This Taoist priest is so unprofessional!

Zhang Chen and A Yue were both stunned.

Wang Xiaoer recognized the person as Zhu Jun, the tech geek who had helped them recover the hard drive data last time.

The Zhu Jun before me was completely different from the confident geek who had been pontificating in front of his computer last time.

His face was ashen, his lips were blue, and two large dark circles hung under his swollen eyelids, as if he hadn't slept for days and nights.

He exuded an aura of utter despondency, his spirits completely broken.

Zhang Chen frowned and tried to pull her legs out of his arms.

"Let's talk this out. Get up first. What's going on with you?"

"Brother Chen, my legs are a little weak, can you help me up?" the fat man cried out, his voice trembling with tears. "I'm really doomed this time!"

Wang Xiaoer quickly stepped forward and, together with Zhang Chen, managed to drag Zhu Jun, who was almost completely collapsed, to the sofa next to them.

As soon as Zhu Jun sat down, he nervously pulled his phone out of his pocket, as if it were a hot potato.

He unlocked the door, opened a software application, and handed it to Zhang Chen.

"Brother Chen, look at this!"

Zhang Chen leaned closer and saw that it was the interface of a mobile QQ app, displaying a group chat window called "Approaching Pseudoscience".

"A QQ group? What's wrong with that?" Zhang Chen asked, puzzled.

"This is a huge problem!" Zhu Jun's voice suddenly rose, carrying a hint of hysterical sharpness.

He grabbed Wang Xiaoer, who was still clueless, and pointed to the group chat.

"Brother Wang, aren't you in this group too? Didn't you notice anything strange?"

"Huh?" Wang Xiaoer leaned over to take a look, looking completely bewildered. "Really? I didn't notice."

He took Zhu Jun's phone, opened the group member list, and scrolled through it for a long time, but couldn't find any difference between the members and those he had added.

"I don't usually go online much, I only glance at this group occasionally," Wang Xiaoer scratched his head. "You're the one who added me, is there a problem?"

"You've been diving all this time, so you should be able to spot the problems better!" Zhu Jun was almost in tears.

He took a deep breath, as if he were about to tell something extremely terrifying, and his face paled even more.

"I joined this group by chance while browsing online. At first, I just thought the people in the group spoke in a strange, literary style, like they were playing some kind of retro role-playing game."

Zhu Jun opened the chat history.

Zhang Chen and A Yue also curiously gathered around.

The scrolling chat content on the screen did indeed have a bizarre style.

Princess with the long braid: "The weather is nice today. I took a walk in the Imperial Garden, but the sun is a bit too strong."

The accountant said, "The boss is pressing for payment again. Business is tough these days."

The rickshaw puller said, "Sigh, I just finished one trip, my calves are cramping, and I only earned two coins."

A-Yue looked at these IDs and conversations and pursed her lips.

"What kind of nonsense is this? A bunch of lunatics playing house?"

"That's what I thought at first too!" Zhu Jun said excitedly, "But gradually, I realized something was wrong!"

He stretched out a trembling finger and tapped the screen.

"First of all, these people seem to never sleep! No matter when I check, whether it's 3 AM or 6 AM, there are always people chatting in the group, they're online 24/7!"

"Secondly, the topics they discuss are extremely wide-ranging. One second they're asking, 'Is the Qing Dynasty over?' and the next they're discussing, 'Who is the current emperor?' It's as if they have absolutely no concept of what era we're living in!"

"Third, look at this!"

Zhu Jun clicked on a selfie posted by a group member.

It was a black and white photograph. The woman in the photo had her hair styled in a traditional Chinese updo, wore an old-fashioned jacket and skirt, and looked at the camera expressionlessly. The background was a mottled earthen wall.

He then opened another sheet.

A man wearing a long gown and mandarin jacket; the photo is yellowed and has tears on the edges.

"The photos they posted were all old black-and-white or yellowed photos! When I asked them why they didn't use beauty filters, they even asked me what beauty filters were!"

Zhu Jun's voice was already trembling with fear.

"Brother Chen, you know I know a bit about technology... I... I couldn't resist last night, so I checked the IP addresses of the active members in this group."

He paused here, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.

"The result...the result revealed that the IP addresses of most of them pointed to locations all over the country..."

"Cemeteries, mausoleums, and funeral homes!"

He squeezed out the last few words through gritted teeth.

The air in the entire office seemed to drop to freezing point in that instant.

The disdain on A Yue's face disappeared, and her eyes narrowed as she looked directly at the QQ group on Zhu Jun's phone screen for the first time.

Zhang Chen's expression also turned serious.

He knew that things were probably not that simple.

As if finding an outlet, Zhu Jun continued in a breakdown, "The last straw that broke the camel's back was what happened last night!"

"A person in the group with the ID 'Teacher' got into an argument with that 'Princess with the Long Braid' over a question like whether girls should go to school."

"The two were arguing fiercely when the 'Princess with the Long Braid' suddenly posted in the group chat... 'You pedantic scholar, just you wait, I'm coming down to confront you right now!'"

"And then?" Wang Xiaoer asked anxiously.

"Then..." Zhu Jun's lips trembled, "about half an hour later, the 'schoolteacher's' profile picture suddenly turned gray and never lit up again!"

He scrolled through the chat history and pointed it out to Zhang Chen.

Sure enough, after the "schoolteacher's" last sentence, "That's feudal thinking!", his color avatar abruptly turned gray.

"Brother Chen, I've realized!" Zhu Jun grabbed Zhang Chen's arm, his nails almost digging into it. "In this group, besides me... probably besides Brother Wang and me, there aren't many real people!"

"This is a ghost group! I've joined a ghost group!"

He finally shouted out his deepest fear.

"I was terrified! I wanted to leave the group right away, but I checked all the settings and there was no 'Leave Group Chat' option! It's gone! I can't leave!"

Tears and snot streamed down Zhu Jun's face. He turned to Wang Xiaoer, who seemed the most approachable, and cried, "Brother Wang, I feel like they've got their eyes on me! Yesterday, someone with the ID 'Little Feet Granny' messaged me privately, asking, 'Young man, do you know how to fold tin foil ingots?'"

Wang Xiaoer felt a chill run down his spine and instinctively took a step back.

He only glanced at the group once out of boredom and because it was related to his ancestral graves, and hasn't paid much attention to it since returning from the ancestral worship ceremony.

So this group is really that crazy?

Zhang Chen and A Yue also stared at Zhu Jun's phone screen, their faces filled with disbelief.

A ghost who chats on QQ?

Do you even go downstairs to confront the other person and resolve the issue face-to-face because of an argument?

Just then.

"Beep beep beep—"

A crisp QQ message notification sound suddenly rang out in the deathly silent office.

The source of the sound was Zhu Jun's cell phone, which he regarded as a monstrous threat.

The three were startled, and Zhu Jun was so frightened that he trembled all over and dropped his phone on the ground with a "thud".

Wang Xiaoer was bolder and bent down to pick it up.

On the screen, the "Approaching Pseudoscience" group chat was lit up with a red "@" symbol.

Someone tagged him.

Wang Xiaoer looked closely and saw that the last message in the group chat was sent by the person with the ID "Big Braid Princess".

[@IT Elite, newbie here, you're a scholar too, right? Come, come, let me be your judge.]

Tell me, what's the point of women reading so many books?