I Will Never Submit to Miss Grim Reaper - Chapter 498
Chapter 498: It Could Have Been
“Mr. Yin? If you go down this hallway, Room 202, Bed 3, is where he is.”
“Okay, thank you.”
“You’re welcome. What is your relationship with him?”
“Well… we could be considered his children.”
“Oh, I see. Others like you have visited him before—kids from the welfare home, right?”
“Yes.”
“Go ahead then. Visitors are still allowed for now, but in about an hour, it’ll be lunchtime.”
“Mm-hmm, thank you.”
“……”
When Xiao Mo and I arrived at Director Yin’s hospital room, we noticed that there were already some kids, similar to us, chatting with him.
The room was full of people, and the surroundings were filled with flowers, fruit, and nutritious items like milk.
Even when Xiao Mo and I pushed open the door and walked in, no one seemed to notice us.
“Director, do you still remember me? I was adopted back in 2014, and my new parents have treated me very well.”
“I wasn’t adopted, but after entering society, I found a good job with a mentor who takes good care of me. Now, I earn over ten thousand yuan a month.”
“Yeah, just a few days ago, I went back to the Medicinal Botanical Garden and noticed that a lot of things were dismantled. Everyone’s getting ready to move, right?”
“Yes, yes, they’re merging with the Senior Activity Center in the city and will be directly managed by the government…”
Xiao Mo and I quietly made our way to Director Yin’s bed, which was surrounded by people.
Through a gap in the crowd, I observed the middle-aged man lying on the bed for a moment.
Time and illness had left their marks on his face.
Except for the general shape of his face, which still resembled the “Director” in my memory, the somewhat thin man on the bed now seemed unfamiliar to me.
“Director, about your illness… what did the doctor say?”
“There should be a solution, right? Does it require surgery?”
“If there are any financial difficulties, please let us know. We’re all here for you, so focus on getting better and don’t worry about anything else…”
“……”
After standing outside the crowd for a while, I turned around and took Xiao Mo’s hand.
“Let’s go.”
“You…”
At that moment, I heard the Director’s voice from behind: “You opened a cafe by the sea in Nanqi District, right?”
In an instant, everyone in the room turned their gaze toward Xiao Mo and me.
Out of habit, I stopped in my tracks.
“My daughter loves going to your place. She says that your cafe is the most conscientious, cleanest, and offers the best service she’s ever seen.”
I heard Director Yin’s voice from behind.
“There was a time when my daughter… wasn’t doing well mentally. She saw a psychologist, and the doctor said she… had suicidal tendencies.”
“She stumbled upon your cafe by chance, spent the entire day there, and took a lot of pictures of the cats. That evening, her mood improved a lot.”
“After that, she almost always went to your place whenever she had free time. She would take a lot of photos every day and show them to me, so… I recognized you.”
And I… recognized you too, Director Yin.
I slowly turned around and said, “Hello.”
“Child, how did you find out I was here?”
Director Yin’s voice, still as kind as I remembered, had the same warmth as the “grandfather” character from “Happy Star”.
“I’m really sorry for letting you see me like this… *cough cough*… in this state.”
“Not at all, your health is the most important thing.”
I thought for a moment and then stepped forward. “I just had a friend who lived in the welfare home for a few years. After he left, I heard about the welfare home moving, so I wanted to go check it out. I didn’t expect to find out you were sick, so I asked around…”
“So that’s how it is. Well, it seems we were meant to meet again.”
Director Yin smiled and said, “My daughter has recovered now. The doctor said she doesn’t need to take antidepressants anymore. But my daughter has developed a habit, she goes to your cafe from time to time to play with the cats and then shows me pictures of you two together. So I remember your faces very clearly.”
Huh?
Hearing this made me a bit curious. Who is his daughter… again?
Except for May and June, when we first opened, the cafe has always been extremely busy.
During the peak days, before the cafe expanded, there were so many customers that some even had to eat outside holding their bowls.
Since most boys tend to be shy, and most cat lovers are girls, almost all our customers are women, or girls coming with their boyfriends. A photo with Xiao Mo and me is inexpensive—just one yuan for a picture—and since I work eight hours a day, there’s always a crowd wanting a picture every hour.
Even if I have a good memory, narrowing it down to a girl who “came frequently at first, but less often later, is a cat-loving girl, and often took pictures with me” isn’t enough to identify her.
“This illness of mine, with the current medical methods, doesn’t have much of a solution. When people get old, this is just how it is.”
Under Xiao Mo’s and my gaze, Director Yin didn’t seem inclined to continue discussing his daughter. He sighed lightly, “So you don’t need to worry. Life and death are beyond our control, everyone… just focus on living your own lives well.”
“……”
After leaving the hospital room, I coincidentally ran into someone I knew at the pharmacy on the first floor.
It was the “Watcher” of Nanqi Tower in Nanqi District, the protagonist of the Shenzhen legend “The Old Man and the Sea”. He was happily helping Zhou Xiaofei’s grandmother pick up their medicine from the counter.
“You’re still smiling, aren’t you…?”
As they headed towards the hospital entrance, Zhou Xiaofei’s grandmother, looking like a woman experiencing first love, playfully patted the old man’s shoulder.
“I kept telling you to eat less, but you wouldn’t listen. You’re an old man now, yet you keep eating seafood every day…”
“It’s fine. My insurance covered a lot…”
“Even with insurance, you shouldn’t be so reckless. Starting tomorrow, I’m coming over to your house to cook.”
“Huh? What’s all this about?”
“Nothing much, I just don’t want you leaving this world before I do…”
As I watched the two of them leave the hospital, I took out my phone, opened the system app, and found the “Shangjing Cat Cafe Self-Service Ordering” app. I scrolled down and clicked on the “Reviews” section.
?What a trash app, and the cafe is just as bad.?
?(Sweating emoji) When did doing charity work become trendy? This cafe even offers free breakfast and snacks. It must be a money-laundering operation.?
?Everyone, don’t go to this shop. It’s a scam.?
?(Hehe) A cafe like this should just close down already. The owner is a piece of trash, playing around with loopholes using the water heater. Otherwise, how could this place be so popular? Try having an older man run it instead.?
“……”
Just like some of the comments under the official account of our cafe on Tongmeng, the ordering app I spent nearly three months developing only received a low score of 6.3 in the app store.
But… almost all the customers who dine at our café think we have a great environment, good value for money, and even offer free breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Even Director Yin said that it was the cafe that helped his daughter overcome her illness and emerge from the darkness.
It’s a strange phenomenon, but in this world… it’s not unusual.
“Xiao Mo, wait for me a moment.”
Letting go of Xiao Mo’s hand, I quickly ran out of the hospital, avoiding the cameras, and with a flap of my little wings, I soared into the sky.
Then, focusing on the hospital below me, I gathered the magic within my body—
“Purification Spell!”
“……”
……