Chapter 237
From the old man, we learned many things.
That included parts of his past.
He had gone blind when he was young. It had started with a fire, and the fire had been set by his own father.
His father was the kind of man who drank, gambled, whored around, and wasted his life away. One time, after getting drunk, he flew into a drunken rage and set the house on fire. The flames had been terrible. The old man and his mother had barely escaped with their lives.
His father burned to death on the spot. As for the old man, though he managed to survive, he was horribly disfigured by the fire. Half his face was burned, and one of his eyes was gone.
At the time, his other eye could still see, but it had been damaged by the smoke. His family was poor and had no money for treatment at a hospital. Before long, that eye went blind too.
Back then, he was only in his early twenties, and he was the only college student in the village.
In those days, a college student was worth their weight in gold. You could say he had a boundless future ahead of him, only for it to be ruined by his own father.
After that, the old man’s mother took care of him. She looked after him until he was in his forties. When he was in his forties, his mother passed away as well. From then on, he lived alone, making a living by picking through trash.