Chapter 676

Three days after Nie Rong’s death, the date chosen for the burial was the most auspicious of the year. For the past month, the weather had been murky—neither clear nor raining, just humid and suffocating. But starting at midnight, a fierce wind swept the night sky into a deep, crystalline blue. The morning rose with a brilliant red sun, the deep sea reflecting the vast sky. Even on Hong Kong Island, such weather was a rarity. Today, with the Nie Family’s memorial service, funeral, and burial all scheduled, was to be the busiest day of all for the family members. Outside the funeral home, fresh flowers carpeted the entire street, and people continued to arrive voluntarily to pay their respects. At the end of the street, journalists from across the Asia-Pacific region crowded shoulder-to-shoulder, their cameras poised like artillery. Reporters from various television stations had been staked out at the intersections since dawn. Guests began arriving early; some paused for interviews, but most wore expressions of somber grief, passing through the lightning-fast barrage of camera flashes in silence toward the hall.