Editor & Proofreader: Rinrin

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Lin Wu, who has lived in this city for 19 and a half years, has never seen such mist before. Northern China is dry with low humidity and scarce rain, so mist, a soft and ethereal^[1]mysterious phenomenon, is almost non-existent.

The most beautiful mist he had ever seen was in an old photo of his parents, taken when they were young. It was from a rainy day in a southern water town, with a traditional boat gliding through the canals, and it was hard to tell where the water ended and the mist began. That was during his parents’ honeymoon. Lin Wu often thought it must have been a wonderful trip, so wonderful that three years later, when he was born, they still gave him a name inspired by the mist from that distant southern town.

While some comments on the post praised the beauty of the mist and the photos, the discussion somehow shifted to a more academic topic—whether such weather was unusual for Shenyang—and spiraled into concerns about global climate change.

Their student life was like this: eating grilled cold noodles while worrying about world affairs.

Around noon, Li Junchi finally returned to the dorm.

He was tall and had a lean, athletic build, with healthy tan skin. His appearance often caused him to be mistaken for a sports major on campus.

As soon as he walked in, he glanced toward Xia Yang, only to see his roommate, whom he hadn’t seen for the entire holiday, gazing at him groggily^[2]sleepy from the upper bunk.

Li Junchi grinned, “Did you just wake up, or are you full and ready for a nap?”

“Do I look like I’ve eaten?” Xia Yang wiped his face and fully woke up. Then, as if recalling something, he raised an eyebrow at Li Junchi with a teasing smile, “Did you get her WeChat?”

Li Junchi looked puzzled, “Whose WeChat?”

Lin Wu chimed in, eager for some drama, “The girl you went to pick up from the station.”

Li Junchi had a lot to say about this. He placed the plastic bag he was carrying heavily on the table. “I didn’t ask for hers; she insisted on asking for mine!”

Lin Wu, surprised, “Did that actually happen?”

Xia Yang: “Did you give it to her?”

“Of course not!” Li Junchi declared righteously, “That’s a separate charge!”

Lin Wu: “…”

Xia Yang: “…”

Single by choice, clearly.

“Anyway, since you guys haven’t eaten yet” Li Junchi smoothly changed the subject, “let’s have hotpot for lunch.”

“Hotpot?” Lin Wu’s eyes lit up at the sound of that. “Spicy tomato broth or mushroom soup, or maybe curry?”

There’s a saying: “There’s nothing a barbecue can’t solve. If there is, then have a hotpot.” ^[3]a Chinese proverb: When life gives you problems, a barbecue can fix them. If not, then a hotpot will

“Anything works” Li Junchi replied as he laid out small containers from the plastic bag. “You guys can pick the flavor.”

Fifteen minutes later, the three boys were each sitting at their desks, with individual self-heating hotpots bubbling away in front of them.

Lin Wu sighed with a heavy heart. After a month and a half without it, he had forgotten that their dorm’s “happy hotpot time” had, by the end of last semester, been collectively decided to shift from a “shared hotpot experience” to “individual self-heating pots.”

“My hotpot… has lost its soul” Lin Wu lamented^[4]expressing sadness or dismay.

When it came to hotpot, Xia Yang and Lin Wu were on the same side.

Unwilling to give up, Xia Yang turned to Li Junchi again, trying to negotiate, “Why did we have to change it? Other dorms still do group hotpots. Sure, they keep it low-key, hiding from spot checks^[5]inspections, but that doesn’t stop them from eating well and being happy.”

“Don’t blame me; I abstained^[6]refrained from participating from voting back then” Li Junchi raised his hand to show his innocence, sending a voice message on his phone with the other. “Ren Feiyu, Lin Wu and Xia Yang want to talk to you about the hotpot situation in our dorm.”

Apparently, Ren Feiyu, who hadn’t been able to board his high-speed train, was free and promptly sent back a 59-second voice message.

“So you guys want to have hotpot in the dorm again? I’m telling you, it’s not a good idea. Remember the power outage at the end of last semester? That wasn’t enough of a wake-up call? The dorm building has a shared power supply. If we’re all using high-powered appliances, it’s dangerous. A power outage is a small issue, but what if there’s an electrical short or a fire? There are so many people in the building, it wouldn’t be easy to evacuate. We live on the third floor, and jumping out of the window is risky. Also, have you noticed the wall? We’ve gathered in the same spot for hotpot so many times that the heat has caused the paint to peel. Haven’t you seen those news stories online? It’s only a matter of time before the paint falls into our pot. You might think it’s a small chance, but with my luck, there’s no such thing as ‘small chances’…”
Unable to bear it any longer, Lin Wu got up, ran over to Li Junchi, and manually cut off the voice message. He didn’t even bother switching back to his own phone; instead, he used Li Junchi’s phone to send a voice message to the group: “We’re not eating hot pot anymore, we’re having cold noodles instead. Absolutely safe, you can rest easy. Just wait patiently at the train station, okay?”

——

When dorm 333 held a vote on whether to change the hot pot arrangement, the result was two votes in favor, one against, and one abstention^[7]did not participate. So why did they change it in the end? Because the dissenting^[8]disagreeing vote was from Ren Feiyu, and his “pessimism^[9]negative thinking + inexplicable crisis awareness” could instantly overwhelm ten Xia Yangs. And that’s when he’s performing normally, with Xia Yang giving his full effort. So his one vote held the weight of ten, no contest.

Speaking of trains, Ren Feiyu finally sent back a short message, sounding uncontrollably excited: “Everything’s done. It’s been rescheduled for tomorrow, same train, hehe.”

It was rare to see Ren Feiyu happy. You have to understand, this guy spends 364 out of 365 days a year in a perpetual state of gloom. Even if he saw a cloud overhead, he’d think it was out to get him. And you couldn’t call him paranoid because, more often than not, life really did seem to have it out for him.

So when he’s happy, Lin Wu and the others share in that joy.

But the happiness barely lasted three seconds before Ren Feiyu reverted to his usual gloomy self: “But I’m going to miss tomorrow morning’s class…”

Heartbreaking, pitiful, and full of grievance.

Lin Wu, who had just returned to his seat and was about to dig into his mini hot pot, put down his chopsticks when he heard this. He got up again, walked over to the window, and snapped several pictures of the freshmen who had just collected their military training uniforms and were heading toward the dormitory. He sent the photos to the group.

Ren Feiyu remained silent for a long time before finally sending a text reply.

Please grant me a koi fish: “It’s all over. [Nostalgic longing from a high place.jpg]”

Even though he used an emoji, his message felt far more solemn than any voice message.

Lin Wu also switched back to text: “Are you happy now?”

Please grant me a koi fish: “Life is beautiful. [Crying in the wind.jpg]”

——

The grueling military training was a long-standing tradition at their school. Exactly a year ago, when they were freshmen, that hellish September nearly stripped them of their skin.

Happiness, after all, is relative.

However, no one could have anticipated that the next day, the military training would not take place as planned.

A heavy fog had arrived.

“Attention all students, attention all students: Due to weather conditions, all classes are canceled today, and the campus is temporarily closed. Unless absolutely necessary, please do not leave your dormitories and avoid outdoor activities to prevent accidents…”

The announcement echoed throughout the entire campus.

It had been playing on repeat for nearly two hours since 7:45 a.m.

The reason Lin Wu and the others remembered the time so clearly was that the first announcement blared^[10]loud sound just as they finished breakfast at the cafeteria and were about to grope^[11]looked their way through the thick fog to the lecture hall for their first class.

They had to “grope^[12]looked” their way, as even the sturdiest guy would have to cling to his friends like Thomas and his little buddies, taking tiny, cautious steps forward. A wrong step could mean crashing into someone, a tree, or worse, a domino effect with everyone tumbling down.

The fog was truly dense.

The bright blue morning sky had turned into a chaotic white blur, with clouds swirling and massive waves of fog rolling down, merging with the earth. Distant mountains, towering buildings, nearby trees, and people—all seemed to be cloaked in the fog, turning faint and transparent, as if they were floating in a dreamlike mist.

When Lin Wu first looked out the window after waking up, he was startled. But once he realized it was just fog, he relaxed a bit, grabbed his books, and headed out with Li Junchi and Xia Yang.

They hadn’t expected that after struggling to the cafeteria and just finishing breakfast, they’d be told that classes were canceled.

It wasn’t just the loudspeakers. Their department group also sent out an official notice, and their counselor reiterated^[13]repeated the message twice, advising students to stay in the dorms if they had food and avoid the cafeteria until the fog lifted to reduce unnecessary risks.

It’s just fog, not rain, snow, hail, or thunderstorms. What’s the danger?

[Class 1Group of Environmental Engineering]

Sharp-tongued Xia Yang: “Isn’t it just low visibility? Canceling classes and closing the campus seems a bit much. Those who know it’s fog, fine, but to others, it might seem like a toxic gas leak or something. [Shrug]”

Liu Mu, the popular one: “I agree, this feels a bit overblown.”

Graceful Sun Yuehan: “Better safe than sorry.”

Class President Deng Chacha: “It’s already too late for that.”

Glamorous Bai Xinrui: “?”

Class President Deng Chacha: “A girl from the Materials Department fell and got injured at the dorm entrance, a guy from the Business School fell at the cafeteria entrance, three guys from the Mechanical Engineering Department were horsing around and nearly caused a stampede^[14]crowd panic or rush, and a guy from PE jumped from a tree and broke both arms of a guy from the Literature Department.”

Sharp-tongued Xia Yang: “…”

Pang Dongdong, the quick-talker: “…”

Liu Mu, the popular one: “…”

Glamorous Bai Xinrui: …

Flower-Loving Lin Wu: “Wait, I can understand the Mechanical Engineering guys fooling around, but what’s with that PE guy and the Literature guy??”

That was the 8 a.m. class group chat.

Lin Wu’s sharp remark quickly set the tone and stirred up a storm of comments.

Sharp-tongued Xia Yang: “Yeah, why was he climbing a tree?”

Graceful Sun Yuehan: “And why did he jump down afterward?”

Shang Haitao, the foodie: “The key point is that he hit someone!”

Xu Zhenlong, the class joker: “And he just happened to break both arms of the Literature guy??”

Class President Deng Chacha: “Emotional highs caused by weather anomalies can lead to impulsive^[15]actions that are done without a thought tree climbing, @Sharp-tongued Xia Yang.”

Class President Deng Chacha: “He might have climbed up and then decided to jump down, relying on his athleticism^[16]physical qualities to excel in sports, which makes sense, @Graceful Sun Yuehan.”

Class President Deng Chacha: “Maybe it wasn’t that he hit someone, but that the Literature guy was already there, reaching out to catch him, @Shang Haitao, the foodie.”

---

Class President Deng Chacha: “So, both arms were broken? @Xu Zhenlong, the class joker”

Class President Deng Chacha: “Any more questions? @Flower-Loving Lin Wu”

Flower-Loving Lin Wu: “In weather like this, even if a Literature student happened to pass by below, they wouldn’t be able to see anyone in the tree, right? Even if the Sports student shouted from above, could the person below really hear them clearly, not seeing anything, and still dare to reach out?”

Class President Deng Chacha: “Why do you assume they were just passing by? Couldn’t they have been climbing the tree together for fun?”

Flower-Loving Lin Wu: “A Sports student and a Literature student?”

Class President Deng Chacha: “These days, gender isn’t an issue, so why should departments be?”

Flower-Loving Lin Wu: “…”

Flower-Loving Lin Wu: “[What you just said is so deep that I’m afraid to ask more in case I can’t handle the story behind it.jpg]”

Flower-Loving Lin Wu: “[Goodbye! Quick exit.gif]”

Class president are always your class president, just like old men are always your old men.