The Operating Elevator

He waited a full two hours.

Yang Jian was certain the Ghost Infant would not come back.

For the time being, the matter with Wang Bin's family had been resolved, though it had left behind a neither-small-nor-large hidden danger.

He looked at Wang Shanshan with some sympathy.

He had become a Ghost Tamer because he had had no other choice. In that situation, if he had not become one, he would have died in that bathroom long ago. But she could originally have lived like everyone else. Who knew that, at the last moment, the Ghost Infant would set its sights on her?

"I still have work to do. I took leave to come here just now. Since this matter has been settled, I'll be going first. If anything comes up, call me. Of course, if it's a supernatural incident, I charge a fee." Yang Jian stood up, preparing to call a taxi and leave.

Wang Bin hurriedly said, "Thank you so much for what you did today, classmate. I really don't know how to thank you. How about this? When you have time, I'll treat you to a meal."

"No need for a meal. No need to spend the money." Yang Jian said, "Besides, nothing good happens when people stay around me."

Wang Shanshan suddenly spoke. "Then can I follow you?"

"Daughter, what are you saying?" Wang Haiyan hurriedly grabbed her hand, afraid that her daughter would run off with Yang Jian.

She understood as well that Yang Jian was not as simple as he seemed. If Wang Shanshan followed him, she would definitely encounter danger again.

Yang Jian smiled. "You should spend time with your dad and Mom. They had it hard today because of you. Besides, you should know your own condition. Even if the Ghost Infant hadn't targeted you, you wouldn't have much time left."

"I know, but I just want to be with you." Wang Shanshan said it without the slightest reservation or girlish shyness, as naturally as if she were saying something ordinary.

"That won't do. You should be with your parents right now. All right, that's it. I'm leaving."

How could he possibly let Wang Shanshan follow him?

Having an extra burden would only drag him down.

With his Ghost Domain, he could leave immediately whenever he ran into trouble. With another person around, he would have to save them too.

Time to slip away.

He had the money already, so he quickly called a taxi and left.

He returned to the mall to continue his life-risking path of making money.

"That young man is extraordinary," Wang Bin could not help remarking as he watched Yang Jian leave.

What was the most important thing in the twenty-first century?

Talent.

Yang Jian possessed that special talent, and he had a good head on his shoulders. Though he lacked social experience, that was only because of his youth. Give him some time to grow, and he would definitely become someone remarkable in the future.

It wouldn't be a bad choice if my daughter could date him, Wang Bin thought to himself.

It was just that this young man did not seem interested in Shanshan. His daughter was certainly not bad-looking.

Could Yang Jian be into men?

If Yang Jian knew what Wang Bin was thinking, he would definitely scold him. A filthy mind saw filth in everyone.

He was someone who was nearly dead. How could he be in the mood to date? It was too late even to make a child.

He returned to the mall.

Other than the security room, which still had its lights on, the rest of the mall was pitch-black.

When Yang Jian returned, another security guard, Liu Qiang, was idly playing games on his phone.

"Why are you only coming back now? How long were you gone? You asked for leave the moment you arrived? Good thing I lied to Sister Li and said you went to the bathroom, or we would definitely have been scolded," Liu Qiang said.

"Sorry for causing you trouble. A classmate had something urgent to discuss with me, so I was delayed. It won't happen again," Yang Jian apologized.

"But you came back at just the right time. It's almost midnight, time for patrol. Come on. Once we make one last round and confirm everything's fine, we can turn off the lights and go back to sleep. We have work again at eight-thirty tomorrow morning." After saying that, Liu Qiang put down his phone, stretched, and yawned.

Yang Jian rather admired Liu Qiang. He really had guts, daring to patrol such a large mall alone.

His former self definitely would not have had that courage.

"The dormitory is upstairs. We'll patrol from the underground parking lot, then turn off the lights as we leave and go straight back to sleep. That way, we won't have to make another trip back," Liu Qiang said. "Remember to bring your flashlight."

"Thanks for the reminder." Yang Jian nodded, picked up a flashlight, and went on patrol with Liu Qiang.

Although he only intended to observe this place for three days, he still needed to do his job properly. He could not be half-hearted about it.

Because there was no business, there were only a few cars in the underground parking lot, leaving it empty and deserted.

"Whose cars are those?" Yang Jian suddenly pointed at a row of five or six luxury cars. "Were they left behind by the missing people?"

"No, those are all the boss's cars. He drives a different one every day. Who knows how many cars he has at home? All right, there's nothing in the underground parking lot. Let's patrol the floor above," Liu Qiang said.

Yang Jian glanced around again. The underground parking lot was visible at a glance, and there really was nothing unusual.

If anything had been wrong, they would definitely have seen it immediately.

They continued their patrol on the first floor.

They walked around in the dark with their flashlights, and likewise nothing happened. Other than the darkness, everything was normal.

They took the escalator to the second floor.

But before he had even finished one round of patrol, Yang Jian suddenly heard a faint rumbling sound coming from the upper floors of the mall.

"What was that sound?"

Yang Jian raised his flashlight and shone it upward, but saw nothing.

The sound seemed to be coming from the escalator between the fourth and fifth floors.

"That's the sound of the escalator running. Maybe Sister Li and the others went up there and forgot to turn it off. Every escalator has its own switch. It's normal to forget. Either way, we'll be the ones cleaning up after them in the end," Liu Qiang said.

"Is that so? Let's go take a look," Yang Jian said.

"Why the rush? Take it slow. We'll patrol the third floor first, then go to the fourth. There are surveillance cameras here. If someone sees us slacking off, they'll dock our pay. Especially you, since you're new. If they catch you slacking off, you'll definitely be fired," Liu Qiang said.

Yang Jian felt that Liu Qiang was a little too rigid.

Fine. Slow it was, then. The mall was empty anyway. Even if something was wrong, it had nothing to do with him.

The two of them leisurely finished checking the third floor, made a round on the fourth floor, and only then arrived at the escalator.

The mall's escalators were not elevators that went up and down, but moving stairways with conveyor-like steps.

"See? I told you it was nothing. The escalator power was just left on. All right, let's go." Liu Qiang walked over and turned off the power at the escalator entrance.

Yang Jian said nothing more. Hopefully, he had merely been overly suspicious.

They took the escalator to the fifth floor.

This time, it was not an illusion.

That faint smell of decay had returned.

It permeated the air and would not disperse.

He had not smelled it earlier when they were on the third floor.

"The fifth floor feels a little off." Holding his flashlight, Yang Jian followed Liu Qiang as they made a round through the fifth floor.

Other than closed shops and a few shelves, there was nothing there.

Everything seemed peaceful.

But when Yang Jian passed a clothing store, he shone his flashlight inside.

There were plastic mannequins inside, incomplete and damaged, the same as during the day. Nothing had changed.

"Everything's normal. Let's go back and sleep." Liu Qiang yawned.

"Okay."

Yang Jian withdrew his gaze and left the mall with Liu Qiang through the staff passage, heading back to the employee dormitory.

On the way, he suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, the escalator on the fourth floor should have kept running if it hadn't been turned off. Why wasn't it moving when we first got there?"

"It's sensor-activated. It only moves when someone walks onto it. If nobody does, it won't run," Liu Qiang said.

"If it's sensor-activated, then does that mean it suddenly started running because someone was using it? But there's no third person in the mall besides us. Who was using the escalator?" Yang Jian asked.

"Maybe it malfunctioned. If someone had been there, we would have seen them during patrol," Liu Qiang said.

Yang Jian frowned. He wanted to go back and check, but decided there was no need. He would wait until the boss came tomorrow and take another look.

Just as Yang Jian and Liu Qiang returned to the dormitory to sleep,

A faint rumbling sound came from the mall again.

The escalators started operating once more.

The escalator leading from the fifth floor to the fourth suddenly lit up, then slowly began to move.

After about a minute, the escalator stopped.

But then the escalator from the fourth floor to the third began operating.

Rumble, rumble.

But after running for a short while, it stopped again.

Then the escalator from the third floor to the second began moving.

Finally,

After the escalator leading to the first floor ran for a moment, everything in the mall returned to silence.

The new title will do for now. I'll change it back when I get the chance.