Chapter 284

It was seven or eight in the evening—the time when the day should have transitioned into the start of the city’s nightlife—but today’s weather cast a gloomy pall over everything. Even though the winding streetlights had flickered to life, illuminating the dark veil of night, they could not dispel the stifling melancholy that hung in the air. On any other night, the stars would have been joyfully blinking, watching the myriad lives of the city dwellers. If not the stars, then surely the moon would be hanging high above the treetops, coolly radiating a silvery glow, adding a touch of noble, icy elegance to the city under the night sky. But tonight, the sky above the city was empty of both the smiling, twinkling stars and the noble, silvery moonlight. Instead, heavy, oppressive haze blanketed the clouds. Even if one squinted and looked up carefully, the thickness of the black clouds smothering the sky was impenetrable. The sight was suffocating, a dense blackness that always seemed to make people feel inexplicably restless and agitated.