The Wind Washes the Gray into Blue

At two forty-seven in the morning, Qin Zichen fell on the workstation clutching a shiny space keycap. Doctor's diagnosis: Anxiety disorder with panic attack, forced one month of leave. He escaped. Escape into the wind of Dali. On the shore of Erhai Lake, a blue cloth hood covered his head. The owner of the cloth was a girl whose fingertips were stained with indelible indigo. She glanced at him and said, "You have the dust of the city on you." Her name is Bai Qiyue, and she guards a small tie-dye shop called "Qilan". She taught him to tie the cloth, wait for the blue to oxidize, and taught him that slowing down was not considered a malfunction. "It is yellow-green when it enters the tank, and it turns blue when it oxidizes." She said, "The same goes for people." One is afraid of emptiness - afraid of stopping and finding that he is already empty. One is afraid of being lost - once he gave up his postgraduate education for a person, and was finally thrown into the wind. Two people who wore armor as a second layer of skin dyed each other's wounds the same blue in the Dali wind.