CH 465

Some people say that love needs to be cultivated but Han Fei didn’t anticipate the altar owner would cultivate a lover that didn’t exist. When all the customers refused to come near the 2nd hand shop, Lin Lu appeared. She didn’t care about the ‘rumors’ or the curse, she only cared about Han Fei. She was so perfect it was unreal.

“The shop only has 2nd hand items, why would the burglar target this place, have they lost their mind?” Lin Lu held the other end of the shelf and helped Han Fei right the shelf. “Your boss is also crazy for leaving you all alone to do all these jobs. He has earned so much but he doesn’t care about his employees at all and people say he is a charitable man.”

Lin Lu’s appearance filled up the missing part of the altar owner’s heart. Even though he was abandoned by the world, as long as Lin Lu was there, the altar owner could still eke out a living. “The boss might have his own difficulties.” Han Fei focused on the cleaning and was cold towards Lin Lu.

“You are still defending him? You must be the best worker I’ve ever met. If I am starting a business in the future, I’ll be sure to hire you.” Lin Lu was very kind. She could sense Han Fei’s low spirits so she kept cracking jokes, hoping to make Han Fei smile. However, Han Fei didn’t respond to the jokes and his brows were deeply furrowed together. Based on what the mall boss said, Lin Lu might be another sacrifice because her Chinese Name sounded like an animal, a deer to be precise.

Han Fei didn’t want to harm Lin Lu, he was never one to harm the innocent, he also didn’t want to ruin the only goodness in the altar owner’s life. ‘There should be another way.’ By 6 pm, Han Fei and Lin Lu finished cleaning up the shop. Han Fei stood at the counter to do the inventory. He removed the more heavily-damaged items while Lin Lu sat in the shop’s 2nd hand lounge chair.

“The day is getting late, aren’t you going home?” Han Fei glanced at Lin Lu. The girl didn’t show any sign of leaving. “I remember you’re a nurse at River Hospital, it’s not easy being a nurse. You should go home to rest.”

“River Private Hospital is closing soon. They still owe me half a year of salary. Speaking of, I’m pissed. The management gets their bonus every month but they can’t afford the salary of intern nurses, clearly they are trying to bully us.”

“Then will you go back to work?”

“Work? The only reason I’ll be going back is to see the place demolished.” Lin Lu leaned against the chair, she looked tired. After making the last inventory, Han Fei walked out from the counter and stopped beside Lin Lu.

“Are you going to chase me out?”

“Are you hungry? I’ll treat you to dinner.” Han Fei used the key to temporarily lock the shop. He led Lin Lu and walked through the mall. “There are many restaurants on the 5th floor but I suggest you go for the vegetarian options.” This was the first time Han Fei walked through the mall during normal working hours. For some reason, the other people kept throwing shocked glances at him and Lin Lu.

“How come it feels like people are staring at us?” Lin Lu followed behind Han Fei and whispered.

“They’re envious of me.” Han Fei took the elevator to the 5th floor. This place was completely different from when it was at midnight. The delicious smell of food wafted in the air. There were many customers milling about.

“Anything works for me. I’m on a diet and I’m not that hungry.” Lin Lu carried her purse. Wherever she went, she would grab people’s attention, the complete opposite of the altar owner.

“Then we’ll eat here then.” Han Fei’s standard for choosing the restaurant was not the menu but whether it had appeared in his illusion. Han Fei would never frequent any of the restaurants that operated like normal in the altar owner’s illusions, because he might be served human meat.

After the 2 entered the restaurant, they found a window seat and sat down facing each other. Han Fei hadn’t been in a relationship before so in this manner, he was similar to the altar owner. However, the difference was, Han Fei had predicted Lin Lu’s ending so no matter how great the altar owner’s reliance on Lin Lu was, Han Fei didn’t want to get too close to her.

They ordered a few dishes. While they waited for the food to be served, suddenly a chef came out from the kitchen. He looked around before heading to Han Fei’s table. The strangest thing was he sat down opposite Han Fei, beside Lin Lu like he couldn’t even see her.

“I’ve been a chef in this memory world for 10 years already. I’ve cooked using every single one of my patrons. I can remember their faces and identify their screams but I have not seen you before.” The chef removed his hat. He looked very polite and his skin was very pale like he was sick. He didn’t smell of oil and smoke, just from appearance, he didn’t look very much like a chef.

“Is this some kind of Halloween event?” Han Fei scanned the man’s neck. There were crying human skulls hidden underneath the chef outfit’s collar.

“You have very good acting but you can’t fool me.” The chef looked at Han Fei with a smile. “I can smell my partners on you, the intense smell of rot and resentment.”

Han Fei smiled and shrugged. He knew that the man only sensed the problem but he couldn’t confirm it or else with the personality of Ten Fingers, they wouldn’t sit down to chat with Han Fei. Picking up the tea cup, Han Fei didn’t even want to speak anymore, it was like conversing with the man would lower Han Fei’s IQ.

Lin Lu who was forced into the corner was helpless. She pointed at the chef and mouthed, ‘Is he crazy?’

“I’ll take your silence as an admission, you should be related to their disappearance.” The chef’s lips curled and he smiled darkly, “Enjoy this meal. And I hope you’d enjoy this night too.” Then the chef stood up and returned to the kitchen. After the chef left, Han Fei called the manager over and scolded him. Then he tried to get some info from the manager. The chef was new but his food was very delicious. Many customers got addicted to them. After knowing that, Han Fei naturally wouldn’t eat there anymore. He led Lin Lu away and out of the mall.

The streetlights had already come on, they found a roadside stall and had a delicious dinner. After they were done, Han Fei started to look at Lin Lu seriously.

“Have you had too much to drink? Why are you staring at me like that?”

“I’m afraid that you will disappear so I need to imprint you in my mind.” Han Fei wouldn’t leave the altar to Ten Fingers; if he couldn’t inherit the altar, he would destroy the altar. Regardless of the ending, this memory world would collapse and Lin Lu wouldn’t appear again. She was the altar owner’s manifestation of goodness in the world. Remembering her should be one of the altar owner’s desires.

“Why would I disappear?” Lin Lu’s face was flushed from the alcohol.

“You better stop drinking, I’ll walk you home.”

“No need! I can walk back on my own.” Lin Lu rejected Han Fei. She stood up and ran across the street like she was afraid Han Fei might find out where she lived. Han Fei tailed the girl but she soon disappeared among the crowd. “She still disappeared.” Lin Lu would only appear when the altar owner was feeling especially down. Han Fei hadn’t figured out the mechanism behind her appearance yet.

When Han Fei returned to the mall, most of the shops were already closed. As he pushed open the 2nd hand shop’s door, the system notification and the door chime sounded at the same time. “Notification for Player 0000! Your current hunger level is 0, your physical condition is bad and your mental condition is very low, your mood points is 45, are you going to start your work today?”

“Yes.” Standing at the door, Han Fei cracked his stiff knuckles. “What day is it already?”

Han Fei scanned the pictures of the employees of the month on the wall. They were all once living humans, but now they were either missing or lying at the hospital. Han Fei was the only one left. “Boss Gu hasn’t contacted me or come back to the shop, looks like things aren’t going so well on his side.”

Han Fei entered the shop and started to ponder the things that had happened recently. ‘Ten Fingers have entered the memory world many times already. They each have their own responsibility and have interacted with every person of this world. They have taken away Fei Yang, probably because they feel Fei Yang has a high chance of inheriting the altar.’ It was normal for Ten Fingers to think that because before Han Fei’s appearance, Fei Yang would be the last employee at the 2nd hand shop. ‘After Ten Fingers confirm that Fei Yang is not the person they are looking for, they will turn their full attention to me. Then I will face both pressure from Boss Gu and Ten Fingers.’

Han Fei stared at the paper on the counter and started to wonder how to remove the pictures from the well. At around 10 pm, all the lights inside the mall were switched off and there were no more customers.

“It’s time.” The chance of Han Fei being discovered if he did this after midnight would be smaller but he didn’t dare to make that bet. The mall after midnight was too dangerous. Using the gloves, Han Fei inspected all the cameras. Most of the cameras had been destroyed by Ten Finger and Fei Yang, but Boss Gu still hadn’t had the chance to repair them. “At least they’ve helped me with that.”

Han Fei blocked the door of the shop from inside and calculated the time. When someone shook the door, the door would chime. Han Fei had around 20 seconds to rush out from the storeroom. ‘That is more than enough for me.’

After everything was ready, Han Fei grabbed the tools and entered the underground storeroom. Yesterday night, he had calculated the location and tonight he swore to get to the bottom of the well’s secrets.

“This place is so cold.” The storeroom was like a morgue. Yin energy pooled at the corners. Han Fei’s left eye could see the truth so he didn’t even open the lights as he moved to the deepest part of the storeroom. Moving the shelf, Han Fei used the tape to triangulate the location and then took out the axle and hammer to slowly make a gap. Han Fei worked very slowly to make as little sound as possible.

After he had made a small hole, Han Fei went back to the shop to drink some water and to show himself on camera. After a quick exercise, Han Fei returned to the shop and moved the saw and electric drill into the storeroom. ‘Using these tools will be very noisy but before midnight, no ghost should appear. There are no people in the mall either so no one will hear me.’ Han Fei grabbed the drill and started working. After drilling through the cement, Han Fei grabbed the hammer and slammed at the weak points.

After several swings, the wall had a crack about half a meter wide. The large piece of the broken wall fell into the well. The water splashed and a drop hit Han Fei’s arm. At that moment, Han Fei felt like his soul was scorched. It was as if the thing that dropped on him was not water but liquid flame.

Pieces of the broken wall sunk into the well and soon disappeared. Han Fei realized that he could use the well as a trash can.

‘The water surface is half a meter away from me, I can reach it with my hands.’ Success was before his eyes but Han Fei didn’t let his guard down. He wiped down all the tools and replaced them. Then he started to clean up. Using just 20 minutes, Han Fei had removed all the traces. Even if Boss Gu returned now, he wouldn’t imagine Han Fei had used the tools inside the shop to gouge a hole underground.

‘There’s still some time until midnight.’ Han Fei grabbed a book, brewed a pot of coffee and wandered around the mall. After making sure no one was coming to get him, Han Fei returned to the 2nd hand shop. Compared to before, there were no changes to the storeroom.

Moving the shelf again, Han Fei reached his upper body through the hole. Soon he saw the old man’s family portrait on the surface of the water. Resisting the urge to go grab it, Han Fei found a candle from the shelf. He lit the candle and used the candle to approach the picture. When the flame approached the dark well, Han Fei saw the crowded human faces inside the well.