Head Swap

"Liu Qiang, haven't you noticed that there's something wrong with you?" Yang Jian stared at him seriously and asked.

Liu Qiang was stunned when he saw everything in the surveillance footage. He thought back carefully, but there were things he truly could not remember. It was as if, at certain times, his memories had gone blank. Normally, if he did not pay close attention, nothing seemed amiss. He seemed to have simply been working, without doing anything unusual at all.

"Yang Jian, are you saying that, like those people in the surveillance footage, my head was replaced too?"

Liu Qiang looked at him in shock, his face filled with disbelief.

"It seems you don't know your own condition. Let me ask you this: where were you before you came to the surveillance room?" Yang Jian said.

"I was..." Liu Qiang had just begun to answer when he froze.

How had he come to the surveillance room?

Had he come right after the power outage? But which route had he taken? Who had he met? What had he seen?

He could not remember. Liu Qiang could not remember, or rather, he simply did not have those memories.

Yang Jian said, "You can look for your own surveillance footage. The mall's cameras generally have night vision. Even if all the lights outside were turned off, they should still be able to see clearly."

"I'll look." Liu Qiang immediately began searching for his surveillance footage.

Very soon, he found it.

The footage went back to when Master Luo had been performing the ritual.

Everyone in the mall had been gathered in the first-floor lobby, watching Master Luo conduct the ritual.

Then Yang Jian, finding it funny, could not help interrupting Master Luo's ritual, and they exchanged a few heated words.

But the Liu Qiang in the surveillance footage seemed not to have paid any attention to it as he walked straight away.

No one noticed a security guard leaving.

"W-why did I go to the electrical room then?" Liu Qiang was instantly stunned when he saw himself in the footage.

Not long after the Liu Qiang in the footage entered the electrical room, the mall lost power.

Liu Qiang himself had cut the electricity.

Yang Jian said, "Not remembering doesn't mean you didn't do it. Keep watching."

After all the mall lights went out, Liu Qiang stood frozen in place like a wooden puppet, completely motionless. But that did not last long.

He soon began moving again.

He turned and headed toward the restroom on the first floor of the mall.

When Yang Jian saw this, everything matched what had happened before. The ghost that had entered the restroom earlier was Liu Qiang.

"Impossible, that's impossible! Why can't I remember doing any of this at all?"

Liu Qiang abruptly stood up. He turned to look at Yang Jian, his face full of terror.

Yang Jian took a step back and said seriously, "Because during the time you lost your memories, you were no longer human. You were a ghost, or you had been replaced by one. The reason you can still retain your memories is only because your head is still there and has not yet begun to rot. In a few more days, once your head rots, your memories will disappear completely."

"So strictly speaking, you already died several days ago. Touch your neck. The wound from where your head was replaced should still be there. If you weren't a ghost, that wound could not possibly exist."

Liu Qiang instinctively touched his neck.

As his palm brushed over the skin of his neck, the tiny cut immediately split open, exposing scarlet flesh within. At the same time, a foul stench wafted out.

He was already rotting.

"Impossible. I don't believe it. I don't believe I'm already dead. I'm clearly still alive and well."

Liu Qiang became agitated, repeatedly touching the wound on his neck to confirm whether Yang Jian's words were true.

However, his head had probably been replaced by the ghost several days ago. The wound had not healed tightly, and with a touch, it only widened further as flesh began to fall away in flakes.

The stench of decay grew stronger.

"W-what should I do? I don't want to die! Yang Jian, do you have any way to help me?" Having discovered the truth, Liu Qiang panicked completely. His hands were covered in blood and filth, reeking of rot. The head on his neck had shifted, and he looked at Yang Jian from an unnaturally crooked angle.

Yang Jian saw fear, pleading, and despair in his eyes.

"Sorry, I have no way to help you." He spoke with utter seriousness. "All I can do is remind you to call your family and say a few words. That's the only thing you can do."

With trembling hands, Liu Qiang pulled a phone from his pocket. Tears streamed from his eyes as he lowered his head, preparing to call his family.

But the moment he lowered his head—

His shifted head could no longer remain supported on his neck.

Bang!

A dull thud rang out.

Liu Qiang's head came free from his neck and dropped to the floor. It rolled several times across the tiles before finally hitting the wall and stopping.

The headless body immediately stiffened. The phone in his hand had only just lit up, but the call was never made.

Yang Jian glanced at Liu Qiang's head, its eyes closed and face deathly pale and bloodless, and sighed inwardly.

Another person had been killed by a vicious ghost.

Drawing back his gaze, he looked at Jiang Yan, who was pressed against the wall and trembling all over in fright.

Yang Jian walked over, roughly grabbed her delicate face, pressed her head against the wall, and forcefully ran his fingers across her neck.

"You're actually not a ghost?" Yang Jian said with some surprise.

His fingers slid over her neck without finding that wound.

Jiang Yan was frightened and angry. "You actually suspected me of being a ghost?"

"I had to. You work at this mall too. Who knows whether your head was replaced? Anyone whose head has been replaced is a ghost, and they don't know it themselves." Yang Jian released Jiang Yan.

"Then what do we do now? Those things are everywhere outside. How are we supposed to leave?"

Jiang Yan was not angry about it. Instead, she seemed afraid of angering Yang Jian. She clutched his hand, sounding pitiful.

Yang Jian said, "There are still people in the mall. I'll bring them out before we leave. Also, the front door key should be on Sister Li. Once we get the key from her, we can leave."

"But before we leave, you have to stay here and review this footage for me. Find out the ghost's true identity. It would be best if you can find the source of this ghost."

"Ah, I don't want to stay here. I want to go with you."

Jiang Yan jumped in fright and hurriedly hugged his arm, refusing to let go.

Yang Jian shook his head. "No. I need you to watch the surveillance feeds. Otherwise, how will I know when a ghost approaches me? How can I confirm the ghost's final identity? I don't have time to keep wasting here. It'll be dark soon. Once night falls, the mall will become completely impossible to see in, which will put us at an even greater disadvantage."

"B-but... Liu Qiang is here. I'm scared staying here." Jiang Yan spoke in a tearful voice.

Yang Jian ignored her. He merely took a phone from Liu Qiang's corpse and dialed his satellite positioning phone.

"Keep the call connected. Notify me immediately if anything happens. Also, remember this: never turn your back on anyone. That ghost can only remove and replace someone's head from behind. As long as you face the ghost, with your head facing the wrong direction, it won't attack you."

After saying that, he placed the phone in Jiang Yan's hand.

"I-I'm still scared," Jiang Yan said.

"Did you forget what you promised me on the first floor? If you don't listen, there's no way you'll leave alive. You're a smart woman. You know when to do what needs doing. As long as you're a little braver, this won't be a problem for you. Enough nonsense. Get to work."

Having said that, Yang Jian left the surveillance room without another word.

"Hey—" Jiang Yan wanted to stop him.

But the door had already slammed shut with a bang.

Jiang Yan wanted to follow him, but immediately stopped herself.

Because it was even more dangerous outside. Only this young security guard had the nerve to wander through a mall full of ghosts.

After hesitating for a moment, she finally gritted her teeth, suppressed the fear in her heart, and walked toward the surveillance console, gripping Liu Qiang's phone tightly in her hand.

As for Liu Qiang's headless corpse and the head leaning against the wall, she did not dare look at them again.

"Hello, can you hear me?"

Yang Jian walked through the mall and spoke into the satellite phone.

"I-I can hear you. I can already see you from here," Jiang Yan's nervous voice came through the phone.

"Good. Pay attention to anything around me and tell me immediately."

Yang Jian hung the walkie-talkie-like phone on his chest, then hurried toward the place where Boss Tang and the others had run into trouble.

Sister Li was among them. And she was a ghost.

That one million won't fall through the cracks, will it?

Yang Jian thought to himself, But as long as Jiang Yan cooperates properly this time, I can earn this money without using the power of the Ghost Eye.

Just as he began moving, figures started slowly emerging from every hidden corner and every closed shop in the mall, which had previously been cold and silent.

They looked different from one another, each with a pale face and closed eyes, moving stiffly.

Jiang Yan, who saw this scene from the surveillance room, was so frightened that her face turned green.

And those closer to him had already appeared not far from Yang Jian.

"Th-those things have appeared..." Jiang Yan warned in a trembling voice.

"I know. Just report the locations of the ghosts near me. Don't worry about anything else, and don't forget my earlier reminder." Yang Jian's tone was very calm, which immediately steadied Jiang Yan somewhat.