Excessive ferocity due to caution

"Feed?"

"Brother Zhao... what's the matter?"

"Okay, we're coming right away!"

In C301, Liao Hongqiao hung up the phone, stood at the office door, and gave Zong Haisheng inside a wink. Soon, Zong Haisheng also came out of the office, and the two walked downstairs.

"Ms. Liao, whose phone call was that just now?"

"Zhao Yi".

"Why did he call you?"

"prison Break."

Zong Haisheng was taken aback upon hearing this, then exclaimed in surprise:

"He found out...?"

Footsteps came from downstairs. Liao Hongqiao's heart pounded, and she quickly covered Zong Haisheng's mouth.

After the footsteps faded into the distance, Liao Hongqiao glared at Zong Haisheng:

"Are you trying to die?"

Zong Haisheng realized that his behavior just now was inappropriate and quickly adjusted his state.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Liao, I've caused you trouble again."

Seeing Zong Haisheng's sincere attitude in admitting his mistake, Liao Hongqiao couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"No need to be so serious, alright... let's hurry up and find Zhao Yi!"

"This building is too dangerous. We should leave as soon as possible and not linger."

The two carefully made their way to the scrap metal collection building, where they met Zhao Yi, who had been waiting for them for a long time, on the fifth floor.

"Come in."

Zhao Yi opened the door for them, and the two entered the room. When they saw the four black cats and the rotting corpses all over the floor, they were so frightened that they almost ran away!

"Please sit down. I'll explain the details to you both, and then we'll prepare to take action."

Zhao Yi briefly explained the current situation to the two men. Upon hearing Zhao Yi's plan, Zong Haisheng's eyes widened and he whispered:

"Brother... are you crazy?!"

"I've already checked out the archives department beforehand. While the internal security is limited, there are plenty of people patrolling outside!"

"The moment they discover we've stolen something from inside, they'll come in and tear us to pieces!"

Zhao Yi calmly replied:

"So you need to rush out at the right time to distract them."

"And... those patrolling guards will soon be sent away."

Zong Haisheng clenched his fists nervously, his palms sweating profusely.

"No, this is too dangerous. I need to discuss it with Miss Liao."

He tried to take Liao Hongqiao out, but the black cat stopped him.

Under the stark white light, the black cat's sharp claws gleamed with an eerie, cold light, sending chills down Zong Haisheng's spine.

Zhao Yi sat on the sofa, gently waving his hand over the wick of a red candle, his tone calm:

"Mr. Zong, I think you may have misunderstood my attitude..."

"I'm not asking for your or Ms. Liao's opinion."

The words from behind made Zong Haisheng and his companion gasp for breath. Without turning around, he stood still and asked:

"So...we have no choice?"

Zhao Yi stared at the candle wick and said:

"Yes."

"The ghost baby has no records, therefore we are three ghosts, three people."

"There are six files in total; it won't take too long."

"To dispel your doubts, one of you stay with me, and the other go out with Black Cat and the others to distract the security personnel who are about to come in to search."

After a moment of silence, Liao Hongqiao asked:

"How long will it take?"

Black Cat said:

"We need a total of 6 files. Each file takes half a minute to retrieve, but it only becomes alert after the first file is lost. So you only need to stall for 2 and a half minutes, and we can retrieve all the files for everyone... and then run away."

The two exchanged a glance, and Zong Haisheng gritted his teeth and immediately said:

"I'll go with you to distract the security personnel. Miss Liao, you can go inside with Brother Zhao to retrieve the files!"

Liao Hongqiao did not refuse.

She knew that she couldn't win against Zong Haisheng in this matter.

"By the way... if you don't want to go, you can find a chance to leave Building 2188 directly."

Zhao Yi suddenly spoke to the ghost baby who was silently holding his mother's corpse.

"You were not a prisoner of this building; you don't need to risk your life for us."

The ghost baby raised its head, its sorrowful gaze filled with determination. It babbled something, and the white-skirted female ghost holding it beside it said:

"The little rascal said that since you avenged it and its mother, it will help us get out of here."

Zhao nodded and looked out the window at the nebula:

"Then let's get everything ready."

"Once the riots break out outside, we can take action..."

...

Ministry of Supervision.

Fang Jie stood at the window with his diary, recording his statement.

He recounted in a very smooth and detailed manner how he obtained the diary and how he discovered Meng Cunhua's secret.

From beginning to end, Zhao Yi was not mentioned at all.

He's not stupid.

Reporting serious misconduct by your competitors is a huge achievement within the company!

If he gets the reward all by himself, he can level up at least two levels.

If the reward is given to Zhao Yi, then the reward will be much smaller.

Anyway, Zhao Yi has no evidence to prove that he was the one who found the diary... right?

After taking his statement, Fang Jie couldn't help but smile with excitement as he looked at the security personnel who had gone to the 12th floor to look for Meng Cunhua... just like the expression Meng Cunhua had when he betrayed the two people who stole the files and received the reward.

There is almost no difference.

Soon, the Ministry of Supervision received a call informing them that Meng Cunhua had disappeared and was suspected of fleeing to evade punishment.

At this moment, they quickly assembled their forces and patrolled every corner of the 2188 Building, searching for Meng Cunhua's whereabouts!

To speed up the search, a large portion of the patrol officers stationed at the entrance of the archives department were reassigned.

The once heavily guarded archives department suddenly became much emptier.

Led by the black cat and the black-haired rat, Zhao Yi and his group slowly crept into the archives department from underground along a narrow secret passage.

"That senior is no ordinary person."

Looking at the strange tunnels along the way, Zong Haisheng couldn't help but speak up.

This is no Shawshank; to be able to secretly carry out such a large-scale project inside the 2188 Tower, one really needs some extraordinary skills!

"That senior has a special ability."

The black cat recalled something.

"He can communicate with some small animals or insects, such as cats, mice, cockroaches, etc..."

Zong Haisheng:

No wonder.

Following the map and illuminated by the dim light of candles, the group finally arrived at the end of the tunnel.

The tunnel digger even meticulously designed a lockable door with the words "Toilet" crookedly carved on it.

It was clear that he had a genuine aversion to the archives.

The door opened, and the light from inside shone in.

The black-haired rat went in to check and, finding nothing wrong, gestured for the others to follow.

In the empty room, there was indeed an old machine. The machine was shaped like a giant eyeball, but there were teeth in the middle of the eyeball, and it could open. Above it was a thick, wriggling intestine that led all the way to the ceiling.

At the junction of the intestines and the ceiling, extremely disgusting mucus dripped down, corroding the once snow-white ceiling into large patches of green mold, and some unknown worms crawled around on it...

Looking at the machine, Zong Haisheng and his companion looked extremely pale and almost vomited.

"This pipe appears to lead to the thirteenth floor of the 2188 Building's office building..."

Zhao Yi walked to the front of the strange machine, turned around, glanced at everyone, and said:

"Friends, whether we are here voluntarily or forced, we are all in the same boat now, and escaping this building is our common goal."

"Please, everyone, give it your all!"

Everyone looked serious, indicating that they were ready.

"Then... ladies first."

"I'm the last one."

After Zhao finished speaking, he first printed Liao Hongqiao's name on the machine.

Because Zong Haisheng and the Four Ghosts were attracting the attention of the security personnel outside, in order to reassure Zong Haisheng and allow him to focus on his work, Zhao Yi decided to first obtain Liao Hongqiao's file and hand it over to him.

This way, Zong Haisheng could rest assured. Also, because Liao Hongqiao was inside with Zhao Yi, he would definitely do his best to attract the attention of the security personnel outside!

As soon as the name was entered, the intestines connected to the eyes suddenly began to wriggle violently, and large amounts of mucus dripped down, looking extremely disgusting!

At that very moment, the alarm in the archives department went off!

The sharp, loud sound made everyone in the room feel uneasy. They stared intently at the machine, and then, with a blink of an eye, Liao Hongqiao's file appeared before them!

"Now!"

Zhao Yi shouted.

Ignoring his nausea, Zong Haisheng quickly picked up Miss Liao's file from the ground, and together with the four ghosts, they opened the front door and fled outside!

PS: First update, 2650 words.

Continuing my push for 10,000 updates today.