Chapter 60 Bai Ma’s Life (2) “See you in the next life after death!…
After Bai Ma finished speaking, her eyes brightened, and her tone became more relaxed. In the silence, where everyone was unsure how to react, she calmly recounted those relatively good times. "Although I had no family around me during those years, with only the hired nanny to take care of me, life was really... so normal. I'd wake up around six in the morning to go to school, eat at the breakfast shop near the school gate, and then start the day's classes. On weekends, like many other children, I'd go to Haidian Huangzhuang for tutoring. I took everything from math Olympiads to composition classes, and my classmates envied me because I didn't have to take extra English classes. Although the academic pressure in China was indeed enormous, at that time, I felt... I felt like an ordinary child. After experiencing 'dual cultivation,' this was truly a luxury for me."
"It was also during that time—after junior high, to be more precise—that China's history and politics textbooks did have some substance. While biased, they were generally dialectical. That's when I gradually realized that what the Tumba family was doing was abnormal, even criminal. It was completely upsetting to me at the time, and I later went to the library to research a lot of relevant information myself... China's history books, as you know, gloss over the five thousand years of glory in passing, but dwell on the two hundred years of national humiliation. The Tumba family didn't appear in that two hundred years of humiliation, but just a few pages after the humiliation ended, they made a brilliant appearance!"
Bai Ma spoke in an ups and downs manner, intentionally creating a sense of humor to liven up the atmosphere. When several people heard the word "making a grand appearance", they couldn't help but laugh.
But as they listened further, they realized that it was a real "shining debut."
Bai Ma described it vividly: "I saw some old black-and-white photos in those files, and they showed Gongbu himself and several of my relatives. There's one photo that I still remember clearly. It was taken in a courtyard. There was a stone mill in the center of the courtyard. Not far away from the millstone were some... uh... human bones, including leg bones and skulls. Not far behind the pile of bones, two men were chatting and laughing. One was my biological father, and the other was my biological uncle."
"To use a popular internet meme, my mood at the time was pretty much, 'I'm so sorry to have to meet you two in history this way.' I felt like the world had gone dark. But then I thought about what Gongbu had done to me, and it was like a sudden realization. It suddenly dawned on me: Old Deng had always been a beast."
Li Qi turned away and couldn't help asking, "Is this why you're willing to sacrifice your own family for the sake of justice?"
"Not really," Bai Ma said, curling his lips. "I was only in the first grade at the time, how could I have had the courage? What really made me want to kill my relatives for the sake of justice... was probably the accumulated emotions and guilt. I felt like a victim, but also like I was the direct beneficiary of that crime. This emotional torment continued to accumulate until high school, when I was diagnosed with depression."
"At its worst, I tried self-harm and contemplated suicide, but even when I felt the urge to die was truly overwhelming, I couldn't muster the energy to do anything. More precisely, I couldn't muster the energy to do anything, including eat or drink. I could lie in bed all day without eating or drinking. It was as if the disease had killed my biological instinct for survival."
"Later... I don't know if it was the desperate situation that rekindled my last bit of desire to survive, but one day, half asleep and half awake, a thought suddenly occurred to me. This thought told me that if I could resolve the root of the pain, everything would be over. I should end the source of the shadow and atone for the innocent people who died tragically. If I could send the Tumba family away, wouldn't both of these goals be achieved?"
Bai Ma let out a long sigh and laughed again: "After this idea came to me, I felt refreshed. I remember that I got up from the bed and had a good appetite for the first time in a long time. I ordered two dishes from the aunt who took care of me, and then took a shower. Then I started to actively treat it. Although the process was painful, fortunately, the effect was good. I started to study hard again, and my grades improved rapidly. In the second semester of my senior year, I was studying for the Porcelain Country high school courses while preparing for the SAT. I finally got into the prestigious school in the Lighthouse Country. I knew at that time that I had taken a big step towards my goal."
"...You still have a good brain." Li Qi smiled in a complicated and dumb way.
Si Ling rested his hands on the dining table, tapping the surface with his long black nails. He said thoughtfully, "Is this also why you're not afraid of getting yourself into trouble?"
"Look, I've never lacked for material things. I could be sent to China to study at any time, and even attend a world-renowned university..." Bai Ma shrugged. "I'm indeed a vested interest in all these crimes. If the Tumba family deserves to die, then of course I'm one of them."
Si Ling did not agree with this statement, but she also had no intention of refuting it. She was silent for a moment, then leaned forward a few inches and said in a soft voice, "So what do you think of your mother? It's like this. Your mother is now imprisoned in the underworld to be punished and atone for her sins, but Lucifer actually wants to bring her to the Ghost Academy as well. If he negotiates directly with the King of Hell, he will probably agree. It was because I considered that the relationship between you two was... complicated, so I stopped Lucifer that day. But if you want to save her, or just want to see her..."
"No. Thank you for helping me refuse." Bai Ma answered quickly and firmly.
Si Ling raised an eyebrow and looked at her silently. Bai Ma smiled vaguely: "I have always been grateful to her for sending me to the Porcelain Country, but actually... in my entire life, she has only done this one good thing for me. At first, I thought she was just afraid of Gongbu, so after returning to the Lighthouse Country, I kept trying to pull her out of the quagmire, but I never succeeded. Until one time, I got anxious and told her that she knew those were sins, otherwise she would not have sent me to the Porcelain Country, but she cursed at me and accused me of making malicious assumptions about my own father..."
This memory was still painful for Bai Ma. She supported her forehead and paused for a long time before continuing: "From that day on, I actually understood that she was not just afraid of Gongbu, but she didn't want to change at all. Maybe she was indeed brainwashed by Gongbu, but later it was self-brainwashing. But I didn't give up. I still tried my best to change her, and you saw the result..." She shook her head, "She was always avoiding reality, even when she saw me facing death, even when she herself was tortured and killed by Gongbu. Haha..."
Bai Ma laughed sadly. "This pathetic woman has cowardly lived in self-deception her entire life. I don't hate her, but I don't want to continue trying to save her. She doesn't need me at all."
"Besides..." Bai Ma turned his head to look at the blue sky outside the window, "Now both she and I are dead. The body she gave me has turned to dust, and the blood connection between mother and daughter no longer exists. It's not too much to say that a lifetime of fate ends with death, right?"
"That makes sense." Si Ling nodded.
In fact, from a selfish point of view, she also hopes that Bai Ma can let go of Dawa, and the reason she asked Bai Ma's opinion just now was just out of objectivity.
Bai Ma Fu took another long breath and regained his sense of humor. "Hey, I want to ask, will Gongbu be doomed to eternal damnation? What about the other evildoers in the Tunba family?"
"Yes, the most heinous ones will likely be imprisoned in purgatory forever, suffering repeated torture unless the underworld is destroyed. People like Dawa, who didn't commit any evil themselves but aided the evildoers, will probably be sentenced to between 100 and 500 years. After that, they will be reincarnated and will have to spend several lifetimes as animals or plants before they can have another chance at human life."
"Very reasonable." Bai Ma nodded with satisfaction. He then took two bites of breakfast and suddenly asked with concern, "Will the underworld be destroyed?"
"...Of course not." Si Ling chuckled. "Of course, if you're talking about theoretically... then it might happen, but it would have to be a particularly terrible event, such as a fight between Heaven and Hell, or the gods fighting so fiercely that they destroyed the three realms. But if that extreme situation happened, these dead souls would probably be reduced to ashes, and reincarnation would be impossible."
"That's good, that's good!" Bai Ma was even more satisfied and nodded repeatedly.
Xuan Chi's expression paused for a moment. He looked up at Si Ling, then lowered his eyes and remained silent.
Reduced to ashes...
.
Fengdu.
Xie Bian led a group of people out of the revolving door in front of the Ten Courts of Hell office building and came to the square in front of the door.
At first glance, this place is no different from the squares in front of various office buildings in the human world. Even the flagpoles in the human world are here, but two of the flags flying on the three flagpoles here are completely invisible in the human world.
The middle flagpole among the three is slightly higher. The flag hung on it has a black background and is surrounded by a chain-like red border. A raging flame spreads from the upper right corner to the lower left corner, and a black river flows in the flame, which is taken from the "Youdu Mountain, where black water flows out" in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas".
This is the flag of the land.
The flag on the right has a sky-blue background and a golden auspicious cloud frame. There is nothing else in the frame except the back of a person wearing a wide crown. It is the Emperor of Heaven.
This is the flag of heaven.
The flag on the left is very familiar to people - this flag represents the human world, and the Eastern Underworld is centered on the Porcelain Kingdom, and the flag hanging on it is the current national flag of the Porcelain Kingdom.
Xie Bian accidentally glanced at these three flags. When he saw the flag of heaven, he couldn't help but curl his lips: The Emperor of Heaven is really narcissistic.
He thought this every time he saw the Heavenly Realm flag, because flags weren't currency, and there was no tradition of printing portraits on flags in the Three Realms. If it were him, he wouldn't have the courage to do so.
Thinking positively, he could only be thankful that the Emperor on the flag wouldn't turn around. After all, these flags were from both the heavenly and celestial realms, all forged with magic. The flames and rivers on the earthly realm's flag were dynamic. If the Emperor on the heavenly realm's flag occasionally turned around to say hello to everyone...
Xie Bian got goosebumps just thinking about it.
"Ahem... all right." He straightened his face and turned to face the crowd following him. "You just saw it with your own eyes. The people who killed you were all tortured repeatedly. The only one who escaped was Gongbu's daughter, Baima—and yet you had no objection to this. So, friends, it's time to reincarnate. We've arranged a fast track and given you birth dates that match at least 60% of the users. Please cooperate with the staff over the next few days to clear your grievances, and then apply for the reincarnation confirmation permit. Okay?"
The wronged souls nodded one after another, including the sisters Gamu and Zhuoerga. Zhuoerga whispered, "Thank you for your hard work."
"Hahaha, you don't have to be so polite." Xie Bian smiled, "Then today's tour ends here. I wish you all a happy afterlife!"
"Thank you, bye!"
"See you in the next life or after death!" Everyone said goodbye to Xie Bian.
After Xie Bian and the others had dispersed, he turned around again and looked at the figure leaning against the flagpole stone platform. "Are you here to see me?"
"Yes." Fan Wujiu, dressed in a black suit, turned around, walked around the stone platform and walked towards Xie Bian, "There's something I've been thinking about for a long time, and I still need to talk to you." As he spoke, he extended his hand and gestured towards the Ten Courts of Hell office building, "Let's go, let's find a place to sit."
"...are you so serious?" Xie Bian twitched his lips, "It's scary."
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