The group exchanged glances, but no one wanted to touch that bucket.
Everyone was extremely cautious of the stainless steel bucket that had mysteriously appeared in Zhang Ping's room, especially since Nan Yue had implied it was the direct cause of her death.
Nan Yue, however, walked over casually and lifted the lid. After seeing the contents, she let out a long, quiet sigh.
It was just as she had suspected.
Seeing that Nan Yue was unharmed, the others slowly gathered around.
"This is..."
Luo Feifei frowned as she looked inside. "Rice?"
"Yes," Nan Yue said, looking at the bucket which was still nearly half-full. "It's leftover rice."
"What does that mean?"
Ever since Nan Yue had intimidated Zhang Qingyang, no one in the group dared to underestimate her. They were now completely following her lead.
"This bucket contains the rice Zhang Ping didn't finish. In other words, she violated the rule about wasting food."
Luo Feifei's mouth hung open slightly. "A whole bucket... who could possibly finish that?"
Gu Xiang Kai focused on a more precise point. "Why does this count as her wasting food? It wasn't even lunch time."
Nan Yue already knew why Zhang Ping was dead, and she replied calmly, "Before she left at noon, she said that if she had time, she could eat even more."
The others understood, and a wave of cold dread washed over them.
So, because of a single polite, social remark Zhang Ping made to show friendliness, Xiao Min had brought her an entire bucket of rice and then watched her to see if she would violate the rules by not finishing it?
"Then... then what do we do?"
Zhang Qingyang's voice was trembling. He put himself in her shoes and wondered how he would have escaped such a situation.
"There's nothing to be done. Just stop talking nonsense."
Gu Xiang Kai rubbed his buzz cut and cursed under his breath about their rotten luck.
He hated missions like this, where everything was nebulous and filled with traps.
Although Gu Xiang Kai spoke bluntly, his logic was sound.
They all knew now that the neighbors and managers in this apartment were likely not good people.
They were all intentionally trying to lure the Scavengers into breaking the rules, so they had to be extremely careful with their words even when trying to be polite.
"It's too hard... it's just too hard..."
Zhang Qingyang was on the verge of a breakdown. His own abilities were mediocre, and after passing the Qualification Exam, he had relied on teammates for every other mission.
But this mission tested individual capability, giving him a very bad feeling.
No one paid him any attention. Once they knew how Zhang Ping had died, no one wanted to stay in the room any longer.
They had been deeply indoctrinated at the academy with the idea that 'a Scavenger will eventually die,' so no one felt the need to do anything for her.
However, this was the first time Nan Yue had seen a teammate—someone like herself, rather than a simulation in a mock exam—die right in front of her.
She didn't know where this sudden surge of sorrow and indignation came from, but when she snapped back to her senses, she had already walked over to gently close Zhang Ping's wide-staring eyes.
When she turned around, the others were gone, leaving only Gu Xiang Kai waiting for her.
The two walked down the corridor in silence until Gu Xiang Kai finally spoke.
"You need to get used to death."
Nan Yue tilted her head to look at his sharp, angular profile. "I know. I've said it before, we are expendables, and expendables eventually run out."
Nan Yue lowered her head. "But we are human."
She didn't notice Gu Xiang Kai pause for a fraction of a second before she continued to herself, "Even if our lives carry a mission, we are still human. It's normal to feel sad."
After a long while, Gu Xiang Kai let out an ambiguous chuckle.
"Definitely a newcomer."
Nan Yue neither agreed nor disagreed.
While waiting for the elevator, Nan Yue kept scanning the corridor, which Gu Xiang Kai found strange.
"What is it?"
Nan Yue's gaze remained fixed on the partially open door to Zhang Ping's room. "Zhang Ping's neighbor was so insistent that she didn't touch anything in the room, yet now that the room is in this state, why hasn't she shown up?"
Gu Xiang Kai shrugged. "That neighbor was an NPC specifically for Zhang Ping. Now that she's dead, it's natural the neighbor wouldn't appear."
"Is that so..."
The elevator arrived. Nan Yue didn't have any other thoughts for now and followed Gu Xiang Kai down to the first floor.
"I heard you guys got stuck on a ghost loop on the bus?"
Gu Xiang Kai pulled a cigarette from his pack. Since they were in the elevator, he didn't light it, instead biting the filter and speaking indistinctly.
"Yeah. Rotten luck. Wasted my whole afternoon."
"You couldn't get to the city?"
Gu Xiang Kai shook his head. "It was just a rural line. It only stopped at four places total. Aside from Everpeace Apartments, the other three stops were in the middle of nowhere. One was a small patch of woods, one was an unfinished building, and the last was a pond."
Once they exited the elevator, Gu Xiang Kai wasn't in a hurry to light his cigarette. "I got off at the woods to check it out. It's easy to get lost there, and there weren't any people."
Nan Yue thought to herself that Gu Xiang Kai really was reckless to dare get off the bus in such a place.
"Did another bus come later?"
Gu Xiang Kai lit his cigarette, and the smell of tobacco spread through the air.
"Yeah. I waited for about two hours."
Nan Yue frowned. Only someone like Gu Xiang Kai would have the patience for that. Anyone else would have likely panicked and either broken down or tried to wander back on their own.
"Did anyone else get off?"
Gu Xiang Kai sneered. "A bunch of cowards. I waited until the third loop before I got off. No one else dared to try before that."
As they spoke, Nan Yue saw Lu Li and Pu Kun returning.
They clearly already knew about Zhang Ping's death, as their expressions were grim, and the others looked visibly demoralized.
Those two really hadn't dared to get off the bus, staying on until the last bus returned to Everpeace Apartments.
"So you two just sat on a bus all afternoon for fun? What a strange hobby."
Gu Xiang Kai spoke with biting sarcasm. Pu Kun was clearly unhappy, but after glancing at Gu Xiang Kai's well-defined muscles, he kept his mouth shut.
They had seen Gu Xiang Kai get off, but no one knew if he would be able to return, so everyone wanted to wait and see before deciding.
As for Zhang Qingyang, he had run back to the apartment as soon as he realized the bus was in a ghost loop.
"What do we do? There aren't any clues at all."
Zhang Qingyang wailed. It was already six-thirty in the evening, dinner time.
Uncle Song was the one in charge of the cooking for dinner. With Zhang Ping's death fresh in their minds, no one dared to speak. They all buried their heads in their food, eating everything from the seasonings to the side dishes until their plates were spotless.
Fortunately, Uncle Song didn't try to strike up a conversation with them. After dinner, they sat in silence for a while before Lu Li spoke.
"Let's head back. There are no clues outside, so we can only look inside the apartment."
Nan Yue had already shared the clue about the newspapers with them. The group perked up a bit, and they divided the old newspapers among themselves to take back to their rooms and study.
"Ding. Welcome home."
The group, who had been busy sorting the newspapers, froze. They turned around stiffly to see that Zhao Ming had returned.
"Feifei!"
Zhao Ming's eyes were fixed on Luo Feifei from the moment he entered. Luo Feifei's expression froze for a split second before she forced a smile.
"You're back. You missed dinner."
Seeing Luo Feifei being so friendly, Zhao Ming's eyes lit up.
"I downloaded a movie. Do you want to come over and watch it together?"
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