Chapter 67: The Cleverest One Has No Brains, While the Brainless Ones Are a Bunch of Brainless Brains

"What happened today is roughly how things stand. If nothing unexpected happens, Xia An will probably make a move against me within the next few days."

Zhou Mo intertwined his fingers, pressing them against his chin, and looked deeply at his four brains: "What do you think we should do?"

Stubborn Brain: ...
Dog Brain: Cold noodles! Count me in, strike first to gain the upper hand!
Doctor Brain: Reasonable.
Brain Bro: Just let me go shank her.

Zhou Mo tried very hard to roll his eyes, but unfortunately, he had no eyes at the moment: "Striking first is out of the question. Leaving aside whether we can even succeed given Xia An's combat prowess, just figuring out how to dispose of the evidence afterward would be enough to give us a headache."

"The identity of a detective did not come easily. Unless it is strictly necessary, I don't want to take that risk. Besides, you guys don't want to lose your steady supply of glucose in the future, do you? Although this stuff is easy to buy and not particularly expensive, if we bungle the job, we can't exactly run around the world on the run with a bounty on our backs, can we?"

Doctor Brain tapped its eyes: Indeed, the risk and reward are not proportional.
Dog Brain: Since that's the case, why don't we go out for a stroll to clear our minds?

However, Zhou Mo was already lost in thought at this point and didn't notice the meaningful glances being exchanged among the brains.

"Xia An wants to shank me. If I were her, what would I do..."

After about ten minutes of silence, Zhou Mo looked at Doctor Brain and said, "You're coming with me this time."

Doctor Brain, which was currently bathing while cupping its eyes, was instantly dumbfounded: Why me?

Not to mention the bewildered Doctor Brain, even Brain Bro and Dog Brain boiled over in an uproar.

Logic dictated that in this situation, Zhou Mo's safest bet would be to take either Brain Bro or Dog Brain along, as either of them could help save his skin in a crisis.

Zhou Mo stretched out a hand and pressed down on the air: "Everyone stay calm, I have a plan..."

About half an hour later, the room full of brains expressed their full approval of Zhou Mo's plan. However, as soon as Zhou Mo lay down on the bed, Dog Brain looked deeply at Brain Bro and Doctor Brain: "You two smart ones need to work harder. The most brainy thing in this room is a brainless guy, and the most brainless ones are a bunch of brainless brains. Does this make any sense to you?"

The two brains stared at Dog Brain, almost tying their optic nerves into a dead knot, taking quite a while to comprehend what it meant. After a prolonged silence, Doctor Brain shuffled over to Dog Brain, threw an arm around it, and shouted: Brain Bro, beat it up!

Brain Bro reached out, scooped up Zhou Mo's cranial cap, and slammed it right down onto Dog Brain: You talk too much!

***

Early the next morning, when Zhou Mo woke up, his skull had been thoroughly cleaned by Stubborn Brain, and his hairstyle had even been meticulously styled and placed upright on the table.

After finishing his hygiene routine, Zhou Mo loaded Doctor Brain back in, capped his skull, and prepared to head out, only to find his head aching slightly: "Didn't I sleep well yesterday?"

Zhou Mo rubbed his skull, turned around, and instructed Brain Bro: "Watch the house. Don't let Dog Brain mess around with Stubborn Brain."

Brain Bro flashed a look: Rest assured, it will be completely quiet today.

Seeing the reminder call from Zhang Huai'an flashing on his phone, Zhou Mo nodded at Brain Bro and left the residential compound.

As soon as he stepped out of the front gate, he spotted Zhang Huai'an's car. Pulling open the door and climbing in, he saw Zhang Huai'an shoving a handful of pills into his mouth. Zhou Mo's eyelids twitched: "Are you really okay?"

Zhang Huai'an washed all the pills down with a gulp of soy milk, let out a long breath, and said, "It's no big deal. The bones have already healed; I'm just taking calcium tablets."

Zhou Mo clicked his tongue: "Fine then. Where should we start investigating today?"

Zhang Huai'an started the engine: "Let's go to Dr. Liu Tianyou's house first. That's the crime scene for both cases."

Two cases?

Zhou Mo was slightly stunned: "You mean the research data was also stolen from Liu Tianyou's house?"

Zhang Huai'an nodded: "Yes, it happened practically back-to-back with Dr. Liu Tianyou's murder."

"On the morning of the 18th, we received a distress call from Dr. Liu Tianyou, saying that his research data kept at home had been stolen. We went over to collect evidence and left. It wasn't until 11:00 PM that we received another call reporting that Dr. Liu Tianyou had been murdered."

Zhang Huai'an scratched his head: "This is something we've never been able to figure out. Right now, it's certain that the research data ended up in the hands of the Brain-Eaters, but why did they have to do it in two separate steps?"

"It was the exact same day, yet they stole the research data first, and only killed him to take his brain afterward. Isn't that just alerting the enemy ahead of time?"

Zhou Mo clicked his tongue and replied ambiguously: "Who knows?"

Actually, Zhou Mo had a pretty good guess as to why: Sun Zhongwen and his associates were not on the same page as the Brain-Eaters.

Chances were that the research data was extremely crucial, and Xia An and her faction didn't dare let it fall into Sun Zhongwen's hands, which forced them to take the risk of stealing the documents first.

Soon, Zhang Huai'an drove Zhou Mo to a heavily guarded villa complex in the suburbs, which was much more upscale than the neighborhood where Sun Zhongwen lived.

Arriving in front of a particular villa, just as Zhang Huai'an parked the car, Zhou Mo abruptly turned his head to look sideways. Not far away, a sports car was also slowly pulling up, followed closely by a black commercial van.

Xia An stepped out of the sports car, her long legs striding forward. With a smile, she looked at Zhang Huai'an and the newly arrived Zhou Mo, asking, "You two arrived quite early."

Zhang Huai'an awkwardly scratched his head: "Captain, you're here too."

Feeling a trace of lingering malice, Zhou Mo also smiled: "Morning, Captain Xia."

As they spoke, a middle-aged man stepped out of the black commercial van behind them. He kept his brows furrowed, his gaze sweeping continuously across the faces of everyone present. After lingering a bit longer on Zhou Mo, he turned to Xia An and asked, "Aside from us, are there other people coming too?"

Xia An smoothed away her smile, nodded at the middle-aged man, and said, "Of course. There are quite a few people tasked with investigating these two cases. Please bear with it."

"If you find too many people noisy, we can go inside first..."

The middle-aged man waved a hand: "No need. They arrived first, so let them go in first. I'm just here to take a look."

Xia An seemed reluctant to explain who the middle-aged man was to Zhang Huai'an and Zhou Mo. She merely shrugged and said, "In that case, the two of you can go inside and investigate first. We'll follow right behind and see how Zhou Mo cracks a case."

Zhou Mo frowned slightly, feeling that Xia An's attitude today was rather strange, and the middle-aged man's gaze kept drifting toward him.

*Could this person also be a member of the Prime Truth?*

Zhang Huai'an looked awkwardly around, unsure of what to say, but Zhou Mo patted his shoulder and said, "Let's go. Lead the way and let me check out the scene."

Watching the two of them peel back the police tape and step into the villa, Xia An chuckled and said to the middle-aged man, "Look, he doesn't seem to have recognized you. But I'm not sure if his amnesia is an act."

The middle-aged man removed his glasses, shook his head indifferently, and replied, "It's not an act. Whether he can recognize me or not, I can still tell. Besides, I abandoned him for so many years; I wouldn't even be surprised if he wanted to kill me."