Task Complete

"Do you think you can talk to me like that, you son of a bitch? How could I possibly be dead?!"

Zhou You immediately wanted to flip the guy off, but as he turned around, he suddenly saw a face filled with utter panic.

It was as if all the fear had been smashed to pieces, ground up, and then slowly seeped into his skin. His whole face twitched uncontrollably, his eyes were bloodshot, and his eyeballs were practically bulging out of their sockets, as if they might burst at any moment.

Zhou You knew this man.

It was the security captain who had scolded him earlier.

But now, all his earlier arrogance was gone. Instead, he trembled from head to toe like a particularly timid little girl. Judging by his terrified expression, it wouldn't have been surprising if he wet himself the next second.

Seeing this, Zhou You no longer felt the need to flip him off. Instead, he rose with a beaming smile and walked toward the middle-aged man.

"Captain, what are you saying? How could I not be alive?—Oh, dear, you don't look too good. Did you have some kind of sudden attack? We know each other so well, there's no need to stand on ceremony. Here, let me help you..."

"Stay back!"

As Zhou You drew closer, the captain's face grew more and more ghastly. When the man was finally right in front of him, the captain let out a shriek and bolted outside.

Zhou You instinctively tried to grab him, but the system's warning came at once.

"Please note: you are temporarily unable to interfere with this entity's actions. If you forcibly intervene, this scenario will immediately fail..."

So Zhou You could only withdraw his hand, but then a thought suddenly struck him.

Temporarily?

I don't think that word was there before...

After the captain had fled for good, Zhou You gave the room another quick search.

And sure enough, compared to the previous day, a few things in the room had changed again.

First, his uniform had changed back to the bloodstained one.

Second, there were two more newspapers on the table.

"City's richest man... illness worsens... fears..."

"Old neighborhood redevelopment... proceeding steadily..."

"Traditional culture... promotion... temples..."

"Today... improved sanitation workers' benefits... recognition..."

Just like before, the words were hard to make out, but this time Zhou You read them with great care.

Soon, he noticed two things.

First, this was the second time there had been a news story about the "city's richest man" being seriously ill. Given how prominently it had been mentioned, could this person be the key to the current scenario?

Then there was the improvement in benefits—it was clearly referring to what Zhou You had done during the day. In other words, his actions during the day directly affected the story of the whole scenario?

"On top of that, we've got the security captain, who seems to know what's going on. The list of questions just keeps getting longer..." Zhou You tapped his fingers on the table out of habit. "But I still don't have anything that ties them together. I feel like I'm playing a jigsaw puzzle, holding a pile of pieces but missing the ones that fit in the key spots..."

But just then, the clock behind him let out a heavy chime.

It was eleven o'clock.

In an instant, the whole room began to change.

Dark red blood welled up across the relatively clean floor, the ceiling light began to flicker, and the plant in the flowerpot by the door turned into a mass of twisted limbs. The broken television switched on by itself, and amid the flickering static, a grotesque, hideous face occasionally appeared...

Wait, this didn't happen the previous night!

Zhou You had just been about to say as much, but the worsening situation left him no time to think it through. Before the security office could completely turn into a haunted house, he hurriedly grabbed the flashlight he used on patrol and went outside.

Fortunately, the outside hadn't changed much. The only thing worth mentioning was that the streetlights were dimmer. Before, their light had been enough to make out the road, but now he needed his flashlight to see clearly in many places.

Cautiously feeling his way along, Zhou You made it to the little food stall.

The fluorescent light was still bright, but unlike the first time he'd come here, the moment he saw it, his tension abruptly eased. He casually lifted the curtain and walked inside.

"Hey, young man, you here for a meal?"

It was the same question as before, but this time Zhou You didn't hesitate. He plopped down in a chair.

Then he flashed a radiant smile.

"Boss, sorry for the trouble, but could I get a bowl of soup?"

The other party hadn't expected him to get straight to the point, but immediately went along with it and reached to lift the lid of the pot where a human head was cooking.

However, Zhou You suddenly pressed his hand down.

That's a serious violation of the rules.

The startled Sinister Object jerked his head up, his gaze turning vicious in an instant. Half his face began to rapidly decay, and Zhou You felt the arm touching him go numb. Rotten spots began to rise across his skin—

But the next second, all the strange changes abruptly stopped.

The reason was simple: Zhou You had taken a white scarf from inside his clothes and gently placed it on the greasy table.

"How did you get this?"

The stall owner stared at Zhou You with his one remaining eye, looking so crazed he seemed ready to devour someone.

Zhou You merely smiled.

"Don't worry. The old lady gave it to me herself. So, can we have a proper talk now?"

..

"She knitted this for me ten years ago. My brother and I had just been laid off, and it was winter, bitterly cold. She felt sorry for us, shivering every day, so she scrimped and saved, pinching every last penny until she'd managed to knit us these two scarves."

The stall owner had returned to normal. He hunched over as he stroked the scarf, his face full of nostalgia.

"My brother lost his years ago. He was always careless. No wonder he's gotten to such an age without even finding himself a wife..."

The head in the soup pot surfaced, seemingly about to protest, but the stall owner quickly pushed it back down with a ladle.

"As for mine, I kept it very carefully. She wouldn't throw it away, even after I died... Ah, and thank you, too. You went out of your way to bring it here, and you helped my poor, helpless wife. If there's anything this dead man can do for you, just say the word. I'll do my best."

Hearing his calm words, Zhou You didn't hesitate. He simply smiled and said,

"Then could I have a bowl of normal soup?"

The stall owner paused, then gave him a bemused look.

"You know this is a ghost stall, and you're still asking for that? You're a strange one."

Even so, he lifted the lid of another pot, took a clean ladle from under the stall, scooped out a bowl, and set it down in front of Zhou You.

There was no rotten meat or pus and blood in the soup, but neither was there any of the mouthwatering meat and vegetables from before. It was just an ordinary bowl of pork rib and lotus root soup, the kind made in households in certain regions.

But Zhou You still smiled, thanked him, took the bowl, and drank.