Chapter 326: Base, Never Out of Style

Feng Mu agreed with Ma Xuan's statement. He smiled faintly, revealing a row of neat, white teeth:

"My father is a chief constable at the Patrol Bureau, so I suppose it's just familiarity from childhood. I understood a truth very early on: some despicable and simple methods never go out of style!"

Feng Mu paused for a moment, then continued to add:

"Most importantly, you can always trust the judges of this world. Their eyes are truly sharp; they never disappoint us, right?"

Ma Xuan's face turned completely black. He felt this deeply; otherwise, the Second Prison wouldn't have been overcrowded year after year, eventually attracting the covetous gaze of the Light.

Ma Xuan's mind turned over many thoughts. He did not continue to entangle with Feng Mu over the issue of framing and entrapment, but instead suppressed the anger in his heart and said calmly:

"Feng Mu, there's no need to go this far, is there?"

"I can tell you're a smart man and very ambitious. So I think you won't fail to understand that Prison Warden Qian Huan is basically in a dead end now. He won't stay in this position for long. When the time comes, he'll dust off his pants and leave, and then you'll find it very hard to get by in the Second Prison."

Ma Xuan had considered defecting to the Prison Warden and had even secretly taken action, but he truly hadn't expected the situation to take such a sudden turn. So now he was wavering again, wanting to turn his backside back toward the Prison System.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have stood up just now to stop the Internal Investigation Department from taking Lou Rui away.

After all, Ma Xuan had never been loyal to Zhou Hu or Qian Huan from beginning to end. He was loyal to no side; he was only loyal to himself.

Whichever side was going to win, he'd turn his backside toward that side!

Feng Mu actually quite approved of Ma Xuan's approach; it wasn't a bad way of being smart. But the difference between him and Ma Xuan was that Ma Xuan wanted to sit on the winning side, while Feng Mu wanted the side he sat on to win!

He shrugged his shoulders and sighed heavily:

"You're a good person. Even in this situation yourself, you still want to consider me. Unfortunately, from the moment you sat down here, you had no choice."

Ma Xuan frowned tightly: "What do you mean?"

Feng Mu said lightly: "Don't misunderstand. I don't mean to force you. I just feel that your Big Brother Zhou Hu might make the right choice for you."

Ma Xuan stared fixedly at Feng Mu, his voice hoarse: "What did Zhou Hu do?"

Feng Mu wasn't God; he couldn't monitor everyone's movements, but he knew the ugliness of human nature.

He shook his head and said with a smile:

"I don't know what Zhou Hu will do, but I think he will definitely do something. You should know your Big Brother far better than I do. So, why don't you guess what he will do?"

Ma Xuan's heart shuddered, and an extremely ominous premonition rose in his mind. His face turned deathly pale in an instant, and his two arms, handcuffed to the chair, began to struggle violently.

Under extreme tension and force, the skin of his wrists was cut by the iron handcuffs. Bright red blood slowly seeped out and dripped onto the cold ground.

Feng Mu looked at him, the corner of his mouth curling into a meaningful smile: "It seems you really know Zhou Hu. You guessed the answer so quickly?"

Boom boom boom—

Just then, the iron door of the interrogation room let out a muffled knocking sound. Liu Yi walked in holding a phone.

It was Ma Xuan's phone, temporarily confiscated before he entered the interrogation room. The phone was vibrating with a buzzing sound, the screen lighting up with an incoming call displaying 【Wife】, flashing wildly along with the vibration.

Ma Xuan stared fixedly at the phone. Suddenly, the whole person stopped struggling. His heart seemed to jump into his throat, his mouth and tongue went dry. He wanted to answer the call but felt an uncontrollable fear.

Feng Mu gently waved his hand, and Liu Yi quickly stepped forward, respectfully handing the phone to Feng Mu with both hands.

Feng Mu took the phone, glanced at Ma Xuan, and said with a half-smile:

"Your wife is calling to check in. Do you want to answer? Strange, you look very nervous?"

Ma Xuan's breathing became heavy and rapid. His lips were tense, and finally he squeezed out a word from between his clenched teeth: "Answer!"

Feng Mu's finger tapped the screen to turn on the speakerphone. Immediately, a woman's voice came through, gentle yet worried:

"Hello, husband. I just saw on the news that something happened at your Second Prison. Are you alright?"

Hearing his wife's voice on the phone, and not someone else's, Ma Xuan's heart dropped back into his stomach. He adjusted his breathing and said hoarsely:

"I'm fine. I'm on duty at the prison tonight. I might have to stay up late, so I won't be going home tonight."

The woman on the other end of the phone did not notice anything strange in her husband's words. She just replied softly:

"Oh, alright. Wait a moment. Someone is knocking on the door. I'll go open it."

Ma Xuan was stunned, but before he could react, the sound of a door lock turning came from the phone, followed immediately by the sound of a conversation with a strange man:

"Are you sister-in-law? I'm Ma Xuan's colleague at the Second Prison. Some things were sent from the prison, and he might not be able to get away for these two days. I happened to pass by here, so I helped him bring them back."

The woman didn't show too much surprise. The benefits at the Second Prison had always been good. In the past, colleagues had helped deliver goods to the door. She responded very naturally:

"Oh, so many boxes?"

"Yes. Besides some daily synthetic food, there are two boxes of milk powder. The Zone Chief heard that sister-in-law just had a baby, so he specially asked me to bring them over. It's his little gesture. The things are quite heavy. Let me help you carry them into the room?"

"Oh, thank you so much. Um, I'm on the phone with Ma Xuan right now. Why don't you say a few words to him? I'll go pour you a glass of water."

"Oh, okay, sister-in-law..."

Ma Xuan's face was as white as paper. He breathed heavily, listening to the increasingly clear voice of the strange man on the phone. The muscles on his cheeks twitched.

"District Chief Ma, I've safely moved all your things home. Everything at home is fine. You don't need to worry. Sister-in-law was very enthusiastic and treated me very well. I'll leave after sitting for a while."

Ma Xuan gritted his teeth, trying to make his voice sound calm, though his voice inevitably carried a slight tremor:

"Who exactly are you? I don't know you at all!"

The man on the phone seemed a little surprised, with a hint of suspicion in his tone:

"Huh? The Zone Chief asked me to come over. He asked me to check on the situation at home, saying you've been busy with work recently and might not be able to take care of home, so he asked me to come see if there's anything I can help with. Didn't he mention this to you?"

Ma Xuan was almost grinding his teeth to pieces. He took a deep breath and lowered his voice:

"I don't care who you are. Get out of my house right now."

The voice on the other end of the phone was unexpectedly obedient, without a hint of resistance:

"Okay, I'll leave right now."

The sound of footsteps gradually fading away came from the phone...

(End of Chapter)