What Are They Doing 2022 Chapter 16

1

Kan Jian covered the phone as Wu Xie on the other end fell silent.

“You mean, he was taken by a mysterious person to play Minesweeper?”

I’m a smart person now, Kan Jian said to himself, so I have to be confident.

“Yes, boss,” Kan Jian said. “Based on what I can see from the buyer’s review, he appears to have been bought to play Minesweeper.”

“He has 99,999,999 yuan in his account?”

“Yes, boss,” Kan Jian said.

Hmm.

Wu Xie on the other end of the line seemed to be deep in thought. The computer in front of Kan Jian was turned on, and the online shop’s page was showing the buyer’s review of Wang Meng. Two photos had been uploaded. The first one showed Wang Meng curled up beside a Xiali car.

The second photo showed Wang Meng standing in the dark holding a cell phone. There was a glowing white grid behind him, which seemed to be a giant Minesweeper field.

“What’s the basis for your statement just now?”

“It’s my own deduction, boss. You see, he likes playing Minesweeper a lot, and there’s something like a big mine field in the photo. His father is also there. When he woke up, he found himself next to a Xiali, which must have been the car that kidnapped him. He must have been taken out of the trunk and then lured into playing Minesweeper. It seems he was captured just like in those ‘Saw’ movies.”⁽¹⁾

“Then why is the killer in the cell phone called Little Seven?”

“The buyer’s name is Seven.”

“Don’t you think such a killer is a little childish?” But Wu Xie also seemed to hesitate before murmuring, “Seven?”

Childish? Kan Jian suddenly suddenly felt unsure about his deduction. “Boss,” he continued, “I’m worried about Brother Meng. Are you going to save him?”

“Maybe you can put me up for sale?”

“I don’t dare, boss. I’ve already put one person up for sale and now I’ve lost him. I plan to put myself up for sale if Brother Meng doesn’t come back tomorrow. I’ll charge 9,999,999 yuan and give you the money, boss. If I don’t come back, remember to take care of those brats at the foster home.” Kan Jian was actually very anxious.

After a short silence, Wu Xie sighed and said to someone next to him, “Is it so expensive to be a perverted killer nowadays?”

“We shouldn’t earn money this way,” a voice that sounded like Fatty’s said.

Wu Xie turned back to the phone and said to Kan Jian, “Don’t do anything. I’ll investigate and deal with it. Can you send me all the photos?”

Kan Jian hung up the phone and broke out in a cold sweat when he saw the group of photos he had already prepared on his computer—there were photos of Teacher Zhang, Master Black, and Master Hua.

He had just been planning to load them all to the online shop’s inventory, but fortunately, he didn’t make his own decisions. As expected, he was indeed a little smarter.

2

Meanwhile, in another time and place, there was a window with a lot of glass in front of Wang Meng.

The light streaming in through the glass formed many mottled square-like spots on the ground.

But it wasn’t sunlight; it was the lighting effect caused by the lamp behind the window.

This window wasn’t on the wall but stood abruptly in the middle of the room. Behind it was a very bright fluorescent lamp, which must have been a work lamp that came from an industrial factory. It looked very old.

This place must have been an abandoned factory. Except for this area, everything else was pitch black. Even the light at the replicated scene of his mother’s car accident had gone out just now.

In the middle of this spot stood a table.

He remembered this scene—when his mother died, his father was in a factory, gambling at this table.

Everything they owned should have been lost here.

Wang Meng was standing on a small stool by the hospital’s public phone, calling the factory and looking for his father.

After his mother died, he kept calling. He didn’t know what else to do so he continued calling from there.

The phone was an old rotary phone.

His mother passed away in the middle of the night, but there was no one in the hospital so he stayed there and continued making calls.

Finally, someone answered the phone. The person said a few words and then shouted to someone behind them, “Your son is on the phone.”

Then the phone was set down.

He could hear the sounds of gambling on the other end of the line.

No one came to pick up the phone, but he could hear his father’s voice shouting excitedly in the background.

Then, the call got disconnected. But because the phone on the other end hadn’t been hung up, no more calls could get through.

Next to the gambling table was a coffee table with a telephone on it.

To this day, the phone had not been hung up. The receiver hung below it, being pulled by the telephone line.

Wang Meng walked over and hung up the phone.

He felt a sudden stab of pain, but now he wasn’t afraid anymore. Instead, he was wondering, what the hell is going on here?

It had been too long, and the hate he had felt for his father was so intense. But this kind of thing couldn’t bother him anymore.

The phone had barely been hung up a minute when it suddenly started to ring. He froze for a moment before picking it up.

A child’s voice came over the phone.

3

“Is that Boss Bai?” The woman behind the door asked. “Hey, come on in. The door’s unlocked.”

Baishe stood at the door, telling himself that the voice clearly belonged to the woman.

He looked at the kid again, but the kid just shook his head indifferently, as if telling him not to go in.

Baishe’s whole body started to break out in a cold sweat, but he still walked towards the door anyways.

<What Are They Doing 2022 Chapter 15><Table of Contents><What Are They Doing 2022 Chapter 17>

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TN Notes:

(1) The “Saw” movies are a horror franchise consisting of 9 movies and additional media. The first eight films primarily revolve around the fictional serial killer John “Jigsaw” Kramer, while the ninth movie revolves around a copycat killer. Rather than killing his victims outright, Jigsaw traps them in situations that he calls “tests” or “games” to test their will to live through physical or psychological torture, believing that if they survive, they will be “rehabilitated”. Info here. Here’s a parody video I’ve posted before that still has me rolling.