Jiang Jiaying's heart trembled.

Everyone in the conference room was shocked by his shout. The leader on the stage didn't hear his response for a long time, so he had to call on his name again: "Xiao Jiang, what did you just say?"

The water in the kettle had become completely cold after being left overnight in the winter, and the icy temperature went down my throat.

Shi Yu only drank half a cup and couldn't drink any more. He put the glass on the coffee table and said, "The immunodeficiency virus cannot survive outside the body for too long. The mutants in the safe zone, try to adjust the surveillance around two hours after the incident."

Jiang Jiaying did not delay any longer and immediately went on stage to summarize.

Bai Jiwei looked at his face: "What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing." Shi Yu didn't plan to stay in the living room any longer. He turned around and prepared to go back to the bedroom, but then the door was blocked by someone.

Bai Jiwei frowned and looked at him: "Do you have a fever?"

Shi Yu was physically exhausted. The low-grade fever he had been having since yesterday had been intermittent and had finally turned into a high fever. He couldn't resist the other party: "You don't have a room of your own?"

He was unable to take medication, and this alone meant that most treatments were ineffective against him.

Bai Jiwei couldn't think of any way to help him, so he leaned against the door without moving: "Is there no other way to treat your illness except to fight it yourself?"

Shi Yu looked at him for a few seconds: "Why are you so talkative now that you have become a human?"

Bai Jiwei retreated suddenly, almost crushing the base of the floor lamp behind him with his foot: "You..."

Shi Yu looked at him calmly: "Didn't you tell me yourself? Why are you so surprised?"

When Bai Jiwei found out that the phone number was fake, he resorted to all means to find the law firm and revealed that information, but he was actually at a loss.

The other party's attitude towards strangers was too distant, and it would take a long time to get through his defense. This was the only shortcut for him to get close to him. He really wanted to get close, but he also didn't want the other party to know. After all, the process of their initial acquaintance was not a good memory anyway. He didn't want the other party to remember it, and the original plan didn't include confessing this. It was a blessing from God that he could still see the other party alive.

But he was the only one who saw the other person slowly die, apart from the one in the temple. He thought the other person was dead and never thought there would be a chance to see him again. Later, when the contact was about to be cut off, he would say something he didn't want to say. In fact, he regretted it as soon as he said it, so he tried his best to take the phone away from the contact, but he didn't expect that the other person had already received all the information he should and shouldn't say.

Shi Yu waited for a while but didn't get any further words from him, so he just said, "Do whatever you want, don't bother me," and turned around and went back to his room.

From childhood to adulthood, he could not escape a high fever if he caught a slight chill or even if it was just a change of seasons. He was the type who suffered a lot when he was sick. He would have headaches, palpitations, chills, and extreme sleepiness. A high fever could take away half his life.

Shi Yu hugged the quilt, his consciousness was groggy, and he heard the sound of the door opening and closing, and then a cold temperature touched his forehead. His brows, which were furrowed because of the discomfort, gradually relaxed, and he fell into a deeper sleep.

When he woke up again, it was already evening. He opened his eyes and saw the dim light outside the window.

Jiang Jiaying had just closed the door of the suite when she turned around and saw him coming out. She was stunned for a moment: "You're awake? Just in time for something to eat."

The thermos in his hand was filled with rice porridge, with only a little salt and no other ingredients.

Shi Yu shook his head, with a thin layer of sweat still on his forehead and a pale face: "I don't need it."

Jiang Jiaying stuffed the spoon into his hand: "Eat a little, otherwise the disease won't get better."

Shi Yu sat on the sofa and swallowed two mouthfuls of food with difficulty. The warm food slid down his lips and teeth into his stomach. He asked, "Did you make this?"

Jiang Jiaying took his temperature and said, "The food in the cafeteria is too salty and oily. You're still sick. I don't know if you have any dietary restrictions, so I just made some simple dishes. You won't refuse sugar, will you?"

Shi Yu: “…No, thank you.”

Jiang Jiaying glanced at the temperature and turned back to boil water. "I felt something was wrong when I saw your face on the screen. If you were sick, just tell me. Why are you running away for no reason? Fortunately, I have some cooking skills. If it were Lao Bai, he would turn a pot of porridge into coal! He can't even cook. How on earth do you think he has survived until now?"

“…”

Shi Yu drank his porridge silently without saying anything.

Jiang Jiaying couldn't stop talking. "And that guy called Ling Zhao, and Lao Bai, are both old men who have never touched women. I don't know where those two idiots got the confidence to hang around a patient with a high fever. If I hadn't found them in the room after the meeting, you would probably still be lying in bed. I kicked them out, but they were not happy. The look in their eyes made me start to reflect on whether I had dug up their parents' graves and slept with their wives without knowing it!"

“…”

Jiang Jiaying couldn't beat either of them, and was obviously furious. Now that he had found someone to listen to him, he was so angry that he wanted to go to the sky: "Back then, the Temple was so happy to issue a kill order for you on the forum, but now it's causing Zhaoyi Temple to go crazy. After all, I don't know him well. The most outrageous one is Lao Bai. We agreed to walk together as friends for life, but he went around with fake names. There were only four people in the team, but he led three of them to the Lower Nine Heavens, leaving me alone to guard my hometown diligently. We have to queue up to form a team to enter the game! When Cheng Wuye came to me to borrow props, he intervened and beat him up, and he didn't even let me go..."

Shi Yu held the spoon and suddenly asked, "Cheng Wuye?"

Jiang Jiaying exclaimed, and put the kettle that was two-thirds full on the base: "The sixth one in our team, the last one to join, why didn't Lao Bai tell you?"

Shi Yu looked at the other person.

Jiang Jiaying was stared at by him for a few seconds, and her voice became quieter: "He really didn't say anything?"

Shi Yu asked, "He is the sixth on your team?"

Jiang Jiaying nodded subconsciously: "What's wrong?"

Shi Yu: "You just said there are only four people in your team."

Jiang Jiaying said succinctly: "Originally, there were five people in the team, and the fourth and fifth were a pair of mandarin ducks. Later, the fourth died to save the fifth, and the fifth also died to avenge the fourth. We were short of people, so we found Cheng Wuye again."

But when ranking, he was ranked sixth, and the fourth and fifth places were always vacant.

The atmosphere quieted down, and after a while Jiang Jiaying spoke again: "Are you angry?"

Shi Yu: “?”

"Cheng Wuye." Jiang Jiaying tried to explain to the other party, "The method he used at that time may not be very authentic, but..."

In the end, he still stood on the side of his friend. Although he later learned when he was reviewing the previous situation that Cheng Wuye and Shi Yu did not get along very well in that game, he really did not think that there was anything wrong with his friend's behavior in that situation, and the consequences were completely unexpected.

Besides, the brief cooperation at the end should also mean that the hurt to the other party has been let go... right?

Shi Yu understood what he meant: "I'm not angry."

Jiang Jiaying was stunned for a moment and said uncertainly: "I thought you hated him."

Shi Yu shook his head: "I don't hate him."

Jiang Jiaying said: "Can I ask what your impression of him is?"

"The weapon is very special." Shi Yu thought for a moment and added sparingly, "Noisy."

“…”

Jiang Jiaying fell into deep thought.

How could he explain that Cheng Wuye was actually the least talkative person in their team? Even this was noisy, and she kept talking for at least half an hour just to boil water. What on earth was the beauty thinking of him at that time?

He tried hard not to ask, and just said: "If, I mean if, you have a chance to meet in the future...he has always wanted to tell you something."

Shi Yu didn't ask what was said. He just put down the spoon and then a glass with steaming hot water was handed to him.

"Can't eat anymore?"

"Um."

Jiang Jiaying didn't force him: "It's better to eat less. If you are hungry later, I will make it for you."

He put away the dishes: "I still have to go back to check the surveillance, you take a rest first..."

Shi Yu: "You haven't found it yet?"

"There is a suspect, but we can't be sure." Jiang Jiaying explained, "The doctor later found needle marks on the zombies in the safe zone, but there was no actual shot of the injection, so I went to look through the previous videos to see if there were any other clues."

Shi Yu drank the water in the cup and looked at him with a hint of doubt in his eyes.

Jiang Jiaying couldn't ignore it: "Just ask whatever you want to ask."

"In this game," Shi Yu said, "do you have a high-ranking official background?"

Jiang Jiaying didn't realize why he had such a question for a moment, but when he realized it, he burst out laughing: "Because I can not only attend the meeting but also watch the surveillance of the safe zone?"

He checked the ribbon tag that was always tied around his neck. It said that it was a safe zone staff member: "This is called an identity pass. It can be changed once in each game. Whoever sees it will believe who I am. However, it is only limited to passers-by who have nothing to do with the main storyline, that is, NPC identities. If you want to use it to pretend to be the mastermind, you will probably be killed on the spot by the real owner."

This was the first time Shi Yu had seen this kind of prop: "Did you buy it at the mall?"

"Not for sale." Jiang Jiaying smiled. "I got this from a treasure chest rewarded by the system when I first made it onto the Shangjiutian Ranking. It was S-level the first time I opened it. I even suspect that God's Domain specifically set it up so that players would be more motivated to play the game. Everyone who opened a treasure chest would be S-level the first time they opened it. Have you also opened one?"

“…………”

Shi Yu put down the glass: "Can I see the surveillance?"

"Of course you can," Jiang Jiaying's attention shifted instantly, "but can you hold on?"

"I'm not that fragile."

Having said that, Jiang Jiaying finally decided not to let the beauty waste the effort. He instructed the staff to copy the video and take it to the room for screening.

Because the virus usually causes the infected person to mutate within half an hour after entering the human body, he only selected footage of the entrance to the safe zone and the surrounding area, a total of seven or eight hours.

Shi Yu turned the video to the highest speed, and curled up on the sofa with a cup of hot water in his hand. The steam blurred his eyelashes. He watched it from beginning to end, until someone in the safe zone suddenly mutated and attacked and injured someone, then he said, "How many suspects are there?"

"Three." Jiang Jiaying said, "One is an NPC, and the other two are players."

The safe zone was established temporarily, and many infrastructures, such as surveillance, are not perfect. Narrowing the list of suspects to three people is already the limit of luck and effort.

As for why there are players among the suspects, since the virus outbreak, naturally more than one player has thought of coming to the city center, and there are naturally more than just a few players in the safe zone.

"According to what you said before, it is inevitable that every player will meet an elderly widower, so I should be one of the first to arrive. I have met everyone who has entered the safe zone, and I have also asked them about the dead players they met along the way." Jiang Jiaying said, "There are 20 players, nine of whom are in the safe zone, including you and me. Seven are confirmed to be dead, and the remaining four are unclear. They may be dead, or they may be hiding somewhere in Jiangshan City."

Shi Yu didn't say anything for a while, but the screen was still playing. Until a certain frame flashed in his sight, he suddenly reached out and pressed the pause button to play it back.

Jiang Jiaying came over: "What...eh?"

What was displayed on the screen was the scene where he was left behind to deal with the aftermath of the riot at entrance number seven being quelled, and suddenly a face fell onto the wire mesh.

Shi Yu: "What are the names of the three suspects?"

"The NPC's last name is Du, and the two players are named Tao Jin and Yu Zhiyi." Jiang Jiaying said, "As for this zombie that suddenly pounced on me, I asked the guards to shoot it to death. What happened?"

Shi Yu looked at the face on the screen. The teeth marks were clear and prominent, and half of the face was bloody. It was obvious that the face had been infected by the virus and completely alienated.

He recognized that face. It was the player who had proposed the Frankenstein and virus leak hypotheses in the trio led by Yu Zhiyi in the mountain cabin.

Jiang Jiaying was not aware of his experience in the mountain cabin and continued the previous topic: "Who do you think is the murderer among the three of them?"

Shi Yu: "…Why are you asking when you can find out with a blood test?"

Jiang Jiaying felt stupid when he heard this. He was about to laugh at himself when the communication device received a message. He opened it, glanced up and down, and said, "I'm afraid we won't know the answer from the blood test now."

Shi Yu: “?”

The preliminary virus test results were out. Jiang Jiaying turned the phone screen towards him, and three reports were displayed on it.

The results showed that all three suspects tested positive for virus antibodies.