In the end, Xu Zhiyi secured first place in that day's Valuation Assessment with an impressive score of losing thirty yuan.
And Lin Yan, with a razor-thin advantage of one yuan, clinched second-to-last place.
Both of them concluded the day's activities perfectly.
Only Wang Guangqing, who had wanted to drag someone down as a scapegoat, turned deathly pale, his struggling legs completely giving way. His lips quivered as if he wanted to say something to beg for mercy, but the two security guards hoisted him up like a limp shrimp and quickly dragged him out of the assessment office.
Only after the door closed did Xu Zhiyi drop her intimidating gaze, instead curving her eyes into a soft smile as she tugged at Lin Yan's sleeve, showing him the photograph she had torn off in the nick of time.
It was a signboard for a photography studio, black and white, which perfectly matched the advertisement flyer they had seen at the entrance earlier.
They would probably need to pay that place a visit as well.
After the two confirmed their itinerary for the next day, Xu Zhiyi began to think about what tool she could use tonight to keep her brother and herself bound together—to prevent him from sneaking out to work the night shift.
Then she saw the host begin distributing room keys, handing them out one by one, and giving one to Lin Yan as well.
Lin Yan took the key and gave her a faint smile. "It seems I won't be able to come over tonight."
Xu Zhiyi felt like the sky was falling!
She had been so furious with Wang Guangqing that she completely forgot about their plan to secretly stay together at night.
As the players all hurried toward the dormitories on the second-to-last floor, Xu Zhiyi began searching for various excuses, such as, "Brother, are you really okay with me going back to my room alone?"
Lin Yan was indeed not okay with that.
After he twisted open the room door and confirmed the lock was intact and difficult to pick, Xu Zhiyi came up with a second reason, shaking the toiletries stuffed in her bag. "Then are you okay with me organizing all these by myself?"
That one was hard not to be okay with.
But when Lin Yan met Xu Zhiyi's gaze as she clung to the doorframe, he still stayed, helping her tidy up the room.
It was a luxurious single room, very much like a hotel suite.
It was almost curfew time.
"That ordinary dormitory over there probably doesn't have a private bathroom like this, right?" Xu Zhiyi handed him the unsealed toothbrush, blinking furiously with hints, trying to hypnotize him. "Brother, you don't want to go back and use a toothbrush that sheds bristles, do you?"
"…"
The quiet bathroom was filled with alternating sounds of washing. Xu Zhiyi's lashes curved as she squeezed in next to Lin Yan, their overlapping figures swaying in the mirror.
Come to think of it, she had the Instance to thank—she could once again become her brother's shadow, sticking to him every step of the way, with a perfectly legitimate reason to boot.
"Do you want to take a shower?" Lin Yan, standing behind her, suddenly asked.
"I… can I?" Xu Zhiyi turned back in a daze. "But there are no spare clothes to change into here."
Lin Yan pushed the door open and left. After a moment, he returned with her discarded jacket, wetting half the sleeve under the faucet.
Xu Zhiyi watched obediently from the side.
In an instant, he transformed back into his shadow form. His towering body had to bend down in the bathroom, and a wave of coolness rushed at her face—more effective than any high-powered air conditioner.
The shadow's palm pressed against the wet sleeve.
When he reverted to human form, the jacket in his hands was dry once more.
"In Shadow State, I can absorb the residual water stains on clothes," Lin Yan said.
Xu Zhiyi was startled: "Brother, you actually have this ability!"
Lin Yan hummed in acknowledgment. "I only discovered it not long ago."
"Then why do you have this ability?"
If other Specters of the same kind saw Lin Yan like this, they would probably be struck dumb with shock.
This was clearly a design meant to make it more convenient to drain blood.
Who would have thought it would be used by a Specter to dry clothes!
Lin Yan, who had never come into contact with his own kind, didn't know any of this. After deep thought, he replied calmly, "Perhaps it's a skill that was born specifically to serve my little sister."
His sister let out an "oh dear," and at this, she was even more charmed, her eyes curving into crescent moons. She refused to let him leave the room no matter what.
She took the jacket and smelled it. It had only been soaked with water, so the scent of the clothes shouldn't have changed, but probably because Lin Yan had touched it, she still felt like she could catch a faint, slightly bitter fragrance that belonged to him.
This made her fondness for the jacket skyrocket.
"Then does that mean after bathing, I won't need a towel either—I'll just need you to hold—"
She stopped mid-sentence. Xu Zhiyi suddenly realized that some things still couldn't be fully delegated to her brother. Rarely, she felt a bit shy and stumbled over her words.
The pink flush spreading from behind her ears down her neck still betrayed her.
Lin Yan found it somewhat amusing and patted her head. "So, are you going to take a shower? The laundry detergent is over there too. After you finish, you can give me the clean, wet clothes."
"I…" On one hand, Xu Zhiyi wanted to experience his ability more, and on the other, she didn't want him to leave so easily. After a brainstorm, she came up with a better stalling tactic.
"Why don't you go shower first? Warm up the bathroom a bit, and then I'll go."
"After I go back, I can shower in the bathroom over there."
"…Brother." Xu Zhiyi seemed to hear something shocking and terrifying, looking at him with utter disbelief. "Are you saying you want to take off your clothes in the public bathroom?"
"…"
In reality, many players rarely even went to the restroom to avoid potential danger. Especially the public bathroom on the first day—no one would be there except for Specters coming to ambush you.
"How can I feel at ease letting you shower alone?" Xu Zhiyi continued her serious tirade. "Either I go with you and keep watch by your side."
Her cheeks were still pink, and the more she spoke, the deeper the pretty color grew. Lin Yan gently poked her face and finally nodded.
He took less than ten minutes, and when he came out, even his hair was dry.
Then he grabbed Xu Zhiyi by the nape, who was still trying to stall for time, and escorted her into the bathroom.
"Brother, don't just leave suddenly, okay? If I come out and don't see you, I'll be really worried." Just before closing the door, she poked her head back out, lacking a sense of security, and demanded his promise.
Lin Yan softly hummed in agreement.
He leaned against the edge of the door, eyelids lowered, his figure faintly reflected in the frosted glass.
The sound of water spraying inside began. His fingers hanging at his side unconsciously curled, his fingertips rubbing against the sweater she had tossed to him before going in, feeling inexplicably restless.
His timid little sister.
His sister, who needed his company.
"Brother—" The sound of water stopped. Xu Zhiyi, her skin softened by the steam, pulled open the door. She didn't have Lin Yan's ability, so when she came out, her hair tips still carried water droplets, dripping one by one onto her shoulders and sliding into the wide towel wrapped around her body. "I'm done washing!"
Lin Yan lowered his gaze to look at her.
She looked expectant, yet a little shy, as she handed him her freshly washed clothes.
Her undergarments were wrapped inside the shirt. Fortunately, there was no need to open it—he could dry them just as they were.
The shadow form appeared in the room. One of his hands held her clothes, while the other rested gently on top of her head, a faint coolness passing through her hair strands.
Visibly, the shirt that had been soaked into a dark shade returned to its original state, and her hair no longer dripped with water.
"Done." Lin Yan handed the clothes back to her.
Xu Zhiyi hugged the clothes and slipped back into the bathroom. Only when she stood once again in the quiet, cramped space did she realize her heart had been pounding all along.
She took a deep breath. The hot, humid air of the bathroom seemed to weigh on her mood as well, and getting dressed took her quite some time.
To be honest, ever since leaving the funeral parlor, she had still felt a slight lingering discomfort from the stench of decay inside—both physically and psychologically.
But now it was different.
Now her whole body carried her brother's scent.
When she pushed the door open and stepped out, despite being somewhat afraid to look at Lin Yan, Xu Zhiyi stubbornly extended the invitation. "That dorm over there—surely they don't have beds this soft and comfortable."
Lin Yan deftly fastened the sleep mask over her eyes.
"…"
Xu Zhiyi removed the mask with a plaintive look and then repeatedly urged him, "Don't go sneaking off to work in the middle of the night. Remember to rest."
Lin Yan smiled. "Specters don't need sleep."
"…Just don't go, no matter what." No matter what he said, she simply couldn't agree with that notion. "Do you want your little sister to have nightmares at night?"
After a round of threats, Lin Yan finally said okay.
Xu Zhiyi sent him off with tearful eyes.
In the dead of night, a black shadow slowly seeped in through the crack of the door, flowing to the side of Xu Zhiyi's bed.
Along the way, it casually devoured the other shadows lurking restlessly in the darkness.
"Are you asleep?" Lin Yan said softly.
After confirming that staying in the other players' dormitory wouldn't cause them any trouble, he had still come over.
He sat down by her bedside, lowering his gaze to watch her sleeping face with its tousled hair. His fingers gently brushed her warm cheek, wishing he could watch her like this forever.
But would she be willing?
The air was still.
His fingers were gently grasped.
When collecting that morning's funds, Wang Guangqing also appeared in the lecture hall.
He had originally been burly and imposing, but overnight he had become incredibly gaunt, his legs walking like two chopsticks stuck into plastic bottles.
Ning Siyu was quite surprised.
This man had actually survived.
But she had nothing to worry about, because Wang Guangqing's hatred had shifted entirely toward Xu Zhiyi, with no regard whatsoever for the fact that he had been the one to try to kill her brother first.
Xu Zhiyi.
At the thought of that name, the expression on her face shifted again. Weighing the pros and cons, she certainly shouldn't get involved, but…
Ning Siyu suddenly touched the top of her head.
Forget it. After all, she had her brother by her side—Wang Guangqing wouldn't be able to hurt her.
Wang Guangqing's venomous, hateful gaze was almost tangible as it stabbed toward Xu Zhiyi, only to be blocked by Lin Yan at her side, the attack turning soft and feeble, failing to distract her for even half a second.
He absolutely loathed this pair of siblings.
This time, as they walked out of the company, more players had taken the recruitment flyers. But today, besides those colorful advertisement pages, they also held an extra black-and-white newspaper in their hands.
The headline news was Wang Guangqing's face.
More precisely, it was his face from yesterday.
The news said that this out-of-towner had broken into a local resident's house in the middle of the night to commit burglary, and the homeowner had lost nearly a thousand yuan. The police station urged anyone who spotted suspicious out-of-towners to come forward with information immediately.
Because of this break-in incident, many more criminal police officers were patrolling outside the company.
However, Wang Guangqing's current face was vastly different from the wanted photo, so the patrol officers only gave him a cursory glance and didn't pay much attention to the sweat beading on his forehead.
After being let go, he let out a long sigh of relief, and a sickly, smug smile crept onto his face. "My choice was right after all! I knew it…"
The wind scattered his murmured words.
Before buying anything, you had to earn money first.
Xu Zhiyi and Lin Yan stood in front of the funeral parlor, silent for a long while.
Overnight, it had gone out of business.
A transfer notice was pasted on the funeral parlor's front door, with a few lines of sloppy, large handwriting:
This location boasts an excellent position and a stable customer base, but due to the destruction of our core technology by others, we are forced to part with our beloved shop. Interested businesses, please contact the number below…
As they were reading the notice, from the shadows came a very faint grinding, creaking sound.
Xu Zhiyi took out a pen and copied down the number.
"I'm afraid they ran into a troublesome customer," she said, shaking her head as she wrote. "How awful, they even destroyed their core technology… I was hoping to work here for a few more days. What a pity."
From the dark corner, the sound of grinding teeth grew louder.
The two utterly unself-aware villainous siblings exchanged a deep, solemn glance. The former reached out to comfortingly pat his sister's head. "There's nothing we can do about something like this. Let's try the photo studio—maybe they're hiring too."
On the way, they ran into the hooded man again.
And true to his reputation as a black-hearted merchant, he opened his mouth and jacked the insider information up to a thousand yuan per piece, claiming it was a full update and absolutely wouldn't overlap with yesterday's intel.
Xu Zhiyi: "…"
They might as well just go straight to Master Yue's home address and eavesdrop by the wall.
"What's your relationship with Master Yue? How do you have so much insider info on him?" she asked.
The hooded man suddenly became evasive.
But within a few seconds, he puffed out his chest again. "That's not something you out-of-towners need to know. Ask any more questions, and I might just refuse to sell you the info altogether."
"May I ask your surname?"
"…"
The hooded man stiffened his neck and walked away.
"…For all we know, he might be Master Yue himself," Xu Zhiyi said, narrowing her eyes. "I think he's extremely unreliable."
But at the same time, she was also well aware that yesterday they had purely gotten lucky. Today, they probably wouldn't be so fortunate as to find something good among a pile of junk.
She really didn't want to give up her room.
So in the end, they'd probably still have to buy information from that hooded man.
The town itself wasn't all that big, and they soon arrived at the photo studio's door. Who would've thought its gate was also tightly locked.
Two roll-up banners stood in front of the door, advertising their gimmicks and business hours:
We'll take the photo you want most, and make you the person you want to be.
A dream-come-true package for only 899.
Business hours: 8:00 PM to 6:00 AM.
Even blacker-hearted than the hooded man.
Xu Zhiyi sighed at the tightly shut door. This business hours window happened to be exactly when they were supposed to be heading back to the company—there was no chance to slip inside and check things out.
She turned around and found herself locking eyes with Lin Yan's somewhat inscrutable gaze.
A spark of criminal mischief lit up in Xu Zhiyi's eyes.
One minute later, Lin Yan, who had slipped through the door, opened the photography studio's entrance from the inside.
The space inside was spacious, cluttered with a mishmash of clothing meant for photo shoots. At the far end hung a wall of red backdrop paper, with a pull cord beside it that could switch it to other colors.
On the desk lay a photograph of Wang Guangqing.
If she hadn't seen him just that morning, and if the client name "Wang Guangqing" weren't clearly written beside the photo, it would have been nearly impossible to connect the person in the picture to him.
Thin and haggard, with dark circles under his eyes.
The photo bore a faint trace of brush retouching that was hard to notice at first glance—one could vaguely make out his originally broader face, but it required very careful scrutiny to discern.
So this was how "dreams come true" photos were touched up.
Beside the photo sat a stack of newspapers. Xu Zhiyi picked them up and flipped through them. At the very bottom was a white sheet of paper with a different texture from the newspapers, its headline reading "Submission Guidelines."
It was a section established by the town's newspaper, soliciting photographs of strange and unusual events from the townsfolk. Once accepted, a single photo would earn a thousand yuan in payment.
So this shady photography studio wasn't doing well at all—it even had to resort to this kind of side gig to make money.
But a thousand yuan.
That was a thousand yuan!
Xu Zhiyi repeated that number back and forth with Lin Yan three times.
Lin Yan: "The supermarket yesterday had cameras for sale. I remember where. Let's go—we can afford the cheapest one."
After dropping three hundred yuan at the supermarket, the two arrived at the newspaper office.
The office was built at the edge of town, so remote it felt cut off from the world. It stood two stories tall, with lush green woods stretching out behind it.
When the editor inside saw visitors arriving, she was extremely enthusiastic, repeating "welcome, welcome" over and over without mentioning a word about the newspaper's history.
"You're here to submit photos, right? We've recently launched a crime special, and we're in dire need of quality photo submissions." Her face was full of smiles, her voice bright and clear. "You've only been here two days, so you probably don't know—our town has a serial killer on the run, and it's been going on for nearly three months now."
"The only thing confirmed so far is the body dump site—said to be in the forest."
"The police have searched, and we've sent people in to look too, but they haven't come back. If you're willing, while taking photos, could you also help look for them? I'll pay you extra."
She stopped smiling then, her expression turning serious as she slid two more photographs across the desk.
They showed a man and a woman.
Their names were written beneath the photos—the woman was called Lu Youqing, and the man Zhao Zixun.
"They're a couple," the editor continued. "Their photos are priced the same as the ones offering clues about the killer."
"Those who claim to have seen bodies in the forest describe them like this—Red-string Puppets."
Before Xu Zhiyi and Lin Yan could even show any sign of reluctance, the editor lightly added more weight to the scales. "I know taking these photos is extremely difficult. For each photo, I'll pay you an additional two hundred yuan on top."
This, in effect, made the prospect of going into the woods to take pictures sound more and more dangerous.
But a thousand two hundred yuan for a single photo was, admittedly, hard to resist.
Xu Zhiyi looked down at the three-hundred-yuan camera in her hands. The more she stared at its black casing, the yellower it seemed—and the more it looked like a golden ingot.
Before leading them to the forest entrance, the newspaper editor paused at the office door, her smile still frozen on her face, but the light in her eyes dimmed. "Let me confirm one more time—you two are a couple, right?"
What did that have to do with taking photos?
Xu Zhiyi blinked, thinking the editor must have misunderstood because of the hands they'd been holding when they walked in. She was about to deny it when Lin Yan spoke first, giving a faint nod.
"Yes."
The editor fell silent.
"Yes, yes!" The quick-witted younger sister promptly grabbed her brother's hand, flashing a smile as she showed it off. "We're super sweet together—"
This was a forest that felt like it rarely saw living visitors. The bark of the trees twisted, and the leaves were so green they were almost black, layering thickly overhead, blotting out the sky so completely that no light could pass through.
Outside the woods stood a two-meter-tall chain-link fence, rusted and streaked with grime, occasionally crackling with short-circuiting currents—proof that it was still in use.
It looked heavily guarded, but a few steps along revealed a torn opening large enough for an adult to slip through easily, gaping open with great hospitality, as if inviting all the short-lived seekers inside.
The newspaper editor stopped far outside the hole, watching the two short-lived souls enter one after the other.
Once she was certain they could no longer hear her, Xu Zhiyi tugged at Lin Yan's sleeve. "Brother, why did you just say we're a couple?"
"The two missing people were a couple." Lin Yan turned his face toward her, his tone the same as when he used to teach her how to solve the final exam questions. "I think she probably wanted to use us to trade for them."
…That was straight out of a horror story!
Xu Zhiyi shuddered. "…"
The forest ahead seemed even more sinister now.
The air was heavy, stale, and dank, with the occasional faint caw of crows echoing through. Wild grass grew thick on the ground, and thin, pale-green vines crawled everywhere.
The further Xu Zhiyi walked, the harder it became. Her feet felt leaden, and her vision grew increasingly blurry.
It was like walking with two dumbbells strapped to her ankles—every step demanded enormous effort. But when she looked down, she was only caught by a few vines as thin as charging cables.
Yet some strange sense of guilt stopped her from telling Lin Yan about it. She just silently bore the weight.
After walking through the forest for a few minutes, she finally stumbled and fell.
She didn't hit the ground—Lin Yan caught her by the waist just in time.
He checked her condition. "Are you feeling unwell?"
The inexplicable heaviness suddenly vanished. Xu Zhiyi felt a little wronged and accused, "I was being really careful walking, but these vines kept tangling me up."
She didn't realize how weak her voice sounded, or how feverish and dazed she looked—nothing like the healthy, lively girl she'd been before stepping through the fence.
Lin Yan crouched down to look at her shoes. Sure enough, they were wrapped in fine vines, some already creeping toward the edge of her shoe opening.
He pulled the vines away.
Tiny thorns pricked into his skin, but because of the Specter's special constitution, the wounds healed quickly, and barely any blood seeped out.
"Don't walk anymore from here on," he said.
Xu Zhiyi blinked in confusion.
The next second, she was lifted into his arms. Lin Yan transformed into a towering shadow form, his powerful arms cradling her as if she were lying in a hammock, allowing her body to relax with ease.
She felt he seemed taller than before—perhaps soon, she could lie in the palm of his hand.
The deeper they ventured into the forest, the more rampant the vines underfoot became, and the visibility in the air grew lower and lower.
Even worse, it started to rain.
Within just a few minutes, the sky darkened and the rain poured down, the wind nearly shaking the forest apart.
Lin Yan shielded her from the brunt of the wind and rain like a giant black umbrella overhead.
The stray raindrops that slipped through landed on her hanging hair and clothes, but were quickly absorbed by his shadow form, whisking away the dampness.
Under such protection, Xu Zhiyi felt at ease. Her eyelids grew heavier and heavier, and gradually, she drifted off to sleep.
When she woke again, Lin Yan had already found a place to take shelter.
It was a small wooden cabin.
Completely at odds with the storm outside, the cabin was dry and warm, a stone fireplace crackling with fire.
But aside from the fireplace, the place was completely empty—not a single other piece of furniture in sight.
"…"
Not fit for living. It looked more like the kind of place a serial killer would choose to temporarily store a body.
Xu Zhiyi, still chilled, sat in front of the fireplace to warm herself. Thanks to her human sponge of a brother beside her, she hadn't gotten wet at all.
The crackling flames reflected in her eyes.
The fire had already been burning before they entered.
Nine times out of ten, the serial killer had just left. If they were extremely lucky, it might have been the couple.
But that hope was slim.
On a day like this, with heavy rain, only the former would be running around in the forest.
Just as Xu Zhiyi was sinking into worry, her hair—now warmed by the fire—was suddenly touched.
She tilted her face up. Lin Yan, standing behind her, felt her forehead again. "Is there anywhere else that feels uncomfortable?"
Xu Zhiyi shook her head energetically, full of life.
Lin Yan hummed in acknowledgment.
He sat down beside her. His eyes, which were always smiling at her, were now silent. His cold hand wrapped around her wrist. Even though he was so close, Xu Zhiyi felt as if they were miles apart.
"Why are you so upset?" She poked his fingertip with hers. "I feel great right now. Nothing's wrong."
Lin Yan's dark eyes gazed at her, heavy and dim.
After a long moment, he lowered his gaze. "Even with me by your side, you still got hurt, and I didn't notice for so long… I'm sorry. I'm not a good brother."
Xu Zhiyi couldn't stand hearing that kind of talk.
In the past, she might have just dryly said "No, no" and thrown in some cliché about loving her brother the most. But things were different now.
Taking advantage of how close they were, she easily leaned in, and with a "mwah," pressed a big kiss to Lin Yan's cheek.
She was satisfied to see her gloomy brother freeze again, his pale skin quickly flushing pink.
Then she issued a threat that completely disregarded her brother's dignity—saying that if he ever said something like that again, she would keep kissing him until his ears turned red and he couldn't speak.
"But what if I did it on purpose?" Lin Yan gripped her wrist, his fingertips trembling slightly. "What if I was afraid you'd stop trusting me, so I said it deliberately, to make you pity me…"
Xu Zhiyi found him too long-winded. She simply sat down in his lap and put her threat into practice.
After just a few kisses on his cheek, the pessimism in Lin Yan's eyes could no longer hold together. He wrapped his arms around her waist, feeling the same happiness and flutter as when they'd first hugged as children.
"Have I been too dependent on you lately?" He rested his head on her shoulder, leaning in gently. "How is it that you're the one comforting me?"
Only little kids need kisses to soothe their wounds.
When they were children, they had often comforted each other with this kind of closeness. If Xu Zhiyi scraped herself anywhere, the first thing she would feel was the warm breath blown from Lin Yan's mouth, coaxing her with "it doesn't hurt, it doesn't hurt," and only then would iodine and band-aids follow.
Year after year spent together, yet the degree of physical contact they could share grew lower and lower. Even though she knew this was perhaps unavoidable, Xu Zhiyi still often felt a sense of unwillingness.
Clearly, Lin Yan was also used to their joined hands.
But when they ran into neighbors who knew them, he would only maintain a safe distance from her, revealing no hint of intimacy.
When faced with some people who teased them, asking if they were going to keep living together like this forever, he would also calmly shake his head, as if separation had always been part of his plan.
But when Xu Zhiyi asked him whether he planned to move out in the future, to leave her, he would also subconsciously say that was impossible.
He liked being close to her.
Yet he held himself back from doing so.
Perhaps being dragged into the Instance Game was a good thing—at least so far, he had agreed to many things that, in their normal life, he would absolutely never have agreed to.
Because just as he said,
"You're so fragile."
Lin Yan affectionately held Xu Zhiyi's wrist. Her pulse beat beneath his fingers, but it would be all too easy to strip away her warmth and blood.
"So you have to stay with me forever." Xu Zhiyi whispered by his ear, "Got it, gege?"
In this place almost completely cut off from the world, with wind and rain sounding outside the window, Lin Yan gently kissed her forehead.
"Mm."
Outside the cabin, the wind and rain had weakened by more than half, to the point where one could walk without needing an umbrella.
On the weed-covered ground, a faint red glow flickered—not bright enough to illuminate much, but enough to walk by and search for something.
After the rain, a shallow layer of wild grass spread across the ground, so Lin Yan simply held Xu Zhiyi's hand as they searched the forest.
Xu Zhiyi held the camera in her right hand, her eyes sweeping around, looking every bit the professional reporter.
They hadn't walked long before Lin Yan suddenly covered Xu Zhiyi's eyes.
"…Ge?"
There was a corpse lying beneath a tree.
It was the male half of the couple, Zhao Zixun.
His body wasn't far from the cabin—only seventy or eighty meters away. He had fallen in a completely graceless posture, his expression twisted in death, features scattered wildly across his face.
Long-dried blood had pooled across the ground, seeping into the soil.
A faint metallic smell still lingered in the air.
Xu Zhiyi was about to pry Lin Yan's hand away, but then her vision was covered again by the blindfold—a handmade visual mosaic, protecting an adult's mental well-being.
"…"
How can you use the same trick three times!
Next, the camera in her hand was also taken away.
"……"
Click, click.
The photo paper slid out from the bottom of the camera. The picture had been taken.
By the time she anxiously pulled off the blindfold, the corpse's face had already been covered with a few tissues, hiding his ghastly features.
His head was three times the size of a normal one, swollen abnormally.
The cause of death was unclear, but at his wrists, ankles, and every exposed joint connection, there was a layer of dense red threads.
Lin Yan crouched down, pinching the corpse's index finger joint and tugging at it.
The thumb was easily pulled off, but when it reached a distance of five or six centimeters, it would stop in midair, unable to detach any further.
Very much like a marionette, but what connected these joints wasn't silk thread—it was thin green vines.
Lin Yan let go.
His finger joints immediately snapped back like a spring.
Though she still didn't know what had turned him into this, at least they had found the right person.
Xu Zhiyi cherished the photo paper, holding it tightly in her palm—a thin little slip, yet its value was quite remarkable, carrying a hefty price tag of twelve hundred yuan.
Even if the black-hearted merchant's price went up another two hundred tomorrow, they'd still have more than enough to buy his information.
"Brother, should we head back now?" she said. "I keep feeling like the assessment is about to start…"
Lin Yan nodded, pulled a wet wipe from his pocket, and carefully cleaned his hands before taking hers again.
By the chain-link fence, the newspaper editor was still standing exactly where she'd been when she sent them in, waiting for them to come out.
Or perhaps…
Waiting for the couple she was looking for.
Yet the look she gave them hadn't changed at all—a smile tugging at her lips, as if she were genuinely delighted to see them emerge.
Keeping Lin Yan's suspicions in mind, Xu Zhiyi wasn't fooled by that seemingly warm smile. She simply handed over the photo paper and briefly told her where Zhao Zixun was.
Even at the sight of his corpse in the photo, the newspaper editor's expression remained calm. She gave it a quick glance, said "good," and promptly paid them without hesitation.
But calmness, perhaps, was the greatest anomaly of all.
Worried that lingering any longer might invite trouble, the two quickly took their leave.
As she walked them out of the newspaper office, the editor suddenly spoke again with a smile: "Tomorrow's photo will be two thousand. Will you come again?"
The higher the reward, the more suspicious it was. Xu Zhiyi thought to herself that only a fool would keep coming back. Still, she didn't want to sound too definitive, so she gave a slight nod, projecting an air of indifference toward the two thousand.
"You might want to keep an eye on tomorrow's headline. Beside the photo, your names will be printed."
Xu Zhiyi murmured a couple of "mm-hmms" without giving it much thought.
Leaving the newspaper office, there was less than an hour left before the company's scheduled assessment time. Most of the goods on Antique Street had been packed away, with only a few households still leaving odds and ends on their wooden stalls.
But it was precisely this opportunity that let them glimpse the insides of those residents' homes.
A plain wooden bed, a small table, a small wooden cabinet, a small chair—nearly bare walls all around. It didn't match the standard of living a black-hearted boss should have at all.
Their gazes couldn't linger in the rooms for long; the doors were quickly shut, and Antique Street fell into a desolate stillness.
Xu Zhiyi hurried over to the nearest wooden stall, casually picked up a wooden box, paid for it, and immediately set off again toward the company.
When they arrived, they were astonished to find that the company had undergone a small wave of renovations.
Hard to say exactly what had changed in any major way, but everything looked a bit tidier and brighter than when they'd left that morning.
In the hallway, two security guards were hauling away the cheap roll-up banners from the lecture hall, while against the wall leaned more finely designed company promotional posters.
This time, they'd even been paired with elegant white gloves.
By the time they got there, only two minutes remained before the assessment began.
The host at the long table had also changed into a new suit. A larger, more dazzling ruby feather brooch was pinned to his chest, making the whole outfit look extremely expensive.
They were the only two missing.
The host made no effort to hide the regret in his eyes as he swept a glance over them, clearly not pleased that they'd made it back just in time.
Xu Zhiyi pretended not to notice.
She steadied her breath and stood beside Lin Yan, only then noticing that most of the players in the meeting room wore the same listless, exhausted expressions. A few people had hands rubbed raw and red, gently shaking their wrists as they waited for the assessment to begin, as if that could shake away the discomfort.
They looked like they'd been through a lot.
But the glass in the meeting room was spotless.
Xu Zhiyi tilted her head in confusion, and happened to catch the eye of a girl who was shaking her wrist. The girl gave a bitter smile and mouthed to her, "I wiped it."
That must have been incredibly difficult!
"Thanks for your hard work," she mouthed back.
It seemed quite a few players had purchased "Master Yue's" intel today—among those who went on stage, none had antiques valued below twenty yuan.
The highest score belonged to Wang Guangqing, who this time shocked everyone by producing a solid fifty yuan. The moment the price was announced, he looked toward Xu Zhiyi and Lin Yan, but no one paid him any attention.
Aside from the NPCs, no one applauded him either.
The host raised his arms in celebration and declared loudly, "You interns of this cohort are simply the most extraordinary, most glorious batch yet! I am willing, for the sake of your hard work, to relax the quota for permanent positions—at the final assessment three days from now, more of you will be able to join the company and become full employees!"
Sparse, scattered applause followed.
"Tonight, I'll go back and petition the leadership to expand the quota to at least—" The host's face was full of exaggerated concession, "—three spots!"
"…"
From the corner, Xu Zhiyi whispered to Lin Yan, "Do we have to become full employees to leave this place?"
"Before, there was only one spot, and the competition was too fierce—it didn't meet the Instance's clearance conditions. Now that the quota has increased, perhaps that's it." Lin Yan replied in a low voice.
Xu Zhiyi sighed.
She didn't like the atmosphere of this company. The host's grandiosity grew by the day—while everyone else was worn out, he only seemed more and more flushed with vitality.
When it was her turn to go on stage, she opened the box and glanced inside. This time, the box contained half a box of powder again.
The powder was noticeably less than last time.
The amount had decreased, yet she produced an excellent score of 115, still leaving the second-place contestant far behind, and firmly retained her claim to the luxurious single dormitory.
The people at the table drew in sharp breaths… So the Crystal Ball could fetch a three-digit price!
The host smiled with extreme sycophancy.
But when it came to Lin Yan, his smile turned into a fake, insincere grin as he said that new rules and regulations now prohibited splitting a single antique into two parts for use.
Xu Zhiyi looked at him innocently.
"Especially certain people."
"…"
Lin Yan held back the slightly indignant Xu Zhiyi and pulled a stone from his pocket.
A pink one.
"Isn't that—!"
Xu Zhiyi and Wang Guangqing's voices sounded at the same time.
"When did you pick it back up?" Xu Zhiyi was overjoyed, cradling the stone and fussing over it. "Oh dear, did it get damaged when it fell?"
Lin Yan watched her with a smile.
Last night, he'd left her for a short while—that was to go find that stone.
It was a beautiful little stone his sister had carefully picked out; how could he bear to watch it be thrown away like that?
Unlike their warm, cozy atmosphere, over on the other side, Wang Guangqing was drowning in regret.
Lin Yan picked up the stone. In his eyes, it symbolized the priceless value of this antique—how could he have forgotten to retrieve it last night? It should have been his!
This became yet another reason for him to hate the two of them.
In this assessment, the one ranked last was the girl who had been cleaning the glass. Her eyes were red-rimmed, and despite having selected twenty antiques, she still came in dead last.
She stared fixedly at her own feet, her reddened palms curled tightly, as if awaiting the judgment that was about to descend upon her.
Just as she was sinking into despair, a pleasant female voice suddenly sounded beside her, as gentle as a breeze brushing past. "Don't be scared. My brother will definitely be last place."
She looked up in astonishment, meeting Xu Zhiyi's smiling eyes, which were curved as she looked at her.
Meanwhile, at the long table, Lin Yan had also placed the stone on the white cloth.
In the silence.
The Crystal Ball gradually displayed the number "0."
The entire room erupted.
Some were weeping tears of joy at having narrowly escaped disaster, some wore calm, indifferent expressions, and others were screaming at the top of their lungs as if they were going mad.
"How can it be zero? Why is it zero?" Wang Guangqing shouted, then turned to see Lin Yan and Xu Zhiyi's utterly unconcerned faces, grinding his teeth in fury. "You two knew from the start it would be zero? Then why didn't you stop me yesterday!"
"We did it on purpose. What about it?" Xu Zhiyi let out a cold laugh.
The host stared at the stone on the white cloth with an expression that defied description, looking as if he too might faint from anger. So he didn't stop Lin Yan from calmly retrieving the stone either—after all, since it wasn't an antique, it held no value whatsoever.
Chaos reigned. Xu Zhiyi ignored the hopping-mad Wang Guangqing and cheerfully took her brother's hand, heading toward the dormitory.
"He's last place—he can't stay in the company now!" Wang Guangqing shouted.
The two of them had completely made a fool of him!
"…"
Beside Xu Zhiyi, even the teary-eyed girl shot him a heavy glare.
But rules were rules. The host nodded, acknowledging his point.
He clapped his hands and called over the two security guards from the company, seemingly intent on reenacting yesterday's scene.
However, the two security guards who arrived were a full head shorter than Lin Yan, and their builds weren't nearly as impressive either. Standing behind the cold-faced Lin Yan, they looked like lackeys trying to curry favor with him.
"…"
The host turned his face away and waved his hand, signaling them to leave quickly.
Lin Yan left, and Xu Zhiyi was about to head back to the dormitory when Wang Guangqing blocked her path. He looked at her with a strange expression. "Without your boyfriend around, you'd better keep your door tightly shut tonight. Who knows—an enemy might come knocking."
Before she could say anything, the girl who had been cleaning the glass suddenly hurried over, slamming hard into Wang Guangqing and sending him stumbling, then linked arms with Xu Zhiyi and walked off with her.
"Xu Zhiyi, thank you and your brother." She spoke in a low voice. "My name is Cen Xi. I'm a freshman majoring in computer science at Hushan University."
"No need to thank me, no need…" Xu Zhiyi paused. "But do you know me and my brother?"
"Well…" Cen Xi nodded, then shook her head. "It was Ning Siyu who introduced you to us. She said you two are siblings."
She hesitated for a moment, then said quickly: "Ning Siyu also said you two are very formidable, and told us not to provoke you. Also, that Wang Guangqing—relying on his status as a teacher—has harassed her friend before. We are absolutely not on his side!"
Xu Zhiyi's eyes widened.
Xu Zhiyi had originally planned to wait for Lin Yan to climb in through the window.
But after sprinting all the way from the newspaper office, her physical energy had been drained, and she hadn't had time to eat a single bite. Now she was starving—to the point where if she didn't eat something soon, she'd faint from low blood sugar.
So far, she still hadn't used that perk of three free meals a day.
Xu Zhiyi cautiously crouched by the door for a while, peering through the peephole to confirm that Wang Guangqing wasn't lurking outside before she stepped out.
As it turned out, she couldn't even find the cafeteria, and could only wander helplessly in circles in the stairwell.
And it was during this wandering that she overheard something absolutely terrifying for a company intern.
In the second-floor lobby, the host was chattering away endlessly.
"Don't worry, boss, I only asked for those extra slots to keep them entertained. Even if I asked for a thousand or ten thousand more slots, no outsider would ever get into our company.
"Once I've squeezed every last drop out of this batch, I'll just find some excuse to fire them casually. These outsiders who haven't even signed a contract—what can they do besides swallow their losses in silence?
"The products I found do have a few top-tier ones, but rest assured, I've already locked them in the company vault. They'll never know the true value of those items.
"Nourishment? Of course, I've been collecting that all along. The powder I provided recently was made from top-grade spices crafted by our own locals… oh, yes, yes, those were all collected by me. I'm honored by your favor—it just shows your keen eye, picking me out of ten thousand to be your manager…"
There was no phone in this place.
The host was speaking to a potted plant, which made him seem especially unhinged, but eerily, the plant kept rustling in response, as if cooperating.
"…"
Xu Zhiyi continued to eavesdrop silently from the stairwell corner. Since the slots were just a sham, it meant the Instance task wasn't about getting a full-time position. Whether they found the most valuable antiques or not had little to do with their escape.
Xu Zhiyi listened to the host's rambling monologue, thinking hard, and didn't spare any attention to notice the subtle movement beside her.
Someone was silently approaching her.
The host's smile grew even more ingratiating. "You want yesterday's spice again, is that right? Don't worry, there'll be some every day from now on… Today's spice is a bit less, but the taste should still be decent, right? Tomorrow I'll definitely work even harder to collect it for you…"
"…"
It wasn't you who worked hard!
Xu Zhiyi finally understood it all. The "spice" he claimed to have found—wasn't that just the powder from the antiques she'd handed in those two times?
A full-time employee stealing credit from an intern in front of the boss—she'd never encountered that in the real world, yet the game made her run into it first!
Just as Xu Zhiyi was silently sneering at this behavior, the host, who was deeply engrossed with the potted plant, suddenly whipped his head around and shouted, "—Who's there!"
Xu Zhiyi's legs went weak with fright. There was no way to escape from where she was—above and below were staircases, and no matter which way she went, she'd be completely exposed.
The host was already striding quickly toward her.
Run she must. Xu Zhiyi had already scrambled down half a flight of stairs, and just as it looked like a stairwell showdown of speed and passion was about to unfold, she suddenly heard a "thud."
She instinctively turned back and saw the host, who had come to check the commotion in the stairwell, lying peacefully face-down on the ground.
Beside him stood a shadow form with a blurred face, holding a baseball bat.
"Brother!" she mouthed silently, afraid of waking the host lying on the ground.
In just a few steps, she ran back to his side.
The shadow form gradually faded away, revealing a smiling face as it looked at her. "I've been watching you from the side for a long time—how come you never noticed me?"
Xu Zhiyi: "!"
She finally understood the logic behind why people assumed the culprit was someone close to the victim—because the victim never turned around to look.
It turned out to be true.
People simply couldn't be on guard against those they were close to.
Lin Yan tossed the baseball bat to the ground.
"Brother, let me tell you!" Xu Zhiyi, too excited by the reunion with her brother to dwell on it, grabbed his hand and tiptoed at a sprint toward her room. "You have no idea what I just heard…"
Of course he wouldn't know.
The shadow form was in an illiterate state.
When they reached the dormitory hallway, she spotted another person lying in the corner and immediately halted her frantic steps. "Brother, this person is—"
"Wang Guangqing."
Lin Yan said casually, "I saw you weren't in your room, so I came out to look for you. I happened to run into him crouching by the door with a baseball bat, so I took care of him on the spot."
Xu Zhiyi: "!!"
That was truly well-deserved.
"Brother, you're practically the light of justice!"
"Thanks, little sister." Lin Yan gave a soft smile at the compliment. "Were you heading out to eat? I prepared something for you…"
"Let's go inside first!"
Xu Zhiyi opened and closed the door with lightning speed, all in one fluid motion. Once inside, she remembered what Lin Yan had said and slowed down both her hands and her speech. "What is it, brother? What were you going to give me?"
Lin Yan pulled out a roast chicken he had been hiding in his chest.
Xu Zhiyi: "!!"
She finally remembered she was in a state of extreme hunger and immediately looked at Lin Yan with stars in her eyes.
"Is there even a roast chicken shop open at this hour?" She tore off a drumstick and took a bite, while Lin Yan tilted his head, watching her from beside the table.
"I snuck into the company kitchen to make it." Lin Yan honestly confessed his crime. "But I left them a hundred yuan as an apology fee."
"Thanks, brother." Xu Zhiyi chewed the chicken with a complicated expression, though a trace of sorrow still seeped through her eyes. "But I already had the privilege of three meals a day, and a hundred yuan is a bit much…"
How could she waste money like that just because she'd earned a little recently!
Lin Yan accepted his sister's criticism. "I'll go get half of it back later."
"Forget it, forget it." She swallowed the luxurious hundred-yuan chicken. "Just stay here and keep me company."
Lin Yan patted her back to help.
While eating the delicious roast chicken, Xu Zhiyi recounted to Lin Yan, more or less, everything she had overheard.
Since the task had nothing to do with the full-time conversion quota, they would still need to make another trip to the newspaper office.
Tearfully earning another two thousand.
Within half an hour, all dormitories received an urgent bell ring.
Few people came out, so the two security guards went door to door, knocking on each one, and invited everyone to the lecture hall.
The host stood on the stage with a gloomy expression.
His head was wrapped in a bandage, and he held up a baseball bat. "Whose is this?"
The crowd below was dead silent.
Xu Zhiyi licked her glossy, well-fed lips, secretly savoring the taste of the delicious roast chicken.
Brother's cooking was really good.