Chapter 4:
That’s a perfect excuse, brother!

Following the words of the cashier girl Guijuan, Jing Qizhen suggested, “Let’s go to the nearby bathroom and take a look?”

It would be fine if there were only dark blood stains that had dried up on the wall. Although it was creepy, it only meant that things had happened a long time ago. Those bloodstains that were still relatively fresh meant that the ‘person’ who left the countless bloody fingerprints was still haunting the area.

Jing Qizhen was not the type to sit back and wait for death.

In the current dubious situation, he was more inclined to identify possible dangers in advance and take some appropriate measures. If there were weird creatures like those on the first floor that attack people, it was even more important to take precautions in advance, rather than being suddenly attacked when they were unaware.

Obviously, many people in this group of people have the same views as Jing Qizhen.

Manman took her mobile phone and carefully took pictures of all the surrounding scenes for storage.

This time, she didn’t need to remind him; her boyfriend immediately followed suit and started recording.

Jing Qizhen was still a little curious for a moment. This girl’s habit of taking photos and recording evidence seems to be something that most people don’t have…

The cashier girl Guijuan explained, “There are two bathrooms on the second floor. Our manager regularly used the one on the left. The one on the right is at the corner of the mall and is usually open for customers.”

Gold Chain Brother was still walking in front, straight towards the bathroom.

The bathrooms here had the most common layout in department stores. There were three white marble washbasins on the outside. Walking in through the curtains on both sides of the washstands, they were connected to the men’s and women’s toilets respectively.

At this time, the sink near the women’s bathroom, especially the faucet, was also covered with deep and shallow bloody fingerprints. At the same time, the upper edge of the door curtain of the women’s bathroom and the buttons on the wall held the same sight.

All signs were completely consistent with the habits of the cashier girl’s female manager.

Manman murmured, “Now we’re looking at them, this bloody handprint really looks like it was left by your manager.”

Gold Chain Brother said, “Actually if that person’s hand is not bloody, these fingerprints are actually the most common marks left in daily life.”

After holding it in for a long time, Manman’s boyfriend couldn’t help but ask in a low voice, “Who on Earth can leave bloody fingerprints every day?”

Jing Qizhen glanced at him and replied, “I can only think that the ghosts in supernatural horror movies still keep their good habit of closing doors and turning off lights after death. Oh, don’t forget the water faucets… As for why there are ghosts in this world and why ghosts have bloody fingerprints, don’t ask me. I am a staunch Marxist atheist.”

When Jing Qizhen said this, everyone fell silent for a while.

Immediately, someone started laughing again.

The originally pale cashier girl smiled slightly, and the previously scary and tense atmosphere relaxed a little.

The old lady also smiled and added, “I am also a Marxist atheist.”

Although Gold Chain Brother did not say anything, Jing Qizhen was sure that he had just seen him nod extremely slightly when he spoke of Marxist materialism.

The European and American gory movies that the foreigner had watched were obviously not the same genre as the oriental-style supernatural horror movies. Regarding Jing Qizhen’s words, his head was filled with questions and he couldn’t help but say, “What? You mean there’s a ghost in this place? When I was studying in Sichuan, I also listened to Marxist philosophy.”

Manman tugged at her boyfriend and muttered in a low voice, “I want to eat Sichuan hotpot.”

He took her hand and shook it gently, “I’ll cook it for you when we get home! Stir-fry watercress and chili peppers in the bottom of the pot, use chicken bones and scallop pillars that have been simmered all day and then use our home-made white wine, glutinous rice wine, and rock sugar to boil into a sauce for seasoning. Cut the pork, beef and mutton into thin slices and the shrimp and fish are sliced into flakes. Let it cool down and drink it, okay?”

Manman nodded vigorously and smiled at her boyfriend, “Yeah!”

Jing Qizhen, who was standing next to the young couple and listened to the whole recipe walkthrough, fell silent.

Brother, you’re going a little too far. You used Sichuan hotpot as dog food, it’s terrible!

When Jing Qizhen was almost choked to death by the young couple’s mouthfuls of dog food, he never expected that among all the people present, it was the blond-haired, blue-eyed man who had the strongest Sichuan hotpot accent. With the thick accent, this guy must have got along very well with the locals when he was studying in Sichuan…

The Earth, which had been offline since he walked up to the second floor and did who-knows-what, suddenly appeared in Jing Qizhen’s head. It came out with a vague sound of swallowing saliva, “I’ve seen Sichuan hotpot. What does it taste like? I’m a little curious. Is it delicious?”

Jing Qizhen: “Even if I told you, you won’t know. Why don’t I go to a hotpot restaurant to eat for you?” 0.0

Earth: …

After a while, Earth muttered in dissatisfaction, “Don’t you have the most basic respect for the only Earth in existence?”

Jing Qizhen said, “If you want to, I can order a Sichuan hotpot takeout and cook it for you, then pour it on the ground. You can pick a place that you like and is suitable to dump the hotpot first?”

Earth complained, “Don’t think I don’t know that you humans pour wine on the ground to worship the dead! Why did I meet a bastard like you who doesn’t love the Earth at all? Do you have to argue with me? ”

Jing Qizhen: …

If Earth hadn’t mentioned it, he wouldn’t have thought of this.

After a pause, Jing Qizhen chose to explain a little more, “To be honest, when we prepare offerings for the deceased, we never pour them on the ground.”

“In this situation, should we still go to the manager’s office?” The middle-aged man, Lao Xiao, pointed to the large bloody fingerprints in front of him and kept wiping off cold sweat.

It seemed that Lao Xiao had been forcing himself to stay calm after encountering this sudden incident. In his middle age, he was the backbone of his family and had many things to worry about, so he was naturally the most panicked one.

Jing Qizhen stopped paying attention to the Earth that was always ‘buzzing’ because of the Sichuan hotpot and hesitated, “Whether it’s a human or a ghost, we have to check. Especially if that person is really Guijuan’s manager, then she will probably know some information about this department store. Moreover, the reason she left so many bloody fingerprints is also an important question.”

The young lovers who have watched many unlimited flow-related works were talking to each other. He glanced at the fingerprints and hesitantly said, “Well… based on the common developments in novels, deciphering the secrets in the trapped scene is indeed a way to break the current predicament.

“When encountering monsters, it is easier to defeat them or to escape. When encountering ghosts, usually we should calm them down. However, according to the general rules of this kind of puzzle RPG game, there will definitely be many dangers in the process of reaching the true ending.”

The grandma spoke her thoughts, “We are already trapped here and we must find a solution. Otherwise, if we can’t get out and die here, things may get worse.”

After some discussion, everyone quickly made up their mind.

Before returning to the manager’s office, Jing Qizhen asked the cashier girl, “Guijuan, can you tell us about your manager’s situation? Let’s get a general understanding first. With many people here, we will have many ideas. However, this place may not be the same as in our world, so don’t be led astray by our fixed mindset.”

The cashier girl nodded, “Our manager usually looks very serious, she rarely smiles and is very serious about her work. I’ve hardly seen her smile before but she’s actually a very nice person. Something happened to me before and when I found the courage to tell her, I didn’t even expect that she directly give the next month’s salary to me in advance, and she even comforted me——”

However, at this moment, before the cashier girl could finish her words, there was another terrifying roar that was similar to before but was clearer.

“Roaaarrrr——!!!”

Everyone’s footsteps suddenly froze.

Many thoughts flashed through Jing Qizhen’s mind. He quickly looked around. This time, they didn’t do anything differently. Maybe the scream and the pork before were just a coincidence?

Unexpectedly, after that terrifying and sharp roar, Jing Qizhen and his party heard a young male voice that was quite pleasant to human ears.

“What the hell?! What the hell?! Madam, please calm down!”

Brother Gold Chain quickly made a silent gesture and they looked at each other, with the same question on their faces. Is there anyone else here apart from them?

There was a ‘crack!’ and ‘bang!’ upstairs, lots of debris falling to the ground, doors slamming, and people running quickly. The roaring voice just now actually uttered a few vague words hoarsely. “Thiefffff–!!! Eating things inside the supermarket and not paying roaaarrrr––––––!!!”

Jing Qizhen and his group listened carefully for a long time before they could distinguish a few keywords with some uncertainty.

Everyone exchanged doubtful glances again and their eyes couldn’t help but fall on their hands; mops, rolling pins, kitchen knives, hooded coats, rubber gloves, etc., all of which they had just taken off the supermarket shelves, with the price tag and anti-theft buckle attached and still intact.

At the same time, the male voice who was still running madly upstairs was shouting, “Dear lady! Sister! Big sister? Madame? Beauty? Lady Boss? I’ll return the pork to you! Damn! I’m innocent, I really didn’t steal that piece of pork from the supermarket! The meat is dried and spoiled. Sister, let’s be honest, even if I want to eat it, I can’t! I really didn’t steal it! ”

The expression of the cashier girl suddenly changed, and her voice could not stop trembling, “That– That tone of voice… I’ve heard it… It was our manager.”

The people on the second floor are suspected of being the culprit: …

Jing Qizhen made a prompt decision and took out all the large banknotes from his bag. Due to the popularity of electronic payments, the total cash he had on him was only 319 Yuan!

Jing Qizhen directly handed the money in his hand to the cashier girl and grabbed the supermarket receipt he had paid for before, “I think this much money may not be enough?”

Seeing the voice upstairs getting closer, Lao Xiao didn’t even bother to wipe the cold sweat on his forehead with a handkerchief. He directly wiped his forehead with his suit sleeve. He was so nervous that spoke quickly, “Counting pork and everything we just took brings a total of 1942.56 Yuan. Don’t panic, I have cash here!”

As he spoke, he took out his wallet with trembling fingers, quickly counted out 1640 Yuan and then took out 19 Yuan from the cashier girl’s hand and returned the change to Jing Qizhen. At the same time, he anxiously asked, “There is still 2.56 Yuan left, let’s round it up to 2.6 Yuan. Who has the exact change?”

The boyfriend of the young couple went directly to touch his sweater pocket and in an instant dug out two pieces of one cent, one fifty cents, and a dime change, and handed them to the cashier girl, “I got change from buying vegetables from the vegetable market yesterday.”

The foreigner looked at him with amazement. Lao Xiao also exclaimed in a low voice: “Oh my god, you are so fast!”

In just one minute, the running and chasing steps and shouting upstairs had already reached the stairway of the second floor.

A young man ran, darted, and jumped nimbly, and dodged the attack of the translucent female ghost in a thrilling move.

The female ghost looked like a middle-aged woman, wearing an old, dilapidated and bloodstained professional woman’s skirt.

The two sides looked at each other from a distance across the corridor. The young man who was being chased like a rabbit jumped up and down. When he saw Jing Qizhen and his group, he immediately understood and complained with grief and anger, “It’s you!”

Seeing that the female ghost’s eyes were so fierce that they were bleeding, Jing Qizhen held up his shopping receipt, raised the hand of the cashier girl holding the money, and said without any pause, “We’re paying. The checkout counter downstairs is out of order. There are too many items and it’s difficult to recount, so we come up with the cashier to find the manager!”

Young man: …That’s a perfect excuse, brother!

Female ghost: …