Life goes on without anyone

A man and a soul walked along the bank of the Crane River, slowly making their way upstream.

"What's going on? I feel... like I've lost my emotions." The spectral figure floated stiffly forward, three feet above the ground.

"Everyone's like that after they die," Number Two said.

"When are you planning to start work? We'll be coworkers from now on," Number Two asked.

"I'm not going." Even though he had lost his emotions, Zhang Youzhi still felt an instinctive aversion to the word "work."

"Not going?" Number Two seemed to have expected that.

"Your current spiritual state is a result of the Supervision Regulations you signed. They were originally created to let people continue supervising our company's fulfillment of its services from their own perspective after death. But once our company finishes providing those services, the Supervision Regulations will dissolve, and you'll disappear completely."

Zhang Youzhi's spectral form flickered, its colors fading further, like a soul that had wandered out of a black-and-white video.

"I'm not going."

Zhang Youzhi felt no fear about his own disappearance, but he still clearly remembered the pain associated with working. Between the two, he chose to give up trying.

Zhang Youzhi continued floating stiffly forward, three feet above the ground.

Number Two shook their head and dropped the subject, walking alongside him.

"How much of your memory have you recovered?" Number Two asked.

"All of it," the spectral figure said.

"Don't you want to see your girlfriend anymore?" Number Two asked.

"I'll go see her," the spectral figure replied.

"Ah, sure enough, everyone loses all desire after death. Without the bonds of emotion, can you even call them human?" Number Two shook their head again and dropped that subject too.

"Since you aren't willing to come with me, I should still tell you a little about the company."

"At its core, the White Jade Capital Company is an emotion company. Its main task is to eliminate the vast majority of extreme emotions in the world. Since extreme emotions often accompany special circumstances such as death, over time, the White Jade Capital Company's main business evolved into funeral services.

"But that doesn't mean our business is limited to that field. To put it rather grandly, wherever extreme emotional fluctuations occur, the White Jade Capital Company does everything it can to handle them. Our business actually encompasses everything in the entire world."

The spectral figure had lost all his emotions, but his curiosity remained.

He asked a question.

"So why did you come to me back then? I don't believe you were after those ten thousand yuan or so."

"That brings me to the second thing I want to tell you. The White Jade Capital Company can predict the future to a certain extent and monitor places where extreme emotions might arise ahead of time. Through our future monitoring system, we noticed a year ago that an S-rank emotional disaster originating from a single individual would erupt in southwestern Shandong. We spent almost an entire year investigating before finally narrowing it down to you."

At this point, Number Two couldn't help marveling.

"It was my first time seeing an outburst of extreme emotion from a single individual reach S-rank. So, once we identified you in this incident, I came to you immediately, but it was already too late. Your cancer had spread throughout your body. Even with our current capabilities, there was nothing we could do. You know what happened after that. Our real target wasn't actually you, but the source of this emotional disaster-Li Douyu."

"So that's how it was." Zhang Youzhi's spectral figure nodded.

Number Two glanced at him and continued.

"The White Jade Capital Company has a very unusual structure. The vast majority of its members, including several directors, are ordinary people. Only a handful of members, including the chairman and me, know the company's core secrets. Of course, you're one of them now."

"In other words, despite our company's worldwide operations, we're actually very short on core personnel. I urgently need new coworkers to help me. After observing you for a while, I wanted to recruit you as a coworker. Of course, it now seems you aren't interested."

"What's more, because our understanding of the world as it stands is inadequate, all sorts of extreme emotions are arising frequently in today's society. The company is already struggling to cope, and the ordinary employees we've recruited can barely handle these situations anymore. Right at this moment, for instance, aside from soothing Li Douyu, who poses an S-rank risk, there are seventeen A-rank emotional risks and 398 B-rank emotional risks scattered across the continents. There are even more below B-rank, so many that we don't even have enough ordinary employees anymore.

"If running around putting out fires like this can no longer curb the extreme negative emotions arising in the world, the White Jade Capital Company might as well disband. And I don't believe the world as it stands could continue developing normally if the White Jade Capital Company's efforts to avert emotional disasters failed.

"You know how it is. Negativity is contagious. If negative emotions such as despair and pessimism spread far enough, our spiritual civilization will reach a dead end, technological development will grind to a halt, and the world will gradually stagnate."

"There, see? We're actually an organization that saves the world." Number Two spread their hands, looking rather helpless.

"You're truly admirable. Thank you for all your hard work," Zhang Youzhi said sincerely.

"Then how about considering a job with us? Once our company accumulates a little more emotional experience, bringing you back to life might not be out of the question."

"I'm not going." Zhang Youzhi's stance remained unchanged.

"Ah, all right. Go back and attend your own funeral, then. Unless something unexpected happens, your funeral should be pretty interesting. I'll head back to the company and get to work."

Number Two rubbed their temples and left, thoroughly dispirited.

Zhang Youzhi's soul stood by the river, watching Number Two leave.

He hadn't really thought that much about it. Without emotions, his mind held nothing but calm and laziness. Perhaps that was the true essence of his soul.

A born slacker.

Precisely for that reason, although he deeply appreciated the White Jade Capital Company's efforts for the world, he had no desire whatsoever to return to life and repeat his aimless toil in this world.

Zhang Youzhi was, in fact, a man without aspirations. From childhood, he had worked hard to get into a good high school, then worked very hard to get into a good top-tier university. He had worked very hard to build the best relationship he could, then worked very hard to land a good job after graduation, and worked very hard to prepare for marriage and his future life.

If not for the cancer, he would probably have continued working hard to buy a home, then had a son or daughter, then worked hard for his family.

He would have spent a happy lifetime with Li Douyu. All it would have entailed was supporting their parents in old age and raising their child. He knew that simply coming into this world meant having responsibilities.

But those responsibilities weren't his aspirations.

Zhang Youzhi had no aspirations.

No one knew that. His teachers didn't know, his friends didn't know, his parents didn't know, and neither did Li Douyu. In the end, even he hadn't known.

Only after he died did he finally realize it.

I might as well muddle through like this. Surely the Crane River before me wouldn't stop flowing just because it was missing my one basin of water?