Volume One: Rookie Minor Clerk of Fulong Village

Chapter 001: The Ting Tian Bureau

Year of Gengwu, the twelfth day of the third lunar month.

Qingming Festival.

Auspicious for sacrifices, capturing, resolving; avoid all other matters. Inauspicious for marriage and burial.

Sitting upright in the Ting Tian Bureau post station of Fulong Village, Jixiang County, William Clark pondered as he looked at the old almanac in front of him, then picked up a brush and added two words after “resolving”:

“Entering office.”

My fate is determined by me, not by the almanac!

Today was his first day joining the Ting Tian Bureau, and this job concerned his very life, so he could not afford any mistakes.

At that moment, a tabby cat walked past the desk, its dim yellow eyes glancing at him, as if seeing right through his thoughts.

William Clark did indeed have his own motives for joining the Ting Tian Bureau.

Ever since he could remember, he would often see a black alchemy furnace after falling asleep.

The furnace was called the Furnace of Creation, and it could draw his soul away and send it to a strange place called Earth.

His soul would attach to a person on Earth, allowing him to see everything that person saw and hear everything that person heard.

But he could not control that person’s body or influence their thoughts; he merely shared their sight and hearing.

He had always been deeply terrified by this since childhood.

He had heard that children’s souls were unstable and could easily be snatched by ghosts to the underworld, so as a child, he guessed that the strange Earth was the underworld.

Afraid of being considered evil and impure and thus destroyed, he never dared to tell anyone about his experiences, bearing all the pressure alone.

This made him precocious and withdrawn from a young age, and not well-liked by others.

Later, he learned about the existence of the Ting Tian Bureau, his lifeline.

The Ting Tian Bureau was an official agency established by the court to ward off evil, suppress monsters, drive away ghosts, and protect the people. Its influence spanned the nine provinces, specializing in handling uncanny affairs. Wasn’t his experience just such an uncanny affair?

So he had always wanted to join, and after years of effort, he finally got his wish.

As he was reminiscing, a sudden cold wind blew in.

Spring chill lingered.

Because his soul often traveled to Earth, he would occasionally witness some embarrassing scenes through the young man he possessed, which left his body somewhat weak. This gust of wind made him shiver uncontrollably.

Moreover, whenever he thought of those scenes, he always wanted to scold, “So vulgar and indecent,” but his conscience wouldn’t allow it—the sisters’ chests were just too big.

Shaking his head to dispel the strange memories, William Clark looked up and glanced around.

The Ting Tian Bureau post station was built with mudbrick walls, with several windows pasted with paper. The window facing due south was open, letting in a cold wind mixed with raindrops, which made him shiver again.

Seeing this, he closed the window first, then took out the “Ting Tian Bureau Case Records” given to him by his immediate superior Charles Foster that morning, and began reading the cases.

Immersed in study, time flew by.

He didn’t know when someone had walked up to the door. With a creak, the person pushed open the wooden door and shouted in a rough voice, “Master Cao said there’s a newcomer at our post station? Hey, is it you, kid?”

William Clark looked up to see a burly man swaggering in.

This man’s voice was rough, and his appearance was rough as well—big face, big eyes, big mouth, big chest, big hands, big feet. From top to bottom, he seemed two sizes larger than the average person.

He had worked hard to get into the Ting Tian Bureau and knew everyone in the Jixiang County branch. Recognizing the newcomer, he stood up and cupped his hands, saying, “I am Youxing William Clark, greetings to Richard Bennett.”

The Ting Tian Bureau had nine ranks from top to bottom, with the lowest rank being Minor Clerk. His immediate superior Charles Foster was a Minor Clerk.

Below Minor Clerk were assistants called Youxing and Lishi—Youxing handled paperwork, Lishi handled martial matters. William Clark had applied for the Youxing position, and this burly man was David Bennett, his Lishi colleague.

David Bennett also cupped his hands, laughing heartily, “What’s with all this ‘I am’ and ‘greetings to’—so refined! Did you attend the official academy?”

William Clark shook his head, “My family was poor, I didn’t attend.”

David Bennett gave him a comical look, “Then why are you acting all scholarly? I’m the real scholar here—wait, Youxing needs to be literate. If you never went to private school, how did you become a Youxing?”

William Clark replied simply, “I learned a bit from a teacher in private.”

He had indeed dealt with an old scholar, but his literacy skills were mostly learned in dreams on Earth, bit by bit.

The writing on Earth was quite similar to the official script of the New Han Dynasty, just simpler.

David Bennett didn’t dwell on the topic. He leaned over to look at the open case file and curled his lip, “So you’re reading case files? Which case are you looking at now?”

William Clark said, “Qingshan County…”

He had just started when David Bennett immediately interrupted, “I know that case well. If you want to know, I’ll tell you. But first, let me ask—do you know Qingshan County?”

William Clark shook his head. David Bennett said, “Good, if you don’t know, then there’s a point in me telling the story!”