Volume 1: Days Moving Bricks at the Construction Site
Corpse
She found Yan Nan just now to be very frightening.
After washing the dishes, it is free activity time.
Xiaolou and the others had already gone to the middle to move bricks; in the canteen, only Yan Nan and Shen Maomao were awkwardly chatting.
Yan Nan occasionally spoke to her, subtly inquiring about her real-life information.
Shen Maomao vaguely answered some unimportant parts, speeding up her dishwashing, wanting to finish early and leave early.
Yan Nan suddenly said, “Did you go to the water pool this morning?”
How could Shen Maomao dare! This morning, she was woken up without brushing her teeth or washing her face, fearing she would encounter the whistling person again at the pool. She rinsed her mouth and washed her face in the kitchen instead.
“I didn’t have time to go yet,” she replied, “Why?”
Yan Nan: “Luckily, you didn’t go.”
Shen Maomao: “??” What happened at the water pool?
“Do you still remember the old aunt who didn’t come in?” Yan Nan showed her a smile, “She died, her body is in the water pool, her limbs crammed tightly, the faucet pierced through her back head and came out from her mouth, the pool walls are all bloody.”
Shen Maomao’s hand paused in action, her mind already visualizing the scene at that moment, unable to suppress a shiver.
So, the creaking sound they heard yesterday… was it the breaking of a corpse?
She started to feel a bit afraid but didn’t want to show fear in front of Yan Nan, so she pretended to be indifferent and said, “Oh, is that so.”
Yan Nan, finding no interest, stopped initiating conversation, stood up, and left the water basin to go outside and fetch a broom to sweep the floor.
Shen Maomao watched her figure disappear into the kitchen, continuing to wash dishes thoughtfully.
Apart from fearing such bloody scenes, she also found Yan Nan just now to be very frightening.
She could use someone’s death without sympathy as a topic to scare her, describing those bloody scenes without the slightest fear or disgust, not even feeling a bit of sorrow for a fellow player’s death… Shen Maomao even sensed schadenfreude from her.
What was she happy about? Was she happy someone died? Or was she mocking the ignorant and fearless newcomer?
Among the veteran players in this game, apart from Xiaolou and Yun Shengjin, everyone else was unusually cold, or rather—numb.
From their behavior, Shen Maomao couldn’t see any sympathy that a normal person would have.
Is this personality something they originally had, or was it created by the game? Does the game truly intend for players to repent in fear?
Shen Maomao dared not think any further.
Though the sun shone brightly outside the window, she felt a chill to her bones.
Feeling cold is not possible because the sun is so big outside, and the work clothes are long-sleeved. Moving bricks outside can practically heat a person to death. No matter how cold her heart is, it can’t save her almost over-heated body.
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Today’s sun was too fierce, and even the wind was hot. A group of people on the construction site sweated like rain, vividly demonstrating what is called “labor is most glorious.”
Shen Maomao wished she were a dog that could dissipate heat through its tongue. Although she was unbearably hot, she didn’t dare take off her work clothes, fearing that working without them might cause problems.
Speaking of their work, it truly had a sense of postmodern magic style. Yesterday, when the foreman said to stack bricks, she didn’t understand. Today, after she finished washing dishes and went to the middle to look, it was indeed about stacking bricks—truly moving bricks without any tricks.
Originally thinking she didn’t have to move bricks, Shen Maomao tearfully worked. If she had known she needed to exert such great strength after graduation, she certainly wouldn’t have studied so hard! Now, she hasn’t succeeded in pursuing her male god, and still has to move bricks… just thinking about it makes life feel bitter.
The foreman had them stack bricks well by the half-dug small pond in the center of the community. They only needed to stack bricks; no cement was needed. As long as they stacked them neatly, those bricks felt like they were glued together and couldn’t be pulled down.
Using the four corners of the pool as fixed points, four lines were drawn, and the foreman’s only requirement for them was not to stack them crookedly.
Thus, for one morning, except for Yun Shengjin, Brother Long, and Ding Hou, the rest of the people were engaged in this kind of brick-moving activity that required no technical skill. The work for Yun Shengjin and the other two was to paint the building. At this time, the three of them were busy on nearby scaffolding, tied with safety ropes, looking precarious.
Shen Maomao was grateful to be assigned to the kitchen, as she truly feared heights. If she had to go up there, working would be out of the question—even staying alive would be difficult.
The foreman only supervised them for one morning. Around eleven o’clock, he let Shen Maomao and Yan Nan finish work early and go to the kitchen to prepare meals.
Shen Maomao felt as if she had heard a pardon decree, quickly leaving the shadow she had stacked, and said goodbye to Xiaolou: “Sister Lou, I’m leaving first! You keep busy!”
Xiaolou: “Am I your mother that you have to tell me everything?”
Shen Maomao replied seriously: “You are my reborn parents.”
Xiaolou: “??” I don’t have a daughter like you!
Shen Maomao has a bit of a psychological shadow regarding Yan Nan.
She has a rather mysterious ability, or you could call it a woman’s intuition—her first impression of some people is very likely to be their true character, and later social experiences have always confirmed this point. From the first glance at Yan Nan, she felt that Yan Nan was very frightening…
This might also be related to the straightforward slap she received.
Besides this, she could also sense that Yan Nan and Yun Shengjin had a very good relationship, and Yan Nan seemed very dissatisfied with her appearance…
Shen Maomao sat on a small stool washing vegetables, and suddenly, on a whim, she glanced at her reflection in the basin’s water.
On the clear water surface was a familiar face, a face that blinked as she blinked, its beautiful eyes revealing a naturally seductive charm…
Very beautiful, but it was not her face.
Shen Maomao was stunned.
The face on the water’s surface was Ren Yue’s.
During mealtime, Shen Maomao secretly glanced at Xiaolou.
Why is it that after entering the game, she is using Ren Yue’s face? Can the big shot explain this clearly to her?
Is it because that person originally planned for Ren Yue to be a substitute for life? So the guy they met, she and Ren Yue, is a player? Is his purpose to find someone to take his place entering the game?
The foreman wasn’t present, so Yun Shengjin organized everyone to share any discoveries they had. But they worked the whole morning under the foreman’s watch, so where was there time to find clues?
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Yun Shengjin warned everyone: “I hope you can remember, our main purpose is to find clues and clear the game, not to move bricks. Please don’t keep anything to yourself. If I find any clues, I will also pass them on to you.”
Although he said this, the newcomers were completely in the dark, while the veteran players were each somewhat thoughtful, leaving others to wonder what they were considering.
The afternoon work still needed to continue, and the foreman was off doing something else, not watching them, so all the players breathed a sigh of relief but didn’t dare to slack off too much.
Golden Retriever, pampered from a young age and unable to endure hardship, had already developed several blisters on his hands after moving bricks all morning. He sighed faintly: “Thank the game for giving me a skill. If I have no money in the future, I can go into the game to move bricks.”
Xiaolou mercilessly retorted: “Wake up, do you think moving bricks on a construction site is like stacking blocks like this?”
Golden Retriever: “…” Too real.
Shen Maomao was somewhat absent-minded, mechanically repeating the action of stacking bricks.
Golden Retriever, with dust-covered hands, nudged her: “Sister Rabbit, why are you always distracted?”
“Ah?” Shen Maomao was momentarily stunned, “Oh… oh, I’m just thinking about things.”
“Thinking about what?”
She hesitated for a moment and still didn’t mention the issue with her face not being quite right.
If her guess is correct, then the game can use life substitution to deceive… she couldn’t dare imagine what crazy actions these players might take once they know about this.
“I’m thinking…” she found an excuse, “Wasn’t the auntie outside the door? Why was the body brought inside? Could it be that something from outside has already come inside?”
“Damn!” Golden Retriever’s hand trembled, almost throwing the bricks directly away, “Sister Rabbit, don’t scare me! I have a very small courage!” He also has a psychological shadow regarding the pool, so he didn’t go over today and naturally didn’t know about the body matter. But compared to things outside, the body isn’t as scary anymore.
Xiaolou interjected: “What body?”
Shen Maomao glanced at the five people, including Yan Nan, who were quite far away, and moved closer to Xiaolou, saying to her: “Yan Nan told me—’She died, her body is in the water pool, her limbs crammed tightly, the faucet pierced through her back head and came out from her mouth, the pool walls are all bloody.'”
She imitated Yan Nan’s words exactly, with a fairly accurate portrayal.
“Is she still even a woman, damn?” Golden Retriever’s face turned pale green, with a look of wanting to vomit.
Xiaolou comforted him by saying: “In the future, you all will get used to dealing with bodies.”
Golden Retriever: “…” Not comforted at all.
The pond’s area was very large, and eleven people worked busily all day, managing to stack only seven or eight layers of bricks around the entire circle.
At four-thirty, the foreman returned, and without checking how they had done, he just let them stop work and have free time.
Of course, Shen Maomao and Yan Nan still had to go cook.
The foreman, with his hands behind his back, walked in front of the two of them, his voice carrying some joy: “Yesterday, some meat came in from outside. I’ve already moved it to the kitchen. You two handle it well and nourish everyone’s body.”
…What kind of meat?!
Shen Maomao’s heart turned cold: could it be human meat?
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The three of them walked to the canteen door together, where a fishy stench reached them. On the canteen’s tabletop lay a large rack of ribs that hadn’t been cut, with red and white meat still having flies buzzing around, and blood was flowing all over the floor from the table.
The two women immediately covered their noses, preventing themselves from being overwhelmed by the smell.
The meat was a bit spoiled, but fortunately, it wasn’t the human meat Shen Maomao had imagined.
The foreman said: “There’s a boning knife on the table. You two use it first.”
Yan Nan took a quick step forward, grasping the boning knife firmly in her hand. With a weapon, she became more confident and began to engage the foreman in conversation: “Foreman, why do we need to build a wall by the poolside?”
The foreman, smiling, responded evasively: “I’m not sure either, it’s all arranged from above, asking more won’t help, your wages won’t be short.”
Yan Nan, with an unchanged expression, said: “I notice there are quite a few people on our construction site, right? Where did the others go?”
Foreman: “A while ago, there was an incident on the construction site, and the previous batch of old workers all stopped working…”
Finally, she found the critical point!
Yan Nan’s eyes brightened, and she further asked: “What incident occurred?”
