Yang Jian woke up very early the next day.
Ever since becoming a Ghost Tamer and gaining that Ghost Eye inside his body, he had gradually noticed certain changes in himself.
The most obvious was that he needed less and less sleep, yet he did not feel mentally exhausted.
"Only six hours of sleep?"
Yang Jian washed his face and looked at himself in the mirror.
He did not look haggard. On the contrary, he gave off a cold, unapproachable aura that even made him feel unfamiliar to himself.
He looked at the red paper on the back of his hand.
After an entire night, he had not felt the torment of the Ghost Eye reviving. Instead, he had slept quite soundly.
Yet an inconspicuous crack had appeared on the red paper.
"Does this red paper only treat the symptoms, not the cause? Or is it because it's merely a fragment and not complete?" Yang Jian withdrew his gaze and rubbed his head.
"Looks like solving this half-dead state of mine won't be as easy as I imagined."
That made sense.
A global catastrophe was unfolding, with supernatural incidents occurring all over the world.
None of the people who had become Ghost Tamers had found a way to survive. How could he possibly come up with one alone?
The red paper's ability to suppress a fierce ghost's revival was only something he had stumbled upon by accident.
"Wait, wait."
Yang Jian suddenly thought of the Human-Skin Parchment.
He took the Human-Skin Parchment he carried with him from his pocket and unfolded it.
A line of words appeared on it:
Today, I woke up very early. I gradually discovered that my body was beginning to be affected by the Ghost Eye. This influence was happening subtly, because I found that I had been sleeping less and less these past few days. If this continues, I estimate that I will soon no longer need to sleep day or night.
I heard that ghosts do not need to sleep. Perhaps that was true.
"When I got you from Fang Jing, Fang Jing said you knew how Ghost Tamers could survive. I don't think he lied to me, so you must have some crucial clue."
Yang Jian stared at the Human-Skin Parchment. "If you're willing to tell me, I think I'll reconsider your existence."
Words emerged on the Human-Skin Parchment: I want very much to live. I am gradually beginning to understand the pain of becoming a Ghost Tamer—the pressure of death, the fear of a fierce ghost reviving, and the changes to my own body. This is not something someone my age should bear. Today, I finally could not help asking that strange human skin again, but I did not get the answer I wanted. That human skin did not tell me anything useful.
Or perhaps this human skin contained some secret, but simply refused to reveal it.
What exactly was it hiding?
Yang Jian's expression shifted as he read the words.
Before, he had once thought that this Human-Skin Parchment possessed its own consciousness. But ever since leaving the school, it had lost its ability to guide him.
If not for the Human-Skin Parchment's guidance inside that old man's Ghost Domain that day, he would not have been able to leave alive.
"Since you won't reveal even a scrap of information to me, you're useless. I might as well burn you, so I don't have to carry such a creepy piece of human skin around all day."
After washing up, Yang Jian took the thing to the gas stove.
He lit the flame.
Yet under the gas flame, the Human-Skin Parchment did not move in the slightest.
The fire could not destroy it at all.
"Yang Jian, what are you burning? Cooking noodles?"
Liu Qiang smelled the gas and came out of his room.
Yang Jian looked at the completely undamaged Human-Skin Parchment, the corner of his mouth twitching. "Nothing. I was just testing whether the stove works."
"If you're cooking noodles, I've got some sausages here," Liu Qiang said.
"I have some too."
"Looks like I should still find a place where no one will ever find it and bury this thing." Yang Jian frowned slightly.
Even if he died, he absolutely could not leave behind something so strange.
Just as he was about to put the Human-Skin Parchment away for the time being.
Another line of words suddenly appeared: I cannot obtain any more useful information from this Human-Skin Parchment. For the sake of the future, I intend to discard it and make sure no one else finds it. But I am thinking that if I can use this Human-Skin Parchment to capture a ghost, perhaps I can obtain an answer I want.
"Capture a ghost? I think you're trying to trick me into getting myself killed."
Yang Jian glanced at it. He did not believe its ghostly nonsense and simply put it away, intending to find somewhere to bury it in a few days.
Two hours later.
The mall opened.
Although it was still closed for business, Yang Jian and Liu Qiang still had to work.
At eight-thirty, they began their patrol.
"By the way, didn't we shut down the elevators yesterday? Why are they running again now?" Yang Jian stood on the escalator and suddenly remembered that they had turned off the lights and elevators before going back to rest.
Logically, the elevators should not have been turned on this early in the morning.
"Sister Li has the keys here. Look, the mall doors are already open. I heard the boss might be coming back today, so perhaps Sister Li prepared everything in advance. Why are you always worrying about these things?" Liu Qiang asked, puzzled.
"Nothing. Just asking," Yang Jian said.
Today, every light in the mall had indeed been switched on. It was somewhat different from its usual dim darkness.
After making a round of the mall, Yang Jian found nothing unusual.
Everything was normal.
Yet it was precisely this normality that made Yang Jian uneasy.
If even he could not find the problem, then there should not have been any supernatural incident in this mall. But why had people disappeared?
And Yang Jian always felt that something about the mall was off.
But he could not say what it was.
However, around ten o'clock.
Several luxury cars pulled up outside the mall.
A group of people got out.
Leading them was a middle-aged man in a suit, somewhat short in stature.
"The boss is here. Be careful. The mall has been closed recently, so the boss hasn't been in a good mood," Liu Qiang reminded him quietly.
This short middle-aged man's surname was Tang. His name was Tang An, and he was the owner of this mall. He had once worked in real estate, but changed careers in recent years and opened this mall.
"Master Luo, this is my mall. Please have a look and tell me what exactly is wrong with it. People have been disappearing every few days lately. Watch your step, Master Luo."
Boss Tang wore a fawning smile as he led over a greasy-faced man in his fifties.
Three to five attendants followed behind them.
This man called Master Luo suddenly gestured. "We can't enter through the main entrance. Enter through another door. Does this mall have any other entrances?"
"Yes, yes, there's a delivery entrance," Boss Tang hurriedly said.
"Then let's enter the mall from there and have a look," Master Luo said.
Seeing this scene from the entrance, the corner of Yang Jian's mouth twitched slightly.
This was obviously a con man.
All this pointless fuss was just to fool people.
Everyone entered and exited through the main entrance, including customers, but this so-called master could not? Even if there was a ghost, Yang Jian should have discovered it during his patrol.
Unless Master Luo was also a Ghost Tamer, and more capable than Yang Jian.
But judging by his greasy face and vigorous appearance, he clearly could not be a Ghost Tamer.
"You two stay here and don't let anyone else in. If anything comes up later, I'll call you."
Sister Li hurried over at that moment. After saying this, she took several female colleagues to greet the boss.
Master Luo entered the mall through a side entrance, leading Boss Tang, the manager, Sister Li, and the rest around the mall. He looked here and there, then nodded with an expression of complete understanding, as though he had thoroughly figured out the strange things happening in the mall. No one knew what exactly he had figured out.
Or perhaps he had already prepared the script in his mind.
Yang Jian had no interest in it. Although he knew Master Luo was a con man, he did not expose him.
If there really was no supernatural incident, then the one million would only go to this con man anyway. It would not fall into Yang Jian's hands regardless.
"Hm?"
But at that moment, Yang Jian's nose twitched. He smelled that faint corpse stench again.
"That smell has appeared again. This time, it seems... very close, because it's stronger than before."
He turned and scanned the area. The mall remained quiet, and nothing had happened.
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