Afterlife Department

Chapter 407 – Live Broadcast

What heavenly luck do they have! Oh, wait, that's not right. It really should be heavenly since they, technically, all came from heaven with Anji Li. 

"For real?!" they all exclaimed. Meat pies really do fall from the sky! 

Yi Bing is tired in dealing with them and he just pressed on his jade ring. A holographic screen appeared. There, they saw the little girl they met earlier during the day. She's obviously playing with Anji Li. Meanwhile, in the background, her nanny was slightly trembling while guarding the door. 

The nanny was mumbling what seems to be like a kind of prayer. "… I hope the second young master won't haunt us… the third young miss is just a child…" she was silently crying. 

Meanwhile, the little girl who was addressed by her nanny as the 'third young miss' is oblivious to what's happening around her as she played with the mini Anji Li, precisely the braided hair of mini Anji Li.. 

"You are very beautiful, but your braid is ugly!" the little girl said as she unbraided mini Anji Li's hair. 

Everyone turned to look at each other. "…" Sha Jiu's weakness was dug up. He can't braid a girl's hair. They thought and looked away from each other, wordlessly and tacitly agreeing not to tell a word about this to Sha Jiu when they return. 

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door. The nanny tensed up but when she heard someone spoke from outside, she opened the door. She seems to be familiar to the person outside. 

"Have you already poured out all the water from the cups and basins?" it was a female servant. She looks pale like the nanny and her voice is shaking. 

"I did. I have already fed the young miss before the sundown." The nanny answered. "I'll send her to her bed right after this." she said. 

The female servant sighed in relief and then she left. The nanny immediately closed the door before she walked towards the little girl. 

"Li-er. You should go to bed now." She told her. 

"Oh." Pei Li muttered and obediently let the nanny pick her up. 

The nanny placed her on the bed and tucked her in before the nanny picked up mini Anji Li and placed her on a cabinet where Pei Li can see her. Then, the nanny made her bed before she blew out the candle, then tucked in herself and fell asleep. 

"Aren't they sleeping too early?" Shi Jiu asked. 

"Could it be their local government issued an earlier curfew?" Jiu Ye guessed. 

Yi Bing didn't immediately close his communicator. Not because he, or they, is a pervert. But, it's because they wanted to find more clues. Not only is it the Pei family's mansion, it's also inside the Pei mansion, and it is nighttime! There's something that is bound to happen! 

Not long after the nanny and Pei Li fell asleep, the hurried footsteps outside the room which made by the running servants completing their tasks for the day had disappeared and was replaced by silence. None of the grim reapers were impatient as they watched. They aren't hungry since they aren't humans and grim reapers don't feel hunger, so they continued to watch because they aren't eating, or will be making dinner. They also don't need sleep. Thus, none of them feel impatient. 

When the digits on the lower right corner of the holographic screen of Yi Bing's communicator turned 21:00, they finally heard something. Their ears immediately perked up. With their senses sharpened after they turned as grim reapers, they finally heard a sound of something scratching. Although Anji Li was turned smaller, but Sha Jiu is very meticulous in his work, so mini Anji Li's basic functions is the same as the bigger Anji Li's. 

Thus, her audio perception is as sensitive as the grim reapers' ears and picked up the sound of scratching. 

"This…" Jiu Ye, the weakest of them all, felt goosebumps formed on his skin. "What is this sound?" he asked and nervously gulped. 

This is actually his first time on the field of non-assignment grim reapers, which is the exact opposite of his former work. Although he has been on the field before, but his task is simpler because the tasks assignment-bound grim reapers are only related to the souls – resolving their attachments. 

So, the assignment-bound grim reapers have lower dangers to face than the non-assignment grim reapers, which he has turned to now after Shi Jiu pulled him here. 

"Seems to be something sharp scratching the surface of a wood?" Shi Jiu guessed. 

Jiu Ye's eyes widened in shock when an imagine appeared in his mind. "Could it be… the second young master's corpse scratching the door?!" he exclaimed. 

"Shh!" Huo Ling shushed him as he leaned closer to Yi Bing's hand to listen carefully. 

Yi Bing felt Huo Ling's soft ear bumped against the knuckles of his fingers and he felt his heart thumped stronger in his chest. He took a deep breath and tried to focus his attention on the holographic screen and not on his fingers where Huo Ling's soft ear is. 

"Not nails." Huo Ling spoke after a while, contradicting what Jiu Ye said. 

"'not nails'…" Jiu Ye muttered, his face paling. "Then… could it be – " he sucked in a cold breath when he saw Huo Ling turned and his eyes met Huo Ling's gaze. 

" – teeth?!" 

"Teeth." They both spoke. 

At the same time, they saw the screen suddenly shake. No, it's not the screen! It's – 

"Mini Anji Li shook?" Yi Bing spoke, his tone doubtful as he stared at the screen and saw the video is really shaking. 

Shi Jiu frowned when he saw the screen and he turned to face Jiu Ye and Huo Ling. "Hey. What did you say just now about 'teeth'?" he asked. "Did you lose a tooth? That is not possible – " he said. 

A sharp intake of breath cut off his words. 

"What…?" Shi Jiu asked when he saw Jiu Ye and Huo Ling, who were watching the screen, have widened their eyes in shock. 

"… fck." Jiu Ye cursed under his breath as he stared at the screen. His face is filled with horror. 

Shi Jiu was curious and so he turned, only to loudly utter a string of curses when he saw a face that was upside down in the screen. It meant that the face is just upfront of mini Anji Li's camera. 

"Fck!" Shi Jiu cursed as he held his chest. His face is filled with shock. "Fortunately, mini Anji Li hasn't human consciousness and emotions, or she would've already freaked out seeing that face!" he said and took deep breaths to calm himself. 

Yi Bing recovered his composure which he almost lost just now. "This is…" he muttered. 

"Second young master Pei Tinghe. The one who went missing and late found dead." Huo Ling spoke after he recovered his voice. 

Shi Jiu and Jiu Ye who were also scared earlier also recognized the face after they had calmed down. "It's really him!" Shi Jiu exclaimed. 

"Was it really his corpse who gnawed off the wood to enter the little girl's room?!" Jiu Ye asked. 

Yi Bing and Huo Ling. "…" wait. The words sound right but also wrong? They thought. 

Huo Ling virtually shook his head to shake his thoughts off. "Is there something that can make a corpse move?" he asked Yi Bing. 

"Talismans." Yi Bing spoke. "And soul." He added. 

Silence. "Aren't the souls now missing in this world?" Shi Jiu asked. 

"So, it can be a talisman that made his corpse move?" Jiu Ye asked. 

"I don't see a talisman in him." Huo Ling spoke. 

They turned and saw on the screen that there really is no talisman stuck on Pei Tinghe's forehead. 

"For the talisman to be more effective and for better control of the corpse, the talisman is stuck on the forehead." Yi Bing spoke. Yet, there is no talisman that was seen. 

"Is there another method for controlling a corpse?" Jiu Ye asked. 

Suddenly, they heard Huo Ling spoke. "… is this really a corpse?" he asked. 

They fell silent. They all turned to him, then on the screen. Not only mini Anji Li's audio perception is of high-quality, but so is her camera's visual perception. So, they saw that the figure that appeared in the middle of the room is somewhat transparent. 

"A soul…?" they all muttered under their breath. Their eyes wide in disbelief. What does this mean?! Weren't the souls are missing?! How can a soul suddenly appear?! 

Huo Ling's mind worked fast. "Could it be… Pei Tinghe's soul hasn't been 'summoned' by that something unknown?" he asked. 

They all fell silent. That's right. There's this possibility. 

"So… should we be running to the Pei mansion… to the little girl's room now to capture this soul?" Jiu Ye asked in a small voice. 

"… oh." They muttered and looked at each other. The next second, their figures flashed out of the living room and reappeared on Pei Li's room, just right beside Pei Tinghe's soul.