28 Chapter 28 (Two in One)
◎Unjust! I didn’t lead the child astray!◎
Boom... Boom...
The footsteps were prolonged in the empty and silent space, echoing in a somewhat eerie manner.
The underground floor of the mall is the second-floor exit of the food city and fresh food supermarket. The entire floor is divided into small shops, which are very far away from the heads floating to the top floor.
There was a small door in the triangular area on the side of the elevator. The door of the cleaning room was currently blocked by a shelf. All the tools were thrown out, and two people were squeezed into the narrow space where they could barely turn around.
"There are footsteps, someone is coming, we are saved!" Xia Zihan ran back on tiptoe, suppressing his excitement, and went in to share the latest news.
Lao Qi at the door had a gleam in his eyes. "Really?"
Bai Xuan was leaning against the innermost part of the cleaning room, holding the hedgehog. Her face was pale with a feverish flush. In her palm was a small half-burnt candle, but it was temporarily extinguished.
She struggled to open her eyes and looked up from behind Lao Qi. "I heard it too. Did you see anyone? Is he in uniform?"
"...I didn't see anyone." Xia Zihan paused, then spoke hurriedly, "But the footsteps sounded different from those of the ghost slaves, very brisk. And some of the bosses on the top floor of the mall have dispersed! Has Lao Qi rested well? Master Xiaobai, hold Bai Xian for a while longer, and I'll hold you, and we'll get out together. The ghost slaves on the basement floor are all locked in the door. Now that those bosses have left, and since Master Bai said he's nearby, with a little more effort, we can get out!"
Lao Qi's enthusiastic expression dimmed, and he blocked the doorway, preventing Xia Zihan from reaching out to hug Bai Xuan.
"Exit? Rescue?" Old Qi sneered briefly. "I'm afraid those monsters have gotten stronger again. They were already flying and jumping when we first got down to the basement level. If anyone with their eyes open saw them, they'd be dead if they just dodged! They're even trying to trick us into coming to their door!"
He became more and more excited as he spoke. "We've all been forgotten in the ghost cave. No one will remember us, and no one will come! Exit? This little girl told us to find the exit, but the more we look, the more people will die. She relies on her possession of strange things and some knowledge of strange things to trick us into protecting her and feeding us to the ghosts so that she can survive with her strange things!"
Xia Zihan dodged the spit that Old Qi was spraying, "Calm down and listen to Master Bai. The authorities will come. She saved our lives—"
Lao Qi interrupted her, "Bullshit! I saw through it a long time ago. She's using us as cannon fodder to explore the way if I hadn't dodged quickly when entering the cleaning room. She would have been beheaded by the ghost! She encountered a ghost and broke her bones, it's just a fever. She has good things but she's reluctant to give them to us... for a few days! She said someone told her so many times, have you seen anyone else besides this little girl?!"
Xia Zihan's heart skipped a beat as she suddenly realized, "The cleaning room door closing so quickly wasn't an accident. It was you who pushed Master Bai! Are you crazy? If it weren't for her, would you have been able to avoid the ghost?"
She held the bat in her hand and warned, "Get out of the way. I'm taking Master Xiaobai out!"
Bai Xuan didn't dwell on the issue of her injuries. She repeated, "Everyone will come. Even if all our relatives and friends have forgotten us, the Bureau's files will still remember us. The footsteps and the heads are different. This is a chance to reunite..."
"Opportunity? A chance for you to take the strange creature away?" Lao Qi pushed away Xia Zihan, who was trying to cross him and take Bai Xuan away. "Get out of the way!"
Bang! Xia Zihan's head hit the wall hard and he collapsed.
Lao Qi's face was twisted with excitement and fear. "If there was really hope, why didn't you light that candle? Every time you were about to be found by the ghost, you would light it for a while, but now you are reluctant to use it. You just want to save your own life. It would be a waste for us to explore the way, right? I've waited long enough, and no one will come. Why don't you try to light the candle and go out from the first floor again? Do you think I can't see that you are lying and guilty?! You are looking for the exit? Looking for the ghost in the ghost cave!"
"It's not that I don't need it, it's that I can't use it for too long. It can't be lit again--"
"I want to leave. I don't want to die here. I want to get the strange object. Yes... give me the candle! And give me the hedgehog too!"
Lao Qi completely ignored Bai Xuan's explanation and pulled her collar to catch the hedgehog that could hardly open its eyes.
"Snowdrop!" Bai Xuan screamed and stood up to protect the hedgehog.
The white hedgehog rolled into a ball and ran out of Lao Qi's hand, hiding in the collar behind Bai Xuan.
Unable to catch the nimble hedgehog, Lao Qi was panting with exhaustion and roughly pried open the girl's hand that was holding the candle.
The struggle with huge disparity in power lasted only a few seconds, and the candle slipped out of his hand.
Old Qi held onto the candle, his ecstatic face looking particularly ferocious. "Ha, I knew long ago that a little girl like you would be useless! You guys keep looking for the 'exit', I'm leaving first! I'm afraid of candles. Two candles have been burning for so long, this one will definitely be enough for me to get out through the archway!"
Xia Zihan regained consciousness from the dizziness and only heard Bai Xuan's faint plea, "Don't..."
Lao Qi opened the door and rushed out. To ensure safety, he lit a candle as he went out.
The dim candlelight flickered in his palm, and the familiar sandalwood smoke made him relax a little. He climbed up to the elevator along the wall.
The heat from the last candle hadn't dissipated yet, and Lao Qi felt it growing hotter in his hand, but he didn't let go. Climbing up the escalator, the mall entrance was in sight.
Crackling.
The candlelight flickered suddenly, and the burning speed suddenly increased. The scent of sandalwood became stronger, and a shadow swayed faintly at the edge of the dim candlelight.
The heads of people slowly moved out of the glass dome and various shops, like vultures smelling prey, floating towards the escalator entrance.
"It's okay, it's okay, I have a clean candle. As long as I don't look up and keep staring at them, and don't touch the heads of people with open eyes, I'll be fine." Lao Qi's ecstasy turned into horror. He kept repeating to comfort himself, holding up the candlelight with trembling legs as he climbed up.
"How come there are so many? There weren't any just now! Don't come over here, don't come over here!"
Watching the heads drifting closer and closer, Lao Qi finally realized something, "The candles... the candles are attracting ghosts!"
He blew and shook his hands desperately, but it had no effect on the dimming light.
The gray candle, which was only a few millimeters long, seemed to have grown into the palm of my hand, and the candle flame was still burning.
No, not as if.
The candlelight lit up from the palm of his hand. His skin was burning, his blood was burning, his muscles and bones were burning, emitting a rich sandalwood scent that was so strong that it was sickening.
There was no scream, only a brief, panicked "no".
The fat figure melted in the elevator like a Christmas tree on fire. Its head, ablaze with flames, eyes wide open, slowly floated upward. The head swirled in the dim flames, smoke dissolving into wisps of black mist as the flames quickly vanished.
Heads floated up one after another, floating towards the cleaning room where the clean candles had been lit not long ago.
"Hurry, block the door." As Lao Qi rushed out, Bai Xuan struggled to get up and pushed the shelves towards the door.
Xia Zihan didn't understand why, but followed subconsciously.
As soon as the door was blocked, a short scream came from outside.
"How could it be?" Xia Zihan couldn't believe it.
Jingzhu had clearly saved them many times! It was just that there were too few of them, so they didn't dare to use them more often...
There was no surprise on Bai Xuan's face, only fatigue and helplessness of "as expected".
The firmness she had been trying to maintain faded away, and the girl curled up and hugged herself and the hedgehog, leaning against the shelf, using her body weight to close the door more tightly.
She whispered, "Apart from lighting, when else do you light incense and candles?"
Of course...it’s when we worship gods, ancestors, and the dead!
Xia Zihan was instantly horrified.
Bai Xuan's voice seemed calm. "It's okay to light several candles at once. It will only intensify the removal of the strange aura. But if you keep lighting them for too long, it will overly attract ghosts. Now those heads are still solid. We can still try our luck and wait until they can't get in and the scent of the candles fades again, so they can leave."
Jiang City's inventory was used up in the "Hearse" incident. The two in her hand were specially set aside by the captain from the newly allocated supplies to save her life.
I just didn't expect to use it so soon.
Xia Zihan was deeply impressed by Boss Ye's way of cursing ghosts. Blocking the door together, he couldn't help but ask, "The Investigation Bureau can handle strange and bizarre things, so why can't the Jingzhu... handle other normal things? You're a disciple of the Chu Ma (Exorcist) sect, and Chu Ma Xian are real. The Dragon and Tiger Celestial Masters, the Maoshan Taoist priests, and the Buddhist monks sweeping the floor in the movies should also have them, right?"
Bai Xuan's face turned pale. "I just mentioned the second law of weirdness: the more terrifying the weirdness, the stronger it becomes. Do you know the first law?"
“Gui cannot be killed.
"The myths of the gods are dead. Only weirdness remains. Everything is weird. Weirdnesses that have been dead for years are resurrecting one by one. After they die, they will become weird things again. Those who use weird things will eventually die from the resurrected weirdness."
Bai Xuan's voice became smaller and smaller, and Xia Zihan felt that the future was bleak.
——What’s the difference between this and drinking poison to quench thirst?
Bang!
There was a dull knock at the door, and a head hovered outside the door, opening its eyes and peering around.
The crack in the door was blocked by newspapers and a lot of debris, and not a single ray of light could get in.
The girl trembled slightly, her face buried in her sleeves. "I, I lied to you. What I'm looking for is not the exit, but the strange main body. We are caught in a ghost cave, and the exit is sealed. Only when the main body freezes can the ghost cave be broken open and prevented from expanding and devouring more people. I'm sorry, I'm too weak. I'm not a master. I can't save everyone. I'm sorry..."
Still a child.
Xia Zihan sighed, leaned against the shelf, and patted Bai Xuan comfortingly, "Master Xiaobai is right, it was Old Qi who went too far. You saved us. Look, if it weren't for you, I would have died on the overpass! Don't be afraid, the more you fear ghosts, the stronger they become. You were the one who told us that."
Bang!
The knocking sounds became more frequent, the thin wooden door frame was shaking, and the shelves were shaking so much that a thin layer of dust fell off, rubbing against the ground with a harsh friction sound like scraping against a blackboard.
At the critical moment of life and death, don't even think about drinking poison to quench thirst. It's good to be able to live a little longer or save one more person in front of the ghost.
Xia Zihan tried hard to recall Boss Ye's logic, and tremblingly squeezed out a voice to brainwash the two of them, "Just treat it as a ball outside. Yes, the naughty kid is playing with the ball. Ignore him and he'll leave... Don't be afraid. Yes, don't be afraid."
-
On the underground floor of the mall, at the supermarket exit not far from the cleaning room, footsteps could be heard again.
The seasoning area and the vegetable and meat area took up half of the supermarket. Ignoring the inexplicable puppet models and dazed shoppers in the supermarket, Ye Ping'an gave the entire shopping experience a score of four out of ten.
Ye Ping'an pushed the cart away. Behind her, headless bodies fell one by one. The black mist quickly withdrew and disappeared. The person whose head was still on her neck stared at her back blankly, then slowly closed his eyes stiffly and fell asleep while standing.
Ye Pingan walked to the self-service checkout machine at the exit and asked, "Hey, where's the 10% discount you promised me? Why don't I see the lottery machine yet?"
The staff at the mall were not well trained and when asked, they just said "look". I even reached the exit and still couldn't see it!
Just like the small print annotation, the main point is that it is unethical and sets various thresholds for discounts.
Even though there was a possibility of a 10% discount on the purchase, Ye Ping'an was determined not to pay the full bill just for temporary convenience.
How about going to the celebration stage or upstairs?
While thinking about it, Ye Ping'an heard knocks on the door not far away.
"What a big commotion! I'm looking for someone to ask."
I filled a cart with the items I had picked and hid them behind the promotional roll-up banner at the edge of the checkout area.
Ye Ping'an walked forward following the sound, looking at the shops in the food city on both sides, and couldn't help shaking his head.
"Tsk tsk, you can tell the cooking skills aren't good. There are barely any people eating in the restaurant. What a waste of a prime location."
The gazes in the shop were fixed on him, but as Ye Ping'an approached, they turned their heads and looked away silently.
Most of the balloons with human heads floating on the glass dome of the mall were already far away from her. The footsteps were getting closer, and the banging sound in front of the cleaning room door suddenly stopped.
"Gone?" Xia Zihan asked in a low voice.
The hedgehog's nose dangled outside, and Bai Xuan shook her head. "No, they just stopped bumping into the door, but they're still standing outside and don't want to leave... It seems like someone is coming?"
Bai Xuan's weak voice perked up a bit, "Do they feel threatened? Maybe the deputy captain and his men are bringing in some weird creature! Be careful—don't retreat when it opens its eyes!"
"What? Back off?" A faint voice came out, and Ye Pingan was confused. He looked at the group of "drones" in front of him and asked, "Am I interrupting your new program recording?"
Human heads hovered in place, staring at her. As soon as Ye Ping'an took a step forward, they quickly retreated and flew away.
Ye Ping'an waved his hand familiarly, "Eh? Eh, don't go away, I'm just asking for directions! Let me go to the lottery, and I won't bother you after I buy groceries, right? Why are you running away? Have you edited my commercial yet? When will it be aired?"
The words were spoken so naturally that Bai Xuan, who was reminding him from inside the door, was stunned for a moment and her expression became solemn.
Could it be that the investigators had successfully entered, and that the True Spirit Society was still active? But, but the True Spirit Society wouldn't be so bold as to casually deal with the weird, right?
Or was it that more than one person came, and it was a folk ghost-controller that she didn't know about who temporarily drove away the ghost, and buying groceries, drawing lots, and advertising were all their secret codes?
Xia Zihan suddenly became excited, "Boss Ye!"
Ye Ping'an chased for a few steps, and saw that the "drones" fell down and rolled into the corner and ran out of power. He returned to the door of the cleaning room in disappointment.
"Hmm? Classmate Xiao Xia?" Ye Ping'an recognized the voice of a familiar customer.
Bai Xuan and Xia Zihan moved the shelves together, pushed the door open carefully, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming that there were no heads floating in the air.
Ye Pingan looked at the two and raised an eyebrow. "Why haven't you been here recently? Are you working part-time as a babysitter at the mall?"
Seeing who was outside the door, Bai Xuan was a little stunned, "Why is it you?"
This captain and Xuerong had both confirmed that it was Boss Ye, a profiteer who was just an ordinary person! Could it be that her strange creature was so hidden that she didn't notice it during the investigation? Or did she just happen to encounter those flying heads making a strange departure?
Xia Zihan was stunned, feeling something was wrong, and lowered his voice, "Isn't Boss Ye from your bureau?"
Bai Xuan's mind was still confused, and she just shook her head.
Xia Zihan opened his mouth and asked, "Boss Ye, why are you here?"
Could it be that he came specifically to rescue her? I'm so touched!
"What kind of party? A barbecue party? If you want to eat, just go. How can you not eat?"
Ye Pingan picked up a net bag of flyers as he walked, "The mall has just opened and is having a sale, so I'm here to buy some groceries. Aren't you guys here to shop at the mall too? By the way, do you know where the lottery is? I'm waiting to win a 10% discount before checking out."
Xia Zihan: ...
It was a wrong payment after all!
She vaguely remembered, "The lottery machine seems to be in the square?"
The two started chatting about shopping and 10% off, as if they were not in a dangerous den of ghosts, but in a real busy shopping mall.
Bai Xuan was dazed when she heard this, but she finally came back to her senses from the topic that had led her astray. She grabbed Ye Ping'an's clothes and pulled him back, "Did you see those flying heads? Hide quickly, be careful of something strange!"
"Flying head?"
Ye Ping'an suddenly realized and pointed at the heads rolling on the ground in front of him. "You mean those drones? I said this mall owner has poor taste. Look how scared you are. Testify for me, they fell down because of a dead battery. It has nothing to do with me."
The head fell to the ground with its eyes closed. Scars appeared on the pale skin, and there was some festering under the corpse spots.
Seeing a large group of heads up close, Xia Zihan trembled and almost cried, "Boss Ye Ye Ye! It's rotten!?"
"...Have you never seen special effects makeup before? Don't be afraid, it's just the model's packaging." Ye Ping'an was speechless. "You're so scared, and you still bring children to play. Be careful of your salary being deducted."
Xia Zihan choked.
Confirmed, familiar recipe, familiar taste, still the familiar Boss Ye.
Bai Xuan stared blankly at Ye Ping'an and the head that Ye Ping'an pointed out.
Bai Xuan was very sure that it was a carrier of the strange part.
This means that Ye Ping'an was not lucky enough to encounter the strange creature leaving, but she really hurt the strange creature. She must be the one who controls the strange creature.
...But why didn't she admit it? Because she was a folk ghost tamer who accidentally obtained a ghost and didn't want to be restrained?
Bai Xuan shook her dizzy head, trying to imitate the captain's serious expression. She spoke quickly, "Hello, Ms. Ye. I'm Bai Xuan, a member of the Jiang City Investigation Bureau's action team. To cut a long story short, the gate to the ghost cave is sealed and we can't get out directly. We have to find the strange entity. Otherwise, not only will we be unable to leave, but more people in Jiang City will die. Bai Xian is almost there. Could you please help intercept the strange entity on the road? Your medical treatment, the loss of the strange object, and your compensation will all be covered by the Investigation Bureau."
If you want to survive in this den of evil, you must unite all your forces.
As a ghost control master, he had some understanding of the weird. Bai Xuan didn't expect Ye Ping'an, who had only met him a few times, to risk contact with the weird itself. If she could intercept the weird's attacks for a while, maybe she could find a pattern to make the weird freeze.
But... Bai Xuan had just been ridiculed by Lao Qi, so she was not sure about herself and felt more and more guilty the more she spoke.
"Hmmmm, weird... Come on, kid, have some candy and take a break."
Ye Ping'an nodded and took out a bag of freshly made honey candies. He stuffed one into each of the candies and looked at Xia Zihan with an indescribable expression. "It's good to have a rich imagination, but don't learn from your sister Xiao Xia's feudal superstitions. We should believe in science."
Xia Zihan held the honey candy in her mouth and opened her eyes wide:???
No? Don't look at me like a bad guy who's corrupting kids! It's unfair!
"So sweet." Bai Xuan took a bite of the candy and realized she was coaxing a child. Her eyes turned red with anxiety and she stomped her feet in despair. "I'm serious! If you don't believe me, forget it. If the evil den is not solved, everyone will die. There's no time. I'll go find it myself!"
Ye Pingan paused.
Maybe the child saw some terrorist/evildoer and was just frightened by the scary performance and couldn't express it clearly?
Ye Ping'an bent down to wipe away her tears and patted her shoulders. "Alright, I'll go with you to take a look. What's the point of a child showing off?"
A warm hand approached. The hedgehog on Bai Xuan's shoulder didn't make a sound. It stood straight with its spines all over its body, frozen.
Ye Pingan took a quick glance. The little girl's pet was quite cute, but it was a pity that she couldn't touch it.
"Thank you, thank you." Bai Xuan wiped away her tears embarrassedly and picked up the hedgehog.
The white hedgehog didn't curl up, but was as stiff as a specimen, lying straight with its spines sticking out, like a rat cake.
"Edgewood!" Bai Xuan was startled. She held it and touched her nose with it. The hedgehog slipped into her sleeve, leaving only the tip of its nose exposed.
Bai Xuan touched it with heartache, "The pressure in the ghost cave is too great, and Xuerong is also scared. Xuerong, Xuerong, it will take a while, let's go find the place with the heaviest strange aura."
The ghost cave is filled with a strong aura, and with the interference of flying heads, it is very difficult to identify.
When Bai Xuan was searching for her original body, she was distracted by a group of flying heads and it took her a lot of effort to find the lower level.
I thought I would have to continue to be careful on the underground floor to avoid the flying heads and the ghost slaves, and it would take a long time to find it.
But the journey went incredibly smoothly.
Some of the people trapped in the store lay down, while others continued to move slowly, but no one turned to look at them. They just needed to be careful not to attract attention and they could pass safely.
There were flying heads everywhere, covering the roofs, but I didn't touch any of them except those that fell from the door. I don't know where they went.
The hedgehog sniffed and led the three of them all the way to the safety passage on the underground floor.
The door was ajar, and there was an underground garage downstairs.
"Right here!"
Walking through the corridor, Bai Xuan saw darkness between the cracks in the brand new silver-gray metal door. She felt increasingly uneasy. "Something's wrong... There must be some new changes in the ghost den. Be careful."
In the underground second-floor garage, the metal door was covered with rust, and a vague pink color remained on the cement floor, like blood that had been diluted countless times.
The flying heads in the ghost den bypassed Ye Ping'an's position one by one and floated into the garage from various entrances, as if returning to the mother nest.
Xu Mei knelt down, feeling the cold gazes focused on her, but she didn't dare to look up.
It's okay, the True Spirit Society has already told you the rules, and as long as you follow them, nothing will happen.
Xu Meiqiang calmed herself down, opened the last box, and placed her hands in front of her.
"All living things suffer, and all things are originally nothing. In this evil world of the five turbidities, the true spirit saves all! Spirit [Hundred Eyes], awaken, [Hundred Eyes]! The true spirit will accompany you throughout eternity!"
Xu Mei offered the last strange item, feeling a little heartbroken.
She had originally snatched it away for herself. But she heard footsteps rushing over here. Damn it, it was all the Bureau's fault for coming too quickly!
Guji...
The sound of sticky water gurgling came from the front. Xu Mei felt the eyeball in her arms open and was immediately delighted.
"You're revived!"
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