All the lights in the house were now on. Under the bright lights, the three of them gasped as they looked at the red spider crawling on the floor.
Lin Han looked at this thing and remembered that there was a magazine at home when he was very young. He still didn't know what novel it was serialized in. He only remembered that the male protagonist was a god who was found and lost in the human world. His subordinates showed him a video of man-eating ants in the Amazon rainforest. Among them were these tiny blood spiders, which disgusted the male protagonist so much that he vomited up the banana he had just eaten.
However, so far, these blood spiders haven't done anything. Cheng Yungui found this strange, because in the records he checked, these blood spiders always devoured human flesh every time they appeared. Could it be that Julie was just trying to scare them?
That said, he was probably the only one seriously considering the problem. For some reason, Lu Mingran had been unusually silent since entering, like a robot that had stopped working. As for Lin Han, he looked at the blood spider, and as he looked, his thoughts drifted to other things:
"What should we do with these blood spiders later?"
"I mean, are they considered dry waste, wet waste, or hazardous waste?"
The atmosphere instantly turned green and healthy, and Cheng Yungui felt as if he had lost his ability to speak.
Fortunately, at that moment, the system in this world suddenly issued an order, and the Earl, the editor-in-chief, sent a text message to everyone:
"Go back to the company and work overtime immediately."
The script's commands were inviolable. So Cheng Yungui and Lu Mingran looked up at each other, then prepared to leave.
Since everyone's been asked to return to the magazine, Julie probably won't be coming for a while. Cheng Yungui looked at the dilapidated door of Lin Han's house and said apologetically:
"Why don't you stay out tonight? Or come to my place?"
Lin Han shook his head:
"I am a clean person, and I cannot tolerate so much garbage in my home."
Lin Han then said:
"So I've decided, I'm going downstairs to buy some seasonings. After I fry the spiders, they'll just be kitchen waste."
————————
At that moment, the system issued an order for everyone to come to the company to work overtime.
This is one of the rules of the game: if an editor dies, all the other editors must return to the office that night to spend the night with the ghost. As for whether the ghost will reveal its true form—that depends on everyone's luck.
At night, only the windows of their magazine's office building were lit. Cheng Yungui and Lu Mingran walked side by side and appeared at the office door together.
Cheng Yungui glanced around the office. Julie was there; her composure was truly remarkable, as she sat there nonchalantly. When Cheng Yungui looked at her, she showed no sign of guilt.
Suddenly, a woman's voice that Cheng Yungui had never heard before rang out:
"Now, all that's missing is Yingshan."
Startled, Cheng Yun turned around and saw that the voice was coming from Xiao Yun. But wasn't she mute?
Julie said lazily, "It's the face on the back of her head that's talking. Do you want to part her hair and take a look?"
After saying that, Julie sighed and said, "We really forced you to use that face, Xiaoyun. This time it really wasn't easy for us."
At this moment, the count sat behind the editor-in-chief's desk, quietly watching everyone.
The moment the system announced the game rules, everything in front of him changed, and he suddenly found himself sitting behind his desk.
One, two... There's one more person who hasn't arrived yet, it's Yingshan.
Just one minute before the system's allotted time, Yingshan pushed the door open, panting heavily.
Nobody paid him any attention; if he went overtime, he would be the only one who would die. But the moment Yingshan sat down, this night of overtime officially began.
Yibo's seat remained empty. At first, the editors around him pretended to look at their own computers and fiddled with their file boxes, but later, everyone's attention was drawn to that computer.
Click, that's the sound of the printer starting up.
Then, the printer next to Yibo's computer began to continuously spit out paper, printing out black and white photos.
The bald man sitting opposite was the first to stand up, bend down and pick up a photo. The photo showed Yingshan pushing open the door.
Then came the second one, the third one... the pace quickened, and Julie and the others stood up from their chairs and gathered around to look.
The printer seemed to be rewinding everything that had happened before, with the first few pages in black and white, but the rest gradually turning into color photos.
The printed photos included scenes of Yingshan pushing open the door, and Xiaoyun and Julie each holding a cup of milk tea as they walked down a dimly lit corridor. However, one particular photo caused everyone to fall silent for a moment.
This photo was taken in the bathroom. Cheng Yungui leaned against the sink, looking up at the sky. Beside him, Lu Mingran was splashing water on her chest.
Because of this content, the sense of horror brought by the last photo was greatly reduced.
The storeroom. In the innermost storeroom on this floor, Yibo leaned against a pile of brooms, with a pool of blood beneath him.
“Go there,” the count said curtly, “it’s time to call the police.”
————————
Of course, in this world, calling the police is just a formality; no one can truly solve the problem. As the editor-in-chief, to protect the magazine's reputation, the Earl suppressed the news according to the script.
After giving their statements at the police station, everyone else returned to the magazine office to prepare for a new day and another round of the lottery. During their break, unseen by anyone, Yingshan was looking through the contact information of several of the magazine's writers.
Ten minutes later—
The house was a mess, filled with the strange smell of blood spiders, like a murder scene. When Lin Han went out with the black garbage bag, the neighbor's child kept avoiding him.
In this state of being disliked by both people and dogs, Lin Han received a phone call from a strange man.
That person genuinely treated him like a writer, adopting the demeanor of an editor to flatter him:
"Is this Mr. Lin? I'm the editor of 'A Night of Terror.' Would you be interested in writing another article?"
"I cherish talent."
"You've always been underappreciated because you've been with Cheng Yungui, who doesn't know his worth..."
Lin Han stopped moving. The wind was too strong downstairs at that moment, and he coughed a few times.
The system was somewhat worried; Lin Han must be angry because Ying Shan had said so many bad things about Cheng Yungui.
But Lin Han's final words were not like that.
“System,” he said, his voice tinged with sadness and self-satisfaction.
Do you know Jiang Zuo Mei Lang?
Author's Note: If you get Lu Lu, you get the world (serious face)
Chapter 70 Want to find the heart? No way (6)
Mei Changsu, the brilliant strategist from "Nirvana in Fire"?
The system remained silent for a long time, and before anyone could speak, Yingshan called again:
"Do you have time at noon? Let's have lunch together."
"Don't go," the system interjected promptly, "that person won't do anything good."
Lin Han stood there, gently raising a finger to his lips, signaling the system to be silent. After the person on the other end of the phone finished speaking, Lin Han raised his hand and tossed the black trash bag inside.
"good."
————————
They said it was lunchtime, and it really happened precisely at noon. Ying Shan controlled the dream, conjuring up a high-end restaurant next to the office building's first floor, and made a reservation to wait for Lin Han.
Yingshan is a man who is obviously shrewd. He sits there and tells you from head to toe, "I'm about to start scheming against you."
After Lin Han sat down, he first repeated what he had said on the phone about complaining about Cheng Yungui, and then looked at Lin Han hesitantly.
In Ying Shan's eyes, Lin Han was a very typical and ordinary writer, and he believed that his words would be effective.
"Let me tell you something," Ying Shan said mysteriously. "This place is about to disband, and I've received an offer from a bigger magazine. They value me highly. If you come with me, I can make you a contracted writer for that magazine."
That's obviously nonsense. But in Ying Shan's view, Lin Han is just an NPC; he has no idea that the world he lives in has no future.
The waiter brought over the drinks, and Yingshan, holding up his glass, imitated the count's gesture: "People need to learn to make choices."
Lin Han silently drank his beverage.
Finally, Ying Shan placed a fountain pen on the table and pushed it in front of Lin Han:
"This is for you."
After speaking, Ying Shan stood up, looking very busy, and hurriedly left. Lin Han stared at the fountain pen, slowly reaching out his hand. As soon as he touched the pen's barrel, he felt a sharp pain in his wrist.
They've fallen for Yingshan's trick.
Ying Shan was a shrewd little man. He wasn't as ruthless or tough as the bald man when it came to the count. He liked to study all sorts of strange gadgets.
For example, this pen is currently only causing a stinging pain in my wrist. But if Ying Shan were to trigger the curse, he would pick up a pen exactly like this one and write an article.
In Yingshan, the pen is not filled with ink, but with the blood from the veins of the cursed.
This is like giving someone both candy and a stick. The system chimed in anxiously, "That's why we shouldn't have come."
"Come on, why don't you come?"
Lin Han stroked the pen: "He just wants the manuscript, right? Just give it to him."
As he spoke, Lin Han picked up the pen. Just as he stood up, he saw Cheng Yungui and "Lu Mingran" walking towards him.
Coincidentally, Cheng Yungui and his group had also run into Ying Shan, who was leaving from here, before this. After seeing Lin Han, it was not difficult to deduce that the two had just been together.
"Lu Mingran" blinked, and a dozen seconds later, Lin Han switched his consciousness to him and smiled at Cheng Yungui:
"It looks like your writer is going to work for someone else."
"From what you're saying, you seem quite gloating."
Cheng Yungui looked at Lin Han, who was sitting alone, from afar:
"Whether they leave or stay, I will not interfere with my friend's decision."
Lin Han then switched his attention back and shook his head with a smile.
In the afternoon, around one o'clock, Yingshan indeed received the manuscript.
The requirement for the segment he was in charge of, "The Ghost Knocks on the Door at Midnight," was that the ghosts that approached the protagonist had a reason; they couldn't be the kind of evil ghosts that indiscriminately kill people.
Yingshan sat in front of the computer, waiting nervously. He was probably the only person in the office who was looking forward to receiving manuscripts.
Finally, the email notification sounded; it was from Lin Han.
Lin Han submitted a campus ghost story to him called "Girls' Dormitory".
Not only did he submit a story, but Lin Han also wrote him an article explaining where the inspiration for the story came from, which was longer than the manuscript.