The Closed Shopping Mall

Yang Jian had tormented the unscrupulous merchant for over an hour, pushing the wretched man nearly to the brink of collapse. Finally, he returned to the mobile phone repair shop and removed the phone that had been implanted into the merchant's brain.

Grabbing the merchant by the collar, Yang Jian, with a stern face, said: "You've probably done this phone-switching trick quite a few times, who knows how much money you've scammed from people. Let me tell you, I can be an ordinary person doing business with you the normal way, but I can also be a villain ten times worse than you, making you understand what regret means. I'll be passing by here often, and if I see you doing this again, next time it won't just be a phone in your head."

"B-b-b... boss, I won't dare anymore, I won't," the merchant stammered, thoroughly frightened.

"You people, to make money your conscience is as black as coal. When you're not caught, you're arrogant, even playing the victim when you're the criminal, accusing me of selling stolen goods. Now that you're in my hands, do you think an apology is enough? That would be too cheap for you. With such a low cost for deceiving people, no wonder there are so many unscrupulous merchants like you everywhere. Today, I'm making you pay a price to avoid disaster, to learn a lesson. Next time, watch out for your life."

Yang Jian gave him a severe warning and then left. Of course, he also left with an additional 100,000 yuan. He had squeezed the merchant dry; probably couldn't get more than that, especially since the merchant had to take out an online loan.

Although his own methods were quite dishonorable, it didn't matter. He would be the villain himself; after all, he had already become a being that was neither human nor ghost. If he couldn't find that ghost, he wouldn't live much longer anyway.

"Before I die, I need to earn enough money for my mother to retire in comfort. It doesn't matter if the means are despicable. Otherwise, what should my mother do after I'm gone? Her health isn't very good either..." Yang Jian lowered his head, a look of sadness on his face.

"It's a pity that there are no bounties for supernatural events in the country, or else I could take a risk and earn millions or even tens of millions of dollars."

He wandered aimlessly on the streets, looking for opportunities to make money. Finally, he stopped in front of a utility pole.

The utility pole was plastered with various advertisements. A large reward for a child, a reward of two million. Wu Jiajia, you bitch, how dare you cheat on me, I will kill your whole family. Nothing serious, just want to post an ad. What if a man can't get it up?

Yang Jian circled around and suddenly saw a half-torn advertisement. It read: A large reward for a master to perform exorcism... A reward of one million if effective. Below was a contact number and an address.

Yang Jian hesitated for a moment: "Should I give it a try?" It could be a scam, of course, but it could also be a genuine case where a boss encountered a supernatural event and was looking for a master to resolve it. Otherwise, the reward wouldn't be so high.

"After all, it's over a million. If I could really earn it, half of the money for my mother's retirement would be there." Yang Jian thought for a moment and decided not to call first but to go directly to see if this matter was true.

If it's fake, then it's not worth the time. Immediately, he took a taxi and rushed to the address written on the advertisement.

On a bustling main road, surrounded by real estate developments and residential areas with plenty of foot traffic, there was a large shopping supermarket on the side of the road. The address mentioned was this shopping mall. Yang Jian paid the taxi fare and got out, looking at the mall. There was police caution tape outside that had not been removed, seemingly due to a recent incident. Inside the mall, it was very desolate, with no customers, and most of the lights were turned off, seemingly closed.

Yang Jian walked over and saw several job advertisements posted at the entrance, something about a monthly salary of six thousand, including food and accommodation. "From the outside, it really seems like something happened, but I don't know if it's a supernatural event." Without thinking too much, he walked into the mall. As soon as he entered, Yang Jian's face slightly changed. A faint smell wafted over, very light, but very special because he had smelled it in the school a few days ago. This was... the stench of a corpse rotting.

His eyes slightly moved, looking into the mall.

Except for the lights on at the entrance, the rest of the place was dim due to the closure, making people feel a bit depressed.

I don't know if it was an illusion, but Yang Jian vaguely felt that in the dark depths of the mall, something was secretly watching him.

"Step, step step～!"

Suddenly, crisp footsteps echoed in the dark ahead, reverberating in the empty mall. A dark shadow came closer and closer, walking towards here.

Yang Jian subconsciously tensed up, as if holding his breath, what was that thing... a ghost? Closer, getting closer.

"Sorry, the mall is being renovated these days, not open for business. If you want to buy something, you can go to the small supermarket ahead."

From the darkness, a thin young man in a security uniform came out of the darkness.

"Hmm? Why are you staring at me like that?" The young security guard looked puzzled at Yang Jian. "..." Yang Jian was silent for a moment and said, "Brother, where have you been?"

"I went to the bathroom, what's the problem?"

"Why don't you turn on the light when you go to the bathroom?"

The young security guard said, "Electricity is very expensive, the boss doesn't allow it. If you have nothing, hurry up and leave. It's not open for business here. If someone runs in, I will be very troublesome. Last time a child ran in, and it took a long time to find him, almost causing me to lose my job."

Yang Jian said, "I'm not here to buy things, I'm here to find your boss."

"The boss is not here today."

"About when will he come?"

"The boss is on a business trip and will come back in a couple of days."

"What are you asking so much for, not here to make trouble, are you?"

Yang Jian thought for a moment and said, "No, I'm here to apply for a job." Apply for a job?

The young security guard looked at Yang Jian and said, "Do you know that there has been a case of missing persons in this mall? Someone has been missing in the mall until now and hasn't been found."

"I didn't know before, but I know now."

"Do you still dare to apply for this?"

"Why not? It's just missing, not haunted."

The young security guard said, "Then come with me, I'll take you to Sister Li, she is in charge of recruitment."

Yang Jian followed.

In a small shop in the mall, four or five employees of the mall were sitting on the sofa, some watching TV, some playing with their phones, they were idle and looked bored. "Sister Li, someone is here to apply."

A middle-aged woman in a work uniform raised her head, she stood up and smiled and said,

"The mall will open after a while, just now it is short of people, the personnel is more relaxed, there are no requirements for education, work experience and so on, the salary is six thousand a month, including food and accommodation, but the working hours are a bit long, if there is no problem, when can you go to work?"

Yang Jian thought for a moment and said, "Today is possible."

"The probation period is three days, what requirements do you have for the position, we are short of front desk, purchasing, cashier, security here."

Sister Li said some more requirements, as well as working hours.

Yang Jian didn't listen attentively, he was not here to work, but to meet the boss here and make a fee.

"I don't have much work experience, or I will apply for security, by the way, I saw someone posting flyers outside before, saying that the boss invited some master, Taoist to come here to exorcise evil spirits, is there such a thing?"

Sister Li's smile disappeared and said, "There is such a thing, but it has nothing to do with you, you are a new employee, first introduce yourself, let everyone know each other."

She seemed to deliberately avoid this topic.

Yang Jian felt that there was indeed some problem with this mall.