Chapter 114: Law-abiding good citizen
A group of people walked forward along the direction of the pipeline.
The surroundings were densely covered in vegetation, blocking out the sky and making it almost impossible to discern the direction. Only the metal pipeline, half-buried in the ground under their feet, extended clearly into the distance.
Occasional joyful noises from the amusement park could be heard, serving as the only evidence that they hadn’t yet left the amusement park area.
“There’s a building ahead.”
Suddenly, Blond, the person with the best eyesight, broke the silence.
Wen Jianyan paused in his steps, asking, “What does it look like? Are there people around?”
“It’s gray, quite short, only three stories.”
Blond described in a hushed tone, “Around…”
He stopped and hesitated for a moment, then replied, “There aren’t many people around.”
“Alright, then let’s keep moving forward.”
Soon, after passing through the last thicket of trees, the scene in front of their eyes suddenly opened up. A low, gray, three-story building appeared before them.
In contrast to the faint, distant sounds of joy, this building seemed particularly quiet and deserted, devoid of any signs of life and with no one around.
The cold steel pipeline led straight into the building’s underground, disappearing from sight.
A piece of sheet metal was nailed to the gray wall, bearing a few words:
[Staff Rest Area]
It seemed to be the place.
The group exchanged glances, then cautiously and swiftly headed in the direction of the building.
Yun Bilan took a deep breath, carefully pushed open the half-closed door of the building, looked around alertly, and then turned to the others, saying, “No one inside.”
They entered the Staff rest area.
This place, rather than being called a Staff rest area, could be better described as a Staff living area. A long corridor was filled with small cubicle-like rooms with tightly closed doors. Through the windows on the doors, one could see that the rooms were not spacious. Inside, there was a narrow gray bed, a short wardrobe that could only hold a few personal items, and a small gray table. On the table corner, there was a bronze bell that seemed to be remotely controllable.
Perhaps due to it still being working hours, there was no one in sight in the corridor.
There didn’t seem to be any administrators around either, and the layout of each room was identical.
Some rooms were empty, but others were occupied.
Workers dressed in various doll costumes lay stiffly on the gray, hard beds. Their faces were covered by hoods or heavy makeup, and they didn’t move at all. Hidden behind thick performance outfits, it was impossible to detect any sign of breath. They looked just like real dolls.
Apparently, even within the Staff rest area, employees were not allowed to take off their costumes.
“Let’s split up,” Wen Jianyan turned to his teammates and said, “It’ll be more efficient that way.”
Wen Ya, Elise, and Blond were responsible for searching from the first to the third floors. Blond had the best eyesight and could clearly see the costumes the workers were wearing in the rooms. If they came across a costume that matched Lilith’s attire, they would contact the rest of the group using their phones.
This team had the most members because, in addition to finding the tortoiseshell Cat costume that Lilith wore, they needed to conduct a wide search on these three floors to find out where the metal pipeline led.
Wen Jianyan and Yun Bilan worked together to search for clues.
After the tasks were assigned, the group dispersed.
Soon, the figures of Blond and Wen Ya disappeared into the deserted corridor.
“Give me some cover.”
Wen Jianyan stood still, scanning the area, and then stopped by the doorway of an empty room, speaking.
Cover?
Yun Bilan was momentarily puzzled, not having grasped the situation yet. Before she knew it, she saw him crouching down, holding something long and sharp between his slender fingers.
Oh god, is he really using this kind of cover?
Only then did she realize what he meant by “cover.” She quickly turned her head to look down both sides of the corridor, wary of anyone appearing at this crucial moment.
Soon, the sound of a lock being picked echoed.
Wen Jianyan stood up and gave a gentle push.
The door slowly swung open inward.
“You have this skill too?” Yun Bilan asked in surprise, speaking softly.
“Of course.”
The young man dressed as a clown slightly bent forward, making a gesture of invitation. His voice carried a hint of casual amusement, “A law-abiding citizen who follows the rules has to have some tricks up their sleeve, right?”
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Hahahaha, god damn law-abiding!]
[What law-abiding good citizen would have your lock-picking skills?!]
[Laughing so hard, Integrity First live broadcast room, Wen Jianyan, the embodiment of integrity and law-abiding!]
[I understand, the wife’s fingers are indeed quite nimble!!]
[?]
[??? Hold on a moment with those remarks? This is supposed to be a serious live room!]
Wen Jianyan replicated the procedure, opening the room across from them.
The two of them chose different rooms for searching, not just for increased efficiency but more importantly… everyone was currently wearing thick work attire. These rooms were already small and extremely narrow, and if more than one person squeezed into a room, it would become overwhelmingly cramped, making even turning around difficult.
Wen Jianyan entered a room and swiftly started rifling through it.
Soon, he pulled out a small booklet with only a few thin pages from the wardrobe.
The first page was inscribed with a few words: [Employee Handbook].
He blinked and immediately recalled the “Fantasy Amusement Park Employee Rules” he had collected earlier. Many clauses within it mentioned the existence of the “Employee Handbook”, and many emergency protocols required consulting this handbook.
Wen Jianyan flipped to the first page and quickly scanned the contents.
[Welcome to join Fantasy Amusement Park and become a part of this big family. The park will provide employees with high-quality benefits, including but not limited to a substantial year-end bonus, three months of annual leave, and a comprehensive set of personal safety insurance, along with the issuance of this handbook.
Please keep this handbook safe to ensure you can access it at any time. Please make sure to abide by its clauses; otherwise, the park will not be responsible for your safety.]
1. The working hours for different park attractions are not uniform. Please follow the working hours of your specific attraction and do not enter the park area early (if your working hours are not fixed, please refer to page 3, section 1.1.1 of the Employee Handbook).
2. The park’s closing time is unified at 6 p.m. Overtime and staying overnight are not allowed. Please leave the park within half an hour after closing time. If you violate this rule, refer to page 5, section 2.1.2 of the Employee Handbook.
3. The park will assign rest areas for newly employed staff in the Staff rest area. Please carry your room key with you. If you accidentally lose it, go to the park manager’s office to get a replacement.
4. The Staff rest area is located on the east side of the food area.
5. Attractions within the park may undergo unscheduled maintenance. If your attraction stops receiving visitors before the park’s closure, please complete your tasks according to the rules of your attraction and immediately proceed to the Staff rest area for rest, awaiting the ringing of the bronze bell in your room.
6. …
It was evident that the Crazy Little Train project had irregular working hours.
Wen Jianyan quickly flipped to the third page of the Employee Handbook.
[The content on this page is a supplementary section for attractions with irregular working hours. Please consult this page based on your own type.]
1.1.1 If your working hours are not fixed, please come to the park before 10 a.m. daily. Change into your work uniform in the dressing room and, under the guidance of security personnel, enter the Staff rest area within the park to wait, anticipating the ringing of the bronze bell in your room.
1.1.2…
As Wen Jianyan carefully read the contents of the Employee Handbook, the sound of footsteps echoed from a distance in the empty corridor, seemingly approaching in this direction.
He paused.
He pocketed the thin Employee Handbook and quickly walked toward the door.
Across the hallway, Yun Bilan also heard the footsteps and walked out from the opposite direction.
The two exchanged a glance and then simultaneously turned their heads to look in the direction of the approaching footsteps.
It was Wen Ya, Elise, and Blond.
They were walking briskly down the empty corridor, dressed as a sheep, a bear, and a clown, which looked particularly comical.
“Did you find Lilith?” Yun Bilan was the first to ask.
Wen Ya shook her head with a solemn expression.
The group had checked every room on all three floors, but among all the employees resting in the rooms, none matched the features of Lilith’s costume.
“What about the pipe?” Wen Jianyan pondered for a few seconds before asking.
“The pipe doesn’t extend into the Staff rest area.”
Blond’s voice came muffled from within his headgear.
“I’ve observed all the pipes within the building, and none of them match the one outside.”
“What about you? Any discoveries?” Wen Ya looked at Wen Jianyan.
Wen Jianyan nodded and took out the Employee Handbook from his pocket, giving it a shake. “But I haven’t finished reading it all—”
His words were cut off by an eerie, monotonous metallic ringing sound—
“Jingle jingle!”
Everyone was startled.
Wen Jianyan’s pupils contracted, and he instinctively turned to look behind himself, but the bell in his room didn’t ring.
“Jingle jingle!!!”
Through the thin walls and door panels, the sound of the bronze bell reverberated from all directions, like a tolling death knell.
“Quick, get inside the room!”
Wen Jianyan made a quick decision.
Wen Ya and the others standing outside also snapped awake, rushing into the two narrow rooms that Wen Jianyan had pried open.
Inside the rooms, the anchors held their breath, crouching low to prevent themselves from being seen from outside the window.
Wen Jianyan stealthily pushed open a small gap in the door and looked outside.
He saw that the previously closed doors along the corridor had been opened from the inside. Employees dressed in costumes were calmly walking out of the rooms, forming a line in the empty corridor, and slowly moving forward.
The bell ringing had stopped at some point.
Through the narrow gap in the door, he could see the line of employees walking ahead, one by one, their figures in cartoon costumes passing by. The sound of synchronized footsteps echoed in the corridor, giving an inexplicable sense of absurdity.
Wen Jianyan furrowed his brow slightly, lost in thought.
Soon, the line of employees reached the end of the corridor.
The front of the line seemed to have already left the main entrance of the employee rest area.
Wen Jianyan’s fingertips pinched the thin Employee Handbook, the rough pages making a scraping sound. The rules he had quickly scanned earlier came to mind.
Bronze bell.
…The bronze bell.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath as if confirming something.
He suddenly stood up.
“???”
Under the astonished gaze of everyone, the clown calmly pushed open the room door, stepping into the line with deliberate strides.
The face of the young man, covered in thick makeup, turned, and he slyly winked at them. His lips painted a crimson red, parted as if saying—
Come quickly.
Chapter 114: Law-abiding good citizen
A group of people walked forward along the direction of the pipeline.
The surroundings were densely covered in vegetation, blocking out the sky and making it almost impossible to discern the direction. Only the metal pipeline, half-buried in the ground under their feet, extended clearly into the distance.
Occasional joyful noises from the amusement park could be heard, serving as the only evidence that they hadn’t yet left the amusement park area.
“There’s a building ahead.”
Suddenly, Blond, the person with the best eyesight, broke the silence.
Wen Jianyan paused in his steps, asking, “What does it look like? Are there people around?”
“It’s gray, quite short, only three stories.”
Blond described in a hushed tone, “Around…”
He stopped and hesitated for a moment, then replied, “There aren’t many people around.”
“Alright, then let’s keep moving forward.”
Soon, after passing through the last thicket of trees, the scene in front of their eyes suddenly opened up. A low, gray, three-story building appeared before them.
In contrast to the faint, distant sounds of joy, this building seemed particularly quiet and deserted, devoid of any signs of life and with no one around.
The cold steel pipeline led straight into the building’s underground, disappearing from sight.
A piece of sheet metal was nailed to the gray wall, bearing a few words:
[Staff Rest Area]
It seemed to be the place.
The group exchanged glances, then cautiously and swiftly headed in the direction of the building.
Yun Bilan took a deep breath, carefully pushed open the half-closed door of the building, looked around alertly, and then turned to the others, saying, “No one inside.”
They entered the Staff rest area.
This place, rather than being called a Staff rest area, could be better described as a Staff living area. A long corridor was filled with small cubicle-like rooms with tightly closed doors. Through the windows on the doors, one could see that the rooms were not spacious. Inside, there was a narrow gray bed, a short wardrobe that could only hold a few personal items, and a small gray table. On the table corner, there was a bronze bell that seemed to be remotely controllable.
Perhaps due to it still being working hours, there was no one in sight in the corridor.
There didn’t seem to be any administrators around either, and the layout of each room was identical.
Some rooms were empty, but others were occupied.
Workers dressed in various doll costumes lay stiffly on the gray, hard beds. Their faces were covered by hoods or heavy makeup, and they didn’t move at all. Hidden behind thick performance outfits, it was impossible to detect any sign of breath. They looked just like real dolls.
Apparently, even within the Staff rest area, employees were not allowed to take off their costumes.
“Let’s split up,” Wen Jianyan turned to his teammates and said, “It’ll be more efficient that way.”
Wen Ya, Elise, and Blond were responsible for searching from the first to the third floors. Blond had the best eyesight and could clearly see the costumes the workers were wearing in the rooms. If they came across a costume that matched Lilith’s attire, they would contact the rest of the group using their phones.
This team had the most members because, in addition to finding the tortoiseshell Cat costume that Lilith wore, they needed to conduct a wide search on these three floors to find out where the metal pipeline led.
Wen Jianyan and Yun Bilan worked together to search for clues.
After the tasks were assigned, the group dispersed.
Soon, the figures of Blond and Wen Ya disappeared into the deserted corridor.
“Give me some cover.”
Wen Jianyan stood still, scanning the area, and then stopped by the doorway of an empty room, speaking.
Cover?
Yun Bilan was momentarily puzzled, not having grasped the situation yet. Before she knew it, she saw him crouching down, holding something long and sharp between his slender fingers.
Oh god, is he really using this kind of cover?
Only then did she realize what he meant by “cover.” She quickly turned her head to look down both sides of the corridor, wary of anyone appearing at this crucial moment.
Soon, the sound of a lock being picked echoed.
Wen Jianyan stood up and gave a gentle push.
The door slowly swung open inward.
“You have this skill too?” Yun Bilan asked in surprise, speaking softly.
“Of course.”
The young man dressed as a clown slightly bent forward, making a gesture of invitation. His voice carried a hint of casual amusement, “A law-abiding citizen who follows the rules has to have some tricks up their sleeve, right?”
In the “Integrity First” live broadcast room:
[Hahahaha, god damn law-abiding!]
[What law-abiding good citizen would have your lock-picking skills?!]
[Laughing so hard, Integrity First live broadcast room, Wen Jianyan, the embodiment of integrity and law-abiding!]
[I understand, the wife’s fingers are indeed quite nimble!!]
[?]
[??? Hold on a moment with those remarks? This is supposed to be a serious live room!]
Wen Jianyan replicated the procedure, opening the room across from them.
The two of them chose different rooms for searching, not just for increased efficiency but more importantly… everyone was currently wearing thick work attire. These rooms were already small and extremely narrow, and if more than one person squeezed into a room, it would become overwhelmingly cramped, making even turning around difficult.
Wen Jianyan entered a room and swiftly started rifling through it.
Soon, he pulled out a small booklet with only a few thin pages from the wardrobe.
The first page was inscribed with a few words: [Employee Handbook].
He blinked and immediately recalled the “Fantasy Amusement Park Employee Rules” he had collected earlier. Many clauses within it mentioned the existence of the “Employee Handbook”, and many emergency protocols required consulting this handbook.
Wen Jianyan flipped to the first page and quickly scanned the contents.
[Welcome to join Fantasy Amusement Park and become a part of this big family. The park will provide employees with high-quality benefits, including but not limited to a substantial year-end bonus, three months of annual leave, and a comprehensive set of personal safety insurance, along with the issuance of this handbook.
Please keep this handbook safe to ensure you can access it at any time. Please make sure to abide by its clauses; otherwise, the park will not be responsible for your safety.]
1. The working hours for different park attractions are not uniform. Please follow the working hours of your specific attraction and do not enter the park area early (if your working hours are not fixed, please refer to page 3, section 1.1.1 of the Employee Handbook).
2. The park’s closing time is unified at 6 p.m. Overtime and staying overnight are not allowed. Please leave the park within half an hour after closing time. If you violate this rule, refer to page 5, section 2.1.2 of the Employee Handbook.
3. The park will assign rest areas for newly employed staff in the Staff rest area. Please carry your room key with you. If you accidentally lose it, go to the park manager’s office to get a replacement.
4. The Staff rest area is located on the east side of the food area.
5. Attractions within the park may undergo unscheduled maintenance. If your attraction stops receiving visitors before the park’s closure, please complete your tasks according to the rules of your attraction and immediately proceed to the Staff rest area for rest, awaiting the ringing of the bronze bell in your room.
6. …
It was evident that the Crazy Little Train project had irregular working hours.
Wen Jianyan quickly flipped to the third page of the Employee Handbook.
[The content on this page is a supplementary section for attractions with irregular working hours. Please consult this page based on your own type.]
1.1.1 If your working hours are not fixed, please come to the park before 10 a.m. daily. Change into your work uniform in the dressing room and, under the guidance of security personnel, enter the Staff rest area within the park to wait, anticipating the ringing of the bronze bell in your room.
1.1.2…
As Wen Jianyan carefully read the contents of the Employee Handbook, the sound of footsteps echoed from a distance in the empty corridor, seemingly approaching in this direction.
He paused.
He pocketed the thin Employee Handbook and quickly walked toward the door.
Across the hallway, Yun Bilan also heard the footsteps and walked out from the opposite direction.
The two exchanged a glance and then simultaneously turned their heads to look in the direction of the approaching footsteps.
It was Wen Ya, Elise, and Blond.
They were walking briskly down the empty corridor, dressed as a sheep, a bear, and a clown, which looked particularly comical.
“Did you find Lilith?” Yun Bilan was the first to ask.
Wen Ya shook her head with a solemn expression.
The group had checked every room on all three floors, but among all the employees resting in the rooms, none matched the features of Lilith’s costume.
“What about the pipe?” Wen Jianyan pondered for a few seconds before asking.
“The pipe doesn’t extend into the Staff rest area.”
Blond’s voice came muffled from within his headgear.
“I’ve observed all the pipes within the building, and none of them match the one outside.”
“What about you? Any discoveries?” Wen Ya looked at Wen Jianyan.
Wen Jianyan nodded and took out the Employee Handbook from his pocket, giving it a shake. “But I haven’t finished reading it all—”
His words were cut off by an eerie, monotonous metallic ringing sound—
“Jingle jingle!”
Everyone was startled.
Wen Jianyan’s pupils contracted, and he instinctively turned to look behind himself, but the bell in his room didn’t ring.
“Jingle jingle!!!”
Through the thin walls and door panels, the sound of the bronze bell reverberated from all directions, like a tolling death knell.
“Quick, get inside the room!”
Wen Jianyan made a quick decision.
Wen Ya and the others standing outside also snapped awake, rushing into the two narrow rooms that Wen Jianyan had pried open.
Inside the rooms, the anchors held their breath, crouching low to prevent themselves from being seen from outside the window.
Wen Jianyan stealthily pushed open a small gap in the door and looked outside.
He saw that the previously closed doors along the corridor had been opened from the inside. Employees dressed in costumes were calmly walking out of the rooms, forming a line in the empty corridor, and slowly moving forward.
The bell ringing had stopped at some point.
Through the narrow gap in the door, he could see the line of employees walking ahead, one by one, their figures in cartoon costumes passing by. The sound of synchronized footsteps echoed in the corridor, giving an inexplicable sense of absurdity.
Wen Jianyan furrowed his brow slightly, lost in thought.
Soon, the line of employees reached the end of the corridor.
The front of the line seemed to have already left the main entrance of the employee rest area.
Wen Jianyan’s fingertips pinched the thin Employee Handbook, the rough pages making a scraping sound. The rules he had quickly scanned earlier came to mind.
Bronze bell.
…The bronze bell.
Wen Jianyan took a deep breath as if confirming something.
He suddenly stood up.
“???”
Under the astonished gaze of everyone, the clown calmly pushed open the room door, stepping into the line with deliberate strides.
The face of the young man, covered in thick makeup, turned, and he slyly winked at them. His lips painted a crimson red, parted as if saying—
Come quickly.
