After seeing the direction where Yan Jue and Zhang Zizhen were looking, Li Huaiqing felt relieved and no longer restrained. He took the initiative to walk two or three steps away from the door, vaguely grabbed something, and entered the room with the invisible person.
"Hold on."
Zhang Zizhen quickly returned to his room, took out a cinnabar pen and a yellow talisman, drew three eye-opening talismans, and slapped them on the three of them.
With the talisman paper on his body, Yan Jue blinked and looked at the illusory woman beside Li Huaiqing, who was standing next to him like a projection and whose hand he was holding.
That should be Meimei.
Meimei wore a navy blue cheongsam, a silver flying crane brooch adorning her chest. Her long, silver-gray hair was tied back. Even though she was no longer young, and the marks of time were deep on her face, they couldn't conceal her elegant and gentle temperament. Her figure was not solid, not even a faint shadow below her knees. She simply floated in the air, smiling gently at them, a silent greeting.
"Well, can you give me one too?" Li Huaiqing's voice sounded excitedly.
Zhang Zizhen was surprised and asked, "You can't see?"
"I can only feel Meimei's presence, but I can't see her."
The moment Zhang Zizhen slapped the talisman on him, Li Huaiqing immediately turned his head and looked to his side. He was stunned at first, but within seconds, his eyes were red. He turned his back to avoid the younger generation in the room from seeing his ugly appearance.
Meimei patted his back, with obvious worry in her eyes.
Yan Jue and Zhang Zizheng looked at each other, wanting to comfort but not knowing what to say. In the end, they could only pull the expressionless Wen Xuyang in front of them and let him take the lead.
Wen Xuyang: “…”
He said stiffly, "Mr. Li, what do you want to talk to us about?"
It’s better to talk about business than feelings.
Li Huaiqing wiped away her tears, tidied herself up, and sat on the sofa with her lover's hand. She stared at him without relaxing her eyes for a moment and almost fell to the ground. It was Wen Xuyang who supported her in time to avoid tragedy.
"We came here to ask this young Taoist priest if we can send Meimei into reincarnation." Li Huaiqing finally managed to avert his gaze and looked at the three surprised people opposite him with a full smile: "Meimei has been with me in the human world for four years. I shouldn't be so greedy anymore."
Therefore, Li Huaiqing's story has some more supernatural elements in his own narration.
After his lover's death, Li Huaiqing was so heartbroken that he wanted to follow her, but he knew he couldn't. He was not alone in this world, so he could only leave the pain to time and see how much it could take away.
More than half a month later, when he first felt his lover's presence by his side, he thought he was losing his mind, but he didn't want treatment. He liked this state of confusion. But when this feeling persisted for several months and he could even faintly feel his lover touching him, he could no longer regard these abnormalities as a disease.
Didn’t the doctor say that he has no mental problems?
So he began to experiment and communicate with his lover, and when he really felt a cool touch on a specific position of his palm many times, he was ecstatic.
His lover is by his side.
So he stopped being depressed and began to travel around the country carrying his lover's last wishes and his lover's soul - or so he stubbornly believed.
He accidentally sprained his ankle when he was going down the mountain after watching the sunrise. It was not a big deal for him, but Meimei was very anxious and did not communicate according to the secret code they agreed upon. She hit him many times with her hands, which was enough to make him feel the other party's anger.
Then he came to this nursing home.
He picked up the game of Go, which he had never wanted to learn before, and asked Meimei to teach him. He would go out to practice during the day and continue learning at night. After realizing that he really had no talent in this area, he developed a habit of playing Go and getting itchy hands if he didn't play for a day.
This fulfilling life lasted for three years until Zhang Zizhen appeared and broke his inner peace.
If his lover could exist as a spirit, wouldn't a Taoist priest also have supernatural powers? He hadn't forgotten who could enter this sanatorium. A Taoist priest came at this time, and it looked like he would stay for a long time. Could he have come here specifically because he had discovered something?
He asked his lover to hide in the mountains first, and he would make follow-up arrangements after he had figured out the Taoist's abilities.
Unexpectedly, on the day when the other two young men came, he pretended to stroll in the village but was actually talking to his lover. His lover told him that she had found a cat demon with one eye and three tails in the mountains, and the cat demon could make the sounds of many animals.
This made him very uneasy, because the world seemed to be getting weirder and weirder.
"When Lao Hu asked me to cooperate with him to test you, I knew the opportunity had come." Li Huaiqing smiled. "He asked me to pretend not to believe there was a tiger in the mountain to refute him. At that time, I deliberately hesitated in my words, with the purpose of arousing your suspicion."
I wonder if he saw a monster.
Yan Jue's eyes widened. "So, when you heard about the Taoist priest, you showed worry on purpose?"
It turns out there is not a single bronze player in the sanatorium, all of them are kings.
Li Huaiqing did not deny it. Only in this way could it seem reasonable for him to stop Zhang Zizhen and question him.
"She agreed to use the story between me and Meimei to bring you closer."
"From what Xiao Zhang said, I guessed he might have some real skills. And although Meimei didn't get too close to you last night and doesn't know exactly what happened, she saw that when the cat demon entered a certain range around you, all the sounds disappeared. She told me it might be Xiao Zhang's doing, so I'll test it today."
Then he laughed at himself and said, "Actually, I don't want to send Meimei away at all."
Meimei was not surprised to hear this, and there was still a faint smile on her lips.
Li Huaiqing glanced at her and felt a slight sense of relief in his heart.
He shook his head, lowered his eyes to hide the regret in his eyes, and said, "But over the years, I've read a lot of supernatural novels and folk tales, and they all say that the longer the soul stays in the human world, the more it consumes itself and has no benefit in the next life."
"With this possibility, what's the point of my thoughts? Meimei has been with me for four extra years. I didn't let her die peacefully, so how can I delay her next life?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the room fell silent again. Only Meimei remained the same as before, gently patting the back of Li Huaiqing's hand as if to comfort him. She didn't care.
Yan Jue didn't know what to do after hearing this.
Li Huaiqing clearly believed that the world they lived in was already magical, and he was only now discovering another side of it. He thought everything would be perfect like in the books, with monsters, Taoist priests, and ghosts. Isn't reincarnation normal?
He could understand his thoughts, but the problem was that there was no reincarnation in this world. If he wanted to send Meimei away, it would be a farewell forever.
As for Meimei, before the revival of spiritual energy, she was just a soul fragment and naturally had no ability to harm others. After the revival of spiritual energy, she had a relatively complete human form, which means that she was unconsciously absorbing spiritual energy to strengthen herself, but she didn't know it.
Of course, this is just Yan Juehao's guess. There is another way to strengthen himself that is not very friendly, and he does not want the other party to be contaminated.
"This..." Yan Jue started, then realized he still didn't know Meimei's last name, so he had no choice but to say, "Mrs. Li."
Li Huaiqing corrected: "Her surname is Mei, and her given name is just one character, Mei."
It turns out that Meimei is her real name.
"Ms. Mei, and Mr. Li." Yan Jue looked at them and asked, "Can I ask how you told Mr. Li about the monster?"
Li Huaiqing answered, "Meimei used to only be able to touch me once, giving me a slight chill, so we would use a single or double touch to express yes or no. As time went on, and we realized Meimei wouldn't disappear easily, we learned Morse code to communicate. However, I find it too tiring and afraid it would drain Meimei's energy, so I rarely use it."
He added: "Just a few months ago, Meimei suddenly could touch real objects and move them a little bit. Now, Meimei can pick up a mechanical pencil lead. We gave up Morse code and she uses the lead to mark the words in the book to communicate with me."
“Every time I open a book and connect the words sentence by sentence and page by page, that is the time I look forward to the most and am happiest.”
What a big bowl of dog food.
Yan Jue tried hard to ignore the feeling of fullness and stubbornly went through the motions. "So, was this sudden and without any warning, or did Ms. Mei unconsciously swallow something else similar to the light ball?"
He spoke very tactfully and did not mention any obvious words.
The two people opposite were stunned. Meimei was the first to react and waved her hands vigorously, then started hitting Li Huaiqing's arm.
Li Huaiqing translated bit by bit: "Meimei said that in the past four years, she has never encountered anything like her. Sometimes elderly people in the village would die, and she has never found a ghost in their homes."
"She said she knows what you mean, Xiao Yan." Li Huaiqing paused and said, "I've read quite a few novels and I understand what you mean. Ghosts eat other ghosts to increase their strength. You suspect Meimei has become stronger by eating other ghosts, right?"
Yan Jue coughed lightly and said, "Just asking, going through the formalities."
"We don't blame you. We understand your concerns." Li Huaiqing finished speaking and continued translating: "Meimei said that except for when Xiao Zhang came, she has always been by my side. Even when she went out, she would tell me first. She has never seen anything like a ball of light, let alone swallowed it."
"And she took on a human form a few months ago?" Li Huaiqing said with a shocked expression and looked at Meimei. The other party smiled at him and motioned him to continue translating.
"Meimei guessed that being able to encounter the real thing might be related to this."
After finishing the translation, Li Huaiqing pulled Meimei aside to chat. He was very surprised that his lover did not even have a human form before. Could it be because she had stayed in the world for too long?
Yan Jue and the other two were also discussing in a low voice.
Wen Xuyang hadn't interrupted just now, and now he still wanted to do what Yan Jue wanted: "Do you have an idea?"
Zhang Zizheng, who had the lowest position and the least knowledge, didn't dare to say a word. After using his hand gestures to isolate the voices of the three people, he sat down obediently and let the two bosses make the decision.
Yan Jue whispered, "It's not hard to understand that ghosts can absorb spiritual energy for cultivation, but she can absorb spiritual energy unconsciously and autonomously when the spiritual energy just revived. Such talent is absolutely first-class. We are not without ghost cultivation techniques. In the future, she will be the number one ghost cultivator."
Wen Xuyang asked, "Could it be related to that unborn spiritual energy?"
Meimei had been an ordinary person in her lifetime, and no one in her family, as recorded in the family records, had ever worked in a profession related to metaphysics. This made it difficult for Wen Xuyang to speculate that Meimei's talent stemmed from that trace of spiritual energy.
If you are lucky enough to be transformed into soul fragments, then it is not impossible to continue to be lucky.
"I don't know." Yan Jue spread his hands. "Whether it's related to that or not, her current physical condition is real. As long as she hasn't done anything bad, she's worth winning over."
Zhang Zizhen said weakly, "Brother Yan, you haven't forgotten what Mr. Li asked when he came in just now, right?"
Wen Xuyang asked back, "Don't you know there's no reincarnation in this world? When a ghost dies, it's truly dead, dissipating into the world and returning to the heavens and earth."
Zhang Zizhen was stunned: "No one told me that!"
Wen Xuyang was rarely stunned, and subconsciously turned his head to look at Yan Jue, but found that the other party lowered his head and scratched his hands seriously, as if he didn't hear their conversation at all.
“Brother Yan…”
"I just had too many things to keep secret and forgot about them for a moment." Yan Jue said, "Come, let me explain it to you."
After quickly discussing where people go after death, Yan Jue said, "Shouldn't we tell Elder Li and the others about this and let them choose for themselves? If Meimei truly doesn't want to continue living, perhaps we should respect her wishes?"
After hearing it so many times and getting used to it, he just called her "Meimei", which sounded like a nickname, instead of addressing her as "Ms. Mei".
"I agree." Zhang Zizhen expressed his opinion.
Although it is a pity to lose a ghost cultivator with great talent, we cannot force people to practice.
Wen Xuyang nodded.
After withdrawing their true energy, the three of them turned their gaze towards the man and the ghost opposite them.
Yan Jue called back their attention and said seriously, "Mr. Li, we understand your request, but before that, you may need to know a little common sense about our world, whether it is supernatural or not."
He slowly repeated the popular science knowledge he had just given to Zhang Zizhen. This time, he spoke in detail and seriously, clearly laying out the two paths that Li Huaiqing and Meimei would face.
Finally, he added, "Ms. Mei can absorb spiritual energy without any external help, which shows that she has great talent. If she continues to practice, she will surely achieve great success."
Yan Jue felt that he should speak out about this matter.
Li Huaiqing opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a word for a long time.
He hadn't thought about it, he had never thought about the fact that there was no reincarnation in this world. After a person dies, unless they become a ghost, they are truly dead. From then on, the world has nothing to do with them, and there is no such thing as reincarnation. In this case, could he still bear to let his lover go?
The answer is of course no.
But, but...
He covered his face.
"Ms. Mei, are you asking what the consequences would be if I didn't practice?" Wen Xuyang suddenly spoke.
Meimei waved at him, and after attracting his attention, she tapped out regular pauses on her palm. He knew what it was at a glance, and he had also secretly compared it with the conversation between Meimei and Li Huaiqing just now.
Li Huaiqing suddenly raised his head and looked at his lover.
Meimei smiled at him and tapped his arm: "It's not necessary to practice, is it? You're so anxious that you're confused."
Yan Jue was not too optimistic: "I just said that Ms. Mei can absorb spiritual energy on her own without any external help. What I mean is that this is due to her talent or physical constitution, and it will not be transferred according to her own will. If she wants to be able to control it, she must practice or ask others for help."
"What I can tell you is that no one in the world can currently do the latter."
Even the burning wind won't work.
Because they couldn't be sure whether Meimei's physique was her own, or whether it was brought about and transformed by that trace of unborn spiritual energy, if they stripped her of her physique, that trace of spiritual energy would naturally be stripped as well. If it was the latter, without the support of that trace of spiritual energy, she would be annihilated in a very short time, and Li Huaiqing didn't want to see such an outcome. So he told them directly that no one could do it.
Four years ago, Meimei was able to stay in the world and accompany her lover because of chance. Four years later, this chance also became a rope that bound her.
No one can help her. If she practices on her own, by the time she can control the absorption of spiritual energy, her life span will be long.
"Even if Ms. Mei is left alone, she will continue to absorb spiritual energy and she will only become stronger and stronger." The incomplete parts of the soul will be completed in a short time.
After hearing this, Li Huaiqing was unable to react.
He didn't want Meimei to disappear, not at all.
But he didn't have many years left to live, and no matter how many years he had, it would never be comparable to Meimei's. After he died, would he leave Meimei alone in this world?
But he really didn't want Meimei to be scared to death.
He looked up at Yan Jue, his face full of expectation: "Xiao Yan, will I become a ghost after I die?"
Yan Jue pursed his lips and shook his head: "I don't know."
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