At nine o’clock, everyone promptly boarded the vehicle to follow the production team to the retirement community.
The guests and the audience in the livestream initially thought this trip was just for show, but as the bus drove into the dilapidated small streets, the old buildings and mottled white walls gradually came into view for the livestream audience.
The bumpy potholes on the ground caused the vehicle to shake constantly.
Someone in the livestream complained that the screen shaking made them dizzy, but others said that places like this were just like that.
The bus stopped at a narrow fork in the road, unable to proceed further, so the director asked everyone to get off and walk.
Some middle-aged and elderly people stood by the roadside, curiously sizing them up. Xia Weige looked around and couldn’t see many young faces.
The gate of the retirement community was a rusty, iron wire mesh. The person in charge of the community, knowing the production team was arriving, was already waiting at the entrance.
“Welcome, welcome, you must have had a tiring journey. I’m Wu Yan, everyone calls me Grandma Wu.” Grandma Wu smiled and greeted everyone. She looked to be over 50 years old, with noticeable wrinkles and age spots on her face.
Next to her was a young woman, who looked about twenty, wearing cheap sportswear. Her skin was dark yellow, and she looked a little gloomy. Her name was Wang Ning.
Xia Weige and her group gathered in front of the community gate, dressed brightly, which seemed out of place with the old surroundings.
Xia Weige looked at the few low-rise buildings inside the community, vaguely seeing the hunched figures of a few elderly people walking.
This reminded her of a time when she had been to a similar type of retirement community—an old-style street where she had lived during middle school.
Xia Weige had lived with her grandmother for a period during middle school. That old woman was not kind to her; she had a sharp, harsh appearance, and the look in her eyes always carried a hint of disdain because she was not a boy.
On that street, there were only lonely elderly people living in their respective homes, with broken blue stone paved roads and moldy, yellowed, broken cement walls.
One road led straight ahead, but the distance between the two sides was less than three meters.
It felt like a forgotten place. Although the elderly would occasionally visit each other, Xia Weige always felt the intense, indelible loneliness on them and the vicissitudes of life nearing its end.
She left that place when she went to college, but she learned timidity from that harsh old woman. Only by being timid and showing weakness would the old woman disdainfully look away, as if looking at her one more time would dirty her eyes.
But this also made Xia Weige feel relieved.
In fact, Xia Weige felt a hint of aversion in her heart. Her impression of the elderly was not good. They always carried feudal and rigid ideas, stubbornly adhering to ancient teachings and rules.
In Xia Weige’s eyes, they could not tolerate anyone who deviated from the norm, and Xia Weige, whether in her gender or her choice of lover, was a rebellion they could not accept.
She couldn’t feel a single ounce of goodwill from her grandmother, who was clearly a blood relative.
Thinking of this, although it was no longer the time of her youth when she would feel wronged and sad, she still felt a bit melancholic.
Subconsciously, she looked towards Wen Rong, only to find that the other person was also gazing at her.
Xia Weige’s heart trembled slightly, and she took a step closer to Wen Rong, standing in the nearest position to her.
Her movement was cautious, but Wen Rong, who was looking at her, saw everything clearly. Xia Weige also understood this, so she slightly raised her head, her eyes shining as she met Wen Rong’s gaze.
The melancholic feeling from just now seemed to have completely vanished.
Seeing this, Wen Rong slightly lowered her eyes, shifting her gaze away.
At this moment, everyone followed Grandma Wu into the community. The community’s facilities were all very old. This retirement community was not a profitable venue; it was previously built with funds from kind-hearted people. Most of the elderly people who came here were homeless or afflicted with illness.
There was actually no need for a tour, but Grandma Wu was enthusiastic about showing them around because they were a production team filming, and outsiders hadn’t visited here for a long time.
Grandma Wu now led everyone to visit the dispensing room. It was called a dispensing room, but it was just a small room of a few square meters, with an A4 printed sheet of paper with the three handwritten words “Dispensing Room” pasted on the door.
The young woman beside Grandma Wu, Wang Ning, suddenly interjected, “Grandma, I need to go deliver the medicine.”
Grandma Wu quickly clapped her hands and waved, saying, “Hurry up and go, don’t waste time.”
Since they were at the dispensing room, Wang Ning picked up the cardboard boxes on the table and was about to leave.
She was carrying them with some difficulty. The boxes somewhat blocked her view, and she walked carefully, occasionally using her hand to steady the bottom of the boxes.
Everyone subconsciously made way for her. At this moment, Xia Weige suddenly caught up with the young woman.
“Let me help you,” Xia Weige took one of the cardboard boxes from the woman and held it in front of her. She then looked back at the others, “I’ll help her deliver it.”
Wang Ning was very surprised, but she was in a hurry to deliver the medicine, and carrying two boxes by herself was indeed a bit difficult, so she didn’t stand on ceremony with Xia Weige. She nodded, accepting Xia Weige’s help.
Soon, they walked out of everyone’s sight.
Wang Ning curiously sized up Xia Weige. A cameraman was following behind them, which made her curious and embarrassed. She didn’t dare look directly at Xia Weige, only glancing out of the corner of her eye, which happened to meet Xia Weige’s gaze.
“Your name is Wang Ning, right? I just heard you say it,” Xia Weige broke the awkward silence and asked with a smile.
“Uh, yes,” Wang Ning answered softly.
“I’m Xia Weige,” Xia Weige also took the opportunity to introduce herself.
Seeing that Wang Ning was still a little awkward, she proactively asked, “You don’t look very old, are you still a student?”
Wang Ning saw Xia Weige’s friendly smile, which somewhat reduced her awkwardness. She thought for a moment and replied, “I just graduated. I come here every week. I’m helping out while looking for a job.”
When talking about the retirement community, Wang Ning clearly spoke more. “Most of the people who work here are volunteers, or grandpas and grandmas who live in the community and are in relatively good health.”
Xia Weige was a little curious. “Aren’t there any paid caregivers or anything?”
Upon hearing this, Wang Ning quickly looked up at Xia Weige, then turned her head and glanced at the cameraman filming them.
Finally, she lowered her head and whispered, “Where would the money come from… People here can’t even afford medicine for their illnesses…”
Xia Weige immediately pursed her lips when she heard this, realizing she had asked the wrong question.
Looking around, even the walls here were somewhat dilapidated, and the gate hadn’t been repaired. How could it be a wealthy place that could afford to hire caregivers?
This was not the kind of rich people’s nursing home they knew.
The two walked to a room. Wang Ning knocked on the door, but didn’t wait for a response; she knocked three times, then directly pulled the door open and walked in.
“Grandma Xu, Grandma Wang, time for your medicine,” Wang Ning called out loudly as she entered the room.
Xia Weige noticed that her usually low, somewhat husky voice had now become high-pitched and even carried a noticeable cheerfulness.
Wang Ning also put on a smile. There were two grandmothers in the room, both lying in bed. When Xia Weige looked over, although the two women tried hard to smile at Wang Ning, their faces were covered with a pallor of deathly decay.
They were pale from the torment of illness, with deeply sunken eye sockets. A layer of withered, yellowed skin hung on their emaciated bodies.
Seeing this, Xia Weige was almost startled.
【Holy cow! That looks… a bit scary.】
【The person above, be more mindful of your words. This clearly looks like a serious illness.】
【I really wonder if some people have a conscience. Any normal person would feel sorry for an elderly person looking like this, okay?】
【I don’t know if this is real or fake.】
【Am I really watching a dating show??? Am I watching a documentary on a dating show?】
【I’ve always followed the director’s public service films and short features. Honestly, he puts a lot of heart into his filming, and he’s also made many short public service pieces calling for attention to social issues. Now that he’s filming a dating show and bringing the guests to a place like this, I find it quite reasonable. He wants more people to understand the suffering of certain groups and also wants to appeal to everyone to pay more attention to them.】
【Is the dating show just work, and public service is life?】
【I don’t usually pay much attention to the situation of these elderly people, but seeing this now makes me a little sad. Their living environment is so bad, and they said earlier they don’t even have money for medicine.】
【The grandmas look so pitiful. My own grandmother also died of illness, and she looked like this on her deathbed, tormented by sickness until she was barely recognizable.】
Most people in the livestream also started to care about the environment of the retirement community.
They didn’t know that the entire community only had one dedicated volunteer cleaner, who was also a nearby sanitation worker and could only come to help after getting off work.
Most of the cleaning was spontaneously done by the elderly themselves, but those who were bedridden couldn’t always keep things clean.
The smell inside the room was also very unpleasant, like a stench from not being cleaned for a long time, or the smell of bedding saturated with moisture from the humid spring rain.
Xia Weige subconsciously frowned and followed Wang Ning into the room.
Wang Ning found the two elderly women’s medicine from the cardboard boxes, poured them water, and had them take it. She didn’t need Xia Weige’s help, who just stood watching on the side.
Wang Ning smiled and talked to the two elderly women. The orientation of this room was poor, and the warm sunlight barely shone in, making it feel dark even in broad daylight.
Wang Ning still had to deliver medicine to other elderly people and couldn’t delay for too long. After saying a few words, she picked up the cardboard boxes and prepared to leave again.
The elderly woman named “Grandma Xu” on the bed suddenly called out to her.
“Ningning, come here.” Grandma Xu spoke with a slight slur, but Wang Ning was used to it and could understand.
Grandma Xu slowly pulled a candy out from under the quilt and smiled as she handed it to Wang Ning.
She then waved at Xia Weige, also took out a candy, and carefully, with a trembling hand, handed it to Xia Weige.
Xia Weige looked up at Grandma Xu. Her pale face, full of wrinkles and age spots, had a darkness in her deeply sunken eye sockets, but the pair of eyes, which looked dull to Xia Weige, were like a faint light shining in the darkness, looking at her with a smile.
There was no other emotion, just pure, unadulterated affection from an elder for a junior.
Xia Weige tightened her grip on the candy in her hand, her heart trembling slightly.
The two of them left the room, and Wang Ning, who had been smiling, suddenly became gloomy again, and her voice also dropped.
Xia Weige subconsciously looked at her, only to hear the other person’s helpless words: “How did she secretly hide candy again.”
Xia Weige lowered her gaze, sensing a heavy sadness in those words.