Jing Pei’s fingers curled around the strand of hair that the wind kept brushing across her cheek.

She looked at the client’s repeated request.

Since they were a paying customer, and all she had to do was copy and resend a few lines she already typed, why not?

There was no need to charge more either.

Business required balance.

Money that should be earned could not be left on the table, but stinginess also harmed customer relations.

…

Hujing Prefecture Central Hospital.

Madam Ouyang sat inside the hospital room.

Lying on the bed was the now-dead Mr. Ouyang.

He had already breathed his last before reaching the hospital. Still, under Madam Ouyang’s insistent demands, the doctors carried out a round of futile emergency treatment before finally wheeling him out beneath a white sheet.

Police officers guarded the room outside, giving them one final moment alone together.

Nearby, two officers discussed the case in confusion.

“This time the killer moved way too fast. And he broke his usual order. We already checked on that mother of twins from the earlier case—nothing seems wrong there.”

Some time before the Ouyang family received their death notice, another woman had also received one.

That psychopathic killer sometimes behaved this way—scattering police protection efforts while forcing victims into the terror of waiting their turn to die.

It only highlighted his arrogance further.

Madam Ouyang’s younger sister stood nearby crying with red eyes.

“How did this happen… That lunatic must’ve poisoned something in advance waiting for my sister to drink it, but Brother-in-law drank it first… My sister… how is she supposed to survive this kind of blow…”

The policewoman beside her kept offering comfort.

“You need to stay strong. Right now, you’re your sister’s pillar of support. You still have to hold her up. Don’t collapse first yourself.”

At that moment, the maid rushed over.

Her face looked pale as paper.

The moment she arrived, she blurted out:

“He really died? How could that happen? That’s impossible!”

The younger sister’s gaze turned sharp at once. For a split second, killing intent even flashed through her eyes before she forced it back down.

“You’re supposed to be working at the house, why are you here?” she asked.

The maid seemed to recover some sense then, though the sudden destruction of her beautiful dream still left her unable to accept reality.

And no matter how she thought about it, she could not understand why Mr. Ouyang died.

It should have been…

“How could this happen? How could this happen? Impossible…”

She kept muttering to herself.

“Impossible what?” the younger sister pressed as she stepped closer.

The police also looked at her strangely.

The maid immediately shut her mouth.

“I-I just mean Mr. Ouyang shouldn’t have died. They were both such good people. He shouldn’t have died like this. I just can’t accept it.”

After speaking, she covered her face and burst into tears, hiding herself from the police officers’ hound-like scrutiny.

After all, she and Mr. Ouyang truly had planned together to murder Madam Ouyang.

Naturally she felt guilty.

But—

But they had not acted yet!

That psychopathic killer was only supposed to be their scapegoat. He should never have actually appeared to kill anyone.

So who poisoned the tea?

If Mr. Ouyang suddenly decided to poison it himself, then why was he the one who died?!

How did things become like this?

Wait…

Could it be—

At that moment, the hospital room door flew open.

Madam Ouyang emerged with reddened eyes, clutching her phone. Grief and hatred filled her expression, like someone whose beloved had been stolen away forever.

“I know where that psychopathic killer is hiding. I just bought the information. Arrest him immediately.”

Every officer in the hallway froze before snapping upright.

…

All of Hujing Prefecture followed the Ouyang family case closely.

Why was Madam Ouyang the one who received the death notice, yet Mr. Ouyang ended up hospitalized?

People immediately began filling in the blanks themselves.

Obviously the killer attacked, and Mr. Ouyang got hurt protecting his wife!

Then, not long afterward, news spread that Mr. Ouyang died despite treatment.

The entire prefecture exploded into uproar.

Meanwhile, Hujing Prefecture’s infamous serial killer watched the drama unfold as well.

His brows twisted deeply with irritation toward this useless copycat.

That idiot rushed into action too quickly and even killed the wrong person.

This was ruining his reputation.

He refused to take the blame for such amateur work.

He would prove his true skill personally.

Tomorrow, he would kill his intended target himself and show those foolish police officers that the Ouyang case had nothing to do with him.

Then suddenly—

His heart clenched violently.

A sense of danger surged through him, as though some disaster approached.

He rushed toward the window, lifted the curtain slightly, and saw multiple police cars surrounding his house in complete silence.

…

Even Yunjin Prefecture—the capital, home to the greatest concentration of atavist families and headquarters of the Tribunal Division—fell quiet after midnight.

Doors and windows across every household shut tightly.

One lock became five.

Everyone feared strangers knocking at their door.

No—

Sometimes familiar people knocking felt even more terrifying.

The moonlight itself carried a cold, eerie feeling.

Especially with that monstrous thing imprisoned inside the cage hanging beside the moon.

Yet no matter how carefully people guarded themselves, victims still appeared.

In Jiangnan West District, within a chilly villa district on the outskirts of the city, Wen Yuxian changed clothes.

A hand stretched from the darkness behind him and tugged at his sleeve.

【Don’t go out. Too dangerous!】

He turned around smiling and held that hand gently.

“It’s alright. Don’t worry. Nothing will happen to me.”

【Danger danger danger danger… wu…】

“There won’t be danger. Be good and wait for me at home. I promise I’ll come back soon.”

He insisted on leaving anyway, gently removing the hand before walking out of the house.

He did not drive.

Instead, he burst into motion through the darkness, running faster and faster. His body lowered toward the ground, spine arching upward, and then he seemed to melt into the shadows themselves and vanished from sight.

People who dared move through the city late at night were either powerful enough to protect themselves—

Or they were lunatics, fools, and killers.

…

In a tightly sealed house within Jiangnan West District, the smell of blood filled the air. Blood sprayed across the walls and ceiling.

“He’s not here.” The tall, powerfully built killer sprawled across the sofa while eating food stolen from the victim’s refrigerator.

“He should still be hiding somewhere in this district.” The lanky killer pinched his chin in thought. “So why can’t we find him?”

“If this drags on any longer, the Tribunal Division will show up. Anyone else is fine, but what if that monster Qiu Fa comes personally? I don’t want to fight him.”

Suddenly, the thin man sensed something. He turned toward the window and revealed a strange smile.

“Looks like he’s here.”

“What? Qiu Fa came?!” The larger man jumped upright in fright, sending the takeout container in his hands flying.

“Not him, idiot.” He looked toward one of the rooms behind them. “Hey. Stop eating. Someone’s here.”

…

The pleasant weekend ended, and it became time to wake early for school once more.

Jing Pei ate breakfast with a blank expression yet again.

Why did she, a fully grown adult who graduated years ago, still need to suffer through waking early for school?

In the end, it was still her own fault.

If she had known things would become like this, she never should have abandoned her stories after enjoying herself. If time could reverse, she would immediately crawl back and finish every unfinished plotline.

But to repair her mistakes—and also preserve her own comfortable future—she needed to continue carrying out her plans.

“Sigh.”

The moment she sighed, every member of the Long family at the table turned toward her. Eating and drinking stopped at once.

Clearly, after Saturday’s gathering, her status and prestige within the Long family rose once more—even though she never once tried gathering support around herself.

Unlike Jing Pei, Long Ling woke extremely early.

The moment Jing Pei arrived near the school gate, she saw Long Ling again comforting people who came seeking help. Zhou Qian, the boy Long Ling successfully won over, followed beside her eagerly while handing out water and breakfast together with her.

Jing Pei’s gaze landed on the young boy nearby.

His left eye still remained covered with bandages. He still looked utterly lifeless, like a puppet stripped of its soul, sitting there dirty and numb.

As Long Ling’s future most loyal shadow assassin, he still had not caught her attention.

Though that moment should arrive soon.

He had almost reached the stage where signs of atavist awakening would begin appearing.

As the car entered Twelve Zodiac Academy, Long Ling and the others all looked over.

The one-eyed boy looked over as well.

The instant he noticed the atavist family crest displayed on the vehicle, hatred flashed through his empty eyes. His fists clenched tightly.

He hated atavists.

He wished every single one of them would die.

Yet he still needed to beg one of them for help.

That helplessness made him hate both himself and them.

“Get lost! Stop annoying me!”

The classroom buzzed with noise while Tang Qiaoqiao chased away classmates trying to bother her. She sat alone at her desk with a tense expression.

“What’s with Qiaoqiao? She sounds like she swallowed explosives this morning.”

Chen Mo scratched at his black-and-white hair.

“Do you even need to ask? One look tells you she’s planning to confess to Teacher Wen again. Better stay careful. For the next few days she’ll explode at anything, so stay away from her.”

“Seriously though, isn’t Teacher Wen kind of blind? Qiaoqiao liking him should count as a blessing. Since he doesn’t even have a girlfriend anyway, why not just accept her already—”

“Shut up. If Teacher Wen acted like that, nobody would even like him.”

“But—”

The voices stopped at once.

Because Jing Pei walked in.

The instant she entered, the classroom fell into strange silence.

Everyone recalled the scene from Saturday’s atavist gathering, where she alone got invited into the inner conference room.

Rumor even claimed she clashed with the Chang family’s peacock inside.

The peacock tried hitting her—

Only for Jing Pei to seize his throat with one dragon claw and lift him into the air until he surrendered and begged for mercy.

That peacock possessed genuine strength too. His clan specialized in speed and elegance.

Yet Jing Pei caught him with a single claw as though she grabbed fate itself around the neck.

Just how overwhelming was her atavist power that she could suppress him through pure force alone without technique?

After Jing Pei reached her seat, a few classmates began testing the waters and greeting her cautiously.

“Morning, Long Jin.”

“Morning.”

Jing Pei responded with calm politeness and an easy smile.

As though she never cared about their cold treatment before.

As though she also cared nothing now that they discovered her extraordinary talent and started approaching her.

At that moment, every clever person understood something.

Jing Pei appeared far gentler than Feng Yilian—

Yet entering her circle would likely prove far more difficult than entering his.

The class bell rang.

A teacher entered the room and called out names.

“Feng Yilian, Chen Mo, Tang Qiaoqiao, Tao Ying, and Long Jin. Come with me.”

The group rose and left the classroom, following the teacher toward the principal’s office.

The principal handed several files to them.

“This is a suspected atavist-related case in Jiangnan District. Teacher Cao will lead the operation. Your task is to resolve it.”

“The danger level for this case is extremely high. If the machines fail to detect atavist energy, then you’ll also struggle determining whether the suspect truly is an atavist—or how dangerous they might be.”

“So you must remain alert at all times. Treat every stranger around you with maximum caution.”

Jing Pei opened the shocking case file before her.

At last.

The Wen Yuxian Incident had begun.

“Damn! This is way too many!” Chen Mo had barely flipped through the case files before crying out in shock. “From the first set of completely stripped human bones found four months ago until now, they’ve already discovered more than fifty sets? This has to be an atavist crime. What kind of cannibal could eat that much? And the police still haven’t found a single clue.”

“Could it be a Mutant instead?” Tang Qiaoqiao asked.

Teacher Cao, who brought them over, looked tall and heavily muscled like a fitness coach, though he actually taught Chinese literature. To make himself appear more scholarly, he wore plain glasses. Yet at the same time, he loved showing off his muscles.

Half refreshing, half greasy.

While striking bodybuilder poses every few moments to flex his muscles, he spoke in a refined tone:

“If it were a Mutant, the chances of it remaining hidden this long would be low.”

Mutants referred to the type of monsters from the Qingniao Prefecture subway incident—the same kind that nearly caused Jing Pei’s lawyer protagonist Xiang Huagong to kick the bucket.

They resulted from foreign atavist genes mutating inside the body. Once mutation occurred, the victim usually lost both their identity as “human” and their rationality, transforming completely into monsters.

Their characteristics included massive size, total lack of reason, and overwhelming instinct to feed.

And because of that endless hunger, they rarely managed to conceal themselves for long.

A starving beast possessed little self-control.

“Oh…”

“Alright,” the principal said. “For the next few days, none of you need to attend classes. Go handle this case. You are the finest team among the seventh-years of the Atavist Division—arguably the best in the entire department. Don’t disappoint me.”

Before they left, the principal added:

“Oh, right. Inform your classmates that Teacher Wen has taken sick leave. His classes over the next few days will be handled by Teacher Jiang instead.”