Heigui touched his nose somewhat embarrassedly and said with a forced laugh,
"I've heard recently that strange noises often come from the forty-fourth floor, very eerie ones, and many people have heard them. Some say there's something unclean up there, others say someone died on the forty-fourth floor before, a manager and his secretary getting cozy by the window when they accidentally fell down. So, the spirit's been hovering around the forty-fourth floor."
"You actually believe that? Are you stupid?" Hao Jian was speechless. Was this meant to fool a three-year-old?
Feeling uneasy, Heigui said, "I didn't believe it either, but a few days ago, when I was patrolling the forty-fourth floor, I heard that strange noise too, and I even caught a glimpse of a figure. I was scared stiff right there and then."
"Are you sure you weren't seeing things?"
Hao Jian asked, furrowing his brows. If that was really the case, then things were indeed a bit fishy.
"Of course I saw it right. Tie Shan was with me that day; what do you think that beast asked you to cover his shift for? His wife isn't due to give birth for another couple of weeks."
Unscrupulously, Heigui ratted out Tie Shan, mainly because Tie Shan found a substitute to cover for him, and he didn't.
"Damn it," Hao Jian cursed under his breath. So, he was the one who'd been duped.
"Hao Jian! Brother Jian! Please spare me this time, I really don't want to go to that ghostly place."
Heigui hugged Hao Jian's thighs, clearly scared out of his wits.
"A grown man scared to death, you might as well be dead."
Hao Jian looked at Heigui, who was clinging to his thighs, with disdain,
"Get off! Don't cling to my legs, I'm not into that."
"I'm not... Brother, you're my own brother..." Heigui was on the verge of tears, snot and tears mixed, after that incident, he would rather die than go to the twentieth floor.
"Alright, alright, I'll go patrol for you."
Hao Jian was speechless, big and burly but with a heart smaller than a rabbit's!
Ghosts? How could such things exist in the world.
"Brother, you're my brother!"
Heigui shouted excitedly, staring at Hao Jian with emotion, looking as if Hao Jian was the most beautiful person in the world.
"Get lost, get lost, get lost."
Hao Jian cursed irritably, kicking him out.
"Or, let's just forget it, if there really is something unclean up there, by making you go, wouldn't I be harming you? Let's do this, we'll just stroll below the twentieth floor, and by tomorrow we can just cover it up with Boss Liang."
Heigui said hesitantly.
"That won't do. If we slack off and the company suffers a loss, the entire security department will be implicated."
Hao Jian disagreed firmly. This was no laughing matter. He didn't believe in any ghostly stuff, but he worried about burglars.
Since so many colleagues had heard strange noises, it definitely wasn't an accident. There could well be a burglar lurking around, and he wanted to clear up what was really going on.
Heigui looked at Hao Jian in surprise, when he told everyone about this, each person was so scared they were speechless, but Hao Jian didn't seem to be scared at all.
"I'm not even scared of people, why should I be scared of ghosts?"
Afterward, Hao Jian patrolled floor by floor, but he did not hear the ghostly screams Heigui talked about. He even wondered if those two were drunk that night, hallucinating sounds and sights.
Just when Hao Jian felt amused by the thought, a strange noise came along. It sounded like a broken accordion, whooshing back and forth. With the night wind's accompaniment, it was especially sinister and eerie.
Hao Jian frowned slightly, so there really was a weird noise?
But Hao Jian didn't think it was any ghost causing trouble, he quickly walked toward the direction of the sound.
He soon arrived at the entrance of an old warehouse, or rather this whole floor consisted of warehouses, stacked full with all sorts of clutter, and it was rare for anyone to come up here.
At this moment, Hao Jian was on the forty-fifth floor, just one level below the topmost floor.
Since many warehouses on this floor had no windows, the wind was particularly strong, howling loudly, coupled with the eerie sound of a wind harp, which made the atmosphere even more sinister.
Hao Jian stood at the entrance of one of the warehouses, his eyebrows deeply furrowed, for he heard the noise coming from behind the door.
Hao Jian pushed open the iron door and walked in, only to be greeted by darkness, with various items littered all over the floor, making the spacious warehouse seem cramped.
With the help of the moonlight, Hao Jian saw a man sneakily dragging something, making the whooshing sound, the strange noise Heigui had mentioned probably originated from here.
Hao Jian focused his eyes and saw that it was actually a batch of silver ornaments used for jewelry decoration; this guy was actually stealing silver!
"What are you doing?" Hao Jian barked angrily.
The man had not expected someone to barge in at this time and interrupt him; startled by Hao Jian's shout, he shivered.
He turned around to look at Hao Jian and, upon seeing the security guard uniform on him, his face quickly twisted into an expression of intense irritation:
"From the security department?"
"That's right. Who are you, daring to steal in the warehouse?" Hao Jian retorted coldly.
By now he could see the other person clearly; he was a wiry old man, not very tall—probably only about one meter sixty—and hunchbacked, looking quite like a rat.
Seeing Hao Jian come in, the old man was far from scared; instead, he scolded Hao Jian directly, exhibiting an extremely bad attitude.
"Hey!" Hao Jian was so angry he felt his nose could be crooked.
This old man was really brazen, daring to be so arrogant while stealing.
"Old man, I advise you to put the things down, or else don't say I bullied an elderly man later," Hao Jian said with a smirk, seeing that this old fellow dared to be so arrogant, there was no need to show him respect.
"You don't recognize me?"
Seeing that Hao Jian actually didn't recognize him, the old man immediately furrowed his brows, seemingly quite surprised that there was someone in the company who didn't know him.
And true, Hao Jian really didn't recognize him; he sized up the old man and asked, "Are you a national leader?"
The old man's face darkened—if he were a national leader, would he need to work in this company?
"Are you a big star?" Hao Jian inquired further.
"No." The old man's face grew even more unsightly; have you ever seen a star who looks ?
"Then why should I know you?"
Hao Jian scoffed disdainfully, the old man's way of talking was quite funny, as if Hao Jian had to know him, and as if not knowing him was a sin.
"I'm Sun Minghui, the head of the Marketing Department!" the old man yelled angrily; how dare a mere security guard speak to him that way?
Hao Jian was taken aback, wasn't this the Old Sun that Heigui and the others had talked about? One of the four individuals to keep away from, he hadn't expected to run into him.