Chapter 136: Substitute
Lu Jinzhao watched all the interaction between Du Yu and those two teammates, and also carefully observed Du Yu’s reaction after she spoke those words.
It didn’t seem like acting; she genuinely believed with true emotion that the facts were just as she said.
Lu Jinzhao didn’t think she was stupid. According to Qin Wan, to survive in a place like Fei Quan and live quite well, either her fate was tough enough, or she was intelligent enough.
But even if her fate was tough, she still needed some brains at least.
Du Yu’s reaction made Lu Jinzhao aware of the tricky part of this mission.
A passenger more experienced than her seemed somewhat helpless, and even after being targeted by a ghost, she couldn’t determine what she had done to provoke the ghost’s killing intent.
This was truly dangerous.
Entering the mourning hall, the black-and-white colored hall reminded Lu Jinzhao of the funeral home. When they did missions, they couldn’t leave the mission location too far, and locations inside the platform basically didn’t exist in the real world, but passengers guessed that between platforms, they seemed to exist in the same world.
In other words, if she could move around freely, perhaps she could even return to the funeral home?
She even thought that if Xiao Yue’s corpse was to be sent for cremation, maybe people from the funeral home would come to pick it up?
These thoughts flashed through her mind, but Lu Jinzhao didn’t think deeper about it. Right now, she was still inside the platform, and it really wasn’t good to focus her attention elsewhere.
There were quite a few people in the mourning hall. Everyone was dressed in dark clothing, mostly black suits. Xiao Yue’s parents stood at the front with sorrowful expressions, hosting the ritual and receiving guests. People who came to mourn placed the white flowers in their hands in front of Xiao Yue’s coffin, then offered condolences to Xiao Yue’s parents.
The atmosphere was solemn, and people who entered unconsciously lowered their voices to avoid making noise.
Lu Jinzhao looked around but didn’t see Du Yu’s teammates who had entered ahead of her.
Where were they?
The few of them didn’t rush to offer flowers to Xiao Yue’s casket. Instead, they discussed briefly and planned for Lu Jinzhao and Qin Wan to talk with Xiao Yue’s parents in a moment, while Zhou Zimo took the chance to check Xiao Yue’s casket.
This action was very dangerous; it required opening the coffin, which was highly likely to see a ghost, and it had to be done quickly. Among the three of them, it seemed only Zhou Zimo was suitable for this task.
He hesitated for a while but agreed.
Because Qin Wan promised him that she would help him perform the lowest-priced luck transfer ritual at the time he needed.
After the three discussed it, they didn’t pay much attention to Du Yu and headed toward Xiao Yue’s casket.
Until they finished offering flowers and chatted a few sentences with Xiao Yue’s parents, and waited for Zhou Zimo’s signal, everything progressed very smoothly without any anomalies.
So smoothly that it almost didn’t seem like they were inside the platform.
Even when walking out, Qin Wan was somewhat dazed: “We’re done with the mourning and can leave just like that?”
“We won’t die the moment we step out the door, right?”
But until they walked out of the mourning hall, no anomalies occurred.
After coming out, Zhou Zimo said in a low voice: “The one lying in the casket is indeed Xiao Yue. The corpse has no issues, but the cause of death is a bit problematic.”
Qin Wan and Lu Jinzhao looked at him, and Zhou Zimo didn’t keep them in suspense.
“She strangled herself to death.”
“You can confirm that?” Qin Wan couldn’t help asking.
“Confirmed.” Zhou Zimo nodded: “My fate has taught me many things. With one look, I knew she strangled herself, and she was extremely terrified before death.”
Not killed by a ghost, but strangled herself to death?
“What did she see?” Qin Wan murmured to herself.
“Probably… another version of herself?” Lu Jinzhao had some guess about this.
According to the memories, Xiao Yue’s mental state had been deteriorating. At first, she still came to work, but later, her mental state couldn’t support her working anymore.
Although it wasn’t clear what she had exactly encountered, obviously, it was a quite tormenting process.
“What do we do now?” Zhou Zimo asked.
The company gave them the afternoon off today. Now from leaving the mourning hall until the train arrived, it was free time.
“Three choices: one, stay here; two, go back to the company; three, find a place to stay and wait for the train.” Qin Wan gave the options.
“I don’t recommend going back to the company.” Du Yu, who had been silently following behind them, suddenly spoke up.
“My teammates all had issues at the company.” She added.
“Huh, aren’t you going to find them?” Zhou Zimo looked at her and asked.
“…No rush.” Du Yu just said that.
Hearing this, Lu Jinzhao’s evaluation of Du Yu dropped once again.
She could confirm that Du Yu wasn’t sticking with them out of fear, but because doing so benefited her somehow.
If she were afraid of the ghost, she shouldn’t have lied to the ghost and failed to fulfill it.
Lu Jinzhao didn’t hesitate and immediately took out her mobile phone to type. While Du Yu was talking with Zhou Zimo, she discreetly passed the phone screen to Qin Wan to look at. There were only three words on it.
[Kill her]
Having Du Yu with them wouldn’t bring any benefits, only hidden dangers and potential risks.
She was most likely already targeted by the ghost, and now she had also broken the agreement with the ghost. Bringing her along was no different from inviting the ghost in.
They had to kill her first to eliminate this hidden danger before they could focus on dealing with the ghost.
A trace of surprise flashed in Qin Wan’s eyes—not surprise at Lu Jinzhao’s cruelty, but surprise that Lu Jinzhao could make the correct decision so decisively.
She nodded quickly but then shook her head slightly, signaling Lu Jinzhao not to act rashly; they needed a suitable opportunity.
Qin Wan’s fate allowed luck transfer, and naturally, it also allowed borrowing luck.
Generally speaking, borrowed luck had to be repaid, and repaid double.
But if the person whose luck was borrowed died, then with the person’s death, the debt naturally vanished.
She had originally planned to use other methods to get through the misfortune period after the luck transfer ritual borrowed good luck, but with Du Yu delivering herself, she could borrow Du Yu’s luck for use.
However, forcibly borrowing luck without the other’s consent would cause backlash to her regardless of whether the borrowed person lived or died. Unless necessary, she rarely did it forcibly, but this backlash was already much smaller than when she had just obtained her fate.
Qin Wan knew that if she could survive, sooner or later, she would be able to freely borrow others’ luck without paying any price. She just wasn’t sure if she could live to see that day.
Right now, Qin Wan judged that they must kill Du Yu first; otherwise, this person might bring endless trouble.
While thinking, she spoke: “Let’s go back to the company first. I want to check again if there’s anything unusual.”
She needed to lure Du Yu to a more dangerous place.
Even after deciding to kill Du Yu, Qin Wan still observed Du Yu’s reaction after saying this.
She looked very reluctant, very unwilling to go to the company, but surprisingly agreed.
Agreed…
Then, she had to die even more.
