Yet even so, the man's mother passed away a week ago.
During the process of treating the illness, the expenses were too excessive.
The man insisted on treatment, which exhausted his family's savings, leading his wife to choose to divorce him after weighing the pros and cons.
Not only that, but even the child who had just been three months pregnant was abandoned.
After dealing with his mother's funeral, the man looked at the empty home without a trace of nostalgia.
He just felt disheartened, as if living no longer held any promise.
So, he chose today, a time when the evening had darkened and no one was around, to jump into the river.
He thought, since life was so miserable, he might as well go down and reunite with his mother.
That way, the mother and son would have companionship.
His mother had just left, and if he went down now, he should still be able to catch up.
Jiang Xin fell into a long silence after hearing the man's words.
Every family has its own difficult story.
The man's plight truly provokes anguish and sympathy.
Now, he is all alone, truly pitiful as well.
Moreover, during the questioning, Jiang Xin learned that this man was only twenty-eight years old and yet had suffered such blows.
Broken family, both parents gone.
A head of hair that should have been black was now streaked with the white of age not meant for someone so young.
Sigh.
Jiang Xin had never been good at comforting people, her tongue was clumsy, and she simply couldn't guide others.
And having lived in the post-apocalyptic world for many years, she had long forgotten how to get along with strangers.
So, comforting someone was really no ordinary challenge for her.
But at this moment, this man indeed needed someone to comfort him, to turn his suicidal thoughts around.
Only with hope for life can one have the courage to continue living.
So, after much inner conflict, Jiang Xin finally gathered her courage to speak:
"Um...you must grieve and accept it, people cannot come back from the dead, and seeing you like this now, if your mother could see, she would surely be saddened."
"You have to live well so your mother can rest in peace."
"Besides, didn't your former wife abandon you?"
"If that's the case, you should strive to live well, show her you at your best, and make her regret choosing to divorce you!"
"Instead of living like a walking corpse, lifeless."
"You're only twenty-eight, in the prime of your life, what's so hard to figure out? There's never a shortage of courage to start over in life."
"Do you want your mother to worry about you even after her death, underground?"
After saying quite a few words, seeing the man still unmoved, lifeless, Jiang Xin grew anxious, gritted her teeth, and played her trump card, deliberately mentioning the man's mother in her last sentence.
She thought since the man had lost his will to live because his mother passed away, surely his mother would hold a special place in his heart.
So that's why Jiang Xin said this.
Using the man's deceased mother to encourage him, to lift him up.
Sure enough, after Jiang Xin finished speaking, the man abruptly turned to look at her.
But he didn't say a word, just stared at Jiang Xin intently.
No one knew what he was thinking.
Jiang Xin felt uneasy under his gaze, awkwardly licking her lips.
Jiang Xin thought to herself, the words she had just spoken to counsel him were the best she could come up with.
If after listening to her, the man still can't think straight, then she truly had no other solution.
As the two remained in a stalemate for quite some time, the man finally spoke, his voice hoarse and strained, and he only said three words:
"Thank you."
Then he fell into silence once again.
Jiang Xin looked up at the sky helplessly.
She thought, "Brother, no need to thank me, just don't seek death, and that thanks is unnecessary."
She only wanted to hurry home now.
Seeing as the sky was getting darker and darker.
Jiang Xin had just gone into the water to save the man, and now her clothes were soaked through.
At night, the cool breeze was biting.
Plus, with her clothes sticking damply to her skin, it was unbearable.
Not only was it cold, but the clothes were unfamiliarly sticky against her skin.
Jiang Xin just wanted to quickly get back and change her clothes.
Moreover, in the pitch dark, who knew when someone from the village might come by.
What if someone on a walk recognized her passing by?
Seeing her sitting here with a strange man.
Then she wouldn't be able to explain herself even with a hundred mouths.
Especially since, because of what happened with Fu Yu, her reputation in the village was already poor.
If someone saw them, nobody would likely believe she had just saved someone.
They would only think Jiang Xin was lying to cover up an affair.
So, to avoid any misunderstandings and trouble for herself.
It was better to leave this place of trouble as soon as possible.
So, Jiang Xin quickly said,
"You don't need to thank me; as long as you stop thinking about dying, that's better than anything."
"Brother, let me be honest with you, my home is in this village, and my family wants me back before dark."
"Now the sky is already this dark; if I go back later, I'll surely be scolded."
"If you have figured things out, then quickly leave here, otherwise, I won't feel at ease going home."
"Though we don't know each other, meeting is fate, and I can't just watch and let a living person disappear before my eyes."
In the middle of Jiang Xin talking, just as she was thinking about what to say next.
The man across from her seemed to have noticed Jiang Xin's eagerness to go home and spoke again:
"You should feel at ease to go home, I've thought it through, and won't seek death anymore."
"It's better to live no matter how hard it is, as you said, you're right."
Although Jiang Xin heard the man make such a promise, she was still a bit uneasy.
Who knew if the man was just saying this to trick her into leaving so he could turn back and jump again?
Then her efforts would have been for nothing.
Jiang Xin thought for a moment, then with the help of the moonlight, she vaguely assessed the man in front of her.
Probably because of exhausting family savings to treat his mother's illness, leading to financial difficulty, he wasn't eating well.
Plus, with the death of family and the betrayal of his wife, his mood was grim.
That led to this man being extremely thin and weak.
Clearly, he was an adult man, but he was as thin as a skeleton.
Jiang Xin couldn't imagine what he had been through these days.