"Jingjing, you're home already, so why aren't you coming inside? Huh? Who's this?" The person who opened the door was a middle-aged woman. She was about the same height as Han Jingjing, dressed in relatively formal yet extremely tasteful women's clothing. There was a faint air of authority between her brows, the kind that came from years of holding a high position.
"Ah?! Mom, why are you home? You came back without even telling me in advance!"
Han Jingjing's little face went pale on the spot. Thinking about what she had said earlier, she wondered if her mother had overheard everything while eavesdropping.
"Hello, Auntie. My name is Jiang Yue. I'm Jingjing's classmate. I was worried she wouldn't be safe alone, so I escorted her all the way home." Jiang Yue was perfectly composed.
A handsome, good-looking young man had an advantage wherever he went.
Even though Han Jingjing's mother was a high-ranking official in Star City, and even though she was his elder, she couldn't help taking a serious look at the polite and handsome Jiang Yue. A moment later, a slightly more courteous smile appeared on her face.
"Oh! So you're Little Jiang! Why don't you come in and sit for a while?"
"Another time, Auntie. Something really came up at home today." Jiang Yue had no interest in staying. He pressed the elevator button, waved to Han Jingjing and her mother, and walked straight inside.
Although he knew that Han Jingjing's parents were high-ranking officials in Star City, Jiang Yue wasn't intimidated.
He leisurely went downstairs and stood by the roadside, intending to hail a cab. Just then, his phone suddenly rang.
"Jingjing, is there something else?"
"We didn't finish talking earlier. You asked what it meant to excel in the Physical Test, remember?"
"Right."
"Do you know who had the best results among the five Awakened in our class?"
"You?" Jiang Yue answered instinctively.
In terms of status, Han Jingjing's family was ultimately the most influential among the five. If anyone had made secret preparations in advance, she was probably the one who had prepared most thoroughly.
"It should have been me." Han Jingjing let out a melancholy sigh.
"But our class produced a huge dark horse. Their physical abilities were enhanced by fifty percent, and it scared the school leaders half to death. Other than that dark horse, I was among the few students with the best results in the entire school, and even I only improved by around thirty percent."
"Dark horse? Who?"
"Your deskmate." Han Jingjing puffed up angrily. "That Li Yue has been pretending to be a pig while eating tigers all along."
Li Yue?
The name surprised Jiang Yue.
He had already been somewhat surprised when Li Yue appeared on the list. Now that Han Jingjing was saying she was a massive dark horse, Jiang Yue found it difficult to process.
A fifty-percent enhancement!
He was the owner of the system, the man chosen by Spirit Intelligence. He had worked himself to the bone, risked his life, complained to the spirit, taken a hit from a stream of urine, and nearly died of exhaustion just to obtain such a small reward.
Yet Li Yue had come with a fifty-percent enhancement right from the start?
"Could sitting next to the top student brother come with a built-in luck buff?" Han Jingjing muttered to herself over the phone.
To be honest, Li Yue becoming the Awakened with the greatest potential in the entire school was completely beyond Han Jingjing's expectations. She had never even imagined that Li Yue would appear on the Awakened list.
What an ordinary, unnoticed girl she was.
For a while, Han Jingjing even suspected that Li Yue and Jiang Yue's Physical Test results had been switched.
If the person in Li Yue's place had been Jiang Yue, then according to Han Jingjing's logic, it would have been completely natural.
By the time Jiang Yue returned home, it was already well past dinnertime.
"You brat, you knew your little aunt's family had arrived, yet you didn't even know to come home and keep them company. Who did you go drinking with? You're still a student, and you drank yourself into this state..." His older sister Jiang Ying couldn't help nagging him a little.
His little aunt, on the other hand, was grinning from ear to ear. "Ying, your brother's already eighteen. What are you muttering about just because a man had a little drink? Our Little Yue is going to accomplish great things in the future."
His uncle had come to seek refuge with his nephew, so he felt somewhat embarrassed and sat to the side rather awkwardly.
"Auntie, Uncle, once you're here, just think of this place as home. My parents aren't around, so from now on, you two are the elders of this household. Don't treat yourselves like outsiders."
Those words made his little aunt beam with delight.
"This little rascal sure knows how to sweet-talk people. You've made your aunt's heart melt. San Gou, learn more from your second brother."
San Gou replied gloomily, "Oh," feeling that he was no longer his little aunt's most beloved little rascal.
"Little Yue, Star City doesn't seem very peaceful. We arrived this morning and saw police cars coming and going. It seems someone in the residential complex died too?" His uncle cut in.
"Someone else died?" Jiang Yue asked doubtfully, looking toward his older sister Jiang Ying.
"Yeah, another one died. Did the King of Hell drop his Book of Life and Death in our residential complex? We're going at a rate of one person a day." Mentioning the matter put Jiang Ying on edge as well.
"Another young woman?"
"Yeah, twenty years old, from Building Thirteen. I heard she worked at a shopping mall. The killer's already been arrested."
It was the same feeling, the same rhythm.
Jiang Yue was practically numb to it.
Knock, knock, knock!
Someone knocked on the door.
San Gou had now thoroughly taken on the role of a dedicated family bodyguard. He went over to peer through the peephole.
"Second brother, it's Officer Han, and that Director Luo too."
"Look carefully. Is there anything unusual?" Even though they were acquaintances, Jiang Yue no longer trusted anyone who came knocking late at night.
Before San Gou could answer, Han Yiming's call had already come through.
"Why are you calling when you're already at the door?" Jiang Yue opened the door.
Han Yiming glanced into the apartment and saw a whole houseful of people, so he felt awkward about entering and disturbing them.
"Little Jiang, is it convenient for you to come out and talk for a few words?"
"Sure." Jiang Yue set down his schoolbag.
"Bring your cousin along too." Han Yiming was extremely polite, smiling at San Gou.
San Gou immediately felt that Han Yiming's image had become much taller and more imposing.
"Officer Han, my name is Jiang Tong. My nickname is San Gou." San Gou was easily excited and took the initiative to extend his hand.
"Good. Hello, San Gou!" Han Yiming solemnly took San Gou's hand and shook it again and again.
Seeing that Jiang Yue was a little worried about leaving his family, Han Yiming smiled. "We won't go far. We'll talk downstairs."
This time, it wasn't a police car but a commercial van, and the inside was fairly spacious.
"Little Jiang, you've heard that there's been another murder in your residential complex, right?" Han Yiming's head felt like it was about to explode.
"I just heard. Old Han, get to the point."
"Right. We've already arrested the killer. It's the same stuff you hate hearing about: surveillance footage, physical evidence..."
As Han Yiming spoke, he handed over his phone. The screen showed the killer in the latest case.
Jiang Yue glanced at it. It was an unfamiliar face.
"Huh?" San Gou, on the other hand, looked shocked. "I've seen this person before."
"Second brother, do you remember last night, around this time? Xiao Yi and her family were with us. When we returned to the complex from outside, at the small entrance, I said I'd seen this person twice?"
"It was him?" Jiang Yue was startled.
"Yeah, him! We even brought it up this morning. You said it might be one person disguising himself as another person to commit crimes. Remember?"
The matter had left such a deep impression that Jiang Yue could never have forgotten it.
"San Gou, no matter how convincingly someone disguises themselves as another person, fingerprints, hair, bodily fluids, and things like that can't be disguised." Han Yiming reminded him.
"But my second brother said, what if the person being imitated wasn't human in the first place?"
San Gou's words caused the atmosphere at the scene to freeze. Han Yiming and Director Luo exchanged a glance, unable to hide the shock in their eyes.
"Little Jiang, is that really your theory?"
"As I said before, if the original way of thinking can't explain these things, then we have to change our approach. Otherwise, we'll always be led around by the nose. Old Han, it seems the lesson from Teacher Sun's case a couple of days ago wasn't enough for you. Are you still clinging to that rigid way of thinking?"
"After everything that's happened, you can't possibly treat all these similar cases as coincidences, can you? Every vicious killer leaves behind so much obvious evidence, making it easy for you to catch them. And after every one of them is arrested, they all desperately cry that they're innocent?"
Director Luo suddenly spoke with a strange laugh. "Old Han, admit it. I've always said you're useless. Are you still denying it? These cases should have been handed over to our Special Department long ago."
"San Gou, let me introduce myself. My surname is Luo. I was discourteous last time."
Director Luo suddenly extended a hand toward San Gou, once again leaving him flattered and overwhelmed. By "last time," he naturally meant the occasion when they had gone to Director Luo's Special Department base. Back then, Director Luo hadn't paid any attention to the little brat San Gou.
"Little Jiang, something strange happened at Director Luo's territory last night too. The body of the deceased, whose surname was Su, suddenly spontaneously combusted for no reason in the middle of the night and burned to ashes on the spot. When we investigated Ye Yi's home today, we learned that you had eliminated that evil spirit. You people are really something!"
Han Yiming explained it as calmly as he could, although he still hadn't fully digested the news himself.
Jiang Yue suddenly understood. So that was what had happened.
No wonder someone as arrogant and tsundere as Director Luo had been so polite to San Gou.
When someone showed kindness without reason, there was always a hidden agenda.
Director Luo had clearly taken an interest in San Gou's heaven-bestowed Yin Yang Eye talent.
"Director Luo, San Gou is only twelve. He hasn't even graduated from elementary school yet. Don't set your sights on a child, okay?" Jiang Yue cut him off before he could speak.
"What's wrong with being twelve? Little Jiang, that's prejudice. There have been plenty of people in ancient times who were granted noble titles or became generals at twelve. Your cousin is dignified and extraordinary by nature. He shouldn't be cooped up at home every day like some street loafer. Especially at a time like this, he should receive better training."
San Gou immediately looked eager at those words.
A scholar would die for the person who recognized his worth!
It was the first time in San Gou's life that someone had valued him so highly. For someone with such status to praise him to this extent, it would have been impossible for San Gou not to feel excited.
Although San Gou was only twelve, he had just unlocked the stage of burning youthful passion.
The hot-blooded young protagonists in manga usually got their start around this age!
San Gou felt that it was finally his turn to shine, the turn of Sir San Gou!
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