Chapter 129

Shi Jian didn’t do fake pleasantries. Even if it was a pleasantry, Shi Jian would make it real.

The whole scene looked ridiculously funny. Sun Rouyuan’s expression at that moment was full of soul—her perfect mask was starting to slip under Shi Jian’s bluntness.

Silence spoke louder than words.

She really wanted to point at Shi Jian’s nose and shout: How can you be such a damn dog?!

Shi Jian was still urging her on the side, “Let’s go now, then.”

Sensing Sun Rouyuan’s hesitation, Shi Jian blinked and added, “You said you wanted to help me. You weren’t just saying it, right? Or was it that your Jian-jie is too gullible and took it seriously?”

Her expression was dim—who was she trying to out-act here?

But Shi Jian’s voice was very loud!

Sun Rouyuan: !!!

Who doesn’t love gossip? Even though Gongfu Company had a tense work atmosphere, many eyes started glancing toward Shi Jian’s direction.

They looked at Sun Rouyuan with a bit of disdain.

Sun Rouyuan could practically hear how everyone was going to talk about her behind her back.

“This person’s so fake.”

“She won’t even help someone who’s always helped her—we better watch out around her.”

“I’m definitely giving her a bad review in the employee evaluation…”

What colleagues and supervisors said affected promotions. Sun Rouyuan didn’t want to stop at just becoming a full-time employee—she wanted to climb higher.

Thinking of that, Sun Rouyuan didn’t hesitate anymore. She resigned herself and picked up all the waste paper, replying to Shi Jian, “Jian-jie, how could I not? I’m really happy I can help you.”

Shi Jian found she was surprisingly tolerant—at least better than Wang-jie and them. She didn’t even grit her teeth.

But to Shi Jian, who cared what she thought—as long as the goal was achieved.

Viewers: Congratulations to the new tool NPC for coming online!

...

The shredder still gleamed coldly, the few large blades moving up and down with ka-cha ka-cha sounds, ready to chop off any hand that got too close.

When Shi Jian returned, the other unlucky streamer who’d been assigned to handle the shredded paper had already left, but bloodstains remained on the floor.

Shi Jian carefully avoided stepping in them.

The task was still dangerous—but she didn’t have to do it.

Sun Rouyuan had already accepted her fate and was feeding the paper into the shredder. The blades were still the same, but they didn’t go for her hands.

Shi Jian’s eyes turned cold: so it really was targeting streamers specifically.

As Sun Rouyuan fed paper into the machine, she chatted idly with Shi Jian.

Shi Jian played dumb to any questions she couldn’t answer or that were too sensitive, using the chance to extract information from Sun Rouyuan instead.

For example: “You really got what you wished for. Just yesterday you were worrying about going full-time, and today you’re in already…”

How had she become a regular employee so fast?

Sun Rouyuan was clearly very proud of having become official. Smiling brightly, she answered, “Maybe I just got lucky.”Luck.

Sun Rouyuan also brought up a topic that caught Shi Jian’s interest.

While chatting, she lowered her voice mysteriously and said, “Jian-jie, have you ever heard the company’s urban legends?”

Shi Jian remained calm. “No, what kind of creepy tales?”

As she fed more paper into the shredder, Sun Rouyuan began in a storytelling tone, “It’s actually pretty creepy.”

Shi Jian heard the word “creepy” and decisively said, “Then maybe don’t say it now—save it for when there are more people around.”

“……”

Sun Rouyuan giggled. “Jian-jie, why are you such a scaredy-cat?”

She continued on without waiting for permission, her tone slowing and dropping.

“They say over a dozen people have died under strange circumstances in our company. What’s weird is, there wasn’t a single wound on their bodies when they died. They all had blissful smiles on their faces. And I heard... they had a strange fragrance on them.”

Shi Jian had already heard about the mysterious deaths at Gongfu Company from the gossiping woman. But the part about the fragrance—this was new.

She paused, then calmly stated, “Does it smell kind of like a temple?”

Sun Rouyuan abruptly looked up and stared straight at Shi Jian. Her eyes were wide, body leaning forward, and mouth stretched into a large grin. She enunciated each word clearly:

“You—how—do—you—know?”

How did Shi Jian know?

Because Sun Rouyuan was giving off that exact scent!

Shi Jian had actually smelled it the moment they entered the room together. At first it was faint, so she hadn’t paid it much mind. But as Sun Rouyuan talked about the legend, the scent grew stronger and stronger.

That’s when everything clicked.

Shit!

Only the mysteriously deceased employees gave off that fragrance—so what the hell was Sun Rouyuan?

...

【Aaaaaaah WTF WTF someone save me my arm just broke out in goosebumps!】

【Damn, why did that hit so suddenly?! That’s scarier than any gore.】

【Baby I’m scared, protect me!】

【Your baby’s still in there—shouldn’t you be the one protecting her?】

【Oh yeah. Baby, let’s hug each other for warmth.】

The bullet comments exploded, everyone trembling behind their screens.

Like one viewer said—if it had been blood or ghosts jumping out, they might not have been so freaked out.

But this creeping sense of dread, building in silence, chilled them to the bone.

Still, none of them had it as bad as Shi Jian—she was facing Sun Rouyuan alone.The background was filled with the continuous “ka-cha ka-cha” sound of the shredder cutting paper. Sun Rouyuan was still waiting for Shi Jian’s response, while the scent on her body grew increasingly strong—so much so that it caused nausea and the urge to vomit.

“Who are you trying to scare?!”

Shi Jian didn’t back down. She let out a cold laugh, lifting her exquisite face—radiant and stunning under the sunlight.

Just as Shi Jian was about to grab the chainsaw and go off, a pocket watch etched with intricate patterns suddenly dropped between her and Sun Rouyuan. The watch swayed side to side, and Sun Rouyuan, who had been glaring intently at Shi Jian, looked as if her consciousness had been snatched away.

She remained standing but closed her eyes.

The oppressive atmosphere instantly dissipated.

Shi Jian followed the fine silver chain of the pocket watch upward. The hand holding it was slender and clean, with well-defined knuckles... Its owner had a refined, scholarly face, but what contrasted with his gentle appearance was his height—tall and imposing, making Sun Rouyuan seem negligible in his presence.

He stood silently behind Sun Rouyuan, watching her.

Their eyes met.

Shi Jian exclaimed in surprise, “Xu An?!”

The newcomer was clearly their new teammate.

...

“Mm.”

Xu An nodded. He retracted the pocket watch and asked Shi Jian, “Are you alright?”

Shi Jian replied, “I’m fine,”—what could possibly happen to her? “Why are you here?”

Before coming over, Shi Jian hadn’t expected any issues with Sun Rouyuan, so she hadn’t informed Tang Tian or Xu An.

“Did you hypnotize her just now? How long will it last? Should we leave immediately?”

Shi Jian began studying Sun Rouyuan’s current state.

It felt novel. Although she already knew Xu An had hypnosis abilities—he had even said he used them to escape from the break room earlier in the instance—this was her first time seeing it in action.

She asked several questions in a row, and Xu An answered them all patiently, without the slightest trace of irritation.

“I saw you and her pass by the office I was in earlier. It’d been a while and you hadn’t come back, so I figured something might’ve gone wrong and came to check.”

Sure enough, something had gone wrong.

“Yes, I hypnotized her, but there’s no need to run. The skill lasts for five minutes.”

“You can also ask her questions—she won’t remember anything afterward.”

Xu An had already moved to Shi Jian’s side, now standing beside her. After thinking for a moment, he asked Sun Rouyuan, “Why were you able to become a full-time employee? What happened to you?”

Sun Rouyuan’s eyes remained tightly shut, but after hearing Xu An’s question, she actually began to speak, though haltingly.

“I… my luck got better.”

Her luck got better.

Shi Jian recalled that Sun Rouyuan had also told her the same thing before.

Xu An continued, “Why did your luck get better?”Sun Rouyuan said, “A sachet—it was a blessed sachet I received.”

Hypnosis could only make the subject answer questions, not follow action commands—otherwise, that would be too overpowered.

But this wasn’t hard to work around. Xu An asked, “Is the sachet on your body? Where is it?”

Sun Rouyuan replied, “Around my neck.”

Xu An looked at Shi Jian, and she instantly understood.

Because of gender concerns, it wouldn’t be appropriate for Xu An to retrieve the sachet—so it had to be her.

Shi Jian originally intended to use her hand, but Xu An stopped her and handed her a document binding rod. “Use this.”

No one knew whether the item might pose a danger.

The company was never short on office supplies.

Shi Jian took it. She had noticed a red string tied around Sun Rouyuan’s neck and had assumed it was a necklace, but when she used the rod to lift the string, she found a small yellow sachet hanging from it.

“Better not take it down—there could be consequences.”

Xu An then asked Shi Jian to take two photos of it and, after some thought, said this.

Shi Jian also felt uneasy about the idea that using the sachet would cause someone to emit that strange scent associated with unnatural death—it was deeply ominous.

【The new teammate isn’t bad!】

【So he’s a psychic-type streamer. I remember how much Shi Jian and Tang Tian were craving a “healer” in the last instance—and this time, one actually joined. At first I thought the new teammate didn’t have much presence, but now he’s proving pretty reliable.】

Viewers in the livestream, feeling the tension ease up, started discussing Xu An again.

Xu An asked several more quick questions—like who gave her the sachet… but Sun Rouyuan couldn’t give any clear answers to those.

After waiting for a bit, Shi Jian felt time was slipping by and couldn’t resist asking:

“Can you keep questioning her while I use her hand to shred some more paper?”

“If it’ll interfere, I won’t do it.”

Xu An: ???

Although he didn’t fully understand, Xu An still gave Shi Jian a quick answer. “It won’t interfere.”

Good! That was all she needed to hear!

Shi Jian pointed to the pile of leftover paper scraps nearby. “Still not done.”

She grabbed Sun Rouyuan’s hand and manually guided her to continue the shredding task.

Back when Sun Rouyuan started talking about the company’s ghost stories, Shi Jian had already mentally prepared herself—Sun Rouyuan might not be a normal person.

After all, discussing those stories was strictly prohibited within the company.

“I wasn’t scared, okay? I only interrupted you so you could finish the task.”

Shi Jian insisted on defending her reputation!

But if Sun Rouyuan insisted on talking, there was nothing she could do about it. For now, Shi Jian figured she could take advantage of this gap to make Sun Rouyuan keep working.Interrogation and paper shredding—both were handled without delay.

…

At that moment, Tang Tian also hurried to the scene. She happened to catch this part, and what popped into her head was—

Was Shi Jian sure she wasn’t the CEO of Gongfu Corporation?

Why did it feel like she was better at exploiting employees than the actual CEO?

This was the kind of efficiency that would make even the real CEO step down overnight to make room for her.