Chapter 178
Chapter 178
Linda clicked her tongue with a sigh. “That’s why we can’t leave the company. We should be grateful. The company provides food and housing and even gives us half a day off every month. If you went outside, you wouldn’t even know how you died.”
Someone entered the break room as she spoke. Linda gave Cheng Miao a push, and the two returned to their desks.
Cheng Miao split her attention, organizing data while pondering Linda’s words.
Without a doubt, Cheng Miao was certain the outside world was not the problem. The company was.
First, the company used doctrine to imprison people’s minds and brainwash them.
Then it used violence to kill anyone who wanted to leave, which kept all the other employees trapped even more effectively.
Under these circumstances, any attempt to force their way out would trigger a death condition.
Cheng Miao’s side possessed the highest possible combat strength, but if they openly fought the logic of the instance, even an immortal warrior could not force their way out.
It seemed they could only find another solution.
Just as Cheng Miao focused on finishing her work first, her phone suddenly vibrated. She was rather surprised when she opened the message.
Qin Wen: The office supplies your Secretary Section ordered have arrived. Come pick them up.
Cheng Miao rubbed her fingers over the phone twice, then looked at Qin Xi across from her. “Sister Qin, Logistics says the office supplies we ordered are here. I’ll go collect them.”
Too busy to raise her head, Qin Xi made an okay gesture.
As Cheng Miao walked toward Logistics, she thought about their phones. They could contact one another and even express their true thoughts through messages, but she could not shake the feeling that using the phones to pass information was unsafe.
What should she do?
In the blink of an eye, Cheng Miao arrived at Logistics.
Qin Wen nodded to her and led her toward the storeroom.
Once they were alone, Qin Wen spoke so softly that the sound of moving supplies nearly drowned him out. “Monkey and Kiki are dead. Logistics disposed of their bodies.”
Cheng Miao’s expression did not change in the slightest. She beamed as she looked at one thing and then another.
She had no choice. Her assigned character was a sunny young woman everyone adored.
“They call the bodies scrap, and Logistics handles all of them. According to the records, quite a few people have died.”
Cheng Miao nodded and whispered in turn, “For now, it seems we can only perform our duties strictly as company employees. And don’t use the phones lightly to pass information.”
Qin Wen nodded faintly and followed Cheng Miao out while pushing the cart.
After returning to the Secretary Section, Cheng Miao thought for a moment and tentatively sent a message to the group.
Then her four teammates saw a strange sentence appear in the chat.
Cheng Miao: Two days apart and people already act like strangers. Damn these deadbeats!
Qi Jiajia glanced at it, put away her phone, then frowned at Lin Zhu across from her.
Qi Jiajia did not dare make any large movements. When she went to the restroom, she pretended to ask Lin Zhu affectionately, “Want to play a word puzzle together during our break?”
Lin Zhu rarely saw Qi Jiajia smile so innocently. He did not react until she pinched his arm, after which he nodded repeatedly.
When he looked down at the illogical sentence again and rearranged it several times, he finally understood.
Two people were dead.
Lin Zhu put away his phone and fell into thought over another message he had received.
Brother Li from Finance: Good job last time. Let’s keep doing it this way in the future.
Lin Zhu’s brows twisted into a knot. What had they done?
And what were they supposed to keep doing?
Elsewhere, Qin Musong also understood Cheng Miao’s meaning. He had only just put down his phone when his section chief stared at him with shining eyes. “Old Qin, you’ll definitely be our sales champion again this time!”
Qin Musong gave a professional smile. This was another industry he had never encountered. His head hurt.
Cheng Miao watched a private message pop up on her screen.
Qiudong: Want to have dinner together tonight?
For a moment, Cheng Miao could not decide whether Qiudong was serious or merely trying to get into character.
Even she had learned that the original owners of their identities were flirting. There was no way someone as capable as Qiudong had not realized it.
Cheng Miao had dated twice, but neither relationship went anywhere.
The first time was in college. They had only progressed to holding hands when the man suddenly transferred schools, ending the relationship.
The second was after she started working. As a corporate drone, she was so busy that after going an entire month without seeing her partner, the budding relationship simply scattered with the wind.
Drawing on her limited experience, Cheng Miao carefully considered whether one should accept this kind of invitation during the flirtation stage.
She scrolled through their history. Qiudong had never invited her to eat with him before.
The company forbade office romances, marriage, and children, all of which would interfere with work.
Consequently, the two protested too much and never appeared together during their breaks.
After some thought, Cheng Miao replied, Okay.
Then she immediately sent private messages to Qi Jiajia, Lin Zhu, and Qin Musong.
Cheng Miao: Ahhh, Qiudong asked me to dinner! Come with me. Otherwise it’ll look too obvious.
The three recipients reacted differently, but all deduced that this was part of Cheng Miao and Qiudong’s assigned relationship.
With no idea what to say about it, they could only silently agree and bury themselves in work again.
Shen Si and Fan Rui had not grasped the deeper meaning of the instance, but they at least understood that they were employees now and had to work.
After becoming familiar with her duties, Fan Rui grew restless.
Some people could not begin any proper task without touching this and fiddling with that.
After playing with every office supply on her desk, she walked over to Shen Si. “Sisi, let’s go to the restroom together.”
Women going to the restroom together was perfectly normal. She saw nothing wrong with it.
Shen Si was about to agree when Linda raised her head and called, “Shen Si, come help me sort these documents.”
Shen Si shrugged and gave her friend a mischievous smile, helpless to assist. You can go by yourself.
Watching Shen Si walk away, Fan Rui looked around. She did not want to work, but she was also a little afraid to visit a restroom, a notoriously dangerous place in any instance, by herself.
She walked over to Cheng Miao. “Miss Cheng, do you need to use the restroom?”
Cheng Miao frowned sensitively at Fan Rui’s form of address, but without thinking too much, she stood. “Let’s go.”
The company restroom looked ordinary, with gray-and-white stall doors, white porcelain squat toilets, and foot-operated flush pedals.
Cheng Miao examined it, confirmed that nothing seemed strange, took care of her needs, and waited for Fan Rui by the sinks.
She splashed water on her face and tied up her loose hair, making herself look more energetic.
Cheng Miao tilted her head at her reflection and touched her face. Everything looked normal, and her buff sensed nothing.
Could this be something other than a supernatural instance? Had the company simply raised a group of killers?
While Cheng Miao dried her hands, her phone chimed with a message from Linda.
Linda: Why did you pay any attention to her, much less go to the restroom with her? She always targets you because Sister Qin likes you more. She normally won’t even speak to you.
Linda: She’s acting strangely today. Why would she talk to anyone else? She even called Shen Si so affectionately just now.
Alarms had only just begun ringing in Cheng Miao’s mind when frantic, repeated pounding sounded against the door of Fan Rui’s stall.