66

Due to her stomach feeling like it was setting ablaze, Chu Fu couldn’t hold herself back and eagerly pushed her shopping cart until the checkout counter.

She finished handing over her money with the quickest speed she could muster, and when the cashier was helping her put the purchased snacks into her bags, Chu Fu impatiently used her teeth to tear open the piece of ham’s wrapping, wolfing it down the next second.

Soon, she completely chewed through that humongous oval-shaped ham, but this snack was a far cry from satisfying her roaring appetite.

Chu Fu ate as she walked when approaching the mall’s entrance with Bai Yan.

In less than half an hour, she had already gobbled up the big bag of snacks she just bought, letting out a sigh of satisfaction while her face looked like she was settling into a food coma.

“She could really eat…”

Bai Yan saw with his own eyes how Chu Fu finished the giant pile of food like a hungry beast.

But, it was still strange. Even after eating a lot, Chu Fu’s belly remained flat.

But recently, she didn’t get that bloated feeling after she ate, and during her runs, she would even feel her body becoming stronger.

So, she tried to not throw up after she ate but didn’t expect it to work. Following her gorging on food for the next two days, she measured her body weight in the morning on an empty stomach like usual. To her pleasant surprise, her weight didn’t change at all. This led her to be in complete bliss as she ate and drank more recklessly than before.

She had originally assumed that those mukbang stars were all bulimic, how could there be people who wildly ate but still be thin in this world. But, when it happened to her body, she immediately believed it—— There was truly something in this world called a gift, and this would never come through envy!

“If I had known earlier that more exercise would keep me slim, why did I have to throw up before?”

Chu Fu held disdain for her lazy self in her heart, but upon hearing these sort of words, the more Bai Yan thought that there was something wrong.

He didn’t know whether there were people who had strange gifts on this earth, but it absolutely couldn’t be Chu Fu. How could someone who had bulimia suddenly get well? Furthermore, no matter how much she ate, she still wouldn’t fatten up while her complexion looked so rosy and healthy that it resembled someone who had just eaten ginseng. Genetic mutations also couldn’t have acted this quickly, right?

During his stay in the game’s world, Bai Yan always thought pessimistically, thinking things would turn out for the worst.

He originally assumed that Chu Fu was only a bit stupid, but looking at her right now, this lady’s body had weirdness written all over it.

Seeing how Chu Fu was stuck in her ignorant bliss and self-satisfaction, Bai Yan also didn’t want her to have a sudden realization.

He sidetracked Chu Fu with a few words and found that she didn’t check up on her recent changes, thinking that everything was still normal, which made Bai Yan change the subject and didn’t mention it again.

Because Cai Yu died too quickly, the two people didn’t spend that much time inside the mall.

After chatting with Chu Fu for a bit and watching her eat a boatload full of food, the time had just reached 10, and it was still too early for the next NPC’s arrival.

Bai Yan inadvertently shot a glance to the door and saw that the mascot outside was still braving the blaring sun, giving out flyers.

On this hot day, being stuffed inside a thick costume was terribly unpleasant.

However, due to being forced to make a livelihood, the person inside had no other choice but to brave the torrid heat and work.

The mascot walked over to the stream of bustling people, waving and handing out the flyers to each person that passed by. But, the passersby were indifferent to the mascot’s efforts, and when faced with the mascot’s flyers, only a few people would accept one.

Yet, those who did take one would instantly throw the flyer into a nearby trash can within a few steps away, not having any intentions of reading it.

“How could he still not speak up? How long before he’ll finish distributing the flyers like this?”

Since it was still early before the next NPC would come, Chu Fu saw how the mascot was handing out his flyers and couldn’t help but feel impatient on his behalf.

After Chu Fu said this, Bai Yan’s mind had returned from his deep pondering, he once again looked at the mascot that sent out the flyers.

The mascot didn’t say a word, only silently extending his hand and giving the people who passed by a flyer.

Even when other people didn’t receive the paper, it still didn’t plead for people to get it, continuing to repeatedly reach out his hand in a mechanical way, waiting for the next person.

“…” This work ethic truly had some issues.

Bai Yan’s heart was moved, so he moved closer to the mascot’s side.

Seeing someone get closer, the mascot extended its hand to hand over a flyer. Bai Yan took a glance and found that the contents of the flyer were nothing out of the ordinary, so he walked back without taking one.

Despite the flyer not having any problems, Bai Yan thought about it a bit more and took out his phone, taking a quick photo of the mascot.

In the photo, the mascot was right below the basking sun handing out flyers and looked like it was doing its best, seeming like nothing was out of the blue.

But… it didn’t have a shadow inside the picture.

Bai Yan immediately raised his head to look at the mascot. In real life, the mascot’s shadow was always under his foot, its depth and size were very appropriate.

Bai Yan then lowered his head to take another look at the photo again. The people who walked past the mascot all had shadows inside the picture, only the mascot… its shadow seemed to be missing.

On a hot day such as this, seeing this photo made Bai Yan feel a bit prickly.

The mascot stood not too far away from the door and was near them.

It was the first time he had been with a ghost for so long without knowing.

Fortunately, this ghost was merely handing out flyers and didn’t have any other movements, not even pouncing on him to tear him alive.

The ghost impersonating a mascot was still going about its business by handing out flyers.

Afraid that this ghost would target him, Bai Yan swiftly moved his finger and deleted the poorly taken photo, to not let it find out the fact that he stole a photo of it.

After deleting the photo, Bai Yan moved away from its line of sight, as if nothing happened. He casually looked at the sky, then the ground, and then the trees lining the path, not putting his gaze at the mascot giving out flyers at all.

However, his heart also started to waver. This cautious yet diligent ghost was outright standing by the mall’s entrance to distribute flyers, could it be connected to this level?

The mascot ghost’s work was to hand out flyers. Bai Yan thought of Cai Yu, and how her skirt’s pockets were too shallow to carry this sort of flyer. But as for Cai Yu’s mom… She most likely also had a bag. It was too bad that at that time, he was too preoccupied in passively watching the endearing scene. Other than telling Cai Yu to climb into the freezer and nothing else, he didn’t examine the items on the body of Cai Yu’s dead mom.

Perhaps, Cai Yu’s mother had with her this particular flyer.

Brooding up until this point, Bai Yan was a bit glad that this mascot acted gently and seemed to take it easy about its work.

Fortunately, this ghost that loved handing out flyers didn’t force one upon anyone to receive it. Even if people didn’t get one, it still won’t get angry.

Otherwise, if the ghost was determined to force it onto the passersby. He was afraid that no human would be able to manage a ghost.

As he turned his head, he saw that Chu Fu was still single-handedly massaging her tummy as well as feeble-mindedly staring at the mascot while her mouth mumbled off how this person was so stupid.

Bai Yan fixed his gaze on her for a full minute and nevertheless, decided to inform her about this matter in case she was bored out of her mind and rushed up to the ghost, remarking how to hand them out.

Although this ghost’s temperament was good, if a random person pointed out the faults in its working style, what would happen when it got angry?

Bai Yan could imagine it. If this girl certainly couldn’t run away from it, then she would bring this ghost to his direction!

So, Bai Yan opened his phone and typed down some words, holding it up to Chu Fu’s front and hinting for her to come to look at her phone.

After she finished reading the message, she immediately looked at the mascot with alarm and fear in her eyes while recoiling back by a few steps.

“I-I-It… How did you find out?”

Remembering how she wanted to educate the mascot on how to properly distribute flyers, a sense of fear lingered in Chu Fu’s mind.

With Bai Yan’s hint, Chu Fu also moved away from its line of sight, not daring to even look at the flyer-distributing ghost.

Still feeling uneasy from head to toe, they stood at the entrance until it was 11. The second NPC had finally arrived.

Chu Fu knew that the mall had ghosts, but she was already itching to go in.

And, as he saw the red text above the NPC’s head, Bai Yan approached him to have a little chat.

The new NPC’s name was Hu Chen. His brows were locked up tightly while his back slouched in an unsightly manner, giving him a haggard look, and his face was also filled with worry.

He saw the nearing Bai Yan and promptly said, “You two are the detectives that will help me, right? My girlfriend is counting on you!”

“Oh right, this is a photo of my girlfriend. Please take a look. She mysteriously disappeared yesterday afternoon! I already reported it to the police, but she’s a living person. Even in this mall where people come and go, there’s no way she would just go missing like this!”

The moment Hu Chen opened his mouth, a loud and sticky string of words came with it, and after his opening statements, Bai Yan calmly said, “Sir, please slow down. How did your girlfriend disappear? Could you give me a detailed account of what happened?”

“Fine, let me start from the beginning!” Hu Chen sighed deeply, and then he anxiously stated, “Yesterday afternoon, I was with Yuan Yuan in the mall to do some shopping. After buying some clothes, I carried the shopping bags and went down the escalator with her. When we reached the floor, Yuan Yuan’s shoes became a little crooked, so she crouched down to fix them and let me carry my things down first. I rode the escalator and Yuan Yuan was behind me, but who knew that when I got off and turned my head to look over, Yuan Yuan was nowhere to be seen!”

“I was looking for her all over the mall all night, but I still didn’t find Yuan Yuan. I kept this on for a short while, but there’s no way she’d just run off by herself! I contemplated on it even more when I got back. Right now, there were a lot of human traffickers targeting women. Could it be that Yuan Yuan was abducted by these people? But, there are a lot of people in the mall. With loads of people going around, if someone had made a move on Yuan Yuan, there’s no way there won’t be any struggle!”

“You’ve already searched here last night. Why did you come back here again today?” Bai Yan suddenly asked.

“This may be a premonition.” Hu Chen spoke as if he was holding something back, “Actually, last night, I dreamt of Yuan Yuan. She said that she was trapped in the mall and that she’s in an extremely narrow and crowded place. She’s suffering terribly and was asking me to quickly come and save her.”

Due to her stomach feeling like it was setting ablaze, Chu Fu couldn’t hold herself back and eagerly pushed her shopping cart until the checkout counter.

She finished handing over her money with the quickest speed she could muster, and when the cashier was helping her put the purchased snacks into her bags, Chu Fu impatiently used her teeth to tear open the piece of ham’s wrapping, wolfing it down the next second.

Soon, she completely chewed through that humongous oval-shaped ham, but this snack was a far cry from satisfying her roaring appetite.

Chu Fu ate as she walked when approaching the mall’s entrance with Bai Yan.

In less than half an hour, she had already gobbled up the big bag of snacks she just bought, letting out a sigh of satisfaction while her face looked like she was settling into a food coma.

“She could really eat…”

Bai Yan saw with his own eyes how Chu Fu finished the giant pile of food like a hungry beast.

But, it was still strange. Even after eating a lot, Chu Fu’s belly remained flat.

But recently, she didn’t get that bloated feeling after she ate, and during her runs, she would even feel her body becoming stronger.

So, she tried to not throw up after she ate but didn’t expect it to work. Following her gorging on food for the next two days, she measured her body weight in the morning on an empty stomach like usual. To her pleasant surprise, her weight didn’t change at all. This led her to be in complete bliss as she ate and drank more recklessly than before.

She had originally assumed that those mukbang stars were all bulimic, how could there be people who wildly ate but still be thin in this world. But, when it happened to her body, she immediately believed it—— There was truly something in this world called a gift, and this would never come through envy!

“If I had known earlier that more exercise would keep me slim, why did I have to throw up before?”

Chu Fu held disdain for her lazy self in her heart, but upon hearing these sort of words, the more Bai Yan thought that there was something wrong.

He didn’t know whether there were people who had strange gifts on this earth, but it absolutely couldn’t be Chu Fu. How could someone who had bulimia suddenly get well? Furthermore, no matter how much she ate, she still wouldn’t fatten up while her complexion looked so rosy and healthy that it resembled someone who had just eaten ginseng. Genetic mutations also couldn’t have acted this quickly, right?

During his stay in the game’s world, Bai Yan always thought pessimistically, thinking things would turn out for the worst.

He originally assumed that Chu Fu was only a bit stupid, but looking at her right now, this lady’s body had weirdness written all over it.

Seeing how Chu Fu was stuck in her ignorant bliss and self-satisfaction, Bai Yan also didn’t want her to have a sudden realization.

He sidetracked Chu Fu with a few words and found that she didn’t check up on her recent changes, thinking that everything was still normal, which made Bai Yan change the subject and didn’t mention it again.

Because Cai Yu died too quickly, the two people didn’t spend that much time inside the mall.

After chatting with Chu Fu for a bit and watching her eat a boatload full of food, the time had just reached 10, and it was still too early for the next NPC’s arrival.

Bai Yan inadvertently shot a glance to the door and saw that the mascot outside was still braving the blaring sun, giving out flyers.

On this hot day, being stuffed inside a thick costume was terribly unpleasant.

However, due to being forced to make a livelihood, the person inside had no other choice but to brave the torrid heat and work.

The mascot walked over to the stream of bustling people, waving and handing out the flyers to each person that passed by. But, the passersby were indifferent to the mascot’s efforts, and when faced with the mascot’s flyers, only a few people would accept one.

Yet, those who did take one would instantly throw the flyer into a nearby trash can within a few steps away, not having any intentions of reading it.

“How could he still not speak up? How long before he’ll finish distributing the flyers like this?”

Since it was still early before the next NPC would come, Chu Fu saw how the mascot was handing out his flyers and couldn’t help but feel impatient on his behalf.

After Chu Fu said this, Bai Yan’s mind had returned from his deep pondering, he once again looked at the mascot that sent out the flyers.

The mascot didn’t say a word, only silently extending his hand and giving the people who passed by a flyer.

Even when other people didn’t receive the paper, it still didn’t plead for people to get it, continuing to repeatedly reach out his hand in a mechanical way, waiting for the next person.

“…” This work ethic truly had some issues.

Bai Yan’s heart was moved, so he moved closer to the mascot’s side.

Seeing someone get closer, the mascot extended its hand to hand over a flyer. Bai Yan took a glance and found that the contents of the flyer were nothing out of the ordinary, so he walked back without taking one.

Despite the flyer not having any problems, Bai Yan thought about it a bit more and took out his phone, taking a quick photo of the mascot.

In the photo, the mascot was right below the basking sun handing out flyers and looked like it was doing its best, seeming like nothing was out of the blue.

But… it didn’t have a shadow inside the picture.

Bai Yan immediately raised his head to look at the mascot. In real life, the mascot’s shadow was always under his foot, its depth and size were very appropriate.

Bai Yan then lowered his head to take another look at the photo again. The people who walked past the mascot all had shadows inside the picture, only the mascot… its shadow seemed to be missing.

On a hot day such as this, seeing this photo made Bai Yan feel a bit prickly.

The mascot stood not too far away from the door and was near them.

It was the first time he had been with a ghost for so long without knowing.

Fortunately, this ghost was merely handing out flyers and didn’t have any other movements, not even pouncing on him to tear him alive.

The ghost impersonating a mascot was still going about its business by handing out flyers.

Afraid that this ghost would target him, Bai Yan swiftly moved his finger and deleted the poorly taken photo, to not let it find out the fact that he stole a photo of it.

After deleting the photo, Bai Yan moved away from its line of sight, as if nothing happened. He casually looked at the sky, then the ground, and then the trees lining the path, not putting his gaze at the mascot giving out flyers at all.

However, his heart also started to waver. This cautious yet diligent ghost was outright standing by the mall’s entrance to distribute flyers, could it be connected to this level?

The mascot ghost’s work was to hand out flyers. Bai Yan thought of Cai Yu, and how her skirt’s pockets were too shallow to carry this sort of flyer. But as for Cai Yu’s mom… She most likely also had a bag. It was too bad that at that time, he was too preoccupied in passively watching the endearing scene. Other than telling Cai Yu to climb into the freezer and nothing else, he didn’t examine the items on the body of Cai Yu’s dead mom.

Perhaps, Cai Yu’s mother had with her this particular flyer.

Brooding up until this point, Bai Yan was a bit glad that this mascot acted gently and seemed to take it easy about its work.

Fortunately, this ghost that loved handing out flyers didn’t force one upon anyone to receive it. Even if people didn’t get one, it still won’t get angry.

Otherwise, if the ghost was determined to force it onto the passersby. He was afraid that no human would be able to manage a ghost.

As he turned his head, he saw that Chu Fu was still single-handedly massaging her tummy as well as feeble-mindedly staring at the mascot while her mouth mumbled off how this person was so stupid.

Bai Yan fixed his gaze on her for a full minute and nevertheless, decided to inform her about this matter in case she was bored out of her mind and rushed up to the ghost, remarking how to hand them out.

Although this ghost’s temperament was good, if a random person pointed out the faults in its working style, what would happen when it got angry?

Bai Yan could imagine it. If this girl certainly couldn’t run away from it, then she would bring this ghost to his direction!

So, Bai Yan opened his phone and typed down some words, holding it up to Chu Fu’s front and hinting for her to come to look at her phone.

After she finished reading the message, she immediately looked at the mascot with alarm and fear in her eyes while recoiling back by a few steps.

“I-I-It… How did you find out?”

Remembering how she wanted to educate the mascot on how to properly distribute flyers, a sense of fear lingered in Chu Fu’s mind.

With Bai Yan’s hint, Chu Fu also moved away from its line of sight, not daring to even look at the flyer-distributing ghost.

Still feeling uneasy from head to toe, they stood at the entrance until it was 11. The second NPC had finally arrived.

Chu Fu knew that the mall had ghosts, but she was already itching to go in.

And, as he saw the red text above the NPC’s head, Bai Yan approached him to have a little chat.

The new NPC’s name was Hu Chen. His brows were locked up tightly while his back slouched in an unsightly manner, giving him a haggard look, and his face was also filled with worry.

He saw the nearing Bai Yan and promptly said, “You two are the detectives that will help me, right? My girlfriend is counting on you!”

“Oh right, this is a photo of my girlfriend. Please take a look. She mysteriously disappeared yesterday afternoon! I already reported it to the police, but she’s a living person. Even in this mall where people come and go, there’s no way she would just go missing like this!”

The moment Hu Chen opened his mouth, a loud and sticky string of words came with it, and after his opening statements, Bai Yan calmly said, “Sir, please slow down. How did your girlfriend disappear? Could you give me a detailed account of what happened?”

“Fine, let me start from the beginning!” Hu Chen sighed deeply, and then he anxiously stated, “Yesterday afternoon, I was with Yuan Yuan in the mall to do some shopping. After buying some clothes, I carried the shopping bags and went down the escalator with her. When we reached the floor, Yuan Yuan’s shoes became a little crooked, so she crouched down to fix them and let me carry my things down first. I rode the escalator and Yuan Yuan was behind me, but who knew that when I got off and turned my head to look over, Yuan Yuan was nowhere to be seen!”

“I was looking for her all over the mall all night, but I still didn’t find Yuan Yuan. I kept this on for a short while, but there’s no way she’d just run off by herself! I contemplated on it even more when I got back. Right now, there were a lot of human traffickers targeting women. Could it be that Yuan Yuan was abducted by these people? But, there are a lot of people in the mall. With loads of people going around, if someone had made a move on Yuan Yuan, there’s no way there won’t be any struggle!”

“You’ve already searched here last night. Why did you come back here again today?” Bai Yan suddenly asked.

“This may be a premonition.” Hu Chen spoke as if he was holding something back, “Actually, last night, I dreamt of Yuan Yuan. She said that she was trapped in the mall and that she’s in an extremely narrow and crowded place. She’s suffering terribly and was asking me to quickly come and save her.”