Meng Po paused and coughed lightly, “*A pear blossom presses a begonia.”
*From a poem ridiculing an older man marrying younger wives.
Bai Lixin was listening intently, only to hear such a sentence pop out of Meng Po’s mouth, and the corners of his mouth twitched.
Meng Po continued, “It was just a night of absurdity. I didn’t want to ask the saint to take responsibility, after all, he was a saint and an old man.”
“But my leg was injured, and I couldn’t move. And with such a scandal, it was better to keep it under wraps and never contact each other.”
“I stayed in the cave for a month.”
“During the time we spent together, we talked and suddenly found out that we got along quite well and somehow forged a relationship.”
“Later, when my leg healed, we agreed to keep the matter to ourselves.”
“He was a saint who was on the way to becoming immortal, while I was a peony fairy whose beauty was known throughout the town. Truthfully, if it weren’t for that aphrodisiac, we would never have crossed paths from the start.”
“Concealment was the best choice.”
“I didn’t think much about it, because after what happened, I didn’t want to be married anymore.”
“But my period didn’t come for two months.”
Bai Lixin looked up abruptly, and Meng Po looked down and touched her stomach with a bitter smile, “I got pregnant. Tell me, why were the heavens so cruel as to force me into a dead end?”
“In the old days, feudal superstitions were very common, and the peony fairy with a perfect body was chosen to serve the gods and to pray for a good harvest in the coming year. It so happened that there was a drought during the two months I was pregnant, and the crops were gradually failing.”
“When the town found out about my pregnancy, they demanded who the father of my child was.”
“I couldn’t give up Saint, he was innocent too. And even if I did, no one would believe me, they would just think I was lying.”
“I really wanted to live then; I was so young; I was only eighteen; I hadn’t seen the world; I hadn’t traveled the length and breadth of it.”
“But I couldn’t live; I was sacrificed by the town in righteousness atonement.”
Meng Po sighed.
“Do you think I’m unlucky? From start to finish, there was only me, a defenseless female, to take the blame.”
“It’s all a bunch of malicious stereotyping of women from a male perspective. *Disgusting fucking opens the door to nausea- disgusting home.”
*A phrase to mean someone is truly disgusting.
“The country fell, and it was clear that the dynasty was not doing well, but a small girl was given the crime of scourging the country and the people as a way of transferring the hatred.”
“The poor harvests were a result of the poor weather, but they blamed a woman.”
“Why should a woman be the victim of this?”
The more Meng Po spoke, the angrier she became, “You say I die, so I should die?! Anyway, it was not like I did anything bad before, so I hoped to be reincarnated once I was in the underworld.”
“However, that saint suddenly came after me.”
“Although we liked each other, we only knew each other for a month, so I really didn’t expect him to go to such lengths for me.”
“Seriously, I actually have mixed feelings about him.”
“On the one hand, I am very moved that he came down here for me regardless, but on the other hand, I blame him.”
“If he hadn’t been so willful and presumptuous, I would have been reincarnated long ago and not even be here as this bullshit Meng Po.”
Bai Lixin examined Meng Po as she spoke, secretly judging how many of her words were true or false.
“In the record of the case file, Saint went out to meet you alone.”
“It was about half an hour, or an hour, after which Saint suddenly went into a rage and destroyed the Book of Life and Danth.”
“What did you say in that hour? Did you find anything unusual about Saint?”
Meng Po: “I just told him that we once had a child. I can’t remember exactly what else was said, but it must have been ordinary topics.”
“I remember that I was persuading Saint to leave and return to the real world, but he suddenly behaved strangely when he heard me say that he had a child.”
“Hey, speaking of which, I think one thing came up,” Meng Po looked up at Bai Lixin, “I wonder if it could be considered a clue, but when we were in that cave, he said he was afraid.”
Bai Lixin: “Afraid? Afraid of what?”
Meng Po: “Afraid of being ugly and old.”
“He told me multiple times that he liked the smell of my youth and that it would have been nice if we met a little earlier.”
“He also said that he didn’t like that decaying body of his, but he was to become a saint through it, so even if he was afraid of decay, he had resigned himself to bear that body for eternity.”
“Old age,” Meng Po sighed, tugging at the loose skin on her wrist and smiling to herself, “look, I’m old now.”
“Anyway, the saint didn’t seem disturbed anymore. I thought he was joking at first, but I never thought he’d succeed.”
Bai Lixin: “Succeed?”
Meng Po: “He said he would soon have a new body. I did not believe him at first, thinking he was talking about a dream after he had gone mad. But now that I have seen the golden body you brought out, I cannot help but believe it.”
“He has completely and utterly given up his true body, so it seems he is really looking for a new shell.”
Bai Lixin tapped his fingers on the bench surface and said, “One more question, why did Saint come to you?”
Meng Po: “He wanted to take me away. But I didn’t want to make another mistake, so I refused him.”
Bai Lixin looked at Meng Po and said, “What about the new body? Did he say anything else?”
Meng Po: “He didn’t tell me much, but I heard him mention the words “ghost market” and “infant spirit,” they might be clues. ”
Bai Lixin: “Okay, thank you for telling me so.”
Meng Po expressed some frustration: “You are welcome, I told you because I also want to help Saint.”
“After all, I have seen him at his best, and now he has become like this, and it is something I do not want to see.”
“In addition, I hope you can try to forgive his sins. One thought becomes a Buddha, and one thought becomes a demon, but doing a good thing can change one into a Buddha immediately. Doing the wrong thing is not justifiable. It simply doesn’t make sense no matter what the case is.”
“Okay, I’ll convey it.” Bai Lixin looked at Meng Po and said, “I’m surprised you don’t hate Saint; he’s responsible for your current situation, after all.”
Meng Po: “Well, he didn’t mean to.”
Bai Lixin: “You’re really kind; no wonder Saint likes you.”
Meng Po laughed lightly, “You should keep the token I gave you, if you do accidentally meet Saint in the Ghost Market, flashing my token might make him think of his old self and let you off the hook.”
In the distance, the sound of a bell gradually came.
Attracted by the sound, Bai Lixin and Meng Po looked over at the same time, only to see a group of ghosts walking over in a daze.
The moment she saw these ghosts, the look in Meng Po’s eyes gradually cooled down, and she slowly leaned back in her chair and smiled warmly at Bai Lixin, “Go, I have to start working; please don’t get in my way.”
“We’ll meet again.”
Bai Lixin: “Okay, goodbye.”
He turned to leave just in time to rub shoulders with the dazed ghosts.
A gust of wind blew, the river rippled, and the fragrant scent of Manzanita’s flowers curled in the wind like a mischievous cat and burrowed into Bai Lixin’s nostrils.
Bai Lixin smelled the fragrance of the flowers, and his eyes brightened.
He glanced back at Meng Po; she was quietly sitting in her chair, still in that carefree, undisciplined manner.
“Speaking of which,” Bai Lixin asked Meng Po, “how do I get to the top?”
“Can I go straight from the bridge?”
Meng Po skillfully poured Meng Po soup for one of the ghosts: “The bridge is for reincarnation, you can take the bridge if you want to be reincarnated, but only if you drink Meng Po soup. Without Meng Po soup, you can’t cross the bridge. You will get lost in the fog and become the same as those water ghosts.”
“See those little boats on the River of Forgetfulness? Ghost messengers can get to the outside by using them to cross the river of forgetfulness.”
“If you’re not a ghost messenger, those boats will sink when you get on them.”
“Then there’s the last resort, swimming straight out like those desperate ghosts did before.”
“The impossibility isn’t almost zero, it’s outright zero.”
Bai Lixin looked at the dense fog and asked, “Why can’t you go through the fog?”
Meng Po suddenly snorted as if she had heard a joke, “Because I’m Meng Po, you can only enter the dense fog by drinking Meng Po soup, but it’s different for me.”
“I don’t remember that I have to walk into the dense fog after drinking Meng Po soup; I only know that I should be a conscientious Meng Po.”
“The time limit of the soup’s effect on me is one hour, after which I will remember my actions. The cycle remains the same even if I drink the soup again.”
“So I can’t go into the fog at all, and I can’t get out of here.”
“Heh, if only Saint hadn’t crossed me out of the Book of Life and Death.”
Although the wind stopped and the fragrance of the flowers faded away, Bai Lixin gave Meng Po a deep look, said goodbye, and turned to leave.
He walked for a while, and the fog became so thick that he could no longer see any trace of the Naihe Bridge, or Meng Po, who was forever stuck there.
He came to the river of forgetfulness, the water was not turbulent, and could even be described as waveless and very calm.
After standing there for a while, Bai Lixin bent down and touched the water’s surface.
In the distance, Lao San and Lao Si’s souls were about to fly down.
What does he want to do?!
Does he want to swim there?!
Is he crazy?
Then in the next second, they saw Bai Lixin slowly standing straight, pulling out the Yama Order, and muttering, “Only a fool would swim there, why not get outside help?”
Lao San and Lao Si: “……”
You’re so noble, you want to make us row you across the river!
