Processing Plant 6

Tingting didn't respond, and Su Man turned her gaze back to Huang Xin.

Huang Xin pursed her lips. "I do know her, but only to the extent of knowing her name. We're not close."

Admitting to such a minor detail was fine, but going any further was simply out of the question.

Su Man's gaze shifted back and forth between the two of them, deep in thought.

However, she didn't press them further about their identities. Instead, she turned to Brother Zhu. "Brother Zhu's surname is Zhu, and Boss Zhu's surname is Zhu as well. They must be related somehow."

Both of them sat in silence, nervously picking at their fingers without uttering a word.

"You can't even say that? Then how about this: I'll speak, and you two just nod or shake your heads. That wouldn't count as you telling me, right?"

Su Man came up with a compromise.

Tingting and Huang Xin exchanged glances and nodded.

"Then, regarding my previous question—"

The two of them nodded again. Brother Zhu was indeed a relative of Boss Zhu.

Su Man was about to ask more when footsteps suddenly echoed from outside. Judging by the sound, they were heading straight for their dorm.

Tingting stood up instantly. Although she looked like a battered mess, panic and unease were clearly visible on her face. "They're coming for me. They're definitely coming for me."

Hearing this, Huang Xin grew nervous as well. Like a headless fly, she frantically searched the room for a hiding spot for Tingting, all the while muttering under her breath, "This is bad. If they find you here with us, we're as good as dead. What is wrong with me? Why on earth did I go out to save you?"

"I must be out of my mind, completely out of my mind. I'm going to die too. I'll end up suffering the exact same fate as you."

In Huang Xin's mind, she could already picture the grim fate awaiting all of them once Tingting was caught hiding in their room.

The only calm person in the room was Su Man. It wasn't that Su Man didn't want to find a hiding place for Tingting, but rather that finding a place to hide someone here was nearly impossible. In this sparse, open little room, there was simply nowhere to conceal an extra person.

While the two of them were panicking and scrambling around, the footsteps reached the doorway, followed by a knock on the door. "Su Man, Huang Xin, are you inside?"

Su Man recognized the voice immediately. Speak of the devil, it was precisely Brother Zhu whom they had just been discussing.

Without waiting for Su Man and the others to answer, Brother Zhu spoke up again from outside. "An urgent matter has come up, so don't blame Brother Zhu for being impatient. I'm coming in."

With that, the locked door was kicked open with a heavy thud.

Brother Zhu's fat, pig-like head barged in first.

Huang Xin let out a nervous hiccup, spun around rapidly, and stared wide-eyed at Brother Zhu.

Tucked beneath the bedding behind her was a tall, bulging lump where Tingting had hastily burrowed to hide.

"Well, well, you're all here." Brother Zhu chuckled twice, revealing two yellowish boar tusks. "Has any stranger come into your room?"

"No, absolutely not!" Huang Xin immediately responded with nervous haste, her voice remarkably loud.

"No, huh?" Brother Zhu kept his hands behind his back, his small eyes darting around rapidly. Just by looking at him, it was impossible to tell whether he had spotted Tingting or not.

Su Man stood up, took out five terror coins, and slipped them into Brother Zhu's hand. "Brother Zhu, what happened? Who are you looking for?"

Brother Zhu looked down at the terror coins in his hand and beamed from ear to ear. "Of course something happened. The thing is, someone who was supposed to be used as feed suddenly ran off and can't be found."

"I was the one who beat that person with my own hands. In that condition, it's completely impossible for her to escape without an accomplice."

Brother Zhu's beady eyes fixed on Su Man. "Little Su, tell me, who do you suppose that woman's accomplice could be?"

Su Man knew the score completely; he was fishing for information to test her. Lowering her eyelids, she produced another hundred terror coins and handed them over. "If you ask me, there is no accomplice, Brother Zhu. Don't you agree?"

Anything that could be resolved with money proved not to be a major issue.

Su Man didn't want a falling out with Brother Zhu just yet. After all, her situation was different from her last visit here; she was a player now, while Brother Zhu was an NPC. Who knew what kind of trouble killing this NPC might trigger? It was still early, and Su Man had no desire to be the first to test these waters.

Brother Zhu accepted the hundred coins, weighed them in his hand, smacked his lips, and eyed Su Man sideways. "Little Su, I always said you weren't honest. Didn't you just say you didn't have any left? How did another hundred pop up?"

Puffing up his chest as he pocketed the hundred coins, Brother Zhu completely changed his tune. "A hundred coins won't solve anything at all."

He opened his mouth wide to demand an exorbitant sum. "One thousand coins. If there aren't a thousand coins, there's nothing left to discuss."

As he spoke, he forcefully shoved Huang Xin aside and ripped the quilt away, exposing the shivering Tingting beneath.

"Do you idiots know that with just a single word from me, all of you will die!"

"This Tingting is a designated corpse-to-be!! You are harboring a dangerous criminal!"

Su Man nodded and briskly produced another thousand coins.

A brilliant gleam flashed in Brother Zhu's eyes. "No way, a thousand doesn't cut it anymore. I want five thousand!"

Terrified by this astronomical sum, Tingting wanted to drop to her knees and beg for mercy, but her lips trembled uncontrollably, failing to form any words. She had been beaten into submission, leaving nothing of her spirit except innate servility. Subconsciously, she wanted to turn to Su Man for help.

Instead, she saw Su Man make a bold move. Standing right by the doorway, Su Man reached out and re-bolted the broken door, then raised her head as if transformed into a completely different person.

Pocketing the thousand coins she had previously taken out, Su Man said coldly, "Are all of Boss Zhu's relatives this insatiably greedy?"

Su Man gestured with her chin toward the terror coins stuffed into his shirt. "Brother Zhu, being too greedy will cost you your life."

"You think you can hurt me?" Brother Zhu scoffed derisively, as if he had just heard the most ridiculous joke in the world.

Before he could say another word, however, Su Man's dagger was already at his throat.

His reaction was swift enough, yet Su Man's blade still grazed his neck. If she had applied just a fraction more force, she could have severed his pig-like head right then and there.

Yet at that very crucial moment, Su Man rapidly withdrew the dagger and took two steps back.

Something was wrong. There hadn't been that distinct sensation of a blade slicing through flesh.

Stunned and bewildered, Brother Zhu touched the spot where he had been grazed. Feeling no blood, he let out a confident, booming laugh. "So that's the extent of your abilities! Let me tell you, Brother Zhu is not someone a person like you can kill!"

A fanatic gleam flashed in his eyes. "Boss Zhu didn't lie to me after all!"

With a violent wrench, he tore off his upper garments, revealing a muscular torso. "Having received his energy baptism, here in this factory, I possess an undying body!"

As he spoke, he lunged at Su Man like a small cannonball.

The cramped space offered virtually no room to dodge. Su Man raised her dagger and braced herself to take the full impact of his charge.

Yet Brother Zhu's skin was as hard as iron, and the contact of the blade against it actually sparked brilliant flashes of fire!

She was locked in a stalemate with Brother Zhu when, the next second, a sinister smile crept across his face. His fangs suddenly elongated, his jaw twisted downward, and he plunged his teeth straight into Su Man's windpipe.

A surge of blood welled up in Su Man's throat. This time, a death was unavoidable; it was merely a question of how long she could hold out.

Death itself was manageable, but if her respawn time took too long, Tingting and Huang Xin might both be slaughtered by Brother Zhu.

Brother Zhu applied more pressure with his fangs, making it difficult for Su Man even to draw breath.

"Bang!" Just as her consciousness began to blur, the sound of a shattering vase rang out.

The smug expression on Brother Zhu's face froze for a fraction of a second, and a cool liquid began trickling down the bridge of his nose from his head.

Su Man saw it clearly—it was blood!

Standing behind Brother Zhu was Huang Xin, trembling as she clutched a vase broken down to just its narrow neck.

"I... I... I broke his head open!" Realizing what she had done, Huang Xin found it incredible, but terror overwhelmed her even more. "What... what do I do now? I hit someone!!"

Gazing at the blood, a vague idea flashed through Su Man's mind. She swiftly tossed her dagger to Huang Xin. "Hold the line, wait for me to return!"

Then, gathering the very last shred of her strength, she yanked Brother Zhu—who was turning his murderous intent toward Huang Xin—back toward herself, crashing through the door and tumbling out into the corridor together.