Jing Pei spent the whole afternoon shopping at the mall. After picking out a birthday present Wu Ying would love, she found a popular dessert shop and sat down.

Her watch vibrated once. She opened her email and saw a new message.

[Hello. I’m being held prisoner by the great atavist Zhou family. I want to escape. Can you give me any information that might help me? Please.]

The Zhou family… yes. Judging by the timeline, it was about time for the Zhou family arc. A lot of people were going to die.

In that arc, after Chu Xusheng successfully awakened as an Atavist, he started by letting Long Ling lure Zhou Qian to him so he could kill him. From there, he became a killer who moved through the dark like a butcher at midnight. He slaughtered many members of the Zhou family and, in the process, became a wanted fugitive who could never step into the light again—Long Ling’s blade.

But no matter how many Zhou family members he killed, that kind of revenge never brought him peace. The Zhou family’s evil, Zhou Yongzi’s cruelty—none of it was exposed. In the end, the only real winner was Long Ling.

Then again, the hatred between the Zhou family and Chu Xusheng had little to do with the main plot. It was only a small side story in the book. It wouldn’t do much to change the future Jing Pei wanted to avoid.

The last time Chu Xusheng tried and failed to kill Zhou Yongzi, helping him had been nothing more than a passing act of convenience. If he hadn’t happened to slam into her car, she might not have gotten involved at all. He posed no threat to Jing Pei. Even if Long Ling managed to win him over, the moment she told Chu Xusheng to kill Jing Pei and take her Dragon Pearl, he would realize she and Zhou Yongzi were the same kind of person. No matter how much goodwill he felt before that, he would cut ties at once.

So yes, she had helped him once. But she had never planned to interfere in the course of his fate after that. If he came to her for help, she might not be able to turn a blind eye. But for her to step in on her own initiative… well. She had written all these characters, yes, but if she had to meddle in every single one of their futures, wouldn’t that be exhausting?

She stopped thinking about it and turned her attention to the message from her new client.

After a moment, she picked out one minor character from the many people involved on both sides. Very little screen time, but good popularity for such a small role.

Yes. Her.

Not long after, Jing Pei replied to the email and named her price.

The client wrote back almost at once, asking whether credit was possible.

Sure.

Anyone with a normal amount of sense would know better than to try stiffing an information broker with a network like this.

On the other end, the woman nearly burst into tears when she saw the reply. The phone in her hand had been stolen from a nurse’s pocket, and she had memorized the broker’s email address only because she happened to overhear it while the doctors and nurses were talking earlier.

She didn’t dare call the police. These people acted with such open arrogance—would the police really help? Even the rich in the ordinary human world had people protecting them from above. A family like this, standing higher than any ordinary rich family, was even worse. She also didn’t dare call family or friends. She had already been threatened, and she was afraid she would drag them down with her.

This information broker was her only lifeline.

She was hiding in the bathroom now. Outside, she could already hear commotion—the young nurse was looking for her phone.

She waited, tense and shaking, for the broker’s answer.

At last, the email came in.

[Find Cheng Feili.]

She memorized the information, logged out of the email account, wiped away her online traces, cleaned the phone for fingerprints with a tissue, and threw it out the window as far as she could. Then she took up her crutch and slowly walked out.

Back in her hospital bed, she hesitated for a while before asking the nurse, who was still searching the room for her phone,

“Excuse me, where is Ms. Cheng Feili?”

The nurse was rummaging through drawers and cabinets, too irritated to think much about the question. “Doctor Cheng is away on a trip.”

“Then… when will she be back?”

“No idea. Soon, probably… Strange. Where did it go?”

When the young nurse finally gave up on the phone and came back, the woman asked which department Doctor Cheng worked in.

The Zhou family’s “family doctor” practice was basically a small private hospital. It had every kind of medical equipment.

The nurse gave her a strange look. “Doctor Cheng doesn’t work here. She’s Fifth Master’s wife. Didn’t you know?”

Fifth Master was Zhou Yongzi’s fifth uncle, Zhou Yikai. Over the time she had spent here, the woman had picked up some gossip. The two had married in a whirlwind romance. Rumor said Zhou Yongzi herself had helped bring them together, and the Zhou family liked Doctor Cheng very much. They always called her “Doctor Cheng,” though, so the woman had never realized that she was Cheng Feili.

Why? Why had the information broker told her to find Cheng Feili? Could someone who got along with Zhou Yongzi, someone who moved through the Zhou family like a fish in water, really be a good person?

Elsewhere, Zhou Yikai was on the phone with Cheng Feili. “Honey, when are you coming back? I can’t sleep without you. I feel like this is going to kill me. Come back soon.”

Cheng Feili was a psychologist. After he had lured his ex-girlfriend here and disaster fell on her, he had been plagued by nightmares. He shut himself inside the estate and no longer dared go out. So the Zhou family had hired a psychologist from outside to treat him. Since her arrival, he had finally been able to sleep well again, and little by little, he had grown dependent on her.

“If everything goes quickly, I’ll be back tomorrow night. If not, the day after,” Cheng Feili said. Her voice was deep and pleasant. “That’s why I told you to come with me on this trip. You’re not young anymore. You can’t keep staying up all night.”

“…All right. Next time I’ll come with you,” Zhou Yikai said after a pause.

Ever since his ex-girlfriend died, he had not stepped outside the Zhou family estate even once. Some nameless fear had lodged itself deep inside him. He didn’t even know what he was afraid of. He just didn’t dare go out.

But when he thought about the misery of sleeplessness, the exhaustion left by nightmares, and then compared it to how deeply he slept beside his wife—how refreshed he felt the next morning—

A good night’s sleep was too tempting. He could almost summon the courage to leave the estate for that alone.

What was done was done. Yes, he had wronged his ex-girlfriend. But he had no choice. Even if she turned into a ghost and came back for revenge, she should go after Zhou Yongzi, not him.

He was going to start a new life.

…

“Hi, could you help me look up how to get to the Long family estate…?”

Chu Xusheng had no idea where the Long family was, so he kept stopping people along the way and asking for directions. Even with sunglasses on, his looks were hard to miss. Most people were happy to help.

Even so, night was falling and he still hadn’t arrived. So he decided to take shortcuts. As long as he kept heading in roughly the right direction, that should be enough, right? If a road crossed his path, he would go through it. If a building blocked him, he would jump over it.

As he leaped from one rooftop to another, he sensed something in the air. The instant he landed, he rolled aside. When he braced himself and looked back, the spot where he had just stood had become a smoking crater.

Alarm bells rang in his head.

He turned and saw a man in a black cloak wrapped around himself like a bat, standing atop the tip of a lightning rod. At the same time, two other men came into view.

“So you’re an Atavist after all,” said the tallest of them, a man well over two meters in height. “How about this—we save ourselves the trouble. You surrender, and we’ll make it easier on you.”

There was a pit viper crest on their clothes.

They were from the Zhou family.

Hatred ripened in Chu Xusheng’s eyes until it looked ready to burst. “Dream on.”

…

Jing Pei had just finished a delicious dinner at a well-reviewed restaurant. On the way home, she passed a mahjong parlor and spent a long moment wondering whether to go in and play a round or two to help the food settle.

In the end, she finally decided to step inside—

Only to be thrown right back out a few seconds later, because minors weren’t allowed in.

Tch.

Forget it. Home, then.

And on the way home, she came across a scene that felt awfully familiar.

The place was different this time. Far fewer cars. Far fewer onlookers. It was dark now, too.

But the situation was worse than before.

Bang!

The sound came from a boy being sent flying across the road and smashing into the side of a car.

Under the streetlights, Chu Xusheng hit the ground with blood spilling from his nose and mouth. But his gaze was still sharp with stubborn defiance, and he kept trying to force himself back to his feet.

Cars on the road sped past in terror, hugging the lane lines as they went, not daring to linger in case innocent bystanders got caught in the crossfire.

“Fuck, I didn’t think this would drag on so long! What is this brat, some kind of roach that won’t die?” The huge man—at least two meters tall, muscles knotted like stone—looked wretched himself. Ghastly wounds marked his face and body, some deep enough to show bone. The look he gave Chu Xusheng had changed from careless disdain to open caution.

“A roach? More like a venomous scorpion. What kind of Atavist is he?” said the other man, who looked even worse.

Only two of them were left now.

The third had already been killed by the boy.

“Taking him alive isn’t going to work. He can use illusions too. One slip on the road and I’ll end up dead. I’m not risking my life over this. A corpse should be enough, right? We just need to dig his eyes out and take them back. If not, I’m done.”

“Should be enough. I’ll call and let her know. You go finish him.”

As he spoke, he took out his phone.

The tall man vanished where he stood and rushed Chu Xusheng in a blur. A curving horn like a scimitar sprouted from his fist and drove toward Chu Xusheng’s abdomen.

Chu Xusheng’s mind could keep up.

His injured body could not.

All he could do was watch the man close in.

Was this how it ended?

Before it had even begun, it was already over. Like some kind of bad joke.

Despair and fury filled him as death rushed at him—when, in that split second, another figure cut across his line of sight.

She came in from the side like a bolt of lightning, too fast for the eye to hold, and met that brutal punch head-on.

The impact sent sparks flying.

Chu Xusheng’s eyes widened, yet he still couldn’t follow what had happened. All he saw was the tall man thrown backward, skidding back beside his companion, clutching the horn that had nearly been snapped off as he stared at this side in shock.

Everything had happened too fast.

Chu Xusheng stared at the girl’s back. It felt as though the whole world had gone quiet, leaving only the pounding of his own heart.

“Seriously,” Jing Pei said, turning to look at him, baffled and helpless at once, “why is it that every time I see you, you’re being hunted?”

“And this time, it had to happen right on my way home.”

That made it hard to pretend she hadn’t seen anything. She could be heartless when it came to writing, but in real life, she had at least a little conscience. She couldn’t stand there and watch an innocent person get killed.

“S-sorry.” He apologized on reflex, tears already brimming in his eyes.

By then, the two men had noticed the dragon crest on the car parked at the roadside. The tall one said, “Young Heir of the Long family, this is a matter for the Zhou family. It’s not appropriate for you to interfere.”

Just then, the other man’s call connected.

The moment Zhou Yongzi heard that Jing Pei had stepped in again, her voice turned shrill enough for every Atavist present to hear. “Long Jin! You again! Are you doing this on purpose? Are you trying to make trouble for me?!”

“Who’s that?” Jing Pei asked.

“Our young miss,” said the man holding the phone.

“Long Jin, cut the act! I’m telling you, you are not taking him away this time. He’s my enemy, which makes him the Zhou family’s enemy. I suggest you stay out of this. If you insist on meddling, then you make an enemy of my whole family!”

The Long family had only one Atavist now—Jing Pei herself. The rest were ordinary people. For that reason alone, Zhou Yongzi had never taken her seriously.

But Jing Pei acted as if she hadn’t heard a word. She looked at the two men across from her and said, “I’ve got business with him too. Why is your Zhou family’s business business, but my Long family’s business is not? Go get your family head and have him speak to me. Until then, you’d better get out of the way. You’re not qualified to talk to me.”

The line went silent at once. Zhou Yongzi might not think much of Jing Pei, but the fact remained: Jing Pei was the head of her family. The only person in the Zhou family on equal footing with her was Zhou Yongzi’s father.

Jing Pei turned and held out a hand to Chu Xusheng.

He glanced at the two men whose faces had turned ugly, still wary. But her hand seemed to promise something warm, something he could hardly bear to refuse. In the end, he reached out and placed his hand in hers.

Jing Pei gripped it, pulled him up, and took him to the car.

Zhou Yongzi kept screaming orders through the phone, telling them not to let Jing Pei take him away.

The two men still didn’t stop her.

As retainers of the Zhou family, they couldn’t start that kind of conflict with the head of another atavist family without a direct order from their own family head. If things went wrong, Zhou Yongzi would be fine. They would be the ones punished.

Only an idiot would volunteer for that.

Zhou Yongzi stamped with rage but had no choice. All she could do was storm off to find her father.

…

“That’s what happened.” Chu Xusheng clenched his fists until his nails broke the skin of his palms. “Please help me. I’ll repay you. I’ll do anything you ask.”

Those beautiful eyes of his had started shedding tears again. The hatred in him ran too deep for his tear ducts to hold.

He had cried in her car last time too, hadn’t he? Jing Pei studied him for a moment without answering directly. Instead, she said, “Not going after Zhou Qian last night was a very smart decision. If you had, your wanted posters would already be all over the city.”

He forced a smile. His voice came out thick and muffled. “That’s what I figured.”

“The price you want the Zhou family to pay won’t come easily. Once it touches the foundations of a great atavist family, your enemies won’t be just the Zhou family anymore. Even if you’re a King Insect Atavist, you still won’t be able to handle that.”

Chu Xusheng froze. “The foundations of a great atavist family…”

“Atavist families can tear each other apart behind closed doors,” Jing Pei said. “But the moment an outsider comes for them—with schemes, with murder—they close ranks and face outward together.”

That was what Chu Xusheng was now: an outsider.

Which was why, in the original story, he was an Atavist too and still never enjoyed the rights of the great atavist families. He became a rat in the gutter, cursed by all, surviving only by hiding in the shadows.

“If I take you home with me right now,” Jing Pei said, tapping her chin, “I’ll be the one in trouble.”

“I’m sorry. I caused you problems.” Chu Xusheng came back to himself and said with regret, “Just pretend I never said anything. I should have hidden better. I shouldn’t have let the Zhou family find me.”

He should stay hidden in the dark. That was all.

If he got into the Long family’s car, entered the Long family’s gates, he would be nothing but a bringer of bad luck—a source of trouble she didn’t need. The Long family might have been a great atavist family with thousands of years behind it, but now they were little more than a shell. They carried dragon blood, yet Jing Pei was the only one who had awakened. No matter how strong she was, she couldn’t stand against the Zhou family all by herself.

Twice now, she had let him into her car when he was cornered, stood face-to-face with the Zhou family for his sake, given him one of the last scraps of warmth left in the world.

He couldn’t drag her down with him.

With that thought, he reached for the car door.

Jing Pei caught his hand. “Why are you in such a hurry? I may not be able to bring you home, but that doesn’t stop me from doing what I want to do. Remember this: it’s your enemies who should be afraid of you, not you hiding from them. The difference between a person and a rat is that a person lives out in the open, under the sun.”

He went still. Heat rose in his eyes again.

“Okay!”

To him, Jing Pei already wore the glow of a hero. He didn’t notice the glint in her catlike eyes, or the strange smile at the corner of her mouth—the look of someone plotting a good show for her own amusement.

So much for some righteous hero.

…

When the head of the Zhou family heard the report from his daughter and retainers, he became wary at once and personally went to the Long family estate to demand the boy.

He moved fast enough that Jing Pei’s car had only just reached the front gate when they arrived.

“Oh,” said Jing Pei. “He already left.”

They looked inside her car.

It was empty.

“Long Jin!” the Zhou family head barked, furious.

Jing Pei looked confused. “What is it, Head of the Zhou family? Did that boy do something worth making such a fuss over? If so, you should have said so before. Don’t you have my number? If you’d told me, I would have kept him for you. We’re both atavist families—in this social climate, with the pressure we all face, we ought to help one another.”

“Then why did you take him from us in the first place?”

“Because your daughter suddenly started threatening me over the phone for no reason. I care very much about face. I especially like people who treat me with proper respect, and I consider those people friends. As for the ones who don’t give me face, and go further by threatening me…”

Jing Pei smiled, gentle as ever.

“There’s only one thing I do to people like that.”

“I go against them.”

Long Yiming came rushing out just in time to hear that line. He promptly pressed a hand to his chest.

Hold it in. Hold it in. You’ll get used to it. Sooner or later, you’ll definitely get used to it.

The head of the Zhou family went so red with anger he nearly tipped over.

But honestly, this was exactly the kind of thing Jing Pei would do. She was the sort of lunatic who, if a privilege was useless to her, would rather smash it so no one else could enjoy it either.

“All right, all right.” Jing Pei headed for the house, then stopped after two steps and turned back with a smile. “But do keep a closer eye on your daughter, Head of the Zhou family. If there’s a next time, I’ll have to go against her again. And if that delays some important matter for the Zhou family, that would be a pity.”

The Zhou family head had come in person, only to leave empty-handed. He went home with his face green from anger. Zhou Yongzi looked all around and saw no one.

“Where is he?”

“He was gone long before I got there!”

“That’s impossible! Long Jin must be hiding him! That bitch keeps going against me over and over—she has to be working with him! Search the Long family estate and you’ll find him. Dad, search it—”

Slap.

The Zhou family head struck Zhou Yongzi so hard she fell silent. Pointing at her nose, he shouted, “Do you think I don’t know how filthy you sounded on that call? No wonder she turned on you! Long Jin is the sort of lunatic who’d rather see jade shattered than tile intact. If you wanted to catch someone, then catch them. Why did you have to provoke her?!”

Zhou Yongzi covered her face, stunned. Her mother hurried over to soothe her. Zhou Yongzi stopped making a scene and only cried pitifully. That made the Zhou family head start to feel guilty, and he softened his tone.

“We’ll keep looking for him. I’ll also have people watch the Long family. He’s an Atavist, and he has a grudge against us, so we have to root him out and deal with him.”

“Mhm,” Zhou Yongzi said.

“As for that Atavist program you want to do, I’ll speak to the other families for you. And behave yourself from now on. You’ve spent too many years with no contact with the outside world, so you don’t understand the current situation. Don’t bring your temper at home out with you.”

“I know, Dad. I was wrong.” Zhou Yongzi lowered her head.

But her heart was full of hatred for Jing Pei. She would remember this slap.

…

The Zhou family had assumed that finding Chu Xusheng again wouldn’t be easy. After one close call, he should have known to hide himself better.

Instead, he appeared again the very next day.

Not only openly—but with enough force to shake the entire atavist world.

The Atavist Gazette had been founded several hundred years ago with funding from the major atavist families across Hualan. Its purpose was simple: its staff gathered information related to Atavists for them. As a result, it was a newspaper every Atavist subscribed to.

It mainly published news, current events, and developments related to Atavists from around the country—and from abroad as well.

Sometimes Atavists even used it to fight with each other from a distance. One family would curse another one day, only to be answered the next. The Huang family and the Bai family had been regulars not long ago, trading barbs back and forth—today a complaint that your family schemed against mine without shame, tomorrow a retort that one of ours had been harmed by one of yours. It gave the whole atavist community plenty of gossip to feast on.

Some Atavists even posted résumés and job notices there, waiting to be discovered and weighing their price.

So when the major atavist families opened the paper delivered that morning, they found this employment notice in the classifieds:

[Chu Xusheng, 15 years old, King Insect Atavist, atavist purity test result: 90%. Seeking a powerful and broad-minded main family. I also have a grudge against the Zhou family of Atavists. They intend to kill me, and I intend to kill them. Interested parties may contact me at xxxxxxxxxx.]

The instant the Zhou family head saw that notice, his face turned green.

He knew at once that killing Chu Xusheng to prevent future trouble had just become far more difficult.

In the Illustrated Compendium of Species from the Great Convergence, the Insect Race ranked among the most powerful species. A King Insect stood at the very top of its combat hierarchy—and Chu Xusheng had a purity of ninety percent. Rare. Extraordinary. Destined to become powerful. And what did he want?

A main family.

Which meant he was willing to become someone else’s retainer rather than set up on his own.

What great atavist family wouldn’t want a retainer like that? Once he grew up, married, and had children—more little insects spread through the family line—who would they have left to fear?

Taking powerful Atavists under their wing had always been something the great atavist families did. If those people didn’t want to become retainers, then they hired them instead. The more advanced technology became, the greater the threat posed by modern weapons, and the more urgently these families craved powerful subordinates to protect them.

So the moment that notice appeared, the major atavist families began fighting to claim him.

A grudge against the Zhou family?

Who cared?

If the Zhou family wanted to kill him, then let them try after he entered another family’s gates. At that point it would no longer be a private vendetta—it would become an issue between two great families.

The Long family.

The moment Long Yiming read the notice, he was so excited he shot out of his chair, looking as though he wanted to snatch up the phone and start competing for Chu Xusheng on the spot.

Jing Pei, meanwhile, was reading the paper with obvious enjoyment. Seeing how worked up he was, she gently poured cold water over his enthusiasm.

“Second Uncle, our family only has one Atavist.”

The old great atavist families all had retainers and household servants, even now in the modern age. During the Great Cosmic Convergence, they might have been the descendants of some demon king or great overlord. Crowds of servants and many vassals had simply been part of the natural order.

The Long family had once had those too.

But over the last two hundred years, they had all drifted away.

These days, very few people still had the kind of loyalty that never asked questions. Besides, if no one in a family awakened as an Atavist, that meant the old contracts had lost their force. The Long family was no longer a great tree to shelter under. Of course their retainers either left to stand on their own or found a new tree to cling to. Who would stay loyal forever under circumstances like that?

In this day and age, anyone willing to become a retainer did so because a great family could offer better resources, protection, money, and even power than going it alone ever could. A “declining” atavist family like the Long family had none of that to offer.

Long Yiming: …

Dream over. Time to eat.

…

Chu Xusheng was sitting inside the offices of the Atavist Gazette.

Phones were ringing all around him, so many that his head throbbed. Every call was from a family trying to recruit him.

“Have you decided which family’s offer you’ll accept?” one editor asked out of curiosity, handing him a list packed with names. The Feng family. The Wu family. The Tang family. The Chen family. Nearly every major atavist family on the board had already called.

What a rare spectacle.

A faint flush crept over Chu Xusheng’s cheeks. He clenched his fists on his knees, and when he spoke, his young voice rang with the solemn force of someone declaring a life-changing decision.

“I-if I’m going to become someone’s retainer, there’s already someone I prefer!”

So this was how it worked? Atavist families could have retainers?

It… it sounded amazing.

Everyone in the office turned to stare at him. Some of them belonged to one atavist family or another, and their eyes sharpened at once. Who would he choose? If he chose some family other than theirs, then that family would gain an overwhelming advantage. Good for the atavist world as a whole, perhaps—but impossible not to resent.

Following Jing Pei’s instructions, Chu Xusheng said, “But I still want to observe first before I decide whether that family is really what I imagine—whether it’s truly worthy of trust and reliance.”