Chapter 12: Background Story [1]

"Who is the father of the child?"

The question posed by the scenario system obviously referred to the female corpse they had encountered. From the clues they had gathered, they knew she had given birth and had suffered long-term abuse.

The scar on her abdomen indicated a proper hospital C-section, strongly suggesting that the female corpse was already married.

She wasn't found in the workers' group photo, and her age didn't match the group's either. Moreover, those workers were a bunch of oppressed students who lacked the energy and free time to bully others.

Therefore, the abuse she suffered couldn't be a so-called bullying incident. There was clearly no relationship between her and the students.

That left only one possibility: domestic violence.

The only people capable of bringing their wives to work at the boss's factory must have had a close relationship with the boss, and there were six such people.

Ma Hui and Chunju were women, so they could be ruled out.

Between Li Qiang, Zhang Zhi, and Wu Yong, who could it be?

Or, stepping outside this scope, the father of the child was the boss himself! There was a green desk lamp and a brand-new notebook in the boss's office. Didn't it seem suspicious for these two items to appear in a dilapidated factory? To avoid work, the boss even specifically hired supervisors.

As a rough and unrefined man, there was no need for him to buy an eye-protecting desk lamp for his office, right?

There was only one possibility: the boss's child would occasionally come to this factory to do homework.

Although the reasoning was a bit stretched, like picking the tallest among the short, Wei Yanchi decided to gamble, naturally choosing the boss as the child's father.

But he didn't know the boss's name.

It didn't matter, he didn't need to know.

Right now, he was just talking to this group of dead workers. As everyone knew, any boss who exploited others would be given a notorious nickname: Zhou Bapi (Zhou the Skinflint).

He bet right.

A trace of madness was hidden in Wei Yanchi's warm, jade-like eyes, yet on the surface, he always wore a perfectly measured smile, looking just like a gentle boy next door or the pure and clean second male lead in a romance novel.

The second question.

"Who is the person Ma Hui likes?"

The difficulty of this question was no lower than the previous one.

Ma Hui was the boss's cousin. From various relationships, it could be deduced that this cousin held a rather high status by the boss's side, perhaps even very high, to the point where she could easily get the boss to hire people she knew.

For example, Wu Yong, the friend of the younger brother of the sworn older brother Ma Hui recognized. Even with a relationship this distant, Ma Hui managed to get him in, and evidently not as a worker, but directly as a supervisor. If he were a worker, Wu Yong wouldn't have been one of the six survivors.

So, who would a person with such a high status like?

The answer naturally lay among the other five people, Ma Hui wouldn't just let the person she liked die.

First, rule out the boss.

That left Wu Yong, Zhang Zhi, and Li Qiang. Would Ma Hui be interested in these three? The answer was no. With such a good family background, how could she be interested in three nobodies who got their jobs through the backdoor? The relationship these three had with the boss was completely dependent.

So why not be a bit bolder? Guess that Ma Hui might be into women?

The relationship between Chunju and the boss was very distant, so distant that the boss could have easily ignored her, yet she still entered the factory and became one of the six survivors.

Could Ma Hui's influence really not be involved here?

How could it not be?

Deduction complete: the person Ma Hui likes is Chunju.

A layer of cold sweat broke out in Xie De's palms, and his heart was pounding wildly in his chest. He could smell the waves of putrid stench emanating from the group of corpses burning in the flames; they were glaring at him like tigers eyeing their prey, only withdrawing their disappointed gazes after he answered correctly.

He understood that if he gave just one wrong answer, he would face the same fate as Fang Jueshan, turned into canned human meat, failing the scenario, and being obliterated along with Gibberish.

With trembling fingers, he pulled out a cigarette. The sweet cedar and tobacco scent of the lady's cigarette fiercely suppressed the panic and fear in his heart. A spark ignited in the dim factory, and the rising white smoke veiled his cold, sharp brow.

No one could see his panic and disheveled state.

Only the phone in his pocket vibrated again. Gibberish comforted him.

"It's okay, Host, don't you have me here? Even though you're a clueless coward, I won't despise you."

"...Thanks for your comfort."

Xie De exhaled a puff of smoke. His silver hair covered his face, making his movements appear leisurely once again.

With both questions answered correctly, the scenario system immediately threw out the next one.

"Player Three, please answer: why did the boss forbid early romances?"

"You have 30 seconds to answer."

They were actually going in numerical order?

Then the next one would be Hu Wei.

Yue Xiamo let out a cold snort from her nose, her gloomy eyes sweeping over Wei Yanchi.

Wei Yanchi spat out an answer.

"Kuman Thong."

Yue Xiamo had a baseline in her heart and immediately spoke up, her voice hoarse.

"Because the boss was afraid of backlash! A scum like him who opened an illegal factory, evading taxes and docking wages, must have a guilty conscience! So he sought out a Kuman Thong in Thailand, hoping to borrow some luck. Naturally, he wouldn't dare let these workers engage in romances, fearing someone might get pregnant and then miscarry in his factory, which would cause the Kuman Thong to turn on him."

"Answer correct."

Before the next question was thrown out, Wei Yanchi leaned close to Xie De. His warm breath was particularly striking in the cold, gloomy environment, possessing an unbelievable vitality.

"Mr. 39?"

Why was he calling him?

Xie De shot him an annoyed glance. This damn protagonist would tell others the answers but wouldn't tell him, leaving him trembling in fear. Was this an attitude for cooperation?

Wei Yanchi was stunned by the look but immediately reacted, saying with a hint of appeasement.

"Yue Xiamo is a person with very high martial prowess, and she also has quite a few connections in the real world. Now she owes me a favor, which forces her to be tied to us. I didn't mean to keep the clues from you."

Uh, he really didn't need to explain all this to him.

Xie De's mind wandered for a moment, wondering.

Wait, what exactly is my image in the protagonist's heart?

But before he could think further, Wei Yanchi handed him a Bluetooth earphone.

"Mr. 39, I saw your earphones were broken. It might be inconvenient for you, so you can use mine."

Wow, the protagonist is such a nice guy.

Instantly tossing away his brief annoyance at the protagonist not giving him the answer, Xie De took the earbud from him and showed a genuine, faint smile.

"Thanks."

The faint smile flashed across his face, like snow rime suddenly blossoming as sunlight filters through on a clear day. This mysterious big shot finally showed him some favor.

Wei Yanchi lowered his eyes, his fingers curling in a very good mood, preserving the slight itch where Xie De had just lightly brushed against them.