Hearing this, Bai Ci paused her fingertips on the computer keyboard and slowly looked up.
Ah, a clue was coming.
Her eyes curved softly. “I'm willing to trust you.”
It wasn't “you can trust me,” but “I actively choose to trust you.”
This wasn't a standard answer to “Can I trust you?”, but it made Xie Lai feel far more at ease than a standard response would have.
Xie Lai stared at Bai Ci's gentle, open face. Feeling the rare kindness radiating from her, most of the heavy panic weighed down in her chest dissipated.
She was also willing to trust her.
It seemed she could only trust her; this was the only hand of kindness extended to her right now.
Taking a deep breath, Xie Lai hesitated no longer.
“Sister Bai, could you please open my trunk? There's a bound file inside.”
“Those are the team leader's work materials.”
“Its contents overlap a bit with your file. Take a quick look first. Once you're done, I'll tell you about something in detail.”
Hearing this, Bai Ci went to open Xie Lai's trunk. The thick, bound folder was sitting right at the very top.
Flipping to the title page, she saw Xie Lai's signature on it.
This immediately made Bai Ci realize that this wasn't some work file belonging to the team leader; it was the materials Xie Lai was supposed to have in her role as the assistant.
But on the day they first arrived, she had personally seen Xie Lai open her trunk, and there had been no such files inside.
So something else must have happened here.
Which had led to Xie Lai's current attitude toward Qu Ling—openly hostile and no longer hiding their clash.
That made sense.
At the time, Bai Ci had wondered: in an instance where even a Makeup Artist brought their own materials, how could a player acting as the team leader's assistant not have a single work document or process plan in their trunk?
It was certainly a bit strange.
Now, it seemed it wasn't a plot hole or some kind of foreshadowing, but rather that a player had done something.
The conflict between those players was bound to grow deeper and deeper.
Aside from the 《Chaosheng Apartments》 instance, this was the first time she had encountered an instance where the players had a falling out among themselves—and it wasn't due to the instance design, but purely personal reasons.
Bai Ci felt a bit relieved. Fortunately, she was an NPC right now and didn't have to get dragged into this kind of mess.
Besides, how could playing an NPC not count as being an NPC?
Bai Ci suppressed her wandering thoughts and opened the file in her hands.
Just as Xie Lai said, these materials related to the Honey Rite overlapped significantly with the file in her own hands, but looking closely at the table of contents, they each had a different focus.
It was likely due to the difference in their job positions.
Bai Ci's materials mostly revolved around the origin legends and folk customs of the Honey Rite, leaning toward surface-level execution and cultural background introductions.
It was all to make it easier for her to write her hosting script.
Meanwhile, the assistant materials in Xie Lai's hands stripped away most of the superficial ceremonial and cultural background, dedicating nearly half of its pages entirely to the introductions and records of previous teams that had visited the village.
The rosters of previous organizing teams, everyone's job responsibilities, mistakes and hidden dangers during the preparation process, post-ceremony problem summaries, supplementary notes on village coordination, and so on...
It was detailed and meticulous, full of internal experience accumulated by previous teams.
Aside from that, the last few pages of the materials set aside a separate section for records of past Honey Brides, briefly listing basic information like the name, age, and home address of each chosen bride.
In the list of past Honey Brides, Bai Ci noticed that the name Shen Jiayi appeared three consecutive times, with the last time being a year ago.
The reason was noted in the remarks: because there were no eligible brides of the right age in the village at the time, Shen Jiayi had to serve as the Honey Bride for three consecutive years.
Being arranged to do the same thing for three consecutive years meant the probability of her discovering something had significantly increased.
And even more coincidentally, Bai Ci had just been muttering this very name not too long ago.
If nothing else, at least she now knew her home address with a reference point. She wouldn't need to ask for directions to find it, which greatly reduced the likelihood of being caught.
It was quite interesting; there were no house numbers in the village, which was normal.
So when the team recorded the locations of the Honey Brides' homes, most of them used the village chief's house or the village entrance as coordinate centers.
For example, Shen Jiayi's house was described as the one on the road behind the village chief's house, walking toward the village entrance, with a large mulberry tree in the courtyard.
This method of marking was second only to GPS navigation.
Bai Ci continued to flip through, her gaze falling on the commemorative group photos of past teams.
The materials included archived photos taken after previous jobs concluded, with each year's group photo clearly labeled with the corresponding names based on their positions in the picture.
Three years ago, during Shen Jiayi's first year as the Honey Bride, the entire team took a commemorative group photo after the ceremony.
Comparing the photo's labels with the previously recorded staff information, the entire preparation team was present.
Shen Jiayi, dressed in casual clothes, was also in the photo, standing right in the center. She was flashing a peace sign at the camera, her face bright and her smile clean and vibrant.
Two years ago, during Shen Jiayi's second consecutive year, she still participated in the full group photo of the preparation team.
At that time, her smile was slightly fainter, but her expression remained relaxed as she flashed a peace sign at the camera, appearing perfectly normal.
Until last year, when Shen Jiayi served as the Honey Bride for her third consecutive year.
Comparing the previous records and the labels under that year's group photo, the entire team was still present. This was the year Wang Huizong appeared.
In the group photo, Shen Jiayi was nowhere to be seen.
This was the only group photo out of all of them that was missing the Honey Bride, as if this person was never meant to be part of this successful conclusion.
Combined with the information Sang Lan had shared earlier, Wang Huizong had actively pursued an ambiguous relationship with Shen Jiayi, only to shift all the blame onto her once things came to light.
After something like that happened, it was only natural for Shen Jiayi to be absent from the photo.
The Wang Huizong in the photo had upright features and a face that looked honest and reliable, making it easy for people to let down their guard and trust him. No wonder Shen Jiayi had fallen so hard back then.
But the human heart is unfathomable; one can know a person's face but not their heart.
Wang Huizong's garbage personality was a complete waste of his righteous-looking face.
The saying “a person's face reflects their heart” didn't apply to him at all.
Bai Ci picked a few more groups of personnel, matching the photos with the previously recorded rosters and the general events of those times.
Every record in the files confirmed one thing: every outside team that came to the village to host the Honey Rite returned with the exact same number of people they arrived with.
There had never been any disappearances, casualties, or early departures.
Everything looked perfectly peaceful and smooth.
But if it was truly completely safe, why did the team leader repeatedly emphasize that absurd and ridiculous theory of oxygen drunkenness?
Why did he warn them that if they noticed any companion behaving abnormally, speaking strangely, or suffering from memory confusion, they had to report it immediately and have them sent back early?
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