The first sip of water in the world
When Xie Jinhui and I stood on the earthly land in our mortal bodies, it was the morning of the second day of our shift at the Jieyu Niangniang Temple.
Only the location has changed. Where is it?
Xie Jinhui held a map and pointed around for a long time before telling me that this was Qiaoyi Post Station.
The human body is indeed heavy, like having thirty stones as big as me stacked on top of each other; it takes a while to get used to it.
But Xie Jinhui said that my figure in the mortal world is absolutely graceful and delicate, like a willow swaying in the wind.
I disliked him, and suddenly he seemed much taller and more imposing.
Look at his tree-like arms and my bamboo-like wrists, I'm in a bad mood. I'm going to make a fuss and fight him first to see whose immortal power is superior in the human world.
However, we made a pact: I cannot easily use my divine powers in the mortal realm, but he can.
He also said that women are inherently weaker than men in terms of strength, and told me not to challenge this innate rule.
But I refuse to accept it. No matter how bad this human form is, it was still created by the goddess Yuan'e. How can it be inferior to you?
So, with my heavy toes, I drew a deep horizontal line on the ground.
"Come on, thank you...hey you, let's have a jump contest to see who can jump the farthest."
Xie Jinhui stuffed the crumpled map into his rumpled little bundle on his back and walked over to stand beside me.
Hehe, gulp—squat down, swing your arms, and strain.
Caw—jump.
...Thump, my foot slipped, and my tail hurt.
Huh? The tail?
I almost sat down on my bottom.
I was puzzled: Human legs aren't even as long as a grasshopper's legs to hop!
What happened? I tried my best, but I only jumped halfway as far as Xie Jinhui.
No, no, let's try again.
After repeating this a few times, my legs grew heavier and heavier, my whole body felt like it was being spurted with the sourness of plums from my palm, and my lungs began to feel stuffy.
Just then, along the willow-lined riverbank where we were hopping around, came an old woman who was washing clothes in the morning.
She wore a blue and white floral headscarf, which covered her graying temples, shimmering with a flowing silver light in the breeze.
She smiled at Xie Jinhui and me from afar, and greeted us warmly when we got closer.
"Wow, young people get up so early, they can hop around like rabbits, good, good."
I grinned at her, my mind still on the competition at my feet.
But my legs went weak, and thankfully Xie Jinhui caught me by the waist.
The old woman paused, looking us up and down.
"May I ask what the relationship is between you two gentlemen and young lady?"
Relationship? I promised Xie Jinhui that I would pretend to be his wife for a day, so of course we're husband and wife. I can't let it slip.
I saw Xie Jinhui scratching his hand inside his sleeve, beckoning me closer.
Okay, okay, I squeezed myself against him, dodging his hand that was about to grab me.
I lowered my voice and whispered to him.
"I won't hold your hand, it's too scary."
As I spoke, I gripped Xie Jinhui's arm tightly, and he shuddered.
I glanced at him, then turned to the old woman and gave her a sweet smile.
"We are a couple who have been married for a little over a month."
Xie Jinhui's body seemed to heat up suddenly, and he happily chimed in from the side.
"That's right, yes."
"Oh dear." The old woman's expression suddenly changed.
"Young lady, now that you've been married for a month, you shouldn't jump like that."
"What if, what if you get pregnant? That would be terrible!"
Xie Jinhui's ears turned bright red.
What's going on? Was his body forged from the fire of an alchemy furnace? It's making me feel hot too.
He thanked the old woman, and I hugged Xie Jinhui tightly, repeating after him, "Thank you for your guidance, thank you for your guidance."
The old woman smiled secretly. She was carrying a basin, her back hunched, and she turned around to wink at us.
"Young man, take it easy."
As I watched her frail figure recede into the distance, and thought of the child that never seemed to be in my womb, I whispered a question to Xie Jinhui.
"Are people really that fragile? They can just die from jumping?"
Xie Jinhui's breath became warm, but I could feel the coldness in his heart.
"A person's life, from beginning to end, is always fragile and very difficult."
That's why they always try to grasp at something, even if it's just for a day.
I stared at him, stunned. His body was so hot, and his mouth was dry. A strong feeling was welling up inside me.
"Thanks……"
I'm thirsty.
Xie Jinhui's Adam's apple bobbed, and he licked his dry lips.
He might be thirsty too.
“Madam, I have no water, but,” he pointed.
“There are some in the river.”
Yes! I instantly wanted to jump into a river full of white, splashing water.
Unfortunately, I am now a mortal, and the riverbank is as far from the water as an insurmountable chasm.
I had no choice but to pull up my aching legs and run.
At the same time, the old woman who had walked a short distance away was shocked. She turned around, picked up the basin, and hurriedly called out to them.
“Young lady, no, you mustn’t. Come here, come with me. Auntie…”
How come I didn't see it just now? Her clothes in the basin were still dripping water. If I could go over and lick them, it would be so thirst-quenching.
My throat is so dry, and my chest feels like it's on fire.
At this moment, I suddenly understood Chen Yi. When she longed to lick the book, it must have been because of this anxious, urgent, and uncontrollable impulse.
I dropped Xie Jinhui and looked at Penpen as if I had seen a savior.
The old woman was so "touched" by my appearance that she tilted the basin to her side to avoid me.
I saw the water droplet fall to the ground, squeaking as it was swallowed by the soil. My heart shattered along with the droplet, aching, and I felt certain I was going to die.
The old woman raised her hand again, looked at Xie Jinhui and nodded her head. I saw Xie Jinhui purse his lips and painfully nod his head as well.
Then I nodded as well.
The old woman pulled me away with a pained expression.
"Young lady, come home with your aunt, I'll give you some water."
That aunt's house is just a short walk away.
A wooden gate, two bright, low-rise mud-tiled houses facing south, and wide courtyards in front and behind the houses.
The backyard is full of fruits, vegetables and fragrant flowers, and the western half of the front yard is also a vegetable garden. Bean pods climb all over the trellis, and rows of green onions are in bloom. Bees and butterflies love the spicy aroma and flutter around.
To the east, there is an old well with a pulley. Under the low wall of the vegetable garden next door, there is a gray and yellow guard dog that barks and wags its tail incessantly.
My aunt set up a table and chairs next to the well. The well water, freshly drawn from the ground, was the most exquisite celestial brew I had ever tasted since I was born.
I didn't give up trying to steal water from Xie Jinhui until I was happily stuffing my stomach until it looked like a water baby.
The way that aunt looks at me now is almost the same way she looks at Xie Jinhui.
Pity, sorrow? That's pretty much the feeling.
We ate our fill before parting.
The old man from my aunt's house was carrying a large gourd that he had grown in his backyard, with the seeds already removed. He filled two gourds with water and told us to take them with us for the journey.
My aunt also took out a few vegetable pancakes from her kitchen and stuffed them into our arms.
They originally wanted us to stay another day before setting off on our sightseeing, but we only had one day, so we had to say that the post station had already prepared carriages and horses, and we would be leaving at Chenshi (7-9 AM).
However, after I left the yard, I went back and patted the dog's head.
The goddess loves all people, she also loves puppies, she loves the vitality of the yard, and she loves the little human warmth in the yard.
Do you also love that mortal waiting for me outside the courtyard...?
As I watched him lean against the courtyard gate, sniffing the flowers and plants, I thought to myself: No, he is a god.
Gods have their advantages, such as Xie Jinhui's immortal power. If I want him to use it, he has to.
Well, I've had too much to drink, and I feel so heavy that I don't want to walk.
I wanted him to use the Butterfly Dream Bell quickly so we could stop and move to the flowery, grassy area he mentioned, and rest for a while.
Xie Jinhui, however, said that he could not use his immortal power because they had not yet reached a desolate and uninhabited area.
But looking at these green mountains, the mountain roads are so winding that they've long since become completely deserted.
He said that desolation meant nothing growing, and that nothing at all was wishful thinking, and continued on his way.
I can't walk anymore, I can't walk anymore, so I'll wrap myself around his tail and make it hard for him to move forward too.
Xie Jinhui finally used his immortal power to let me float around beside him.
My body felt lighter, and my skirt covered my feet. I circled around him, then suddenly reached out my sharp claws at him.
I yelled and scared him.
"Mortal, you've seen a ghost! Look, a ghost has haunted you!"
I float, I float, I drift.
Xie Jinhui, incredibly audacious, raised his hands and pulled the ghost into his arms.
My toes were teetering on the ground, my skirt brushing against his boots, as if I might fall back to earth at any moment, or as if I could never go back.
He seemed like an alluring ghost, hissing and opening his mouth at me.
"Ghost, are you trying to drain my life force?"
As we locked eyes in a tense standoff, it was neither me inhaling his breath nor him inhaling mine.
Instead, it was me and him who inhaled together into the Butterfly Dream Bell, which burst forth with the myriad splendors of the world.
Xie Jinhui walked ahead, and not far in front of him was a white gate of light.
At this moment, we are in one of the fifty-five spaces within the Butterfly Dream Bell, in a shared white light corridor.
Walking through the corridor, which was surrounded by celestial energy and resembled clouds and cotton, there was not a sound, including a whisper.
The feeling was like water droplets flowing along a flat river, or like the wind passing through the air without openings or obstacles.
A freedom to blend in with the world.
My mind raced through the bell, but I still couldn't find any trace of my senior sister.
Xie Jinhui pushed open a door of light, and in an instant, it was as if the area outside the door had fallen into a dim gray fog.
After a moment's reflection, I realized that it was also a bright and sunny day there.
I leaped into the air, following his ethereal, untouched body.
It landed on a high mountain with loess slopes and lush forests surrounded by flowers.
Immediately, a breeze from the southeast, around 9 AM, swept over us.
Oh, pshaw, stuff a bundle of warm sand into my mouth.
Looking out at the vast expanse of the sky, rows of towering palaces with flying eaves rise and fall like overlapping mountains, standing majestically between the mountains, the sea, and the blue sky.
I seemed to see many of Chen Yi's true forms crawling in various places such as corridors, escalators, suspension bridges, waterways, and buildings.
Upon closer inspection, they turned out to be busy ordinary people, like rapidly leaping starlight, passing through the seasons in the blink of an eye.
Xie Jinhui said that this is the most beautiful capital city in the world.
He condensed a century of the capital's history into a single moment and showed it to me.
I cannot see people's life or death, I can only see the palaces growing taller and taller, their golden light dazzling, surpassing even the sunlight at dusk.
But this city will experience wind, snow, frost, and cold, and greenery will grow from tender to deep, and flowers and leaves will awaken with mottled patterns and then fall asleep with a thousand colors, until they wither and turn yellow.
I saw a bolt of lightning flash by, snapping a towering pagoda in half, and soon after, a new tower rose up, filled with music, singing, and dancing.
Is this what the world looks like at its most prosperous? Expanding, repairing, feasting, decaying, and regenerating on a single building... never-ending?
I asked Xie Jinhui why he said "all worlds," implying there might be other worlds.
He rang the bell and said, "Of course."
Then I saw the palace before me suddenly unfold like pages of a book, lying across my eyes.
It must be the limitation of the Butterfly Dream Bell that prevents me from seeing any of the fifty-five forms that exist simultaneously in this world.
Some appeared desolate and bleak, some were vast ponds, and some were bustling streets teeming with people.
...
In short, grand palaces and towers are not the only option for this location.
Xie Jinhui also said that within this one world, there are countless possibilities for existence.
And such a world is more than the dust he can hold in his palm.
He tossed the dust particles into the air, his gaze deep, following the trail of the sand.
"A single grain of sand contains a world of countless particles, and every grain of sand has its own path, whether accidental or inevitable."
"The phoenix, in the world ruled by the Heavenly Emperor, is one, ten thousand, and infinite."
I smiled and continued his words.
"Is it certain to happen, and also certain not to happen?"
He chuckled, "Because of Yuan'e, I was destined to be born."
A sudden itch stirred within me, and I couldn't help but think: Perhaps, it's the exact opposite?
I saw him shake the bell again, trying to erase the current scenery.
A question suddenly popped into my head, so I grabbed his arm and asked for his advice.
"Since there are so many worlds, why are there so few who ascend to our Immortal Realm?"
“Because,” Xie Jinhui pointed to a mountain-shaped shadow hanging high in the sky, which was present on each of the folds.
“Every world has its own virtual mountain, and people can often only reach their world's virtual mountain by relying on their worldly wisdom.”
However, to transcend all worldly wisdom and reach the celestial realm...
The simplest, and also the most difficult.
I touched my chin and, feigning seriousness, continued his words.
"The simplicity lies in the fact that even a heartless stone like me can become a god."
"It's difficult because people's minds are so convoluted. They could have given others a warm blanket like a silken quilt, but instead, they use webs of their hearts, learned from who-knows-where, to ensnare themselves and others, all falling into a net harder than my stone skin."
Ouch! Xie Jinhui flicked his finger and tapped my shaking head.
I glared at him.
“Not hard at all, very clever,” he said.
The moment Xie Jinhui's shadow moved among the flowers and plants, the midday sun pierced through me in an instant.
I quickly hid in his shadow.
To my surprise, this movement caused my stomach to suddenly feel aggrieved, and then it started gurgling and crying.
I jumped up excitedly, but not very high, and my palm slammed heavily onto Xie Jinhui's shoulder.
Ouch, that hurts.
As I waved my hands wildly, I felt an unprecedented and incredibly excited feeling.
He slapped his stomach hard and solemnly announced to that seemingly human mortal.
"Xie Jinhui, I, the Goddess Yuanhe, am hungry!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com