273: Next

The female ghost wanted to complain a few more times.

Meng Jiang gestured toward Lin Ran: "Little Ranran, add some more sugar for the victim to suppress her anger. Drinking too much bitter soup is bad for the stomach."

Lin Ran remained calm, scooping up a large spoonful of steaming meng pos soup. With a flick of her wrist, she poured it into the wailing ghost's mouth, instantly blocking all her resentment.

The nearby Ghost Messengers were even faster, flanking the ghost who was rolling her eyes from choking on the soup and dragging her toward the Reincarnation Well with practiced ease.

The whole process was smooth and efficient, clearly showing extreme proficiency in the reincarnation business.

"Alright, next."

Meng Jiang didn't even lift her eyelids, lazily tossing another sunflower seed into her mouth.

A gray-haired old man floated forward. Instead of reaching for the soup, he stared at Meng Jiang with gritted teeth.

"Lady Meng, I'm in no hurry to drink the soup. I just want to see that scumbag couple. Now that I'm dead, have they faced retribution?"

Meng Jiang's hand cracking seeds paused, a vein throbbing at her temple.

Why is it this kind of thing again?

Why are the ghosts of this generation all like this? Isn't it better to drink the soup, forget everything, and reincarnate? Why do they insist on "binge-watching" their lives on the spot?

If this continues, when the Secretary-General evaluates performance at the beginning of the month, she'll probably use a calculator to peck at her again. Even Lin Ran, the good-tempered assistant, might be forced to quit.

She impatiently raised her hand, sweeping it over the old man's soul to read his remaining memory fragments.

A few seconds later, Meng Jiang curled her lips, her eyes full of the sentiment that "you deserve it."

[Tsk, marrying someone in their early thirties at eighty, what for? For your lack of hygiene or for your thick coffin fund?]

[Killed? Isn't it obvious you invited the wolf into the house! And you still want to see retribution?]

After complaining internally, Meng Jiang put on a standard professional fake smile. "Want to see immediate retribution? Sure."

She gestured with her chin toward the mist-shrouded high platform at the other end of the Bridge of Helplessness. "Wangxiang Terrace. Pay the fee and line up. Merit, incense offerings, or hell money all work. We support QR code payments."

The old man was stunned and grew anxious: "I just came down, where would I get money?"

"No money?"

Meng Jiang raised an eyebrow, her tone turning colder.

"Then work in the Underworld to earn it. Sweeping streets, moving bricks, removing weeds from the River of Forgetfulness—there's plenty of work. See it whenever you've earned enough."

She leaned back and grabbed the seeds again. "You're already at the reincarnation stage and still want to freeload on Underworld resources? Keep dreaming."

The old man was choked speechless, his face turning pale green as his soul form wavered.

Meng Jiang couldn't be bothered with him and turned to instruct Lin Ran, who had a "here we go again" expression.

"ARan, add two more scoops of wasabi to this old man's soup."

She glanced at the old man and added leisurely: "Keep your head clear in your next life. Don't think with your lower half. Lest you get scammed to death again and come here to waste this seat's sunflower seeds."

Lin Ran nodded numbly, her hand scooping the soup steady as a mountain.

She really dug out a large glob of green wasabi, stirred it in, and pushed it in front of the old man.

The soup immediately emitted a pungent smell that rushed straight to the brain.

The old man looked at the soup emitting strange green gas, then at the Yin God's cold "drink it or not" look, so angry his soul almost caught fire.

But in the end, he didn't dare disobey. Pinching his nose with a look of grief and indignation, he gulped it down.

“Pfft—cough, cough, cough!!!”

The pungency rushed straight to the top of his head. The old man's soul shook violently, tears and snot flying, feeling as if his entire soul was about to be scattered by the spice.

Lin Ran handed over a registration card: "After drinking, go to the Reincarnation Well to register. If your merit isn't enough, it's the Realm of Beasts for your next life."

Meng Jiang called out loudly, "Next."

Shang Wan Ning watched the whole process from the side, her eyes twitching.

[Sister Meng's methods of exploiting Chief Assistant Lin are even more proficient than hers as the Lord of the Underworld.]

She shook her head helplessly and walked toward the grand armchair.

Shang Wan Ning had only taken a few steps and hadn't had a chance to speak yet.

Meng Jiang on the grand armchair lifted her eyelids and saw the Empress's figure. She reacted instantly, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.

"Tsk, clingy ghost, trouble magnet."

Meng Jiang stopped cracking seeds, stood up quickly, and grabbed Shang Wan Ning's wrist, her movement fast as lightning.

"Off you go."

Space power tore with a 'rip' sound, and the two figures vanished from the spot. Only the corporate slave Lin Ran and a group of queuing ghosts were left dumbfounded.

In the blink of an eye, the two appeared in the back hall of Meng Po's Shop. Meng Jiang let go, slumped onto a soft couch in annoyance, and grabbed a spiritual fruit from the table for a bite, juice dripping everywhere without her bothering to wipe it.

"Your Majesty is busy with a myriad of affairs. How did you find the time to lower yourself to the Bridge of Helplessness to watch the fun?" Meng Jiang squinted at Shang Wan Ning.

Shang Wan Ning smoothed out the sleeves of her wrinkled phoenix robe, a "cloying" smile plastered on her face as she tried to get closer.

"Can't I come over? Could it not be that... I missed Sister Meng?"

Meng Jiang's hand holding the spiritual fruit paused, staring at Shang Wan Ning like she was an idiot: "Speak human."

The smile froze on Shang Wan Ning's face. She puffed her cheeks a bit aggrievedly: "Uh~ it's been a few years, and Sister Meng has grown quite distant from me."

She tried hard to convey "Baby is aggrieved but baby won't say it" with her eyes.

Meng Jiang rolled her eyes and precisely tossed the fruit core into a distant trash can.

"Heh, distant? If A Ning were like me, having just come out of seclusion without even catching her breath, and had to clean up the mess for a certain White-Haired Loli and a pack of Iron-Haired Dogs, staying up late for nights on end to deal with these troublesome ghosts..."

She pointed toward the Bridge of Helplessness. "...could you still have a good expression? This Old Lady didn't smash the soup bowl over your head on the spot only because of our years of zero-distance intimacy."

Shang Wan Ning was rendered speechless. Knowing force wouldn't work, she could only try the soft approach.

Taking a deep breath as if making a decision, her face once again wore that "deep affection" that was so deliberate it was almost greasy.

She shuffled forward two steps, sat on the edge of the soft couch, and reached out to touch Meng Jiang's hand, but was heartlessly slapped away.

She had to switch to a verbal offensive, recalling sentences from the "Encyclopedia of Online Love Phrases (Lesbian Special Edition)" that Chen Yu had "accidentally" left on the desk.

Using the most serious Empress tone, she recited the clumsiest cheesy pick-up lines.

"Sister, don't be angry~ Anger makes you old~ Only age gets old, what remains unchanged is my admiration for you~"

The spiritual tea Meng Jiang had just sipped sprayed out. She coughed repeatedly, looking at Shang Wan Ning as if she were seeing a ghost.

"A Ning, you've broken your brain in seclusion."

Shang Wan Ning was unmoved and persisted, her gaze deeply affectionate enough to drown someone.

"Meeting Sister is like a carbonated drink meeting ice cubes. With a 'sizzle,' I'm intoxicated~"

The teacup in Meng Jiang's hand almost shattered, goosebumps breaking out all over her.

"Shut up. Recite one more line and I'll pour meng pos soup into your mouth to give Your Majesty amnesia."

Shang Wan Ning immediately shut up, her eyes still lingering, physically performing what it means to be "aggrieved yet persistent."

She silently took out an exquisitely packaged, spiritually radiant box of "Nine Nether Spirit-Condensing Pastries" from her storage ring and carefully pushed it toward Meng Jiang.