“What are they going to do next?”

The man fell silent, his expression twisting.

Lin Han realized this was crucial. He lowered his voice and repeated the question.

The man’s body began to tremble, the chitinous growths on half of his body squirming like living creatures.

He tremblingly opened his mouth. At first, there was no sound.

Then, a few broken words squeezed out from his throat.

“School…”

“Which school?”

“Qing…”

The man convulsed in pain.

“Qingchuan…”

“Qingchuan Public… They want to destroy… Qingchuan Public High School…”

Lin Han’s breathing grew ragged, and he immediately wanted to ask more.

“Qingchuan? Why? What is there…”

However, an inhuman scream suddenly erupted from the man’s throat.

His whole body arched violently, and all the restraint rings lit up with a piercing red light.

A faint cracking sound came from the surface of the gemstone earphone.

Shen Qingshu’s expression changed, and she immediately pressed the play button on the Walkman.

But it was already too late; the man’s eyes became cloudy once again.

The meaningless ravings that had just been suppressed flooded back like a tide.

“Don’t…”

“I’m not…”

“Monster…”

Lin Han wanted to ask more, but Shen Qingshu reached out to stop him.

She stared at the man on the hospital bed, her expression uncharacteristically grim.

“It’s no use.”

“What’s wrong with him?”

Shen Qingshu took off the gemstone earphones; a very shallow crack had already appeared on one of the earpieces.

She fell silent for a moment, then said in a low voice,

“My method failed. The other party is very powerful, and the suggestion was planted very deeply…”

Shen Qingshu looked up, about to say something, but suddenly froze.

She realized that someone else’s expression looked even worse than hers.

“What’s wrong with you?”

“Qingchuan Public…”

Lin Han’s eyes were somewhat unfocused, and he was breaking out in a cold sweat.

“My little sister goes to school at Qingchuan Public…”

Qingchuan Public High School.

The bell for the long break had just rung, and the corridors quickly became lively.

“Hurry, hurry! We need to grab a ping-pong table. If we’re late, they’ll all be gone!”

“Wait for me…”

Some students rushed toward the sports field with basketballs in their arms, some sprawled over their desks by the window to catch up on sleep, and others gathered in twos and threes to chat, watching the girls playing badminton in the school plaza downstairs.

Meanwhile, in the classroom of Grade 12, Class 2, Jiang Wanfeng was sitting by the window, looking down as she packed her things.

Sunlight filtered in through the window, falling onto her soft black hair as if shining on silk.

Today, she was wearing the light-colored uniform of Qingchuan Public with a red ribbon tied at the collar. Her fair side profile looked exceptionally serene in the light.

From an outsider’s perspective, this was undoubtedly a picture-perfect scene fit for the cover of a school brochure.

Excellent grades.

Outstanding looks.

Polite to others.

Whether teachers or classmates, their evaluations of her were mostly “reliable,” “gentle,” and “perfect.”

Although if Lin Han were here, his mouth would probably twitch and he’d drop a few sarcastic remarks, to outsiders, this was exactly how Jiang Wanfeng appeared.

—A campus idol.

Although it wasn’t perfectly accurate, if forced to summarize, this term—which sounded like something out of a third-rate campus romance novel—perhaps best described the girl’s status at school.

Jiang Wanfeng closed her notebook, and an excited face suddenly leaned over from beside her.

“Wanfeng.”

Her desk mate and best friend, Ye Tao, lowered her voice, her expression so mysterious it was as if she held the ultimate truth of the world.

“Come with me to get some water.”

“No, I already have water in my cup.”

“Ah, then come with me to pour out some water.”

“Do you have too much free time?”

“There’s something important, hurry up!”

Ye Tao grabbed her wrist and forcefully dragged her up from her seat.

Jiang Wanfeng sighed.

“This had better actually be important.”

“Of course it is, it’s a huge deal.”

The two walked all the way to the water dispenser at the end of the corridor.

Ye Tao first looked left and right to make sure no acquaintances were approaching. Then, like an underground agent making contact, she fished a letter out of her school uniform pocket and solemnly handed it to Jiang Wanfeng.

“Here.”

Jiang Wanfeng looked down at the letter, the envelope was light blue, with a tiny star sticker affixed to it.

She fell silent for two seconds.

“What is this?”

“Read it and you’ll find out.”

Jiang Wanfeng took the letter and opened it. A few seconds later, her expression turned a bit strange.

After finishing it, she folded the letter back up.

Ye Tao’s face was full of anticipation.

“So?”

Jiang Wanfeng raised her eyes.

“A love letter?”

“What else?”

“Who still writes this kind of thing in this day and age?”

Ye Tao instantly looked incredibly disappointed, like a child who had anticipated a grand gift only to be brushed off with a single piece of candy.

“That’s your reaction?”

“How else should I react?”

Jiang Wanfeng stuffed the envelope back into Ye Tao’s hand, looking utterly speechless.

“And why are you the one giving me this love letter?”

“Why do you think?”

Ye Tao rolled her eyes.

“Count for yourself how many guys you’ve rejected. Which of those boys would still dare to confess to you directly? They can only beg me to pass it on.”

“…These guys are way too bored. Don’t they have anything better to do?”

Ye Tao opened her mouth wide, clutched her chest, and said exaggeratedly,

“If the boys heard that, their hearts would probably shatter all over the floor.”

“Don’t add to the cleaning lady’s workload.”

“So cold! Aren’t you even a little bit curious about who wrote it?”

“Not curious.”

“It’s the guy who ranks first in the Ability Class next door.”

“Oh.”

“And he’s a total hottie, too.”

“Oh.”

“Is ‘oh’ all you can say?!”

“Yeah.”

“Gunununu…”

Jiang Wanfeng said calmly, “Why should I be interested in a guy who doesn’t even have the guts to confess in person?”

“You say that, but if he really did confess to your face, you’d just ruthlessly reject him anyway, wouldn’t you?”

“Of course.”

“See! I knew it!”

Ye Tao let out a long sigh and looked up at the ceiling. If it weren’t for her last shred of human dignity, she would probably be rolling all over the floor right now.

“It’s unfair, it’s so unfair! Why do you reject so many guys, yet they still flock to you like beasts in heat! But I have nothing! I can’t even find a boyfriend when I want one.”

Jiang Wanfeng glanced at the love letter in her hand.

“If you think he’s handsome, just go after him. What does it have to do with me?”

Ye Tao suddenly became filled with grief and indignation.

“Do you think I don’t want to? He’s from the Ability Class, so it’s destined to go nowhere. I’m crying, boo-hoo…”

Ability Class.

The most special class in Qingchuan Public High School.

The students inside have either already awakened their abilities or have been tested and determined to have an extremely high probability of awakening.

To ordinary students, that place is practically another world.

They have specialized training courses, external instructors sent by the SAVE Branch, and independent combat training grounds. After graduation, some of them will enter SAVE’s preliminary training system, while others will be reserved in advance by various major corporations.

To ordinary students, the students of the Ability Class were practically from another world.

“Must be nice, the Ability Class.”

Ye Tao slumped weakly against the water dispenser, her tone wistful.

“I heard that a few years ago, Qingchuan Public’s Ability Class produced a super incredible upperclassman. Perfect scores in all subjects, a perfect score in the practical combat assessment, and before he even graduated, he caught the eye of a Division Chief-level figure at SAVE.”

She cupped her face in her hands, swooning.

“I wonder if that legendary upperclassman is handsome… If he is… Ahhh, a young, successful, and handsome guy…”

This time, Jiang Wanfeng remained silent for an unusually long time, a trace of an unreadable emotion flashing through her eyes.

But before her best friend Ye Tao could notice this, she quickly covered it up, replacing it with an entirely nonchalant attitude—

“Who knows. That upperclassman might just be working an entry-level job at SAVE right now…”