The Primordial World’s Storyteller: Humanity Rules the Heavens
By Zhuimeng Zhi Meng
Prologue
Summer, 2024.
The lights at the Binhai City Legal Aid Center still shone late into the night in the office tower.
Lin Yan rubbed his aching temples, his fingertips moving over the keyboard. The dense legal statutes and case files on the screen left him feeling dazed. Outside the window stretched the glittering city at night, its neon lights flashing as traffic streamed by. It was a world full of order and hope, one he had devoted his life to protecting.
As a public-interest lawyer, he seemed destined to race against time. He fought for the rights of the vulnerable, campaigned on behalf of struggling families, and spoke out against injustice. A thick stack of certificates of merit sat in his desk drawer, recognition of his work and proof of how much he had pushed himself beyond his limits.
Lately, his persistent low-grade fever and violent coughing fits had become more frequent. He had always assumed it was exhaustion and that he could just tough it out. Then, that afternoon, the hospital’s diagnosis landed like a boulder, crushing all his hopes that it might be something else: late-stage lung cancer, with multiple metastases.
The doctor’s words still echoed in his ears: “Lawyer Lin, your immune system has collapsed from overwork... You have three months at most.”
Three months.
Lin Yan gave a bitter smile and reached for the water glass on his desk, only to find it empty. He stood, his steps unsteady, and glanced at the slogan on the wall: “Wield the law as a sword to defend fairness and justice.”
