Chapter 74 Continue to Search

I was silent for a long time, not even bothering to turn on my flashlight.

He didn’t speak again either. To be honest, after listening to what he said just now, my mind was completely blank.

I had heard that his eyes were getting worse over the years, so I had been mentally preparing myself, but I knew I wasn’t the only one—everyone around him should have been mentally preparing themselves. Those who were proactive were still trying to find solutions, but people like me who had limited resources in this area couldn’t actually do anything.

But no matter how much I prepared myself for it, when this moment finally came, I was completely caught off guard.

I didn’t even have a contingency plan. Now that I thought about it, it was probably because there was never a doubt in my mind that Xiao Hua would eventually find a solution.  

So, I didn’t do anything.

But now that this moment had come, I finally realized how difficult the problem was.

Xiao Hua had worked hard for so many years and expended so many resources, yet the final result was still the same.

“Turn on the flashlight,” Black Glasses said slowly.

“Why don’t you just close your eyes for a while? They might be fine after a bit of rest. Maybe you’ve just been overusing them,” I said to him. “Let’s be optimistic for now.”

I heard him chuckle in the darkness, “There’s no time for optimism.”

I turned on my flashlight and saw that he wasn’t wearing his sunglasses.

His face looked very unfamiliar without them. The eyes were an important feature for recognizing a person, but I had rarely seen his whole face over the years. Now that I was seeing it, I suddenly felt suffocated—there was no reflection of light in his irises.

Xiao Hua had explained the disease to me before, but it obviously went far beyond the scope of my knowledge. I had understood it at that time, but repeating it now would be too difficult.

Black Glasses’ eyes had turned gray, a suffocating gray.

I shined my flashlight into his eyes, but he didn’t react at all. He just said, “There’s still some light sensitivity, but only that.”

Then he closed his eyes and added, “Don’t worry. Since I can still sense light, if you turn your flashlight to its brightest setting, I can probably still see some things. I estimate it’ll last for about ten to fifteen minutes before I go completely blind. I have to make good use of these ten to fifteen minutes, so I’ll keep my eyes closed and save them for later. I’ll be relying on you from now on.”

“How’d you come up with this ten to fifteen minute estimate?” I asked him.

“It’s just a hunch,” he replied. “Don’t worry, I’ve long come to terms with my condition. But you don’t have time to think about me right now.”

I took a deep breath and sat for a few minutes, trying to get my thoughts to return to normal. “There’s no time to waste,” he urged me. “They won’t stay in one place forever—”

“I know,” I interrupted him, sitting up and grabbing his hand. It was the only encouragement I could give him, although I knew he didn’t need it at all.

Then I gathered all my energy and emotions, shoved them deep down in my heart, and returned to my calmest state.

This required putting aside all distractions in an instant.

“When you were looking around just now, which direction did you think was the most likely?”

“Behind the rock wall on my left, about ten meters ahead.”

“What’s your basis?”

“The dust in the air is flowing over there, indicating an extremely weak airflow. Ordinary people can’t feel, but I can see it.” His tone became especially quiet and steady, just like a blind swordsman on a TV show.

I crawled over and lay down in that spot to see if I could feel the air flowing, but my hair didn’t even stir.

The place Black Glasses had indicated was a huge rock with some cracks on it. Although they looked deep, they were only superficial, stopping about a few centimeters in.

But if there was air flowing here, then it meant that one of these cracks may have gone deep enough to reach the other side.

I pressed my ear against it and began to listen carefully to see if there was any movement on the other side.

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