The first thing Lin Wantang thought when she woke up was that she'd been conned.
Last night, Ye Chenyuan had sworn up and down that the Netherworld would give her an explanation.
For a while, she'd even thought that the dignified Netherworld King would at least arrange a luxurious residence for her, throw in a few magical artifacts, and compensate her for the emotional distress caused by having her soul reaped ahead of time.
But the next morning—
She stood in a gloomy office, staring at the mountain of files piled up in front of her, and fell completely silent.
“What is this?”
Xie Qi stood beside her, smiling brightly.
“Work.”
“I know this is work.”
Lin Wantang pointed at the pile of files.
“I’m asking why there’s work in my room.”
Xie Qi coughed.
“This isn’t your room.”
Lin Wantang looked up.
A wooden plaque hung on the office door.
It read—
Temporary Office of the Soul-Reaping Office.
She was silent for three seconds.
“Xie Qi.”
“Yes?”
“What does this mean?”
“His Highness’s arrangement for you.”
“What arrangement?”
“A work arrangement.”
“I know it’s a work arrangement!”
Lin Wantang took a deep breath.
“Your Netherworld reaped my soul thirty-five minutes early, I nearly lost my soul completely, and now the people of Youxu are watching me.”
“Mm-hmm.”
“And what is your compensation?”
Xie Qi smiled even more guiltily.
“To let you… start working in the Netherworld.”
Lin Wantang: “…”
She suddenly felt that dying was worse than being alive.
At least when she was alive, she didn’t have to work for ghosts.
“I refuse.”
She turned and walked away.
Xie Qi hurriedly blocked her.
“Wait!”
“I’m not doing it.”
“This is His Highness’s personal order.”
“Then I’ll go find him.”
“Sure.”
Xie Qi stepped aside.
“His Highness is inside.”
Lin Wantang stopped short.
“Inside?”
“Yes.”
She looked back.
“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Xie Qi wore an innocent expression.
“You didn’t ask.”
Lin Wantang pushed open the door.
Sure enough.
Ye Chenyuan was sitting beside the window.
He wore a black robe and held a file in his hand, his expression calm.
As if he had no idea what had happened outside the door.
Lin Wantang walked in.
“Ye Chenyuan.”
“Mm.”
“Did you forget something?”
“No.”
“Then tell me.”
She pointed at the files outside.
“What are those?”
“Your work.”
“Mine?”
“Mm.”
“Why?”
Ye Chenyuan set down the file in his hand.
“Because the Netherworld acknowledges the wrongful soul-reaping.”
Lin Wantang froze for a moment.
“So?”
“So under Netherworld law, you’re entitled to compensation.”
“What compensation?”
“First, compensation in merit corresponding to your original remaining allotted lifespan.”
“Second, a guarantee that your soul will remain safe.”
“Third, permission to reside temporarily in the Netherworld.”
Lin Wantang nodded.
“Good.”
“What else?”
“Nothing.”
She pointed outside.
“Then what’s the job?”
Ye Chenyuan’s expression remained calm.
“A condition of your compensation.”
“What?”
“You can’t return to the mortal world for the time being.”
“Mm.”
“And you can’t enter reincarnation.”
“Mm.”
“The Netherworld needs to assign you an identity.”
“Mm.”
“So you’ll temporarily serve as a records officer for the Soul-Reaping Office.”
Lin Wantang glared at him.
“You make it sound so nice.”
Ye Chenyuan said nothing.
“What does a records officer do?”
“Verify the Book of Life and Death.”
“Inspect soul-reaping warrants.”
“Process erroneous soul registries.”
Lin Wantang’s expression grew darker and darker.
“So you brought me here to investigate why your people wrongfully reaped my soul?”
Ye Chenyuan nodded.
“Yes.”
“Do you think I’m easy to bully?”
“No.”
“Then how dare you make me work?”
“Because you need a legal identity.”
Lin Wantang froze.
Ye Chenyuan continued:
“And your soul is currently in a special state.”
“Only by entering the Soul-Reaping Office can you access the Book of Life and Death.”
“And only by accessing the Book of Life and Death can you uncover the truth behind your death.”
Lin Wantang fell silent.
She had to admit it.
He had a point.
Right now, she was an unregistered departed soul with no identity.
If she wanted to investigate why she had died, she had no place to start.
But she was still a little annoyed.
“What about the pay?”
Ye Chenyuan paused slightly.
“The pay?”
“Yes.”
“Work in the Netherworld isn’t free, is it?”
“Of course not.”
“How much?”
Ye Chenyuan looked at her.
“Three hundred merit per month.”
“Three hundred?”
Lin Wantang’s eyes lit up.
“What can merit be used for?”
Xie Qi poked his head in through the doorway.
“You can exchange it for things at the Ghost Market.”
“Milk tea included?”
“Included.”
Lin Wantang changed her mind instantly.
“I’m in.”
Xie Qi: “…”
He suddenly felt that Miss Lin had agreed far too quickly.
A trace of amusement flashed through Ye Chenyuan’s eyes.
“Good.”
“But I have one request.”
“Tell me.”
“You can’t make me do anything too dangerous.”
“Fine.”
“You can’t send me to Youxu alone.”
“Fine.”
“Xie Qi can’t take me to any weird places.”
Xie Qi: “?”
“Especially nothing involving another wrongful soul-reaping accident.”
Ye Chenyuan nodded.
“Fine.”
Lin Wantang extended her hand.
“Then we have a deal.”
Ye Chenyuan glanced at her hand.
He didn’t shake it.
Instead, he took out a black token and placed it in her palm.
“Your Soul-Reaping Office token.”
“What does it do?”
“It represents your identity.”
Lin Wantang turned it over in her hands.
“So I’m a Netherworld civil servant now?”
Xie Qi said quietly from the side:
“Temporarily.”
Lin Wantang glared at him.
“Shut up.”
An hour later.
Lin Wantang sat in the Soul-Reaping Office and officially began work.
Three ledgers were laid out in front of her.
The first.
Daily Allotted-Lifespan Verification Ledger.
The second.
Soul-Reaping Warrant Distribution Records.
The third.
General Register of Departed Souls.
Lin Wantang stared at them for a long time.
“This is my job?”
“Yes.”
Xie Qi stood beside her.
“Every day, you verify three hundred soul-reaping warrants, confirm the names, birth dates, and times of death, and stamp them if there are no problems.”
“What if there is a problem?”
“Send it back.”
“What if the soul has already been reaped?”
“Send it back.”
Lin Wantang froze.
“Send it back?”
“Yes.”
“Can you send someone back after they’ve died?”
“Of course.”
“Wouldn’t that scare them to death?”
Xie Qi blinked.
“They were already about to die.”
Lin Wantang suddenly understood the Netherworld’s work logic.
Here, dying didn’t necessarily mean you had to stay dead.
It was only when your time was truly up that you were really dead.
“How many do I have to process today?”
“Three hundred.”
“Three hundred?”
“Mm.”
“What if I can’t finish them?”
“Overtime.”
Lin Wantang: “…”
She looked out the window.
“Can I quit?”
Xie Qi shook his head.
“No.”
“Why not?”
“You don’t have any other work experience.”
“And His Highness said…”
“This is the position you’re best suited for right now.”
Lin Wantang ground her teeth.
“He sure knows me well.”
Less than half an hour after work began, Lin Wantang discovered a problem.
“Xie Qi.”
“What is it?”
“This person isn’t supposed to die.”
Xie Qi froze.
“How do you know?”
Lin Wantang pointed at the file.
“The time of death is midnight tonight.”
“But this person’s birth details don’t match the Book of Life and Death.”
“Which part?”
“The year of birth.”
Xie Qi leaned over.
Lin Wantang pointed it out to him.
“It says the Gengchen year.”
“But the record says this person was born in Jiangnan.”
“There was no such month in Jiangnan during the Gengchen year.”
Xie Qi stared at her.
“How do you know that?”
“I used to study history.”
Xie Qi opened another document.
A moment later, his expression changed.
“It’s really wrong.”
Lin Wantang blinked.
“Then send it back.”
Xie Qi nodded.
“Okay.”
Before the time it took to finish a cup of tea had passed, the second one came up.
“This one has a problem too.”
The third.
“This person’s time of death was moved up by two days.”
The fourth.
“This person’s soul registry is fake.”
The fifth.
“This person isn’t even in the Book of Life and Death.”
Xie Qi looked at the mountain of files in front of him.
Then he looked at Lin Wantang.
“What did you do before this?”
“Worked a regular office job.”
“You call this regular?”
“Isn’t it?”
Xie Qi fell silent.
An hour later, only twenty of the three hundred soul-reaping warrants remained.
Seventeen of those twenty had problems.
Xie Qi stared at her, dumbfounded.
“Are you naturally suited for this?”
Lin Wantang shook her head.
“No.”
She lowered her head and looked at the last file.
“I’m just especially sensitive to things that are wrong.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m a mistake myself.”
Xie Qi’s smile slowly faded.
For a moment, he had no idea what to say.
Noon.
Lin Wantang finally set down the last file.
She stretched.
“Are we off?”
Xie Qi shook his head.
“Lunch break.”
“Oh.”
“One hour.”
“Where am I supposed to go?”
“The Ghost Market.”
Lin Wantang’s eyes lit up.
“Milk tea?”
“Yes.”
“Let’s go!”
Xie Qi led her out of the Soul-Reaping Office.
The Ghost Market was livelier than she had imagined.
Red lanterns hung on both sides of the street.
There were shops selling paper offerings.
Magical artifacts.
Underworld pastries.
There was even a shop with a sign hanging over the entrance:
“Past-Life Memory Restoration Services.”
Lin Wantang stared at the sign.
“Is this real?”
Xie Qi shook his head.
“Fake.”
“How do you know?”
“Because the owner has already changed identities three hundred times.”
“Every time, he claims he can restore past-life memories.”
Lin Wantang laughed.
“There are scammers in the Netherworld too.”
“There are scammers everywhere.”
The two of them walked up to a milk tea shop.
Lin Wantang pointed at the sign.
“I want that.”
Xie Qi glanced at it.
“Yellow Springs Osmanthus Milk Tea.”
“Sure.”
“Thirty merit.”
The smile vanished from Lin Wantang’s face.
“How much?”
“Thirty.”
“For one cup?”
“One cup.”
“Are you robbing people?”
The shopkeeper smiled sweetly.
“Miss, this is the Netherworld.”
“Yellow Springs water costs money.”
Lin Wantang gritted her teeth.
In the end, she still handed over thirty merit.
Once she got the milk tea, she took her first sip.
Her eyes lit up instantly.
“It’s good.”
Xie Qi took a sip too.
“How is it?”
“Sweet.”
“You like it?”
“Mm.”
Lin Wantang hugged the milk tea to herself.
Suddenly, being a civil servant in the Netherworld didn’t seem completely unacceptable.
Just then, a familiar voice came from behind her.
“One cup of milk tea is enough to buy you off?”
Lin Wantang turned around.
Ye Chenyuan stood at the corner of the street.
“Why are you here?”
“Inspection.”
“You inspect the Ghost Market too?”
“Mm.”
“Are you spying on me again?”
“No.”
Lin Wantang narrowed her eyes.
“Really?”
“Really.”
Ye Chenyuan’s gaze fell on the milk tea in her hand.
“Is it good?”
“It’s good.”
“Give it to me.”
“You want some?”
“Mm.”
Lin Wantang handed it over.
Ye Chenyuan took a sip.
His brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.
“Not good.”
Lin Wantang snatched the milk tea back.
“You don’t understand.”
Ye Chenyuan looked at her.
“If you like it, that’s all that matters.”
Lin Wantang lowered her head and took another sip.
Yet for some reason, the tips of her ears felt warm.
Back at the Soul-Reaping Office, Lin Wantang continued organizing the files.
But the moment she sat down, she noticed a problem.
There was a document on the desk that didn’t belong to her.
There were only four words on the cover:
“The Lin Wantang Case.”
She slowly opened it.
The first page contained the record of her birth.
The second contained the twenty-five years of her life.
The third was her death record.
And the fourth page—
Was blank.
The fifth page was blank too.
Lin Wantang frowned.
“That’s strange.”
Xie Qi leaned over.
“What is it?”
“Who put this file here?”
“I don’t know.”
“Did you see anyone come in just now?”
“No.”
She flipped to the end.
Suddenly, a line of text appeared on the blank page.
“Cause of death: Unknown.”
Slowly, a second line appeared beneath it.
“Time of death: Incorrect.”
A third line.
“Soul status: Refuses registration.”
Lin Wantang’s gaze settled on the final sentence.
The next moment, a fourth line slowly emerged in blood-red letters.
“True time of death: Not yet.”
Her pupils contracted.
“Xie Qi.”
“Mm?”
“Haven’t I already died?”
“Yes.”
“Then why does this say…”
She pointed at the line.
“My true time of death hasn’t arrived yet?”
Xie Qi’s expression changed.
He quickly picked up the file.
But the lines of text vanished instantly.
“What happened?”
Lin Wantang asked.
Xie Qi didn’t answer.
He turned around and walked away.
“I’m going to find His Highness.”
“Wait.”
Lin Wantang grabbed his sleeve.
“Don’t tell anyone else about this.”
Xie Qi froze.
“Why not?”
“Because I suddenly have a theory.”
“What theory?”
Lin Wantang looked out the window.
The Yellow Springs River flowed slowly by.
“If my true time of death hasn’t arrived yet…”
“Then what am I right now?”
Xie Qi’s face went pale.
“Miss Lin…”
“The Netherworld may not have wrongfully reaped my soul.”
She slowly stood up.
“It may have wrongfully reaped my death.”
That evening, Ye Chenyuan took Lin Wantang to the Netherworld King’s Palace.
She placed the file in front of him.
After reading it, Ye Chenyuan’s expression darkened bit by bit.
“What have you realized?”
“Someone moved my death up.”
“Yes.”
“But I suspect that isn’t the whole story.”
Ye Chenyuan raised his eyes.
“Go on.”
“If my true time of death hasn’t arrived yet…”
“Does that mean…”
Lin Wantang took a deep breath.
“That my current state of death is fake?”
The hall fell instantly silent.
Gu Changsheng’s expression changed as well.
“You mean…”
“Someone pulled me out of the mortal world ahead of time.”
Lin Wantang looked at Ye Chenyuan.
“Like picking an unripe fruit before it’s ready.”
“My physical body hadn’t truly died.”
“But my soul was sent to the Netherworld.”
Ye Chenyuan fell silent.
“If I’m right,” Lin Wantang continued,
“then as long as my physical body still exists…”
“I might still be able to go back.”
Ye Chenyuan’s eyes darkened.
“Impossible.”
Lin Wantang stared at him.
“Why?”
“Because your physical body is already gone.”
She froze.
“What?”
Ye Chenyuan looked at her.
“The day after your death…”
“Your body was cremated.”
Lin Wantang went rigid.
“…Cremated?”
“Yes.”
“When?”
“Four in the afternoon.”
She slowly lowered her hands.
In that instant, she suddenly remembered what her mother had said in her dream.
“Wantang.”
“Are you still here?”
So it hadn’t been simple longing.
Her mother had truly sensed her.
Lin Wantang raised her head.
“What about the ashes?”
“According to mortal custom, they were already buried.”
She fell silent.
For a long time.
Then she suddenly laughed, though her eyes had already reddened.
“So that settles it.”
“What settles what?”
“My body is gone.”
“My true time of death hasn’t arrived.”
“And the Netherworld reaped my soul ahead of time.”
She looked at Ye Chenyuan.
“So am I actually dead or not?”
No one answered.
Because everyone knew.
The answer to that question—
Was something even the Netherworld didn’t know.
Just then, the entire Netherworld King’s Palace began to shake violently.
A tremendous crash came from the direction of the Yellow Springs.
Boom—
Ye Chenyuan shot to his feet.
“Youxu.”
Lin Wantang looked up.
Outside the Netherworld King’s Palace, countless red Yellow Springs Flowers flew into the sky.
And the stone gate that had been sealed for a thousand years—
Was opening inch by inch.
A deep voice came from behind the gate.
“Lin Wantang.”
“Your body has already been cremated.”
“But your life…”
“Is still in my hands.”
Lin Wantang’s face went deathly pale.
Ye Chenyuan stepped in front of her.
Black netherfire shot into the sky.
“Who gave you the nerve?”
Within Youxu, the voice let out a low laugh.
“Netherworld King.”
“A thousand years ago, you couldn’t protect her.”
“A thousand years later…”
“You still can’t protect her.”
Ye Chenyuan’s eyes turned icy.
“Then try me.”
Boom!
Two forces collided with a thunderous crash across Youxu.
Behind Ye Chenyuan, Lin Wantang stood with her head lowered, staring at her wrist.
The Yellow Springs Flower was slowly blooming.
Deep in the heart of the flower…
A tiny character appeared.
“Soul.”
She suddenly understood.
The Netherworld’s compensation had never been just three hundred merit.
Nor was it this job.
The true compensation—
Was the chance to uncover the truth.
To find out who—
Had prematurely ended the life she was supposed to live.
And she finally made up her mind.
Since the Netherworld itself acknowledged the wrongful soul-reaping—
She would make the entire Netherworld understand.
Whoever had wrongfully reaped her soul would pay the price.</translated_content}} USA? Need valid JSON yes. Note exact phrase