Processing Plant 4

"Stop crying and take me to see her!" Su Man grabbed Huang Xin and pulled her up.

Huang Xin was so startled that she let out a hiccup, her eyes wide with fright. After snapping back to reality, she shook her head repeatedly. "I won't go! If I go, he'll definitely beat me! I don't want to get beaten!"

"If you don't go right now, I'll beat you right now." Su Man wasn't joking with her. It was so difficult to get Tingting to finally tell her something, only for Tingting to be on the verge of death. How could she let that happen? Besides, judging by Huang Xin, she knew far less than Tingting did.

Huang Xin pouted, on the verge of crying again, but Su Man started rolling up her sleeves.

Huang Xin: "..."

In the end, she still led Su Man outside.

Along the way, however, Huang Xin kept nagging Su Man, "Don't expect me to speak up for Tingting. I can barely save my own skin."

Su Man didn't respond to her.

Yet, perhaps driven by fear, Huang Xin couldn't stop talking. "If you ask me, you're just asking for trouble. She's a lost cause anyway, she was bound to die in the first place. Who knows, maybe she's actually happy to die like this. Going to save her is just harming her."

Su Man stopped in her tracks and looked at her.

"Why are you looking at me?" Huang Xin asked, her expression tinged with fear.

"Did you and Tingting know each other beforehand?"

"...No." Huang Xin's eyes darted away, and this time she bravely took the lead. "Are you going to walk or not? If you don't hurry, we might not even get to see her corpse."

Su Man didn't expose her lie and continued to follow behind.

However, she noticed that the path Huang Xin was leading her on was not the direction toward the breeding grounds.

She remained calm outwardly, while Huang Xin kept complaining, "I shouldn't have brought you here. I must be crazy. I must think my life is too long."

The further they walked down this path, the stronger a strange odor became. Su Man found the scent extremely familiar. She narrowed her eyes and tried to identify it—yes, it smelled just like the feed Tingting used to carry to feed the pigs.

After walking a bit further, Su Man figured out their current location: they were directly behind the breeding area, as a slight tilt of the head revealed the entire compound of the farm.

"It's right there. Hey, do you see it?" Huang Xin was still wearing high heels, and as the path grew rougher, she began to wobble unsteadily. She had even forgotten to cry for a moment, feeling a brief surge of excitement upon reaching the destination. But she quickly snapped back to her senses and immediately clapped a hand over her mouth, as if terrified that someone might overhear her previous words.

Su Man looked in the direction of her finger and saw a pile of bloody meat bones.

At the very top of that pile of meat and bones, she spotted Tingting.

Tingting's work uniform was gone, and the clothes that had originally looked gray were now dyed entirely red.

If not for Tingting's stark skin color, she would have been completely invisible at first glance.

Su Man quickened her pace and walked over there.

Huang Xin wanted to follow behind, but she hesitated, repulsed by the filth. Finally, closing her eyes, she stumbled forward irregularly.

"Tingting?" Su Man pulled Tingting down from the bone pile and checked her pulse; there was still a faint breath left. If she wasn't treated immediately, she would likely die right then and there.

She called out to her twice more, but Tingting still showed no reaction.

Panicking for fear of being discovered by others, Huang Xin urged, "Let's hurry up and leave! You've seen her, and she can't be saved. If Brother Zhu finds out, we're done for, we'll die."

Knowing this wasn't the place to talk, Su Man hoisted Tingting onto her back and briskly walked back the way they came.

Huang Xin's jaw dropped in disbelief. "What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?"

"I told you, she can't be saved."

"If you get caught like this, you'll drag me down with you! No, I have to distance myself from you. You must never tell anyone that I brought you here, or I'm truly finished." Huang Xin muttered a string of complaints and was about to say more when Su Man suddenly tackled her heavily to the ground. Before she could scream, Su Man clamped a hand firmly over her mouth and dragged her behind a relatively concealed pile of dirt at the back of the breeding grounds.

With her heart pounding wildly in terror, Huang Xin thought she had angered Su Man by saying the wrong thing. Just as she was brewing up tears, she saw Su Man pointing to a spot not far away.

Looking over, her tears flowed even faster—purely out of fright.

Not far from them, a wild boar with massive tusks was sniffing around. Its body was easily twice the size of Su Man's. Sniffing all the while, it gradually approached the pile of bone and meat.

Then, as if it had gone mad, it began frantically chewing and gnawing on the bones, as though it had found the most delicious food in the world.

Just hearing the sound of that crunching made one's teeth ache.

Realizing that their target wasn't them, Su Man breathed a slight sigh of relief. With her eyes, she signaled Huang Xin to remain silent, and slowly loosened her hand over Huang Xin's mouth.

Then, hoisting Tingting onto her back once more, she gestured for Huang Xin to hurry and run.

Covered in dust and dirt, Huang Xin was completely paralyzed by terror, obeying whatever Su Man said without question.

The two of them had barely taken two steps when they suddenly heard a deafening roar behind them, followed immediately by a scream as piercing as a slaughtered pig's.

Su Man whipped her head around for a fleeting glance and saw a gigantic cage—appearing from nowhere—trap the wild boar inside. The boar was launching frenzied attacks against the bars, to no avail.

She also heard sounds of footsteps approaching their direction, and daring not to linger a second longer, she carried Tingting on her back while grabbing Huang Xin to flee at full speed.

Finally, they made it back to the dormitory. The moment the door slammed shut, Huang Xin couldn't hold it back any longer and burst into loud, sobbing wails, gasping for breath between sobs.

By now, she had lost all the spoiled vanity she had when she first arrived. Her pink and tender clothes were torn and tattered beyond recognition, her face was smeared with dirt from somewhere unknown, making her look thoroughly wretched and disheveled, and her ankle had long since swollen out of shape from a severe sprain, throbbing with numbness and pain.

Su Man glanced at her, then looked at Tingting, who was breathing more than she was taking in, before finally using the dormitory phone to place a call to Zhou Miaomiao.

However, Zhou Miaomiao did not come this time. She explained over the phone that the place where she currently was undergoing a trial, so she couldn't make it.

"However, I can help you contact the item player closest to you. If the things you need aren't too complicated, they can fulfill your request."

After Su Man stated what she needed, Zhou Miaomiao informed her that the connection had been made and estimated that someone would arrive at her location shortly.

Sure enough, a knock on the door sounded a short while later. It was a young-looking man. After meeting with Su Man, he first verified her identity and then handed over the injection Su Man had requested. "I don't do credit here."

Su Man settled the bill briskly.

As the man was sneaking away, she asked him an extra question: "Are you also here to complete missions?"

The man nodded. "Item players like us are a bit different from you lot. We only care about performance metrics. Anyway, if you need anything else, you can find me again. I have to go."

If Zhou Miaomiao hadn't introduced him and vouched for his absolute trustworthiness, he wouldn't have bothered telling her so much.