Just after eight o'clock, at the vending machine on the third floor, Chen Yang's thoughts were disrupted by a teeth-grinding sound. He turned his head and was stunned.
The boy was scraping the jar of eight-treasure porridge with a spoon.
Chen Yang couldn't bear to watch and said, "There's still one can in the vending machine. Do you want me to buy it for you?"
"No." He continued to search Jian.
Chen Yang's mouth twitched a few times. He pressed the vending machine, took the last can of eight-treasure porridge that had fallen, and shook it in front of Chao Jian: "Really?"
The gesture of teasing children.
Chao Jian continued to struggle with the can in his hand without even looking up.
"There's nothing left in there, why are you still scraping?" Chen Yang couldn't help but throw out his old father's nagging. Is the family so poor that they can't even afford to eat? He was suddenly stunned. Speaking of which, this wasn't the first time Chao Jian had been so frugal...
They always drink a bottle of water and eat a portion of food.
Chen Yang unconsciously moved closer to Chao Jian, and his breath was hot.
Chao Jian stopped scraping the inside of the jar and frowned: "Are you burning again?"
"Yeah." Chen Yang's thinking was very slow, and even his blinking speed slowed down. He maintained the posture of leaning forward without moving, until Chao Jian touched his forehead and asked him to go to the bathroom, he made a "hmm" sound.
"Okay, I'll go wash my face."
When he arrived at the bathroom, Chen Yang didn't even wash his face. He was shocked by Chao Jian's words and actions.
Chao Jian washed his hands as soon as he came in. After washing several times, he asked Chen Yang to open his mouth, saying that he wanted to check how high his fever was.
Chen Yang responded slowly: "How do I check?"
"Oral measurement takes faster." Chao Jian looked at him and said.
Chen Yang said: "There is no thermometer."
Chao Jian: "I use my hands."
"..." Chen Yang looked at the boy's slender fingers that were emitting moisture, and then looked at his dark eyes that were emotionless, "Can you still test body temperature this way?"
Chao Jian said expressionlessly: "Yeah."
Chen Yang laughed: "You won't betray your brother, will you?"
Chao Jian didn't smile at Chen Yang. His eyebrows were raised, his jaw line was tense, and he looked very impatient.
Chen Yang couldn't laugh anymore, he knew Chao Jian wouldn't fool him.
Chao Jian is not a joking person. His senses are extremely sensitive and his non-human characteristics are very obvious. If he says he can measure something, then he can really measure it.
A blind and surging trust swept over Chen Yang. Before he could think any more, he couldn't help but raise his head, tilt his neck back, and open his mouth to Chao Jian.
An index finger was inserted and probed inside inch by inch.
Chen Yang's eyelids rolled up, and he looked at the ceiling covered with water droplets, and his eyes turned red. Most of it was because of the fever, and a small part was physiological.
The finger rubbed his hot tongue all the way forward and pressed against the base of his tongue.
Chen Yang felt a little nauseous and wanted to vomit, so he subconsciously pursed his lips.
In this way, the feeling of the foreign object between the lips and teeth would become more and more intense. Chen Yang swallowed uncomfortably, and his body temperature seemed to be higher.
"Hold it in your mouth and don't move." Chao Jian lowered his eyes and looked at the phone.
Seeing Chao Jian keeping track of time as if he was treating it as a job, Chen Yang gradually relaxed.
Soon Chen Yang became nervous again. The secretions in his mouth increased uncontrollably and his throat felt a little itchy. He subconsciously made a sucking motion, and his crown seemed to be struck by a thunderbolt. He was stunned.
Chao Jian looked at the screen as usual. When the time came, he pinched Chen Yang's face, pulled out his index finger, and said in a hoarse voice, "About 39 degrees."
Chen Yang's soul was still running wildly outside, standing there motionless.
"Come and wash your face." Chao Jian turned on the faucet, his breath was even hotter than Chen Yang's, "Hurry up."
Chen Yang didn't react. It was only until Chao Jian dragged him to the front of the pool that his soul ran back.
"I've lived for twenty-five years, and this is the first time I've seen a human-shaped thermometer." Chen Yang sighed as he closed his eyes and rubbed his burned face.
"Wash your hands too, they're all covered with my saliva." Chen Yang said again.
The person behind me didn't respond.
After washing his face, Chen Yang turned around and found Chao Jian bending down to rub the crutch. The finger that had entered his mouth was clean, and the saliva on it had been wiped off.
Chao Jian walked out the door with crutches: "Go to the company to find cold medicine."
"It's just a little after eight o'clock." Chen Yang followed him, "It's not time to go to work yet, so you can't go into the company."
Chao Jian said: "Today's monster is not going to work at nine o'clock, but at eight o'clock. It has already started working."
Chen Yang was startled. He quickly walked in front of Chao Jian and asked, "Intuition or?"
"Intuition." Chao Jian glanced at the dark building.
"The monster's working hours are linked to its company's normal working hours." Chao Jian added, rarely giving such a detailed explanation, "The normal working hours are the same as the times it turns into a monster."
"So..." Chen Yang pointed the flashlight at Chao Jian, "Do you want to go to work at 8 o'clock?"
Chen Yang felt a little dizzy. He pinched his temples vigorously a few times and said, "I remember we searched the company. The company starts work at this time and ends get off work at six o'clock."
On the first day of the mission, Chen Yang asked the white-collar workers in the team what time they went to work and got off work every day. The survey yielded two results. First, the average working time was 9 o'clock to 6 o'clock.
2. Changxiang Technology is the first to start work, at 8 o'clock.
"Among all of us, only Changxiang Technology starts work at 8 o'clock." Chen Yang stared at Chao Jian.
Chao Jian looked at him calmly, as if signaling him to continue.
Chen Yang's eyes were bloodshot: "Changxiang Technology is just you and me."
After saying that, Chen Yang closed his eyes and said, "There is a third person who is from Changxiang Technology. He just used someone else's work ID. We were misled."
Chao Jian looked at him: "Don't you doubt me?"
Chen Yang returned the sentence to him intactly: "Don't you doubt me?"
"Heh." Chao Jian laughed, and the curve of his lips disappeared as soon as it opened. "Doubt."
Chen Yang nodded: "Then you still take my temperature?"
Chao Jian smiled coldly: "Suspicion is not certainty. Before there is sufficient evidence, I will follow you closely."
"As you wish." Chen Yang walked a few steps and stopped, with an expression of serious thought, "Brother, did you learn your acting skills from Wen Qing?"
Chao Jian's face suddenly turned dark.
Chen Yang coaxed, "Just kidding, your sense of humor is so natural that I can hardly detect it."
Chao Jian: “…”
Chen Yang's state of mind had not experienced any storms. In his world, the seed of "doubting Chao Jian" was empty and shriveled, and would never sprout and take root.
This cognition did not emerge in an instant; it has always been there.
It seemed as if Chao Jian being his partner was destiny, destined by fate. They barely had any adjustment and everything just happened naturally.
Chen Yang's feet felt like they were on cotton, and he couldn't exert any strength. He held the cold can of eight-treasure porridge in his hand for a while, then rubbed it against his face.
When the can slid to his neck, Chen Yang's eyelids twitched. When he was delirious with fever last night, it was fortunate that he had the ice pack given by the little mute, otherwise he would have burned to a pulp.
I don't know where the ice pack went. I didn't see it when I woke up in the morning.
Chen Yang casually asked Chao Jian: "Did you see the ice pack that the little mute gave me?"
The sound of crutches stopped.
Chen Yang turned his head and found Chao Jian staring at him.
The boy's skin was cold and pale, and under the light of the flashlight, he looked like a hungry vampire.
“What…” Chen Yang’s back felt a little numb. He glanced at the two figures at the vending machine and stopped talking.
Li Zheng and Qiao Qiao stood there choosing breakfast.
"The atmosphere between them is different." Chen Yang muttered, "Are they together? Not like it. He confessed his love to her, but she didn't refuse or agree. I guess they agreed to talk about it after they get back alive."
Chao Jian sneered: "You are the only one who understands."
"How could I understand? It's just that a bystander can see things more clearly." Chen Yang said with self-awareness. He sighed, "In the mission world, any emotion will be used by the rules, especially love, which is very dangerous."
Chao Jian stood quietly, with a hint of bloodshot in his eyes.
In front of the vending machine, Li Zheng handed a bottle of Orange Juice to Qiao Qiao: "Drink this, and when it's time to go to work, I'll find some medicine for you."
He remembered that a colleague kept some commonly used medicines in the company.
Qiao Qiao held the Orange with Pulp but did not open it. She felt weak all over and her face was flushed red. Her big watery eyes had become dry and had several bloodshot lines in them.
Li Zheng bent down and lowered his head to comfort her.
When Chen Yang came over, he heard the young man scratching his head and cheering up the sick girl. He thought to himself that love is great and fragile. He hoped that they could return home alive together.
The first thing Li Zheng said when he saw Chen Yang was: "Boss Zheng and Pan Lin are having sex on the fourth floor and can't come down now."
Chen Yang's eyes twitched. He couldn't respond to such straightforward words. Besides, he hadn't even started asking about the whereabouts of those two people yet, so there was no need to tell him so proactively.
"I didn't hear any noise." Chen Yang said calmly.
Li Zheng said, "Why don't you go up and take a look?"
Chen Yang was speechless. He was about to bring up the matter of the monster when he heard Qiao Qiao say, "Mr. Chen, I accompanied Sister Wang to the toilet on the second floor this morning. That woman..."
"Which woman?" Li Zheng asked before Chen Yang could, "That crazy person?"
When he saw Qiao Qiao respond, his face immediately became panicked: "Did she do that to you?"
“No.” Qiao Qiao’s face turned pale as she recalled the situation. “The bathroom was very dark. I kept my flashlight in my hand, shining it here and there from time to time. She stood next to me, staring at the door with her head tilted, her teeth chattering. She looked very scary.”
Chen Yang opened his eyes slightly: "Is there someone outside the door?"
"I thought so too. I waited for Sister Wang to finish her work and then opened the door to look, but I didn't see anyone." Qiao Qiao was both frustrated and scared. "I wanted to ask the woman if she had discovered anything, but I didn't dare."
"Next time you see her, just pretend you don't see her. Don't provoke her." Li Zheng whispered, "A madman doesn't know what he will do."
Qiao Qiao's face was filled with fear: "Do I need you to tell me that?"
Chen Yang was thoughtful. When he heard what Qiao Qiao said, his first reaction was that there was someone outside the toilet at that time, and he insisted on this guess.
That unknown female office worker who is a psychic? No, there are no ghosts in this mission, only monsters.
Chen Yang rubbed his nose which was emitting anger. That was... a sixth sense that was different from that of ordinary people
The reason why that woman behaved like that was because the people outside the door treated her as a monster and were worried that she would eat Qiao Qiao and Sister Wang, and she treated the people outside the door as a monster and was worried that they would eat her and the other two women
Chen Yang didn't think for long before he was stopped by a pain. His head was aching. He opened the eight-treasure porridge, took a few mouthfuls, and gave it to Chao Jian.
Qiao Qiao and Li Zheng watched them share a can of eight-treasure porridge.
"Don't look at it." Li Zheng pulled her, "Why didn't you tell me about the toilet first?"
Qiao Qiao glanced at him with an indescribable look and sighed, "You are even more timid than me. I am afraid of scaring you."
Li Zheng blushed.
When Chao Jian had finished eating half of the Eight Treasure Porridge, Chen Yang heard two sets of footsteps. It was the mute and Sister Wang. They came down from the fourth floor, and both of them had very subtle expressions.
If the building was not covered in water, or if all the lights were on in the building, Chen Yang would have seen the red face of the mute and the shock to Sister Wang's worldview.
I was caught off guard and watched the s|m live broadcast. What is going on
Soon, Mr. Zhang and Brother Yu also came over. Li Zheng took a look and found that they had cleared up the misunderstanding, so he breathed a sigh of relief.
There are not many people left in the team, they should unite.
Chen Yang expressed his guess that the monster would come to work early, but in order to avoid unnecessary trouble, he did not use a positive tone.
Not everyone is like him and believes in Chao Jian's intuition.
"If the monster comes to work early..." Li Zheng clenched his teeth, and the second half of the sentence was crushed into pieces without a single sound coming out.
Has one of them turned into a monster
The atmosphere became strange. No one spoke. Under the silence, an undercurrent was silently surging, carrying with it suspicion, panic, and an unconcealable vigilance.
"It's just a suspicion, not necessarily true." Brother Yu looked at Chen Yang, "Right, Mr. Chen."
Chen Yang nodded: "Yeah."
"What should we do now?" Brother Yu rubbed his face and said tiredly, "We deduced the monsters' rules of conduct through the first two rounds. I thought the situation in the third round would be more favorable to us. As a result, the monsters in the third round might actually go to work early. Why is this mission getting harder and harder..."
There was despair in these words.
Everyone is infected, and those in poor mental state can't help but want to give up.
"Cough!" Mr. Zhang put his fist to his mouth and coughed heavily, as if something was stuck in his throat.
Chen Yang's attention was drawn by the cough. He glanced at Mr. Zhang, and just when he was about to look away, his eyelids twitched.
There was something off about Mr. Zhang. He couldn't tell what was wrong, but he just felt something was wrong.
Chen Yang did not immediately make eye contact with Chao Jian. He observed calmly, "Mr. Zhang, are you okay?"
"It's okay." Mr. Zhang scratched his head a few times.
"You may have caught a cold." Li Zheng cleared his throat, "My nose is a little stuffy too."
When Mr. Zhang went to the restroom, Chen Yang lowered his voice and said, "Mr. Zhang is wrong."
Everyone was in panic.
Especially Brother Yu who came up with Mr. Zhang, his face turned pale: "What's wrong? What's wrong?"
Chen Yang couldn't explain it for a moment.
A spoonful of eight-treasure porridge was brought to his mouth. He opened his mouth and ate it without thinking. When he came to his senses, he glared at Jian in embarrassment: You eat yours!
Chao Jian ignored him and continued to eat the eight-treasure porridge.
"Ah" the mute pointed the flashlight at his sticky note pad.
There is a strange patch of skin on his left little finger.
Like chicken skin, one end is connected to the flesh, and the other end is hanging outside, as if it has not fallen off completely.
Chen Yang looked at the mute and asked, "Are you seeing things?"
The mute shook his head, she was sure.
Chen Yang's expression changed, and the sweetness in his mouth was soon suppressed by bitterness. He squatted down to organize his thoughts.
Qiao Qiao took a deep breath and said, "Mr. Zhang is the monster today!"
"Mr. Chen's guess is right. The monster really came to work early." Li Zheng looked at the time on his mobile phone. It was just past half past eight.
"If you go to work early, what about leaving get off work?" Sister Wang was almost exhausted, "Also early?"
Qiao Qiao responded with the same frustrated look: "I don't know."
Several people communicated anxiously for a while, some squatting or standing, with blank eyes.
"You escaped a disaster." Li Zheng patted Brother Yu on the shoulder.
Yu Ge trembled: "Yes."