Twilight Blessing

The Bishop's kneeling left the tens of thousands of laborers feeling conflicted and uneasy.

They were filled with gratitude toward the old man. He was Bishop Twilight, a great figure who could have been chosen as a senior councilor, yet he had put down roots in Yuguang and devoted nearly half his life to the laborers.

Now he was kneeling with his aged body, and no one felt worthy of receiving such a gesture.

Like a dark tide, the laborers in the cemetery behind the mountain—who had been furious and demanding an explanation—knelt along with him. They all felt unworthy of standing before the old man as he knelt.

Behind The Bishop, a priest wore an expression of guilt and grief. He hurried forward to help him up, but the old man stopped him with a withered hand.

His voice was not loud, yet in the quiet night, most of those present could hear him clearly.

"The theft of the remains from the cemetery is the Church's responsibility, and mine as well. I promise to investigate this matter as quickly as possible and give everyone an explanation. Whoever committed this crime, I will hand them over to the public for judgment!"

The Bishop's promise carried great weight with the laborers.

His word alone was enough to send them on their way. The church grounds behind the mountain, which had been packed with people, emptied out again. Only Twilight's clergy, the Labor Union, and the Police Department officers led by Tian Yuan remained.

With the union chairman and Tian Yuan supporting him, The Bishop's hunched body rose, and he settled back into his wheelchair.

He looked utterly exhausted. Leaning against the back of the chair, he lifted his cloudy eyes to Tian Yuan.

"Chief Tian Yuan..."

Tian Yuan could throw his weight around in front of Feng Yanyi and put on airs before Li Ming, but he dared not act important in front of The Bishop.

He bowed low, his tone more respectful than ever before.

"I'm here, Bishop."

"Can I trust you to handle the cemetery case?"

Tian Yuan had already been driven to distraction by the lack of progress on Feng Zi's case. He had no way to come up with an explanation before the Council's seven-day deadline. Yet now, he dared not hesitate or refuse.

He stood at attention, bowed solemnly to The Bishop, and promised,

"I'll get to the bottom of this. Please leave it to me!"

"Good. The public needs an explanation, and the laborers need something to believe in so they can carry on."

The Bishop sighed and shook his head. He signaled to the nanny behind him to wheel him away from the cemetery.

After he left, Tian Yuan stopped hiding his utterly grim expression.

Almost everything was weighing on him: Feng Zi's escape, a case the entire Council was watching; the massacre that had terrified Yuguang's laborers; and now the Empty Grave Case, which was enough to shake all of Sun City!

He could not afford to delay any of the cases except the massacre. The Council was his superior, and The Bishop was a powerful figure he could not afford to offend.

Tian Yuan roared, sounding almost as if he had given up.

"Investigate! All of you, get to it! Find out when the graves were emptied! Check everyone who's had anything to do with the cemetery over the years!"

Li Wei stood behind the crowd, watching the whole scene with cold detachment.

Feng Zi stood beside him, clutching his sleeve, her pale face full of worry.

"Why would anyone steal so many bodies?"

"Let's focus on how to deal with our own problems first," Li Wei said quietly.

Feng Zi turned to him, her face tense.

"What problems do we have right now? Did an officer spot us?"

Li Wei glanced around, then asked a seemingly unrelated question.

"Did you see Nanny Cheng this afternoon?"

Feng Zi shook her head.

"No. It seemed like she went off to take care of something after lunch."

They did not see Nanny Cheng again until the following morning.

Because of the Empty Grave Case, the police began questioning the church's clergy one by one. As a result, training for the Choir was suspended for another day.

That same day, Nanny Cheng reappeared and held the Choir's first round of selections, even though it already had more members than needed.

Two children who struggled to recite the Gospel Book because they could not read well were cut. This made the Choir, which had been in a fairly lighthearted mood, grow tense.

Where there was selection, there would be competition. And where there was competition, people's relationships could no longer remain so innocent.

After the selection, Nanny Cheng also called five children aside for private conversations.

Li Wei and Feng Zi were among them.

They were led into a room. The other three children looked uneasy. Two people had just been cut, and now the five of them had been summoned separately. It was easy to imagine something bad.

Li Wei and Feng Zi exchanged a glance. Feng Zi looked just as uneasy. She thought this was the trouble Li Wei had said they would face the day before.

But Li Wei knew that it probably was not that simple.

After closing the door, Nanny Cheng's sharp eyes—ones people normally did not dare meet—held a strange tension and urgency.

"You five have been the best-performing children over the past three days, so the Church will give you an extra reward. Tomorrow, there'll be a Twilight Blessing that only clergy can attend. You can come along too."

The worry vanished from the three children's faces. Even Feng Zi relaxed.

Nanny Cheng had brought all five of them to this small room just to tell them this one thing. Afterward, she let them go.

On the way back, Li Wei asked Feng Zi thoughtfully,

"Are there scientists in the Twilight Church too?"

This should have been common knowledge, but Feng Zi did not find it strange coming from Li Wei. He had been confined for seventeen years, so it was only natural he did not know.

"Of course. Twilight was founded by a great neurobiologist. Almost every priest is a doctor, and the Church's senior bishops hold honorary positions at the Central Biology Institute. The bishop of the Sun Branch District does too. He worked at the Central Biology Institute when he was young."

Feng Zi also explained the Twilight Blessing to Li Wei.

"Besides the biologists, the Twilight Church has gathered almost all the underground cities' top biology talent. They're very experienced in treating bacterial diseases, improving people's physical constitutions, and extending lifespans. That's why the Twilight Blessing is so popular among the rich, though the Archbishop's blessing usually isn't something money can buy."

"The blessing the Church invited us to attend tomorrow should just be a small one hosted by a senior priest. Even so, it's a rare stroke of good fortune for ordinary people."