Chapter 1: The End
Lao Chen was a fifty-five-year-old man who should have been retiring and enjoying his golden years, but fate, in his opinion, was cruel.
"Hufttt... This weather is no good, ah. Spring, yet hot like summer! Tsk, tsk tsk."
He finally gave up and stepped out of the small cubicle where he had spent most of his later years as a security guard in an old apartment complex.
He gazed at the full moon outside as cherry blossoms drifted to the ground. It was a beautiful spring night, but to him, there was nothing beautiful about it.
"Hahhh... What have I been doing with my life?" His dark eyes looked empty. The moon and flowers did nothing to ease his pain.
In his prime, he had been a manager at a major company. But after being framed for corruption, he was fired.
From that day on, he was blacklisted from almost every company in the city. Stress turned him into an alcoholic and a gambler.
So, it wasn't surprising when his wife and children left him. And by the time he realized how messed up he had become... it was already too late.
"No use crying over spilled milk, huh? The past is dead, just like this old man's luck."
He turned on the old radio, static filling the air before an old song, probably from the '80s, started playing. He mumbled the lyrics under his breath.
As a security guard, he had seen all kinds of people—the rude, the classist bastards, the elitists, and then the kind, the patient, the cheerful ones.