CH 9

Wang Jianguo was stunned. “Why?”

Seeing light at the end of the tunnel, it turned out they just fell into another trap. Su Rong swallowed the bitterness in her throat. “The clearance method we discussed before is under the premise we are customers. But if we wear this uniform, then we will lose our identity as customers. Can we really leave in the same way then?”

This was the question that suddenly occurred to her when she picked up the uniform. Don’t blame her for being paranoid. There were really too many pitfalls in this ghost talk.

Especially since Su Rong recalled the words on the note they found — “Since one person will always have to be sacrificed.”

What situation could make it necessary for one person on the team to be sacrificed? It could only be this situation.

Hearing Su Rong’s answer, Wang Jianguo realized the problem. Indeed, in ghost talks, one’s identity was very important. If he wore an employee uniform, there was a high probability of actually becoming a staff member.

Customers could leave the market by paying, but what about employees? You couldn’t go to “Him” to resign, could you?

“……Thank you for telling me about this.” Wang Jianguo said suddenly after a moment of silence.

With a little thought, it was easy to understand how valuable it was for Su Rong to tell the truth under these circumstances.

It could be seen that if the two of them really competed, it was impossible for Su Rong to defeat Wang Jianguo.

And if he didn’t know the truth, Wang Jianguo likely could only find out about it when they took the money to the cash register at the end. At that time, he would only be able to blame himself for being unlucky. It would be impossible to know Su Rong had guessed the truth long ago.

Although not telling the truth would do her no harm, Su Rong still chose to tell it. The courage to speak the truth alone was beyond compare.

Su Rong shook her head, saying softly, “Thank you for the past two days.”

She saw very clearly that, from start to present, if not for Wang Jianguo’s absolute suppression of everyone to maintain order, she might not be alive now, even if she could see the wrong rules.

The other side had done their best of benevolence and righteousness, so she should also have a clear conscience.

Wang Jianguo closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they were full of determination. “Then let’s each rely on our own ability. Put the uniform in the middle and walk a certain distance. I will count down from three, then we’ll make a grab for it. Whoever puts the costume on their opponent first wins.”

Ignoring the physical differences between men and women, this method was fair. But Su Rong didn’t ignore her opponent’s clenched fists after putting the uniform on the floor and the toes that had half-turned after walking away.

Based on her years of understanding criminals, such actions were precursors that they were about to violently attack and hurt others.

Su Rong felt a little nervous. With her back to the uniform and Wang Jianguo, she was ready to run to the clothing area to take refuge when he counted down to one. No matter what, she couldn’t admit defeat like this.

However, before she even heard “three, two, one,” she heard Wang Jianguo’s voice with a slight smile coming from behind. “Turn around.”

“Why did you……” Su Rong turned around suspiciously and saw that Wang Jianguo had already put on the red staff uniform, looking at her kindly.

Wang Jianguo came over and patted Su Rong on the head. “No matter what, I’m a soldier. I can’t let you, a young girl who just turned 18, die.”

Su Rong stared at him blankly, her nose suddenly stinging and her eyes red. However, he no longer looked at her and only focused on the warehouse door. “In truth, I can see that among the six of us, you are the smartest, Su Rong. No need to refute, I’m not a fool. If you have entered the world of ghost talks once and successfully passed, you will be marked by “Him” and definitely be pulled in again in the future. I will probably die in the next ghost talk, but you are different.”

He looked at Su Rong deeply. “You must live longer than me.”

After finishing speaking, he ignored Su Rong’s reaction and pushed open the warehouse door, walking in slowly as his figure gradually disappeared into the darkness.

Su Rong stood where she was, a little dazed. She thought if she cleared this ghost talk, she would be safe and sound. After all, there were so many people in the world, it was unlikely she’d be picked again.

But if what Wang Jianguo said was true, then she would never be able to be rid of “Him” for the rest of her life, until she died.

No, you can’t think that way, Su Rong shook her head violently. She already had such a powerful gold finger. If she gave up so easily, wouldn’t she waste this second life in vain?

Even for the sake of Brother Wang who sacrificed himself for her, she had to work hard to live.

First, she had to set a small goal for herself to drive “Him” out of this planet.

Not long after, Wang Jianguo came out of the dark warehouse with obvious joy on his face. “I found where the money clam is!”

According to his description, the warehouse was not dangerous apart from the darkness. But the rules on the door said that open flames and excessive noise were prohibited.

Soon, Wang Jianguo found the storage area of the seafood department. Under the label of money clam, there was a partial explanation: if you wanted to find the money clam, you had to go to the water tank in the middle of the second row. No matter what was in it, stretch your hand into its mouth and inside would be the money clam’s pearl.

“What about the animals that escaped their tanks because of the power outage? How do we put them back?” Su Rong had not forgotten the big, terrifying octopus that killed Zhao Peng.

Speaking of the issue, Wang Jianguo’s expression suddenly became complicated. “Ah, the rules of the warehouse said that those things would go back by themselves when they were satiated. So if we go in now, we should be safe.”

“That’s not……” Su Rong was going to say that wasn’t very good, but after a pause, suddenly understood Wang Jianguo’s complicated expression.

If they didn’t leave at that time but took advantage of when the octopus was eating people to rummage through the aquariums, maybe neither of them would have to die.

But in fact, that wasn’t really possible. Not to mention the danger of the other tanks if they didn’t enter the right aquarium. Just from the information from the warehouse, it could be seen the clams were not so easy to be discovered.

Wang Jianguo also understood this, quickly calming down. “Let’s go back to the seafood section.”

The second time they walked into the aquatic area, it was different from the quietness before. This time, there was a dense noise that seemed to be tapping against the glass with “clicking” sounds, making the scalp feel numb.

If it was not clearly written in the rules — “Money clams are safe when they are trembling,” Su Rong and Wang Jianguo may have evacuated the seafood area immediately.

Finding the middle tank in the second row, there was no money clam in it. What lived in it now was clearly the blue octopus that had killed Zhao Peng.

“This is clearly “His” doing,” Su Rong said with certainty. “This should be a hallucination or something. I’ll just stick my hand inside.”

Wang Jianguo stopped Su Rong’s hand that was about to reach in. “I’ll get it. I’ll be fine if something happens, but you must leave safely.”

He directly reached into the tank, enduring the fear in his heart to search for the mouth of the octopus. Fortunately, because he saw the octopus eating Zhao Peng, even if he was unfamiliar with this creature, he also knew its mouth was in the middle of its eight legs.

Noticing Wang Jianguo’s expression became strange, Su Rong hurriedly asked, “What’s wrong?”

Wang Jianguo frowned oddly. “This thing only has a small, soft and slippery thing in its mouth. It feels like a small octopus.”

“Take it out.” Su Rong decided firmly.

Trusting her, he decisively took out what was inside the octopus’ mouth. When he took a gander at what was in his hands, it was clearly a couple of banknotes!

The patterns on the bills were mysterious and cumbersome. Except for those few numbers, they couldn’t understand anything else. After just a few glances, the two of them felt dizzy for a while.

But this didn’t stop them from being in a good mood. Su Rong counted the money, restraining her desire to burst out laughing, saying excitedly, “Let’s go to the cash register!”

She bought a total of 36 yuan. Among these banknotes, there was one 20, two 10s, one 5, and five 1s, which was enough for her to pay.

Wang Jianguo was also happy for her. “That’s great! Now you can leave this damned ghost talk!”

Looking at his heartfelt happiness, Su Rong once again felt a stinging in her nose. But she didn’t say anything more. No matter what she said, it would only add to the sentimentality.

The two of them came all the way to the cash register. Su Rong looked at the register she had seen at the beginning and suddenly asked a question. “When the ghost talk reopens, will everything be reset?”

Wang Jianguo nodded. “Well, everything will be reset except for the clues left by the first batch of people who experienced this ghost talk.”

“In that case, what do you say if I destroy this cash register?”

Seeing she was seriously considering this possibility, Wang Jianguo was full of question marks. “Ah? Why do you want to do that?”

“Pollution source.” Su Rong only spit out these two words.

Once the words came out, Wang Jianguo immediately widened his eyes. “You suspect this cash register to be the source of pollution?”

Su Rong nodded. “Pollution sources vary in form, but it is often the core part of a ghost talk. Don’t you think this cash register is very suitable?”

She also thought of this the moment she saw the cash register. They left the most critical thing, it was suspicious no matter how she thought of it.

This really was the case. After thinking about it, Wang Jianguo agreed. “You’re right. But if this cash register isn’t a pollution source and you destroy it, won’t you be completely trapped in this ghost talk, unable to get out?”

Su Rong held up a five-yuan bill that was soaked with water. “The machine will break if it encounters water, right? What if I put this bill in last?”

“Then you can clear the ghost talk and destroy the machine!” Wang Jianguo’s eyes lit up. “Su Rong, you are so smart!”

However, Su Rong, who was praised, was not very happy. “Sorry. I did not think of this first, and harmed you……”

“What does that have to do with you?” Wang Jianguo interrupted without hesitation. “No one can predict the future, you’ve done a good job. Maybe if you destroy the pollution source, I can go out with you?”

“Now, put the money in.”

Holding onto the beautiful fantasy of what he said, Su Rong pursed her lips and nodded. She carefully put in the 20 yuan, the 10 yuan, and one 1 yuan bill into the cash register. The few bills were sucked in automatically.

The last one left was the wet 5 yuan bill. She got courage from Wang Jianguo’s eyes and put it in along with him.

Half a second later, the cash register suddenly made a strange “crack” sound, and sparks came out of the top box. Before Su Rong could say anything, she felt a wave of dizziness. When she opened her eyes again, she had already appeared in a busy supermarket.

Everything that had happened before was like an illusion.

Suddenly, a strange female voice rang in her ear. “Please decide your name within ten seconds. Otherwise, the broadcast will use your real name.”

Su Rong didn’t have time to react to what this meant, so she could only follow according to its request and blurted out, “Coffee!”

Instant (Su Rong) coffee.

The next second, everyone in the world heard the sound of the broadcast from the sky.

[Congratulations to Chinese investigator “Coffee” for destroying the source of pollution of Anle Supermarket. The “Anle Supermarket Ghost Talk” will no longer appear in the China district.]