Brother and Sister's Unspoken Understanding

Jiangzhou City Guanghua School was a prestigious private school renowned throughout the surrounding region. Its students' grades and family backgrounds alike impressed outsiders, to say nothing of its outrageously high admission rate to Cultivation University.

But being an elite school didn't mean its students were exempt from the college entrance exam. Guanghua School was therefore one of Jiangzhou City's exam sites.

Even if the candidates assigned to take the exam there failed to get good results, seeing the school's magnificent buildings with their own eyes would make the trip worthwhile.

On the day before the exam, students gathered in groups of three or five across the Guanghua campus.

They were all candidates assigned to take the exam there the next day. Checking out the exam site in advance was one reason they had come; curiosity was another. Many were fascinated by the place where "elite students" studied and spent their days, and lingered, reluctant to leave.

"This is a security area. Keep away!"

A stern-faced guard called out to stop them.

"Sorry, we're leaving right away."

Guo Huai laughed it off, and he and a female cultist led Lu Yuan away, one on either side of him.

The guard watched the three leave, finding them a little odd. Judging by their ages, they looked like a family of three, but the atmosphere between them didn't feel right.

Quite a few candidates had come with their parents to look around the exam site, and it was easy to tell they were family from the way they spoke and acted. But those three who had just passed by were different. If they had stood farther apart, the guard would have assumed they were complete strangers.

Still, suspicious as he was, they were already far away. Several more curious candidates approached, and the guard had to repeat himself for the hundredth time that day:

"This is a security area. Keep away!"

The three who had walked away were Guo Huai, Lu Yuan, and the female cultist playing his mother.

Once they had put some distance between themselves and the guard, Guo Huai said quietly:

"The guards here are alert. Don't probe any further."

The female cultist nodded and replied just as quietly, "Someone was watching this area from a third-floor window just now. They might be a cultivator in charge of exam security."

Guo Huai grunted in agreement. After a few more steps, he said, "A lot of candidates came in. He probably didn't notice us. Lu Yuan, look at your review materials. Don't get distracted."

"Oh."

Lu Yuan had no choice but to keep pretending to be "a mama's boy sheltered by his parents."

Inside, however, he was anxious. He had realized that Guo Huai had never stopped guarding against him. By rights, after the Holy Descent Ceremony, Guo Huai should have trusted Lu Yuan completely, since he had become a fanatic. The only thing Lu Yuan could say was that this wariness might have been subconscious.

The cultists had split into two groups when they entered Guanghua School, and Guo Huai had insisted on being in Lu Yuan's group.

Throughout their inspection of the school, Guo Huai had kept his hand on Lu Yuan's back.

Several times, people in uniform had hurried toward them. Lu Yuan had seen the green leaf emblems on their chests and known they were cultivators. All he had to do was open his mouth to call for help.

But before he could be rescued, Guo Huai would surely slap him dead.

Only two ordinary cultists were accompanying Xu Wenbin's group. If Lu Yuan could have traded places with him, he would have escaped long ago.

They wandered around the exam site for over half an hour and had more or less figured out the security arrangements for the next day. The site's visiting hours were also nearly over, and announcements were already telling candidates to leave.

"That's about it. Let's pull out!"

The two groups met up near the main gate, but instead of walking together and drawing attention, they passed one after another through the guarded passage and left.

The van that had brought them was parked nearby, and it now drove slowly toward them. Lu Yuan knew this was his last chance. He had to try his luck.

Out of Guo Huai's sight, Lu Yuan turned his hand over. A slip of paper lay in his palm. Just as he was about to act, he suddenly stopped.

He had spotted someone in the crowd who absolutely should not have been there.

Xiao Bing was out of breath from running. She had taken a taxi from Ningcheng First Middle School to the high-speed rail station, ridden the train to Jiangzhou City, then taken another taxi from Jiangzhou Railway Station to Guanghua School.

She had barely stopped to rest along the way and finally reached the school's main gate at five in the afternoon.

On the train, all sorts of thoughts had raced through her head. She had felt she should call the police first and give them the lead. But she also felt there was no time for any further delay, and the police would take a long time questioning her. This was the last chance.

At the gate of Guanghua School, Xiao Bing spotted Lu Yuan at once. She ran toward him, tears streaming uncontrollably down her face.

"Bro..."

At that instant, the word "brother" was already on the tip of her tongue, and Xiao Bing was about to throw her arms around Lu Yuan. Guo Huai had already turned his head toward her.

But in that same instant, Xiao Bing saw Lu Yuan's eyes.

Their eyes met for no more than a moment.

"Move! Move! Let me through! I'm going to be too late!"

Xiao Bing bumped Lu Yuan aside and rushed toward the gate without looking back.

"Sorry, visiting hours for the exam site are over."

The guard stopped Xiao Bing.

Tears pouring down her face, Xiao Bing pleaded with him:

"Please, sir, let me see the exam site! I really did take a wrong turn just now! Please!"

"No!"

Xiao Bing was crying so piteously, but unfortunately, this guard truly had a heart of stone. He simply wouldn't open the gate.

Guo Huai watched the scene from behind and said with amusement:

"A student with no sense of time like that deserves it!"

Guo Huai considered himself a man with a keen sense of time. He liked precision.

They got into the van and drove off down the road.

It was not until the van had been gone for quite some time that Xiao Bing suddenly stopped crying. She wiped away her tears and straightened up, a cold light flashing in her eyes.

Now the stonehearted guard grew a little worried. As everyone knew, students her age often did crazy things in the heat of the moment.

He tried to reason with her. "Young lady, don't do anything rash! You can still see the exam site if you come early tomorrow, right?"

A look of realization came over Xiao Bing's face. "Oh! I just remembered I'm only in my first year of high school. I don't need to see the exam site at all!"

The guard's mouth twitched.

Xiao Bing turned around and opened her hand.

When she and Lu Yuan had collided, their hands had pushed against each other, as though it were the natural reaction of two people bumping into one another.

It had never occurred to Guo Huai that Lu Yuan had taken the chance to pass Xiao Bing a note.

This was the unspoken understanding between brother and sister: a single look could tell them a great deal. When Xiao Bing saw that Lu Yuan not only wasn't looking at her but was letting his eyes wander, she knew he was in terrible danger.

Afterward, Xiao Bing had used her exaggerated performance to cover up the small movement between her and Lu Yuan.

All one could say was that the siblings' acting skills were cut from the same cloth.

Once she was somewhere no one else was around, Xiao Bing opened the note.

On the back was a chemistry problem; it seemed to have been torn from an exam paper. The front was covered in tiny writing that vaguely resembled her brother's handwriting:

Whoever finds this note, please deliver it to the nearest Internal Affairs Bureau immediately. You can collect a substantial reward from the bureau. This is not a joke.

I am Lu Yuan. I was assigned by Cultivator Ji Yin of the Ning City Internal Affairs Bureau to investigate the cult organization in Jiangzhou City. The intelligence I currently have is as follows.

Dr. Li Tailai of Jiangzhou First Hospital is highly suspected of being the leader of the Jiangzhou cult organization and holding the position of cult protector.

The cult plans to launch attacks on two exam sites, Jiangzhou No. 2 High School and Guanghua School, during the college entrance exam.

Four cultist candidates will infiltrate the exam sites and detonate bombs, while other cultists will attack and kill parents on the perimeter.

I have been held in an underground facility the whole time. The location of the cult's base is still unknown.

Please pay particular attention: the cult has a ritual that can quickly brainwash people and turn them into fanatical cultists.

It is now June 6, the day before the college entrance exam. I don't know when this intelligence will reach anyone, and I don't know whether I can leave here alive.

Cultivator Ji Yin, please do not forget the treatment as a martyr you promised me.

Please also tell my parents and my little sister that I miss them very much, every moment of every day.