Hangzhou’s Telltale Sign

At Hangzhou Third High School, the bell rang loudly, and waves of students in uniforms poured out of the school. Outside, many parents waited for them. It was another Friday, and another day for the students to go home.

"Hey, stupid boy, over here!"

"Son!"

"Daughter!"

The parents all craned their necks expectantly, and the moment they saw their children come out, they went over to pick them up. However, only a minority of students had parents there to meet them. Most of them lined up together in the area where the school shuttle buses stopped, waiting for their rides.

A group of girls in neat school uniforms chatted as they walked toward the buses. One of them stood out with an exceptional air, like a crane among chickens.

"Little Xin’er, look around! Those boys look like they could eat you alive!"

A sweet-looking girl with a hint of feistiness poked Chu Xin in the waist.

"Exactly! Look at their eyes!"

Another girl wearing glasses joined in the teasing.

"Little Xin, tell us what cosmetics you use!"

Then another girl with long legs joined them. She stood about 1.8 meters tall.

The girls surrounded Chu Xin, chattering and teasing her. Chu Xin felt rather uncomfortable. Normally, she was almost transparent among these girls. Because of her personality, hardly any of them teased her like this.

"Beep beep!"

A car horn suddenly sounded. In the girls’ field of vision, a sports car slowly drove over.

"Beep~"

The sports car stopped in front of the group of girls. The window rolled down, and Liu Daimei leaned her head out to greet Chu Xin. "Xin’er, over here!"

"Sister Mei!"

Chu Xin exclaimed in delight, then peered into the car as if searching for someone.

"Click~"

The car door opened, revealing Gu Sheng. He stood beside the car, smiling at Chu Xin with his arms open. Chu Xin’s little face flushed, and she immediately sprinted out of the crowd, diving into Gu Sheng’s arms like a young swallow returning to its nest.

"Hehehe~~~"

Gu Sheng held Chu Xin and spun around several times. As if soothing a child, he held her in his arms, kissed her on the forehead, and grinned mischievously. "Little Xin’er, you’ve lost weight! Is it because one day apart feels like three autumns, and you missed Big Brother Gu so much that you got thinner?

"By the way, are those your classmates? Their expressions look pretty strange!"

Gu Sheng’s words had been fine at first, but when he reached the end, Chu Xin’s heart jolted. She turned around and met the stunned gazes of her classmates head-on.

"No~"

Chu Xin’s little face instantly turned bright red. She hurriedly wriggled out of Gu Sheng’s arms and turned around to explain, but she had no idea what to say.

"That’s awesome!"

"We’ve lost our goddess!"

"This is at school! That’s a blatant provocation!"

"He’s probably her brother…"

Countless gazes focused on the two of them. Chu Xin noticed that even her best friends were looking at her differently now, their eyes brimming with gossip.

"Let’s go!"

Chu Xin turned around, pushed the motionless Gu Sheng straight into the sports car, and hurriedly climbed in after him. "Sister Mei, hurry!"

"Vroom~~"

Liu Daimei glanced at the rearview mirror. After confirming the traffic conditions around them, she slammed on the accelerator. Under the gaze of countless eyes, the car sped away.

"They ran so fast!"

"There’s something going on!"

"Little Xin definitely has a secret!"

"Could she be dating already?"

The girls immediately began chattering, imagining countless stories about Gu Sheng and Chu Xin falling in love. If they knew that Gu Sheng and Chu Xin were actually meeting in the modern world for the first time, who knew whether their eyes would pop out of their heads.

"Big pervert, big pervert, big pervert!"

Inside the sports car, Chu Xin pinned Gu Sheng to the seat and gave him a flurry of "beatings." "You menace, you big pervert! Couldn’t you restrain yourself a little? How could you do that? Hugging me was one thing, but you even—

"Now look what you’ve done! If my mother finds out, am I supposed to bring you home?" The angrier Chu Xin became, the harder her fists rained down on Gu Sheng. "I’ll beat you to death! Beat you to death! Beat you to death, you heartless big pervert…"

Gu Sheng neither moved nor resisted. Chu Xin could never bear to hurt him; her so-called venting was only verbal. Besides, he really had gone a little too far just now. Kissing Chu Xin in front of so many people had essentially made their relationship official, but if they were caught dating in secret, Chu Xin would be in trouble.

High schools were extremely strict about teenage relationships. When Gu Sheng had been in school, students who were caught were given the full package: a public notice of criticism and a self-criticism speech before the entire school. It was an incredibly embarrassing affair.

"Have you vented enough?"

Gu Sheng lay back in the seat and reached out to pull the puffed-up Chu Xin into his arms.

"No! How could it be that easy~ Mmph~"

Chu Xin pouted, intending to ignore Gu Sheng, but she hadn’t expected him to break the usual pattern. He opened his mouth and kissed her, sealing her cherry lips as they shared a lingering kiss and shamelessly flaunted their romance.

"You two, that’s enough!"

Gu Sheng and Chu Xin were enjoying themselves, but the one driving, Liu Daimei, could not take it anymore. She braked and turned around to shout. Gu Sheng, however, was no ordinary person. The jolt from the brakes had no effect on him whatsoever, and he ignored Liu Daimei’s shout, continuing to kiss Chu Xin as if he had seen and heard nothing.

"Sister Mei!"

After a long while, their lips parted. Chu Xin’s face was flushed, and she did not dare look at Liu Daimei. She buried herself in Gu Sheng’s arms and played dead like a quail.

"Hmph~"

Liu Daimei turned back and continued driving. She watched Gu Sheng through the rearview mirror as she asked, "Where are we going now? Back to the hotel?"

Gu Sheng’s voice came from behind her. "Out of the city. Spirit Beasts are most likely to appear in places with dense wildlife. There are quite a few mountain foothills around Hangcheng. Let’s find a remote place and see whether we can locate our target."

"Vroom~~"

Liu Daimei slammed on the accelerator, and the sports car instantly accelerated, speeding toward the outskirts at the fastest permitted speed.

That evening, the Hangcheng Municipal Bureau was as bright as day. Countless staff members worked tensely and busily. Lin Qinghe and Le Erya kept gesturing over a worktable while comparing various materials.

"Captain Lin, we have a situation!"

Suddenly, a staff member who had been operating a computer stood up and saluted. "A lot of details about this case have suddenly been exposed online. They’ve even linked it to the two previous ‘car accidents.’ The online trending searches are being flooded with them now. Every single one is related to this case."

"What happened? Didn’t we order the information sealed?"

Lin Qinghe walked over. This case had already attracted widespread attention, and now someone was digging up old matters. It was clearly premeditated!

"Captain Lin, another situation! A video has suddenly appeared online. It’s of Yao Lin and the court…"

"Captain Lin, several account books have been exposed here!"

"Captain Lin, a recording of Yao Xingxing hiring someone to commit murder!"

"Captain Lin…"

"Captain Lin…"

"Lin…"

Countless pieces of information flooded in at once, and Lin Qinghe felt as if her head were about to explode. Suppressing the urge to lose her temper, she said calmly to those around her, "Investigate where the information came from. Dig out the person behind it."

After a long while, Le Erya, who had been standing in front of Lin Qinghe, handed her a file. "He-jie, the information shows that all the messages came from a single storage device. It’s a foreign brand of average quality. No one sells it in China, and there’s no circulation market for it either. Most of the ones here were brought back by students after studying abroad.

"Yao Xingxing studied abroad before. He seems to have brought several of them back to the Yao Family when he returned. One went missing during the inventory. This should be that device. Here’s a picture of the brand."

"This… this is—"

Lin Qinghe’s expression changed when she saw the logo. Her face turned gloomy and uncertain, as if she had thought of something.