57 Chapter 57 (Two in One)
◎【Oil Seller】：??? I gave way, but you still won’t let me go!◎
The van sped away into the rolling blood mist.
There was no need for directions; the faint presence of a large chimney marked the spot. Thick fog continued to pour out from the front, reducing visibility. Turning toward the factory, the road widened. The pavement was so smooth it looked like it had been patinated by touch, reflecting a faint light under the headlights.
"The infrastructure in the core industrial zone is indeed the best, and the roads are more beautiful than those in other places." Ye Ping'an saw the factory wall in front of him, slowed down the car, and looked around for the factory gate.
Wang Xiaomei hugged her daughter tightly, cautiously observing the driver's expression. The driver, whose expression was strangely strong, was surprisingly easy to understand: he smiled when he was in a good mood, but looked disgusted when he saw something dirty.
"Are you looking for the entrance to the oil refinery?" Wang Xiaomei whispered. "The main entrance isn't facing this road. It's a little further to the left."
"Thank you." Ye Ping'an turned the steering wheel and drove forward along the wall for a while. The shadow of the gate arch several meters high was dimly seen in the fog.
If you take a local with you, the way will be easier to find.
The bright beams of car lights dispelled the slight mist, revealing the factory gate.
The factory wall is right next to the crematorium next door. A circle of yellowed and white paper flowers hangs on the crematorium sign, which looks particularly creepy in the black and red fog.
The metal sign on the factory archway had long since rusted and peeled, and it sat against the crematorium wall. If you weren't paying attention, the last few characters on the sign would appear to be connected, making it look like...
"Crematorium".
Under the factory's archway is not the usual iron gate, but a storefront is squeezed under the arched sign.
The storefronts were crammed into the archway, like a piece dug out of another commercial street and forcibly cobbled together. The faded sign of the grain, oil, and groceries store had been weathered and rotted, and the wooden counters and barrels inside were stained with oil, showing that it had been open for many years.
The grain and oil shop is directly connected to the factory behind it. Although the storefront is large, it is squeezed by a wooden counter that takes up 9/10 of its width. Coupled with the scattered furnishings, it looks cramped and dim.
Ye Ping'an shook his head as soon as he took one look at the store. "The factory's business is down, so the security office at the main gate is also used as a factory outlet? Such a big factory, such a small gate, is this a profit-making business or just a blockage? I guess the shelves are all movable, otherwise it would be difficult for the workers to get in and out of the store."
Wang Xiaomei was in a very complicated mood.
Before she was deceived, she had walked near the factory and seen some people enter the factory.
Whether you are an outsider or a city dweller, everyone who comes here must be very vigilant and careful about being attacked by monsters.
Not only do you have to be wary of the monsters called "weird." Even if you don't plan to enter the factory to put an end to it, there are always robbery teams lying in ambush near the oil shop, waiting to attack as soon as someone comes out with the oil.
This driver was probably the only one who had the mood to comment on whether the door was big enough and whether it would affect his business. He was so relaxed as if he was really delivering food.
"I saw everyone enter through the oil shop. But the oil shop keeps asking people to buy oil. They have to put a 'pig' in the counter before the oil comes out. If you don't have a 'pig', you have to exchange it with your own. Be careful, don't get scammed."
Wang Xiaomei whispered what she knew, and then hurriedly explained, "You saved my daughter, I won't lie to you. It's really dangerous in there, no one has ever come out, but they did enter from here!"
"Hmm? People in the old town buy oil here? Over the counter or in coin-operated vending machines, that sounds good. Old Liu seemed to have said before that he buys goods here... If the oil is good, you can buy some. We are all doing business, can he force you to buy if you don't want to?" Ye Ping'an became interested.
As soon as he got out of the car, Ye Pingan quickly pressed the edge of his mask, "...It stinks. The smell is so strong right in front of the oil factory, and the environment is so bad, how can they really produce good oil here?"
"Is anyone there? Someone from your factory ordered takeout. Should I call him out at the door or should I take him in?" Ye Ping'an knocked on the doorpost of the grain and oil shop.
Someone stood motionless in the shadows beside the counter, staring straight at Ye Ping'an. His voice was hoarse and hazy, as if he was swallowing something. "Want to buy some oil? Buy some oil."
He had a local guide take a shortcut through the city, and the thugs on the road behind him didn't stop him. He arrived at the factory gate half an hour before the scheduled time, which was enough time to enter the factory. Ye Ping'an had time and didn't mind checking in on the business that came to him.
She looked around and asked, "How much do you sell this oil for? Do you have samples and a price list?"
Who would buy it if it's just empty talk?
When her restaurant first opened, she relied on the aroma of braised food to attract customers.
"Try it? Come on, it's cheap and delicious blended oil." The figure sat up from the counter and scooped a spoonful of oil from the wooden barrel shakily.
Ye Ping'an looked at him with a frown.
It had been who knows how long since the wooden barrel and the spoon had been cleaned. There was a circle of oil solidified on the edges, and there were black debris stuck inside, either flies or other garbage.
The oil refinery only relies on its good location, but its service attitude and sales environment are not good enough. If her employees don't clean up and only greet customers after asking a few questions, they should have been fired long ago!
But just because some ingredients look bad doesn’t mean they don’t taste good.
As an excellent chef, Ye Ping'an tried his best to eliminate his prejudice against the ingredients and walked over to smell them.
Looking closer, the oil was clear, with no sediment. But the color... was too yellow, something was very wrong.
The smell is even harder to judge.
Ye Pingan curled his lips. "I asked because I heard you have good stuff. How can you fool me with gutter oil? You're selling it when it's already rotten!"
The clerk, hunched over on the floor, kept handing him a spoon. The clear oil sloshed around, and a strange aroma wafted through the air. He couldn't help but swallow his saliva, "Fragrant, smell it, it smells so good. Buy some oil..."
Fragrance? Ye Ping'an didn't smell it. When he shook the spoon, the rotten smell in the shop became even stronger.
The wheels of the van parked at the door shuddered, as if it wanted to back away but didn't dare. The aroma of cooking oil drifted in through the door, and the father and son, tied up like dumplings in the back seat, stirred. Even in their unconscious state, they were tempted by the aroma, but they were tied too tightly and couldn't move at all.
Wang Xiaomei heard both her and her daughter's stomachs growling at the same time.
She was so hungry, she wasn't sure how many days she had been hungry. It would have been fine if she hadn't gotten up yet, but the rich aroma washed over her, and hunger instantly clawed at her tongue and teeth, making her want to rush out and grab the spoonful of oil.
The lines on the driver's face gazed greedily outside, the shadow beneath the wheel unconsciously crawling outward, following the scent of oil. Before it could crawl out, the lines on the face shuddered and swooped back into a ball, the lines on the nose knotting. The car door slid shut as if blown by the wind, shutting out the alluring scent.
An inexplicable chill surged through the carriage, and Wang Xiaomei's gradually fuzzy mind suddenly snapped back to consciousness. Terrified, she felt herself and her daughter up and down, making sure they weren't gnawing like crazy before she breathed a sigh of relief. "I...I was woken up by the air conditioning?"
Ye Ping'an was reluctant to take the spoon. The waiter's persuasion was ineffective. Seeing that the oil on the spoon was about to drip off, he anxiously raised his head and opened his mouth wide, slurping to catch a drop of oil, "It's delicious, really delicious... Why don't you eat it!"
He licked a drop of oil, but still felt it was not enough, so he opened his mouth to drink the oil.
When the clerk was huddled beside the counter, Ye Ping'an hadn't noticed him yet. When he looked up, he suddenly realized that he looked familiar.
"...Boss Liu? I haven't seen you in a few days. Why don't you run your own business and come work as a clerk and security guard for others? You've eaten so much that you look like a refugee, pale and skinny. I didn't recognize you at first. Stop, stop, stop. You don't have to put on a show by drinking oil. You don't have to make such a big sacrifice just to sell goods. Even if you have problems with your food, I won't be morally blackmailed into buying gutter oil!"
Ye Ping'an held Lao Liu down, and Lao Liu opened his mouth and moved towards the spoon. After a few attempts, he realized that he was being held down, and looked at him in confusion.
"Business? Clerk, security guard...you are..." Old Liu's confused eyes took a long time to react before he finally recognized who was in front of him, "Boss Ye?"
Old Liu's pale face lit up, as if he had transformed from a dull repeater into a truly enthusiastic salesman. "Boss Ye! I knew you would come. Look at this oil, you're sure you'll like it."
"..." Ye Pingan looked at him, then at the bucket of stinky oil. He realized that Lao Liu was serious and was speechless. "Have you ruined your tongue and nose by eating gutter oil? Your selection skills weren't this bad before."
Ye Pingan snatched the oil spoon and threw it back into the bucket, then patted Old Liu, who was sitting on the ground. "Old Liu, you called me all the way here to buy oil, saying that there are several good oils. Why are you only showing me gutter oil? Are you taking kickbacks, or do you just not want to sell the good stuff?"
"Old Liu, kickbacks?" Old Liu muttered to himself, his eyes dull and confused.
His belly growled as he lay on the ground. Amidst the rumbling of hunger, Lao Liu instinctively reached for the oil spoon. "Oil... Such delicious oil! Why don't you eat it?!"
"Not only are you pale and skinny, but your head is big and your stomach is small." Ye Ping'an clicked his tongue and shook his head. "I think you've been poisoned by eating gutter oil!"
Wang Xiaomei knew she couldn't help, so she hugged her daughter tightly and kept looking back into the car, fearing that someone would run out and cause trouble for the driver.
She felt a surge of anticipation. Was it this oil? Did the driver know how to deal with the oil shop after just one look? Just like... those crushed ogres?
Ye Pingan turned around and took a cup of mung bean soup. With a bright smile, he opened his mouth and said, "Old Liu, take the medicine. For the sake of our good relationship, don't pay 998 or 880. Just pay 99 for one spoonful to clear away heat and detoxify. Take the medicinal food home."
The man who was struggling to pick up the oil spoon was pressed to the ground by a finger and gulped down a mouthful of mung bean soup.
"Ugh—" Old Liu struggled frantically, his resistance evident in words. It was as if he was fed not sweet mung bean soup but fecal water. As soon as he drank it, he bounced up and rushed to the door to vomit violently.
"Ugh... Ugh!" Old Liu vomited until his eyes were wide open and his head was dizzy. His throat and stomach were all burning with pain. After vomiting, his pale face was no longer so gray and scary, and his stomach was smaller.
Looking back, the oil drums in the store were still as clear and tempting as ever, but when he smelled them, the bloody stench and strange aroma tugged at his nerves, and a great fear rose in his heart.
"Boss Ye? What's wrong with me?"
Ye Pingan rolled his eyes. "Even if you pretend to have amnesia, you can't deny your debt. Ninety-nine, you pay interest for every day you owe. I'm keeping a record of it for you."
Lao Liu: Ah?
Compared to staying alive, money is nothing! Boss Ye is actually still seriously calculating these small amounts of money?
A pool of blood mixed with digested mush sprayed onto the ground, with thick oil floating on the surface and sticky black liquid crawling out of the oil.
Just as the black liquid dispersed into wisps of mist and rushed into the oil shop, many small black hands stretched out from the shadows at the door of the oil shop and grabbed it away.
Ye Pingan walked straight to the counter. "Where are the other oils? This is what the locals call a vending machine, right? The outer shell is quite realistic. How do I insert coins?"
Ye Pingan knocked on the counter, and a clattering sound came from behind the wooden counter.
Like thick grease sloshing around, the lid of a tank pops open, and the rich aroma gushes out. It smells like barbecue, fried chicken, stir-fry, essential oils, floral water, and even beef hot pot... You can smell every kind of aroma imaginable.
A variety of smells mixed together, but they don't seem mixed or unpleasant, but rather more tempting.
The people who were lying in wait near the oil shop were attracted by the smell of oil and came out one after another, surrounding the door, shouting, "Oil is cheap! Oil is cheap! 'Oil seller', come and sell oil!"
When Old Liu smelled the fragrance coming from the store, he felt a little dazed and quickly slapped himself to wake up.
"Does the barbecue stall get its goods from here? Some of them smell quite fragrant. The store obviously has good oil!" Ye Ping'an sniffed, his eyes lit up, and he changed his position and knocked on the counter, trying to find the button position. "Lao Liu, you are a seller, how do I buy it?"
Old Liu felt a little safer only when he squeezed next to Ye Ping'an. He shrank behind Ye Ping'an and didn't dare to look at the counter. "Boss Ye, let's go!"
He couldn't remember how he ended up in that strange-looking grain and oil shop, and his memory of it had been fuzzy these days. But Lao Liu was certain that many people had eaten at the counter of this grain and oil shop, and they were still attracting more people to eat, and they didn't want to let them go.
Knock, knock, knock. The wooden counter trembled slightly under the bent knuckles, and the counter across the doorway kept sliding backwards.
The sliding amplitude was very small. Ye Pingan knocked and turned back. Lao Liu was busy persuading him, and no one noticed. "There is something dirty here, don't be fooled!"
"Got scammed? Oh, I get it." Ye Ping'an sighed. "Good for you, Old Liu. It's not just kickbacks, is this factory also involved in a pyramid scheme? No wonder they were so anxious before, wanting me to come buy oil, but as soon as I arrived, they told me to leave. They hinted at me calling the police. Be more clear next time. Don't worry, there are a lot of police officers in the old city, and no criminal will get away with it."
Lao Liu:?
Pyramid scheme? Come on, it really does look a bit like it... No! Why call the police if I see a ghost? The most important thing now is to run!
Old Liu was so anxious that he tried to pull Ye Ping'an, but suddenly there was a crisp sound coming from the front.
One corner of the wooden counter was pushed against the wall, and the entire counter slid as if it had wheels. Using the corner that hit the wall as a fulcrum, it turned 90 degrees and slammed into the wall.
The sound of grease shaking behind the counter suddenly stopped, the fragrance and stench all subsided, and the sound of wood rubbing against each other was heard inside, as if the counter was shaking.
Ye Pingan quickly withdrew his hand, confirmed that there were no cracks on the counter surface, breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately grabbed Lao Liu, "I just knocked on the counter, it hit it on its own! You testify!"
The wooden counter trembled against the wall. Its outer shell appeared intact, but beneath it, a honeycomb of hollow spaces, resembling oil drums, was now broken apart. The bottom of the counter was once a flesh-colored, oily brown, seamlessly connected to the oil factory floor.
At this moment, the bottom was broken and the oil barrel honeycomb could no longer maintain its shape. It collapsed into a sticky liquid and quickly dissipated into mist.
Old Liu stared at the counter blankly.
He had seen the counter swallow up many people, some were caught, some were trying to rob the oil shop, and some were trying to get over the counter to enter the oil factory. The wooden counter was across the doorway, and no one could escape its temptation and obstruction.
But, but...the counter can actually turn to make way?
Old Liu rubbed his eyes. The counter had just been, perhaps, seemingly, attached to the wall again?
As the fragrance faded, even the crowd surrounding him from behind dispersed, and he walked in the opposite direction in a daze.
Is he still possessed by the devil and hasn't woken up yet?
"It looks like the vending machine is empty. I can still look for it if I come across it at the factory." Ye Ping'an regretfully withdrew his hand and looked at the spacious slope behind the counter. A double iron door concealed the bottom of the slope, and a white line on the floor stretched forward, marking Workshop 1.
There were lights on deep down the slope, so there wasn't much air pollution inside, but the light wasn't very good either.
Ye Pingan estimated the distance and said, "Old Liu, do you need to deliver the takeout orders from your oil factory? This road seems wide enough for a large truck."
Old Liu was confused and nodded subconsciously, "Should be possible?"
Ye Pingan simply turned around and said, "Okay, I'll go deliver the food. Do you want to come with me? Or wait for me at the door?"
Captain Yan had just sent a message saying she was nearby and asked her to stop by and pick up a few extra takeout orders, which meant her presence wouldn't affect the arrest. There were still customers waiting for her midnight takeout orders!
Old Liu seemed to have heard a bolt from the blue.
He had just thought Boss Ye hadn't been fooled. Why was he still working in the factory as a delivery driver?! If it was so scary outside, how terrifying must it be inside? He was just hesitating when he heard a fight in the street outside the oil shop.
Those who were lured by the fragrance and then left revealed their position and were ambushed by other people who were ready to make a move.
It was like a bucket of cold water poured down on him, and Old Liu instantly woke up: he was safe now, and the core wooden counter of the oil shop was shrunk only because Boss Ye was there.
Old Liu hurriedly chased after him, "Boss Ye! Boss Ye, wait for me!"
He had just finished vomiting and nearly fell to the ground when he ran. Someone in the car hurried down and helped him get in. "Brother Liu."
Old Liu was stunned when he saw Wang Xiaomei. When he saw the dull man in the car, his face suddenly turned ugly. "I remember now. He tricked me into coming here!"
Old Liu shook his hand away, afraid of making a scene and upsetting Ye Ping'an. He lowered his voice and glared at Wang Xiaomei, "Your man did this. Has your family been using this oil for a long time? And now you're trying to trick me!"
Wang Xiaomei didn't dare to speak.
Seeing Lao Liu's reaction after drinking the mung bean soup, she suddenly remembered the roujiamo that her husband had brought back before.
Thinking back, her husband was already very strange at the time, and she herself was also in a trance. If it weren't for the delicious smell of roujiamo, Wang Xiaomei couldn't bear to think whether she would have starved to death, or gone mad and turned into a demon like her husband.
It turned out that this person was Boss Ye. Boss Ye had saved her twice. What a good man he was.
Wang Xiaomei took Lao Liu into the car, carefully wiped off the oil stains that had been rubbed against the door of the van at some point, closed the door, turned back to tighten the rope that tied the father and son, and then sat back in silence.
Ye Pingan glanced at her in the rearview mirror. Like fellow employee Gong Yi, she was a get-it-done type, and she got things done without being told.
The van's wheels spun rapidly, crashing into the thick fog in front of the door and driving into the grain and oil store.
Ye Ping'an left, and the wooden counter, huddled in the corner, fell silent. The shattering objects barely formed the shape of an oil barrel, and the surrounding black slime stopped dissipating and began to converge towards the center.
The moment the van passed the counter, shadows appeared from under the wheels, and small black hands grabbed the slime.
“Oil barrel”:?
As the wheels rolled past, the newly assembled oil barrel seemed to be crushed by the wheels, and the oil barrel and the slime under the counter all disappeared.
"Burp." The facial lines of the man in the van were smiling, and there was no sign at all that he was shivering in the fragrance just now.
The bright beams of car lights shone forward, turning slightly like a pair of eyes staring outside.
Click.
The wooden counter behind him was completely shattered into pieces and could not be put back together.
Without the counter blocking the way, the van arrived in front of the rear iron gate in a few seconds. The car slowed down slightly and pushed the door directly, but it didn't open.
There was a crack in the iron gate, just enough for one person to get through.
"Something is stuck at the back. Probably some dropped garbage." Ye Ping'an had no hope for the sanitary conditions of the oil refinery, so he took the shopping bag that was always on the bus and got off.
Wang Xiaomei immediately chased after him, "I, I'll help clean up! I'm the best at cleaning."
Old Liu rushed forward, "I'll remove the ground lock on the door!"
Ye Ping'an just leaned sideways and squeezed through the gap when a breeze blew over his head.
He scooped up the bag with his backhand, and several silver needles fell from the sky and shook in the bag like swimming fish.
"Good thing it's still rusty. Factory safety should take action."
Ye Ping'an put down the bag, and the twisted needles inside fluttered a few times, emitting wisps of mist, and then stopped moving.
After Ye Ping'an saw the door clearly, he was stunned for a moment.
Hu Tu sat in a wheelchair, his face pale, his eyes rolled back, his head tilted in an extremely anti-ergonomic position, holding a blood-red cell phone. Blurred blocks of color flickered on the screen, vaguely resembling three sentences.
The muscles on her face were twisted into a grimace, and tears of blood streamed from her eyes, the blood almost dried up. She seemed to be experiencing great pain, but she resisted it with a firm will.
Several grease-covered sculptures surrounded the wheelchair, scattered around with many small objects, some like the oil paint trays used to paint the sculptures, and some like the bamboo chopsticks used to support the sculptures, but they never reached her.
Hu Tu's uniform was stained with light and dark oil stains, and a strange smell of blood and fragrance filled the air.
Ye Ping'an had good eyesight and saw at a glance that she had written a few words on her hand stained with blood-stained grease.
"Oil, do not touch. Left, workshop No. 2"!
The handwriting is messy and hastily written, crooked and not very pretty, but it is the first clue you see when you enter the factory.
Wang Xiaomei was frightened by the pale face with blood and tears, "Ah! Ghost, ghost crying..."
"Feudal superstitions are unacceptable." Ye Ping'an pressed down Hu Tu's eyelids and closed them. "Stop making so much noise and don't wake the officer. He's so sleepy that his eyes are rolling back. There must be blood."
Wang Xiaomei & Lao Liu:?
"I told you to eat some medicinal food to replenish your body. You look so tired. You can even fall asleep like this."
Ye Ping'an took out a piece of honey candy from his pocket and put it into Hu Tu's mouth. When he raised his hand, Hu Tu had already closed his eyes and leaned against the wheelchair.
The almost motionless, cold chest began to rise and fall slightly with breathing.
The phone Hu Tu was holding with his head tilted fell down. Ye Pingan quickly grabbed it, tapped the screen, and stuffed it back into Hu Tu's pocket. "It's okay, it seems to be usable."
The screen of the mobile phone in Ye Ping'an's pocket lit up slightly, and the red phone buttons shook.
The old-fashioned phone returned to Hu Tu's pocket. The flesh-like color on its surface quickly faded, as if some special connection had disappeared. Hu Tu's face, twisted with pain, gradually relaxed.
The moment Hu Tu dropped his phone, the figures and various parts surrounding the wheelchair suddenly moved. Some began to grow larger, some blinked and appeared on Hu Tu, and some glanced coldly at the few people who had just appeared.
"I almost forgot. Is this the toy Officer Hu brought for the children?" Ye Ping'an opened the bag and continued to pack the odds and ends on the ground.
A cold aura erupted in front of the wheelchair. Wang Xiaomei and Lao Liu both felt dizzy and almost fainted.
The hand holding the "toy" didn't seem to feel the cold at all. It just pinched it with a few fingers, and its movements were unpredictable and strange, making it impossible to break free.
After picking up the messy sculptures and parts, Ye Ping'an stuffed them into a bag, hung them on the wheelchair and pushed them away.
"Since you're a regular customer, I'll give you a ride. You might catch a cold if you fall asleep here."
Ye Pingan turned around and saw that the two people who helped to remove the door lock looked dazed. "Eh? Is the carbon dioxide concentration here too high or something? Wake up!"
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