer, I'll just die right here..." The old man's hand holding the cleaver trembled continuously. Slowly, he raised the cleaver a little, as if afraid that his trembling hand would hurt him.
In fact, if Chen Zhou had grasped this detail, he could have simply snatched the kitchen knife away.
However, Chen Zhou dared not go up easily because the old man's emotions were very unstable at this moment, and why did the old man seem not to hear the two of them saying nice things?
Just as Chen Zhou was pondering, the old man continued to stammer, "Don't come near me!"
At this moment, Chen Zhou and the middle-aged vendor were trying to continue moving forward.
"Old man, please don't get agitated. We really mean no harm! We don't even know who you're talking about!" the middle-aged vendor said directly.
But as soon as the middle-aged vendor finished speaking, the old man seemed not to have heard, his eyes wide with anger as he glared at the vendor and Chen Zhou, the cleaver in his hand still trembling. Even after both men had softened their tone, the old man still didn't believe them? And who was this old man talking about? It seemed those people he described were extremely vicious! And this had terrified the old man.
At this moment, the old man clearly regarded them as that person.
“Let’s step back first. This old man is emotionally unstable; we can’t harm him,” Chen Zhou said, turning to the middle-aged vendor.
The middle-aged vendor nodded, then began to walk backwards. Chen Zhou followed him, and the two walked backwards together.
Chen Zhou waved to the old man as he and the middle-aged vendor retreated until the old man slowly put down the cleaver. By then, the middle-aged vendor and Chen Zhou had already retreated to the front door.
Just then, a figure reappeared in Chen Zhou's and the others' sight! It was a tall woman wearing a red dress and a red headscarf. She had delicate features and her eyebrows seemed to resemble the old man's. She was walking out of a house and saw two groups of people who seemed to be facing off. One group was Chen Zhou and the others, and the other group was the old man alone.
Upon seeing this, the woman's face immediately turned ugly.
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