A little boy wearing a duck-print T-shirt with chestnut-colored hair bounced into the classroom. The moment he poked his head in, his eyes lit up. He ran over happily with his backpack.
“Xiao Xing, your dad finally let you out.”
Ren Suixing rested his chin on his hand and looked up sulkily. “Don’t mention that old man. He’s driving me crazy.”
The little boy blinked in confusion. “Xiao Yeye, what happened to him?”
A boy in a black T-shirt beside them calmly put down his book and said, “I heard he was—”
“Shut up!” Ren Suixing glared at him fiercely.
He had secretly slipped into the interrogation room. He originally just wanted to ask a few questions and leave. He didn’t believe a single word from that old man and insisted on confronting him face-to-face. But unexpectedly, he had only tugged Shen Yue slightly in frustration, and Shen Yue had suddenly vomited blood and fainted. It nearly scared him to death. He immediately pressed the alarm. The siren blared as doctors rushed in, followed by Ren Jinzhu with a dark expression.
Ren Suixing was arrested on the spot, with both witness and evidence present. He was immediately sent home and locked up. He had screamed and insisted on going to the hospital, but Ren Jinzhu grabbed him by the back of the neck and tossed him into the car like a ball.
He had been locked up for a full week, truly locked up, not even a crack of a window or door allowed him to escape.
“You have no idea how outrageous that old man is. He sent the entire Flying Dragon Squad to block me! The base’s top special operations team, he’s actually using it for personal revenge. Do you know what kind of life I’ve been living these past seven days? I… I… I’m not even going to talk about it…”
Ren Suixing was a bold and mischievous child, very much like his father, disobedient, rebellious by nature. If he wasn’t allowed out, he would force his way out. If he couldn’t get through the door, he would secretly scratch at the window. He finally managed to create a crack, his nails hurting from scratching, but in the next second, it sealed itself shut again through some ability, as if it had just been replaced with a brand-new pane.
He tried climbing through the ventilation duct, but just as his head got in, his butt was still sticking out when branches suddenly sprouted inside and pushed him back out. Special forces personnel caught him below and carried him back to his room.
In the end, Ren Suixing couldn’t hold back anymore and tried the sewer. The moment he entered the bathroom, the toilet began rotating 360 degrees and spraying indescribable, censored “mosaic” contents everywhere, drenching him completely.
Outside the bathroom, a special forces soldier slammed the door shut with a “bang” and said solemnly, “Comrade Ren Suixing, issuing Colonel’s order: you are prohibited from entering the sewer. Otherwise you will fall straight into the septic tank. Regarding your extremely undisciplined behavior, the organization has decided after careful consideration to place you under confinement. The Colonel says you must write a 1,000-word self-criticism before you are released.”
It was clear the soldier was trying very hard to stay serious, but he was barely holding back laughter.
“Open the door! Open it!! Hurry up and open it!! You’re abusing a child, this is a crime! I’m going to report you—I’m going to report the old man for domestic abuse to Headquarters! Open the door!! AHHHH!!”
Ren Suixing screamed and pounded the door frantically, but the special forces outside, following strict orders from the Colonel, were determined to teach him a lesson. They could only endure their sympathy (and laughter), staying as firm as iron, watching the “flower of the motherland’s future” undergo “baptism” in sewage without moving a muscle.
But where was he supposed to find pen and paper in a toilet? There was no way he could write a 1,000-word apology using toilet paper dipped in sewage. Just the thought made him want to vomit. In the end, it was the butler who couldn’t stand it anymore and secretly smuggled in paper and a pen.
Ren Suixing, trembling, lay on the ground, drenched in that uniquely “wonderful” liquid, furiously writing.
Who the hell makes a first-rank elementary school kid write a 1,000-word self-criticism? Did they think he was Conan? This was abuse, pure, blatant, humiliating abuse!
He had no idea how he survived that hour. When he was finally released, he was still half out of his mind, his body was there, but his soul had already left. He rushed to the bathroom and showered for a full two hours before feeling like he had finally cleansed his body, mind, and soul completely.
Ren Suixing grew up in the military compound and was a little demon king who never behaved. But he wasn’t like ordinary “naughty kids”, when he caused trouble, it was always something big enough to give people heart attacks, and no one could control him. He was lively, extremely agile, and even when he was very young, no one could ever catch him.
Such a precious “treasure child,” even more valuable than a national panda, was someone even the commander could do nothing about, he could only spoil him. But as the saying goes, “one foot higher, the devil a mile higher”, there is always someone stronger. How could a little devil ever beat a great devil? In the whole world, only his father could restrain him.
He had always feared nothing, but this time he was truly scared. Ren Jinzhu had even deployed biological weapons, how could he not be afraid? Spraying filth at a child, was that even something a human being could do?! This was psychological humiliation, trampling of dignity, and outright inhuman cruelty!
“Ren Jinzhu, I will never forgive you!” Ren Suixing hid under his blanket, raising his tiny fist in righteous fury, then quietly wiped away his tears.
The little boy beside him asked in surprise, “Huh? He sent Brother Xiao Hu[1]“Xiao Hu” (小虎) literally means “Little Tiger.” jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_2373652_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_2373652_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); and the others to catch you, right? But didn’t you always escape every time? Why were you locked up for so long this time?”
Ren Suixing couldn’t bring himself to say what kind of inhuman torture he had endured. Over the past few days, even his dreams were filled with “mosaic monsters” rushing at him to devour him, waking him up every time in terror. He didn’t even dare go to the bathroom anymore.
He sighed and said eight solemn words: “Too painful to recall. Better not mention it.”
Shaking his head to clear the mosaic images from his mind, Ren Suixing waved the two of them over mysteriously.
“Good, you’re here, everyone’s gathered now. Come with me.”
The chestnut-haired boy picked up his backpack and followed. “What is it? Class is about to start. Where are we going, Xiao Xing?”
The boy in black didn’t want to move, but Ren Suixing forcibly grabbed his hand and dragged him along. The three children ran to a small corner near the flowerbeds.
“What are you doing? The bell’s about to ring. Careful or the teacher will punish you to clean the bathroom.” The boy in black deliberately emphasized the word “bathroom.”
“Damn it, don’t say such disgusting things,” Ren Suixing said with a frown of disgust. “I need your help with something.”
He carefully pulled out a small bag and handed it to the chestnut-haired boy. “Yanyan, help me test this.”
Bai Yanxuan blinked his round eyes at the bag for a moment, then very skillfully took out a pair of gloves from his overalls pocket and put them on before accepting it.
“Xiao Xing, did you finally find your mom?”
Ren Suixing frowned. “Not sure yet…”
“They don’t admit it, the old man and him. I don’t believe either of them. Teacher said we should be brave enough to deny, brave enough to question, brave enough not to believe, and then find evidence to prove our ideas. I’ve already found evidence; I just need proof.”
He pointed at the bag.
Inside the transparent pouch were two strands of hair, one white, one black, barely visible unless caught in the sunlight.
The white strand was something Ren Suixing had secretly grabbed in the interrogation room when Shen Yue was being carried away on a stretcher. He had hidden it for a week, terrified of losing it.
“Go sneak into the center and get it tested when no one’s paying attention. Don’t let anyone find out,” Ren Suixing whispered, covering his mouth.
“Huh?” Bai Yanxuan tilted his cute doll-like voice. “If you enter the lab and use equipment without permission, you’ll be punished.”
“Just be careful and don’t get caught,” Ren Suixing said. “The staff at the center are so busy anyway, and you often study under different department heads, no one will notice.”
The children in this school are somewhat special. They are precociously intelligent, highly developed in thinking, and grow at an extremely fast pace, making it difficult for them to study alongside ordinary children. Therefore, Headquarters gathers them from all over the country through various channels and provides separate instruction. The curriculum is also different from that of normal schools.
The school only has two classes, and each class has no more than twenty students. These dozens of children are all connected to different factions, so their identities and family backgrounds are strictly confidential.
After graduation, they continue their studies in corresponding junior and senior high schools. After passing the senior high assessment, they are directly admitted into the Zhongjing Special Military School for training. However, all of this is kept highly confidential and is never made public.
Bai Yanxuan, Ren Suixing, and Zuo Ye were all the same age. Bai Yanxuan had shown talent in medicine and biology from a very early age, he would still be stumbling and bumping his chin while walking, yet he already followed various doctors and department heads around, learning from them. He was famously known in the medical center as the “little tail.”
“If Teacher Jiang finds out…” Bai Yanxuan hesitated. Just last month, he had been scolded for secretly wanting to get hormone injections to grow taller, and if this was discovered, he was sure it wouldn’t just be scolding, he might even get beaten.
Ren Suixing said, “If we get caught, just blame everything on me. Let them come after me. Please, Yanyan, this is really important to me.”
The three of them had known each other since they were toddlers and had long formed a deep “revolutionary friendship.” They also knew that Ren Suixing had been searching for his mother for a very long time.
“Alright, I’ll go after class today and help Xiao Xing run the test,” Bai Yanxuan said, putting the small bag into his chest pocket and zipping it up. “But what about the access card and the on-duty doctor? Today it’s Sister Xiao Zhang on duty.”
“You’re the best, Yanyan!” Ren Suixing hugged him tightly. “Leave the access card to me, it’s easy. As for Sister Xiao Zhang…”
He looked at Zuo Ye.
Zuo Ye stood with one hand in his pocket. He originally didn’t want to agree, but after the little demon pestered him relentlessly, he finally sighed helplessly.
“Fine. Tonight the female instructor who teaches me disguise class is Sister Xiao Zhang’s girlfriend. I’ll lure her away for you.”
“Bro, you’re the best!” Ren Suixing also threw himself at him. Zuo Ye didn’t want to touch the “mosaic-soaked” body, but he couldn’t resist, so he was forced into a hug around the neck, his cold little face twisting as he silently sighed.
“How long will it take to get results?”
“For hair samples, usually about a week.”
“That long…” Ren Suixing scratched his head impatiently.
Bai Yanxuan explained, “For a paternity test, we extract DNA from the hair, then do PCR amplification, followed by gel electrophoresis and genetic profiling. Only then can we analyze the results. And I’ll have to process it secretly behind the teachers’ backs, so it’ll probably take even longer.”
“But don’t worry, Xiao Xing. I can use my ability to help, should be able to shorten it to three days.”
“Deal!” Ren Suixing slammed his palm down.
The three of them quickly gathered and formed a highly detailed and carefully planned operation strategy. Just then, the class bell rang. Ren Suixing placed his hand forward, Bai Yanxuan placed his on top, and Zuo Ye rolled his eyes, refusing to participate in such a childish gesture, only to be forcibly pulled in by Ren Suixing.
“Codename Pikachu. Operation start!”
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