Chapter 9: Contracting a Ghost Slave, a New Employee at the Relay Station

Yang Fan walked from the living room to the storage room. The moment she stepped inside, the lights in the room flared to life, and she saw the scene within clearly.

When she had looked earlier in the day, the shelves had been completely empty, but now they were packed with all sorts of express packages.

At the same time, a notification sound came from the computer by the door: "Yellow Springs Post Station Stationmaster—Yang Fan has logged in. The post station is now open; please begin your work as soon as possible."

With a "click," the lock on the rolling shutter door disengaged, and the door slowly began to rise.

Yang Fan:...It’s quite automated, isn't it?

Passing through the shelves piled high with packages, she walked over to the computer.

The computer had already turned on automatically, and the screen displayed six prominent characters: Yellow Springs Post Station System.

In the top left corner were her name, her photo, and her job title: Yellow Springs Post Station Stationmaster.

Below that was a set of statistics, including the number of outgoing packages, which was currently at 0, and the total working hours.

The timer had already reached one minute and was still ticking upward.

Beside it, much like an email inbox, was a list of entries. Each line displayed the sender and recipient information, followed by the words "Uncollected Package."

The entire screen was filled with uncollected packages, and there were even multiple pages to scroll through.

As the rolling shutter door opened fully, two ghosts—one large and one small—stood at the entrance.

The child ghost was named Jian Xiangdi, and the female ghost was Liang Zishu. The former had died in a car accident at age ten, while the latter was twenty-five and had died from overwork after being exploited by an unscrupulous boss.

According to the two ghosts, the Yellow Springs Post Station had existed for a very long time. The packages inside were items burned for them by their living relatives, or things they had purchased themselves on the Underworld web using ghost money.

The station had previously been located elsewhere and had only moved to Shangyuan Village a few years ago.

The previous stationmaster was the original owner's uncle, Yang Xiuwen. He was a kind man, but his personality was too soft, and he was often bullied by the "Four Heavenly Kings"—a group of evil ghosts.

Although the Underworld had regulations stating that evil ghosts could not harm those at the post station, and ghosts were forbidden from entering human dwellings, those evil ghosts loved to play malicious pranks. Last year, when Yang Xiuwen went to town to run errands and returned late at night, those evil ghosts set up an illusion on the road, causing him to fall into a dried-up riverbed. By the time the villagers found him the next day, it was already too late.

The vegetables in the village were stolen by ghosts. Because of the Yellow Springs Post Station, the village was filled with spiritual energy, and the fruits and vegetables grown in the fields were infused with it.

Unable to resist the temptation, the ghosts would come at night to steal the crops.

At this point, Jian Xiangdi shyly lowered his head. "...I stole some too."

Liang Zishu: "Me too..."

It wasn't entirely their fault for being unable to resist; items containing spiritual energy cost ghost money in the Underworld, and they were very expensive. Being able to eat things in this village without spending a cent was a temptation no ghost could withstand.

Furthermore, they had to work hard to save up ghost money to buy things just to have an excuse to come out. Those who didn't have the money to buy anything could only leave the Underworld once they had a pickup notification for items burned by their living families.

"So you often use the excuse of picking up packages to come out and steal the vegetables that others worked so hard to grow," Yang Fan said, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at the two ghosts threateningly. "And you make it sound like you've had such a hard time."

The two ghosts hung their heads, feeling too guilty to speak, standing at the door and waiting for Yang Fan to retrieve their packages.

However, she wasn't going to hand them over so easily.

Liang Zishu handed over something that looked like an ID card. "Please... Master, could you help me get my package?"

They had told her before that ghosts had to provide identification to pick up their packages.

Yang Fan didn't take it. Instead, she brought up the issue of them stealing vegetables again. "Since you destroyed someone else's hard work, you should replant those vegetables for them."

Liang Zishu and Jian Xiangdi looked at each other, then turned to look at Yang Fan, asking in unison, "How do we replant them?"

Yang Fan nodded. "Go back and call the other ghosts who stole the vegetables, and then I'll tell you how to replant them."

"But if we go back now, we won't be able to come back today," Jian Xiangdi said. "We'll have to wait five days."

A ghost could leave the Underworld three times based on a pickup notification, but if they failed to collect their package that day, they had to wait five days to try again.

This was a rule established to prevent overcrowding at the station.

Is that so...

Yang Fan stroked her chin, carefully sizing up the two ghosts, then glanced at the shelves full of packages behind them.

A thought suddenly popped into her head. These two ghosts had pure souls and docile personalities; they would be perfect as her ghost servants.

As she remained silent, the two ghosts became even more anxious.

Liang Zishu thought to herself, surely this Master isn't going to use us as fertilizer for the fields?

No, please!

Yang Fan turned to the two ghosts. With a speed they couldn't react to, she drew a talisman in the air. A golden light enveloped the two ghosts.

A sail-shaped mark appeared on their foreheads, but it vanished almost instantly.

The ghost servant contract was successfully concluded.

Although this was their first time experiencing such a thing, they could feel the changes in their bodies.

They were being pulled and suppressed by a powerful force, and their appearances shifted from their gruesome, terrifying ghost forms back to how they looked when they were alive.

They couldn't see the changes on their own faces, but they could see the changes in each other.

Liang Zishu pointed at herself, dumbfounded, and asked Yang Fan, "Master, what is this?"

Yang Fan: "Oh, I just signed a contract with you. From now on, you are my ghost servants."

Liang Zishu: "Ghost servants... what do we have to do?"

Yang Fan pointed at the packages nearby. "Work for me."

Liang Zishu felt a wave of darkness wash over her. She had been forced to work when she was alive, and now that she was a ghost, she was being forced to work again.

This damn world!

At that moment, the computer emitted two "ding-dong" sounds. Yang Fan looked down and saw that two new entries had appeared on the computer screen under her information box.

They were Liang Zishu and Jian Xiangdi, and their job title was listed as: Courier.

Yang Fan curled her lips. It seemed the station acknowledged the employees she had recruited.

Since it had made her the stationmaster without her consent, she would follow suit and make their own people work here.

Jian Xiangdi was a little excited. "Does that mean we can come out from the Underworld every day!"

Yang Fan nodded. "From now on, the work here is up to you."

Jian Xiangdi was ecstatic. This was great! He could travel freely between the Underworld and the human world every day!

Liang Zishu, who had been lamenting being forced to work again, also felt the gloom in her heart swept away by this news.

After all, the human world was much more interesting than the Underworld.

Who knew, maybe one day she would even have the chance to go home and take a look!

Liang Zishu suppressed her excitement and asked cautiously, "Then, Stationmaster, what is our monthly salary?"

Yang Fan: "That's a good question. I'd like to know that too."

Heaven knows what the monthly salary is around here.