Chapter 1: I Am a Student, Give Me

The tall boy in the school uniform had been standing in front of the seafood tank for ten minutes.

If there were people in the store now, the boss would have already become impatient.

But is this kid really part of the lobster's target customer base?

I hope he doesn't suddenly say, "I am a student, give me."

That won't work, not even if you were born to it.

"Dead."

"Dead, what do you mean?"

"Boss, a lobster is dead."

"Impossible, they're all fresh, they were just moving." Although he didn't believe it, the boss still went over to check.

Then, he saw a one-pound lobster slowly floating to the surface, until it reached the water's surface. Seeing this, the boss quickly took out a net to scoop the lobster, but it was definitely still moving just a moment ago, and it was definitely fresh before.

And now, it was indeed dead.

"Damn, is the oxygenator broken? Shit! What the hell, how did it die? You damn thing."

A lobster costs 288 yuan, and it usually sells before closing. Now, it's a loss of 288 yuan, and thinking about it, the boss couldn't help but curse.

"Boss, how do you usually handle dead seafood?"

"Of course, we throw it away. We never sell dead lobsters here."

The seafood market has rules. Dead shrimp can be sold cheaply or frozen, but for lobsters and king crabs, they must be disposed of when dead.

"Boss, I am a student..."

"Hey, you—"

The boss, with a fierce expression, interrupted the boy's words, as if the next sentence would be—Lin Bei, you sell seafood, and you say you're a student?

Then, the boy took out a ten-yuan note.

Looking at the money and the lobster, the boss sighed, "The packaging fee alone is more than ten yuan."

After saying that, he still took out a foam box and ice bag to pack the one-pound lobster.

Forget it, this kid probably really wants to eat it, otherwise he wouldn't have been staring at the lobster in the tank.

Anyway, it's going to be thrown away, so might as well give it to him cheaply.

But he's really lucky, this lobster must have just died. Now, if it's quickly frozen, there will be no difference in taste from a live one. He got a 288 yuan lobster for ten yuan.

"Thank you."

The boy reached out and took the plastic bag, then looked at the round-bellied, bearded man who was about thirty-five years old, and after a moment of thought, said, "Boss, you're a good person, I wish you a long life of eighty-seven years."

"Why eighty-seven..."

You kid, you really know how to talk. A blessing like a prophecy.

"Because eighty-seven years is already a long life."

Holding the frozen lobster, Chen Yuan walked out of the seafood store.

Then, he saw more and more red numbers.

A child with a sugar-coated haw ran past him, and the number above his head was 21224, about fifty-eight years.

The silver-haired, kind grandmother calling out to the child to slow down had the number 2934, about eight years.

A loving couple walked towards him, hand in hand. The woman's number was 24321, and the man's was 242.

Just as their eyes were about to meet, Chen Yuan lowered his head and walked past the man.

He could see other people's countdown to death.

The unit of measurement is days.

This ability appeared on Monday morning at 6:30. After getting up and going out, he unexpectedly found some red Arabic numbers floating above his eyes, as if etched on his retina, very clearly.

At first, Chen Yuan thought it was an illusion, but after repeatedly rubbing his eyes and confirming, he realized it was real.

It was like the cunning Trisolarans projecting onto his eyes, impossible to shake off.

Not only people, but also cats, dogs, reptiles, animals, and even plants, anything with life signs, had a string of numbers above their heads.

After discovering that the numbers were inversely proportional to age, he vaguely guessed the meaning behind them.

However, confirming this was due to a heart-stopping accident.

A Teddy with the number 00001 on its head was run over by a truck in the next second, turning into a Teddy meat pancake.

A day is 86400 seconds, so 00001 days is 864 seconds.

The trouble with this ability is that it doesn't convert, it only shows the time in 'days'.

But fortunately, Chen Yuan was forced by his mother to learn abacus mental arithmetic in elementary school. Although it was useless for studying and had a strong destructive effect on mathematical thinking, it was very convenient for converting days to years.

You could say that a shot fired in youth hit the bullseye of the Boston lobster years later.

Of course, this cool ability isn't always useful.

Like now.

Standing at the Jinling Road intersection in Xiaohai City, the world in Chen Yuan's eyes seemed to be spiritually polluted, extremely disgusting.

The high-rise buildings, like a forest of steel, were densely packed, seemingly dividing the busy office workers and students of Xiaohai City at this bustling intersection.

According to statistics, more than two thousand people pass through here every minute.

In other words, as long as the traffic light is red for more than a minute, over two thousand people's heads will show distorted numbers, densely packed together, moving with the crowd like a spectacular dance of blood-red worms.

Breathe, breathe.

Close your eyes and meditate for a while.

Chen Yuan wasn't very used to this ability, especially in public places.

But he felt that if this superpower always accompanied him, he would be a bit calmer than now.

Or, to put it more accurately—numb.

He discovered this ability yesterday morning. When he confirmed it was a countdown to death, he tried to help those who would die young.

But imagine if someone suddenly came up to you and said, "Friend, I think you need a check-up, you don't look well." Eight out of ten people would think you had ulterior motives, either from a health check-up agency or a product promoter.

The remaining two would think, "You're the one who's sick."

Chen Yuan hadn't met eight people who thought he was selling something, but he had already been annoyed by two people.

In fact, he should have realized that if they had regular check-ups, they wouldn't have discovered their terminal illness.

In the early and middle stages of a terminal illness, there are definitely symptoms. He could resist looking, but a stranger's words would naturally seem malicious.

Forget it, put aside the desire to help, respect others' fates.

As long as it's not someone who will die in a few seconds, Chen Yuan absolutely won't intervene.

So far, only that poor Teddy has died in front of him, and he hasn't seen anyone with a lifespan of less than 1.

The red light turned green.

Merging into the crowd, like drowning in a sea of red numbers.

After getting on the subway, Chen Yuan put on his Bluetooth headphones and closed his eyes to rest. In the past, he would actively give seats to the elderly, sick, and disabled, but now, with a more detached view of life and death, he didn't feel the need to.

Moreover, it was very heart-wrenching to see several times that a gray-haired, muscular old man had a longer lifespan than young people.

Modern office workers are characterized by living hard and dying quickly, with short and intense lives.

After twelve stops and half an hour, he arrived at the Sunshine Community station and got off there.

This area is an old district, but different from a slum. Although the buildings are old, the roads are clean and tidy, and the public facilities are complete, making it a very good value for the price, just lacking in nightlife.

Chen Yuan lives in a 502 apartment, 300 meters from the subway entrance.

He is not from Xiaohai City. Originally, he was studying in a nearby county called Hexiang. After the high school entrance exam, his mother used a lot of connections to find a cousin who works in the education bureau of a district in Xiaohai City, and got him into Xiaohai No. 11 High School, a provincial key school.

However, because he came in through connections, he could only be a day student.

And the apartments near No. 11 High School, even a single room, start at 2000 yuan, so he had to find a small single room in the Sunshine Community for 700 yuan.

His parents are salaried workers in Hexiang and couldn't accompany him, so he successfully lived the life of a novel protagonist—no sister, no parents, and a small apartment.

Fortunately, it's not a web novel, or his parents would have to be sent along too.

It was now 7 PM, and he hurried home to cook dinner, boil the lobster, set the air conditioner to 26 degrees, have a small beer, and watch an episode of "Cangyuan Tu."

Thinking about this, Chen Yuan's steps quickened, and he climbed to the fifth floor in less than half a minute.

Just as he was about to take out his key to open the door, a high school girl who also seemed to be renting a place across the hall was inserting her key into the lock.

The two turned their heads and looked at each other blankly.

And on her head, Chen Yuan saw the number closest to the Teddy pancake for the first time.

[05]