This was Baili Xin's second time to Naihe Bridge. Meng Po, who was sitting dejectedly on the side of the bridge, was busy, sometimes cooking Meng Po soup in the pot, sometimes refilling a bowl for the reincarnated ones, and she had no time to spare.
A few more souls trying to escape dived into the Forgetful River in the distance. Soon they began to struggle on the water, and then the water ghosts slowly swam up from the shore.
Further away, large patches of bright red flowers of the other shore were in full bloom, with strange and gorgeous beauty. The endless sea of flowers stretched all the way to the edge, connecting with the thick blood-red sky above, and it was almost impossible to distinguish one from the other.
Everything was exactly as it had been when he had visited.
Baili Xin followed the numb ghost to the bridge. Not only did the ghost look dull, but even Meng Po looked lifeless.
The bony crutch hung diagonally on her chest. Meng Po held the crutch with one hand, yawning boredly, and with the other hand she scooped a spoonful of Meng Po soup into the bowl.
When Baili Xin approached, he heard Meng Po singing in a whisper.
He didn't understand the specific lyrics, or rather there were no lyrics at all, just a simple melody.
There was a ghost in front of Meng Po's stall. Baili Xin did not rush forward, but leaned against the Naihe Bridge and silently observed this simple but very important stall.
The fog was thick, and the ghosts who drank Meng Po soup seemed to be summoned, and walked into the unknown fog without hesitation.
Only after sending the last ghost away did Baili Xin come to Meng Po's stall, staring at the direction the ghosts were leaving, and asked, "Is it behind that fog?"
Meng Po raised her head, revealing a face full of wrinkles.
The old man looked at Baili Xin with his old eyes, then looked deeply at the white mist, and then shook his head, "I don't know, but it should be a good place."
Her voice was hoarse, like the cry of an old crow perched on a dead vine. "I've been here so long that I don't even remember it."
"I have seen off tens of thousands of creatures on this bridge," Meng Po said with a self-deprecating smile, "animals, birds, beasts, fish, insects, plants, and trees..."
“I watched them as soon as they walked inside, toward the new.”
"As long as you walk through this fog, you can get new things."
Meng Po pulled her walking stick closer to her chest and looked into the thick fog: "Child, do you know what despair is?"
"It's something that's clearly within your reach, but you can only watch helplessly as you don't go there."
"Oh, this is the punishment from the King of Hell."
“That’s absolutely amazing.”
Baili Xin quietly looked down at the old man who looked weak and lonely, but he did not feel relaxed at all.
Meng Po finally shifted her gaze away from the thick fog and focused on Baili Xin.
"I know why you came," Meng Po raised her eyebrows and looked at Baili Xin, "He came to see me."
Baili Xin calmly pulled a small stool and sat next to Meng Po, "Bisheng, I am actually more interested in you."
Meng Po's dead eyes wavered a little, and she looked at Baili Xin suspiciously, "Interested in me? You didn't come to me just to find out where the Saint was?"
Baili Xin: "That's one of the reasons. Yingniang, what kind of a remarkable woman you were back then."
"What kind of charm must a woman have to be able to make a saint who was supposed to save all people give up on them?"
Baili Xin looked at Meng Po seriously, "I went to look at the Book of the Dead, but everything about you disappeared along with the wanton splashing of ink, so I can only come to ask Ben."
Meng Po's dead eyes gradually became bright, and she slowly opened her hazy eyes like an old woman who had just woken up.
"Hahaha," Meng Po looked at Baili Xin and suddenly laughed twice, "Ying Niang, Ying Niang, I never heard of the name 'Ying Niang' when I was young."
"It's been so long, and you still remember my name?"
"I was really surprised."
Baili Xin: "You just said Sheng came to see you?"
Meng Po: "Yes, he came to see me before he left."
"Go," Baili Xin chewed the word in his mouth, "Where to go?"
Meng Po laughed and said a word that made Baili Xin's heart tremble: "Resurrection."
Baili Xin thought about it and took out the body of Saint from his backpack: "His real body is here with me, how can I revive him?"
Meng Po's eyes suddenly widened, and her body, which had been lazily leaning on the bamboo chair, suddenly jumped up, and her crutches fell on the wall with a loud "bang".
"Why is this body here with you?"
Baili Xin: "I found it in the Yanwang Temple in Yanwang Town."
Meng Po supported herself on the ground with her crutches. She took a deep look at the holy body sitting cross-legged, slowly approached it, and stretched out her trembling fingertips to carefully trace the facial features of the mummy.
It's like touching a treasure.
After a moment, she chuckled and retracted her dry fingers into her sleeves.
“That’s beautifully done.”
Baili Xin: "What?"
"Don't you want to know about my past?" Meng Po pointed at the sea of Lycoris radiata in the distance. "I used to love flowers the most. The more beautiful they were, the better they were for me. But after arriving in the underworld, there is only one kind of flower, Lycoris radiata. And I can't leave this stall. No matter how beautiful a flower is, I can only look at it but not touch it."
"Please help me pick some red spider lilies. I want three, three beautiful flowers blooming in the middle of the sea of flowers."
"Give me the flowers, and I will tell you some of the past between me and Saint."
Ding!
Discover exploration missions.
[Beautiful Red Spider Lily], please help Meng Po pick three beautiful Red Spider Lilies. The difficulty coefficient of this task is d. After completing it, you can get 2000 points of mall reward points.
Once a task is discovered, it is automatically accepted.
Time limit: 30 minutes. Failure will result in system punishment, the punishment type: beheading.
Baili Xin glanced at Meng Po, supported himself on his thighs and slowly stood up, and put the remains of the saint back into his backpack. "Okay, please wait a moment, I'll be there soon."
"Wait a minute," Meng Po hesitated and looked at the mouth, "Can you put the bones here? I want to take another look."
Baili Xin didn't give Meng Po Sheng any chance to hope, and directly denied it: "No, be good, wait for me to come back, and I will let you see enough in front of me."
Meng Po: “…”
The foggy edge of the underworld always exudes a feeling of desolation and loneliness.
It's spacious enough here, yet unusually quiet.
There were no birds singing overhead and no animals roaring in the distance.
Withered vines, old trees, and the Naihe Bridge over bitter water.
How lonely.
Baili Xin soon arrived at the sea of red spider lilies. According to Meng Po's description, he came to the center of the sea and picked three beautifully blooming red spider lilies.
When he turned back, Meng Po had already sat down on the chair, leaning all her strength on the sofa, squinting her eyes and yawning lazily.
A bowl was placed quietly on the table. The bowl was empty, with only some residue of Meng Po soup left at the bottom.
It was not until Baili Xin approached that Meng Po opened her eyes from her sleep. She was stunned at first, and then as if recalling something, she looked at the red flower on Baili Xin's fingertips with burning eyes.
Baili Xin placed three Lycoris radiata on the table, "These are the Lycoris radiata you wanted."
Meng Po picked up a flower from the table, lifted the hood she wore day and night, and carefully pinned the flower on her gray head.
The strange bright red Lycoris radiata dotted the white hair that indicated the end of time, creating an indescribable sense of incongruity.
Meng Po smiled and wrapped the second flower around her wrist, and then wrapped the third flower around her neck.
After everything was done, she looked at Baili Xin expectantly and asked excitedly, "How is it? Does it look good?"
Baili Xindan pinched his chin, looked at her carefully from head to toe for a few seconds, and said seriously: "It looks good."
Meng Po, who was fixing her hair, suddenly stopped, and her smiling face quickly fell, looking at Baili Xin gloomily: "How could you lie to me?"
"I am already so old. I am no different from a maggot on the ground. How can I possibly be worthy of such a moving flower?"
Baili Xin smiled and sat back on his small stool, "Time never defeats beauty."
"Besides, even if we take a step back, there is no unified definition of beauty and ugliness. In my opinion, you are beautiful anyway."
The moment the hood was removed, Baili Xin could see Meng Po's face clearly.
Although her appearance looks like that of an octogenarian, her bone structure shows that she was indeed beautiful when she was young.
Meng Po's eyes were a little absent-minded, and she chewed over Baili Xin's words "Time never defeats beauty" for a long time. Only then did her hostility slowly fade away, and her whole aura became kind.
She stroked the red spider lily petals on her wrist obsessively and said slowly: "When I met Sheng, I was only eighteen years old, but Sheng was nearly eighty years old."
Seeing Baili Xin's slightly surprised expression, Meng Po sneered, "Yes, you haven't heard. I am still as young as a flower, but he is already old and frail."
"Even if he is a saint, even if he becomes a god in the flesh, he cannot stop the fact that he will grow old."
"That year, our town was selecting a Peony Fairy, and I was the most beautiful Peony Fairy in our town. He was a high monk on the road."
"I was standing on the stage, and he was standing below. I was at an age of high spirits, with bright eyes, while his eyes were full of compassion and mercy for all sentient beings."
"We didn't have much in common originally."
"And he didn't like me at that time. He is really a saint."
"But then something happened. A tall tree attracts the wind. Women are always under the gaze of men, not to mention me who has become a peony fairy."
"By the time I realized something was wrong, I had already been given a strong drug. I had to either have sex or die suddenly."
"I would rather die than obey, so I jumped off the cliff, but I didn't die. Instead, I fell into the cave where the saint was practicing."
Meng Po suddenly felt a little embarrassed. She swallowed and paused for two seconds before speaking again.
"I broke my leg, but the drug still worked. I didn't want to die, but there were no other men around except the Saint."
"Well, I was cursing him for not helping someone in need and being hypocritical while I took off my clothes to seduce him."
"Anyway, the situation was quite chaotic at the time, and later on he probably saw that I really wanted to live."
Meng Po paused and coughed lightly, "A pear blossom overshadows a crabapple blossom."
Baili Xin had been listening attentively, but when he heard Meng Po suddenly say this, the corners of his mouth twitched.
Meng Po continued, "It was just a ridiculous night. I didn't want to ask Sheng to take responsibility. After all, he was Sheng, and an old man at that."
"But my leg is injured and I can't move. And since such a shameful thing happened, it's better to save both of our reputations. Sheng can't go out and find someone to carry me."
"I'll stay in the cave for a month."
"As we spent time together day and night, we talked and chatted, and suddenly we found that we were actually close friends."
"I just felt this way for no apparent reason."
"There is nothing under the cliff. At that time, his favorite gift to me was bunches of flowers," Meng Po paused, "Later, my leg injury healed, and we agreed to keep this matter to ourselves."
"He is a saint who has become a god, and I am the Peony Fairy whose beauty is known throughout the town. To be honest, if it weren't for that 'medicine', we would have never met in the first place."
"Hiding the truth is the best outcome for both of us."
"I originally thought that the matter was really over, but after something like this happened, I no longer have any hope of getting married."
"But my period hasn't come for two months."
Baili Xin suddenly looked up, Meng Po lowered her head and touched her belly with a bitter smile, "I'm pregnant. How could the master be so cruel? He had to force me into a desperate situation."
"In ancient times, feudalism and superstition were very strong. The purpose of being chosen by the Peony Fairy was to serve the gods with a perfect body, and to pray for a good harvest in the coming year. It happened that there was a severe drought in the two months when I was pregnant, and the crops gradually failed."
"When the town found out I was pregnant, they kept asking me who the father of my child was."
"Then I can't give Sheng away. He is innocent in the first place. And even if I tell him, no one will believe me. They will just think I'm lying."
"I really wanted to live at that time. I was still so young. I was only 18 years old. I hadn't seen the world yet, and I hadn't traveled all over the country."
"But I couldn't survive. I was sacrificed by the town for sin."
Meng Po sighed.
"Do you think I'm unlucky? From the beginning to the end, it was all the man's fault, but in the end, I, a powerless woman, had to take the blame."
"These are all malicious stereotypes of women from a male perspective. Disgusting, disgusting. So disgusting."
"The country is destroyed. It's obvious that the dynasty is failing, but they accuse a concubine of bringing disaster to the country and the people, in order to shift the hatred."
"The failure of the harvest was originally a matter of anger, but the blame was put on a woman."
"Why should women be sacrificed?"
Meng Po became angrier and angrier as she spoke, "You said I should die, right? I didn't do anything bad before, so I can be reincarnated as long as I go to Hades' Palace, right?"
"But what happened? Saint, the hindsight guy, actually followed me."
"Although we were in love, it was only for a month. I really don't know why he would go to such lengths for me."
"To be honest, I have very complicated feelings towards him."
"On the one hand, I was very touched that he would do everything for me, but on the other hand, I blamed him."
"If he hadn't been so willful and reckless, I would have been reincarnated long ago and wouldn't be here to be this shitty Meng Po."
Baili Xin examined Meng Po's expression, secretly trying to determine the truth in her words.
"According to the records in the case file, Sheng once met with you alone."
"It took about half an hour, or an hour, before the Saint suddenly went crazy and destroyed the Book of the Dead."
"What did you say during that hour? Didn't you notice anything unusual?"
Meng Po: "I just told him that we once had a child. I don't remember the other details, they should be ordinary trivial matters."
"I remember that I advised Sheng to leave and return to the real world, but he suddenly behaved strangely when he heard me say that he still had a child."
"Hey, speaking of this, I think of something," Meng Po looked up at Baili Xin, "I wonder if this can be considered a clue. During the month when we were under the cliff, Sheng actually always acted very scared."
Baili Xin: "Afraid? Afraid?"
Meng Po: "I am afraid of being ugly and old."
"He told me more than once that he liked my youthful look and that it would be better if I could come out earlier."
"He said he didn't like his rotten body, but he wanted his body to be holy. Even if he was afraid of decay, he had no choice but to live with this body forever."
"When we get old," Meng Po sighed, tugged at the loose skin on her wrist, and laughed at herself, "Look, I'm like this now too."
"But a saint like him didn't see through it."
"I thought he was joking at first, but I didn't expect him to succeed."
Baili Xin: "Successful?"
Meng Po: "He said that he would soon have a new body and be reborn. I didn't believe him at first, thinking that he was possessed and dreaming. But now that I see your true body, I can't help but believe it."
"He has completely given up his true body. It seems he is really looking for a new body."
Baili Xin tapped the bench lightly with his fingers. "One more question. Why did Sheng come to see you?"
Meng Po: "He wanted to take me away. But I didn't want to make the same mistake again, so I refused him."
Baili Xin looked at Meng Po with a puzzled look: "What about the body? Did he say anything else?"
Meng Po: "He didn't tell me too much, but I seemed to hear him mention the words 'ghost market' and 'infant spirits'. This may be a clue. If you have the chance, you can go to the ghost market and maybe you can find some clues."
Baili Xin: "Okay, I understand. Thank you for telling me this."
Meng Po expressed some disappointment: "You're welcome. I told you this because I wanted to help Sheng."
"After all, I saw him at his most glorious time. Now he has become like this, which is something I don't want to see."
"In addition, I hope you can try to forgive his sins. One thought can make you a Buddha, and one thought can make you a devil. A bad person can become a Buddha instantly by doing a good thing, but a good person cannot be forgiven for doing a wrong thing. This is simply unreasonable."
"Okay, I'll pass it on," Baili Xin glanced at Meng Po, "You don't even hate Sheng, your current situation is caused by him, right?"
Meng Po: "Ah, actually he doesn't want to either."
Baili Xin: "You are really kind, no wonder Shenghui likes you."
Meng Po chuckled and said, "You should keep the token I gave you with you. If you really meet Sheng in the ghost market by accident, maybe he will remember us and let you go if you show me my token."
In the distance, the sound of bells gradually came.
Attracted by the voice, Baili Xin and Meng Po looked over at the same time.
I saw ghosts walking up to the bridge in twos and threes in a daze.
The moment she saw these reincarnated ghosts, the look in Meng Po's eyes gradually cooled down. She slowly sat down on the chair and smiled warmly at Baili Xin, "You go now. I have to start working. Please don't hinder me."
"We'll meet again."
Baili Xin: "Okay, bye."
As he turned to leave, he just brushed past those numb ghosts.
A gust of wind blew, and ripples appeared on the river bank. The rich fragrance of Lycoris radiata was carried in the wind, like a naughty cat, and sneaked into Baili Xin's nasal cavity.
Baili Xin smelled the fragrance of the flowers, and stars twinkled in her bright eyes.
He glanced at Meng Po behind him again. She was sitting quietly in the chair, still looking nonchalant and careless.
"Speaking of which," Baili Xin turned to look at Meng Po and asked, "How can I get up there?"
"Can I go directly from the bridge?"
Meng Po skillfully poured Meng Po soup for one of the ghosts and said, "The bridge represents reincarnation. If you want to reincarnate, you can walk on the bridge, but the prerequisite is to drink Meng Po soup. Without Meng Po soup, you will get lost in the fog and become the same as those water ghosts."
"See those small boats on the Forgotten River? Ghost messengers can cross the Forgotten River by driving small boats and reach the outside world."
"If you are not a ghost messenger, these ships will sink after you get on them."
"Then there is the last resort, just swim out like those desperate ghosts before."
“The impossibility is not almost zero, but zero.”
Baili Xin looked at the thick fog and asked: "Why can't you pass through the thick fog?"
Meng Po seemed to have heard a joke and suddenly sneered: "Because I am Meng Po, I can only enter the thick fog by drinking Meng Po soup, but it is a bug for me to drink Meng Po soup."
"After I drink Meng Po soup, I won't even remember to walk into the thick fog. Instead, I will only remember that I should be a diligent Meng Po."
"Meng Po soup has a time limit of one for me. After one day, I will think of everything. But if I drink Meng Po soup again, I will become like that again."
"So I can't get into the fog at all, and I can't get out of here."
"Oh, if only Saint hadn't crossed me out of the dead book."
Although the wind stopped and the fragrance of the flowers gradually dissipated, Baili Xin looked at Meng Po deeply, said "goodbye" and turned away.
After he walked for a while, he was shrouded in thick fog. He could no longer see any trace of the Naihe Bridge, let alone Meng Po who was always on the bridge.
He came to the Forgotten River. The water was not turbulent, and it could even be said to be calm and peaceful.
After staying for a while, Baili Xin bent down and shook it in the water.
The third and fourth elder brothers in the distance were about to die.
What does he want to do!
Does he want to swim?!
Is he crazy?!
The next second, they saw Baili Xin slowly stand up, take out the Yama Order, and mutter to himself: "Only a fool would swim there, isn't it a foreign aid?"
The third and fourth brothers: “…”
You are so noble, you don't want to go to the river, let's go boating!