Chapter 135: The door won’t open. The kitten is silent, so it must be causing trouble…
Chang Xile stood up and stood in front of everyone. "It is the right of the dead to view their past and present lives under the Three Lives Stone before crossing the bridge. If you are in a hurry, you can go first."
She pointed to the empty other side of the Naihe Bridge. Everyone lined up in an orderly manner, not blocking anyone else's way.
The tall ghost messenger narrowed his eyes, carefully examining Chang Xile, and suddenly said, "So it's you. The last time I saw you, you almost let one of the little ghosts escape, didn't you?"
Only then did Chang Xile notice that he looked familiar - he was the ghost messenger she had encountered last time when she brought Wang Yuejun to the afterlife.
Before Chang Xile could speak, the ghost messenger sneered: "Oh, Wuchang, no wonder you are so useless. Which guy brought you in? I have to have a good talk with him..." Raising the threshold of Wuchang a little.
He paused mid-sentence, his eyes falling on the woman who stood up behind Chang Xile.
"Zhang Erhu, I haven't seen you for many years, but you still haven't made any progress." Tang You's cold voice sounded.
"Who are you?" The ghost messenger named Zhang Erhu still had a ferocious look on his face, but it was obvious that he was just a facade.
How does this woman know my name? he wondered in surprise.
The ghost messenger used names to seduce souls, so he was particularly averse to revealing his name to others. Not to mention the strange woman in front of him, even his regular colleagues only called him Hu Zi.
"Ten years ago, you took ten ghosts back to the underworld. On the way, you got drunk and were deceived by the ghosts, causing four of them to escape. It nearly led to disaster. Now, leaving you with the title of Wuchang is a mercy. How dare you mock a young man?" Tang You recounted his life story, finally taunting him. "Have you ever taken so many souls to the afterlife in your career?"
Zhang Erhu stared at her intently, but didn't dare to move. Now it seemed that this woman did look familiar...
"If she hadn't found those escaped souls, you should have been punished long ago. Why are you still showing off here?" A voice came from the other side of Naihe Bridge in the fog.
Chang Xile looked back and vaguely saw a man's figure through the fog.
It was Xie Wuya. He got the news about Chang Xile and his group from somewhere and came here on his own.
He walked up to Zhang Erhu and said leisurely, "I heard someone wants to talk to me?"
Zhang Erhu's original arrogance completely disappeared. He bowed his head respectfully, cupped his hands and greeted, "Xiao Xie, sir."
He finally remembered that those vengeful spirits still had a lingering attachment to the mortal world. After deceiving him, they fled back to the human world, trying to find a scapegoat to take their place. If it hadn't been for a female Taoist priest who discovered and subdued those vengeful spirits in advance, the consequences would have been disastrous.
Zhang Erhu looked up secretly, wanting to take another look at the woman's appearance, and saw her, the Living Impermanence, and the famous Master Xiao Xie reminiscing about the past.
"How did you know we were here?" Chang Xile asked Xie Wuya. Given the busy business of the underworld, he didn't seem like someone who would have the time to wander around.
"With such a large group of ghosts like you walking on the Yellow Springs Road, it's hard for me not to know." Xie Wuya turned to look at Tang You, "Why are you here too?"
"See you off, old friend." Tang You raised her chin towards the others who were always optimistic and asked, "We'll be leaving soon. Aren't you in a hurry?"
"Of course." Xie Wuya smiled. He glanced at the number of ghosts and muttered to himself, "Meng Po will have to make the soup for a while."
Seeing that several people had completely ignored him, Zhang Erhu lowered his head and said "retreat", then left stumbling over his left foot and right foot.
After a while, everyone finished reading their past and present lives in front of the Three Lives Stone and then returned to the group. Chang Xile was at the front of the group, leading everyone to the other side of the Naihe Bridge, while Xie Wuya and Tang You were at the back.
"I thought I would never see you in the underworld in this lifetime." Xie Wuya said.
"This isn't a good place, so why come here so often?" Tang You didn't explain much, just smiled faintly. However, she looked at Chang Xile, who was jumping and joking at the front of the group and chatting with Shu Nian Junyi beside him, and suddenly asked, "You still call yourself Xie Wuya?"
"Um."
"I thought you would blame me." Tang You was halfway through her words when she suddenly fell silent.
"I blame you." Xie Wuya didn't deny it, but he quickly changed the subject, "So what? I still want to call you Xie Wuya."
"Even though you chose this name, it's mine now that you gave it to me. Don't even think about taking it back." His tone rose slightly, like a naughty child who stole someone else's candy and was unwilling to return it.
As they talked, they soon crossed the bridge. Meng Po sat on the edge of the steps, looking up and talking to Chang Xile.
The senior was worthy of being a senior. He was not at all surprised or panicked by the sudden appearance of so many ghosts. He just silently sped up the pace of serving the soup.
The farewell words had been said long before they set off. At this moment, everyone just looked at each other reluctantly for a few more times, and said no more. After drinking the soup, they stood forward, and their figures slowly disappeared into the fog.
Chang Xile squatted on one side, propping up her face to look at everyone. She didn't say anything, but her round, bright eyes suddenly became watery.
Yang Junyi left late. She held Shunian's hand and stood beside Chang Xile. She reached out and hugged her: "Sister Xile, when you go back, tell my sister that Junyi will take good care of herself."
Chang Xile tried to smile, nodded, and wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand.
Shunian seemed much cooler. He stood aside and urged Chang Xile, "You must practice well. When I become a human in my next life, I will have to become your disciple again. Be careful not to catch up with you."
Without waiting for Chang Xile's answer, he thought of Chang Xile's talisman-drawing skills, which were a gift from heaven, and changed his mind: "Forget it, you should just slack off for a few more years. Otherwise, when I come, what will you do after you become a master?"
Chang Xile finally smiled and stood up, hugged Shunian and said, "You'll know whether I've tried my best or not when we meet next time."
Shunian understood her implication and laughed too. He held Yang Junyi's hand and drank the soup Mengpo handed him in one gulp.
"goodbye."
The two children, one tall and one short, slowly disappeared in the mist. They said "goodbye" and believed that they would meet again in the next life.
Meng Po raised her head slightly and smiled in the direction of Tang You. Tang You nodded slightly as a greeting, then looked at Chang Xile.
Xie Wuya looked at Tang You's silent profile, followed her line of sight to look at Chang Xile, and said, "She looks a lot like you back then."
"Really?" Tang You didn't turn around to look at him. She just smiled self-deprecatingly and said, "That's bad."
Back then, Tang You was a person who had a high opinion of herself but was unwilling to be confined by worldly conventions. This led her to create many legendary stories but also caused her to do many wrong things.
She paused before continuing, "She'll do better than I did back then."
After the last of the more than 300 ghosts had drunk Meng Po soup, Tang You and Xie Wuya walked forward.
"Not bad, you've achieved what others achieve in a year in just one day." Xie Wuya said with a smile, "Keep up the good work."
Tang You probably knew how Chang Xile became the Living Death, and couldn't help but feel that Xie Wuya had deceived his niece. She said coldly, "That's enough. Five hundred souls, you really have the nerve to ask for it."
Xie Wuya paused, and before he could say anything, Chang Xile spoke first: "It doesn't matter. Since I have already agreed, of course I will keep my promise."
Tang You glanced at her and said nothing more. She just told her to explain it to Ms. Tang Shixin when she got home.
"The New Year is almost here, and you haven't been home yet. Although she doesn't say it, she must be worried in her heart." Although Tang You hasn't been home for many years, she knows her sister very well.
"Yeah... Chinese New Year is almost here," Chang Xile muttered. She hadn't been home in a long time. She hadn't informed her family of her hospitalization, and she was afraid she'd be criticized as soon as she got home.
Despite this, it is still very...
"Homesick?"
A familiar voice came into his mind, and Chang Xile remembered An Ping's existence.
"Yeah." Chang Xile replied sullenly. She thought to herself, at least, everything is finally coming to an end.
But within a few seconds, Chang Xile suddenly felt a strange vibration coming from the ground beneath her feet. She almost lost her balance and swayed before steadying herself. She asked, "What's going on?"
Xie Wuya and Tang You exchanged a serious glance. Meng Po seemed much calmer, but the soup in her large pot sloshed violently from side to side, even spilling onto the floor. She frowned in distress, "I worked so hard to make this soup!"
On the other side, Anping's tone suddenly became urgent: "Xi Le, something is wrong, you..."
The next second his voice stopped abruptly. Chang Xile immediately felt that a certain connection between her and him was suddenly severed. Her mind was empty and she could no longer hear Anping's voice.
The ground shook more and more violently. Meng Po gently pressed her palm to the ground and said, "The earth is shaking."
She held onto the large black pot beside her, silently wondering if she needed to make a few more pots of soup.
Every year when the earthquake hits, there are always more visitors to the underworld. These old people have long been accustomed to it.
Xie Wuya didn't show any extra emotion, he just turned around and said to them: "There's an earthquake, go back and find your bodies."
He pushed his palms to the left and right, and Chang Xile and Tang You felt as if they were thrown out of this dark and quiet underworld with great force.
Before losing consciousness, Chang Xile was still thinking, didn’t they finally prevent the disaster from happening, why nothing has changed?
When he regained consciousness, Chang Xile couldn't open his eyes for a while.
Even without looking, her hearing and touch, which had returned first, had already conveyed a lot of information to her. Alarms wailed, people's shouts drifted in from far and near, and then—near by her ear—Anping's voice: "Xi Le, wake up! Can you hear me?"
She did not feel any weight pressing against her, but instead found herself being protected in an embrace.
She wanted to get up and subconsciously supported herself on the floor with her palms. She immediately felt the dust all over the floor, and then Anping grabbed her hand.
His voice was very calm, even a little too soft:
"There's a lot of broken glass on the ground, don't move."
Chang Xile immediately stopped moving her body. She tried again and finally succeeded in opening her eyes.
What caught her eye was Anping's eyes. He stared at Chang Xile intently and asked, "Are you awake? Are you feeling unwell?"
Chang Xile shook her head and turned to look beside her, but what she saw was different from the devastation on the floor that she was afraid to see before she woke up. Although the ward was indeed much more messy than before she left - everything had shifted to a certain extent due to the earthquake, the overall structure of the room was still stable and the ceiling had not collapsed. She and Anping were both staying under the table.
The only thing that could be considered serious was the wardrobe that fell sideways in front of the ward door, blocking the exit of the room, and the glass mirror embedded in the wardrobe door was shattered all over the floor.
"Anping, what's going on now?" Chang Xile asked, calmed down by the warm touch from Anping's embrace.
"Not long ago, the earthquake alarm suddenly sounded on my cell phone, and then the room started shaking. I wanted to take you out, but the wardrobe blocked the way." Anping explained simply.
"What's going on outside?" At the moment, the earthquake level did not seem high. Chang Xile breathed a sigh of relief and wanted to know the casualties in the mountain city as soon as possible.
There was a hurried knock on the door from outside the ward:
"Ward 3006, is everything okay in there? Please reply if you hear me!"
"Ward 3006, is everything okay in there? Please reply if you hear me!"
"We're all fine!"
Chang Xile took a magazine from the bedside table and swept the glass fragments aside. With her and Anping together, the wardrobe was easily lifted up, but when Chang Xile pressed the door handle, she found that she still couldn't get out.
She tried pressing the handle a few more times, but the door didn't budge.
"Maybe the door frame is deformed." Anping said.
"Then let's wait for the professionals to open the door." Chang Xile sighed and took out his phone to contact Tang You and the others. Before leaving the soul last night, it was Yang Guisi who was responsible for the care of Tang You's body. I wonder how they are doing now and whether they are safe.
"We're fine, don't worry, the magnitude isn't high." Yang Guisi comforted her, "After so many years in the mountain city, my master and I are used to this kind of scene."
"You still have to be careful and watch out for aftershocks." Chang Xile gave a few more instructions, and after hanging up the phone, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The people who came to support from outside came to ask about the situation in their ward and said they were trying to open the door.
Chang Xile responded, then suddenly noticed that Anping hadn't spoken in a long time. He leaned on her shoulder, almost putting most of his weight on her, with his head slightly lowered, as if he was very tired.
"Anping, Anping, what's wrong with you?" Chang Xile held Anping's shoulders and shook them. Seeing that he was frowning in pain, he discovered that there was a faint trace of blood on his shoulder.
"Are you hurt?" Chang Xile realized something and turned to look at the cabinet that had fallen to the ground. He might have been hit when he was blocking the cabinet, but he just endured it without saying a word!
The locksmith was still debating whether to break the door violently when he saw the tightly stuck door suddenly opened from the inner room. A girl with dust on her face came out. She was holding a white cat, looked around, and quickly ran downstairs.
"Hey, girl!" The nurse guarding the door called out but failed to stop her. She and the man who opened the door looked at each other in confusion - how did she get out?
No one noticed that there was a door-opening talisman written in blood on the wall side of the door.
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