Chapter 365: Inhuman (173) (1st + 2nd) [VIP]
"Are you really a temporary college student?" Yuan Shanming paused and spoke first.
"Really..." Xiao Shang nodded weakly, "I told you I'm just a temporary college student."
"No," Yuan Shanming felt like his CPU was going to burn out, "How come there are temporary college students in the ghost story?"
"This... is very complicated to explain." Xiao Shang secretly glanced at Bai Jinshu, and saw that his face was also full of "what's going on", so he slowly said, "It's just that I was doing an internship in my senior year... I couldn't find a corresponding position, and the school was urging me to get my internship stamped, so I just randomly found a part-time job information posting group, thinking of picking an internship that could get a stamp..."
Although [Fei Ren Zai] is called the Novice Village and has become the first stop for all newcomers to the investment bank, and even exists secretly as a pseudo-human replacement factory, this space is actually not much different from other spaces.
This "little difference" means that although strange stories are produced here, human settlements naturally have human lifestyles. Humans in each settlement work and live normally, and naturally there are students who go to school, graduate and work here normally.
Now Qiao Bie regarded them as four team leaders. At this time, he asked Yuan Shanming, "There is a university in the Novice Village?" This question was of course unrealistic. Everyone exchanged glances with Yuan Shanming, and after getting a look that said "There is no problem with what he said for now", they continued to listen.
Xiao Shang said that he came into contact with the Business All-Round Challenge because he was in a hurry to find a job and internship. At that time, a recruitment information happened to appear in a part-time job information release group he joined. The information provided food and accommodation, but the salary was too low and no one was willing to go.
A senior student who is in a hurry to get a stamp will do anything. When Xiao Shang saw that his major was suitable and the workplace was not far from home, he immediately added the boss who sent the message and asked if he could get the stamp. The boss agreed to his request for a stamp very readily, and said that if he did a good job, he could be hired as a full-time employee after the internship period. So Xiao Shang, a senior student of economics, got on board.
"In the end... in the end I found out this was a weird story after I got there," Xiao Shang looked like he regretted his decision, "but the teacher urged me to stamp my internship report, and only this part-time boss was willing to stamp it for me right away, and he could also sign the three-party agreement that the counselor urged me to sign, so I just bit the bullet and got the job."
In the Novice Village, there is still a big gap between ordinary humans and ghost stories. In the cognition of most humans, ghost stories are some very scary things. Xiao Shang also thought so at the beginning, but as time went on, he found that the ghost story that hired him was just a very ordinary event organizer.
The event organizer was on the verge of bankruptcy and was so poor that it couldn't even pay the first month's salary to its interns.
"When I first joined the company, the Business All-Round Challenge couldn't even pay me. If I hadn't made drastic changes to the competition system, I might have worked for them for nothing for three months," Xiao Shang covered his chest, "Dad, don't you think this is bullying an honest person?"
"Are you an honest person?" Xiao Tang questioned, "The Business Almighty Challenge since you joined the company has almost turned into a Business Almighty Scam Contest..."
"Isn't it because there are too many messes left behind?" The merchant was about to cry, "Who knew the business here was so bad! In order not to work for nothing, I can only squeeze out some money to pay myself a salary!"
No one can make the embezzlement of public funds and blatant bribery sound so natural. Bai Jinshu held his forehead and said, "So you are just an intern hired by the weird story of the business challenge. The real weird story is not you, right?"
It turns out that this strange story itself never appeared from the beginning to the end.
"No," Xiao Shang blinked, "Three months after I started working, my boss disappeared."
"Gone?" Yuan Shanming turned his head in surprise.
"It's just... suddenly one day, I couldn't contact him anymore," Xiao Shang gestured, "I thought at first that the challenge competition was doing well, and then he finally had money and planned to enjoy life."
"Who knew that he would never come back after he disappeared," Xiao Shang added humiliatingly, "so I have always been an intern and temporary worker who has never been converted to a regular employee..."
It sounds like a sad story of a hapless intern who was dumped by an unscrupulous boss and ran away with the entire company. But the problem is that this boss who ran away was not an ordinary person, but a weird story.
What a weird story!
Everyone looked at each other. How could the ghost story suddenly disappear? The commercial all-around challenge formed by its pain was still there, so how come the ghost story itself disappeared?
And in theory, the ghost story cannot be moved, so the disappearance that Xiao Shang mentioned means that the ghost story that had always been there has disappeared from the place where it was originally in the Business All-Round Challenge.
"Do you know why your boss disappeared?" Bai Jinshu pinched his chin.
"I don't know," Xiao Shang said sincerely, "but anyway... this strange story is under my control now, but it doesn't belong to me."
His situation is different from that of the teahouse owner. The teahouse owner is the owner of the [Teahouse] ghost story, so he cannot move with the teahouse. However, Xiao Shang is just a temporary worker. Although the Business Almighty Challenge is under his control, he is not the owner of the Business Almighty Challenge in essence.
This bug is too weird.
Bai Jinshu gave Xiao Tang a look, asking her to ask Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan whether this situation existed and what was going on with the missing ghost.
Xiao Tang got the look and shook his head slightly, then lowered his voice and said, "They have already set off."
Huangmao couldn't ask anymore.
Yun Guang, Hang Yiqing, Laoguan and some other team leaders in the no-man's land are already on their way here and will probably arrive soon.
There was no rush to ask, Bai Jinshu thought about it and decided that at worst he could just wait until they arrived.
Anyway, it’s not that he doesn’t believe Xiao Shang, he just thinks that this “sudden disappearance of strange stories” is a bit strange.
Although he had some doubts, they had nothing to do with the next action. After listening to Xiao Shang's experience, Qiao Bie glanced at his watch and said again: "There are still six hours until twelve o'clock."
It is already past six in the afternoon, and the sun is about to set. Citizens of the entire City of Violence have basically returned to their homes and closed all doors and windows; the teams in the City of Violence are hiding in safe places, waiting for the automatic transmission after the fifteen-day countdown ends; the pseudo-people are wandering in the streets, searching inch by inch, hoping to find a replacement human being; the bigwigs who had just had an unpleasant negotiation with Qiao Bie are rubbing their hands and waiting for the performance of the night city guard.
It can be said that in this city, Qiao Bie is the only one who does not look forward to the arrival of night.
Before, there were only four people including Bai Jinning here. Even if they urged them, the "companions" who had only appeared in their descriptions were only on their way. But now it was different. There were hundreds of thousands of people outside. This number was enough to conquer any place.
He mentioned the time now to urge everyone to act quickly.
However, it was Qiao Bie who was not in a hurry before, but now it is Bai Jinshu and the others who are not in a hurry.
"We want to wait for our companions," Bai Jinshu thought for a moment, "It shouldn't be too long, they have already set off."
"Just an hour." Xiao Tang added.
"...Okay." Qiao Bie thought for a while and nodded.
It's only about an hour, so I can still wait.
In order to avoid the stupid temporary college student on the other side from chatting with him awkwardly, Qiao Bie took the initiative to start a conversation: "Are those things outside just weird stories?"
He was referring to the hundreds of thousands of Qin troops.
"I don't know... maybe?" Xiao Shang thought for a moment, "They all crawled out from underground."
Bai Jinshu took a deep breath and had to add, "It was transformed from a terracotta figurine."
What does “crawl out from underneath” mean? It sounds like some kind of zombie.
"The terracotta figurines transformed?" Qiao Bie's eyes moved slightly, "Then it should be a strange story."
Everyone except Xiao Shang nodded.
"You seem to be very familiar with them," Qiao Bie nodded slightly, "I didn't expect there would be such a large group of people in the ghost stories of the Novice Village."
Bai Jinshu: ...He didn’t expect it either.
Who could have thought that V50 would really become a general of the Qin Dynasty? If he hadn't suddenly connected to Xiao Shang's train of thought, he would not have thought of this.
After the topic was opened, the following content of the conversation went much more smoothly. Most of it was about the soldiers outside, as well as some of Qiao Bie's inquiries about these people.
Most of them were hinting at their identities and the identities of the companions who would arrive next, and Bai Jinshu and the others, like before, fooled everyone based on their speculation about Dita's identity, describing Yun Guang as a teammate who had been investigating with them after they realized the problem, and Huai Jiamu as a ghost story friend they met unexpectedly in the process.
Anyway, Qiao Bie could only tell the difference between humans and ghost stories, but couldn't tell the newcomers from the team leader. Everyone lied easily, not to mention that there was a real team leader, Yuan Shanming, among the crowd.
When encountering information that only the team leader knew, Yuan Shanming would take the initiative to answer. For a moment, Qiao Bie did not realize that something was wrong with them.
After Xiao Shang had eaten all the fruit on the plate, the person who had knocked on the door before finally knocked on the door again.
"Master," he said loudly, "the guests' friends are here."
This time they had explained in advance that if anyone was brought into the Qiao family by Long, they would be the guests' friends. Just bring them in directly.
It was obvious that the person who knocked on the door had brought everyone over.
Qiao Bie picked up the tea on the table and said, "Just come in, then we can prepare to set off together."
The door was pushed open, Yun Guang walked in front, Bai Jinshu turned around and saw Qiao Bie and Hang Yiqing walking beside him.
Xiao Tang also opened his eyes slightly:?
Use the ultimate move right at the start?
Yun Guang shrugged slightly, signaling to everyone with gestures that Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan were just partners with them, neither subordinates nor like Guan Hongyan and Xu Zichen, where whatever they said was what counted.
So he really couldn't stop these two people from doing anything.
It was not easy for him to convince these two people to come and see this fake Qiao Bie.
Everyone exchanged glances in a flash. Xiao Tang quickly pulled Bai Jinshu and asked him to think of a solution. Bai Jinshu could only shrug.
What can he do?
Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan didn't say anything, nor did they react to their reactions. They just looked indifferent and it was hard to tell what their mood was. It could only be seen that the two of them didn't seem to want to say anything.
In fact, they don't need to say anything.
The moment Qiao Bie finished his sip of tea and put down the cup, his expression suddenly froze.
The next second, he accidentally knocked over the teacup in his hand and blurted out: "You can't go!"
Everyone's eyes were focused on him at once.
Qiao Bie was sitting at the table. The teacup at his feet had broken into two pieces. The tea spilled all over him, leaving a trail of deep and shallow water marks.
But he didn't care about these at the moment, but looked ahead with an ugly expression.
Xiao Tang whispered, "Oh my god, there won't be a fight, will there?"
Qiao Bie's expression at this time was extremely ugly, and it was not ugly in the common sense of negative emotions, but an ugly expression caused by a mixture of various emotions.
At first glance, it was difficult to tell what his expression was.
On the other side, Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan had indifferent expressions. Although their eyes were on Qiao Bie, it was as if they didn't see him.
Or, it's as if they didn't take him seriously.
The atmosphere, alternating between stillness and movement, was so intense that Xiao Tang would believe that the two sides would start fighting in the next second.
"Fight? Dad, who will we help if there is a fight?" Xiao Shang asked curiously.
Xiao Tang whispered: "Then I'll definitely help Qiao Bie. I'm afraid Hang Yiqing will beat him to death."
Xiao Shang: "Wow, this guy is so fierce?"
When Hang Yiqing is not taking action, he looks gentle and polite. It is hard to imagine that he once founded a gang in Zi Street and was one of the gang leaders.
"You can't call me brother, right?" Little Tang's train of thought wandered off for a second. "If you call me brother, isn't that a mistake in generation? Hang Yiqing is a generation younger than Cen Bingqi."
"Then what should I call myself?" Xiao Shang's train of thought was also distorted. "My peers call me uncle? Doesn't that make me seem too old..."
"He has lived for so many years. It is definitely enough to call him uncle. It is also enough for you to call him grandpa." Xiao Tang touched his chin.
"I've lived for quite a while, and if I call him grandpa, then my father is no longer a generation behind me," Xiao Shang muttered dissatisfiedly, "Besides, we college students call everyone brother. Brother is a courtesy, an attitude, and a form of humility..."
"You've graduated for so many years, but you're still a college student," Xiao Tang said speechlessly, "Don't act so young."
Xiao Shang: "As long as I don't get a permanent job, I'm just a temporary college student!"
These two people...
Bai Jinshu's eyelids twitched. If the atmosphere wasn't indeed a bit tense and anyone's words or actions could cause excessive reactions on both sides, he would definitely slap each of them on the back of the head.
But soon, someone took the initiative to break the atmosphere.
Qiao Bie suddenly stood up from his seat, stared at Bai Jinshu and the others with an indescribable vicious look for a few seconds, and then just left.
The Qiao family member who knocked on the door and brought people in was stunned, and everyone was stunned on the spot.
Only Hang Yiqing seemed to have expected this. He walked to the place where Qiao Bie had just sat, curled his lips in an ambiguous way towards the teacup on the ground, and unceremoniously pulled out a piece of paper from the table and handed it to Lao Guan behind him: "Wipe it."
When Lao Guan took the paper, everyone noticed that there was a hint of red at the corners of his mouth.
"It's not a big deal," noticing everyone's looks, Hang Yiqing explained calmly, "I was just stimulated after returning to the capital of violence. It will be fine if I don't stay here for too long."
What if I stay here too long?
Xiao Tang blinked at Yun Guang, hoping he could answer.
"If you stay here for too long, it will become a ghost story," Lao Guan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, "Ah Qing, you..."
"You should take care of yourself first," Hang Yiqing rolled his eyes and picked up a cup from the table, "Rinse your mouth."
“...Oh.” Lao Guan took the cup weakly, looking quite guilty.
"Originally, Hang Yiqing didn't plan to come with Lao Guan," Yun Guang explained in a low voice, "but he insisted on coming."
"It's okay, I'm just like this," Lao Guan took the initiative to explain after rinsing his mouth, "There are no signs of it turning into a complete ghost story yet, don't worry."
"Ah? Aren't you still a ghost story now?" Xiao Tang blinked.
Hang Yiqing: “Half a weird story.”
"Uh... yes, half a weird story," Lao Guan paused, "I haven't completely transformed."
That year outside Zi Street, not only did Hang Yiqing, who witnessed everything, suddenly understand the essence of the ghost story and become like his former friends, but Lao Guan was also teetering on the edge.
Part of the reason why Hang Yiqing was in a hurry to leave was to help Lao Guan solve this problem.
"Do you think becoming a ghost story is a good thing?" He sat on the sofa and glanced at Xiao Tang in a light tone.
"No, no, absolutely not, please continue..." Xiao Tang almost raised his hands and cried out that it was so unfair.
She didn't mean that at all. Hang Yiqing was just taking his anger out on others and over-interpreting things. But she couldn't say anything. After all, whenever anything related to the kids from Purple Street came up, Hang Yiqing would put on a straight face and then use words to criticize everyone half to death.
The last time it was Yuan Shanming who ran into the gun, this time it was Xiao Tang.
Hang Yiqing wanted to find someone to argue with, saying that it was wrong for them to even breathe here.
The reason why Lao Guan has not completely turned into a ghost story is because Hang Yiqing took advantage of a trick and found the violent events in his childhood memory. Then he forcibly transferred the ownership of the church that had become a ghost story to Lao Guan, stopping his transformation process.
This is probably the reason why no one has completed the [Church] in all these years, but Lao Guan is still fine.
However, once he returned to the violent city where he was supposed to become a horror story, he was inevitably affected. This was probably the reason why Hang Yiqing did not allow Lao Guan to come along in the beginning.
But now…
Everyone looked at each other and finally changed the topic from Lao Guan's identity. They asked in a low voice: "So what did Qiao Bie mean just now? Why did he suddenly say that we can't go?"
"Is that 'we'?" Another Foundation member twitched his lips and pointed ahead, "Then it must be referring to the two of them!"
Qiao Bie's words just now were addressed to Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan.
Why can't these two people go?
Yun Guang walked to Xiao Tang's side, and Guan Hongyan and Xu Zichen behind him also found an opportunity to quietly run out from the crowd.
Xiao Tang gritted his teeth and said, "Sister Yan, you didn't show up just now. Aren't you afraid of being scolded by Hang Yiqing?"
Guan Hongyan blinked: "I would rather die than let my friend die."
Hang Yiqing would definitely scold Qiao Bie when she saw him, but she didn't want to be scolded by him, so of course she had to hide.
The two of them were talking bitterly, while Yun Guang patted Bai Jinshu's shoulder thoughtfully: "What do you think he meant by that?"
"Not quite right," Bai Jinshu shook his head, his face solemn, "The expression on his face just now was definitely not disgust or anger."
Of course there was disgust and anger, but those were the expressions that were revealed when he was looking at them. When he looked at Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan who suddenly appeared, his expression, although complicated, was definitely not negative.
"When he looked at us, he probably didn't expect that we would have any connection with these two people. In other words, he saw through our initial statement that it was a lie. We knew he was a fake person from these two people," Bai Jinshu tapped his fingers on the back of the sofa. "I always feel more panicked than surprised by that sentence."
The move by them to have Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan come here did indeed cause Qiao Bie to react violently, but this reaction seemed...
It seems that some other subtle things are involved.
For example, Qiao Bie, who knew everything about the kids on Purple Street and knew the fighting power of Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan, why was he panicking when he found out that these two were his companions going to the pseudo-human space with them?
"The best way is..." Yun Guang pointed in the direction he had just left.
The best way is naturally to ask Qiao Bie himself.
"But will he tell it?" Bai Jinshu raised his eyebrows doubtfully.
"He had to say it," Yun Guang shook his head slightly, "We pushed him into a dead end."
This dead end is not a dead end in terms of the current situation, but an emotional dead end.
Qiao Bie himself has definitely been influenced by the emotions and past of the Purple Street kids for so many years. The appearance of Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan will directly create a big gap in his defense. In addition, the time for the city guard to come out is getting closer and closer, so it is urgent to deal with these people. If he does not do anything, there will be endless companions trying to replace him. He has to survive.
These factors piled up and finally pushed Qiao Bie into a desperate situation.
"Then we have to find a way for him to back down," Bai Jinshu seemed to be thinking about something, "Just the two of us?"
Although Qiao Bie was pushed to the brink of despair emotionally, it was impossible to expect him to suddenly come back to explain. Someone had to give him a way out.
Neither he nor Yun Guang minded being the stepping stone.
The two looked at each other, said a few words to the other people around them, and walked in the direction where Qiao Bie had just left.
From this direction is his study.
The door of the study was closed, and two people were standing at the door.
"We are here to find your master..."
Before Yun Guang finished speaking, a voice came from the door: "No!"
Bai Jinshu shrugged: "Wait."
Yun Guang could only shrug his shoulders.
There were only four hours left until midnight, and Qiao Bie couldn't stay in there for long.
Sure enough, more than two hours before twelve o'clock, the door was suddenly opened.
Behind the door, Qiao Bie had not changed his coat and shirt that had been splashed with tea. The places that were previously water stains had now turned into ugly tea stains, clearly indicating what had happened not long ago.
"I can open the door to that world," he stared at Bai Jinshu, emphasizing each word, "but you can't go. Only the army you brought can go."
Bai Jinshu raised his eyebrows subtly: "What about Xiao Shang?"
"No." Joe was blunt.
"Why?" Bai Jinshu seemed to have grasped something, "Can I doubt..."
"You don't have to doubt it!" Qiao Bie had a cold face, and his expression was a bit like Hang Yiqing, "Ordinary people like you will die if you go into that place."
As expected.
Bai Jinshu let out a light breath, and he and Yun Guang showed a complicated expression.
Qiao Bie agreed to them so readily before, but it turns out there is still a problem.
He knew that a normal person would die if entering the pseudo-human space, so he planned to let the team leaders go in as cannon fodder. If they had not directly found Hang Yiqing and Lao Guan and listed them as "companions who would enter the pseudo-human space together", and in Qiao Bie's cognition, Lao Guan was still a human being.
Maybe they will really fall into this trap this time, follow Qiao Bie into the pseudo-human space, and then become cannon fodder.
However, this also indirectly confirmed another guess of his and Yun Guang -
Why would a hypocrite suddenly stab the investment bank?
"Fake people will die if they stay in that space for too long, right?" Bai Jinshu raised his eyes and looked at Qiao Bie, "This space is also killing fake people."
This is the truth why they are in a hurry to leave the pseudo-human space and stab the investment bank as soon as the live broadcast is interrupted.
The author has something to say:
Don’t sign a tripartite agreement during graduation season
First 20 + Random 20~
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
