The first thing I did was to find out

Chapter 472 Truly a Mayfly

Zhao Cheng'an and Xia Murui stayed in the kitchen for a long time.

The soundproofing in Fenyuan Kitchen is quite good. Once the door is closed, you can't hear a word spoken inside unless it's particularly loud.

Qin Huai and Zhang Guanghang stood guard outside like two gatekeepers, unable to hear what was being said inside for a long time. After a while, Qin Huai got a little bored and wanted to take out his phone from his pocket to play with it for a bit.

One touch.

Where is my phone?

My phone is that big?

Where is my phone, which I always keep in my pocket and am inseparable from?
.
About 20 minutes later, the kitchen door opened, and Zhao Cheng'an peeked out from behind it. Under the watchful eyes of Zhang Guanghang and his gang, who had better not actually scammed him, and knowing that Fenyuan was not above the law, he furtively beckoned to Qin Huai: "Qin Huai, come in first."

Then Zhao Cheng'an smiled apologetically at Zhang Guanghang: "Master Zhang, could you please stay outside for a little while longer? We have other things to discuss."

It's clear that Zhao Cheng'an still hasn't remembered Zhang Guanghang's full name.

Qin Huai walked into the kitchen.

Xia Murui was sitting on a small stool in the kitchen, munching on a not-so-delicious brown sugar steamed bun made by Zhao Cheng'an. When Qin Huai came in, Xia Murui smiled at him very kindly. This wasn't the smile of an elder to a younger person, but more like a friendly greeting between peers, which made Qin Huai feel somewhat flattered.

"What did you say?" Qin Huai asked Zhao Cheng'an in a low voice.

"Qin Huai, it's alright, you can say anything, you can even speak loudly, I've said everything!" Zhao Cheng'an said proudly.

Qin Huai: ...Your aftereffects from being a Mayfly are much more serious than Chen Huihong's. That's great. After we go back to Zhiweiju, I won't be the only lunatic there anymore. Brother, your condition seems much more serious than mine.

"What do you mean by saying everything?" Qin Huai asked cautiously.

“You just told us everything!” Zhao Cheng’an said. “Including how you were very honest with us about having a system. Before, we all thought you were just imagining things and that you had something wrong with your head. Now that I think about it, that system must be real. Wow, Qin Huai, you are really much smarter than me. I never thought there was such a way to be honest with each other. If I had known, I would have just told my master and the others that I was a mayfly the first time.”

Qin Huai: ...

Qin Huai looked at Xia Murui with an incredulous expression: "So, Master Xia, you accepted everything?"

Qin Huai pointed at Zhao Cheng'an: "He is a mayfly, who came to the human world to undergo tribulation. He has been reincarnated countless times and only regained his memories after waking up just now."

"Seven times, I'm in my eighth life now, and if nothing unexpected happens, my next life will be my last," Zhao Cheng'an added.

Qin Huai: ? Brother, even if you're a mayfly, I still want to ask you how you did it? Your senior brother is still alive in this world, and you've already restarted 7 times. Isn't that reincarnation speed a bit too fast? Even if you mayflies are good at courting death, aren't you a bit too good at it?
Qin Huai was momentarily speechless at Zhao Cheng'an's words, then pointed to himself and continued, "I have a game system, a real system. This game system can give me tasks and unlock monster illustrations. Besides Zhao Cheng'an, I've already met many monsters."

Xia Murui looked at Qin Huai calmly, with an expression that said, "Go on, tell me."

"You can accept this?" Qin Huai almost screamed, feeling that the world had finally turned upside down.

Xia Murui's tolerance is a bit too...high, isn't it? Accepting Zhao Cheng'an could be considered a case of the junior brother filter, but what about accepting that she has a system? Does it mean that Master Xia has been reading novels all these years?

"You...do you usually like to read novels?" Qin Huai asked tentatively.

"I won't read it," Xia Murui said. "I don't like reading."

"How can you accept this?" Now it was Qin Huai's turn to be unable to accept it. For so long, others had accepted that he was mentally ill, and he had never thought anything of it. Now that their roles were reversed, Qin Huai suddenly realized that Zheng Siyuan, Tan Weian, and the others were actually very tolerant.

These days have been tough for them.

"What's so unacceptable about this?" Xia Murui gave him an expression that said, "You young people just like to make a fuss and have never seen the world. I've lived for over ninety years and seen everything. Although I don't quite understand what Asheng meant by 'system,' it should be similar to being possessed by a ghost. Asheng could be a reincarnation of a demon, so it's acceptable for you, Xiao Qin, to be possessed by a ghost."

Qin Huai: ...

Possessed by a ghost...

Game system, look at yourself! You're so useless, it's practically a ghost possessing you.

Zhao Cheng'an looked intently at Qin Huai: "Qin Huai, you go first."

"Fine……"

Qin Huai skillfully began introducing the new member to the group, glancing at Xia Murui's expression every now and then. It wasn't that Qin Huai was overreacting; he was simply uncomfortable having a human person sitting next to him while introducing the spirit and the system.

Zhao Cheng'an nodded repeatedly as he listened, while Xia Murui listened calmly with no expression, as if she were listening to a story. After Qin Huai finished speaking, Zhao Cheng'an added some explanations, telling Qin Huai that after he died, Chen Qiusheng committed suicide by setting his house on fire, and also explaining to Qin Huai why Xia Murui was so accepting of the story.

Because Zhao Cheng'an's first incarnation was a blabbermouth.

Even if Luo Jun and Shi Dadan knew more about mayflies, it was only through hearsay. Mayflies were very rare creatures in their land, and they only knew that mayflies aimed to fail in their tribulation, but they did not know the specific procedures for mayflies to undergo tribulation.

In short, it boils down to two words: courting death.

However, one should not recklessly court death. Recklessly courting death can easily lead to one's demise, like a plant spirit, arriving and dying in a daze, successfully transcending tribulation in the blink of an eye.

The mayfly's path to self-destruction begins with entering the world. Therefore, in his first life, Zhao Cheng'an sought out a master and made contact with humans. As long as humans treated him badly, causing him dissatisfaction, resentment, or regret, he could be certain that he had failed his tribulation and then let himself go, doing whatever he wanted.

Contrary to his wishes, Zhao Cheng'an did find a employer, but everyone treated him too well, so well that he never failed his tribulation. Until his death, Zhao Cheng'an felt that it was because he didn't recognize the medicine and wasted too much time stealing it, causing Ping'an to die before him. He felt he had broken his promise, and he hated himself, felt guilty and resentful, which led to his failure to pass his tribulation before he died.

However, since mayflies are just as clueless as plant spirits, Zhao Cheng'an was unaware that he had failed his tribulation before he died, and he always thought that he had succeeded and was going back.

"You're just as muddle-headed as the plant spirits. So how did you determine if you'd failed your tribulation during your normal tribulation?" Qin Huai asked.

“Let’s see if we’ve grown up,” Zhao Cheng’an said. “We mayflies don’t choose the form of an adult when we undergo tribulation; we’re mostly teenagers. Children die easily, and it’s hard to see changes in adults. Teenagers are less likely to die and easier to judge. As long as you observe carefully, you can quickly determine if you’ve failed your tribulation.” “For a while, Xia Murui grew particularly fast, his height kept increasing. He wasn’t as tall as me before, but in just a few months, he surpassed me. I was really unhappy at the time, and I really wanted to fail my tribulation and surpass him in height. Ping’an noticed that I wanted to grow taller, and to comfort me, he gave me a pair of shoes with thicker soles. But I didn’t know that. I was so excited when I found that I seemed to have grown taller, and I thought it was because I had failed my tribulation, so I told them directly.”

"He just said it directly?" Zhao Cheng'an's short words shocked Qin Huai once again.

“Yeah, I failed my tribulation, so what else is there to worry about? I just told Xia Murui directly. I told him it was great that I finally failed my tribulation. Now I don’t have to be afraid of dying. If I ever don’t want to live anymore, I’ll go to the Prince’s mansion and steal a big one, leave the gold and silver treasures for everyone, and then die.”

"What was everyone's reaction?" Qin Huai asked.

"Master Chen had a doctor take my pulse and forced me to drink medicine for two months."

Qin Huai: ...

Xia Murui calmly added, "Asheng used to talk nonsense a lot, muttering things like he couldn't die yet, that he hadn't failed yet, and that he could only be reincarnated after failing. We all thought he was having an episode."

"But later, after everyone was gone, I would sometimes think of Ah Sheng's nonsense and hope that people really have an afterlife, and that Ah Sheng and the others could really remember what happened before and come back to find me after they are reincarnated, just like Ah Sheng said before."

“I don’t believe in ghosts and gods, but I hope what Ah Sheng said is true.”

"So for all these years I have stayed in Beiping and never left. I have never changed my name. I bought the Prince's Mansion that Ah Sheng wanted to steal back then and opened Fen Garden here."

"What?!" Zhao Cheng'an exclaimed in surprise. "This is actually the former Prince's mansion? Xia Murui, did you dig up the entire garden of the mansion? I heard that the old prince buried a lot of gold and silver treasures in the mansion back then. My master forbade me to steal them, but I even thought about whether I should go to the garden of the mansion in the middle of the night and dig a few times. We mayflies are really fast diggers."

Xia Murui said, "It's fake, there's nothing hidden."

Qin Huai: Mr. Xia, you really dug all over the place...

Zhao Cheng'an sighed regretfully: "Ah, then you've overpaid. Back then, the old prince was so poor that he wanted to tear down the mansion and sell it. The mansion wasn't even as rich as the prince's mansion. If I hadn't heard that there were a lot of gold and silver treasures buried in the mansion's garden, I wouldn't have wanted to steal from the mansion."

"I bought it after the founding of the People's Republic of China, so I didn't lose money."

"That's good."

Qin Huai felt that he couldn't quite understand the conversation between the two fellow disciples.

"Then why didn't you go back to Beiping to look for someone after you were reincarnated in your second life, Zhao Cheng'an?" Qin Huai asked.

“I wish I could, but I wasn’t born into a good family in my second and third lives. In my second life, I choked to death on soybeans when I was four. In my third life, I died of a fever when I was five. In my fourth life, I don’t remember being a spirit anymore, I only have a few fragmented memories. In that life, my parents thought I was possessed by an evil spirit and talked nonsense every day. They gave me talisman water to drink. I don’t know what that sorceress added to the talisman water, but it made me have diarrhea. When I was nine, I died of diarrhea.”

“By the fifth incarnation, I had completely forgotten everything, and it’s been like this until now, the eighth incarnation. I find it all very absurd. I know that we mayflies reincarnate quickly, but I didn’t know it was this fast. Reincarnating four times in 18 years, even if I wanted to come to Beiping to find Xia Murui, I wouldn’t have the means.” Zhao Cheng’an was extremely aggrieved.

"I brought this upon myself in the later lives, but it really wasn't my fault in the earlier ones."

"How did you die in your later lives?" Qin Huai's soul questioned.

Zhao Cheng'an: "...In my fifth life, both my parents were traditional Chinese medicine practitioners. I was influenced by them from a young age and wanted to learn from Shennong who tasted hundreds of herbs. I took my own pulse and wrote a prescription, but I accidentally poisoned myself to death."

"The sixth incarnation finally lived to adulthood and started working. He was about to get married and have children when, because he loved watching excitement, he was caught in the crossfire of a gang fighting in the street and was accidentally stabbed in the carotid artery and died on the street."

"I actually lived quite a long life in my seventh incarnation, and I did quite well in my studies. I graduated with a master's degree and was sent to Africa for work. I felt that the world was so big and I wanted to see it. I drove to the grasslands to see lions, but my car broke down and I ended up feeding the lions while I was getting it repaired."

Qin Huai: ...

As expected of a mayfly, the way it dies in each life is beyond its imagination, and it reaches new heights in death in each life.

Xia Murui sighed helplessly, "We can't act so recklessly in the future."

"Don't worry, I didn't remember before, but I'm awake now. This is my last life, and I will definitely cherish it and live well. I will definitely die after you." Zhao Cheng'an patted his chest and promised, "This time I will absolutely not break my promise."

"Okay." Xia Murui nodded with a smile.

Qin Huai: Can you guys please stop saying such hellish things in such a warm tone and atmosphere?!
Qin Huai asked, "Should I add you to the group now so you can have a video call with everyone, or should we chat a little longer?"

Zhao Cheng'an said, "Let's chat a little longer. We'll be heading back to Hangzhou tomorrow afternoon. I don't know when we'll be able to come to Beiping again."

Qin Huai was taken aback: "Are we leaving tomorrow afternoon? Why don't we stay in Beiping for a few more days?"

Qin Huai assumed that since Zhao Cheng'an and Xia Murui had recognized each other as fellow disciples, they should stay in Beiping for three to five days, as they would have plenty to talk about.

What did Xia Murui experience after leaving Beiping? How did she live through the past half-century? And what were the seven generations of her life after Zhao Cheng'an's death? To tell the whole story, theoretically, it would take three days and three nights to finish.

This is a once-in-a-century reunion after more than half a century. We just chatted briefly for one night and then went our separate ways.

“Our flight is tomorrow afternoon, and I’ve already taken an extra day off. If I rest for a few more days, my master will definitely scold me,” Zhao Cheng’an said. “I’m not Chen Sheng anymore, and Xia Murui isn’t the teenage Xia Murui anymore. We both have our own things to do. I can’t stay in Fen Garden and delay Xia Murui from making money, can I?”

“We can chat on WeChat if we need anything. If that doesn’t work, I’ll create a group chat for the three of us, and we can call each other directly in the group if we need anything.”

Xia Murui nodded: "There are still eight tables of guests at Fenyuan tomorrow, so I won't go to the airport to see you off. I'll have Xiao Hang take you. I'll make a casserole of shark fin soup right on time, and you can take it on the plane and eat it there."

Looking at the two, Qin Huai suddenly realized that they truly deserved to be called fellow disciples.

One was honest, the other was accepting, and neither of them lived in the past.

After their fateful reunion and the resolution of their regrets, they didn't let the story unfold like a typical happy ending in a TV drama. Instead, they chose to smile, give each other a hug, and continue with their lives.

If Chen Qiusheng and Chen Pingan saw this, they would probably be happy for them.

(End of this chapter)