Wan Jie Hospice Care Company

Xiang Yu, holding a doll, stepped out of the toy store.

The light shone on his face, elongating his shadow. The doll in his arms had open glass eyes with long eyelashes drooping down, like a sleeping child.

The three people around the escalator breathed a sigh of relief when Xiang Yu finally emerged. Although their thoughts differed—some wanted Xiang Yu to live, others wanted to live themselves—they all ultimately wanted Xiang Yu to come out alive.

He gave a thumbs-up in the direction of the escalator.

Then, holding the doll, he swayed and walked in that direction.

Xiang Yu's behavior startled all three of them. Just a moment ago, he was extremely cautious, testing the waters and using human ladders. How come he was now swaggering forward?

Aren't you afraid of getting hit and killed?!

An Ling watched Xiang Yu's indifferent back as her heart leaped into her throat; she almost screamed:

"Brother Xiang, watch out!"

Before her shout had even finished, on the other side of the darkness, the bumper car had already turned on its red lights.

It had been wandering aimlessly around the area, like a shark circling in shallow water. But the moment it appeared, it suddenly turned around, its wheels screeching on the paving stones, and it lowered and accelerated.

It wasn't like a bumper car; rather, it was like a runaway steel behemoth on the highway, carrying wind pressure and the intent of death, hurtling straight toward a corner—

A little devil was sitting in the car, humming a nursery rhyme as it bumped around, its face full of childlike cruelty.

Seeing the bumper cars hurtling towards him like a highway jewel, Xiang Yu didn't hesitate. He immediately took two steps back and crawled back into the toy store.

The moment his figure disappeared from sight, the sneer on the bumper car froze.

The cruelty faded from those eerie green eyes, replaced by a sense of bewilderment.

What's going on? What happened? Why did it accelerate? Why did it crash into this place?

Countless questions raced through its little head, but the problem was... they were all happening way too fast.

So fast that these questions hadn't even had a chance to be answered, so fast that its little hands had just touched the steering wheel—

We've reached the wall ahead.

"ah!!!!!"

The bumper car plunged headfirst into the wall, its front end instantly twisted into a lump of scrap metal. The kid sitting on it flew straight out like a pebble launched by a slingshot, slamming into the wall with a "thud," and slowly sliding down the wall, turning into a lump of mud.

"..."

The three people by the escalator were all stunned. They were completely dumbfounded. How could such a thing happen?

And... how could they forget what just happened?

Hey, by the way, why hasn't Xiangyu come out of the toy store yet?

Just as they had this idea, Xiang Yu suddenly appeared in front of them.

One second he was behind the toy store door, the next he was standing three steps away, holding a doll, as if the darkness had folded over him in that spot.

"???" The man in paper clothes was shocked. Who was this person? Was he a human or a ghost? If he was a human, why did he have the ability to teleport like a ghost?

"Aaaaaah!!!" The fat boss was even more exaggerated, screaming in terror, completely losing his mind in the face of such terrifying power.

As for An Ling, she was surprised at first, wondering why Brother Xiang could suddenly teleport.

But after a short while, she realized that, considering her previous experiences, it was possible that Brother Xiang actually possessed the same ability as the doll from before.

Rather than teleportation, it's more accurate to say they forgot the process of moving to the corner.

"Brother Xiang, could it be..." An Ling hesitated, wanting to say something but stopping herself.

Xiang Yu made a "shh" gesture and shook his head.

An Ling immediately understood; it seemed her guess was correct.

"Let's go, isn't that enough? Let's go to the fourth floor." Xiang Yu waved and called out to the group.

……

Ji Zhuo carried his gun and moved slowly into the darkness. The surroundings were completely silent, with only the sound of their footsteps.

"Old Ji, how could you be so impulsive? We can't get out now!" Li Yiheng also held his gun, but the muzzle was trembling uncontrollably, and he was still very unsure of himself.

They were facing things that weren't human. Would a gun really be effective against ghosts?

"Xin Xin just said she wanted to go to the children's playground... The children's playground is on the fourth floor," Ji Zhuo said, taking a deep breath. "We need to go downstairs."

"...Sigh, you go crazy whenever your daughter is mentioned." Li Yiheng sighed. "Alright, we all have to rely on Section Chief Xiang now. If Section Chief Xiang can really solve the problem of the ghosts in this building, then we can survive; if Section Chief Xiang can't solve it and he has to retreat, then we can't survive either. It's like we've lost more than ten days of life, which is about right."

Li Yiheng is quite carefree; he has always adhered to the mentality of "live if you can, and give up if you can't."

"You seem to take it all in stride..." Ji Zhuo took deep breaths to keep calm.

"I don't have a wife, so I only need to eat my fill and the rest of the family isn't hungry."

Sometimes I really envy your carefree attitude.

The two chatted idly.

When the two chased after them, they climbed several flights of stairs. When they finally entered, they found themselves on the top floor of the mall, which was the movie theater.

In those days, most movie theaters were converted from video arcades, divided into small rooms lined up along both sides of the corridor. Pushing open the door, you would find a small screening room that could only seat about ten people even when crammed full.

There are large screening rooms, but they are the only ones in the entire mall.

At that moment, Ji Zhuo and Li Yiheng happened to be standing in front of the only large screening room.

"...Why is the gate to this place open?"

Li Yiheng was taken aback. The heavy soundproof door was slightly ajar. He peeked inside; it was pitch black.

"I remember there's a fire escape in the main theater, right next to the screen. I saw staff going in and out of there when I took my wife to see a movie," Ji Zhuo analyzed. "Maybe we can go downstairs from there."

"That's right."

So the two of them pushed open the door and tiptoed into the large screening room. Sure enough, right below the screen, there was a faint green light, which should be the "emergency exit" sign.

"Phew, we can finally go downstairs. This place is like a maze; we've gone around in circles so many times." Li Yiheng breathed a sigh of relief. Going around in circles in this dark place full of corridors was really torturous, and we had no sense of time at all. He had no idea how much time had passed.

"Let's go..." Just as Li Yiheng was about to jog towards the green light, he found that Ji Zhuo was standing still.

"Hmm? What's wrong?"

"No...that's not the emergency exit."

"What? Not an emergency exit? Then what is it?"

Li Yiheng suddenly felt a chill run down his spine, and he stared intently at the green light, his eyes trembling.

That is……

Those were eyes!

A pair of eyes reflecting green light!

"What's going on...?"

But just as they discovered this, they found that the green light in front of them was increasing and increasing.

One pair, two pairs, three pairs...

The green light grew more and more abundant and denser, spreading backward row by row from under the screen, following the curve of the seats, all the way to the deepest corner of the screening room.

Throughout the entire screening room, a pair of deep green eyes appeared on every seat.

They were densely packed, layer upon layer, silent and motionless, all staring intently at the two living people in the center of the arena.

"This screening room is full." Ji Zhuo's lips were pale.