Inside that door, no one outside knew what those major figures discussed.

Long Ankang and An Yao could no longer bear to stay. Before long, the two left early with ugly expressions on their faces. They would probably lie awake all night in frustration.

Long Ling felt miserable as well.

But she forcibly suppressed her emotions.

People who let emotions control them could never accomplish great things. So even though her heart burned with pain and jealousy scorched her mind, she did not leave like her parents.

Dragon pearl dragon pearl dragon pearl dragon pearl!

She and Long Jin carried the bloodline of the same dragon. They were descendants of the same being.

That meant she could obtain atavist power through possessing Long Jin’s dragon pearl. Even if she couldn’t gain all of it—even if she only became half an atavist—it would still completely change her destiny and place her above ordinary people forever.

Pain often came from ambition exceeding one’s strength.

Yet that pain only added fuel to her fanatical ambition.

She had to find a way to obtain the dragon pearl.

So even if she currently had to endure humiliation and gain benefits through flattering others, she could tolerate it.

There was still a long road ahead.

No one knew who would laugh last.

“How about this?” She grabbed Tang Qiaoqiao’s hand, her expression earnest. No one could tell what violent emotions churned beneath the surface. “Go confess to Teacher Wen one more time. Seriously tell him how you feel. If he still rejects you using the excuse that he has a girlfriend, then we’ll investigate whether he really has one.”

“How would we investigate?” Tang Qiaoqiao asked. “Hire a private detective? Isn’t that kind of bad?”

“We’ll investigate personally. If he really has a girlfriend, they must meet often in private.”

“Oh…”

Tang Qiaoqiao drooped miserably, completely lacking the energy she usually had at school.

Truthfully, she had already started doubting whether Wen Yuxian really had a girlfriend. After all, Jing Pei had repeated it so many times. The last time, she had even chosen not to become friends with her rather than back down, and she had looked genuinely serious.

It was impossible for that not to affect Tang Qiaoqiao at all.

Long Ling comforted her.

“Honestly, I don’t think Teacher Wen has a girlfriend. Why would he hide her so carefully otherwise? And wouldn’t girlfriends normally mind that sort of thing? He’s never introduced her to coworkers or friends. Nobody at school even knows she exists.”

“Didn’t you ask Teacher Wen to show you a picture of them together? He couldn’t even produce one. How could he possibly have a girlfriend?”

“Exactly!” Tang Qiaoqiao said angrily. “How am I supposed to believe he has one then? Just because he thinks I’m young, he doesn’t take my feelings seriously. Even his rejection excuses are careless. What does he think I am, some random stray cat or dog?”

Tang Qiaoqiao had been pampered like a little princess in the Tang family.

And so the two girls settled on a plan.

Tang Qiaoqiao would confess to Wen Yuxian one more time.

And if he rejected her again using the “girlfriend” excuse, they would follow him and see whether that Schrödinger’s girlfriend truly existed.

…

Separated by only one door—

Inside the conference room, Jing Pei listened as the atavist families discussed a collaborative project.

Nearly every atavist family participated in it.

On the surface, it appeared to be a simple business partnership.

But in reality, its implications ran extremely deep.

The Long family had participated too.

In fact, on the very night Jing Pei returned to the Long family estate, Long Yiming and Long Ankang had rushed over to attend discussions regarding it.

That was also the same night Long Ankang spread the rumor about Jing Pei being an illegitimate daughter.

And ultimately—

The explosion of conflict between atavists and ordinary humans in the future would begin because of this very project.

The outcome would be catastrophic.

Resting her chin on one hand, Jing Pei rolled the preserved plum pit around her tongue while faint traces of sweetness emerged from time to time.

Eventually, the adults reached a consensus.

After cursing Qiu Fa several more times, this gathering—where they united against a common enemy while strengthening relationships—finally came to an end.

Everyone stood and prepared to leave.

Jing Pei and Wu Ying walked near the back. Wu Ying invited Jing Pei to visit her family sometime, clearly holding considerable admiration toward her.

“Big Sister.”

A male voice suddenly interrupted their conversation.

It belonged to a boy wearing glasses. He looked refined and handsome, his temperament cold and restrained, carrying the aura of “someone else’s perfect child.”

Though in his hands was a very feminine purple handbag that clearly did not belong to him.

“Where did you run off to? Give me the bag.”

Wu Ying frowned slightly and spoke in a commanding tone.

The boy obediently handed it over.

Wu Ying took out her phone from the bag and added Jing Pei as a contact while introducing him:

“This is Jiang Qing, my younger brother from different parents. Ninth-year student in the Ordinary Division and current student council president. If you ever want to cause trouble for Long Ling, you can ask him for help.”

“Sister, isn’t that a little inappropriate?” Jiang Qing said weakly, like some pitiful servant oppressed by a queen.

“What’s inappropriate about it? You can’t do it?”

“No need. I don’t specifically need to target Long Ling,” Jing Pei said helplessly. “Thank you, Senior.”

“Fine then. Keep in touch.”

Wu Ying stuffed her phone back into the bag and tossed it back to Jiang Qing.

He caught it with practiced ease and obediently slung the purple bag over his shoulder.

Jing Pei watched the two walk away together.

The girl’s black, straight hair was tied into a ponytail. She looked sharp and decisive. Even in a skirt, her back radiated confidence and heroic pride.

The boy wore white clothes and black pants, looking refined and scholarly with the purple handbag hanging from his shoulder.

Mm.

Today had brought quite a few surprises.

One impressive character after another kept appearing.

…

Inside the cramped rental apartment, the middle-aged woman nervously placed a cup of tea in front of Qiu Fa before cautiously sitting across from him.

The tiny room somehow felt even smaller with him inside it.

“There’s no need to worry. I won’t do anything to you,” Qiu Fa said.

His fists were clenched tightly, though his face still maintained restrained calm.

“Y-Yes. I’m not worried,” the middle-aged woman replied nervously.

Qiu Fa held quite a bit of fame among ordinary people, and his reputation was good.

In the past, when atavists harmed ordinary humans, the punishments were often laughably light. Ordinary people rarely received fair judgments from the Tribunal Division. And if they asked why, the answer would be that the laws of the ordinary world and the atavist world were different. Ordinary people could only swallow their blood and tears in silence.

But things changed after Qiu Fa rose to power.

Very few ordinary people actually knew what he looked like, and Yuan Qing hadn’t known either.

But his eyes were distinctive.

The moment she saw them, she recognized him immediately.

The child from the photograph back then.

Truthfully, she had always waited for him to come find her.

But she never knew whether he actually would. If she stayed silent, could he ever discover her existence?

Yet she had never dared to approach him herself.

So she often wondered whether the things she had overheard that day would ever have a chance to be spoken aloud in this lifetime.

Nervously, she began recounting what happened back then.

At the time, she worked at a fast-food restaurant in Yunjin Prefecture—a hamburger and fried chicken shop. The floors became greasy very easily, and the constant stream of customers made them even dirtier, so she spent all day bent over, mopping again and again.

“What if the plan fails and we get discovered? That brat’s atavist purity is so high. If he manages to stop it, we’re finished.”

“No matter how high his purity is, he’s still just a little brat drinking formula milk. What’s there to fear?”

Yuan Qing had been bent over mopping when she overheard the conversation from a booth nearby.

Hearing technical terms connected to atavists—something still very new to a country girl who had only recently left home—she immediately pricked up her ears in curiosity and made her mopping even quieter.

“We’ve planned this for so long. Success or failure comes down to this one move. As long as the Qiu family disappears, we’re already halfway to victory. Every atavist can go die!”

Yuan Qing vaguely sensed she had stumbled upon some kind of conspiracy.

She secretly glanced up.

One of the men happened to be holding a photograph.

In the photo was a little boy hugging his arms while sulking. Fair-skinned and adorable, with clear amber eyes glaring directly at the camera, he strangely reminded her of a feline predator.

Her heart pounded wildly.

She felt that if they discovered she had overheard them, she might die.

So she didn’t dare listen further and quietly backed away.

For several days, she kept thinking about that conversation before eventually pushing it from her mind. Those matters were too distant from her reality. They couldn’t compare to immediate worries like rent, food, and survival.

But what she never expected was that two months later, while mopping floors again, she would hear the same voice once more.

“Damn it! That little bastard really ruined everything. He’s only five and already that strong? What a monster!”

“Relax. Luckily, that person stepped in personally and handled it.”

“You have no idea how close it was! The victims almost got saved by that brat. But in the end, we got lucky. The kid went berserk, so he should lose his memory. We can dump all the blame onto him…”

The man seemed deeply shaken, full of lingering fear, repeating those same sentences over and over as if venting his emotions.

Yuan Qing realized this involved human lives.

Then suddenly, the shop manager called her name.

She jerked violently in fright, too scared to answer aloud. Instead, she hurried away quietly and didn’t even dare continue working there afterward.

Not long later, shocking news exploded across the media.

The famous White Tiger family had suffered a massacre. Only a five-year-old child survived—but that child was believed highly likely to be the killer.

Those scattered clues instantly resurfaced in Yuan Qing’s mind.

With trembling hands, she searched online and discovered that the White Tiger family’s surname was Qiu.

Afterward, more and more information surfaced.

The child had been taken away by the Tribunal Division for interrogation.

The Tribunal Division concluded that the child was the murderer, claiming that an atavist power rampage caused him to lose his humanity and slaughter his entire clan.

According to atavist law, he was sentenced to death.

But because he was still too young, the executioners couldn’t bring themselves to carry it out immediately, so the sentence was postponed for ten years until he grew older.

In the ordinary world, ten-year-old children bore no criminal responsibility.

Yet in the atavist world, a child could receive a death sentence.

The shock of that nearly drove Yuan Qing to call the Tribunal Division and tell them:

That’s not what happened!

But she lacked the courage.

Making that call might not save anyone.

It might instead bring catastrophe upon herself.

Any force capable of destroying an atavist great family like that was terrifying beyond imagination.

How could an ordinary woman like her possibly fight against it?

In the end, she resigned from her job, left Yunjin Prefecture, and never dared set foot there again.

For more than twenty years, this burden weighed on her conscience. She constantly condemned herself for abandoning a child to die, imagining how that child must have felt believing he murdered his own family.

Yet even so, once she married and had children, she became even less courageous.

So she could only deceive herself with one thought:

If one day he somehow discovered her existence and came to find her, then she would tell him everything she knew.

But deep down, she also knew how impossible that sounded.

How could he ever know that, in a place so distant from his home, an utterly unrelated woman had learned such things through two absurdly accidental encounters?

And yet—

Today, he truly came.

Qiu Fa listened quietly to everything she said.

Then he rose calmly to his feet.

“I understand now. Thank you for telling me honestly.”

“I… I’m very sorry.” Tears filled the woman’s eyes.

“This was never your responsibility. Don’t blame yourself.” Qiu Fa said. “And don’t mention this matter to anyone else again. Don’t tell anyone I came looking for you either. I’ll tell the landlord I got the wrong person and make sure he keeps quiet.”

After speaking, Qiu Fa left.

And the crushing knot that had weighed on Yuan Qing’s heart for more than twenty years finally loosened.

…

Bohai Prefecture was an island city.

Near the coast, the wind carried the scent of salt.

Qiu Fa walked for an unknown length of time before arriving at the coastal highway.

Leaning against the guardrail, he stopped there, a final cigar clenched between his lips, head lowered.

Back then, the Tribunal Division’s evidence for sentencing him to death had seemed airtight. Traces of his rampaging atavist power covered the entire scene, and flesh from multiple family members had been found beneath his fingernails. Even with the green ribbon on his wrist making him suspicious, even after leaving prison years later, he had still questioned himself until today.

—What if he really had killed them?

His cheerful, openhearted mother.
His gentle, intelligent father.
His carefree older brother who laughed at everything.
The clan members who had treasured him like a jewel…

He had torn all of them apart.

Even if someone controlled him, he had still killed them.

But now, from the information Yuan Qing provided, it seemed that his atavist power had rampaged that day—but not to kill.

He had tried to save them.

He had only failed.

Qiu Fa drew heavily on his cigar. Amid the cold smoke curling from his lips, a tear slipped from his eye.

At that moment, his phone rang.

It was his assistant.

“Director, how was it? Was this Yuan Qing really worth ten million?” the assistant asked with curiosity. Because their perpetually broke director remained bitter over that price tag, everyone around him had become curious as well.

“Damn it…” Qiu Fa’s low, hoarse voice came through the line. “She was worth it.”

The assistant froze in shock.

“Prepare every extermination case file involving atavist families, including the Qiu family case. I want to review them after I return.”

Clearly, this involved a massive conspiracy.

What did they mean by “all atavists disappearing”?

The fact that Yuan Qing overheard them twice without getting discovered proved the speakers had definitely been ordinary humans.

So was this some ordinary-human organization seeking revenge against atavists?

The waters ran deep.

And where exactly had that intelligence broker obtained all this information?

Was he one of the masterminds behind the conspiracy?

Or was he an even deeper hidden mastermind than they were?

…

Long Yiming felt extremely satisfied with how much attention the Long family received at the gathering today. Although he himself hadn’t been invited into the inner meeting room, people outside still treated him with far more enthusiasm than before.

That had never happened previously.

He became so pleased he wanted to hold a family banquet tonight.

“I have something to do tonight, so I won’t attend,” Jing Pei said instead.

If she wasn’t attending, then what was the point of holding a family banquet?

Thus, the idea was canceled.

Night fell.

Jing Pei changed clothes and headed out. She had the driver take her to a famous restaurant for dinner before sending him back to the Long estate.

After finishing her meal, she also bought one serving of the restaurant’s signature dessert to take away, then began wandering around aimlessly.

As the capital, Yunjin Prefecture’s prosperity needed no description. Neon lights and endless streams of traffic flowed like rivers of jewels and gold.

But no matter how dazzling the light became, every city shared the same truth:

The brighter the light, the darker the shadows.

She wandered from the bustling city center toward the impoverished outskirts at the edge of the city.

Crime.

Body disposal sites.

Illegal trafficking.

This place bred cockroaches, rats, and human garbage. Some were born here. Others had been thrown here by the outside world.

The corpses buried here far outnumbered those hidden beneath Zhang Weiqiang’s orchard.

And here—

Something unspeakable would eventually be born.

The moment Jing Pei reached the edge of the district, she seemed to realize just how dangerous the area ahead was, how little someone like her belonged there.

So she stopped, appearing hesitant.

She “hesitated” for around five minutes.

“Hey.”

A slightly androgynous female voice interrupted her from behind.

Jing Pei turned around.

She saw a short-haired girl with wheat-colored skin and sharp, clear eyes like a leopard cat’s.

“This isn’t a place you should come to. Leave,” the girl warned.

A faint smile curved Jing Pei’s lips.

“But I want to cross through here,” she said with mild distress.

The other girl looked utterly baffled.

“This road is filthy and stinks. Why would you even want to cross it? There’s nothing on the other side anyway. If you don’t want to die, get lost. Stay here any longer and you won’t be safe either.”

After speaking, she ignored Jing Pei and walked deeper inside.

But after several steps, she suddenly turned around—

Only to discover Jing Pei following right behind her.

When she glared over, Jing Pei even gave her an innocent smile.

“Why are you following me?” the girl snapped angrily. Damn it. Don’t tell me this rich little miss latched onto her now?

“Mmm. I still want to cross this road.”

“You seriously don’t understand human language, do you? Fine. If you want to die, suit yourself.”

She hated rich girls like this the most—girls who believed the world was beautiful and knew nothing of human cruelty.

Served them right when reality taught them a lesson.

Yet after walking quickly for several steps, she still couldn’t stop worrying about the girl behind her. Her mind filled with all sorts of terrible possibilities. Maybe tomorrow morning she’d hear news about some wealthy young lady dying horribly here.

“How about this?” Jing Pei suddenly said gently behind her. “You seem familiar with this area, and you don’t look scared at all. If you guide me across, I’ll pay you.”

“I don’t have money on me, but I do have a really delicious dessert. Oh, and preserved plums too.”

Whether from conscience or temptation from dessert and preserved plums, the leopard-cat girl paused.

She turned around.

“Why exactly do you want to go in there?”

Jing Pei’s expression remained maddeningly innocent.

“I just want a little adventure.”

The leopard-cat girl clenched her fists.

“…You’re insane.”

Yet she still accepted the “payment” and accompanied Jing Pei through the district while wolfing down the dessert.

Was this some kind of joke?

How could anything in the world taste this good?!

It was delicious enough to drive someone insane.

Jing Pei really did seem to merely want to cross through the area.

Once they reached the end of the road, she simply turned around and began walking back.

The road was lined on both sides with low, self-built houses, worn down and shabby. A stench of fermenting garbage drifted through the air. Dim lights cast murky shadows. Some people squatted outside their homes, their numb eyes fixed on Jing Pei like hungry wolves staring at fresh meat, gleaming with a savage green light.

Yet perhaps because of the girl beside her, none of them dared make a move.

“Thank you for walking this stretch with me. As thanks, if you ever need help, you can come find me at Twelve Zodiac Academy. My name is Long Jin,” Jing Pei said.

“No need. You gave me food, so we’re square. Just don’t come back here again. Next time, you won’t get this lucky.”

The leopard-cat girl licked her lips as she spoke, then spotted Jing Pei pulling out a bag of preserved plums from her purse. Her eyes lit up at once and she snatched it away.

Jing Pei said softly, “I want one too.”

“…Only one! You said these were for me!”

To stay safe, the girl even escorted Jing Pei all the way to a place where taxis passed by. She watched her get into the cab before turning away, truly seeing the whole thing through to the end.

She really couldn’t understand rich people.

Why would some wealthy young lady run into a place like this looking for adventure?

If she had that much spare energy, why not go swat flies?

Watching the taxi disappear into the distance, she shoved her hands into her pockets and headed home while savoring the lingering taste of that unbelievable dessert.

Inside the taxi, Jing Pei watched the girl’s retreating figure in the rearview mirror, the smile in her eyes growing deeper.

So cute.

As expected of her favorite protagonist.

And also one of the indispensable pieces she needed to change this world.

A secret weapon she very much hoped to obtain.

But before obtaining that secret weapon, she still needed one trump card first.

At that moment, her phone rang.

She glanced at the caller ID, the corners of her lips lifting slightly before she answered.

“Boss.”

Tao Ze’s weathered, mature, faintly exhausted voice came through the line.

“I picked him up.”

“Thank you for your hard work,” Jing Pei said gently. “Take a few days to rest first. The workload afterward will become very heavy, and leisure time won’t be so plentiful. Take him sightseeing and eat some good food.”

That’s right.

Tao Ze now worked for her.

Ying Qian and Zhang Weiqiang had shown Jing Pei how unpredictable character destinies could become.

Therefore, if she wanted her plans to proceed smoothly, she first needed to confirm whether the people she required were still following the fates she had originally arranged for them.

That required time and observation.

But she herself faced too many limitations.

Too many eyes were watching her.

Which meant she needed someone loyal, capable, and unlikely to draw suspicion to act in her stead.

Tao Ze was the perfect candidate.

The tracking, surveillance, and counter-surveillance skills he had honed over twenty years while searching for his daughter made him ideal for acting as a hidden observer.

So that day, she had called him.

At the time, Tao Ze had shut himself inside his room, holding his daughter’s photograph in a daze, completely hopeless about the future and no longer understanding what meaning life held.

Then the phone rang.

A pleasant, mysterious voice came through.

“Hello, Tao Ze. This is the Puzzle Intelligence Agency.”

The numbness in Tao Ze’s eyes stirred slightly. Some life returned to them as he slowly sat up from the bed.

“Y-You… hello. Is there something you need?”

Clearly, the Puzzle Intelligence Agency held extraordinary meaning for him.

Over the past twenty years, he had been scammed countless times.

Losing money didn’t matter.

But the crushing disappointment each time he returned empty-handed nearly destroyed him.

Toward the end, he had become so desperate that he believed only a god could help him uncover the truth.

And then this intelligence broker appeared.

She gave him a single name.

The fog covering twenty years dispersed.

The truth surfaced.

His daughter’s soul, buried in injustice for two decades, was finally set free.

People said there were gods three feet above one’s head.

If someone asked Tao Ze now whether gods existed in his heart—

he would answer that there was only this person.

“It’s like this,” the voice had told him. “I want to change the future of this world, but I need people to help me. Would you be willing to work for me?”

The question completely caught him off guard.

Then, after only brief hesitation—

“I’m willing.”

Since he no longer knew how to walk the road ahead, he might as well follow the words of a god.

The very next day, dragging his luggage behind him, he stepped out of his home.

He pasted a note on the door saying he had gone traveling.

And then, for the first time in twenty years, he left the city he had never once departed from.