Atrophy of Love: Mr. Harris, Stop Fooling Around! novel Chapter 118

The elevator dinged as soon as her voice fell. She entered the elevator with a charming smile hanging on the corner of her lips.

Sophia glanced at the thermos barrel in her hand, the corners of her mouth pursed much tighter now. Then, she trudged to the elevator.

The Jones siblings were dog poo that she could not wait to keep away from, whereas Charles was a vicious dog that had nearly bitten her to death several times now. She hated him and wanted to kill him, but under his sharp claws, she was forced to yield lest she got ripped into pieces.

The hospital was crowded. The eyes of an old man with an amputated left arm, an artificial calf, and a wrinkly face lit up when he spotted Sophia. He then patted the young man next to him who was also disabled and pointed in Sophia's direction.

Another pair of eyes lit up.

The two held each other and walked with strange steps toward Sophia, stopping her in her tracks.

Sophia looked up and saw two unfamiliar faces. One was about 60 or 70 years old with a face full of wrinkles, whereas the other was about 30 or 40 years old with fine lines on the corners of his eyes and tanned skin.

Although the two were of different ages, they were both disabled. Their clothes might look neat, but they were starting to turn white from excessive washing. On their feet were black and inexpensive cloth shoes that were not normally seen.

Their attire made them look like beggars, or perhaps swindlers who would go “Missy, I need a few bucks for travel expenses, can you lend me some money”.

Sophia took another glance at the two of them and was certain that she did not know them. "How can I help you?"

Thump!

The two of them did not say a word. After exchanging glances with each other, they knelt to the ground straight away. Their movements were so big that they caught the attention of other people around them as they looked strangely at them.

Sophia frowned but did not help them up, neither did she say a word to them. She simply stared at them with a lukewarm gaze.

"Don't get us wrong!" At the sight of her expression, the middle-aged man waved at her twice and said in broken Mandarin, "We’re neither beggars nor swindlers. We’re fellow countrymen who have received your help and just wanted to say thank you!"

The older man wiped his tears and spoke in a dialect that Sophia could not understand.

"I haven't helped any countrymen at all. You got the wrong person," Sophia said in a mild tone before turning around to walk away with the thermos barrel in her hand.

The middle-aged man helped the old man up in a haste, then half-limped and half-trotted to Sophia. He said as quickly as he could, "We are really not swindlers. We just happened to bump into you and want to say thank you!"

His tanned face was suffused with crimson color under Sophia’s suspicious gaze. “We’re just here to work as unskilled workers—what you call construction workers. The building collapsed and wounded us, even killing some, but our boss just took off like that!"

"If you hadn’t sold the gifts you received from your birthday party and donated the money to us, we wouldn’t even have the money to receive medical treatment, let alone get an artificial leg! Let me kowtow to you again!"

He was about to kneel down as he spoke.

Sophia thought for a while and recalled that she had indeed asked Aunt Harris to sell all the gifts she received for the birthday party to donate the money to the disabled.

She placed the thermos barrel on the ground and bent over to help the middle-aged man up. "You don’t have to thank me. I still have things to do. Would you excuse me?"

Sophia did not take credit for her actions nor did she stay to listen to the praises showered upon her by the onlookers. She bent down to pick up the thermos barrel from the ground and lined up at the elevator.

"Come, switch places with me, young girl. You can stand here!" The tall and plump woman was loud. She yanked Sophia to the front of the line straight away and moved to the back of the line herself. She gave a thumbs-up to those around her. "This young lady is beautiful inside-out. Simply awesome!"

Those around her echoed the woman’s opinion, all of which were praises for Sophia.

Sophia got into the elevator and could still see the two disabled countrymen waving vigorously at her, wearing thankful grins on their faces.