Chapter 1: Memories of Zombies and Gifts of Thanks from Ghosts
The place where Lu Ren works is called the Foreign Household Registration Investigation Bureau, which is unexpectedly considered a relevant department.
Lu Ren felt that this place was not normal, although he discovered it on his first day at work. But after two years of observation, he finally confirmed his idea.
This abnormality is mainly reflected in the fact that his colleagues are all abnormal. To put it more bluntly, his colleagues may not be human, but some kind of supernatural creatures. Although this speculation has been confirmed day by day, Lu Ren, who is open-minded, still insists on working here for two years. After all, for a social animal, it is really hard to find such a stable job with a good salary.
The location of the Immigrant Household Investigation Bureau is not too remote, but it is still a long way from the city center. However, it is surprisingly close to Lu Ren's home. He rides a small electric bike to and from get off work every day, and the ride takes 20 minutes, regardless of wind, frost, rain or snow.
The walls surrounding the Investigation Bureau were covered with ivy. The five-story building was old and looked a little mottled.
Although Lu Ren was also worried about safety issues, since everything had gone smoothly for two years, there was no need to be too nervous. After careful consideration, Lu Ren decided to continue doing this job.
There is no way, the current job market is really bad. It is not easy to find a cleaning job with such a high salary.
When Lu Ren was a child, his parents died in a car accident. He relied on the inheritance to finish high school and then dropped out of school.
Low education makes it very difficult to find a job. So when Lu Ren saw the notice of high-paying cleaning jobs, he applied without any doubt. During the interview, he was very nervous. He thought he had no chance, but he received a notice to go to work the next day. Afterwards, he learned that he was the only applicant from the beginning to the end. As long as he had hands and feet, he would have secured the job.
He wondered if modern people all looked down on the job of cleaning. No one was willing to take such a good job with such good benefits, so he happily reported for the job. On the first day, he was really shocked by the garbage mountain-like Immigrant Household Investigation Bureau. It was said that in order to save costs, no one had been hired since the last cleaner resigned, but the amount of dust was really too shocking.
Of course, after he slowly cleaned up the investigation bureau, he finally found that the work of the logistics team was not as heavy as he imagined, because the people in the unit were basically busy going to the scene every day. In fact, Lu Ren met very few people. Moreover, he and most of his colleagues were only acquaintances, and there was not much intersection.
Among them, Mr. Zombie is one of the few friends he can talk to.
Zombie is in the security department, responsible for daily patrols. He is widely praised because theoretically he does not need to rest.
The zombie's name is Junfang. Actually, he was not a formal employee. He was an accessory brought by a corpse driver when he joined the company a long time ago.
"My master brought me here, saying I would go back to Xiangxi after helping out for a while." Junfang would occasionally gossip with Lu Ren in the tea room. He took a sip of the coffee that Lu Ren had prepared for him. "Who knew that he would die in the line of duty the following year? I have been kept here ever since. It has been about..." He counted on his fingers, "It has been about fifty years."
In fact, the reason why Junfang and Lu Ren became familiar with each other was still due to the coffee machine. One day two years ago, Lu Ren yawned as usual and walked into the tea room, intending to make a cup of coffee before starting work. As soon as he entered the door, he saw Junfang.
At that time, Junfang was wearing a green robe, with his long hair tied up casually behind his head. He stretched out his right index finger and tremblingly pressed the button on the coffee machine. His nails were sharp and long, showing an unnatural black color, which made his pale skin look strangely ominous.
Lu Ren could tell at a glance that this was a zombie, not because of his Qing Dynasty clothing or his pale face, but because he had a yellow talisman stuck on the middle of his forehead, with a spell written on it in bright red cinnabar that Lu Ren did not recognize.
Zombie pressed several buttons on the coffee machine, but still no coffee came out. He tilted his head and looked at the coffee machine, looking very distressed.
"Um..." Seeing that he had been fiddling with it for a long time without any results, Lu Ren had to remind him, "You have to put the capsule coffee in first."
Zombie looked at Lu Ren and tilted his head: "Capsules? Coffee?"
Lu Ren sighed resignedly, walked over to Jun Fang and showed him how to do it.
When he successfully made a cup of coffee and handed it to Junfang, Junfang was so moved that he clapped his hands.
Even though Lu Ren and Jun Fang became familiar with each other later, they still found the scene too weird when they recalled it.
Later, Lu Ren also asked Jun Fang curiously: "Can you still taste the flavor if you are dead?"
Junfang held the coffee cup in both hands, as if feeling the temperature from his fingertips, and said, "Actually, everything you eat is bitter. The dead have no sense of taste when they are resurrected." He took a sip of coffee, "But a long time ago, Lao Yang told me that there is only one exception."
Lao Yang is the corpse driver who died long ago and Jun Fang’s former master.
Lu Ren asked curiously: "What is it?"
Junsheng looked at Lu Ren and blinked, "He is a human being." He spoke briskly, as if praising Lu Ren, his eyes sparkling, and his tone was full of praise, "Old Yang said that you taste very sweet, and eating you makes you feel comfortable all over."
His innocent look really made Lu Rensheng lose his guard and even a little curious: "Have you tried it?"
Junsheng shook his head: "Old Yang said that if I ever get a taste of that, he can't keep me."
Lu Ren thought about it and realized that this was the same as the bears that bit people in the zoo. So he nodded and asked curiously, "Do you want to eat people?"
Junsheng shook his head: "Old Yang won't let me. If I eat someone..." Junfang raised his head and looked into space, as if he was looking at the steam rising from the coffee, but also as if he was not looking at anything. "If he finds out, he'll be angry."
In short, because of a cup of coffee, Lu Ren and Jun Fang established a deep revolutionary friendship. Even many inside information in the unit were told to him by Jun Fang.
Junfang said that the fox girl on the fourth floor ran away from home in Qingqiu eight hundred years ago in order to pursue the director.
Junfang said that Yinglong's cousin was divorced for the third time, and she said it was true love every time.
…
One of Lu Ren's daily tasks is to take out the trash. The trash from each floor will be delivered to the staircase at 4:30 pm. All Lu Ren has to do is collect it and deliver it to the door of a small room on the third floor before leaving get off work. He knocks on the door three times and then leaves work.
Then, when he came the next day, the garbage at the door would naturally be gone.
The third floor is actually an office for non-staff personnel, which means that it is only used occasionally by outside helpers, and it is basically empty. The stairs are on the easternmost side, and then the rooms facing each other extend to the west, with the doors closed all year round. The small room for garbage is at the end of the corridor, facing the stairs. The door is painted vermilion, which is very eye-catching. The corridor on the third floor is narrow and has no sunlight. Every time you walk to the third floor, you will feel depressed and cramped. The whole floor is quiet, with only the vermilion door facing you from a distance, like a huge blood-red eye staring at you. It makes people feel that a monster will jump out of it at any time.
When Lu Ren went up for the first time, he felt that the scene was like a horror game.
So he later applied to write a slogan on the vermilion door with yellow paint: "Adhere to the path of sustainable development." The red background and yellow words have a very political aesthetic. From then on, he no longer felt scared when he went upstairs, but only felt a patriotic sincerity.
Lu Ren once secretly asked Junsheng what was in the small room on the third floor.
Jun Fang scratched his head and finally remembered: "Oh, you mean those monsters. They were raised by the director to eat garbage. "
"Wangling?" Lu Ren was surprised. "Why do they eat garbage?"
Junfang ate a piece of Lu Ren's hidden biscuit and said, "Although it's garbage, it actually contains a lot of spiritual energy. As for the ghosts, they are ugly and can't speak clearly. It's impossible for them to find a job. They can only rely on eating garbage to make a living." He turned to look at Lu Ren and said, "But Ren, you still have to be careful of them. Their IQ is not very high. In their eyes, there is only edible and inedible. If you get too close, they might accidentally mistake you for food."
Lu Ren nodded. At first he would run fast after knocking on the door, but later he got used to it and became numb.
One time he got up late and brought his breakfast to work. The breakfast was a sandwich made the night before, packed in a stainless steel lunch box made in the last century . As a result, he was too busy and didn't have time to eat it at noon. After thinking about it, he put it at the door of the small room on the third floor, knocked on the door three times, and then went out to eat.
When he came to take out the trash before get off work, the sandwich was gone. The lunch box was still there, but there was an irregular hole at the bottom, and the marks on the edge of the hole looked like the teeth marks of some beast. There was also a scarlet seed in the lunch box.
Lu Ren thought about it and planted the seeds in a discarded lunch box.
The company gave Lu Ren a small utility room to store his cleaning tools. There was a small window in the utility room, and every winter, the afternoon sun shone in, making it warm. Lu Ren placed the seeds he had planted on the windowsill, and soon a small red sprout grew out.
The strange thing is that the small sprout never grew up, and it remained in the same state even after more than two years.
"How strange." Lu Ren muttered to Ye Ya, then turned and went out to start a new day's work. In the sun, Xiao Ya stretched his body, preparing for growth.
