As the World Weeps

A short-tempered, secretly sensitive delinquent boy & a sweet, healing blind boy

"The dark night gave me black eyes, but I use them to seek the light.", Gu Cheng

1.

Everyone at Qiming No. 1 High knew Jiang Cuo was not to be messed with.

Rumor had it his father was a murderer, and he was no better. He once beat someone so badly with his bare hands that they ended up in intensive care.

Recently, another boy had started hanging around Jiang Cuo.

His name was Nan Shi. He had an eye condition and would go completely blind before the end of adolescence. He also wore a cochlear implant.

Every time Jiang Cuo ran into him, he felt that Nan Shi was deliberately trying to get close to him.

But he didn't care. In this already absurd world, as long as someone was there with you, your life hadn't been for nothing.

Jiang Cuo was simply afraid of the cold loneliness of having no one by his side.

2.

One late night, Jiang Cuo suddenly realized he might actually care a little about this blind boy he'd been using to keep warm.

"Do you know how to kill someone?"

In the silence, the boy's pale profile, bathed in moonlight, looked especially gentle.

His voice was soft, as if he feared waking the spirits sleeping beneath the earth. "All you have to do is give him a pair of eyes, then take away his right to seek beauty. That's enough."

Nan Shi suddenly smiled and said to Jiang Cuo beside him, "I don't think I can hold on much longer. When you have time, go see the sea for me."

Jiang Cuo couldn't tell what he was feeling. He sounded impatient as he replied, "Get your eyes fixed, then go see it yourself."

Only at the very end of the story did he understand.

Jiang Cuo had died long ago. The blind boy had used his entire life to transmigrate through time and bring back the rest of that boy's life.