Chapter Forty-Three
“Brother Kun, housing prices in Longjin City have been declining for the past six months. It’s not a good time to sell now, and besides, this is the only house you own…” Real estate agent Xiao Zhang was an old acquaintance of Peng Kun. Six months ago, Peng Kun sold a villa through him, which is why he spoke so frankly.
"I want to sell as soon as possible. What's a suitable asking price?" Peng Kun asked.
Seeing that he was determined to sell, Xiao Zhang had no choice but to say, "The last unit of this type in Nanshan Manor sold for 4.52 million. Your unit has a good floor and a good location, so it can sell for at least 4.7 million. If you want to sell it as soon as possible, I suggest you list it for less than 5 million."
"Then let's set it to 480."
Peng Kun put down the phone, turned to look out the window, and saw the heavy snow silently covering the entire city. A chill ran through him. He slowly stood up and dragged his heavy steps out of the office.
Because of the bad weather, all the company employees left after work. When he passed by the R&D department, he only saw Zuo Xutong sitting at his workstation, staring blankly at an email on his computer screen.
It was an offer from a new energy company. As the No.1 company in the domestic lithium battery field, this company is preparing to enter the hydrogen fuel cell field.
Two weeks ago, she submitted her resume to them and only went through one round of phone interviews. Unexpectedly, she was hired with a salary three times that of her current salary.
Zuo Xutong inadvertently looked up and met Peng Kun's gaze. She hurriedly shut down her computer, stood up quickly, and forced a smile: "Mr. Peng, are you off work?"
Seeing Peng Kun nod, she grabbed her bag from the table and said, "Let me go with you."
Before he finished speaking, Peng Kun had already turned and walked towards the stairwell. Zuo Xutong, carrying her backpack which she hadn't had time to fasten, jogged a few steps to catch up with him.
As darkness fell completely, the traffic crawled slowly along the snow-covered road, turning what should have been a 40-minute drive into a journey of nearly an hour and a half.
In the courtyard, footprints of varying depths were filled with fresh snow. The two got out of the car and walked into the snow. They both felt that the nursing home was unusually quiet tonight.
As soon as I stepped into the lobby on the first floor, a caregiver rushed over in a panic: "Mr. Peng, something terrible has happened! The person is gone!"
Peng Kun stopped and frowned, asking, "Who are you? Explain yourself clearly."
"Old man, the rooms are all empty..."
Peng Kun was shocked. Before the caregiver could finish speaking, he rushed upstairs, with Zuo Xutong close behind. Their hurried footsteps echoed throughout the corridor. The two searched the entire nursing home, but apart from a few bedridden elderly people, everyone else was nowhere to be found.
Peng Kun's hand trembled slightly as he gripped the phone. He found Dean Feng's number and dialed it, but Dean Feng knew nothing about the situation here.
"How about... we call the police?" Zuo Xutong suggested.
Peng Kun nodded and decisively dialed 110.
The suburban roads were buried under thick snow, and the area was already sparsely populated; in this weather, no one was traveling. The number of missing persons was large, and all of them were elderly and frail; if an accident occurred, there would be no witnesses. The police took the case very seriously after receiving the report and immediately reviewed nearby surveillance footage. The footage showed that the last place they were seen was an abandoned factory.
The factory is less than two kilometers from the nursing home. The road is rough and uneven. Peng Kun's car chassis is too low. He was worried that he would get stuck in the snow, so after receiving the message from the police, he chose to walk.
The two walked one after the other through the snow with difficulty. The snow under their feet was already above their ankles, seeping in through the gaps in their shoes. Before long, their socks were wet.
The snow stopped, and it was pitch black all around; there were no houses or streetlights. Zuo Xutong slipped and fell to her knees with a thud. She endured the pain, gritted her teeth, and stood up without uttering a sound, continuing forward. Peng Kun heard the sound behind him, paused, but didn't turn around.
When she caught up and walked to his side, he suddenly grabbed her hand in the darkness and held it tightly all the way until they reached the factory gate before letting go.
Her heart hadn't been beating this fast in a long time.
Although she knew perfectly well that this act was purely humanitarian aid, and that if it were an elderly woman who had fallen on the roadside, he would have taken her hand and led her across the dark snow.
Zuo Xutong took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, and her heartbeat gradually returned to normal. By now, she had long since become immune to men.
Being love-struck is something you only need to experience once in your life.
Thinking of the still-warm job offer in her inbox, she decided to submit her resignation tomorrow.
Zuo Xutong followed Peng Kun into the long-abandoned factory. There was no sign of human life here; the emptiness was unsettling. Only the roof light of a police car in the distance flickered, casting an eerie light on the snow.
They walked through the rubble to the police car, where a policeman sat in the driver's seat. Seeing the two men through the glass, he immediately rolled down the window and asked expressionlessly, "Did you call the police?"
Peng Kun nodded, but before he could speak, the other person pointed upstairs and said briefly, "The people are up there, they've all been found."
Zuo Xutong looked in the direction the policeman was pointing and saw what appeared to be a shadowy figure moving behind the broken window on the second floor. The two exchanged a glance and quickly walked towards the factory.
Peng Kun took out his phone, turned on the flashlight, and dust and snowflakes danced in the beam of light. The staircase was uneven, bearing the marks of time.
The two stumbled their way up to the second floor. Peng Kun raised his phone, shining a beam of light that couldn't reach the end of the room.
Several rusty machines lay on the ground like animals that had lost their breath. The ground was covered with dirty snow, and broken wires hung from the ceiling, swaying slightly in the wind.
Two police officers stood in the middle. Beyond their figures, Zuo Xutong saw the group of missing elderly people. Some huddled in the corner where the wall was peeling, their thin arms hugging their knees. Others huddled together in twos or threes, like a few old trees supporting each other but teetering on the verge of collapse.
Their faces were ashen and pale, as if their blood had been frozen by the cold wind, and even the slightest movements were as slow as ice sculptures.
Zuo Xutong recognized Grandma Zou at a glance. She seemed to have aged a lot, with sunken cheeks, a blank expression, and only bottomless despair in her cloudy eyes.
Grandma Zou looked up, staring blankly at the people in front of her. Her eyes, damaged by cataracts, were blurry. If it weren't for everyone helping each other along the way, her old bones would probably have fallen and broken long ago.
She looks older now than she did two years ago, and her health is deteriorating. She'd only walked less than three miles in the afternoon when her legs gave way. Her frozen hands lacked the strength to even carry a bag, let alone collect recyclables. Besides, her eyes were now like frosted glass; she couldn't distinguish between trash and recyclables.
"I'm old, I'm no longer useful," Grandma Zou sighed, gazing out the window at the boundless darkness. The night was heavy, like a curtain drawn at the end of her life, about to fall. She wanted to live, but felt powerless to do so.
Peng Kun walked over, squatted down in front of her, took her cold hand, and said resolutely, "Let's go back to the nursing home. As long as I'm alive, the nursing home will not close."
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