Excessive ferocity due to caution

Liao Hongqiao couldn't help but feel a little apprehensive.

The company's second rule states that dozing off in the office is prohibited, and coffee should be purchased from the supermarket on the first floor of the company building when necessary.

But now, Zong Haisheng's discovery suggests that... drinking coffee may trigger another hidden rule of death?

Does this mean that the company has many other such "hidden death rules"?

Did those people die because they drank the same coffee, or because they couldn't resist falling asleep in the office at night?

Liao Hongqiao was lost in confusion.

"Mr. Zong, can you tell what brand of coffee they're drinking?"

Zong Haisheng thought about it carefully:

"It seems to be... chicken coop coffee."

"Yesterday afternoon, the guy sitting across from me was feeling sleepy, so he bought a packet of chicken nest coffee... but why didn't he die?"

The two looked at each other, completely bewildered.

The body was examined carefully once again.

After confirming that nothing was missed, they went to the fourth and fifth floors, checking them one by one, before returning to the third floor.

Zhao Yi was squatting next to the rotting corpses, talking on the phone with someone.

"Okay... thank you so much!"

He hung up the phone, looked at Liao Hongqiao and the other person, and asked:

"Did they find anything?"

Liao Hongqiao glanced at Zong Haisheng, signaling him to speak.

Zong Haisheng suppressed his nausea and said:

"We searched the 3rd, 4th, and 5th floors, finding a total of 30 bodies. We discovered that these dead people, who had no wounds, had one thing in common—they had all drunk chicken coop coffee before they died!"

Zhao Yi said calmly:

"Anything else?"

besides?

Zong Haisheng was stunned.

What else?

Seeing his bewildered expression, Zhao Yi pointed to the fingers of the people on the ground:

"Did their fingers move in the same way as the fingers of these corpses?"

Zong Haisheng nodded:

"Exactly the same!"

"It's all the same action of holding a cup and drinking coffee!"

He paused, then looked at the corpse's fingers and added:

"Furthermore, judging from the shape of their fingers, the coffee cups they use... seem to be the same."

Zhao Yi replied:

"That's what makes things strange."

"I checked these people's water cups this morning, right here in the office..."

"Their cups are not the same model."

"Especially the handle."

"So if they really were drinking coffee from their own cups, then the way they held the cups before they died wouldn't be like this... exactly the same."

Upon hearing this, the two felt as if they had been enlightened.

They are not players; they are natives of the chaotic world.

Therefore, he didn't know much about Zhao Yi's name, and only felt that this mysterious guy in front of him was very strong!

"Their deaths...had nothing to do with coffee."

"It's related to the coffee cup that holds the coffee."

"If my speculation is correct, then these people all drank coffee from the same coffee cup before they died."

Upon hearing this, the two immediately became excited!

Finding that coffee cup might reveal the true cause of those people's deaths. And figuring out the cause of their deaths might lead to a way to break the rules!

Looking at their excited expressions, Zhao Yi glanced at the time on his phone and said:

"If you don't mind wasting some time, you can try looking for that coffee cup first. I need to go to the building entrance; I asked someone to buy some things outside..."

Liao Hongqiao and Zong Haisheng nodded and said:

"good!"

The three split up and acted separately.

Zhao Yi went downstairs and arrived at the building entrance under the scorching sun. After a brief conversation with the security guard, a man wearing a black jacket and a baseball cap came out of the security room and handed a notebook to Zhao Yi.

Without saying a word to Zhao Yiduo, he took a new list and turned to leave the 2188 Building.

Zhao Yi put the notebook into his clothes, returned to C301, sat back in his seat, warmed his hand, which was shrouded in black mist, with the candlelight, and then opened the notebook.

There is only one line of text above:

[When a supernatural phenomenon appears around you, it will generate heat... the hotter it is, the stronger the supernatural phenomenon!]

After reading it, Zhao closed the notebook and put it inside his shirt.

Soon after, Liao Hongqiao and Zong Haisheng also returned to the office.

They exchanged a glance and told Zhao Yi that they hadn't found the cup.

Zhao nodded and continued working.

At four o'clock in the afternoon, he got up to go to the restroom, and on the way, he made a phone call to the head housekeeper, Meng Cunhua.

"Yes, Steward Meng, this is Xiao Zhao... It's nothing much, I just wanted to ask you a question..."

"100 yuan, right... Oh, not expensive at all! I'd feel bad if I didn't offer you something after taking up so much of your time, Mr. Meng..."

"I'd like to ask Mr. Meng, where do we dispose of the belongings of colleagues who passed away unexpectedly?"

"Hey... I just felt like I could do more for the company, right? Otherwise, it'd cost the company money to hire someone to clean up, wouldn't it?"

"At the scrap metal collection station... Okay, thank you, Manager Meng."

Just as Zhao Yi was about to hang up, he heard Meng Cunhua say in a sinister tone on the other end:

"I didn't want to tell you this... but I think you're a pretty good kid, sensible..."

"That junkyard isn't safe. Before you go, buy a black cloak from a corner of the supermarket..."

"By the way... could you bring something out for me?"

Zhao Yi's heart skipped a beat:

"Please speak, Steward Meng."

Meng Cunhua lowered his voice:

"Find me a rusty, broken knife..."

Zhao Yi raised an eyebrow.

"What kind of broken sword is the steward referring to?"

Meng Cunhua said:

"I'll send you a picture later, and I'll also reduce your working hours a bit... Try your luck at the junkyard tonight; it would be great if you could find that knife..."

Shortly after hanging up the phone, Zhao Yi received a picture sent by Meng Cunhua.

It was a very ordinary broken knife.

The surface is covered in rust stains, which are slightly darker in color than ordinary rust stains.

Zhao Yi could tell at a glance that the knife was stained with blood.

"This is really interesting..."

he murmured.

As a high-ranking executive in the company, Meng Cunhua certainly has more authority than I do.

At least, he can deduct his own salary.

Yet, someone with such great authority needs to retrieve this rusty, blood-stained knife for him.

"It seems that knife is both important and dangerous..."

"I'm definitely not the first person to go there..."

"Before me, many employees at the scrap yard must have died."

Zhao Yi turned off his phone and returned to his office without making a sound.

He absolutely had to go to the scrap yard. That coffee cup was very important; if he found it, he could figure out the real cause of those people's deaths, and even some secrets about the company.

On his clean and tidy desk, the clock that had been ticking down his work hours had reached 4 hours.

This means that Zhao Yi will be able to leave work at 8 o'clock today.

continue working.

Until dusk fell outside the window.

The countdown on the clock reached zero, Zhao Yi got up, quickly packed his things, and left the office.

Zong Haisheng and Liao Hongqiao glanced at the clock on Zhao Yi's desk, remained silent for a moment, and then followed Zhao Yi out of the office.

They caught up with Zhao Yi and wanted to help him.

Zhao Yi glanced at the two of them and said:

"Have you thought it through?"

"This trip may not be a chance for him to return."

Liao Hongqiao said earnestly:

"Zhao Yi, please help us to a reasonable extent... Mr. Zong and I need to earn enough points in the movie; these points are really important to us!"

"In return, we're willing to pay a portion of the fee after the film ends!"

Her tone was very sincere.

But she couldn't hide the competitive look in her eyes.

"You're such an ambitious girl..."

Zhao Yi praised him, then glanced at Zong Haisheng again:

"Learn from this."

Zong Haisheng's face immediately turned red and then pale, but he didn't know what to say in rebuttal.

In his eyes, Zhao Yi was indeed very outstanding, but she had the potential to become a rival in love.

We arrived at the supermarket.

The three of them each spent 210 to buy three black robes, and then the two of them each spent 90 to buy Zhao Yi a pack of cigarettes.

"I have a question that I'm not sure I should ask."

Zong Haisheng put on an ill-fitting black robe and followed Zhao Yi out of the office building. Under the moonlight, he questioned Zhao Yi, who was smoking.

"Logically speaking, we should be as careful as possible when we go to the junkyard this time. You just finished smoking, so you'll smell like smoke. What if you attract the attention of something...? Wouldn't we be in danger?"

Zhao nudged his shoulder with his elbow and corrected him:

"You don't smoke, but the temperature is very high during the day and gradually returns to normal at night. Now that your sweat has dried, you still smell very strong."

"As for Ms. Liao, she also smells of perfume, although not as strong as the smell of cigarettes. But if some kind of supernatural being has an extremely sensitive sense of smell, then even if I don't smoke, it will still target us, understand?"

Zong Haisheng was stunned by what Zhao Yi said.

Originally, he just wanted to use Zhao Yi's smoking as an opportunity to find fault with him, so that Zhao Yi wouldn't seem so outstanding...

But what he just said makes a lot of sense!

I was speechless!

The three of them sneaked into the scrap metal collection station in the western corner of the 2188 building.

It was a dark, seven-story old building with cracked walls and damp areas covered in green moss. A foul odor wafted in on the night wind, penetrating the lungs.

Aside from rats and bacteria, it seems unlikely that anyone would like this smell.

"This is... the smell of a corpse."

Zong Haisheng had smelled the stench of many rotting corpses at noon, and the lingering smell still lingered. Now, upon smelling this odor again, he couldn't help but squat down and vomit.

Liao Hongqiao patted him on the back, took out some tissues, and wiped Zong Haisheng's mouth.

Under the cover of night, the distant scrap metal collection station looked particularly eerie.

"After we go in, we'll split up and search. Whether we find it or not, we'll all come out in ten minutes!"

"Do you understand?"

Zong Haisheng, suppressing his nausea, said:

"Wouldn't it be more dangerous if we separated?"

Zhao Yi calmly said:

"You can be together."

"But efficiency will decrease. Although separating is more dangerous, the probability of finding the item is also greater."

"You guys go find floors one, two, and three later, I'll go to floors four, five, six, and seven."

"Keep an eye on the time!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the three of them headed towards the dark junk collection building...

PS: This chapter has 3100 words.

I'll write the next chapter right away.