Chapter 44: Didn't See That Coming, Did You? I Framed Myself

The bicycle wheels creaked as they rolled along the road.

The spokes spun faster and faster, eventually merging into a blurred, indistinct phantom. It resembled the destiny of the road ahead—intricate and complex, with countless intersecting threads converging toward a center, tangling inextricably with one another.

Like a web, everyone believed they would ultimately stand at the center to pull the strings.

Little did they know, they were merely the loose ends.

No one could see the entire pattern of the web, because the twitch of any random thread could trigger a chain reaction that wove the web into an entirely different shape.

No one could glimpse the future, including Feng Mu.

When the vibration of a plucked thread swept toward you, all you could do was play it by ear and hold tightly to your own thread so you wouldn't fall off.

Because in this game of weaving webs and hunting each other, dropping the thread meant only death.

"Someone is tailing me again?"

Feng Mu felt a sudden jolt in his chest. Unlike the last time he was tailed, this surveillance was exceptionally covert.

Without batting an eye, he casually stretched his neck and swept his peripheral vision around. There were many people on their way to work, and it was impossible to tell who might be suspicious.

Yet, the bones in his back grew cold. It felt as though they had been stimulated, instinctively wanting to push out those protective bony bumps under his skin, making Feng Mu keenly aware of the malice lurking in the shadows.

He didn't find anyone, but it wasn't a total loss. At least Feng Mu had discovered another hidden perk of ossification—danger perception.

"People from the Blue Wolf Gang?"

"No, Ma Bin just finished a call with me. He wouldn't be so foolish."

"Besides, the feeling of danger they give me is on a completely different level."

Feng Mu stopped searching, pretending to be oblivious as he continued to pedal, his mind spinning frantically.

The answer was on the tip of his tongue: "If it's not the Blue Wolf Gang, it can only be that group of black-market merchants."

Feng Mu's heart plummeted. Both he and Ma Bin had miscalculated; that group of black-market merchants had actually bypassed Ma Bin and come after him directly.

How did they find him?

Should I notify Ma Bin to come and rescue me right now?

Feng Mu's brain was practically overheating like a burning CPU, yet his face remained completely calm. The control he had over his facial bones helped immensely with his expression management.

Ultimately, Feng Mu chose not to ask Ma Bin for help.

Leaving aside whether Ma Bin would even come, there simply wasn't enough time. Ahead, at the entrance of the crematorium, he saw a middle-aged man whose face was wrinkled like a chrysanthemum, slowly walking toward him.

Feng Mu kept his breathing steady. Using [Iron Eater] to control his facial expressions and [Mad Blood] to regulate his bleeding speed and slow his heartbeat, he pedaled past the man as if he hadn't seen him at all.

***

Listening to Feng Mu's calm heart rate, Zhang Gao waited until half the bicycle had passed him before abruptly turning around and asking politely, "Hold on a second, young man. You're the new cremator at the plant, aren't you?"

Feng Mu stopped his bicycle. The moment the other party uttered that first sentence, he instantly captured their true intent from it.

They weren't coming for "me."

They hadn't bypassed Ma Bin to track down the true identity of "me."

Instead, they were coming for Feng Mu!

The "me" mentioned above referred to the limping culprit—the one directly driving Ma Bin from behind the scenes, indirectly driving Qian Hao to the black market, causing conflict with them, and likely knowing and coveting the secret of the black core.

"I knew it. To follow the vine to find the melon, you still have to start with the vine. How could you just grab the melon straight away? You skipped steps," Feng Mu's internal alarm dropped by half.

The only reason it dropped by only half was because Feng Mu himself harbored secrets.

"The issue must be that I collected Wang Wang's black core, causing them to lose Wang Wang as a source of goods, so they came looking for me."

"Damn it, I let my guard down. But I could hardly have anticipated in the beginning that Wang Wang only yields a few black cores a week at most—is that really worth black-market merchants showing up at my doorstep?"

"Aren't you guys a bit too desperate?"

"No, what they care about isn't losing a few black cores a week. What they care about is that Wang Wang's black core might have been collected by someone else."

Sorting out his thoughts, Feng Mu looked at Zhang Gao with suspicion and vigilance, asking, "What? Who the hell are you?"

His tone wasn't very polite, which was how a normal person would react. The trace of scrutiny in the depths of Zhang Gao's eyes diminished by thirty percent, and his voice grew warmer.

He said, "Don't be nervous, young man. We just wanted to ask if you have any black cores on you. We'd like to buy them."

Feng Mu didn't speak. Instead, he turned his head and looked back, seeing two dark-faced men appear behind him. One of them also squeezed out a naive smile, while the other looked somewhat foolishly at an ant on a tree branch in his hand.

A tree branch?

An ant?

Feng Mu felt a chill in his heart and shifted his gaze back.

He frowned at Zhang Gao and said, "I don't have any on me right now. They're all at home."

Feng Mu had originally wanted to lie and say he had already sold them to someone else, but as the words reached his lips, a flash of inspiration prompted him to tell the truth. For he had caught a subtle glimpse of the foolish-looking, dark-faced man behind him suddenly stop playing with the ant and shove his hand into his pants pocket as he answered.

A guy who looked foolish suddenly putting down his toys definitely wasn't for no reason.

What was hidden in his pants pocket?

Something to detect whether I'm lying?

Probably not. Then it must be a security or reconnaissance-style detector, capable of detecting whether I'm carrying a black core, or whether I've recently come into contact with one?

***

Dark-faced Man No. 2 lowered his head, his left eye glowing strangely as his vision pierced directly through the fabric to see the reading on the detector.

The reading was 74.

This number indicated that Feng Mu was not carrying any black cores on his person, but within the past eight hours, he had definitely been in close contact with black cores—and more than just one or two.

Dark-faced Man No. 2 raised his head and continued playing with the ant on the branch.

Understanding his companion's meaning, Zhang Gao confirmed that Feng Mu wasn't lying, and his suspicion dropped straight down. He asked, "Why are they at home? Why not sell them? The cremators at the plant should have told you that we specialize in buying this stuff."

Feng Mu breathed a sigh of relief inwardly and said indifferently, "I know, but I promised to sell them to someone else."

Zhang Gao's smile widened even further, his mouth parting to reveal a row of yellow teeth. "Oh? Someone else is buying this stuff too? That's strange. Young man, could you tell me what kind of person is buying them?"

Seeing Feng Mu remain silent, Zhang Gao thought for a moment and added, "Don't misunderstand, young man. We're just running errands for someone else. If we can't collect any black cores, we have to go back and give our boss an explanation, right? No other meaning."

As he spoke, he raised four fingers and promised, "How about this? We won't ask about that person anymore. We just want to know if you can sell the black cores in your hands to us. We'll offer double the usual price—400 bucks for one."

The muscles on Feng Mu's cheeks twitched, clearly tempted by the high price.

He scratched his head in annoyance, gritted his teeth hard, and refused, "Fine, I'll tell you. The person who collects them is a cripple. A few days ago, I was harassed by some thugs, and he helped me out. So, I promised to help him collect black cores at the plant. I can't go back on my word."

You wouldn't have expected this, would you?

I can frame myself!

Most importantly, this group of black-market merchants could verify the matter; the security guard holding a thermal mug at the plant's entrance was a living eyewitness.

Catching this crucial piece of information, Zhang Gao stopped pressing Feng Mu.

He gave Feng Mu a thumbs-up and flattered him, "You're a man of your word, young man. How about this, can you give us that person's contact information? After you sell the items to him, we'll contact him to buy them back at a high price. That way, you won't be put in a difficult position, and we'll have something to report to our boss. How does that sound?"

Feng Mu pondered for a moment. Seeing Zhang Gao forcefully shove several hundred bills into his hands, he could only let out a helpless sigh, take out his phone, and open his contacts.

He handed over the phone number saved under the contact name [Limping Freak] to Zhang Gao.

The phone number was naturally Red-Haired's, and the nickname was something he had casually changed it to after burying the latter's corpse.

Don't ask why he changed it. If you ask, it's called taking precautions. When telling lies, the main thing is to make the beginning and end match seamlessly, leaving no leaks at all...