Chapter 2: Am I the Only Stranger?

The sunlight was warm, but it could not dispel the chill in Su Tan's heart. It was the chill of despair.

His head spun, feeling so light that he seemed to be floating on clouds, while his body was icy cold.

If someone had been standing next to him, they would have seen his ghastly complexion.

Pale.

No...

More like deathly pale! As pale as a sheet of paper! Even his lips were completely drained of color, and he was drenched in sweat, looking as though he had just been fished out of a river.

He thought, "Am I blind?"

Su Tan had never considered that he might go blind one day, nor what he would do if it happened! Let alone working and enjoying life, even basic necessities like eating, drinking, and using the bathroom would become problems.

His future held not a single shred of hope.

It was over...

Su Tan concluded that his life was over. He refused to accept it.

THUD!

An unknown amount of time passed before Su Tan slumped onto the ground, sitting there in a daze. He could not believe any of this.

None of it made sense.

He clearly remembered being in the big city last night, in the cozy little home he had worked so hard to afford. How did his surroundings suddenly change?

He wondered, "Am I dreaming?"

At first, Su Tan thought it was a dream, but everything felt far too real. As an adult, it had been a long time since he entertained such wishful thinking.

Everything... was real.

All signs pointed to one conclusion: he had been inexplicably knocked unconscious in his sleep, blinded, and then dumped in some impoverished, underdeveloped backwater. That was the most logical explanation he could come up with.

But what baffled him the most was that he was a decent person. He asked himself and knew he had never held a deep grudge against anyone. As for his character... he frequently donated food to animal shelters to help cats and dogs. He wouldn't call himself a Saint, but he definitely wasn't some heinous villain. So why was he suffering such a calamity?

Just who harbored such deep hatred for him?

Su Tan simply could not figure it out.

His mind was a chaotic mess. He was at a complete loss. This was the most helpless he had ever felt in his entire life.

He didn't know how long he sat on that dusty dirt floor before he gradually accepted his reality.

Sometimes, it wasn't about whether one wanted to accept something; it was that they had to. There was simply no other choice.

Fate was truly playing a cruel joke on him.

"Sigh..." Su Tan let out a heavy sigh.

Shaking his head helplessly, he took a deep breath and slowly picked himself up from the ground. He patted the dust off his clothes. Surrounded by complete darkness, he had no idea if he had brushed it all off.

Since things had already reached this point, what else could he do?

He could only take it one step at a time!

When he was slumped on the ground earlier, many thoughts had raced through his mind. For a brief moment, he had even considered ending his own life. But ultimately, he abandoned the idea.

If even ants cling to life, how could a human do any less?

Who wouldn't want to keep living?

It wasn't that he had made peace with it—no one could easily make peace with such a tragedy happening to them.

He tried his best to sort out his emotions and force himself to calm down.

After a long time, his restless heart finally found a sliver of peace. Rationality told him that instead of dwelling on a chaotic mess of thoughts, he was better off figuring out how to survive.

Yet, no matter how rationally he tried to control himself, he couldn't ignore the challenges that lay ahead. Just thinking about his future made him feel a wave of powerlessness.

Leaving everything else aside, how was he going to cook? How would he prepare food? Even lighting a fire would be a problem...

These trivial daily chores were child's play to ordinary people, but to a blind man, they were daunting tasks.

He thought, "Is this the end of the line for me?"

"COUGH, COUGH, COUGH..." Just as Su Tan was at his wit's end, the sound of an elderly cough, accompanied by unhurried footsteps, approached from a distance.

Since losing his sight, Su Tan felt that his other senses had sharpened considerably.

However... it didn't seem to be of much use!

Vision was simply too crucial. If he were just deaf or mute, he could still rely on his past life experience to take care of himself. But without his eyes, everything was incredibly difficult.

"Su Tan, are you there?" It was the owner of the elderly cough.

He wondered, "Su Tan? Why does he know me?"

"Who are you?" Su Tan demanded warily. His tone was far from polite.

If this person knew his name, he might very well be one of the culprits who did this to him. He had to keep his guard up.

Although there was nothing he could do to stop someone from hurting him in his current state, his instincts still drove him to adopt a cautious, defensive tone and posture.

"I am Village Chief Chen," the old man introduced himself.

"Village Chief Chen?" Su Tan muttered.

He didn't recognize the name. Was he the chief of this village? Still, since he was a village chief, he must have at least a bit of authority.

"Yes, Village Chief Chen. Just Old Chen, who brings you food every day," the old man explained again. "COUGH, COUGH..."

Su Tan couldn't see his face, but judging by the unfamiliar voice, he could faintly tell that this was a stranger.

Perhaps sensing Su Tan's lingering confusion, the old Village Chief muttered, whether to Su Tan or just to himself, "You've been so dazed and failing to recognize people lately. Looks like your illness is acting up again...

"I told you a long time ago to stop messing around with all that superstitious nonsense. Even if you don't tell fortunes, Old Chen here wouldn't let you starve to death. See? Now you've gone and ruined your head... oh, no... ruined your brain," the old Village Chief said helplessly.

Su Tan was even more bewildered.

He was absolutely certain that he did not know this old man, yet the old man spoke as if they were very familiar with each other.

The things the old man mentioned were completely foreign to him, as if he weren't even talking about Su Tan!

"Never mind that. Come, come, eat first." The old Village Chief grabbed Su Tan's hand and led him into the house.

Su Tan didn't struggle; he followed behind the old man back to his room and groped around to sit down.

Without his sight, Su Tan relied on his hearing, smell, and touch to gather information about his surroundings.

After sitting down, Su Tan heard the clatter of bowls and chopsticks being set on the table, followed by the mouthwatering aroma of food. The scent instantly stirred his appetite, and he unconsciously swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

He hadn't eaten in a long time. While he had been drowning in misery, he hadn't noticed his hunger, but now that he smelled the food, his stomach let out an embarrassing growl.

He was starving.

"Haha..." Perhaps noticing Su Tan's reaction, the old man chuckled softly and pushed the food in front of him. "Eat up."

Su Tan remained silent for a moment. If this person wanted to harm him, there would be no need to go through the trouble of poisoning his food. He picked up the bowl and gave it a sniff. There were no unusual smells, so it was unlikely that anything weird had been added to it.

Fortunately, he could still use chopsticks by pure intuition, even with his eyes closed.

He brought the bowl to his lips and took a small bite.

Delicious!

Su Tan's face lit up.

He started eating in earnest, shoveling the food into his mouth faster and faster.

"We have your favorite stewed meat today. Come on, eat up!" The old man's voice was genial.

Su Tan stayed quiet and focused solely on his meal.

So far, he had received the goodwill the old man was offering, but he still couldn't be entirely sure that the old man posed no threat to him.

After the meal, the old man didn't linger. He gave a few instructions and then left.

Everything was... very ordinary, yet incredibly strange.

Why did the old man know him? Why did he deliver food to him every day? And where was this place?

Rather than rashly asking about his situation, Su Tan decided to lay low and observe for a few days.

Over the next few days, Su Tan's mind found a lot more peace. The old man delivered food daily. While Su Tan never saw any "enemies" coming to harm him, he did gather some useful information.

For instance, everyone in the village knew who he was. To his sheer disbelief, the villagers claimed that Su Tan had lived there for a very long time and that they were all extremely familiar with him.

A sudden realization dawned on Su Tan: it wasn't the environment that was unfamiliar, but rather, he himself!