Chapter 7

Yuan Jiayi, known as Sister Jiayi in the industry, is the head of the copywriting department of Xiaolu Media and Qiu Yufei's boss. She

is also one of the few people who had the misfortune to stay in Xiaolu Media to work overtime today. Xu Ming remembers clearly that when she and Qiu Yufei packed their bags and left, Sister Jiayi was still at her workstation, gritting her teeth and revising the plan.

...From another perspective, since the two of them can come to this damn place, it doesn't seem strange that the other people who work overtime also come here.

Of course, out of caution, she still confirmed it through the glass first:

"Sister Jiayi, sorry to ask one more question. Do you remember what the main reason was for us to work overtime tonight?" "

?" Yuan Jiayi outside gave her a strange look and answered quickly, "Because when it was almost time to get off work, a certain idiot called everyone up for a meeting."

Their working hours were from 10:30 to 19:30, and the boss held a meeting for more than an hour. After the meeting, everyone still had work to do, and in the end, there was a group of unlucky people who hadn't left work at nine o'clock.

Xu Ming nodded in approval and reached out to open the door. Qiu Yufei's eyes widened, and she grabbed her hand in fear: "Wait, do you really believe her so much? What if she was just lying?"

"It doesn't matter whether she was lying or not." Xu Ming said sincerely, "The point is that she said our boss is an idiot."

The way to confirm your own people is sometimes so simple.

Qiu Yufei: ...

That could also be a lie! Isn't it the consensus of workers all over the world to call the boss an idiot... Qiu Yufei howled in her heart, but she couldn't stop Xu Ming's footsteps after all.

"After we left the company, we encountered a ghost wall and were forced to come in." She simply answered Jiayi's previous question, and asked back, "What about you guys?"

"The power went out halfway through overtime, and when the power came back, the company became like this." Jiayi shrugged, and glanced at Qiu Yufei behind Xu Ming, which made her shrink her neck.

"Are you two injured? Are you okay?"

"Nothing." Xu Ming nodded. "By the way, how did you get here?"

"I was just in the corridor behind the tea room, where I could also receive the 'Manager Inspection' notice. I saw that the employees required this time were from the Art Department, and I thought it was strange, so I came over to take a look." Jiayi shrugged. "After all, there are five of us here, and none of us are from the Art Department."

"Oh..." Xu Ming nodded slowly, and suddenly felt something was wrong. "Wait, five?"

"Yes, five. Me, Otter, Heizi, and Lao Li from the photography department, and Xiao Wang, the new recruit from the finance department..."

Sister Jiayi said, looking at Xu Ming with some inquiry in her eyes: "What's the matter? Do you think there is any problem?"

Xu Ming thought for a moment and shook his head slightly.

She just felt vaguely that something seemed strange, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Without dwelling on this matter for too long, Xu Ming started to inquire about other people's situations. After all, they had finally met, so they had to exchange information. Sister Jiayi sighed and pointed to the deep corridor behind the tea room:

"Let's talk while we walk. Xiao Wang is the only one there now. I'm afraid he can't take care of the otter, so he has to go back quickly."

Otter is of course a nickname, a nickname used in the company, and the real person is the pillar of the photography department - so when Xu Ming heard this, he was stunned.

"Teacher Otter? What's wrong with him?"

"Unconscious." Yuan Jiayi sighed, "It's like he's sick. You'll know when you see him."

Xu Ming & Qiu Yufei: "......?"

Soon, a few minutes later.

Led by Yuan Jiayi, they stepped into the corridor and stopped in front of a door with an "occupied" sign. Yuan Jiayi opened the door, and the two people following behind her carefully poked their heads in.

In the small space, there was a small square table. Next to the square table, there were two people sitting.

One was the new financial assistant Xiao Wang, who was holding a pair of scissors and a bundle of tape in his hands. When he saw them, he showed a look of surprise; the other was the Otter.

He was tied to an office chair at this moment, with large pieces of transparent tape wrapped around his hands and feet, and thick pieces of tape on his eyes and mouth, struggling constantly.

At the moment when Xu Ming and the others poked their heads in, the tape on his mouth happened to be slightly removed. The chaotic roar immediately entered the ears of the two people——

"I want to work, let me work, don't stop me from working!"

"I love Hongqiang, I love my work——"

"Let me work! I want to dedicate my humble life to the great company!"

Xu Ming & Qiu Yufei: ...

I can see.

He is really sick.

*

"Mr. Otter became like this after experiencing a 'manager inspection'."

Five minutes later, in the conference room where everyone was staying.

While Xiao Wang continued to tie tape around the otter, he explained to the two men, "We have to tie him up, otherwise he will go crazy and want to complete the work, and may even hurt himself or beat others."

These tapes and scissors were taken from the storage room next to it. There are many similar small rooms in this corridor, most of which are double offices, but there are also storage rooms and small meeting rooms. The magical thing is that this corridor seems to have no end, and there is no way to know how many rooms there are on both sides. The

storage room has its own rules. As long as you are an employee of the company, you can apply for unlimited stationery. Xiao Wang and his friends were not polite and took a lot of stationery, whether useful or not, and piled them in this small meeting room.

This became their temporary base and also a place to guard the otter. The other two people from the photography department were in charge of finding more information outside. Thanks to the popularity of escape rooms and infinite flow novels these days, although everyone was afraid, they finally had some ideas.

It's just that we can't get in touch with them, and we don't know where they are now.

According to Xiao Wang and his friends, they came in earlier than Xu Ming and his friends, at 8:45. At about 9:30, there was a "manager inspection", and the inspectors were the photography department employees. The three otters were forced to sit at their workstations.

"What?" Xu Ming raised his eyebrows, "He also sat in the wrong seat?"

"No, no, he sat in the right seat - that is, after the inspection was over." Xiao Wang whispered, "He looked at the information in the computer and said he knew how to 'complete the work'. And because it is written in the "Employee Code of Conduct" that you can leave work early if you finish the work ahead of time, he wanted to use himself as an experiment..."

The so-called "work" is to make some documents or PPTs according to the requirements. These are somewhat clear in her mind. As for the way to obtain work materials, she could not see it clearly, but the otter who had also experienced the inspection seemed to be very clear.

"The materials can be copied to the designated computer, or you can send an application email to the specified email address. The otter chose the second one." Yuan Jiayi on the side supplemented, "He memorized the email address, and after returning, he sent the email through his laptop and really got the materials... He started to make the PPT."

Speaking of this, as if she remembered some terrible scene, her face sank slightly:

"As a result, halfway through, his condition became obviously strange, his body temperature was abnormally high, and he kept mumbling, and..."

And, I don’t know if it was her illusion. As the completion of the PPT became higher and higher, her heartbeat became faster and faster. More and more strange figures can be seen, and even footsteps and wailing sounds that do not exist can be heard. When asked, other people also said the same thing.

"There are also hallucinations... The room feels hot and the walls seem to have been burned." Xiao Wang sighed, "We felt that this would not work, so we trapped him first. We couldn't knock him unconscious, so we had to tie him up first."

"A wise decision." Xu Ming nodded affirmatively, "By the way, what is the "Employee Code of Conduct" you just mentioned?" "

The complete printed version that Lao Li and the others brought back earlier. I don't know where they found it. I'll give it to you later." Yuan Jiayi was busy helping Xiao Wang prepare tape. Seeing the otter's increasingly fierce struggle, she couldn't help but frowned and turned to Xu Ming again.

"Do you really have a way to wake him up? He looks like he's having epilepsy now."

"Not sure, I'll try." Xu Ming was rummaging through Otter's backpack. Seeing that Yuan Jiayi was still looking at him with some doubt, he thought about it and added, "I have an aunt who can 'scare', and I learned a little from her when I was a child."

This is of course an excuse, but it sounds better than telling people "I have a suspected expired psychic physique."

And in this regard, she does have some experience -

"Otter teacher's condition is obviously affected by his thinking." Xu Ming said, "If you want to wake him up, you must give him enough shock -"

But physical stimulation is obviously ineffective. She had just asked Qiu Yufei to slap the man twice, but it didn't have any effect except making his face a little more rosy and plump.

Then we can only try to start with mental stimulation... But Xu Ming really has no experience in this matter, so he can only try his best.

"No, why is there so much mess in his bag?" She frowned as she rummaged through the bag, "What is this, social security payment certificate?"

"He went back to his hometown last week to do some work, and asked the HR department to print out a lot of documents." Sister Jiayi explained.

Xu Ming frowned and took out a large bag of mints from his bag: "And this?"

"Specialties, right?" Xiao Wang was uncertain, "I remember he gave a lot to the people in the photography department."

Xu Ming: "... Doesn't he have anything that he is very attached to? Like photos of his girlfriend?"

"Except for Lao Li who is engaged, all the others in the photography department are single - dogs!" Yuan Jiayi gritted her teeth and held down the otter that had jumped up again, and tried to wrap another circle of tape around his hand. Qiu Yufei came to help after realizing it, and Sister Jiayi's face finally looked better, "If it doesn't work, just smash his camera! Smash it in front of him!"

"I thought so too, it's not like he doesn't have a camera in his bag..." Xu Ming muttered, his expression suddenly changed, and he took out something from it.

It was a complete fire drill notice. The content was exactly the same as what she had found before, the only difference was that it was cleaner and smoother.

Xu Ming's eyes became subtle:

"Where did you find this?"

"Ah? The rehearsal notice?" Yuan Jiayi took the time to take a look, "It was also brought back by the otter - during the previous 'manager inspection', he sat in the right seat, and this appeared on the table out of nowhere."

...So this was the prize for passing the inspection?

Xu Ming was stunned again, and suddenly felt that the tattered notice he had picked up was not so good.

No, if this is the logic, it is better to say that the existence of that thing... is even stranger.

Xu Ming: "Sister Jiayi. There are three people in the photography department, right? Do you know if the others got this notice? Or did they get it and throw it away?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen them take it out. But no one would throw away something with such obvious clues." Jiayi looked at her strangely, "Why are you asking this?"

"Nothing, but I picked one up before. From under the table. I thought it was a bit strange." Xu Ming pursed her lips, her hands didn't stop moving, but her face showed some thought.

Indeed...if it is a reward, most people would not throw it away, right?

She pondered, and suddenly took out something from her bag, studied it for a while, turned around, and walked quickly to the otter.

Then with a swish, she tore off the tape stuck on the other's eyelids.

The eyes that had been sealed suddenly opened, the brown eyeballs trembled as if they had received some great stimulation, and the whites of the eyes were red as if they were about to bleed. Xiao Wang and Jiayi were startled, and the latter almost jumped up.

"What are you doing?" She couldn't help but shouted, "We can't let him see it, it will make him even crazier--"

Before she finished speaking, Xu Ming suddenly raised her hand and held a piece of paper in front of the otter.

No one knew what she was holding in her hand, but they only knew that at that moment, the otter's violent struggle suddenly froze.

"..." Everyone held their breath for a moment.

After a while, there was no more reaction from the otter. Qiu Yufei couldn't help but whispered: "Teacher Mingming, what are you holding in your hand, talisman paper? How about some more? It doesn't seem to be enough."

Xu Ming: "..."

"What talisman paper? It's just his salary slip from last month." She exhaled, "Although it's just a try - but at least let him realize that work is for money, right? This is common sense!"

Therefore, a company like Hongqiang that has not agreed on any remuneration and will not pay any remuneration, according to common sense, is not worthy of the loyalty of any employee. In other words, the current enthusiasm of Otter is completely unreasonable, untenable, and will collapse at any time...

As long as he realizes this, Otter should be able to wake up.

At least that's how Xu Ming analyzed it - or rather, he believes it.

"Are you sure this will work?" Jiayi next to him was stunned, "This is Ghost Company!"

"What's wrong with Ghost Company? Can Ghost Company take advantage of its employees' labor and loyalty for free? This is unethical... cough!" A strong itching sensation suddenly attacked his throat, and Xu Ming couldn't help but coughing violently.

For some reason, the more he coughed, the more itchy he felt. During the coughing process, he seemed to hear the strange voice in his mind laughing again - and then he saw the otter cough and blink slowly.

The madness in his eyes gradually faded, and his tense muscles relaxed. He opened his eyes wide, his eyes clear and stunned.

"..." Jiayi and Xiao Wang looked at each other and tentatively tore off the tape on his mouth. The next second, the otter took a deep breath and looked at them in disbelief: "What's going on? What's wrong with me? What are you doing?"

...

He actually woke up.

He actually woke up? !

Almost everyone's eyes turned to Xu Ming, surprised as if they were watching a miracle - or a weird thing.

Xu Ming calmed down, stuffed the pay slip back, turned to look at Yuan Jiayi who had a complicated expression, and said with a cough:

"Sister Jiayi, can you show it to me now? The complete version of the "Employee Code of Conduct" you mentioned before?"