Chapter 986: Eccentricity of a Genius
The old man calling out at Yuan Zhou looked to be about 70 years old. His face was filled with wrinkles, yet it was also clear his complexion looked rather bad. Even when calling out at Yuan Zhou, he was somewhat out of breath.
It was also obvious that the old man was somewhat hunchbacked.
The old man was Liu Zhonggui, 74 years old this year, a homeless person in this area.
If one was polite about it, one would call him a salvager, but if one was being frank, he was simply a rubbish collector.
But this old man was very different than the other rubbish collectors. He was much older, and his body was worse off.
Secondly, although the hands, legs, and the hem of his pants were dirty, the other parts of his outfit were kept clean despite how worn-out his clothes were.
Finally, the old man seemed to only appear at the trash dump station after dark.
“Yes?” Yuan Zhou stopped and asked politely.
“You must be Boss Yuan from Master Chef Restaurant,” said the old man politely.
“You are being too polite,” Yuan Zhou said. He then asked gently, “Just call me Little Yuan.”
Although Yuan Zhou was not so popular that everyone knew him, at Taoxi Road, not many did not know him, including the grandpa that picked up trash in the area.
“Boss Little Yuan, I know you are a kind person. Every night, you will leave some food at the trash dump area,” said the old man as he rubbed his somewhat dirty hands in an embarrassed manner.
“But I know there are no take-outs at your restaurant. Therefore, there is no need for you to leave those foods for me. It’s a waste,” continued the old man after observing Yuan Zhou’s expression.
Since Yuan Zhou started doing that a few days ago, the old man and his significant half had been able to eat some warm and filling food.
One or two times were fine, but the food was left there each night and each time they were packed nicely. It was obvious those were no coincidences. Thus, the old man decided to come earlier today to see who was the person leaving the food behind. Finally, he saw who that person was.
“You are overthinking it, grandpa. I sell food, thus, I have to ensure my ingredients are always fresh. It is natural to throw away any leftover ingredients,” said Yuan Zhou seriously.
In fact, that was true in a way. The ingredients provided by the system were all fresh, and the leftovers would all be taken back by the system.
Only the part about keeping ingredients fresh were true. Yuan Zhou continued speaking with a deadpan face, “Grandpa, since you know me, you should have heard of my stingy… no, I mean thrifty reputation.”
The old man nodded seriously.
“Thus, with the price of the dishes in my restaurant, do you think I will really throw an entire dish away for nothing?” asked Yuan Zhou seriously.
The old man shook his head when he gave it some thought. Indeed, based on what he knew of Yuan Zhou’s character, he would never do something that wasteful. Nevertheless, the old man was still feeling that something did not quite add up, but he couldn’t figure out what that was.
“But the lunchbox…” the old man recalled something else.
“To be frank, all geniuses are eccentric in their way,” Yuan Zhou explained, not forgetting to praise himself. After rearranging his collar, he continued, “I am embarrassed to admit it myself, but I am a genius. Therefore, I am eccentric that I love packing up leftover food before throwing them away.”
The excuse was so good that the old man had no retort.
When Yuan Zhou saw that the old man was still going to say something, he added, “In the past, I did not have leftovers. I have no idea why I started having leftovers recently.”
It was worth noting that Yuan Zhou was keeping this secret from Wu Hai. Otherwise, Wu Hai would be stealing the leftover food and there wouldn’t be anything left for the old man.
Yuan Zhou had no intention to figure out what happened in the old man’s life and his story. After explaining, he left.
The old man watched on as Yuan Zhou walked away until Yuan Zhou was no longer in his vision. Then, the old man bent down and lifted the bag Yuan Zhou left behind and carefully placed it in the gray bag on his back.
He then went through the trash, gathering the plastic bottles and cardboard. But as the value of money was going down, these plastics were of little value anymore.
After about half an hour, the old man left. From what he did earlier, he was obviously different than other rubbish collectors.
When going through the trash, the old man would never pour the trash onto the ground. As for the trash on the ground, he would pick them up and put them where they belonged.
The old man stayed at a place that was rather far from Taoxi Road, about a 40-minute walk away. There used to be a factory there. The factory subsequently moved but the buildings were left behind.
At first, there were guards keeping watch. But perhaps they found it troublesome and a waste to keep paying those people. Thus, there were no longer guards there now.
That was where the old man and his sick significant half stayed. Of course, apart from them, there were two other homeless people there as well.
Why did the old man spend so much time at Taoxi Road? Because there were only skyscrapers and public squares in the area. The only trash transfer station nearby was the one at Taoxi Road.
On his way back, the old man bought two Mantous. Slowly, he returned to the factory with his bag behind him. The old man and his significant half were residing in the ex-office building. The building faced south and had very good access to sunshine. As the old man’s significant half was sick and couldn’t move around easily yet loved basking under the sun, thus the old man tried his best to make it easier for her.
As everything had been moved away from the abandoned factory, when the old man entered the room, what appeared before him was a crude-looking mattress.
Strictly speaking, that wasn’t even a mattress. That was merely where they slept. The bottom layer consisted of some hays with three layers of cardboard on top. Finally, on the top layer were some cotton wadding and a layer of sheets. The quilt was a thick woolen quilt where all the fur had fallen off. There were even some cigarette burnt marks on it, yet overall, it was kept neat and clean.
The room was very neat and clean, and on the window sill, a few flowers were planted. Since the old man’s significant half loved flowers, the old man would bring back some flowers every now and then. Of course, it was obvious these flowers were the bad quality ones thrown away by the flower stores.
“I’m back. Today, I saw the person who left the food for us,” said the old man. He placed the cardboard and plastics down before carefully putting the bag down and said with a smile.
…
