Wu Hao lifted his foot and only then realized what he had done. Panic immediately set in.
However, immediately afterward, the crushed toad beneath his foot began to wriggle and split into two separate lumps. Incredibly, they transformed back into two smaller toads, which crawled over to the feed and started devouring it hungrily
Wu Hao let out a sigh of relief. He raised the bucket beside him and poured out the remaining feed. More toads swam up from the pond, gathering around his feet to feast on the feed.
Even the toads that had been attracted by the feed that Feng Fu and Liu Yang had placed earlier abandoned their food to crawl toward Wu Hao.
Feng Fu and Liu Yang noticed this and their faces grew darker. At this rate, they would never finish feeding the toads. They both looked to Wu Hao, hoping he would help, but Wu Hao just stood there smugly.
It wasn't until the two buckets of feed Wu Hao had poured out were completely consumed, and the toads returned to the murky pond.
"Brother Hao, could you please help us feed them too?" they asked in a low tone.
Wu Hao crossed his arms and sneered at them. "Why should I help you?"
One of them reached into his pocket and pulled out a gold watch, offering it to Wu Hao. "This doesn't work well with ghosts and monsters here, but outside, it's a valuable item. Just think of it as doing a good deed."
Wu Hao glanced at it and refused to take it. These two weren't the ones from the neighboring dorm who had clashed with him before, but they were among those who had shut their doors that day, acting as if it had nothing to do with them. Wu Hao had no intention of helping either of them.
Seeing that Wu Hao wasn't going to help, the two men sighed and returned to the muddy pond to continue their work. However, perhaps because the toads had already eaten the feed Wu Hao had given them, their previous method didn't work, and they couldn't bring any toads up for a long time.
As the farm's broadcast rang again, the two grew more anxious.
Liu Yang, staring at the impossible task, gritted his teeth and proposed, "Let's just dump the rest of the feed into the pond. The toads will eventually come for it."
He picked up his bucket and dumped all the remaining feed into the water.
Feng Fu hesitated, but Liu Yang urged, "What are you waiting for? If we don't finish before the end of the shift, we'll have to work overtime."
Feng Fu was still unsure. "So what if we have to work overtime? Everyone who didn't finish their work these past few days was kept behind, right? They all seemed fine to me."
Liu Yang ignored his objections, grabbed Feng Fu's feed bucket, and dumped it into the pond.
"You—" Feng Fu froze.
Liu Yang took a couple of breaths, then told him, "See? There's nothing wrong. Just dump it in. It won't be a problem."
Feng Fu looked at the pond's surface, covered in murky sludge. As soon as the feed was poured in, it was quickly swallowed by the mud. From the surface of the water, there was no sign of anything unusual.
Feng Fu reluctantly followed suit and emptied his bucket into the pond.
Soon, it was near the end of the shift, and the head of the production department returned.
"Have you finished feeding all the feed?" he asked, standing in front of the three of them.
Liu Yang and Feng Fu lowered their heads, clearly guilty.
Wu Hao snickered and glanced at them, confidently declaring, "My tasks are all completed."
The head of the production department nodded in satisfaction before turning to Liu Yang and Feng Fu. "And you two?"
"Y-yes, we've completed too," Liu Yang said nervously.
The head of the production department nodded again and turned to leave but suddenly stopped, as if sensing something was wrong. He turned back to Liu Yang and Feng Fu, his face growing cold, his black eyes narrowing.
"You all—really completed it?" he asked ominously. "Those who lie will have to swallow needles, you know."
Liu Yang opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, a sharp pain shot through his tongue. A needle had pierced it.
He clutched his mouth, blood filling his mouth, and sobbed, "No, no, we didn't completed. We dumped the feed."
Feng Fu, terrified, pointed at Liu Yang and said to the head of the production department, "It was him! He made me do it!"
The head of the production department smiled with satisfaction.
"Farm Employee Code of Conduct, Rule 6: The farm advocates frugality. Employees should take care of public property and avoid damage or waste."
"However, we practice a humanistic management approach, allowing employees to make amends for their actions afterward," the head of the production department continued. "As for the wasted feed, the two of you can go to the feed room after work and re-make it."
Liu Yang and Feng Fu breathed a sigh of relief.
At lunchtime, everyone who was still alive gathered in the dining hall. The work's difficulty and intensity had been increasing daily, and some people were starting to feel overwhelmed.
In the first few days, fewer people had died, and many thought ghosts and monsters weren't so scary. But as time went on, the dimmer lights in the bathroom and the more demanding tasks in their work. All of this was hinting at them that the two-week internship would only get more difficult as time went on.
It's best to find a way to leave before the internship ends. Everyone anxiously pondered ways to deal with the situation.
Suddenly, the door to the dining hall opened again. Someone looked up and couldn't help but scream. They then bent over the table, throwing up the food they had just eaten.
It was Feng Fu and Liu Yang.
Or rather, it was half of Feng Fu and half of Liu Yang.
They each lost half of their bodies, then, as if by a clumsy seamstress, were stitched back together with poor technique. Their two heads were pressed closely together, like conjoined twins.