Dead?

Looking at the blood and the mangled corpse on the bus, Du Yu knew he might really be dead.

He now stood weightlessly outside the bus, his translucent figure swaying in the wind, his helpless eyes constantly scanning his surroundings.

Medical personnel bustled around him, along with passersby gawking at the scene.

"I'm... dead?"

A minute earlier, a moving truck had suddenly gone out of control and skidded sideways at a forty-five-degree angle. Its front-left corner had struck the middle of the bus, killing Du Yu with impeccable precision.

Aside from Du Yu, the sole fatality, not a single person on the bus had even been injured.

"Heh...!"

Du Yu had no idea what to say. Could there be a more unlucky way to die?

But on reflection, perhaps it wasn't such a bad thing. Rather than linger in the world with no ties and no attachments, finding a chance to start over might be more satisfying.

But what am I now? A ghost?

Du Yu's corpse was wedged in the mangled bus. Having confirmed that he was dead, the medical personnel were trying to figure out how to pry him out.

He really couldn't bear to watch. It was like squashing a mosquito on a curtain, then cursing because you couldn't scrape it clean.

Before Du Yu could accept the fact that he was dead, a somewhat unreal female voice drifted down from the sky.

"Hello? Hello? You there, the soul. Can you hear me?"

Du Yu froze. Was someone talking to him?

It was his first time dying, after all, and he had no experience. With no idea what was happening, Du Yu stood there in bewilderment, not daring to answer.

"This 'voice transmission' still seems to have lousy reception. Sister White, does yours work?"

"Let me try. Hang on."

There were now two voices in the sky, and they had actually started chatting among themselves.

A few seconds later, the girl called "Sister White" spoke too, deliberately raising her voice this time:

"You there, the soul outside the bus! Can you hear me? Stay put! It'll be a real pain if you wander off."

Du Yu was now absolutely certain someone was talking to him. But where were they?

"Damn, still no good, apparently. He can't hear us."

"Then let's drive faster."

Who are these two? What are they doing?

Based on his experience of watching countless movies, anyone who inexplicably told you to stay put was never good news. Better seize the chance to slip away.

He was already dead, anyway. Could things possibly get any worse?

Just then, a gust of wind blew past. Du Yu adjusted his posture and floated away with it.

He hadn't been drifting for even three seconds when a battered little van suddenly dropped from the sky and landed in front of him.

"What the fuck?"

The sudden turn of events nearly sent Du Yu to his death a second time. Did vans have a flight mode?

"Whew, made it."

Two girls sat inside, both wearing work uniforms, one black and one white. The van stopped in front of Du Yu, and its door opened automatically.

"Hello. Sorry for the wait. Please get in."

The girl in black behind the wheel had spoken.

Du Yu was utterly baffled. What was going on? These girls in black and white-were they the Black and White Impermanence?

So what happened after death really was just like the legends?

But this decrepit van and these rather goofy-looking Black and White Impermanence girls-were they really the legendary emissaries of the underworld?

Du Yu couldn't even muster a complaint. If this van could fly, he wouldn't be able to escape anyway. With that thought, he silently climbed aboard.

After looking around, he found that the van was even more dilapidated inside than it looked outside. Most absurd of all, a sticker above the radio read, "Please keep your personal belongings safe."

His backside had barely settled into the seat when the girl in black driving the van asked:

"Hello. What are the last four digits of your ID number?"

Hearing this, Du Yu vaguely sensed that something was off.

"What the hell? Is this a rideshare? You have to give the last digits of your ID to board a ghost van?"

The girl in white in the passenger seat hurried to smooth things over. "Oh, we're just following procedure. The Ghost Management Bureau recently issued new regulations. Quite a few people have had their souls scattered after taking ferry vehicles lately, so the higher-ups are taking this very seriously."

Du Yu was utterly speechless. Pointing at the girl in white, he said, "But aren't you a ferry vehicle? Aren't you the ones scattering their souls?"

The girl in black didn't appreciate that. She pursed her lips and said, "That's different. We're an authorized vehicle from a legitimate organization, with all the proper paperwork. There are plenty of unlicensed operators poaching fares these days."

Even ghost transport had unlicensed drivers stealing business?

Du Yu held his forehead. He had never imagined that being dead could be so mentally exhausting.

"All right, all right. The last digits are 2213," Du Yu muttered.

"Great. Mr. Du, correct? Would you like us to follow the navigation, or will you give us directions?"

"How could I possibly know the way?"

"Hehe, just kidding. You've got quite a temper, Mr. Du."

"..."

Du Yu stopped talking. There was no reasoning with these two girls anytime soon.

The van turned around on the spot, then slowly rose off the ground. Du Yu took one last look back at his corpse. They still hadn't managed to pry it out.

"By the way, are you two the Black and White Impermanence?"

Watching the van ascend, Du Yu asked the question.

"Yes and no," the woman in white said. "The Black and White Impermanence aren't two people. They're two lineages. Everyone in our two lineages works as an Underworld Enforcer, but the two of us don't represent the entire Black and White Impermanence."

"So that's how it works..."

Who would have thought he could learn something new like this after dying? Du Yu silently shook his head. But what use was knowing any of it?

"Let me confirm the information in your file." The girl in white took out a folder and pulled out a sheet of A4 paper. "Du Yu, male, twenty-six, Chinese, Han ethnicity, workshop employee at a state-owned enterprise. Cause of death as follows-"

The woman in white fell conspicuously silent at that point.

"What's wrong? What's the cause of death?" Du Yu asked.

"Oh?" The woman in white examined the file. "Your cause of death might qualify you for a 'wrongful death' designation."

"Wait, I don't understand. I died in a traffic accident. How does that count as a 'wrongful death'?"

"Because you weren't the one supposed to die today," the woman in black driving the van said.

"Exactly. According to the Book of Life and Death, the person destined to die today was named Zhou Zhuangshi-the old man you tried to give your seat to before you died."

If the girl in white hadn't mentioned it, Du Yu would almost have forgotten. A minute before his death, he really had intended to give an old man his seat. But the old man hadn't accepted and had headed straight toward the back of the bus.

The girl in white continued, "Zhou Zhuangshi raped and murdered women at the ages of thirty-six, thirty-nine, forty-two, and fifty-five, escaping legal punishment every time. His current soul-summoning value has reached ninety-seven percent. In other words, even if that truck hadn't killed him, he wouldn't have lived past today."

"Good," the girl in black said. "People like that should die early. I know someone in the Mirror of Retribution Hell. We'll make sure he gets what's coming to him."

"Is... is that really the point?" Du Yu couldn't sit still anymore. "The point shouldn't be that the old man was definitely going to die today. It should be why I died today! Going by what you're saying... this had nothing to do with me."

"Ah, these things happen." The girl in white leafed through the documents. "According to the records, Zhou Zhuangshi should have accepted your seat and then died on that bus. The reason he didn't accept it was that he saw a pretty girl at the back. But theoretically, that girl shouldn't have been in that spot in this timeline. We'll investigate the matter thoroughly."

"I don't understand," Du Yu said, shaking his head.

"I know. I wasn't trying to make you understand," the girl in white said. "Let's talk about something you can understand. If you're deemed an Unjust Death Victim, you're in luck. There are two benefits policies for Unjust Death Victims..."

"Benefits policies...?"

"Exactly. The first is that if you're an Unjust Death Victim and still have attachments to the mortal world, you can choose the household you're reincarnated into. Born to rich parents, born to celebrities—take your pick. But you'll still have to queue for a lottery draw. There are only so many sought-after households, after all..."

"The second is that if you're an Unjust Death Victim and have no attachments to the mortal world, you can apply to become an Underworld Enforcer or a mortal-world officer. But getting a permanent government position is really hard these days. Most people in the system got in through connections. You could start as a contract worker and wait for an opening. The benefits are about the same."

After listening, Du Yu fell silent for a while, then said, "This feels awfully familiar. Did I really die...?"

The van sped through the air. Throughout the journey, the two young women in black and white remained utterly at ease.

The girl in black yawned as she drove, while the girl in white took out her phone and kept taking selfies.

If he couldn't still see his translucent body when he looked down, Du Yu would have thought he was simply carpooling with strangers.

"We're almost at Fengdu City. Sister White, have him fill out the form."

"Sure thing."

The girl in white pulled a stack of papers from the folder and handed them to Du Yu.

"The higher-ups haven't officially decided whether your death counts as wrongful yet, but based on our experience, it's almost a sure thing. Go ahead and sign the Wrongful Death Benefits Application Form."

Du Yu took the document and looked. Prominently printed at the top were the words:

"Document No. 78: Interim Measures for the Latest Benefits Policies for Unjust Death Victims, Concerning the Alleviation of Resentment among Unjust Death Victims, the Resolution of Immortal-Soul Disputes, and the Joint Creation of a Harmonious Underworld..."

Du Yu quietly read the opening of the document, then said, "I never dreamed it would be this official."

Flipping ahead a few pages, he indeed found the two options the Black and White Impermanence had mentioned. All Du Yu had to do now was choose one.

"Rich parents, obviously."

Barely hesitating, Du Yu picked up the pen and briskly signed his name.

It wasn't just that he still had attachments to the mortal world. In all these years, Du Yu had never even touched a girl's hand. Since graduation, he had worked in a workshop, exhausting himself every day without saving much money. If he really could do it all over again, of course he wanted to stride through the mortal world freely and in style.

When he finished signing and raised his head, it had already grown dark outside. Du Yu clearly remembered that it was afternoon, so why was the sky so pitch-black? Before he could react, the van suddenly drove straight downward and plunged headfirst into the ground amid his startled cries.

After a brief stretch of darkness, an immense space appeared before him.

A vast ancient city towered beneath the earth.

From afar, ghostly flames spilled through the city, every household lit with that eerie blue-green glow. A pale green river surrounded the city, countless souls constantly churning within its waters.

The van didn't stop. It sped straight toward the city gates.

Moments later, it reached the entrance. An enormous stone gate, three or four hundred meters high, stood before them, with seven huge characters prominently inscribed upon it:

"Dark Portal to the Underworld-the Ghost Gate!"

Du Yu was stunned by the magnificent sight. He had never imagined that all of this was real.

"We're here. Hang on a moment. We need to find a parking spot first," the woman in black said as she drove the van around.

Just then, Du Yu noticed many vans like theirs coming and going overhead. Each carried two people, one in black and one in white. Those black- and white-clad people were men and women, young and old, streaming endlessly back and forth. The entire ancient city resembled an enormous trading hub.

Looking out beneath the Ghost Gate, he could see at least ten thousand people lining up to enter.

"Uh... wait. I wanted to ask: you're government employees, aren't you? But you don't have your own parking spaces here?"

"You're far too naive. Do you know how many people die every day, naturally or otherwise? Look at all those ferry vehicles coming and going overhead. How could there possibly be enough space for all of us to park?"

Du Yu nodded silently. Apparently, even the underworld had its own difficulties.

After searching for over ten minutes, they finally found a parking spot. The three of them got out and joined the vast crowd in line.

"Du Yu, let me use this opportunity to explain our tour route." As she spoke, the girl in black pulled a map from her shoulder bag and thrust it into Du Yu's hands. Extending a fair, delicate finger, she pointed at the bottom of the map. "We're currently at the Ghost Gate, the entrance to the underworld. The River of Forgetfulness surrounds the entire underworld. To cross it, you must pass over the Bridge of Helplessness, and before you cross the Bridge of Helplessness, you must walk the Yellow Springs Road. Oh, right-at the entrance to the Yellow Springs Road, remember to visit the Meng Po Office to collect your Meng Po Tea first. They have summer-limited flavors of Meng Po Tea right now. Farther on is the Reincarnation Platform. Oh, right, right-you'll also get to see the Ten Courts of Yama..."

The girl in black introduced the underworld's "famous attractions" in an endless torrent, but as for Du Yu-

Silence.

A long silence.

"What's wrong? Am I explaining it badly?" Seeing that Du Yu hadn't spoken for ages, the girl in black felt she must have gone wrong somewhere in her explanation.

"Seriously," Du Yu said through gritted teeth, "are we playing around here? On vacation?"

"Huh?" The girl in black looked confused.

"I'm dead! I just died!" Only after seeing the Ghost Gate did Du Yu seem to truly accept it all. Whatever he encountered beyond this gate, his life was already over. There was no going back. "It's already pretty impressive that I'm not drowning in grief. How can you introduce the underworld's attractions to me like we're on a spring outing?"

"Little Black, I think he's right. You don't need to explain it to him. Besides, he's an Unjust Death Victim, so he might not have to take the Yellow Springs Road." The girl in white stepped forward and addressed the girl in black. "We've dealt with far too many dead people, but this is his first time dying, after all."

Du Yu looked at the two girls before him, unsure what to say. His feelings were complicated, a hundred different flavors tangled together. He wanted to lose his temper a little, but the two girls really hadn't done anything wrong.

"Will we never see each other again?" Du Yu asked.

"The Yellow Springs Road is a road you can never turn back on. If you chose reincarnation, you'll walk down it, gaze upon the Stone of Three Lives, and never meet us again in this life. But if you chose to become an Underworld Enforcer, not only would you not have to take the Yellow Springs Road, we might even become colleagues," the girl in white said.

"Then this should be our last meeting," Du Yu said. "It might be a little unnecessary, but could I ask your names?"

"Of course." The girl in black clasped her hands in greeting like an ancient wandering swordswoman. "Fan Xiaoguo of the Fan Household, Black Impermanence."

"Xie Jin of the Xie Household, White Impermanence."