Chapter 59: The Wedding Ring
Jilin Mo frowned as he looked at the bizarre scene before him and turned to the next page.
[Year XXX, Month X, Day X]
Today is my first day at work, I’m so happy. The manager assigned me to the first floor. The first floor is a huge mall, the pay is great, and there are so many customers every day. I’m really happy— I must do my best!
[Year XXX, Month X, Day X]
Fifth day at work— I messed up. I think I made the manager angry.
[Year XXX, Month X, Day X]
I’ve been reassigned to work on the third floor! It turns out the third floor is for goods— they actually want me to be merchandise! I don’t want this, but it’s too late. I can’t leave the third floor anymore!
[Year XXX, Month X, Day 1]
First day taking medicine. Red blotches have appeared all over my body, so itchy. Is there still a chance for me to return to the first floor?
[Year XXX, Month X, Day 5]
Fifth day on the medication. I saw a rabbit in the hospital room. Strange— why would there be a rabbit in here?
[Year XXX, Month X, Day ?]
Rabbits! Their eyes are red, long ears, snow-white bodies, but they don’t have long noses! No long noses!
[Year XXX, Month X, Day ?]
Hee hee! Rabbits! So many, many rabbits!
[Year XXX, Month X, Day ?]
@#￥%……&F*&, Rabbits, no noses? No!
Jilin Mo set down the diary and lifted his shirt.
—His arm was covered with large red blotches, exactly as described on the first day in the notebook.
“Mr. Ji, your arm…” Qin Feng stared at the red blotches on Jilin Mo’s arm and poked them with his finger.
“Qin Feng, you once told me to go to Store Number Zero to find the antidote. How did you know about that?”
Qin Feng waved his hand, gesturing for Jilin Mo to look. It was a sheet of rules.
It read: Every morning, doctors must perform a physical examination on merchandise. Should a doctor accidentally ingest medication during this process, please promptly proceed to Store Number Zero to purchase the antidote, accompanied by a security guard or a janitor.
“No wonder you knew…” Jilin Mo quickly scanned the note, handed it back to Qin Feng, and looked in the direction where the security guards had disappeared earlier.
Sure enough, when he had been “merchandise” just now, the wall had been empty, but now a door had appeared out of nowhere.
—This was a passage only visible to those who were not merchandise. Presumably, this is how the guards had exited the third floor.
“Qin Feng, I plan to go to the first floor to get the antidote. I need your help.”
---
Jilin Mo patted Qin Feng on the shoulder and pointed to the doctor’s rules.
“As a janitor, the rules state you can only clean as instructed by others, so you can’t go buy the antidote. That’s why I need you.”
But the boy pressed down on his arm, gazing at the wound with a shadowed, unreadable expression.
“Mr. Ji, I have a better proposal.”
“Once we get to the first floor, why not just never come back?”
“The first floor is our best hope to escape. Maybe we can steal a deliveryman’s uniform—if we get permission to go out, escaping this super mall should be a breeze, shouldn’t it?”
Jilin Mo agreed that Qin Feng’s idea was reasonable. After briefly telling him about what he’d found in the diary, he didn’t linger, heading towards the first floor.
Passing through the door that only non-merchandise could see, Jilin Mo and Qin Feng descended straight to the first floor.
“Wow, Mr. Ji, as expected of a giant mall!” Qin Feng exclaimed in awe, scanning the first floor.
—Almost immediately, they saw all sorts of decorative walls built from stark-white human bones.
The ghastly first-floor mall was illuminated everywhere by dim lanterns shaped like human heads; nearly every shop had several of these as ornaments.
Jilin Mo said nothing. Stepping onto the first floor, he had an inexplicable sense of how soft the ground was beneath his feet. He looked down, only to see that the smooth, delicate surface seemed to be covered in a layer of human skin, with its textures clearly visible under the lights.
“It truly is a super mall—luxuriously decorated… at least for the fiends,” Jilin Mo remarked, his face expressionless.
—Just the human-skin carpet alone must have cost countless lives.
He didn’t know what form the merchandise on the third floor ultimately took for sale, but it was almost certain they wouldn’t escape flaying and organ harvesting.
“Mr. Ji, look—Store Number Zero is right there!” Qin Feng pointed to a signpost made from a human spine.
Jilin Mo glanced at Qin Feng in puzzlement, curiosity rising in his heart.
The child before him was barely eighteen, newly an adult—how could he be so utterly unafraid of all this?
“Qin Feng, you don’t seem scared of any of this at all…”
“Is there any reason to be?” Qin Feng tilted his head at Jilin Mo and stuck out his tongue.
“If you need me to, I can act scared anytime, Mr. Ji.”
“Wow~ so terrifying~”
Jilin Mo was left speechless, not knowing what to say, and could only assume Qin Feng was born fearless.
With Qin Feng in tow, Jilin Mo made his way toward Store Number Zero and successfully bought and took the antidote at one of the shops.
“Hey, did you hear? That convenience store in the mall eliminated six clerks again today—sent them up to the third floor!”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course! That store’s hiring again, but who would dare go now?”
---
Jilin Mo listened closely to the idle chatter of two clerks, and a new idea began to form. At the moment his eyes met Qin Feng’s, the two understood each other.
“Sisters, working as a clerk must be tough, right?” Qin Feng picked up on the cue and started chatting with the two clerks.
In no time, with his naturally striking looks, Qin Feng had figured out the process for applying as a clerk.
“Mr. Ji, the interview isn’t strict at all—you just need to be able to move. That convenience store is desperate for staff; basically, anyone who shows up gets hired.”
He finished speaking and handed Jilin Mo a drink with a cheerful smile.
“Is this safe to drink?”
Jilin Mo looked coolly at the red beverage in his hand, raising an eyebrow.
“It’s fine—it’s just watermelon juice. The two clerks gave it to me. The second floor is a big restaurant; you can buy anything there,” Qin Feng replied, chewing on the straw.
Watching Jilin Mo silently struggle with the watermelon juice, the boy couldn’t help but laugh quietly.
“Mr. Ji, you really are interesting.”
“But since we have a moment, don’t you want to see the side item I drew earlier?”
With that, Qin Feng smiled and held out his hand, palm up, revealing a ring.
“My new ring—what do you think?”
[Attack of Love Ring]
[Item Quality: High (S-Rank)]
[Item Description: The companion to the ‘Guardian of Love Ring,’ greatly increases attack power.]
“Nice,” Jilin Mo replied perfunctorily.
“Of course, it had a ten percent draw rate, and I got it in one try.” Qin Feng grinned.
“Mr. Ji, the system says you drew one too. Want to take it out and put it on with me?”
Jilin Mo finally glanced at the ring and pressed his forehead in exasperation.
“Qin Feng, it’s a wedding ring. Can you not joke around?”
But Qin Feng narrowed his eyes, and in front of Jilin Mo, slipped the ring onto his own ring finger.
Under the dim light, the ring gleamed, making the boy’s hand appear even more broad and elegant.