Chapter 32: Closed Shopping Mall
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Yang Jian tortured the profiteer for more than an hour.

The profiteer almost had a breakdown.

After an hour, he finally returned to the phone repair shop and took the phone that he had stuffed into the profiteer’s brain out.

Yang Jian grabbed the profiteer’s lapel and said with a cold face, “Being such a profiteer, you should have swapped other people’s phones quite a few times, right? God knows how much money you have cheated from others. Let me tell you, I can be an ordinary person and do normal business with you, but I can also be an evil person who is ten times worse than you and let you know what regret is. In the future, I will often pass by. If I see you doing such things again, I won’t just be stuffing a phone into your brain next time.”

“Big, big brother, I won’t dare to do it again in the future, never again,” Scared out of his wits, the profiteer said with a trembling voice.

“People like you have no conscience just for the sake of earning money. If you aren’t caught, your attitude will stay arrogant. To think you, the thief himself, even have the guts to call me a thief and accuse me of selling stolen goods. Now that you’re in my hands, did you think the matter can be settled by just apologizing? Isn’t that letting you off too easily? The price of cheating is so low, no wonder profiteers like you are everywhere. Today, I let you spend money to avoid disaster so you’ll remember it. If there’s a next time, be careful of your little life.”

Yang Jian warned him seriously, then left.

Of course, he had obtained a sum of money for mental damage.

Even though his methods weren’t honorable, it didn’t matter.

He would be the bad guy. Either way, he had already become an existence that was neither human nor ghost. If he couldn’t find that ghost, he wouldn’t be able to live for long.

“Before I die, I have to earn enough money for my mother to retire. It doesn’t matter if my methods are despicable. Otherwise, if I die, what will happen to my mother? Her health isn’t very good either…” Yang Jian lowered his head, and a sad expression appeared on his face, “It’s a pity that there are no bounties for supernatural incidents in the country. Otherwise, I would have risked my life to earn millions or even tens of millions of dollars.”

He wandered aimlessly on the streets, looking for possible opportunities to earn money.

Finally, he stopped in front of a telephone pole.

There were all kinds of advertisements on the telephone pole.

“Rewards offered for a son, a heavy reward of two million dollars.”

“It’s nothing, I just want to put up an advertisement.”

Yang Jian walked around and suddenly saw a half-torn advertisement.

Yang Jian hesitated for a moment. “Should I give it a try? After all, it offers more than a million Yuan. If I can get it, half of the money I need for my mother’s retirement will be settled,” Yang Jian thought for a moment and decided not to call but just directly go over to check if the matter was true.

If it was fake, then he wouldn’t waste his time on it.

He immediately took a taxi and quickly rushed to the address written in the advertisement.

On a certain bustling main road, there were many buildings, residential areas, and people nearby. On the side of the road was a large shopping mall.

The address in the advertisement led to the mall.

Yang Jian paid for the taxi and got off the car. Then, he sized up the mall.

There was a police cordon outside that hadn’t been removed yet as if a case had recently happened here. The shopping mall was deserted. There wasn’t a single customer, and most of the lights inside had been turned off, seemingly as if it had gone out of business.

Yang Jian walked over and saw several advertisements looking for employees at the door. The words written on the advertisements were things like “a monthly salary of 6,000”, “includes food and accommodation”, and so on.

“From the surface, it does seem like something has happened, though I wonder if it’s a supernatural incident,” Without thinking too much about it, he walked into the mall.

As soon as he entered, Yang Jian’s expression changed slightly.

There was a faint stench. It was very faint, but it was very special because he had smelled it a few days ago in school.

This was… … The stench of rotting corpses.

His gaze shifted slightly as he looked into the shopping mall.

Other than the lights at the entrance, the lights were not switched on in the other places because the place was out of business. The whole mall was dark and made people feel somewhat suppressed.

Yang Jian did not know if it was just a feeling, but he could vaguely feel that something was spying on him in the depths of the darkness of the shopping mall.

“Ta, ta ta!” Suddenly, crisp footsteps sounded in the darkness in front of him, echoing in the empty shopping mall.

A black shadow approached from afar and gradually walked towards him.

Yang Jian subconsciously tensed up and held his breathing. Was that thing… … A ghost?

It was getting closer and closer.

It walked straight towards him without a trace of hesitation.

“Sorry, the mall is closed for the next few days. If you want to buy something, you can go to the supermarket in front,” A thin young man in a security uniform walked over from the darkness.

“Huh? Why are you staring at me like that?” The young security guard looked at Yang Jian with a puzzled look.

“…” Yang Jian was silent for a while before saying, “Bro, what were you doing just now?”

“I went to the toilet. Why? Is there a problem?” The young security guard asked.

“Why didn’t you turn on the lights when you went to the toilet?”

The young security guard said, “The electricity bill is very expensive, so the boss doesn’t allow us to turn the lights on. If you have nothing else, please hurry up and leave. This place is not open for business. If someone comes in, it will be very troublesome for me. Last time, a child came in and I almost lost my job looking for him.”

Yang Jian said, “I’m not here to buy anything. I’m here to look for your boss.”

“The boss isn’t here today,” The young security guard said.

“When will he be here?” Yang Jian asked.

“He’s is on a business trip. He won’t be back until two days later,” The young security guard said, “Why are you asking so many questions? You’re not here to cause trouble, right?”

Yang Jian thought for a moment and said, “No, I’m here to apply for the job.”

Apply for the job?

The young security guard looked at Yang Jian and said, “Do you know that there were missing person cases in this mall? There have been people who have gone missing in the mall and haven’t been found yet.”

“I didn’t know before, but now I do,” Yang Jian said.

“Yet you still dare to apply for the job?”

“With such a high monthly salary, why not? It’s just missing person cases, not haunted,” Yang Jian said.

The young security guard said, “Come with me then. I’ll take you to Sister Li, she’s in charge of the staff recruitment.”

Yang Jian followed.

In a small shop in the mall, four or five mall employees were sitting on sofas. Some were watching TV, while others were playing with their cell phones. They seemed to be bored and had nothing to do.

“Sister Li, someone is here to apply for the job,” The young security guard said.

A middle-aged woman in a work uniform raised her head, then stood up and smiled, “The mall will be open for business soon, and there’s a shortage of staff right now, so the HR department has relaxed the requirements. As such, currently, there are no requirements for academic background or work experience. The salary is six thousand a month, including food and lodging. However, the working hours are quite long. If there are no problems, when can you start work?”

Yang Jian thought for a moment and said, “I can start today.”

“Probation is three days. Do you have a preference for the working positions? We are short of staff for the counter, purchasing, cashier, security…”

Sister Li said some more requirements, including working hours.

Yang Jian did not listen attentively. His intention was not to really get the job. After all, he wasn’t here to work but to get in touch with the boss here to earn a sum.

“I don’t have much work experience, so I’ll probably apply to be security. By the way, I saw a flyer put up by someone outside. It said that the boss was trying to get some master or Taoist priest here to exorcise evil spirits and perform rituals. Is that true?”

Sister Li’s smile faded and she said, “It is true, but it has nothing to do with you. You are a new employee. You should introduce yourself first and let everyone get to know you.”

She seemed to be deliberately avoiding this topic.

Yang Jian felt that there was indeed something wrong with the shopping mall.