NTNH Chapter 5: The Book of Life and Death | Comprehensive Modernization

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Lunch was finished even faster than yesterday. Li Tiantian looked a bit down, Jiang Hong was also quiet, and Yu Zhengdu was eager to return to the company to check the ghost-catching results.

Finally, as lunch came to an end, Yu Zhengdu struggled to suppress his curiosity and gentlemanly watched the two girls leave. Only then did he impatiently grab his boss’s hand, urging, “Come on, come on, let’s go back and watch the drama unfold.”

But as soon as his hand touched Shang Que’s wrist, he immediately recoiled. Instinctively, he blurted out, “Ah, your hand is so cold.”

Shang Que looked at him. Yu Zhengdu came back to his senses, scratching his head awkwardly. “Sorry, I keep forgetting that you’re not human.”

Shang Que: “……”

Realizing that his words sounded too much like an insult, Yu Zhengdu thought for a moment and tried to make up for it. “Boss, if I say you look very human right now, would that make you feel better?”

Shang Que responded with another silent ellipsis. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to care much about it. After a brief pause, he said, “It’s fine. I just forgot to adjust my temperature.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……?”

He was stunned. “Wait, you can adjust your body temperature?”

Shang Que smiled proudly. “Of course.”

As he spoke, he silently extended his left hand. “Try again.”

Yu Zhengdu hesitated, feeling that his boss might be showing off a little too much, but he still reached out to touch it. This time, the skin was indeed warm. Unlike the average man’s skin, Shang Que’s had a texture like fine jade—translucent and unnaturally pale, yet warm to the touch.

It was a unique sensation that no real person could possess.

Yu Zhengdu marveled, “Wow, it really feels like a real person.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he noticed that the wrist he was holding was getting even warmer, with the temperature continuing to rise.

He hesitated. “Boss, let’s not overdo it. If you heat up any more, it’ll be too hot to hold.”

Shang Que smiled slightly. “It’s fine.”

Yu Zhengdu sighed, “With this ability, you should control the office temperature. It could save on air conditioning costs.”

Shang Que: “……”

The two returned to the company. Yu Zhengdu pushed open the office door and impatiently asked, “Where’s the ghost?”

One of the colleagues involved in the capture pointed to the corner. “Over there.”

“How did you catch it?” Yu Zhengdu asked curiously as he turned his head to look. “Was it like in the TV shows, using a hook? Or maybe tying it up with a rope…”

His words trailed off.

In the corner of the office, a female ghost was squatting with disheveled hair, her hands resting on her knees, restrained by a pair of handcuffs.

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

It looked eerily like a police raid scene.

He turned back to Shang Que, his admiration genuine. “I never thought ghost-catching had become this advanced.”

At that moment, the female ghost also noticed him. Her defeated posture suddenly became agitated, and she lunged forward, screaming, “You can see me! You can see me! And yet you pretended you couldn’t—”

As she got worked up, her eyes rolled back, and blood started oozing from her seven orifices, making her appearance as terrifying as possible.

Yu Zhengdu was so startled that he stepped back, nearly tripping over his own feet. Fortunately, Shang Que was beside him and caught him just in time.

The female ghost ultimately didn’t manage to pounce. Lu Lingxi appeared out of nowhere, grabbed the ghost, and pressed her back into the corner. “Stay put. A suspect ghost has no right to so much chatter.”

The blood from the ghost’s orifices flowed even faster, almost drowning her face in red. She continued struggling desperately. “I didn’t commit any crimes! I didn’t harm anyone! That person framed me—”

Yu Zhengdu couldn’t even bear to look anymore. Covering his eyes, he pleaded, “Can you talk properly? Stop bleeding everywhere, okay?”

Shang Que chuckled softly and looked at the female ghost. “Did you hear that?”

The female ghost: “……”

The bloodstains on her face quickly dried up and disappeared. Not only did she stop bleeding, but she didn’t even dare to shed a single tear. She closed her mouth, looking pitifully aggrieved.

Seeing that she had finally stopped wailing, Lu Lingxi pressed her down and escorted her toward Kang Jin, the ghost with the fake wig. “Go make a record.”

Yu Zhengdu found the whole scene fascinating and asked Shang Que, “Can I go take a look?”

Shang Que nodded.

Yu Zhengdu cheered and bounced over to Kang Jin. He saw Kang Jin sitting in front of a computer, skillfully opening a folder and pulling up an Excel spreadsheet.

Yu Zhengdu glanced at the file name and felt personally attacked again. “Wait, why is this file called ‘The Book of Life and Death’?”

Kang Jin replied matter-of-factly, “Because this is the Book of Life and Death.”

Shang Que walked over leisurely, crossing his arms. “We have been committed to modernizing the Underworld’s office work and improving company efficiency. Digitizing the Book of Life and Death is one of our most important advancements.”

Kang Jin, a bit proud, added, “We’ve also set up various formulas in Excel to scientifically and efficiently calculate each person’s karmic merits and demerits. Ever since we transitioned to digital office work, the rate of reincarnation errors has significantly decreased, effectively maintaining the order of the Six Paths of Reincarnation.”

Finally, he made sure to flatter his boss. “Of course, this is all thanks to our boss’s foresight in abandoning the outdated Underworld bureaucracy early on…”

Yu Zhengdu was speechless. He turned to look at Shang Que, only to find him watching him with a half-smile. “But I still think this isn’t enough. In the future, I want us to have an even more advanced independent system.”

A realization dawned on Yu Zhengdu. “You recruited me… to develop an office system for the Book of Life and Death?”

Shang Que nodded. “Correct. I want full automation of reincarnation before 2020.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……?!”

This handsome young boss never ceased to amaze him!

Meanwhile, Kang Jin had already begun interrogating the female ghost. “What’s your name?”

Realizing she had no way out, the female ghost resentfully glanced at Yu Zhengdu before reluctantly answering, “Xu Jiangjiang.”

Kang Jin typed the name into Excel, pulling up a long record. Then he asked, “ID number?”

Xu Jiangjiang reported the number, and after verification, only a single entry remained on the list.

Yu Zhengdu took a peek and saw that the list contained Xu Jiangjiang’s basic information and life history. At the end, there was a note:

Age at death: 25. Cause: Gas poisoning suicide in a rental apartment.

Kang Jin continued, “Why did you possess Li Tiantian?”

Xu Jiangjiang immediately denied it. “I didn’t! I wasn’t! I was just passing by!”

Kang Jin scoffed. “Denying it is useless. We’re the Underworld’s law enforcement. Unlike the human world, we have plenty of ways to make you tell the truth.”

Yu Zhengdu curiously asked, “Oh? Are you going to use torture?”

Xu Jiangjiang shot him a glare.

Kang Jin ignored them and continued, “We’ve already extracted residual ghost energy from Li Tiantian’s body. This proves that you’ve been clinging to her for at least twenty days.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……” Do ghosts really investigate cases this scientifically?

Kang Jin pressed further. “Besides, Li Tiantian’s forehead is darkened, and her Seven Souls are unstable—classic signs of possession. If you weren’t planning to take over her body, then what were you doing?”

Seeing that she couldn’t deny it anymore, Xu Jiangjiang reluctantly admitted, “Yes, I wanted to possess her.”

Kang Jin tapped on the table. “After your death, we should have sent you a message outlining the rules for ghosts. Endangering the living and searching for a substitute are strictly prohibited. Do I need to remind you of the consequences?”

Xu Jiangjiang had originally lowered her head, but upon hearing this, she suddenly became agitated again. “I didn’t want this either! But you guys said that suicides have their reincarnation delayed. Now that birth rates are so low, my reincarnation is even further postponed. I have to wander as a lonely ghost for at least fifty years! I can’t wait that long…”

Kang Jin had been ready to lecture her on the laws again, but her outburst left him momentarily speechless. He didn’t know how to refute her.

It was Yu Zhengdu who frowned and asked, “Aren’t you contradicting yourself?”

Xu Jiangjiang and Kang Jin both turned to look at him.

Yu Zhengdu explained, “If you committed suicide, it means you didn’t want to be alive anymore. So why are you now upset about not being able to reincarnate sooner?”

Kang Jin’s logic snapped back into place. He immediately smacked the table. “That’s right! Exactly!”

Xu Jiangjiang glared at Yu Zhengdu resentfully. “I killed myself because my life was miserable. My parents divorced, no one cared about me growing up, my job sucked, my salary was low, and I had no friends. Living was meaningless! But Li Tiantian is different! She has loving parents, friends who care about her, and a good job. Her life is perfect! I’ve always dreamed of having a life like hers…”

She poured out her grievances like spilling beans, her eyes glimmering with greed.

But Yu Zhengdu only felt a deep, indescribable chill. He said seriously, “That’s not a reason to take your own life, and it’s definitely not a reason to harm someone else.”

Xu Jiangjiang refused to accept it. “Why does she get to have such a good life while I suffered so much?!”

Yu Zhengdu stared at her. “You didn’t cherish your own life, and now you want to steal someone else’s? Even if you took over Li Tiantian’s body, would you really be satisfied? Eventually, you’d meet someone whose life is even better than hers—then what? Would you feel it’s unfair again and try to harm them too?”

Kang Jin nodded enthusiastically. “Exactly! That’s it!”

Yu Zhengdu side-eyed him. Was this ghost a broken record?

Xu Jiangjiang stammered, “You—you’re talking nonsense…”

Just then, Shang Que, who had been watching quietly, finally spoke. “Too much talking.”

With a slight curl of his index finger in midair, Shang Que effortlessly lifted Xu Jiangjiang, who let out a terrified scream as she was seized in his grasp.

The ghost who had been so fierce in front of Yu Zhengdu was now completely immobilized in Shang Que’s grip. Her eyes bulged as if they were about to pop out of their sockets, her upper and lower teeth chattering uncontrollably, unable to utter a single word.

Yu Zhengdu was shocked. “Boss, are you going to eat a ghost on the spot? Wait a sec, let me step aside.”

Kang Jin: “...Shut up. Don’t give the boss ideas.”

Shang Que said nothing. He simply swept his gaze around the room before casually flicking his empty hand. A bottle suddenly flew over and landed in his grasp.

Yu Zhengdu took one look and recognized it instantly—it was his half-finished bottle of mineral water.

Before he could react, Shang Que unceremoniously stuffed Xu Jiangjiang inside the bottle. The ghost disappeared into it in an instant, and Shang Que remarked indifferently, “Let her stay in there for twenty years.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……………………………………………………”

At that moment, he suddenly realized what all those random, unimpressive bottles on the bookshelf in his boss’s office actually contained.

He had no idea what was going through his mind, but somehow, he blurted out, “Boss, I haven’t finished drinking that.”

Shang Que glanced at him, then handed the bottle back. “It’s fine. You can keep drinking—it won’t affect the taste.”

Author’s Note:

Zhengdu: My expertise has been challenged. 0.0

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