Grandma Pearl's almost delirious words—"The world will be destroyed tomorrow"—were like a tiny pebble tossed into stagnant water, stirring a faint ripple in Yu Xing's heart.
Strange.
Although panic was widespread among the townspeople, unless the cultists had deliberately spread the news to certain people, telling them what might happen if tomorrow's ritual succeeded, the townspeople wouldn't pin the disaster to "tomorrow." They would only assume that life would keep getting worse over the next month or two.
But... Grandma Pearl seemed to know.
Where had she heard about it?
Yu Xing sensed no trace of a cultist about Grandma Pearl, so there was probably something strange about the "dream" she mentioned.
This anomaly stirred a faint curiosity in Yu Xing.
He turned his head, his gaze falling on Grandma Pearl's face, etched with fear and unease.
Yu Xing showed no sympathy. Even the curve of his smiling lips remained unchanged. Yet the unusually steady aura around him, as though he were cut off from the despair surrounding them, spread over her without a sound.
"A dream?" he asked. His voice wasn't especially gentle, but it held a strange, steady strength that pierced through Grandma Pearl's quiet sobbing. "What did you dream about that made you so upset?"
There was no unnecessary consolation, no attempt to empathize—just a calm, factual question. And yet, it was precisely this composure beyond all reason that acted like a paperweight, temporarily pressing down Grandma Pearl's emotions as they teetered on the brink of collapse.
Grandma Pearl lifted her tear-filled eyes and looked at Yu Xing's deep blue eyes, so still they showed no ripples.
She saw neither panic nor false reassurance in them. Strangely, that gave her chaotic thoughts a point to cling to.
She sniffled, trembling as though trying to seize this one