Apocalypse Forecast

Chapter 1207: Chapter 919: Teaching the Trade?

Huai Shi, a blur before his eyes.

By the time he realized what was happening, he was already in the car, on the highway out of Tanbo.

Guard day and night, still got set up!

”Wait a minute...”

Huai Shi came to his senses, and turned back in astonishment: ”Why am I going along?”

On the passenger seat, Luo Su reclined his chair, propped his legs on the dashboard, happily shaking his legs and humming a song: ”This is a graduation trip, Huai Shi!

Of course, you need me and you, teacher and student, to strengthen bonds, broaden horizons, and nurture ties—it’s the perfect choice...”

Whether his horizons could broaden, Huai Shi didn’t know.

He only felt the minuscule teacher-student affection between him and Luo Su was rapidly reversing at the speed of the highway, bonds? What bonds?

There are only plans, no bonds!

But now that Luo Su had gotten him into the car, Huai Shi couldn’t very well jump out and run away.

This Old Turtle was a master at arranging people, who knows what he’d do if he jumped.

Clenching his teeth and glaring for a long while, he couldn’t help but sigh.

Just had to go along with it...

After all, wasn’t this now his direct superior and teacher?

”Where to?” he asked wearily, stepping on the gas pedal.

”Anywhere! The world is so big, we can always wander...”

Luo Su, like performing magic, changed into a tourist outfit of big floral shirt and shorts, not caring that it was winter, whistling excitedly like a child: ”We’re going on a trip!”

Huai Shi felt numb all over.

He almost ripped the steering wheel off.

”...So, there must be a destination, right?”

”Let me see, the first stop...Nara!”

Luo Su took out a travel guidebook and flipped through it, nodding, ”There are deer! Hey, haven’t you been to Nara? How is it? Are there lots of deer?”

”...There are indeed, but they’re a bunch of dough-snatching rogues.”

Huai Shi sighed, reluctantly taking the exit ramp: ”Really, I’d rather be traveling with a young lady than performing some sweet road movie with an old geezer, it’s too much!”

”You can bring the young lady, guests are welcome!”

Before Luo Su finished speaking, as if he remembered something, he slapped his forehead, getting it: ”Ah, Miss Ai is a bit busy, right? Miss Hela is also unavailable lately... Fu is troubled by his internship, Miss Luo prefers solo camping, and even Ms. Tong Ji is unavailable lately... No worries, you can bring your student. I quite like the little girl Yuan Yuan; teasing her would be just as fun as Isaac...”

”Hey, don’t bring your bad habits upon my student.” Huai Shi fumed, ”And don’t make it sound like I’m some womanizing jerk everywhere!”

”Jerk?”

Luo Su adjusted his sunglasses to look over, with a face full of disdain: ”You overestimate yourself, Huai Shi, a jerk would’ve at least not be a virgin.”

Poof!

Huai Shi’s face turned pale, an old blood prepared in his throat.

Want to kill someone...

”Alright, let’s go!”

Luo Su cheerfully changed the subject, waving a small flag, excitedly shouting in the passenger seat: ”Nara, Nara! Deer dear, Deer dear!”

So old yet using childish repetition, disgusting!

Huai Shi rolled his eyes, stepped on the gas, and sighed silently.

Thus, began the long road of his graduation trip.

.

.

The result was they didn’t reach Nara.

Halfway, Luo Su found a flyer at the rest stop and eagerly detoured to the beach.

Full of thoughts about cheerful summer beach bikini girl romantic vibes.

Ignoring that it’s already deep winter!

In the cold sea breeze, outside the already closed beach, after driving for three hours, Huai Shi slowly turned his head around, expressionless, looking at the old geezer beside him.

While the old fellow held a coconut from who knows where, slurping noisily.

”When the weather gets cold, no one comes out to swim, the Current Circumstances really is inconvenient.” Luo Su adjusted his sunglasses, sighing regretfully: ”So, there’s no stir-fried noodles on the grill often seen in Yingzhou movies!”

”...The place is closed, who’ll make noodles for you!”

Huai Shi fumed, itching to roll up his sleeves and step in: ”I’ll make you some noodles, will you eat them! The kind that’ll take you chuckling straight to Nine Springs!”

”Young man, why so impatient.”

Luo Su sighed, shaking his head: ”The teacher saw you’re lonely and made a special trip to invite you, how could you treat your teacher this way!”

”What’s lonely, I’m very busy, okay!”

”Busy with what?” Luo Su retorted, ”Busy drafting leave forms for school, pretending you’re busy while actually playing games and taking care of your zoo at home every day?”

The old man scolded with heartfelt concern: ”Petty salary thieves will suffer retribution, you know, Huai Shi.”

”It’s not like the school is paying me much!”

”Of course, money’s like dirt! Dirt, you understand? This world is just a boring septic tank! How can we let such things taint the Ivory Tower’s reputation!”

Luo Su tossed away the drained coconut, shaped his hands into a heart, and waved it before Huai Shi’s eyes: ”What the school gives you is love!”

”The world’s most precious thing comes from a teacher’s love!”

”Oh really? I’m thrilled to death then.”

Huai Shi shot a cold glance at the old man’s attempt to act cute, feeling no emotional ripple within, completely unfazed by such nonexistent things. Huai Shi pondered throughout the journey, finally deciphering the densely packed odd humor from Luo Su.

Arrangement.

Filled with arrangements.

”Ice cream, want some?” As Huai Shi was deep in thought, someone handed over an ice cream cone still sticking with a little shark label. The vanilla ice cream bore shark stripes, as if transporting him instantly back to midsummer.

”Could you help me grab one too? I’m going to buy two servings of oden.”

Luo Su stood in front of a street stall, pulling out his wallet: ”Consider it on me, no need to be polite.”

You could at least offer something worthwhile!

Huai Shi sighed, received the ice cream, and sat on the long bench outside the little shop.

No scenic summer seashore, only biting cold winter winds and a gloomy sky over a deserted beach. The so-called graduation trip’s first meal surprisingly turned out to be ice cream with convenience store microwave snacks.

No matter how you look at it, it seems off.

Yet Luo Su ate with relish, contemplating the ceaseless traffic on the road.

”A road perfect for a drive,”

He gathered his hair tousled by the sea breeze, gazing toward the end of the road: ”When I was young, the most romantic scene I could imagine was wearing my coolest leather jacket, taking a beloved girl on a sixty-kilometer motorcycle ride to see the sea... sadly, it’s not romantic at all now.

Motorcycles are less popular compared to convertible sports cars, leather jackets less favored than Savile Row bespoke suits, and girls dislike having their skin blown rough by sea winds and the summer sun.

It’s what you often call times have changed, right? Even as I pride myself on a young mindset, inevitably a melancholy barrier forms between me and the youth.”

”The barrier isn’t your mindset, it’s your odd humor, thanks.” Huai Shi stabbed at octopus balls, responding distastefully, ”If you could somewhat act like a decent person, you’d be more popular than now.”

”That’s not acceptable; life would lose its fun.” Luo Su shook his head, ”Comparatively, quirky humor is more important, changing it is out of the question.”

Life isn’t easy, Huai Shi sighed.

”So what are you exactly planning?” He asked helplessly, ”Why can’t you just say what you’re thinking? Why all the secrecy?”

”Hmm... you might not believe it, I’m thinking.”

Luo Su pondered for a moment, seriously saying, ”I’m thinking about how to fulfill my duties as a teacher.”

”You? Teacher? Duties?”

Huai Shi paused for a long time, doubting his ears, suspecting a cold joke in the works, wondering if he should humor him with a laugh.

Has April Fool’s arrived four months early or is this some prank show?

Where’s the camera?

”I’m being very serious, Huai Shi,”

Luo Su emphasized solemnly, ”As a renowned educator in the entire realm, I certainly shouldn’t treat students entirely as tools like some unethical tutors and bosses, right?

Though moderate entertainment is necessary, one shouldn’t forget about professional duties—no need to laugh at me, I didn’t even finish my own training courses back then, and this is my first time teaching someone to become a Recorder of the Book of Fate. It’s perfectly normal to have some slip-ups; you should be a bit more forgiving.”

”...So what have you thought of then?” Huai Shi genuinely wondered.

”Nothing at all, I gained nothing.”

Luo Su candidly replied, without any concealment, completely unashamed: ”You see, a teacher is an engineer of the soul, but your soul isn’t under my purview... fundamentally crooked, addressing it now is somewhat late.

Even as a teacher, I can’t help much.

You Dongxia people often say: A teacher transmits knowledge and resolves doubts. But with Utopia gone, I have no truth to impart, having lived my entire life muddle-headed without much clarity, unable to solve your dilemmas.”

He paused, gravely saying: ”Thus, after much deliberation, I’ve only thought about what karma to impart to you.”

Huai Shi was dumbfounded, unable to comprehend this odd logic.

”Hey, ’karma’ is professional karma, you know...”

”Close enough, it’s all the same ’karma.’

For Sublimators, especially one like you, there’s no real difference...”

Luo Su turned to look, filled with deeper meaning: ”The path you choose, the result you’ll get, the sins you’ll incur are all predetermined from the start—”

He added, ”It’s just, I am unsure if you are ready to accept all this.”

Once more, under such scrutiny.

Huai Shi’s movement paused.

In Luo Su’s examination, finally felt the long-lost pressure and unease.

As a seasoned victim of persecution, sensing a familiar sign...

Huai Shi suddenly realized, chilled to the bone snorting: ”You’re planning something for me again, aren’t you!”

”Unfortunately, no.”

Luo Su shrugged, raised his head to down the cheap coffee in his cup, ”This time, Huai Shi, I planned nothing for you.”

This is a graduation trip, Huai Shi. It’s important to comprehend society, expand knowledge, where’s the sense in working overtime during a trip?

And you should learn not to move according to others’ expectations or orders, but make your own choices...”

He tossed the finished items into the trash, patted Huai Shi’s shoulder, stood up: ”Nevertheless, before that, let’s continue our joyous trip of visiting friends and acquaintances...

Be quick, after all, time is short.”

The old man glanced one last time at the desolate beach, and the distant somber sky.

Lonely seagulls hovered in the sky dome, calling in vain for the tribes that had long departed.

And at the end of the cold ocean, dim clouds were rising.

Before the storm known as the War of Realms arrives, no one knows how much time is left...