Lin Wan forced a natural, warm smile, her tone carrying a hint of envy. "Miss, you have such an elegant air about you. You look completely different from us, like a noble lady."
Bai Ci looked up and smiled faintly, her voice carrying the poise that came with her upbringing. "My family used to be considered nobility, but we've lost our former glory long ago."
She spoke with half-truths, which both explained her refined demeanor and naturally downplayed the potential suspicions that came with the identity of "nobility." After all, there were some mysteries she hadn't even figured out herself yet.
Lin Wan's eyes lit up, and she immediately followed up on the topic, hoping to fish for more background information.
But Bai Ci was not about to give her the chance to take control of the conversation.
She leaned forward slightly and asked softly, her tone carrying just the right amount of curiosity, "Are you all... relatively new to the post office? You all look quite unfamiliar."
With a single sentence, she turned the subject back onto them.
Lin Wan didn't think much of it, assuming it was just casual small talk from this noble lady. To leave a good impression, she answered almost every question.
"Yes, we all arrived quite recently," she sighed. "Things haven't been very peaceful in town lately. Many of the post office's original employees fell ill, and they were so short-handed that they hired us."
The sudden, large-scale recruitment at the post office was likely linked to the plague in town. Most of those sick former employees had probably caught the plague. Since the players were assigned the roles of "new employees," their main quest was highly likely to involve completing work quotas at the post office and investigating the truth behind the employees' illnesses.
Originally, Bai Ci was still guessing that if this instance were a solo one, the main quest would most likely be related to Lora's family and the secrets of the Chaos family.
But now, seeing other players at the post office completely dispelled that notion. This was clearly a multiplayer instance, and the main quest would inevitably be related to the post office and the plague in town. Lora's family background might just be an insignificant foreshadowing, not worth spending too much effort to investigate for now.
"Fell ill?" Bai Ci frowned, her tone laced with concern. "I suppose that makes sense. Mail carriers run around all day and come into contact with too many people. Do you all deliver mail as well?"
"Yes," Lin Wan nodded, lowering her voice as she disguised her attempt to probe for information as a minor complaint about work. "When we arrived, many of the positions were vacant. And... I don't know if Mr. Hugo has mentioned it to you, but the rules here are quite strict."
"Rules?"
"Yes." Seeing that Bai Ci's confusion did not seem feigned, Lin Wan guessed she might be wasting her breath, but she still maintained her serious answering posture. "Specifically, we have to deliver ten letters every afternoon. If we don't deliver enough, or if something goes wrong with the mail, we have to sweep the attic. I heard the attic is filthy and messy, and no one wants to go there. If we fail several times, we'll be dismissed directly."
Sweep the attic? Dismissed?
Bai Ci caught a fleeting flash of fear in Lin Wan's eyes. What had they witnessed firsthand? Had someone died because of these two punishments?
Bai Ci silently made a mental note of this, then casually probed further, "Ten letters? Do all mail carriers have to deliver that many? I see there are quite a few of you, including Hugo."
"Yeah, it's the same for everyone. Whether it's the old employees or us newcomers, it's a fixed ten letters every day," Chen Mo chimed in from the side, his tone tinged with impatience. "I thought being a mail carrier would be pretty easy, but I didn't expect to be held back by a quota. It's so annoying."
Contrary to his name, Chen Mo was not silent at all.
On the contrary, Zhao Yu and Zhou Kai, who were sitting to the side, didn't say a word. Zhou Kai looked as if his mind were wandering in the clouds, while Zhao Yu was busy wrestling with his rye bread, treating it like a teething stick.
Bai Ci quickly did the math in her head: Hugo, Old Tom, plus Lin Wan, Chen Mo, Zhao Yu, and Zhou Kai made a total of six mail carriers. With ten letters per person each day, that meant sixty letters a day.
Aether Town was just a remote little town, mostly populated by factory workers and small merchants. Although there were quite a few residents, there shouldn't normally be this many letters in transit, let alone a fixed sixty letters every single day. This was truly anomalous.
Her mind whirled through a hundred thoughts in an instant, but her face showed only a hint of appropriate surprise as she sighed, "So everyone has to deliver that many. I thought a remote town like this would have fewer letters. I didn't expect there to be so much mail coming and going. It's quite bustling."
Bai Ci's words were like a sudden wake-up call to Lin Wan, who frowned. Before, she had only been thinking about how to pass the entry test smoothly, only feeling that the post office had too many rules. Coupled with her lack of understanding of the instance's background, she realized it took a local NPC to spot the problem at a single glance.
With this remark, she felt her conversation today hadn't been in vain.
Just then, the door to the breakroom was pushed open, and Hugo and Old Tom returned.
Hugo's gaze immediately fell upon Bai Ci. Seeing her sitting there quietly, an imperceptible smile appeared on his face, and his pace quickened slightly.
The breakroom wasn't very large to begin with, and with Bai Ci and the four players, it already felt rather cramped. Hugo walked over to Bai Ci's side, his cheeks flushing slightly as he said in a somewhat awkward tone, "Lora, are you comfortable here? I... I'll take you somewhere else to eat. There are too many people here."
Old Tom laughed heartily from the side, slapping Hugo on the shoulder as he teased, "Oh, look at our Hugo getting all shy! Alright, you young betrothed couple can go somewhere else. We'll leave you some private space. Just don't take too long, there's work this afternoon."
Hugo's cheeks turned beet red at Old Tom's words. Wishing he could find a hole to crawl into, he quickly grabbed Bai Ci's wrist and hurried out of the breakroom, not saying a single word of protest.
Pulled by him, Bai Ci followed obediently.
Hugo led her to a small room on the west side of the post office. It was likely a utility room, containing a few old cabinets, a small, cluttered table, and a few chairs. Although simple, it was very quiet.
He let go of her wrist, wiped down one of the chairs with his sleeve, and pulled it over to her. "There aren't many people here. Wait for me for a bit, I'll finish eating quickly."
With that, he pulled over another chair and sat down, opening the lunchbox wrapped in thick cotton cloth. Inside was simple bread and fried eggs, along with a small portion of vegetable salad, very similar to the breakfast Bai Ci had eaten that morning.
He picked up a piece of bread, and just as he took a bite, he remembered something. Looking up at Bai Ci, he asked with concern, "Have you had lunch yet? If not, I have extra bread here."
Bai Ci smiled and nodded, her voice gentle. "I've eaten. I found the lunch you left warming in the kitchen stove."
Hearing this, Hugo breathed a sigh of relief. Somewhat embarrassed, he lowered his head and ate faster, his cheeks still flushed with a faint blush. Clearly, he wasn't used to being stared at while eating.
Bai Ci sat across from him, watching him quietly. Her gaze fell on his slightly trembling fingertips as she calculated in her mind how to bring up the subject of the letters.
Rate on N.U.
