CH 4

A week later, Cangnan City No. 6 High School.

“Hey, look, is that person from our school? Why is there a layer of cloth covering his eyes?”

“He’s wearing our school uniform. He must be from our school.”

“He has a white cane in his hand. I think he is blind.”

“Strange, why haven’t I seen him before?”

“I supposed he is a tenth-grade freshman?”

“He looks pretty handsome with a black cloth wrapped around his eyes.”

“But how do blind people go to class? We don’t seem to have special classes in our school, right?”

“No idea.”

“…”

As expected, Lin Qiye attracted a lot of attention as soon as he walked past the school gate.

However, Lin Qiye had experienced this kind of scene many times. He walked across the school’s path decorated with maple trees and toward the teaching building.

Speaking of which, Lin Qiye was ready to face the school bullies before coming. After all, like in many nonsensical novels, there would be a couple of “bullies” appearing out of nowhere, mocking him and laying the groundwork for him to make himself famous like a protagonist.

However, that kind of troublemaker did not appear. Instead, many students took the initiative to ask him if he needed help.

Lin Qiye felt a little lost for no reason.

Come to think of it, they were all modern students who had gone through nine years of compulsory education. How could there be so many troublemakers? Besides, even if there were small groups, they were more occupied with “their brotherhood”, helping their fellow brothers out. As for going up to bully the disabled, they would be drowned with snarky comments with their reputation tarnished.

Lin Qiye walked up the stairs and quickly found his classroom, the 11th Grade (2) class. He had been studying in a special school for a year and was a transfer student.

Judging from most films, television series, and novels, transfer students were generally neglected, isolated, and miserable. After all, various small groups had already formed in the first year of high school. If the transfer student was not proactive, it was not easy to truly integrate into the class.

Lin Qiye was aware that he was not the kind of proactive person.

Even if he got along with them in the first year of high school, it was pretty likely for him to sit alone because of his introversion in avoiding people.

But there was nothing wrong with being alone. At least Lin Qiye enjoyed this feeling. No one bothered him as he focused on his studies quietly.

He would not know how to build rapport with others if he was pushed to do so.

Standing at the classroom door, Lin Qiye took a deep breath, calmed down, and walked in.

The moment Lin Qiye walked into the class, the noise stopped, and the air was filled with silence.

One second, two seconds, three seconds…

When Lin Qiye was about to say something, the class burst into excitement!

“Are you Lin Qiye? Your seat is prepped up. Here you go.”

“Lin Qiye, you can’t see, right? So I’ll lead you there.”

“Fellow classmate, walk slowly. There are a lot of things on the aisle. Hey, you, take your school bag away!”

“…”

Before Lin Qiye could react, several classmates had already stepped forward and carefully led him to his seat. A tall boy also took Lin Qiye’s school bag and carried it on his shoulder.

Surrounded by many people, Lin Qiye came to his seat “safely”.

Lin Qiye: …?

Why is this different from the script?

“Student Lin Qiye, I’m the class monitor, Jiang Qian. If you have anything, you can look for me.” A girl with a ponytail patted her chest and said.

“My name is Li Yifei. If you’re looking for a place to get food, I can bring you there.” The man who helped him with the school bag smiled.

“Me too. My name is Wang Shao.”

“…” Many people crowded around him and greeted him warmly.

For a moment, Lin Qiye was at a loss.

To be honest, it was far from what he imagined.

“Do you guys know me?” Lin Qiye had a weird expression.

“The class teacher told us about you.” Class Monitor Jiang Qian replied, “However, what impressed us the most was your aunty. She stood there with a basket of eggs that day, delivering eggs to us one by one and asking us to take good care of you.”

The news was like a thunderclap in Lin Qiye’s mind, freezing him on the spot.

He could not hear what those classmates said next. He just stared at the classroom in a daze. The middle-aged woman with her back hunched over, carrying a basket of freshly boiled eggs, appeared in his mind. She sincerely asked for a favor from his classmates.

“Can you help me? My nephew has some trouble with his eyes and a cold temper. Please take care of him.”

“Little girl, you’re so cute, and my nephew is handsome too. You will like him.”

“Qiye is someone who appears cold but inwardly warm-hearted. As long as you get to know him well, you will get along.”

“…” His black ribbon was slightly wet, unbeknownst to him.

“Aunty…” he muttered.

While everyone was chatting, a female teacher walked in with a book. She saw Lin Qiye sitting in the front row. She first came up to express her care and then briefly introduced him to everyone. Afterward, she began her class.

“Everyone, turn the book to ninety-one pages. Today we will talk about the history and predicament of our modern society.”

It appeared that Lin Qiye’s addition to the class today had the teacher omit the class from reading the textbook out loud and directly explained the content of the book.

“A hundred years ago, there were more than 200 countries on the Earth, distributed on seven continents and four oceans, with different customs and cultures. Even in that age when technology was not quite developed, we could still travel to different countries by boat, allowing us to exchange cultures.”

“However, on March 9th, a mysterious fog suddenly appeared out of nowhere in Antarctica. It then spread at an alarming rate, engulfing nearly 98% of the Earth in just 24 hours.”

“High-rise buildings built by human beings, forests that had existed since ancient times, bottomless oceans… The fog covered everything. Countless countries had fallen in the fog, and we had no news of them since then.”

“However, this inexplicable fog stopped when it was about to invade our territory.”

“No one knew why, but it just stopped inexplicably.”

“In the past 100 years, countless theories and conjectures had been put forward. Some people say that this fog was a kind of creature. After swallowing 98% of the Earth, it happened to be full, so it stopped near our country. Some people said that it was because our country had a special magnetic field due to our geography, which hindered the spread of the fog. Some claimed that this was the foundation our country had accumulated in the five thousand years, and it played a role in protecting this country.”

“The composition of this fog was beyond human cognition. Whether it was light, sound, radio waves, or other detection methods, they could not penetrate this fog. We did not know if other countries that the fog had engulfed still exist since then.”

“According to experts, the probability of them surviving in the fog was low. Once the fog was inhaled into the lungs or got into contact with the skin’s surface, it would be lethal!”

“In the past 100 years, our country had sent numerous well-equipped exploration teams into the fog, but no one had returned.”

“Fifty years ago, it was the first satellite launched for our country. Judging from the pictures and images sent back from space, the entire Earth had turned gray and white. Only our country had proper land.”

“The current Ta-Hsia is like an island on this planet, and we may be the last survivors of this planet.”

“Therefore, we term the day the fog appears, which is March 9 every year, the Survival Day.”

[1] Ta-Hsia: I believe the author will be censoring country names in this novel. I will follow the translation in that way for now. Here’s the Wikipedia link explaining it.