# 510
Chapter 510
New Recruit
“…ksssh… Welcome to today’s legal-affairs program. Today’s topic is… ksssh… The finest ingredients often need only the simplest cooking. As usual, Uncle San got up early and began another busy day…”
Ghost Jiang Er sat on the lab bench, chin on the windowsill, knees hugged to her chest, listlessly turning the radio dial.
Creak.
The lab door opened; An Qingyu walked in. Seeing her slumped there, he paused.
“What’s wrong?”
Jiang Er lifted her head. After a moment’s hesitation the radio beside her fell silent.
“…Are you all leaving Lintang?”
An Qingyu nodded. “Tomorrow morning.”
She looked away, burying her face in her folded arms.
“What… are you going to do with me?”
The question caught him off-guard; he fell into thought.
Jiang Er couldn’t stray more than a kilometre from her corpse. As a magnetic field she couldn’t move the coffin at all—her freedom ended at those wooden walls.
Where the coffin was, she was.
Bury it and she would spend decades haunting a graveyard like a true spectre.
Leave it here and she’d still be trapped; any passer-by who spotted her would brand the place a haunted house. Some reckless streamer would eventually turn up and make everything worse.
There was simply nowhere convenient to park a dead girl.
She had said it herself: she was a life-term prisoner—unable to leave, to speak, to belong.
Once the team walked out, she would be utterly alone.
Her only entertainment would be this radio, or perhaps a TV.
Decades of solitary television… even if she wasn’t a ghost yet, she soon would be.
An Qingyu pondered, then brightened.
“How about… joining our squad?”
Jiang Er blinked.
“If you hate being left behind, it’s your only way out,” he said seriously. “Special teams don’t stay put; we travel the world. Dangerous, yes—but better than being a prisoner.”
She stared for a long moment.
“But I can’t leave the coffin. Would you guys lug it on every mission?”
“It’s just a box. We carry it. We worked fine together last time, didn’t we?”
Jiang Er hesitated, voice small.
“I’m… only a corpse.”
“What’s wrong with corpses?” An Qingyu smiled. “Night Watch regulations don’t say a corpse can’t be on a special team.”
“Taking a corpse into battle is bad luck…” she murmured.
He studied her, then pushed up his glasses.
“Jiang Er.”
“Mm?”
“I love corpses,” he said matter-of-factly. “Anyone who calls you unlucky will answer to me.”
She froze.
Even through the lenses his eyes were bright and absolutely sincere.
Only after several seconds did she flusteredly look away.
“B-but Senior Lin Qiye might not agree…”
An Qingyu chuckled and headed for the door.
“Wait here.”
…
Living-room.
“Jiang Er?” Lin Qiye raised an eyebrow. “She wants to come?”
An Qingyu nodded.
“What!!” Baili Pangpang bounced over. “Little Jiang Er’s joining? Then we’re only one short—drag Brother Cool over and we’re a seven-man band!”
“Her talent is outstanding, she’s already in the Sea Realm, and her Forbidden Ruin—Spiritual Medium Field—is unique,” Lin Qiye said. “She qualifies.”
He turned to Jialan.
“Opinion?”
Jialan blinked, studied An Qingyu, glanced toward the lab, and suddenly her eyes lit up.
“I approve!” She threw both hands up. “What a perfect ship—”
Lin Qiye: ?
“Old Cao?”
On the sofa Cao Yuan opened one eye. “No objection. A junior on the team is fine.”
“Unanimous, then.” Lin Qiye clapped.
Two minutes later.
He laid the finished application on the table; Jiang Er floated behind him, curious.
“All right, I’ve written it for you. Just need to… er… sign.”
A ghost can’t hold a pen, and proxies aren’t allowed on official documents.
An Qingyu mused, “Fingerprint?”
“Should work.”
He carried the form to the lab; minutes later he returned with a neat thumb-print.
“Done. I melted the ice a little and pressed her finger.”
Lin Qiye checked the sheet, nodded, and smiled up at Jiang Er.
“Welcome to the team, Jiang Er.”
She bit her lip, eyes shining, and bowed deeply.
“Thank you, seniors. I won’t be a burden.”
Baili Pangpang stepped over and pretended to pat her shoulder. “From now on, Fatty’s got your back!”
Jialan glanced from her to An Qingyu, grin widening.
“Hey, doesn’t this hit the official head-count?” she asked.
“Yes,” Lin Qiye said, “but we’re still one short…”