50 Head Replacement
“Liu Qiang, haven’t you noticed anything wrong with yourself?” Yang Jian asked, staring at him seriously.
Seeing everything in the surveillance footage, Liu Qiang was also stunned. He tried to recall but some things he simply couldn’t remember, as if at certain moments he experienced blank periods in his memory. If he didn’t pay close attention, it seemed like everything was normal, as if he was just working his job and hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary.
“Yang Jian, are you saying, like those people in the surveillance footage, my head has been replaced too?”
Liu Qiang looked at him in shock, his face full of incredulity.
“It seems you don’t know your own situation. Let me ask you, where were you before coming to the security room?” Yang Jian said.
“I was at…” Liu Qiang started to reply, but then he paused again.
How did he come to the security room?
Did he come after the power outage? Which path did he take, who did he meet, what did he see?
He couldn’t remember. Liu Qiang couldn’t recall, or rather, he had no memory of that part.
Yang Jian said, “You can check your surveillance footage. The mall’s surveillance usually has night vision capabilities, so even if all the lights outside are off, you should be able to see clearly.”
“I’ll have a look…” Liu Qiang immediately began searching for his surveillance footage.
Soon, he found it.
The time went back to when Master Luo was conducting the ritual.
All the people in the mall watched Master Luo perform the ritual in the lobby on the first floor.
Yang Jian, feeling amused, couldn’t help interrupting Master Luo’s ritual, causing a few words to be exchanged.
However, Liu Qiang in the surveillance footage seemed to ignore this and left straight away.
No one paid attention to a security guard leaving.
“Why did I go to the power room at that time?” Liu Qiang was stunned upon seeing himself in the surveillance footage.
After Liu Qiang went to the power room, it wasn’t long before the mall lost power.
The power had been cut by Liu Qiang himself.
Yang Jian said, “Just because you don’t remember doesn’t mean you didn’t do it. Keep watching.”
After all the lights in the mall were off, Liu Qiang stood still, like a wooden man paused in place, motionless. But this didn’t last long.
He moved again soon afterwards.
He turned and headed towards the bathroom on the first floor of the mall.
Seeing this, Yang Jian realized it matched with everything that had happened previously. The ghost that had come into the bathroom just earlier was Liu Qiang.
“Impossible, this can’t be possible. Why can’t I remember doing this at all?”
Liu Qiang stood up abruptly, looking back at Yang Jian with a face filled with fear.
Yang Jian took a step back and said seriously, “Because during the time you lost your memory, you were no longer human, but… a ghost, or replaced by one. The only reason you have retained your memory is that your head is still there, it hasn’t decayed completely. In a few days, when your head has rotted away, your memory will disappear completely.”
“So strictly speaking, you’ve been dead for several days now. Touch your neck, the scar from the head swap should still be there. If you weren’t a ghost, that scar would be impossible to have.”
Instinctively, Liu Qiang touched his neck.
As his palm grazed the skin on his neck, the tiny cut was immediately pried open, revealing the crimson flesh within, and at the same time, a putrid smell wafted out.
He was already decomposing…
“Impossible, I refuse to believe it, I refuse to believe I’m already dead. I’m clearly still alive and well.”
Liu Qiang’s emotions started to flare up, he kept touching the wound on his neck, trying to verify the truth of Yang Jian’s words.
However, as his head had been replaced by a ghost several days prior, the wound wasn’t secure. As he touched it, the cut opened further, and his flesh began to fall off in flakes.
The stench of decay grew even stronger.
“What should I do? I don’t want to die, Yang Jian, is there any way you can help me?” As Liu Qiang grasped the reality, he was completely panicked. His hands were covered in blood, reeking of foulness, with his head having shifted on his neck, looking at Yang Jian in a very disjointed manner.
In his eyes, Yang Jian saw fear, pleading, and despair…
“I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do to help you,” he said earnestly. “The most I can do for you is to remind you to call your family. Say a few words; that’s the only thing you can do.”
Trembling, Liu Qiang took out his phone from his pocket, his eyes filled with tears, he bowed his head to call his family.
However, as he bowed his head.
The head that had been moved could no longer support itself on his neck…
“Thump~!”
A dull sound of impact rang out.
Liu Qiang’s head became detached from his neck and fell to the ground, rolling several times on the tiles before finally coming to a stop against the wall.
The headless body immediately stiffened, and the phone in its hand had just lit up the screen, but in the end, the call was never made.
Glancing at Liu Qiang’s head, eyes closed and face a deathly pale without a trace of blood, Yang Jian sighed in his heart.
Another person had been killed by a vicious ghost.
Looking away, he turned his attention to Jiang Yan, who was trembling in fear against the wall.