With Du Lanshan holding the bag's opening, Cheng Shuangteng reached out and handed a leather rope to Du Lushui. She was weak and always wanted to make good use of resources.
Du Lushui quickly tied the bag shut. The ghostly figure inside seemed to know that it had reached a dead end and started making a huge fuss. Du Lanshan still dared not let go.
The group looked at each other, at a loss for what to do.
"How long can it be kept locked up?" April asked, voicing everyone's question.
Cheng Shuang frowned slightly. "I don't know either." She had only asked the general store to send over a bag that looked like human skin, because she had no idea what the green phantom was, and the general store couldn't conjure up an intangible thing that couldn't be described in detail.
As for how long this pocket could hold Green Shadow, she couldn't guarantee.
"Is it an inanimate object or a living thing?" the little girl asked.
The group exchanged glances again. Sun Han gritted his teeth and said, "I'll give it a try!" But as soon as he touched it, he immediately looked embarrassed. "I don't have many storage spaces left; they're already full."
He was initially given only ten virtual space slots, which was already quite tight. It was only with great difficulty that the Gate of Reincarnation gave him a gift pack, which gave him an expansion card, expanding his space to eleven slots. Even so, he was still not rich, and he really had to put a lot of thought into planning and using them wisely.
The life-saving cards must be in one slot each, white pills in one slot, green pills in one slot, red and blue pills in one slot, other cards with too many side effects to be touched in one slot, food in one slot, daily necessities in one slot, and medicine and food squeezed together, there really is no room left.
The group looked at each other for the third time, because everyone's situation was essentially the same.
Feng Jiakang lamented, "The virtual space is practically like a goddess you can't have!"
Cheng Shuang hesitated for a moment. She had spare slots ready for emergencies, but Sister Liu Juan had said that she had ten slots, and Brother Du Jun had also secretly mentioned to her that everyone had ten slots, so as not to reveal that she had many more slots than she did. Some maintainers had cards that could steal slots, and although they were few, they would definitely be targeted if they encountered someone like her who had suddenly become rich.
Although Cheng Shuang hadn't publicly announced her extra storage space, anyone with a brain at the rest stop could see it. They just didn't know the girl had a dozen or so extra spaces compared to everyone else. Since she hadn't hidden her plans to store the dolls in the spaces, they simply assumed the extra three or five spaces she had as the station manager were a perk from the rest stop.
Although the doll could follow her automatically, hiding it in a spatial compartment to catch her off guard was more suitable for a little girl who couldn't even kill a chicken.
Sun Han was keeping a close eye on Cheng Shuang! Seeing that the girl looked uncomfortable, he narrowed his eyes and asked April first, "Do you have any ideas? Our stationmaster isn't here, and everyone's space slots are insufficient."
Cheng Shuang cleverly shut her mouth.
In April, her brows furrowed, a hint of ambiguity in her expression. The Spirit-Devouring Water was provided by the other party, and the method for capturing the green soul was also their idea. She and Feng Jiakang had essentially put in very little effort, merely playing a minor role. Logically, they should have offered something in return, but expecting her to explicitly reveal who the stationmaster of her rest stop was was absolutely out of the question.
She smiled wryly and decided to tell the truth: "You should know the importance of the station manager. It's really inconvenient for those who are not the maintainers of this station to tell you."
Sun Han and the Du brothers: We really didn't know!
She rubbed her temples, staring at the leather bag that had finally calmed down a bit, and couldn't help but exude a fierce aura. "If I think about it some more, I'll be able to get rid of it eventually."
Sun Han glanced at Cheng Shuang. Although the girl didn't show anything, the blankness and absent-mindedness in her eyes couldn't fool those of them who knew her well. It was clear that she herself didn't know what being a stationmaster meant.
He rubbed his fingers together, subconsciously feeling that this matter was very important and he had to figure it out.
Cheng Shuang naturally didn't know, but she suddenly realized the true meaning hidden in April's words about the rest stop—if something unexpected happened along the way, the rest stop would automatically replace the missing people. After all, quite a few maintainers of the rest stops had been lost.
She had initially thought that "April Sister" referred to either newcomers or veterans, but now it seemed that it had nothing to do with them.
Then, the girl's mind wandered back to Aona and Motoko on the cruise ship. Their relationship wasn't like teammates, but rather more like a superior-subordinate dynamic, albeit awkward. Aona clearly disliked Motoko's controlling behavior, but only verbally retaliated. And after Motoko's death, he went mad. Such a selfish and domineering protector—to say he had any camaraderie would be a joke; it was simply because his interests were harmed…
The little girl's head was pounding. She swallowed hard and suddenly felt a great sense of responsibility.
When the stationmaster dies, the rest stop will disappear. The maintainers who lose the convenience of the rest stop will probably not have an easier time than the new and old ones.
At least it seems that after the end of the last cycle of reincarnation, given the injuries of the Du brothers and the lack of a rest stop to rely on, the best outcome would be one of them dying and the other being crippled.
A sick or weak person with mobility issues entering a place of death, unless they are a chosen one, will not have much good fortune.
Cheng Shuang hesitated for a moment, unsure whether she should share her analysis of the station manager's importance with everyone. If the station manager were someone else, the young girl would never have hidden it. But since the station manager was herself, she feared that her analysis was wrong and the adults would misunderstand that she was trying to gain more attention. She also feared that the immense responsibility of being the station manager would change how others treated her.
The little girl's slightly bewildered expression stirred something in both Sun Han and Du Lushu. Du Lushu said, "It's time. Shuangshuang and I will go and see those homeless people."
In April, while struggling with what to do with the leather bag, he casually tossed out the bottle of medicine, saying, "If they're about to wake up, force-feed them, one small sip for each person."
Cheng Shuang took the bag and let Du Lushui lead her by the hand to the storage room.
Glancing at the beauty lying on the cold floor, the little girl estimated the time and reminded her, "It's almost time. Sister April's medicine only lasts for half an hour."
Du Lushu knelt down and poured the medicine down the throat of the unconscious woman, asking softly as if casually, "Does Shuangshuang know something? About the stationmaster?"
The little girl pouted and said with unprecedented stubbornness, "I know, but I don't want to talk about it."
Du Lushui didn't press the issue. The girl was always sensible, and she must have her reasons for not wanting to talk about it. "Okay, it's alright. Just tell us whenever you want to!"
This gentle and tolerant attitude made Cheng Shuang feel a little embarrassed. In fact, if the person in front of her were Cheng Jun, Liu Juan, or Sun Han, the young girl might have told the truth as well. After all, they had been through life and death together, which not only deepened their feelings, but also because Du Lushui always gave the young girl a sense of distance, and she would look at him with scrutiny from time to time.
Human emotions are always biased, let alone children's. They have a keen sense of who is closer to them and who is more trustworthy, a sensitivity that adults can never match.
Du Lushui's concerns were more practical: would the station chief's existence cause the rest stop to develop into a pyramid-shaped hierarchy, with the station chief at the top, wielding the power of distribution and possessing more resources than those below him? As the hierarchy descended, some would inevitably receive less than others, such as his brothers.
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