Empty Nest Legacy

Old Li died, quietly and without a sound. Just like the decades he lived, equally silent. When the community members cleaned his room, they found three bank cards and a property certificate, with a total value of nearly five million yuan. But this inheritance became a hot potato, unclaimed.

Old Li was never married, had no children, his parents had passed away early, and he had lost contact with distant relatives. It was as if he had appeared out of thin air in this city, and disappeared just as suddenly, leaving behind a pile of ownerless wealth.

The neighborhood committee held several meetings to discuss the ownership of this inheritance, with a variety of opinions: some suggested donating it to charity, some said it should be confiscated by the state, and some even proposed that it should be distributed as a bonus to the community. The arguments raged on, but no conclusion was reached.

Finally, a young intern, Xiao Wang, made a bold suggestion: "Why don't we hold an auction? Whoever bids the highest will get the inheritance."

This proposal immediately caused an uproar. Some scolded him for being ridiculous, while others thought it was a good idea. After several rounds of heated discussions, the neighborhood committee actually approved this bizarre proposal.

After the announcement was posted, the whole city was in an uproar. In order to compete for this huge inheritance, all sorts of people flocked to this old, usually deserted community.

On the day of the auction, the venue was packed. There were suited businessmen, glamorous internet celebrities, and even some strangers claiming to be Old Li's "distant relatives." They were all eager and determined to win.

The auctioneer struck the first hammer, and the starting price soared directly to one million, and then the price continued to climb. The atmosphere was as tense as a bomb about to explode.

Finally, a plainly dressed old lady bought Old Li's inheritance for 4.98 million yuan. She walked shakily to the stage, took the property certificate and bank cards, her eyes filled with incredulous bewilderment.

While everyone was guessing the old lady's identity, she slowly opened her mouth, her voice hoarse, but with a strange calmness: "Actually, I was Old Li's neighbor, we knew each other for decades. He was a man who didn't say much in his life, he just liked to grow flowers and plants, and I would occasionally help him water them. Before he died, the thing he liked to look at the most was that Clivia on the balcony."

After speaking, the old lady calmly walked off the stage. The crowd looked at each other, completely not understanding the meaning of her buying this inheritance.

A few days later, someone discovered that Old Li's house had not welcomed a new owner. The old lady had thoroughly cleaned the house, transplanted all the flowers and plants that Old Li had grown before he died to her own balcony, leaving only the Clivia, quietly blooming.

The people in the community gradually understood the old lady's intention, and they slowly accepted the fact that Old Li's inheritance had ultimately returned to the world he had lived in.

One evening at dusk, Xiao Wang curiously came to the old lady's balcony. He saw the old lady talking to the Clivia. He couldn't hear what she was saying. He only saw that the sunset stretched the shadows of the old lady and the Clivia very long.

The old lady turned around, saw Xiao Wang, and smiled slightly at him. Xiao Wang also smiled. He remembered that in Old Li's belongings, there was an old piece of paper with a line of writing: “Flowers bloom and wither, people come and go, only silence prevails.”