The boy was thick-skinned and was hurt by the beating, but he only frowned slightly, without even a groan, and still didn't wake up.
Meng Ruji glanced at the boy's exposed abdomen. She pondered for a moment, raised her hand, and touched it, not for anything else, just to feel her inner elixir, whether it was still in the body of this "ghost."
The answer is... it's still there. It's worthy of being her inner elixir, with the power of creation, and it can follow even after death.
But unfortunately—it still can't be taken out.
"Ah..." Meng Ruji was regretful, but she was even more helpless. She died, and he died too. When people die, their debts are settled. What else can she do to him?
Just think of it as being robbed by a dog.
Meng Ruji stood up, patted her clothes, and planned to go and "reincarnate" calmly. But when she turned around, she saw that it was pitch black all around, with only the river in front of her emitting a strange and wonderful light. In the mist upstream of the river, there was a pier with red lanterns.
In the silent night, the pier in the distance seemed abrupt and weird.
But...
"The underworld." Meng Ruji muttered, "It should be this atmosphere, but two dead bodies have been lying for so long, and there is no ghost messenger to lead the way."
Meng Ruji walked towards the pier in front. Along the entire river, except for the sound of dingdong water, only her chatter was floating by the river.
"The management of this underworld is not as good as our Hengxu Mountain..."
After walking for a while, the pier in the distance looked far away, but Meng Ruji felt that she was getting more and more tired of walking. Every step she took was as heavy as if a thousand-pound weight was hanging on her feet.
"Why is it so hard to walk as a ghost?" Meng Ruji looked at the pier, panting.
This life is too difficult... Is there really no ghost messenger to give me a hand and lead the way?
Meng Ruji stopped halfway, feeling that her consciousness was tired and blurred. She was struggling between giving up and continuing, and suddenly there was a casual shout from the side:
"Hey, you, what are you doing?"
Meng Ruji turned around and saw a boatman wearing a straw raincoat, holding a fishing rod in one hand and supporting his chin with the other, sitting on a side boat, fishing in this strange fluorescent river.
Leisurely fishing in this river?
It was a bit strange, but Meng Ruji was too tired to think about it. She waved to the boatman and took two steps towards him in a daze, "Great, I finally saw a ghost. I don't have to rush to the pier in front. Why don't you take me across the river to reincarnate?"
"Cross the river to reincarnate?"
"Really?" Meng Ruji asked. "Don't the legends in the world say that you have to cross the Naihe Bridge and drink Mengpo soup to reincarnate?"
The boatman sneered, "This river is called Naihe River, but if you want to be reborn, you don't have to cross the river, just jump in."
"Jump in?"
"Yes, jump in, follow the water of Naihe River, you will become a point of light in the river, and then follow the river to the sky, and then the point of light disappears, and you disappear with it. This should be what you said, reincarnation."
Is it that simple?
Meng Ruji looked at the river water that looked like a galaxy, and felt that although the river water was unusual, it didn't look dangerous. If she jumped in, she should be able to go smoothly, right?
"Thanks for your advice." Meng Ruji thanked him and started to walk into the river.
Seeing her walk so calmly, even a little impatient, the fisherman on the boat was a little surprised: "Is life so hard? Others are trying their best to make a living, but you are in a hurry to die?"
Meng Ruji was stunned by what he said: "Can I still make a living now?"
What kind of living? The living of a more glorious death?
"Don't you want to go back?"
"Where to go?"
"The human world."
"Can I go back!?" Meng Ruji was even more surprised. "Do you still have two-way traffic here?"
"A place without retention, you can come and go naturally."
"A place without retention?" Meng Ruji reacted. "Isn't this the underworld? I'm not dead?"
"Not really, half-dead." The boatman put his fishing rod aside, picked up the kettle he had placed aside, drank a sip of water, and continued to speak slowly, "Everyone who comes here has only half a life. Because of chance, at the moment of life and death, they fell into this place."
So, she was indeed struck by lightning, but she didn't die completely, she was struck half to death, and she didn't know what chance she touched, and she fell into this magical place with the thief who stole the pill.
"Then how can I go back?" Meng Ruji became alert.
"Simple." The boatman pointed at the ferry upstream with his fishing rod. "Go there, buy a ticket, and I'll take you across the river."
"Can I buy it here? I don't know what's wrong with this place. I really can't walk..."
The boatman just shook his head: "You can only buy it at the ferry. I only recognize the ferry ticket."
Meng Ruji had no spiritual power now, so she had to obey.
She struggled to continue to go upstream, but the further she went, the more difficult it felt to walk. After taking a few more steps, she didn't feel the weight of her steps, and even felt a heart-wrenching pain.
This is definitely not normal.
Meng Ruji had to stop and take a breath: "Excuse me, why have my steps become more and more difficult since just now?"
Meng Ruji didn't take many steps in total, and she was struggling in this place. She wanted to ask the boatman again, but when she looked up, she saw the waves on the Naihe River, and it had long returned to its original silence. There was no lonely boat or fishing boatman.
There were too many strange things, and Meng Ruji could no longer care about them. She could only control her legs and take a few steps back, trying to ease the pain in her body.
And it was these few steps back that made Meng Ruji feel like she was reborn.
Walking back, it doesn't take any effort.
She pondered and retreated all the way back. The more she retreated, the easier it became. She retreated to the side of the thief who stole the pill. Meng Ruji stopped. She looked at the thief on the ground, then at the ferry in the distance, and then tried to walk out again.
One hundred steps, the limit—the tearing pain came again, and Meng Ruji ran back again.
She squatted beside the thief and had a very bad guess.
Then she started to walk in other directions, walking downstream, and then to the right of the thief. In each direction, the distance she could walk was about one hundred steps.
Meng Ruji confirmed her guess... It's not that she can't walk, she just can't walk far, or rather, she just can't walk too far away from this little thief.
She squatted beside the little thief, completely stunned.
What is this thief? A debt from a past life? Or some sin she committed in this one? Why did fate bind her so strangely to this boy?
Now, she not only has to buy a boat ticket but also has to drag him along?
Unlucky!
But, forget it...
Meng Ruji sighed. Since she wasn't truly dead and had a chance to return, she might as well take the little thief back with her. After all, her inner elixir was still inside him.
Resigned to her fate, Meng Ruji reached out to grab the boy's arm. But just as she helped him sit up, before she could carry him, the boy groaned and began to wake up.
His eyelashes fluttered, and his phoenix eyes opened, reflecting Meng Ruji's face and the strange starry sky behind her.
Their eyes met—his wide with confusion, hers caught off guard.
The next moment, the boy’s expression sharpened. His eyes filled with a sudden, intense wariness.
Sensing the shift, Meng Ruji immediately pushed him away. The boy leaped back, landing by the riverbank, his gaze fixed on her with suspicion.
"I didn’t hurt you," Meng Ruji explained quickly. "I just wanted to help you up and take you to the front to buy a boat ticket. I’m being kind, trying to take you back with me."
But the boy wasn’t listening. His eyes darted around, scanning the unfamiliar surroundings, confusion and nervousness etched into his features.
His lips moved slightly, voice hoarse as he muttered, "Here... here..." He clutched his head, wincing as if in pain.
"What’s wrong here?" Meng Ruji asked, trying to understand his situation. She took two cautious steps forward. "Do you know this place?"
The boy's hostility flared up like a hedgehog's spines. He glared at Meng Ruji, teeth clenched, clearly struggling with the pain in his body while warning her to stay away. He also took two steps back.
Seeing that he was dangerously close to the river, Meng Ruji called out, "Alright, alright! I won’t get close. Just... don’t step into the river. It’ll take you to the sky—"
Don’t wash away my inner elixir...
The boy seemed to sense the wrongness of the water beneath his feet. He quickly stepped back onto the shore, his eyes following the river's flow as it wound upward into the sky, turning into stars before disappearing.
He rubbed his temples, trying to make sense of it all.
"Have you been here before?" Meng Ruji asked, curious.
The boy, still wary, took another step back, eyes darting between her and the river behind him.
Meng Ruji couldn’t understand why a thief would be so suspicious of others. It made her nervous just watching him.
"Alright, you don’t have to be so scared. I don’t intend to take back the inner elixir you stole—at least not yet," Meng Ruji said. "Right now, the priority is to get out of here. Since you’re awake, you can walk on your own. Let’s head to the ferry up ahead and buy the boat ticket. We can figure out the rest once we’re back in the human world."
"Inner elixir?" The boy murmured, his hand instinctively touching his abdomen.
Meng Ruji saw his movements and laughed bitterly. "Don’t tell me you’ve forgotten it?"
The boy finally looked at Meng Ruji, a trace of confusion mingling with the wariness in his eyes.
His expression... Could he really have forgotten?
Meng Ruji stared at him, a strange silence settling between them.
"Forget it..." Meng Ruji pinched the bridge of her nose. "This isn’t the time to worry about that..."
Whether he remembered being a thief or not, the inner elixir had to be returned once they got back to the human world!
"Let’s head toward the ferry first..."
If he kept standing here, she’d never reach the ferry in this lifetime! They couldn’t afford to fall out now...
"Let’s go." Meng Ruji forced a smile, trying to appear friendly.
The boy might have lost his memory, but he was sharp enough to detect Meng Ruji’s insincerity. He stepped back even further.
"Don’t retreat," Meng Ruji said, still smiling that forced smile. "Come on, let’s go to the ferry together. We’ll head back together."
Before she could finish, the boy turned and bolted in the opposite direction!
The wind tousled Meng Ruji's hair as she stood there, stunned, watching the boy sprint away. After a moment of disbelief, she felt a sharp, all-too-familiar pain surge through her.
"Hey..."
Meng Ruji barely managed to shout before reality hit her.
Damn it, they couldn’t be too far apart!
Meng Ruji tore after the boy like a madwoman, stumbling and scrambling as she yelled, "Slow down! Stop! I won’t kill you! Just stop! I don’t have the inner elixir! I can’t run anymore!"
They dashed through the silent night, leaving no trace behind except their rapidly fading footprints and Meng Ruji’s frantic shouts:
"You bastard! Stop!"
As they got farther from the Naihe River, the ferry with its red lanterns in the fog became a distant memory. Meng Ruji wasn’t thinking about the ferry, or returning, or even the human world anymore. The only thing on her mind was catching up to that elixir-stealing thief and breaking his legs!
.jpeg)
0 Comments