Chapter 167 Chasing the Aurora
"Hello." Chen Ling said in a strange tone, "Have we met somewhere before?"
Chen Ling now has completely changed her appearance, so there is no reason to reveal her identity in front of Xi Renjie. In desperation, she had to choose such an old-fashioned and easy-to-use excuse.
Xi Renjie stared at the face blankly, and after a moment, he suddenly laughed. On the face full of frost and mud, two rows of neat white teeth were revealed.
"I have seen you! We have looked for Aurora City together!"
Chen Ling was stunned. He looked at Xi Renjie's exaggerated smile and suddenly felt something was wrong... But he still followed the words and asked:
"When? Are you okay?"
"Have you found Aurora City?" Xi Renjie asked back.
"This is Aurora City."
"Oh..."
Xi Renjie thought for a while, lowered his head and lay on the ground to observe carefully. He was carefully looking at every gap in the floor tiles around him, the weeds growing on the wall, and the puddles with hair and mud floating... He seemed to be looking for something.
"What are you looking for?" Chen Ling asked.
"I'm looking for Aurora City... I'm almost there!"
"This is Aurora City." Chen Ling repeated. He looked at Xi Renjie's strange behavior, and an idea suddenly came into his mind, "You..."
"I'm almost there... I'm sure I'll find it!!"
Xi Renjie held a bulging cloth bag in his arms, stumbled up and walked onto the street, his eyes flashing with hope and sweeping around, that was a desire that Chen Ling had never seen before.
Xi Renjie's pupils reflected the dim sunset and the kites still flying in the sunset. He kept grabbing in the air with both hands, as if he wanted to grab those kites in his hands.
"There are kites in Aurora City... I have kites too! Following the kites... I'm sure I can go to Aurora City!!"
"I'm almost there..."
"I'm almost there!!"
He reached into the cloth bag in his arms, took out a handful of golden coins, and threw them into the sky!
The gold coins flipped in the air, like golden kites flying all over the sky, soaring straight into the sky under the setting sun, but finally falling to the ground powerlessly... The jingling sound echoed in the street, and the passers-by were stunned.
Xi Renjie's face was full of excitement and madness. He took out gold coins one after another and threw them into the sky like a demented madman.
"Look! This is the kite they gave me!! Follow the kite... I will definitely reach Aurora City!!!"
The pedestrians on the street were all staring, they put down everything they were doing, and rushed here in a swarm. They rushed to follow Xi Renjie, scrambling for the gold coins on the ground, their faces full of ecstasy.
"Gold coins?! So many gold coins!!"
"Is this guy crazy? He doesn't want any more gold coins?"
"I've made a fortune! I've made a fortune!! So much money! Enough for our family to live for a long time!!"
"Don't grab them! These are all mine! All mine!!"
"..."
Xi Renjie emptied out the last handful of gold coins and waved them towards the sky. Brilliant golden rain fell from the sky, and his laughter resounded through the streets.
Countless residents of Aurora City bent down to pick up the money behind him, their eyebrows and eyes curved into crescents. No one cared where the madman who scattered the money came from. Even the children were lying on the ground picking them up one by one. They knew that even if they picked up only one, they would be able to buy ten or a hundred new kites.
Chen Ling stared at this scene in a daze, but did not step forward... His eyes were full of complexity.
"This guy is really interesting." Bai Ye raised his eyebrows and said, "He is clearly in Aurora City, but he is still looking for Aurora City?"
Chen Ling shook his head:
"No... He has never arrived in Aurora City."
The ragged figure staggered out from the crowd of people bending over, and his silhouette disappeared little by little at the end of the street as the sun set in the west.
Chen Ling knew that from now on, there would be no more law enforcement officer Xi Renjie in the world... There would be one more madman in Aurora City who was desperately looking for Aurora City.
"... Let's go."
On the noisy and chaotic street, Chen Ling retracted his gaze, pushed the half-frame glasses on his nose, and calmly walked to the east of the road... That was the opposite direction of Xi Renjie.
Since he let Xi Renjie leave outside the city, his fate has nothing to do with him. Even if he witnessed Xi Renjie's end, it did not affect him, because that would not be the end of Chen Ling;
The kites in Aurora City will always survive the cold winter, and the sun that sets in the west will eventually rise from the east.
...
Enforcer headquarters.
Bright lights tore through the night, and a steam car drove through the dim streets and slowly stopped at the door of the headquarters.
Chu Shiduo, who had been waiting at the door for a long time, immediately stepped forward and opened the door of the back seat... [Tan Xin] got out of the car, his black coat fluttering in the night, and walked straight into the headquarters.
"Teacher, you came back so quickly this time?" Chu Shiduo immediately followed, "How is Aurora? Is he feeling better?"
[Tan Xin] did not answer, but walked calmly towards his office. All the law enforcers and law enforcement officers who passed by stopped and saluted when they saw this figure, but he seemed not to see it.
Pushing open the door of the office with black leather gloves, [Tan Xin] casually hung his coat on the hanger in the corner. Chu Shiduo keenly sensed that the teacher seemed to be in a bad mood, and stood quietly in front of the table, waiting for the other party to speak first.
Finally, [Tan Xin] turned on the desk lamp and spoke slowly:
"How is the matter at the southwest gate?"
"It has been settled." Chu Shiduo seemed to have guessed that he would ask, and picked up a document from his hand and handed it over, "That Chen Ling is a member of the Dusk Society, the card face [Heart 6]. After sending everyone into the city, he burned himself on the front of the train... Everyone saw him turn into ashes with their own eyes, and it can be confirmed that he is dead.
However, after Chen Ling self-immolated, public opinion has begun to lean towards him... Many residents believe that Chen Ling cannot be considered a heretic. Under the promotion of some people with ulterior motives, the image of our law enforcement officers is also being constantly smeared..."
[Tan Xin] waved his hand, "I said, how the public views us is not important... especially now."
Chu Shiduo opened his mouth as if to refute, but in the end he did not speak.
"But... this Chen Ling went to such great lengths to enter Aurora City, just to self-immolate?"
Chu Shiduo hesitated for a moment, and then said: "He... he also said something before he self-immolated... one was to express contempt for the bottom management of law enforcement officers, and the other... was a 'warning'."
"What 'warning'?"
"He said... the cold wind from the frozen sea has already blown to Aurora City, and the destruction of the seven districts is not the end of the story... perhaps, it is just the beginning." Chu Shiduo repeated Chen Ling's words without changing a word.
Hearing this, [Tan Xin] narrowed his eyes slightly, and he was silent on the table for a long time, and chuckled,
"As expected of a member of the Dusk Society... this Chen Ling is not simple."
As he spoke, he picked up a long and narrow black box, and as he turned the knob on the edge of the box, glowing "8"s lit up one by one from the box, like some kind of digital clock.
Under the debugging of [Tan Xin], the numbers in the box changed continuously, and finally stopped at a string of numbers, and then began to jump automatically,
[93:03:39]
[93:03:38]
[93:03:37]
[93:03:36]...
"93 days, 3 hours, and 36 seconds... Teacher, what does this mean?" Chu Shiduo asked puzzledly.
Tan Xin put the box back on the table, and the flickering digital glow illuminated his face... After a moment, he slowly spoke,
"This is the remaining life of Aurora City."