Chapter 29

The corridor was silent for a moment.

It was so quiet that Xu Ming could even hear the sound of her own heartbeat. Cold sweat slid down her temples like a bug crawling on her skin.

...So what's going on now? Is it working?

Xu Ming was not sure.

The good news was that her right leg bone was aching slightly, which was enough to prove that the rules she had just established as the "paper robe authority" had taken effect - in other words, this strange story had accepted the ancient consensus of "when two countries are in diplomatic relations, do not kill the envoys" and the derived rules based on this secondary basis:

that is, when two organizations with similar backgrounds negotiate, they should not kill the "envoys" of the other side.

The only difficulty now is how to make the other party believe in the existence of the "Ghost Story Demolition Office" organization, and on this basis, believe in Gu Yunshu's identity as an envoy.

In order to achieve this, Xu Ming just asked the whale man hidden in the bag to cooperate with him to release a special effect. A dozen A Jiao released and retracted instantly, and the main feature was a fleeting sense of oppression.

... After all, as the whale man said, this kind of light and floating soul, if people look at it for one more second, it may be another story.

But now it seems... the other party doesn't seem to be fooled? There is no reaction until now...

What should I do? Didn't they believe it, or did they not understand what I meant? Should I emphasize my identity again? Or let A Jiao show off once more...

The brief silence felt like an eternity to Xu Ming. She continued to maintain her upright posture as much as possible, but her heartbeat was getting faster and faster, and her back was sweating.

Just as she was desperately thinking about the success rate of robbing someone directly, the staff opposite finally responded.

The heavy door that had been pushed open was closed again. The nearest hotel employee turned around slowly, looked up at Xu Ming, and said very clearly:

"What are you guys doing here?"

...

She believed it.

Xu Ming's eyes moved slightly. Although the other party's tone was clearly questioning, she felt relieved after hearing it.

If you are willing to question, it means you care. Since they care, it means that they are already half-believing and half-doubting what she just said.

... In any case, this is a good thing.

After quickly coming to a conclusion, Xu Ming took a deep breath again without leaving a trace. This time, she was not in a hurry. She deliberately paused for a while, and only spoke again after confirming that her voice was stable enough -

"I said." She tilted her head slightly, still in that leisurely tone, "We are here to inspect."

"Investigate what?" The hotel employee who was responsible for negotiating with her followed up with another sentence.

"Investigate what should be demolished and what should be kept." Xu Ming said this without thinking, but paused deliberately.

Then he raised his head slightly, and his eyes slowly swept over from above. After finishing, he smiled softly and turned his gaze back.

"After all, the place is so small." She shrugged, her voice was not loud, but it was loud enough to be heard throughout the corridor:

"It can only accommodate one set of rules. If there are more, it will seem crowded, right?"

"..." As soon as

these words came out, the other side fell silent again.

Xu Ming was not in a hurry, and just waited there quietly for their answers - anyway, from the information sorted out so far, it is already a foregone conclusion that there are two forces in this strange story, and all kinds of signs show that they are mostly in a hostile relationship. Then what I said is not wrong in any way. Not only that, it should be quite important to them...

Does it sound awesome? Of course it is awesome! This is the Demolition Office of the Strange Stories!

Just like fortune-telling, whether you can tell fortunes or not is irrelevant, the important thing is to make it sound like it is true. As long as you can fool others, the job is done!

Xu Ming calmed down and felt that he had finally found the rhythm of the conversation. His face remained calm, but his mind had already begun to quickly calculate how to continue fooling people.

After waiting for a while, before the staff spoke, the blubber man in his mind suddenly spoke timidly:

"Well, raise your head a little."

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

"You are an idiot and can't see it, but the staff member you are talking to has changed." The blubber man continued. For some reason, his voice sounded more nervous than before. He was clearly speaking in Xu Ming's mind, but his volume was so low as if he was afraid of being discovered. "Its head exploded, and a potted plant-like thing grew out of its neck. The branches were covered with clocks. The whole thing was about two heads taller than before..."

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

"If I'm not mistaken, it seems to be the domain lord here." The blubber man's voice was about to break, "It descended on its own employee to see you."

Xu Ming: "..."

??? ?

What's going on?

Xu Ming was not sure. Xu Ming was shocked. Xu Ming raised his eyes subconsciously but still saw nothing. After a moment of silence, he could only raise his head as he was told, pretending that he was staring at a certain point in the air above, looking very seriously.

As a result, as soon as his sight settled, the voice of the blubber man in his mind rang again:

"Lower, lower! You're looking too high!"

Xu Ming:...

"You seem very arrogant when you do this." The blubber man hissed in her head.

Although in a sense, it is true that he is arrogant.

Xu Ming was silent again, and simply retracted his gaze, lowered his eyelids, pretending not to dare to look directly at it - this is right, right?

"...Wrong direction." Despair began to reveal in the blubber man's tone, "You should have moved a little further to the right..."

"..."

"Don't worry about it!" Xu Ming replied in his mind unhappily, but still turned around as he was told, "Did it start talking? What is it saying?

"Oh, it's talking now." The blubber man paused for two seconds, and finally spoke again, "It's asking you..."

"What qualifications do you have to decide whether they exist or not."

Xu Ming: "..."

Good question.

How should I know.

I haven't made it up yet.

*

At the same time - in the stairwell at the other end of the corridor.

Fang Xueqing and Ling Guang almost instantly shrank behind the wall, staring at each other in shock, with deep fear in their eyes.

"I said..." Fang Xueqing swallowed her saliva and took a lot of effort to find her voice, "The one that just appeared and grew out of the head of the hotel employee..."

"It's something more powerful than other non-humans." Ling Guang tried to adjust his breathing, his face was pale, "At least for now, it's the most powerful one..."

Domain Lord.

The same answer appeared in the minds of the two at the same time, making them exchange frightened looks again.

After a while, Fang Xueqing mustered up her courage and carefully poked her head out to look out again.

From her angle, she could just see Xu Ming and the staff member she was negotiating with. Because of this, the terrifying changes that had taken place in the hotel employee were also completely imprinted in her eyes—

his head seemed to have exploded by something, and now it had rolled to the ground. There was no blood or scars on the broken neck, and it looked more like an empty flower pot that was stuffed full. A bunch of thick white branches grew straight out from it, and clocks of different sizes were hung between the stretched branches.

If it were just that, it would be fine, but the key point was that Fang Xueqing saw clearly that behind the clock hanging at the top, there was a long black hair.

This made the scene, which could barely be regarded as fantasy, suddenly look weird.

Looking at Xu Ming who was standing steadily in front of the monster, Fang Xueqing's expression suddenly became more subtle.

"...Strange Tales Demolition Office."

She silently repeated the words in her heart and couldn't help but pursing her lips tightly.

If she was just confused when Xu Ming introduced himself with this title, now, she really doubted whether she was slapped in the face.

Could it be... I am really ignorant? But I have never heard of this kind of organization before - at least not in the human circle.

What's more, the name is also weird - Strange Tales Demolition Office. The point is that this name was announced in front of the strange stories, which feels like opening a mutton soup shop in the sheep village. I don't know if the weird talk is offensive or not, but Fang Xueqing thinks it's pretty wicked.

Not only is it wicked, it's also pretty crazy.

Let's not talk about anything else - what kind of demolition is this? Such a weird talk, where is the qualification, where is the capital?

Fang Xueqing was puzzled, but she didn't expect that her doubts were answered the next second -

after a series of piercing bells that almost shattered her eardrums, she saw the girl who called herself "Xu Ming" slightly raised her eyes, her posture and expression did not change at all, only the smile on her face seemed to be more obvious.

"You don't need to know our qualifications. You just need to know that we won't do any business that we are not sure of. Since we dare to do it, we naturally have the capital."

Xu Ming's neither humble nor arrogant voice came clearly across half a corridor:

"Oh yes, there is one more thing I think I should tell you. In this weird talk, the unit has reserved more than one quota for demolition, and based on our current investigation results, you can be excluded from this list.

"At least as far as my personal preference is concerned, butterflies are more annoying than white chess pieces.

"-- But if you insist on making things awkward, then it's hard to say who will be on the demolition list in the end."

...? ! !

Is this already... a threat?

Fang Xueqing's heart moved, and she couldn't help but stretch her neck a little longer. Immediately following, there was another painful and maddening sharp bell sound. When the sound died down, Xu Ming chuckled:

"Yes, of course you can ignore us. It's your freedom. You can even choose to kill us all here. Isn't it more efficient? Anyway, this is your territory. Everything is up to you.

"But let me remind you again that the specific demolition plan is determined according to our investigation report, but the entire demolition plan has been in place for a long time. After all, this weird story has existed for three or four years, and it is really eye-catching..."If

we can't get a reliable investigation report in time as a basis for selection, our demolition office will probably have to choose the simplest and most brutal solution. Anyway, demolishing one is demolishing, and demolishing all is demolishing, isn't it?

"...Threat? Of course not. I'm just a salesperson, what qualifications do I have? "

—— In the middle of the corridor, in order to hide her blindness, Xu Ming deliberately lowered her eyes again, and with a smile on her lips all the time, she gave people a feeling of ease.

...Although she is not very clear now what she is making up.

After all, she really didn't prepare so many manuscripts at the beginning.

In her mind, the whale man spoke again, conscientiously feeding back to her the changes in the attitude of the domain master in front of her in real time. Hearing the other party's hesitation again, Xu Ming did not think twice and hurriedly made another friendly statement:

"Now, I'm just laying out all the options to tell you, so as to help you choose the most suitable one-

"To be honest, even if there was no such thing today, I wanted to have a good talk with you..."

At this point, Xu Ming paused. After a moment of hesitation, he spoke again, his tone was firm and sincere:

"I said, if you have to choose between the white chess piece and the butterfly, I think the butterfly should be demolished."

"..." After

these words fell, there was silence again.

After a moment, Fang heard the whale man in his mind sucked in a meaningless breath.

Xu Ming was worried again. Just as he was about to ask in detail, he saw that several staff members standing behind suddenly took action -

they dragged Gu Yunshu, suddenly walked a few steps outside, and gently put him down along the wall.

Gu Yunshu still looked groggy, and as soon as he was released, his body slid to the ground. Xu Ming's heart skipped a beat. He was about to go forward to see what was happening, but he heard the whale man warn him again: "Wait a minute!"

Xu Ming:... What's the matter!

"The Territory Master is still waiting for you beside..." The whale man's tone sounded almost numb, "You're done."

"It said it wants to talk to you now!"

Xu Ming: "..."

Talk about what? How many years should he be sentenced for fraud?

"Ask yourself, didn't you say you wanted to talk to it!" The blubber man sounded like he was going crazy, "You said you had nothing to do, so why are you making a scene——"

"I just want to appear more sincere and more convincing." Xu Ming was also a little dumbfounded, "Besides, I didn't say we wanted to talk now!"

Blubber man: "..."

Blubber man: "You'd better respond quickly, it looks like it's ready to take you away..."

Xu Ming: "..."

"Please be patient!" The next second, she raised her head decisively and smiled at the air again, "Don't be impatient."

"Regarding the content I am about to negotiate with you, some of which involve internal terms and the signing of contracts. I need to confirm with the unit. In addition, my companion seems to need a good rest, and the part of the paperwork she is responsible for also needs to be prepared separately..."

Without waiting for the other party to give any response, she had already given a conclusion on her own: "Tomorrow. When we have finalized everything here, we will come to you as soon as possible tomorrow."

"..."

After the voice fell, there was a long silence in the corridor, and I don't know how long it will last.

After a while, several staff members suddenly moved, walked past Gu Yunshu and Xu Ming, and walked out - then, the whale fat man gave a half-dead cheer:

"It's finally gone.

"Congratulations, you have survived for a few more hours. "

Xu Ming: "..."

Can you say something auspicious?

She complained in her heart, and finally moved her feet, dragging her right foot to the side, and bent down to check on Gu Yunshu's condition.

On the other side, at the end of the corridor, Fang Xueqing finally retracted her gaze and exchanged a solemn look with Ling Guang. The two of them took a few steps back at the same time and tiptoed back upstairs.

Almost at the same time when they retreated to the second floor, Xu Ming finally couldn't hold on anymore and sat down on the ground.

"Eh, eh?" The panicked voice of the whale man came from her head, "Are you okay? Your legs are weak?"

"Soft head, my bones hurt." Xu Ming couldn't help but frowning, "It should be a side effect of using the paper robe authority. Especially the knees, they are so sore...”

Fatso: “...”

Fatso: “Rheumatism?”

Xu Ming: “...”

Fatso: “Actually, I wanted to ask this before. I’ve seen other people use rulebooks before, and although the rules are different, the price they pay is basically the same...

“How come other people’s price is flesh, blood, organs, and memories. But for you, it becomes tenosynovitis, arthritis, and lumbar disc herniation?”

Xu Ming: “...”

Why do you care so much?

Just tell me whether the price has been paid or not, really!

*

In the end, Xu Ming was carried back by Qiu Yufei and Gu Yunshu.

Gu Yunshu didn’t know where he was injured, and he was in a daze. It took Xu Ming a long time to wake up. He went upstairs in a daze and called Qiu Yufei for help.

As for Qiu Yufei, Xu Ming was also a little puzzled - she had told Qiu Yufei to hide in the elevator at the time. Although her original intention was to let her hide as far away as possible, according to Qiu Yufei's personality, she should not have just abandoned her and went upstairs alone.

...It was not until he was helped into the room that Xu Ming finally understood why Qiu Yufei had come upstairs——

"You went to take a photo of the registration book?"

A few minutes later, Xu Ming sat on the high bedside, listening to Qiu Yufei's account of what had just happened, and felt his head start to buzz again: "How did you do it?"

"...It's very simple. Because the front desk staff have all gone into the corridor." Qiu Yufei sat on the sofa opposite, blinking innocently, "I thought, since I have a special copy of the last round of registration books in my phone, it means that this thing must be useful. It just so happens that no one is watching now, so I'll go take a look."

And took another photo.

However, her psychological quality was still not strong enough. When she took the photo and left, she saw other employees coming over to the restaurant. She was so scared that she ran back upstairs in a hurry. It happened that there were employees patrolling the third floor. Qiu Yufei felt guilty and did not dare to go out again.

Until Gu Yunshu climbed up to find her. "..." Xu Ming was amazed when he heard it. For a moment, he did not know whether to praise her for her good luck or her courage. At this moment, the other A Jiao who had not yet been registered were temporarily moved to Qiu Yufei's room, which made the room seem a lot emptier. Xu Ming turned his eyes away somewhat uncomfortably, hissed, and reached out to take Qiu Yufei's mobile phone: "Then where is the registration book? Let me see it. Qiu Yufei had already compared the two registration books, and said as she handed it over: "The difference is still quite big. "I've checked this round, and there are still eight people. The two girls who live on the second floor are in the third round, and the two of us and the driver are in the second round. Tang Menglong, Tan Tu, and the boy who was stabbed have no check-in records anymore. In addition, there are three more from the first round. One is named Zhen and lives on the third floor, and the other two are on the second floor, named Ling Guang and Fang..." "Fang Xueqing." Xu Ming looked at the registration book on the screen and murmured. After a moment, she seemed to remember something and quickly turned the album back. Sure enough, not long after, she found these two names again in the photo records of another file. "'Reserve members: Fang Xueqing, Ling Guang'!" She raised her head suddenly, "They are also people who are at ease with gardening!" "That's good!" Qiu Yufei's eyes lit up when she heard this, "They are in the industry after all. At least I can feel more at ease with them!" "...That may not be the case. You should be more alert." Xu Ming said, as if he thought of something, and glanced at Gu Yunshu who was silent beside him. Gu Yunshu was still the taciturn look, but I don't know if it was Xu Ming's illusion, her eyes seemed to be more dazed than before. Xu Ming also asked her what she saw at that time that made her suddenly lose control and become so reckless. Gu Yunshu never gave a direct answer, but just kept apologizing. Seeing this, Xu Ming considerately stopped asking. Xu Ming looked away and was silent for a moment, but then frowned thoughtfully. "However, the words of industry insiders may be very useful to me." Qiu Yufei: "?"

Without waiting for Xu Ming to answer, the whale man had already poked his head out of the bag, seeing how lively it was, he spoke without minding any trouble: "Hehe, as a special sales representative of the ghost story demolition, she just made an appointment with the domain lord here for a meeting tomorrow.

"How the meeting will take place is still unknown, I guess she plans to find those two gardeners and get some information about butterflies as a last minute trick."

"...Ah?" Qiu Yufei widened her eyes in surprise, "I was just away for a while...you guys are making such a big deal out of it?"

It was just theft before, but now it has escalated directly to fraud?

"I didn't expect that I could fool the domain lord out with just a few tricks." Xu Ming got a headache when he talked about this, "The good news is, if we can grasp this opportunity well, we might be able to get out directly. "

After all, the groundwork has been laid. If we can fool them better, the domain lord here might really let them go in order to wait for external help to remove Butterfly.

The question is, how can we fool them better?

"The focus is definitely on Butterfly. We have to come up with something more convincing in this regard." Xu Ming pursed his lips, "The problem is, the relevant information we have collected from Tang Menglong is also limited..." "

That's right. The records we have only record the end of his second round. But Butterfly will not appear until the third round." Qiu Yufei understood, "We just lack this part of the intelligence!" "

But An Xin Gardening's people may have it." Xu Ming said, "Tang Menglong's diary said that his intelligence will be transmitted back to the organization in a timely manner."

"But if we go to find them, what identity should we use? "Qiu Yufei frowned, "Do we have to fight monsters to negotiate the name of the demolition and relocation office?"

"...I'm afraid not." Xu Ming pondered for a moment, and shook his head decisively, "Whether they believe this name or not is another matter, but what if they are regarded as some strange organization? It will be a loss."

"What if we are just seeking help as a human who strayed in?" The whale fat man sat on the edge of the table with his legs swinging, and said slowly, "Didn't Tang Menglong say that they would protect ordinary people first?" "

..." Xu Ming pondered for a moment, nodded, "This may be feasible."

Relatively speaking, this kind of "needing help" image may be easier to gain the other party's trust.

"Then you must be mentally prepared. "Qiu Yufei said," I suspect that if we say this, we may not be able to get anything useful."

"?" Xu Ming looked over in confusion, "What do

you mean?" "Think about it, their organization is very mysterious. If you are an ordinary person and you go to contact them, even if they really want to help you, the first thing they will think about is how to protect you and get you out, rather than analyzing how bad the situation is and what clues they have...

"Besides, we have also seen the intelligence from Mr. Tang, and it is very messy. We are not sure whether they have come up with a way to escape... If I were a professional, I would definitely tell the good news to the help-seeker, not the bad news. The more I say, the more likely others will think too much. It is better to tell a lie and

give them a reassurance pill. Why tell the truth? "On the other hand, for professionals, what kind of help-seeker is the least troublesome? Of course, the kind who doesn't ask too many questions, doesn't move too much, and is obedient. What good can sharing intelligence with you bring? No way. "

Qiu Yufei said confidently, thought for a while, and added: "Of course, it's just my speculation. But I think that if you only position yourself as a help seeker, then you will appear to be more passive in sharing information."

Xu Ming: "..."

"No, you are right." She pondered for a moment, patted her forehead, "Indeed, from their standpoint, most of them will not share too many clues with ordinary people..."

Not only because of what Qiu Yufei said. Based on the previous experience of dealing with An Xin Gardening, Xu Ming felt that their attitude itself tends to keep ordinary people out of the world of ghost stories.

Under this tendency, they may indeed not reveal too much to ordinary people.

"Why don't you go to 8307, Yunshu? Maybe Tang Menglong’s computer is still there..." Xu Ming sighed and spoke without hope, watching Gu Yunshu roll down the window - although she felt that this was unlikely.

Tang Menglong's name was no longer on the register, so there was no reason for his things to still be there.

"Either we demonstrate the value of our own intelligence while asking for help, and thus achieve an intelligence exchange. But most of our intelligence comes from Tang Menglong, and they probably have it too..." Qiu Yufei was still thinking along the same lines as before, "Do we have any exclusive intelligence?"

"There are some that they may not know, but not much." Xu Ming closed his eyes and began to give random ideas again, "How about I exchange the intelligence from the Ghost Talk Demolition Office with them? Do you think they will be interested?"

"You are dreaming." The whale man said unceremoniously, "You should dream big. You might as well wish that they will come to your house to ask you directly, so that you don't have to figure out how to get close to them..."

Xu Ming looked at it unhappily and put it directly into the bag. Qiu Yufei on the opposite side seemed to have thought of something. Just as she was about to speak, there was a sudden knock on the door.

"..." The two girls in the room looked at each other. After a moment, Xu Ming raised his hand and asked Qiu Yufei to sit in the seat. He stood up, dragged his feet, and opened the door a crack: "Who is it?"

"Uh, hello!" Outside the door, a rather handsome young man immediately raised his head and smiled politely, "Sure enough, I guessed that it must be you who lives here. "

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

"Sorry for disturbing you. Let me introduce myself. My name is Ling Guang, and I'm a field worker at Anxin Gardening..." the young man said, taking out a business card with a leaf pattern printed on it and handing it in from under the door chain, "I came to see you this time because I have something to ask you."

"..." Xu Ming silently accepted the business card and exchanged glances with Qiu Yufei in the room. She simply untied the door chain and opened the door completely.

"Hello." She greeted the other party formally, but had no intention of inviting him in, "Excuse me, what do you want to ask? "

Oh, there are actually quite a lot of them..." Ling Guang smiled again, but only politeness and courtesy could be seen in her smile, and there was some tentativeness in her eyes when she looked at Xu Ming:

"But if it is convenient, can I ask you about the Ghost Story Demolition Office first?"

Xu Ming: "..."

Silently dismissing the whale blubber man who was screaming "Damn it" in her mind, she tried to stabilize her expression and raised her head again: "Of course.

"But can I ask you first? Why do you know this term?"

"..."

Ling Guang's eyes wandered, as if thinking about how to answer. Seeing this, Xu Ming's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly added: "Please don't tell me which friend or dead person told you about it.

"The existence of the Ghost Story Demolition Office is no secret, but it is not something that can be heard in any corner."

"..." The man opposite paused again after hearing this, and it was obvious that the lie he was about to tell was blocked. After a moment, he sighed again:

"Okay, in this case, I won't hide it.

"Actually, when you were talking to the domain master just now, we happened to hear some of it, so we were a little curious... After all, this is the first time we have heard of an organization that can dismantle ghost stories, and it is hard not to care.

"So, Miss Xu Ming, if it is convenient, could you please have a good chat with us?"

Xu Ming:...I knew it!

"Sure." She agreed immediately. "It just so happens that I actually want to find you guys for something."

"Find us?" Ling Guang was stunned for a moment, and subconsciously asked, "Why?"

"Because..."

Xu Ming was about to speak, but suddenly seemed to think of something and paused.

Wait a minute - she suddenly reacted. The man said that he heard the conversation between me and the domain master.

How much did he hear? Did he hear about the demolition plan? Then if we look at this from his standpoint, no, from the standpoint of human beings...

If they were just curious about the "Ghost Story Demolition Office", would they come here so quickly? Do they have another purpose for coming here on their own initiative? Other, more urgent purposes?

Xu Ming's eyes flickered, and the words that were about to come out were instantly stuck on the tip of his tongue.

After another moment, she spoke with great difficulty:

"Because, I'm actually not a special clerk of the Weird Talk Demolition Office."

Ling Guang:...

Ling Guang: "Ah?"

Xu Ming: "Yeah."

Blubber Man: "... Hey!"

"What do you want to do!" It was going crazy again, shaking its head in Xu Ming's mind, "Why do you have to tell the truth at this time! Didn't you say it yourself, ordinary people are at a disadvantage when it comes to sharing intelligence..."

"Shut up!" Xu Ming quickly stopped it in his mind, then raised his head and gave an embarrassed smile to the dumbfounded Ling Guang.

"Well, this is actually quite embarrassing. To be honest, I didn't expect that you would see me pretending to be like that... But since you asked, there is no need for me to hide it.

"At that time, I was actually fooling people. I was just imitating the appearance of those special salesmen, but I was not actually...

"I was just an intern who was accidentally involved in this... Ghost Story Demolition Office.

"Xu Ming is my boss, and my name is actually Gu Ming."