The part where Song Chuman wakes up and hides her advanced knowledge by acting spoiled with her father felt well-done. She’s playing the scared child role while internally strategizing. I appreciate that the author doesn't make her act too obviously mature from the start.
The whole sister betrayal thing is messy but compelling. Xu Ying coming to the door right after the news, coldly telling Xu Yuan to "die with him" if she loves him? That's ice cold. You can tell there's years of resentment boiling under the surface. I really want to know what happened between them before—like, was the drunken accident truly an accident? The set-up makes me suspect something more sinister was at play from the start.
The pacing in this opening chapter is really solid. It starts with a bang—literally, with the lightning—then slows down slightly as Shen Fei recovers and learns about her situation. Then new characters arrive to raise the stakes again. It's not boring at any point, and I never felt the urge to skip ahead.
The flashback to the orphanage and working in the kitchen hit hard. It sets up his desperation and need to scrape every credit. Loans just to get a basic Scholar scroll—that's rough. Makes me root for him way more.
The constable Pang Shan’s introduction felt rushed. He attacks first, asks questions later, then gets knocked out and immediately becomes friendly. It’s a bit jarring. Maybe the author wanted to avoid a long bureaucratic scene, but a few lines of explanation for why he’s so laid-back about being beaten would have helped.
I'm wondering about the other students. The novel says most people were in class when the outbreak happened, so the teaching building would be a massacre. But there could be survivors hiding in labs, libraries, etc. The MC currently wants to check the dormitory area first, which is smart, but the story might become too isolated if they just fortify one dorm. I'd like to see exploration of other campus areas—the science building might have chemicals for synthesis, the sports center might have equipment, etc. The MC's mission to "find other survivors" feels token so far; he only went out for coins. The cafeteria rescue was unplanned. I want to see him actively decide to save people, not just stumble upon them.