The small fishing village looked exactly the same as it had in Wang Chen's memories—humble wooden shacks, weathered rooftops, and narrow dirt paths leading toward the endless stretch of ocean. Yet today, the air felt heavier… as though an invisible shadow loomed over the entire settlement.
Everywhere Lin Huang looked, people were clutching their belongings tightly against their chests. Mothers gripped their children's hands with white-knuckled desperation, eyes wide with fear as they stared toward the horizon—toward whatever direction they hoped salvation would come from.
Hundreds of faces.
Hundreds of emotions—terror, confusion, denial, desperation.
Lin Huang scanned all of them one by one.
"Cowards," he muttered silently. "All of them are cowards."
