Chapter 4
The underworld held regular meetings too.
An extremely, exceptionally, utterly terrible habit the King of Hell had picked up from the living.
I hated it extremely, exceptionally, utterly.
Mingling loved it. He said the boys used to go eighty or a hundred years without getting together. Now they met once a month. Enough to organize cards and drinks.
I generally didn’t join them.
The boss finally finished rambling. As usual, there hadn’t been much of a point.
He must have gone for training at a big human corporation this time, though. His jargon had gone beyond the comprehension of ghosts.
Mingling heartily agreed. “Even ghost talk isn’t that incomprehensible.”
I ground out my cigarette. “I’m off.”
“Really won’t come?” Mingling asked.
“No.”
A lackey from our team put a hand on my shoulder. “Something’s wrong with you.”
“Oh?”
“You’ve stopped overworking, but you’re still this busy? Doesn’t add up.”
Mingling waggled his eyebrows. “Someone’s love star is stirring.”
“You’re saying Zhuochen’s fallen for a mortal? A thousand-year-old iron tree has finally bloomed! Holy shit, who is she? How’d they meet?”
Carried away, Mingling practically sang, “At. The. Temple.”
What business did an underworld reaper have in a temple?
The lackey took a moment to catch on, then burst out laughing. “No way, Zhuochen. You actually go there?”
What was that supposed to mean?
They all knew I had a temple?
Reapers almost never had temples of their own. I’d wondered at first who would build one just for me.
So that was it.
I looked coldly at Mingling. “Wouldn’t want all your hard work to go to waste.”
Mingling caught on. The lackey completely missed his frantic signals and blithely spilled everything. “Oh, you knew? Well, you’re always working us into the ground! We thought we’d give you something else to burn off your energy. Mingling put a lot of thought into your statue, actually…”
Suspicion confirmed. Mingling formed a spell with his fingers, trying to flee.
I caught his collar and smiled. “Pick out a nice grave. Soon.”
Mingling’s smile was uglier than a sob. “Bro, let me explain…”
Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling…
The bell cut him off.
Night had fallen in the human world.
Vendors called beside the road, smoke and cooking fumes pouring from the food stalls.
Farther in, closer to the residential streets, there was less noise, but what remained was sharper.
Husbands and wives tearing into each other. Children crying their hearts out. Dogs barking back and forth. And a young girl’s muffled sobs.
Deep in the alley, Xiaochi clutched the canvas bag on her shoulder and backed away, crying.
One step. Two. Three… Her back met the wall.
Four or five men surrounded her. Broad-shouldered, thick-waisted, fat, big-eared, with sleazy expressions and filthy eyes. One passing glance from them would make you want to disinfect yourself with bleach.
“Don’t be scared, sweetheart. We’re not bad guys. Here, we’ll line up and let you choose. How’s that?”
“Choose the order, mind. Not the man.”
“Aw, why so many tears? You look pretty even crying!”
“Nice. Keep crying like that later!”
Xiaochi took a fruit knife out of her canvas bag. “Don’t… come any closer!”
The pigs laughed so hard their fat shook.
“Ooh, I’m so scared!”
“Come on, sweetheart. Stick it right here!”
I arrived just as one pig’s trotter reached for Xiaochi’s arm.
She was frightened. Her knife hand shook. But I could see clearly that her eyes were fixed on one man’s heart.
She really intended to draw blood.
She wouldn’t sit and wait to die. Even terrified, she meant to take them down with her.
She was so weak. How did she dare?
For some reason, my heart began to pound.
While I hesitated, one scumbag’s hand reached Xiaochi’s shoulder. She slashed hard across it. Blood ran down, and he howled with pain. The others frowned.
“You fucking bitch. We’ve been too nice!”
They rushed her together. Xiaochi swung the knife wildly.
She did physical labor every day. Her grip was tight, her slashes fierce. For a while, none of them could get near her.
But such extreme tension burned through her strength all the faster. Her movements slowed. Someone seized an opening, caught her wrist, wrenched away the knife, and threw it to the ground.
She looked despairingly at the night sky.
It was overcast. Not a single star.
“Little bitch! Go on, try it again!”
As expected.
Resolve and all the effort in the world weren’t enough to accomplish everything.
Even with the resolve to die.
A thousand years had passed, and the human world still obeyed the law of the strong devouring the weak.
I stepped forward, emerging from black mist. Time froze for a second.
The next second, the air exploded. Every piece of scum flew into the sky. Who knew where they’d land and break their limbs?
I didn’t care.
Human garbage should be cleared away, even if meddling in others’ karma violated the underworld employee handbook.
After all, at this moment, I was the stronger one.