Chapter 126 A Nighttime Ghost Encounter, Casual Chatting...
Nighttime, a guest room in the Li family home.
Qingyu and Fanxiang sat on the couch, the girls talking quietly about what had happened during the day.
Wen Chuan and Qin Tianshu sat facing each other at the table drinking tea, while Cai Cai on the table was still perched on a green cloth, peeking out and hiding, amusing herself.
Zhang Xuan leaned against a pillar, wiping his knife. He now kept two knives, with knife oil, knife powder, clean cloth, and whetstone. He always had everything he needed, and neither Blood Moon nor Frost Moon would be wronged.
"Is it time?"
Qingyu leaned back leisurely on the cushion and said, "It'll be soon." Fanxiang glanced at the sundial not far away.
Qin Tianshu casually picked up a piece of pastry, broke off a piece, and teased Cai Cai, saying with a smile, "Our Cai Cai is a little chick who has seen ghosts too."
"Tsk,"
Wen Chuan, sitting opposite him, glanced at him and said, "Feed him less."
Chicks have poor digestion, so they can just enjoy the taste of these kinds of pastries.
Cai Cai: "Goo-goo-goo-hook!"
As the chicks suddenly started clucking, a gust of cold wind blew outside, the bright windows shook, and the candlelight was inexplicably dimmed.
Zhang Xuan, leaning against a pillar wiping his knife, curled his lips into a smile. The young man gazed lightly at the blade, a casual turn of his eye revealing a gleaming silver light, a sharp, deft glint in his eyes—
"come out."
Before the chilling words could even finish, a gust of cold wind swept by, and two terrifying yet comical ghostly figures appeared before everyone.
Wait a minute/hurry up: "Good evening, everyone!"
Qingyu smiled, and the woman said leisurely, "...Let's not waste any more time on idle talk."
That's right, they didn't make things difficult for the two incompetent "future ferrymen" who were busy with their exams; they simply traded the two rain ghosts for some conditions—
How did the living soul enter Fengdu, and what happened a hundred years ago when the Li family of Qingzhou claimed that the Pure Yang Blade could defeat the Yin Ghost?
...After hesitating for a long time, "Wait a minute" and "Hurry up" finally stammered that they hadn't studied properly and might need to go back and look through their books...
"Here we are, let's have a proper chat with you all."
Although his name is "Wait a minute," he's incredibly quick to interrupt. And as expected of his name, "Hurry up," he's swift as a flash, grabbing a stool and starting to talk with "Wait a minute"—
(The following is not in any particular order of speaking, because the conversations are flowing too quickly between us.)
"We talked about bringing people into Fengdu before... Actually, it was a misunderstanding. I was learning to do the splits... There used to be ferrymen who did this, but that person was also close to death, floating around like a ghost, so they could be brought in... After some maneuvering, that person actually died... so they were brought in."
"Let's not talk about that. I've heard that once a person crosses the Yellow Springs, they will immediately begin to rot. It's terrifying... Anyway, only the soul can live in Fengdu. This is an ironclad rule of Fengdu: people cannot see souls, and souls cannot hide from people. It has been like this for thousands of years."
"Yeah, yeah, I also heard from a really old ghost that a thousand years ago some evil cultivator developed some kind of spell to extract living souls, trying to get away with it, but hey, what happened to you guys?"
"What's wrong?"
"I'm really dead. It's no use for the ghost to make a fuss. They even threw away the Meng Po soup, saying that my lifespan hasn't ended yet and I won't reincarnate!"
"Oh, so what happened next?"
"Later, when the judge investigated, he found out that he was dead, completely dead. What does that mean?"
What does this mean?
"This means that once you enter Fengdu, you're really going to die."
—Zhang Xuan raised his sword to strike the moon, and the boy said speechlessly, "You should talk properly!"
"……oh."
"That's right... you guys shouldn't even think about getting into Fengdu, really, really."
"And another thing, the Li family's affairs happened hundreds of years ago. I heard that there were too many ghosts in that chaotic era, so when the ferryman was collecting souls, he ran into General Li. Young Master Zhang's sword is made from Yin Iron from the depths of Mount Tai, so it can injure souls and also reflect ghosts. But General Li's Pure Yang Sword back then was, was, was..."
"It's just indiscriminate killing!"
"Oh right! It was just a chaotic massacre; ghosts died, and the ferryman almost died too!"
"And then,"
"Later, there was no record of it in the Fengdu Book... However! We specifically asked a skilled ferryman—once the human world is unified again, all those wandering ghosts from the chaotic world must be eliminated, and no one should know about them."
"Holy crap, whenever chaos is about to end, vengeful ghosts cause trouble everywhere, like a final carnival. The area around Mount Tai is full of ghosts floating around, and some even take the opportunity to jump off the ferry to the underworld and run back to the human world!"
"Yes, it was only after several Yama Kings personally intervened that the matter was resolved... It was around that time that Yama Kings and General Li made an agreement."
"The specific details of the agreement are not clear, but in any case, General Li later settled near Mount Tai with his sword."
"Yes, yes, that's right, so you shouldn't even think about going to Fengdu yet,"
"I can't go, really, really, really, really... really."
As each heartfelt word was uttered, everyone fell silent for a moment before turning to look at the still frantically nodding "Wait a minute!"
Lin Fanxiang: Really?
Wait a minute/Hurry up: "Really, really, really—"
Qingyu: "Really?"
Wait a minute/hurry up: "Really, really, really—"
Zhang Xuan: "Really."
Wait a minute/hurry up: "Really, really—"
Qin Tianshu: "Really,"
Wait a minute/hurry up: "Oh my, really—"
Wen Chuan: "It's fake."
Wait a minute/hurry up: "It's fake!"
Cai Cai: "Coo coo coo~"
Everyone: "..."
Wait a minute/hurry up: ...Ah~yo~"
"No screaming!"
Zhang Xuan glanced at them, the young man's slender fingers gently took the clean cloth, wiped the Frost Moon sword clean, and in an instant, he gripped the hilt, the cold light disappearing into the sheath.
As night deepened, the bright moonlight spilled into the courtyard, and the candlelight inside the house flickered, occasionally scattering tiny sparks. Softly, a ghostly wail echoed.
He scratched his head and observed the room, blinking rapidly and fidgeting with his fingers, still quite confused, before finally babbling on and on.
"Oh, there's this place, Old Ghost said, maybe, perhaps, it's possible to get people into Fengdu... um..."
"Yes, it's a bit dangerous..."
"Well, there's no harm in telling you anyway, you might not even be able to get in."
"That was an unnamed wasteland. Ten thousand years ago, it was actually the entrance to Fengdu. Back then, there were immortals and gods in the human world, and many people could actually enter... However, later, due to various events, the spiritual energy declined, and Fengdu gradually disappeared from the human world. The so-called entrance was abandoned."
"I really don't know if it will still work..."
After much conversation, the two ferrymen finally provided some useful information. Qin Tianshu lazily leaned against the table and asked, "Scholar, please answer..."
"So that wasteland is?"
Wait a minute, they quickly exchanged a glance, and then he said to them,
"Qingzhou City, abandoned house."
Everyone: "..."
...
In the dead of night, with the moon high in the sky, the people inside, forgetting even to yawn, began discussing their haunted house adventure—
Qingyu gently waved the round fan in her hand, a smile playing on her lips, and casually recited...
"Abandoned house, ghost immortals, Fengdu, how interesting. It seems we still have to go there?"
Lin Fanxiang sat opposite her, and the woman said calmly and gently, "If we're going, we should make preparations as soon as possible."
"However, what you're saying about my cousin and Lu Zhitao..."
Zhang Xuan sat at the table, the boy fiddling with the teacup, gently turning it as he played.
"Wait a minute, what you just said is that there are indeed things in that house, but they can't be considered ghosts. It's a place that even the ferryman can't control..."
Qin Tianshu yawned, blinked, and noticed that Cai Cai was curled up asleep on the table. The scholar smiled and replied, "Who knows? Your cousin went to invite the Ji family, and it will take at least the day after tomorrow for them to come and go... Why don't we wait and see?"
Wen Chuan nodded, the young man's eyes were indifferent, seemingly carrying a hint of weariness, "Indeed, the Ji clan sealed off the abandoned house, but Lu Zhitao was able to open it, and even talked about some ghost immortals... Perhaps the Ji clan can give us some information about the abandoned house."
Qingyu brushed her skirt aside, and the woman smiled as she rose from the couch. She stood by the window and looked at the moonlight. The summer breeze brushed against her skirt, and the air was cool. She gently closed her eyes and seemed to be able to feel a faint, lingering yin energy in the Li residence.
"I'm tired, let's talk about it tomorrow."
...
late at night.
Qingyu lay on the bed, with a copy of "Fengdu Secrets" on her pillow. It was Qin Tianshu's collection of ghost stories, which had originally been with Zhang Xuan, but Qingyu had taken it and was now playing with it.
Wen Chuan slept on the outer edge. None of them were asleep at the moment. The young man sat up straight next to her, looked at her gently, and smiled, "Aren't you going to sleep?"
"Um……"
Qingyu flipped through the book one last time, rolled around in it, and lay on Wen Chuan's lap, saying listlessly, "Thinking about ghosts, can't sleep."
Wen Chuan smiled upon hearing this, gently stroking a strand of hair near Qing Yu's cheek. His voice was soft yet tinged with amusement.
"You'll see it in a few days."
"Hmph,"
Qingyu laughed, simply closing the book and tossing it aside. The woman half-sat up, leaning against the young man's chest, looking up at him with his eyes crinkling in a smile—they were incredibly intimate.
"I just read a story, and I found it really boring."
Wen Chuan chuckled softly, then lowered his head and kissed her hair. "What's the story?"
"It's nothing,"
Qingyu said with a hint of laziness, "Once upon a time, there was a female demon who fell in love with a cultivator. Later, the cultivator died, and the female demon tried many methods to revive the man, but she couldn't. So she found his reincarnation and insisted on being with him."
"The reincarnated man was a young master from a wealthy family. He liked the female demon but hated her demon identity. The two of them were entangled for more than ten years, going through marriage, concubinehood, quarrels... In short, the female demon was tortured terribly in the end. She finally realized that fate cannot be forced, and then she died."
Wen Chuan: "...Hiss, this is really boring."
"What's even more uninteresting is that after the succubus died, the man was devastated, his hair turned white overnight, and he wished he could follow her in death. In the end, he also died."
Wen Chuan smiled, and the young man slowly said, "The dead cannot be brought back to life. Most people are like this; they only realize the value of something after they have lost it."
"But this story is strange,"
Qingyu looked up at him and said something. The woman frowned slightly, looking puzzled.
"Humans have three souls and seven spirits. The three souls are the spirit, and the seven spirits are the body. After a person dies, the seven spirits disperse, and the three souls are reincarnated. They drink the Meng Po soup, forget their previous life, and are reincarnated in the end... How can such a reincarnation be considered the same person as before?"
"There is cause and effect in the world, that's true, but it's something that can't be explained. In reality, how can the love and hate from the past life be imposed on this life?"
“I don’t understand. This succubus is always crying, thinking about how good this man was in the past, and then the cycle of pain, tears, forgiveness, until she finally dies helplessly, still thinking about this man’s past life. It seems very pitiful, but I always feel strange... It’s meaningless, meaningless.”
"alright,"
Wen Chuan chuckled softly, “These stories are just meant to evoke feelings of regret and pity. Delving into the details is pointless. You saw Qin Tian writing his storybooks, didn’t you? When did he ever think about these things?”
As he spoke, he straightened the blankets to make the person in his arms more comfortable.
Qingyu chuckled softly, rose slightly, kissed Wen Chuan's chin, then closed her eyes and leaned against him, feigning sleep.
"Actually, it's nothing, it's just a bit sad. We only live once. If we force ourselves to be reborn, is it more difficult for ourselves or for the person who has already entered a new life?"
"Okay, actually what I just wanted to say was,"
"If one day... I mean, if... we were to meet like this—"
"I don't want to make things difficult for you."
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Author's note: The second half of the story is just to fill up the word count. It expresses my doubts about many reincarnation stories since I was a child. What if one day, my male and female protagonists meet under such circumstances?
They might feel sentimental, help the supposed reincarnation of their lover, and smile at that person, but no matter what, they could never fall in love with this so-called reincarnation again.
"My lover is dead, that's it."
(By the way, this is actually Bai Xue's inspiration, haha. I'm currently saving up the drafts [kissing emoji], and it already has 100,000 words [cheers emoji]. Interested readers can click on the pre-order/favorite link below the author's notes~)
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