40 The Elevator

They waited for a full two hours before Yang Jian was finally sure that the ghost baby wouldn't come again.

Wang Shanshan's matters had thus temporarily been resolved, though there was still a small hidden danger.

Yang Jian glanced at her sympathetically.

Back then, he had no choice but to become a ghost rider as in that situation, he would've been long dead in that washroom if he hadn't. However, Wang Shanshan could have been safe like the others, but unexpectedly and unfortunately, the ghost baby had targeted her at the last moment.

"I still have work and I had asked for leave to come over. Since this matter has been settled, I will be leaving first. If there is anything, you can call me. Of course, if it is a supernatural incident, I will have to charge you," Yang Jian stood up, preparing to take a taxi and leave.

Wang Bin hurriedly said, "Thank you very much for today's matters, Yang Jian. I really don't know how to thank you. How about I treat you to a meal when you are free?"

"There's no need for that, you don't have to go to that expense," Yang Jian said, "Besides, nothing good will happen if you're with me."

Wang Shanshan suddenly said, "Then can I follow you?"

"Shanshan, what are you saying?" Wang Haiyan hurriedly grabbed her hand and said, afraid that her daughter would run away with Yang Jian.

She was very well aware that the current Yang Jian was not as simple as they thought. If Shanshan followed him, she would definitely encounter danger in the future.

Yang Jian smiled and said, "You should spend your time with your parents. It hadn't been easy on them today because of your matters... Plus, you should also be clear about your situation. Even if you weren't targeted by the ghost baby, your life wouldn't have been long."

"I know, but I just want to be with you," Wang Shanshan said. She didn't beat around the bush at all and didn't have the shyness of a young girl. She said it as natural as she was talking in a normal conversation.

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

How could he let Wang Shanshan follow him?

Wouldn't he be burdening himself to bring another burden with him?

With the ghost realm, he could leave immediately if he encountered trouble. If he added someone to his party, he even had to save her first before he could leave.

He slipped away.

He had received the money, so he quickly took a taxi and left.

He returned to the shopping mall to continue on his path of earning money.

"This young man is quite extraordinary," Wang Bin couldn't help but sigh when he saw Yang Jian leave.

What was the most important thing in the 21st century?

Talent.

Yang Jian had such a special talent, and he also had smarts. Although he didn't have enough social experience, it was only because he was young. As long as he was given some time to grow, he would definitely be an influential figure in the future.

"If my daughter can be his girlfriend, it might be a good choice," Wang Bin thought to himself.

However, the young man didn't seem to be interested in Shanshan... ... His daughter wasn't bad-looking though.

It can't be that Yang Jian was gay, right?

If Yang Jian knew his thoughts, he would definitely scold Wang Bin for taking him as a gay just because he didn't show any apparent interest in his daughter.

He was already a person who was at death's door, so how could he still have the mood for relationships? He didn't even have time for sex.

Back at the mall, other than the security room which was still lit up, the rest of the mall was pitch black.

When Yang Jian returned, the other security guard, Liu Qiang, was playing games on his phone, bored.

"Why are you only just back? How long have you been gone? To think you asked for leave right after you just started the job. Fortunately, I lied to Sister Li that you went to the toilet, or else you and I would have been scolded," Liu Qiang said.

"I'm sorry to have caused trouble for you. My classmate had something urgent and needed me, so I was delayed for a while. It won't happen again," Yang Jian apologized.

"You came at the right time though. It's almost 12 o'clock, time to patrol. Let's go. If there's nothing else, we can turn off the lights and go back to sleep. We still have work at 8:30 tomorrow," After saying that, Liu Qiang put down his phone, stretched lazily, and yawned.

Yang Jian somewhat admired Liu Qiang. He was quite brave to have the guts to patrol in such a huge shopping mall alone.

If it was the previous him, he definitely wouldn't have the courage to do so.

"The dormitory is upstairs. We'll patrol from the underground parking lot to upstairs so we can turn off the lights while we're at it and go straight back to the dormitory to sleep then. Otherwise, we'll have to come back again," Liu Qiang said, "Remember to take a flashlight."

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

Although he only planned to observe here for three days, he still had to do what he should do and not be double-minded.

As business wasn't open in the mall, there were not many cars in the underground parking lot. It was quite empty.

"Who owns that row of cars?" Suddenly, Yang Jian pointed to a row of five or six luxury cars and said, "Were they left behind by the missing people?"

"No, those are all the boss's cars. He chooses to drive a different car every day. Who knows how many more cars the boss has at home? Alright, there's nothing wrong with the underground parking lot. Let's go up to the first floor to patrol," said Liu Qiang.

Yang Jian took a glance around the underground parking lot again. There was indeed nothing special about it.

If there really was something wrong, he would've been able to see it at a glance.

They went on to patrol the first floor.

Taking a turn with the flashlight in the dark on the first floor, like in the underground parking lot, nothing happened. Other than the darkness, everything was normal.

They then took the escalator to the second floor.

However, before Yang Jian finished his round on the second floor, he suddenly heard a faint rumbling sound coming from the upper floor of the mall.

"What's that sound?" Yang Jian shone the flashlight to the top but didn't see anything.

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

"It's the sound of the escalator running. Maybe Sister Li and the others went up and forgot to turn it off. Every escalator has a separate switch, so it's normal to forget about it. We'll clean up their mess in the end, anyway," said Liu Qiang.

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

Liu Qiang said, "What's the rush? Let's take our time. We have to first patrol around the third floor, then only the fourth. There are surveillance cameras here. If people see us slacking off, our pay will be deducted. Especially since you're new here, if you're caught slacking off, you'll definitely be fired."

"..." Yang Jian felt that Liu Qiang was quite stubborn.

Forget it, it was fine to take it slow. There was no one in the mall anyway, so even if something happened, it had nothing to do with him.

The two of them slowly strolled through the third floor and the fourth floor before finally arriving at the escalator.

The escalator in the mall was not a lift, but a crawler-type escalator.

"See, I told you it was fine. It's just that someone forgot to turn off the escalator's power. Okay, let's go," Liu Qiang walked over and turned off the power at the escalator entrance.

Yang Jian did not say anything else. He hoped that he was being paranoid.

They took the escalator to the fifth floor.

This time, it was not an illusion, the faint smell of corpses came again.

It filled the air and would not go away.

He hadn't smelled it when he was on the third floor.

"There's something wrong on the fifth floor..." Yang Jian held the flashlight as he followed Liu Qiang around the fifth floor.

There was nothing except for the closed shops and some shelves.

Everything seemed calm.

However, when Yang Jian passed by a clothing store, he shone the flashlight into the store.

Inside were plastic mannequins. They were incomplete, just like during the day. Nothing had changed.

"Everything is normal. Let's go back to sleep," Liu Qiang yawned.

"Okay," Yang Jian retracted his gaze and left the mall with Liu Qiang along the staff corridor, using the flashlight to light the way. They returned to the staff dormitory.

On the way, he suddenly thought of something and asked, "Oh right, the escalator on the fourth floor should have been running since it was left open. Why wasn't it running when we were there previously?"

"That's an inductive escalator. It will only move when it senses someone there. If there's no one, it won't run," said Liu Qiang.

"Since it's inductive, does that mean that the escalator had suddenly operated just now because someone was using it? But there's no one else in the mall other than us. Who was using the escalator?" said Yang Jian.

Liu Qiang said, "It may be a malfunction. If someone was on patrol before, they should have already seen it."

Yang Jian frowned. He wanted to go back and check, but he also felt that there was no need. He decided to wait until the boss came tomorrow.

Just as Yang Jian and Liu Qiang went back to the dormitory to sleep, in the shopping mall, a slight rumbling sound sounded again.

The escalators had begun to operate again.

The power button of the escalator from the fifth floor to the fourth floor suddenly lit up and started to operate slowly.

After about a minute, the escalator stopped.

But the escalator from the fourth floor to the third floor began to operate.

Boom boom...

After a moment of operation, it stopped.

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

Finally, after the escalator to the first floor operated for a moment, everything in the shopping mall returned to normal.