The next morning, Li Renshu sat by the window drinking coffee, lost in thought.
Xu Tong quietly sat down beside her, wanting to say something but hesitating.
"Renshu, I have something, but I don’t know if I should show it to you..."
Li Renshu was startled, "What is it? Since you’re hesitating, just give it to me directly. I’m not that fragile."
Xu Tong nodded and took out a piece of paper folded several times from her pocket, "I found this at the entrance to Aunt Su’s room."
Li Renshu was surprised. She took the small note and unfolded it.
There were only two simple sentences written on it.
"This place is not heaven, and I don’t belong here.
"So, don’t be sad for me."
Xu Tong explained, "Yes, the entrance to the second floor is quite maze-like, rooms with adjacent numbers aren’t necessarily next to each other, so Jiang He’s and my room entrances happen to be quite close to Aunt Su’s room.
"Aunt Su has been staying in her room frequently these past few days without coming out, so Jiang He and I have both visited her several times.
"This morning, I was walking while thinking about things, and I discovered this small note not far from Aunt Su’s room entrance.
"I thought it was trash that someone had carelessly thrown on the ground, but it didn’t seem right because it was folded very neatly, and none of us should have a habit of throwing things around near the doors.
"So I picked it up and found... it seemed to be a message left by Aunt Su.
"I also found it very strange. Supposedly, after a player is expelled, everything except their bracelet should disappear, right? So what’s with this note?
"Could it be a prank by someone in the community? But this handwriting really looks like Aunt Su’s." Nᴇw ɴovel chaptᴇrs are published on 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵•𝑓𝑖𝑟𝑒•𝙣𝙚𝙩
After thinking carefully for a moment, Li Renshu said, "This should indeed be left by Aunt Su.
"Although directly related things disappear after a player is expelled, indirectly related things don’t. Otherwise, the tableware that Aunt Su and Uncle Ding placed in the kitchen should have disappeared too.
"I think this note follows the same principle.
"This was written by Aunt Su before entering the judgment game and placed at the door.
"The paper and pen were taken from the common area and placed outside the door, so they wouldn’t be cleared by the community.
"Players can leave final messages in the community this way."
Xu Tong’s expression became even more gloomy, "That means Officer Cao’s speculation during the review was correct.
"Before entering this judgment game, Aunt Su had already made plans to leave."
Li Renshu sighed quietly, "It seems so now.
"Aunt Su had probably lost her will to survive long ago.
"You and Jiang He were the two people in the community who showed her the most kindness, so she wanted to use her death to exchange for more visa time for us.
"Although all of us are dissatisfied with this game’s outcome, for Aunt Su, perhaps this was the result she wanted..."
She looked at the note in her hand again.
Xu Tong nodded, "Yes, of course."
Li Renshu carefully put away the note, looked at the scenery outside, and fell into contemplation again.
Under dim lighting, Cao Haichuan smoked, the point of fire flickering bright and dark.
Li Renshu sat nearby, neither of them speaking.
Cai Zhiyuan walked over and sat down at a slightly distant position.
"Although the community hasn’t issued a notice for new members yet, we need to prepare in advance.
"What criteria should we use to screen the next new member?
"If we follow our previous promise, we should recruit a female player this time. So the main screening criteria would be age and occupation.
"Or should we consider trying a proposal to continue recruiting male players? We could try to push it through by creating a sense of crisis, but the risk would be relatively high."
Li Renshu looked at Cao Haichuan, "A female player then. We should certainly honor our previous promise.
"What do you think, Officer Cao?"
Cao Haichuan exhaled a puff of smoke, "Agreed."
Cai Zhiyuan nodded, "Mm, I also lean toward honoring the promise. Just confirming your opinions.
"So what about age and occupation?
"If we discuss it openly, I think there will definitely still be people who favor a young cook or nurse.
"Of course, we could also consider recruiting a high-intelligence female player, such as limiting the occupation to actuary, detective, professor, scholar, etc.
"Although it would pose some risk to community stability, it could further improve our community’s survival rate in games.
"Of course, we also need to consider the possibility that these occupations are relatively rare and the screening range is too small, leading to significant result bias."
Cao Haichuan thought for a moment, "I think we should rule out cooks first. Although it can save visa time, having someone cook for 11 people without compensation doesn’t feel right."
Cai Zhiyuan shook his head, "We could also provide compensation, that’s easily solved.
"We could completely establish a proposal to pay part of the saved visa time as salary.
"If we could earn a little visa time safely each day this way, I think a cook would gladly accept it."
He looked at Li Renshu, "This matter is mainly for you to decide."
Li Renshu hesitated for a moment and said, "Previously I was thinking of recruiting an actuary similar to Yang Hui.
"Our community seems to be a bit heavy on liberal arts.
"An actuary could complement our knowledge structure and is quite smart, which should enhance our ability to solve games."
"But today, after thinking for a long time, I suddenly had a new idea.
"What about recruiting someone older with an ordinary occupation?"
Cai Zhiyuan was startled, "Why? To remember Aunt Su?
"If it’s for remembrance, just thinking about it in your heart is enough. You can’t bring such emotions into community management."
Li Renshu shook her head, "Of course not.
"I just suddenly realized that the issue of ’diversity’ might be more important than we imagined.
"As you said during the review, many of our setbacks in the game were mainly due to my arrogance.
"I thought about it for a long time. You were right.
"As a civil servant, I’ve always been very confident in my abilities.
"But in this game, I actually didn’t guess that the way to end the economic winter was to hire employees. That was the most inexcusable mistake.
"I reflected on this. I’ve always lived in the city, my parents are highly educated intellectuals, from school to becoming a civil servant, everything went smoothly, I’ve hardly experienced any setbacks.
"And I started at a high position right after getting the job, with no grassroots research experience.
"If I were truly a qualified civil servant, I should have been able to answer the questions about prices and people’s livelihoods.
"Perhaps the foreshadowing was already laid there."