The drama in Yunjin Prefecture had, for now, stolen the attention of the people online. But time did not stop because of that. In another prefecture, the case everyone had been watching so closely was still unresolved, and it was becoming more dangerous.

“If they can’t tell which one is real within twenty-four hours, then it will be bad,” said a Tribunal Division officer from that prefecture with a frown. The curse only gave them twenty-four hours to tell real from fake. If they guessed wrong or let the time run out, the real young master of the Zhuang family would die.

Their people were already looking for the Atavist who cast the curse, but even if they found that person, the only way to break the curse was still to identify the real one.

“Based on what the maid said, he was completely fine during lunch. Around one o’clock he went back to his room for an afternoon nap. Then after three in the afternoon, when she went to wake him, that was when she found out something had happened. If he went to the bathroom, he would usually see a mirror, so he was most likely cursed during his nap.”

“If we assume he was cursed sometime between one and two, then it’s almost noon now. There are only three hours left.”

“It looks like the person who cast the curse could move in and out of this house freely. They might even still be hiding somewhere in the house.”

“That’s impossible. That person definitely isn’t here. Atavists carry Atavist power on them. If they were still here, the Tribunal Division would have found them.”

“That’s strange, though. The maid said no strangers came to the house…”

“Unless the maid is lying…”

The detectives all started thinking hard. With the family’s permission, they could move around the house and look for clues. Since the detectives didn’t know Young Master Zhuang personally, all they could do was try to find some way to tell the two apart through the surroundings.

The chance was small, but Mr. and Mrs. Zhuang had no one else to rely on. They could not tell which one was really their son, and they now sat on the sofa looking upset and miserable.

Mo Weiwei stood in front of the two boys, with Tao Ze beside him, but Tao Ze couldn’t tell anything at all.

“Did you hurt your neck?” Mo Weiwei asked, his dark eyes fixed on their necks. There seemed to be some shadow under the collar. At first it looked like an ordinary shadow from the collar, but on closer look, it was bruising.

The two boys showed the same expression and made the same motion of covering their necks. As they moved, the sleeves of their sleepwear slipped back a little, showing the same patches of bruising on their arms.

“This…” Tao Ze’s eyes widened a little.

“I bumped into something by accident,” said the young master of the Zhuang family, touching his arm.

There were three live-in maids in the Zhuang household. Mo Weiwei went to each one and asked, “Do you know what those injuries on his body are from?”

The first maid said she didn’t know.

The second maid said she didn’t know either, but she had already seen injuries on the young master’s body when she first started working there three years ago. She also said that he wore long sleeves and long pants almost all year round and kept himself completely covered.

The third maid, the oldest one and the one who had worked there the longest, was also the one who had discovered yesterday afternoon that the young master had become two people. She said, “The young master is in poor health. He bruises easily if he bumps into anything. It’s nothing important.”

“Why didn’t you mention this to the other maids?”

“There was no real reason to tell the other maids about something like that, was there?”

Tao Ze felt that she seemed to want to say more, but after looking toward Mr. and Mrs. Zhuang and the young master, she held it back. He didn’t have time to think about it further, because Mo Weiwei had already turned and left.

Like the other detectives, Mo Weiwei explored the house. Young Master Zhuang’s room was one place everyone had to check. One book had already been opened by another detective. It had been turned to a page where someone had written in blue ink: “It hurts so much. If only I weren’t like this.”

Soon, he found a stack of Young Master Zhuang’s medical exam reports in the butler’s room.

“Young Master Zhuang is in poor health,” Tao Ze said as he picked them up and checked them. Every physical indicator on the reports was much lower than that of a normal person. That was probably why he looked smaller and thinner than other boys his age. “There’s even malnutrition on here??”

That was too strange. In a family like this, how could their only young master be malnourished?

“Why would his medical reports be in the butler’s room?”

“Because they’re all hiding the same secret,” Mo Weiwei said. But there was also confusion on his now fair and healthy-looking face, as if something about it all didn’t fit together in his mind.

As Tao Ze thought about all these clues, he started getting a bad feeling. Parents who couldn’t tell which one was their only son, a butler hiding the young master’s medical reports, a maid who seemed to be lying, a rich family’s son who was somehow malnourished, and suspicious bruises on his body… this had better not turn into one of those twisted family crime cases that needed the police.

……

From inside the car, Jing Pei watched that whole lively show and could already imagine Long Ling’s reaction. It would be the biggest fall of Long Ling’s life.

Without the dragon pearl, Long Ling’s ability could not keep up with her ambition. That was why just a few small fry were enough to scare her into showing her true face.

In the original story, she was one of the important characters of this ensemble novel. Because she got the dragon pearl early and gained the strength to match her ambition, it was extremely, extremely, extremely hard to make her expose her true self in front of others, which was why she survived all the way to the end.

Mm… so I really am the biggest variable.

“Young Master, where are you going today?” the driver in front suddenly asked. Jing Pei had not told him the destination yet.

At that, Jing Pei’s gaze flickered a little. She looked up at him. “It’s not the weekend. Of course I’m going to school. Why would you ask that?”

“Ah… I-I forgot. I thought you might want to go to the Tang family or to the hospital to see Miss Long Ling, haha…” the driver said stiffly, sweat pouring down him.

“Haha, I’m just joking.” Jing Pei curved her eyes like a child whose prank had worked. “Head to the city first.”

“Yes, Young Master.” The driver let out a breath, though his heart was still hammering.

The car had just entered the city when Jing Pei’s phone rang. It was Tang Qiaoqiao.

“Are you at home? Can I come see you?”

Because Long Ling’s application video had been exposed, the Tang family found out that Tang Qiaoqiao had not actually been out with Chen Mo the night before. They called her home, gave her a harsh scolding, and pressed her over and over about what had happened last night. She refused to say anything, which made the whole family furious. For the first time, they truly gave her a harsh dressing-down.

After running back to her room, Tang Qiaoqiao called Jing Pei right away.

She desperately wanted to know what had happened to Wen Yuxian and Zhang Simiao, and what they were supposed to do next. Yes, those four people had already been killed by Jing Pei, but Wen Yuxian and Zhang Simiao had clearly been exposed. She couldn’t think of anything they could do after this. No matter how she thought about it, it all felt hopeless.

“I’m not home,” Jing Pei said. “I’m getting ready to go shopping.”

“What? …B-but… then… then what about Teacher Wen? What about him and Zhang Simiao?” Tang Qiaoqiao asked. “Something this huge happened. How can you still be in the mood to go shopping?”

Jing Pei turned to look out at the sky. In the distance, with the excellent eyesight of a Dragon Atavist, she could clearly see the small cube hanging in the sky, wrapped in several chains like a cage.

“Don’t worry. I already have a plan. Three days from now, I’ll make sure they can live in this world legally and safely. No one will be able to touch even a single hair on their heads,” Jing Pei said.

“Really? How? C-can you really say that?”

Jing Pei’s gaze swept over the driver in front, whose neck was covered in sweat, and she smiled. “Yes, I can say it. At the meeting, I’m going to persuade the other Atavist families to send Zhang Simiao up to the sky.”

Tang Qiaoqiao froze. “What?”

“Up there. To the side of that Judgment Angel. Beside the young master of the Lou family.”

The Great Cosmic Convergence brought lifeforms beyond anything humanity had ever imagined. It wasn’t only creatures like dragons and phoenixes that seemed to have stepped out of Eastern myths. Beings that looked like they came from Western myths appeared too.

Because of that, Demon Atavists and Angel Atavists both existed in this world.

However, when those families appeared in the East, Western countries started competing to invite them over, treating them like national treasures and giving them endless followers. At present, the only family in Hualan with angel blood was the Lou family.

The Lou family was now the only Angel Atavist family left in the East. And the only son of the current Lou family head, Lou Ting, was the strongest Angel Atavist in the world—and the only six-winged Judgment Angel.

Because of that, ever since people in the West learned he was being kept in the sky, attacks against Hualan online had never stopped. Western governments had also kept trying to take Lou Ting away. But he was a living person, with his own family. He was not some item to be handed over just because someone asked. Even if it were possible in theory, the government would never agree.

Lou Ting’s power was simply too terrifying and too extreme. That was why he had been sent up into the sky from the day he was born. But now, that same terrifying power could perfectly protect Zhang Simiao.

“As long as we send Zhang Simiao up there, then no one with bad intentions toward her will be able to reach her alive,” Jing Pei said with a smile.

Tang Qiaoqiao was stunned. She stood there speechless for a long while before finally stammering, “L-L-Lou Ting… will he agree?”

“I have a way to make him agree.”

The sweat on the driver’s neck grew heavier and heavier, until the back of his shirt was soaked through.

……

“What? Lou Ting?!” The long-haired researcher in a white robe changed color and started pacing around the lab in growing agitation. “Tsk… tsk… tsk…”

“Doctor! What do we do? That’s Lou Ting! The Judgment Angel! We have no way to deal with an ability like his. If Zhang Simiao really gets sent up there, then the test subject we spent four hard years finding will be gone!” the man said anxiously. They never expected Jing Pei to slap them in the face like this.

Not long ago, they had still believed Jing Pei simply hadn’t yet taken a proper beating from society. She didn’t understand that the rules of the world existed whether she liked them or not. Even if a miracle happened and she really managed to persuade the other Atavist families to let Zhang Simiao live, there was no way she could still protect her from them. They had plenty of ways to get to Zhang Simiao.

And now she wanted to send Zhang Simiao to Lou Ting?!

It was true. If Lou Ting really agreed to protect Zhang Simiao, then they truly would have no way to lay a hand on her.

“Should I gamble? Should I gamble? Should I gamble?” The doctor bit his nails so hard his teeth clicked. “If I lose, the precious test subject is gone. How much longer before the Atavist Serum can take another step forward? …No. I can’t gamble. I have to win.”

Then he turned toward the man. “Before the meeting Long Jin called can begin, we must get Zhang Simiao. Go do it!”

“Yes!”

Qiu Fa was very hard to deal with, and snatching her from his hands was impossible. But he was still on the ground, and he still had a job. There was room to work around him. There was still a chance.

If Zhang Simiao was truly sent up into the sky, then there would be no chance at all.