Chapter 206: The Wrong Weather
At the break of dawn, Qi Yanxin returned home, her clothes damp with dew.
After making up her mind last night, she had slipped out under the cover of darkness — first visiting a familiar junk dealer to sell off the last of her hidden “scrap,” then buying, at a high price, a medical appointment token from one of the black-market traders who specialized in reselling clinic numbers.
On her way home, Qi Yanxin passed by a breakfast stall. She hesitated for a moment, but then thought of Xu Zhi’s current condition — she probably wouldn’t be able to eat anything — so she gave up the idea.
She almost never bought breakfast outside; it was too expensive. But the food she had at home wasn’t suitable for someone who was sick. After a moment’s thought, she decided that once they returned from the doctor’s visit, she would buy some proper ingredients.
Before heading back, Qi Yanxin also managed to catch Ye Cheng, Ye Ran’s father, before he left for work, asking if she could hitch a ride this morning to take Xu Zhi to the clinic. After all, she could walk fine on her own, but bringing along an injured person was another matter.
Once everything was ready, Qi Yanxin went home to wake Xu Zhi.
Xu Zhi woke the instant the woman’s hand touched her shoulder — startled, her mind went blank for a few seconds before she remembered where she was.
“Did I scare you?”
The woman withdrew her hand and explained, “I called you just now, but you didn’t respond.”
“It’s fine.” Xu Zhi’s voice was weak and airy, her gaze unfocused, like she couldn’t quite fix on anything. Struggling to turn her head toward Qi Yanxin, she asked softly, “What’s wrong?”
“You’re still running a fever,” Qi Yanxin replied while moving closer. “You shouldn’t keep sleeping. I’m taking you to see a doctor.”
As she spoke, she pulled back the blanket and helped Xu Zhi sit up against the headboard. She wanted to wash her face before heading out.
Xu Zhi hadn’t expected that one day she’d once again experience this feeling — like when she’d been gravely ill, needing someone else’s help for even the smallest things. But this time, the person helping her wasn’t a nurse or caretaker… just a “kind stranger.”
It felt awkward. When Qi Yanxin wrung out the towel and reached toward her, Xu Zhi instinctively tried to take it herself, only for her hand to tremble uncontrollably, as if the towel would slip through her fingers any second.
Seeing this, the woman sighed and gently took the towel back, carefully wiping Xu Zhi’s face.
“Don’t force yourself. No one’s watching, you know.”
After wiping her down, she noticed Xu Zhi’s blank, dazed expression — like a cat who’d just been grabbed and petted within an inch of its life, still stunned that such a thing had happened. It was oddly endearing.
In truth, Xu Zhi was crumbling inside.
She couldn’t even hold a towel properly — what could she still do?
Her first instinct was to grab her game console and rant to the narrator about being forcibly washed, but then she froze.
Oh, right. The console was gone.
Her gray eyes dimmed, and the spark of indignation melted into quiet sorrow.
Qi Yanxin sensed the drop in her mood, assuming her pride had taken a hit. After a moment of thought, she tried to reassure her, “The doctor we’re going to see today is very skilled. He’ll help you recover soon.”
Xu Zhi’s injuries were too severe — she couldn’t even stand. So Qi Yanxin carried her outside.
That snapped Xu Zhi a little out of her gloom.
…She was an adult, for crying out loud!
Her hand curled into a weak fist. Even if no one here knew her, it still felt embarrassing.
It wasn’t like those times she’d been lazy and stayed in her wheelchair on purpose — this was fundamentally different!
Worse still, after a full night’s rest, her condition hadn’t improved at all. Her vision remained blurry; she couldn’t make out her surroundings, not even Qi Yanxin’s face.
Perhaps some kind of aftereffect — the blur made her deeply uneasy, as if the world around her wasn’t real.
Maybe she hadn’t actually woken up. Maybe she was still trapped in a dream.
Xu Zhi pinched her palm, trying to suppress the irrational thought. Her head still throbbed painfully, and ever since [the Lamp] had rejoined her body, her emotions had become far less stable than before.
When Qi Yanxin carried her outside, the sun was already up. The gentle morning light stung Xu Zhi’s eyes, and she squinted, almost tearing up.
Sunlight poured into the narrow, shadowed alleys of the slums, giving the “rats” who lived there a fleeting moment of warmth and reprieve.
“Hey, it’s not raining today!”
A girl’s cheerful voice came from nearby, brimming with excitement.
“Yeah,” a man’s calm voice replied. “It’s been half a month since the last sunny day.”
Noticing Qi Yanxin, he greeted her, “Morning, Xiao Qi. Is this your sister?”
Xu Zhi turned her head toward the voice, seeing only vague outlines — a tall man and a smaller figure beside him.
Losing her vision like this was miserable. It even felt like her hearing dulled along with it. She didn’t respond, simply leaned weakly against Qi Yanxin, feigning confusion.
Even so, she hadn’t stopped observing. She could still make out the general shapes of things — there were no tall buildings here, only rows of squat, uneven houses built haphazardly, as if without any city planning at all.
Even in the morning, the air quality was terrible — heavy with industrial pollution. The constant rumbling of machinery filled her ears, making it impossible to relax. No matter how you looked at it, this was not a good place to live.
Qi Yanxin didn’t linger chatting with Ye Cheng. Time was precious — especially on a rare sunny day.
“Dad, the weather forecast didn’t say it’d be sunny today!” came Ye Ran’s puzzled voice from the front seat once they got into the car.
Ye Cheng’s car was a beat-up old thing bought secondhand — or maybe fifth-hand — from the scrap market. The tinted windows were so aged and dark that Xu Zhi couldn’t see outside at all, so she gave up trying.
“True,” Ye Cheng said after a pause. “Maybe something’s gone wrong again.”
Just those few words made Xu Zhi’s ears perk up.
The forecast being wrong means something went wrong?
Seeing her curiosity, Qi Yanxin explained, “The last time the weather forecast failed was… eight years ago, right?”
Ye Cheng nodded. “Yeah. The time when the Light Institute announced their withdrawal from the Lower Sectors.”
