Chapter 129: Substitute
“This mission is only 12 hours, yet there are a full six passengers. The danger must come very early.”
Qin Wan tried to move her injured leg, but found that even though it was just a fall on flat ground, her walking posture was now awkward due to the wound on her knee.
She didn’t want Lu Jinzhao and Zhou Zimo to continue supporting her, just walking slowly and voicing her guess.
“They will definitely encounter danger before us. We can observe first.”
Lu Jinzhao noticed that Qin Wan used the word “definitely.”
Great, the future of this fate looked brighter and brighter in her eyes.
[Want]
A line of blood script appeared before her eyes, and Lu Jinzhao’s forward step paused slightly.
[This is your current mood.]
The parchment affirmed.
Lu Jinzhao didn’t speak; this wasn’t the time for talking to herself either.
[Too bad, fates cannot be exchanged or traded.]
The parchment continued.
Lu Jinzhao didn’t know what purpose it had in saying these things now.
Even if trading or exchanging were possible, she had no intention of doing anything.
It was undeniable that greed for Qin Wan’s fate had risen in her heart. In that instant, the thought that surfaced was indeed “want,” not wanting to exchange it for her own fate, but wanting this ability.
But it was only a thought in her heart, which she quickly suppressed.
[But can’t you obtain it?]
The parchment suddenly said.
[You can.]
[Kill her, turn her into a shadow puppet, and that’s it.]
Seeing this line, no hesitation arose in Lu Jinzhao’s heart.
She had already decided that if a passenger with a fate died inside the platform, she would take the skin and bones from their corpse, if any corpse remained.
But she had no intention of actively killing someone who hadn’t hindered her just for a decent fate.
She wasn’t a ghost, after all.
With the parchment tempting her like this, she was even less likely to do it.
Moreover, her ability to make shadow puppets was still insufficient. Even if she killed Qin Wan now, neither the other’s fate nor her own was powerful enough yet. A shadow puppet made from it, even if inheriting that ability, could only exert so much.
It wouldn’t be worth it.
Lu Jinzhao ignored the parchment’s temptation. After walking a short distance forward, fragments of memories not her own surfaced in her mind, just like last time.
But this time the memory was very thin, merely telling her that she was an ordinary company employee, working from nine to five, now on her way to the company.
The others were all her colleagues, working at the same company, even their living place being the dormitory arranged by the company.
“Looks like we need to go to work first.”
12 hours, entering the platform at around 8:30 a.m., meaning they needed to survive until tonight.
Soon, they arrived downstairs at the company.
It was a not-too-tall office building, looking somewhat dated. When Lu Jinzhao looked down, she saw a work badge hanging around her neck.
Following the memory, they entered the company, went in, took the elevator to the workplace. Quite a few colleagues had already arrived one after another at the workstations. With a casual glance, Lu Jinzhao spotted those three figures.
They looked no different from before, as if they hadn’t encountered any accidents yet.
The three’s workstations were together. After sitting down, the elder sister from next door brought breakfast over, turned her chair, and while eating, looked at the three and said: “Oh my god, I didn’t expect Xiao Yue to really have an accident. This afternoon everyone from the company is going to the funeral, so no need to work.”
Xiao Yue?
As the elder sister’s words fell, another segment of new memory merged into her mind.
The girl named Xiao Yue was their colleague, a veteran employee. Starting from last month, she suddenly took frequent leave. When she occasionally came to the company, her mental state was extremely abnormal, with heavy dark circles, looking like she hadn’t slept well for a long time, and becoming jumpy, startled by the slightest noise.
Most crucially, she started asking strange questions.
For example: “Have you seen me anywhere else lately?”
“Besides today, have I come to work this week?”
The other company colleagues were baffled. The supervisor thought she was ill and gave her leave to rest well, but before leaving the company, Xiao Yue left even stranger words.
“I might… die.”
At that time, the other colleagues only thought Xiao Yue was under too much pressure and having mental issues.
But they didn’t expect that a few days ago, news of Xiao Yue’s death came out.
“She really died?”
“What happened?”
“Was it a stalker? I saw her state was really bad during that time.”
“Was she afraid of something?”
Police officers had come to inquire about what happened to Xiao Yue before her death. The colleagues were extremely curious about Xiao Yue’s death too. After all, if it was just ordinary suicide, there wouldn’t be officers asking repeatedly, but after all the questioning, it seemed no results were obtained.
Today was Xiao Yue’s funeral. Since she was also a company veteran, they would go collectively in the afternoon to mourn.
With these memories surfacing, Lu Jinzhao immediately grasped the key point.
The strange questions Xiao Yue had once asked might seem odd to colleagues, but to them these passengers, they were undoubtedly signs of being targeted by a ghost.
Once the elder sister finished gossiping and returned to her workstation, Qin Wan lowered her voice and said:
“Those words Xiao Yue said before dying should be clues. Combined with the waiting information, this ghost can definitely imitate us. We need to be careful at the afternoon funeral.”
Need to be careful in the afternoon?
Lu Jinzhao slightly raised her head and looked toward the three not far away.
12 hours of time, would the morning be wasted in vain?
But because of Qin Wan’s luck transfer ritual, even if something happened in the morning, it probably wouldn’t happen to them.
Yan Xiaoyu didn’t know someone was watching her; her mind was entirely elsewhere at the moment.
Just now when Du Yu led them into the platform, she didn’t feel anything unusual. But after walking a bit further inside, a segment of memory surfaced in their minds, making them understand they were to “go to work” today, so the three headed to the company.
However, when walking further in, they saw the elevator entrance already packed with people going to work. When the elevator doors opened, everyone squeezed in, and they naturally found spots too. But when the last person tried to enter, the elevator showed overload.
Someone had to get off.
They looked at the last colleague entering. She was hanging her head, black hair blocking her line of sight, her face not clearly visible. Facing the complaints from others in the elevator, she remained completely unmoved, as if she couldn’t hear.
The others had no intention of leaving the elevator either. Yan Xiaoyu looked at Du Yu, wanting to ask what to do.
Throw someone out directly?
But the mission had just started, and they hadn’t figured out the situation yet. Du Yu probably wouldn’t do that directly. Sure enough, Du Yu glanced at her, signaling her to get off. Unable to disobey the order, Yan Xiaoyu could only step out of the elevator.
Once she was out, the elevator stopped beeping.
Soon, the elevator doors slowly closed. The woman who caused the overload, who had kept her head down, suddenly looked up toward Yan Xiaoyu through the palm-sized crevice remaining in the elevator doors, looking at this “kind person” willing to give up her spot.
She remembered Yan Xiaoyu’s face.
