Chapter 95

January 21, 2074, morning. Night City still wore a gloomy face.

Last night's rain had left in a hurry, accidentally dropping a small corner of its ink-black skirt hem in the sky.

Some woke early, rushing to dress and hurry to their workstations; others rose late, leisurely enjoying the careful care of their servants.

Some leaned by the window, smoking one cigarette after another, awake all night.

Some fell asleep and never woke again.

"Good morning, Lucy." The rustling behind him did not disturb Yahweh's ongoing motion.

"Good morning…" Lucy opened the sealed window, stretched lazily toward the gray outside.

"Where's Heda?" he asked softly, cracking an egg into a bowl.

"Still sleeping like a pig…" Lucy rubbed her aching arm, "She clung to me all night like an octopus."

"A novel experience, isn't it?" Yahweh smiled faintly, pouring a bit of pre-boiled warm water into the pot.

Lucy smiled, saying nothing.

"What are you making?" She tiptoed back, peering curiously at the eggs in the bowl and the warm water in the pot.

"Steamed egg custard…" Yahweh turned, handing her a pair of wooden chopsticks, "Can you beat eggs? Add warm water while stirring evenly…"

"Should I add salt?" Lucy took the chopsticks, asking with practiced ease.

"You cook for yourself often?" Yahweh raised an eyebrow, placing the salt jar before her.

"When I'm hungry, I snack while reading cooking magazines—it makes the taste in my mouth feel much richer."

"Heda used to be the same…" He sighed softly, taking the well-beaten eggs from Lucy.

"What did I used to do?" Heda suddenly popped up behind Yahweh, though she failed to startle him.

Yahweh opened his mouth, then simply lowered his head and kissed the face that had come too close to interfere.

◎

"Mom? Why are you up so late today?" David, half-asleep, brushed his teeth as he walked from the bathroom to the living room closet to change clothes, only to spot Gloria still at home.

"Isn't today parent-teacher conference day?" Gloria smiled, stepping toward her still-dazed son and gently wiping the foam from his lips.

"What about work?"

"Our team has the day off—they're attending a colleague's funeral…"

"But?"

"But I asked Sister Heda and Yahweh to go with me…" Gloria scratched her red hair, speaking shyly.

"You've got guts…" David sneered, "Having a funeral before the New Year—it's bad luck."

"Oh!" Gloria slapped her forehead in dismay, "I forgot about that."

"Though they probably don't care about such trivial superstitions anyway…"

"So you're teasing me?" Gloria finally realized, grabbing David's cheeks and tugging them gently left and right.

"Smile more, Mom." David squinted, wrapping his arms around her much-thinner frame.

"Brat…" Gloria grunted, ruffling his standing hair hard.

"I'm off to school. Call me when the parent meeting starts—I'll come pick you up."

"Okay…"

While she was lost in thought, David quietly closed the door and left for school.

Long after, Gloria came back to herself.

Looking at the closed door before her, she shook her head and hurried to the window.

Stretching her neck, she pressed her face tightly against the cold glass—only catching a blurred, tiny back figure hurrying swiftly, vanishing in an instant amid the bustling crowd.

"Grown up already… brat."

Gloria tilted her head, gazing at the gray, overcast sky.

It did not rain today.

Yet drops fell.

◎

"Wow, delicious!" Heda, wearing pure white cotton socks, closed her eyes and propped her feet on her boyfriend's lap.

"New recipe, right? Tastes good?" Yahweh lowered his head, spooning a small portion of warm, tender egg custard into his mouth, "Thanks to Lucy—the eggs were beaten just right."

"Mm." Lucy scooped a spoonful and gently blew on it.

The tiny spoonful of egg danced lightly in the air current.

Like jelly—bouncy and tender.

"If we could always eat like this…" Heda took another sip of the egg custard with scallions, mumbling indistinctly.

"Then I'd be your servant, huh? Dreaming too big…" Lucy shook her head, suppressing the faint sense of accomplishment and swallowing the bouncy egg in one bite.

"Hehe…" Heda rubbed her silver hair, grinning sheepishly as she buried her face in the bowl.

"Oh, by the way—we're replacing Gloria at the colleague's funeral this afternoon…"

"Do I have to go too?" Lucy asked, catching Heda's pitiful gaze out of the corner of her eye—she couldn't bring herself to refuse.

"Just so you know, I don't own any clothes suitable for a funeral…" She sighed, reluctantly accepting.

"Yay! Let's go shopping for clothes right away!" Heda's plan succeeded, her face lighting up with an uncontainable, radiant smile.

"I don't care…" Yahweh murmured, lifting the bowl and draining the egg custard completely.

"By the way, do we know whose funeral this is? Not one of those Corpo 'funerals'—just a formality?"

"Unfortunately, it's probably one of those 'funerals'." Heda sighed.

"With all this time, you'd be better off collecting the bodies of those poor souls who died on the streets, unclaimed." Lucy raised an eyebrow, "Corpo management dogs always have so much nonsense…"

"They say many people were invited—it's quite a grand affair. Gloria just got promoted and received the invitation…"

"Usually in situations like this, either a senior Company executive has died and they've gathered people to create an atmosphere of mourning, or someone perished in the line of duty and the Company staged this to soothe public sentiment..." Lucy said contemptuously; she knew all too well the Company's rotten rules and regulations. "Those who truly wish to pay their respects are instead blocked from entering..."

"Sigh..." Xida let out a breath. "Hypocrisy taken to the extreme..."

"They might even erect a stele or build a statue and the like... New America has always been this way; even though Night City is now independent, it cannot shake the stench ingrained in its bones." As Lucy spoke, she swallowed the last spoonful of steamed egg from the bottom of her bowl and exhaled a long, warm breath.