Chapter 16

When Xu Ming opened her eyes again, it was already twelve o'clock in the evening.

She was lying in the parking garage downstairs of the company building, right next to the elevator door. Qiu Yufei lay beside her, squinting at the flashlight of the night security guard.

"Hey, hey! Little girl! Are you still awake?" The voice of the security guard came over, vague at first, but soon became clear, "Hey, what's the matter... Are you okay? Do you want me to call an ambulance?" "

..."

Xu Ming heard the word "ambulance" and finally woke up completely. He waved his hands and sat up. As soon as he moved, he felt dizzy and his chest was so sore that he wanted to vomit. Qiu Yufei was in a better condition than her, and quickly reached out to help her steady herself, saying that the two of them had drunk too much during their midnight snack. After much persuasion, she finally persuaded the enthusiastic security guard to leave. As

she watched him leave, the expression on Qiu Yufei's face instantly fell.

"Oh my..." She looked back at the elevator behind her, her face still a little dazed, "Teacher Mingming, you may not believe it, but I just had a terrible nightmare..." "

Dream of your master. Help me up." Xu Ming frowned uncomfortably, "The speed of time in the strange legend area is different from that in reality. Now go back and lie down, you can still sleep for a few more hours."

"... Damn, so it really wasn't a dream." Qiu Yufei's face changed again, then she looked down in front of her, with a strange look on her face again, "Where is my work ID? Can't I take the things inside out?"

"In theory, that's the case." Xu Ming responded casually, and also looked at his empty hands, frowning slightly.

Not only their work badges, but also the computer she had been holding in her arms was gone. The Rule Book No. 9 was still there, back in her bag.

Xu Ming knew that the common objects in the ghost story area could not be brought into reality - but what about the computer?

Xu Ming also wanted to think, but his head hurt too much. Qiu Yufei tried to touch her forehead, and she screamed in fear. She quickly helped her out of the underground garage, took out her cell phone, and started to call a taxi.

"Hey." Just as she helped him to the sidewalk, Xu Ming finally couldn't help but speak, pointing at his bag, "Qiu Yufei, look, what color is this bag? Is it clean?" "

?" Qiu Yufei looked at her in confusion, then glanced at her bag and said quickly, "It's white, very clean, what's wrong?"

"..." Xu Ming didn't say anything else, just lowered his eyes, thinking.

In her field of vision, the white bag that Qiu Yufei called "very clean" was now stained with a large area of ​​blood, dark and thick, with a fishy smell, and it was still dripping down.

Then he scanned the surroundings -

in the bus stop not far away, there stood a girl in a white dress, her neck twisted at a weird angle, her head rolling down from time to time, and then being slowly pulled back by her; in the middle of the road farther away, a child of eight or nine years old was standing numbly and stiffly in the middle of the road, a speeding electric car passed through his translucent body, but he seemed to feel nothing, only when the traffic light changed, he would turn his head violently like a frightened bird.

"..."

Xu Ming silently withdrew his gaze and closed his eyes helplessly.

Good news, they should have really escaped from Hongqiang.

Bad news, her eyes that could see ghosts seemed to be back again.

The kind without the idiot filter.

Just at this moment, Qiu Yufei's cell phone suddenly rang. She hurriedly looked down at the message and patted Xu Ming.

"It's Sister Jiayi! She created a group and is asking about our situation." Qiu Yufei said, "She asked about you in particular, saying that you didn't reply to the message she sent you and the phone couldn't be reached."

"..." Xu Ming then realized that his cell phone, took it out and saw that, as expected, it couldn't even be turned on. It was broken.

"Oh no, I can't pay for the car later... I'll put it on your account first." Xu Ming sighed tiredly. Just at this moment, the car Qiu Yufei called came over. She staggered into the back seat and spoke with difficulty: "Master, please add an address. 27 Green Bamboo Garden, North Bay Avenue... Um!"

Before she finished speaking, her head was throbbing again, and her temples were throbbing as if they were about to explode. Qiu Yufei quickly pressed her against the back of the chair: "Okay, okay, who dares to let you go home alone like this? Come to my house first tonight."

Xu Ming wanted to refuse, but it was really uncomfortable. After thinking about it, she nodded. The car started quickly. She leaned against the back of the chair in a daze, feeling that her consciousness was sinking, but she heard Qiu Yufei, who was browsing her phone next to her, suddenly exclaimed "Ah".

"Teacher Mingming!"

At the last moment before she fell into a coma, she heard Qiu Yufei's surprised whisper:

"Sister Jiayi found out -

"Old Li, something really happened!"

*

Old Li died.

A very helpless and sad thing. But for those of them who had just escaped from Hongqiang, it didn't seem to be anything worth being surprised about. What

really surprised Qiu Yufei was the cause of Old Li's death.

... He died in his own home.

"It is said that he suddenly felt unwell when he went to the filming location in the afternoon, so Brother Wang, the team leader, asked him to go back first. As a result, he died suddenly in his own home. "

Two hours later, in the small house rented by Qiu Yufei.

Qiu Yufei was lying on her back on the bed, her hands still constantly swiping her phone. Next to her was Xu Ming, who finally felt a little energetic after sleeping for two hours.

The latter was using Qiu Yufei's laptop to choose a new phone. Hearing this, he frowned and said, "In other words, he didn't participate in the filming of Hongqiang Ghost Story at all?"

"Not only that." Qiu Yufei sat up suddenly, "and guess what?"

"Sister Jiayi has already made it clear. She said that the abandoned building our company was going to shoot was not Hongqiang's building at all - it was just an ordinary dangerous building to be demolished. Someone on the Internet took its photo and forcibly linked it to Hongqiang! "

Xu Ming: "..."

That is to say, Lao Li's death and their company have nothing to do with the real Hongqiang.

They don't even have unilateral business dealings. Their death is just a relationship of getting attention, or an unsuccessful attempt.

"Don't you think it's strange?" Qiu Yufei sat cross-legged on the bed in her pajamas, looking puzzled, "Then why did we go in? Especially Lao Li, his death doesn't seem to have anything to do with Hongqiang?"

Xu Ming: "...Is it possible that we violated its copyright?"

Qiu Yufei: "So it sent the police all the way?"

What is this, the Disney of the ghost story world?

"..."

Xu Ming just said this nonsense. To be honest, she has been wondering about this for a long time.

- After all, in her impression, no matter what the connection is, normal people should not enter the ghost story area.

Normal humans have their own protection.

"Normal" and "abnormal", "order" and "disorder", "rationality" and "madness", in her memory, are all clearly defined. Order and rationality are the natural and most powerful protective layers of the human group. Normal people are naturally separated from the so-called "supernatural". This is the normal state of the world.

To put it bluntly, her so-called "psychic physique" is actually a congenital deficiency, a defect. She could not obtain that kind of natural and powerful protection, so she became a frequent visitor to this strange story area.

At least that's what the aunt who raised her said. And before today, Xu Ming had indeed never seen any normal person who could enter the strange story area like her - God knows, even when she was walking hand in hand with other children, or being carried to the infirmary by the teacher, she could still be hit accurately, and she had never dragged anyone into the water.

So, today when she just realized that something was wrong, she was quite confused.

After meeting Yuan Jiayi and the others, that confusion turned into a deeper panic.

- She couldn't explain why she was panicking, she just felt a little uneasy instinctively. Although there is no clearer evidence, she can feel that in the four years since she was separated from "that side", the rules of operation of this world seem to have changed.

A change that she has not yet understood and is not very good.

Thinking of this, Xu Ming's heart sank again. After a moment of hesitation, she tentatively spoke in her consciousness:

"Hey. Are you still there?

"Do you have any idea about how we can get into Hongqiang?"

... There was

silence in her mind.

Xu Ming did not get any response.

Frowning slightly, she looked at the blood-soaked bag next to her again. After a little hesitation, she gave up the idea of ​​asking questions on the spot.

"The phone has been picked out. "She yawned and handed the laptop to Qiu Yufei next to her, "I can't scan the code to log in, you pay for me first. I'll transfer the money to you tomorrow."

"Oh, no need to give it! This is a gift from me. After all, I owe you so much this time... Mingming? Teacher Mingming?"

Before she finished speaking, she saw that the person next to her had already lay down. Qiu Yufei was stunned for a moment, and quickly poked her, but the only answer she received was Xu Ming's even and long breathing.

It took less than three seconds for him to close his eyes, and he fell asleep again.

Qiu Yufei: "..."

"Is this okay..." She muttered, and tentatively touched Xu Ming's forehead, pressed the quilt for her with her backhand, turned around and neatly handled the payment for Xu Ming, and then lay down and fell asleep.

*

Same time.

In the apartment building of 274 Green Bamboo Garden on North Bay Boulevard, at the door of room 1603.

A tall figure was standing quietly with his back against the wall, holding a large travel bag.

Occasionally, someone who had just finished overtime or a night out would pass by and hurried past him. He would always raise his head slightly when he heard footsteps, to confirm that it was not the person he was waiting for. Then, the puppy quickly lowered its head and hid its body a little in the wall behind it.

In the end, almost half of its body was sunk into the wall, and the whole person seemed to be stuck to the wall by cement.

The bulging travel bag suddenly squirmed. The plush head of the puppy arched out of the bag again, sniffing everywhere. The man carefully pressed it inside, and the voice was still very soft:

"Don't worry, wait a little longer.

"She should be back soon. You can see her soon."

The puppy, who had been fooled by the same rhetoric several times, was obviously not very happy this time, and the whimpering became louder. Until it was tired of whimpering, it bit the man's finger as if to vent its anger, and crawled back angrily.

The young man was the only one left, still standing there silently, waiting patiently.

More than three hours later, the first rays of sunlight shone from behind the clouds, and the sound of human activity was gradually heard in the building.

With an almost undetectable sigh, the man's figure disappeared like a bubble.

*

The other side. In Qiu Yufei's rented house.

After sleeping for eight hours, Xu Ming lazily opened his eyes at ten o'clock in the morning, packed up his things, and prepared to go home.

Qiu Yufei got up at about the same time as her. After experiencing the thrilling experience last night, the two agreed that the work was shit, so they both asked for personal leave, and let the boss tag them crazily in the group, just pretending not to see it.

Xu Ming's fever had almost subsided, and his headache was much better. After eating something, he borrowed a transportation card from Qiu Yufei and went home. The moment he opened the door, he felt as if he was in another world.

He fell on the bed, still feeling his temples throbbing. Xu Ming lowered his eyes and thought for a moment, and finally opened the blood-stained bag again and took out the book from it.

Rule Book No. 9. The cover was still clean. Xu Ming checked it over and over again, and finally confirmed one thing -

the red liquid did not come from this book.

That was strange. Where did it come from?

Xu Ming searched the bag again, still had no clue. There happened to be no one else around at the moment, so she just asked directly:

"I say, you have been in the bag the whole time, right? Did you see where the blood came from?"

While speaking, she reached out and poked the notebook in front of her.

However, after waiting for a while, there was still no response.

The notebook in front of her was motionless, like a completely dead object.

Xu Ming: "..."

After a moment of silence, she decisively stood up with the notebook in her hand, turned on the gas stove, and put the notebook directly on it.

"...Hey, hey! What are you doing! If you didn't say anything, then of course you didn't see it!"

The notebook, which had been motionless just now, suddenly began to shake violently - to be precise, only the front and back covers were moving, and a crack suddenly appeared on the wax cover, which opened and closed quickly, revealing the fine teeth inside.

"Take it away! Take it away! What a grudge - please understand, this is your rule book!"

"I didn't ask for it myself." Xu Ming said coldly, turned off the gas stove neatly, and threw the notebook on the table.

"Why did you pretend to be dead before?"

"What do you mean by pretending to be dead? I was afraid of scaring you..." The crack with teeth muttered, as if to prove his words, and deliberately opened the crack a little wider.

"Look, look at this! You decide if it's scary or not! I was thinking about you, but you turned around and put me on the fire..."

Xu Ming: "..."

To be honest, it's not scary enough, but it's a bit disgusting.

Especially the wax cover - I don't know if it's because it has just been exposed to high temperatures, but it obviously has a melting feeling now. Now the whole cover is moving like the axe feet of a mollusk, which makes people feel goosebumps.

"No." Xu Ming couldn't help but said, "Can't you close your mouth when you talk?"

Cover: "......?"

Do you want to listen to what you are saying? ?

"I mean, didn't you rely on this before?" Xu Ming pointed to his head, "Why, you can't do it now?"

"Of course not." Fengpi grinned, "There is no direct connection between you and me. The reason why I could communicate with your consciousness before was because you have a spiritual connection with this rule book, and I happened to be tied to this rule book-

"And the rule book will only wake up in the monster story area. It's resting now, and the connection with you is not activated. Of course, I can't communicate with you through my mind anymore."

Xu Ming: "..."

"Understood." She nodded slowly, "You actually gave it to me as a gift. "

A gift of a gift.

Cover: ... Can this kid talk!

"That is to say, you are actually the outer layer..." Xu Ming tilted his head to observe again, pursed his lips thoughtfully, "Then may I ask, can you, um..."

The cover said "Oh" in understanding, and the wax object covering the surface of the rule book suddenly began to wriggle violently, rushing outward like a tide, and in a blink of an eye it was completely peeled off from the rule book, and gathered into a brown ball again, carefully nestling on the corner of the table.

Only a few thin red lines remained, connecting it to the rule book, and they continued to extend with its movements, as if they could extend infinitely.

...Is this what it calls "binding"?

Xu Ming narrowed his eyes slightly, and then clapped his hands.

"Thank you for your cooperation. "She nodded at the brown ball," So, what should we call each other?"

Since it has been confirmed that the other party and the rule book are two independent entities, it is better to have a special name.

The brown wax creature did not seem to expect her to ask this. It paused for a few seconds before speaking again: "Name... I don't have a special one, but I have given myself one, called Haitang."

Xu Ming:...

ah?

"There is also an English name." The brown wax creature continued, "called Po."

Xu Ming:...

ah??

"Or you can just call me by my true nature." It shook its irregular body, "Bubble Man."

Xu Ming:...

"Man?" She couldn't help but let out a hint of doubt in her tone.

"What's the tone of your voice? I'm just trying to save trouble, okay? "The brown wax creature seemed unhappy," As long as I want, I can make any shape, okay?"

"No matter what skin color, no matter what race, no matter what gender... Koukou and Koukou can be made as big as they want; Koukou can be made however you want, and can even be molded together with Koukou... Even if you want beast ears, that's--" "

Okay, okay, I get it! No need to introduce, you don't need to introduce!" Seeing that the topic was about to slide to more and more strange places, Xu Ming had to stop it quickly-

thanks to Qiu Yufei's influence, she now understood why the other party named herself Haitang.

By the way, will this kind of thing really not be swept away?

Xu Ming asked sincerely, closed his eyes, and his gaze finally fell on the rule book next to him.

——After peeling off the heavy wax cover, the book finally revealed its true appearance to her.

The real cover was surprisingly plain. The background was light blue and the material was very soft. The back cover even had the manufacturer and a barcode printed on it. From the outside, it was just an ordinary softcover copybook.

But that was not the point. The point was that there was a word clearly written in the lower right corner of the cover:

[Ming]

It was written in black fountain pen, and the handwriting was a bit careless. But Xu Ming recognized it at a glance. It was her own handwriting.

She taught herself to paint in college, and she started by learning hand painting. It was also at that time that she gave herself the pen name "Xu Ming". During that time, she would sign the word "Ming" under each of her practice paintings in a very childish way - she would not make a mistake.

...So what is the situation with this book?

There were more and more question marks in her mind, so many that Xu Ming felt that her head was about to start to hurt again.

Knowing that it was useless to think about it at this time, she took a deep breath and finally took the book in her hand again.

Then she gently opened it.

I don’t know if it’s because she has left the weird talk area, but now it’s very easy to turn the pages without any obstacles.

The first few pages are all It was her random scribbles from the past two days, some of which were perfunctory notes from meetings, and some were doodles from work. It was not until she turned to a dozen pages that Xu Ming finally saw something different.

She saw three boxes.

The boxes were particularly neatly arranged vertically on a piece of paper, with several large blank spaces between them. There were question marks in the first two boxes, but only in the third box were there four neatly handwritten words:

[Paper Robe Authority]

There was another line of small characters below, also in a delicate handwriting, like a comment on these four words -

[When they think you are wearing a royal robe, your nonsense can become the truth; when they see through that you are only wearing a paper robe, no one will listen to you even if you scream]

Xu Ming:...

How should I put it, I understand it, but not completely.

Fortunately, further down, there are more detailed, large texts that are like game instructions:

[Paper robe authority: When a certain existence is widely recognized, it can be regarded as authority. When you have enough [authority], you can use it as a basis to modify the rules of the current strange story area; or establish your own rules.

[Authority basis is divided into three levels, and different levels can achieve different effects:

[Level 1 rule basis: With this type of basis, you can become a powerful person in any strange story area. You can modify the core rules in the strange story area. For those who also believe in the existence of this basis, your rules will naturally have the effect of core rules. 】

【Second-level rule basis: This level of basis can help you modify non-core rules in the current strange story area, or establish some marginal rules. But please note that when you use this level of basis, you will randomly pay a certain degree of cost.

【When a concept is collectively recognized by a certain group in the current strange story area, it can be determined as a second-level rule basis. Widely known common sense, whether right or wrong, can be directly listed as a second-level rule basis. 】

【Third-level rule basis: The lowest level basis. It has no effect of modifying or establishing any rules. However, you can still exert a certain mental influence on those who believe in this basis, and the non-rule information created based on this basis cannot be modified, distorted, or erased by any existence.

[When you are in a strange story area, you can try to establish a new third-level basis. If two or more people believe in this basis when you leave the strange story area, it will be considered a success. You will be able to continue to use or upgrade this basis in other strange story areas. ]

[Please note! Please do not forcefully modify any rules without any basis! This may cost you a heavy price! ]

... Maybe?

In other words, not necessarily?

Raising her eyebrows slightly, she turned the page again and finally came to the line of words she had glimpsed in the elevator before:

[Established: Level 3 rules based on: [Ghost Story Demolition Office]]

Below that, there was a large blank space.

Xu Ming was silent for a moment, then turned the page back, scanning it over and over again, his expression becoming more and more subtle.

...Can you tell? Even if it was changed to the game manual, she still didn't understand it very well.

However, combined with the information revealed by some whale fat man to Hongqiang before, she finally understood the general situation a little bit -

the guy once said that this rule book was numbered nine, which means that when it was first created, three "roots" were used.

These three roots are likely to correspond to three skills, which are the three boxes at the front. It's just that now, she has just unlocked one of them, which is the rather difficult to pronounce "paper robe authority".

Xu Ming's current understanding of this skill is to use chicken feathers as a flag, and to raise a big flag to cover up a tiger. Bring out a specious reason, or a misleading concept, and then use it to influence the existing rules in the strange story area.

For example, the two times before in Hongqiang -

the first time, the common sense of "force is mutual" was used, and the rule of "people can hit spirits" was established, and the cost was the rapid loss of physical strength.

The second time, the common cognition of workers of "how much money you give to do how much work" was used to weaken the impact of the original rules on others, and the price paid was a violent cough... Well, rounding it up is healthy.

"Wait." Xu Ming suddenly reacted, "Just weakening the impact, does this also require a price?"

The whale fat man who was trying to rub himself into a perfect ball said "Ah", and after learning Xu Ming's doubts, he was silent for a while.

"It must be more than weakened." It said, "There must be some changes."

For example, the rule "employees must be loyal to the company", although it is mainly based on mental pressure, it still has a certain compulsory binding force, but it is weak and not obvious - generally speaking, the binding force of this rule will only be triggered when employees perform certain operations that touch the bottom line. However,

the fact is that Xu Ming and his friends later even did such outrageous operations as stealing computers and printing other people's work badges, but this rule never showed the binding force it should have.

The only possibility is that it was killed when Xu Ming passionately promoted the consciousness of "working for money, refusing overtime, and refusing workplace pua".

"..." Xu Ming was silent again. Speaking of this, Qiu Yufei did mention that those unreasonable rules in the "Employee Code" suddenly faded away somehow...

She thought about it carefully, and suddenly felt a little scared: "What if this rule is not changed? What will happen?"

"How do I know, I'm not Hongqiang." The whale man said faintly, "But I have seen similar cases."

I don't know what he thought of, and he suddenly laughed, and his voice was sharp and sharp:

"It was about two years ago, in another area of ​​ghost stories, a group of unfortunate losers who were involved finally found a way to escape. But because of the constraints of similar rules, no one dared to do it at the last step. In the end, they were exhausted and taken back without any sobriety left." As

it spoke, it giggled again, as if it found this matter extremely interesting. Unexpectedly, after laughing for a while, a coaster suddenly flew over from the side and almost knocked it off the corner of the table.

"Hey!" It stabilized its body with difficulty and spoke unhappily, "Talk nicely, why do you suddenly hit me?"

"I'm not happy with you, okay?" Xu Ming retorted unhappily, stared at it for a while, and suddenly frowned again.

"I say..." She spoke again, her voice becoming serious, "What on earth are you?"

Although it had not shown any threat so far, and had cooperated during the escape, Xu Ming still remembered its two giggles when she and Qiu Yufei first encountered a ghost, and she had never let down her guard.

And now, hearing its undisguised schadenfreude, she was more certain of her guess -

the thing in front of her was definitely not a good person.

To paraphrase a plot from a novel she had read, maybe it was tied to this rule book because it was too dangerous...

Thinking of this, Xu Ming's eyes became more solemn. On the other side, the brown wax object let out a low "eh".

"Interesting, I thought you weren't going to ask." Its tone was very calm, "Of course, it's not a big deal."

"It's just a mutated root."

Xu Ming: "......?"

"To put it bluntly, you can also understand it as a prop that has become a spirit or something." The wax creature muttered, and suddenly cracked the cracks on its body, as if revealing an exaggerated smile.

"Remember what I told you? The root is a naturally formed energy host that only appears with the dead... But you also know that the dead will lose things.

"Those memories and emotions from life will gradually disappear... When these are completely lost, and there is no new will to support its behavior, what else can it do? What capital does it have to use its own roots again?

"So at this time, some roots will devour their holders in reverse - and once the devouring is successful, they will have stronger activity and even an independent personality..."

The brown wax object said softly, and suddenly leaned back and fell off the table. The next moment, a large amount of brown wax was pulled up on the spot, squirming, spinning, and shaping rapidly in the air -

until finally, it condensed into a graceful body.

The skin was white, the figure was well-proportioned, with short black hair, and a face that was beautiful and charming and androgynous.

"... and a brand new body."

He raised the corners of his lips slightly, and then slowly finished the second half of the sentence, and then turned around in a circle on the spot as if showing off.

"See, I told you, I can sculpt any look. How about it, does it look good?"

Xu Ming: "..."

She looked down slightly, and quickly raised it again, secretly thanking luckily that there was at least a table in front of this guy.

After all, she really didn't want to know whether it looked like 口口, 口口, or 口口 and 口口...

"I see, to put it bluntly, it's a vegetable." She summarized the concept of alien roots based on her exquisite understanding, and raised her finger, "And, change back."

The blubber man widened his eyes: "Why, doesn't it look good..."

Xu Ming: "Change back."

The blubber man: "Even this one is not okay? Or do you prefer orcs or mermaids..."

Xu Ming: "...Change back! Otherwise I'll turn on the air conditioner!"

"..." Rolling his eyes unhappily, the blubber man finally became shorter. After a while, the brown potato-like ball was seen crawling back to the table with a grunt.

Xu Ming breathed a sigh of relief and asked curiously, "So why are you tied to this rule book?"

"How should I know? I was caught by humans before, and this happened when I woke up." The whale man said boredly, "I was scared to death at that time, and I thought I was going to be fed. I didn't expect that when I woke up, nothing happened. I was just fixed to this rule book..."

At this point, it seemed to realize something and suddenly stopped talking.

At the same time, Xu Ming also reacted and slapped the table:

"In other words, the mutant roots can also be used to feed the rule book?"

"..."

The whale man didn't dare to say anything.

After being stiff for a moment, a row of legs suddenly grew out from his potato-like body. He spread his hooves and ran wildly, rolling and crawling off the table, and crawling under the bed without looking back.

Xu Ming: "..."

No, who of us is the non-human.

But the reaction of this thing reminded her of another thing.

...Where is the computer she brought back?

Such a big computer? And it is connected to a printer? It can't be gone just like that.

Looking at the notebook in his hand again, Xu Ming seemed to have thought of something, and turned a few pages to the back. Finally, on one of the pages, he found some traces -

on the page, there was a computer and a printer. Below are a few lines of text description.

[A gift from a consulting company, a device that can print work badges at will. Wearing the work badge will have a certain binding relationship with the rule book, and the binding relationship can be upgraded as the relevant rule book is strengthened. After taking off the work badge, the relationship is terminated.

[The information on the work badge does not need to be true, and can become true under certain conditions. Information that is considered [true] will automatically affect the wearer's cognition to a certain extent. After taking off the work badge, the influence disappears.

[Please remember: only those with complete information can be called work badges. If you do not obtain the other party's consent before issuing the work badge, please at least ensure that there is a name on the work badge that is recognized by the other party. ]

Xu Ming: "..."

Although, how to print it?

This question only stayed in her mind for a short moment, and soon, Xu Ming noticed two other words in this sentence.

"Strengthen" and "upgrade".

The rulebook can be strengthened, and after strengthening, the skills it carries can also be upgraded. It is a very straightforward reward mechanism, just like playing a game.

But how to strengthen? The "roots" that are fed are added to the rulebook in the form of skills. Is this considered a kind of strengthening?

If so... does the person who cheated Sister Yun of her Xizhixin have a rulebook?

Could it be that she entered Hongqiang just to cheat Sister Yun of the "root" in her hand, and then conquered Sister Yun in a few words, just like conquering a prop NPC in a game?

Xu Ming's heart suddenly sank. She turned the book in front of her back to the previous few pages, looking at the three boxes arranged vertically, and the corners of her lips tightened unconsciously.

Three boxes, three skills, three "roots".

Where did these roots come from?

Her previous thoughts had always been about how this thing related to her, what effects it could bring, and what abilities it could give her. But it was not until this moment that she belatedly realized a more important question.

...Should she really touch this thing?

Xu Ming's breathing stagnated slightly, and her head began to ache again. After a moment, as if she had finally made up her mind, she slowly closed the notebook in her hand - just at this moment, she heard a few "bangs" from outside the door.

Xu Ming was startled and almost dropped the thing in her hand. Her first reaction was that the mobile phone she ordered last night had arrived. She hurriedly stuffed the notebook in her hand into the drawer, turned around and walked to the door. She glanced at the cat's eyes, but immediately realized something was wrong.

The person outside the door was not a courier, but a girl in a small suit.

She looked older than himself, with decent makeup and pretty face. She was holding a folder in her hands, as if she was here to do some investigation.

...Is she selling insurance? Or is she door-to-door selling credit cards?

I don't want to bother with her. I'd better pretend not to be home.

Xu Ming thought silently and tiptoed back. At this moment, the girl outside the door seemed to have noticed something, and she suddenly raised her head, looking straight at Cat's Eyes. Then she cleared her throat and said hurriedly:

"Ms. Gu Ming, right? Could you please open the door? I know you are home.

" "Please don't be afraid, I'm here to help you. I know that you just went through some terrible things not long ago. If it's convenient, I'd like to talk to you. "

Xu Ming: "..."

"Sorry, it's not very convenient." She rubbed her temples that began to ache again, thought for a while, and said directly, "I don't really want to talk now, please go back."

"Ah..."

The girl outside the door seemed to have not expected that she would refuse so bluntly, and was obviously stunned for a moment.

"Are you sure? You don't have to be too defensive, I really am here to help you, you don't have to be too hard..."

"No hard." Xu Ming held his forehead and said seriously, "Thank you for your kindness, I appreciate it, please go back."

The girl outside the door: "..."

She scratched her cheeks in annoyance, and scratched her hair, as if she didn't know what to do for a moment. After a while, she heard her say again:

"Okay, then I won't bother you for now. I'll leave you a business card. If you need anything, just give me a call or add me on WeChat. Then, uh..."

She flipped through the folder in her hand and took a look, then spoke unprofessionally: "If you have nightmares or hallucinations recently, please contact me. Well, that's it for now."

She took out a business card and raised her hand to insert it into the crack of the door. Unexpectedly, as soon as she moved, the door in front of her suddenly pushed outwards -

she leaned back in fright, and the next second, she saw Xu Ming's face peeking out from behind the door.

"Sorry." Xu Ming said softly, his eyes swept over, "Business card, can you show it to me?"

"..." The girl was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly handed over the business card. Xu Ming lowered his eyes, stared at the leaf mark on it for a while, and his brows moved slightly.

"Sorry for the offense. "She said, stepping in and making way for me," Please come in. "