People of the motherland, soul of the motherland
Guan Nan activated his spiritual power and examined Gu Lili: "How long will it take to recover?"
Ksitigarbha shook his head: "It's hard to say. The one who hurt her was the son of an ancient demon king. If that kid hadn't been sealed, I'm afraid even if you and I joined forces, we wouldn't be a match for him."
"All right."
Guan Nan took out his phone, found Fang Fangfang in his contact list, and sent her a message saying that he would take care of Gu Lili for a few days, asking her to keep it a secret. Fang Fangfang didn't ask any questions, but repeatedly asked Lord Guan Nan to take good care of her Lady Meng Po.
"Huang Quan can only remain here for a few days. But it can't be too long. If it exceeds a week, the higher-ups will find out," Guan Nan said calmly.
...
"Lady Meng Po! Lady Meng Po!" Qing Lian kept calling out to Gu Lili in her spiritual realm.
"Qinglian..." Gu Lili appeared in the secret realm: "What happened, Qinglian? Aren't we on the 19th floor?"
Qinglian said with heartache, "The Ghost King bit you and absorbed half of your spiritual energy. Unlike other underworld officials, you don't have at least a hundred years of cultivation to protect you. Your true form is a mortal, so you naturally couldn't withstand being injured by that Ghost King. But I'm also wondering, even though I clearly returned all the magic power and memories you had stored with me, why can't I detect any cultivation within you?"
"I still can't remember anything. I remember he called me Mengli. Do you know that name?"
"I don't know. I developed my intelligence in the River of Oblivion. Back then, everyone called you Meng Po. Nobody knew where you came from, they only knew that your soup was incredibly potent."
“However… you seem to have been in… heaven before,” Qinglian thought for a moment and then said, “Back then… although I had not yet developed sentience, I remember that I was originally a drop of morning dew in the Heavenly Spirit Pool. If you hadn’t passed by and taken pity on me, Qinglian would no longer exist in this world… But that Spirit Pool is an important place in the Heavenly Realm. If you weren’t a person of great importance in the heavens, you would definitely not be able to wander around there.”
"Your accent... you use a lot of dialects."
"There's nothing I can do, sir. I've been influenced by the spirits of the dead over the past thousand years... Wait, what is this?"
Qinglian sensed a mysterious power approaching from the secret realm, nourishing her essence, and Gu Lili's spirit began to repair itself.
"Oh, it's our Lord Guan Nan again..."
"Shh... Stop talking, stop talking. Go play somewhere else, I need to rest." With that, Gu Lili quickly vanished into the void and fell into a deep sleep.
Gu Lili hadn't come to the Underworld for two days, and the departed souls were getting anxious. Some worried that Meng Po had died and they would never be able to reincarnate; others complained that there was nowhere to rest in the Underworld, and they could only stand and wait—a soul's life is a life too. Still others were complaining that there was only one Meng Po handling their affairs. Since this was a modern-day Underworld, why couldn't there be more Meng Pos at the windows?
"Understood, understood, I'll write it all down and report it all when our adults return."
Before the Bridge of Helplessness, 389 was holding a Minion ballpoint pen, rapidly recording the suggestions of the departed souls for the new era of the underworld.
389's favorite character is the Minions. She finds their chattering funny. The pen wasn't originally hers. She mentioned to Gu Lili that she had seen someone bring one back from the movie theater and loved it. The next day, she found the pen at her own little table on the second floor of Meng Po's Residence.
"My Lord Underworld Messenger, will Lady Meng Po be back tomorrow?" the first soul in line asked timidly.
"Grandma, we adults are sick, we need to rest for a few days."
Although this was the 36th time the old lady, who had suffered from Alzheimer's disease, had asked this question today, 389 still walked to her side, supported the old lady's deeply furrowed hands, and patiently explained.
"Auntie, what does the Meng Po soup taste like?" A little boy in the line ran quickly to the soup pot, stood on tiptoe to look into the pot, and turned to ask 389.
The little boy looked about 5 or 6 years old. He was quite adorable, with a neat buzz cut and a slightly childish voice.
389 smiled and squatted down: "Little handsome boy, Auntie has never tried it either, but none of the uncles and aunties who have tried it have said it tastes bad."
"Will it taste like bubble tea? I've never had bubble tea before. My mom says it's bad for your health and I can only drink it when I grow up." The little boy blinked, as if pondering a profound math problem. After a while, he asked again, "Auntie, will I ever grow up? Will I ever see my mom again? Will I ever be able to drink bubble tea again?"
A child's words are always full of innocence; he probably doesn't yet understand the meaning of death.
389 turned her head away, wiped away the tears on her cheeks, and put on a smiling face, saying, "Yes, our Lady Meng Po will have a way. Auntie will write it down now. The handsome young man wants Meng Po soup with bubble tea flavor."
The little boy was overjoyed to hear the words "milk tea tastes like" and a sweet smile appeared on his face: "Is Lady Meng Po's illness almost cured? Mommy said that you should drink more water when you're sick."
"Huh? You ghosts get sick? You're probably just slacking off at work on purpose, aren't you?"
Suddenly, a middle-aged man's leisurely, mocking voice rang out from the group.
"Who's shouting? Come out!" Fangfangfang, who had been standing guard on the side, looked up at the group and shouted loudly.
"What's wrong? I told you so."
A bald, burly man wearing a white tank top and loose black shorts, shuffling along in his military running shoes with the heels worn off, pushed his way forward from the back of the line.
"Why are you queuing for so long? Are you saving all the good ones for the ghosts who got in through connections? And what's with this 'Meng Po is sick' nonsense? Bah! Check how many points I have. A bunch of little ghosts dare to disregard me."
The bald man walked up to Fangfangfang, looked her up and down, then slammed his hands on the table and yelled at the group.
"Sister Fangfang, should I go and call the Bai family's PR team?" 389 was startled by the bald man's sudden closeness, pulled the little boy back a few steps, and tugged at Fangfang's clothes as he asked.
Fangfangfang smiled dismissively: "No need. Those people have no good intentions. They came here just to see us make a fool of ourselves. I can handle this little thing."
Fangfangfang took out her phone and checked the bald man's information before saying, "You've done a lot of bad things in your life, but your ancestors had 1.3 million points left. After deducting those, you still have 690,000 points left. You'll be reincarnated as a woman, and in your next life you'll have many children and grandchildren. Is that right?"
"Yes, that's right. My ancestors accumulated good karma, so I'm blessed. In my next life, I won't do anything but be a woman and wait to collect dowries, hahahahaha." The bald man laughed lewdly, the fat on his face trembling with his triumphant laughter.
"Alright." Fangfangfang took out her phone, found a number in her contacts and dialed: "Yes, it's me. Our master recently took sick leave, but some wandering souls are anxious to be reincarnated. Yes, that's right, the wandering souls agree to the reassignment. No problem, please thank Master Yan for me."
"Alright, come with me." Fangfangfang hung up the phone, walked to the bald man's side, and activated the teleportation.
"Damn it, I knew you guys were slacking off. Just like in the human world, if I don't make a fuss, you'll think I'm an easy target."
When the bald man saw Fangfangfang activate the teleportation, he assumed she had given him a VIP pass and happily followed her, not forgetting to taunt the souls queuing behind him: "Keep waiting like idiots, I'm leaving first."
A plume of black smoke dissipated, and the two had vanished into the underworld. The queuing ghosts around them whispered among themselves: "Did the PR guy really give that guy special treatment? This... isn't fair."
"How about we have a little commotion? My ancestors left me 700,000 points."
"Come on, Lady Meng Po isn't not coming back. Besides, we've already been waiting in line for so long. Can't we hold on for a few more days?" A little girl in the crowd whispered.
389, who had been active in the underworld, remained silent this time, only nudging the little boy and signaling him to go back and line up obediently. She knew that everything in the underworld was based on points, and even a detestable soul like the bald man could only watch him move towards a happy new life if he had enough points.
"If only I had magic powers," 389 sighed and murmured.
"If you also had magic power, what would you want?" Fangfangfang returned after teleporting the bald man and, hearing 389's murmur, leaned over to ask.
"I also want to protect you," she said, looking down at the ground. Unlike Gu Lili, who had a source to reshape her spirit, 389 was merely an assistant appointed by Meng Po, thus exempt from the suffering of reincarnation. However, ordinary souls do not possess the aptitude for cultivation and cannot have magical powers.
"Where's the bald man?" 389 asked.
"Isn't he in a hurry to be reincarnated? We can only be reincarnated after drinking Meng Po's soup. Our lord is sick, and he can't wait, so I made him obey the adjustment and sent him to another country to be reincarnated."
389 exclaimed in surprise: "Huh??? You can do that???"
Why not??
"Which country was it sent to?"
Fangfangfang said playfully, "The one who's clean and hygienic, I have a good relationship with their public relations manager. He will definitely have many children and grandchildren in his next life, but his son will be born at the very end."
"Pfft, hahaha, Fangfang, you're becoming more and more like us adults..."
Fangfangfang put away her smile and reverted to her old-fashioned demeanor, saying, "Are there any other souls who can't wait? I'll arrange for you to be reincarnated in another country's underworld."
"No, no, no, PR guy, we are all Chinese, we are all Chinese, we will be Chinese again in our next life!" A boy in a plaid shirt with a brown perm jumped out and shouted. Then, under the surprised gazes of the crowd, he explained the possible consequences of the adjustment and the bitter consequences that the bald man would definitely face in his next life.
"Public Relations Officer, we're really not in a rush," a male voice called out from a distance in the group. He paused, then walked closer, bowing and fawning, "After drinking the soup, we forgot everything that happened in this life. We thought we wouldn't have a chance to continue chatting about all the bad luck we've had, but Lady Meng Po's leave of absence has given us the opportunity instead. What a coincidence! Hehe, well, you go ahead and do your thing, we old brothers will continue our chat."
As the sycophantic man returned to the group, the underworld fell silent, and the long, winding line of the dead appeared even more orderly than before.
"Let's go, 389. Lady Meng Po can't come today, you can go home now."
"Can I go back to Meng Po's residence? I miss Lady Meng Po so much, I don't want to go anywhere."
"Can."
"Okay." 389 picked up her small briefcase and prepared to leave work, but when she looked up, she met the expectant eyes of an elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease, which made her feel a little guilty.
"Fangfang, why don't you show them a movie? It's eerily quiet here right now. When I was in the mortal world, even a second without my phone felt like an eternity. These modern ghosts must be so uncomfortable just standing here like this."
Upon hearing 389's suggestion, the few souls standing in the front row looked timidly at Fangfangfang.
"Okay, sure. What kind of movie do you want to watch?" Fangfangfang's tone was calm, but the ghosts in the group looked at each other, and no one dared to answer.
What about the Avengers superhero series?
Seeing that no one responded, 389 simply gave a recommendation: she loved watching superhero movies when she was on Earth.
Upon hearing 389's suggestion, the sycophantic man shouted from the back of the group, "No, Lady Fang, let's watch something like Wolf Warrior. The spirit of the motherland, the spirit of the motherland, Lady Fang!"
389 covered her mouth and laughed: "Sister Fangfang, your move is absolutely brilliant!"
"Okay, you go back first. I'll go apply for a projector first, and I'll come back to process it as soon as I get it."
"Hehe, I'm off then, Sister Fangfang. See you tomorrow." 389 waved to Fangfangfang and the queuing ghosts, then lifted her zombie miniskirt and hopped towards Meng Po's residence.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
