Chapter 1776: Don't Leave Regrets

Chen Ling looked at the anxious Li Shangfeng and sighed inwardly.

He understood that Li Shangfeng didn't want to owe such a huge favor... But he knew even better that once everything was explained, Li Shangfeng would surely join the Twilight Society for the sake of the fallen members and the debt of gratitude for mending his regrets...

People say, "When will the cycle of vengeance end?" But in the Twilight Society, it becomes, "When will the cycle of gratitude end?"

He didn't want Li Shangfeng to give up his hard-won stable life for them and return to that path of licking blood from a blade... Li Shangfeng no longer owed the Twilight Society anything.

"Boss Chen!" Li Shangfeng looked at Chen Ling pleadingly. "Just tell me..."

"...As you just said, you are still too weak right now," Chen Ling paused. "Wait a few more years, until the day you truly grow up. If you still want to know the truth and repay us then... I will tell you everything."

"Then, how should I find you by then??"

"You don't need to find us..."

Chen Ling slowly raised his hand, a blank playing card held between his fingertips, and placed it in Li Shangfeng’s palm... He looked at Li Shangfeng with complex emotions and spoke softly:

"When the time comes, someone will come to find you."

Li Shangfeng looked down at his palm in a daze.

A blank playing card with no face shimmered in the sunlight.

……

After eating, Li Shangfeng carried Li Wanhua on his back and returned to the abandoned factory.

Chen Ling said he would help Li Shangfeng repair the room a little, gave Li Laide one hour of free time, and then walked into the ruins with the siblings without looking back...

Li Laide stood alone, his forehead full of question marks.

Wait...

You're just going to leave me like this?

Before, he insisted that he follow him everywhere, but now he just left with a casual remark... Wasn't he afraid that in this hour, he would run away until not even a shadow was left?

But thinking of Chen Ling’s terrifying strength last night, Li Laide gave up the idea of running away. Besides, even if he wanted to run, where could he go?

Given the security environment of the Chengtian Boundary, he couldn't even take a train to leave.

Li Laide, wearing that stolen face, hesitated for a long time on the street before finally walking in a certain direction...

Li Laide was basically certain that those invisible, eerie existences were the "Twilight Society" Chen Ling spoke of, though he didn't know what had happened to make them look like that... Moreover, Chen Ling had mentioned before that the Twilight Society hadn't started recruiting yet.

If Chen Ling wasn't lying to him, it meant these people weren't the "Twilight Society" of this world, but like Chen Ling, came from the previous world?

Then was it possible that they helped Li Shangfeng and his sister because they were originally members of the Twilight Society from the previous world?

The deeper Li Laide thought, the more everything seemed to find a reasonable explanation at this moment. At the same time, another question inevitably surfaced in his mind:

If this world had truly been restarted...

Then what kind of person was he in the previous world?

Was he nameless and at the mercy of others, or... famous throughout the world?

While pondering, Li Laide walked through the streets with practiced ease and arrived in front of a familiar small house...

Bright sunlight spilled over the earth. At the doorway, a beautiful figure with hair like a waterfall sat in a wheelchair, holding a watering can, patiently watering the flowers in the yard, exuding an atmosphere of quiet detachment from the world.

Seeing that figure, Li Laide’s restless heart calmed down.

He stole a newspaper from a nearby kiosk and leaned against a utility pole across from the house, pretending to read the content while his heart was entirely focused on his mother in the yard... For him, this was already the closest way to be near her.

He watched his mother push her wheelchair alone, watering from one side of the yard to the other like a diligent gardener. Time ticked by, and she spent almost the entire morning just watering the garden.

Wait, the whole morning?

Li Laide snapped back to reality. He suddenly remembered that the free time Chen Ling gave him was only one hour...

Just as he hesitated whether to return to the repair shop, a calm voice sounded from behind him:

"Go see her."

Li Laide jolted. He turned around subconsciously to see a figure in a brown coat standing behind him, his gaze fixed with him on the figure in the yard who was packing up to go back inside.

"We are leaving the Chengtian Boundary... I don't know when we'll be back next time." Chen Ling’s ruby-like eyes looked at Li Laide. He spoke slowly, his voice having a strangely calming effect.

"With me here, don't worry about anything else. Except for your mother herself, no one will remember you were here."

Before Li Laide could react, Chen Ling handed him an exquisitely crafted bionic mechanical leg.

"I had Li Shangfeng make this. Although it's not as flexible as a real human leg, it will be no problem for daily walking and sitting once worn... Take it to your mother together."

Li Laide stood frozen in place.

Looking at the heavy mechanical leg in his hand, an unreal warmth rose from the bottom of his heart. He instinctively guarded against this kindness shown by others, looking at Chen Ling’s eyes in a panic:

"...Why?"

"For heretics like us, the love of family is more precious than life itself." Deep in Chen Ling’s eyes, the image of the clear-eyed boy in opera robes on Frost Street flashed by. He spoke with complex emotions,

"The old me never had the chance to say a proper goodbye to the people I cherished... and later, it was impossible to undo. But you still have the chance. She is standing right in front of you, alive. There is only a street between you."

"Li Laide, don't leave yourself with regrets."

Li Laide was stunned. This was the first time he had seen an emotion other than calmness on Chen Ling’s face... The bitterness and sorrow in his eyes were like a thorn, gently pricking Li Laide, making him feel a similar sadness.

What was this... empathy, sympathy, or shared feeling?

Li Laide didn't know what was wrong with him. He looked at the bionic leg in his hand and finally took a deep breath...

"...Thank you."

He walked straight toward the house across the street.

In the yard, his mother, sitting in her wheelchair, was still slowly packing things up. As soon as she looked up, she saw a strange young man standing in front of her, looking at her with complex eyes.

"Hello... is there something you need?" she asked softly.