After work, the company was basically empty. Jiang Wuning, Wang Xiaodian, and the others did not leave immediately after finishing overtime today; they went to Liu Lingling’s office.
Once the working anomalies left, the entire building dimmed. Their phones had no signal and couldn’t connect to the internet, but lighting was not an issue.
The group entered and headed straight to Liu Lingling and Sharp Head’s desks.
At night, anomalies are more active than during the day. It was hard to guarantee nothing would break in and disrupt their operation. They didn’t have much time, so they split up.
Jiang Wuning quickly scanned Liu Lingling’s desk. It wasn’t messy, but there wasn’t much on it: a computer, a few files, and some sticky notes.
Li Qing flipped through several files. After a few glances she felt a headache.
No matter how human anomalies appear on the surface, they are not human. The files contained a lot of repetitive and chaotic content. A single read could be called mental contamination. Li Qing endured the discomfort and flipped through them from start to finish. They were all client information, recording some client preferences.
If you excluded the chaotic and repetitive parts, these files still seemed somewhat normal(?), but those clients were outside the contaminated zone and had nothing to do with the pollution source, so they could basically be ruled out.
On the sticky notes were a few casual sentences.
【Keep it up!】
【Excellent people always attract jealousy.】
【Why why why don’t you trust me!!!】
【Saturday night at 8 PM, dinner with Mr. X.】
This one had a red circle drawn around it, indicating it was very important.
The handwriting was normal and the words were normal, but then in Li Qing’s sight, the words abruptly twisted. Like swarms of black bugs crawling into her eyes, or blatant mockery.
Li Qing turned pale. Suddenly a cold hand grabbed her arm. Her body stiffened and she instinctively turned towards her side, meeting a smiling woman’s face.
It was Jiang Wuning.
“You’re too absorbed,” Jiang Wuning said.
“Th-thank you… Sister Ning.” Li Qing panted slightly and pulled her arm free from Jiang Wuning’s grip, averting her gaze, not daring to look at her anymore.
No matter when or where, no matter the situation, a face always wearing a smile appearing before you doesn’t make it easy to accept.
The words on the sticky notes were not twisted; only Li Qing’s own perception was twisted.
She dared not look anymore and just stood aside, shining a light for Jiang Wuning.
Jiang Wuning found a notebook in a drawer. Its contents were much richer than on the desktop.
【Slut slut slut! You’re all sluts! Gossiping sluts! Pregnant yet still not doing good deeds!】
【I didn’t I didn’t I didn’t! Why do you say that? Why don’t you trust me either!】
【Shameless shameless shameless shameless.】
【Overtime overtime overtime again!】
【Why doesn’t she just die?】
【Why doesn’t she just die?】
【Why don’t they just die?】
【Why don’t I just die!】
【Why don’t I just die, die die die!】
【I won’t let you off easy!!!】
The entire notebook was emotional venting. Jiang Wuning’s expression remained unchanged as she read, but she didn’t linger on the text.
On the other side, Lu Neng, Wang Xiaodian, and Little Li didn’t find much at Sharp Head’s desk. Sharp Head had popped up when they brought up office gossip. He talked a lot, was an active person, knew many secrets, and was also a spreader of secrets.
Jiang Wuning put everything back in place and signaled everyone to follow her out. The old elevator rumbled loudly, making their scalps tingle. A chill lingered like a shadow, and fear clung to their skin like caterpillars—pull one off and there’s another.
Wang Xiaodian didn’t know why, but although he hadn’t seen any terrifying images tonight, his mental state felt very wrong.
In silence, they arrived at the dormitory shared by Jiang Wuning and Li Qing. The lights were turned on, but it was barely different from being off. The door was locked from inside, and the five of them found random spots to sit.
Five people, a sealed room. Though the light was gloomy as if covered in dust, Wang Xiaodian still felt a trace of warmth.
He quietly breathed a sigh of relief, thinking they would now discuss what they found in the office, but Jiang Wuning’s words made him pause.
She said, “Hello everyone, I’m Jiang Wuning, an investigator from A-City.”
Then Li Qing and Lu Neng.
“I’m Li Qing, from A-City. I’m an investigator.”
“I’m Lu Neng, an investigator from A-City.”
After speaking, their gazes all turned to Wang Xiaodian.
Wang Xiaodian was stunned. He didn’t understand why everyone was suddenly introducing themselves, but in this atmosphere he didn’t dare ask. He sheepishly followed, “I’m… I’m Wang Xiaodian… I’m also from A-City. I graduated three months ago and now work at a trading company… Is that okay?”
No one spoke. Only Jiang Wuning nodded at him with a smile. Then their gazes shifted to the next person, Little Li.
Wang Xiaodian also looked at Little Li.
Little Li’s expression was relaxed, even a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth. “My turn? Hello everyone, my name is Liu Lingling, a member of the sales department at Delicious Food Company.”
Silence.
A suffocating silence.
Wang Xiaodian stared fixedly at Little Li’s face. He seemed unable to see Little Li’s face again. Little Li wasn’t Little Li, so it was normal he couldn’t see his face.
Little Li’s face should have Liu Lingling’s face.
Crackle crackle, like the sound of crumpling plastic wrap. Wang Xiaodian saw Jiang Wuning pop a candy into her mouth, then rise from the bedside and walk towards Little Li.
“What’s your name?”
I’m Liu Lingling.
“I’m Liu Ling…”
Slap.
“What’s your name?”
“I’m Liu…”
Slap.
“What’s your name?”
Little Li didn’t answer immediately. He shrank into the corner, trembling, finally showing fear on his face. “I’m Little Li… Little Li, Li Weiyan’s Little Li, from A-City… I’m Little Li…”
Two slaps landed on Little Li’s face, but they also felt like they landed on Wang Xiaodian’s. What had he been thinking just now?
Jiang Wuning had candy in her mouth, still smiling as she spoke. “Alright, everyone don’t be so tense. The tighter your nerves, the faster your Sanity Value drops.”
“Self-introduction is the simplest detection method. From now on, we’ll start each meeting with a self-introduction. Remember who you are and where you’re from. Of course, you can always test each other with your companions.”
Huff.
Wang Xiaodian let out a long breath. At least… at least he remembered that information clearly. The anomalous world was too strange. He’d rather have an actual monster chase him… No no no, he was talking nonsense. Don’t come, don’t let anything come!
“Little Wang, how are you?” Jiang Wuning asked with concern. She had high hopes for this newcomer and suggested the Investigations Division recruit him.
“I’m okay, okay, thank you for your concern, Sister Ning.”
“Mm, then let’s talk about what we found in the office.” She recounted everything related to Liu Lingling, then asked Lu Neng about Sharp Head before continuing. “Liu Lingling’s story isn’t much to speak of—a woman driven to ruin by rumors. Her boyfriend’s distrust, high-intensity overtime, and work pressure were all reasons for her collapse. She chose to hang herself in the office, probably as revenge.”
“Maybe there are still many details we don’t know, but that’s not the most important. What we’re looking for is the pollution source, not to rehabilitate Liu Lingling.”
“Sister Ning, couldn’t Liu Lingling be the pollution source?” Wang Xiaodian asked in a small voice. He still didn’t quite understand this stuff.
“She could be. But if Liu Lingling were the pollution source, then her way of polluting us would be rumors and a twisted, insane version of mockery.”
Wang Xiaodian got a clue. “The current pollution method is Liu Lingling’s dead appearance, so the pollution source should be the person who broke down because of Liu Lingling’s death?”
“You could say that.”
Understood. It’s basically like: you made me suffer, now you all have to suffer the same, but in a twisted version.
Jiang Wuning faced him, smiling, tone relaxed, as if she was looking forward to what would happen next. “An A-Class Contaminated Zone definitely has more than one pollution method. We’ll see more anomalous phenomena.”
Wang Xiaodian: “…” Thanks, one is enough.
Who would break down because of Liu Lingling’s death? Someone with a deep connection to her, the person who caused her death… gossipy colleagues… Sharp Head?
Li Qing said, “Excluding the boyfriend and Mr. X, who aren’t in the contaminated zone, Sharp Head and the pregnant woman mentioned in the notebook are strong possibilities.”
Lu Neng: “Hard to say. After all, we haven’t seen other anomalous phenomena yet.”
Li Qing: “Even so, the pregnant woman should be a focus.”
Wang Xiaodian weakly interjected: “…How do we know if we’ve found the right pollution source?”
Lu Neng and Li Qing fell silent. Jiang Wuning said, “Try killing it.”
Wang Xiaodian was shocked. “Kill… kill?! What if we kill the wrong one?”
Li Qing: “Either you die or it dies.”
Wang Xiaodian: Huh?!
Lu Neng gave a more detailed explanation: “Compared to killing you, the pollution source would rather contaminate you. Of course, the contamination process can also be life-threatening, but you’ll understand later. As for other anomalies, if you attack, there’s a high chance they’ll just kill you directly.”
“So before you’re certain, don’t act recklessly. Accumulating too much hatred will be the end of you.”
Wang Xiaodian: “…” Whether he finds it or not, he can’t kill anything. He hasn’t even killed a chicken.
The next day, the third day of the probation period. As soon as Wang Xiaodian arrived at the company, he sensed a change.
There were more voices talking.
The office, break room, restroom, hallways—everywhere seemed to have whispering sounds, making the whole atmosphere noisy and sharp.
This was different from the previous two days.
Anomalies are indeed strange sometimes, but most of the time they don’t talk.
“Shifu, did you hear people gossiping?”
“No.”
Wang Xiaodian choked. Wherever his Shifu was, things were indeed normal.
“Shifu, you don’t seem to be in a good mood.”
Xu Xiye truly wasn’t in a good mood. First, he hadn’t seen Blue Eyes much last night. Second, as soon as he entered the company, he felt his pressure increase, as if something was stuck in his chest—uncomfortable.
Indeed, work, the root of all evil.
And there were crazy people in the company. Xu Xiye didn’t yet see who, but he printed out promotional cards for the psychiatric hospital and distributed them on everyone’s desks, hoping they wouldn’t avoid it and would seek treatment early.
