Because she had stayed up until the middle of the night yesterday, Jing Pei unsurprisingly overslept the next morning—and still hadn’t gotten enough sleep.

At moments like this, she would darkly think to herself:

I really should’ve farmed points all the way to graduation. Why do grown adults still have to suffer through waking up early for school???

Unfortunately, it was too late now.

The principal had already forbidden her from continuing to grind bonus questions.

Still, Jing Pei had a growing sense that if things continued like this, the number of nights she’d need to stay up late would only increase in the future.

She refused!!!

So clearly, something had to change.

For now, though, she still had to go to school. If she didn’t behave at least somewhat normally, people might grow suspicious and eventually expose her identity as the owner of the Puzzle Intelligence Agency.

…

Twelve Zodiac Academy.

Wen Yuxian led Jing Pei toward the classroom while continuing to complain as they walked.

“You’ve never even taken a proper systematic course on controlling atavist powers, yet they still let you jump directly to seventh year. And not just seventh year—Class One, too…”

“Because I requested it,” Jing Pei replied.

“You’re still young. Some things really do require adults to think more carefully on your behalf.” Wen Yuxian sighed. “Recently, things have been especially chaotic, so all the teachers are very busy. I asked a friend who has some free time to tutor you every day after lunch. Make sure you attend properly, alright?”

“Okay. Thank you, Teacher Wen,” Jing Pei said, her eyes curving into a smile.

By the time Wen Yuxian brought Jing Pei to the classroom, the bell for first period had just rung.

The students had already fully gathered inside the gymnasium.

Today’s class was being held indoors in the gym. It was a combat class jointly attended by Class One of the Ordinary Division and Class One of the Atavist Division.

Ordinary students specially studied courses focused on countering atavists, including the use of specialized anti-atavist weapons. As a result, practical lessons like this were always filled with smoke, flying debris, and brutal close-range combat.

They were dangerous classes.

Every gaze immediately gathered onto Jing Pei and Wen Yuxian.

“Good morning, Teacher Wen~” Tang Qiaoqiao chirped brightly.

Wen Yuxian nodded.

“Students, today our class has a new student joining us. Everyone, please welcome her.”

“Clap clap clap clap…”

Only Tang Qiaoqiao enthusiastically applauded with genuine excitement, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Wen Yuxian.

The rest merely offered sparse, half-hearted claps out of courtesy toward him.

As for the students from Ordinary Division Class One in the back—

Not a single one applauded.

Jing Pei stepped forward to introduce herself. Her gaze swept across the room, and when it landed on Long Ling among the ordinary students, she more or less understood what was happening.

Last night, Ordinary Division Class One had spent the entire evening discussing things in their class group chat.

Since news had already spread that Jing Pei would be entering seventh year, they all believed she had deliberately chosen seventh year instead of sixth or eighth because she was targeting Long Ling and wanted revenge.

Within Twelve Zodiac Academy, the people most biased toward Long Ling were undoubtedly her own classmates.

So they had made a decision.

Whenever the two classes attended lessons together, they would ignore Jing Pei entirely.

They couldn’t afford to offend the young master of the Long family directly, but avoiding her was still possible, wasn’t it?

At the very least, they wanted to show Long Ling their support through their attitude, to make her feel touched and know her kindness toward them hadn’t been wasted.

To put it bluntly—

They planned to subject Jing Pei to collective cold violence.

And so, when the practical portion of class began and students from the Atavist Division needed to pair up with ordinary students, everyone refused to partner with Jing Pei.

Even those left without partners raised their hands and said:

“Teacher, I don’t dare partner with Long Jin. She only advanced through academic points. She has zero atavist power control points, and she’s only been awakened for a few days. I’m scared. Can I wait until another spot opens up?”

At that moment, Jing Pei also said:

“I’m honestly a bit worried about that too, Teacher.”

Teachers were responsible for student safety.

Since even Jing Pei herself had expressed concern, the instructor considered it for a moment before agreeing.

“Long Jin, stand off to the side and observe for now. Try to sense your core—your dragon pearl. The first step in controlling atavist powers is locating the source of your power.”

After saying that, the teacher went off to instruct the other students.

And so Jing Pei stood outside the field watching.

Inside the arena, intense training was already underway.

The students of the Ordinary Division—both boys and girls—had visible abdominal muscles from military-style training. They could sprint around carrying rocket launchers as though it were nothing.

Some of their reactions were astonishingly sharp as well.

An atavist classmate would vanish from sight and suddenly appear behind them to attack, only for the ordinary student to abruptly spin around as if predicting it in advance and fire off a bomb.

Still, most ordinary students remained at a disadvantage.

Especially against the people at the very top of the pyramid.

The Feng family’s young master, dressed in a black shirt, casually played with a Rubik’s Cube while dealing with attacks from ordinary students. His eyes barely seemed to leave the cube even once.

Dodging attacks looked less like fighting and more like a cat toying with mice.

Tang Qiaoqiao kicked her opponent flying with one strike.

There was even a female student who remained half-asleep the entire time. Her drooping, sleepy eyes looked barely open as her body swayed lightly like a sheet of paper, drifting around attacks effortlessly.

Only after her exhausted opponent collapsed, gasping for breath and unable to continue, did she immediately run over, flop into a chair, and fall asleep on the spot.

Meanwhile, Long Ling was sparring with Zhou Qian, who had specifically skipped class today just to support her.

As they fought, Zhou Qian continuously fed her openings while carefully explaining things like where to strike certain types of atavists for maximum lethality.

But Long Ling was distracted.

She kept watching Long Jin.

Seeing her standing alone outside the field, seemingly isolated, awkward, and completely out of place made Long Ling feel delighted.

What should Long Jin do now?

The ordinary students ignored her.

The proud atavist students weren’t going to approach her either.

Entering Feng Yilian’s circle was extremely difficult. Simply being the young master of the Long family wasn’t enough.

Would Long Jin lower herself to flatter them?

That would only make them despise her more.

At worst, they might even treat her like a clown and toy with her.

As for the atavists beneath them, they wouldn’t show her much enthusiasm either because they were giving Zhou Qian face.

Her status was what it was.

If she shamelessly chased after them anyway, she’d only embarrass herself further.

How miserable her school life must be going to become.

Even transfer students at ordinary schools often found it difficult to integrate into an existing class environment, let alone in a class with relationships this complicated.

The lonely and isolated Jing Pei that Long Ling imagined, however, didn’t care about these childish little tactics at all. In fact, she even found them somewhat immature and amusing.

What she was actually thinking about was what happened last night.

Today, if nothing unexpected occurred, then not only that customer from yesterday—Tao Ze, who had spent twenty years searching for his missing daughter—but many other people’s obsessions would finally reach an ending too, wouldn’t they?

…

Tao Ze had not slept for two nights straight, so this time he slept all the way until seven in the morning the next day. It wasn’t until the internet café’s overnight session ended and the owner came to wake him that he finally opened his eyes.

At first, he thought he had been tricked again.

But the moment he opened his inbox, he saw an email quietly waiting there.

His hands immediately began trembling as he opened it.

There was only a single line written inside.

【The orchard owner, Zhang Weiqiang.】

What did that mean?

Tao Ze froze.

Who was this person?

Did this Zhang Weiqiang know where his daughter was? Or perhaps he was the culprit behind her mysterious disappearance?

The instant that possibility entered his mind, blood rushed to his head and his heartbeat accelerated wildly. He no longer cared whether the information was real or fake.

Tao Ze couldn’t sit still anymore.

He rushed out of the internet café and took a taxi straight to the police station.

He stumbled inside only to have someone grab his arm. The officer had just opened his mouth to scold him when he recognized him.

“Old Tao? What are you doing here?”

As though suddenly thinking of something, the officer immediately became vigilant. His gaze sharpened like a hawk’s as he glared at him.

“What have you done this time?! Don’t tell me you’ve gone stalking people again! I knew you’d been too quiet recently—you’re definitely causing trouble again!”

Over the past twenty years, Tao Ze had visited the police station so many times that nearly everyone there knew him.

Not only because he constantly came asking whether there had been any new clues in his daughter’s disappearance case, but also because he had become almost obsessed with finding her.

He was incredibly easy to scam, for one thing.

And whenever he found someone suspicious, he would secretly follow them around and observe them.

Although over the years this behavior had accidentally helped save some people and catch a number of criminals, more often than not others simply mistook him for a criminal and called the police on him instead.

He had been detained countless times because of this.

In fact, after twenty years of practice, his stalking, surveillance, and counter-surveillance skills had become so advanced that even the police themselves often had trouble finding him.

He gave them endless headaches.

At the same time, they had more than once considered recruiting him as an auxiliary officer.

Unfortunately, he was far too obsessed with his daughter’s case.

The officer currently holding him happened to be Officer Chen—the very officer who had originally investigated his daughter’s disappearance twenty years ago.

Tao Ze grabbed him in return, eyes bloodshot.

“There’s a lead! There’s finally a lead in my daughter’s case!”

“Come on, sit down first. Have some water. Tell me slowly.” Seeing that Tao Ze apparently hadn’t caused trouble outside this time, Officer Chen sighed in relief and helped him sit down, not rushing him.

“No, I’m not drinking.” Tao Ze couldn’t sit still at all. “The orchard owner Zhang Weiqiang is the culprit! My daughter must’ve been abducted by him!”

Officer Chen firmly forced him back into his chair.

This time, hearing Tao Ze actually produce a full name made him frown slightly.

“How do you know? Who told you?”

Tao Ze immediately became hesitant.

He knew that if he mentioned the Puzzle Intelligence Agency, Officer Chen would probably assume he’d been scammed again.

But who was Officer Chen?

Lying to him was impossible.

“You…” Officer Chen sighed. “Over all these years, how many times have you been cheated already? You used to own two apartment buildings, and now you’ve been scammed down to a single home left to your name. Why can’t you learn your lesson?”

“I already spent the money anyway. Officer Chen, I’m begging you. Just investigate who this person is for me, okay?” Tao Ze pleaded desperately.

Looking at him like this, it was impossible for anyone to harden their heart enough to refuse.

Officer Chen stared at him for several seconds before finally resigning himself.

“Fine, Old Tao. But promise me this is the last time.”

“I promise. I promise.”

Yet they had already had this exact conversation countless times before.

After Officer Chen agreed to look into Zhang Weiqiang, Tao Ze refused to leave the station.

He stayed there for several hours straight.

Meanwhile, on the other side, Officer Chen—who had originally only intended to make a casual investigation to give Tao Ze some peace of mind and hadn’t expected anything at all—

Gradually began discovering that something about the case felt strangely wrong.