Reborn in 78, I made my fortune by working in the mountains, supporting three families on my own.

Zhao Lei's face was extremely ugly, and he was burning with anger, but he still forced himself to remain calm.

He took a deep drag of his cigarette, slowly exhaling white smoke to suppress his agitated emotions.

"Alright, that's enough with the blog post. Stop speculating."

"When he arrives, we'll ask him directly."

The two stopped talking and just squatted quietly at the entrance of the supply and marketing cooperative, waiting.

Occasionally, villagers who get up early to go to the fields or run errands pass by the commune compound.

Someone saw the two of them squatting at the door and casually greeted them with a smile.

"Hey, Lei Zi, Bo Wen, you're at the supply and marketing cooperative so early to buy things?"

Zhao Lei and Qin Bowen were both filled with anger and neither of them responded.

Seeing that the two men looked terrible and remained silent, the villagers who had been asking the questions wisely stopped asking and turned away to go back to work in the fields.

Time passed second by second.

The old-fashioned wall clock on the commune wall moved its hands little by little, steadily pointing to ten o'clock.

The entrance to the supply and marketing cooperative was still deserted; not a single person could be seen, not even a shadow of Fatty Chen.

Qin Bowen completely lost his composure, his face filled with impatience.

"Brother-in-law, it's already ten o'clock! He's still not here!"

"He must have run away because he felt guilty! Should we go directly to Qingfeng Town to find him? I'll ask my dad for his address when I get back; it'll be right there!"

The cigarette between Zhao Lei's fingers had burned down to almost nothing, and ash was falling in a flurry.

His eyes were cold, and his tone was steady: "Wait a little longer."

"If he dares not to come today, then it's a done deal; he's definitely behind this."

The two of them waited patiently for more than ten minutes.

Just as Qin Bowen was about to completely explode, a familiar, fat figure slowly rode over on a bicycle in the distance.

It was Chen Fugui!

After parking the car, Fatty Chen looked up and saw Zhao Lei and the other man squatting at the door. He immediately put on a familiar smile, showing no sign of anything unusual.

He walked forward with a cheerful smile, his tone relaxed and casual.

"Hey! Brother Lei, I thought you'd completely given up on it, but it turns out you've come to a decision?"

"I told you yesterday, I'd pay you three musk pods for three hundred dollars, that's not a low price at all."

"What? You've finally decided to sell? Did you bring the items? I'll settle the bill right away!"

Upon hearing these self-righteous words, Qin Bowen, who was standing next to him, immediately exploded.

Qin Bowen suddenly stood up, his eyes bloodshot, glaring angrily at Fatty Chen.

"Fatty Chen! You're still playing dumb with us!"

Fatty Chen's smile froze, his face full of innocence, feigning confusion.

"Hey? Bowen, what do you mean by that?"

"Why are you so angry first thing in the morning? When did I offend you?"

Qin Bowen pointed at Fatty Chen, his anger blazing, and immediately broke off all pretense of civility, hurling insults at him.

"Fatty Chen! Stop putting on an act for me!"

"You're the only outsider in the whole village, besides our own family, who knows that my brother-in-law has three musk deer pods!"

"Yesterday's price negotiations fell through, and the items were stolen overnight. Who else could it be if not you?"

"You still dare to play innocent? Fine! You won't admit it, huh? I'll go to the commune and report you to the authorities right now!"

Upon hearing this, Fatty Chen frowned, his face showing utter astonishment, as if he knew nothing about it.

"Huh? What did you say? Something's lost?"

Zhao Lei remained silent throughout, his sharp eyes fixed on Chen Pangzi's changing expressions.

He could see it clearly.

Fatty Chen's shock at this moment didn't seem like a deliberate act of pretense.

But the other party immediately tried to get close to them, mentioning musk deer pods and asking for a purchase price, which was too deliberate and abnormal.

Zhao Lei was unsure of what was going on and couldn't tell if it was true or false.

He raised his hand to stop Qin Bowen, who was caught up in his emotions.

"Bowen, stop yelling."

This place is right next to the commune compound, and the cadres are having their morning meeting.

Making too much noise and attracting onlookers will only make things more chaotic and harder to handle.

Qin Bowen gritted his teeth and suppressed his anger, glaring fiercely at Fatty Chen.

Zhao Lei fixed his gaze on Fatty Chen, his tone calm yet extremely authoritative.

"Boss Chen, something has been stolen from our house."

Fatty Chen feigned ignorance: "What's missing?"

"The three musk pods I was going to sell you yesterday are gone overnight."

Zhao Lei stared at him:

"Isn't that strange?"

"The thief sneaked into my house in the middle of the night, but didn't take any cash, didn't touch the food, didn't hit the car, and didn't steal anything."

"But they only stole the most valuable part, the musk pod, which no outsider knew about."

Upon hearing this, Fatty Chen's expression froze, and he instantly fell silent.

On the surface, he feigned surprise and doubt, but in his heart he had already cursed Lai Mazi's ancestors for eighteen generations.

idiot!

What a brainless idiot!

He initially instructed Lai Mazi to secretly take the goods away, ship them discreetly, and keep it a secret.

Who would have thought that this fool would only steal the musk pouch and not touch anything else!

Doesn't this blatantly tell Zhao Lei that the thief knew about the theft and came specifically for the musk pouch?

This is a classic case of trying to hide something obvious, directly exposing the flaw to everyone's eyes!

Seeing him lost in thought, Zhao Lei raised an eyebrow and asked again, "Boss Chen, why aren't you saying anything?"

Fatty Chen suddenly snapped back to reality, his heart skipped a beat, and he quickly forced an awkward smile and tried to explain himself.

"Brother Lei, you...you don't suspect I did it, do you?"

Qin Bowen instantly bristled again, shouting angrily, "If I don't suspect you, who should I suspect?"

"You're the only outsider who knows about this! Since the things are missing, you're the prime suspect!"

Fatty Chen hurriedly waved his hand, looking wronged, and hastily explained.

"No, no! That's a terrible accusation! How could I possibly steal anything?"

As he spoke, he deliberately straightened his body, showing off his thick, muscular frame.

"Look at my figure, I weigh over 200 pounds!"

"With my size, how could I possibly scale walls, sneak into yards, or break into houses to steal? Forget stealing anything, I couldn't even climb over your yard wall!"

Upon hearing Chen Pangzi's words, Qin Bowen was speechless.

He looked Chen Pangzi up and down, his round, obese figure prompting him to admit it.

It really is.

This man was as fat as a pig, his body piled high with flesh. Let alone climbing over the earthen wall of Zhao Lei's house, he would have a hard time even stepping over a slightly higher threshold.

The act of breaking and stealing is something that doesn't seem like something that Fatty Chen would do.

But Qin Bowen still couldn't suppress his anger.

There are only a handful of people who know the inside story of the musk deer pod, and it's impossible for a family member to be dishonest. After eliminating all suspects, he is still the biggest suspect!

Just as Qin Bowen was suppressing his anger and feeling conflicted, Fatty Chen suddenly slapped his forehead, as if he had just remembered something important.

"Hey! Brother Lei! I know where the problem lies!"

He had already made his plans in mind.

The reason Zhao Lei is so fixated on him and suspects him right now is simply because there are too few people who know the truth and the clues are too concentrated.

The simplest way to completely clear your name is to thoroughly muddy the waters.