Chapter 755: The Elderly's Clubhouse
Inside the dark and old clubhouse, Han Fei with one Life Points and the blind old man stood face to face. One held Rest in Peace, and his Ghost Tattoo flared; the other held a broken radio and didn’t appear as if he had even noticed Han Fei.
Moments later, Han Fei waved his hand before the old man’s face. The old man still didn’t respond. Han Fei asked, “Sir… are you still taking in new members? I would like to join.”
The elder’s eyebrows rose when he heard Han Fei. He arranged his white hair, and his lips slowly opened. Perhaps it was because he hadn’t spoken in a long time, so his lips appeared to be stuck together. When his mouth moved, dark red blood flowed out. “Can you speak louder? I can’t hear you.” The old man’s voice was very special. It sounded like a fishbone was stuck in his throat. It was torture whenever he spoke.
“I wish to join this club and to be a member here!” Han Fei shouted right into the old man’s ear, and the latter finally heard him. The elder nodded, and his calloused hands reached toward Han Fei’s face. As the palms approached, Nine Lives inside the ghost tattoo gave off a strong warning. Before Han Fei could react, the elder’s palms pressed on Han Fei’s face. The coarse palms touched Han Fei’s face. The blind old man was trying to sense Han Fei’s face through this method.
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-plus. Why?”
“Our club is only for middle and old-aged members. You are too young. You should try another place.” The elder rejected Han Fei, and he planned to leave.
“I might look young, but I’m very mature mentally. Elder, don’t be so hung up about age. Even the best clubs need fresh blood to expand further.” Han Fei couldn’t log out if he didn’t complete the quest, so he had to grab this chance. “I’m very generous and can mix well with anyone. My neighbors voted for me to be the building manager, and my colleagues all said I’ve changed their career paths. I am very good at taking care of people. From lonely elders to abandoned orphans, everyone thinks I’m a good person.”
The blind man hesitated for a moment after he heard Han Fei. Perhaps the clubhouse hadn’t seen a new member for a long time.
“Our club mainly caters to middle and old-aged people. If the age gap is too big, there’ll be no common topics. It’ll be very awkward.”
“It’s fine. The best thing about me is that I’m optimistic, social, and talkative. I’ll gel with anyone.” Han Fei followed the elder. “Everyone who knows me says that I’m the glue that holds the place together.”
“Don’t boast so soon. Fine, I’ll bring you to witness our normal hobbies first. If you can accept them, perhaps you can join us.” The blind man hadn’t had such an ‘exciting’ conversation in a long time already. His company was only a broken radio.
“Okay. I would also like to see what this club has to offer.” When Zhuang Wen and Drake came earlier, they didn’t notice anything out of place or this elder. They must have missed something important.
“Don’t have too much hope. The elderly’s interests and hobbies are those few fixed ones.” The elder had stayed there for a long time because he was familiar with every corner of the place even though he had lost his eyes. He led Han Fei through the empty space in the middle of the club and first came to the room with the gym equipment. “The people who like to exercise will come here. However, we’re old and don’t really suit intense exercise. Most of us prefer to play chess, garden, and so on.” “Understood. I don’t like to exercise either.” The old man opened the backdoor of the warehouse. The black rain fell on his palm. “The rain still hasn’t stopped.” He opened the cupboard on the side. There were ten black umbrellas inside. “You can share an umbrella with me first. When you’re an official member, I’ll gift you an umbrella. Then you can move freely through the rain.”
“Okay.” Han Fei and the old man squeezed under the same umbrella. After they walked out of the backdoor, the entire layout of the club was shown before Han Fei. The warehouse was only a small part. The real club covered the entire back alley.
“The members here are old. We can’t do too many things. Our hobbies are simple. Mainly, they are to cleanse the soul and help with inner health.” The old man carried the black umbrella and walked down the back alley with Han Fei. Wails and cries came from the rooms on both sides. There was a very strange smell in the air too.
“For example, some of the elders like to garden. This hobby can clean the air and beautify the environment. The doctors also encourage this hobby. It’s called the gardening treatment.” The elder made sense, but Han Fei felt that something was wrong. Little Eight obtained seed from the surface world. She had been cultivating it for a very time, but she failed to grow a flower. However, these elders could cultivate the flowers so easily.
“I normally like to garden too. However, I can’t seem to be able to raise them properly.” Han Fei was very humble. He wanted to ask the old man for help. When he learned the tricks, he planned to return to Happiness Neighborhood to help Little Eight.
“You need patience and focus for gardening. You have to pour in a lot of sweat to enjoy the blooming flowers.” The elder stopped beside the first yard of the back alley. He knocked on the wooden door. No one responded for a long time. He led Han Fei into it. “Look. This is our garden.” As the wooden door opened, a horrible stench assaulted them. Han Fei frowned as he looked at the ‘garden.’
Many broken bodies were buried in the soil. Their bodies were buried in the ground and only their heads were exposed. The strangest thing was the souls were all trapped inside their bodies. Their skulls opened, and their souls were curled on the sphenoid bones like fragile flowers.
“Aren’t they pretty?” The elder knelt down gently to caress the souls in the skulls. “Unfortunately, I can’t see them. Until now, I haven’t gotten the chance to admire the beauty of these flowers. But I heard from the others that they are the world’s most beautiful flowers. Unfortunately, when they bloom, they will start to wilt. They have sacrificed their whole lives just for that beautiful moment. Perhaps that is the secret of their beauty.”
“Thank you for the lesson, but cultivating flowers is not a hobby suitable for me.” Han Fei looked at the ‘flowers’. He didn’t know how the elders managed to cultivate these things. They looked pretty, but the whole thing was crazy.
“Other than planting flowers, we have other hobbies for you to choose from, like calligraphy.” The elder and Han Fei walked out of the yard. They walked to the second room. “You mustn’t look down on calligraphy. When you practice calligraphy, there’s a high focus on style, attention, pattern, and constitution. It can effectively train one’s heart and soul.”
When the second door opened, Han Fei was really stunned. There were three more rooms in this room. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the first room were covered in various strange symbols like it was to ward against some crazy ghosts; the second room was filled with painted talismans. Normally, the talismans were used to ward off evil, but the talismans here radiated evil and sin. The ghosts had painted the talismans themselves; the third room was the worst. There was only one word written there, Death. It was like the owner had spent their whole life practicing writing this one word.
“Elder, the way the members practice calligraphy is rather special.” Han Fei didn’t even know how to comment. This place did fit the theme of a middle and old-aged clubhouse in hell. “Do you have other hobbies here for the members to pick?”
“There are a lot more, but I don’t think young people would be interested in them.”
“I don’t think any living humans would be interested in them.” Han Fei grumbled softly. He followed behind the old man down the back alley. The rain became heavier.
“I can’t plant flowers or practice calligraphy because of my eyes. My hobby is dancing. That is the choice of many elders too.” The blind elder smiled. He would feel happy whenever he talked about dance. “Dancing can prevent people from getting idle. For older members, it can prevent atrophy of the joints, promote blood circulation and improve metabolism. It can curb the loneliness in the elderlies’ hearts.”
“Is it line-dancing?”
“Any kind of dance works.” The blind old man put away the umbrella and entered the third room in the alley with Han Fei. The dark room was devoid of any light. Giant mirrors were embedded in all the walls. A simple stage was set up in the middle of the room. A lot of blood was left on it.
“Stage? Mirror?” The décor of the room reminded Han Fei of the murderer’s clubhouse in real life.
“This is normally where we train our dance. It’s also my biggest hobby.” The old man looked at the stage with his two hollow eyes, but he didn’t move toward it.
“Sir, you said dancing can curb loneliness but won’t dancing alone add to that loneliness?” Han Fei looked around. Dancing on the mirrored stage covered in blood wasn’t something enjoyable.
“Who said we’re dancing alone? I have a dance partner.” The elder whispered, “Once I take the stage, it’ll appear to dance with me.” Once the elder said that, the mirrors in the room started to darken. The shadows of the dead appeared to be trapped inside the mirrors.
“This is a good place to spend the latter half of one’s life. It has considered the members’ mental health from all perspectives. It focuses on company and eliminating loneliness.” Han Fei had enough of the tour. “Elder, I like this place. Is there any procedure to join this clubhouse?”
“There’s not much procedure as long as you really like this place and have a similar language with the other members.” The blind elder explained, “I’m technically the owner of this place and have the right to make such decisions. How about this? You need to find a suitable hobby, and then you can stay.”
At that moment, the system pinged with a notification.
“Notification for Player 0000! Complete a dance in the dance studio, find the most unique writing of Death in the calligraphy room, and pick a fresh flower in the garden while ensuring it doesn’t wilt.”
‘I need to do three things? I knew Grade E Missions aren’t that simple.’ Han Fei pretended to think. About 10 seconds later, he took the stage. “Sir, normally, what kind of dance do you do? I wish to learn from you.”
“Okay.” The elder hadn’t heard this request for a long time already, and he agreed happily. “I was a famous dancer when I was young. But something happened later. I lost everything but a soulful dance.” When the elder took the stage, his presence changed drastically. Death and decay were replaced by something else. His soul shone at that moment. The elder extended his arms and started to move. The presence of death slammed like waves. He had lost his eyes so he couldn’t see anything. He also didn’t need others to watch him. He was submerged in his own world.
“This dance is very special. It feels like some kind of ritual.”
Han Fei memorized the elder’s every move. As the dance approached its end, shadows appeared on the mirrors. They were death visages. The old man’s dance had the mysterious power of drawing the dead out of the mirrors. They stood aimlessly on stage. The blind old man danced among the dead.
“No wonder he doesn’t need a dance partner…”
Han Fei was shocked by the elder’s dance. He knew the old man must be something very talented when he was young. But he was also curious. How did he end up in the cryptic world? Who dug out his eyes and turned him into this place’s custodian?
