Dense Fog

Dense Fog 1 - The “ding dong” notifications came from not just one WeChat group, but a group of WeChat groups

January 9, 2021

At the height of summer, as night turned to day, the horizon was encaged in a fog that resembled flowing clouds, diffusing the glimmers of light. It wasn’t until the sun rose and the first rays of dawn penetrated the layer of clouds that the fog quietly dissipated.

This northern city hardly ever experienced fog, especially not in the summer. Unfortunately, Lin Wu did not get to appreciate such a rare and beautiful scenery—the time he was jolted awake was 7 AM. According to his routine, this time should be considered precisely early morning, but on a summer day where it dawned at five o’ clock, the sun had already begun to shine brightly through his window.

What woke him up were the constantly chattering, newly checked in first year students downstairs, the old students who had returned to campus dragging their clinking luggage along the corridor, the very punctual 7 o’ clock broadcast overhead that played “early morning music” for the entire school, as well as the phone next to his pillow emitting relentless “ding dong” notifications.

Today was August 31st and tomorrow would be the official start of the new term.

Lin Wu was in no rush to get out of bed. He laid on his top bunk, letting out a drowsy-eyed yawn, and felt around for the phone next to his head first.

The non-stop notifications did not come from just one WeChat group, but a group of WeChat groups—all of the sort where Do Not Disturb was no match against the almighty @all.

[Environmental School Chat]

Mr. Li: The students in charge of new student orientation, try to pay attention when you introduce the school and faculties and talk about campus life with the younger students who just entered university. Spread as much positivity as you can. If you want to talk about any negative feelings you might have, you’re welcome to go see Teacher Chen in the faculty office. @all

Mr. Chen: [gentle smile like a spring breeze.jpg]

[Environmental Engineering Department Chat]

Residential Manager Gao: Meet in front of the environmental department building at 5 PM. We’re taking attendance @all

[Env Eng Class 1 Chat]

Xu Zhenlong who shakes the world: Have you seen the news in our school chat yet? Lmao hahahaha @all

Liu Mu who is looked up to by thousands: He was definitely showing the way to some first year girl, talking and talking until he found his zqsg1 true love.

Shang Haitao who strolls and eats, strolls and eats: What I’m noticing is the sticker that Old Chen sent:
Shang Haitao who strolls and eats, strolls and eats: [gentle smile like a spring breeze.jpg]

Pang Dongdong who falls swiftly like a waterfall: Society is evolving too quickly, even Old Chen’s learned how to speak in riddles yygq2 smh

Zou Kai who is irascible as thunder: If you keep using these freaking unreadable AF acronyms, I’ll block all of you!

Deng Chacha “I’m the class monitor”: AF is also an acronym @Zou Kai who is irascible as thunder

Zou Kai who is irascible as thunder: ...

Lin Wu was fully awake now and cackling with laughter. Just as he was about to send something to complete the message chain as “Lin Wu who makes flowers bloom around him”, yet another message popped up in a fourth group chat.

[Shushan #2 Landlords Assembly]

Ongoing battle: Whose blanket is downstairs? @all
Ongoing battle: [picture]
Ongoing battle: It’s been hanging up there for a few days and already dried stiff, if no one picks it up, it can just become part of the door.

“Shushan Residence” was the official name that the school designated to the boys’ dormitory area; girls stayed in the “Xuehai Residence”. So, “Shushan #2” meant the male dorms’ No. 2 building. Even though Building No. 2’s male residents would only live there temporarily for four years, they still ambitiously changed the group name to “Landlords Assembly”, indulging in being part of the land-owning class just a few years too early.

“Shit, it’s bright and early in the morning and I already have to be careful not to drop the phone on my face.” The door to his dorm room 333 opened, and one of Lin Wu’s roommates, Xia Yang entered, carrying in his luggage, as well as a mouth full of his distinctive Tianjin3 accent.

The blistering hot summer weather didn’t leave a single trace on classmate Xia’s body. From his face to his arms and legs, his skin was still fair and clear. His wavy hair was black last semester, but now it was dyed maroon, contrasting against his already good-looking facial features to make them appear even more delicate.

“Pretty early, isn’t it?” Lin Wu sat up from his top bunk. “I thought you’d have to wait until afternoon to arrive.”

The Tianjin native Xia Yang had arrived in Shenyang yesterday. However, he had relatives over here who had always taken care of him quite well, so every time Xia Yang returned, he would first eat with them, stay over for a night, then go back to school.

“I guess your daddy missed you.” Upon entering the room, Xia Yang crouched on the floor and opened his suitcase. He first took out several large pouches filled with who knew what local specialities and slapped them onto the table. His mouth never stopped moving while he continued to move things out: “I don’t know if the AC on yesterday’s train was possessed or something, it was so freezing cold even my skull started tingling. I spoke to the train attendant three times—‘Say big sister, let’s adjust the temperature a bit, is that ok? We’re inside a train, not a freezer’—Guess what, even she was at her wit’s end. She told me the train’s air conditioning was just this stubborn, if I really couldn’t stand it then I could grab the curtains to cover myself, just compromise a bit...”

Lin Wu didn’t know if it was the cold that made Xia Yang’s skull tingle, but in any case, Xia Yang’s skull must really be tingling, or else he wouldn’t be chattering away like this.

Classmate Xia’s special characteristic was that when quiet, he could be considered a pretty boy, but when he opened his mouth, he transformed into a clown. As soon as he spoke, his manners would shatter anyone’s first impression of him as a polished young man from Tianjin.

Lin Wu waited until at last, Xia Yang had to catch his breath, and quickly inserted, “I’m just wondering. Everyone says if there’s one Dongbei4 person in a dorm, you’ll harvest a whole dorm full of Dongbei people. There are three of us from Dongbei, how is it possible that we still haven’t fixed your accent yet?”

Xia Yang raised his head. “Like this,” he said in an exaggerated Dongbei accent, giving Lin Wu a seductive wink. “Not convinced?”

Lin Wu was speechless. “Your style of mixing and matching is too awe-inspiring.”

“I'll let you know, on the topic of my accent, I was originally very moved. I really considered surrendering to you guys and going with the flow.”

Xia Yang got up and generously distributed the snacks that piled up half of his desk, all Tianjin specialties, to the desks under the other two bunk beds, handing out one or two packs of this, a few bags of that. But on Lin Wu's turn, he simply threw the snacks to the top bunk.

“But then I thought, ah, what’s the point in changing my style from Tianjin to Dongbei?” he continued. “Instead of saying, ‘Big sister, wotcha doing,’ I’ll be saying, ‘What are you doing, gal?’5 Put your hand to your chest and tell me honestly, deep down, will this change my temperament?”

Lin Wu firmly caught a pack of 18th Street fried dough twists and a bag of ear-hole fried cake6. “Sorry.”

In this dorm room with three students from Dongbei and one from Tianjin, Xia Yang often over thought things like mannerisms.

“Where’s Li Junchi?” Only when done distributing his local specialties did Xia Yang notice that Li Junchi’s luggage was next to his bed, but the person himself was missing.

Lin Wu said, “He started work.”

Xia Yang glanced at his phone. “It’s only seven in the morning.”

Lin Wu said, “He’s filling in for a fourth year to pick up a girl at the train station.”

Li Junchi was number one in their room 333, or rather... it could be said, number one in the whole school’s work-study program. As a first year, he explored his surroundings and adapted to the new environment in his first term. Then, the next term, he began to take on all the activities within campus. As long as it was within the realm of human possibility and not illegal, he would accept any request. Once, he was gloriously entrusted by a student to hand deliver breakfast for the goddess in their heart for a record breaking consecutive three months.

“Someone hired him to pick up their girlfriend at the station?” Hearing the details of this job, Xia Yang’s chest immediately swelled in indignation. “This kind of guy can still get a girlfriend?”

“It’s not his girlfriend,” Lin Wu said.

Xia Yang commented, “Then this job’s not bad, he can make some money and get to know a girl.”

Lin Wu said, “It’s his sister, so that senior paid an additional 100 yuan and banned Li Junchi from asking about her private life or contact information. Including but not limited to her department, major, grade, Weibo, WeChat, QQ, and gaming accounts.”

Xia Yang: “...”

Lin Wu and Xia Yang were here, and Li Junchi was working. At present, room 333 was only missing Ren Feiyu, whose hometown was Harbin.

“When did he say he’d arrive?” Xia Yang washed his face and changed into a new t-shirt. The shirt was white, making him look especially neat.

“Yesterday, he mentioned he’d be taking the high speed rail this morning, so I suppose he should be on the train by now.” Lin Wu pulled up their four person group chat on his phone and flipped through the chat records. “It’s only two hours from Harbin to Shenyang, before noon, he’ll definitely...”

He hadn’t even found the message he was looking for when another message was sent to the group. Seriously, speaking of the devil...

Please bestow a koi upon me: There’s a huge rainstorm in Harbin, the high speed train shut down [cry][cry][cry] @Lin Wu @AAA Li Junchi @Little Master Xia

Lin Wu and Xia Yang glanced at the screen.

The former threw up his hands and said, “Hardly unexpected.”

The latter shrugged and said, “It’s only natural.”

Since their first year, Ren Feiyu’s trips to his hometown and back weren’t once smooth. Winter break was blizzards, summer break a rainstorm. His train ticket seemed to be a charm that could call the wind and summon the rain with an unusual accuracy.

This was merely the tip of the iceberg when it came to Ren Feiyu’s hopelessly inauspicious constitution. His days on campus were equally bumpy and saddening to the point that it hurt to look back on them.

Lin Wu: [Rain or shine your best bros are always with you.jpg]

AAA Li Junchi: Bro, this isn’t the first time, you should be used to it.

Xia Yang: Trust me, start praying from now on for the rain to continue. I guarantee you the downpour will immediately stop.

Even Li Junchi who was in the middle of work popped up. Room 333’s bromance has always been so moving.

Ren Feiyu evidently accepted this gesture of friendship.

Please bestow a koi upon me: En, you guys don’t need to worry about me.
Please bestow a koi upon me: [After I cry for a month I’ll be ok.jpg]

After consoling Ren Feiyu, Lin Wu hopped off his bed and went to brush his teeth and wash his face. When he finished, he returned to the room and tore open his pack of 18th Street fried dough twists for his breakfast. He was about to say to Xia Yang that every time they came back from break, the gifts from their hometown shouldn’t be too monotonous. For example, instead of just food, he could also add in a few “Clay Figure Zhang”7 figures, couldn’t he?

But when he raised his eyes, Xia Yang who had just changed into a fresh t-shirt had somehow fallen asleep underneath the gently rotating electric fan. He slept like a kid who had stayed up multiple nights at the Internet cafe.

Lin Wu reckoned that the air conditioning at Xia Yang’s relatives’ house probably wasn’t much better than that of the train. Hence, after freezing for two days straight, classmate Xia finally found refuge underneath the simple and familiar electric fan in their dorm room.

Classes would only start tomorrow, so there really wasn’t anything to do today. Lin Wu gnawed on a fried dough twist with one hand, while scrolling his phone with the other hand. He scrolled to the end and with no more news left to read, he shortly clicked open a familiar app called “Shushan Lodgings”.

This app was originally a small program written by a skillful senior who lived in Shushan a few years back. It was essentially a simple anonymous discussion forum whose main purpose was to let anyone and everyone roast each other. Later, more and more students signed up. The senior graduated and passed on the app for the computer science students to maintain. Now, it could basically be considered the semi-official school-wide forum. Only, the names were still hidden and the atmosphere stayed relaxed and unrestrictive.

The forum only had two sections that drew a simple and clearcut division between their respective types of content: “Everything Academic” and “Gossip”.

The former would become extremely active during finals season and the preparation period for graduate school entrance exams. The latter section was lively and highly trafficked 365 days a year. There was no stopping it: anything unrelated to studies could only be stuffed into there, from public displays of affection—“May you live a hundred happy years together”—to flirty playboys and whether they deserved a kick in the nuts. In between was everything from frequent excerpts of Breaking news!! Campus Insider Tales, doubts about the school’s fengshui, which dorm disturbed the spirit of the senior in red, which classroom was haunted by the ghost of a failed student. Every day, the subforum would be flooded with fresh content, never repeating and absolutely fascinating.

However, today the top post in the gossip section wasn’t some dog blood drama, nor was it some puzzling hearsay. Rather, it was a few photos of scenery—

Topic: The fog this morning was just too beautiful!
Posted by: Samantha who loves morning runs
Content: [photo] [photo] [photo] [photo]...

One could swipe down to zoom in on a series of HD images.

The sky was faintly bright through the lingering mist. The sun had not yet come out of the clouds, but rays of light had begun to leak into the peripheries of the scene, reflecting traces of brilliant lights and vibrant colours into the fog that filled the atmosphere.

The author has something to say:
Classmate Lin Wu for now doesn’t know whether he or the little wolf will be shou, the attacks of youthfulness are about to come one after another~ =w=

Translator's Note

Hi fluffy friends,

My name is Delta and I am a new translator. I'm an American-born Chinese and can speak the language at the level of an eight year old and read and write at the level of a five year old, but I'm aiming to improve rapidly. I hand-translate using the Zhongwen pinyin extension and my limited comprehension skills, consulting either Baidu or family members if I need help.

I have a perfectionist's attention to detail and will include extensive footnotes for phrases that require explanation to be understood. Explanations that might optionally enrich your understanding will be included in an "Additional Notes" section at the end of a chapter to reduce the amount of distractions while reading.

There are generally a few sentences per chapter that I can't decipher with complete confidence, so I'll leave those at the end for your information and to see if an answer can be crowdsourced.

Let me know if this system works for you!

Delta Doge (｡･∀･)ﾉﾞ

Additional Notes

Character Names & Pinyin

林雾 / Līn Wù: Has the same "wù" as the title, 大雾 / Dà Wù, meaning fog夏扬 / Xià Yáng李骏驰 / Lǐ Jùnchí任飞宇 / Rén Fēiyǔ

Location Names

书山园 / Shūshān yuán: 书山 means "Mountain of Books", which apparently comes across as a very ordinary name for a college residence, so it was translated as pinyin as "Shushan Residence" to avoid drawing attention to the name学海园 / Xuéhǎi yuán: 学海 means "Sea of Learning", which is translated as "Xuehai Residence" for the same reason described above

Other

张嘴就变郭德纲 / zhāng zǔi jiù biàn Guō Dégāng: he turned into Guō Dégāng, a famous Chinese crosstalk actor. Crosstalk, or 相聲 / Xiàngsheng is a form of traditional Chinese comedy. Actual translation was "but when he opened his mouth, he transformed into a clown"非酋体质 / fēi qiú tǐ zhì: 非酋 is short for 非洲酋长 / fēi zhōu qiú zhǎng, so this literally means constitution of an African tribal chief. From Baidu Baike, this is internet slang for being extremely unlucky, especially in gatcha games. For some reason, having a dark face is associated with unluckiness and having a white face is associated with luckiness, so African chiefs would supposedly have overwhemingly bad luck. Apparently in a mobile game called 阴阳师 / yīn yáng shī, you can earn the achievement of 非酋, which I would assume is a consolation prize. In contrast, having 欧皇 / ōu huáng, or European Emperor, refers to someone who is extremely lucky（；´д｀）ゞ Although I'm not familiar with the term, it seems undeniably racist and would be jarring for English readers, so I translated it as "hopelessly inauspicious constitution", hoping to preserve the severity of unluckiness that the author was trying to portray红衣学姐 / hóng yī xué jiě: The "spirit of the senior in red", possibly refers to a creepy ghost from the TV show Soul Ferry (灵魂摆渡 / líng hún bǎi dù)

Translations that Might Need Help

逛吃逛吃: Translated as "strolls and eats" in the nickname "Shang Haitao who strolls and eats". After much research, the meaning of this is a mystery to me. Apparently it's the name of a not so popular song by a fairly popular singer 大张伟 / dà zhāng wěi to promote a movie. The music video has people shooting up Japanese trains, so maybe Shang Haitao's just a casual badass? This answer suggests that 逛吃 might refer to a girl's night out, though, strolling around the streets (逛街 / guàngjiē) and eating out (吃饭 / chīfàn). This is what my cousin thinks, too爷们儿想你们了呗: Translated as "Your daddy missed you" for lack of better options, although that would be 老子 instead.你摸着你诚恳的胸肌和我说: Translated as "Put your hand to your chest and honestly tell me". Wtf is this supposed to mean, "you go feel up your own honest pecs and talk to me"?后者是全年365天都活跃得像顶流: Translated as "The latter subforum was lively and highly trafficked 365 days a year" but not sure what 像顶流 meanszqsg: Internet shorthand for 真情实感 / zhēnqíng shígǎn, meaning true love (both zhēnqíng and shígǎn mean true feelings). Credit to @caerium's tweet on Chinese slang↩yygq: Shorthand for 阴阳怪气 / yīnyáng guàiqì, meaning mystifying; deliberately ambiguous↩天津 / Tiānjīn: A major Chinese city. Despite being very close to Beijing, Tianjin has a dialect very different from the Beijing dialect (which is much closer to Dongbei dialects).↩东北 / Dōngběi: The Northeast part of China, referring to the three provinces of Liaoning, Jilin, and Heilongjiang. The university in the story is located in 沈阳 / Shěnyáng, the capital of Liaoning and the largest city in Dongbei with a total metropolitan population of 6.3 million.↩According to my research, 姐姐忙嘛呢 / jiějiě máng ma ne is the Tianjin version, and 大妹子你干啥呢 / dà mèizi nǐ gàn shá ne is the Dongbei version. They are probably not pronounced as given by the pinyin. 大妹子 / dà mèizi literally means big little sister, and is an informal way of referring to a woman who might be younger than you - see Chinese forum answer and English forum answer for more details.↩Some Tianjin local foods: 18th Street fried dough twists

Ear-hole fried cake
↩Clay Figure Zhang or 泥人張 / Nírén Zhāng is a Tianjin folk art. They are painted sculptures like this:
↩