Star City Academy.
9 p.m.
After getting fully dressed, Feng Qi stood before the mirror and carefully checked himself. Once he was sure he had wrapped himself up tightly, he slung his backpack over his shoulders, left his room, and went downstairs.
Outside, the moon shone bright amid sparse stars, and willow branches by the lake swayed in the wind.
After checking the time on his phone, he headed straight toward the academy gates.
After greeting the security guards, he left Star City Academy.
An hour later, Feng Qi appeared at a coffee shop in Star City East and stepped inside.
"Brother Qi, over here!" Lin Ran called out.
He turned toward the voice and found that Lin Ran, Mu Qing, and Lü Yue had already arrived.
Sitting down beside Mu Qing, Feng Qi placed his backpack in front of him.
"Brother Qi, we're all ready. Where's the stuff you prepared?" Lin Ran asked quietly.
"What stuff?"
"The masks! Since we're acting in secret, of course we need masks."
Hearing this, Feng Qi unzipped his backpack, revealing four masks inside: Sun Wukong, Tang Sanzang, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing.
Lin Ran: ...
"Couldn't you buy some masks that actually look cool? Wearing this makes me feel like an idiot!"
"After dinner, I stopped by the academy's commercial street. Since there are exactly four of us for this operation, I thought they fit pretty well. It's not like they can't hide our faces."
"Fine. I'm taking Sun Wukong."
"Whatever."
As they chatted, time passed.
Mu Qing occasionally joined the conversation, while Lü Yue maintained a cold expression the entire time. As Lin Ran put it, Lü Yue must have been a debt collector in his past life—the kind everyone in the world owed money to.
Now that the Tiger Soul Research