Chapter 386
Chapter 386
On their way to another traditional medicine practitioner's house. Sebastian chatted with Winnie.
Their topic was none other than the traditional medicine practitioner who had retired.
Sebastian said to Winnie, "I need to tell you this first. The place my friend lives is a little remote, and I'm afraid we might not be able to get there by car. We'll have to leave the car and walk there, and the path there won't be an easy one."
Winnie nodded in understanding. "It's fine. I can have the bodyguard support me. It's an old residential area, is it?"
"Yes, it's an old residential area." Sebastian sighed. "It won't be a stretch to call it a slum. Honestly, the residential area is in a nice location, and you could even call it the city center back then. But Avenport developed too quickly, and the center of the economy shifted. So, soon, the place she stayed downgraded. They couldn't remove the houses nor could they renovate them, so the buildings slowly became dilapidated."
"Yes," Winnie started wistfully. "Although I'm just a young woman, I've seen the immense growth in the country's development for the past decade. This is something no country in the world can compare to. It's good, but there will always be a group of people who will be negatively affected by it."
"Indeed, but my friend doesn't have any financial troubles. She has properties in other places too."
"Then why didn't she leave?" Winnie asked. "She can just rent the house she's living in. As far as I know, the rental in old residential areas isn't high. and most house owners can rent their places out." "That's right," Sebastian agreed. "The environment is bad, but like me, she has a reason to stay in that old house. She, too, is waiting for someone. She's afraid that the one she's waiting for won't be able to find her if she moves away. That's why she's stubbornly staying there even though her children have been trying to convince her to leave."
So that's why. Winnie could not help but ask, "Who is she waiting for?"
"The one she loves," Sebastian replied before sighing. "The one she loves works as a site investigator. He went outstation many a decade ago. and he never came back. The site investigating team said that he was washed away by a torrent, but they haven't been able to find his body all these years. It's the same as my grandson, so she has been waiting for him. But the wait has been for thirty years. How many thirty years can a person have?"
"You're right. How many thirty years can a person have?" Tears sprang to Winnie's eyes. She did not even know whether or not she could live past her first thirty years.
After her chat with Josiah the night before, she learned that he had asked his classmates about that certain classmate of his and that he had found out that that classmate used to research artificial eyes. Josiah told her that artificial eyes had been a topic being researched. Alas, no one could reach that classmate anymore.
It was not a good sign for Winnie.
Nevertheless, she was not a pessimistic person. As long as a small flame of hope existed, she would hold on to that candle. The two of them continued chatting about other topics until they reached their destination.
Sure enough, as Sebastian had said, the residential area was not accessible by car. They had to leave the car and walk into it.
After many twists and turns, Winnie and the rest reached the old traditional medicine practitioner's house.
Winnie stayed there for almost three hours.
Unfortunately, the old traditional medicine practitioner could not help Winnie out.
Still, she shared similar ideas with Sebastian, so Sebastian was a little more confident about Winnie's case.
After that, Sebastian led Winnie back the way they came from.
On their way back, Winnie overheard a fight.
It sounded like a fight between a landlord and a tenant.
The landlord was loud. "You have to move out today! Did you think you can rent a place for free? It's not as if I didn't give you chances. I told you about this a month ago! Every week, you tell me I have to give you three more days. How many weeks has it been since then? Have you given me any money? I'm an ordinary citizen, too! I need to earn a living! I'm not running a charity organization here!"
It seemed that the tenant had run out of other options, and Winnie noted that their voice sounded hoarse. "Please. Ma'am! Just one more week! I caught a cold a few days ago. I'm sure you can tell by how my voice changed. Please just give me a few more days to recuperate from this cold before I move out. If you kick me out now, I'll have to wander the streets. The weather is getting colder and colder, and I won't be able to withstand it."
The landlord's voice became louder. "That's right. I can hear your voice change, but can you see my hair turning white? If I have pity for you, who will do the same for me? My mother's in the hospital, waiting for me to pay her bills to get surgery. Please, can you just spare me? Hurry up and move out so that I can rent the house out again!"
As the landlord spoke, sounds of tilings getting thrown could be heard.
Winnie guessed that the landlord was throwing out the tenant's tilings.
She could not see. and she could not figure out what was going on. She asked Sebastian, "Why don't we wait for a while before leaving?"
"Sounds good." Sebastian glanced at the spot before them. "Let's wait until they're done in case they throw something out."
They stood by the side of the path for a while.
Only when silence returned to the corridor did Sebastian tell Winnie to keep walking.
Winnie agreed, thinking that nothing else was going to happen after that. Unexpectedly, right as she took a few steps forward, another burst of shouts sounded out in the corridor. Then, someone nearly crashed into her.
Winnie guessed that the person had to be the tenant, who was pushed out by the landlord.
The tenant nearly knocked over Winnie, but Winnie's bodyguard reacted in time to push the tenant away.
The tenant fell to the ground.
Winnie felt that the bodyguard had been too rough and had acted inappropriately upon hearing the commotion, so she promptly told the bodyguard to help the tenant up.
When the tenant heard Winnie's voice, she snapped her head upward.
She was wearing a mask because of the cold she caught, so only her eyes were visible.
Nevertheless, upon taking in Winnie's face, she quickly lowered her head.
She was afraid that Winnie would realize who she was.
She was none other than Shania.
Previously, she had tried to hurt Winnie with a knife, and she had succeeded. Thereafter, she was apprehended by the police. Later on, Stuart tried to get her to work with him against Xavier, so he bailed her out of the cell.
However, not long after she came out of the cell. Stuart was caught by the police. After hearing news of that, she fled.
However, all of her identification documents had been taken, and her bank account had been frozen. She could not even leave Avenport, so she could only hide away in the slum.
She could not even afford the cheapest bed space in the shun and ended up getting kicked out by the landlord.
Shania had never thought that she would bump into Winnie at a place like this.