There were two male ghosts, one old and one young. The old one looked over seventy, and the young one just over ten. Both were covered in black soot, with clear signs of burnt hair, suggesting they died in a fire.
"How did you die?" I asked.
The old ghost sighed, "It's all my good-for-nothing grandson's fault. He said he was cold and wanted to light a stove inside, but he lit the gasoline barrel his dead father bought. It exploded, the door was blocked, and the two of us burned to death!"
"Left-behind child?" I asked. Judging by their attire, they seemed to be from the countryside.
"Yes."
"Where was his father working? Did he know about this?" I asked again.
The old ghost's cloudy eyes flickered slightly. "I haven't heard from my dead son in three years."
"Did he commit a crime, or...?" I continued, purely out of idle curiosity.
The old ghost shook his head, "I don't know. My son and daughter-in-law went out to work three years ago, saying they could earn a lot of money. They called back asking the villagers to invest, and they pooled over two hundred thousand yuan. Then the two of them vanished! It's a pity about my granddaughter, who was still in junior high. Grandparents, parents, and brother are all gone, and the house is burned down. The only person she can count on, her brother, is also gone. What can she do, alas..."
From the old ghost's words, I gathered quite a bit of information. This boy's parents had likely fallen into a pyramid scheme. After swindling the villagers' money, they wouldn't dare return home. They probably followed the organization to another place to scam, thinking that once they'd scammed enough money, they could retire and secretly bring their family over. However, from what I understood, the so-called core members of such organizations, while appearing to earn a lot annually, would ultimately have all their funds siphoned off by the few people at the very top, leaving those below on the pyramid with nothing.
Furthermore, this family seemed to have a strong preference for sons over daughters. They expected the eldest granddaughter to rely on the youngest grandson? It wasn't me being harsh, but this young boy looked simple-minded, his eyes a little vacant. Even if he wasn't intellectually disabled, one could imagine that someone who could set a gasoline barrel on fire in a room probably wasn't very intelligent.
Perhaps this little sister might have a better life in the future without such a burden as a brother.
"Elder, please tell me an address. I'll go and help your granddaughter later. You can rest easy," I said.
"Oh, that would be wonderful! Thank you, sir, thank you! You scamp! Why aren't you kowtowing to the sir?"
"No need, no need. This is our duty as yin emissaries," I replied. That slow-witted boy indeed wasn't cooperative and didn't kowtow to me. He just stared blankly at Zheng Bingbing's face. A little pervert, daring to covet even Lord Bai Wuchang? I never had such disgusting thoughts about Xie Bian!
The old ghost gave me an address, and I suddenly realized that for such a short distance of a few stops, the corresponding span in the mortal world was so vast?
It felt like we had traveled less than ten kilometers from the starting station to the sixth stop, but the address the old ghost gave was already in Shu. Traveling from Lishun to Shu basically spanned half of Yanxia.
I took out my phone to try it, but there was no signal here. My phone had become a mere decoration – all the apps couldn't be opened.
Looking at the old ghost's expectant eyes, I had no choice but to use the Soul-Reaping Token to contact the relay station and ask them to find a yin emissary who was currently on duty in Shu. I was looking for a judge, a subordinate of Wu Zhao. I told her the address and asked her to find a way to help that family's granddaughter.
This judge, compared to the previous Bai Wuchang, was much more approachable (perhaps she knew about my relationship with Wu Zhao). She readily agreed and even asked if one million yuan would be enough to leave for her.
"Don't give it all at once. The child is too young to handle it. Try going to the bank and setting up an account for her with 'fixed deposit and withdrawal,' where she can only withdraw a fixed amount each month, say three or five thousand yuan, enough until she graduates from graduate school," I instructed. For Song Lei's sister, Song Miao, Chen Lu had arranged it similarly, mainly because she was worried that the child, holding so much money, might attract the attention of bad people or relatives.
The latter, sometimes, was even more terrifying.
After arranging the "afterlife affairs" for the old ghost, he expressed his profuse gratitude. Just then, the long-robed person in front knocked on the iron, signaling that they had arrived at the station.