Chapter 7:
Duty room

In the female ghost’s office on the second floor…

To avoid sudden noises, their mobile phones have all been set to silent mode without vibration. However, as Manman kept holding her phone to take pictures when Jing Qizhen sent the Bluetooth file as a reminder, the corresponding file naturally popped up on the screen of her phone, as well as the name of the device that sent the file, [The female ghost is back !!! By Xiao Jing.]

“News from Xiao Jing, the female ghost is back!” Manman immediately spoke to her companions.

The boyfriend immediately walked to Manman’s side. There was still a bit of nervousness on his face. He put away his phone and said quickly, “Are we going out immediately?”

Quietly, they slipped out of the office straight away

The soothing and brisk music rang simultaneously throughout the building and the people upstairs were stunned for a moment.

In nervousness and alertness, no one could understand instantly what this melody meant except the cashier girl who was very familiar with the music and heard the broadcast almost every day before getting off work.

Yun Shuanghua had not entered the office just now. When he saw their movements, he originally wanted to remind them that he heard the female ghost’s footsteps going up the stairs. Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly remembered the female ghost had no footsteps in her ethereal state, so he walked closer to the stairs and asked the female ghost, “Where is Xiao Jing?”

Everyone in the corridor naturally realized Yun Shuanghua’s reminder. Unexpectedly, they felt a sense of affection for this young man who appeared out of nowhere.

The female ghost didn’t pay attention to Yun Shuanghua and her body was even a little stiff. She had a weird and twisted smile on her face as she murmured, “The supermarket is closing soon.”

The female ghost’s voice was very low and her tone was very soft. It was also very hoarse and vague and Yun Shuanghua couldn’t hear it clearly at all. He just thought the female ghost suddenly became blabber.

Seeing that the female ghost ignored Yun Shuanghua and floated directly towards her office, everyone standing in the corridor also noticed the subtle movements of the female ghost’s mouth and weird sounds, and naturally noticed the indescribable strangeness.

Downstairs, Jing Qizhen and the cashier girl looked at each other.

Jing Qizhen’s brain was running rapidly, thinking about possible problems that might occur when the supermarket closed, and at the same time he asked, “How long will this music last?”

The cashier girl resisted the nausea that made her want to vomit. She covered her mouth and nose with her hands, trying to block the strong smell of blood drifting in the air.

“About twenty minutes,” the cashier girl replied nervously. “Under normal circumstances, the supermarket will no longer allow new customers to enter at this time, and most people will choose to go to the checkout counter to settle their purchase and leave at this time. The staff that have cleared the accounts can also leave work at this time, leaving only one checkout aisle operating. After all the customers in the supermarket have left, security will be responsible for locking the door and completely sealing the building.”

“Twenty minutes…” Jing Qizhen murmured, “I feel that in twenty minutes, there will be other changes here. We have to prepare early.”

The cashier girl was a little confused, “What should we do?”

Jing Qizhen replied, “Gather with the others first!”

Jing Qizhen led the cashier girl towards the stairs. Along the way, he kept reminding the cashier girl, “Think carefully. If the supermarket is closed, is there a suitable place to hide?”

The cashier girl was startled, “Hide?”

Jing Qizhen said quickly, “We definitely can’t go outside the department store. There are space cracks there. If we go there, we will become like the dried pork before, completely shredded.

“As for the store’s big boss, she can still maintain rationality and restraint at work after becoming a ghost. I suspect that after work hours, she may change too.” When Jing Qizhen said this, he couldn’t help but think of the scene when the female ghost fell into a state of madness and completely tore the monster apart. His face became a little more solemn.

Jing Qizhen and the cashier girl happened to meet the others by the stairs.

Manman pulled her boyfriend downstairs, walked to Jing Qizhen and quickly spoke, “We have filmed everything that was supposed to be filmed inside. The female ghost suddenly became a little abnormal. I also recorded her slurred words. What’s going on here?”

Jing Qizhen also answered concisely, “The female ghost suddenly went crazy when she saw the monster and tore it up with her hands. This music was broadcast when the supermarket was closing. We have about twenty minutes before it ends!”

Suddenly, a piece of extremely soothing and gentle music echoed. However, this broadcast seemed to be disturbed and from time to time there was a vague ‘buzzing’ sound in the sentence.

“Dear customer–bzzz. Welcome to– Department Store. This mall will close at 21:00– bzzz. It is now–bzzz–bzzz–time at 20:45. Please bring your–bzzz–bzzz–items to the nearest cashier. When paying and leaving, please take the–bzzz–safe passage, avoid crowds, and pay attention to safety. Thank you for visiting–bzzz–bzzz–. On behalf of all the staff of the mall, –bzzz–sincerely wishes you happy shopping and we look forward to your visit again.”

It’s obviously not a good experience to suddenly hear this kind of buzzing sound in such a dilapidated, old and disturbing environment.

Except for Yun Shuanghua, almost everyone present frowned deeply.

Jing Qizhen suggested, “I think we need to find a safe place immediately and we may even need to hide.”

Manman’s boyfriend suddenly said, “In a survival game, a department store in normal operating conditions seems to be a large safe zone. At night, the scope of the safe zone continues to shrink and dangers may occur even in the safe zone!”

Jing Qizhen frowned slightly, “If that’s the case, why we did not encounter any huge danger just now?”

The monster before was not powerful enough and had limited lethality, it could only catch people by surprise. And in the dark night that follows, who knows what will happen.

An anxious look appeared on the cashier girl’s pale face. Her lips were trembling in panic and she kept mumbling to herself, “We can’t go to the manager’s office, we don’t know if there are any other ghosts in there that we haven’t seen before. There is also a duty room here! Yes, the duty room should be staffed 24 hours a day and the security will make sure there are no customers around before the store closes! After that, only the security will stay in the duty room!”

Jing Qizhen made a quick decision, “Let’s go to the duty room!”

Yun Shuanghua was still a little confused and said curiously, blinking his beautiful eyes, “Why the duty room?”

Jing Qizhen didn’t bother to answer but first said to the cashier girl, “Guijuan will lead the way. Time is running out, let’s talk on the way.”

The cashier girl was confused at this moment. After hearing what Jing Qizhen said, she naturally nodded and followed suit.

Because Jing Qizhen had successfully diverted the female ghost’s attention with the purchase and complaint before, everyone believed his judgment. When he said he wanted to go to the duty room, they naturally did not question it.

They hurriedly followed the cashier girl towards the duty room. They were worried that the old lady would be exhausted, so Brother Gold Chain and the foreigner simply supported the grandma on her left and right.

During the process, Jing Qizhen quickly explained, “Based on the store’s rules, customers are not allowed to stay in the mall after closing. If someone stays, the security guard in the duty room will suspect that person is a thief.”

Everyone looked at Yun Shuanghua.

Yun Shuanghua who energetically jumped up and down several floors with the female ghost: …

In this department store, no one knows better than Yun Shuanghua what will happen if the female ghost regards them as a thief.

“Next is purely my personal speculation and for reference only,” Jing Qizhen continued, “Since usually, only security guards stay in the duty room in the store at night, it means only the duty room has living people. I suspect that if we continue to stay in the store, the security either regards us as thieves or we encounter other unpredictable changes that may even turn us into ghosts.”

Upon hearing this, Manman and her boyfriend gasped at the same time and her boyfriend murmured, “If we are in a game, failing to enter the safe zone means being instantly killed!”

Gold Chain Brother frowned, “I understand Xiao Jing’s thinking but we still can’t take things lightly. We don’t know whether the security guard in the duty room is a human or a ghost…”

The cashier girl who was leading the way said, “Security is not here now, they should make a patrol first and then come back!”

As they spoke, the group finally arrived in front of the duty room.

The door is locked.

Jing Qizhen looked at Gold Chain Brother eagerly, “Kick the door open?”

Gold Chain Brother said, “…No need.”

Who knows where he learned the skill but Gold Chain Brother, suspected to be from the police or the military, took out a small knife from his key chain, inserted it into the crack of the door, slid it around a few times, and opened the door lock directly.

Probably because everyone’s gazes were too intense, the usually taciturn man had to explain, “The door is unlocked.”

Just as the cashier girl said, there was no one in the duty room at this time, and everyone filed in.

Jing Qizhen reached out and patted the foreigner who had been chewing gum. “Brother, let me borrow the chewing gum once you finish eating!”

The foreigner stopped chewing and pointed to his mouth in surprise.

Jing Qizhen pointed at the keyhole.

The foreigner suddenly understood. He spit out the chewing gum in his mouth and stuffed it into the keyhole.

The others who instantly understood the intention: …

Yun Shuanghua couldn’t help but ask out of curiosity, “What is this for?”

Jing Qizhen turned around, smiled, and said lightly, “Lock the security guard out.” After saying that, Jing Qizhen closed the door directly and then locked it from the inside.

Seeing his actions, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

After relaxing, Manman’s boyfriend made a joke and jested, “Brother, you must have been a good kid when you were in school. Have you never seen a prank like this?”

Yun Shuanghua: …

Manman directly grabbed her boyfriend and pulled him to stand in front of the surveillance station in the duty room and said, “All the monitors are still working. We can’t be sure whether they are real-time pictures from outside. Can you check them?”

The boyfriend kept saying, “Ok, ok!”

He lowered his head and carefully studied the buttons on the surveillance station for a while and soon turned on all the cameras. He also pulled out the surveillance videos directly from the computer and then pointed at their figures, giving a definite answer, “Okay, it’s real-time monitoring. This is the video of us just walking around.”

Finally, the music outside stopped and it was time for the department store to close.

On all surveillance screens, all lights in the department store were turned off and the screen suddenly went black.

Everyone: !!!

Jing Qizhen stared at the dimly lit corridor on the second floor, with only the green ‘Emergency Exit’ sign illuminated by a faint light. “The female ghost came out of the office!”

The boyfriend also scanned every monitor screen quickly while asking, “Where’s the security guard?”

“Dong-!”

In the corridor outside the duty room, the sound of extremely heavy footsteps gradually came from far away.

It was definitely not a weight that ordinary people could carry when walking. It seemed that the entire floor was shaking from its slow movement.