Chapter 19

Not long after. In Xu Ming's room.

"…Name?"

"Landuo."

"…" Xu Ming paused, "Seize? Seize?"

"No, that's not it." The man sitting opposite hurriedly said, stretching out his slender fingers and gesturing lightly in the air, "This one, the one with the gold character. The "Duo" that represents a big bell."

"Oh…" Xu Ming nodded in sudden realization, his eyes unconsciously fell on the other person's neck - there was indeed a bell hanging there.

But it was very small, only the size of a thumb, and it seemed to be broken. No matter how the man on the other side moved, it didn't make any sound.

It is really pretty... Xu Ming was thinking silently, and suddenly he saw the other party's throat rolling, and he looked up in surprise. Then he noticed that the other party seemed to be more tense than before, and his ears seemed to be a little red.

...Come to think of it, why do spirits also have red ears?

Xu Ming didn't understand. But there was one thing she still understood - that bell, it is estimated that it can't be looked at casually, maybe it is the original body or something.

So she considerately looked away, lowered her head and continued to fill in the template in front of her, and began to draw a Q version portrait of the man opposite.

- At this time, about ten minutes had passed since she met this unknown man.

The other party looked very shocked, but the communication was surprisingly smooth. With Gu Yunshu's guarantee of his character, Xu Ming pondered for a while and finally decided to give the other party a work badge.

Of course, he had asked the other party's wishes before giving it to him. The man agreed quickly and only made one additional request: he hoped Xu Ming could draw him better.

This was not difficult for Xu Ming, after all, the other party was also quite good-looking -

holding up the pencil in his hand seriously, Xu Ming looked at the man in front of him from left to right, and finally decided to put pen to paper.

The straight eyebrows, the melancholy eyes, the red ribbon and the small bell, the simple sweater, and the little dog that for some reason had been holding the other party's fingers and biting them hard since just now...

He let out a sigh of relief, and the last stroke was finally completed. At the moment Xu Ming put down his pen, a faint light flashed on the body of the man opposite him -

soon, a work badge of a similar style to Gu Yunshu's appeared on his chest.

He looked down and carefully wrapped it with his fingers. For some reason, he looked very happy.

Xu Ming didn't quite understand this... In fact, she didn't quite understand most of this guy's behavior. What she

didn't understand the most was that this guy had been waiting for her in the next building for several days, but when she asked him why he was waiting for her, he just looked at her and smiled embarrassedly. When she asked more questions, he just said it was the guidance of fate.

...Do you think you are acting in "Thunderstorm"? Why not just call yourself Shi Ping? ?

Thinking of this, Xu Ming couldn't help but look at the other person again. Noticing her gaze, the man smiled shyly again and said softly, "What's wrong?"

"...Nothing." Xu Ming hesitantly withdrew his gaze, thought for a moment and said, "By the way, your voice, isn't it..."

She had discovered before that this man always spoke in a very soft voice. She originally thought that he was too nervous and shy like Gu Yunshu, but after serious communication, she found that it was not the case.

It seemed that there was something wrong with his throat. He could only make very light sounds, and if he exerted a little more force, he would hear a very obvious sound of breaking wind.

Hearing this, the man just smiled embarrassedly.

"The voice, part of it was dug out." He said softly, "Are you not used to it?"

"No, no, that's not the case, I just care a little bit." Xu Ming paused, knowing that it might be impolite, but still a little curious, "So, why was it dug out?"

"The price." The man said, but slowly looked away, as if he didn't intend to continue discussing this matter.

By the way, he shook his hand and threw the puppy hanging on his finger to the ground. The

puppy fell to the ground and got up after a while. He howled and was about to bite again, but met the man's cold glance. After being stiff for a while, he could only hum reluctantly a few times, and turned to find Xu Ming for a hug.

Xu Ming thought Lando Bendo was weird, but he still liked the puppy he brought with him. He immediately held it in his arms, groaning while flipping through a few pages of the rule book in his hand.

—— As expected.

As another work card was issued, the skill page in front changed again.

The second skill box has completely faded from black, replaced by four beautiful words.

The skill name, [Rotten Fruit Replacement]

, and the corresponding note has also been unlocked, and it is also a line of beautiful small words:

[The old man is always right. Even if you can only exchange for rotten fruit, it must be edible. ]

Below the small words is the skill description with a slightly enlarged font:

[First level of replacement: When you hold rules from other strange story areas in your hand, you can choose to extract a certain number of keywords from them, and use these keywords to create your own rules. A price needs to be paid randomly when creating.

[After the establishment is completed, the rule will have the same binding effect as the original rule, and the binding object cannot be changed. Its binding force can be superimposed with other effects. After leaving the current strange story area, the rule will be automatically abolished. ]

...

Below this line of words, there are three lines of space. I don’t know if there is no content at all, or if there is content but Xu Ming has not unlocked it yet.

But Xu Ming can’t take care of this matter for the time being.

She just stared at the newly refreshed content on the notebook in silence. After a moment, she took a breath in restraint:

"So, this skill means that I have to go to a strange story area first and try to get the rules inside; then take these rules to another area, extract keywords and write another rule - and this rule is still for humans?"

She tried hard to understand this newly unlocked skill, but no matter how she understood it, she could only come up with four words in her mind -

am I free?

"No, I think this might be quite useful." The whale fat group said casually at the corner of the table, "For example, when you want to escape, but find that there are stupid humans who are always holding you back."

Just put a rule out, and then turn around and run away, how neat and tidy.

"..." Xu Ming looked at it unhappily, slammed the notebook in his hand, stood up carefully with the dog in his arms, looked around, and suddenly realized a more important problem.

On her desk, there was a whale-like fat man that looked like a potato.

Next to her desk, sat a man who was at least 1.8 meters tall.

The girl, whom she temporarily called Gu Yunshu, was more considerate. She didn't take up space outside, but retreated into Xu Ming's closet alone. But this time, she took off her rain boots, and a pair of shoes directly occupied a corner...

It was so crowded.

In the single apartment at almost three o'clock in the morning, Xu Ming suddenly realized this extremely serious problem.

As a result, her room was really crowded!

*

It's crowded, but there's nothing we can do for the time being.

I won't talk about that man, he's weird. Even if Xu Ming asks him to leave with kind words, he will find a place to sit nearby, as if he's a single father singing sadly in the subway - and often when he sits there, his back will involuntarily sink into the door or wall, which is even more shocking from Xu Ming's perspective.

And playing with someone else's dog and driving the dog owner out, this seems a bit unreasonable...

Fortunately, this guy will disappear on his own during the day, so he won't occupy the space for too long.

And the whale fat man is deeply bound to the rule book and can't leave too far. He can't get out of this room at all. Fortunately, it's very small and likes to shrink under the bed, so it's better to ignore it.

If she could ignore the strange noises coming from under the bed from time to time.

As for Gu Yunshu...Xu Ming really wanted her to go out for a walk more often. However, ever since she got her work badge, she seemed to have decided on Xu Ming, and she didn't dare to move around in the room for fear of getting it dirty. So she stayed in the empty cupboard that Xu Ming had vacated all day long, only making a little noise occasionally, and she was very cautious.

Xu Ming didn't forget his promise to her, and two days later, he took her to the next community.

- When she was in the Hongqiang archives, she had seen Gu Yunshu's information. If she really lived with Gu Yunshu, her home should be in this area.

She remembered the house number clearly, but the name of the community was a little fuzzy. Fortunately, this is also easy to confirm:

most of the residential areas in this area are under construction, or they are youth apartments for singles. There are only two old communities suitable for family living, so just look in each of them.

The good news is that the correct address was found very quickly.

The bad news is that the original residents have moved away.

"Are you talking about Uncle Gu? He moved away two years ago." In response to Xu Ming's inquiry, the neighbor boy was enthusiastic, "He is the only one left in his family, so he moved to the city and lived with his brother..."

"City?" Xu Ming was stunned, "Then may I ask, do you know his new address? Or his phone number, I..."

She wanted to ask more, but saw the girl in cleaning clothes next to her shook her head gently at her.

Xu Ming was stunned, but the young man opposite him had already spoken: "I don't know about this. He never came back after he moved out, and the house has been sold. Why don't you... ask his relatives?" "

...Oh, oh, okay, thank you." Xu Ming nodded politely. After the young man closed the door, he turned his head and looked at the girl next to him.

The girl just stared quietly at the closed door in front of her, motionless, and didn't know what she was thinking.

"Well, do you feel anything?" Xu Ming said softly, "Do you recognize this place?"

The girl was silent for a while, but shook her head lightly.

"I don't recognize it. I can't remember it. Sorry, my mind seems to be empty."

"It's okay. I'll think of a way." Xu Ming hurriedly said, sighed, and took the girl downstairs.

Just after going downstairs, I heard my cell phone ring again. I opened it and saw a message from Qiu Yufei pop up:

[Help, I finally figured out what Anxin Gardening wants to do! ]

[They think I have some special skills and want to poach me to work there! ]

Xu Ming: "..."

[Then just tell the truth. ] She replied slowly, [Or just reject it. ]

Qiu Yufei: [I tried it, it didn't work. I don't know why, they seem to have a deep misunderstanding of me...]

Qiu Yufei: [By the way, are you interested in their company? ]

[No! ] Xu Ming replied quickly this time, [You're done if you dare to sell me out. ]

Qiu Yufei replied with a roaring emoticon, followed by: [What should I do? They are so annoying over there, and they are so stubborn. They don’t believe me even after I told them that I don’t know anything... Are they really that short of people? 】

Most likely they are. Xu Ming thought silently.

Shi Mian, who came to see her before, was the type who could "see" but just couldn't see clearly. Xu Ming suspected that their company was recruiting people, and "abnormality" might be a hard indicator.

【If it doesn't work, just say you found a job. 】 She continued to give Qiu Yufei advice, 【At least they won't ask you to quit your job. 】

【I said it, but they seem to be able to find my personal information... Anyway, they are very sure that I am still unemployed. 】 Qiu Yufei was a little angry when she said this, 【What kind of people are they? What does it have to do with them if I am unemployed? 】

Xu Ming: "..."

【Then how about you find a company that they can't find? 】She started to give random suggestions out of loyalty, [something that is a little bit supernatural, sounds a little mysterious, and preferably has some style... something they have never heard of. 】

【They can't verify it, so they can't disprove it, so naturally they won't force you with this matter anymore. 】

Qiu Yufei: [...]

Qiu Yufei: [Are you sure this will work? ]

[Not sure. ]Xu Ming is very honest, [but what if? ]

The special thing about Anxin Gardening is that they are involved in supernatural matters. But this aspect of things happens to have the most unknowns and the most taboos. Even if a company in the same field is set up, they probably won't be able to fight against counterfeiting with certainty.

Of course, this method is still mostly a gamble. After all, Xu Ming was a retail investor and didn't know how such an organized large company operated. Maybe they really had some way to investigate.

Qiu Yufei seemed to be confused by her words. After a long while, she finally replied:

[It seems to make sense.]

[Then I'll try it.]

After that, there was no more noise.

Xu Ming didn't care much and took Gu Yunshu home first. Surprisingly, she had just walked in when Qiu Yufei's messages came one after another.

In the room, Lando was cleaning the bathroom, sweeping the floor carefully. The puppy he brought with him was originally sleeping in the travel bag. When he heard Xu Ming coming back, he ran over like a running snowball.

Xu Ming picked up the puppy and touched it happily, then he reached out to read the message sent by Qiu Yufei.

It started with four words: [Double happiness coming!!!]

"?" Xu Ming was stunned, and his first reaction was that she had found a new job, but Qiu Yufei gave her a face full of emoticons.

[Can you not be so realistic!] She quickly sent a message, [It's from Anxin Gardening!]

[I did what you said and made up a new employer that sounds very cool. It actually worked! They really gave up!]

[Hey, it's finally quiet, so good.]

Xu Ming: ...

No way, it actually worked? ?

She was stunned for a moment, and then asked:

[What about the second happy event?]

[The second one is even more amazing!] Qiu Yufei replied like lightning, [I'm telling you, I! Won! A Prize!]

"..." For some reason, Xu Ming was not very surprised by this.

After all, in her impression, Qiu Yufei's luck has always been good. Although she has never won any big prizes, she has won many small lotteries. Apart from other things, most of the tissues and laundry detergents shared by their dormitory were earned by Qiu Yufei, and she even won a rice cooker - although it was taken away by the dormitory aunt the next day.

[Congratulations] Xu Ming replied while stroking the soft puppy in his arms, [So, what did you win? ]

[Hotel experience package for two!! ] Qiu Yufei generously expressed her excitement with exclamation marks, [And it’s an immersive horror theme hotel! ]

[The hotel also has a variety of horror mechanisms, escape room games and a small dark room secret restaurant. It is said to be a mysterious hotel full of secrets like Hogwarts Castle - what do you think, do you want to go together? 】

【That experience is limited to weekdays. It just so happens that we are both in the free period now, so let's go and have some fun together, just to relax! 】

Xu Ming: "..."

【No. 】She couldn't understand it. 【You just left Hongqiang not long ago, and you went to stay in a horror hotel? 】

Are you too brave?

Qiu Yufei argued: 【It's because Hongqiang was scared, so he wants to watch more of these, desensitization! 】

This is also why she has been actively surfing various social platforms to brush haunted houses in the past two days-in fact, she saw this lucky draw when she was brushing haunted house reviews.

Just forwarding it casually, who would have thought that she would actually win!

"..." Xu Ming thought for a moment, but still shook his head, lowered his head and typed in the input box:

[No, thank you for the invitation, I don’t want to go out recently...]

[The point is! This experience package, the original price per person is 1600! ]

Before she finished typing, another message from Qiu Yufei flew over: [The one among us can also upgrade the room for free, and also get a buffet! ]

[The buffet over there... seems to cost two or three hundred per meal. ]

Xu Ming: ...

Staring at the message just sent by Qiu Yufei for a while, she silently moved her fingers and deleted all the words she had just typed.

...The hotel and so on don’t matter. The main thing is this 1600, which can’t be wasted.

*

On the other side.

In the office area on the first floor of Anxin Gardening Co., Ltd.

The salesperson who was in charge of communicating with Qiu Yufei slowly put down his phone, still with a blank look on his face.

Just then, a field worker from the next door came over to borrow glue to stick invoices, and patted him on the shoulder: "Hey, what are you doing? You look absent-minded?"

"No way..." He said weakly, and then couldn't help but ask, "Hey, Sister Xueqing, do you know the 'Strange Talk Demolition Office'?"

...???

The girl called "Xue Qing" looked at him in surprise, puzzled: "Why are you asking this suddenly? Did you see any information?"

"No." The salesperson didn't know how to explain. After thinking for a moment, he lowered his voice, "Recently, haven't I been in contact with the survivor who escaped from Hongqiang..."

Xue Qing: "? Which one?"

"Oh, the one, the one we saw in the video - the one who kicked the spirit's head off with one foot!" said the salesperson, "Didn't a teacher analyze it at the time, saying that she might be special, and asked me to pay more attention to her..."

That video was a reproduction of the old scene that they managed to read from Hongqiang with the help of members of the organization who held the rule book - but it was said to be read, and the only thing that can be seen at present is the part where Qiu Yufei and Xu Ming were attacked in the corridor, and there was no sound.

More content is still being unlocked, and how much can be unlocked in the end is still uncertain.

So what they can use for research now is only the oral data of the survivors and the reconstruction of the scene in that small section of the corridor.

And it is precisely that small section of the scene that made them guess that Qiu Yufei has a special physique.

- Being able to fight against a spirit with bare hands is something that ordinary people can never do. At present, there is only one most likely explanation -

Qiu Yufei herself also has a psychic physique, and her ability has been distorted and has another characteristic.

"Oh... I remember now. That 'villain', right?" Xue Qing thought for a moment, and nodded in sudden realization, "Well, then what?"

"Then, wasn't I asked to sound her out and recruit her if possible?" The salesperson sighed, puzzled, "And she told me that she already had a boss in this industry."

"Really?" Xue Qing raised her eyes, "That's a bit strange."

She had also seen the scene in the Hongqiang corridor replay. To be honest, Qiu Yufei's performance really didn't look like a veteran - in comparison, the other girl was more like one.

"Yeah, I think it's strange too. And do you know what unit she was talking about?"

The salesperson came closer as he spoke, and lowered his voice mysteriously: "The Ghost Story Demolition Office!"

Xue Qing: "..."

"Have you heard of this name? I haven't." The salesperson pondered and the more he thought about it, the more confused he became, "It's really strange. When did such an organization appear in the circle?"

... Xue Qing shook her head and sighed.

"Actually, I have heard of it." She said slowly.

The salesperson looked over in surprise, but heard Xue Qing say slowly: "Haven't you read the oral reports of other survivors yet?

"Although most of the related memories are already vague, more than one person has mentioned that the reason they escaped was because of the Ghost Story Demolition Office. "

"......! "The salesperson's eyes became more and more shocked," You mean, this organization really exists..."

"Existence at all!" Xue Qing couldn't help but pat him on the head.

"From the information collected so far, the key to their escape from Hongqiang should be in their work badges. They escaped by changing the information on their work badges. But someone did mention that they thought about it for a long time, how to change the unit name on the work badge...

"And they finally escaped, which means the unit name on the work badge was finally changed. What was it changed to? Think about what they said, the answer is obvious-"

The salesperson was stunned, and slowly added: "The Ghost Story Removal Office?"

"Yes, this should be the truth of 'they left with the Ghost Story Removal Office'." Xue Qing crossed her arms confidently, "And, think about it, what is the name of our unit?"

Salesperson: "...Anxin Gardening."

Xue Qing: "What is the name of the unit next door?"

Salesperson: "...Da Li Weeding."

Xue Qing: "We also deal with ghost stories, why don't we keep the word "ghost story" on our foreheads?"

"..." The salesperson hesitated again, and Xue Qing slapped the table, "Because we are 'human'! We operate in human society! We need to exist in a way that humans can accept and understand! Who would put the word 'weird talk' in the title for no reason, and even demolish and relocate it, does it have the qualifications?"

Salesperson: "...So, Sister Xue Qing, what do you mean?"

"It means that you have been fooled!" Xue Qing said without hesitation, "To dare to choose such a crazy name, either the organization behind it is really powerful and has capital, and is so arrogant that it doesn't need to look ahead and behind like us - or it doesn't exist at all!"

"It's probably because the girl with the 'villain' trait was annoyed by you and happened to remember this fictitious name, so she used it to fool you... Only a fool like you would believe it - Weird Talk Demolition Office, haha."

As she spoke, she reached out to take the glue on the salesperson's desk. The latter scratched his forehead, noticed the gauze on the back of her hand, and was stunned again.

"Sister Xueqing, you got injured again this time?" He sighed, "It's not easy for you field workers. You get injured every other day... Hey, put your invoices here, and I'll help you paste them later. Go and have a good rest."

"What rest? I have to book a ticket later." Xueqing said nonchalantly, "I have to go out next week."

The salesperson was surprised: "Going out again? Where are you going?"

"A hotel." Xueqing said, and took the glue, "The details are confidential."