Final Day (I)

"Still haven't found it? It's been over half a month."

Yang Li narrowed his eyes and glared coldly at Lin Tong beside him. Unable to restrain his anger any longer, countless scraps of paper whirled through the air, shredding everything around them.

"This is all your doing." Yang Li looked at Lin Tong and said coldly, "If you hadn't let Lin Fan escape, all three candles might have been contained by now. We wouldn't be in this mess."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I was wrong." Lin Tong shook his head. "Under those circumstances, saving people should still have been the priority. We shouldn't have made others pay the price."

"And now even more people will pay for your stupidity." Yang Li said bitterly, disappointed by his failure to live up to expectations. "You need to understand that reality isn't a novel. There can't be so many situations where everyone wins. Sometimes, we have to learn to choose."

"So I chose to save people," Lin Tong said stubbornly.

"One week from now, that act of yours will cause even more people to die." Yang Li narrowed his eyes. "Dismissed. Keep searching. It would be best if you find the candles and stop those damned things from descending."

Watching Lin Tong's departing back, Yang Li shook his head. Lin Tong was excellent in every respect—scheming, methods, conviction—but he still clung to idealism. He believed too much in the world's beauty and insisted on things that should not be insisted upon.

For someone like him, the Countermeasure Bureau was not a good place. Although it maintained the stability of the entire Great Yue Kingdom and prevented it from being plagued by those indescribable things, the Bureau itself did not wholly embody truth, goodness, and beauty. It ran even further contrary to