Su Kun held the thick envelope, his lips trembling.

Even though the current rented house was technically his, and the future house would be too, Su Kun felt that if Gu Yan's salary continued like this, he would slowly become the one being supported.

So, considering the amount of the salary, it should be Su Kun who was "supplementing" the household income, while Gu Yan's share was the bulk. _(:3」∠)_

However, thinking about the past month, Gu Yan had been out almost every day, practically clearing out every corner of Li City, taking care of both existing and potential dangers. He was practically a workaholic in the supernatural world, doing the work of four people. It made sense that his salary was higher.

Just as Su Kun put down the envelope and bravely poked Gu Yan's stoic face to express his immense admiration, the computer beeped three times.

On the desktop, his chat window with Geng Zimo shook and jumped to the forefront.

Su Kun turned around and saw a new message from Geng Zimo: Just finished eating.

Despite their frequent contact over the past few days, almost daily online chats, Su Kun knew a lot about Geng Zimo’s situation.

According to Geng Zimo, their company had an employee cafeteria with decent food and reasonable prices. Many employees preferred to have their meals there, and naturally, the non-cooking Geng Zimo was among them.

However, the project Geng Zimo was working on recently had tight deadlines, with the entire team working overtime, often not finishing until after 9 PM. Unfortunately, the cafeteria only operated until 8 PM.

Being inherently lazy, Geng Zimo preferred not to go out when he had no work and would get home as early as possible when he did. So, after the first night of overtime, when he went to a nearby restaurant for dinner, he decided to buy a box of instant noodles from the supermarket, planning to simplify his dinners at the dorm until the project deadline.

Su Kun did a quick calculation; it was only the third day.

However, the first two days, Geng Zimo ate his noodles at his desk, still managing to chat. Tonight, he had disappeared for nearly an hour. It shouldn't take that long to eat instant noodles, even with boiling water and waiting.

Su Kun typed quickly: At this rate, your noodles must be mush. How can you even eat that? [Digging Nose]

Geng Zimo replied swiftly: It wasn’t instant noodles.

Su Kun: Huh? Didn’t you say you’d eat instant noodles for a week? What, finally had enough and decided to eat something fresh?

Geng Zimo: It’s not me who had enough.

Su Kun: Then what happened?

Geng Zimo: Today, the boss inspected the dorms, saw my box of instant noodles, called it junk food, and confiscated it.

Seeing the words "inspected the dorms," Su Kun felt like he had accidentally traveled back to high school. But even in the overly strict high school days, no teacher would randomly confiscate students' instant noodles. This was a company...

He twitched his mouth and typed: First time hearing that bosses care about such things. I’m impressed...

Geng Zimo: Apparently, you and I are on the same channel, but the boss isn't.

Su Kun: Which boss?

Geng Zimo: The weird one...

Su Kun: Why didn’t you resist, Zimo? Maybe a bit of struggle would’ve let you keep your noodles!

Geng Zimo: ...The enemy’s appearance is too deceiving.

Su Kun: Got it... So, how did you manage dinner?

Geng Zimo: Whoever digs the pit fills it.

Su Kun: So, the weird boss treated you to dinner?

Geng Zimo: No, he cooked for me.

Su Kun: ...

This is not the right vibe, Zimo! Σ(っ°Д°;)っ

Just as Su Kun was about to type furiously to delve into the juicy details, Geng Zimo sent another message: Wait a moment, it’s chaotic outside, I’ll go check. Talk later.

Su Kun thought it was something trivial, like the weird boss messing up the kitchen or something, so he didn't take it seriously. He said goodbye to Geng Zimo and turned off his computer, climbing into bed.

The next day, Su Kun was stunned when he saw a notification pop up on Tencent and the latest news on Weibo.

The headline read: Unic Company Employee Dies Suddenly!

=口=

So Geng Zimo was really Conan Edogawa* in disguise!

*T/N: Conan Edogawa -> Detective Conan!

Su Kun clicked on the link in the Weibo post, quickly skimming through the news to get the gist of it—

The employee who suddenly died, Zhao Tianqi, lived in the dorm next to Geng Zimo. Reportedly, he was fine during the day but started acting strangely after work. The ten-minute walk from the company to the dorm took him a long time as he trudged along, looking listless and unresponsive.

He walked back with a colleague he was close with. When they reached their floor, the colleague left Zhao Tianqi in his room to rest and went to his own room.

After a while, the colleague, planning to find a restaurant for dinner, decided to check on Zhao Tianqi before leaving. He wanted to see if Zhao Tianqi needed anything, offering to bring something back.

But upon entering Zhao Tianqi’s room, the colleague found Zhao Tianqi acting even stranger. He was pacing around the room with outstretched arms, muttering nonsense with a creepy smile that gave the colleague goosebumps.

Alarmed, the colleague asked what was wrong.

At first, Zhao Tianqi ignored him, pacing and muttering. After several repeated questions, Zhao Tianqi finally stopped, stared at the colleague for a long time, then said, “Nothing,” and pushed him out of the room.

The colleague, though unsettled, didn’t think too much of it, assuming Zhao Tianqi was just having a momentary fit.

After dinner, the colleague returned with a meal for Zhao Tianqi but knocked on his door for five minutes without a response. Remembering Zhao Tianqi’s earlier behavior, he felt something was off and worried Zhao Tianqi might have fainted. In a panic, he got the management to unlock the door with a spare key and found Zhao Tianqi unconscious on the floor.

An ambulance was called, and Zhao Tianqi was rushed to the hospital. Despite the doctors' efforts, Zhao Tianqi experienced multiple organ failures soon after surgery and died.

The entire incident spanned just one night and a half-day.

Maybe because of his prolonged exposure to Gu Yan and the others, Su Kun couldn’t help but sense something unusual about this case. Staring at the news, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Zhao Tianqi’s death wasn’t a simple case of sudden death. The strange behaviors and circumstances hinted at something supernatural.