Does 389 also have wishes?
The group walked along the corridor toward the white door. Sweet Dream Baby nudged Lanlan, signaling her to open the door.
Lanlan swallowed hard, stretched out her small, tender hand, and pushed forward. The white door creaked open.
Inside the door was a pink-themed nursery, filled with all sorts of adorable little dolls. Warm-colored star wall lamps hung on the walls, and a light pink swaddle blanket sat on the neat crib under the lamps.
"Lanlan, are you coming back to find your mother?"
In another corner of the room, a row of framed photos sat on a cream-colored desk, each containing a heartwarming portrait of Lanlan and her parents. Lanlan's mother was holding her stomach with one hand and stroking the album with the other, murmuring to herself.
"Mom!" Lanlan ran towards her mother.
"Lanlan, don't get too close. She's pregnant. Even in a dream, touching you will taint you with the yin energy of the dead," Sweet Dream Baby warned.
"Yes, Lanlan understands."
"Lanlan?" Lanlan's mother turned around sharply at the sound of her name being called, and saw her beloved daughter standing not far away. She rubbed her eyes in disbelief. Only when the girl was still right in front of her did she call out her name again.
"Mommy, don't come any closer, I can't be too near you." Before Lanlan's mother could answer, the child continued, "Mommy, I don't have much time left. I've come to ask you, can I be reincarnated into your belly? Can I become your child again?"
"Ah, yes, yes, yes, yes, sob sob sob, Mommy has been hoping Lanlan would come back. Mommy even prayed to Buddha, asking you to be reborn in Mommy's belly so that Mommy can continue to love and take care of you." Lanlan's mother subconsciously took two steps forward, but after seeing Lanlan take two steps back, she realized something and quickly stepped back.
"But if I were to become your child again, my happy life in my next life might be changed. Do you think that's okay?" Lanlan asked again.
"This..." Lanlan's mother was stunned; clearly, this was a question she had never considered.
“Mom, Lanlan doesn’t understand these things, but Lanlan really wants to go back to Mom and Dad’s side. That would be the happiest life for Lanlan.”
"My child, my dear child," Lanlan's mother choked back tears, covering her mouth as she listened to Lanlan's words. A moment later, as if remembering something, she looked up, wiped away her tears again, and said, "Then Mommy agrees to let Lanlan be my child again. Mommy will work hard for your new life!!!"
“Lanlan understands, Mom. I came here to get your permission.”
"Lanlan, your mother can't see anyone but you. I'll leave this application form on the table. Once your mother signs it to confirm her agreement, we'll have to leave."
Sweet Dream Baby cast a spell, and a pen and a special rebirth application form appeared on the table next to the child's bed.
Lanlan nodded and told her mother why she needed to sign. Lanlan's mother signed her name in the applicant section of the form without any hesitation.
Just as Lanlan's mother finished signing and put down her pen, the room suddenly began to shake. The photo frame on the table tilted and fell over, and the star-shaped wall lamp on the wall was shaken and fell to the ground with a loud thud.
Sweet Dream Baby looked around nervously and said to everyone, "Lanlan's mother's emotions are starting to overflow, which means Lanlan needs to leave as soon as possible. Otherwise, if the other person is too excited in the dream, it may affect the real world."
"Will Mom remember when she wakes up?" Lanlan asked.
"She will probably vaguely remember some fragments, but she will only think that you appeared to her in a dream."
The entrance to the dream must be opened by the dream maker himself, so the exit will only reappear when Lanlan decides to leave. Therefore, when Lanlan turned around, the door emitting a faint glow reappeared in front of them, and Fangfangfang and Gu Lili, who had been waiting by the side, also walked to the door with Guan Nan.
"Lanlan, let's go. Don't look back."
The little girl was reluctant to leave. She sobbed as she reached out her hand to the door and pushed it open forcefully.
"Phew~ Finally finished. Let's hurry back to sign and stamp it, then this little one can go reincarnate." Sweet Dream Baby's heart was finally at ease. Under Guan Nan's watchful eye, she felt uncomfortable doing anything, only hoping that this job would be over quickly so that she could send this big shot away.
So Fangfangfang picked up Lanlan again and walked quickly ahead with Tianmeng Baobao, while Guannan walked at the back, letting Gu Lili walk in front of him.
As a light appeared in the distance, the exit gradually came into view. It was the picture frame they had come from. With the support of Guan Nan's oppressive aura, they successfully stepped out of the picture frame, and the dream-eating beasts stopped attacking.
"Lanlan, we did it!!" Gu Lili squatted down and hugged Lanlan, then turned to Fangfangfang: "Let's take Lanlan to be reincarnated. Didn't you say we had to be quick when cutting in line?"
"Yes, Lady Meng Po. Once Lady Tianmeng stamps our receipt, we can return to the Yellow Springs." Fangfangfang quickly walked to the desk, handed the receipt to Tianmeng, and respectfully replied.
"Baby, thank you so much. We're leaving now, see you next time." Gu Lili stepped forward and hugged Sweet Dream Baby who had just finished getting her stamped, took the receipt, and patted her back goodbye.
"Next time... there's always next time," Sweet Dream Baby muttered.
"Lady Meng Po, have you forgotten something?"
Gu Lili was about to leave with Lanlan when Fangfangfang grabbed her arm and winked at her.
"Ah, Guan Nan, hehehe, thank you for saving the day, you look incredibly handsome today. We're off now."
Guan Nan, who had been standing at the back, had a gloomy face. He had just saved her, and she was leaving without even saying goodbye. But the other party's unexpected flattery made him both amused and speechless. He instantly lost his temper and simply said to Fang Fangfang, "Bring her here early for the Ghost Festival tonight."
"Yes, I'll take my leave." Fangfangfang replied to Guannan and then left with the others.
After Fangfangfang left, Guan Nan looked at Tianmeng Baobao with a stern expression: "Don't you know what the consequences will be if Meng Po is caught by the Dream Eater?"
"Ah, Lord Guan Nan, I know I was wrong. I will repair the corridor system today and this situation will never happen again."
"Dream Eaters don't evolve without reason. If Meng Po comes again, we must not let her enter the corridor again."
"Yes, I understand."
"You clean up the mess, I'm leaving."
Faced with Guan Nan's questioning, Sweet Dream Baby panicked. Previous Meng Po had entered dreams many times without encountering such a situation. Although the Dream-Eating Beasts had existed for a long time, they had always been low-level monsters without intelligence. Today, however, they inexplicably seemed to have developed sentience and even learned to evade defense systems. When they possessed Lan Lan, even she couldn't detect it immediately. Furthermore... they seemed to be intentionally targeting Meng Po.
Who exactly is this new Meng Po?
Sweet Dream Baby pondered for a moment before summoning her subordinates to repair and update the defense system, enhancing its recognizability.
"Ding-dong~" Sweet Dream Baby's phone suddenly popped up with a message.
“Hey baby, got into trouble? Need your big brother to help you sort this out?” The message was from “Annoying Person”, whose profile picture was a selfie of a man who looked a bit like the Korean star Ma Dong-hee, but with a narcissistic and greasy expression.
"Go to hell, mind your own business. Just stay in your nightmare hometown," Sweet Dream Baby replied cursingly, clearly disgusted with the person.
"I'm already dead, how can I die again? Did you receive my gift? Cheer up, otherwise how can you have a sweet dream, right? Hehehehe~." The annoying guy sent another message.
"Sweet Dream, Nightmare from across the street has brought you a gift—a basket of strawberry-flavored lollipops!" said the plush PR person who had been waiting at the office door.
"Who cares? That bastard, why does he always bother me? I can't block him, it's so annoying. I don't want the gift, take it and throw it away." Sweet Dream Baby stomped her feet angrily, and had no choice but to turn off the phone and put it on the desk.
Seeing that Sweet Dream Baby was irritable, the plush PR person didn't dare to say much. She picked up a basket of lollipops, went downstairs and distributed them to her PR sisters, and chatted briefly about the gossip of the two of them.
"Hey, hey, hey, come here quickly, Nightmare Brother has brought another gift."
"What is it today? The strawberry mini cakes you sent me a few days ago were so delicious, I still feel hungry just thinking about them."
"Sweet Dreams is angry and won't accept Big Brother's gift, which is a boon for us. But what exactly caused their falling out? Big Brother has been trying to coax our Lord for ages and still hasn't been able to make up."
"Shh, just eat what we give you. Don't gossip about the past, or if the adults find out, they'll make you clean the Dream Corridor."
When the Dream Bureau was first established, the two were just new colleagues. Although they each had their own duties, they often shared information and helped each other, and there were even rumors of a romance between them. But 800 years ago, for some reason, Sweet Dream Baby suddenly broke off relations with Nightmare Brother, and they had no contact except for work-related matters.
Suddenly, a plume of black smoke appeared in front of the Bridge of Helplessness. It was Meng Po Gu Lili and the public relations officer Fang Fangfang, who was holding Lanlan, returning.
"Lady Meng Po is back. How was it? Did everything go smoothly?" 389 leaned over and asked.
Gu Lili sighed, "Sigh, something went wrong, and I almost didn't make it back. But luckily, Lord Guan Nan came to help, and we finally completed the mission successfully."
"Lady Meng Po, I need to hurry to the special reincarnation area to take Lanlan to be reincarnated." Fangfangfang glanced down at the soup pot: "Lanlan needs to drink the soup before being reincarnated, so give it to her now."
"Alright. Be good, Lanlan. Drink this and go see your parents. In your next life, Grandma wishes you a wonderful life."
"Thank you, Grandma. Lanlan also hopes that Grandma can fulfill her wish." Lanlan, with tears in her eyes, carefully held the soup bowl to her lips and gulped down the entire bowl. Then, the moment she put down the soup bowl, her eyes became vacant, and she no longer reacted to anything around her. She simply followed Fangfangfang obediently towards the Yellow Springs.
"Everyone, that's all for today's soup. See you tomorrow!"
389 pointed to the soup pot at the line of departed souls. The Meng Po soup, due to its origin, would emit a faint green glow; now the pot was dull and colorless, proving there was no soup left for the day. The implication was that they were closed for the day and had gone home.
The souls did not reply, but returned to their respective groups, closed their eyes, bowed their heads, and waited for Meng Po to resume her duties.
"Let's go, my lady. Tonight is Ghost Festival, which is equivalent to the Spring Festival in the human world. A message from the Bai family's PR team said that your Hanfu and jewelry have been delivered to Meng Po's Residence. We'll dress you up nicely when we get back." 389 said in a low voice, covering his mouth as he walked with Gu Lili's arm toward Meng Po's Residence.
"I'm not really interested. I haven't celebrated Chinese New Year in a long time. I don't like crowds."
Since her grandmother passed away, Gu Lili has been facing all kinds of holidays alone. At first, she would call her remaining relatives to wish them a Happy New Year. Although they were perfunctory, it still gave her some emotional support.
Later, her stepmother discovered that she was still in contact with her father and forced him to block all her contact methods. Finally, after repeated disappointments with her father, her last hope was extinguished, and she accepted the fact that she was all alone.
“You still have me, Lady Meng Po. We’re already ghosts, so I can stay with you forever,” 389 said, pulling her arm closer and leaning in to speak.
"Hey, no, I meant you..."
Gu Lili seemed to have been hit where it hurt by 389, but for a moment she couldn't think of a way to refute it, and she said with a mixture of shame and anger.
"And you, do you have a wish too? If you'd like, I can..."
"I don't want to. Everything in this world is irrelevant to me. What I want most in my life is to live a life of luxury with the adults and be free from the suffering of reincarnation. This is a blessing that many people cannot attain even through spiritual cultivation."
389's answer was sincere and carefree; working in a modern underworld is indeed much more comfortable than being a beast of burden in the human world.
But Gu Lili was still curious. When she helped the deceased fulfill their wishes, 389 was also moved to tears. But why did she herself not have any attachment to the human world? Did she not want to see her parents and relatives?
When I first saw her, 389 was dressed neatly and had no fatal wounds. What caused her to leave this world?
"My lord, this dress is quite beautiful! Hurry up and try it on. I'll also help you comb your hair. Tonight, our lord is going to outshine everyone!"
A chattering voice from 389 interrupted Gu Lili's thoughts. Following the direction the other person pointed, a set of light pink and blue Hanfu was neatly laid out on her bed, along with matching shoes and accessories placed beside the bed.
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