Chapter 10 (Catching Bugs)

"...Ah? How many people are left..."

In the room, Qiu Yufei was confused by the question from her supervisor: "Isn't it five?"

"Are you sure?" Yuan Jiayi asked back.

"..."

To be honest, Qiu Yufei was most afraid of her asking back, because once this tone appeared, it meant that her plan would definitely have to be revised.

This tone left a deep psychological shadow on her, so that her original affirmative answer began to waver. After a while, she heard her whisper: "Then how many do you want me to answer?"

"I'm not picking on you..." Yuan Jiayi was helpless for a moment, and couldn't help but reflect on whether she was too fierce in her daily life.

"It's like this, I always feel that the number of people we have now is not right." Yuan Jiayi glanced outside the door and lowered her voice, "I just had a vague feeling at first, but I just thought about it carefully, and the more I think about it, the more I feel that there should be more."

"Ah?" Qiu Yufei was surprised, "Who is more?"

"I just can't think of it." Jiayi sighed, "Everyone knows each other. The only thing I am sure of now is that you and Xiao Xu are definitely real."

Qiu Yufei greeted her before leaving work and mentioned that she was going with Xu Ming. She also told her to be careful on the road at that time, and the chat records are still there.

But there is no such clear time stamp for other people.

"Really?" After she mentioned this, Qiu Yufei suddenly felt that something was wrong. It felt like being pointed at by Xu Ming and asked to look at the house number before entering the company. If no one else mentioned it, I would not have thought there was a problem, but once it was pointed out, I felt something was wrong.

"I don't know about others, but Xiao Wang must have left later than me." After thinking for a moment, Qiu Yufei said firmly, "He accidentally threw away the scrapped vouchers from the finance department today, and he was still rummaging through the trash can when I left."

She was also very sure of Yuan Jiayi's identity. She had just sent a manuscript to the other party before leaving work.

The only thing that was vague was the photography department.

What is certain is that there was definitely more than one person left in the photography department at that time.

"That's what I remember too." Jiayi nodded, "It would be nice if there was a schedule. Let's see who's going out to shoot Hongqiang today, and the remaining ones should be the right ones..."

At this point, she suddenly seemed to realize something, and her face changed instantly.

On the other side, Qiu Yufei obviously thought of the same thing.

"Manager, that's not right." She counted on her fingers, "There are four people in our photography department, and two of them go out every time we shoot, which means there's one more now..."

"And the extra one happens to be the one who's supposed to be shooting at Hongqiang?"

She suddenly got goosebumps: "Then what does this mean? Could it be that a colleague had an accident at Hongqiang, and then... dragged us all in?"

Yuan Jiayi: ...

Good question. I want to know, too.

At the same time, in the bathroom.

Xu Ming was sitting on the toilet, digesting the information he had just obtained.

Including but not limited to rule invasion, the definition of "idiot"... all words she had never heard of.

Xu Ming was puzzled. She had only been away from that world for more than four years, so she was so behind the version? What a bunch of nonsense.

While still thinking, she suddenly heard the voice in her mind click her tongue again, and Xu Ming raised her eyes: "What for?"

"It's not clicking on you. It's on you. Someone is lying on the wall of the cubicle watching you." the voice said.

Xu Ming:...?

Voice: "A Piao, the kind with blood stabbing. I guess I saw you staying in the bathroom for too long, so I came to warn you."

Xu Ming:...

"What are you looking at? Haven't you seen paid squatting?" She raised her head and shouted at the air in annoyance, then she lowered her eyes again, and suddenly a light flashed in her mind.

"Wait a minute, you can 'see' weird things." She said in her mind, "What if it's something pretending to be alive? Can you tell it apart?"

Voice: "...Ah?"

"Something like the White Bone Demon." Xu Ming gave an example, "Can you tell it apart?"

According to Yuan Jiayi, there were five of them who entered Hongqiang together, but Xu Ming always felt that the number was wrong. It seemed that there were more than she remembered.

Although it was just a vague feeling, it's always a good idea to be more careful in places like this.

After hearing this, the voice chuckled: "Sorry, it's hard to say."

"Some dead people pretend to be alive. Some dead people don't know they are dead.

"The former may be distinguishable, but for the latter, don't count on me. "

Xu Ming: "..."

"But if you want to figure out this kind of thing, I can give you two extra tips." After a pause, the voice said, "First, dead people lose things very easily."

"Second, things lost by dead people tend to gather together. ”

*

Another three minutes later.

Xu Ming finally left the compartment and returned to the conference room.

Because she was worried that the "little red and little blue" scene that is common in ghost stories would happen, Qiu Yufei also specially agreed on a very difficult code with her. Xu Ming patiently accompanied her to go through the code, and discussed the letter for a while before leaving for the otter's room.

As soon as he entered the room, he was surprised to find that Heizi and Lao Li were still angry.

Heizi is a psychologically big man from Northeast China. He is not tall, but he is never afraid of things and is straightforward and generous. Lao Li is a little fat and wears glasses. He is the kind of person who looks very kind.

That's why people are surprised that two people with such personalities can quarrel until now.

"...It is said that they just had a conflict and brought up old accounts. "Xiao Wang secretly explained to the three of them, "In the archives room, they offended someone for some reason, and something went wrong in the room. Lao Li ran out alone, locked Hei Zi in the room, and almost didn't get out."

"I said I didn't close the door." Lao Li turned his head helplessly, "It closed by itself."

"Did it close or did you block it? Did you think I didn't see the chair at the door?" Hei Zi got angry again when he said this, "Also, do you dare to say that it was not you who instigated Otter to make the PPT? Before you found the "Rules", you still wanted to persuade me to take off my work badge, saying that maybe I could get out this way... Interesting, if you think you can get out, why don't you try it yourself? !"

"I've said it before, I was the one who brought the chair to smash the door, and you just happened to rush out from inside. The method that Otter came up with was his idea, and it was unanimously approved by everyone, so how did it become my instigation?" Old Li pushed his glasses, his face flushed, "And about taking off the work badge, I just had an idea at the time, it wasn't directed at you...but why do you keep targeting me?"

Hei Zai raised his eyebrows when he heard this, and was about to get angry again. Xu Ming took out his mobile phone and checked the time, and couldn't help but raise his hand to interrupt.

"I'm sorry, but can the blame game be put off until the post-match session? If we keep arguing, Ah Piao will come over to watch the show."

She said, holding up the letter full of blue words, "and can we discuss business first?"

"Please, we're in a hurry."

The others: "..."

In a blink of an eye, another ten minutes passed.

"To be honest, when I heard you say 'time is very tight', I agreed with you. After all, staying in this kind of place for one more second is torture. Instead of arguing, it is better to think about how to get out."

Outside Hongqiang Company, in the dark corridor.

Lao Li's flashlight was shaking, and his voice was also a little shaky: "But aren't you in too much of a hurry?!"

It took three minutes to synchronize the current information, two minutes to inform him that he planned to go to the fifth floor to check out the place during lunch break, one minute to refute all opposing opinions, and two minutes to select teammates to go downstairs with him.

By the time Lao Li reacted, everyone had already followed Xu Ming out of the company.

"There's nothing we can do. We've already said we need to hurry up." Xu Ming said in a light tone, "According to the current intelligence, we can only use the two hours of lunch break, and when we gather together, it's already 12:05. By the time we finish the discussion, lunch break will be over."

...That's right.

"Actually, I'm more curious about your selection." Yuan Jiayi said softly, subconsciously glancing at Lao Li in front of her, "To be honest, I didn't expect this configuration."

She and Qiu Yufei saw the letter earlier than others, and were the first to know that Xu Ming was going to use lunch break to go to the fifth floor. So she naturally thought that Xu Ming would find her and Qiu Yufei together, and in this way, she could save the time of explaining to others; who would have thought that Xu Ming would eventually find her and Lao Li.

Xu Ming's reasons were very sufficient:

"Yufei must stay upstairs. She and I are most familiar with each other. If there is any secret code left, she is the one most likely to guess it. The otter has not recovered his strength yet and can't run. Xiao Wang is unreliable. As for Hei Zai... I don't know why, I don't like him very much."

She glanced at the two people next to her: "In fact, the fifth floor may not be safer than the company. The reason why I want to find more people is that if something happens, at least one or two people can go back to report.

"So thank you for being willing to accompany me out."

"Look at what you said, what do you mean by accompanying you." Yuan Jiayi shook her head, "We are all trapped here, who can survive on his own? I am responsible for my own life, not yours, don't think too much."

"That's right." Lao Li nodded, "This is not just your business. As long as I can get out, I'm willing to do anything. "

Okay, then the false social courtesies end here." Xu Ming shrugged, lifted his handbag onto his shoulder, and suddenly stopped.

The bleak flashlight just illuminated a half-open door.

The door leading to the escape corridor.

*

There were no lights in the escape corridor.

Therefore, after finding the stairs, the three of them could only use their mobile phones as lighting and carefully went down the stairs.

Because they walked too slowly and the illuminated area was limited, the stairs, which were obviously not long, gave people a feeling of endlessness.

"Remember, count the stairs after reaching the sixth floor." Yuan Jiayi reminded in a low voice.

"I know. We're only on the eighth floor now. "Xu Ming led her down a few steps, and finally stepped on the flat ground again - this was the corridor between the ninth and eighth floors. There was

a piece of paper on the wall of the corridor. The three of them went up to take a look, and saw neatly printed words on it, and as if afraid that they couldn’t see clearly, it was written in bold capitals:

[Please note that you are now on the eighth floor.

[At the request of the property owner, the area below the fifth floor of this corridor is temporarily closed and not accessible. If you need to go downstairs, please take the elevator.]

Yuan Jiayi: ...

Yuan Jiayi: "There is an elevator in this damn place?"

Xu Ming: "It’s nonsense. If the elevator was available, we would have left long ago. "

After saying this, he continued to walk down. When he reached the corridor on the seventh floor, there was another notice on the wall.

This time, the red font was no longer printed, but pure handwriting. It seemed to be written in a hurry, and the handwriting was a bit messy - and what was even more messy was the content on it:

[If you can see this paper, it means that there is still a chance

[Don't hesitate, turn around and walk back!

[The blue one is a lie, you have been deceived, don't go forward!

[If you were brought here by someone, get rid of him quickly, no matter what he says, don't listen!

[Calm down and think carefully, is he really the person you know?]

"..." Feeling the obvious hesitation in the steps of the two people next to him, Xu Ming simply stopped and turned to look at them.

"What, do you want to continue forward?

"If you can't make up your mind, you can wait here."

There was another moment of silence. What surprised her was that the first one to make up his mind was Lao Li.

"Keep going forward." He pushed his glasses with his sweaty hands, "I still say the same thing, I'm willing to do anything to get out."

"..." Yuan Jiayi's eyes moved back and forth among them, and finally gritted her teeth and nodded.

So the three of them continued to go down.

When they reached the sixth floor, Xu Ming habitually scanned the wall first, and didn't see any notice. For a moment, he was a little disappointed.

However, as the flashlight turned, she soon realized that she had lost herself too early.

There was no paper on the wall, but there were many words on it.

The red words were large and messy, full of exclamation marks, scattered across the wall and the floor, like a hoarse scream forced into the corridor.

[Go back! Go back quickly!]

[Get out of here!]

[Those who move forward will die!]

[Don't move forward, run!]

[Run away, you've been tricked!]

Not only that,

there was even a cordon at the staircase leading from the sixth floor to the fifth floor. In front of the cordon, there was a sign that was as tall as a person.

The sign was a very cute cartoon image, a smiling bear holding a dialogue box. However, the words written in the dialogue box were cold in every stroke:

[Warning! The road ahead is closed for some reason, please do not move forward]

[If you continue to move forward, it will be regarded as you voluntarily giving up our protection for you, and we will no longer be responsible for your life. 】

…

"What is this, a disclaimer?" Yuan Jiayi couldn't help but whisper, "What does it mean?"

Intellectually, she knew that Hongqiang was not a kind place, but the various expressions she saw along the way made it difficult for her not to doubt whether she had misjudged something before -

Xu Ming's understanding of this was very simple and rough.

"It means that it is anxious."

She said, turning her phone and carefully lifting her legs.

She walked straight over the cordon in front of her.