48 Hours a Day

Chapter 1366: New Neighbors

Zhang Heng had planned to wait until dawn to send the old man home, but he didn’t expect the old man to be so anxious. He even ignored his injured leg and insisted on leaving.

After seeing the old man off, Zhang Heng simply took out his travel bag and locked polo. Then, he carried the old man through the forest and climbed up a steep cliff, in the middle, they jumped over a mountain stream that was about a meter wide. Finally, they arrived at the old man’s home in the middle of the mountain.

Although it was called a home, it was actually just a cave. Zhang Heng scanned the cave and found that it was about 200 square meters in size. Inside, there were some simple furniture, including a bed and a stool, a stove, a rice tank… there was no water or electricity, not to mention the internet. In fact, the furniture looked like it had been thrown away by others and had been picked up by the owner.

When he saw the figure on the bed, Zhang Heng understood why the old man was in such a hurry to come back.

There lay a small child. He was dark and small, like a little monkey. Although it was late, he did not fall asleep. His cheeks were flushed, and he was coughing softly.

Zhang Heng placed the old man on a recliner at the entrance of the cave. He walked up and touched the child’s forehead, then looked at his throat. Fortunately, it was probably just a fever caused by an inflammation of the tonsils. No wonder the old man did not sleep at night.., he entered the forest, probably to pick herbs, but the sky was too dark, so he didn’t see the path under his feet clearly and fell down.

It wasn’t difficult to cure the illness. Zhang Heng had some anti-inflammatory drugs in his bag, and he fed the child on the bed a piece of amoxicillin with mineral water. Then, he found a place of his own and leaned against the wall of the cave, closing his eyes to rest.

On the other side, the old man saw that the child’s condition was gradually improving, and he was finally relieved. After all, he was an old man, and after a night of torment, he quickly fell asleep after relaxing.

However, the old man usually did not sleep for long. He opened his eyes just after dawn, only to find that the young man who had saved him and treated the little girl was gone.

However, the old man saw the box of amoxicillin on the wooden table not far away. In addition, there was a walking stick made of small branches beside him. The old man stood up from the chair with the walking stick and walked to the bedside, he first looked at the child, then heard the sound coming from outside the cave.

The old man walked to the cave entrance and saw Zhang Heng on the cliff. Zhang Heng was carrying a heavy black box on his back as he climbed up the mountain. However, his footsteps were still light and steady, it seemed that he was not affected by the things on his back.

Zhang Heng also saw the old man standing at the cave entrance. He waved at him as a greeting. Then, he continued to climb up without stopping. However, he did not return to the cave, instead, he stopped at another stone wall not far away. The old man knew that place was also a cave, but it wasn’t as big as this one, and the terrain was even steeper.

This was also the reason why he chose to live here in the end.

However, this wasn’t a problem for Zhang Heng, and it could be seen that this wasn’t his first time climbing into the cave. He even used vines to make a ladder for easy access.

In fact, including the 24 hours of time freeze, this was the seventh time Zhang Heng had entered and exited the cave. The first few times, he had mainly cleaned the cave, and then moved the props, food, and daily necessities he had brought in from the car.

Zhang Heng did not plan to stay here permanently because he did not have much time left. However, he was willing to spend some effort to make his life more comfortable under the current conditions, this time, he removed the battery from the polo car and used it to supply the electricity. Next, he would also move the engine and gasoline to this place.

However, after putting the battery in his new place, he returned to the larger cave next door to visit the old couple and the child who lived there.

Both of them looked much better than yesterday. The child’s high fever had already subsided, but the old man’s broken leg would take an unknown amount of time to heal, normally, an adult’s fracture would take two to three months to heal. As for the elderly, it would take even longer.

Zhang Heng was worried that the two of them would not be able to eat, so he even brought them some instant noodles from the car. However, the old man waved his hand and refused. He placed the egg yolk pie that he had gotten from Zhang Heng Last Night in front of the little girl’s bed, after that, he used his crutches to scoop out a bowl of rice from the rice vat and poured it into the iron pot. He also scooped out three large bowls of water from the water vat. It seemed like he was preparing to cook the porridge, and he even boiled Zhang Heng’s bowl.

Seeing this, Zhang Heng did not rush down the mountain anymore. Instead, he stood to the side to help with the firewood burning and finished the porridge in the cave. At that moment, the little girl also got up from her bed, it was only then that Zhang Heng realized that the person he had fed the medicine to last night was actually a girl.

There was nothing he could do about it. When he was young, the difference between a man and a woman was not that obvious. Furthermore, the little girl looked a little malnourished. She was dark and thin. No matter who came, at first glance, he would think it was a boy.

Therefore, Zhang Heng left another box of multivitamins. Originally, he had brought this box with him just in case. Since he did not have much use for it, he might as well leave it for those who needed it more.

After breakfast, Zhang Heng didn’t say much. He didn’t even ask about the relationship between the old man and the girl, or why they lived in the depths of the mountains. He just continued to move the things that could be used.

In the end, not only did Zhang Heng put his luggage into the newly found cave, he also removed all the parts that could be used in the car. The rest of the useless parts were thrown into the stream, they were directly washed under the waterfall.

From that day onwards, the old and young couple, who had been living alone in the mountains, had an additional neighbor.

However, the new neighbor did not like to go out. Most of the time, he stayed in his cave alone. Only when he was eating would he come to the old man’s and the little girl’s Cave. Even though he had an extra mouth.., however, the dishes were much richer than before. Zhang Hengche brought a lot of snacks and ready-to-eat food that did not require much cooking.

Other than that, with his survival skills in the wild, he could find a lot of wild vegetables and fruits just by going out for a walk. In total, it was much more than what he ate from the old man and the little girl.

Therefore, it did not take long for the little girl to fall in love with this young uncle who always brought good food every time he came. However, the expression on this young uncle’s face was very calm no matter what, sometimes it gave her the feeling that it was like a stone.