CH 433

“Don’t listen to his nonsense!” Huang Li suddenly became agitated. She pointed at the two security guards, “All those things happened because you guards are useless!”

“We’re useless?” Xiao Lee exploded immediately. He gripped the deliveryman’s id, “2 months ago, how did the old man who worked here die? He got off his shift and then the next morning his body was found inside the shop! He was found kneeling in death. What could he have done to die in such a strange way?”

Huang Li wanted to stop the guard but the latter rambled on, “And 1 month ago, your employee didn’t go home after his shift but instead got drunk from drinking. He went to sing by the river at midnight and his body floated 2 km downstream.”

“Those are accidents! Shut up!” Huang Li screamed to stop the guard.

“Accidents?” Xiao Lee grabbed Huang Li’s wrist, “Just one week ago, the boy you just hired committed suicide. When he joined, he was perfectly fine so why would he kill himself at home for no reason? Furthermore, he was also kneeling when he was found. Why is that?”

“Let go! Let go of me!”

“The workers here are almost all dead, and you’re still lying to the newbie?” Xiao Lee held tighter as he glared at Huang Li, “If everything’s fine, then why won’t you work the nightshift yourself?”

“I…”

“I heard when you worked the nightshift, you often talked to yourself and even begged the air for mercy. Right! Yesterday night, I saw you standing before that God box completely unmoving for a whole half an hour! You must have seen something dirty here, haven’t you?!” As Xiao Lee approached Huang Li, Han Fei blocked him. “Newbie, I’m just helping you, can’t you see that?”

“You purposely go after the invalid to scam him, where is your heart?” Han Fei held the guard’s wrist, “And that thing is called an altar, not God box.”

“It’s good that you have a sense of justice but you shouldn’t mind other people’s business. Recognize who is really trying to help you.” Xiao Lee realized he was unable to shake Han Fei off. He threatened Han Fei with words, hoping Han Fei would let go.

“Lee Daxing, I’m going to call Zhu Wei now. I can’t believe he allows the two of you to stay! I seriously suspect you two are the thieves behind the missing merchandise!” Huang Li took out her phone. The guard really spooked her.

“You bitch! No wonder Zhu Wei has been targeting us! You’ve been feeding him lies behind our backs!” The other guard rushed over to grab Huang Li’s phone. Just as the situation was about to spiral out of control, the sound of a heavy object falling came from the top floor. The mall was very quiet at night so everyone heard it clearly. They stopped fighting and turned to look deeper into the mall.

The mall was dark except for the green emergency light near the safety exit. The faded green light made the place look like hell. Han Fei and the guard let go at the same time. The 2 guards shared a look and then Lee Daxing took out his baton. “It came from upstairs?”

“Was it 3rd floor or 4th floor?” Lee Daxing was nervous. He glared at the deliveryman and Han Fei. “This is not over yet! Wait here for us to come back!” The two guards ran into the mall holding the deliveryman’s id. The deliveryman chased after them and in the process accidentally shut down his phone. “Give, give it back!”

The guards ignored him as they hurried upstairs. They were the night security. If something happened to the mall at night, Zhu Wei would deduct their pay. Since they took away the deliveryman’s id, it was clear that they weren’t done with him.

“Did you hear that?” Huang Li hid beside Han Fei, her face was pale. “Earlier… What Lee Daxing said, those are not true, don’t believe him.”

“Sister Huang, don’t worry, my mother needs to do an operation at the hospital so I need this money. No matter what, I won’t quit.” Han Fei said with a smile, that smile was filled with pain. Seeing this, Huang Li’s mouth opened like she wanted to say something but in the end, she didn’t.

“Can I borrow your phone? I wish to call this deliveryman’s father and tell him the truth so that he wouldn’t be scammed by Lee Daxing.” When Han Fei spoke he kept his eyes on the deliveryman, he radiated a sense of justice.

“Okay.” Huang Li unlocked her phone and handed it over to Han Fei. Holding Huang Li’s phone, Han Fei walked towards the deliveryman. When he was facing away from Huang Li, he scrolled through the phone to check the messages and phone records. Huang Li maintained constant contact with 3 people. They were the Boss, Zhu Wei and the Bastard. The Bastard kept messaging Huang Li, but Huang Li never responded. The Bastard was Huang Li’s ex-husband. At first, he begged to see the child but later, he threatened to kill Huang Li’s family.

“Wang Pingan, can you remember your home phone number?” Han Fei asked the deliveryman gently while scrolling through Huang Li’s phone. The Boss also chatted a lot with Huang Li but most of the messages were sent by Huang Li. She had discovered many strange things when she worked the nightshift and she said she might go crazy if this continued.

“Pingan, don’t worry, take your time, we know you did nothing wrong.” Han Fei’s voice was soft and warm. Han Fei scanned through the message history. When he saw the message from 3 days ago, his pupils trembled. 3 days ago, Huang Li sent a message to her boss saying, the clocks started to turn backwards at midnight, the black cloth over the altar fell and someone was knocking from inside.

The boss’ reply was simple, there was only one word—Run.

After some time, Huang Li messaged the boss again to say that the sound had disappeared but she was too afraid to go back. The boss told her to guard outside the door. He consoled her saying that there would be a newbie coming to take over the nightshift soon.

From these messages, it was clear that the 2 already knew there were some problems with the altar. As Huang Li approached, Han Fei returned to the homepage and went close to the deliveryman. “Don’t be nervous, we’re not bad guys.”

After some time, the deliveryman stuttered out a few numbers. Han Fei tried to give it a call. Actually when the guard pulled out the deliveryman’s id, Han Fei already memorized the man’s phone number and address, he only did this to look through Huang Li’s phone.

“Grandpa, I’m sorry to call you at this time but Wang Pingan ran into some trouble, someone is trying to bully him.” After the call was connected, Han Fei told the old man everything. Wang Pingan’s father was still awake because he had been waiting for his child to come home, even though his child was almost 30 already.

Han Fei snapped a few pictures of the takeout boxes and the deliverybox and then sent them to Wang Pingan’s father. “If they demand compensation, show them these pictures. Pingan didn’t nothing wrong, they are the ones in the wrong.”

“Thank, thank you!”

“Grandpa, do you mind coming over to fetch Pingan? He seems to have been frightened and doesn’t know what he’s doing.” Han Fei didn’t dare to wander around the memory world before he understood the secret of this place.

“Okay, I’ll head there now, you’re at the mall, yes?”

“Pingan and I will be waiting for you at Entrance C.” Han Fei hung up. He was about to mop up the floor when the robotic voice announced again, “Notification for Player 0000! You’ve triggered a random mission—Go home.

“Go home: the way home can be both short and long, sometimes it’s so long you can’t ever reach home.

“Mission requirement: Escort Wang Pingan home safely.” Han Fei didn’t care much about it at first but when he read the mission description again, something felt wrong. ‘Wang Pingan’s father is coming to fetch him, I only need to wait so why would there be an escort mission? Or something would happen to Wang Pingan’s father on his way here?’

Han Fei narrowed his eyes as he read the mission description again. ‘Home might not be a house. For Wang Pingan, home is his father! If his father is gone then he’d never return home.’

Han Fei decided to make a move but he was worried about Huang Li. The shop would turn strange at night and she just got into an altercation with the guards.

‘If I’m the altar owner, what choice would I make?’ After some hesitation, Han Fei asked Wang Pingan, “Your father has health issues, right?”

The deliveryman grabbed the unresponsive phone and he was on the verge of tears. He nodded vehemently. His mouth opened wide but no words came out.

“I knew it.” Human life was on the line so Han Fei didn’t waste time. He returned Huang Li her phone. “Sister Huang, I’ll bring Pingan home, I’ll be right back.” Before Huang Li could say anything, Han Fei picked up the deliverybox and led Wang Pingan towards the exit.

“We’ll use your bike. Just take the same route your father told you to use every time.” Han Fei had dealt with autistic children before. Their parents had to work extra hard to make sure that the children could be independent. Something as simple as going back home, they had to practice many times.

Holding the deliverybox, Han Fei sat at the back while he had Wang Pingan bring them home. The night was dark. Once they left the mall, the temperature dropped like they had triggered some kind of taboo.