Chapter 309: Requiem

"Daddy... when is Brother Xiao Jian coming?"

In the narrow room, thick quilts had blocked all the windows and door cracks. Three figures huddled in front of a basin of charcoal fire that was about to go out, their eyelashes and hair tips covered in frost.

"...It's frozen like that outside, Xiao Jian might..." The aunt halfway through her sentence, shook her head in silence.

The uncle exhaled a white breath, trembling, his gaze toward the tightly closed door filled with worry and bitterness.

In his mind, the figure standing amidst the flying playing cards on Century Avenue surfaced once more... Although he already knew that Jian Changsheng's status was no longer ordinary, thinking of the freezing weather outside, he couldn't help but worry for his nephew.

Clang—Clang—Clang!!

The humming bell toll sounded from outside. The three looked toward the blocked window, trembling.

"There shouldn't be any living people left outside now, right?" the aunt curled into a ball, muttering to herself. "Then... who is ringing the bell?"

"Could it be the Law Enforcer brothers taking action?" A glimmer of hope appeared in the boy's eyes.

The uncle didn't answer. After struggling in his heart for a long time, he slowly stood up...

"Where are you going??"

"I'm going out to take a look."

"It's so cold outside, you..."

"You stay in the room and behave, don't go out, understand?"

The uncle opened the bedroom door and walked into the living room, closing the bedroom door behind him. Then he carefully pushed the front door open just a crack to prevent the cold wind from blowing into the bedroom. As soon as he stepped into the street, the extreme cold descended.

He saw the black snowflakes dancing in the sky and the aurora rising from the ground, standing there blankly, his eyes filled with shock and confusion;

Only when the cold wind cut across his cheeks like a knife did he snap out of it. He gritted his teeth and walked step by step toward the clock tower... The only ones who could be ringing the bell in Aurora City now should be those people, and Xiao Jian should be among them.

But he had only taken two steps when an even colder wave rolled in from outside the city walls, like a wind of death blowing from the underworld, staining the sky a cold, deep blue.

The uncle's pupils contracted suddenly, as if his heart had stopped. His legs went weak, and he collapsed into the snow.

-79℃。

In such low temperatures, his consciousness began to blur. His life was being drained away by the cold wave bit by bit, like a flickering flame in a frozen cave—one light puff, and only embers remained, quickly fading...

Just as he was about to close his eyes, four black figures walked slowly from the end of the street.

"...Uncle?"

Jian Changsheng's pupils contracted slightly when he saw the man. He immediately ran up to check his uncle's breath, only to find it was already faint...

"Xiao... Jian..." A voice as small as a mosquito's hum came out, and the uncle's heart stopped beating completely.

The wailing cold wind echoed in his ears.

Jian Changsheng squatted there blankly, motionless like a statue.

He had never imagined that human life could be so fragile. Even just a sea breeze blowing from the Forbidden Sea was enough to easily topple the pillar of any family...

"Uncle... Uncle?!" Jian Changsheng hugged him tightly. The black umbrella in his hand rolled into the snow, tumbling gently with the cold wind until it stopped beside a pair of black leather shoes.

Chen Ling and the others stood not far away, holding umbrellas, watching Jian Changsheng kneeling before his uncle with complex expressions.

The boy's roar echoed through the dead street.

"This is your first time experiencing a boundary funeral... but it won't be the last." Chu Muyun said slowly. "In this era, the fragility of humanity far exceeds your imagination. Even the Twilight Society cannot save everyone, which is why we do not recommend forming deep connections with ordinary people."

"This is also why the Twilight Society usually only recruits insane or cold-blooded newcomers... because only those who do not empathize easily can maintain reason and clarity through witness after witness."

"Otherwise... the despair and pain, time after time, will drag you into the abyss."

Jian Changsheng's fists were clenched tightly. He held his uncle's corpse, tears already frozen into ice on his cheeks...

Black snowflakes drifted onto the corpse's shoulders. A faint aurora, like a kite, drifted up from within his body, slowly rising toward the aurora-surging sky.

In that moment, Jian Changsheng seemed to see a blurred figure waving at him within the aurora. He knelt there blankly, his eyes already bloodshot.

At the same time, several streets away, a young woman also dressed in a suit parted her lips. An ethereal, clear female voice echoed beneath the dead sky with a certain rhythm.

"I see the sky weeping,"

"I hear your voice;"

"I smell longing blooming in the thorns,"

"I come from the direction of the sunset..."

Chen Ling was slightly stunned the moment he heard this voice.

It was like poetry, like a ballad. In the crystal-clear female voice, it echoed clearly and melodiously in every corner of the city... This voice seemed to have some special magic. The aurora dancing and rising to the sky seemed to be soothed by an invisible hand, becoming quiet and serene.

If the Aurora Lord were here, he would find that the noisy, chaotic roars of souls had completely vanished, replaced by a sleep-like peace.

Even Jian Changsheng, who was kneeling on the ground, felt his inner pain diminish slightly. He wiped the ice crystals from the corners of his eyes and looked blankly in the direction the voice was coming from.

"This is..." Chen Ling asked, puzzled.

"It's a Requiem." Chu Muyun looked toward the source of the voice with a complex expression. "It's an indispensable part of a boundary funeral. The Requiem chanted by her can soothe the resentment of souls who died in the disaster, allowing them to rest in peace."

"These three million people died too bitterly. If there were no Requiem, even if they were engraved in the sky, most would only be frozen in pain and despair..."

"This can be considered a unique skill of our Twilight Society. Unfortunately, only four people know it to this day."

Chu Muyun sighed deeply and said no more.

Bai Ye also slowly closed his eyes, as if listening intently.

The ethereal female voice continued to sing:

"The earth and rose-red are your bed,"

"Frost, snow, and the setting sun are your heavy makeup;"

"I will weave hope into dancing kapok flowers,"

"Until the rocks remember the fragrance..."

Jian Changsheng listened to the ballad and slowly stood up.

He bent down to pick up the black umbrella at his feet, opened it, and slowly covered the cold corpse... as if shielding that figure from the final wind and snow.

At the same time, in the house the uncle had walked out of, a mother and child also closed their eyes forever under the cold wave.

Jian Changsheng closed his eyes and prayed for something in his heart.

More and more aurora flew silently into the sky amidst the ballad. The aurora that had already completely dissipated actually gathered again. Green and red lights flowed over the city like rivers, gorgeous and uniquely beautiful.

"Oh, weeping one,"

"Please gently close your eyes;"

"When the twilight falls on this darkest of eras,"

"I will promise you the morning glow and the blue sky."