Chapter 217: The Fog Descends
Because of the special nature of Cursed Speech, even if her throat were completely shattered, as long as it wasn’t forcibly torn out, it wouldn’t suffer any physical damage. If she could recover even a little transcendent power, she would at least gain a few cards to protect herself.
“All done?”
Seeing her come out with Xiaoman, Doctor Zhuang greeted them, then said, “Once you’re finished, hurry home. Things haven’t been very peaceful lately.”
“Oh right—this batch of medicine was expensive. The consultation fee your sister paid is basically used up. Remember to scrape together some money.”
Xu Zhi nodded. “Got it. Thank you, doctor.”
Zhuang Xu waved his hand. “Quite polite, this one.”
Not complaining about how expensive his fees were, and even thanking him—this little girl was actually pretty decent.
Xu Zhi once again pulled the plain black baseball cap down over her head, lowered her gaze, and obediently sat in the wheelchair. On the way home, she carefully tried lifting her right hand, then gently poked the back of her left hand with a bit of force.
The good news was that her left hand, which had been completely numb before, had now regained sensation. The bad news was that its recovery was currently the slowest. The penetrating wound in her abdomen had already healed to the point where even the scar was gone, but her left hand still couldn’t muster any strength at all.
Still, recovering at all was a good thing.
By the time they got home, it was still fairly early. After cooking for Xu Zhi, sorting out the new medicine, and replacing her fever patch, Qi Yanxin was about to head out to the factory—but just as she reached the door, something unexpected happened.
—Wooo!
A piercing siren tore through the gloomy sky. Even the roaring machinery of the industrial zone couldn’t drown it out.
Not just once. After the first blast, about five seconds apart, it rang out a full ten times.
When the siren finally stopped, Xu Zhi noticed Qi Yanxin’s face had gone a little pale. Her step toward the door halted. Instead, she turned back inside and picked up a cloth bag, clearly changing her destination.
“What’s going on?” Xu Zhi asked, looking at her pale face.
Qi Yanxin clenched the bag slightly. “That was a seasonal-change warning from the Meteorological Bureau. The fog season is about to arrive. Stay home—I’m going out to buy some food.”
Xu Zhi frowned. “So sudden?”
Qi Yanxin didn’t have time to explain. She only told her not to go out, then grabbed the bag and left.
After Qi Yanxin was gone, Xu Zhi really didn’t go out. But she could clearly hear that the slum streets, usually quiet most of the time, had suddenly become lively.
Footsteps, hurried conversations, mixed with curses and prayers—chaotic human voices intertwining with the background roar of factory machines. The slums, normally cold and gloomy, suddenly felt much more “alive.”
Curious, Xu Zhi pulled the curtain open a crack and looked outside. The narrow alleyways that usually had hardly anyone around during the day were now crowded with scavengers hurrying back and forth. Most carried or slung bags over their shoulders. When they ran into acquaintances, they exchanged a few words—mostly venting their irritation at the arrival of the fog season.
Xu Zhi also noticed that even the factories, which usually roared day and night, were starting to quiet down. Some seemed to have shut down entirely.
During the fog season, workers couldn’t go to work and wouldn’t get paid. Scavengers, even more so, wouldn’t dare go to the dumps. No wonder the resentment was so heavy.
When Qi Yanxin returned, her cloth bag was stuffed full of food—mostly processed items, with no fresh vegetables or fruit at all. In the bottom layers, processed food was cheap and filling. It wasn’t nutritious, but it kept you full.
Xu Zhi sat quietly in her wheelchair, waiting until Qi Yanxin finished putting everything away before asking, “I saw everyone stocking up on food. Does that mean you can’t go out during seasonal changes?”
“It’s not that you absolutely can’t go out,” Qi Yanxin said. “But it’s best not to. And even if you have to, try not to stay outside too long.”
“Why? Are there monsters in the fog?” Xu Zhi pressed.
Qi Yanxin shook her head. “Not really. There’s nothing in the fog itself. But once people walk around in it, they’re very likely to develop all sorts of problems.”
“What kind of problems?”
Xu Zhi thought of the fog in Yuncheng—high-density energy conglomerates mixed with a significant concentration of [Cup]-attribute energy. People who inhaled too much would gradually lose their sanity and become fanatical believers of the Cup. She wondered how the fog here differed from that one.
“I can’t really summarize them all,” Qi Yanxin said. “But every time, the danger the fog brings is different. Sometimes people become extremely irritable after being exposed. Sometimes they get paranoid and think everyone wants to kill them. Other times, the fog makes people fall seriously ill. Basically, it’s never the same.”
“Last time the fog came, one worker went crazy. He thought he was far more capable than the factory boss, that the boss should step aside and let him take over. So he ran off to kill the boss and replace him—but he didn’t even get to see the boss before he was shot dead.”
When she said this, Qi Yanxin still sounded a little incredulous, as if that person had truly inhaled too much fog and completely lost his mind.
“Usually, after the fog rolls in, the Meteorological Bureau will announce the next morning what kind of effects this round of fog will have. We’ll know once we listen to the broadcast tomorrow.”
“How long does it usually last?” Xu Zhi asked. If it went on too long, she’d be in trouble once her medicine ran out.
“No idea.” Qi Yanxin shook her head. “There’s no pattern at all to seasonal fog. The shortest was just one night, but the longest lasted a full two months.”
“For those two months, the bottom layers were almost completely paralyzed. Toward the end, people couldn’t stand it anymore and wanted to go out. Factories started calling everyone back to work—but the result was massive casualties. After that, no matter how long the fog lasts, unless people are completely out of food, no one’s willing to go outside.”
“Didn’t you say last time that the previous seasonal change hadn’t been that long ago?” Xu Zhi remembered Qi Yanxin mentioning that there should still be some time before the next one.
“Yes…” The woman nodded hesitantly. “Even at the fastest, there should’ve been at least three or four months between changes. This time really came too quickly. No one was prepared.”
“So that’s how it is…”
An abnormal situation—was there a reason behind it, or was it just coincidence?
From what she heard, the fog here didn’t sound exactly like the one in Yuncheng, but she couldn’t rule out similarities either.
“Then are transcendents afraid of the fog too?” she suddenly asked.
“Well…” Qi Yanxin thought carefully. “Not necessarily, I think?”
“I don’t really know any transcendents, so I can’t be sure. But Ye Ran’s father once said that a transcendent he knew helped deliver supplies during a fog.”
“Maybe transcendents are just stronger?”
Was it that transcendents had some resistance to whatever in the fog affected people’s minds or caused illness?
Or was it that the transcendent Ye Cheng knew had a particularly special attribute or ability?
Either way, the fog was coming soon. Once the dense fog truly descended, she would find out exactly how this fog differed from the one in Yuncheng.
