Chapter 273: Municipal Third Porcelain Factory 12

Chapter 273: Municipal Third Porcelain Factory 12

Ding Tianyu left the cafeteria with a heart full of gratitude and headed towards Workshop Two.

Qin Fei and the others each went their separate ways to their respective destinations.

According to the information provided by Ding Tianyu, Li Zhen, as a freight driver, usually worked in different locations and stayed at the Logistics Department when not driving.

The Logistics Department was not far from the cafeteria, housed in a three-story building. Qin Fei arrived there after a short walk.

It was the time for the afternoon shift, so there were many people in the building.

After arriving, Qin Fei circled around the first-floor corridor twice, attracting the attention of an NPC passing by.

Seeing that Qin Fei was a stranger, the NPC looked at him suspiciously but did not approach him.

Qin Fei seized the opportunity and stepped forward, "Excuse me, I'm looking for someone. Is Master Wang the freight driver in this building?"

A flurry of question marks appeared in the chat, leaving the audience on the other side of the screen confused.

"Who is Master Wang?"

"Did I miss something??"

"Isn't it Master Li?"

The NPC remained silent, still observing Qin Fei. With a smile on his face, Qin Fei showed just the right amount of awkwardness one would display when being stared at.

Under his deliberate disguise, he exuded an air of innocence and... clear stupidity.

He looked like a timid apprentice.

The young worker explained hesitantly, "My master has something to discuss with Master Wang, so he sent me to call him."

The NPC's expression softened slightly, "Which master is yours?"

"The one from Workshop Two, Brother Ding."

Every word Qin Fei said was made up, but he spoke them as if they were true.

Since he had already come to the Logistics Department, the name "Li Zhen" must not be mentioned under any circumstances.

Someone had died in this building, and even if others didn't know Li Zhen before, they certainly knew his name now.

Similarly, Li Zhen's profession as a freight driver would also be a point of focus for the others in the building.

If Qin Fei directly asked about the freight drivers, he might be questioned about his intentions. It was better to take the initiative to dispel any suspicions.

The plan worked smoothly, and the NPC had relaxed his guard under Qin Fei's tactics.

He didn't remember any freight driver named Wang, but since he wasn't familiar with the freight department, he assumed he simply didn't know this Wang.

The NPC pointed Qin Fei in the right direction, "All the freight drivers are in the rest area behind the courtyard. You can check there."

"Got it!" Qin Fei bowed to the NPC and ran off, earning praise for his politeness.

Following the NPC's directions, Qin Fei reached the end and found an exit leading outside.

It turned out the rest area was not in the building but in the courtyard opposite the back of the building.

There was a row of small houses, which seemed to be the dormitories for the freight drivers.

Qin Fei's eyes lit up.

If Li Zhen used to live here, no one would dare occupy his room after his death.

Indeed, the target was quite obvious.

The row of small houses consisted of ten rooms. Looking through the windows, each room showed signs of life, with some NPCs even sleeping inside.

Only the room at the very end had a thick layer of dust on its doorstep.

Peering through the window, Qin Fei saw an empty room with no sheets on the bed, indicating it had been cleaned up.

The reason was easy to guess. When Li Zhen died, the strange occurrences in the porcelain factory had just begun, and no one had yet connected his death to supernatural beings. Thus, his belongings were cleared away.

But as time passed and the truth came to light, everyone realized that Li Zhen had been killed by a ghost.

Thus, the vacant dormitory was abandoned, and no one dared enter it again.

Qin Fei checked both sides and, seeing no one in the courtyard, pushed down the door handle.

The door opened easily, saving him the trouble of picking the lock.

Qin Fei slipped into the room silently without making a sound.

The room was filled with a choking smell of dust. Perhaps because the room was considered unlucky due to the death, the cleaners hadn't done a thorough job. Qin Fei quickly found clues under the bed.

He bent down and pulled out a travel bag.

Inside were things Li Zhen had used, such as clothes, towels, and various miscellaneous items.

Among the clutter, Qin Fei found a work notebook.

His eyes brightened, genuinely praising every NPC who kept notes.

Skimming through the notebook, Qin Fei soon found what he was looking for.

Li Zhen disappeared six months ago on October 12th. According to the records in his notebook, he was still working normally until October 11th.

On the 11th, Li Zhen made a trip to the outskirts to transport untreated clay back to the porcelain factory. This was a task he did every week.

Qin Fei carefully compared the notes and found nothing unusual.

However, that evening, Li Zhen went to the warehouse. The notebook noted: "New samples have been distributed to all workshops."

Later that night, Li Zhen made another trip with the truck, and then there were no further entries.

The new samples.

A suspicion arose in Qin Fei's mind. He believed that these so-called "new samples" were likely the problematic ceramics possessed by ghosts.

There was no ghostly aura in the room. Qin Fei put away the notebook and decided on his next destination. He would find Li Zhen's truck.

If he couldn't find anything valuable in the truck, he would investigate the warehouse.

This time, he didn't need to ask for directions. The truck was large and conspicuous; it would be impossible to miss if parked there.

Yesterday, when Qin Fei passed by the playground, he noticed a small parking lot behind it, adjacent to the primary warehouse, where loading and unloading presumably took place.

The player nimbly climbed out of the window, heading straight for the parking lot.

The porcelain factory's parking lot only had trucks and carts used within the factory, no private vehicles. Qin Fei quickly found Li Zhen's truck by matching the license plate number in his notebook.

The large truck stood alone in a corner, some distance from the other vehicles.

Like Li Zhen's dormitory, this truck was also feared and avoided by the other workers in the factory.

Fear was good.

The more fearful the NPCs were, the easier it was for Qin Fei to act.

Despite people moving around in the parking lot, no one looked in his direction. They seemed to be deliberately ignoring that corner.

Qin Fei surveyed a route and swiftly approached Li Zhen's truck.

The orange-red truck crouched in the corner, its bright color dulled by dust, exuding an inexplicable sense of desolation.

This truck was easier to handle than Li Zhen's dormitory. Qin Fei didn't even need to touch it; as soon as he reached the door, it opened with a creak on its own.

Instantly, a suffocating stench of blood rushed towards him.

Qin Fei's eyes narrowed slightly. He had expected to find a ghost near Li Zhen's truck but hadn't anticipated that this very truck was where Li Zhen's remains lay.

Though the truck was large, the cab was not particularly spacious, with only two seats.

Qin Fei climbed into the passenger seat through the open door, and as he lifted his head, a figure appeared beside him.

Qin Fei watched the person with interest.

The man wore the factory uniform and sat in the driver's seat, turning his head to look at Qin Fei.

What was different was that his head turned unnaturally stiff, almost 90 degrees, while his body remained perfectly straight, hands gripping the steering wheel tightly. His posture was inexplicably eerie.

Unsurprisingly, this was probably the original owner of the truck.

Li Zhen.

This Li Zhen was clearly abnormal, with bulging eyes, blue-black skin, and no signs of life whatsoever.

Of course, being abnormal was normal.

After all, although Li Zhen was said to have disappeared, everyone knew he was dead.

A dead person reappearing beside you wouldn't be anything good.

If an ordinary person saw such a sight, their heart would likely be pounding wildly.

But sitting here was Qin Fei.

Qin Fei looked thoughtfully at Li Zhen's head. For some reason, NPC Li Zhen had no affinity bar above his head.

Not unapproachable, but completely absent.

Dead Li Zhen and Qin Fei stared at each other without speaking.

Li Zhen was waiting for Qin Fei to show fear, but Qin Fei showed none. The atmosphere in the cab became tense.

One minute.

Two minutes.

A drop of sweat rolled down Li Zhen's forehead.

Finally, Qin Fei's expression changed, but not out of fear, rather surprise: "Dead people can sweat too?"

It was unclear whether Qin Fei imagined it, but he thought he saw Li Zhen's face twitch slightly.

Li Zhen finally realized that the person in front of him was not someone who could be frightened by a few cracks of his neck.

So he began to escalate.

The man curled the corner of his mouth, revealing a strange smile on his pale face, his eyes rolling back, and blood tears seeping from his eye sockets.

Qin Fei: "…"

Qin Fei was actually quite impatient.

He sat there, watching this dead ghost perform, hoping to glean some clues about the cause of death.

But this guy wasn't doing anything productive; all he did was scare people.

The dead ghost Li Zhen was still trying hard to squeeze out tears when something blocked his view. Upon closer inspection, it was a snow-white handkerchief.

"Here, wipe your face." The handsome young man in front of him, resting his chin on his hands, sighed, "This is quite a scene. If someone didn't know better, they'd think I did something to you."

Li Zhen: ...???

Li Zhen appeared here with the sole purpose of causing mental distress to Qin Fei. This was his goal, and it was the only thing he was currently striving to do.

Thus, over the next several minutes, Qin Fei witnessed one scene after another.

These scenes were likely what Li Zhen had experienced firsthand before his death.

Initially, Li Zhen was sitting calmly in the driver's seat, but then he saw something that made his eyes widen and his body tremble.

It was as if an invisible force was approaching him. Li Zhen was terrified, contorting in the dark, screaming, and writhing in his seat.

Finally, Li Zhen, still in the car, used a small fruit knife to slit his own throat.

Bright red blood spurted from his artery, splattering everywhere inside the car.

Qin Fei remained expressionless and even clapped for him.

With half his neck severed, Li Zhen raised his arm and took down a palm-sized porcelain bottle from the storage shelf above.

The young man's beautiful amber eyes flashed with a glint, and in a split second, he reached out. However, when he touched the porcelain bottle, his fingertips passed right through it.

The porcelain bottle was just an illusion.

Visible but untouchable.

Qin Fei knew that the ghost that had killed Li Zhen was now haunting him.

But being haunted by a vengeful spirit wasn't enough.

Li Zhen couldn't speak and answered no questions. Qin Fei could only hope to find the physical form of the ghost—the porcelain bottle that had killed Li Zhen—so he could control it.

Qin Fei couldn't help feeling a bit regretful. If the porcelain bottle were real, he would have snatched it from Li Zhen, even by force.

Poor Li Zhen couldn't even rest in peace after death, driven by the ghost to perform relentlessly.

Perhaps because the performance had been ineffective for too long, even the ghost behind him grew annoyed. Li Zhen's body began to dissipate, turning transparent until it dissolved into the air.

Qin Fei clicked his tongue and reached out to retrieve the crawling ghost infant in the car.

During this time, the ghost infant hadn't been idle either, searching the car for the porcelain bottle.

Now the entire car had been thoroughly searched, but nothing was found.

However, Qin Fei had a new target.

The porcelain bottle in Li Zhen's hand was likely brought from the warehouse.

This batch of porcelain bottles was a new product from the factory, and the problem lay with these new products.

Qin Fei swiftly got out of the car, preparing to head to his next destination.

Suddenly, a voice called out from behind him.

"What are you doing?!"