Chapter 186
Chapter 186
Goose bumps belatedly rose all over Qian Miao. He shrank into the farthest corner of the elevator.
Fortunately, the elevator light remained on. It illuminated his bloodless face so harshly that even he thought he must look like a ghost.
Rustle.
Rustle.
Rustle.
The sound of cloth rubbing came from deep within the dark corridor outside, as though someone were slowly approaching.
Qian Miao sprang to the side of the elevator and repeatedly struck the close-door button, but the elevator did not respond.
What should he do?
Should he run out and take the stairs?
But the stairwell was even more terrifying…
When someone like Qian Miao encountered a source of pressure, he became incapable of thought.
He huddled uselessly in the corner, hugged his knees, and buried his head in his arms.
Like an ostrich blindly burying its head in the sand, he chose to ignore the danger.
Rustle.
Rustle.
Rustle.
The sound drew closer and closer. Qian Miao began trembling involuntarily. He even imagined what his corpse would look like when people found it.
Ding.
Qian Miao suddenly heard the elevator chime, the sound it made when the doors closed.
He still did not dare raise his head. Only when he felt the doors sliding shut and his body descending with the elevator did he awaken from his daze and breathe a sigh of relief.
He looked up and met a face pressed directly before his own.
Someone identical to him had entered the elevator, leaned in close, and stood motionless while staring at him.
Only after the doors closed did Qian Miao look up and come face-to-face with it.
The thing wore Qian Miao’s face, but its two eyes were clouded white. Barely five centimeters separated them.
It suddenly opened its mouth like a black hole and released a long, piercing scream.
Tang Shouren learned from Cheng Miao that day about the escape clue they had found, but he did not entirely believe it.
His assigned identity expressed dissatisfaction with the company system. How could that same person work hard and strive to become a key employee?
Would that not contradict his assigned personality?
Tang Shouren thought Cheng Miao’s group had reached the wrong conclusion, but he had no intention of warning them.
Someone had to test whether it was true. Whatever happened would not be Tang Shouren’s responsibility.
There was another, more important reason: he truly was not good at working.
In reality, he had made money by talking and deceiving people.
That skill reached its full potential after he entered Survival Inn. After all, Survival Inn never lacked people of weak resolve.
Take that girl Kiki. He had only casually grabbed her while fleeing.
He had already assessed the situation. Even if he had not pulled her along, the girl would have been fine. But why refuse an effortless favor?
Afterward, he gained someone utterly loyal to him. She had died in this instance, but at least she tested an important path for him.
If a man with absolutely no work experience had to compete to become a key employee in a place overflowing with talent, he might not leave the instance for years.
No. He had to find his own way out.
Tang Shouren hesitated for a long time. But the experience bought with two teammates gave him confidence. After mentally preparing himself for a while, he finally created a test group chat at noon.
Cheng Miao was eating the sandwich Qiudong had brought her at her workstation. Qiudong had not left either. He dragged over a chair and sat beside her.
He said nothing and made no flirtatious gestures, simply keeping Cheng Miao company in silence.
Seeing Linda waggle her eyebrows at her, Cheng Miao looked at Qiudong and lowered her voice. “Doesn’t this break the rules?”
Qiudong opened a bottle of milk and handed it to her, his expression calm. “A flirtation can either end or deepen. Are we supposed to keep flirting forever?”
Cheng Miao drank some milk, and Qiudong took the bottle back and tightened the cap. After thinking, she sensed something wrong. “But the company doesn’t permit dating. Shouldn’t the final outcome be that it ends?”
Qiudong lowered his eyes to conceal the fleeting laughter within them. When he looked up again, he was as cool and businesslike as ever.
“How would we know without trying? If it truly broke the rules, how could I still be sitting here perfectly well?”
Cheng Miao thought that made sense and said no more.
She had just finished eating when she saw the information about the group Tang Shouren created. Holding the empty sandwich wrapper in one hand, she tapped at her phone with the other.
Qiudong quietly took a tissue, leaned closer, and wiped a bread crumb from the corner of her mouth. Cheng Miao’s attention was entirely absorbed by her phone, so she did not notice anything inappropriate in his behavior.
She raised her face slightly to make it easier for Qiudong, then held out her phone. “Look at this man. What is he trying to do?”
Tang Shouren had slowly typed a paragraph into the group: Companions, are you going to endure the company’s exploitation in silence forever?
Qiudong glanced at it, then returned his gaze to Cheng Miao’s fair face. His fingertip brushed her delicate skin, seemingly by accident.
Qiudong threw away the tissue. Seeing that Cheng Miao was still looking at her phone, he sat down and commented lightly, “A stupid idea devised by a stupid man.”
Cheng Miao did not answer. She watched Tang Shouren, who had received no responses, slowly type another series of messages.
We complain about the company’s system all the time. Now it’s time to think about ourselves.
Rather than spend our entire lives fighting for the company, we should fight for ourselves.
I’ve already arranged to print posters and begun reporting the company extensively online. As long as we work together, we can win the first light of victory.
Cheng Miao’s brows drew together. Tang Shouren looked intelligent, perhaps even too intelligent.
After his teammate Kiki died for publicly opposing the company, how could he dare confront it so openly?
Qiudong rested his chin on one hand, his pale eyes fixed on Cheng Miao. “Do you remember the messages he mass-sent a couple of days ago?”
Cheng Miao remembered. At the time, she thought Tang Shouren’s impassioned curses would draw retaliation from the rules, yet he remained perfectly fine.
Cheng Miao narrowed her eyes. Her words formed a question, but her tone was certain. “He’s testing something?”
Qiudong stretched his long legs. “Mm.”
Cheng Miao did not know whether to laugh or sigh. Now she knew the company employees all complained about it to some degree, making private grumbling permissible.
Tang Shouren had used that to locate the boundaries of his assigned personality.
But this behavior now…
Qiudong was in an excellent mood. Seeing that it was almost time, he took the trash Cheng Miao still held and prepared to throw it away. Before leaving, he tossed her a question.
“What kind of person do you think Tang Shouren is?”
Cheng Miao lowered her head and thought. The corner of her eye twitched.
A treacherous old bastard.