Chapter 85

Chapter 85

The fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month: the Ghost Festival.

Everyone in the Department had adjusted their schedules, sleeping during the day and patrolling at night.

When Xie Qingling woke, the sun was already sinking in the west. Half of it had disappeared behind the city’s skyscrapers, its radiance fading as the sky prepared to darken.

It was five in the afternoon. One hour remained before patrol began at six.

Xie Qingling got out of bed.

A willow leaf soaking in clear water sat on her bedside table.

The water was dew collected during the Qingming and Dragon Boat Festivals. Once a willow leaf had been steeped in it, wiping the leaf over one’s eyes granted the ability to distinguish yin from yang and see ghosts.

This method did not allow a person to see ghosts on ordinary days, but it worked during the Ghost Festival.

Xie Qingling picked up the willow leaf, wiped it over her eyelids, then left Room 206.

The Logistics Department had restocked the kitchen with supplies, including self-heating, partially prepared meals. Since she still had time, Xie Qingling heated one and carried it out to eat.

On the open-air terrace beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, Ling Fang had set out two braziers. Squatting on the ground, he fed stacks of paper into them to burn.

A simple incense altar stood nearby. A bowl of white rice held sticks of burning incense, with meat offerings, fruit, and pastries arranged around it.

The heat from the braziers warped and expanded the air. Faint currents stirred the paper ash and sent it whirling through the air, circling the braziers as though reluctant to leave.

Xie Qingling walked over and asked, “Director, what are you doing?”

“Feeding the Lonely Spirits.”

As Ling Fang spoke, he placed a set of clothes cut from paper into one of the braziers.

Flames quickly swept upward and swallowed the garments.

They were clothes being burned for ghosts.

Xie Qingling casually helped him with the other brazier, feeding in stack after stack of spirit money. The flames leaped up so quickly that they nearly caught her hair.

Some of the spirit money was burned loose. Some came in individual bundles that had been wrapped up, with a little foal drawn on the outside, before being burned.

It was Xie Qingling’s first time seeing such things. She had once spotted people burning spirit money at the Changying Road intersection while the Bride in Red was chasing her, but she had not gotten a close look then.

She asked Ling Fang, “Director, why is some of it wrapped in bundles while the rest is loose?”

“The loose money is for lonely, wandering ghosts. The bundles are sent to people with names and identities. Our Department has collected many sets of unclaimed remains, so every Ghost Festival, we burn a few things for them.” Ling Fang placed a paper bundle in the brazier. Xie Qingling saw that its inscription named a certain person who had died in a certain place in a certain year and month. A little foal had likewise been drawn on the back.

“What about the horse? What’s it for?”

“A horse can carry people and goods.”

Oh. A means of transportation.

Next, Ling Fang tossed in a handful of soybeans.

“???” Xie Qingling could not understand this step at all. “What are the beans for?”

“Soybeans can sprout, and bean sprouts can be used as horse fodder.”

“…” Xie Qingling gave him a thumbs-up. “Director, you’re so thoughtful.”

Ling Fang continued burning paper in silence.

No matter the time or place, he always reacted the same way to Xie Qingling’s flattery: he ignored it completely.

Xie Qingling did not mind. She wandered around, looking at everything.

On the incense altar, she spotted a cluster of translucent red fruits that resembled grapes, arranged on a golden plate. Bathed in the warm sunlight, the fruits carried a faint orange glow and looked like beautiful gemstones. Their sweet fragrance permeated the air.

Xie Qingling reached out to pluck one, but before she could succeed, her hand was smacked hard.

Ling Fang glared at her. “These Five-Flavored Fruits are offerings for the Ullambana Festival. You can’t steal them.”

“…Oh. They’re offerings.”

Xie Qingling glanced at Ling Fang and muttered under her breath, “Why do these deities and buddhas eat better than people…?”
“Besides, if we’re going to offer them to deities and buddhas, wouldn’t it be wrong not to taste them first…?”

Watching Xie Qingling’s hand creep furtively forward, Ling Fang said in exasperation, “There are more in the refrigerator. The Logistics Department just delivered them. Those aren’t offerings, so you can eat them now.”

“The kitchen is so far away.”

“You…” Ling Fang lost his patience. He picked up the fruit platter and waved her away. “Go on, get out of here. Hurry up and eat. Once you’re full, go on patrol if you have nothing else to do. Stop plotting to steal the offerings.”

“Ha! I was only trying to scare you. Of course I wouldn’t fight deities and buddhas for food. Look how frightened you are!” Xie Qingling dodged his swat, sprang away, and ran toward the kitchen.

Defying one’s superior as part of the daily routine was thrilling.

Ling Fang had worn a troubled expression and brooded far too much lately. It was time he changed his mood.

Ling Fang: “…” Apparently, it had been too long since he made her write a self-criticism. She was itching for punishment again.

He shook his head helplessly, then let out a sigh that was half amused and half resigned. Setting the fruit platter down, he continued burning paper.

Once Xie Qingling was gone, Ling Fang could finally burn his paper in peace and quiet.

A dozen or so minutes later, Xie Qingling sauntered out of the kitchen again with a small cluster of Five-Flavored Fruits dangling from one hand. Under Ling Fang’s vigilant gaze, she began her patrol for the day.

On the Ghost Festival, the gates of the underworld stood open. Besides the dead, ghost bailiffs appeared frequently, and certain deities roamed the mortal realm during the holiday. The Eleventh Realm was unlikely to cause trouble on a day like this, when they could easily come to grief. The members of the Operations Department therefore had no need to work in pairs and patrolled alone.

Xie Qingling pushed open the office’s ebony door and took one step outside, only to freeze in shock at the world before her.

So many…

So many ghosts!

The office was clean because it had the Qilin Guardian. There was not a single ghost inside.

The moment Xie Qingling stepped outside, however, it felt as though she had strayed into a world belonging to ghosts.

Ghosts filled the sky and covered the ground.

Some flew through the air, some walked along the streets, and others crawled wildly across the ground.

They came in every form imaginable, no two faces alike.

Most retained the appearance they had worn at death. Some were missing arms or legs, while others had lost half their bodies.

Still others had especially blue-white faces and looked terrifying.

Just as Shen Huaizhou had said, the ghosts were generally well behaved. Those with homes returned to them, while those without wandered aimlessly, almost as though they were sightseeing. None attacked people rashly.

Someone crouching on the steps outside the office suddenly raised his head, revealing a face with blood streaming from every orifice.

Having a ghost look at her from so close without warning still gave Xie Qingling a fright. She instinctively tightened her grip on Bloodsworn, but before she could act, the bloodied ghost pulled a flower from behind his back. It was as crimson as the blood on his face. With a bashful, ingratiating look, he held it out to her.

“Hey, beautiful. Want a red spider lily from the banks of the River of Forgetfulness?”

“…?” Xie Qingling stared at him without a word.

“You can’t find these in the mortal world. When the flowers bloom, there are no leaves, and when the leaves grow, there are no flowers. It’s very special.”

“What do you want?” Xie Qingling asked.

The ghost scratched his head in embarrassment. “When the sun rises again, could you maybe not send me back? I want to stay and work for your Department. I’ve been waiting for years. Don’t you have any vacant positions yet? I’d even sweep the floors.”

Xie Qingling finally understood. “No.”

“Come on, beautiful. I really don’t want to go back. I get one day of vacation a year. I can’t take it anymore.” When the flower failed, the ghost pulled out a stack of spirit money and offered it to Xie Qingling, repeatedly trying to stuff it into her arms. “What if I pay you? Is this enough? If not, I have more.”

Xie Qingling: “…”

What a pest.

No wonder Shen Huaizhou had said the ghosts would cause them a few minor inconveniences during the Ghost Festival.
So this was the kind of trouble he had meant.

Xie Qingling kicked the ghost away. “Get lost! I don’t accept bribes, I don’t let anyone use back channels, and I don’t want your money!”

Last year, he had offered water from the River of Forgetfulness, but no one accepted it. The year before that, he had brought pebbles from the River of Forgetfulness, but no one accepted those either. This year, he had brought a red spider lily, and still no one wanted it.

These people had no sense of romance at all. They would not even accept local specialties.

The ghost cursed under his breath, but when he saw the blade in her hand and sensed the waves of murderous energy that frightened even ghosts, he had no choice but to run. As he fled, he muttered that she had no appreciation for quality, though he did not dare say it too loudly.

As Xie Qingling patrolled the streets, she gained a profound understanding of what it meant for hordes of ghosts to run wild.

Some fought viciously over spirit money fluttering through the streets. Some asked Xie Qingling for directions. Others sat by the roadside at the sites of the accidents that had killed them, clutching their severed limbs and wailing.

And some…

Crawled all over the ground.

Xie Qingling saw a headless corpse crawling about. Its limbs pressed against the pavement as it crashed into walls, people, and cars.

Its head was gone from its neck, leaving only a stump attached to its shoulders. Sometimes it stopped as if deep in thought, only to resume crawling moments later.

Eventually, its searching hands found the round cap atop a traffic barrier post on the sidewalk. The headless corpse immediately pulled the sphere free and set it on its neck.

It traveled a short distance with the sphere perched there, but walked into a wall and soon fell to the ground. Realizing that it was not its head, it resumed crawling.

It was quite literally searching everywhere for its head.

Xie Qingling: “…”

Was this the world the Groom saw every day?

What kind of bizarre monstrosities were these?

A world without ghosts was so normal, so comforting, and so adorable.

Poor Dai Xingyu. He faced ridiculous scenes like this every day, yet somehow remained cheerful and sunny. What extraordinary mental fortitude.

[Headless, it hurried on, crawling close to the ground. Its head could not find its body, and its body could not find its head. Searching for its missing head, the Headless Ghost wandered the busy mortal world without end. Kindhearted passerby, if you have ever seen its head, could you show it the way?]

Xie Qingling had no time to search for its head right now.

But she could not simply leave it like this either.

Xie Qingling bought a large bag of basketballs and led the Headless Ghost to the side of the road. She made it sit on a bench, then stuffed the bag of basketballs into its arms and let it examine them one by one on its own.

Its head was not among them, of course.

Yet like a child who had received a beloved toy, the Headless Ghost began making a careful selection and finally stopped crawling everywhere.

Xie Qingling breathed a soft sigh of relief. Just as she was about to continue to the next patrol area, she suddenly heard loud sobbing.

“Waaaaah!”

“I can’t find my way home.”

“Where is my home? Do you know? Do any of you know?”

“Can someone take me home? Mommy, Daddy, come and take me home!”

“Waaaaah…”

Xie Qingling followed the sound and saw a little girl sitting by the roadside. Her hair was tied in twin ponytails, and she looked about four or five years old. She was bawling her eyes out.

[When innocent, uncomprehending children die, they can easily become Child Ghosts wandering the mortal realm if their final wishes are not properly settled.]

Here came trouble.

Xie Qingling walked over helplessly and asked her, “Where is your home? I’ll take you back.”

The little girl looked up at her.

There was not a trace of color in her face. She looked like a sheet of white paper with features drawn upon it, while her eyes held no light at all, only fathomless black.

“Really?” the little girl sobbed. “If you can take me home, I’ll give you the most valuable treasure in the whole world.”