When Qian Zongguan asked the old lady, Lin Feng and the others turned in her direction and awaited her response. They only saw her continue to squat by her grill and continue to cook food, sighing heavily to herself.
"Never mind this old lady's concerns, lest it ruin your taste for alcohol."
The old lady raised her head and slowly spoke in response to Qian Zongguan's question.
"It's alright grandma, just go ahead and tell us what ails you and maybe we will be able to help you"
Qian Zongguan spoke with a smile as he picked up one of the skewers and started to eat.
The Qing sect's main objective was to help each other out, and after the dawning of the apocalypse, their goal was still the same. But this was only a goal for the disciples to undertake, as the outer members of the sect didn't have such compassion for all others as was needed to perform such acts. And even in this case, Qian Zongguan was only asking because he was curious and not because he felt obligated to help the old lady. If this wasn't the case, than considering the entire nation's worth of poverty stricken individuals in the apocalypse, the sect might as well just become a charitable organization in order to help all these people.
But these thoughts were not the concern of those listening. The grandma was old, distressed and sighed in a way that showed how distraught she was. Someone so advanced in her years surely wouldn't have an easy time running a food stall like this one.
"With hands that are broken, a body that worsens by the day, I don't know how long my child will survive for."
The old lady stood up and added two pieces of charcoal to the grill, slowly turning her head and speaking softly her concerns.
Everyone understood when they heard the old lady's words, all her concerns stemmed from her child. It was sad the nature of parent's hearts, hah, that even after such an age that the mother would worry about her child. No matter how old they were, it seemed like people were still children in their parent's eyes.
When the child got sick, the mother would feel the most concerned. Everyone wanted their children to be healthy and grow up well, no matter the age or time.
"Grandma, is it because you don't have any money that you can't let your child see a doctor?"
Qian Zongguan thought about the matter and decided to ask about this.
In this apocalypse, even meat was so expensive, but there was a refrigerator filled with hundreds of white crystals worth of meat. Seeing the amount of wealth right next to the old lady, Qian Zongguan wondered how couldn't a person like this have enough money to send their child to the doctor, and gave a self deprecating smile.
Tianlong base was a large and well maintained base with a very strict control. Anyone who stole something in this base would receive a strict punishment from the base, a level of security that matched Lin Feng's old world. Therefore, the security in the base was incredible good, and even though the old lady had hundreds of crystals worth of goods laying on the street, it could still be considered safe.
"It's not that we're short of money, as my son is very wealth."
Hearing the question, the old lady immediately denied the question, as if thinking that these people were saying that her son wasn't a good son.
"My son is very capable and honors me as his mother, and without having to explain it let me set up this food stall. I didn't have anything to do and am now able to make some money for myself."
The old lady continued to speak.
"Just a few days ago, my son was injured and didn't want me to find out about it. He is in a different base, and with my age it is difficult to make the journey to see him. Alas, I am too old to have such a wonderful son, and to reach him, how do you think you could help me?"
The old lady started to wipe tears from her eyes as she spoke.
Lin Feng and the others understood the old lady's dilemma after listening to her and understood the situation. It was that the old lady and her son weren't in the same base.
Able to run a food stall and have these different meats, you couldn't say that the old lady was poor. On the contrary, compared to most others, the old lady was considered rich. No random people could just open a shop, they needed some level of wealth to be able to start up a venture like this.
The old lady's idea to open a street stall was something understandable as well, as some people couldn't just sit around doing nothing all day. And this wasn't something that happened because of the apocalypse, but even in the old world some people that didn't want for money or were even rich had their different activities like cooking food or cleaning up litter. It wasn't always for money either, as sometimes old people just liked having something to do, something that their children didn't always understand.
The old lady's son was in a base that was far away. If he was nearby they would have joined up with each other during the beginning of the apocalypse and wouldn't have waited until now.
In the apocalypse there were many like this old lady. During the dawning of the apocalypse, because of the chaos and zombie infection, many families were split up and spread throughout different bases. Especially old people, because of the difficulty in moving around would instead choose to stay in their old homes.
After the initial chaos people were able to use their apocalypse watches to contact each other and even find other willing to help them meet up with their family members. Younger people were able to join forces and establish themselves as well. But old people had different ideas, and many stayed in their same towns and homes. Many children couldn't persuade their parents to leave behind their homes in order to be together, causing situations like with this old lady to happen.
There was silence in the spectators that had heard the old lady's words. The apocalypse had made this world and how world was before as different as heaven and hell. Some things that were simple to solve before the apocalypse now were matters of life and death.
Everyone could see that the son's injury was causing the old lady incredible distress. She was saying that she hadn't seen her son in at least three years, and now that he might die she was very anxious.
"Grandma, what is it that ails your son, is there any remedy that can be bought that can cure him?"
Hearing her dilemma, Qian Zongguan asked the old lady another question.
He could see that the old lady had wealth over hundreds of white crystals, and that her son should even more wealth than that. Having that amount of wealth in the apocalypse meant that these people weren't average. Although the status of medicine wasn't that good in the apocalypse, there was typically a cure for everything in one way or another. Even those that were shot and poisoned like Ling Tian could be healed, what was their that couldn't be remedied?
They had gotten to know more about the situation and Qian Zongguan noticed that the old lady had an apocalypse watch. The level of education in the apocalypse was still very high, with few people being illiterate. Therefore the old lady was able to receive information and shouldn't have any problems saying what issue was.
"I have forgotten a little bit about this matter. I think that he was poisoned by some sort of silver or something, and that they needed a flower to heal him. Oh, being old is hard, I shouldn't forget things like this."
The old lady thought for a long time and finally answered their question.
"Mithril toxin, needing a devil's snare to cure, is that right grandma?"
Seeing her struggle to remember, Qian Zongguan tried to help her with the first thing that came to mind.
"Right, that's what it was."
After getting a hint from Qian Zongguan, the old lady remembered and nodded her head.
Unexpectedly it was mithril toxin requiring devil's snare to cure.
Hearing the old lady's words, Lin Feng and the others looked at each other. They didn't think that right after Ling Tian that they would run into another person that needed a devil's snare.
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