“An information broker from the Puzzle Intelligence Agency? I only ever paid him for information. We didn’t have much contact beyond that. Though I have suspected he might have the ability to foresee the future…”
As Jing Pei spoke to the person on the other end of the line, she typed on the laptop resting on her legs.
On the email page, Mr. Bentley of the Trident Mercenary Corps was waiting for the date of his meeting with the information broker.
Perhaps because the information broker had not replied in time, and because she had actually predicted the earthquake three days in advance, making her seem even more mysterious and powerful, Bentley felt somewhat guilty. So he specifically added:
[Mei Yanlan’s fatal weakness isn’t hard to find. As long as you don’t fall for the blind spot under your own lamp and turn your attention to Xiao Cheng, it’s easy to discover, because his phone number was used to make two obstetrics appointments at an Atavist hospital, and because his phone number was used to make two obstetrics appointments at an Atavist hospital, and he even went out of his way to use the alias “Xiao Mei.”]
Of course, saying it afterward made it sound simple. It was like cooking rice. The secret to making rice taste better was just adding a little oil while steaming it. But if the cook did not point it out, you could research for months and still might not discover the trick yourself.
His explanation was meant to lay the groundwork for the illegal Atavist Genetics Organization’s move against Xiao Cheng. See, as long as one broke through the fog of that “blind spot under the lamp,” it would not be hard to find out. So it was perfectly normal that the organization happened to discover it during this period and acted against Xiao Cheng. It definitely did not mean he had colluded with them, nor that he might be planning to harm her.
The corners of Jing Pei’s lips lifted slightly. She replied:
[You’ve passed the test. You are indeed the talent I need. I look forward to the day we meet.]
Inside the sweltering hotel room, Bentley let out a breath of relief. He immediately contacted Miss Hong and informed her of the agreed meeting time with the information broker, telling her to prepare to capture the person.
The next day.
The attention on the Mingbo City earthquake had not died down. To support Mingbo City’s reconstruction, many celebrities and companies began making donations, so the trending searches were filled with related topics.
The entire nation was watching Mingbo City and the information broker behind the incident.
Everyone except the Atavist families.
Early in the morning, Jing Pei was woken by a call from the Feng Family Head. Hearing that he wanted to hold a meeting, she looked at the wall clock with a dark expression.
Five in the morning.
She hung up, silenced her phone, and went back to sleep.
By the time she woke up, the sun was already high in the sky.
After washing up, Jing Pei went out for breakfast. Long Yiming was reading the newspaper. He glanced at her, shook out the paper, and said, “The Feng family said to call back once you’re awake.”
“Oh.” Jing Pei took her time, eating while making the call.
Long Yiming was already used to Jing Pei’s “arrogance,” and had even been thoroughly influenced by it. That was why, when those family heads called and asked him to wake Jing Pei, he could tell them to wait instead of immediately going to rouse her from bed.
The phone only rang once before it was picked up. The Feng Family Head’s voice sounded suffocated with grievance. “Young Heir Long, this is a matter of great importance. At your age, how can you still sleep?”
“At my age, my sleep quality is at its best. Of course I can sleep.” Jing Pei sucked the soup from a xiaolongbao. “Besides, I’m still a child. If you have urgent business, you can start the meeting yourselves, like you used to.”
Like they used to.
Meaning, without involving the Long family in anything.
But the Long family was no longer the Long family of the past.
The Feng Family Head sounded even more aggrieved. “Fine, fine, Young Heir Long. This concerns our shared interests, and it also concerns your friend Mei Yanlan. You know the address. Come over as soon as you finish breakfast!”
If not because Mei Yanlan was her friend, and if not because they feared a repeat of what happened with Wen Yuxian and Zhang Simiao, elders like them naturally would not need to wait for a junior. The problem was that while they treated Jing Pei as a junior, this junior might not necessarily respect them as elders. If she launched another wave of threats, they really might die early.
These heads of the Great Families were all arrogant, overbearing, and domineering. Who could have imagined they would meet such a Waterloo, and one they could not eliminate, only endure?
Jing Pei put away the phone that had been hung up in a flash and continued eating breakfast.
Long Yiming put down the Atavist Gazette he had finished reading, picked up a newspaper from the ordinary human world, shook it out, and continued reading.
When Jing Pei arrived at the meeting location, the heads of the Feng family, Wu family, Chen family, Tang family, and other upper-pyramid Atavist Great Families had all arrived in the conference room. Each one radiated imposing authority as they stared at her with solemn dignity.
Calm and composed, Jing Pei walked to an empty seat and sat down. As if making casual small talk, she said, “What’s the matter? What has all my uncles so anxious? Have you eaten?”
A flash of grievance immediately crossed pair after pair of eyes.
Eat? Eat what? Who could eat at a time like this?
A file slid across the smooth tabletop from the other end and stopped in front of Jing Pei.
“Take a look.”
Just as she had expected, it was an investigation report on Mei Yanlan.
Her background, what had happened to her parents, her experiences after escaping the Ling family, the Ling family’s calculations, and so on were all laid out clearly. Naturally, the part singled out and marked in bold black font was Mei Yanlan’s bloodline, which was suspected of being able to give birth to hybrids possessing two kinds of atavist abilities.
Because Mei Yanlan had become famous through the documentary, too many eyes had fallen on her. With so many coincidences surrounding her, it was only natural that people would grow suspicious and start investigating her. Not to mention that neither relations between Atavist families nor those within each family were monolithic. The scandal that had occurred within the Ling family more than twenty years ago naturally could not remain hidden either.
Before this, they had only been suspicious and had watched in secret. Now, all the truth had finally been laid out before them.
Bang!
Perhaps because they had been forced to wait for Jing Pei and had held back for too long, now that she had finally arrived, someone quickly lost patience and slammed a palm onto the table, cracking the long obsidian surface.
“What an ugly, lowly family. If that Ling Song hadn’t had some backbone, who knows how chaotic things within the Atavist families would have become? The government might have found a reason long ago to abolish us using the Atavist Management Regulations!”
“To take such crooked, shameful paths. No wonder certain families decline.”
“What decline? The Ling family’s rise in the first place was the anomaly. They’ve merely returned to their original form.”
“Buying wives, disgracing themselves, chasing quick gains and instant benefits. They deserve to be treated like dogs.”
More than twenty years ago, none of them had known anything about the incident involving Ling Song and his wife, nor about the secret transactions between the Ling family and those other families. They had hidden it well enough. In other words, if Ling Song had not risked his life to send his daughter away and kill those bastards, the stable pyramid structure that had existed among the Atavist families for centuries would already have been thrown into chaos. They might have faced the threat of being trampled down.
If Ling Song and his wife had been children of their own families, they would only have let the couple remain deeply in love and have a few more children. How could they have done such a disgusting thing as killing the chicken to get the eggs? For the Ling family to act like this, it must have all been that old bastard of a Ling Family Head’s idea. Since he was already so old, he could not even wait for his grandchildren to grow up and bring honor to the family. He wanted respect and status among the Atavist families so badly that he had gone mad.
After reading the investigation results, they felt both relieved and regretful.
“Long Jin, you’ve finished reading, right?”
Jing Pei closed the file.
“You’re so clever. You should understand what we mean.”
“I don’t quite understand.”
“Stop pretending to be confused. Look at what the Ling family and these families were planning. They wanted to use Mei Yanlan to give birth to stronger atavist hybrid descendants to challenge us. Unless Mei Yanlan never marries or has children in this lifetime and her bloodline ends here, sooner or later she will threaten us.”
“That’s right. Mei Yanlan’s background is pitiful, but an innocent man gets into trouble because of the treasure he possesses. If we don’t act, others will. We only want Mei Yanlan’s life. Others would subject her to humiliation a thousand or ten thousand times worse. Unless you have a foolproof plan, then as for what we are preparing to do, even if you don’t participate, you had better not interfere.”
They looked like fighting roosters, waiting for Jing Pei to speak so they could unleash a barrage of arguments and defeat her.
Jing Pei pondered for a moment, leaned back in her chair, and did not follow the path their words had laid out. Instead, she asked a question none of them had expected.
In an instant, all of them froze like wooden chickens.
“B-but… the Ling family already went that far. Surely they wouldn’t have done all this without being certain, right?”
Jing Pei rubbed her chin and said, “They were even capable of killing the chicken to get the eggs.”
For a moment, everyone was speechless.
Jing Pei stood up. “I’ll talk to Mei Yanlan about it. Getting an answer shouldn’t be too difficult. She’s one of the government’s people, and Qiu Fa is her direct superior. She isn’t some stray cat or dog with no one backing her. At a special moment like this, if you can avoid committing crimes against the wind, it’s best not to commit crimes against the wind. Don’t you agree?”
They thought about it. True enough. If the question Jing Pei had raised could receive a satisfactory answer, that would naturally be for the best.
“…Fine.”
And so, the meeting ended in a way no one had expected.
Because of their respective positions and interests, all the various forces restrained one another. Mei Yanlan, the central figure, became the safest person of all.
But this safety was not permanent. As time passed, someone would always be the first to break the balance. When that time came, she would become the most dangerous one of all, a fat piece of meat fought over by every side.
Even if this mutual restraint could last until the day Mei Yanlan died, the danger faced by her descendants would still remain.
So what was needed was a once-and-for-all solution.
Early that morning, Mei Yanlan was woken by phone calls from Xiao Cheng’s parents.
Mei Yanlan did not know what Xiao Cheng had told them. The two of them did not seem to know much about her, but they were clear on the key information. They knew that if Xiao Cheng’s pregnancy became known, both their son and the child in his belly would be in danger.
They lowered their voices and said in some terror, “We never got Ah Cheng’s message saying he had landed safely. When we called him, his phone was off. The driver said he dropped him off at the airport, but when we checked the airline’s boarding list, we found out he never got on the airship at all! Tell us, tell us, where did he go?”
Mei Yanlan instantly became fully awake. She immediately called Xiao Cheng. Sure enough, his phone was already turned off.
Just then, she received another call.
“Miss Mei Yanlan, or should I say, Miss Ling Yilan. Hello.” A slightly hoarse, low female voice came from the other end. “Your husband, Mr. Xiao Cheng, is in our hands. If you want to see him, you may come here.”
“Who are you?”
“How about I give you a suggestion? Come alone. Don’t tell anyone else. Don’t blow this matter up. Otherwise, when the time comes and your background is exposed, how many people violated your mother and how much your father was able to endure will both become idle gossip for the masses over tea and dinner.”
Mei Yanlan’s phone emitted a sound as if it could no longer withstand the pressure. The edges gripped in her hand began to deform.
“Of course, if you don’t care about him and aren’t willing to come, that’s fine too. We only need to be patient and wait until the child in his belly is born. Children, after all, are sometimes born just to shoulder their mother’s fate.”
The call was disconnected.
At the same time, Mei Yanlan’s phone twisted completely out of shape and was destroyed beyond repair.
