Chapter 77
Zhou Du announced Li Yang's second interview question: "Please draw a ghost-binding talisman."
A desk appeared in front of Li Yang, with all the talismans and props on it.
He sat down with his legs bent, picked up a pen, dipped it in cinnabar, and wrote a rune on the yellow paper in one go.
The judge, Meng Po and other important officials of the underworld at the examination table nodded repeatedly and gave another 20 points.
The last question was asked by the judge in the middle: "Li Yang, what do you think is Wu Chang's most important job responsibility?"
Li Yang told the truth: "To maintain the stability of the human world and the underworld."
"This is one, are there any more?"
Li Yang was not good at speaking eloquently, so he could only squeeze out a few words bit by bit: "We need efficiency, we need to be steady, accurate and ruthless, and not let a single ghost go..."
As he squeezed in, he thought of several ghosts that left a deep impression on him, such as Qian Ran, Wu Xinghua, etc. His eyes gradually became clear, as if light was swimming, "Let the deceased let go of their obsession with the world and rest in peace in the underground. If possible, let the living be comforted and let them believe that one day they will reunite with their relatives, lovers and friends who are separated by life and death."
Li Yang’s speech was very brief, not as long and comprehensive as the previous twenty-three recitations which were like reciting a paper.
But the judge and others nodded slightly and basically gave scores of 13-18.
After the fight, the judge remembered something: "Excuse me, since you know all this, why is the praise rate only 0.03?"
Li Yang: “…”
*
As soon as Li Yang's interview was over, the real-time scoring phase began.
All the candidates who were shortlisted for the interview returned to the pure white space again, and the candidates who had failed the written test had already left.
The huge scoring panel is suspended in space.
At this moment, there are only the written test scores, and Li Yang is at the bottom.
The female voice of the electronic system said coldly: "Now, it will be counted into the interview score."
The panel data fluctuated, the rankings changed, and Li Yang squeezed to the middle.
"Now, add extra points to the favorable review rate."
The rankings changed again, but very slightly, with the exception of Liyang, which saw a big change and is now ranked third from the bottom.
"Now, it will be counted towards your daily ghost hunting points."
This time the changes were so huge that Li Yang was dazzled and had no time to observe others. In short, the ones at the end caught up with the middle, the ones in the middle caught up with the front, and the ones in the front might crash to the end.
Li Yang saw that he was ranked fourth.
"Now, count it towards the quarterly assessment reward points."
The numbers changed and Li Yang ranked first.
Electronic female voice: "The score statistics are completed. Congratulations to the candidates ranked first to seventeenth. From today on, you are official employees..." followed by some words of encouragement to the eliminated candidates.
Wu Xinghua came in to interrupt their attention, "Please, those who have passed the regularization, please follow me to attend this year's Hell's Annual Meeting."
Everyone looked at each other and were all happy. "My sister didn't say that she would attend the annual meeting immediately after becoming a regular employee." It was obvious that she was the family's inherited Living Impermanence.
Without caring about the feelings of their fellow candidates, they followed Wu Xinghua away.
*
Including Li Yang, the seventeen newly-minted official Living Impermanence were all visiting the underworld for the first time.
Everyone was watching intently, and one girl exclaimed: "I feel like I'm in Coco..."
A huge ancient tree is situated in the center of the underworld, with its roots radiating out like small hills. The cave entrances in the hills glow with golden orange hues, and you can see the souls residing inside. The souls are like normal people, walking around or sitting at the entrances of the caves and fanning themselves with cattail leaves.
"This is how you will live in the underworld from now on," said Wu Xinghua.
Someone raised his hand: "Teacher's assistant, but my sister said that we living ghosts will also become working ghosts after we die, just like you."
Wu Xinghua corrected: "Then, this is how your relatives and friends will live in the underworld from now on."
Wu Xinghua led them and they were floating in the air. They were also floating in the air and did not land on the ground.
They walked through the streets. Lanterns of various colors were interspersed among the eaves. Many vendors were shouting their wares. Ghosts were everywhere, and songs and laughter could be heard from the restaurants. It was much more lively than the night markets on earth.
Wu Xinghua finally brought them to the banquet hall of the underworld.
Pushing the door open, seventeen people walked in and were dazzled by the pearlescent crystal chandelier.
It was similar to the annual meetings of large companies in the human world, with high-end buffet dining, but the decor was much more luxurious. For example, the gold-leaf plates used to hold the pastries were made of real gold.
The door closed quietly. Wu Xinghua had already pulled Li Yang aside and said excitedly, "Mr. Li! Congratulations! You are the top scorer!"
Li Yang said thank you, and Wu Xinghua gave him a piece of tiramisu.
Li Yang finally had time to ask the question that concerned him: "Secretary Wu, why is Zhou Du here?"
Wu Xinghua: “Special Advisor.”
"Oh." Li Yang scooped a piece with a fork, but before he could eat it, Yu Shuang and the other five groups of members who he had met before came over.
"Congratulations, you get first place." Yu Shuang said calmly.
The other five groups of members can all be considered Li Yang’s uncles.
He hugged and nudged him like a good friend: "You are really awesome! Our group 5 has been together for 80 years! Finally, we have a No. 1 again!!"
Li Yang waited until they were done being excited before asking, "First place, will the underworld give us any reward?"
Everyone thought about it and realized that they didn't know. That is, as a student who always ranks last, you don't care how much the scholarship is or what kind of notebooks and ballpoint pens it will be.
“It seems there is no reward, right?”
"I have no idea."
Wu Xinghua said again: "There is no reward within the group, but the first place will have an 18% increase in monthly salary for three years."
The uncles were also very happy and bumped into Li Yang again: "Very good!!!"
As for the other four groups, groups one and two gathered together, while groups three and four stayed separate but squeezed together with their own group members.
While eating and drinking, they all kept their eyes on Li Yang.
After the points were calculated, I was immediately brought here. Only now did I remember to discuss the scoring just now.
“I don’t know if he was lucky or what, he got such a low score in the written test and the praise rate, but he still ranked first.” They couldn’t imagine how Li Yang caught thousands of ghosts, but only a few ghosts gave him five-star praise.
The team leader told them: "The most powerful points he gets are in the daily and quarterly assessments, so don't take it lightly. The road to an impermanent life has just begun."
*
After Yu Shuang congratulated Li Yang, she took Li Yang to show off in front of the leaders.
The main ones are the leaders of the Three Departments and Ten Palaces.
While Yu Shuang was socializing, she urged Li Yang to toast. Li Yang thought, can I get drunk if I drink too much? So he drank and got drunk.
But he didn't show it on his face, but his eyes became blurry, and he asked Yu Shuang: "Is the annual meeting of the underworld held today?"
Yu Shuang didn't know he was drunk yet, so she said, "Well, we need to make time for the 15th day of the first lunar month when the Heavenly Official will bless us, so we'll set it for today."
"Oh, yes, tomorrow is the fifteenth, where is Zhou Du?"
"Why are you looking for Zhou Du?" Yu Shuang said, and also helped to look around the banquet hall, but did not see Zhou Du.
Li Yang narrowed his eyes and replied in a way that made no sense: "I want to go back to my room and sleep."
Yu Shuang then looked at his ears, which were red, and realized that the boy was drunk, so she helped him to the sofa.
Li Yang has been looking for Zhou Du.
Yu Shuang: "Okay, okay, I'll help you find it, you sit down for a while."
After saying that, she went to help find Zhou Du, although she didn't know if there was any necessary connection between Li Yang's wanting to sleep and looking for Zhou Du.
I asked several people, even the leader, and they all said they hadn't seen Zhou Du.
After Yu Shuang left, Li Yang sat obediently for a while, but only for a while before he stood up and went to find Zhou Du by himself.
Suddenly, a golden thread appeared in front of his eyes, moving flexibly, at a height of about his waist.
Li Yang frowned, looked at it, then looked at the people around him, it seemed that no one saw it.
As for why he could see, Li Yang didn't think about it and just followed the golden thread.
Walking to the solid wood staircase in the banquet hall, Li Yang looked along the golden thread. It was a very long staircase, and the golden thread was hidden on the second floor, emitting a faint golden light.
Li Yang held the handrail and climbed up the stairs one step at a time.
The gold thread also shortened little by little.
When he climbed up the stairs, his body became unstable and he was about to fall backwards.
Just as he was about to fall down dozens of steps, the golden thread extended and gently wrapped around his waist several times, bringing him to a safe place.
After Li Yang stood firm, the golden thread left his waist, but instead hooked around his little finger and led him into the innermost room on the second floor.
The table lamp with crystal tassels cast a dim shadow, illuminating the back of the long-haired man.
The man had black hair and a black robe. The flexible golden thread was like a swimming fish, disappearing into the corner of the complicated and heavy sleeves of the robe.
Li Yang stepped on the thick carpet and looked at him.
He held a snow-tipped brush in his hand, and in front of him was a map of the Chinese land.
The pen tip can zoom in on an area, and then many boxes will pop up, and he can check or uncheck them. Then repeat for the next area.
Li Yang looked at him for a long time, but he didn't know what he was doing. But he remembered his own business and asked the man - in fact, he should ask anyone at this time: "Where is Zhou Du?"
The long-haired man turned around.
Seeing his face, Li Yang's expression relaxed: "Zhou Du, quickly teach me the Soul Returning Technique, I want to go back to sleep."
Zhou Du walked over with a brush in hand, and Li Yang found that he had to look up very high to look him in the eye.
Zhou Du asked: "Look carefully, who am I?"
Li Yang's eyes were wandering. Zhou Du in front of him did not force him, but gave him enough time to look him in the eye.
At some point, Li Yang's pupils suddenly shrank.
Layers of similar and different dreams overlapped, and the face of the man in the dream also overlapped with Zhou Du and the man in front of him.
Li Yang took two steps back and was then embraced by the man's hand holding the brush.
"The Soul-Returning Technique... I'll teach you." The man's other hand stroked the young man's fingertips.
With a simple hand gesture, he brushed over his knuckles one by one, teaching him this way.
It took more than five minutes to teach the five hand positions, so it took more than five minutes to touch them.
Li Yang's mind was blank. He didn't think about anything else, such as being taken advantage of or complaining. He didn't think about anything.
Although the man played with him slowly, the good thing was that he taught him the secret of bringing back the soul.
Li Yang pinched his fingers at last, his consciousness went blank, and he went back.
When Zhou Du opened the door, he saw Li Yang disappear in the man's arms and return to the world of the living.
Zhou Du admitted that he felt uncomfortable when he saw Li Yang being hugged.
The other person also felt uncomfortable looking at him.
The two men with the same face looked at each other, then turned away without saying a word. Zhou Du pinched the Soul-Returning Technique himself.
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