452 The Mall


    Standing on the corridor of the 3rd floor, staring into the windows of the shops, Han Fei noticed that the mannequins were dressed in different colored clothes but their faces had the same expression. They were looking at Han Fei and Han Fei looked at them until one of the mannequins blinked.


    Goosebumps broke out on his neck. Han Fei had no idea how many ghosts were hidden on the 3rd floor. With a mustered courage, he headed towards the boutique where Huang Li once was. A new mannequin had been ced in the window. She wore a simr outfit as Huang Li. When Han Fei looked closer, he also realized the mannequin looked just like Huang Li, from the open eyes to full lips as well as the blood that trailed down from her stomach.


    At that moment, Han Fei felt like all the mannequins were looking at him, each of the mannequins had their own lives. They had no malice towards Han Fei, they just wanted Han Fei to stay. They bent their arms and legs, trying to fold Han Fei into a mannequin just like them. Eyes stared at Han Fei from the dark. Initially they were just looking but as the darkness spread, the heads reached out through the windows. They wore brand new clothes, opening their arms at Han Fei. The curtains in the dressing room kept shaking. Han Fei came to the ce where he first met the woman in red. The floor was scattered with tested outfits. However the customer was still not satisfied. Perhaps she was not looking for suitable clothes but her missing skin and body.


    Blood and flesh were the clothes of a soul. The mall boss had taken away his wife’s favorite clothes so now she was back to look for it.


    The broadcast system at the mall had this static voice, it sounded like a childughing. The mall music was switched on. The dark melody enveloped every moving creature in the mall. The song was soft and mellifluous like a trapped oriole singing, however des had been shoved down her throat so her every note was bloody. The altar owner’s illusion was getting more and more severe. The sounds in Han Fei’s two ears changed frompletely distinct to somewhat simr. When the real and the fake ovepped, Han Fei had fallen. He could hear his heart beating along to the rhythm of the music. It raced like it was about to jump out from his chest. The feeling of anxiety came from all sides. The mall was turning into a prison and a maze and he would be trapped here forever.


    “You will die here, just like me, just like all of us…” Theughter echoed inside the boutique. In the mirror, a woman was testing out one after another red outfits until she plucked her human skin off. The chest had a hollow where it had been punctured by the steel pipe. The hollow in the mirror framed Han Fei’s face perfectly. The woman slowly turned around. All the women in the mirrors turned to look at Han Fei. She raised her hands and Han Fei could feel pressure around his neck. This was a power that he couldn’t rival.


    Lee Daxing was scary but he was the weakest one here. Han Fei’s feet left the ground. The feeling of suffocation turned Han Fei’s face purple. If he didn’t do anything soon, he’d die. He swung Rest in Peace and scratched at his own neck with the altar owner’s broken fingers. When his neck started to bleed, the suffocating feeling lightened.


    ‘I can’t stay too long on the 3rd floor.’ Abandoning the idea of talking to the mall boss’ ex-wife, Han Fei ran upstairs. All the esctors became salivating tongues, the banner and fairy lights that dangled from the ceiling turned into strands of ck hair, the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling became blinking eyeballs.


    Absurd, strange and scary.


    Running on the tongue, Han Fei finally reached the 4th floor. The first thing that Han Fei saw was an old man. The old man wore the same employee’s outfit and Id as Han Fei. When he saw Han Fei, the old man was shocked. He quickly staggered towards Han Fei. His mouth opened like he was about to tell Han Fei something. Han Fei noticed that the man’s uneven yellow teeth were stuck with wooden chips.


    “You’re finally here to take over my shift? I thought you had forgotten all about me.” The old man moved faster. He was like a bug, his limbs wiggled swiftly and his body was heavily twisted.


    “The person who will take over your shift is called Lee Daxing.” Han Fei continued to move upwards. He climbed onto the esctor and nced at the back of the old man’s head. The back of the old employee’s head had been hollowed out. A giant hole was left there, wooden chips with a horrible smell kept falling out from the hole.


    “Wait, wait for me!” The old man climbed onto the esctor too. He used his hands and legs, the expression on his face turning more and more twisted.


    ‘Is this the culture of this mall? Everyone is so passionate?’ Han Fei couldn’t shake off the old man. He had to be exceptionally careful because once he fell, he probably wouldn’t get up again. The benefits of having a high stamina showed then. Han Fei reached the 5th floor before the old man.


    A light stench lingered in the air and different from the other floors, there were some weak lights on this floor. Han Fei decided to stop on the 5th floor. When Han Fei first saw Lee Daxing, the man was on the 5th floor. Han Fei suspected that the big object Lee Daxing was holding was his missing partner.


    The smell that came out from the restaurant was enough to daze Han Fei. Han Fei looked at the small shop with the litnterns. Before he entered it, he could hear the sound of a cleaver hacking against the chopping block. Pieces of meat sttered against the wall, the chef appeared to have lost his mind.


    Han Fei entered the shop and nced into the kitchen. The chef who stood facing away from Han Fei was tall and muscr. The counter in the kitchen had stuff like swords, axes and so on. The chef didn’t pull ingredients out from the fridge but from a luggage bag. After he was done chopping the meat, the chef kicked the luggage bag aside. He pulled open the door of the kitchen cupboard and the cupboard was filled with ck luggage bags. The chef pulled out a random one. The bag was stained with ck blood. The chef unzipped the bag and then he suddenly stopped. The luggage bag was empty.


    The chef slowly turned around. His neck drew longer as the bloody face focused on Han Fei. “Oh… there you are.” Dragging the luggage bag in one hand and the cleaver in another, the chef charged out from the kitchen.


    “Have you gone crazy from working overtime?” Han Fei turned and ran. More than one person had died in this restaurant. After the chef exited the shop to chase after Han Fei, all the luggage bags inside the cupboard started to move as if the ‘food’ inside was trying toe out. The mall turned very unfamiliar. Han Fei looked at the paths before him and every one seemed to lead to a dead end.


    ‘He can run so fast even when dragging a luggage bag? If I am caught, then all the stamina I have will be wasted!’ Han Fei had no impression of the chef at all. He had not encountered the chef before. However, he could specte his identity through his experience.


    The 4th floor was for male fashion. The old man who wore the employee outfit was probably Fei Yang’s senior, the old man who died inside the 2nd hand shop. Perhaps it was the altar, everyone who died inside the mall would be trapped inside the mall.


    There was more than one restaurant on the 5th floor. Even though the other shops didn’t have a crazy chef, they did have customers seated at the table waiting to be served. They all sat facing away from Han Fei. When Han Fei saw Lee Daxing on the 5th floor, he was probably a customer here already. As Han Fei continued to run, the customers that originally faced away from Han Fei slowly turned around. Their red eyeballs stared at Han Fei. The bloody buns that they held fell to the ground. Red tongues lolled out from their lips to lick at the crack lips. They had discovered something more delicious. The customers stood up one after another. They were dressed differently, some in suits, others in tatters. They came from different backgrounds but when they saw fresh human flesh, they showed the same excitement.


    Some of them pretended to be gentlemen, but knives were hidden behind their backs. Others tossedsso at Han Fei, iming that they were trying to save him despite the greed on their faces.


    Every customer had put on a disguise, none of them openly admitted that they wanted to eat Han Fei even though all of them had that same thought. Han Fei had no idea why the altar owner had this illusion. Han Fei believed that the altar owner had started to be desperate and deranged after his experience and he couldn’t stop himself from falling into the abyss.


    “I can’t let them capture me!” Using all of his might, Han Fei escaped from the customers. He could barely keep himself safe, much less to look for Lee Daxing’s colleague. The stench from the restaurants lightened and the light from the littlenterns dimmed. Han Fei held his heart and gasped for air.


    Intense running, stressed nerves, Han Fei’s body and mind were under great duress. Han Fei doubled over. He didn’t know where to hide. The voices in his ears had started to mix. The oriole in the broadcast had stopped singing. Instead it screamed in pain.


    With his heart beating, just as Han Fei was about to reach his limit, a static suddenly came above him. A weak square of lightnded on the floor before him. Han Fei turned around. The television which was ced on the shelf had been switched on. A woman with tousled hair and bleeding stomach appeared on screen. She wore bright red clothes and she sounded like she wasughing. She took one after another step en pointe, like she was dancing.


    The slender arms unfurled to the sides as she danced towards the unfinished concrete tform. Everyone looked at this madwoman, this beautiful elf in shock. Her wounded feet stepped onto the ashy ground, she looked up at the giant scaffolding around her. Her mouth opened like she was saying something. She missed a step and fell through the air!


    The woman in the screen flew but Han Fei could hear the sound of wind in his ears!


    He looked up and the ghastly face was right above him. The woman’s face was almost torn apart by the wind!


    Han Fei waved the de upwards but he hit nothing. He looked around with fear. All the televisions had been switched on and the red screens repeated the process of the woman falling. ‘She doesn’t look like she was trying tomit suicide that day.’ The woman’s final moments were too abnormal. She wasughing too madly, it was even more horrifying than if she was crying. And Han Fei saw very clearly that she didn’t leap but she fell because she missed one step. ‘She was dancing like a puppet.’


    Han Fei rushed out from the electronics zone but where could he run to? The entire mall was like a demon’sir. Everything was mutating. The altar owner was slowly losing his mind. His illusions were based on his memory of reality. Without the mother’s blessing, perhaps the entire memory world would eventually end up like this.


    ‘The mission requires me to survive for 30 days but that is impossible for a normal yer. I have to be the altar’s new owner before the world mutates to its worst form.’ The screams echoed in his ears. Han Fei was forced to continue running upstairs, he didn’t dare stop. The mall had sunken into chaos. Han Fei had reached the end of the esctor and he slowly turned around. There were paths everywhere but there was no exit. The hungry customers, the slowly moving luggage bags, the crazy chef, and many more unimaginable monsters crawled out from the dark. They were endless.


    ‘I assumed these things would appear slowly so that I could be prepared.’ The shadows gushed at Han Fei like waves. They were slowly approaching, nning to drag Han Fei down with them.


    “If everything has fallen into darkness, who will save you?” Han Fei slowly retreated until he reached the top floor. To stop himself from being swallowed up by the darkness, he climbed on top of the table beside the rails. He was currently standing on the highest spot of the mall. Han Fei turned around and looked down.


    At the centre of the 1st floor, there were many familiar and unfamiliar figures looking up at him as if waiting for him to jump.