Wan Jie Hospice Care Company

Tsk.

Xiang Yu turned to look at the woman singing not far away. He saw that the woman's expression also began to change. Her pupils contracted, her expression was uglier than crying, and her singing began to stiffen, each word bursting out as if someone was choking her and forcing her to sing.

She must have also noticed the changes that have occurred in the shopping mall.

"I wonder what year it is in the celestial palaces now?"

"I long to ride the wind and return, but I fear the jade palaces and crystal towers will remain."

"It's lonely at the top."

"Dancing with my shadow, how unlike the mortal world!"

Her already off-key tune suddenly changed, her expression became beautiful, and her voice became soft, as if it had been coated with honey, making people's hearts itch.

It's almost like... the original singer is singing right here.

It seems this woman's role is to be used as a human megaphone...

Upon hearing this voice, Xiang Yu retreated repeatedly, glancing warily at the surrounding guests, feeling a chill run down his spine.

"Brother Xiang... what should we do now?" An Ling asked nervously from the side.

At this moment, Xiang Yu could only slowly take out his diary and look at the records inside.

But when Xiang Yu opened the diary, she discovered that the blank line after the first two sentences had been filled in with a line of red text.

It snowed today.

He said he needed a few changes of clothes, so I took him to the New Century Commercial Center to buy some.

[But there are no living people in the mall... If they discover we are living people, we will die.] — This line of work is lucrative.

The New Century Commercial Center sells everything: rocking horses, ceramic figurines, and dolls.

"..."

A chilling sensation suddenly pressed against the back of his neck.

Xiang Yu suddenly looked up.

Everyone around him was watching him.

Dozens of eyes, quietly and simultaneously, fell on him and An Ling.

Those faces wore the same puzzled expression, as if there was something strange about them.

That won't do. I have to pretend to be like them now, and I can't be found out that I'm a living person.

An Ling was so frightened that she turned pale, her lips trembling, unable to utter a single word.

After only a few breaths, Xiang Yu slowly began to speak, as if talking to himself, or perhaps to someone else:

"Oh dear, I want to buy a winter coat, where can I buy clothes..."

"Where do you go to buy clothes..." A young man pointed into the distance, and Xiang Yu looked in that direction and found that it was a clothing store on the second floor of the mall.

"Oh, thank you."

"You're welcome." He walked silently, without making a sound; the soles of his shoes brushed against the ground as if he were walking on cotton.

In the blink of an eye, he blended into the crowd and disappeared from sight.

Xiang Yu, holding An Ling's cold hand, walked towards the stairs as if no one else was around, heading towards the second floor in the direction the young man pointed.

"Are we really going to the second floor...?" Anling's voice was barely audible.

"Well, our task now is to avoid being discovered by them that we are alive... Since we asked for directions, let's go that way."

The two stepped onto the escalator.

As if awakened by something, the escalator started moving with a clattering sound, the gears meshing clearly, carrying the two of them up to the second floor.

"Brother Xiang, I'm so cold..."

An Ling suddenly shivered and wrapped her clothes tighter around herself, but no matter how tightly she wrapped them, the cold wind ignored her cotton-padded coat and blew directly onto her body, as if she were not wearing any clothes at all and standing naked in this cold and damp place.

Xiang Yu also felt something was off. The wind in the mall was really strange. Even though he was wearing two layers of pants, he could still feel a few gusts of cold wind brushing against his thighs.

correct!

Xiang Yu immediately realized: "That's right, these are clothes for the living, they can't keep out the cold winds of the underworld... just like a paper cotton coat can't keep out the winter in the human world."

"If we put ourselves in their shoes, in the eyes of these ghosts, are we actually wearing a few layers of paper clothes?"

In short, in the ghost's eyes, he and An Ling were definitely the most conspicuous ones, too easy to be discovered as living people!

After putting himself in their shoes, Xiang Yu realized why the ghosts were staring at them. He frowned and quickly headed towards the clothing store after reaching the second floor.

"Waiter, I'd like one men's outfit and one women's outfit."

Xiang Yu cut to the chase, speaking directly to the pale-faced clothing store employee.

"Okay...sir...your clothes are really unique." The employee smiled stiffly.

"That's why... I came to buy... otherwise I'd have nothing to wear." Xiang Yu mimicked the half-dead, barely breathing way of speaking from the person opposite him.

The two of them haphazardly tore two outfits off the hanger and placed them on the counter.

"Okay, the clothes are twenty, the pants are twenty, the shoes are fifteen..." The shop assistant slowly counted on her fingers, her fingernails long and bluish. "I'll round down the price for both sets, so it'll be one hundred in total..."

"Okay... thank you..."

At that moment, Xiang Yu felt a burning sensation in his fingers. He looked down and found that one of the 1,500 yuan bills he had just received was spontaneously combusting between his fingers.

The orange flames licked the paper, and the banknote curled up at a visible speed, burning completely in the blink of an eye, leaving only a wisp of smoke drifting away in the cold air.

"Okay, I received it." The employee smiled, and then a white banknote appeared in her hand. She even checked it against the light.

This money can be verified...

Xiang Yu grumbled, then picked up his clothes and took An Ling to the changing room to change.

The two went to a changing room. An Ling hesitated, holding the light, flimsy paper clothes. Could she really wear this thing...?

"No need to change, just put it on." Xiang Yu didn't hesitate much, putting the coat on and the pants on over it.

Seeing this, An Ling followed suit, and soon the two of them, wrapped in clothes that were so light they were practically weightless and as thin as a layer of paper, swayed and pushed open the door, looking just like two newly made paper figures.

Sure enough, after they changed into "proper" clothes, the ghosts around them finally stopped looking at them strangely.

An Ling breathed a sigh of relief; every second of that chilling gaze had been agonizing.

"The problem should be solved now..." Xiang Yu leaned on the second-floor railing, preparing to look at the view from the first floor.

Strangely, there was only deep darkness below the railing, with not a single ray of light to be seen.

He looked up at the third floor and found that it was the same; apart from his own floor, all the other floors were dark.

It was as if the entire shopping mall had been reduced to just this thin floor, suspended in nothingness.

Although nothing could be seen, the woman's singing could still be heard faintly.

"Turning to the vermilion pavilion, lowering the embroidered window, the light shines on the sleepless."

"There should be no resentment, so why does the moon always seem to be full when we are apart?"

"People experience sorrow and joy, separation and reunion; the moon waxes and wanes."

"Nothing in this matter is ever perfect."

May we all live long and share the beauty of the moon, even though we are thousands of miles apart.

The two slowly backed away, no longer looking at the railing.

"Gurgle—"

Just then, a round object made a rolling sound on the ground, like a soccer ball rolling around.

The two turned around, and An Ling was shocked to see that they had taken something. She wanted to scream, but she covered her mouth tightly.

They mustn't know that I'm human...

She covered her mouth, her shoulders trembling violently, tears welling in her eyes, but she managed not to utter a single sound.

Xiang Yu frowned when he saw the thing.

That's a human head!

A slightly balding head rolled around on the floor like a soccer ball.

With each roll, a series of hollow sounds came from its hollow head, as if wind was passing through a wind tunnel.

At the same time, several children rushed out of the darkness, kicking their heads and shouting:

"XX's head is like a ball; kick it all the way to the department store!"