Qiu Fa changed clothes and got into the car. After listening to the assistant’s report, he said, “Then send more students to handle it together. Use the Feng family kids and the Long family ones too.”

Then he suddenly thought of something, paused, and added, “Forget the Long family girl.”

The assistant seemed to know what he worried about.

“The Long family heir is a genius. She controls her atavist power quite well already. At the very least, protecting herself won’t be a problem anymore. Yesterday, Chang Rui from the Chang family tried to provoke her and ended up begging for mercy while she held him by the throat.”

Qiu Fa showed a trace of surprise before nodding.

“Then add her too.”

“The Director still hasn’t met the Long family heir, right?” The assistant started the car.

“Why would I?”

“She’s beautiful. And like you, she has the rare ninety-five percent atavist purity. Those people seem eager to see her fight against you.”

“Sounds like something they’d do. The things they can’t accomplish themselves, they push onto children.”

Qiu Fa leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes, preparing to catch up on sleep.

Seeing this, the assistant stopped talking. Silence filled the car as it left the coastal highway and drove onward.

…

Mei Yanlan returned somewhat late.

And when she came back, that same faintly indecent scent of satisfaction clung to her body again.

It easily made people wonder whether, aside from forcing tonic soup into someone’s stomach, she had also drained something else from him.

“Teacher Mei, is Mr. Xiao alright?” Jing Pei asked.

Honestly, Jing Pei had started worrying a little for Xiao Cheng.

Under Mei Yanlan’s bottomless ferocity, this scumbag somehow started looking weak, helpless, and pitiful instead.

“My, what kind of person do you take me for?” Mei Yanlan shot her a teasing glance and licked her lips. “He hasn’t recovered yet. Where would extra reserves come from for me to take? I just pinned him against his office chair and kissed him for a while. You can’t slaughter the duck before it lays eggs.”

Since she couldn’t eat properly for now, she could at least satisfy her cravings a little.

“You really know how to raise ducks,” Jing Pei said in admiration. “Too bad I’m not from the Seahorse Demon Clan or Succubus Clan. Otherwise I’d truly have to learn from you, Teacher.”

Mei Yanlan burst into laughter, swaying like blooming flowers.

“But you’re a dragon.”

For once, Jing Pei failed to understand what she meant.

Mei Yanlan still possessed professional ethics as a teacher and stopped there instead of elaborating with a student.

“You’re far too lovable. Come on, let’s continue class.”

The slow realization finally hit Jing Pei.

…Eh?

…

Hujing Prefecture’s drama captivated the entire nation. Everyone cursed that psychopathic killer.

Meanwhile, the psychopathic killer himself watched the situation with great interest.

For once, he changed from the central figure into a mere spectator enjoying the gossip.

Was someone copying his crimes?

“Hehehehehe…”

Facing the mirror, he revealed a strange smile. He casually picked up a human-skin mask hanging above the mirror and placed it over his face.

Very quickly, he became someone else entirely.

Behind him stood a wall covered in photographs of dead people.

Every single one depicted his victims after death.

Some died from poison.

Some from stabbing.

Some from slit throats.

All masterpieces of his.

Before death, every victim revealed the same horrified, betrayed expression.

Because at those moments, he usually wore the appearance of the person they trusted most.

Being killed by someone you trust must hurt terribly, right?

Like most psychopathic killers, he also possessed an unfortunate childhood.

His mother was a control freak.

His father was a useless drunk.

The two fought constantly.

Because his IQ reached one hundred and eighty, his mother pinned all hopes of escaping her trash husband and entering high society onto him. She became extremely strict, forbidding him from making friends because it would waste study time.

His classmates considered him a freak and mocked him.

Only his grandmother ever gave him warmth.

Then, when he was eleven, his grandmother died.

The loss devastated him.

And after a chemistry experiment left half his face destroyed by corrosive gas, even more classmates started calling him a monster.

So he stopped attending school and educated himself at home.

He learned how to make fake skin and false muscles.

How to create disguises indistinguishable from reality.

And then he began imitating other people.

His criteria for selecting victims followed only one rule:

Their children.

He hated the classmates who mocked him at school.

If he decided some child behaved rudely toward him or made him uncomfortable, then one of that child’s parents would become his prey.

Children with such poor manners must have terrible parents.

So lose one parent.

Feel pain.

Grow up again.

Whether the parents divorced or separated never entered his considerations.

Sometimes he didn’t even care about the “child’s” age.

As long as they had parents, that was enough.

Clearly, this copycat killer knew nothing about the real killer’s victim-selection pattern, just like the police.

Because the Ouyang couple had no children.

They did not fall within his hunting grounds.

Still—

Watching whether the imitator could successfully kill his prey sounded entertaining too.

…

Night fell.

Most of the Ouyang household staff had been temporarily dismissed. Only two maids remained behind to cook and handle basic cleaning.

Police officers would now stay inside the mansion long-term, providing close protection for Madam Ouyang.

The Ouyang family ranked among Hujing Prefecture’s largest taxpayers and held enormous influence over the local economy. The government took this matter extremely seriously. Orders from above demanded absolute vigilance without the slightest lapse.

At this point, even food entering the house would likely undergo careful testing to confirm it contained no poison.

At present, nobody suspected that the death notice did not come from the real killer at all—

But was merely part of someone’s carefully staged performance.

Madam Ouyang still appeared perfectly calm, though nobody found that strange. Her personality had always been like this. Ever since her youth, she had carried herself with quiet composure, neither elated by gain nor shaken by loss, never the sort to panic or lose control at the slightest disturbance.

Elegant.

Cultured.

Brave.

And fierce in love and hate alike.

She even found time to go up to the rooftop and water the vegetables she planted herself. This happened to be her peculiar hobby. Despite the estate possessing enormous gardens, she preferred growing vegetables on the rooftop terrace.

Because of that, there were no surveillance cameras on the rooftop.

It was a rare untouched corner.

She disliked living under constant watch.

Mr. Ouyang carried a pot of fruit tea upstairs. The moment he saw her bent over watering vegetables, a sharp light flashed through his eyes.

Slowly, he approached her from behind.

Memories surfaced one after another in his mind, though none of the beautiful ones. Instead, he recalled only the moments that humiliated him.

He no longer loved this woman at all.

He only wanted her dead, so his new lover and child could take her place.

“Husband.”

Just before his hand reached her back, Madam Ouyang suddenly spoke.

He froze.

Then placed both hands lightly on her shoulders.

“I’m here.”

Forget it.

No need to act in such a hurry.

There would be plenty of chances later.

Still, he could not delay too long. The little maid worried too much already, and stress would affect the pregnancy. This was his first child. Who knew whether he would ever have another?

“Perhaps because my life is under threat, I remembered many things from the past today. Back then, you and your mother got thrown out of the family home. You searched for work from morning until night and hid from the rain inside a phone booth. I happened to run inside too, hiding from paparazzi.”

“The booth leaked rainwater, so you took off your jacket and held it above our heads to shield me.”

Mr. Ouyang followed her memories back to that moment as well. His expression softened despite himself.

That had been more than thirty years ago.

A memory from youth.

“After that, I made up my mind about you. My parents opposed us the whole time, and I fought them stubbornly for your sake. You told me not to do that. You said that if you couldn’t earn their approval yourself, then that only proved your own incompetence.”

“So you worked desperately to prove your sincerity. In the end, my parents still refused to agree, yet I married you anyway.”

“After marriage, I gave you all my savings, started a business together with you, used my connections to help you secure deals, and worked until I lost our child without even realizing I was pregnant. Then because I rushed back to work before recovering properly, I damaged my health and could no longer conceive easily.”

“You said we didn’t need children between us. You said your love for me would never change.”

“Do you remember?”

The smile on Mr. Ouyang’s face stiffened bit by bit.

The corners of his mouth drooped.

Those hateful memories he despised flooded back once more.

Of course she remembered every debt clearly.

Of course she also believed he only achieved today’s success because of her.

“How could I forget?” he forced out. “What’s wrong, wife? Don’t worry. Nothing will happen to you.”

“I know.”

She spoke with strange meaning layered beneath the words.

Her eyes studied his face carefully, as though trying to carve his features permanently into memory.

“Tell me… why do you think that killer targeted me?”

“How would I know? Didn’t the police already say this psychopath chooses victims without any pattern? Any class, any age, any gender could become his target.”

“Really? I keep feeling something is strange. Tell me…” She stared directly into his eyes. “Could this all be some deliberate smokescreen?”

“Smokescreen?”

Sweat began forming across Mr. Ouyang’s forehead.

His throat turned painfully dry.

He desperately wanted water.

Right then, Madam Ouyang bent down and poured tea.

She always drank several cups of fruit tea after dinner. The sweet-sour taste aided digestion and quenched thirst well.

Mr. Ouyang hurried to take the cup.

But Madam Ouyang shifted the cup aside, avoiding his hand entirely.

Still staring at him, she asked:

“Yes. What do you think? Could someone inside this house want me dead and deliberately frame that psychopathic killer?”

“No way, right?” Mr. Ouyang’s heart pounded wildly. His throat felt even drier. “You treat people so well, even the servants. Who could be such an ungrateful bastard?”

People who felt guilty always developed the urge to drink water.

So he poured himself a cup of fruit tea and swallowed it down in one gulp.

The flavor tasted strange.

Moments later, agonizing pain erupted through his stomach like burning fire.

Everything inside him surged upward uncontrollably together with blood—

A scream shattered the estate’s silence once again.

Police cars and ambulances rushed over at top speed.

The reporters staking out the estate outside smelled blood like sharks.

They chased the ambulance all the way to the hospital and captured footage of Madam Ouyang collapsing in grief and wailing in sorrow.

…

Mei Yanlan’s final tutoring session truly carried the intent of stuffing every scrap of her knowledge about atavist power control directly into Jing Pei’s brain.

By the time Jing Pei left her apartment, even a dragon atavist like her felt tired.

The weather felt heavy and oppressive, as though rain would arrive soon.

Summer refused to fully arrive, lingering between heat and chill in a way that left people irritated.

Jing Pei rolled down the car window for air.

Qiu Fa tugged open his collar.

Although he had caught and eaten plenty of bluefin tuna while swimming through the sea earlier, an entire afternoon had passed, and his stomach now growled like thunder.

He needed to return to the Tribunal Division cafeteria for food.

He really should have packed fish in the car beforehand.

“That’s a Long family car, isn’t it?” the assistant driving in front remarked.

Qiu Fa lifted his eyes casually and spotted the dragon crest beside the license plate at once.

It truly was a Long family vehicle.

The cars stopped at a red light.

The assistant pulled forward and halted beside the Long family car.

Turning his head, Qiu Fa saw through the open car window—

The girl lowered her head and rummaged through her bag before pulling out a package. She took a preserved plum from inside and placed it into her mouth.

Sweetness, sourness, and salt bloomed across her tongue.

A faint smile curved her lips.

The wind blew a strand of hair across her cheek, and she tucked it behind her ear.

The red light turned green.

Both cars started moving at the same time, then quickly split apart at the fork ahead—one drove up onto the overpass, while the other continued straight.

Meanwhile, elsewhere nearby, if Jing Pei had turned her head, she would have seen Long Ling and Tang Qiaoqiao walking arm in arm through the lively crowds. They were shopping for new clothes and accessories, preparing for tomorrow’s confession.

Jing Pei was looking at her phone.

Just moments ago, another email arrived.

Well, perhaps “new” was not quite accurate.

【Can you send me the information about that psychopathic killer again? I can pay more.】

It was the second client from earlier today.