Chapter 88: Wang Family Funeral Home
Meng Ning hesitated for nearly half a minute among the four choices: handing over a candle to get a message, going straight down to the morgue, killing Lu Jinzhao to take all her resources, or leaving with Lu Jinzhao. Until Lu Jinzhao raised her hand and waved it in front of her eyes, then pointed in the direction of the duty room to signal that she couldn’t wait any longer and was leaving, she finally made her decision.
【I’ll go to the duty room with you.】
This decision did not exceed Lu Jinzhao’s expectations.
Through the short few days, she had already roughly understood Meng Ning’s personality and knew what decision she would make when encountering danger.
Meng Ning was very timid, and her timidity was not pretended.
Although timid, she was very good at seeking advantages and avoiding harm, able to quickly make choices more inclined toward her own survival in a crisis. If the situation wasn’t urgent enough, she would fall into hesitation.
But whether it was an immediate decision or one made after hesitation, they were basically decisions that allowed her to survive right now.
Right now, the method most likely to let her survive was obviously to stay away from the morgue.
But this posed a problem: her judgment of the situation was limited to the present.
Perhaps due to lack of experience or other reasons, she could only judge what choice was better for her at the moment.
Probably in Meng Ning’s mind, her current thought was very clear: the morgue was too dangerous, and she wanted to stay away from the danger.
And directly killing Lu Jinzhao also carried no small risk. The method most favorable for immediate survival was to stay with Lu Jinzhao.
Lu Jinzhao did not judge whether this approach was right or wrong, but this was undoubtedly the situation she wanted to see.
No accidents occurred on the way back to the duty room, which made Meng Ning’s complexion look much better.
But upon returning to the corridor leading to the duty room, her expression became much more tense again.
She remembered the pair of feet she had seen when leaving the duty room before patrol.
But it didn’t matter; she couldn’t hear the sound of the bell. Even if that ghost was still there, it wouldn’t have any effect.
It was much safer than going down to the morgue.
Thinking this way, Meng Ning’s tense emotions subsided a bit more.
Even after making her choice, her heart still had some hesitation. On the way back to the duty room, she kept having thoughts like “should I take the risk?”
But the next second, she would dispel it herself: if she took the risk, she might be dead by now!
Lu Jinzhao had a supernatural item, but she had nothing. Someone with a supernatural item who was more powerful than her went down and came back as if they had lost half their life, let alone herself?
“My choice is not wrong.”
She could only comfort herself this way.
Although the duty room was pitch black, even until Meng Ning placed the candle burning in her hand on the table, nothing happened.
Lu Jinzhao’s half candle had been used up on the way back to the duty room. Now using hers, she couldn’t say any words of refusal.
The candle’s burning speed was very normal, indicating no danger nearby.
In the faint candlelight, Meng Ning quietly observed Lu Jinzhao.
She looked extremely fatigued, but because her ears couldn’t hear sounds, she could only force herself not to close her eyes. From her limp body slumped in the chair, one could see how weak she was at this moment.
But now that the situation was safe, Meng Ning had no intention of acting rashly.
Time passed bit by bit, the candle’s burning speed remained steady, and Meng Ning’s expression visibly relaxed a lot.
As time gradually approached 4 o’clock, Lu Jinzhao’s originally slumped posture leaning on the chair also changed slightly.
Her eyelids were already very heavy; if not careful, she would find herself zoning out again. Perhaps compared to the constantly tense atmosphere, this slightly safer place was even more “dangerous” for her.
But as time approached 5 o’clock, she didn’t dare relax even a little.
The ghost hadn’t come to the duty room to continue attacking them. Was it planning to let them go directly?
Impossible.
The closer it got to the train’s arrival time, the more people would relax.
Lu Jinzhao thought that the ghost was probably waiting for the moment they relaxed.
And she believed that the ghost’s next attack focus would be Meng Ning, not her.
The attack time would probably be around 4:50!
At that time, the train was about to arrive, and the passengers’ spirits and bodies would likely have slackened.
The ghost on a 【Class C】 platform couldn’t continuously attack passengers, so the timing of the ghost’s attack was also crucial. During her time in the morgue, she was first distracted by other ghosts before encountering the attack.
And Meng Ning hadn’t completed the patrol mission, so compared to Lu Jinzhao, she was obviously a better attack target.
So at that time, she couldn’t stay with Meng Ning.
As if seeing that the outcome was decided, the parchment suddenly popped up again.
【So you want to keep your teammate as a stepping stone at the last moment?】
【Hypocrite!】
For the parchment’s accusation, Lu Jinzhao’s heart no longer stirred even half a wave.
When Meng Ning’s candle had burned down to just a tiny stub and time was around 4:30, Lu Jinzhao suddenly stood up from the chair.
Meng Ning’s brain had already slackened somewhat. Seeing Lu Jinzhao’s movement, she was even half a beat slow in looking at her with questioning eyes.
But Lu Jinzhao didn’t take out her mobile phone to reply to her again.
She just took out her last candle, lit it, then pushed open the duty room door and walked out.
The ghost’s final attack target was probably Meng Ning. She didn’t want to encounter a ghost, so it was best to separate from Meng Ning in advance.
As for Meng Ning, her remaining resources were about the same as hers. Whether she could survive depended on herself.
Meng Ning didn’t know what Lu Jinzhao was thinking, but her first reaction was to follow her.
But when she stood up, her gaze fell on the candle that had burned down almost completely but still had the thickness of a thumb, and she hesitated slightly for an instant.
When she decided to give up this one and stay by Lu Jinzhao’s side, Lu Jinzhao had already left the duty room!
The candle’s faint light was too weak. Shortly after Lu Jinzhao left, the duty room entrance had already fallen into complete darkness.
She didn’t dare chase out like this, so she turned to pick up the candle on the table, but the moment she touched it, she was scalded and let go. Then, a blister immediately formed on her finger.
Meng Ning was stunned for a moment, remembering the large burn on Lu Jinzhao’s wrist, and a chill suddenly rose in her mind.
She could actually endure an injury of that degree?
About ten seconds had passed since Lu Jinzhao left.
Meng Ning couldn’t hear sounds, so she couldn’t judge where Lu Jinzhao had gone from footsteps.
She looked at the candle with a little left and ultimately couldn’t bring herself to light a new one and chase out.
She thought, anyway, the duty room was so safe, and this little bit of candle, though seeming small, could still burn for three or four minutes. In a little while, it would be dawn, and taking the remaining candle out might even be a supernatural item?
Moreover, going out now, with pitch black outside, it always felt less safe than inside the duty room.
After much thought and hesitation, Meng Ning sat back down on the chair.
And Lu Jinzhao had already left the duty room.
She had thought about Meng Ning’s unused candle, but she didn’t harbor too much greed.
Inside the platform was different from other places; sometimes taking a gamble really meant losing your life. Greed was the last thing that should appear inside the platform. She knew very well that right now, surviving was the most important.
Leaving the duty room, even though it was almost 5 o’clock, the sky was still pitch black, not to mention the moon—there wasn’t even a single star.
Lu Jinzhao walked toward the funeral home main entrance. As expected, she encountered no danger along the way.
She didn’t walk too fast; by the time she reached the funeral home entrance, time was approaching 5 o’clock.
But as she neared the entrance, on the side of the road, through the blurry faint candlelight, she saw a familiar figure.
It was that young man.
Even without seeing his face clearly, Lu Jinzhao still remembered his build and the clothes that hadn’t changed at all over the past few days.
That was him.
He stood by the roadside, motionless, only his head slightly turning when he saw Lu Jinzhao.
When locked onto by his “gaze,” Lu Jinzhao felt a palpitation. But he only looked for a few seconds, then, as if confirming something, mechanically and slowly turned his head back, continuing to stare at the necessary path to the gate, no longer looking at Lu Jinzhao.
In those short few seconds, Lu Jinzhao noticed her palms were slightly sweaty.
This young man, with just a distant glance, made her feel an exceptionally strong sense of oppression!
At this moment, she couldn’t help but feel fortunate that even if it meant desperation, she had chosen to complete the patrol mission.
Because completing the patrol mission at least only required desperation with a slim chance of survival, but she felt that if targeted by this young man, for passengers of their current level, it would absolutely be a situation of certain death.
The burning speed of the candle in her hand had always been stable, indicating that the ghost lurking in the darkness really hadn’t chosen to attack her.
This correct judgment again allowed Lu Jinzhao to relax a bit, but the parchment seemed unable to stand seeing her do well and popped up at this moment.
【Congratulations, you’ve discovered the best way to complete the mission: betray your teammate】
【Compared to ghosts, people are obviously easier to deal with, right?】
Lu Jinzhao’s eyes narrowed slightly. She had to admit that the parchment had put real effort into irritating her.
At 5 o’clock sharp, the sky brightened.
And the train also approached rapidly with a violent roar.
Lu Jinzhao looked back and didn’t see Meng Ning’s figure.
She knew the other party’s plan was probably to wait until dawn before coming out.
But even after dawn, that young man still stood rigidly by the roadside, his gaze fixed on that road, as if waiting for something.
The train doors opened.
Lu Jinzhao blew out the candle in her hand; the burned candle still had more than half left. As she stepped through the door, she could clearly feel her body like mismatched gears about to break, forcibly pieced together, emitting overburdened sounds.
The moment she stepped through the door, her tense spirit all night finally completely relaxed, but with experience, Lu Jinzhao still kept a bit of essence and spirit to maintain her body, not collapsing directly on the train after fully relaxing.
She slowly moved her body and directly slumped onto the seat with her name written on it.
The train wouldn’t wait too long at the station. The completely safe ten minutes after relaxing passed very quickly.
When the doors slowly closed, she still hadn’t seen Meng Ning’s figure.
She hadn’t even made it to that young man’s side.
Although it’s a single chapter, the word count is still more than a usual single!
