Night Journey

Chapter 133 A Wonderful Day

“It’s raining so hard…”

Cillian opened the balcony door, revealing a layer of water that had accumulated on the balcony floor, filled with rotting leaves.

"Luckily you came back early last night. If you had been just a few minutes later, you would have been soaked to the bone."

Bruce came over and sighed in agreement.

The torrential rain, like an enraged beast, finally exhausted its strength and disappeared into the clouds, dragging its wet tail behind it.
Hull City didn't get a moment's respite. All kinds of automated factories continued to operate, chimneys continued to spew out coal smoke, and streets and alleys were filled with murky rainwater, which gathered into small puddles on the uneven road surface, reflecting the distorted outlines of the buildings above and the ever-present haze in the sky.

Cillian sighed and began tidying up the messy balcony.

After sweeping away the puddles, cleaning up the fallen leaves, and putting them in a garbage bag, he jumped off the balcony and threw the garbage into the trash can.

Objects thrown from a high-rise building?

Cillian may be a psychopathic killer, but he is definitely not a low-class resident.

"Oh? Good morning, Cillian."

"Do you really dislike taking the stairs?"

"Superhumans have great physical abilities."

The voices of the neighbors could be heard around them; they were already used to Cillian's quick way of going downstairs.

"Good morning, everyone."

Cillian stood at the bottom of the building, smiling at his neighbors.

As soon as it was light, everyone, like Cillian, began to clean up the mess left by the torrential rain.

"Could you answer this for me, Cillian?"

Some neighbors, like Cillian, were too lazy to climb the stairs and simply threw wrapped garbage bags at him.

"it is good!"

Cillian caught the garbage bag that fell from the sky and tossed it into the trash can.

Soon, the other neighbors followed suit, and in no time, they had cleaned their balconies.

Some people thanked Cillian, some invited her to dinner, and others asked her to use her super smart dog to fetch a basket of fruit from her house as a token of gratitude.

Cillian responded to each of their responses, and then politely declined each one.

Her warm and cheerful smile made several older women regret not having a daughter, so they introduced her to Xilian's family.

so.

Cillian is very popular among the apartment residents.

At such a young age, he became a torchbearer and an employee of the city's garrison. Apart from the fact that his job was somewhat dangerous, his qualifications made him an absolute shoo-in in the marriage market of Hel City.

Not to mention that after spending some time with him, the neighbors also discovered that Cillian was of very good character.

They don't act superior because of their superhuman status; they are never stingy in helping anyone in need.

After some effort, Hillian's neighborly relations became extremely harmonious. During holidays, they would visit each other and often receive desserts and fruits from their neighbors.

Cillian returned home, his smile fading, and he let out a long, weary sigh.

"You're really putting on a good citizen act."

Bruce joked, "If they knew what you did, they'd probably be so scared they'd move out that very day."

"how could be?"

Cillian countered, "Maybe they'll think I'm a very reliable neighbor, that as long as I'm here, even if the high walls collapse, Chaos won't invade the apartment."

"as well as……"

Cillian then added, "I'm not pretending; I'm just a genuine, kind-hearted, good citizen."

"what?"

Bruce wouldn't believe his nonsense.

"It's so humid, I feel all sticky..."

Cillian grumbled as he went into the bathroom, turned on the tap, and the sound of running water filled the air.

"One day... oh, one day..."

Bruce hummed a strange little tune, nestled on the sofa, and used his energy to control a pair of mechanical prosthetic arms to turn the pages of a book.

As a canine, Bruce's restricted forelegs caused him considerable trouble in life, so he simply built himself a pair of prosthetic arms.

It is indeed very convenient to use.

A few minutes later, Cillian washed off the stickiness from his body and came out wrapped in a bath towel.

As he walked, he looked back at the bathroom with suspicion, touched his body from head to toe, and tasted the water stains left on his fingertips.

Bruce asked without looking up.

"what happened?"

"I think there's something wrong with the water quality today..."

"It tastes weird?"

"Not really, it's just... a strange, instinctive feeling, you know?"

"probably."

Cillian leaned over the water valve, puzzled, and asked, "Which river do you think supplies us with water? It's not the Flower River, is it?"

"You suspect you're drinking corpse water? Well, you deserve it."

After making a couple of sarcastic remarks, Bruce became serious. "Didn't the city hall say the water quality is clean? Besides, if there's a problem, don't we still have the water gate system from the spirit craftsmen?"

The water gate system not only controls the city's waterways, but it can be said that in Hull, it is fully responsible for everything related to the river.

"A water gate system?"

Cillian kept repeating the word. In the days following the attack by the Reverse Falcon, Cillian did not waste time, but secretly began investigating the rivers of Hel City.

Cillian still remembered that rumor.

However, inspecting the river step by step was too troublesome, so Ciri turned his attention to the water gate system.

At first, Cillian had a headache for a while. The City Guard Bureau and the Water Gate System were two separate departments. He thought that if he walked in casually to check the data related to the river, he would definitely be kicked out by the spirit craftsmen.

Just then, Dalin's connections in Hel City, built up over many years, came in handy. After a few drinks one midnight, the two of them managed to extract the necessary information from the drunken spirit craftsman.

everything is normal.

That's the conclusion.

Cillian was still not entirely at ease, so he got several more spirit craftsmen drunk one by one. Only after confirming that everyone's conclusions were roughly the same did he feel much more at ease.

And, Dai Lin has a really high alcohol tolerance.

"However, Cillian..."

Bruce's words brought Cillian's attention back to reality.

"This is really a nice morning."

This was the first time in Bruce's life that he had experienced such a downpour and glimpsed such a sky.

The sky was a pure cornflower blue, with wisps of thin clouds torn into wisps by the wind.

Above the crystal-clear dome, a dark gray arc of light stretched across the sky—the star ring was so low it seemed you could reach out and touch it, its inner edge gleaming with a faint metallic sheen, while its outer edge was blurred into a hazy grayish-brown due to the diffuse reflection of rock fragments.

The star ring is not dazzling; it is more like a crack in the sky cleaved by some great force. Its sparse structure allows the light from behind to penetrate, forming tiny spots of light on the inner side of the ring, like shattered stars.

The man and the dog gazed at each other and chatted.

"Bruce, where do you think these star rings came from?"

"According to astronomy, when a satellite breaks apart due to tidal forces, impact events, or the collapse of its internal structure, its fragments will orbit the planet and gradually form a ring structure."

"So, in other words, our satellite has collapsed for some reason?"

"Isn't this obvious? Haven't you ever looked at two moons at night?"

Bruce continued, "You can see with the naked eye that a piece of Cold Moon is broken off. Perhaps the current Star Ring was formed from the fragments of Cold Moon's collapse."

In Ciri's memories of his past life, there was only a single, bright moon in the night sky; in the world now, two moons hang high at the end of the night.

One round was crimson, the other pale and cold.

The civilized world has no specific name for them; it simply refers to the former as the Red Moon and the latter as the Cold Moon, based on people's habits.

Aside from color, the most noticeable difference between the two moons is that the cold moon has a shattered corner, suspending countless rock fragments that drift freely in the vacuum.

"Then... why did Leng Yue shatter?"

The moment Cillian uttered the question, a chill ran through his body for no apparent reason.

Such a conspicuous anomaly, hanging high in the sky, why have I never thought of it in this direction?

Before Cillian could continue thinking, a series of urgent knocks sounded at the door.

"Who?"

Cillian impatiently pushed open the door, and a burst of vibrant colors came into view.

Good morning, Cillian.

It was still that energetic voice and that energetic laugh, and that same bright red and white dress.

Mefuni stood behind the door with a grin, and seeing Cillian in a daze, she poked her head in to try and squeeze in.

"How did you come?"

Cillian asked in confusion, "Didn't we agree to meet tomorrow?"

Thanks to her excellent performance in playing with him, such as being hardworking and considerate, Meifuni reluctantly agreed not to take up Cillian's entire weekend and instead gave him one day to rest.

"Oh, I'm going that way anyway."

Mefuni reached to the side and pulled hard, dragging Elton out.

"He's the one who came to see you."

Upon seeing Elton, Cillian became increasingly confused.

Elton wasn't good at pleasantries and got straight to the point.

"Cillian, there's a party tonight, are you coming?"

"A gathering of the Reverse Falcon?"

"It could be considered somewhat related to the reverse falcon..."

Elton thought for a moment and explained, “I have a couple of listeners who recently encountered the Reverse Falcon and he wants to share the experience with everyone… I think you would be interested.”

"Um……"

Cillian hesitated for a moment before replying.

"Okay! When do we start?"

“It happened this afternoon,” Elton said apologetically. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you beforehand. Actually, I only found out last night.”

Elton, sounding somewhat unsure, further explained, "Mainly because the organizers of this gathering are that audience couple. I've asked them, and they'd love for more people to join in. Besides us, I also invited Dalene and the others, and that's why Mefuni is here too..."

"OK OK."

Cillian interrupted Elton, grabbed his shoulder, and forced him to straighten his chest and lift his head.

"One statement is enough. Continuing to explain endlessly will only make people think you're easy to bully."

"Oh... okay, okay!"

Elton straightened up and smiled.

(End of this chapter)