In an instant, every gaze in the room landed on Long Yiming.

Long Yiming had already been surprised that Jing Pei had somehow managed to obtain this video. Now that she had suddenly dragged him into the spotlight, the astonishment in his eyes deepened even further.

She really was no ordinary person.

He had originally assumed this incident would force her to suffer quite a bit, yet she had clearly come fully prepared, as though she had anticipated from the very beginning that something like this would happen.

Why?

Her personality was completely different from what their investigations had shown. Yet she was undeniably a dragon atavist. In the entire world, only the Long family possessed dragon blood. That alone proved the girl before him truly belonged to the Long family.

A trace of unease crept into Long Yiming’s heart. For the first time, he no longer dared underestimate Jing Pei.

Suppressing his emotions, he stepped forward and spoke in her defense.

“What Long Jin said is the truth. Her mother and my elder brother, Long Ankang, met when they had nothing and became husband and wife through mutual affection. The so‑called ‘illegitimate daughter’ accusation is complete nonsense. As for certain false rumors circulating online, I’m afraid everyone will have to judge for themselves. Anything more from us would be pointless.”

Without the video, people would have assumed Long Yiming was simply trying to salvage the Long family’s image by defending their atavist heir.

But with the footage displayed right in front of them, things were different.

The video was there for everyone to see, Long Ankang’s face frozen clearly on the screen. Experts immediately began verifying whether it had been doctored.

The conclusion came quickly—it was completely authentic.

Seeing Long Yiming openly side with Jing Pei made Long Ankang’s expression grow even uglier.

That damn opportunist. He really changed sides quickly—whichever side benefited him more, that was the side he stood on, wasn’t it? Why hadn’t he said any of this last night?!

Long Ankang and An Yao had been certain that Jing Pei had only just returned yesterday, completely unprepared, allowing them to seize the initiative first.

What they didn’t know was that the entire world they lived in had been created by the young woman standing before them.

Their lives, their stories—she had written them all.

She knew every hidden clue she had planted and understood every single one of their thought patterns.

So Jing Pei had anticipated long ago that they would pull something like this to pave the road for Long Ling. After finishing up the Huang and Bai family affair last night, she had immediately tracked down the one person—who would only become important in the future—still in possession of this video and purchased it from him.

The already explosive popularity of the scandal surged to an even higher level because of this sudden reversal. The internet erupted into heated discussion.

【The father and daughter are saying completely different things!】
【I believe Long Jin. How trustworthy can a cheating scumbag’s words really be?】
【So Long Jin isn’t the illegitimate daughter at all? An Yao and Long Ling are the mistress and illegitimate daughter instead?】
【But there wasn’t any legal marriage certificate. An Yao’s the one who officially married him, right?】
【If Long Jin’s telling the truth, then this is disgusting beyond belief. Abandoning them wasn’t enough—they saw she awakened as an atavist and still tried to smear her reputation?】
【…This is somehow even more revolting than last night. What an ultimate scumbag】
【An Yao must’ve been deceived by Long Ankang!】
【No wonder Long Ankang’s always been suppressed by Long Yiming. With this kind of character, how could he possibly compare? Gross】

Long Ankang cared deeply about saving face. Deep down, he probably knew he had wronged Long Jin’s mother and done something despicable. That was why he had hidden the matter so carefully. He would rather be seen as a cheating scumbag seduced into infidelity than as the kind of man who abandoned the wife who had stood by him through hardship.

After all, in their social circle, having women outside the marriage was considered normal. But abandoning a wife who had suffered alongside you? That truly earned people’s contempt.

He had already been inferior to Long Yiming to begin with. Once this truth came out, even fewer people would think highly of him.

Last night, he had even bought trending topics and paid influencers to push the story further, adding fuel to the fire. Now he wished desperately he could erase the trending searches entirely.

But not only could he not remove them, anonymous people claiming to be classmates and friends from the years when he had lived among ordinary people soon began speaking out online as well. They described how good Long Jin’s mother had been to Long Ankang back then—taking care of his adoptive parents, working to support his education through university and graduate school, and more.

Before long, netizens started uncovering even more clues.

For example, why had the timeline from Long Ankang meeting An Yao, to registering their marriage, to being recognized and brought back into the Long family happened so absurdly quickly?

So quickly that the entire sequence felt rushed—as though they had been scrambling to make it happen in time.

【I have a bold theory. What if An Yao recognized that Long Ankang was from the Long family, so she rushed to marry him? Judging from the bride’s stomach in the video, Long Jin and Long Ling are only about eight or nine months apart, right? A prestigious university beauty desperately throwing herself at an older man who was poor, ordinary, and not even especially handsome?】
【!! That actually sounds very possible!】
【Do you think Long Ling knew about all this?】

At this point, An Yao’s face looked even worse.

It was as though she could see the image she had painstakingly cultivated within this social circle collapsing around her. She didn’t even dare imagine what expressions those female family heads—who had once admired and defended her—would wear after seeing all this.

But the one whose expression looked even uglier than An Yao’s was Long Ling’s.

This slap to the face had come too quickly, like a tornado.

Where exactly had Long Jin found this surviving piece of evidence?!

If she ever discovered who had given her that video, she would never let him off.

Long Ling remembered how the others in the hotel restaurant had been cursing while waiting to watch the press conference livestream. They had definitely seen everything by now.

Her face burned hot, and she could almost feel countless invisible eyes turning toward her, sharp as needles stabbing into her skin.

In reality, however, there were very few people around her, and none of them were paying attention to her at all.

At the same time, she felt immensely grateful for what she had done last night.

…

This press conference not only cleared up Long Jin’s background, it also revealed another bombshell to the public.

A certification issued by the Atavist Genetics Research Institute confirmed that the Long family’s dragon atavist possessed an atavist purity level as high as ninety percent.

Jing Pei’s atavist purity level was as high as ninety percent.

That meant that once she fully mastered her atavist powers, she would be able to transform freely between human and dragon form. Such a thing was exceedingly rare. In the entire country, there were fewer than five atavists whose purity level reached such heights.

“A terrifying figure has appeared.”

“That counterattack was fast, precise, and ruthless. Even Long Yiming is starting to show signs of being suppressed. This girl is not easy to deal with.”

“She looks like the type who smiles more beautifully the crueler she is when killing. Terrifying.”

“With such a high atavist purity level… could it be that the Long family went two hundred years without an awakening just to save it all up for her?”

While the major atavist families buzzed with discussion, only two families showed no interest whatsoever.

The Huang family and the Bai family.

The Huang family head had gotten a full night’s sleep and eaten a hearty meal. Feeling refreshed and full of energy, he immediately led people straight to the Bai family to demand an explanation.

The Bai family had splashed dirty water all over the Huangs before. Now that the real culprit had been found, they wanted to pretend nothing had happened?

What a joke.

“And what exactly do you want?” Unlike the energetic Huang family members before them, the Bai family looked exhausted. Dark circles hung beneath their eyes, and fatigue dragged at the corners of their mouths and eyes.

“Hmph. Compensation. A public apology. And hand over the real culprit,” the Huang family head declared. “I want to know who was scheming behind the scenes and setting up my Huang family!”

The strand of Huang family hair inside the box containing the baby’s finger—only an idiot would believe it had gotten there accidentally. The Huang family wasn’t the type to suffer a scheme quietly and let it go.

“Compensation is possible. As for everything else—don’t even think about it,” the Bai family replied decisively.

“White Fox, did you think I didn’t expect that answer?” The Huang family head bared a fierce, triumphant grin. “That’s why I already filed a report with the Tribunal Division. Families at our level nearly went to war last night. An incident of this scale should be enough to bring that person out to pass judgment, right?”

The expressions of the Bai family members changed dramatically.

The Tribunal Division’s full name was the Atavist Criminal Management and Judgment Bureau.

When disputes or crimes occurred among atavists, there were generally two options.

One: spend money renting a Bubble and settle things by fighting it out inside.

Two: call the authorities.

The police and judicial system of the atavist world was the Tribunal Division.

And the current Director of the Tribunal Division happened to be one of the fewer than five atavists in the country with a purity level exceeding ninety percent.

A being famed for power, beauty, and cruelty.

At that moment, the butler hurried in, face pale, and said to the Bai family, “Master… several Tribunal Division vehicles are heading this way.”

“Dad!” Hearing this, Bai Xinran came rushing downstairs, her face bloodless as she looked helplessly and fearfully at her father.

Their family had not slept the entire night. Only this morning had they finally decided to release Mu Wenxing and Mu Wenyue, considering the debt between them settled.

But now, the Huang family had gone to the authorities.

And the Tribunal Division had arrived.

Outside, the sound of vehicles stopping could already be heard.

An indescribable pressure swept inward from beyond the doors, making everyone’s hearts pound violently.