Gama Empire, Imperial Capital.
The Xiao Clan estate.
As one of the top prominent families in the Gama Empire, the Xiao Clan's manor was naturally magnificent and extraordinary, standing as a landmark building in the Imperial Capital.
Yet at this moment, the Xiao Clan was shrouded in a heavy layer of gloom. The massive estate was draped everywhere in white mourning cloth. Inside a quiet memorial hall, a sorrowful atmosphere permeated the air.
Before the pitch-black casket, everyone dressed in white mourning attire stood in absolute silence. The atmosphere was heavy to the extreme. The bustling prosperity of the outside world was cut off from the interior of the Xiao Clan estate, forming two entirely different worlds.
Inside the quiet memorial hall, white funeral scrolls hung high.
A porcelain-doll-like little girl with silver hair and red pupils stood quietly beside her mother. She gazed at the familiar figure within the casket, a trace of melancholy flashing through her cold, crimson pupils. Inside that dark casket, Elder Xiao lay peacefully, as though fallen into an eternal, untroubled slumber.
The old patriarch of the Xiao Clan was dead...
Upon hearing this sudden and devastating news, all members of the Xiao Clan felt as though struck by a bolt from the blue. As the sole Dou Wang powerhouse of the Xiao Clan, the demise of Old Patriarch Xiao Lin was undoubtedly a crushing blow to the family.
Overnight,
the sky had collapsed for every single member of the Xiao Clan.
And it was not just the departure of the old patriarch. More than half of the Xiao Clan's young elites and the pillars of the older generation had also perished almost overnight. Within the entire estate, everyone's heart plummeted to the abyss, their eyes filled with sorrow and despair...
Xiao Yue looked on at all of this in silence. She had been in this world for five years already. From her initial confusion to her eventual calm acceptance, the old man lying inside the casket was one of the few blood relatives she had truly acknowledged since her birth into this world. Now that he had passed away just like that, it would be a lie to say her heart did not ache.
She would never again hear that stubborn old man's endless nagging in her ear...
"Xiao Yue, place the flower on it."
Her mother's trembling voice came from beside her.
Without raising her head, Xiao Yue could sense through the small hand tightly grasped by her mother that the woman was softly weeping. Every single elder in the room wore an expression laden with grief and heaviness.
In her mother's arms was another child, a toddler of about two and a half years old—her convenient younger brother in this world. Yet no one in the room noticed that deep within the little boy's sharp, clever eyes flickered a profound maturity that completely belied his age.
Xiao Yue silently placed the white flower in front of the casket, then quietly retreated back to her mother's side.
"Whoosh!"
A handsome man in his thirties stepped forward and used a torch to ignite the casket for cremation.
He was Xiao Yue's father in this world. Although his facial expression could not be seen at the moment, Xiao Yue could clearly see that his fists were clenched so tightly his nails were almost digging into his palms, and his entire body was trembling uncontrollably.
The entire family was undoubtedly plunged into an unprecedented crisis at this moment. Xiao Zhan had no time for grief, and even the old patriarch's body could only be simply cremated within the clan without being buried in a timely manner.
By evening,
the Xiao Clan also cremated the bodies of the other fallen clansmen and collected their ashes.
……
The next day,
Xiao Zhan, acting as the new patriarch and suppressing the grief in his heart, began visiting other families in the Imperial Capital to negotiate and communicate. He knew deep down that wolves were already circling the Xiao Clan from all sides; once the time came, those vicious wolves would pounce and devour the Xiao Clan down to the very last bone.
After a night of deliberation, Xiao Zhan made his choice: to relinquish all of the clan's assets in the Imperial Capital, evacuate the entire clan from the capital, and voluntarily withdraw from this cruel game.
"Everyone, we are going to evacuate the Imperial Capital..."
In the grand hall,
Xiao Zhan stood before the assembled clansmen and announced this decision. His eyes were bloodshot, his originally handsome face utterly haggard, and his voice hoarse.
As soon as these words were spoken, an uproar instantly broke out within the clan, and the clansmen began arguing all at once.
Many members of the clan voiced their doubts toward Xiao Zhan as the new patriarch. Evidently, he was still unable to command universal respect; after all, only a few days ago he was merely an irresponsible second-generation wastrel. However, with the assistance and support of a few prestigious elders in the clan, Xiao Zhan managed to barely steady this tempest-tossed family whose morale was on the verge of collapsing.
Xiao Yue used to really dislike this father of hers because he always did things that made her mother sad and heartbroken. But now, she developed a completely different view of him. The upright figure of the man before her seemed to have aged significantly overnight...
Before the clan suffered this catastrophe, even though he was already in his thirties, Xiao Zhan had remained nothing more than an idle rich-kid second-generation heir, a well-known playboy in the Imperial Capital who did nothing all day long.
And if one were to ask who bore the greatest pressure in the clan right now, it was undoubtedly him. Just yesterday, he had not only lost his father, but also his three elder brothers and sisters who had always cherished and doted on him.
Perhaps this father of hers had never dreamed that overnight, the destiny of the entire family would now rest entirely on his shoulders. Which of those older brothers and sisters was not stronger and more exceptional than him? Yet those who should have shouldered this heavy burden had suddenly brought back news of doom.
The sudden, crushing pressure was almost suffocating, transforming this once-idle playboy and forcing him to mature and undergo a metamorphosis in the span of a mere single day. Yet the price of this growth and transformation was chillingly exorbitant.
……
Over the next few days, the entire Xiao Clan busied itself and set into motion regarding the logistics of evacuating the Imperial Capital.
Xiao Yue very much wanted to step forward and help out, but she was only five years old and could do nothing. Being so tiny, she could only stand quietly by the doorway watching the clansmen bustling about. The only thing she could probably do was help look after her two-and-a-half-year-old younger brother.
Her brother was named Xiao Yan. Much like her, unlike the other crying and throwing tantrums among the children in the clan, the brother and sister appeared precocious in the eyes of others. They simply squatted in a corner, silently watching the coming and going of the clansmen, which saved everyone a lot of trouble. The members of the Xiao Clan had long since grown used to this, for this pair of siblings had always been extraordinary ever since they were born...
During these days,
other family factions from the Imperial Capital came one after another to pay their respects, appearing deeply concerned over the death of Old Patriarch Xiao. Their primary motive, however, was naturally to verify whether the rumors were true.
The news turned out to be real, confirmed by numerous family factions throughout the Imperial Capital. The outside world was a hubbub of noise; some gloated, some sympathized, but the vast majority harbored ill intentions...
The once-glorious Xiao estate now saw scarce visitors, its threshold deserted, and the warmth of many people had turned to cold indifference.
With the fall of Old Patriarch Xiao, a period of prosperity had faded away into desolation, leaving behind only the bleakness of autumn. Human relationships could be warm or cold, and the ways of the world were fickle—everything was so realistic. With wolves lurking and tigers watching, they were waiting hungrily and impatiently...