"Liu Qiang, haven't you noticed anything off about yourself?" Yang Jian asked earnestly, staring at him.
Liu Qiang, after witnessing the surveillance footage, was also stunned. He tried to recall, but there were moments he genuinely couldn't remember, as if he experienced periods of memory loss. Normally, he didn't pay attention, and everything seemed fine; he appeared to be just working as usual, without doing anything extraordinary.
"Yang Jian, are you saying that I'm like those people in the surveillance video, my head has been switched?" Liu Qiang looked at him in shock, his face filled with disbelief.
"It seems you're unaware of your own condition. Let me ask you, where were you before coming to the surveillance room?" Yang Jian said.
"I was at..." Liu Qiang tried to answer, but then he froze.
How did he get to the surveillance room? Did he come straight after the power outage? But which path did he take, who did he meet, and what did he see? He couldn't remember. Or rather, he had no memory of that part.
Yang Jian said, "You can look for your own surveillance footage. The mall's surveillance usually has night vision capabilities, so even if all the lights outside are off, it should be clear."
"I'll check..." Liu Qiang immediately searched for his own surveillance footage.
Soon, he found it.
The timeline went back to when Master Luo was performing a ritual.
Everyone in the mall was watching Master Luo in the lobby on the first floor.
Then Yang Jian, finding it amusing, couldn't help but interrupt Master Luo's ritual, leading to a quarrel.
But in the surveillance footage, Liu Qiang seemed to ignore this and left directly.
No one paid attention to a security guard leaving.
"I, how did I go to the power room at that time?" Liu Qiang was shocked to see himself in the surveillance.
In the footage, after Liu Qiang went to the power room, the mall's power went out shortly after.
The electricity was cut off by Liu Qiang himself.
Yang Jian said, "You don't remember, but that doesn't mean you didn't do it. Keep watching."
After all the lights in the mall went out, Liu Qiang stood there, motionless like a wooden man, but this didn't last long.
He soon moved again.
He turned and walked towards the first floor restroom of the mall.
Seeing this, Yang Jian connected it with what had happened earlier; the ghost that came to the restroom was Liu Qiang.
"Impossible, this can't be. Why can't I remember doing this at all?"
Liu Qiang stood up abruptly, looking at Yang Jian with a face full of fear.
Yang Jian took a step back and said seriously, "Because at the time when you lost your memory, you were no longer human, but a ghost, or replaced by one. The reason you can still retain your memory is that your head is still there, not yet rotten. In a few days, when your head rots, your memory will be completely gone."
"So, strictly speaking, you have been dead for a few days. Feel your neck; the wound from the head transplant should still be there. If you are not a ghost, you absolutely could not have that wound."
Liu Qiang subconsciously touched his neck.
His hand brushed the skin of his neck, and the thin cut immediately opened, revealing bright red flesh and a foul smell.
He was already rotting...
"No, I don't believe it. I don't believe I'm dead. I'm still alive and well."
Liu Qiang became agitated, constantly touching the wound on his neck to confirm Yang Jian's previous words.
But it had been several days since his head was replaced by a ghost; the wound was not tight. As he touched it, the wound became larger, and flesh fell off.
The stench of decay became stronger.
"What should I do? I don't want to die, Yang Jian, can you help me?" Faced with this reality, Liu Qiang panicked completely, his hands covered in blood, emitting a foul odor, his head displaced, looking at Yang Jian in an unnatural way.
Yang Jian saw the fear, pleading, and despair in his eyes...
"I'm sorry, I don't have any way to help you," he said earnestly. "What I can do is remind you to call your family and say a few words. That's the only thing you can do."
Liu Qiang trembled as he took out his phone from his pocket, tears in his eyes, preparing to call his family.
But as he lowered his head.
The moved head could no longer be supported on his neck...
"Bang!"
A dull thud sounded.
Liu Qiang's head fell off his neck and rolled on the floor several times before stopping against the wall.
The headless body immediately stiffened, the phone in his hand just lighting up the screen, never making the call.
Glancing at Liu Qiang's head, closed eyes, and pale face, Yang Jian sighed in his heart.
Another person killed by a fierce ghost.
He withdrew his gaze and looked at Jiang Yan, who was trembling against the wall, scared out of her wits.
Yang Jian walked over, roughly grabbed her delicate face, pressed her head against the wall, and then forcefully slid his finger across her neck.
"Are you not a ghost after all?" Yang Jian said with some surprise.
His finger slid across her neck, not feeling the wound.
Jiang Yan was both scared and angry: "You actually suspected I was a ghost?"
"It's necessary to suspect. You're also a staff member of the mall. Who knows if your head has been switched? Anyone with a switched head is a ghost, and they don't know about it themselves." Yang Jian released Jiang Yan.
"What do we do now? There are those things outside; how do we leave here?"
Jiang Yan was not angry about this matter; instead, she was afraid that Yang Jian would be angry. She held his hand with a bit of a pitifully pleading tone.
Yang Jian said, "There are still people in the mall. I'll bring them out and then leave. Moreover, the key to the main door should be with Sister Li. We can leave once we get the key from her."
"But before leaving, you must stay here and review this footage for me to figure out the real identity of this ghost, preferably find the source of this ghost."
"Ah, I don't want to stay here; I want to follow you."
Jiang Yan was startled and quickly hugged his arm, unwilling to let go.
Yang Jian shook his head: "No, I need you to watch the surveillance; otherwise, how would I know when a ghost comes near me? How can I confirm the ghost's final identity? I don't have time to continue wasting here; it will be dark soon. The mall won't be visible at night, which is even more disadvantageous for us."
"But, but there's Liu Qiang here; I'm scared to be here."
Yang Jian ignored her and took a phone from Liu Qiang's lifeless hand and dialed his satellite phone.
"Keep the call open, inform me immediately if anything happens. Also, remember one thing: never turn your back on anyone. The ghost can only remove and replace a person's head from behind. As long as you face the ghost, with your head not aligned, the ghost won't attack you."
With that, he put the phone into Jiang Yan's hand.
"I'm still very scared," Jiang Yan said.
"Did you forget how you promised me on the first floor? If you don't listen, you won't be able to leave alive. You're a smart person; you know what to do and when. As long as you're a bit more courageous, this won't be a problem for you. Alright, no more talking, let's get to work."
Without another word, Yang Jian left the surveillance room.
"Hey..." Jiang Yan wanted to hold him back.
But the door slammed shut.
Jiang Yan wanted to follow, but she immediately stopped.
Because it was more dangerous outside; only this little security guard had the courage to walk around the ghost-filled mall.
After hesitating, she gritted her teeth, endured her fear, and walked towards the surveillance desk, tightly holding Liu Qiang's phone.
As for Liu Qiang's headless corpse and the head leaning against the wall, she didn't dare to look twice.
"Hey, can you hear me?"
Yang Jian walked in the mall, speaking into the satellite phone.
"I can hear you, I can see you now," Jiang Yan's nervous voice came from the other end of the phone.
"Good, pay attention to any movement around me and inform me in time."
Yang Jian hung the walkie-talkie-style phone on his chest and headed towards where Boss Tang and his group had an accident.
Among that group was Sister Li... and she was a ghost.
"The one million won't be wasted, right?"
Yang Jian thought to himself, "But this time, as long as Jiang Yan cooperates well, I can earn this money without using the power of the ghost eye."
As he began to take action, the previously cold and quiet mall, now figures began to slowly emerge from various hidden corners, closed shops.
They had different appearances, all with pale faces, closed eyes, and stiff movements.
Seeing this in the surveillance room, Jiang Yan's face turned green with fear.
Those close by had already appeared not far from Yang Jian.
"Th, those things have appeared..." Jiang Yan's voice trembled as she warned.
"I know, just report the positions of the ghosts near me, don't worry about anything else, and don't forget my previous reminder." Yang Jian's tone was very calm, which calmed Jiang Yan down quite a bit.