In that instant, Wen Yuxian’s nerves snapped taut to their limit.

As a teacher at Twelve Zodiac Academy, surrounded by atavist students, he had decent access to news. The Huang–Bai incident caused such a huge stir, and the Bai family even issued a rare public apology to the Huang family. Word spread through atavist circles that a hidden intelligence broker had caused it.

But Wen Yuxian, like everyone else, never gave that broker much thought. He figured he would never cross paths with such a person. Besides, to the outside world he was only an ordinary history teacher at Twelve Zodiac Academy, the sort nobody noticed.

So why did he receive this letter?

What did it mean?

Was the broker hinting that he knew Wen Yuxian’s secret?

That feeling—like a pair of eyes had seen through every dark corner of him—hit like a blade. His heart surged, blood rushed to his head, cold sweat soaked his back.

【What happened? You feel fear.】

“It’s fine. Nothing happened. Don’t worry.” He crushed the business card into a ball and clenched it in his fist, forced a smile, took her hand, and led her upstairs to hide her away.

…

To avoid suspicion later, Jing Pei still planned to follow the usual motions. She did not intend to roam everywhere, but she would visit a few sites and go through the steps.

She went to the nearest bone-dump locations, asked a few people questions with a serious face, and heard details that sounded pointless to others but mattered a lot to her.

Compared to Jing Pei—the one who knew everything and still acted as if she knew nothing—her teammates worked with real diligence. Even Tang Qiaoqiao, after finishing her call with Wen Yuxian, began investigating in earnest.

Feng Yilian stood on the Jiangnan South District Over-the-River Bridge, one of the sites where human bones had been found.

Small boats dotted the water: anglers, and sanitation workers who collected trash from the river. Under the bridge piers, a few drifters lingered. The human bones found here were discovered by a water-cleaning worker, packed into a black garbage bag.

Feng Yilian stepped onto the railing and jumped. In the instant he dropped, his arms spread wide and turned into blazing, splendid phoenix wings. He rose into the air.

The flash of red drew eyes from below. Nobody knew what he was doing. They only saw him circle above the water once, land on the sanitation worker’s boat, and begin asking questions.

“Yeah, yeah, we fished that bag up. Saw it right away, floating there. We thought it was some nasty bastard tossing food bones into the river again, then we saw it was human bones. Scared us half to death.”

Feng Yilian said, “Floating on the surface?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Feng Yilian nodded as if thinking, thanked them, then flew off to question others. Most answers matched the police report, until he spoke with a drifter.

The drifter claimed he had seen it several times: a car crossed the bridge and tossed a black plastic bag from the window. One time the bag tore midair, and he saw bones spill out.

“When?” Feng Yilian asked.

“A-about f-five m-months ago. I…I was s-sleeping and h-heard a plop…”

The drifter stuttered, beard scraggly, hair fit for a bird’s nest. He looked unstable.

“Five months ago?” Feng Yilian frowned. “You sure you remember right?”

“I-I do… I do…”

He stayed under the bridge and the police had questioned him before. He said the same thing then, but nobody valued it because it clashed with the water-cleaners’ account. The sanitation workers found no bones on the surface five months ago. The police still played it safe and sent underwater salvage drones to search for days, and found nothing.

Feng Yilian left with a thoughtful look and headed to the next location.

…

Tao Ying stood in the sunlight. Since the ground underfoot was soil rather than concrete, she had to fight the urge to root herself into the earth and fall asleep.

She trudged to a tree, pressed her hand to the trunk, and murmured, “Tree, tree, I want to root down and nap in the sun so badly… No, focus. Give me some info. What did you see…?”

Atavist power, invisible to the eye, flowed into the trunk. The leaves trembled, like a response.

“Mm-hm, mm-hm. You want fertilizer? O-okay…”

After she pulled her hand back, she nodded, looked around, and spotted a little boy about to pee by the roadside. She waved him over.

“The tree wants fertilizer. Pee here. I’ll give you one yuan.”

She checked several sites and got fragments of information from plants. She grew so tired she nodded off while walking, and her stomach rumbled with hunger.

A car pulled up beside her. A stone-faced boy, carrying a large three-tier lunch box, climbed out and caught her head as she crashed into his chest.

“Ah, I’m so tired. That tree wanted fertilizer too. You gonna pee?”

“You can’t pee by the roadside.”

“Oh.”

“I brought a bag of chemical fertilizer. Don’t teach kids bad habits.”

He guided her to shade, opened the lunch box, and revealed steaming food—meat and vegetables, colors still fresh, clearly prepared not long ago, balanced and hearty. The bottom tier held fish soup simmered to a milky white.

The boy’s sharp-boned wrist was wrapped in several colorful hair ties. He picked up a spoon and started feeding her.

Tao Ying leaned against his shoulder fast asleep, yet still swallowed bite after bite as he fed her. The sight made passersby keep turning their heads.

Ew—sweet and weird.
…But kind of sweet.
…Look again.

…

Chen Mo was assigned to Jiangnan West District, so he was the first to make contact with Captain Huang and the others.

Chen Mo had helped Captain Huang crack cases before, so he remembered the man’s naturally “exploded” hair. Captain Huang also remembered Chen Mo’s black-and-white streaked hair—especially because every time his wife bought luhua chicken, he would think of it again, feel a bit odd about it, then eat with great enthusiasm anyway.

Only now did Captain Huang realize that the Tribunal Division had actually assigned seventh-year students.

“I ran into Teacher Wen earlier and even told him I hoped you could take this case,” Captain Huang said. “But Teacher Wen felt the danger level was too high. He did not seem eager to let you take it.”

“Yeah?” Chen Mo did not really listen. His eyes stayed on the bulky corpse. The forensic team planned to take this body and the family of three from inside the complex back for autopsy, but the three inside had not been carried down yet.

“What is it? You spot something?” Captain Huang’s face turned serious. Could this family annihilation case and the corpse outside be linked to the human-bone case?

“…Sort of. But I’m not telling you yet.” Chen Mo pressed the doubt down.

“Heh. Still cautious, same as always.” Captain Huang waved it off. “Fine, fine. You call the shots now, we support.”

…

Time slid by. The sky dimmed. Teacher Cao began calling each student, urging them to regroup.

Jing Pei was also preparing to get into the car to head back. At that moment, Wen Yuxian finally called her.

“What is your goal?” Wen Yuxian’s voice carried sharp vigilance.

Jing Pei paused with one foot near the car door, the corner of her mouth lifting. She gestured to the driver to wait, stepped back out, and opened the voice-changer app on her phone.

“Hello, Mr. Wen. I think we can cooperate.”

“How much do you know?” Wen Yuxian’s voice held killing intent.

“Puzzle Intelligence Agency—there’s only information you can’t afford. There’s no information you can’t buy.” A shameless business line, delivered with total confidence.

The other end fell silent. Jing Pei could hear his breathing grow heavier. After a while, he asked, “What do you want?”

“What I want, I’ll tell you later. For now, you can tell me what you want.” She paused, then added, “I can give you a steep discount.”

Wen Yuxian stood in the kitchen wearing a pink-and-blue apron, stirring a pot so large it could hold half a person, packed full of meat. His phone hand clenched hard, mind racing.

A bag beside him showed hints of short, coarse white fur and viscera, steeped in a thick stench.

If this broker truly knew everything and still chose not to report him, then the broker probably wanted something from him. If the broker belonged to that side, there would be no need for this performance. So the broker should be a third party.

He tested the line. “If you know everything, then you should know who I fought last night. I want information on the one who escaped—and the monster with him.”

“No problem.”

Soon, the intelligence arrived in his inbox, even listing where they were hiding right now. The ease of it made Wen Yuxian suspicious. Was there a trap? Yet he had no choice but to take the risk.

He knew how capable his students were. Feng Yilian looked indifferent to everything, but once he focused, no clue escaped his eyes. Tao Ying could speak with trees. Wen Yuxian accounted for their abilities before acting, but years had passed. A single gap in his planning could exist. Tao Ying might find a tree that witnessed what he did.

Even Long Jin, awakened less than three months, had reached the point where Mei Yanlan said there was nothing left to teach her.

He had to kill the one who escaped before they found more clues.

…

Long Ling went to the Atavist Division to look for Tang Qiaoqiao and came up empty. Then she learned they were out on a mission—and that Jing Pei was part of the team. The news made her chest ache.

She wanted to join these mission teams too. Yes, missions carried danger, but risk and reward matched. If a case got solved and the culprit caught, then even if her contribution was small, it would outweigh the good name she earned at the school gate by millions.

If Jing Pei and Feng Yilian solved this case together, Jing Pei’s reputation would eclipse hers, making Long Ling’s efforts look petty, desperate, and powerless.

That dragon pearl she dreamed about day and night now seemed impossibly far away.

No. I won’t give up. If I can’t get the dragon pearl, if I can’t stand above others, then living has no meaning!

Fury burned through her as she called Tang Qiaoqiao.

“Qiaoqiao, where are you? I have some materials about Teacher Wen. Do you want to see them?”

Tang Qiaoqiao could not resist temptation like that. But she still had to regroup with Feng Yilian and the others to exchange intel, so she told Long Ling to wait at her home.

The group gathered in a private dining room at a restaurant, shared dinner, and exchanged findings.

Feng Yilian tossed his Rubik’s Cube in one hand as he began to speak.

“I noticed a few suspicious points during today’s investigation,” Feng Yilian said. “First, the riverside bridge. A drifter claimed he saw someone toss out bones five months ago, but the first set of human bones was only discovered four months ago. And the police never found any other bones on the riverbed. Sure, the current might carry them away, but in theory it should not carry them far.

“Second, the river cleaners said they spotted that bag of bones floating on the surface. Human bones have higher density than fresh water. If the bag did not contain enough trapped air, a bag that large should sink. It should not float.”

“Yet for a plastic bag to somehow gain gas inside, keep it, and not leak, that almost has to be deliberate,” Chen Mo said.

Feng Yilian nodded. “Right. That makes it strange. Dumping bones in different places should be about hiding the crime. This looks like someone wanted the bones to float on the river and draw attention.”

Jing Pei held her bowl and ate with both grace and gusto, nodding along as if the logic sounded solid. This restaurant tasted great. She wondered about the dessert. If it also tasted good, she could bring her secret weapon here next time.

“Now that you mention it, I also find it strange,” Tang Qiaoqiao said with a grimace. “If the cannibal eats people, fine, but why leave the bones behind? The hand bones got gnawed clean, like someone chewing chicken feet. Does that monster have that much free time?”

“That part matches,” Chen Mo said. “Some bones have bite marks. It can bite through bone.” He looked at Tao Ying. “Did you find anything?”

Tao Ying was holding her bowl and eating too, and she kept eating while watching Jing Pei, like Jing Pei’s eating made the meal taste better. A grain of rice even stuck to her cheek.

“Ah. A tree said that last spring, it saw someone carry a bag of bones and fur and bury it underground. The tree said it was very nutritious and it loved it, so it did not even need me to add fertilizer.”

“Last spring?” Feng Yilian’s hand paused on his Rubik’s Cube. That was earlier than five months ago.

A drifter might have a scrambled mind, but plants did not. That meant that before the human-bone case even began, someone had already been scattering bones in secret. Nobody knew why the past four months brought frequent discoveries that finally drew police attention.

“Tomorrow I’ll have someone dig there and see what comes up. I’ll also arrange another check of the riverbed.”

“Then I’ll share what I found,” Chen Mo said. “Not sure it links to the human-bone case, but today in Jiangnan West I met Captain Huang and saw a corpse with wounds that look like the close-combat style our school teaches.”

Certain movements leave certain marks. Those marks carry a signature. Anyone trained in the same moves can create the same kind of damage.

Teacher Cao listened in silence as the students laid out their analysis. After they finished, everyone fell quiet. Only crisp chewing sounds filled the private room.

They all looked at Jing Pei.

She was on her second bowl of rice. Her teeth worked like steel. The sound did not come from her smacking her lips. It came from her crushing hard cartilage.

Jing Pei set her bowl and chopsticks down, wiped her mouth, and said, “I did not find any special clue, but I have a question.”

“Go on,” Teacher Cao said.

“Do Mutants really lose all humanity and reason? Could this be a Mutant case, so there is no atavist power, yet it still eats so many people clean and stays hidden?”

“Not possible. I’ve never heard of it,” Teacher Cao said. The others agreed. If there were a way to turn ordinary humans into atavists while keeping reason, the world would spiral into madness.

Jing Pei said nothing more and took tea to clear her palate.

There was a way for a Mutant to keep humanity and reason without any miracle.

They did not know it.

The Tribunal Division knew it.

And that truth was exactly what cornered Wen Yuxian with no road left.