Ke Mingqing and His Superhero Dad

Ke Mingwei had only just returned home from the police station.

At that moment, he was still wearing a light blue police uniform. The pocket on his shirt bulged with an old Nokia phone and the corner of a red cigarette pack.

He raised his head, frowned, and stared sternly at Ke Mingqing.

Ke Mingqing stood dumbly at the front door, holding his schoolbag in one hand.

Seriously? This body's dad is actually Rain Crow? No wonder he didn't react when I snapped at him on the school bus.

Father and son stood silently facing each other—one at the door with the setting sun behind him, the other in the shadows of the entryway.

Their shadows stretched across the wooden floor, cast by the crimson afterglow and drawn long, so very long.

Ke Mingwei took a deep breath. After a long moment, he spoke, breaking the silence that hung over the entryway.

With his arms folded, he spoke almost word by word:

"I heard all about what happened on the school bus from my colleagues at the station."

"Oh."

Ke Mingqing answered casually without even looking up, shouldering his schoolbag as he headed inside. But Ke Mingwei stepped over to block his way, his towering six-foot-two frame looming like a mountain.

"Do you know how dangerous that was?"

As Ke Mingwei spoke, his tone visibly turned colder.

Ke Mingqing sighed and met his eyes. So you realized it wasn't convenient to lecture me while you were wearing a mask on the school bus, and now you've taken it off to lecture me again at home, huh?

Just as expected of the terrifying crow-man. Pretty adaptable... Fine, if you love lecturing so much, I'll listen.

So he lowered his head and said quietly, "I know, Dad. I just wanted to protect the others."

Seeing his usually stubborn son give in so quickly, Ke Mingwei froze slightly, and much of his anger immediately faded.

He fell silent, scratching the stubble along his cheek as he reflected on whether his tone had been too harsh.

Wasn't that exactly why I started fighting criminals in the first place? Ke Mingwei thought.

There was only one fatal difference: Ke Mingwei had already become a superhuman at sixteen, while Ke Mingqing had never shown any signs of it.

In every annual genetic test, Ke Mingqing's results had invariably marked him as an ordinary person.

After thinking for a while, Ke Mingwei put one hand on his hip and sighed.

"There absolutely cannot be a next time. This is a serious matter... It isn't just about your safety. Did you consider that if you enraged that criminal and he took it out on the people on the bus—"

Ke Mingqing cut him off. "I know, I know. You mean I could've gotten a whole busload of people killed, right?"

Ke Mingwei was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"Isn't that what Rain Crow said? Why do you sound exactly like him?" Ke Mingqing looked up and asked, "Dad, did you two have the same Chinese teacher?"

Ke Mingwei frowned slightly. "That only proves that whatever that Crow-whatever said made sense. You should take his words to heart."

"Mm."

Dad, you're pretty good at dodging the issue, Ke Mingqing thought. No wonder you've managed to hide it from the family for so many years. Not one of the other six people at home knows your identity.

Just then, the phone in Ke Mingwei's shirt pocket suddenly rang.

"There's something else at the station... I'm leaving." With that, Ke Mingwei picked up the police jacket hanging on the wall, threw it over his shoulders, and headed for the door without looking back.

As he stepped over the threshold, he suddenly stopped. Turning his head, he glanced at Ke Mingqing from the corner of his eye and warned him:

"Oh, and you're not allowed to go out tonight. Stay home and behave, understand?"

Ke Mingqing nodded helplessly.

Ke Mingwei hesitated, seeming to want to say something more to his son, but the phone in his pocket kept ringing insistently, grating on his nerves.

So, without even closing the door, he left with a dark expression.

Ke Mingqing let out a relieved breath. This was definitely the day he had been most grateful in his life that he used to be an orphan.

He tossed his schoolbag onto the shoe cabinet and waited until Ke Mingwei's footsteps had faded into the distance before slowly walking over to close the front door. But just then, someone reached out from the other side and stopped him.

Peering through the gap in the door, Ke Mingqing saw a girl in a blue-and-white school uniform. She had a delicate, lovely face, an icy air about her, and a high ponytail secured with a black hair clip.

This was his younger sister, Xia Zili. She was the same age as Ke Mingqing—both were sixteen.

The reason her surname was Xia was due to a rule in their family: girls took their mother Xia Wenna's surname, while only boys took their father Ke Mingwei's surname.

Xia Zili wrinkled her nose slightly and stared at him with an indifferent expression.

"Come in, milady." Ke Mingqing respectfully released the door, then defended himself, "Why are you looking at me like that? It's like I saw you before I tried to close the door."

Xia Zili still said nothing. She merely raised her head to glance at him before brushing past him.

But the instant she entered, Ke Mingqing saw a superhuman panel appear above her side profile. Its background was pitch-black.

[Superhuman Codename: Magical Girl Ember]

[Type: Magical Girl]

[Danger Rating: B+]

[Superhuman Profile: Magical Girl Ember's magical ceremonial outfit is a gothic, jet-black dress, its skirt like a black rose. Her weapon is a dark gray patterned umbrella—"Cinderella."

She is a prospective A-rank magical girl signed by the "Magical Girl Company." Her three mentors are Xi Ziyue, Shui Lingdeng, and Wutuna, known as the "Three Magical Girl Titans."]

[Known Weaknesses: 1. Magical girls who have killed may fall and become "witches." The player may attempt to induce this.]

"This is bad. Dad and my sister are both superhumans... What about everyone else in the family?"

Ke Mingqing thought about how the original owner of this body had lived with several superhumans for so many years without noticing the slightest thing unusual about them.

In the original owner's memories, Xia Zili had always clung to him when they were children.

But once she reached puberty, it was as though she had become a different person. She was exceptionally cold toward everyone in the family, and the moment their parents began lecturing her, she would immediately turn around and leave.

After school, Xia Zili would usually toss her schoolbag onto the sofa, lock herself in her room, and shut out everyone else. From time to time, she would leave home without saying a word and ignore the family's messages.

When she returned the next day, at most she would offer an excuse like, "I stayed over at a classmate's house last night," unwilling to give her family even the smallest extra explanation.

Ke Mingqing could now understand why his sister had changed so much.

First, she had reached her rebellious phase.

Second, gaining power beyond that of ordinary people at such an age made it difficult for an immature teenager to remain level-headed.

She probably felt that she had to study hard at school while saving the world as well. It was easy for her to become impatient with the people around her, thinking, I'm carrying so much and under so much pressure, and I still have to get lectured when I come home? Do you muggles even deserve to lecture me?

As time went by, she naturally became resistant to communicating with her family.

By then, the sun had already sunk below the horizon, and the sky had darkened. In its place, lights lit up in countless homes beneath the night sky, stretching into the distance like a long dragon woven from the warmth of everyday life.

In the entryway of the apartment, Ke Mingqing and Xia Zili walked into the living room in silence, like two strangers.

Ke Mingqing went to the water dispenser and poured himself a glass of water. Xia Zili set her schoolbag on the floor, sat on the sofa, and turned her head to quietly study Ke Mingqing.

Xia Zili lowered her head and thought for a while before, unusually, taking the initiative to start a conversation.

"What happened to you... has spread across the school website."

"And?" Ke Mingqing said dismissively.

Xia Zili stared at him without moving. After a long while, she finally spoke. Her eyes lifted and dropped again, and her lips seemed to form the words, "Were you hurt?" Yet what came out was the complete opposite:

"It was hilarious... Don't do anything that hilarious next time. If people find out you're my brother, it'll be embarrassing."

After tossing out those words, she picked up her schoolbag from the sofa, stood, and climbed the stairs to the second floor.

Ke Mingqing turned his head and silently watched her leave. Why is everyone in this family so awkward?

He returned to his room on the second floor as well, shut the door, lay back in his leather chair, and stared blankly at the family photo on the wall.

His gaze passed over his eldest brother, second sister, third sister, and mother. Now that I've confirmed Dad and my sister are superhumans, could the other four also be hiding secret identities?

Drip...

Drip...

The blood-red countdown above his head continued ticking without pause.

Ke Mingqing raised his head and looked at the notification panel floating beneath the ceiling.

[179 days, 4 hours, 1 minute, and 35 seconds remaining.]

[If you fail to complete the ultimate mission—"Exterminate Superhumans"—within the allotted time, your life will be terminated by the system.]

"If all six people in this family are superhumans, then that means..." At that thought, Ke Mingqing folded his arms behind his head. "I'm a level-one rookie who hasn't even left the beginner village yet, and I'm already surrounded by a bunch of max-level bosses?"