Zhong Bo found himself sitting on an ox cart. The sky was sunny and the golden wheat fields on both sides of the road were waved by the breeze. The wheels of the wooden cart made a gurgling sound. A big yellow ox was walking slowly in front, swinging its tail.
He turned around and found an elderly woman with gray hair and a headscarf sitting next to him. The woman was also looking at him and smiling at him gently.
"Old... old woman?" Zhong Bo's eyes were moist, "Where have you been all these years? I miss you so much."
His wife, whom he hadn't seen for many years, didn't say a word. She smiled and lowered her head to crack the orange in her hand. Her old fingers somewhat clumsily cracked the orange peel, smoothed off the white orange peel on the orange segments, and then gave him half of it.
Zhong Bo stuffed the orange into his mouth, tears falling from his wrinkled face.
"Long time no see, husband, how are the children at home?"
"Those kids are all fine, all good. Only I'm not so good. After you left, the kids grew up and went their separate ways. The house became empty, and I'm not used to it anywhere I go."
"Does the orange tree in our yard still bear fruit?"
"They are bearing fruit. Every year the tree is full of red fruits. It's a pity that no one picks them, so many of them go bad in vain."
His wife sighed and stuffed the remaining orange into his hand: "Go back early, this is not the place for you to come."
An impulse surged in Zhong Bo's heart, and he grasped her wrinkled hand tightly, "Old woman, I don't want to go back, and I don't want to practice anymore. I didn't spend much time with you before, but now I will stay here to accompany you. Is that good or not?"
The crow's feet at the corners of his wife's eyes smoothed out, and she smiled gently, "I never thought you would miss me like this. I listened to you and felt a little relieved. But I have let go of all the past events in my life, and now I am just waiting to reincarnate and be reborn as a human being. You have been pursuing the truth all your life, and you have great ambitions in your heart. You shouldn't delay them because of me."
She smiled and gently pushed Zhong Bo, "Goodbye, take care."
My wife’s last smile is still frozen in front of my eyes, but the surrounding scenery has changed.
Zhong Bo found himself inside the tall city gate. Under the city wall, the young men were already sitting there waiting for him.
The bright sky, the endless wheat fields, the ox cart moving leisurely along the ridge, and the smiling wife, all seemed like a dream bubble, disappearing into the ghost gate.
He looked around blankly, stood up, and staggered a few steps.
Fu Yun took a step forward and supported his unstable body, "Senior, are you okay?"
The white-haired old man squatted down and rubbed his forehead repeatedly with his fingers. "When she was with me, I didn't cherish her. Even if I regret it now, it's too late. She no longer has any attachment to me. I can never get over this hurdle in my heart."
He waved towards Fu Yun.
"Sorry, wait for me a moment, just a little longer."
The Ghost Gate is a place where you can enter but not exit. If you want to pass through this area, you can only follow the Road of the Dead where ghosts and spirits coexist.
The world behind the city wall is like an endless and bustling ancient capital, with pale lights hanging along the streets, shadows of ghosts filling the food and wine shops, and ghosts shouting loudly in gambling houses and teahouses.
A butcher selling raw meat on the roadside was sharpening his boning knife. He poked out his scarlet head, sniffed, and said with his bloody mouth, "Huh? It seems like there is a smell of a stranger. Is there another stranger sneaking in?"
Fu Yun, who was walking past the stall, quietly clenched the Silver Moon in his hand.
Fortunately, the butcher looked around for a moment, then retracted his head and said to himself, "Maybe I'm wrong. There have been too many strangers sneaking in recently, and my nose has become useless."
Miao Honger walked past him holding Mu Xue's hand and gently squeezed her little hand. "Are you scared?"
Mu Xue shook her head and asked, "Senior sister is inside the door. Did you see the person you wanted to see?"
Miao Hong'er stayed in the gates of hell for a long time. After she came out, she covered her face with her hands, sat alone on the steps for a while, and then returned to her usual cheerful and free-spirited self.
But Mu Xue keenly felt that something seemed to be different about her.
Miao Honger turned her head and looked at the towering door left behind.
In that bright door, my little sister is still as lovely as before.
She stretched out her tender little hands to cup her tear-stained cheeks, "Don't cry, sister. I don't want to see you cry the most."
Miao Honger hugged her sister's small shoulders and cried, "Are you still hungry? Do you still feel hungry today?"
"I don't feel hungry anymore." The younger sister smiled with her missing front teeth. "Now, I just hope that my sister doesn't feel hungry anymore and lives well outside."
"I saw her. I saw my sister." Miao Hong'er said to Mu Xue with a smile, "Although I came here for Xiaoye, I didn't expect that it would solve the most difficult problem in my heart."
At this moment, on a dim tower in the Crossing Road, sat a man wearing a white tall hat, with long hair and half-open clothes, revealing his slit chest. He seemed to be unconcerned, supporting his chin with his arm, sitting on the top of the tower in boredom. Four huge and hideous ghost faces were floating around him.
"It's really interesting. Another living creature has been released."
"I'm bored anyway, so I'll go tease them and see if there's anyone interesting among them."
Mu Xue held Miao Honger's hand and walked in the ghost market. In front of them walked Cen Qianshan and Senior Brother Fu Yun, and behind them walked Zhong Bo with a melancholy look on his face.
Mu Xue, who was hidden in the center of everyone's protection, looked around at this bizarre world of the undead.
A man in prison clothes, holding his own head, leaned against the counter of a shop and was showing his courtesy to the shopkeeper's wife. The woman selling cold food wore a bright skirt over her skeletal body and a beautiful wreath of flowers on her skull.
A new soul dressed as a scholar stumbled along the road, pulling everyone he saw and asking, "Where is this place? Why am I here?"
"I was clearly taking a nap at home. Why did I find myself here when I woke up?" He shook his sleeves and hugged his head. "The provincial examination will be held tomorrow. I have to go back. I must go back! I have studied so hard for so long just for this day. Why on earth is this happening? What on earth is going on?"
Just when Mu Xue was watching with great interest.
A little boy ran past her quickly, and suddenly turned back with a look of surprise, "Xiaoxue? It's you? You're finally here."
At that moment, Miao Honger who was holding her hand, her senior brother holding a sword, Cen Qianshan with blood written on his face, Zhong Bo holding the erhu, and the noisy ghosts walking around, all seemed to be frozen in time and pulled out of her world.
In front of her was the little boy who seemed strange yet familiar. The boy held her hand, walked through the frozen crowd, led her forward, and made her gradually forget many things.
"Look everyone, who did I bring here?" The boy pushed open the door of a room and happily pulled Mu Xue in.
It was a rather simple school. The sunlight shone through the window lattices and shone on the desks with mottled paint.
The girls sitting on the desks turned to look at Mu Xue, sneered disdainfully, and continued their discussion. The boys leaning against the windowsill looked up, and some of them raised their hands nonchalantly, as a greeting.
Mu Xue remembered that this was her master's school, and she was a disciple. The boy in front of her was named Xiao Yan, and he was a fellow apprentice with whom she had a good relationship.
It's strange, how could I forget something so common
She sat down in her seat a little confused.
The seats in front and behind were full of people, except for the seat next to her. Mu Xue felt that she had forgotten something, as if there should be an important friend sitting next to her. But at this moment, she couldn't remember who that was.
The senior sister who was distributing the food knocked on the podium with a pot and a spoon, "Be quiet, everyone who wants to eat should be quiet."
The food here is not very good. Each person only has two spoonfuls of stewed noodles with green leaves and a bowl of hot soup whose color is unclear.
The senior sister who was delivering the meals glanced at Mu Xue, a trace of reluctance flashed in her eyes, and she said in a deliberately sarcastic voice, "Master said that Xiao Xue was the first to refine a mechanical puppet, so today she will have an extra chicken leg and two boiled eggs for her meal."
In the school, countless pairs of eyes filled with jealousy and resentment were shot at Mu Xue from every corner without any concealment.
That plate of mouth-watering food with meat and eggs passed through countless hands and finally reached Mu Xue's table.
"Senior sister. Good senior sister, please give me one?" Xiao Yan swallowed her saliva and stared at the fragrant braised egg, "I haven't had meat for several months."
He quickly picked up the thick-sauce braised egg and put it into his mouth with a happy look on his face.
Mu Xue's heart skipped a beat and she felt something was wrong, but for some reason she couldn't say the words to stop it.
The little boy who was chewing his food with such ecstasy on his face slowly changed his expression.
He covered his throat with his hands, his face turned pale, and he fell to the ground twitching.
"Save...save me, Senior Sister." He curled up his small body, foaming at the mouth, and stretched out his hand to Mu Xue with red eyes, "I don't want to die, I still want to live."
The cannibalistic school was silent. Countless pairs of eyes looked coldly at the person wailing in pain on the ground, watching him twitching continuously, and watching him finally lose movement.
No, Mu Xue slowly stepped back. This shouldn't be the case. This shouldn't be the case where I live.
In my memory, there is a relaxing and comfortable place where everyone laughs and eats delicious food, and can share with each other without worry.
"Mu Xue! What are you doing standing there? Come on!" A scolding voice woke Mu Xue up.
In front of her was a huge, bloody monster with a long neck, a humanoid head, and sharp, bloody nails.
Countless of her senior brothers and sisters rushed towards the wounded demon without caring about their lives.
"Wait a minute, don't go." Mu Xue grabbed the senior brother who had just called her.
The man pushed her away and stepped forward, his eyes full of desire, "Don't get in my way, it's the Nian beast, its body is full of valuable treasures."
The next moment, the senior brother fell back to her side from mid-air like a kite with a broken string, just as Mu Xue had expected. He raised his broken neck and stared at the bloody sky motionlessly.
The huge monster fell down, lying on the corpses of its fellow disciples. The few remaining people, without caring about the dead, excitedly rushed forward to divide up the monster's relics.
Mu Xue stood there in a daze. The surrounding scenery changed again. In the gorgeous courtyard, in front of her was a fat man whose face could not be seen clearly. The man was holding up the mirage platform with bright lights that he had just made, hugging his charming concubine and laughing, "Good, very good, you are worthy of being my most outstanding disciple."
Mu Xue tried hard to see the face of the person in front of her clearly, but she could only see distorted and blurry facial features.
"Make me ten of these right now, no, fifty of them. It has to be quick, I'm in a hurry to give them to someone." The man's fat mouth kept opening and closing, "What? Are you sick? You have to make them for me even if you die. Did I raise you for nothing? You ungrateful guy."
"No." said Mu Xue.
"What? Do you dare to disobey the master's orders?"
"No, you are no longer my master." Mu Xue looked at the man, "My master is not like you."
Her master once sat beside her bed in a green robe, diagnosing her illness and prescribing medicine for her. He touched her forehead and whispered softly: "If you are sick, just rest. There is no need to rush."
Her senior brother protected her behind him and picked the snow-top flower for her.
Her senior sister brought the delicious food, "Ah, Xiaoxue, open your mouth."
Mu Xue looked at the man in front of her with a blurry face, closed her eyes and concentrated. A thin fire dragon appeared and circled around her. The dragon's true fire broke through the illusion of impermanence. The world in front of her was like a page of paper with a hole in it. The flames ate away at the edge of the hole, expanding larger and larger, and finally devoured the illusory paper that obscured her mind.
"Huh? Someone has broken through the realm of delusion so quickly?" The man on the top of the tower sat up straight, "And it's such a small child?"
His pair of cold and penetrating narrow eyes flashed with a light golden luster, looking down from above, "Oh, it turns out that it is not just a living soul, but a guy between yin and yang, who has drilled a loophole in heaven and earth."
…
Cen Qianshan opened his eyes and found himself in a noisy and extravagant banquet.
Colorful lanterns were suspended under the eaves, and several expensive puppets were carrying food and shuttling back and forth. Moving music was flowing from the exquisite musical instruments.
At the banquet, the guests and hosts were toasting each other, the food was exquisite and delicious, and beautiful concubines and charming children were serving them.
"What do you think, Manager Liu? What do you think of my adopted son?" Cen Qianshan's adoptive father sat crookedly in the main seat, pointing at him and said with a smile.
He was holding a glass cup filled with red wine and kneeling respectfully in front of the distinguished guest, not daring to raise his head.
The woman stretched out her cold fingers to lift his chin, "She is truly stunning. When she grows up, she can be married to my son as a concubine. This will also allow our two families to form a marriage alliance."
Her fingers were cold and wet, sliding across my skin like cold snakes crawling over it.
Cen Qianshan couldn't help but wanted to dodge, but accidentally knocked the valuable glass wine cup in his hand to the ground.
The bright red wine flowed from the broken glass pieces onto the carpet.
The banquet fell silent. He could tell without even looking up that his adoptive father's facial muscles were shaking with anger.
After the guests had left, he was stripped of his clothes and tied to a torture bench in the courtyard. All the adopted sons and daughters in the family were ordered to come and watch the execution.
Every crack of the whip that broke through the air brought the pain of tearing the body and breaking the bones.
The skin was exposed to the cold air, and the pain and embarrassment were all exposed to those mocking eyes.
In the humiliation of being watched by countless people laughing, he fainted several times and was cruelly awakened.
There was a puddle of melted snow on the dirty ground in front of me.
Cen Qianshan, slumped powerlessly on the torture bench, stared blankly at the dark water surface.
The face of his adoptive father was reflected on the water. In that filthy reflection, the man whom he called father had no anger or hatred. Instead, he had a secret smile on his face, squinting his eyes and licking his lips, enjoying the torture with satisfaction.
Cen Qianshan closed his eyes and used his bloody hands to draw a cross representing death on the vague word "father" in his heart.
"It's you, you killed me." A sharp roar suddenly sounded.
The children who were watching around were gone. My godfather strode over, breaking the surface of the water. At some point, a sharp object had pierced his left eye from the back of his head, leaving a big hole. His skin was pale and his face was hideous. He must have been dead a long time ago.
His skeleton-like fingers grabbed Cen Qianshan's hair, lifted him up from the torture bench, and threw him to the ground, roaring, "I am your adoptive father! You are a devil who disregards human ethics. You have done such evil things, so don't even think about getting off easy. You are destined to sink into hell for the rest of your life and be despised by millions of people."
Cen Qianshan propped himself up from the ground, dirty blood and mud flowing on his naked skin, making him very dirty.
But he laughed out loud, "A child raised by the devil is destined to be born a devil. Even if I fall into purgatory and live a life of impurity, I will not let people like you go."
The roars and overwhelming whippings disappeared.
Cen Qianshan opened his eyes wide, the puddle on the ground returned to calm, and a red dress was reflected on the water surface.
The slender figure in the red dress held a flexible ruler with her slender white fingers, and tapped it lightly on the palm of her other hand, making a sound.
"It turns out that Xiaoshan lied to me. How should Master punish you for doing such a bad thing?"
Cen Qianshan's heart suddenly contracted and began beating violently uncontrollably.