I’m Not Shouldering This Blame

The street where the coffee shop is located is very remote. After the smoke disappeared, the stench from the sewer surged out. The people nearby covered their noses and asked if the explosion is caused by natural gas leakage while panicking.

Ten minutes later, police cars and vehicles from the city's maintenance and engineering department roared as they came, and carefully checked for danger.

The manhole cover was smashed to the side. Blood and water mixed into the sludge that it can't be distinguished. Some pieces of clothing caused the police's suspicion. They want to see but felt a strange resistance from the manhole.

When the Red Dragon arrived, they found guns wrapped in black cloth at the front desk of a coffee shop. There are also laptops and other items along with it. They put on energy detection glasses and saw the hyphae on the ground, as well as the mushrooms plugging the manhole.

After laboriously entering the sewer, they found the wreckage of a suicide bomber.

According to the traces left at the scene, the Red Dragon soon concluded that at least ten layers of mushrooms covered the attacker before the explosion, then the mushroom ball "jumped into" the manhole.

The power of the explosion is all "enjoyed" by the attacker.

The Red Dragon member who stepped into the sludge to view the situation looked around, and his face became pale, "Notify Major Zhang, the situation is not good."

In Huai City, there's no mushroom everywhere, but it's hard to say in the city's sewers. The mushrooms reflected in the special glasses have no end. Its body glowed a pale luster and spread in clusters.

Hyphae is the product of abilities, a crystallization of a special energy. When the "swallowing" feature is not triggered, regardless of blood or sludge, all will just float in the surface of the mycelium, and it won't be able to touch the body.

The heat detector indicated that there's a situation not far away.

The Red Dragon members turned on a flashlight and went out more than 20 meters along this pipe. They found two people dragged into the manhole by the hyphae. The two people are still struggling, but only the nose and eyes are exposed outside. Their shape is almost the same as mummies.

The stench of the sewer made the two people want to die.

"There are survivors!" The Red Dragon members wearing masks is very excited.

This time, the poison in their teeth are useless!

After emptying their mouths, two more living Holy Gate organization killers have been captured. With this, Colonel Lu can negotiate leisurely with the US intelligence agencies. Because Jack is in the hands of Red Dragon, and strictly speaking, he did not violate any laws in China, forced seizure of him does not comply with procedures. If used during negotiation, it obviously wouldn't prevail.

The Red Dragon members found a canvas bag, put the "mycelium mummy" into it, waited until the street is completely blocked, then threw the bound people into the military vehicles. They drove all the way to Haicheng Military District.

That night, photos of the two men captured by the mushrooms were identified by the cleaning company supervisor. He confirmed them as the ones who infiltrated the Star Entertainment Media falsely claiming of installing a camera and the man who cleaned the chandelier.

"According to the cleaning company supervisor, he had contact with three suspicious people. In addition to the two guys who came to clean the chandelier that day, there is also a fake reporter. He's the one who gave him 100,000 cash as a deposit."

Major Zhang is sullen as he looked through the interrogation records.

The two people bound by mushrooms have no entry record at all. They're suspected to be illegal immigrants.

Their looks are Asian, but their skin is slightly darker. Short in stature, and can be Southeast Asians.

"We suspect the deceased is——"

"Impossible!" Zhang YaoJin interrupted his subordinate.

If the dead one is the fake reporter, the number is right, but the body has been blown up and nothing can be recognized. They can only extract DNA records from the system.

"Holy Gate organization is so mysterious, and performed such a big action, so there must be a leader in China. If the Holy Gate organization killers are found, exposure means death, and such a person is the mastermind?"

Even in a terrorist organization composed of religious fanatics, the leader will also be very reluctant to wish for death.

"Major, you suspect the reporter?"

Zhang YaoJin deeply frowned and asked, "The poison in their mouth, are the lab results out?"

"It's a neurotoxin. It should be extracted from animals, and initially suspected to be snake venom."

"According to the cleaning company supervisor, what does the reporter look like in his confession?"

"About 1.7 meter tall, looks like in his 30s, normal looks with no obvious features, but definitely Chinese, and that his clothes are also like a reporter. As for the press card, since doing such things is a violation of the law, the person refused to provide it. The cleaning company supervisor is also not suspicious."

Zhang YaoJin immediately ordered, "Immediately send people to check all newspapers in Haicheng. Look for a magazine reporter!"

"Major, what is the scope of our investigation? Only age and gender?"

"Age is not permissible. This group has daily contact with entertainment circles, so it's easy to make up to become older or younger! The scope of the investigation are the ones involved in the Star Entertainment Media New Year's Eve Party and reporters who are planning to take tasks covering the border cities in recent days. If you can't find him, expand the scope to the reporters who took photos at the entrance of the Star Entertainment Media Headquarters before the incident."

"Yes!"

A Red Dragon member hurriedly left, and the new orders were passed down. After 20 minutes, someone came over to report.

"Star Entertainment Media provides an important clue. There was a reporter in the venue on the same day. After the lights were shut, he forcibly took pictures regardless of regulations, and the lens just happens to be in line with Li Fei's position. He's a major suspect that helped the sniper determined their target. Please indicate whether to arrest!"

"Is that person still in Haicheng?"

"Yes!"

"No hurry, monitor him first! A person who made such actions is not so stupid as to take the initiative to make suspicious behavior! Investigate this reporter, perhaps……"

"Reporting to Major, there's trouble about the major suspect! The reporter from this newspaper took the task of interviewing a national dance school in Ganzhou, Northwest China a few months ago, but yesterday, he suddenly went out early!"

New Year's day has terrible congestion. Running now is really difficult to understand.

"Ganzhou. It's North again, it's the same direction as Xinjiang……" Zhang YaoJin's face changed, "Immediately notify the Red Dragon branch over there, deploy someone at the train station, bus station, and also toll gates, be sure to intercept them!"

***

The snow is getting bigger. It was cold and windy.

For fear of the tires slipping, Jian Hua drove the car very slowly, and his face does not look good.

"When you brought the laptop, the computer has not entered the screen saver mode yet, so I was able to browse the history of the webpage. These people are still considered cautious. Except for their traces of this day, anything else has been cleared."

Jian Hua silently listened. Because he is not good at English, he did not understand those pages he saw.

Li Fei handed over a few pieces of information and sent Geng Tian away. Jian Hua, from boarding the car, have been waiting for Li Fei to explain. The result is that only at the third intersection did Li Fei spoke.

"No one is tracking." Li Fei is confirming this.

"The city is lined with buildings. Someone stood on a distant high-rise building and used a telescope to monitor this side so you won't be able to see it." Jian Hua coldly said.

Li Fei smiled slightly, "You don't have to worry about this. I can feel it if there's anyone looking at me."

The always looking at Li Fei through the rearview mirror Jian Hua: "……"

Li Fei wants to be in the co-pilot seat when entering the car, but Jian Hua directly locked the car door while sounding out reasons saying that the front windows are transparent, so it's not safe enough.

Li Fei is not annoyed with Jian Hua. He just accepts it and sighed, "But under normal circumstances, this ability has no early warning effect because there are too many people watching me."

"……"

Although it's the truth, that way of saying it made his teeth itch.

"Wear thermal underwear with wool sweaters, and put on more layers of clothes. If you can't stop the bullets, thick clothes can also come in handy." Jian Hua said while having a black expression. He doesn't believe in wearing clothes until you're a ball, but there are people who can see Li Fei's true colors.

Winter is a good season for pretending to travel.

In order to set a trap and wait for the Holy Gate organization's killers to take the bait, they came to the coffee shop.

Although this store is funded by Li Fei, it's not public in the industry. But Li Fei never thought about hiding this point, and a photo of Li Fei at the door of the coffee shop was taken a year ago.

Since the other side has been lurking for a long time in Huai City and the nearby Haicheng, waiting here is very appropriate.

The trouble with this is if the coffee shop is just closed down, the assassin will not think that Li Fei will return here.

"After all, I spent a lot of effort on decorating this shop. It's a pity!" Li Fei talks to himself.

"Wait until the ability holders of each country went to war. We can close the store to prevent damage, and pray that it's lucky enough!"

Li Fei heard the dissatisfaction in Jian Hua's tone. Thinking about the reason, he brought the topic back to business immediately, "There's not much information in that computer. A domestic email address, and there is also a foreign account. The account is registered to a foreign forum, and it seems that there is no relationship with the Holy Gate organization, but the forum content is about a football game. There are also weather conditions in various US states."

"And so?"

"Perhaps it's a guise, but there is a password inside. In the absence of a control password, what we took is useless, so we handed it over to Red Dragon for processing!" Li Fei said easily, "There is a problem with the domain name of the forum, laniakea."

"……"

"Red Dragon didn't tell you? It's the author's name for this book."

A sudden break tells Li Fei, the answer is no.

"This is not particularly important information." Li Fei quickly changed his tone.

Jian Hua looks at the slowly moving traffic and decisively moved the steering wheel. He drove the car into an underground parking lot of a supermarket chain.

"Notify Red Dragon, let them pick up the car with a backup car key!" Jian Hua signals Li Fei that they'd go home by themselves, "For safety, we borrowed this car from the Red Dragon. Now that it appeared at the door of the coffee shop, we don't have to drive it back."

"……" He clearly said that no one is monitoring them.

But caution first, this is also true!

Li Fei walks out of the parking lot. He estimated that there are about five kilometers from Jian Hua's home. Walking……oh, it's nice to be on the road with the right guy.

If it's not winter in the South, it would be better.

The cold wind blows on his face. Even with a scarf covering half his face, Li Fei still wants to use his ability to warm himself up.

More troublesome than the cold is, of course, the mood of Jian Hua——

"Nania Kaia is the author of the 《Outcast》 novel, pseudonym 'laniakea'. I checked the word, and the meaning is very interesting."

Jian Hua next to him waited to hear the following.

He is easily attracted by Li Fei. When the other side reveals a secret, he talked about things that make Jian Hua let go of distracting thoughts and involuntarily followed Li Fei's topic.

"Earth belongs to the solar system. The solar system belongs to the Milky Way. What does the Milky Way belong to?"

"Space?"

"The Milky Way belongs to the laniakea superclusters. Where we stand, the scope in which we can live out life is no more than the space represented by the name laniakea. Isn't it very interesting?"

"Leaving aside that this is a story about an American hero, it's barely sci-fi fiction, so there's nothing unusual for sci-fi authors using such pseudonyms." Jian Hua does not agree with Li Fei's words. This is just a coincidence, and there's no need to connect it to their situation and lament fate.

"Not angry anymore?"

"……"

Jian Hua turned his head and sped up.

The author has something to say:

laniakea, in Hawaiian, meaning endless paradise

outcast, abandoned, exiled……

The 《outcast》, just so you know, this is just a small trick I played, no practical meaning╮(╯▽╰)╭

——————————

The observed universe is like a capillary map. Anyway, it's a divergence of the fibrous structure of matter, and the laniakea superclusters are one of the segments.

The official translation of laniakea seems to be 拉尼亚凯亚 (lā ní yǎ kǎi yà)

But I feel like I saw it translated into a Chinese name as the blue sky (蓝天, lán tiān), or is it blue sky (兰天, lán tiān)? （Don't know if it's right or wrong）

Ok, tomorrow I will change the pseudonym to (兰天来客, lán tiān láikè)（clever, right?）referred as the blue sky (兰天, lán tiān). It's easier to write than the current one