They Seem to Be Eating People

"Is that so?"

Zhong Xiaomin started. At the same moment the voice sounded, a chill touched her waist, followed by a searing pain she thought must be her imagination.

She looked down. The long dagger from earlier that day was now buried in her belly.

Blood bloomed across her clothes, quickly soaking through, then dripping to the floor in a growing puddle.

She heard that soft voice ask again, "Is that so? Is that how you killed me?"

Zhong Xiaomin looked up and met a pair of bright eyes. Song Weishi wore the same gentle smile she always did, watching her calmly.

Zhong Xiaomin screamed, clutching her stomach and stumbling back. The two sleeping people in the room jolted awake at her shriek and sat up, trying to see what was happening.

"What's going on? What happened?"

Zhong Xiaomin collapsed against the iron bunk bed behind her, clutching her stomach. Firelight illuminated her face, tears and snot streaming down as she pointed at Song Weishi. "Why did you stab me! Song Weishi, have you lost your mind?!"

The two of them snapped fully awake at those words and turned to look at Song Weishi.

She was still lying in bed without having moved. Zhong Xiaomin, meanwhile, was slumped against the bunk, blood seeping steadily from under her hand. The air reeked of blood.

Wang Jie voiced the obvious: "Xiaomin, you say Xiao Song stabbed you, but she hasn't even gotten out of bed. How could she have stabbed you?"

Zhong Xiaomin's voice faltered, but her crying didn't stop. Song Weishi slowly sat up, the thermal paper beneath her rustling softly.

At first, Song Weishi hadn't understood why her memory suggested a companion had betrayed the original owner. But then, people like Director Zhang couldn't really be called companions, could they?

So this was the real plot. This seemingly harmless girl was the one truly responsible for the original owner's death.

Zhong Xiaomin offered no defense; her crying only grew weaker. She pressed desperately at her abdomen, feeling the cold creep through her body, her hands and feet going numb, her eyelids drooping beyond her control. "Save me... please, someone save me."

No one answered her plea. The two others wore complicated expressions, instinct warring with hesitation as they debated whether to help.

Soon, though, they had no time to think about it. Zhong Xiaomin lost too much blood and fell unconscious—whether she'd ever wake again was anyone's guess.

But the two of them absolutely could not share a room with someone like that. She'd already failed the test of humanity. Wang Jie steeled herself, climbed out from under the covers, and dragged the body toward the door.

She couldn't understand how things had come to this. They'd all come out for a team-building trip, and now someone was dead.

Even less could she understand why Zhong Xiaomin had done it. Dressed neatly, lurking by someone else's bed, then crying victim when her attack was turned against her. So her being sent away yesterday hadn't been innocent either—maybe she'd been plotting all along.

The body beneath her hands was still warm. Song Weishi got out of bed and lent a hand. Only Xiao Li stood frozen in place.

He hadn't processed what had just happened. For a fresh graduate just entering the workforce, this was a shock to his system.

Zhong Xiaomin woke during the dragging. She struggled weakly, sobbing quietly. "I'm sorry! Song Weishi, I'm sorry, please don't drag me out. I just lost my head for a moment! I didn't—"

Before she could finish, Song Weishi shut the door on her. The two stood beside her, feeling that she had changed greatly.

But it was only natural that a person would change after going through something like this twice.

They felt no sympathy for Zhong Xiaomin, still crying and begging outside. If she could kill Song Weishi today, she could kill them tomorrow.

Song Weishi had only defended herself; she hadn't gone for the kill. The two doubted they'd have done better in her place.

Firelight stretched Song Weishi's shadow long across the floor as she walked to Zhong Xiaomin's bed. The pillow sat plump. She gripped the edge of the blue pillowcase and flipped it over.

Hidden beneath were two big duck legs, a duck neck, three packets of instant congee, and two bricks of instant noodles.

The original owner had never given her these things, as far as Song Weishi could tell. Whenever it was time to eat, Zhong Xiaomin would come to Song Weishi to get her rations.

She had no idea when these had been stolen. Song Weishi almost regretted not giving Zhong Xiaomin a couple of extra slaps.

She had no sympathy for the woman. Stealing from her while plotting to stab her—what was wrong with her brain?

She gathered everything up. The other two in the room lay back down to rest, though whether they actually slept was another matter.

The crying outside grew louder. Zhong Xiaomin seemed to have stopped the bleeding and crawled to knock on the other rooms' doors. But Director Zhang had no intention of helping her, ignoring her knocking completely.

Song Weishi lay in bed, listening to her cries, and closed her eyes again. She'd slept enough earlier in the night; sleep wouldn't come now.

After what felt like a long time, the System's voice suddenly sounded in her mind: "Congratulations, Host, on accumulating 100 energy points. Your Personal Survival System is now unlocked. A beginner's gift pack has been sent to your inbox—please check."

Song Weishi's heart nearly leaped out of her throat. Based on what the System had said before, Zhong Xiaomin outside was dead.

A chill ran down her spine. She'd killed someone, in a sense. But the woman had brought it on herself.

She'd never intended to harm Zhong Xiaomin. If the woman hadn't snuck up to her bed with a knife, Song Weishi might never have struck.

Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she reopened the system panel.

The Survival System's interface was simple. The info column displayed her personal details.

Name: Song Weishi

Age: 23

Energy Value: 100

Points: 1 (100 energy = 1 point)

Health Value: 100

Beginner gift pack sent to inbox—please check.

Song Weishi tapped "Claim." A golden red-envelope effect flashed on screen, showing:

Reward: Marketplace unlocked.

Initial Skill*1 (can be activated)

She clicked on the initial skill. An icon appeared, and Song Weishi felt it looked familiar—like a shopping cart from the supermarket, but bigger.

It was boxy, big enough for a person to curl up inside, with a storage compartment underneath.

Song Weishi was baffled. What was this?

She checked the description: "Supermarket cart: refreshes with three random items daily. Items can be preserved permanently."

Next to it was a one-cubic-meter storage space.

Song Weishi's eyes lit up. She had no idea what the cart might refresh, but the storage space alone was a huge boon—no more worrying about food storage.

This was her real golden finger. She'd thought she couldn't possibly be that unlucky.

The refreshed items were supermarket-related. She prayed for something good.

There was also an empty marketplace, showing level 0, which required her to accumulate more luck to unlock.

But she wasn't concerned with that right now. In this Garden of a Hundred Herbs, food meant safety.

She could finally sleep easy. Still, she kept her defenses up. The two people in the room seemed harmless, but she wiped off her dagger and placed it by her pillow, ready to strike at the slightest sign of trouble.

She didn't sleep a wink. The room's air was thick and unpleasant. She woke early and gave the two others some food, then packed the rest into her storage space.

She hadn't gone out since being trapped here. The others had gone to search for supplies before, but found nothing.

She got dressed and sat on the bed for a while. While the other two cooked, she opened her cart. The cart refreshed at eight in the morning.

She tapped the small icon and saw three items lying quietly in the gray cart.

The image was cartoonish. She rubbed her hands together excitedly.

She flipped it open:

A crate of banana milk 350ml*24

A Kailas down jacket set

Canned luncheon meat 108g*48

Song Weishi: ???

Dear heavens, what kind of amazing supermarket cart was this?!

She almost shed tears of joy. This cart was like her own mother—she wouldn't dare shop like this even at a real supermarket.

This would've cost her a month's salary as a hardworking wage slave!

She steadied her trembling hands, stood up, greeted the two others, and headed out.

She eased the door open. The hallway was silent.

The snow piled on the windowsill had been cleared earlier. Pale daylight filtered through the glass.

She didn't see Zhong Xiaomin's body. Only a long streak of blood remained at the door. She followed the trail; it grew fainter, as if the body had been dragged away after death. The blood trail ended at the doorway of another rest room.

From inside came a strange, savory smell that seeped through the plastic sheeting and crept into her nostrils.

A horrifying thought took root in her mind: could these people, starving as they were, have eaten Zhong Xiaomin?

The idea sprouted and grew uncontrollably. Song Weishi quickly backed away from that room, her scalp tingling, heart pounding, a dry heave escaping her throat before she forced herself calm again.

No matter how big the crisis, she'd always been able to steady her emotions quickly. It was one of her strengths.

She scanned around for resources she could use.

Soon she spotted a storage room at the end of the hallway with a broken lock.

Song Weishi pushed open the ajar door. A stale, musty scent washed over her.

Peeling plaster dusted the bundled bamboo poles stacked inside. Bamboo was the most abundant plant in the park. Song Weishi stepped forward and touched the stalks—they weren't brittle, but freshly gathered and pliable.

The snow outside was too deep to travel on foot. Maybe she could fashion these bamboos into snowboards or something to spread her weight, like skiing down the mountain.

With an idea forming, she grabbed a few short poles and hurried back to the room.

Back inside, the smell faded, masked by the room's own air.

She set down the bamboo. Xiao Li and Wang Jie, seeing her grim expression, asked, "What's wrong?"

Song Weishi looked at them and decided to share her suspicion: "We need to leave here as soon as possible. They seem to be eating people."