Wan Jie Hospice Care Company

"..."

Xiang Yu's lips twitched slightly when he heard the familiar nursery rhyme.

What does this mean?

He didn't have time to think it through; several children were kicking the head while giggling. The head rolled and bounced on the marble floor, hitting the counter only to be precisely intercepted by a small foot and kicked up again. The children laughed so hard they were doubled over, making the whole scene both joyful and eerie.

"Help me!!!"

Suddenly, a hysterical scream echoed through the building.

Xiang Yu and An Ling turned around abruptly; it was the fat boss.

He screamed and ran as fast as he could, somehow managing to run straight up to the second floor from the escalator. He looked like a lump of burning fat, trembling as he crashed into their field of vision.

"Help! Help me!!!" the fat boss cried out.

When he saw Xiangyu while running, he was like a savior, and he hurriedly shouted with snot and tears streaming down his face, wishing he could kneel down right then and there.

"Please, please save me! They're going to kill me!!!"

Xiang Yu frowned. If this guy asked him for help, he might even expose his human identity.

"...Go to a clothing store to buy clothes." Xiang Yu lowered his voice, as if afraid of disturbing something, "Just wear them, like we do."

"Thank you... thank you!" The fat shop owner, looking like a deflated ball that had been kicked, scrambled to the entrance of the clothing store and reached out to grab the clothes on the rack.

But the shop assistant held that hand down firmly.

"Steal clothes?" The shop assistant tilted her head, turning her neck a little more than a normal person could. "Pay up."

"Okay, okay, I'll pay!"

The fat shop owner nodded repeatedly, took out the money from his pocket, and after another burst of light, a banknote in the fat shop owner's hand turned into smoke. The clothing store employee gestured for him to take the clothes himself.

After awkwardly putting on the paper clothes, the fat boss cautiously went out the door. Peeking around, he found that the "people" around him didn't seem to be paying attention to him as much as before.

Although there will still be some people watching, at least not everyone is observing anymore.

Really useful!

The fat shop owner quickly wiped his snotty nose, then scrambled over to Xiang Yu: "What's wrong with this mall?! How could this happen?"

"You're asking me, isn't it your shopping mall?"

"I owned it, but who could have imagined something like this would happen..."

"By the way, when you were being chased on the first floor, did you shout or scream?" Xiang Yu suddenly asked.

"Uh... I was terrified, I definitely screamed," the fat boss replied after a brief pause.

Xiang Yu asked this question because she suddenly thought of something: if the fat boss had already started screaming, why didn't she hear it at all?

Could it be that his shouts on the first floor can only be heard on the first floor?

Are each floor of the shopping mall actually an independent space? Neither sound nor light can penetrate between the floors?

But just as I was thinking about this, the singing voice drifted over.

"Give me a cup of forgetfulness potion~ and let me not shed a tear for a night~"

...It seems that the woman's singing voice can penetrate the barriers between the floors.

"By the way, why didn't you just go through the fire escape?" Xiang Yu asked again.

"The fire escape is gone!" the fat boss cried, his face contorted with despair. "It's really gone! I went to check the exit earlier and found the door had turned into a wall!"

"I thought I was just too nervous and got lost, but I circled around the first floor several times, and there really was no exit!"

It seems it won't be so easy to get out then.

"Since this shopping mall is yours," he grabbed the limp fat man to his feet, "you should know the layout of each floor. Tell me, what does each floor sell?"

"Ah, okay, okay... The first floor sells jewelry and expensive items like cell phones and computers..." The fat boss swallowed hard. "The second floor sells clothes... clothes, pants, shoes, everything."

"The third floor sells toys, and also dolls and things like that."

"The fourth floor is a children's playground, the fifth floor is a furniture store, and the sixth floor is a movie theater."

Xiang Yu secretly memorized it, and then stood still to observe the surrounding situation.

To be honest, if we put the facts aside, the scene in front of us was quite heartwarming. Several children were kicking a head and running around on the second floor. Later, these little devils were scolded by some adults for disturbing the peace, but they acted as if nothing had happened and continued kicking their "ball".

It really does look just like a regular shopping mall.

Just as the children kicked their heads at him again, Xiang Yu suddenly stretched out his leg and intercepted the rolling heads.

The fat boss was startled by Xiang Yu's actions. He stammered, "This, this, this... How dare you? Give it back to them right now!"

Xiang Yu didn't respond, but instead lowered his eyes and stared at the filthy head at his feet.

The expression on his face was one of pain. His brows were furrowed, the muscles around his eyes were twitching, his lips were moving silently, and all his features were in motion.

It responds to pain.

He's not dead... no, I should say he's dead, but as a corpse, he still has consciousness.

"Wait, this is Manager Wang..." The fat boss's face turned deathly pale, his fat cheeks contorted in fear. "How...how did he become like this?"

"Do you know him?"

"Yes... he disappeared three days ago. I originally thought he just didn't want to work for me anymore and left without saying goodbye to go back to his hometown..." The fat boss's voice trembled.

"What are you doing! Give it back to us!"

Just then, the children shouted at Xiang Yu.

Xiang Yu nodded, then gently flicked his toe, returning the head to the child's feet.

The little devil caught it, grinned, and swung his leg again, delivering a powerful blow. The head slammed into the pillar with a "bang," and the face contorted in pain.

However, a few of the children stopped, glanced at Xiang Yu, and then stared wide-eyed.

The next second, their eyes widened, and their tiny fingers all pointed at us—

"They're fake!"

"!!!"

This statement caught the three children off guard, and those around them, having heard the children's words, all turned their attention to them, then said in unison:

"They're fake!"

The people around, who were all busy with their own things, suddenly stopped moving.

Countless gazes rose from the darkness and slowly turned toward the three of them.

Xiang Yu used his "Knowledgeable" ability to scan his surroundings and discovered that most of the ghosts around him were E+, even the child driving the car was.

In other words, each of them is as powerful as a heavyweight boxing champion. If so many ghosts were to work together, they would be doomed.

Xiang Yu grabbed An Ling's arm and started running: "Run!"

"Um!"

"I, I'll follow you!" The fat boss shamelessly followed behind the two.

The children clearly weren't going to let them go; they kicked the three of them in the head as they chased after them.

Then many onlookers joined the chase. They were faster than the children, and soon the children were left behind, but the adults continued to pursue them relentlessly.

Visibility was shockingly low; the hazy air felt like damp cotton wool obscuring everything in front of us.

The three of them ran haltingly, unable to widen the distance between themselves and the group behind them. The sound of their footsteps lingered behind them, neither too close nor too far, like shadows.

During this desperate run, Xiang Yu caught a glimpse of an incredibly bizarre scene.

In the clothing store, rows of mannequins stood.

They came in various shapes and sizes, both men and women, with clothes hanging on their bodies for sale, striking all sorts of beautiful poses.

Most of them had their heads removed. Only a section of their torso remained standing, serving as a clothes hanger.

But that's not plastic.

That's a real person.

More models lay sprawled on the ground, missing arms and legs, their postures contorted, resembling ordinary plastic mannequins carelessly discarded in shopping malls.

But Xiang Yu only glanced at it briefly and recognized that the skin color, the texture of the muscles, and the dark red blood at the break point were all real.

Their necks were cleanly severed, yet the cut surfaces showed no signs of decay, as if these headless bodies were not quite dead at all.

It's as if if you just put a head back on them, they'll immediately get up from the ground.

"..." Xiang Yu suddenly thought of something. Since they put on the paper clothes, the number of people looking at them had decreased, but there were still a few stubborn gazes staring at them.

"In their eyes, we're just a bunch of models."

As Xiang Yu ran, he suddenly uttered those words.

"What? What do you mean?" The fat boss was panting like a leaky bellows, not understanding a single word.

But An Ling, having gone through countless battles alongside Xiang Yu, realized after a few seconds: "Brother Xiang, could it be... that in their eyes we're no different from moving plastic dummies?"

"That's how it is... In our eyes they're like ghosts, but in their eyes we're not like humans either!" Xiang Yu clicked his tongue. "They didn't attack us at first, not because they were letting us go, but because they were observing us."

"Among a bunch of ghosts, three 'dummy' figures that can walk and talk on their own have infiltrated. They are not sure what we are, so they have been observing us without making any moves."

"But these kids don't understand these things. Like the child in 'The Emperor's New Clothes,' they say whatever comes to mind, tearing down the facade... so these ghosts stop pretending!"