The autumn wind swept away the summer heat, and Qianlong Prefecture entered its most comfortable season.

Under golden sunlight, sounds of punches, kicks, and pained cries came from a small alley not far from the school.

A boy with soft, chocolate-colored hair stood outside the alley, leaning straight against the wall, reading a book. From the corner of his eye, he noticed someone appear at the end of the road. He closed his book, leaned in, and said, “Miaomiao, the dean’s coming.”

Only then did the girl inside stop kicking. She crouched down and patted the beaten man’s face. “If you dare bother Li Mianmian again, next time I’ll strip you and hang you at your school gate. Got it? You think you can mess with girls from No. 6 High? Take a look at yourself first.”

The man, bruised and swollen, cried as he said, “N-no… I won’t…”

“Miaomiao.”

“Coming, coming!”

The girl, who just moments ago looked fierce like a lone wolf, changed the instant she looked up. It was as if the change came from deep inside. Her smile turned bright and sweet. She ran over, grabbed the hand reaching in from outside the alley, and ran off with him.

Not long after, an angry shout came from behind. “Zhang Simiao! Was it you again?!”

Yeah, it was me! So what? Bleh!

Zhang Simiao turned back and stuck out her tongue, then looked at Wen Yuxian with a bright smile that made it hard for him to look away. And from her eyes, it was clear his smile was just as bright.

Zhang Simiao was a student at Linglong No. 6 High and was known as the school’s big sister. She had been skilled at fighting since she was young. Her father was a boxing coach, and she had been trained early on. Among people her age, she was almost unbeatable.

Since kindergarten, she had been the leader. Girls competed to give her candy, boys rushed to follow her, and she was always surrounded by people.

She had large almond-shaped eyes and soft cheeks, so even when she looked fierce, there was still a hint of softness to her. It was hard to say whether she won others over by strength or by cuteness.

Wen Yuxian had been one of her followers since kindergarten. It started when she beat up a kid who mocked him for not knowing his father. In truth, that child was from another kindergarten, and she was very protective. She would not let kids from other schools bully her own.

This follower of hers was quiet and bookish, from a single-parent family, and looked easy to bully. So Zhang Simiao often gave him extra “attention,” like ordering him around. That was her way of showing he mattered so others wouldn’t pick on him.

Wen Yuxian seemed to understand without needing it explained. He always listened, doing whatever she asked. He even worked hard on his own to help her, often bringing her candy and food she liked. Zhang Simiao was very satisfied with him.

At the age of eleven, her popularity dropped. Her father got into a dispute and punched someone to death. She became the daughter of a killer, and the people around her disappeared.

Only Wen Yuxian stayed.

“Why are you still following me? No one should be bullying you now,” she said, her clear eyes dim as she looked at him coldly.

Wen Yuxian scratched his head and smiled. “There are still quite a few. If I don’t follow you, I don’t feel safe.”

“Idiot. Following me now will only get you mocked more.”

“Mm… it’s different. With you in front, what I get isn’t that bad.”

“…” Why is he saying something so annoying with such an innocent face? Is this really my obedient follower? Was he secretly complaining about me all along?

Zhang Simiao suddenly realized his true side. She felt annoyed, but somehow her attention shifted, and the gloom in her eyes faded a little.

She threw her schoolbag at him. “If you’re going to be a follower, act like one. Carry my bag!”

“Oh.” Wen Yuxian obediently put on her little yellow chick backpack. As always, he followed behind her while reading, but his eyes often drifted to her, watching her swinging ponytail as she walked ahead in anger.

As he passed a glass window, he glanced at his reflection and noticed that he had started smiling without realizing it.

Wen Yuxian’s mother came from a scholarly family. She was quiet, beautiful, and well-known in the town, with many admirers. But one day, she suddenly became pregnant and insisted on keeping the child. Her parents felt ashamed and drove her out.

Small towns thrive on gossip. Perhaps people also envied her beauty and ability. The story was repeated again and again for years, and Wen Yuxian grew up under cold stares.

Zhang Simiao was the only person he met who was not influenced by adults. Even as a child, she had her own thoughts. She never threw away the candy he gave her because others said it came from a “bad woman.” In fact, she even grabbed more.

She was also the only one who accepted his invitation to his home. She ate heartily, finishing three bowls of rice. His mother hadn’t cooked enough and had to go out to buy more. When Zhang Simiao tried to help wash dishes and broke her mother’s favorite plate, his mother was still very happy.

Wen Yuxian liked her.

He liked her sense of justice, her ability to think on her own, her courage to question adults, and her honesty—liking what she liked, disliking what she disliked, never pretending. She was nothing like people who acted one way in public and another in private.

He liked her when he was young, and he still liked her as he grew older.

They went to kindergarten together, then elementary school, then middle school. They were always together, never apart. With him by her side, she made it through her hardest years.

Then, in their final year of middle school, Wen Yuxian suddenly experienced atavism. Two black ears appeared on his head, like a young dog’s—one standing, one drooping. His sense of smell became sharp, and his body grew more hair, making him look almost like a creature.

Zhang Simiao held his head and rubbed his ears, laughing loudly, while Wen Yuxian whined in protest.

“You look even more like a puppy! So cute!” she said, rubbing harder.

The atavism period usually happens between the womb and age fifteen. Wen Yuxian had changed at the very last moment. To learn to control this power, he had to leave home and go to the Twelve Zodiac Academy in the capital.

“I’m going,” he said, reluctant to leave, his eyes red.

“Go on, go on,” she said with a smile.

He pushed his luggage toward the dock. But as he walked, the space around him suddenly grew dark. A sudden unease rose in his chest. He quickly turned back and saw nothing but darkness behind him. It swallowed Zhang Simiao bit by bit, like a monster.

Wen Yuxian suddenly opened his eyes, covered in cold sweat. A pair of hands carefully reached over with a towel. He reached out, held those fingers, and rested his head against them.

“Don’t leave me,” he said softly.

【I will never leave you.】

…

Chen Mo suddenly had an idea.

He had found a new way to track the case.

The film on the car.

This kind of film was clearly custom-made. Ordinary people would not order something like this, especially not a double-person image. It was expensive and not very useful for scaring others. If they wanted to scare people, putting images of several tough men would make more sense.

So the seller might remember this customer.

If he found the shop that made the film, and then found the person who ordered it, wouldn’t he know who the original owner was?

I’m a genius!

With that thought, he immediately started working. Even during class, he secretly used his phone to search online for shops that sold such films, asking them one by one.

He searched the whole day. His eyes were sore from staring at the screen. Just when he thought it was hopeless, one shop owner replied:

【We actually did make this exact film.】

He perked up.

【Really?! Are you sure?】

After getting a confirmed answer, he immediately contacted Officer Huang and asked him to talk to the shop owner. Only the police would be able to get a customer list.

Officer Huang: “…Why are you still investigating this?”

“You wouldn’t understand the pain of obsessive tendencies!” Chen Mo said. He wanted to give up, but he couldn’t stop himself from chasing a result.

Since Chen Mo had found a lead, Officer Huang didn’t ignore it. The mysterious man was likely not a bad person, but he had indeed killed someone. Even if the victim was a terrible criminal, by law, it was still homicide.

That was under ordinary law. Among those he killed, one was a Mutant. If the Tribunal Division took over the case, then whether he would be punished or not would depend on the laws of the atavist world.

Soon, Officer Huang got the customer information from the online shop.

The name was just a username. The address was a pickup point. The phone number was fake. And the order had been placed three years ago. There was no way to identify the person through surveillance or memory.

The lead was gone again?!

Chen Mo slammed his head against the desk, close to breaking down.

He stared at the username: “Wang Miao.” It suddenly felt familiar.

Wang Miao? Why does it feel familiar? Where have I seen it before? Is there someone in the class with that name? Not in the atavist class. In the ordinary class? He only remembered Long Ling and Wu Ying’s younger brother Jiang Qing, so…

Suddenly, his eyes landed on a package box in the corner of the classroom.

His heart began to race. He quickly walked over, picked it up, and saw the recipient name: “Wang Meow.”

That’s it. That’s why it felt familiar. Wen Yuxian’s packages always used this name—Wang Meow, Wang Miao… were they just a coincidence?

But just then, a line from Officer Huang suddenly came back to him.

—“I met Teacher Wen before, and I even suggested letting you handle this case. But he thought the risk was too high and didn’t want you involved.”

Teacher Wen had contacted this case before. Then, when they started investigating, he happened to take sick leave. And the night before that, one of the real killers in the human bone case died. Could it be… he was injured while killing that person?

He hadn’t noticed it before, but once he did, it felt like too much of a coincidence.

“Hey, Chen Chick, school’s out.” Tang Qiaoqiao tapped his shoulder, then froze at his expression. “What’s wrong? Your face looks terrible.”

“…No. It’s nothing.” Chen Mo stood up, gave her a deep look, and quickly left the classroom.

Officer Huang called to ask if he had found anything new. Chen Mo said no. Sitting in his car, his mind was in chaos. No way… it couldn’t be Teacher Wen. He’s a good person… right?

He accessed the shopping platform and checked the purchase history under Wen Yuxian’s accounts.

He found that Wen Yuxian had been buying large amounts of biodegradable plastic bags.

The plastic bags he bought were more expensive than normal biodegradable ones. After being opened and exposed to air, they would break down within about a night. Some of them were also extremely large—far bigger than what most people would ever need in daily life.

It was too suspicious. It was hard not to connect this to the bones that had been dumped into the river and gone missing. If they had been stored in a large bag, they would not easily be carried far by the current or quickly broken down by bacteria and fish. But if the bag had already degraded and the bones scattered, that would be a different story.

At this point, he could not stop. Wen Yuxian was a teacher at the Twelve Zodiac Academy, and also someone Tang Qiaoqiao liked. If he really had some hidden dangerous side, it could put his classmates and friends at risk.

But Chen Mo did not know what to do anymore. He could not handle this alone. After thinking it through, he decided to ask for help. He contacted his teammates—Feng Yilian, Jing Pei, and Tao Ying.

He did not contact Tang Qiaoqiao, worried that anything involving Wen Yuxian might make her lose control and ruin things.

Just then, the robots searching for bones under the riverside bridge sent him a message. They had finally found them—a large number of bones!

【In that case, let’s meet at the riverside bridge.】Feng Yilian said in the group chat.

…

When Jing Pei received the call, she was saying goodbye to Mei Yanlan.

Her whole body ached. There were bruises all over her, even on her face. She looked as if she had just been badly beaten, and her steps were a bit unsteady.

Mei Yanlan had not been wrong—she really could not control her strength well during combat training. After all, besides being a primary school teacher, her other line of work required her to strike hard.

But thanks to that, the combat instincts in her Dragon Atavist blood were awakened much faster.

Hearing what Chen Mo said did not surprise her much. When someone has touched the main thread of events, fate pulls strongly on them. Feng Yilian and the others had stopped investigating, but Chen Mo kept going because of his obsessive tendencies. It was as if he had unknowingly become a force that corrected the course of events, pushing things back onto their original path.

Jing Pei let out a sigh and said to Mei Yanlan, “Thank you for today, Teacher Mei. Can we continue tomorrow?”

“I feel like you’ve discovered something and are preparing for something in the future,” Mei Yanlan said with a smile.

“Yes,” Jing Pei replied with a smile. “If possible, I hope I can count on your help when that day comes.”

“That depends on what it is,” Mei Yanlan said, raising an eyebrow.

She hummed a tune and walked back home, swaying her hips. Thinking about her husband and her old classmate at home only made her mood better.

She even hoped Fang Bihe would stay a few more days. The feeling of taking control in such a situation was oddly exciting—almost like something out of a drama.

At this moment, Jing Pei finally had time to check her email. She saw a new message—it was from Madam Ouyang.

【Can you help me? I’ll pay whatever you want!】

From that one sentence, Jing Pei could almost feel her helplessness and despair. Reaching out to someone like her—an information broker of uncertain background—showed she had no other options left.

Had the police discovered something?

The Ouyang case in Hujing Prefecture had drawn widespread attention. If mishandled, it could even affect the region’s economy. The police had devoted significant manpower to the investigation. Since the crime scene was largely contained within the Ouyang Estate, it had saved them some effort.

After investigation, they found that the substance in Mr. Ouyang’s fruit tea came from a storage room in the estate where pesticides and insecticides were kept.

The estate was large, with plants and a lake. Pests like cockroaches, rats, and insects could not be completely eliminated, so such supplies were necessary for regular maintenance. One of the pesticide bottles contained a relatively high level of the substance, but its smell was not strong. Even when mixed in sufficient quantity, the faint bitter almond scent was partly masked by the sweetness of the fruit tea.

However, all the surveillance cameras had been removed earlier by Mr. Ouyang, who said they were outdated and needed replacing. It now backfired—there was no way to see who had entered the storage room or touched the pesticide.

At the time, the staff had been removed from the estate under police suspicion, leaving the house mostly empty. The pot of fruit tea had also been prepared by Mr. Ouyang himself for Madam Ouyang.

“The poison must have been added either to the preserved fruit, the teapot, or the boiled water.”

“Those who entered the kitchen that day were Mr. Ouyang, his mother, a maid, another cook, and Madam Ouyang’s younger sister. Madam Ouyang herself never entered.”

“Could it have been Madam Ouyang’s sister?”

There was a fifteen-year age gap between the sisters. The younger one had been doted on since childhood. They shared a very close bond. When Madam Ouyang was still a film star, her sister had been her biggest supporter.

If she discovered her brother-in-law had betrayed her sister and even planned to kill her, it would not be impossible for her to kill him in anger.

The young officer who suggested this was immediately criticized by a senior—such speculation could not be made without evidence.

“Besides, when the sister entered the kitchen, she was with Mr. Ouyang’s mother. Since there weren’t enough staff at the time, they had to handle some tasks themselves. They went in to get dessert. She didn’t have the chance to commit the crime.”

Madam Ouyang had been sent back to the estate, but since the main residence was now a crime scene, she could only stay in the secondary building.

She watched coldly as the police searched through her home. Her mother-in-law also lived here, and her gaze toward her was full of suspicion and hatred, as if she had already decided she was the one who killed her son.

“What kind of look is that? It was your son who poisoned my sister and tried to kill her—he only got what he deserved!” Madam Ouyang’s sister shouted angrily. “You’re just like him—cold and ungrateful! If it weren’t for my sister, you wouldn’t have what you have today. Shameless ingrates! He deserved to die. This is justice from heaven!”

After the maid contacted her, the old woman immediately called the police. She even transferred money to the maid right away and said she would take care of her pregnancy, afraid something might happen to her precious grandchild.

“What did you say? Everything my son has was earned by his own efforts! And you dare take the credit? No wonder he wanted to kill—he was driven to it by all of you!” The old woman raised her cane at once.

The younger sister raised her sharp manicured nails, baring her teeth, ready to claw at her.

Seeing that a fight was about to break out, the police hurried over to stop them.

At that moment, an officer found a small, barely noticeable but somewhat suspicious crystal in the storage room. He picked it up with tweezers and placed it into an evidence bag.

Madam Ouyang stood at the door, staring blankly at the estate. As the officer passed by, the item in the evidence bag seemed to glint briefly in the morning light.

At first, she felt confused. Then her expression changed sharply.

In an instant, she imagined all the possible outcomes. The more she thought, the more pain, helplessness, and despair overwhelmed her. Regret followed, but she had nowhere to turn for help.

So the mysterious information broker—who seemed to know everything—appeared in her mind again.

After sending her request for help, she sent another message—a full confession, explaining everything from beginning to end to show her sincerity.

She believed that even if the broker had other motives, they were not trying to send her to prison. Otherwise, they would not have agreed to give her information about the assassin before, allowing her to create false evidence.

After reading the message, Jing Pei sighed. She replied and then hurried to the riverside bridge.

Like her, Feng Yilian and the others had no appetite for dinner. When Jing Pei arrived, Chen Mo and Feng Yilian were already there. Feng Yilian leaned against a red sports car, wearing a black shirt, her slightly long black hair loose, a cigarette in her mouth. She looked both beautiful and somber.

As Jing Pei arrived, another car pulled up. Tao Ying got out with her fiancé—the expressionless boy with many hair ties around his wrist.

Everyone looked tense. Wen Yuxian was a teacher they all liked. The thought that he might be hiding a dangerous secret, that he might even be a killer, made it hard for anyone to feel at ease.

“What happened to you?” Chen Mo shouted when he saw Jing Pei’s bruised face. The others stared at her too.

“Got into a fight.” Jing Pei sniffed. Her nose had been hit too. It wasn’t broken, but it still felt uncomfortable. “Don’t worry about it.”

“….” The young head of the Long family was still hard to figure out.

“Let the robots bring the bones up,” Feng Yilian said, exhaling smoke.

Chen Mo had not dared to bring the robots up earlier, afraid of what he might see.

Now he operated the controller. Somewhere deep in the river, the robots received the signal. Using the nets they carried, they gathered the target and began to drag it upward.

By now, the robots were far from where Chen Mo had originally deployed them. It took more than half an hour for them to return.

When they surfaced, everyone’s hearts sank. Even before reaching the shore, it was clear there were far too many bones. The robots struggled to move forward, as if even their power cores were being pushed to the limit. And according to their data, there were still many bones left at the bottom.

They jumped down near the bridge support and waited for the robots to get closer, then pulled the nets up. The nets were tangled with water plants and thick mud.

Chen Mo did not care about the dirt. He dumped the bones out of the net all at once. With a clatter, the bones spilled out. Everyone shined their flashlights on the pile.

Feng Yilian exhaled and said, “They’re all pig, cow, and sheep bones. Not human.”

That explained why the earlier search robots had failed to find anything. Animal bones were very different from human bones in density and shape. The robots had been set to search for human bones, so naturally they found nothing. This time, Chen Mo simply told them to search for “bones,” and that was why they succeeded.

To be safe, they asked Tao Ying to lead the way to the tree again. After locating the spot, the three boys started digging. In the dark forest at night, to an outsider, it might look like they were burying a body.

After digging nearly two meters down, they finally hit something—still a large number of animal bones. This both relieved and confused them.

Why? If they were just animal bones, why go to such lengths to hide and scatter them in secret?