See the Law of Deception

Chapter 135 The Substitute (9)

To be honest, even though Lu Jinzhao had never actually worked a job, he knew that in the real world, if a colleague unfortunately passed away, the company would not arrange for employees to go to mourn together, or even give them half a day of paid leave for it.

It was in these places that she gained a clearer understanding of the difference between reality and the platform.

They hired a car and soon arrived outside the mourning hall. After getting out of the car, Lu Jinzhao saw the two people waiting outside the mourning hall.

Du Yu's two teammates.

The group paused in their steps as they prepared to head to the mourning hall, their gazes falling on Du Yu.

"It looks like they're waiting for you."

He showed absolutely no intention of helping Du Yu, and even took a few steps to the side without any attempt to hide it.

Du Yu's expression was unpleasant, and she didn't intend to pay any attention to them. She simply said to Lu Jinzhao and the others, "Ignore them and just go in."

"you first."

Zhou Ziming made a gesture of invitation.

There was only one road leading to the mourning hall, and it was inevitable to pass by those two people. He had observed them, and those two people did indeed look just as Du Yu had said, no different from living people.

Their expressions when they saw Du Yu were so vivid, fear was almost written on their faces, but they just stood there, neither retreating nor moving forward.

They were waiting for Du Yu.

For some reason, a sentence popped into Zhou Ziming's mind: It was like the dead waiting for the only living person left in their group.

Despite it being broad daylight, a chill ran through him. He turned to look at Du Yu, who made no move, seemingly unwilling to approach the two people in front of him.

Lu Jinzhao was also observing the two people standing at the door.

During this time, people kept coming and going at the entrance of the mourning hall, most of them were there to pay their respects, including colleagues. But no matter who walked by, the two women kept their eyes fixed on Du Yu. Ever since Du Yu got out of the car, they had only been staring at Du Yu.

That alone is unusual enough.

But that's the only thing that can be considered unusual.

Everything else, no matter how you look at it, seems "normal".

Staying put wasn't a good option. After thinking for a while, Lu Jinzhao saw that Du Yu was stuck in place and unwilling to get closer, so she tentatively took a few steps forward. Then she found that the two people's eyes did not follow her and were still looking at Du Yu.

Qin Wan noticed this as well, and a hint of schadenfreude appeared on her face. She quickly said, "If you want to stay here, then stay here. Let's go inside first."

"Let's go."

She had no good feelings towards the people of Feiquan and was extremely wary of this woman who approached them with ulterior motives. Anyone with eyes could see that this woman seemed to be in some trouble, and whether what she said was true or false, it was best to stay away from her now.

However, Du Yu clearly didn't want to be left alone. Seeing the three of them take the opportunity to slip away, she even ignored the ghost at the door and quickly followed.

"Is it some kind of quack remedy?" Zhou Ziming cursed under his breath.

Fortunately, Du Yu's two teammates kept their eyes on her the whole time, and even called out to her when she tried to ignore them and leave.

"Sister Du, are you planning to abandon us?"

Yan Xiaoyu's voice was pitiful, yet it made Du Yu's heart skip a beat.

Because this wasn't the tone Yan Xiaoyu usually used in front of her.

Besides feeling sorry for her, one could also vaguely sense a hint of joy and anticipation in Yan Xiaoyu's tone.

What is she happy about?
What is she expecting?!

Du Yu had initially intended to ignore the two of them, but after hearing Yan Xiaoyu's words, she immediately changed her mind. Her intuition told her that she couldn't ignore Yan Xiaoyu's question.

"No, you should go and pay your respects to Xiaoyue first. I'll come find you later."

She didn't say exactly what time the delay would be.

"Is that so?" Yan Xiaoyu tilted her head. "Okay, Sister Du, we'll wait for you. You must come to find us."

After Yan Xiaoyu finished speaking, she and Bai Xunyan turned and walked into the mourning hall, no longer lingering at the door.

Even though she had easily gotten rid of the two men, Du Yu felt her heart sink.

"They seem to listen to you a lot. Are they really ghosts?" Zhou Ziming asked deliberately.

Du Yu said with a gloomy face, "If you don't believe me, you can go and team up with them."

This is not okay.

After what happened at the door, Lu Jinzhao and the others realized that, just as Du Yu had said, there was something wrong with her two teammates.

"But, isn't it still easy to tell that something's wrong with them?"

Qin Wan asked, puzzled.

Du Yu was also a little confused: "It wasn't like this at the company."

At that time, she could tell Yan Xiaoyu's abnormality entirely by feeling, not by such obvious signs of something being wrong.

Du Yu recounted what she had seen and experienced at the company. Lu Jinzhao, walking ahead, suddenly said, "Is it because you've been targeted by a ghost, and you're even close to death? The ghost probably thinks it's no longer necessary to waste its energy on you?"

Ghosts are mindless. Generally speaking, even if they possess a human, they will be easily exposed because their behavior and logic are completely different from those of humans.

Just like a dog that can stand up and walk, it is difficult to be recognized as a human. Even if it is mistaken for a human for a moment due to the darkness or other reasons, the incongruity will be immediately noticed soon afterward.

This incongruity is terrifying, chilling, like someone possessed by a ghost.

The ghost in the platform this time wasn't possessed, but rather a "stand-in"—these two terms are distinct.

Possession is when a ghost enters a person's body, while a substitute is when someone takes over.

Lu Jinzhao thought of the stunt doubles in movies and TV dramas. They often need to look very similar to the lead actor and also need to be familiar with the plot of the scene they are standing in for, which is the life of the "protagonist".

They need to make it impossible for viewers off-camera to tell whether the person standing on the screen is the lead actor or a stand-in.

If more and more of the "scenes" are replaced by stand-ins, then who is the lead actor and who is the stand-in?
"Don't joke around." Du Yu retorted in a low voice, "I don't think I did anything that would attract ghosts, or anything that would put me in a life-or-death situation."

Even now, Du Yu still hasn't figured out what the ghost's "taboo" is.
She really didn't think she had done anything wrong.

"I think it's because I discovered it was a ghost, it was exposed, so it couldn't maintain its disguise anymore."

Du Yu leans towards this view, as it is more rational and aligns more with experience.

"You'd better really go back to them later," Qin Wan advised.

She didn't think there would be any good outcome from making a promise to a ghost and then breaking it.

Now the ghost has been sent away, but who knows if this is what the ghost wanted?
The ghost on this platform gave her a bad feeling; it looked too much like a human.

This was the first time she had ever encountered such a human-like ghost on a Class B platform.

The experience of her predecessors told her that the more a ghost resembles a human, the more dangerous it is.