Chapter 108: So Poor He Couldn’t Even Support Ah Zai
Chapter 108: So Poor He Couldn’t Even Support Ah Zai
Pei Ye also had a bad temper, but over the years she had retired and cultivated her temperament to suppress her condition, so she looked relatively calm and composed.
She lifted her leg and kicked the office desk into the corner, where it smashed into the wall and shattered into pieces, kicking up a large cloud of dust.
“These pieces of trash!”
Pei Ye regretted handing those few vengeful ghosts over to the Great Emperor of Fengdu.
She should have kept them and tortured them until their souls scattered, with no chance of reincarnation!
Looking at page after page of text, a famous internet saying suddenly surfaced in Pei Ye’s mind.
Hell is empty, the devils are in the human world.
The evil of the human heart is far beyond what demons and monsters can compare to.
Pei Ye’s anger had not yet subsided when she heard an unfamiliar man’s voice beside her ear.
He corrected Pei Ye’s words.
“Hell is not empty.”
Pei Ye turned toward the source of the voice and saw that the Great Emperor of Fengdu did not know when he had appeared at the doorway. His features were exceptionally refined and handsome, and those gray eyes were like ice frozen through ancient ages, cold and emotionless without the slightest trace of feeling. “The eighteenth layer of hell has seen a sharp increase in evil ghosts in recent years…”
The Great Emperor of Fengdu very seriously corrected Pei Ye’s words.
Pei Ye: “...”
She had actually said her inner thoughts out loud.
How foolish.
“I did not mean that. I was only lamenting that there are too many evil people in the human world…”
The Great Emperor of Fengdu said, “Humans are inherently like this. Good and evil exist in a single thought. How could evil people be few in number?”
With the surge in human population and increasing conflicts of interest, every day there are utterly unforgivable criminals sent into the eighteenth layer of hell to serve their sentence as evil ghosts.
Looking through the records of Fengdu from the past, there were only around a hundred ghosts sentenced to the eighteenth layer of hell per year. Now it is counted in the thousands.
The Great Emperor of Fengdu recently submitted a financial report to the Heavenly Court requesting expansion of the eighteenth layer of hell.
There was no helping it. At this growth rate, the eighteenth layer of hell would eventually overflow.
Pei Ye looked at the diary with obvious disgust.
“Those kinds of evil ghosts should be destroyed completely. How can they be allowed to reincarnate and continue harming others?”
The Great Emperor of Fengdu said, “A bowl of Meng Po soup and all past lives are forgotten. In the next life, whether one becomes good or evil is uncertain. Under the same harsh environment, some people remain resilient and strive upward, while others choose to fall completely and cannot be saved. People often say fate is predetermined, but they do not understand that although the path of fate is set, the ones who truly move along it are themselves, not anything else.”
Pei Ye pressed her lips together and said nothing.
The Great Emperor of Fengdu added, “Do you know what the owner of this diary was in his previous life?”
Pei Ye shook her head.
She did not have the Book of Life and Death, nor the ability to see past lives, present lives, or future lives.
The Great Emperor of Fengdu said, “In his previous life, he was a wealthy benefactor who built bridges, paved roads, and did good deeds, known by the villagers as a ‘good person.’ Because of these acts, his Book of Life and Death accumulated a substantial amount of fortune and merit. Yet in this life, he repeatedly committed evil acts, exhausting all his accumulated fortune and merit, and after death he will still be sentenced to the eighteenth layer of hell. A good person in a past life may become an evil person in this life. An evil person in this life, after serving punishment and reincarnating, may continue to do evil, or may become an ordinary person struggling for survival, or may even become a person regarded by others as good.”
Why are ten generation good people so rare?
Doing good in one life is not difficult. What is difficult is doing good across every life without changing one’s original heart.
“Even evil ghosts have the right to serve their sentence and atone. From the official standpoint of Fengdu, soul scattering is not lawful.”
Of course, rules are rules, and reality is reality.
It was not unheard of for enraged individuals to tear apart evil ghosts and cause their souls to scatter completely.
For example, White Impermanence, with his explosive temper, had killed quite a number of evil ghosts.
After the Great Emperor of Fengdu took office, he stopped such behavior.
Pei Ye said calmly, “Sorry, my words were inappropriate.”
The Emperor did not mind. “These are all natural human reactions. I do not blame you.”
“Will Fengdu properly handle the orphaned souls from Yunan Academy?”
The Great Emperor of Fengdu said, “Yes.”
He would appropriately open a compensation green channel for the male students of Yunan Academy. After two years of soul recovery, they would be sent to reincarnate.
Why not mention the female students?
Fengdu had always opened green channels for female ghosts. In many cases, they did not even need to queue for reincarnation.
With a personal promise from the Emperor, Pei Ye naturally believed him.
She put away the diary and was about to go retrieve Bai Xiaoxiao and the others when she noticed the Emperor following her.
“Does Your Majesty have anything else?”
Xiao Hong’s body was not particularly short compared to ordinary girls, but it was much shorter than Pei Ye’s original body. Standing next to the Great Emperor of Fengdu, who was about one meter ninety-two tall, she appeared somewhat petite. Speaking to him required tilting her head back, which was tiring.
“I feel you look somewhat familiar, as if I have seen you somewhere before,” the Emperor said.
Pei Ye did not associate this with herself, after all, this was not her original face.
“We probably have not met.”
Someone as busy as him would hardly have the chance to see this face anywhere.
“I also think so,” the Emperor said.
It was impossible that they had met.
He took out a pocket watch from his robe and glanced at the time, his pale expression showing faint displeasure.
He had wasted nearly an hour today.
The Great Emperor of Fengdu ruled over countless ghosts. Many matters could not be handled personally. He had originally planned to summon over a hundred underworld messengers to take the students of Yunan Academy away and then use spells to cleanse this ghostly place.
Otherwise, it would be difficult to guarantee that no living person would accidentally stumble in and cause another tragedy in the future.
Pei Ye suddenly remembered something and once again called out to stop him.
“What is it?”
The Emperor was very patient, even though he was eager to return to work.
Pei Ye took out a sticky note and said, “I almost forgot about this one.”
After unsealing it, the captured ghost driver rolled out in confusion and landed at the Emperor’s black boots.
The Emperor had direct mental connection with the Book of Life and Death, and with a glance he immediately understood the ghost driver’s situation. His gray eyes flickered with something unusual.
“You really do… attract trouble very easily…”
Black and White Impermanence had reported her situation. Today alone she had encountered both the ghost driver and the Yunan Academy incident…
Emmm…
This kind of luck was not something ordinary people could compare to.
She had only been in this Xiao Hong body for a short time, yet incidents kept coming one after another.
“If every underworld messenger had this kind of luck, both the human world and Fengdu would be much more peaceful.”
Cases would not need to be chased down. They would deliver themselves. Clearance rates would skyrocket.
Pei Ye pretended not to hear the Emperor’s teasing.
“How long will it take Fengdu to capture that fake underworld messenger group using the clues?”
She had also contributed to the case. After it was closed, she should at least get a portion of merit.
Looking at her pitiful merit balance, and thinking of Ah Zai unable to afford new clothes and having to work odd jobs, she felt a little heartache.
Feeling poor for herself, even to the point of not being able to support her child.
“That group of criminals are evil ghosts who escaped from the eighteenth layer of hell over twenty years ago. Fengdu has cooperated with the Celestial Masters Alliance for many years, but has still not captured all the fugitives,” the Great Emperor of Fengdu said regretfully. “These ghosts are very familiar with Fengdu. They are cunning, deceitful, and extremely good at escaping. Even with clues, we cannot be too optimistic. I can only say we will do our best.”