Chapter 268: Municipal Third Porcelain Factory 07

Chapter 268: Municipal Third Porcelain Factory 07

Qin Fei's plan to gather intelligence did not go smoothly, which was foreseeable.

After all, anything related to ghosts was taboo throughout the entire factory.

Unless someone had already dipped their toes into the world of the supernatural like Ding Tianyu and his two companions, who were now in disarray, ordinary workers would never bring up such topics voluntarily.

Qin Fei walked around the area but found nothing useful, so he returned to the front of the public toilet.

The work shed near the playground was a dilapidated concrete structure divided into two sections: one for men and one for women.

Since there were more male workers than female workers at the Municipal Third Factory, the women's restroom was often deserted, while the men's restroom saw frequent traffic.

At the entrance of the men's restroom, a printed A4 paper was posted.

"Guidelines for Using the East Playground Toilet"

1. The playground toilet is a public facility constructed by the logistics department of the Municipal Third Factory. It is open from 7:00 AM to 10:00 PM.

The playground toilet is free for all workers within the factory. Only two cleaning staff members are assigned daily, and there is no fixed management office or manager.

If you see a manager at the toilet entrance, do not talk to them!!!

2. The playground toilet is old and does not have electrical wiring.

Please enter and leave quickly; do not linger inside the toilet.

3. There are only two stalls in the toilet.

(For men) There are only two stalls in the men's toilet.

If you see more than two stalls in the men's toilet, immediately exit the toilet.

Remember: Do not open any extra stall doors!!!

Qin Fei's eyes scanned over the rules on the paper.

The text on this paper was oddly printed, with large blank spaces and tiny letters densely packed together, making it dizzying to read.

According to the intelligence provided by Ding Tianyu to Qin Fei, including the work guidelines of Workshop Two and the toilet guidelines, all the rules in the entire factory were gradually established over the past six months.

"There are many types of porcelain bottle ghosts, each with different habits. Some actively seek out their targets, just like the one you encountered this afternoon," Ding Tianyu explained at the time. "Others prefer to stay in one place and occasionally appear to scare people passing by."

These rules were summarized by the workers to combat the porcelain bottle ghosts that lingered in specific locations.

For half a year, everyone was forced to live in the same space as these ghosts, and these were the safety measures they had deduced.

Behind each rule lay bizarre events experienced by fellow workers.

Strict adherence to every rule significantly reduces the likelihood of being harmed by ghosts.

A worker hurriedly exited the toilet, accidentally bumping into Qin Fei as he passed by.

Without stopping, he muttered an "apology" and quickly left.

Qin Fei looked in the direction the worker came from and saw a small, brightly lit management booth at the dark entrance of the toilet.

The booth was square, resembling a common movable security booth in the real world, with a window facing the corridor.

Inside the booth sat a person who, upon noticing Qin Fei, grinned stiffly and said, "Toilet use, twenty cents per visit, pay here." The person extended their hand.

Above its head floated a string of flickering words: "East Playground Public Toilet Manager: Affinity (Not Pursuable)."

Even without the rule warnings, Qin Fei could easily tell that this was not an ordinary living person.

It had an unnaturally smooth face, devoid of wrinkles or texture, resembling a curved ceramic tile painted with human features.

The manager's movements were rigid, and Qin Fei could almost hear the creaking of its joints as it reached out.

Qin Fei: "..."

What kind of foolish ghost is this? Its trap is far too crude.

The NPCs gathered outside the toilet, chatting and smoking, completely ignored this scene.

This was not due to their extraordinary self-control but simply because they couldn't see it at all.

Ghosts have preferences when choosing their targets. At this moment, Qin Fei, already entangled with ghosts and thus carrying a high level of yin energy, appeared even more tempting to them.

Qin Fei didn't take it seriously and walked past confidently.

This toilet manager ghost was not frightening; the methods to deal with it were clearly stated in the rules, and strict adherence was all that was needed.

Besides—

As Qin Fei passed the booth, he murmured, "Toilet manager ghost, sounds pretty low-class."

If it were any more powerful, it wouldn't choose such a title.

Hearing Qin Fei's deliberate muttering, the toilet manager's already stiff expression became even stiffer.

It hastily repeated, as if stuck on a loop, "Toilet use, twenty cents... twenty cents! Twenty cents!"

Speaking, it reached out to grab the corner of Qin Fei's clothes.

But Qin Fei had already left, leaving only a rapidly disappearing back view.

...

The men's restroom, devoid of any light, was pitch black.

Qin Fei pushed the door open and entered.

The ghost infant that had been quietly staying in the domain ran out, crawling along Qin Fei's shoulder all the way toward the outside of the restroom.

Qin Fei glanced at it but didn't interfere, then looked back inside the restroom.

In a short moment, his eyes had adjusted to the darkness and could discern the outlines of some objects.

The interior of the restroom was as rudimentary as its exterior, with cement floors and walls. Upon entering, there was a row of urinals opposite, and then...

Qin Fei's pupils slightly contracted.

There were three stalls.

"Click."

A clear sound of a lock echoed, particularly piercing in the darkness.

Qin Fei followed the sound and saw that the restroom door behind him had somehow closed.

He wasn't alone in the restroom; four worker NPCs stood beside the urinals, yet oddly, none of them looked up.

Neither when Qin Fei entered nor when the door locked did they seem to notice, standing there with their heads bowed.

Qin Fei silently stared at the four for a few seconds.

"Drip."

A chilling sound of dripping water broke the silence.

This sound seemed like a switch; after it, the four people beside the door suddenly turned their necks in unison.

They twisted their heads simultaneously to meet Qin Fei's gaze.

Their pale faces, with pupils spread across their entire eye sockets, showed no whites, and their lips curled into a creepy smile.

"F**k, f**k, f**k—"

The chat interface of the live stream was instantly flooded with a barrage of profanity.

Simple tactics, extreme fright, successfully scared a lot of viewers.

However, in the center of the live stream, the young man who was actually in close contact with the ghosts remained calm without any unusual reaction.

He stood there, slightly turning his head as if carefully observing what the four strange people in front of him were doing.

The four NPCs moved, step by step, closing in on Qin Fei.

Closer and closer until they cornered Qin Fei in the restroom.

Qin Fei turned his head, a flash of understanding crossing his eyes.

They were forcing him to retreat into the stall behind him.

The third stall.

The rules mentioned that if one sees the third toilet stall, they should immediately leave.

But now, Qin Fei couldn't escape.

And the third stall was different from what the rules described. The stall door was wide open, allowing Qin Fei to see everything inside clearly if he turned around.

It was a very ordinary toilet stall with a toilet bowl inside. At this moment, an icy coldness was emanating from the open toilet bowl.

Qin Fei: ...

Why are these ghosts so lacking in manners?

However, this familiar chilling aura reminded Qin Fei of an old acquaintance—the ghost from the clay pool that had been harassing him all day.

Could it be that it wasn't a fixed ghost of the second workshop but the one currently haunting Yu Zhoukai?

Qin Fei became interested.

Following the warning in the rules, he didn't step into the stall but instead tilted his head upward, trying to look inside as much as possible.

The water in the toilet bowl kept churning, and a face covered by a film slowly appeared on the surface of the water.

Qin Fei's lips twitched, raising his hand to cover a light cough, hiding his distorted expression.

Qin Fei's peculiar expression made the viewers in the live stream feel equally speechless.

"I'm impressed; this is a truly aromatic live stream."

"So, this ghost chased all the way here from the second workshop?"

"To scare Xiao Qin, it's willing to hide in the toilet; this must be true love."

Qin Fei hadn't been able to see the anomaly in the clay pool clearly during the day, but the viewers with an omniscient perspective had seen the strange face in the clay pool several times.

Indeed, it was exactly the same as the face in the toilet bowl at this moment.

Qin Fei let out a soft sigh.

He could roughly understand what the ghost was trying to do.

The cases provided by Ding Tianyu were sufficient to explain that the main attack method of the ghosts in the porcelain factory was mental assault and mental corruption.

The ghostly porcelain bottles frightened the workers through various means, distorting their minds, leading them into an unnamed abyss of ghostly realms, causing them to vanish from the real world forever.

Or they drove the workers to the brink of mental collapse, inducing hallucinations that led to suicide.

But Qin Fei...

Qin Fei opened his attribute panel, and his sanity value remained at 100%.

The face in the toilet bowl struggled to contort itself into various terrifying expressions, but Qin Fei's sanity value remained rock-solid, unmoved.

Qin Fei couldn't help but sigh again.

"Stop it; you can't scare me." The young man spoke the plain truth.

The ghostly face in the toilet ignored his advice and contorted even more vigorously, making Qin Fei feel a bit pained just watching it.

This stalemate couldn't continue indefinitely, and Qin Fei didn't want to spend the night in the restroom.

He thought for a moment and began rummaging through his personal space.

After becoming a high-level player, Qin Fei had collected quite a few miscellaneous items from the store. Now, besides his usual tools, his space was cluttered with all sorts of things.

After a while, he actually found something useful.

With a flash in his palm, a thin L-shaped steel pipe appeared in the air, its top bent.

Standing there without moving, he held the pipe in one hand and extended the other end into the stall.

Then, under the watchful eyes of tens of thousands of viewers in the live stream, the flush button of the toilet in the stall was pressed by the other end of the pipe.

"Pfft—"

Water surged.

The ghostly face in the toilet bowl revealed an expression of utter disbelief!