The Dangerous Restaurant

Zhao Ruru watched helplessly as the two people and the ghost casually chose a direction and left, leaving her and Xu Shu behind.

"I didn't do anything impolite..." Xu Shu murmured absentmindedly, deeply shaken, "I just wanted a vengeful ghost to bind me to..."

Zhao Ruru slapped her forehead. "I've given up trying to persuade you, but if you're going to poach someone's teammates, can you at least not be so brazen? Poaching right in front of their teammates."

Xu Shu glanced at the ground beside him, giving him an expression that said, "You can say whatever you want, I'm not necessarily listening": "As long as you swing the hoe well."

"Yeah, well done." Zhao Ruru practically lit up with smirk. "But please remember, when you poached someone from Broken Mirror, the target you chose was Broken Mirror's captain!"

"Oh." Xu Shu sighed almost imperceptibly. "Do I still have a chance?"

Zhao Ruru, "Even if Yu Xing disappears ten times and comes back ten times, you still won't have a chance."

Xu Shu lowered his head. He wasn't very tall, and when he lowered his eyes to hide his somewhat frightening gaze, he looked even more pitiful. "I'm so sad."

Zhao Ruru: "I was fooled by you because of your appearance."

If it weren't for her "older sister complex," she wouldn't have become familiar with Xu Shu back then. At first, she genuinely thought Xu Shu was a shy newbie who had just become a deducer, and Xu Shu wasn't speaking.

She didn't even know Xu Shu's real name, let alone that Xu Shu was Xu family.

Who knew that at a later gathering of the Three Great Families, Xu Shu, as a representative of the younger generation of the Xu family, explained the classification of ghosts to others, while Zhao Ruru listened with a blank expression. It was during that class that Zhao Ruru truly experienced what it meant to be calm and composed.

It feels like... there are no more ups and downs.

He had become so detached from worldly desires that he had seen through the illusions of the world.

After the party ended, Xu Shu came to find her with his usual honest expression, just like when they used to spend time together and she always had to teach him everything.

Zhao Ruru was truly numb.

She wondered if Xu Shu was deliberately messing with her. If so, she would never trust this short guy with a boyish face again.

As it turned out, Xu Shu did not do it on purpose.

His indifference when teaching the younger generation is genuine, his obedient and natural demeanor in front of her is genuine, and his social anxiety in front of non-deducers is genuine. Xu Shu simply has different attitudes towards people of different statuses.

To him, she was a friend, an older sister, or something else entirely... in short, someone who could keep him in check.

Zhao Ruru knew that Xu Shu's attitude towards Yu Xing was "fanaticism," a kind of fanaticism only seen when dealing with inhuman things, such as seeing the most handy tool or the most desired luxury item...

This is Xu Shu's consistent attitude towards ghosts; the Xu family is famous for its ability to control ghosts.

It's hard to say much about the Xu family's choice of abilities; the fact that they've survived to this day suggests that their choices have merit, and they could easily make it to the top. However, Xu Shu's personal obsession with Yu Xing is pathological.

Not to mention that Xu Shu's idea of making a contract with Yu Xing is impossible to realize, even if it were possible, Zhao Ruru would definitely stop it, because Yu Xing is completely uncontrollable. Xu Shu's idea of using Yu Xing as a weapon is really overestimating himself.

I'm afraid that by then, Yu Xing's "weapon" will be able to control Xu Shu mentally until his death, Xu Shu won't even realize that something is wrong.

It's best not to overestimate yourself and provoke someone like Yu Xing.

Zhao Ruru patted Xu Shu's head to comfort him, then genuinely smiled and said, "It's okay. If you're sad now, you'll have no chance to be sad later. It's just a pity that Zhao Yijiu doesn't really want to see you, so your chance to get points is gone."

"Let's go." Xu Shu raised his hand and pressed the ghost face on his mask. "... Let's go do a mission."

Turn grief and anger into motivation.

On the other side, Yu Xing followed Zhao Yijiu to a restaurant.

The city's infrastructure was intact, except for some areas that had been disrupted by the infected. Otherwise, it was like a functioning city, where everyone vanished in an instant and was then taken over by another unseen group.

The restaurant was empty; pushing open the intact glass door, the tables and chairs inside were covered with a thin layer of dust.

As Yu Xing approached the restaurant, he sensed that the atmosphere here was different from other places. The restaurant looked perfectly normal, but in his eyes, it was shrouded in a deathly aura, much stronger than the places he had passed through before.

Besides the deathly aura, there was also a kind of malevolent aura, which made Yu Xing feel directly that a bloody incident full of malevolence had occurred in the restaurant, rather than resentment or sadness.

When Zhao Yijiu pushed open the door, Yu Xing noticed, but Yi Qing, who had been silently watching from the sidelines, hesitated outside the door for a long time before reluctantly walking through the glass door. Zhao Yijiu didn't leave the door open for Yi Qing, and Yu Xing entered, he let go of the door.

Upon entering, Yiqing couldn't help but utter her first words within minutes. "It's so crowded, I don't like it."

Yu Xing imagined Yi Qing's description and immediately had a direct sense of the number of "small lights" in the restaurant. Coupled with the death aura he saw, the vengeful spirit virus in the restaurant was probably the strongest virus he had ever seen.

Zhao Yijiu walked smoothly to the innermost table and pulled out a sealed box from under it.

"What's this?" Yu Xing bent down to watch Zhao Yijiu unpack the box. "You've turned this restaurant into your base?"

"Hmm," Zhao Yijiu replied heavily, "No one would come here looking for trouble."

Yu Xing blurted out, "Aren't you just saying you're making trouble for no reason?"

Zhao Yijiu: "..." Her hand, which was opening the box, paused, and she stopped, seemingly angrily.

Yu Xing immediately changed her tune, grinning, "I misspoke, Brother Jiu, please continue."

Yi Qing muttered under her breath, "Smiling like that."

Zhao Yijiu remained silent for two seconds, then resigned herself to continuing to open the box. After opening the seal, a pile of black things were revealed inside.

"Tactical vest, tactical pants, waterproof jacket, weapon straps, goggles, breathing filter," Zhao Yijiu recited as if listing dishes. "Take one and put it on."

"Wow, that's impressive, Brother Jiu! You've evolved into a hamster!" Yu Xing interest. "Where did you get this? I don't think Zhao Ruru or Xu Shu have as complete an outfit as you. It must have been quite an achievement to get this set."

"I went to an employment agency," Zhao Yijiu said simply, but then added, "You know what an employment agency is, right?"

"You know what~" Yu Xing picked up a vest and examined it for a few moments, "I really didn't know."

"... What do you know?" Zhao Yijiu guessed that Yu Xing had just arrived in this world, although she didn't know how he had done it.

If Yu Xing hadn't just arrived, she wouldn't have felt so unfamiliar with the task of the diviner. Given the other party's abilities, they should have already found out everything about the diviner.

"Thanks for the invitation. I'm in the apocalypse, just woke up." Yu Xing spread her hands, holding up her vest. "What I've gathered is all vague, so just pretend I don't know anything. Tell me everything?"

Zhao Yijiu opened her mouth, seemingly organizing her thoughts, but still didn't know where to begin.

Yu Xing guided him. "For example, what's the deal with this restaurant, why others don't want to come but you can, what is the hiring company... Just tell me these things, I can piece it together myself."

This kind of patient and persuasive, nanny-like conversation is a godsend for people who don't talk much.

"The restaurant is highly susceptible to viral contamination, so there's a risk coming in. It's only been a short time since we started, and not many people are willing to take the risk," Zhao Yijiu said. "I've already successfully resisted one instance of contamination, and the same virus won't infect me again, so this place is safe for me."

Yu Xing: "If you weren't willing to take the risk, why did you come in in the first place?"

Zhao Yijiu hesitated for two seconds, but still told the truth, "I'm hungry, let's find something to eat."