"But Old Master Li wasn't having it. He responded with scorn and sarcasm."
"My uncle saw that Old Master Li seemed to be in good spirits, and that Auntie Wang also seemed reliable, so he didn't insist."
"Later, my uncle heard that Old Master Li had gone home the very next day."
Zhang Bo rambled on. "There wasn't anything the hospital could do about Old Master Li's illness anyway."
"What was the point of staying in the hospital?"
"If you weren't sick, who'd want to go to the hospital?"
"...That sounded kind of odd, didn't it?"
"If you weren't sick and needed treatment, who'd like the smell of disinfectant in a hospital?"
Zhang Bo rephrased it.
"My uncle heard that Old Master Li hadn't gotten up early that morning, and Auntie Wang realized something was wrong."
"But Old Master Li stopped Auntie Wang from calling 120."
"Maybe he knew his time had come?"
Zhang Bo sounded both moved and melancholy.
"Old Master Li had looked very unwell throughout his illness. Then he went into the sea in the middle of winter, and looked even worse. But that morning, he looked surprisingly well."
"A rally before the end."
Xiao Xiao said softly.
"Yeah."
Zhang Bo wasn't surprised that Xiao Xiao had figured it out so quickly. "Who doesn't know about a rally before the end these days?"
"Auntie Wang knew Old Master Li was having one, too."
"Old Master Li closed his eyes in his own bed."
"At least he passed peacefully."
"People really do get news so quickly these days."
Zhang Bo suddenly said something that seemed out of the blue.
Xiao Xiao raised an eyebrow.
"You know what?"
Zhang Bo didn't keep him in suspense. He went on, "They even know what Old Master Li put