The assailant attacking the students turned out to be Mark, one of the school’s teachers.
He had been absent from school for a few days, and when he showed up, he had a knife hidden in his clothing.
Selena’s classroom was the first one along the hallway. Mark slammed the door open and entered without a word.
Selena was about to question him, but as soon as she saw the bloodshot veins in his eyes, her instincts screamed that something was wrong.
Mark raised the knife toward the student closest to the door. Without thinking, Selena lunged at him.
Amid the students’ terrified screams, Selena had only one thought: It hurts. It freaking hurts!
Even so, she grabbed Mark around the waist and shouted, “Run!”
The students scrambled in panic. Mark, red-eyed, kicked Selena away and chased after them.
Hearing the commotion, Ji Mian was the first to arrive. As soon as Mark saw him, he abandoned the fleeing students and charged at Ji Mian, yelling with his knife raised.
Ji Mian, expressionless, caught Mark’s wrist mid-swing. A sharp crack echoed as Mark’s wrist bone snapped.
Mark let out a bloodcurdling scream, and Ji Mian pulled him forward, driving his knee into Mark’s stomach with enough force to feel like it rearranged his insides.
Mark couldn’t scream anymore—his eyes rolled back, and he fainted on the spot.
The entire ordeal didn’t even require Ji Mian to use his mental power.
He casually tossed Mark onto the ground as if discarding garbage and turned to Lin Jun, who had arrived in a rush.
“Find some rope and tie him up.”
Lin Jun was kneeling beside Selena, who was bleeding profusely, fumbling with his communicator.
“Wait—shouldn’t we call a doctor first?”
Ji Mian: “No need.”
He quickly moved to Selena’s side.
Selena lay on the ground, face up, her wavy hair matted with blood. Her face had paled significantly from blood loss, resembling a wilted flower.
When that familiar silhouette entered her blurry vision, her gaze began to drift.
“Cough, cough… Get a pen, quick, I need to dictate my last words…”
Ji Mian: “You’re not dying.”
With that, he casually healed her.
Selena: “…”
She sat up in a daze and touched the stomach that had been stabbed through moments earlier.
“Eh?”
Lin Jun: “Huh?”
While the two stared at each other in disbelief, Chu Shiye arrived.
The sight of blood on the ground made his heart lurch.
But soon, he caught sight of a familiar figure.
Before Ji Mian could react, an Alpha had rushed up to him.
Chu Shiye raised his hands as if to embrace Ji Mian but froze midway. Awkwardly, he shifted the gesture, resting his hands on Ji Mian’s shoulders instead.
It turned into a motion of gripping Ji Mian’s shoulders firmly.
Ji Mian: …Was he just about to hug me?
Don’t overthink it. Don’t overthink it.
Chu Shiye stared at Ji Mian without blinking, his gaze locked on him.
Ji Mian: “I’m fine. I’m not hurt.”
Chu Shiye: “…Okay.”
But he didn’t look away. He continued to study Ji Mian, as if trying to confirm, inch by inch, that he was indeed standing there, unharmed.
Ji Mian thought to himself: Every time something like this happens, this Alpha seems especially concerned about me.
He smiled at Chu Shiye.
Chu Shiye’s eyes flickered slightly.
Off to the side, Selena dusted herself off and stood up. “Wow.”
Lin Jun turned away in a daze.
It was only then that Chu Shiye seemed to notice there were others around. He took a step back and slowly released his grip.
Then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a bag of candies.
“Candy.”
Ji Mian: “I don’t even like candy.”
Despite his words, he quickly grabbed it, bit into one, and chewed.
Late-arriving Principal Xiao Zhang hadn’t expected such chaos to unfold at his school. He, along with several teachers, tried to calm the students and awaited the arrival of the city’s guards.
Mark, unconscious and tightly bound, was tossed into a corner. Ji Mian sat nearby.
Chu Shiye sat down beside him, then shuffled a little closer.
Ji Mian handed him a piece of candy.
Chu Shiye instinctively wanted to refuse—he didn’t like overly sweet things.
But it was from Su Lan.
After a moment of deliberation, he opened his mouth.
Ji Mian: “…”
He placed the candy in Chu Shiye’s palm instead.
Chu Shiye took it, looking slightly sulky, and shifted a bit closer to Ji Mian again.
From a distance, Selena watched the two of them. “Ah, there goes the prettiest fish in my pond.”
Lin Jun: “…It wasn’t in your pond to begin with.”
Fifteen minutes later, the city’s guards finally arrived.
With them came a familiar face: Fu Zeren.
“Mr. Su, Mr. Chu, we meet again.”
After losing his position to Joshua, Fu Zeren had been tasked with managing the city’s security. Hearing about the attack at the Interstellar School, he remembered Su Lan’s identity as a teacher there and rushed over.
Sure enough, the assailant had already been subdued, though not killed as reported. Instead, he had been knocked out and tied up.
Ji Mian said, “You’re here—just in time.”
“Search his house. Look for any medical treatment drugs distributed by the Relief Society.”
Fu Zeren: “What?”
Ji Mian offered no further explanation.
He still remembered finding numerous medical supplies from the Relief Society at Eren’s house.
When Eren was captured yesterday, beneath the stench of alcohol on him was the faint smell of rotting flesh.
Just now, Mark had carried the same odor.
Neither of them had any visible injuries, yet they both had that strange smell—and both had done the same thing: attacking others with a knife.
Fu Zeren considered for a moment before giving the order. “Take him away. Assemble another team and search his house with me.”
As the guards prepared to take Mark away, Selena spoke up. “Wait.”
She marched over in her high heels, stomped on Mark, and kicked him a few more times for good measure.
The guards watched in stunned silence as she clapped her hands and let out a long breath. “Okay, take him now.”
With Mark dragged away, Fu Zeren surveyed the scene. Though there was blood on the floor, no one appeared to be injured—presumably thanks to Ji Mian’s healing.
He wiped his sweat with a handkerchief. “It’s a good thing you were here, Mr. Su. Otherwise…”
The city had just announced the capture of the perpetrator behind the previous assault cases, only for another attack to occur at the Interstellar School in broad daylight. It was a slap to their faces.
Luckily, since no one was hurt, they still had something to explain to the public.
Ji Mian: “If there’s no medical treatment drugs, then look for the Relief Society’s badges.”
The direction of the findings was so obvious that Fu Zeren immediately realized something. His face lit up with excitement: “Alright, I’ll head out right away.”
He quickly left with his team, leaving Ji Mian to turn toward Principal Xiao Zhang.
“Principal, are we still holding classes today?”
Xiao Zhang sighed. “After something like this… it’s better to let the kids go home for now.”
Clearly, he was afraid of another violent incident and decided to dismiss the students for the day, asking parents to come pick them up.
For a while, the school was bustling with parents coming and going. Nato’s aunt held his hand and said, “Say goodbye to Mr. Su.”
Nato: “Goodbye, Mr. Su!”
Ji Mian: “Bye-bye.”
He and Chu Shiye stood at the entrance of the school building, watching the students being led away by their parents one by one.
When the last student had left, Ji Mian turned to Chu Shiye and said, “Let’s go.”
Chu Shiye: “Okay.”
Lowering his eyes, he sneaked a glance at Ji Mian’s pale fingertips.
Quietly, he reached out and brushed his fingers against Ji Mian’s.
Ji Mian kept his gaze straight ahead as if nothing had happened.
Chu Shiye’s eyes brightened slightly, and he gently took Ji Mian’s hand.
The two of them walked off together, hand in hand.
—
Meanwhile, Fu Zeren soon made a significant discovery.
At Mark’s home, they indeed found medical treatment drugs distributed by the Relief Society—an entire box of them.
Although the Relief Society had been freely distributing these drugs, most ordinary households only kept a few doses. Yet Mark’s house contained a large amount, with more than half already consumed.
No injuries, no illnesses—why would someone need so much of the treatment drugs?
Realizing something was amiss, Fu Zeren ordered his team to investigate Eren’s house as well. The results were identical: Eren also had an excessive amount of the drugs, with more than half already used up.
These drugs had all been distributed through the Relief Society.
Fu Zeren immediately saw an opportunity and declared, “I need to see the city lord.”
With that, his group left Eren’s house and began their return trip.
At the back of the group, one of the guards suddenly began convulsing.
A nearby guard noticed something was wrong and turned to ask, “What’s happening to y—”
*Bang!*
A spray of blood burst forth. The question was left unfinished as the guard crumpled to the ground, trembling.
Fu Zeren turned around in shock to see the convulsing guard. His eyes were bloodshot, veins bulging, as he raised his gun.
—
On the streets, amid the bustling crowds, someone suddenly collapsed.
“Hey! Someone fainted here!”
“What happened? What’s going on?”
A group of onlookers gathered to check on the person who had fallen.
But the person on the ground suddenly opened bloodshot eyes, lunging at one of the bystanders and sinking their teeth into their neck!
“Ahhhh!!”
Several screams erupted simultaneously. All around, chaos broke out as people began attacking each other seemingly without reason.
Some wielded nothing but their hands and teeth, while others grabbed weapons from nearby shops.
People attacked, people fled, people got hurt. The uncontrollable chaos spread like wildfire in an instant.
—
On the top floor of a skyscraper in the city center, all the noise and commotion were sealed off. The struggles and agony of the city’s residents below were visible through the massive windows, like a play unfolding on a grand screen for the amusement of the onlookers.
A young man cloaked in black stood before the floor-to-ceiling windows. A subordinate beside him respectfully handed him a glass of red wine.
The liquid was a deep crimson, resembling congealed blood.
“The experiment is progressing smoothly,” the man remarked.
Joshua raised the wine glass and gazed through its crimson depths at the chaotic city below, a faint smile playing on his lips.
“This planet is done.”
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