He just broke up with his girlfriend and is already living with the devilish rich girl.

The food was steaming hot on the table.

Zheng Yueyao spent the whole afternoon preparing a table full of dishes.

"Xiao Guang, try this pork rib."

She picked up a bright red pork rib and placed it in the bowl opposite her, smiling broadly.

"I made it the way Mom used to make it. Try it and see if it looks similar."

Zheng Xingguang had changed into casual clothes. The white sweatshirt made his skin look even fairer, and he looked less aloof than when he wore a Taoist robe.

He has gained a youthful freshness.

He was already handsome, and now, sitting under the warm yellow light, his features appeared even more exquisite.

He looks like a young man who stepped out of an ancient painting.

But he didn't touch his chopsticks; he just glanced down at the piece of pork rib.

"Sis, I heard about that mission in the port area last time."

Zheng Yueyao's chopsticks paused for a moment, hovering in mid-air.

"Yes, there was a slight problem... but, but it's okay, I know how to handle it."

She laughed, her voice light and almost deliberately cheerful.

Zheng Xingguang did not respond to this.

He looked at the table full of dishes, a calm and determined expression appearing on the boy's face, which seemed incongruous with his eighteen years.

"Sister, you should leave the Special Administration Bureau."

Zheng Yueyao's smile froze.

"Xiaoguang, I—"

"I've said it before, you're not suited for this."

Zheng Xingguang's tone was not aggressive, and could even be described as calm, but it was precisely this calmness that made Zheng Yueyao feel even more embarrassed.

"I can talk to Uncle Chen and have you transferred to an office position."

"The archives, the logistics department, the document management department—any department will do."

"You learn things quickly and will be able to get the hang of it in no time, which is much better than risking your life in the field."

Every word he said was for her benefit, and every word he said was to arrange a way out for her.

"Isn't it better to live a peaceful and stable life?"

Zheng Yueyao looked at him and suddenly smiled softly.

There was no anger or resentment in that smile, only an indescribable weariness.

"Xiao Guang, there's something I've always wanted to ask you."

Her voice was very soft, as if she were talking to herself.

"You also think your sister can't do anything right, right?"

Zheng Xingguang was stunned for a moment. The chopsticks slipped from his fingers, bounced twice on the table, and rolled to the ground. He didn't pick them up.

"No, that's not what I meant—"

"I want to prove myself, but I fail every time."

Zheng Yueyao looked down at her calloused hands, a bittersweet smile playing on her lips.

"I can't even protect them."

"It's always been like this since I was little. My dad treated me like a vase, and you treated me like a decoration. I thought joining the Special Administration Bureau would prove something, but in the end—"

"sister."

Zheng Xingguang also put down his chopsticks, looking at his sister with icy eyes.

"Those who follow you on missions, their lives are not meant to prove themselves to you."

A gust of cold wind blew by, and Zheng Yueyao shivered.

"They trusted you, so they followed you, but you failed to bring them back alive, perhaps due to insufficient intelligence, or perhaps for other reasons."

"But sister, you've let them and their families down."

She didn't continue, but just sniffed lightly.

Both of them fell silent.

The warm yellow light shone on a large table of dishes, which were still steaming, but suddenly the room felt deserted.

The beeping of the communicator broke the silence.

Zheng Xingguang glanced down at the device on his wrist, put down his chopsticks, stood up, and took his coat from the hanger.

"There's an unusual signal, related to beastly breath."

"I'll go too."

Zheng Yueyao stood up almost simultaneously.

Zheng Xingguang walked towards the door without looking back, his voice carrying a businesslike restraint.

"Sis, you shouldn't go. Your team is still being rebuilt. The staffing isn't complete, and the personnel aren't in place. You're not even qualified for fieldwork right now."

He paused, his tone softening slightly, but the meaning behind his words remained unchanged.

"And you're currently on administrative leave. Just stay home."

Zheng Yueyao stood there, opened her mouth, and finally managed to squeeze out only one sentence.

"Then...then I'll wait for you to come back. I'll keep the food warm for you, and then—"

"No."

Zheng Xingguang opened the door, and the night breeze blew in, causing the soup noodles on the table to sway slightly.

"I'm not coming back tonight."

Zheng Yueyao stared at the tightly closed door for a long time.

Then her gaze moved past the dining table and landed on the wall.

The knife leaned quietly against the corner of the wall.

It was a broken knife she had picked up from the port area. She neither threw it away nor replaced it, but just left it there.

The wind outside the window stopped, and the whole room was so quiet that only the ticking of the clock on the wall could be heard.

...

...

Ninghai City, the cross-river bridge.

The night was deep, and the river wind was blowing.

This bridge, which is usually bustling with traffic, is now under complete control.

Roadblocks and checkpoints have been set up at both ends of the approach bridge entrance.

But for ordinary citizens, the bridge was only temporarily closed for maintenance, and no one cared about what the maintenance was.

The real reason is hidden in the middle of the bridge.

A pale blue light curtain completely enveloped the middle section of the bridge.

That was a barrier set up by the Special Administration Bureau, forming a huge, transparent box from the bridge deck to the river below, and from the bridge tower to the night sky above.

Complex runes flowed across the barrier, isolating all sounds and smells inside from the outside world.

On the bridge, the Special Administration's enforcement forces had completed their encirclement deployment.

Dozens of fully armed agents spread out in a fan-shaped formation, their weapons neatly pointing in the same direction.

In the very center of the bridge, seven or eight figures huddled together in fear.

Their clothes were tattered, some barely covering their bodies, and their exposed skin was covered with old and new scars and frostbite.

But what's most striking are their ears, which are pointed and covered with a layer of grayish-white down.

Those are wolf ears.

The youngest in the group was only seven or eight years old, a little girl who was so thin she was practically skin and bones.

She nestled in the arms of a woman, surrounded by adults and two other children, forming a final barrier with their bodies.

A middle-aged man stood at the very front.

In this life-or-death moment, he managed to force a smile and smile at those who were pointing guns at him.

"Please don't shoot, please, please don't shoot."

"We have never harmed anyone."

"Can I talk to the person in charge? We're just refugees, we haven't harmed anyone, we just want to find a place to survive."

Behind them, the youngest child called out softly, his voice trembling with tears.

"Dad... I'm hungry..."

The middle-aged man glanced back at her, gritted his teeth, then turned back and raised his hand even higher.

However, the agents holding weapons on the bridge showed no sympathy.

Just a few hours ago, another entire task force was slaughtered by the aliens.

All seven members of the third execution team of the Supernatural Administration Bureau, led by He Yuan, perished.

Among those fallen agents were their contemporaries, their comrades-in-arms, and their friends with whom they drank and ate hot pot.

When the news reached the bureau, the entire field operations system fell silent.

Now, the anger of these agents on the bridge has found an outlet.