Into The Sea

In her tenth year in the Ghost Capital, Lan Yueyao, due to her diligent and tireless work, was transferred from the grueling labor of the Yanluo Prison to the Rebirth Residence under the jurisdiction of Meng Po.

Although she still only had two days off each month, she could now go home every night. Moreover, compared to the backbreaking work of chiseling mountains and cutting stones barefoot in the molten lava-filled prison, the monotonous task of grinding herbs was much easier. Not to mention, she even ran into an old acquaintance here.

After pouring the crushed medicinal juice into the pot, Lan Yueyao couldn’t help but chuckle as she stared at the woman silently stirring the concoction. “Are you still going to pretend you don’t recognize me?”

Ji Xing tightened her grip on the iron pestle, not even lifting her head as she said, “Tomorrow, we have to send over four hundred souls to their next lives. If I waste time talking, I won’t finish in time.”

Lan Yueyao remained unconvinced. “When did you get here? How did you die? How many years were you sentenced?”

“…” Ji Xing finally answered obediently, “Fifteen years. I have five left.”

Lan Yueyao frowned. “So you died just a few days after me?”

Ji Xing gave a faint nod, clearly unwilling to continue the topic. Lan Yueyao glanced at the sky outside the window and suddenly asked, “Do you want to come over for dinner tonight?”

Ji Xing was stunned and finally looked up. “Dinner?”

Although they no longer needed to eat after death, most of the Ghost Capital residents still followed their habits from when they were alive, working at sunrise and resting at sunset. Thinking about it, Lan Yueyao inviting her to dinner wasn’t so strange.

“Yes,” Lan Yueyao narrowed her eyes and muttered, “You’ve become so reserved since you died.” After saying that, she turned around. “My house is the third one on Changle Lane. If you come, remember to bring some flowers.”

At dusk, Meng Po saw off the last soul, and Ji Xing finished grinding all the herbs needed for tomorrow. She cleaned the mortar and pestle before leaving the Rebirth Residence.

The underworld had no sun. The sky, illuminated by the River of Forgetfulness, was a deep, blood-red.

On her way home, lanterns lit up the streets, illuminating the shop signs. She bought a packet of tea leaves from a teahouse and then picked up the ingredients needed for dinner. The shopkeeper, used to her routine, asked, “The usual?”

Lan Yueyao nodded, then added, “And an extra fish.”

The shopkeeper gave her a curious look, but Lan Yueyao paid no mind. After buying what she needed, she headed home.

Pushing open the door, the warm glow of the lanterns bathed her as she stepped onto the stone path in the courtyard, passing through a dense flowerbed. A woman leaning under the eaves with a book in hand looked up and called out clearly, “Yueyao.”

Lan Yueyao walked over and saw that it was a children’s book for learning characters. “Did the little girl next door, Xiao Mo, give it to you?”

Chu Chunhan thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. “Yes.”

Lan Yueyao smiled, holding up the ingredients she had bought. “Look, I bought new ingredients today.”

Chu Chunhan carefully looked at them for a while. She turned a page in the book and pointed to the picture of a mermaid. “Fish,” then pointed to Lan Yueyao. “You.”

Lan Yueyao chuckled. “That’s right, but the fish is for our guest. Hmm, she’s a cat, um—this one.” She turned to the page with a picture of a cat. “When she comes later, please make sure to take good care of her. I’ll go cook first.”

Chu Chunhan replied, “Okay.”

As every household began to emit wisps of smoke, Ji Xing, holding a large bouquet of flowers, hesitantly walked to the door of the third house on Changle Lane.

How did I really end up buying flowers?

She stared at the flowers in her arms, frowning slightly. In the ten years she’d been in the underworld, her life had revolved solely around work. She didn’t even have a place to live in the Ghost Capital, spending her days off alone in the Rebirth Residence.

Besides, were she and Lan Yueyao really on good enough terms to share a meal?

As she stood there lost in thought, the door in front of her suddenly opened. Ji Xing jumped, and when she saw who it was, she froze. “Sis…” Before she could finish, she suddenly realized something and exclaimed in surprise, “You, you’re… Chu Chunhan?”

Chu Chunhan sized her up for a moment, “Cat?”

Ji Xing blinked. “What?”

Chu Chunhan patiently repeated, “You, cat?”

Ji Xing blinked and finally understood. She stammered, “Y-yes, yes, I’m a cat.”

Chu Chunhan nodded and stepped forward to take the flowers from her arms. “Thank you.”

She turned around and walked a few steps, noticing that Ji Xing hadn’t followed. She turned back around. “Please.”

Ji Xing bit her lip, struggling internally.

Finally, she lifted her foot and followed anxiously. Lan Yueyao, who was inside the house, heard the noise and walked out with a kitchen knife. “You’re here.”

When she saw the bouquet of flowers in Chunhan’s arms, almost burying her entire face, she exclaimed in surprise, “Why did you buy so many?”

Ji Xing said, “I didn’t know what kind of flowers you wanted, so I got one of each.”

“Flowers are more expensive than jewelry in the underworld. Where did you get so much money?”

“My sister burned them for me.”

“Sister?”

“Lan Yuan.”

Lan Yueyao frowned. “Why doesn’t she burn them for us?”

Ji Xing thought for a moment. “Maybe because you don’t have bodies, so there’s no place to burn them.”

“…” Lan Yueyao gave her a fake smile and turned around. Seeing that Chu Chunhan had already walked into the courtyard, looking around for a place to plant the flowers, her annoyance faded. “Forget it, thank you anyway for bringing so many.”

Ji Xing turned her head and glanced at the fragrant courtyard, raising an eyebrow. “Compared to what’s already here, it’s not that much.”

“Of course. In the ten years I was in Yanluo Prison, every time I came back to see her, I would bring a bouquet of flowers.” Lan Yueyao’s gaze fell on Chu Chunhan’s slender figure, and she said gently, “You can’t compare.”

A lavish dinner was soon served. Chu Chunhan sat upright, eating with refined manners, her expression calm and composed.

It was hard to tell she was a soul with missing pieces. Ji Xing secretly glanced at her several times from over the rim of her bowl, and Lan Yueyao caught her. “What are you looking at?”

She hesitated and asked, “Has she recovered?”

“Of course not,” Lan Yueyao said casually. “But she’s getting better and better. For the first two or three years, she didn’t react to anything, just sat there all day. I couldn’t be by her side all the time, so I had to ask the neighbors to help take care of her… Slowly, she started to react to the outside world, learning to read and speak bit by bit.”

Ji Xing was puzzled. “But after reincarnation, she’ll be a blank slate again and won’t remember anything. Isn’t all this effort wasted?”

“How is it wasted?” Lan Yueyao said gently. “When she reads, when she talks to me, when she walks around the Ghost Capital, she’s much happier than before. As long as she’s happy, it’s not wasted.”

Ji Xing fell silent, then continued eating her porridge. Lan Yueyao, on the other hand, became interested in her and lazily raised her eyes. “So how did you die? When did you and Lan Yuan become so close that you call her sister?”

Ji Xing froze, gripping her spoon tightly, unsure whether to tell the truth.

Suddenly, she remembered—Lan Yueyao was also her…

A soft clink interrupted her thoughts as Chu Chunhan set down her bowl and chopsticks, looking at Lan Yueyao. “Tomorrow.”

Lan Yueyao understood. “Tomorrow, we will go to the human realm. I haven’t forgotten.”

Ji Xing looked up. “To the human realm?”

“Yes, tomorrow is the Ghost Festival. The gates to the human realm will open, and we can go for a visit.”

“But you,” she coughed, “sinners like us… we’re not allowed to leave the underworld.”

“That’s right,” Lan Yueyao nodded. “So after I asked the Ghost Queen for permission to go to the human realm, she agreed but canceled all my days off for the year.”

Ji Xing’s eyes lit up. “So, that means I…”

“You can also go to the human realm,” Lan Yueyao said with a smile. “But I guess it’s not possible this year. Tomorrow is the Ghost Festival, and you won’t have time to ask the Ghost Queen for permission.”

“That’s okay,” she shook her head, her face showing joy. “Thank you for telling me.”

“You’re welcome. It’s fate that we met in the underworld.”

Ji Xing finally couldn’t help but ask the question. “Don’t you hate me?”

“Hate? We’re already dead. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, what’s there to hate?”

“…Right,” the woman lowered her eyes and sighed softly. “The past belongs to the living. For the dead, it’s all emptiness.”

Early the next morning, the two ghosts set off on the road to the human realm.

The Sea Palace was still as she remembered, but there were few people inside and outside the palace. They floated next to a mermaid and eavesdropped for a while before learning that the current Sea Empress had gone to the demon realm.

The current Sea Empress…

Ghosts moved much faster than the living, and soon Lan Yueyao and Chu Chunhan arrived at the imposing palace of the demon realm. Along with the other demons present, they turned their attention to the group entering the hall.

The young woman with silver hair and blue eyes walked in the front, her steps as swift as the wind, her robes fluttering. Behind her followed more than twenty merfolk, wearing the same spotless white clothes.

As this group entered, the entire hall seemed to brighten, and the demons in the hall let out a gasp of admiration.

Lan Yuan stopped and looked at the throne at the highest point. Her face was as white as jade, beautiful and radiant, not at all overshadowed by the silver jewelry she wore. Even as she bowed, she did so with neither arrogance nor humility. “My apologies for being late.”

Lan Yueyao breathed a sigh of relief. “It’s good that Lan Yuan became the Sea Empress.”

Chu Chunhan looked at the people in the hall and silently drifted over, carefully examining Lan Yuan. Lan Yueyao also leaned closer and said gently, “She looks a lot like you, doesn’t she?”

Chu Chunhan didn’t respond, but reached out and carefully touched Lan Yuan’s face. The woman who had just sat down fluttered her eyelashes, as if sensing something, and turned her head.

Unfortunately, the living could not see ghosts. Even though they were looking at each other, Lan Yuan only looked suspiciously at the air beside her for a long time before turning her head back.

This seemed to be a banquet celebrating the Demon Queen’s wedding. After the banquet, Lan Yuan left the palace alone and walked towards the bustling demon capital. The two ghosts quietly followed her, eventually stopping in front of a large stone statue.

People passed by on all sides as Lan Yuan stood with her hands behind her back, gazing up at the statue. “Aunt.”

Lan Yueyao was startled, thinking that she had discovered her. Chu Chunhan, however, frowned, looking at the statue and then at her. “You.”

Lan Yueyao tilted her head. “Me?”

Chu Chunhan pointed to the face of the statue. “You.”

Lan Yueyao finally understood and looked up, carefully examining the statue. She exclaimed in surprise, “It really is me.”

The demons had actually built a statue of her in the highest part of the capital. Lan Yueyao blinked and murmured, “I never did anything for them…”

Lan Yuan placed her palm on the statue and muttered, “Aunt, being the Sea Empress is exhausting. There are so many things to deal with every day… like endless meetings with humans and demons.”

She let out a quiet sigh. “Lan Wu has it easy, she’s wandering around without a care in the world, while I’m left to carry all this responsibility alone. And that Meng Changge…” At this point, she suddenly stopped.

After a long silence, she frowned again in dissatisfaction. “Why am I even thinking about her?”

The surroundings suddenly became quiet. Lan Yuan spaced out for a while, then sighed and turned to walk back. “Never mind.”

The two ghosts remained in place, watching her walk away, disappearing into the crowd.

Lan Yueyao reached out her hand. “Let’s go.”

Chu Chunhan withdrew her gaze and placed her hand in hers. “Okay.”

A gentle breeze brushed their faces as they arrived at a mountain path. A light rain fell from the sky, and a woman in white was engaged in combat with several men. Another person ducked into an overturned carriage, carefully helping a mother and daughter out.

Swish.

A gleaming sword pierced the last man’s heart. When it was withdrawn, it was not stained with blood. Ji Lingyue casually twirled her sword and turned to look at the three people standing by the carriage.

The mother and daughter were still in shock. Now that they saw the corpses all over the ground, they were even more frightened, their faces turning pale. Lan Wu placed the hat on her head onto the mother’s head, shielding her from the rain. “Don’t be afraid. If you ride the horse down the mountain, you’ll reach the town in half an hour.”

“The horse… We, we don’t have a horse.”

“Take mine.” Lan Wu led her horse over and helped them up. “Remember to report to the authorities when you get to town. There are only a few bandits left on Qingfeng Mountain, they are nothing to fear.”

“If you give us your horse, what will you do?”

Lan Wu smiled. Seeing Ji Lingyue get on her horse, she lightly leaped behind her. “We can ride one horse together.”

Ji Lingyue glanced at her with a smile, gripping the reins. “Let’s go!”

“Wa-wait…” Seeing them gradually disappear, the woman shouted, “What are your names? Where should I go to thank you?”

In the light rain, a clear voice came. “No need to thank us. We just did what was right—”

The sound of hooves faded away, and the swaying figures gradually disappeared into the mountains. Lan Yueyao shook her head with a smile. “Lan Yuan is right, she is indeed carefree.”

Chu Chunhan pondered. “They…”

Lan Yueyao tilted her head, waiting patiently. The woman spoke slowly. “Good.”

“Yes,” Lan Yueyao said gently. “They’re married now, how can they not be?”

Chu Chunhan blinked. “Penglai…”

“Do you want to go there?” Although Penglai had undergone earth-shattering changes, Lan Yueyao was still a bit uneasy. She pursed her lips, looked at Chu Chunhan’s clear eyes, and snorted awkwardly. “Fine, let’s go.”

At that moment, Chu Chunhan took her hand again. Lan Yueyao was startled, then couldn’t help but smile. “Never mind, we can go wherever you want. No matter where it is, I’ll go with you.”

The two ghosts vanished like the wind into the drizzling rain, leaving the forest as quiet as if nothing had happened.