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From the office on the 108th floor, the city sprawled beneath his gaze.

Yang Tianlong turned his back and looked toward the monster-occupied zone to the south, his eyes flickering.

"Yes. He visited Li Xin. It was also the only time he ever entered someone else's home."

"We can stop many things, but not gossip. Li Xin probably learned the true cause of her son's death long ago."

Displeasure showed on Rox's face. "Zhang Yong... how good could the mother of an animal like that possibly be? The only reason she wasn't held jointly responsible was because she was an ordinary person. If she had been a martial artist, her strength would definitely have been crippled!"

"Li Xin's husband, Zhang Yong's father, died at Martial Fortress No. 091 in the former Jiangnan Base City, closer to the sea." Yang Tianlong lit a cigarette and smacked his lips. "The year he died should have been the year of the Dusk District Incident."

"Zhang Yong was raised alone by his mother. The flaws in his character may also have been influenced by Dusk District..."

Rox snorted coldly and retorted, "None of that has anything to do with Chu Wen. Principal Yang, it seems you have the wrong target and have gone off topic."

Yang Tianlong turned slightly sideways, exhaling smoke. "Chu Wen realized that he had acted impulsively. Or rather, he noticed that this mother had lost both her husband and her child."

"Zhang Yong certainly deserved to die, but what about his mother? She was only an ordinary person. How was she supposed to go on living?"

"Who were martial artists fighting to protect? Was it for their own power and to do whatever they pleased? From beginning to end, Li Xin never enjoyed a single benefit. She endured the pain of losing her loved ones, and still had to suffer the scorn of the world. Was that what she deserved?"

"There are quite a few women like Li Xin in this era."

"Of the rebellion cases and martial artists who have fallen into heretical paths that we deal with every year, how many come from family backgrounds like this?"

"This has always been the top priority of moral education. We shout about it every year, yet it happens every year."

"After all these years, the major martial arts families have monopolized resources, while the only way out for those at the bottom is to fight monsters in bloody battle... people's hearts are no longer united."

"If this had happened in the early years, Zhang Yong's case would certainly have been an exceptional one. The entire Alliance would have circulated notices condemning it. But now... it will only leave people frightened and uneasy. How many gray industries have grown from the rot within the Alliance..."

Rox no longer wished to continue the conversation. He pulled up the zipper of his uniform, wrapping it around his neck; only then did he feel somewhat secure. When the conversation ended, he opened the door. Perhaps displeased, he turned back and revealed a cold, stern profile as he spoke calmly.

"Weakness is the original sin."

"If it were me, I would cut the grass and pull out the roots. I, Aytu Rox, would not spare anyone who offended me."

"In this era, a woman's softheartedness will only make her a stepping stone for others."

Zhuge Lin shook his head helplessly and let Rox leave. This young genius of the Aytu Family had always been that kind of person.

Yang Tianlong, meanwhile, plopped down onto the corner of the desk and slapped his thigh. "Chu Wen might be able to help that kid. At the very least, the Aytu Family has always wanted Rox to return."

"If you can untie the knot in Rox's heart, the Aytu Family will help you seize the position of the next envoy."

Zhuge Lin smiled faintly without speaking. Aid from the Aytu Family? It meant little to him. Without sufficient personal strength, he would never be able to take the envoy's seat.

But when he thought of Chu Wen, a man whose loves and hates were clear-cut, and the gifted youth of the Aytu Family who had run away from home because of tangled grudges...

The future was truly hard to say...

After getting into Liu Shouren's car, he returned to streets and alleys that were not quite familiar.

"Brother Wen, if you need anything, just call me. I'll be there whenever you need me."

Liu Shouren had originally wanted to treat Chu Wen to a meal and build some rapport, but he realized that Chu Wen was not in the mood, so he sensibly left.

It was fine if he did not gain favor, but he could not lose favor. That was what it meant to be a social savant.

Chu Wen glanced at the fruit shop beneath the residential complex and seemed to remember something, but after thinking it over, he gave up on it.

Sitting on the subway, he felt the bustle of people around him.

This was a tranquility he had never felt in the wilderness. This was where humans lived, completely different from the bleakness and loneliness of the wild zone.

Here, even he could not escape being squeezed shoulder to shoulder.

Perhaps he had deliberately wanted to ride the subway, to experience the crush of commuters.

Night gradually deepened. Streetlamps lit up one after another, and roadside vendors slowly began setting out their wares. From time to time, he could see candied hawthorn sellers weaving through the streets with payment QR codes hanging from them, chattering children at their sides curiously sizing up passersby as they called out their wares with practiced charm.

"Big brother, want a skewer? It's really tasty!" A little boy ran up and offered him one, while his other red little hand clutched a payment QR code.

Only then did Chu Wen realize that autumn had arrived.

When he had first come, it had been midsummer. One month in the wild zone, and the weather had already turned slightly cool.

But he was a martial artist, so he had not felt much of it. He was still wearing only a shirt. The child seemed to have seen through that, which was why he had approached him. At such a young age, that was truly remarkable.

With a candied hawthorn skewer tucked into his pocket, he swayed along until he stopped before an old residential complex.

This complex was also a temporary resettlement area. It had originally been abandoned, but in order to receive refugees from Jiangnan Base City, it had been reinforced and put back into use.

With every step, the stainless-steel stairway groaned.

Creak—!

Beyond the grating sliding door, three memorial tablets stood neatly arranged.

There was Zhang Yong's memorial portrait, along with those of a woman and an honest-looking man.

One month earlier, under someone's introduction, Chu Wen had come to meet a woman.

The woman spoke as if she were hanging onto her last breath, weak and lifeless.

"My mental state hasn't been very good lately either. I stopped going to my temporary job at the supermarket. Anyway, I'm alone. I can get by however I can. If I muddle through, the days will pass one after another."

"I used to look at people like that and think they really couldn't let go. But now that it's happened to me..."

"That year, my husband died in Jiangnan Base City. Yong was only two."

"My parents were from remarried families. After having me, they each remarried again. I was the most unnecessary one."

"So I didn't want Yong to end up like that too. I never remarried. I only wanted to raise him properly into adulthood."

"But Yong was very determined. Learning martial arts cost money, and the compensation payment was only enough for us to live on. I worked odd jobs at the supermarket during the day, then found a place to set up a stall at night, selling fried skewers. Business was barely passable."

"I really wasn't capable of much. I couldn't afford to support him." Li Xin seemed worried that Chu Wen might misunderstand something and explained, "But Yong was very well-behaved. He knew how to greet customers from a young age, and the customers said he knew how to handle people."

"This was the certificate his martial arts class gave him when he first learned the horse stance."

"That evening, we went to eat KFC fried chicken. I knew he had craved it most when he was little, but unfortunately, I couldn't even fulfill such a small wish for him."

"Tell me, if his father hadn't left, would the ending have been different... Why did he become like this..."

"I want to go south of Jiangnan, to the True Jiangnan Grandma used to talk about." A trace of longing appeared on the woman's face. "That fool always said that if he died, he wanted to be buried there. I want to be buried with him too."

"I'm really stupid. Why am I telling you all this?"

The day after Chu Wen met her, the woman died. She had rammed her head into a wall and killed herself.

That meeting had been like a dream. He did not know whether he had been too impulsive, nor did he understand Principal Yang's intentions.

A woman tormented by war should have been able to see her son one last time...

Under the moonlight, a sweep of golden hair flashed at the entrance to the stairwell, looking coldly at Chu Wen.

Rox stood beneath the moonlight as shadows of trees swayed around him.

Rox looked at Chu Wen, unable to calm the turmoil in his heart. Or rather, he simply could not understand.

What kind of person would sit there looking at the memorial tablets of his enemies...

Rox turned and left, vanishing silently into the darkness just as he had come.

Chu Wen did not sense Rox's presence. He merely walked toward the streets and alleys.

Steaming boiled snacks, roadside peddlers calling out their wares—everything seemed to have fallen silent in his world.

Among the pedestrians passing along the roadside, several children bounced about beside their parents. The moment they reached a stall covered in toys, they could no longer move on.

"Mom, I want this."

"Mom, I can't walk anymore..."

"What are you buying for? There's already a whole pile of toys at home."

"You've bought who knows how many packs of these cards. They're ten yuan a pack, and your mother only makes twenty yuan an hour."

"Then one hour can buy two packs! I want them!"

After winding around and around, he returned to the old street. The scene from a month ago emerged before him once more.

The old buildings creaked and groaned. People heading to the night shift slammed their doors shut, their cheap leather briefcases rubbing against their coats with displeased sounds.

Not a single relative had come.

Only Chen Dai knelt inside the room and kowtowed three times.

Chu Wen stood outside the door for a moment before turning away. He did not step inside.

That sickly murmur echoed in his ears.

"Only south of Jiangnan is the True Jiangnan."