Chapter 33: Mannequins
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
âBro, what have you been busy with these few days? Have you forgotten about me? Why havenât you called me? Iâm so bored, can I go to your house? Iâll treat you to a spa at night, how about it?â In the shopping mall, Yang Jian received a call from Zhang Wei.
âItâs best not to go to my house. My dad might be there. I met him last night and he almost killed me. Iâm working outside now,â Yang Jian said as he changed into his security uniform in the changing room.
âDidnât I hear you say that your dad passed away?â Zhang Wei was puzzled.
Yang Jian said, âYes, he has. Thatâs why I found a job that covers food and accommodation, not daring to stay at home all the time.â
âDamn, so your house is haunted,â Zhang Wei was shocked.
âYes, itâs haunted, but the ghost wasnât as scary as Grandpa Qian Wanhao. I managed to deal with it,â Yang Jian said. âIs there something you need me for?â
âItâs nothing. Itâs just that Iâve been too bored staying at home for the past two days, so I wanted to visit you,â Zhang Wei wiped the cold sweat off his forehead, thank God he had made a phone call beforehand, âBy the way, where are you working?â
âA shopping mall,â Yang Jian said.
Zhang Wei said, âAre you still short of people? Can I go too? Schoolâs off and I have nothing to do at home, anyway.â
Source: novgo.co
âItâs best you donât. This place might be haunted too. I smelled the stench of corpses the moment I came in. I heard that someone went missing in the shopping mall, and the police have even set up a cordon, but the case hasnât been solved. I guess the people who went missing in the shopping mall have already rotted, though the bodies arenât found yet,â Yang Jian said.
ââŠâ
âCanât you find a more normal place to work? If you really donât have a place to stay, you can stay at my house. The beds in my house are big and warm, and I can even provide food,â Zhang Wei said.
Yang Jian said, âRecently, Wang Shanshan has been acting a little strange. It seems that she has been saying that something is following her, so I think the ghost baby might be targeting her. Her father called me today. You have to be careful yourself since Iâm not sure if the ghost baby will target other people. If youâre free, notify the group too.â
âBrother, letâs not talk about this anymore. I just bought a computer today. Come to my house and letâs play PUBG together. Canât we just stay at home like this for the rest of our lives? Itâs enough to have Anime and games. Whatâs the point of working? Worst comes to worst, I can support you,â Zhang Wei wanted to cry, but no tears came out.
What was wrong with this world? Why were there so many of those things everywhere?
It seemed that he could only cling tightly to his best friend.
âThat wonât do. I still have things to do. Alright, letâs end it here. Anyway, you should be more careful,â Yang Jian hung up the phone.
He changed into his security uniform and walked out of the changing room.
âWhy are you so slow?â Another young man who was outside said. His name was Liu Qiang, this yearâs university graduate and had only recently started working in the mall.
âAccording to the rules, we currently have to patrol the entire mall five times a day. Once in the morning, once in the noon, once in the afternoon, and twice in the evening. Itâs four in the afternoon now, so letâs start earlier,â Liu Qiang said.
Yang Jian followed him and said, âAre there only the two of us in the entire mall?â
âYeah, just the two of us. There was one more in the past, but he went missing some time back. Since then, we havenât been able to find anyone for the job, so Iâm filling in for him,â Liu Qiang said.
Yang Jian said, âMissing? With so many missing person cases in this mall, why do you still dare to work here and not quit your job?â
âIâm from another city. Iâm a fresh graduate and itâs not easy o get a job with a decent salary that covers food and accommodation, so Iâm just doing it for now. Are you a high school student? Arenât you still in school? Itâs almost time for the college entrance exam too,â Liu Qiang asked.
âIâm taking a break from school and staying at home. I probably wonât be taking the college entrance exam,â Yang Jian said.
Liu Qiang didnât ask any more questions, instead, he said, âUsually, I patrol from the fifth floor down. After walking around the parking lot at the bottom, the task will be considered completed. Since the power in the mall is out, the elevator can not operate, so we can only walk up.â
âYouâve worked here for so long, but you havenât noticed anything wrong with this shopping mall?â Yang Jian turned on the flashlight and illuminated the surroundings.
âSomething wrong?â Liu Qiang was stunned for a moment before saying, âI donât think anything is wrong.â
âFor example, have you smelled any strange smells in the shopping mall?â Yang Jian asked.
âOccasionally, but it should be that some frozen food in the freezer has gone bad. Theyâll be cleaned up before the business starts again anyway,â Liu Qiang said.
Yang Jian said, âWhat I mean is, do you think thereâs a possibility that this mall is haunted?â
Haunted?
Liu Qiang immediately laughed âYouâre a high school student, why do you believe in such things? If itâs really haunted, why havenât I encountered any ghosts after patrolling here for so many days? The boss, on the other hand, does believe in such existences and even went to look for a master. A while ago, a master came, but it didnât have much effect. The boss thought that the masterâs skills werenât good enough, so he went out of town to hire a very famous master.â
âIf itâs not haunted, then how do you explain all the missing person cases? For people to go missing in the mall, and the mall only being so big, if we canât find them here, where would they be?â Yang Jian said.
âItâs not necessarily true that those people went missing in the mall. Itâs just that the last video footages the police found when investigating the missing person cases were of those people in the mall. Maybe someone kidnapped or robbed them or something. After the mall was closed, the missing person cases never happened again,â Liu Qiang said.
âWait,â Suddenly, Yang Jianâs expression changed and he stopped walking.
âBro, whatâs wrong?â
Yang Jian pointed to the front and said, âDidnât you say that only the two of us are patrolling in the entire mall? Whatâs that?â
A figure was standing unmoving in the darkness like a mannequin.
Liu Qiang shone his flashlight on it, and it turned out the figure was just a mannequin.
âItâs just a mannequin, stop making a fuss over nothing,â As he spoke, he walked over, picked up the mannequin, and placed it in the shop nearby.
There were more than a dozen mannequins in the dark shop. They were all missing limbs, and none of them were perfect. The arrangement was also quite messy. It was obvious that no one had come to take care of them for a long time.
âItâs okay. Letâs go. Weâre going to patrol the next lower level,â Said Liu Qiang.
Yang Jian asked, âWhy was that mannequin in the middle of the road? Didnât you see it when you were patrolling in the past?â
âI didnât see it when I was patrolling in the afternoon. Itâs also my first time seeing it there. Maybe Sister Li and the others used the mannequins to try the clothes. Itâs not the first time they did that,â Said Liu Qiang.
âHuhâŠâ
Yang Jian didnât know if it was an illusion, but the smell of corpses he had smelled upstairs seemed to have gotten stronger.
When the two of them left, at the entrance of the shop that they had just passed by when patroling, a mannequin stood there again in the darkness, motionless. Its head seemed to be in the direction where Yang Jian and Liu Qiang disappeared.
Yang Jian and Liu Qiang walked around the mall, but nothing happened.
Perhaps he had guessed wrong. Perhaps the missing person cases were just normal criminal cases, and there was no supernatural incident involved.
It seems that it would not be easy for him to earn a million dollars from the mall owner.
Yang Jian pondered. He decided that he would stay here for the three-day probation period. If he didnât get anything by then, he could just resign. He couldnât waste his time here.
Just as he returned to the security room to rest after his patrol, his satellite positioning phone rang.
It was Wang Bin, Wang Shanshanâs father.
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