Chapter 169

Comrade Xiaoshan joined the Demolition Office three months ago, which was about the time when Xu Ming officially started to knock on doors.

Gu Yunshu once said that he met an amnesiac mutant in a haunted building, and later when he was on a business trip, he deliberately took a detour to pick him up, referring to him.

At that time, he was not called Xiaoshan. Because of amnesia, he did not remember his original name, and only had a Demolition Office work badge on his chest with "Meili" written on it.

When the two met formally, Xu Ming looked at the name and was silent for a long time.

Of course, it does not mean that someone cannot be called Meili if they are not good-looking, but it always feels a bit strange to call him that... and the other party does not seem to be familiar with this name.

The handwriting on the work badge is still very delicate, and it is obviously not written by him. Xu Ming had reason to suspect that the ID card was not originally his. He must have picked it up through some means and put it on, and because of amnesia, he made a mistake.

But he couldn't just chase people away when they came, and the other party had nowhere to go now. So he discussed it with "Meili" and told it his speculation seriously. After reaching a consensus, he issued it another ID card and changed its name to Xiaoshan according to its wishes.

Of course, Xu Ming didn't know at this time that the problem with the other party was far more than just the name.

——The first time he realized this was because of the appearance of the cat.

Because a lot of things have accumulated in the eye hospital, as the domain master, he was forced to stay in his own strange talk for a while. As soon as the work was done, it could not wait to run to Xu Ming's side. When it came, Landor happened to be away. It raised its tail and wanted to approach and act coquettishly - but as soon as its front paw touched Xu Ming's calf, its back paw saw Xiaoshan walking in from outside with vigor.

...So the cat got furious on the spot.

While getting furious, it ran over Xu Ming, almost grabbing his clothes. After being hugged by Xu Ming for a long time, it finally calmed down a little and began to pull Xu Ming's hand.

"Are you raising that thing just now?" It looked over with a crocodile face, with an expression of surprise and seriousness.

Xu Ming was puzzled and nodded. Then the cat gasped without concealment.

"So that's how it is. I understand." It said with deep emotion and a tone full of admiration, "You are so brave."

Xu Ming: "..." Huh?

He felt something was wrong, but unfortunately he didn't find a chance to ask in detail - the cat said this and ran back to her own strange story with its tail wagging. She had a lot of things to do and had no time to ask.

The second time he realized this was less than two days later, when Teacher Jing came to visit:

just like before, the two decided to meet in Guo Shuyi's strange story. The two were sitting in the coffee shop chatting, and suddenly they caught a glimpse of a huge figure passing by quickly outside.

Xu Ming turned his head and saw Xiaoshan's figure running away. It was probably playing with Xiao Xiao Guo and the others. Its bloated body trembled as it ran and jumped, like a ball of happy jelly.

Xu Ming withdrew his gaze with some amusement, and then he noticed that Teacher Jing was also looking outside, with an expression of obvious surprise. He asked in confusion, but the other party looked at him meaningfully.

"Is it your employee now?" Teacher Jing asked in a confirming tone.

Xu Ming nodded immediately, suspecting that the other party was frightened by Xiao Shan's appearance, and took the initiative to add:

"It just looks scary, but it actually has a good personality and is very obedient."

"Really..." Teacher Jing frowned slightly, and after a moment, he seemed to have figured something out, and his brows relaxed instantly.

"So that's how it is. I understand." Xu Ming heard the other party say, his tone full of admiration, "You are worthy of being so brave."

Xu Ming: "..." Ah?

So what did you understand?

Xu Ming didn't know. Xu Ming was very confused.

It happened that Anxin Gardening had something urgent to find that day, and Teacher Jing left after sitting for a while. Xu Ming was confused and had to go back to ask Landuo. However, Landuo was as confused as she was.

He didn't know what the other two meant, and it seemed that he didn't have any special impression of Xiaoshan.

Xu Ming had no choice but to deal with other things first. He planned to ask when he was free, but out of caution, he asked Gu Yunshu to keep an eye on Xiaoshan first.

——Until one night, when she used brain mushrooms to do memory rehabilitation before going to bed, as scenes from the past unfolded, long-lost memories suddenly flooded into her mind——

The next second, she saw Xu Ming sitting up from the bed.

A moment later, he suddenly hammered down the bed.

"So that's how it is, I understand." She murmured involuntarily, and after a brief pause, her tone became full of admiration.

"I'm so brave."

——Key.

It sounds incredible, but Xu Ming did not think of it until then.

Xiaoshan is the key. The key to the door of Tianyu Eye Hospital.

But it is different from Xu Ming and Xu Ling, who are also keys. Xu Ling has her own will. Compared with her personal pursuit, "opening the door" is just a by-product. It is not important to her, and she doesn't care.

Xu Ming happened to become the key because he met the conditions. If it were any other option, the act of "opening the door" itself would become an exchange of interests. In order to have the root, the selected key will open the door, and in order to keep the root, the selected key will continue to maintain the door. This is the script prepared by the lighthouse.

And Xiaoshan, in a sense, is more like a customized key.

It is a root that parasitizes on the original domain owner of the hospital. With the nourishment of the other party, it gradually grows and gradually becomes conscious. Perhaps because of the call of the lighthouse, the first thing it does after becoming conscious is to open the door.

Apart from this, there is no self, no thinking, just like a beast. It seemed that its existence was only for two things, one was to eat, and the other was to open the door. And after opening the door, the only thing left was to eat.

That's why Xu Ming and his friends made it a strange story without much effort - Xu Ming didn't know that he could close the door with a key at the time, he just knew that this guy was difficult to deal with. Fearing that it would continue to cause trouble, he simply discussed with the cat and let the cat be the bait, directly leading it out of the strange story and throwing it away. He stayed in the hospital and tried every means to close the open door...

Everything that happened after that was known.

But this left two more problems. One is that the Eye Hospital itself has lost the root that can support the strange story, and Xu Ming is not sure what will happen to the door if the strange story disappears. Secondly, Xu Ming was worried that the guy would come back and reopen the door...

So he persuaded the cat to stay in the ghost story and take over as the domain master, while continuing to support the operation of the ghost story as an alien root - it didn't matter how it went, as long as he didn't let the guy come in again.

Because Landor was busy with other things at the time and was not at the scene, he had never seen the key before, and had no reaction when he saw Xiaoshan. But the cat who had seen it in person and the mirror teacher who had "spying" on this part of history were frightened.

Of course, now there is also Xu Ming who realized it later.

Xu Ming finally understood why they all had an expression of sudden enlightenment at the time. They estimated that no one thought that Xu Ming had never thought of this matter at all, and they all thought that she had deliberately brought the person back to watch in order to control the door of the eye hospital.

...I have to say, it sounds quite like that.

In any case, it's still the same sentence. Now that they have come, they have nowhere to go. They can't just throw them out - so Xu Ming sat on the bed and thought for a long time, and decided to just let it go and keep this guy first.

Out of fear, Xu Ming kept a closer eye on it afterwards. Fortunately, the guy looked quite reassuring. Just like she said before, he had a good personality and was obedient. His favorite thing to do was to stay in Guo Shuyi's ghost story to find food. He ate CDs every day and was never picky about food. I don't know what he experienced when he was wandering outside.

In addition to being relieved, I have to admit that this kid's ability is really good -

in the haunted house, almost all of its foreign roots were removed, leaving only the one belonging to the original body. And it is precisely this root that has two extremely outstanding abilities.

One is that it can see the "keywords" in other people. Sometimes it is a feature, sometimes it is an attribute, and sometimes with good luck, it can even directly report the weakness.

The second is that it can forcibly deprive other beings of the ability to see something, even the vision.

This is especially practical in combination with Xu Ming and his team's current long-term goals -

in other words, it is very suitable for "closing the door".

Close the door.

These two words have long been the most important action guidelines, firmly imprinted in the minds of every member of the Demolition Office.

In order to weaken the lighthouse as much as possible, the focus of the Demolition Office in the past three months has been to steal people from behind the door and find ways to close the door, in short, to sweep the talk and knock on the door.

It just so happens that during this period of time, the frequency of strange talks has entered a relatively stable state. With the generous human input from the other two human organizations, the rescue pressure on Xu Ming's side was reduced a lot, and the focus was completely shifted to "breaking the door".

With the help of Teacher Jing's reconnaissance, they have now found six ghost stories with doors, successfully closed three of them, and tidied up the ghost stories themselves; the other three, which could not be closed because the corresponding keys could not be locked temporarily, were marked and regularly inspected to find opportunities to start.

The three closings followed the same set of ideas, but used different methods.

The ideas were all the same as those of Yang, the head of the unit building at that time, that is, to find the key, snatch the key, and close the door as the key holder, and finally try to control the key to prevent the other party from opening the door again.

However, Director Yang's method was a self-destructive one, and Xu Ming needed to protect his companions as much as possible, and he also had the advantage of the rule book, so he used a more pleasing method to close the door three times -

the first time, Xu Ming went there in person. He and Lando cooperated to forcibly fix the work badge on the domain master who was the key, and then locked it directly into the rule book. Then Xu Ming closed the door as the holder.

There was nothing wrong with the method, but the step of wearing the work badge was too difficult. Lando almost broke a hand. As for the domain master, he is still locked in the rule book and has not been released. Sometimes Xu Ming accidentally connected to its consciousness and could hear it swearing.

The second time, Guo Shuyi and Lu Yueling went there. This time the key was a dodder hidden in a strange story. After Lu Yueling found the person, she secretly tied her hair on the other person, thus obtaining the identity of the "key holder". After successfully closing the door, Guo Shuyi took action and quietly opened the entrance to his own strange story. After tricking the other person in, he put him in a sack and beat him up. When he was beaten enough, he dragged him to the confinement room and locked him up. He has been locked up until now.

The third time, Gu Yunshu and Xiaoshan were sent out. Out of caution, Lando also went with him that time, and the process of solving the problem was safe and sound - Gu Yunshu wanted to follow Xu Ming's example and directly control the other person with the rule book. Unexpectedly, the replica could not lock the person, and let the other party escape by force...

Fortunately, the door was closed at that time. Landor wanted to kill the man directly, but he was too tough and managed to survive. In the end, Xiaoshan made a move quietly, and took advantage of Landor's hatred to cover the other party's eyes.

Because the opponent's strength was too strong, it could not directly take away all the opponent's vision.

But it deprived the opponent of the ability to see the "door".

If you can't see it, you naturally can't open it again.

Judging from the results, all three methods are very useful. In the long run, the specific pros and cons still need to be observed. Which one is the best solution still needs to be put into practice. This is also the reason why Xu Ming agreed to let Xiaoshan and Gu Yunshu investigate again this time-

what he never expected was that this time, Xiaoshan was of no use at all.

Because when the Human Domain Lord saw them, he directly asked for their work badges to look at them. It is said that he asked two questions after looking at them.

The first sentence was, "I'm sorry for coming all the way here. Would you like to sit down and have some water first?"

The second sentence was, "I'm sorry, I'm a latecomer and don't know much about the rules of the underworld." Then, may I ask if our strange talk is in compliance with the rules? If not, what procedures do we need to go through?

In the small courtyard, looking at the two people who came back less than two hours after leaving, Xu Ming was silent for a moment and slowly put down the rule book in his hand.

"No, wait a minute." She looked at Gu Yunshu who was recounting the situation, trying to sort out what she had just heard, "You mean, that domain lord invited you to drink water and discussed things with you?"

"Yes." Gu Yunshu nodded slowly, thought for a moment, and added, "The appearance of the domain lord is that of a woman in her late 40s, dressed very neatly. She has beast eyes and snake hair, but other than that, there are not many other changes."

Xu Ming's eyes turned slightly, and he understood a little: "You mean... she is not the original domain lord?"

"It should be Hu Yang. She managed to get rid of the Domain Lord and take over." Gu Yunshu said, "I asked her to close the open door, and she closed it directly. It shows that the root of the former Domain Lord should be in her hands."

The reason for identifying the other party as Hu Yang is also very simple - this is one of the very few strange stories they have seen, where the way of leaving is directly written on the notice board. And in the strange story, there are only dead people, no malicious intentions.

"Then this Domain Lord is quite powerful." Xu Ming was amazed, and then he looked thoughtful, "She didn't question the existence of the Demolition Office?" "

I have the ability to secretly use the rule book to increase my credibility." Gu Yunshu said, "and..."

Xu Ming: "?"

"She seemed to have heard of the Demolition Office before." Gu Yunshu said truthfully, "It seems that a dead person escaped from the ghost story we fought... sorted out before, and happened to move into this ghost story..."

Huh? Xu Ming was stunned, and then reacted-

indeed. When they were sweeping the story and knocking on the door before, they did release the living.

To put it bluntly, the dead people in the ghost story are nothing more than two types, ghosts, or food reserves. Most of the former have distorted cognition and it is difficult to change, while the latter want to escape but can't, so they can only be trapped in the ghost story and slowly waste away. In the end, they will either be eaten or become the tools of the domain master.

So when Xu Ming and his friends entered the ghost story before, they always thought of a way to take the dead trapped in it out.

After being taken out, they were treated the same as those who were smuggled out from behind the door:

those who were unconscious and had nowhere to go were given a work card and placed in their own ghost story until they were able to be independent; those who were conscious were taken in according to their wishes, and those who were unwilling to stay were not forced.

Now it seems that it must be a spirit that they released at that time, wandering to the current ghost story and spreading the story of the demolition office...

What kind of ghost story version of the wandering poet is this?

Xu Ming sighed in his heart, and at the same time quickly went over in his mind the feasibility of further training the monster navy. After thinking about it, he confirmed with Gu Yunshu: "So, she agreed to close the door and never open it again?"

"Well, I watched her close it." Gu Yunshu nodded, "But the follow-up matters may still require you to step in."

Xu Ming: "Hmm?"

"That domain lord... respects the existence of the Demolition and Relocation Office very much." Gu Yunshu's tone was a little hesitant, "and seems to attach great importance to procedures and other things."

Xu Ming: "...So?"

"She hopes to have a good talk with the Demolition and Relocation Office and draft a formal and detailed contract." Gu Yunshu sighed, "She said that if the Demolition and Relocation Office has any requirements, they can mention them in the contract. If it is reasonable, she will agree." "

Oh." Xu Ming nodded slightly.

I understand. It's not easy to fool her.

"I said I would notify her later, and then I came back." Gu Yunshu followed closely, "How do you plan to deal with it?"

"Then let's talk." Xu Ming made up his mind quickly, "You can call Xiao Xiao Guo later, and go together again to take the person to Xiao Guo's strange talk. If the other party doesn't want to, I can go to her place."

After saying that, he stood up and prepared to go back upstairs to change the number.

Just kidding, others have given me so much face, how can I say no.

But in such a formal occasion, it is not appropriate to use the identity of Gu Ming. At least it is appropriate to start with Raiders Ming.

Xu Ming thought silently, and couldn't help but think about the future training of the strange talk navy, and his steps became lighter. Not far away, he was stopped by Gu Yunshu again.

"Wait, Director. There is one more thing." Gu Yunshu stood up and took two steps towards Xu Ming. "She also said that if we have a face-to-face interview, she has two other requests, and she hopes we can consider them."

"?" Xu Ming stopped and looked back from the stairs. "What did she say?"

"First, she said she had a dream." Gu Yunshu repeated carefully. "She hopes to transform her strange story into a home for stray animals. In addition to dead people, it can also accommodate stray animals. I want to ask if there are any restrictions from the authorities in this regard. And..."

Xu Ming: "Hmm?"

"She heard that we have a kind of particularly cool dog here." Gu Yunshu said, "She is very curious and wants to see it with her own eyes."

Xu Ming raised his eyebrows slightly, thought for a moment, and his expression gradually became subtle.

His eyes then drifted down unconsciously.

And as if echoing her thoughts, the anxious and eager sobbing of Shadow Dog could be heard from below the stairs.

There should be another update in the evening~ I will try my best to hurry up [kneel]