Chapter 23: Will Be Revised Soon!
Upon hearing my words, he stopped retreating but still kept a safe distance between us.
"What do you want? Why did you come up to me?"
I got straight to the point.
"What about the residents here?" I asked.
I gave him a slow scan from head to toe. Then I averted my gaze.
"You might not look sick," I said, "but who knows what’s going on inside. You should stop smoking that tobacco. Otherwise, your lungs might give out."
He squinted at me like I had just told him the sky was green. "What do you know about tobacco? Lungs, huh? Kid, that nonsense might work on someone else, but not me. You just had to say it to me of all people."
He held up the half-burned roll with a kind of reverence, almost like worshipping it.
"If it weren’t for this little thing, I would’ve thrown myself off that bridge years ago. It’s because of tobacco that I found the will to keep going. To me, it’s not just a commodity I bought to fulfill my craving, but it’s also a reminder that it once saved me. This is my savior!"
I was speechless. More importantly, I realized there was no point arguing with a smoker, especially a heavy one like him.
It’s not like anyone in this world knew about the health risks associated with tobacco anyway. Talking about lung damage would just make me sound like a lunatic. And really, even back on modern Earth, people kept smoking despite warning labels printed right on the packaging. If that didn’t stop them, why would my warning work here?
"By the way, do you know anything going on over Nolan Street?" I asked, changing the subject.