Chapter 103 Dewdrops
"But... how can you be sure that he forgot and not that you recognized the wrong person?" Yin Weihuai questioned with a smile. Although he had no cause and effect and did not know the ins and outs of the matter, he had not really been idle in the underworld for thousands of years, just getting paid without doing any work. He had seen a lot of ghosts and could guess some things with just a few words.
There are countless prosperous things in this world, but the word "love" is the only thing that is similar in them all.
...It seems that our little Lingxi and Master Jiunian are quite destined to be together. Even when they are away from home, they can still... meet an old friend in a foreign land? Thinking of this, Yin Weihuai smiled even more deeply.
And this relationship doesn't seem to be that simple...
Although Yin Weihuai's smile was mysterious and meaningful, and he had restrained his playboy aura, coupled with his handsome face that looked noble when he was serious, he actually gave off a bit of the air of a hermit. However, in Xiao Wu's eyes, he just felt that he was like that ETC spirit - a professional argumentative person.
All the time points matched, even the names were homophonic. The key point was that this widowed young man was no ordinary person, but the legendary Lingxi who was born with psychic powers and could understand the language of all things. Even if he was still a cub and his abilities were questionable, his keen intuition as a spiritual beast must still be there, right?
He might not be able to recognize the soul-harming ghost, but he would probably be able to weigh his ex-boyfriend even if he turned into ashes with his bare hands.
Just when Xiao Wu expected Qing Bai to retaliate, or at least roll his eyes in response to Yin Weihuai's argumentative questioning, Qing Bai remained calm and unperturbed. Instead, he nodded and said with a natural, complaisant expression, "You can consider this as my admission of guilt."
It was a misjudgment. Xiao Wu sighed. If everyone in the world were as good-tempered as this, the Eighteen Levels of Hell, a famous attraction in the underworld, wouldn't be so packed every year with only people entering but not leaving.
"If I'm not mistaken, if he's Tong Jiunian..." Qing Bai paused, giving up on asking about the cause of his amnesia, and simply asked, "Is it possible for him to recall his eighteen years as a human?"
"Tong Jiunian..."
After hearing Yin Weihuai read out the name slowly, Xiao Wu realized that there was still information asymmetry between his and his superiors. He quickly leaned over and whispered that Tong Jiunian's name was not on the Book of Life and Death.
Yin Weihuai didn't say anything about Xiao Wu's behavior of knowing the truth but not reporting it, and his expression didn't seem surprised. He thought for a moment, and then followed Qing Bai's "if" and said, "Frankly speaking, although I have served in the underworld for a thousand years and can be considered knowledgeable, this is the first time I have encountered the soul of a divine beast leaving its body and reincarnating into a human. I'm afraid I can't give any useful explanation..."
Seeing Qing Bai's disappointed expression, Yin Weihuai quickly added, "But I have an immature opinion... Of course, it's only for reference!"
Qing Bai suppressed his disappointment and said, "Please speak."
Yin Weihuai turned around twice on the spot, feeling a little regretful that he spoke too hastily. There were some things that were not good to know, but then he changed his mind and thought that Qing Bai was also a spirit beast, and if nothing unexpected happened, he would be their colleague in the future, so he felt relieved.
But before speaking frankly, Yin Weihuai still emphasized the premise of his immature opinion: "What if Lord Jiunian is really a drunkard...what if."
Qing Bai nodded good-naturedly. For him, if it was 99% certain, the remaining 1% was certain. In short, he might not be Qing Bai, but Jiu Nian must be Tongjiu Nian.
Yin Weihuai: "If it's Master Jiunian, then he might not have forgotten."
"?!!" Xiao Wu was hit hard by his boss' calm yet earth-shattering words. He turned around to see Qing Bai's reaction, but saw that Qing Bai's expression didn't change at all. He still looked calm and silent, neither sad nor happy.
Xiao Wu suspected that he didn't hear clearly or didn't react, otherwise why would he have no reaction?
Qing Bai naturally heard it clearly and reacted, but he had been disappointed too many times before and had long since learned not to show his emotions. Besides, this was not good news at all.
"How do you say that?"
"Maybe he just doesn't remember." Perhaps Yin Weihuai himself knew that what he said sounded like nonsense, so he added an explanation, "Perhaps this is a little difficult to understand, just like... do you remember what you had for lunch on June 7th five years ago? Eighteen years is not a short time, but to a nine-year-old, it's just like a meal—"
“Noodle dumplings.”
Facing Yin Weihuai's surprised gaze, Qing Bai repeated, "Five years ago at noon on June 7th, I ate noodles and rice dumplings."
Not only did Qing Bai repeat himself, he also over-completed the non-existent additional question: "Fried rice and rice dumplings eaten during the Tongjiu Year."
"..." Yin Weihuai clapped his hands silently twice, coughed awkwardly twice, and then softened his tone. "As expected of you, you're so gifted and have an amazing memory... But I was just giving an example casually. You should understand the spiritual connotation and don't take it too seriously. After all, most ordinary people probably can't remember what they had for lunch a few years ago..."
Yin Weihuai had just given himself a way out when his professional underling, who was always sabotaging things, said with a tone of sudden enlightenment, "June 7th! No wonder, so candidates from all over the country will eat zongzi on this day? By the way, fresh meat and egg yolk zongzi, yyds!"
Yin Weihuai: "..." You truly are my confidant... a serious threat :)
but……
“White Zongzi is the authentic one!!!”
The boss's smile was too forced. Xiao Wu realized belatedly that he had inadvertently undermined his boss's reputation and quickly acted like a flatterer: "You really didn't pick the right day... Don't look at me like I'm so heartless, but I still remember what I ate during those days of the college entrance examination. I guess it's hard to forget once you've experienced it..."
Yin Weihuai: “…” I’m such an old-fashioned person, I feel really sorry for not having taken the modern college entrance examination!
Seeing the topic was about to stray off track again, Xiao Wu quickly turned and abruptly got back to the point: "Are you saying that eighteen years is just the time it takes for a nine-year-old to eat a meal? Isn't that... isn't that a bit too exaggerated?"
That was eighteen years, spanning the entire childhood and adolescence.
Facing Xiao Wu's questioning, Yin Weihuai snorted coldly, "Eighteen years... Do you know how many years Master Jiunian has spent in the underworld?"
Xiao Wu shook his head honestly: "I don't know."
Qing Bai also looked up at Yin Weihuai. He also wanted to know what had happened in the past nine years.
However, Yin Weihuai always loved to make comparisons when he spoke, especially using himself as a reference: "I've been in the underworld for a thousand years, making me considered a senior employee. I've more or less earned some respect with the various ghost kings and judges. However, this seemingly impressive thousand years of service is just a fraction of what Master Nine Years has."
A thousand years, just a fraction?
Qing Bai couldn't help but start thinking about Jiu Nian's seniority in the underworld.
Yin Weihuai thoughtfully offered another reference: "If we were to trace it back, perhaps only the Lord of Hell, who sits in the underworld year-round, and the Yin Laws engraved on the gates of each level of Hell could be compared to him."
This is more than just turning oneself into a living fossil, it is clearly turning oneself into a landmark in the underworld...and the Nine-Year Ladder is a landmark.
"If a thousand years isn't even worth mentioning, what about eighteen years?" Yin Weihuai sighed, his words rather gravely. "The dew on the lotus leaves in the morning is indeed fresh and ethereal, crystal clear like a rare pearl, but if it dripped into a pond... could you still find it? Would the pond even feel the addition of a dewdrop?"
"Those eighteen years in the human world were but a drop of dew to the memory of the Nine-Year-Old Man, which was already as deep as a pond and a lake."
“…”
Eighteen years is just a drop of dew... Even she, a bystander, felt heartbroken when she heard this, let alone another person who had experienced those eighteen years?
Xiao Wu carefully examined Qing Bai's face, but he still saw a calm expression. Or perhaps... indifference? A look of complete indifference.
This time, Xiao Wu no longer felt that he had not heard clearly. He just secretly admired his strong psychological quality.
Qing Bai's psychological quality is indeed strong, but this time it is not entirely because of his psychological quality, but he had expected it... Perhaps this underworld in Shangjing and Princess Yining's mansion in Weixiang have too many similarities, and even the people are more or less related. Qing Bai's thoughts inevitably drifted back to the pavilion in the middle of the lake with the fragrance of lotus and the rippling water.
I remember that in the past, Jiu Nian also compared time and memory to water, with the body as the barrel holding the water and the soul as the barrel hoop. The barrel has a limited capacity, and when the memory exceeds the limit, if it is too little, it will overflow like water, but if it is too much, it will destroy both the barrel and the hoop.
At that time, Qing Bai was vaguely worried about whether his body and soul, which had been around for nine years, could withstand the huge amount of memories he had accumulated over such a long period of time. He suspected that he always needed time to react when encountering things, and those forgotten, temporarily sealed and shelved memories were the unavoidable compromises he made in order to maintain a stable water level in the "barrel".
Now that his guess had been confirmed, Qing Bai naturally remained calm and even felt that this was good news - at least he learned from Yin Weihuai that for the past six years, the place where he stored his memories was not a fragile and narrow wooden barrel, but a pond or lake... so there was no danger of it breaking or shattering.
Since their fate had not broken, and they had met again, what did it matter if that eighteen-year-old dewdrop melted into the pond without a trace? In that pond called Nine Years, feng shui always rotated. As long as it wasn't lost, it would always rotate to Tong Jiunian's dewdrop. He was in no hurry. In the past, even if a thousand years had passed, it would have been a pool of stagnant water, not the refreshing living water of the future. He would drip more dewdrops into the pond... preferably with a torrential downpour, a continuous rainstorm.
...As he looked at Qing Bai, he actually smiled. Xiao Wu felt that this guy was so calm and optimistic, but at the same time, he felt a chill on his spine for some reason.
Fortunately, Yin Weihuai was still very responsible at the critical moment. He adjusted his sleeves, which had finally returned to factory settings, and with an extremely amiable expression, he extended an invitation to Qing Bai: "Master Jiunian has been missing while hunting Suijing, and I'm afraid he won't be back for a while. The underworld is under martial law due to this sudden change. If you return to the world of the living at this time, you will definitely be subject to heavy interrogation. If you accidentally reveal your identity as Lingxi, you will be strictly...protected by the underworld..."
Qing Bai thought to himself that every word you said was so thoughtful and considerate for me, as if you were not a civil servant in the underworld.
Xiao Wu also felt strange, and then he heard Yin Weihuai continue: "Why don't you stay in my Shangjing Yinsi temporarily until Master Jiunian returns? Don't worry, Xiao Lingxi, Jiunian and I are friends. We will never reveal your existence, so you can stay here with peace of mind! A single room with free food and lodging, and smooth internet... You just need to, ahem, just help our company deal with some of the old wounded souls on the caseload~"
Xiao Wu: “…” Well, this is her good boss who makes the best use of everything and everyone.
Qing Bai was about to decline politely when a beam of fire, somewhat similar to the secret order that had been hastily sent to Yin Weihuai earlier, flew in like chasing the stars and the moon. However, this time the recipient was not Yin Weihuai, but Qing Bai.
Qing Bai looked at the snow-white letter that stopped exactly in front of him after the firelight dissipated. He seemed to have realized something and reached out to open it. It was indeed the handwriting of Jiu Nian... or Tong Jiu Nian.
Yin Weihuai also guessed who the letter was from. After Qing Bai finished reading the contents of the paper and carefully folded the letter, he asked, "What did Master Jiunian say?"
Qing Bai smiled and said, "He asked me to go find him."
Yin Weihuai frowned, his expression unusually serious. "Are you sure this letter was written by Master Jiunian? Why wouldn't he let you stay in a safe place at this time? Instead, he sent you, an underage Lingxi cub, to look for him alone? Could it be that Suijing or that black bird impersonated you to lure you into a trap?"
The more Yin Weihuai thought about it, the more suspicious he felt... If Jiu Nian had already captured Sui Jing, or even killed him on the spot, then he could have simply returned. Would the Underworld dare punish him anyway? Why bother sending a message to Xiao Lingxi? His long absence must mean he'd encountered an unexpected disaster... But if that was the case, what was the point in summoning Xiao Lingxi?
…It was an open fact that Sui Jing was being hunted down by Lord Jiu Nian with a sword. Regardless of whether the old ghosts in the underworld were happy about it or not, as long as they wanted Jiu Nian to remain in the underworld, they had no choice but to sever ties with Sui Jing. Even if Jiu Nian only captured him but didn't kill him, the underworld would no longer be able to use Sui Jing. However, the underworld could not do without Lingxi, so the importance of Qing Bai was self-evident…
Thinking of this, Yin Weihuai was shocked and felt more and more that the sender of this letter had bad intentions.
He must never let Qing Bai fall into the hands of Suijing Xuanhe!
Qing Bai shook his head and said with certainty: "It's nine years."
Qing Bai noticed Yin Weihuai's nervousness and said soothingly, "Don't worry, Lord Yin. Jiunian left me a protective item before he left. It will ensure my safe return."
As he spoke, Qing Bai took out the animal tusk that was as white as jade and shaped like a crescent moon.
Unexpectedly, after seeing the guarantee left by Nine Years, Yin Weihuai's expression changed drastically, from confusion and suspicion to surprise, shock and confusion, and finally he was subtly stuck between sudden enlightenment and disbelief.
"Isn't this the milk tooth of a ninth-year-old?!"
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