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. I'm not sure if I should show it to you..."

Li Renshu paused for a moment: "What is it? If you're hesitant, just give it to me. I'm not that fragile."

Xu Tong nodded and took a folded note out of her pocket. "I found this at the door of Aunt Su's room."

Li Renshu paused for a moment, took the note, and unfolded it.

There were only two simple sentences on it.

"This is not heaven, and I don't belong here.

"So, don't be sad for me."

Li Renshu, somewhat surprised, read the sentences several times and asked, "Found it at Aunt Su's door?"

Xu Tong explained, "Yes, the entrance to the second floor is quite a maze, and the rooms with adjacent numbers don't necessarily sit next to each other, so Jiang He and I have rooms close to Aunt Su's.

"Aunt Su has often stayed inside her room without coming out these days, so Jiang He and I have both checked up on her a couple of times."

"This morning, while I was lost in thought and walking, I found this little note not far from Aunt Su's door."

"At first, I thought someone just threw trash on the ground, but then I felt something was off because it was folded very neatly, and none of us have the habit of littering near the doors."

"I picked it up and found... it seemed to be a message left by Aunt Su."

"It's strange; logically, after a player is banished, everything except the wristband should disappear. So what's with this note?"

"Could it be a prank by someone in the community? But the handwriting really seems like Aunt Su's."

Li Renshu pondered for a moment: "This should be left by Aunt Su.

"Although directly related items disappear after players are banished, indirectly related items don't. Otherwise, the cookware Aunt Su and Uncle Ding kept in the kitchen should have vanished too.

"I think, logically, this note follows the same principle.

"Aunt Su wrote it before entering the judgment game and left it at the door.

"Paper and pen were taken from the public area and left outside the door, so it was not cleaned up by the community.

"Players can leave messages in the community this way."

Xu Tong's expression darkened: "So that means Officer Cao's previous guess during the review was correct.

"Aunt Su had already planned on leaving before she entered this judgment game."

Li Renshu sighed softly: "It seems so now.

"Aunt Su probably lost her desire to live long ago.

"You and Jiang He were the ones who showed her the most kindness in the community, so she wanted to exchange her death for more visa time for us.

"Even though none of us are satisfied with the outcome of this game, for Aunt Su, perhaps this was the result she wanted..."

She looked at the note in her hand again.

"Can I keep it safe with me?"

Xu Tong nodded: "Yes, of course."

Li Renshu carefully stored the note, looked outside, and fell into deep thought again.

...

Evening.

In the dim light, Cao Haichuan was smoking, the glow of the cigarette intermittently flickering.

Li Renshu sat beside him, and neither spoke.

Cai Zhiyuan approached and sat down a little further away.

"Although the community hasn't sent out a recruitment notice, we need to prepare in advance.

"What criteria should we use for selecting the next new member?

"According to our previous commitment, this time we are to recruit a female player. So the main selection criteria are age and profession.

"Or should we consider continuing with the proposal to recruit a male player? We might stimulate initiative by cultivating a sense of urgency, but there's considerable risk with that approach."

Li Renshu glanced at Cao Haichuan: "A female player, right? We have to uphold our previous commitment.

"Officer Cao, what do you think?"

Cao Haichuan exhaled a puff of smoke: "I agree."

Cai Zhiyuan nodded: "Yes, I also prefer to stick to the commitment. I just wanted to confirm your opinions.

"So, what about age and profession?

"If we open it up for public discussion, I imagine some would still lean toward a young chef or nurse.

"Of course, we could consider recruiting a highly intelligent female player, with professions like actuary, detective, professor, or scholar, for instance.

"This brings some risk to community stability but could improve our community's survival rate in the game.

"We also need to consider the potential for bias in results due to the rarity of these professions and the limited selection pool."

Cao Haichuan thought for a moment: "I think we should exclude chefs first. Even though it saves visa time, asking someone to cook for 11 people without pay seems unfair."

Cai Zhiyuan shook his head: "It can be with pay, that's quite solvable.

"We could implement a policy using part of the saved visa time as compensation.

"Using this safe method to earn a bit of visa time daily, I think a chef would gladly accept it."

He glanced at Li Renshu: "Ultimately, it's up to you to decide on this matter."

Li Renshu hesitated for a moment and said: "Initially, I thought of recruiting an actuary like Yang Hui.

"Our community seems to have a heavier concentration on humanities majors.

"An actuary could fill the gaps in our knowledge structure and is smart, probably enhancing our ability to crack the game."

"But today, after thinking it over for a long time, a new idea struck me.

"What about recruiting someone older with an ordinary profession?"

Cai Zhiyuan was taken aback: "Why? Is it to reminisce about Aunt Su?

"If it's for reminiscing, you can just think about it in your heart; you shouldn't let those feelings influence community management."

Li Renshu shook her head: "Certainly not.

"I just suddenly feel that 'diversity' might be even more important than we think.

"As you said during the review, many of the setbacks we've encountered in the game stemmed from my arrogance.

"I've thought about it a lot, and you're right.

"As a public official, I've always had confidence in my abilities.

"But in this game, I failed to guess the solution to the economic downturn was to hire employees, which is inexcusable.

"I reflected on it and realized I've lived in the city all my life, with parents who are highly educated. From school to becoming a public official, everything went smoothly, with almost no setbacks.

"And starting from a high position from the get-go, I have no experience with grassroots research.

"If I were truly a competent public official, I should have approached the problems of pricing and livelihoods fully prepared.

"Perhaps the groundwork for this is already being laid."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.