Chapter 4: The Life-Claiming Call

At ten o’clock in the evening, the soldiers in the military district entered their sleep time, and all the lights in the rooms were turned off, except for Xing Han’s office, which was still lit.

He was rushing to finish today’s report, which had to be completed by tomorrow.

Just then, his phone rang. Strangely, there was no caller ID on the screen, no name, no number, just an answer button without a hang-up option.

“Is the phone broken?” Xing Han wondered as he picked up the phone to answer, “Hello, this is Xing Han.”

There was a crackling noise from the phone, and after a few seconds, he heard a sinister voice, speaking intermittently, “…Yama… King… calls… you… to… die… at… midnight… who… dares… keep… you… till… dawn…”

Xing Han frowned deeply. Was this a prank call?

Without saying a word, he hung up.

Then, the phone rang again, still with no name or number on the screen.

Xing Han didn’t want to answer, but worried it might be family or friends with an emergency, he reluctantly pressed the answer button, “Hello, this is Xing Han.”

Once again, he heard the sinister voice, “Xing… Han… return… my… life…”

Xing Han frowned tightly, instinctively thinking it was an enemy calling. He said in a deep voice, “Who are you?”

The other person said, “I… am… Ling… Yiran…”

Ling Yiran?

Xing Han thought for a while before remembering Ling Yiran was his partner. He took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to curse, and said, “If you have something to say, just say it. If you keep playing these boring games, I’m hanging up.”

He was currently rushing his report and had no mood to play silly games with the other party.

“I… am… here… to… claim… your… life…”

Xing Han originally wanted to ask about his health, but with this nonsense, he immediately hung up the phone with a stern face. If the person called again, he definitely wouldn’t answer, and he planned to get his phone fixed tomorrow.

After waiting a few minutes, the phone didn’t ring again, so he continued to focus on his work.

Meanwhile, at the hospital, Ling Yiran was cursing up a storm, scaring away the wandering souls and ghosts nearby, “Damn it, he actually hung up on me, twice in a row. Who does he think he is, King Yama? Damn, better watch out or I’ll snatch your soul.”

Shi Yi, who had just come out from soul-snatching, heard his cursing and curiously asked, “Who are you cursing at?”

Ling Yiran replied irritably, “My man.”

“What did he do to you?”

Ling Yiran recounted what happened earlier, “I just wanted to meet him tomorrow, how is that playing boring games? He even hung up on me? Is he sick or something?”

Shi Yi glanced at the phone in his hand and chuckled, “Yiran, did you use the Underworld’s phone to call your man?”

Ling Yiran nodded, “Yeah, is there a problem?”

“Haha…” Shi Yi almost laughed himself to tears, “Yiran, don’t you know that when you use the Underworld’s phone to call the Human World, no matter what you say, the other side only hears life-claiming words, like ‘I’m here to snatch your soul’ and such.”

Ling Yiran was dumbfounded, “But I saw Lord Wuchang and the others use the Underworld’s phone to call the Human World, and there was no problem?”

“That’s because their magical power is high enough to control the interference between the Underworld and the Human World. Originally, the Underworld couldn’t call the Human World, but later, to let the wandering souls and ghost officers hear the voices of their loved ones, the rules were changed as a kind of benefit. But after all, we are ghosts, how can ghosts talk to living people on the phone without scaring them to death? So some lord came up with this, making it so people in the Human World can’t hear what ghosts say.”

“Wouldn’t people in the Human World be scared to death hearing life-claiming words?”

“That’s some lord’s twisted sense of humor, and besides, a phone call isn’t that easy to scare someone to death. At most, they’ll think we’re crazy.”

Ling Yiran rubbed his face, “I guess my man thinks I’m crazy.”

“Haha.” Shi Yi laughed heartily again, “I noticed you’re getting more and more comfortable saying ‘my man’.”

“…” Ling Yiran was embarrassed. Actually, he didn’t want to refer to Xing Han like that, but knowing Shi Yi, if he mentioned Xing Han’s name, this guy would definitely go check out who Xing Han was and might even harass him every now and then.

After Shi Yi had laughed enough, he asked, “By the way, why did you call your man?”

Ling Yiran said, “Of course, to arrange a divorce, otherwise how can I marry someone else in the future.”

Shi Yi looked at him incredulously as if he were a fool, “Are you an idiot?”

Ling Yiran squinted, “Why are you cursing me for no reason?”

“For people in the Human World, you and your man should be considered a yin marriage, right? Which means in his eyes, you’re dead. Yet you want to meet him for a divorce, what do you think he’ll think? He’ll either think you’re a scammer or that someone’s messing with him. If he’s timid and really believes you’re a ghost, he might get scared to death. It’s a good thing you used the Underworld’s phone just now, otherwise, you might have scared him to death.”

Ling Yiran explained, “I planned to use another identity to help myself get a divorce.”

But when he met Xing Han today using the identity of Xing Han’s partner, the other party wasn’t scared. Could it be that Xing Han didn’t know it was a yin marriage?

“That’s good.” Shi Yi didn’t press further, but reminded, “But you must remember not to reveal your identity as a ghost officer in front of mortals, or you’ll be punished.”

Ling Yiran nodded, glancing at the time on his phone, “It’s almost time for the next soul-snatching, let’s go.”

As for Xing Han, he’ll have to wait until tomorrow to take a leave and find him.

“Alright.”