By the time Miles finally pulled himself together, the neighbors who had come to watch the commotion had all gone home.
However, news about him had replaced the earlier rumors about Mo Orphanage.
Some said he had offended the Black Snake Gang, apparently by seducing their boss's daughter, and they had come knocking.
"How is that possible? Just look at that ugly mug of his. How could anything like that happen? Would someone like her have to be blind?"
Others simply speculated that there was something wrong with his bread. Some big shot at city hall had eaten it, gotten an upset stomach, and had an accident in public, and now Miles was going to pay...
None of this made any sense, but there was one thing Miles did know.
He seemed to be in big trouble.
So, with a livid face, he shut the door and cleaned up the bakery.
Once no one was watching, he slipped out the back door to ask around.
His first stop was his sister's home.
Yet the place he had visited so often now felt somewhat unfamiliar.
He summoned his courage and knocked, but even after a long wait, no one came to open the door.
Could they have moved because of this?
Fortunately, his knocking made a neighbor poke her head out, and she spoke to Miles with obvious glee at his misfortune.
"Stop knocking. The couple left early. Probably went out to take care of something, but..."
"But what?"
"Those two are usually so high and mighty, but this time they looked completely wilted. All meek and submissive, too. They probably offended someone... Now they're deliberately making no time for anyone else..."
The woman's mockery made Miles's expression even uglier.
Since he could not get any relevant information for the moment, there was no point wasting more time here.
He turned and headed straight for another person who might know something.
But as he went down the stairs, his legs buckled, and he nearly tumbled down.
The Black Snake Gang's headquarters was no different from any other gang's.
A crowd of idle thugs lounged in the front yard, happily shooting the breeze.
Miles did not dare go through the main entrance. He went around to the back courtyard and knocked softly.
A young man with a scar on his face opened the door and glanced at him. Understanding flashed in his eyes. "Come in. Keep your voice down. Lord Hei Shi just woke up..."
Hei Shi was his teacher, as well as the Black Snake Gang's cook.
But that was only his current role. In the beginning, Hei Shi had been more than a mere cook. He had also been one of the Black Snake Gang's founders.
Had he not stepped back at the height of the gang's expansion, his position might have been even higher now.
He had since bought up many recipes and become a cook, but only his trusted subordinates knew that this was all a facade.
In reality, he also made poisons in secret. The Black Snake Gang owed its origins to its chief's secret snake-taming art, which allowed him to use venomous snakes for unsavory purposes.
After the Black Snake Gang grew, however, the use of such methods became restricted, so Hei Shi stepped back and took charge of collecting snake venom to make poisons.
The Black Snake Gang's core force consisted of venomous snake assassins, and this was where their poisons came from.
When Miles finally saw his teacher, Hei Shi immediately hurled something soft and elongated onto him.
Knowing a little of what went on here, Miles turned pale and stood rigid, not daring to move.
"Teacher!"
"Idiot! You acted without even investigating everything first. Have all these years of comfortable living rotted your brain? Did you think what you did back then was so clever?..."
His teacher's scolding actually eased Miles's mind considerably, but he did not dare argue now. He could only lower his head and take it.
His eyes flicked toward the thing that had just been thrown onto him.
It was a dead venomous snake, its fangs already removed.
Thank goodness...
The scolding only stopped after nearly an hour.
"Brainless fool! Hmph!"
Having finished with those words, Hei Shi told him everything his investigation had uncovered.
When Miles heard that Earl Winter had stepped in to help, he finally understood why everyone's attitude had changed so drastically.
He could only look up in fear. "Then will I... be found out? And then..."
Crushed to death, like an ant.
That was true. If the Earl acted, he would be no different from an ant.
"You?" His teacher gave a contemptuous laugh. "You aren't worthy of the Earl's notice. But since they can establish ties with him, stop wasting your efforts. If anything else happens, there really won't be any chance of salvaging this..."
"Then I'll just keep doing business... We'll stay out of each other's way!"
Miles breathed a sigh of relief.
But this earned him another round of mockery.
"You still think you can keep selling bread? If you hadn't supplied us with so much information over the years and helped us gain so many advantages in the area, do you think your business would have been that easy to run?"
"Now... hmph!" Hei Shi sneered. "I happened to hear that the Earl's household intends to buy a storefront for a shop. We can use compensation as a pretext and hand yours straight over..."
At this, the color instantly drained from Miles's face.
That shop was his life's work, and he had poured all his money into it. Yet now, it was actually...
"What, are you unhappy with something?" Seemingly noticing his dissatisfaction, Hei Shi fixed him with a vicious stare.
"N-no..."
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Miles's forehead.
"Good. Since your shop is gone anyway, come back and work for me. Perhaps you can save up some more money and open another shop..."
But hearing this made Miles tremble even harder.
He had only managed to leave this place with great difficulty. Partly, he had saved enough money and did not want to become too deeply involved with a gang. The other reason was that working under Hei Shi was dangerous.
Collecting snake venom was nowhere near as simple as one might imagine.
Back then, he had barely managed to leave even with his brother-in-law's name to help him... But now.
As he thought of the reason he had been plunged back into the abyss, venomous resentment flashed in Miles's lowered eyes.
"I understand!"
Mo Fei knew nothing about Miles's situation, nor did he care in the slightest. He was merely waiting for Earl Winter's arrangements for what came next.
Meanwhile, he began preparing the new skills he would upgrade.
This time, he still had two Belief Points available, supplied regularly by Aiwen and Zane.
He intended to use these two Belief Points to improve his ability to protect himself.
So he put one into Combat and the other into Medicine.
[Combat (beginner) → Combat (basic)] [Medicine (beginner) → Medicine (basic)] [Belief Points: 2 → 0]
The improvements were just as dramatic this time, so much so that he failed to notice that Tom Riddle's eyes, as he lay swaddled, were no longer cold and lifeless, but curious.