Dude, something's really wrong with your abilities.

Chapter 45 Cooperation

After a warm yet awkward dinner, Sun Tiemei got up to say goodbye.

Aunt Zhang saw the two of them to the door, holding Chen Shi's hand tightly and refusing to let go: "Little Chen, you must come again next time, Auntie will make you some pork rib soup."

Chen Shi burped and said, "Thank you, Auntie. I'll definitely do it next time."

Aunt Zhang smiled and said to Sun Tiemei, "Remember to bring Xiao Chen next time. If you come alone, I won't welcome you."

Sun Tiemei nodded slightly.

The two returned to the car, and Sun Tiemei started the engine.

Chen Shi leaned back in his seat, rubbing his stomach. "Aunt Zhang's cooking is so much better than the cafeteria's. Did you eat here often when you were a kid, team leader?"

"No, I only go during holidays like Chinese New Year." After saying that, Sun Tiemei was silent for a while. "Thank you for your hard work today."

"It's not hard work, it's not hard work," Chen Shi said, then turned to look at Sun Tiemei. "Team leader, actually I have a question. Uncle Zhang and Aunt Zhang have been very kind to you, and you know them well. You said they watched you grow up. But today, you were very polite to them the whole time, not like you were at an elder's house, but like you were at a leader's house."

Sun Tiemei thought for a long time before replying: "When I was little, our two families often visited each other, so they were indeed very familiar with me. But after my father's sacrifice, I couldn't face his colleagues normally anymore. Especially after Uncle Zhang was promoted, I was even more unwilling to go, always feeling that it was an attempt to curry favor."

A teenage girl, unsure of how to face those still alive. She felt both inferior and proud. This mindset has persisted to this day.

Chen Shi thought for a moment: "It's like the little shop I used to go to when I was a kid. The proprietress liked me a lot and would always give me an extra piece of candy. Later, the little shop expanded and became a big supermarket, so I didn't go there as often, afraid that people would think I was there to take advantage of the discounts."

Sun Tiemei pondered Chen Shi's analogy: "Almost."

The car stopped at a traffic light. Chen Shi was still pondering how to translate "inferiority complex and arrogance" into something a normal person could understand when a car pulled up from the right lane and stopped next to Sun Tiemei. The driver's side window slowly rolled down.

Sun Tiemei glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, and her whole body tensed instantly. She remembered that face vividly.

Li Mo!

He didn't seem nervous at all. He just turned his head slightly, glanced at Sun Tiemei, and then stepped on the gas, driving the car straight through the red light.

Sun Tiemei placed one hand on Chen Shi's shoulder, "Sit tight."

Before Chen Shi could react, the seatbelt tightened abruptly, and he was thrown back into the seat by the inertia. As the car sped off, he grabbed the door handle, glanced at the speedometer, then looked at Sun Tiemei's expression, and decided to keep quiet for now.

Seeing the vehicles catching up from behind, Li Mo also began to speed up, constantly weaving between narrow alleys and main roads.

Sun Tiemei followed closely behind, both cars practically flooring the accelerator. Chen Shi, in the passenger seat, was being tossed around violently, his stomach churning.

He had so much to say, like "What's wrong, team leader?" "Could you slow down a bit?" "You just ran three red lights," but each time he was about to speak, he was stopped by a sharp turn of the steering wheel. On the last sharp bend, he almost pressed himself against the car window.

Li Mo continued to accelerate, but the road became narrower and narrower, with old factory buildings slated for demolition on both sides. Finally, he drifted, and the front of the car plunged into a dead-end road in an abandoned construction site, coming to a stop.

Li Mo got out of the car and leaned against the front of his vehicle, seemingly not intending to run.

Sun Tiemei's car stopped a dozen meters away. She got out of the car, the ice spear already solidified in her hand.

Before Sun Tiemei could even speak, a "whoosh" came from behind her. Chen Shi was squatting by the roadside, having wasted Aunt Zhang's good intentions.

Li Mo stood beside the car, looked down at the mess on the ground, and remained silent for a moment. "Is he alright?"

Chen Shi glared at Li Mo. Nothing good ever came of running into this guy; he'd almost died at his hands last time, only saved by Biaozi. But he knew his place, so he silently stood behind Sun Tiemei before peeking out to mock her: "Why aren't you running anymore? You thought you were so capable?"

Li Mo ignored Chen Shi and then looked at Sun Tiemei: "Tiemei, I have no hostility this time, you should be able to tell."

Sun Tiemei raised her ice spear and pointed it at Li Mo: "You can't escape this time."

Li Mo didn't argue, but instead said to himself, "You guys know Huanlang, right?"

Sun Tiemei frowned: "What do you mean?"

"Phantom Wolf is also a member of the organization, but he's not one of us. Red Falcon and I," Li Mo's eyes dimmed slightly when he mentioned Red Falcon, "we tried to slowly change some things through education. But there's another group of people in the organization, extreme and brutal, and Phantom Wolf is one of them. He's using the organization's name to satisfy his own selfish desires."

Sun Tiemei: "Then why does your so-called organization tolerate such a traitor?"

"Everyone in the organization has different thoughts." Li Mo leaned against the hood of the car, his voice weary. "There are people behind Phantom Wolf using him. Those people don't care how many people he kills, they only care about how much panic he can create. In their eyes, Phantom Wolf is just a knife, used when it's useful, and discarded when it gets dull."

Sun Tiemei stared at him: "And what about you? You've done so much for your organization for so many years, and now you're betraying your comrades. Why should I believe you?"

Li Mo gritted his teeth: "Phantom Wolf is a madman. The organization's original intentions and ideals are not for him to use as performance art."

He clenched his fist, then relaxed it. "I want him dead more than you do. But you also know that I don't have many men left, and I can't handle him."

Chen Shi then leaned closer to Sun Tiemei and whispered, "This Li Mo is definitely not a good person. But Huan Lang is even more dangerous. He's most likely the one who committed these two murders, and he'll probably continue to do so."

He looked up at Li Mo as he spoke, "We can keep track of Li Mo's score for now and settle it later. But right now, he knows information about Phantom Wolf that we don't. If he's willing to talk, we won't lose anything by listening. We can decide whether to believe him or not after we hear it. If the information is false, then you can poke him with your ice spear."

After thinking for a moment, Sun Tiemei asked Li Mo in a loud voice, "Tell me what you know first, and then I'll decide."

Li Mo nodded. Sun Tiemei's character had always been beyond question, so he didn't beat around the bush: "Shapeshifting abilities are extremely sensitive to high-frequency decibels. Exceeding a certain intensity will make Phantom Wolf's shapeshifting unstable, and continuous high-frequency noise will make it impossible for him to maintain his disguise. He has hidden this weakness very well, and only a very few people know about it. The city's People's Day is in a few days, and there will be a large-scale celebration in the city hall square. Given the time, the location, and the flow of people, Phantom Wolf will definitely choose to make his move there."

After hearing this, Sun Tiemei slowly lowered the ice spear to her side: "Get lost."

Li Mo didn't say much, turned around and got into the car. The car turned around and drove out of the dead end, its taillights gradually disappearing into the twilight.