After fooling around for a while, the three of them followed Zhang Xuan to a highly recommended breakfast place near Zhou Heng’s home.

Each of them ordered a bowl of soy milk—salted, of course—and a few steamed buns and shaobing. They found a relatively empty spot and sat down. Someone had been sitting there already, but when the three students came over, he shifted aside to make room. Only then did he look up at them—and fix his eyes on Zhou Heng’s face.

The moment he saw him, his eyes went wide.

“Hey, girls these days sure are pretty. And she’s so tall, too—she could be a model!”

Zhou Heng, who’d just taken a sip of soy milk, looked up in disbelief.

“Girl?”

The man raised an eyebrow at Zhou Heng.

“What, are you a woman, then?”

Zhou Heng slammed a hand on the table in anger.

“If I drop my pants, what’s down there is bigger than yours! A girl!? Hey, don’t push me!”

The man froze. He looked Zhou Heng’s face over carefully, then muttered under his breath,

“How come all the guys these days look like pretty girls?”

Zhou Heng stood up, ready to dump the soy milk in his bowl all over the man’s face. The man had quick reflexes, though. He jumped up at once and hurried off.

Zhou Heng sat back down, fuming.

“I’ve been called a girl twice in my whole life, and today’s the second time. Damn it, it’s not April Fools’ Day! Do people just lie without feeling even a little guilty?”

Zhang Xuan looked up at Zhou Heng’s face. He didn’t think the man who’d just left was lying.

Only now did Lu Yile, who’d been slow to catch on, get a chance to study Zhou Heng’s face. After a long moment, he said in surprise,

“I didn’t notice before, but now that I’m looking, Zhou Heng, something’s off about your face.”

Zhou Heng planted a hand on Lu Yile’s head and said menacingly,

“What’s off about it?”

Lu Yile swallowed and forced an awkward grin.

“You look even manlier.”

Zhou Heng snorted, sat back down, and continued drinking his soy milk.

Now that they were alone, Zhang Xuan took a few deep breaths to clear his complicated feelings. Then he turned to Zhou Heng and asked,

“Um, Zhou Heng…”

Zhou Heng glanced sideways at Zhang Xuan.

“What is it?”

“It’s just… about yesterday…”

Zhou Heng tensed. He’d already asked Zhang Xuan and Lu Yile what had happened to them when they left Mu Yuan’s infirmary.

Mu Yuan had said it was perfectly normal for Mutants to run into ordinary people while on a mission, and that there was a procedure for dealing with it afterward. The procedure was simple to the point of absurdity.

If they couldn’t keep it hidden, scare them into silence. If they could, keep it hidden.

Zhang Xuan and Lu Yile were the kind they could keep in the dark.

“Yesterday? Nothing happened. You two drank too much and collapsed on the ground, too drunk to get up. I figured we couldn’t let your parents see you like that, or you’d be dead for sure. So I booked a suite for you and called your parents to say you’d be staying out for the night.”

Zhang Xuan said nothing. He just focused on finishing his bowl of soy milk.

Whatever the truth behind that dream, he’d just treat it as a dream.

The high school Zhou Heng attended was called X City No. 3 High School.

The name had always bothered Zhou Heng.

All three young men—including Zhang Xuan and Lu Yile—thought it was incredibly tacky to slap a place name in front of “hotel,” “school,” or “hospital” and use it for a public or commercial building. And yet, those tacky names seemed to be everywhere. Wherever they went, they’d find endless rows of X City Hotels, X City Hospitals, and X City Middle Schools.

Zhou Heng parted ways with Zhang Xuan and Lu Yile at the school gate, then made it into the classroom just in time for morning study.

Usually, the class was already buzzing at this time. Some students were copying homework, others were chatting or talking games, and some were figuring out how to spend the weekend. Their chatter filled the whole classroom.

But something seemed to have happened today. Zhou Heng could still hear the noise from outside, but the moment he stepped into the classroom, the commotion stopped.

Every student in the class turned to look at Zhou Heng.

Curiosity, confusion, smug certainty, gloating, schadenfreude—every sort of feeling gathered in their eyes as they sized him up.

As if he were a prisoner on trial.

Zhou Heng wasn’t one to back down. He glared at every classmate who dared meet his gaze.

“What? You wanna take this outside?”

A few people couldn’t hold back their laughter.

One guy laughed louder than the rest. When he was done, he sneered at Zhou Heng in front of the whole class.

“Zhou Heng, look at you, still acting tough even after your little stunt got exposed.”

Zhou Heng looked over at the speaker, Tang De—the school’s most textbook delinquent. The kind who picked fights everywhere and caused trouble for no reason. At the start of the school year, Zhou Heng had beaten him until he was crawling. Tang De hadn’t taken it lying down, though; afterward, he’d brought five lackeys to get even. In the end, Zhou Heng beat all six of them flat.

After that, Tang De never dared act up in front of Zhou Heng again.

Though Zhou Heng often caught Tang De shooting him the occasional hateful look, the delinquent was as meek as a quail whenever Zhou Heng was around.

Who knew what had gotten into him today? He’d stopped keeping his grudge to himself and brought it right out in the open.

Zhou Heng stared straight at Tang De and sneered.

“Say that again.”

Tang De had been beaten by him before, after all. He immediately backed down, turned his head away, and fell silent.