Chapter 9

Muscle soreness and his biological clock woke Feng Mu on time.

Every time he opened his eyes, the first thing to appear on his retina was inevitably the system interface.

【Game Inheritance Progress 1%.】

【Reward Sent!】

【Please keep striving, player, work hard to increase progress and unlock more inheritance rewards…..】

Feng Mu closed the interface and curled his lip: "The system is the one that needs to keep striving, deliver the rewards early—'sent' and 'signed for' are two different things, get it?"

Feng Mu felt that checking the interface every time he opened his eyes was just like waiting for a delivery after online shopping in his previous life; his mood was incredibly itchy, enough to drive a person crazy.

Only eating iron could ease this urgency.

After simply washing up in the restroom, Feng Mu finally realized he hadn't used the toilet in two days.

"Because I only eat iron and not rice, I don't need to excrete—very reasonable. Although I still wear a human skin, my inside is breaking free from a mortal fleshly body."

Feng Mu looked at the face in the mirror; it had a bit less color than usual, and his skin had turned a little paler.

He pulled open his collar and held his chest up to the mirror; not knowing if it was psychological, he felt the muscles of his chest seemed to have sunken inward by a centimeter, faintly outlining the edges of bones.

Feng Mu pressed his hand against his skin, and the coolness seeping from the bones became more obvious, as if cold iron blocks were hidden within his flesh and skin.

"Are the bones turning into iron? Hmm, won't flesh grow out in the end?"

Feng Mu swallowed his saliva, and his mind couldn't help but recall a certain anime character from his previous life—that guy could pull bones out of his body to dance, incredibly awesome.

What was that guy's ending, bone cancer or a blood disease?

Swallowing down a few iron beads, Feng Mu tossed the question to the back of his mind, slung his schoolbag over his shoulder, and went out.

Today he didn't go to the hardware store, but went straight to school; when passing a broken bridge cave, Feng Mu stopped his bicycle and threw the lunch box over.

Under the broken bridge cave, a shed had been erected, where several beggars lived, their faces blackened so their gender couldn't be told, their eyes vacant and numb.

Only when a wild dog dug open the lunch box did the beggars seem to suddenly activate, letting out low hisses from their mouths at the same time and pouncing on the wild dog on all fours.

In that instant, Feng Mu almost couldn't tell, among the tangled mass, which was human and which was dog.

He rode his bicycle away.

Early in the morning, a police car was parked at the school gate, and two constables from the Patrol Bureau followed the gatekeeper into the campus; passing students and teachers all cast curious glances over.

Feng Mu pushed his bicycle, deliberately slowing his pace, and vaguely heard words like "missing person" and "investigation" in his ears.

Feng Mu narrowed his eyes and casually committed the appearances of the two constables to memory with the corner of his eye.

Campus life was repetitive and monotonous; suddenly two constables arrived, like throwing two cat turds into clear soup—it was hard not to be eye-catching.

Feng Mu sat quietly in the back row of the classroom; he didn't need to go anywhere or ask around, bits and pieces of news would gather into his ears.

"Let me tell you, those two constables are here for……"

"Oh, the Patrol Bureau received two case reports, respectively……"

"I asked around in Class 4, Grade 11, it's like this….."

"……"

Every class became an intelligence station, and the students collectively turned into intelligence agents; the most terrifying thing was that they had no sense of secrecy at all.

They shared intelligence with great enthusiasm, exchanged information, and finally, the latest news spread to every corner of the school in an all-pervasive way.

And this was exactly why Feng Mu, after dealing with the corpse, still clung to the school—he was waiting for this moment.

"Everyone is my eyes and ears, thank you."

Feng Mu's eye sockets were slightly moist; he felt the friendship and help from his classmates, his mind spun quickly, and he organized preliminary intelligence:

Female victim, Wang Wei, Class 4, Grade 11, beautiful appearance, introverted personality, average grades, poor family background, father deceased early, mother is a Blank Citizen; recently something seemed to have happened at home, and she was very short of money.

Male victim, Zheng Hang, Class 7, Grade 11, average appearance, average grades, but generous with money, had a few hangers-on at school, and had already changed three or four girlfriends in high school; heard his family had some background.

Zheng Hang pursued Wang Wei in Grade 10, but Wang Wei didn't agree.

Wang Wei's mother filed a case report the night before last, and Zheng Hang's father filed one yesterday.

…….

During the lunch break, the frenzied atmosphere of intelligence gathering reached its peak, because a corpse was discovered in the abandoned warehouse.

When the corpse covered by a white cloth was carried out, the entire campus boiled over.

The more the teachers emphasized not to gawk, the more students gathered outside the police line; the more the teachers emphasized not to discuss it, the more figures of gossip and hot chat were everywhere on campus.

The students crowded outside the police line, standing on tiptoe and craning their necks, each pair of eyes seeming to want to gouge into the wall.

Feng Mu carried his schoolbag, standing among them.

Because a corpse had been found, the case was upgraded from a missing person case to a homicide case, so two more constables and one forensic doctor were sent as reinforcements.

Feng Mu narrowed his eyes: "Only four constables dispatched even for a homicide; it seems the Patrol Bureau is indeed tied up by a major case and can't spare any manpower."

He silently committed the appearances of these few constables to the bottom of his heart.

Deputy Captain Li Shang, wearing a blue police uniform, with a dirty collar and a knife scar on his cheek, his expression showing strong exhaustion—clearly he had been working nonstop for several days.

"Two missing, but only one corpse found at the scene?" Li Shang asked with a frown.

"Yes, just one. Analyzing the bloodstains at the scene, he should have been smashed to death with a blunt instrument here, then dragged into the dark room behind the wooden rack," Constable Chang Erbing answered.

The wooden rack had been moved aside; Li Shang walked into the dark room, and his pupils suddenly shrank.

Strange blackish-brown patterns corroded the ground, circle after circle, like a black snake coiling and embedded in the ground, indescribably evil and bloody.

"Curse of the Evil Sacrifice!" Li Shang said fiercely.

Chang Erbing nodded, his eyes full of disgust and fear: "The victim Wang Wei was lured here, killed outside, and then dragged here to serve as a sacrifice."

Chang Erbing pointed with his finger at the corpse outline drawn with white thread in the center of the altar.

Li Shang was stunned for a moment and asked doubtfully: "You suspect the killer is?"

Chang Erbing answered: "Both missing person cases are students from No. 47 Middle School, namely Wang Wei and Zheng Hang; their disappearance times were basically the same, and the last place they appeared was also the school—probably not a coincidence."

While Chang Erbing was speaking, he took out a bag containing a cell phone and handed it to Li Shang: "Only Wang Wei's cell phone was found at the scene; the last call was two nights ago, and the contact was exactly Zheng Hang."

Li Shang checked his phone: "Continue."

Chang Erbing: "So I have reason to suspect that Zheng Hang lured Wang Wei here and killed her, and completed the Curse of the Evil Sacrifice."

Li Shang pondered for a moment, then said noncommittally: "The two missing persons have contact with each other, their last missing time is consistent, the location is consistent, since one was killed, the possibility that the other hid after committing the crime is indeed very high."

Pausing, Li Shang continued to ask: "Was there anything Zheng Hang left behind at the scene?"

"No."

"Any footprints of a third party?"

"No, only the shoe prints of two people were found."

Li Shang returned the evidence bag to Chang Erbing, suddenly asking: "If the killer is Zheng Hang, why didn't he pick up Wang Wei's phone?"

Chang Erbing replied unhurriedly: "The phone was found in a gap under the wooden rack; it should have accidentally dropped during the process of dragging the body. Moreover, the killer is a high school student, the scene wasn't cleaned up cleanly, leaving leaks — that also fits the characteristics of student crime."

Li Shang narrowed his eyes, suddenly changing the subject to ask: "What about the identity levels and family backgrounds of the two students?"

Chang Erbing laughed: "Two second-year high school students, neither has registered for the College Entrance Exam yet; they are Blank Citizens. Wang Wei's family only has a Mother, who is also a Blank Citizen. Zheng Hang's father seems to have some Gang background."

Li Shang sneered, saying lightly: "Since the father mixes in a Gang, it's no wonder the son cooked up a Curse of the Evil Sacrifice. In that case, report to the Police Station and issue a Wanted Notice as soon as possible."

Chang Erbing hesitated instead; he did seriously suspect Zheng Hang, but directly defining him as the killer — wasn't that a bit too cut-and-dried?

Li Shang yawned, patted Chang Erbing's shoulder, meaningfully: "Only by resolving this case quickly can we go back and help the squad."

Chang Erbing's eyes lit up; he thought of the Major Case the Patrol Bureau was supervising, and his breathing instantly became a bit more rapid.

Chang Erbing knew what to do; the two chatted a few more casual sentences, then heard a woman's wailing cries from outside.

"Should be the Victim's Family arriving." Chang Erbing sighed; he had clearly warned the School not to contact the students' Relatives first.

"Go handle it." Li Shang waved his hand, took out a cigarette from the cigarette case and clamped it in his mouth, lit it and exhaled smoke rings faintly.

The silk burned; the gray fog exhaled from his nose cavity shrouded his whole face in flickering light and shadow; his exhausted, turbid eyes stared at the Curse of the Evil Sacrifice pattern, staring blankly.

Cigarette ash dropped, contaminating the Crime Scene?

Heh—

Making a mountain out of a molehill!

End of Chapter