"Surveillance footage can be stored for fifteen days. I'm pulling up the recordings from the last seven days now." Liu Qiang operated the controls as he brought up the old footage. "By the way, what are you looking through the old recordings for?"
Yang Jian said, "I'm looking for a few people, to see what happened to them over the past few days."
"Huh? That's strange. Who is this? She doesn't seem to be from the company. Wasn't the mall already closed these past few days? How did she get in?" Liu Qiang suddenly cried out in surprise.
A middle-aged woman in a dress appeared on the surveillance screen.
"You don't know her?" Yang Jian casually asked, remaining wary of Liu Qiang.
Liu Qiang said, "No, but I feel like I've seen her somewhere before. I just can't remember where."
Yang Jian did not recognize the middle-aged woman on the screen either. After all, he had only been here for two days and had merely met the former employees in passing.
"Keep watching her. Let's see what exactly she wanted to do in the mall."
He had a vague feeling that the middle-aged woman in the footage was the ghost.
But the evidence told him that Liu Qiang beside him was the ghost.
If the ghost could alter its own identity, then everything made sense. But guesses were useless; he needed the video footage as evidence.
They continued watching the surveillance recording.
The middle-aged woman on-screen moved in an odd manner. She took the elevator to the second floor, but then stopped at the stairwell entrance for a long time, standing motionless like a puppet.
"Fast-forward it," Yang Jian said.
The footage sped up.
The middle-aged woman stood at the stairwell entrance for a full half hour before she suddenly moved at last.
She entered the second floor.
At that moment, Wei Xiaohong appeared beside one of the cash registers on the second floor.
She seemed to be on duty.
But Wei Xiaohong seemed tired from sitting at the register, so she stood up and stretched.
The middle-aged woman slowly approached her, walking directly toward Wei Xiaohong step by step.
Wei Xiaohong happened to have her back to the middle-aged woman as she twisted her waist, completely unaware that someone was approaching.
Not until the middle-aged woman silently arrived behind Wei Xiaohong.
"Slow it down," Yang Jian said again.
The playback speed returned to normal.
In the surveillance recording, the unfamiliar middle-aged woman stood behind Wei Xiaohong for roughly two or three seconds before suddenly reaching out and grabbing Wei Xiaohong's head with both hands.
Wei Xiaohong had no idea what was happening. Her body merely trembled lightly.
An unbelievable scene unfolded. Like a plastic doll's head, Wei Xiaohong's head was removed from her neck by the middle-aged woman.
There were no screams, no blood. Everything seemed so calm.
Wei Xiaohong's headless body stood rigidly in place without moving, as though it had lost its life.
"H-how is that possible?" Liu Qiang said in shock.
Jiang Yan, who had been secretly watching the monitor, was startled too. She kept her hand over her mouth to stop herself from crying out.
Yang Jian's expression remained unchanged. Unmoved, he continued watching what happened on the screen.
After removing Wei Xiaohong's head, the unfamiliar middle-aged woman actually removed her own head as well, then placed Wei Xiaohong's head onto her own body.
At that point, the unfamiliar middle-aged woman became Wei Xiaohong.
Then, not long afterward, Wei Xiaohong moved.
As if nothing had happened, she carried the unfamiliar woman's head along with her own body away from the second floor.
Judging by how easily she carried the corpse, it was clearly not something an ordinary person could do.
"Five days ago, Wei Xiaohong became a ghost." Yang Jian's expression darkened.
Now he understood why Wei Xiaohong's head had decayed so badly. If a ghost had switched her head five days ago, then the timing was about right.
"Continue. Keep watching this Wei Xiaohong."
"O-okay." Liu Qiang was nervous now.
The surveillance footage continued, and he quickly pulled up Wei Xiaohong's recordings.
In footage from four days ago, Wei Xiaohong went to work as usual, greeted people, and ate. She did not look like a ghost at all. She was just like an ordinary person, even chatting and laughing with her coworkers.
However, one afternoon four days ago.
Sister Li was bored and invited several female coworkers to try on clothes. Wei Xiaohong was among them.
The four of them went to a clothing store on the fifth floor.
Since the mall was closed, there was no one in the store. All the clothes were on the racks for them to try on as they pleased.
Sister Li was holding up a dress to herself in front of a mirror, checking whether it suited her.
But at that moment.
Wei Xiaohong suddenly began moving strangely. She slowly walked behind Sister Li and reached toward her head.
However, Sister Li suddenly turned around then, holding the clothes as she seemed to say something to Wei Xiaohong.
There was no sound in the surveillance footage, but that was not important.
Yang Jian clearly saw Wei Xiaohong stop moving.
Because Sister Li had turned around and was no longer facing away from Wei Xiaohong.
But that stroke of luck did not last long. Sister Li had no idea that Wei Xiaohong was already a ghost. She still treated her like an ordinary female coworker.
Soon, Sister Li found another outfit and continued comparing it against herself in front of the mirror.
This time, Wei Xiaohong moved again.
Just as the unfamiliar woman had done to her, Wei Xiaohong reached out from behind and held Sister Li's head. Sister Li's body stiffened with a shudder.
The eerie scene played out once more.
Sister Li's head was removed.
"No, that's not right. If Sister Li's head was removed, she couldn't possibly have appeared in front of me afterward." Yang Jian frowned.
Because there was only one ghost.
It could not be both Wei Xiaohong and Sister Li.
Yet the next moment, he became suspicious again.
The footage showed Wei Xiaohong removing her own head after taking off Sister Li's.
She switched their heads.
The two stood rigidly for a moment, then quickly returned to normal and continued trying on clothes as before.
Yang Jian's heart skipped a beat. He realized this was not as simple as he had thought, and his gaze rapidly swept over the surveillance screens on the console.
He quickly searched through the mall footage.
In the end, he spotted someone standing at the door of a storage room on the fifth floor.
The person had their back to the camera, making their face impossible to see.
"Pull up the footage from this camera," Yang Jian said.
Liu Qiang brought up the surveillance recording from that camera.
Ten minutes earlier.
Boss Tang, Master Luo, Manager Li, Sister Li, and the others had followed Yan Li into the storage room to hide.
At the same time, people emerged slowly from the elevator entrance, the emergency exit doors, and in front of every store. They surrounded Yan Li's group.
After the group hid inside, those people blocked the storage room door. After a long while, something seemed to happen, and they gradually dispersed, disappearing somewhere in the fifth-floor mall.
Yang Jian's heart trembled at the sight, and he drew a quiet breath.
There was not one ghost. There was a group of them.
Everyone whose head had been switched was either a ghost or controlled by one.
He looked at Liu Qiang's neck.
A thin red line circled his neck.
He was one of them.
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