"Ah, it's nothing."
The old woman waved her hand.
"Why bother?"
"I'm used to it."
Ah...
The man smiled wryly.
That was true.
It wasn't the first time he'd come home dead drunk.
And it wasn't the first time the old woman had run into him like this.
But saying she was used to it...
The man pressed his lips together.
Why did he feel like such a stubborn fool who never listened to anyone?
Hmm...
Maybe he was.
"It's a shame you were too drunk to be aware of anything."
The old woman shook her head.
"Otherwise, you really should thank Xiao Xiao properly."
"That young man helped you home when you were drunk."
"And it was raining outside, too."
Just thinking about it made it sound exhausting.
"You live on the fifth floor, after all."
Their old apartment complex didn't have an elevator.
"Can you imagine how tiring it must've been for a young man to help a grown man like you up five flights of stairs while you were drunk..."
"Mm."
The man murmured in response.
"Luckily, I'm not much trouble when I drink."
At least, so far—
These days, he rarely drank with anyone. He just drank alone to drown his sorrows.
But he'd gotten drunk with other people before.
None of his drinking companions had ever said he was a handful when drunk.
He seemed to stay fairly quiet when he was drunk.
He didn't cause a fuss.
"If you happen to run into him again sometime..."
Uh...
The man realized there was a problem.
"I don't even know what he looks like..."
Even if they really did happen to meet again, he wouldn't know that he was the person who'd once helped him.
"Oh, I'm just saying."
The old