After being ‘educated’ by Han Fei, the young guard still didn’t feel much better, if anything he became even more afraid. He was certain that Han Fei was not a ghost but in this world, one didn’t need to be a ghost to instil fear in others. Seeing Han Fei who was so at ease in a bloody uniform, the young guard silently switched on the walkie-talkie. Perhaps because they were inside the basement, the walkie-talkie only responded with static.
‘Ghosts have a unique static field. When they are present, they will disrupt the static field, causing electrical devices to malfunction…’ As the detail from the ghost stories entered his mind, the guard became tense again. He rubbed his gummy calves and hurried up from the ground. He decided to leave this place while he still could. “Let’s go upstairs then. My senior would be looking for me. They’re probably circling the lobby, trying to find me.” The young guard had a hidden message in his words. ‘I have many friends here so don’t do anything too stupid.’ He believed that such a claim would stop Han Fei from harming him but in reality, when Han Fei heard that, he only nodded as he silently came up with a plan to capture all the guards in one fell swoop.
After walking out from the room, Han Fei glanced at the corridor which was welded shut. The other side of the corridor appeared to lead to a different world.
“By the way, I still haven’t got your name.”
“My name is Bai Sinian, everyone calls me Xiao Si.”
“Xiao Bai, I have a question for you.” Han Fei pointed at the sealed path. “Why is this path sealed? Is there something scary on the other side?”
“The name’s Xiao Si.” The guard said weakly. “When I patrolled with my senior, he only told me that I mustn’t come to this floor after midnight. There is no surveillance on this floor and no guard is assigned to patrol this place, no one really knows why.”
“Is that when you decide to take advantage of the blind spot yourself? You came to this floor to sneak some rest?” Han Fei couldn’t help but be impressed. This Bai Sinian was in a way quite a genius.
“I was just braver than the rest. I enjoy ghost stories and this floor has that horror-film atmosphere.” Bai Sinian glanced at the ceremonial urn Han Fei was holding and then dipped his voice conspiratorially. “I heard from the others that there was once a new guard who was afraid of ghost stories. When he came to this floor to patrol for the first time, he was never seen again. I wonder if they just made that up to scare me or not.” Then he glanced at Han Fei as if suspecting that Han Fei was that security guard. The two walked down the long corridor and arrived before the elevator. Seeing the changing elevator number, Bai Sinian didn’t feel that afraid anymore. As strange as Han Fei was, he didn’t show any intention of harming him. Summoning his courage, Bai Sinian asked the question which had been bothering him. “Big brother, why is your uniform so bloody when I can’t see any visible wounds on you? And how come your uniform doesn’t really look like ours?”
“I came from a neighbourhood security. I plan to join this company to start a new career.” Han Fei answered.
“Why did you stop working for that neighbourhood? Did something happen?” Bai Sinian asked with curiosity in his eyes. Hearing the question, Han Fei was rather speechless. Life was short enough but some people insisted on making it shorter. If Han Fei was truly a ghost, this young guard would be dead several times already.
Ding! While the atmosphere froze from Han Fei’s refusal to answer, the elevator finally arrived. Bai Sinian quickly rushed in. Han Fei walked in after him. When he did, the red overload warning lit up again. Han Fei’s frown deepened by Bai Sinian just shrugged. “This elevator has always been like this. When you take it at night, even if you’re inside the booth alone, it’ll keep on saying that it’s overloaded. It’ll go away on its own.”
“Looks like you’re quite used to that.”
“Well you have to when you have a skimpy boss. He would never fix these things.” As the elevator rose, Bai Sinian’s tone lightened significantly. “If you can get an offer elsewhere, I’d advise you against joining this company. The boss gives a very unfair contract. This place might look impressive but it’s not much better than the government job agency. And the key thing is, I’ve heard of a sinister secret about this place…” Bai Sinian lowered his voice. “The one good thing about our boss is that he has very wide connections and thus can bring many jobs into the company but I hear that some of the colleagues never return from their postings.”
“Isn’t that a good thing? That means they get a permanent posting there, and a stable income.”
“No, it’s not like that. We never hear from them again… like they’ve disappeared.” Bai Sinian stared at Han Fei’s uniform for a long time before his eyes lit up with shock. “Now that I think about it, I’ve seen your uniform before! Many guards have worn the same uniform as yours! The neighbourhood you came from is a big customer of our boss. Every week, our boss will send people there but no one ever returns. The place is like a blackhole.”
Bai Sinian had incidentally provided Han Fei with valuable information. The boss of this company had connections with Ziggurat and had been continuously feeding the place well-trained ‘security guards’.
“Is there a special requirement to get a posting there?” Han Fei asked.
“Didn’t you come from there? You should know.” Bai Sinian was confused but he still answered. “In any case, I heard that before the guard is sent there, they would be summoned to the boss’ office on the 4th floor and be given something by the boss.” Han Fei’s plan was to infiltrate Ziggurat as a security guard but he didn’t know how a Ziggurat security guard would operate but he was going to find out at this place.
“Let’s go to the 4th floor now.” Han Fei suggested.
“Are you sure? The boss sometimes sleeps in his office, if we run into him…” Bai Sinian shivered involuntarily as he imagined that scene. The young guard appeared to be afraid of the boss.
“It’ll be fine, we’re just going to go take a quick look.” Han Fei wanted to find out the clear relationship between the security company boss and Butterfly. If they were friends, Han Fei had to eliminate this boss. ‘Hopefully things won’t reach that stage, my professional resume is already quite bloody as it is.’
