SFS Chapter 269 Monsters Are the Same
Chapter 269 Monsters Are the Same
Shuangshuang paid no attention to their verbal sparring and just kept biting the flower.
Yan Xun's mother had just picked out the flowers and said she wanted to take Shuangshuang to ride the carousel. Yan Xun waved goodbye to Shuangshuang and then pushed Lou Yanchuan to continue searching for the fire extinguisher.
Yan Xun saw the man with the buzz cut in the residential area. He was standing in front of a knife stall, about to buy a knife.
Yan Xun and Lou Yanchuan's pairing was quite conspicuous. When the man with the buzz cut was paying, he saw them. Only after buying the kitchen knife did he greet them.
"What's this?" Yan Xun glanced at the cleaver in the crew-cut man's hand, then looked at the owner behind the stall.
"My kitchen knife just broke, so I'll buy a new one," said the man with the buzz cut.
He took a few steps forward as he spoke, and only after the three of them left the cleaver stall did he say, "I'm still a little worried, so I'll buy a cleaver for self-defense."
He said to Yan Xun, "That bamboo pole looks like an NPC to me."
"The main quest doesn't just give us 15 days to survive; I have a feeling the NPCs will also make their move later on."
Yan Xun looked at the crew cut and remembered what Zhu Gan had said about his part-time job experience during college—he had promised not to tell the crew cut and the others, so naturally he wouldn't ask directly.
"Is Zhugan from a poor family?" he asked in a different way.
"Probably," the crew-cut man said nonchalantly. "When he went out to work yesterday, we went to see his bedroom again."
"There was nothing inside, only some clothes that had been washed until they were faded and the edges were frayed."
"Besides, doesn't he go to work every day?"
"I guess he doesn't have much money."
The man with the buzz cut wasn't interested in the bamboo pole's past. "I searched his room but didn't find his graduation certificate or degree certificate."
"I wonder if he hid it somewhere."
"Why would he hide these things so carefully?" Yan Xun asked.
"Who knows?"
"Maybe they're wary of us?"
"Just like guarding against thieves."
"But I couldn't find my graduation certificate either," the crew-cut man said to Yan Xun. "I don't know if I forgot to bring it when I moved."
"Are there two other people?" Yan Xun was referring to the man in the shirt and the muscular man.
"The two of them?" the crew-cut man said. "They both have them."
"I checked the shirt, there's nothing wrong with it."
"Anyway, I plan to take another look at his room while he's working these next few days. Who knows, I might find some clues," the crew-cut man said.
"Did he often work part-time when he was in the dormitory?"
Just as the crew-cut man was about to retort, "I'm not the person in question, how could I possibly know whether Bamboo Pole worked while he was in school?", he realized that with Yan Xun's question, some new memories had indeed appeared in his mind.
He read through this memory, then said uncertainly, "It seems like I often worked odd jobs."
“He used to stay out all night.”
"The muscular guy said he works at a nightclub, but I don't know if that's true," the crew-cut man said.
He looked at Yan Xun and said, "These memories can only be retrieved by asking others?"
He had also experienced some instances of the game and knew that such memories that did not exist before but suddenly appeared usually triggered the clues, which is why the instance issued clues in the form of memories.
Yan Xun thought that the trigger for this memory should not be limited to his own questioning.
There is another prerequisite—
He had already learned from Zhugan that the other person often stayed out all night while in school because of part-time jobs.
Only after completing this prerequisite story point will the system unlock the corresponding memory.
In other words, if Zhugan hadn't mentioned his part-time job experience while staying at the dormitory, even if Yan Xun asked Cuntou 100 times, he still wouldn't remember that Zhugan would stay out all night because of his part-time job.
“But even if he doesn’t come home at night to work, it has nothing to do with this instance,” the crew-cut man said again.
He was carrying his newly bought kitchen knife, not understanding why Yan Xun was asking this question.
"Just asking," Yan Xun said.
"Since we can't find any clues right now, we might as well ask everyone we can."
Crew cut reluctantly accepted Yan Xun's explanation.
"I'll go check out other places," the crew-cut man said. He always felt that the player named Lou Yanchuan was sinister and didn't like him. When the other player looked at him, it felt like being stared at by a snake or a fox.
Yan Xun watched the crew-cut man leave, then said to Lou Yanchuan, "It seems everyone in the dorm knows about his part-time job."
"You two talked about other things too," Lou Yanchuan said.
"Otherwise, he wouldn't have suddenly triggered this memory."
Yan Xun did not deny it.
"Is it related to his job?" Lou Yanchuan guessed. "Then it shouldn't just be working at a bar."
“If you don’t tell me, it means you’re promising to keep it a secret.” Lou Yanchuan emphasized the word “secret” when he said it. “Since everyone in his dorm already knows that he’s working at a bar, it’s not worth keeping a secret.”
"So the place where I work is very special."
Lou Yanchuan thought for a moment, "Something more special than a bar, a place he absolutely must keep secret...?"
He looked at Yan Xun, "Be someone else's mistress?"
"Impossible." Lou Yanchuan immediately denied it. "He's clumsy and doesn't seem to know how to coax people. He's not particularly good-looking either. How could anyone want him as a lover?"
Yan Xun grew increasingly terrified as he listened, fearing that Lou Yanchuan would guess the answer in the next second.
But what you fear most is what will happen most often.
"Since it's not about being lovers, but we're still afraid of being found out by our roommates," Lou Yanchuan considered many possibilities before finally looking at Yan Xun, "Loan sharking or debt collection?"
"It's probably impossible. I don't think he would dare to do something that could lead to dropping out of school."
"That's not illegal, but I'm afraid the other people in the dorm will find out... Crematorium or funeral home?"
"Makeup and cosmetic treatments for corpses?"
"Otherwise, I can't think of anything that would make Zhugan insist on keeping it a secret from the other people in the dormitory."
Yan Xun: "..."
He wiped his face. "I don't know."
"Don't guess, I won't tell you."
Lou Yanchuan slowly smiled, "It seems I guessed right."
"He actually works at a funeral home? Is he really doing makeup on corpses?" Lou Yanchuan said. "But I think that's impossible. He's still in school, so it must be a part-time job... You can't get the hang of this job in a short time, so he can only do some routine, easy-to-learn tasks."
He stopped there, having already learned what kind of work Zhugan was secretly doing behind the backs of the other people in the dormitory.
"So you really weren't discovered by the people in the dorm?" Lou Yanchuan asked again.
"Probably," Yan Xun said. "They don't even know who the crew-cut guy is."
"Only the muscular guy knows about this."
Yan Xun still didn't reveal the specific job details of the bamboo pole, only mentioning that the muscular man knew about this part-time job.
"Why would he tell the muscular guy when he's been trying so hard to hide it?"
"Looks like he just happened to be caught while he was working." Lou Yanchuan nodded. "A bit unlucky."
"I'm pretty unlucky too," Yan Xun thought to herself. "How come Lou Yanchuan is like a monster?"
Can you guess the truth just by making a random guess?
Could it really be a monster in disguise?
Lou Yanchuan didn't know what Yan Xun was thinking, but he could guess that he wasn't saying anything nice.
He proactively changed the subject, "Didn't we say we were going to check out fire safety equipment?"
"Let's go."
……
Sure enough, at the market exit, Yan Xun spotted a stall selling fire-fighting equipment.
Fire extinguishers, fire blankets, and other essentials are all available.
The old man sitting behind the stall was still dozing off until Yan Xun pushed Lou Yanchuan closer and heard someone knocking on the table. He shook his head and slowly woke up.
He was taken aback when he saw Yan Xun and Lou Yanchuan in front of the stall. "Are you asking for directions?"
Where do you want to go?
“No,” Yan Xun said, “I want to buy some fire safety equipment.”
The old man looked Yan Xun up and down, wondering if he had misheard. "You said you wanted to buy fire-fighting supplies at the market?"
He picked at his ear. "I'm hard of hearing, did I hear wrong?"
"No," Yan Xun said. "I'll buy some fire extinguishers and fire blankets."
The old man was puzzled. "That's strange."
"This stall was set up by the people in the white house just to pass inspections," he muttered. "And people actually buy fire safety supplies here."
Yan Xun remained silent, never expecting that even the Infinite Flow world would have fire safety inspections.
"I really don't know the price," the old man said.
"Give me whatever you think is appropriate," he said to Yan Xun. "Anyway, it's all stock from the White House."
"It's no use leaving it there."
"Just give me whatever you want."
"How can you just give it away like that?" The voice that spoke was not Yan Xun's, but an unfamiliar one.
Yan Xun turned around and saw a man in a suit. The nameplate on the man's chest indicated that he was from the White House property management office.
The old man was probably surprised that the other party would happen to be patrolling this stall, and he was a little dissatisfied, saying, "You didn't say how much it cost."
"The fire safety equipment here is not for sale," the man in the suit told Yan Xun.
"It's mainly to prevent a sudden fire at the market." He looked at Yan Xun. "Do you need fire extinguishers and fire blankets?"
"Yes," Yan Xun said.
“My house caught fire before, and I noticed that this house doesn’t have these fire safety devices, so I’m a little worried,” he said to the man in the suit. “Can’t you sell me one?”
"Even one is fine."
The man in the suit looked somewhat embarrassed.
"Are you a new resident of that white-roofed house?" he asked.
Yan Xun nodded.
“How about this,” the man in the suit said, “These can’t be sold, but you can come with me to the property management office. We have some extra stock there that we can give you.”
Yan Xun immediately showed a grateful expression, "That's great!"
"How much?" he asked, reaching into his pocket.
"No need." The man in the suit immediately stopped Yan Xun from taking out his money.
“It was our oversight,” he told Yan Xun. “We forgot to equip the house with fire-fighting equipment.”
He gestured for Yan Xun to walk with him.
Yan Xun pushed Lou Yanchuan along with him.
The market was located in the open space in front of the white house, not far from it. As the man in the suit led Yan Xun and the other person forward, he asked, "None of the houses here have open flame stoves, so there shouldn't be any risk of fire."
"So we overlooked that," he said apologetically.
"Do you usually use open flames at home?" he asked Yan Xun. "Open flames are not allowed in houses in the community."
"Not even scented candles?" Yan Xun asked.
“It’s best to use a wax lamp,” the man in the suit said. “We don’t recommend having open flames in the house.”
Yan Xun looked puzzled and asked, "Is this place prone to fire?"
Why is there such a regulation?
“There was an accident like this before,” the man in the suit explained. “So ever since then, we’ve become very cautious about using open flames.”
As they spoke, they had already entered the hall of the white house.
The interior furnishings were basically the same as when the party was held last time.
The man in the suit told them to sit on the sofa and wait while he went to the warehouse to get a fire extinguisher.
Yan Xun sat on the sofa and exchanged a glance with Lou Yanchuan.
Lou Yanchuan nodded.
【What kind of secret code are you two exchanging?】The system couldn't help but speak in Yan Xun's mind.
Yan Xun: "..."
“We were saying that there must be a rule in this community that relates to open flames,” Yan Xun told the system. “He mentioned that none of the houses in the community have open flame stoves.”
"They also clearly told us that open flames are not allowed in the house, not even scented candles," Yan Xun said. "Under normal circumstances, even if you are worried about fire, you would rarely prohibit the use of scented candles."
"But he wants us to use wax melting lamps."
"Try to eliminate open flames as much as possible."
"The reason is that similar accidents have happened before," Yan Xun said.
"I looked around the market stalls, and even the food stalls rarely had open flames." He looked around and saw that neither the fried chicken stalls nor the kebab stalls used open flames.
“Even in a market where there are no open flames, fire extinguishers were still set up at the exit,” Yan Xun said. “It just goes to show that the people in this community are really afraid of fire.”
"Although this rule hasn't been introduced yet."
"But it's 100% certain that a new rule related to open flames will be updated next."
He and Lou Yanchuan just exchanged glances, and they were discussing this as well.
Everything was just as they had initially guessed.
While Yan Xun was communicating with the system, the man in the suit quickly found a fire extinguisher and a fire blanket in the warehouse.
He put it in a plastic bag and handed it to Yan Xun, saying, "Here you go."
Yan Xun first expressed her gratitude, then noticed that the man in the suit's gaze was fixed on the goldfish that Lou Yanchuan was carrying.
"What's this?" The man in the suit looked at the goldfish in the plastic bag. "I caught it at the market."
Upon hearing this, Yan Xun began to talk non-stop.
He spoke of his experience of catching goldfish at the market with a mixture of pride and complaint.
"But it's alright." Yan Xun looked down at the white goldfish. "Luckily, we caught it."
The man in the suit agreed, "A very beautiful goldfish."
"It's the goldfish stall right by the entrance," Yan Xun said enthusiastically. "Would you like to try your luck at catching goldfish?"
"I still need to work," the man in the suit said regretfully, shaking his head.
He glanced at his watch. "I'll see you off."
Yan Xun knew this meant to see them off, so he let the man in the suit lead them away from the white house and then escorted them to the market exit.
"If you'd like to browse around some more, you can leave this at the stall we just left," the man in the suit said.
He waved to Yan Xun and the other person, "I'm going back to work now."
Yan Xun waved enthusiastically... until she saw the man in the suit disappear into the white house.
He stared at Lou Yanchuan expressionlessly, like a robot that had lost power, and asked, "What are you laughing at?"
"Do you have a dual personality?" Lou Yanchuan asked. "Why does your personality change drastically every time you gather intelligence?"