Fake Mannequin

"Bro, what have you been busy with these past two days? Did you forget about me? Why haven't you called me at all? I'm so bored. Want me to come over to your place? I'll treat you to a deluxe massage tonight?"

Inside the mall, Yang Jian received a call from Zhang Wei.

"You'd better not come to my house. My dad might be there. I ran into him last night, and he nearly killed me. I'm working outside now."

Yang Jian spoke as he changed into a security guard uniform in the locker room.

"Didn't you say your dad had passed away?" Zhang Wei asked doubtfully.

"He did pass away. That's why I found a job that provides food and lodging. I didn't dare keep staying at home."

"Holy crap, your house is haunted?" Zhang Wei jumped in fright.

"It is, but that thing isn't as scary as Qian Wanhao's grandfather. I can barely handle it. So, did you need something?"

"Nothing. I've just been cooped up at home these past few days and wanted to hang out." Zhang Wei wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Good thing he had called first. "By the way, where are you working?"

"At a mall."

"Are they hiring? I'll come work there too. I'm on leave from school anyway, with nothing to do."

"You'd better not. This place might be haunted too. The moment I came in, I smelled corpse stench. I heard people have gone missing in this mall. The police even put up warning tape, but the case has never been solved. The people who went missing in the mall have probably already rotted away, but their bodies can't be found."

"..."

"Can't you find a more normal place to work? If you really have nowhere to stay, you can live at my place. My bed is big and warm, and meals are included."

"Wang Shanshan has been acting strange lately. She keeps saying something is following her. The Ghost Infant may have set its sights on her. Her dad called me today. You should be careful too. I can't be sure whether that Ghost Infant will target other people, so if you have time, let everyone know in the group chat."

"Bro, stop talking. I just bought a computer today. Come to my place and let's play PUBG. Let's just rot away as shut-ins for the rest of our lives. Anime and games are enough—why bother working? Worst case, I'll support you." Zhang Wei sounded on the verge of tears.

What was wrong with this world? Why were those things everywhere?

It looked like he could only cling tightly to his best bro's thigh.

"That won't do. I still have things to do. All right, that's it. Just be careful." Yang Jian hung up.

He finished changing into his security uniform and walked out of the locker room.

"Why did you take so long?"

Another young man stood outside. His name was Liu Qiang, a college graduate from this year who had only recently started working at the mall.

"According to the rules, we have to patrol the entire mall five times a day: once in the morning, once at noon, once in the afternoon, and twice at night. It's four in the afternoon now, so let's get started early," Liu Qiang said.

Yang Jian followed him. "There are only two security guards in the whole mall?"

"Yeah, just the two of us. There used to be another one, but he went missing too. They haven't been able to hire anyone since then, so I filled in," Liu Qiang said.

"He went missing? There are so many missing-person cases at this mall. Why haven't you quit? You still dare work here?"

"I'm from out of town. I just graduated, and it's not easy to find a job with food and lodging that pays decently, so I'm making do for now. You're a high school student, right? Shouldn't you still be in school? The college entrance exams are coming up soon," Liu Qiang asked.

"I'm taking leave from school. I probably won't be taking the college entrance exams."

Liu Qiang did not ask any further. "Normally, I patrol from the fifth floor downward. Once I've made a round through the underground parking lot, the job is done. The mall has no power and the elevators don't work, so we can only walk up."

"Have you never felt that there was anything wrong with this mall after working here so long?" Yang Jian switched on his flashlight, illuminating the area around them.

"Anything wrong?"

Liu Qiang froze for a moment. "Nothing seems wrong."

"For example, have you smelled any strange odors in the mall?"

"I've smelled something now and then. It was probably frozen food going bad in the freezers. They'll definitely clear it out before business resumes," Liu Qiang said.

"What I mean is, do you think it's possible this mall is haunted?"

Haunted?

Liu Qiang immediately laughed. "You're a high school student too—why do you believe in that? If this place were really haunted, how could I have patrolled here for so many days without encountering anything even once? The boss believes in it, though. He went looking for some master. A master came here a while ago, but it didn't do any good. The boss thought that master wasn't skilled enough, so he went out of town to invite a very famous master."

"If it isn't haunted, then how do you explain the missing people? They vanished inside the mall. The mall isn't that big, yet they couldn't be found. Where could they have gone?"

"They might not have actually disappeared in the mall. The police investigation only showed that the missing people were last recorded on camera inside the mall. Maybe there was kidnapping or robbery or something. But after the mall closed down, missing-person cases have hardly happened anymore," Liu Qiang said.

"Wait." Yang Jian's expression suddenly changed, and he stopped.

"Bro, what is it?"

Yang Jian pointed ahead. "Didn't you say only the two of us were patrolling the entire mall? Then what's that?"

A figure stood motionless in the darkness, like a wooden puppet.

Liu Qiang shone his flashlight on it. It was just a mannequin.

"It's only a mannequin. Don't make a fuss over nothing."

As he spoke, he walked over, picked up the mannequin, and placed it inside a nearby store.

More than a dozen human-shaped mannequins stood inside that pitch-black shop. They were all missing arms or legs; not a single one was intact. They had been arranged in a complete mess, clearly untouched for a long time.

"It's fine now. Let's go patrol the floor below," Liu Qiang said.

Yang Jian asked, "Why was that mannequin standing in the middle of the walkway? Didn't you see it during your earlier patrols?"

"I didn't see it when I patrolled at noon. This was the first time I saw it too. Maybe Sister Li and the others took it out to try on clothes. It's not the first time," Liu Qiang said.

"So that was it."

Perhaps it was just an illusion, but the corpse stench Yang Jian had smelled upstairs seemed even stronger now.

Just as the two of them left.

At the entrance to the store they had just patrolled.

In the darkness, a mannequin stood there once more, motionless. Its head seemed to be facing the direction in which Yang Jian and Liu Qiang had disappeared.

After Yang Jian and Liu Qiang made a round through the mall, nothing happened at all.

Perhaps he had guessed wrong. This was merely an ordinary criminal case, with no connection to anything supernatural.

That one million from the mall owner would not be easy to earn.

Yang Jian pondered it. He decided to stay through the three-day probation period first. If he got nothing out of it, he would quit. He could not keep wasting time here.

Just as he finished his patrol and returned to the security room to rest, his satellite positioning phone rang.

It was Wang Shanshan's father, Wang Bin.

This chapter was from yesterday.

Typos would be corrected daily.