There is no medicine in Mengpo soup
Meng Po blinked pitifully. Of course, Tian Baozhu and the others couldn't see her expression outside her cloak, but they could certainly feel her urgent pleading.
Tian Baozhu and Hei Wuchang looked at each other and nodded in tacit understanding.
"Okay, we'll help you." Tian Baozhu and the others formally agreed.
"But your first plan is to plant the entire Yellow Springs Road with red spider lilies, right? Will that delay your work progress?"
Meng Po still couldn't help but worry that her own responsibilities would affect their farming work.
Tian Baozhu said, "I've already figured out the trick to growing red spider lilies in the underworld. Now the temperature and water are adjusted to an environment suitable for the flowers to grow, and the red spider mites, the natural enemy of flowers and plants, have not reappeared. The red spider lilies you lent us that are able to bloom have all produced seeds, and we recently harvested a new batch of flower bulbs. We have been working on reclaiming new land these days, and when we return we can start planting a new batch of seeds without any delay."
"That's good!"
Meng Po thought: She had only been away for a few days, and her sister had already taken up the art of gardening. The King of Hell had chosen the right person by entrusting her with the work of farming in the underworld.
Tian Baozhu discovered that after she summarized it this way, her mind was full of thoughts about growing the red spider lilies first, without considering anything else. Now that they have achieved results in growing the red spider lilies, it is time to start the second task of farming, which is to look for wood for repairing the Naihe Bridge - golden nanmu.
Meng Po has been in the underworld for so many years, so she should know a thing or two about golden nanmu.
After Tian Baozhu thought about it, she asked Meng Po: "Meng Po, in our underworld, where can we find golden nanmu seeds or where does it grow naturally? Where did the original wood for Naihe Bridge come from?"
"The wood for Naihe Bridge... Naihe Bridge had already been repaired when I arrived. From what I've learned, the golden nanmu was a gift from heaven. It was once planted in an unknown area behind the mountains, but the exact location is unknown, and few dared to enter the area, so it disappeared."
"Then this time we go into the back area with you and maybe we can make some new discoveries." Tian Baozhu suddenly felt hopeful.
"That area is so vast, I'm not sure if I'll find anything. If you'd like to pinpoint a more specific location, I recommend you talk to the accountant and borrow some ancient books from his library. Perhaps they'll contain more detailed records."
※※※
Following Meng Po's advice, Tian Baozhu and Hei Wuchang went to find the accountant. The accountant said that it was working hours and he needed to make an account book for the King of Hell, a book of merits used to judge ghosts. He was not done with his work and asked them to come back after work.
"Give us the key and we'll find it ourselves." Hei Wuchang seemed even more anxious than Tian Baozhu.
The accountant was also taken aback by Hei Wuchang's unusual eagerness. "I've never heard you mention wanting to read any ancient books before. Why are you two so eager today?"
"I just heard Meng Po say that I can come to your place to look for books. Hei Wuchang is... you haven't heard of him, right?" Tian Baozhu finished the question and looked at Hei Wuchang and asked.
“It’s the first time I’ve heard of it.”
“…I think so.”
The reason was pretty much the same as Tian Baozhu's imagination. Given Hei Wuchang's deep concern for the Naihe Bridge, if he had known where the original wood for the Naihe Bridge, the golden nanmu, was, he would have gone looking for it long ago. There was no way he would have acted only now. They had never shared any information.
Alas, the three senior employees of the underworld, Old White Impermanence, Meng Po, and Black Impermanence, all work independently, each in their own mountain, without interacting with each other.
After getting the key to the library from the accountant, they opened the door and started searching inside. The library was not big, and the accountant had arranged the books in chronological order. The [Ancient Books] should be on the bottom floor, among the books that looked the most worn.
They each picked up a book and flipped through it. It was very dusty and the paper was brittle, so they had to turn the pages carefully.
While flipping through the book, Tian Baozhu asked Hei Wuchang, "Senior, can I ask why you care so much about Naihe Bridge?"
Hei Wuchang finished flipping through one book and opened another. As he turned the pages, he slowly answered, "...Because I fell off the Naihe Bridge before."
"Ah! I saw the index for 'Golden Silkwood' in the catalog!" Tian Baozhu called Hei Wuchang over to take a look. Wait...what did he just say? "Did it fall down?"
"Let me see, which page is it on?"
Hei Wuchang came over and interrupted Tian Baozhu's intention to continue asking questions. Okay, let them focus on the book in front of them for now.
She quickly turned the page according to the index: "Page 149, Golden Phoebe. Golden Phoebe was gifted by the heavens and placed in the valleys of the mountains. It has remained intact for thousands of years, and its fragrance can be smelled for a hundred miles."
It's just a few short sentences, but the location isn't clear.
Hei Wuchang sighed, and Tian Baozhu comforted him:
"At least we know the geographical environment where golden nanmu grows. If we encounter this kind of terrain in the unknown areas behind the mountains, we should pay more attention. Maybe we will be surprised."
"Hmm, that's right..." Hei Wuchang pondered. Aside from the unknown areas, he was familiar with the ecology of the underworld, but he had never seen the mountainous valleys described in the book. It seemed he had to go to this unknown area.
※※※
It has been agreed to help Meng Po find herbs, and she also learned information about the golden nanmu from the accountant. Tian Baozhu still has a problem to solve, which is the placement of the vicious dog.
She once planned to take the vicious dog back to the dormitory after get off work, but just as she was about to take a step up the stairs with the dog in her arms, it was shaken away. She tried it several times and it happened every time, but when she went up the stairs alone, everything was fine.
She then realized that the staff dormitory only accepted employees of the underworld, and other people (dogs) were not allowed to enter.
Tian Baozhu brought the vicious dog to the Red Spider Lily experimental field, bought some ordinary wood at the hardware store, and built a simple house for it. In the flower fields on Huangquan Road, at least she could see it regularly and keep it under control.
It adapted very well and became a patrol dog, patrolling around the flower fields on Huangquan Road all day. Once a ghost came close, it would run over to drive it away as if it was equipped with a sensor alarm. Over time, everyone knew how powerful this patrol dog was, and no ghost dared to have any ideas about going in.
※※※
The next day, Meng Po, who had rested well, came to find Tian Baozhu and the others. She saw that Tian Baozhu and Hei Wuchang had already explained the work they would be doing during their absence to the assistants in advance.
"Sister, we can go find herbs in peace now."
"Where are we going from here?"
Tian Baozhu wanted to ask if she needed to bring some more items for climbing the mountain, but she saw Meng Po open a "door" out of thin air.
"Go in here."
She had seen this scene of a door opening out of nowhere somewhere before... She looked at the "door", which looked like a TV screen covered with snowflakes, like a sudden spatial glitch against the backdrop of a beautiful flower field.
"Senior, can you also open such a 'door'?" Tian Baozhu asked Hei Wuchang.
Hei Wuchang shook his head: "I can't do it at the moment."
"I have been in the underworld for nearly a thousand years, and he has only been there for a hundred years. The gap will of course be reflected here." Meng Po said proudly.
I see.
Tian Baozhu thought: I stayed there the shortest time, no wonder the hidden space can only manipulate a limited width, while Hei Wuchang can manipulate it freely and stretch it wide.
Tian Baozhu thought of something else and asked:
"Old Bai Wuchang also knows these things. So, by this calculation, he has been in the underworld for a thousand years?"
"The first generation of Bai Wuchang? He was already here when I first arrived. He must have stayed in the underworld longer than I did."
Meng Po then divided the space into two parts, and they followed Meng Po in.
Chaos came over her, and her senses were blank as if wiped out. When she came to her senses, she stepped into a forest.
However, the scenery here is a little different from what she saw when she and Hei Wuchang went out of the cave before. The environment here is humid, with a long stream flowing through, and the plants growing here are not so wildly lush.
"Meng Po, where does the herb you're looking for grow?"
"The one ingredient I'm missing isn't an herb, but a pearl from a river clam, 'Pearl Bright'. Other herbs can cause forgetfulness, but Mengpo Soup requires not only forgetfulness but also clarity of mind. Otherwise, the next person will be stupid and unable to open their minds."
"It's a very important medicine." Tian Baozhu understood.
Those clams can be picked up from the rivers in this area. Finding them just takes time, which is not the difficult part. The difficulty lies in the fact that you can only know whether there are pearls inside by prying them open.
"It takes a lot of time to pry them open one by one, and the clams cannot grow after they are opened, so we have to ensure accuracy. I know several methods of testing pearls, let's try them all and see which one is more useful." Tian Baozhu said.
They found some large leaves from the riverbank and placed the clams on them. Working together, the three of them soon filled the spaces on the large leaves spread out on the ground with clams.
There are roughly three methods of checking beads.
The first is to examine their appearance. Pearl-bearing oysters often have concave or convex parts on their shells. This can be done by gently prying open the edges of the shell. The Mengpo puppet's fingers can be used as tools without any wear and tear, so she handles the first method.
The second method is to pinch the clam to see if there is anything hard inside. This is left to Hei Wuchang to verify.
The third method is to use light. Tian Baozhu took out her spirit-calling bell and poured her energy into it. The bell illuminated the clam like a lamp. The third method is to use the light to see if there are any shadows inside. If there are shadows, there must be a pearl inside.
The three people divided the work into different parts, and saw that the clams were constantly being put from their hands to the other side which had been checked to be empty, while the other side, where pearls could only be put, was still empty, which meant that no pearls were seen at the moment.
"Is it because the water here is too shallow to form pearls?" Tian Baozhu looked around and saw that there were no clams in the water anymore. They had all been fished out by them.
"Maybe we should go a little further and explore in deeper water."
After putting the clams back into the river, they moved to a deeper area. Sure enough, the clams they fished out from the deep water gave them a surprise.
Meng Po used the method taught by Tian Baozhu and was the first to find the pearl.
Meng Po didn't care that her hands were still wet. She took Tian Baozhu's hand and said, "That's great, sister, you have a pearl! Thank you for your method, it's very effective!"
The method was effective and Tian Baozhu was very encouraged.
Maybe it was because she was too happy, but she also felt that she smelled a very special fragrance.
Tian Baozhu took a deep breath, oh ~ it was so refreshing ~ that refreshing fragrance was real, coming from ten meters away.
The two of them were still sorting out pearls, Tian Baozhu thought, "My walk isn't far. I won't interrupt them. I'll go over and take a look myself."
She walked towards the uneven slope along the river.
She saw from afar a small seedling emitting a strange fragrance and golden light. She wanted to get closer, and her feet were almost at the edge.
But he slipped and fell down from a height difference.
"thump!"
The loud noise and splash startled two people so much that they ran over.
Tian Baozhu couldn't see anything clearly in the water. She could only hear vague voices coming into her ears: a boy and a girl calling her...
"How are you? Sister, what happened to you? Are you okay?" An anxious female voice.
"Come up quickly." A reliable male voice.
The sound became clearer, and she felt herself being pulled out and then held in a safe and solid embrace. She was no longer aware of what happened after that.
※※※
Tian Baozhu woke up from her coma.
As soon as she made any movement, a voice said, "She's awake! Sister is awake!"
She saw a delicate little hand pulling her hand under the sleeve of the black robe.
There was the sound of a towel being wrung nearby. A damp cloth was placed on her forehead, and the man covering it spoke: "The accountant told us you had a seizure, and this damp cloth will help calm you down. How are you feeling now?"
Tian Baozhu blinked at them and asked:
"Who are you?"
Meng Po and Hei Wuchang both gasped.
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