Chapter 384 Heavy

Today's Tarot Club ended relatively early. Looking at his pocket watch, it was only a quarter past 4:1. Sifer put on his formal clothes and left the hotel.

He came to Red Moon Street, came to Old Man Hardy's pie shop, and saw that the old man was closing.

Next to the old man, there is a cardboard box, I don't know what is inside.

After the old man closed the shop, he bent down to carry the cardboard box, but his movements froze.

He twisted his waist.

At this time, someone supported him and helped him to stand up slowly, and then the old man saw Sifa's face.

"It's you?"

"Are you here to buy pies?"

Hardy smiled and pointed to the cardboard box on the ground: "There are plenty of them inside, take whatever you want."

Xifa looked at the carton, only to find that there were unsold Dixie pies and sweet iced tea in the box.

"Are you going to throw these things away?"

"Do you need my help?"

Unexpectedly, when Xifa said this, the old man was very angry and said: "Throw it away? How can it be such a waste? Do you know how many people can't afford black bread? Let alone Dixie pie!"

He was going to pick up the carton himself.

Xifa squatted down, picked up the cardboard box neatly and said, "Then you plan to take it home and eat it yourself?"

"Do you think I can eat so much by myself?"

"Eye is a good thing, but it seems that you don't have one. I feel a little sorry for you, sir." Old Man Hardy shook his head with a regretful expression.

Xifa felt the muscles on his face twitch, so he could only say, "Then how do you plan to deal with them?"

"I'm going down Iron Cross Street, and I'm going to send these things to the workhouse there." The old man's expression gradually became silent, "Actually, I think, instead of interviewing me, you might as well interview those poor guys there."

"They deserve more attention."

"The workhouse?" Xifa looked at the old man unexpectedly, "That's why you close early every day?"

"if not?"

"Well, would you like to do me a favor?"

After a while, Xifa and the old man Hardy boarded the public carriage to Iron Cross Street. During this process, Xifa learned that the old man's pie shop, except for the rent and raw materials, all the income was donated to the workhouse.

In addition, he sent unsold pies and sweet iced tea to the workhouse every day, and let the people there distribute them to the homeless poor who had no food to eat.

He has been doing this for a year and five months.

"After my wife left me forever, for a long time, I couldn't find my purpose in life and fell into a state of confusion."

"Until one day, when I passed by the workhouse, I saw a long queue of poor people waiting for relief."

"Suddenly, I felt like I had to do something, like my dad."

On the public carriage, the old man seemed to be in a good mood, and his mouth never stopped.

Xifa followed his tone and asked, "Like your father?"

"right."

The old man looked at the top of the carriage: "He is a man of few words, he can only see a smile in front of my mother."

"When he was young, he was a sailor, and he was often away. I don't see him five times a year, and he comes back in a hurry, so I don't get along very well with him."

"My mother suffered from lung disease and passed away at a very young age. So I could only board at my grandmother's house. It was not until I became an adult and established my own family that my father ended his life as a crew member. The roots settled down."

"But at that time, he often lived alone. Although one or two friends would occasionally visit him every year, I could feel that he was empty and lonely."

Old Man Hardy took out a cigarette but didn't smoke it because it was in the carriage so he just sniffed it and put it back in the case.

"I've tried to entertain him, the theater, the circus, but I can't get him out of that damn house."

"At that time, he was in a state of refusing to communicate with the outside world. He was waiting to die. Then one day, he suddenly found me, hoping that I could do him a favor."

"He wanted to be a teacher at night school, and he said he thought of what he had learned from the sea and passed it on as much as possible."

"He hopes that in the last days of his life, he can do something meaningful."

"I didn't know at the time what was driving him to make this change. Now I understand it was compassion, sir."

"As much as I sympathized with the poor, my father must have been touched by similar people, similar things."

"So until the moment of his death, his life was always full of light and heat."

Xifa said sincerely: "Your actions are admirable."

Hardy waved his hands and said with a smile: "We didn't do this for the sake of admiration. We just wanted to do something for this world to make it a better place, that's all."

After a while, they came to the vicinity of Tieshi Street, the old man led the way in front, and Xifa followed behind with the cardboard box in his arms.

Soon they came to the Lower Street, it was already early five o'clock, Iron Cross Street was full of people, the road became congested, and the hoarse shouts of street vendors always slowed down the pedestrians, so the traffic situation became even worse .

When he arrived at the entrance of the poorhouse, Xifa saw a long queue. He had only seen this kind of situation at the entrance of those Internet celebrity snack bars in his previous life.

But the same picture, presented in this world, has a completely different meaning.

There were close to two hundred poor people with worn-out clothes and numb expressions. Occasionally, they would look at the door of the workhouse with anxious expressions.

More often, they are like living corpses, cold and gloomy, as if they cannot find any hope.

live only by instinct

"In recent months, whether it is factories or other industries, there has been a downturn. This has caused more people to lose their jobs, and more people can't pay their rent, so they can only join the ranks of homeless people."

Hardy said in a slightly sad tone: "I am lucky, I have two good children. When I was young, I made several successful investments."

"These things make it possible for me to own my own house now, and in the winter I can enjoy the warmth of the fireplace in the hall instead of having to struggle to find shelter from the wind and rain like they did."

"The people here, at least half of them, will not get relief. They will starve for a day or two, and then they will lose the ability to find work. Now that it is very cold, in this case, they will pay Speeding toward death."

Hardy glanced at the cardboard box in Xifa's hand: "Although I want to help, this little thing of mine can only save a few lives."

"People, in many cases, always think a lot, but can't do anything"

Listening to the old man's words, and recalling what he had seen and heard in Backlund's Eastern District a few days ago, Xifa suddenly had the urge to escape from this place and return to the sea.

Everything that happened here is too heavy