"When I last saw the old man, his body was weak, but not to this extent. The family lacked neither medicines nor secret remedies for restoring health. How had he collapsed so completely in just two short years?"
Zhang Lin hesitated before answering Zhang Tie's question in a low voice. "The old man's condition only took a sudden turn for the worse over the past four months..."
"The past four months?" Zhang Tie's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Yes. After the old man learned that you had been struck by the Thunder of Annihilation after the battle at the Wei River, that your fate was unknown, and that there had been no news of you throughout your treatment at Xuanyuan Hill, his health rapidly declined during that time. He asked about you several times every day. If the family had not stopped him, and if he had not feared causing you trouble, he would have gone to Xuanyuan Hill to see you long ago. Afraid that we were hiding things from him, he had people gather newspapers from every province for him each day, hoping to find some news in them. Sometimes, he even insisted on going to teahouses to listen to what people were saying. No matter how we tried to persuade him, he would not listen. We had people examine him, and they all said that he had fallen ill from excessive worry, his mind and strength worn to exhaustion. The old man's body had already been sustained by careful nursing. Once his strength of heart was spent, no medicine would be of any use..."
Zhang Tie had never expected the old man's sudden collapse to be connected to him. Thinking of the old man's voice and face, his nose suddenly stung, and his eyes reddened at once.
What did