On the other side of the underworld, Naihe Bridge is located on the Wangchuan River flowing with turbid blood.
This place is one of the dividing lines between the yin and yang worlds, and is the most lively place from the human world to the underworld. Souls come and go on the long road to the underworld. The sea of flowers on the other side is in full bloom as far as the eye can see, dyeing the road to another world in blood. .
The young man was half-standing at the end of the road to the underworld, leaning on the broken side railing on the top floor of the Naihe Bridge. His eyes fell on the gray and waveless River of Forgetfulness, and his fingers gently fiddled with the blood-colored flowers from the other side that had been picked in his hands.
Far above the Wangchuan River, the ferry boat carrying the living to the underworld was busy going back and forth. More and more people were brought by the ferry boat. After the ferry docked, people started to set foot on the underworld one by one. On the road, I walked aimlessly through the flower fields in full bloom on the other side, stepped onto the ancient Naihe Bridge, passed by the young people leaning on the end of the bridge one after another, and walked towards the people holding the soup that can forget memories. Po Meng.
The road to the underworld between the two worlds has been like this for thousands of years, and it has never changed. Countless people and souls have walked on this ancient bridge, or fallen into the abyss of the Forgotten River filled with evil spirits, or It is to go to the underworld and reincarnate. This is the meaning of existence here, and it is also the eternal rules and laws.
Most of the people who belong to the reincarnation regulation here will come here after death. Therefore, the young man often comes here and always stops at the junction of yin and yang. In the past hundred years, he has seen many souls and souls passing through here. Face, but I have never seen the person I am looking for here.
During such a long time, countless souls of all kinds passed through here, all of which were alien to him. After waiting for hundreds of years until the end of the atonement, he had never seen a familiar shadow of himself.
The wait here is about to end.
He whispered to himself in his heart. He looked away from the Huangquan Road and the sea of flowers on the other side that he was extremely familiar with. He lowered his eyes and fell on the withered flower in his hand. He raised his hand to tear off the bright red petals of the flower and let it go. Falling into the Wangchuan River that never flows like stagnant water, watching the petals falling into such a blood river did not stir up a single splash, and even the ripples disappeared in an instant.
"One hundred years... is too long for her." He whispered to himself, watching the last petal of the other shore flower in his hand being broken off by himself, and the empty heart of the flower was reflected in his red eyes. He looked at the broken flower for a moment, then threw the whole flower into the Forgotten River, and then propped himself up from the worn-out side rail where he was half-reclining.
The old side rails of the Naihe Bridge made an annoying creaking sound.
It's time to leave.
Then, thinking softly in his heart, he slowly turned around and crossed the channel boundary of Naihe Bridge, took steps against the road and stepped on the road to hell that leads to the world at the end. But before he took a few steps, he was suddenly heard by a familiar voice. interrupted.
"No. 4, where are you going?"
He turned around when he heard the sound and saw a short-haired girl who had been standing on Mengpo Bridge for some time.
The girl looked at him with doubts and worries in her eyes. She seemed to have guessed that he was about to leave, so she appeared here at this moment.
The girl is an old acquaintance he is familiar with here, and she is also one of the few connections he has in this underworld that he regards as a prison. In a place like this, some people will care a little about his behavior and actions, maybe It was just her.
He stopped where he was, looking at her face that always made him feel familiar. He was silent for a moment, then his eyes lowered a little, and he said softly:
"It's just a walk... Qi, you don't have to worry too much. Go and do your mission with your partner."
The words he spoke had an air of alienation, and his red eyes showed some disapproval.
"Go to this shore for a walk?" The girl named Qi frowned, looked into his eyes and shook her head, "You are lying, No. 4. I know your contract with the underworld is about to end. They said you will stay here for a hundred years. The deadline has come to an end."
"If you go this time, you won't come back again, right?"
She looked at his words, but before she could wait for his answer, she had already found the answer in his eyes that always held indifference.
Her heart trembled, and she looked at the young man and asked softly:
"Can't you take me with you?"
The young man shook his head and responded to her:
"Ordinary ghosts cannot leave the other side. This is the rule of the underworld. If you want to become a revenant that can cross boundaries, you have to wait until you become black and white. Aren't you working hard for this?"
"No, that's different. You clearly know why I want to be black and white, don't you?" The girl interrupted his words and followed his direction toward the road to hell. "I just want to I want to catch up with you...I want to be able to help you...that's all..."
"Aren't you a wish-fulfiller who can exchange wishes for a price? You can easily break this so-called rule. As long as you are willing to take me away, then I can pay no matter what the price is..."
"Luo Ranqi. I am the person who has made a wish on this side." The young man also interrupted her, "I will not and cannot fulfill the wishes of the deceased on the other side, and I do not intend to take you away."
"You should stay here to fulfill your original promises and wishes, and live here instead of chasing me all the time. I have no nostalgia for this place, and I am not interested in intervening in the future that should belong to you."
The girl's expression froze when she heard what he said. She stopped her original progress and stood at the end of Naihe Bridge, frowning and looking at the boy's back with a complicated expression.
She did not refute his words in an emotional voice, but suddenly asked a question softly.
"If that's the case, why did you choose to help me twenty years ago?"
The young man looked into her eyes and was silent for a moment, then whispered:
"Because when I first met you, for a moment, you reminded me of someone I've been looking for."
He only met the girl because she was somewhat similar to that "her".
But similarity is always just similarity, nothing more.
"I understand." Luo Ranqi looked into his eyes and shook her head and nodded. Then she lowered her eyes and did not look at him again. She murmured in a low voice:
"I know that's the case. In fact, I've always known it. The hundred years you stayed here were for her, and everything you did was to find her, even if she is now a shadow that doesn't even know where she exists. "
"I will never ask you to take me away again. I will wait here until the day I can catch up with you."
The young man looked at her lowered head and said nothing. He just shook his head wordlessly. Then he suddenly stretched out one of his hands. The blue flame behind him that would always beat around him responded to the call and started from him. The palm of his hand burst into flames, and a vague bloody word "wish" slowly appeared in the center of the flame.
Then he spoke to Luo Ranqi again: "You don't need to do anything for me."
"You know I'm not a ghost from the underworld, right? But there are some things I haven't told you."
"I am originally an isolated person who has no connection or 'destiny' with any existence. I do not belong to any place in the Three Realms, so there is no place where I belong."
"The reason why you can still know and remember my existence so well now is because my contract with the underworld has not yet ended, and once my work of returning people to the underworld comes to an end and this relationship between me and the underworld is no longer maintained, you I will be gradually forgotten like other existences.”
"This is my destiny, and it is also the starting point that no matter who my relationship is with, I will return to it."
The young man calmed down after speaking and withdrew his hand holding the blue flame.
Luo Ranqi was stunned after hearing his words. She didn't expect that she would hear such an incredible secret.
She hesitated and wanted to say something, but was interrupted by his voice again.
"Do you know why I always want to find that person?" He said, "Because to me, she is an existence beyond my destiny."
"She is my benefactor, and she is also the first beacon I have encountered that can give me a brief pause in the long and destinationless years, so no matter whether she still exists in the world, or in a hundred years, No matter what she becomes, I will never stop looking for her."
"So many souls in this underworld only know me as No. 4, but this is not actually my name. It is just a proxy for the identity of the person who has made the wish."
"Many of the dead souls on the other side have no names and are only referred to by soul codes, but I am different."
The young man said that and closed his eyes with a bit of tiredness, and then whispered softly in a voice that only he could hear.
"I've always wanted to... see her smile and call my name again."
After he finished speaking to himself that no one could hear, he suddenly turned back to face the vast sea of blooming flowers on the other side. Then he suddenly turned over and jumped, falling over the edge of Huangquan Road, and fell into oblivion. In the blood-colored water of Chuanhe River.
"Wait!..." Luo Ranqi looked at his actions and wanted to try to stay and stop him out of instinct, but she couldn't cross the Naihe Bridge and couldn't enter the Wangchuan River. She could only watch him swim in the bloody river. He moved forward step by step. Every time he took a step deeper, the rising blood would cover his body faster.
He always travels to and from the human world from here.
Under the bloody water of the Wangchuan River is the disaster of countless insects, snakes and evil spirits, and it is also a heart-breaking ordeal. Every time he sinks into this endless river of blood, he will recall those who were killed here. A past that is constantly worn out and consumed.
This is the warning he gives himself, and it is also the punishment he gives himself.
But this time, he hoped that this would be the last time he would walk through this river of blood.
Luo Ranqi still stood at the edge of Naihe Bridge and looked at his back, but he did not look back, he just whispered to himself and sent blessings to the girl behind him.
"If we meet again next time, I hope to see that you have become black and white."
He said those words and finally turned around and disappeared into the thick fog where the blood and gray moisture gathered on the surface of the Wangchuan River, and his figure disappeared into the endless distance of the Wangchuan River.
