Chapter 33 (Auspicious Years, Abundant Fish)
"That's impossible."
Before Nianyouyu could speak, Pingyu had already rejected the words on the memorial tablet. Regarding the question of what kind of incarnation a person would become after death, Jinzha had said at the peddler's house: "After a mortal dies, he will remain in the state he was in at the time of death. And unless the resentment is too deep, ghosts should have indistinct features."
"That's right!"
Nian Youyu couldn't understand, but he knew the girl was speaking up for him.
Yan Erlang persisted, pointing at the memorial tablet and emphasizing, "But I saw it! If I hadn't spent so much time with Nian Youyu, I wouldn't find seeing his memorial tablet so terrifying!"
The boy's family had been accountants for generations, so he was literate and could easily read and write, and looking at a memorial tablet was a simple matter for him. He insisted that Nian Youyu was dead, and the two sides, led by Yan Erlang and Ping Yu, each held their own opinions and refused to give in.
At this moment, Muzha's voice broke the stalemate.
"How about we leave here first?"
The young man pointed forward as if pecking at rice, mimicking a chick.
Several people turned around because of his movement.
The people wearing bronze masks had all turned around at some point. The openings around their eyes were dark and dull, casting an eerie light upon them.
Why are they looking at us like that?
Nian Youyu swallowed.
Nezha immediately grabbed the girl and ran wildly out of the temple. Muzha followed closely behind, one in each hand. There were so many masked people that the dust storms they created during their chase resembled man-eating tornadoes.
Nian Youyu wailed, "Everything was fine just now!" Then, he glared fiercely at Yan Erlang, "Is it because of you?!"
"What does this have to do with me?" Yan Erlang felt a little nauseous from being jostled around by Mu Zha's arm. "I fell down like this when I came here before, but nothing strange bothered me!"
"You've been here?" Ping Yu asked, noticing that the boy was still clutching something tightly in his hands. Upon closer inspection, he realized that the boy was still holding onto the spirit tablet.
The anomaly began the moment Yan Erlang revealed that Nian Youyu was a deceased person.
The girl then pointed and said, "I think it's because of this."
The people here are all lifeless, except for their strong reaction to what comes out of the toad's mouth.
"Let's talk about it when we get out. Let's go to my house first!" Yan Erlang didn't want to say more and pointed the way.
Left, right, then straight ahead...
Year has fish quilt
The boy exclaimed in surprise, "Isn't this the route to Cihang Dock?!"
"Yes." Yan Erlang nodded, but looked ahead and said, "I've arrived home."
After running out of the temple and returning to town, you can reach the Yan family's house by walking through a few side alleys.
Upon arriving at their destination, Muzha put Yan Erlang down.
The young man pushed open the door and invited them inside: "My humble abode is simple, please forgive me."
The Yan family's house was a thatched hut. He set out a few cushions for the group to sit on. As soon as Ping Yu sat down, he eagerly asked, "You said you'd been here before, what's that all about?"
"Inside the belly of the Golden Toad God is another Golden Toad Temple!"
Ping Yu slammed his fist on the table: "So, that's the temple we just escaped from?"
“Exactly.” Yan Erlang nodded. “Not only that, I also saw many people I knew before in the temple. But none of them recognized me, and they even ignored my greetings. At the time, I thought it was because my theft of incense money had been exposed and I had incurred everyone's wrath, so I slunk down the mountain and went home. The place was gray and dark, but the sky was still full of night, and the full moon was high overhead, so I didn’t suspect anything… But when I got home, my brother was nowhere to be found! I asked almost everyone in the whole town, but no one recognized us brothers.”
Despite it being the dead of summer, the boy was so frightened that he felt a chill run down his spine.
This place, where dawn hasn't broken, is definitely not Cihang Dock.
He rushed out the door, only to be stared at by a series of familiar yet unfamiliar faces. Those cold, indifferent gazes, when they fell upon Yan Erlang, made him feel like a centipede drowning in the sand.
Every part of the body, from limbs to bones, is utilized.
Finally! Yan Erlang returned to the lintel of the Golden Toad Temple.
He was cold outside, his throat burning, and he was breathing heavily. The bronze beast head on the roof seemed to have its eyes illuminated by the moonlight. Its fang-like eyes flashed and then slashed at him like knives.
The boy shivered from the cold, his teeth chattering, and scrambled onto the toad's mouth as if fleeing for his life.
One black, one bright.
When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on the table.
The clouds may obscure the moon, but it has returned this time.
So that's what Yan Erlang meant when he was talking nonsense at the casino.
There's no need for money; the Golden Toad God can conjure gold. Inside the Golden Toad is a Toad Temple, and outside the temple lies the unique Cihang Dock.
Everything there was fake, unreal, and nobody knew him.
Muzha: "No wonder you were in the toad's mouth just now; you wanted to go back."
"Yes, I want to go back!" Yan Erlang said, his tone tinged with resentment. "But you won't let me go back! I almost climbed up, but you dragged me back by force!"
The group silently looked at Nian Youyu, who had discovered the strange object in the toad's mouth.
Nian Youyu's expression changed, and he said angrily, "I didn't know it was him inside! Besides, he stole the incense money and encountered a ghost, why insist that I'm dead?"
"Who knows if you're dead!"
Yan Erlang shouted at the top of his lungs, his face turning red: "This isn't a good place... and you just happened to appear at the same time as the memorial tablet, how can anyone not be afraid!"
"You said you saw many people here whom you know but who don't know you. Have you seen Nian Youyu?" Pingyu asked.
The boy was stumped by the question, and he hesitated before shaking his head: "It seems not."
"Does your home live far away?"
The girl then asked if there would be fish in the year.
Nian Youyu, head held high and chest puffed out, strutted out the door with an air of indifference.
The carefree boy walked ahead, while Pingyu pulled Nezha a little behind.
Nezha asked, "What are you going to his house for?"
“I just find it strange,” Ping Yu said.
What's strange about it?
“Do you remember that Nian Youyu said that this Jinchan Temple used to be an ancestral hall? Yan Erlang found the memorial tablet here, which matches what he said.”
"But this ancestral hall was built when he was very young."
"So that's why!" She tugged at Nezha hard, frowning in dissatisfaction that he hadn't followed her train of thought: "Yan Erlang only moved to Cihangwu in the last few years. If the people here are all wandering souls who died many years ago, isn't it normal that they don't recognize him?"
"Don't forget, everyone up there knows Yan Erlang." The boy let her pull him along, then flicked the girl's forehead with his other hand: "Besides, you yourself said that, according to common sense, people retain their appearance after death. That sign says five years old, but look at Nian Youyu, where does he look like a toddler?"
The person in front was quite tall, with a round head and a round face; to insist that he was a child would be absurd.
The conversation ended abruptly there.
Because there is fish in the year, we have arrived.
The Nian family was better off than the Yan family; their thatched house had earthen walls underneath.
The boy gripped the door knocker and turned around: "Watch closely!"
The wooden door was pushed open.
The group noticed a child standing behind the door.
He was carrying a burlap sack and wearing a bronze mask, and looked like he was about to walk out.
The child with his hair in a high ponytail stared at Nian Youyu, who had his head down.
They spoke at the same time: "Who are you, and why are you in my house?"
The next second, they answered in unison, "What do you mean 'your home'? This is my home!"
"Huh?"
The bronze mask slammed to the ground with a crisp sound.
The boy revealed the child's true appearance, which turned out to be a face that looked seven or eight parts like his own.
"Here comes the little brat."
Pingyu turned around and said to Nezha.
.
As Mu Zha closed the book, Nian Youyu carried the child into the hall.
Everyone sat at a long table, with Nian Youyu on one side and the others at the other end.
The boy asked, "What's your name?"
The child answered truthfully: "May there be fish in the year."
The way he looked at Nian Youyu at the Yan family's house was now being mirrored on Yan Erlang at the Nian family's house.
The boy seemed to have been exonerated, and he placed the memorial tablet he was carrying squarely on the table. He said, "I knew you were a ghost! I saw this child before, and I just assumed he was a relative of yours."
With the assistance of the spirit tablet, the child in front of him was indeed destined to have fish that year.
The child looked at the nameplate Yan Erlang had taken out, his face filled with even more confusion: "What are you going to do with my nameplate? If you take this, the Toad God won't recognize me anymore!"
"Designer brand?" Pingyu repeated the word, asking, "What's the use of that?"
“Everyone in our town has a name card that allows them to live at Candeng Ferry… Don’t you have one?” The child said, carefully tucking the card into his arms. “No, why did we come here? Without a name card, we can’t even cross the river outside.”
"We paid the boat fare."
"Oh..." Xiao Nian You Yu suddenly realized, "No wonder the Toad God allowed you to cross the river; he loves money the most."
Do you know what kind of river that is over there?
"I don't know, but there are always people who want to cross the river... The toad god can only let whoever he wants to cross."
"Alright, I'm ignoring you all!" The child got off the prayer mat and put his bronze mask back on. Xiao Nian You Yu dragged a burlap sack: "I have to go worship the gods, or I'll be late!"
"Please answer one last question for me, okay?"
When the girl asked for help, the child stopped in his tracks to show that he was listening.
Pingyu asked, "Why do you want to worship the gods?"
After she finished speaking, she clearly saw a fleeting look of confusion on the child's face. He hesitated for a moment before carefully replying, "I don't know, but... isn't this something everyone has to do?"
Having said that, as if afraid of being left behind, he dragged the burlap sack and ran off.
As Nian Youyu watched the other person's departing figure, he kept muttering, "Am I really dead...?"
Pingyu was reviewing her conversation with the child.
When they arrived, they looked out from the boat awning and saw countless dark figures rushing into the river one after another.
Presumably, those were the spirits of the dead who could not cross the river because they could not pay the boat fare.
Nezha and Muzha said that it was the Netherworld Water, the shore of the Helpless River.
"This black water flows to the underworld, right?"
Pingyu asked the two Li brothers.
The two nodded, then the girl asked again, "Isn't this river a place anyone can cross?"
Muzha: "Black water is used to filter the souls of the dead. It is divided according to the evil deeds the soul did in its previous life. Souls with heavy sins sink to hell, while souls that have done good deeds or have done nothing wrong are sent to the underworld."
“This is not something a mere toad that has become a spirit could do,” Nezha scoffed. “ Nor is it something that can be guaranteed with money.”
“Well… I’d like to suggest a possibility.” After listening to what the two had said, Pingyu had a nascent idea in her mind. She tentatively asked, “It’s said that water belongs to yin, and yin is black. Is it possible that the water outside the Remnant Lamp Ferry isn’t the black water of the underworld, but rather yin water that has arisen from the gathering of dead souls?… I don’t know if that’s possible.”
“Yes.” Nezha pondered for a moment and then nodded in agreement with Pingyu’s idea: “All things have spirits. Living water will turn into dead water when it flows over a corpse, not to mention water that has been soaked in yin energy for many years.”
"And didn't the Second Prince say that the temple outside is a temple of the Yin God?"
A god formed from the aggregation of inanimate objects is a spirit of darkness.
Ping Yu said, "If the spirit tablets in the ancestral hall were all in the hands of the Yin God, then the Yin God would use the dead spirits in the ancestral hall to create Yin Water to differentiate souls. There is no hell or underworld here, only a ghost town and the human world."
"Isn't it said that people have three souls and seven spirits?"
The Three Souls - Tai Guang, Shuang Ling, You Jing
They respectively govern vitality, thought, and emotion.
Seven Souls - Corpse Dog, Hidden Arrow, Sparrow Shade, Devouring Thief, Non-Poison, Purifying Filth, Stinky Lung
It is used to manage human bodily functions.
The people I met in the temple were as rigid as stone and wood.
On the day of the Little New Year, Yu is both unsuspecting and clumsy in thinking. He answers all questions from others without question, and even though he doesn't understand the reason for worshipping the gods, he still does it.
The more Ping talked, the clearer his thoughts became.
"Is it possible to leave the three souls in the human world and let the seven spirits sink here? That would explain why there are identical people in heaven and here."
Author's Note: The concept of the three souls and seven spirits appears in the first chapter. Let's see who's been reading carefully!
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I got heatstroke today, and my parents made me sit there for an incredibly long time to do cupping therapy, so my update is a little late! Thankfully, I still managed to update before the day ended!!! Ugh, it's so hot, everyone please take precautions against heatstroke~
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