"Ghost Catching Intern" is my new story, now officially published. Here's the first chapter for you to enjoy—if you think it's worth spending money on... (smile)

I. The Girl and the Hellish Officer

August 1st—the Army Founding Day.

Yu Shaojing gazed blankly at the calendar on her wall. Today marked the eleventh day since her father was detained for embezzlement.

For Yu, these eleven days stretched as long as a year yet vanished in an instant, leaving her memory of those events feeling hollow and fragmented. She drew a circle around the date from eleven days ago with a pen on the old calendar, then flicked dust off it. The drifting particles settled precisely in Zhong Xuekui's eye sockets.

"Hey! Watch where you're pointing that thing! I'm down here!" he barked, blinking furiously.

"Your face is so grotesque I'd have nightmares just by seeing it," Yu muttered, deliberately sending more dust his way until he howled in frustration.

Though harsh, her words held truth. How could anyone ignore a visage like his? Bird-nest hair tied with a grungy cloth bandana, panther skull forehead, coal-black face, mismatched eyes one size bigger than the other, and bristling whiskers on his cheeks—this was no ordinary sight. And where he appeared was even stranger: half of an ancient Chinese calendar hung by the south window in Yu's inherited house had crumbled with neglect, revealing a black mass protruding from the wall like someone'd carved a perfect facial mold into it.

The face extended only to his forehead, chin, and half-ear, as though he'd wedged himself into a precisely measured hole. But even stepping outside, no one could see beyond that face since he claimed to have gotten trapped halfway through the netherworld passage—his head now in this world while his body still floated in a ghostly transit pool.

Such an unnatural presence in such an ordinary room was impossible not to notice. Yu even considered leaving windows open at night just to test if would-be burglars might spontaneously combust from shock.

Zhong Xuekui had no idea of her plans, currently fixated on the dinner she'd prepared for herself. He pondered how he could persuade her to share some food.

Yu deliberately brandished a feather duster across the already dusty room, sending clouds of dust billowing while dragging it suggestively over his face until he sneezed violently. Knowing this was deliberate provocation, Zhong Xuekui only sighed, "How difficult is it truly to save mankind? The heavens have chosen me for this great task... Zhong Xuekui, you must remember your mission! Don't retreat now despite setbacks or cruel humans!"

"Cut the inspirational nonsense—you say that twice a day and I'm developing calluses on my ears," Yu muttered, throwing down the duster before slumping onto the floor.

Yu never knew exactly when Zhong Xuekui appeared.

After her father's case—along with confiscating all his assets—the family home had been sealed. Refusing to live with her stepmother in a rented apartment or with her biological mother and stepfather, Yu found herself homeless until remembering her late grandfather's old house. Though her uncle had illegally claimed it after Grandfather's death, he still begrudgingly allowed her to occupy it.

Her mother only made half-hearted objections about "a girl living alone being dangerous," while the stepmother openly gloated at avoiding a shared household with Yu. Prepared for their indifference, Yu arrived with just essential belongings.

Back in this childhood home, when she locked the door behind herself, all pretenses of strength crumbled. She slid to the floor sobbing uncontrollably. Since Grandfather's death, her father had been her world—the only one who truly cared about her now suddenly vanished into prison. She could pretend resilience for others but not alone in this empty house.

Yu refused to believe her father would embezzle. He wore clothes for years without replacement, hadn't bought the motorcycle she'd longed for, and recently argued with the stepmother over refusing a diamond necklace purchase. If he were guilty, why live so frugally? But no one listened to "her child's" explanations; even visitation rights awaited trial outcomes.

All relatives—especially the stepmother—showed indifferent about her father as if they'd already given up on him. Yu silently vowed she would prove his innocence, uncovering evidence for his defense regardless of what it took.

She cried until exhausted when suddenly a voice interrupted: "Please stop crying! You've been weeping over three hours now... even your own throat can handle it but spare my ears!"

A stranger in this long-abandoned house?

The thought both startled and furious her. Wiping tears, she searched the room with blurred vision but saw nothing. Had she hallucinated from grief? As she stood by the wall to splash cold water on her face, that voice spoke again: "Little girl, could you please remove whatever's covering my face?"

She screamed this time as she yanked down the ancient calendar—revealing Zhong Xuekui's monstrous visage.

It took half an hour for Zhong to calm Yu down enough to explain. He was a netherworld official (equivalent to a bureaucratic civil servant, he emphasized) tasked with capturing escaped hellish spirits. But crossing realms had gone awry—he now protruded through a fissure between worlds, his face in her wall but body still submerged in the other world's transit pool.

"Are you really from the netherworld?" Yu asked skeptically. How could an official get stuck this way? Hadn't he considered she might be one of those escaped spirits?

His evasive reaction only deepened her suspicion.

How to deal with hellish spirits? Yu mentally reviewed grandmother's ghost stories. Black dog blood? Peach wood talismans? Where would she even find those now? Ah! The I Ching! Didn't folktales always have scholars using it against ghosts? She grabbed the ancient tome from her grandfather's collection and brandished it at Zhong Xuekui.

"I'm not evil! Don't you believe me?" he protested as she hit him with the book.

"Like that face isn't evil enough!" Yu retorted, whacking him again. "You look exactly like those paintings of Zhong Kui!"

"Zhong Kui? The famous ghost-catcher himself!" His eyes suddenly lit up at this realization.

"You think I'm modeling after Zhong Kui! Two centuries to perfect his appearance so he could praise my spiritual discipline... He told me..." Zhong Xuekui's voice grew fervent as he spoke of his idol.

Yu just sighed—idol worship was one thing, but copying the physical appearance? Was there such a thing as "diehard fan" in hell? Still, this admission made her believe him:

"So you're really an official who got stuck here?"

"I shouldn't tell you this... I actually snuck into this world on my own..."

The mass escape of 900 hellish spirits had happened decades ago during a chaotic era that disrupted netherworld order. This massive breach initially went ignored until causing enough damage to warrant serious attention years later.

Nine hundred simultaneous escapes—the largest in netherworld history—left officials scrambling through billions of regulations but finding no applicable protocols. For the first time in millennia, the Ten Lords of Hell convened a full administrative council lasting ten years just to draft new rules.

But every proposed solution collided with existing laws:

"A detachment of 100 sent into the human world violates Chapter 7 Article 6 of the Interdimensional Transit Regulations which limits official groups to ten and tourist parties to fifteen."

"Ghost capture falls outside the Black and White Hellish Official Manual's prescribed duties."

"According to Military Management Laws, establishing a new force requires fifty years guarding Heaven first..."

While this council dragged on, Zhong Xuekui—responsible for welcoming recently deceased spirits—watched increasingly as his charges became victims of these escaped hell-beasts. Each story of suffering enraged him until he finally decided: enough waiting.

Packing weapons and artifacts, he dove into the transit pool without proper clearance. But forgetting to use the correct identification badge caused both human-world and heavenly vortexes to activate simultaneously, pulling at him from opposite directions.

"Take me to the human world!" he shouted through splitting headaches as he fought against dual gravitational forces for seven or eight time cycles before finally breaking free toward one vortex—only to collapse unconscious after violent spins crushed his body into it like a stake.

"Woke up stuck in this wall," Zhong Xuekui grumbled, "with something covering my head. Worse yet, my body's still submerged in that cold, wet pool. At least there are no fish..."

"Even if there were, they'd avoid anything seeming poisonous," Yu said, now certain of his identity.

"You think I look toxic?" he spluttered before catching sight of his reflection in her mirror.

"You mean to say your appearance is beautiful? You're being offensive!" Zhong Xuekui roared with mismatched eyes wide as saucers.

"Your looks are monstrous, and you've chosen the worst possible location for them," Yu retorted. "I'm a girl who hasn't died from shock yet—don't you dare think a few insults are cruel!"

"I spent two centuries perfecting this appearance! You're insulting Zhong Kui himself!" he bellowed.

"Come then, try biting me while I hit your face with this book." Yu's childish taunting only angered him more since his body remained stuck in the wall.

Eventually bored of teasing him, Yu returned to cleaning her inherited mess—though dust and clutter overwhelmed every surface after over a year of vacancy. Staring at piles made her want to scream, especially while Zhong Xuekui's giant eyes watched relentlessly. After sweeping debris onto floors, she curled on the sofa silent as stone.

Much later, she weakly asked: "Are you hungry?"

Zhong Xuekui blinked in surprise. "You're asking about me?"

"Who else would it be?" Yu mumbled from her curled position.

"I mean... I can survive without food but prefer to eat when offered," he said cautiously. "But your portion is small enough for both of us."

Yu placed a stool beneath his face, arranging food at lip-level so he could nibble slightly. This was his first meal since becoming trapped, and though grudgingly, he felt grateful.

"Here," he mumbled through a mouthful, "eat some yourself..."

"I'm not hungry," she said softly after hearing him speak.

"Eat something! You've worked all day. I once didn't eat during exams and got stomach ulcers from anxiety—it bled out on the results day!" he lectured.

Why was this so talkative if his appearance implied robustness? Yu massaged her temples before storming into her room, slamming shut the door against Zhong Xuekui's continued advice about nourishment.

He must have been impossibly thin once to need centuries of training just to resemble Zhong Kui. Probably looked like a radish stalk originally... Yu drifted into sleep with these thoughts.

Today had started well for Zhong Xuekui, at least before encountering this stubborn young woman.

That morning, among the souls received by his colleague in charge of guiding souls to a peaceful death, there was one he recognized. In her past life this soul had spent a lifetime doing good deeds but ultimately died at the hands of family members plotting against her. In this life she remained kind-hearted and lived an untroubled existence until passing away at 100. Her spirit departed with serenity and joy, smiling all through the journey to the underworld, swiftly escorted by the reaper officials into the realm of freedom - a soul who had performed countless acts of kindness across several lives was now beyond rebirth.

Zhong Xuekui had also seen off this admirable old man. He returned humming as he worked until that girl's spirit was brought before him. Instantly all his good cheer vanished, sent flying into the heavens.

The girl's soul was fractured and disoriented, held upright only by two reaper officials supporting her to stand before Zhong Xuekui's mirror of karma. What a pure soul she had been - once filled with love and joy that could still be felt even now as her spirit crumbled. But those feelings were now buried beneath fear, pain and confusion, emotions dominating at the moment of her death.

"Poor child," murmured one reaper holding her, "she won't have another human rebirth I'm afraid?"

Zhong Xuekui nodded gravely, "Her soul is damaged beyond measure. She may need to become an animal for several lifetimes before it mends." Though dealing with unnatural deaths was his duty, the sight of innocent suffering still pained him.

"Those damned evil spirits!" another reaper growled. The girl had been killed by a man she'd never met who became obsessed after being possessed. Watching through the mirror as the man clung to her corpse, biting and swallowing greedily to fuse with her eternally, even experienced Zhong Xuekui recoiled in disgust. Worse still, part of her soul had already been devoured before reapers arrived, dooming her to become an animal rather than a human.

That cursed spirit hadn't only ruined this life but condemned such innocent soul to reincarnate as an animal!

The girl remained dazed and unaware the reapers were discussing her fate. She didn't even realize they were preparing to send her rebirth as a stray kitten soon adopted by her devastated parents who had lost their daughter.

Watching her spirit vanish beyond the hall, Zhong Xuekui found his hand still clutching the pen so tightly it snapped - this iron pen passed down through generations of reapers. Blood now dripped from his palm where the rebellious tool had cut him.

Could reapers bleed? It had once amazed young Zhong when he first took office. Later he learned they did possess physical forms, granted at their appointment to serve as bodies with blood and flesh, capable of tears - and righteous hearts.

Lately Zhong had been closely monitoring the Lords' movements, buying favors with wine and food until he was familiar with the guards. Just yesterday Xu, a reaper who'd accepted his fine liquor, whispered that after months disrupted by one Lord's absence at Heaven's court, their deliberations had resumed though still preoccupied tasting celestial tea without addressing business.

How long would this dragging on last?

How many more innocent victims must perish before action is taken?

Zhong hurled the broken pen to the floor and paced furiously. As a reaper unable to capture hungry spirits, forced to watch victim after victim suffer while knowing evil ran unchecked... What right did he have to bear his name? What claim had he to follow Zhong Kui's legacy...

Fuming, he wandered until realizing he'd strayed far from the office, now standing before the Pool of Transition. This hundred-acre pool was encircled by jade railings with demonic statues at each corner spitting mist that cloaked it in mystery - seldom visited ghostly thoroughfare between worlds.

Staring through the fog, a sudden thought struck: "If the Lords have debated for nearly ten years without resolution, I'll go to the mortal realm myself! I'll capture this spirit and bring justice!"

Seizing an opportunity when reapers passed with stone guardians watching their signs, he slipped into the water. Immersed instantly by some force. Struggling against resistance like being pinned beneath a rock or swept by deep lake currents utterly beyond his control.

"I must go to the mortal realm! I must capture this spirit and bring justice!" Zhong cried out as he fought, finally waking drenched in sweat.

Good - just a nightmare. Still stuck in the wall though it felt worse than bad dreams.

Zhong gasped for breath, realizing where he was. The same messy room, daylight already through drawn curtains casting slivers on his wall. Where was that girl? She hadn't left her room since yesterday with heavy heart and no appetite...

"Hey... hey... Missy, wake up! Hey..."

Youyou You Shaojing awoke from disjointed dreams to this shrill voice cutting through her sleep. The strange visions still lingering made waking feel exhausting. Moaning she burrowed into pillows when more shouts came.

Finally regaining clarity, she hurled a pillow at the door barking, "What's your problem?! Are you trying to kill me?!"

Relieved sighs from Zhong echoed through: "Good! You didn't eat yesterday and stayed quiet this morning. I was worried something happened."

You Shaojing bitterly noted how distant her mother and stepmother had become compared to this wall-embedded ghost showing concern.

Prepared simple breakfast, she picked up chopsticks only to pause mid-bite as tears flowed again. Zhong paused his chewing and squinted at her before grumbling: "What's troubling you? From the moment I saw you yesterday..."

"My father..." This was her first time speaking since her father's incident. Through sobs she began, finding herself confiding in this ghostly face.

Zhong tried to comfort but found words difficult until finally saying: "Though an evil spirit drove him mad, remember - no egg unbroken doesn't attract flies. While he'll be judged for his role in being possessed here, the judges will understand and allow rebirth..."

"You'll be executed!" she screamed, hurling dishes at him before collapsing on knees.

Streaked with food remnants, Zhong stared as her sobs wavered between howls and stifled cries. Time passed without end until he finally begged: "Please stop! What's so painful you must cry like this? My parents didn't even grieve for me when I died... Please no more..."

"Please capture the spirit and let me destroy it," he offered desperately, "let me be carved, burned, fried, sawed - whatever punishment you want!"

Suddenly she looked up: "Are these things true?"

"Certainly! I'll definitely capture that spirit for you."

"What about my father? Was he truly innocent?"

"Of course. Even if guilty, once judged here his past won't follow him to the underworld... No double punishment..."

Interrupting her sudden question as she stood close: "Have you seen my father and know he was possessed?"

"I smell ghosts on you but not attached," Zhong sniffed carefully, "weak traces from a greedy spirit though..."

She slapped him sharply and screamed: "Pervert!"

Stunned, Zhong protested: "Why would I be perverted? What right do you have to hit me?!"

Retreating with flushed face she asked: "Can you capture this spirit?"

"Of course. Just one spirit is nothing for a reaper like me."

"Then catch it and let me destroy it," she clenched fists showing terrifying smile, "I'll rip it apart..."

Nervously Zhong said: "But I can't move freely now... Also your father still faces earthly punishment so..."

"Are you saying you can't capture the spirit?" she demanded.

"If not stuck in this wall one spirit wouldn't be difficult but currently I'm not..."

"Hmph," she sneered, "then how is your 'heavenly justice' serving? Watching helplessly as it harms my father while calling yourself Zhong Xuekui like him!"

That stung deeply. He glared: "I'll prove myself worthy of the name! But you must help me."

"Say on," she agreed.

"First wash your face."

"What?! Is that all?"

"You look like a raccoon."

"...Why didn't you say so earlier?!"

Zhong had no way to track where the spirit went after leaving her father, suggesting focusing on people with character flaws who'd been close before arrest - especially co-defendants. But You Shaojing herself remained confused about her father's case, unsure whom he interacted with most.

Since his arrest, relatives had vanished and birth mother ignored him since divorce. The only one left was the stepmother.

Younger by over ten years, this stylish woman maintained distant relations for seven years. Now she could barely recall her appearance.

"Guess I'll have to ask," You Shaojing sighed, dialing a familiar number.

A cheerful male voice answered: "Shaojing! Are you alright? Why haven't you answered calls? Where are you now - with my cousin or your birth mother's place? Let me come see!"

"Moxiao," her throat tightened, "I'm at grandfather's old house. Busy moving so phone off."

Silence followed before he asked: "Is my cousin keeping you away?"

"No, I prefer solitude."

He chuckled: "Still stubbornly independent. Need anything? Know well enough your real family can't be trusted."

Her tears flowed as this expected familial reassurance finally came from an unrelated friend. Coughing through sobs she asked:

"Do you know where my stepmother lives now?"