Day and night tour

Chapter 2 Soul Calling
cold,
It’s cold…

The road to the underworld is long, but the flowers on the other shore are blooming.

Li Ling was clearly standing under the scorching sun, but the biting cold did not stop him and penetrated deep into his bones.

He walked numbly on an extremely wide stone bridge.

The bridge was crowded with pedestrians, both men and women, young and old.

Everyone was wearing the same shabby white clothes, had a numb expression, and walked in a very mechanical manner.

At this moment, the stone bridge was as crowded as a termite nest.

"Are they all dead like me?" Li Ling's body was out of control, but his mind was clear.

He was a middle-level manager in a media company. That day, he was driving, listening to old storytelling and humming happily, when he was suddenly hit by a large truck.

Then, after a long journey, his soul arrived here.

"We should all be going to reincarnate, right?" Li Ling thought.

But obviously, the others might be going there to be reincarnated, but he was not.

He had been pushed to the edge of the stone bridge by the crowded crowd.

He could see a large river running under the bridge, with waves rippling from time to time, looking relaxed and happy.

——The scenery would have been really nice if the pedestrians on the bridge had not been pushed off the bridge, fell into the river, let out a shrill scream, and were then burned into a ball of gray smoke by the river water.

According to the current rate at which he is being marginalized, it won’t be long before Li Ling becomes one of those unfortunate souls who were buried in the River Styx.

"Damn, when I was a human, I was excluded by my colleagues. Now that I'm a ghost, I'm still excluded by ghosts. What kind of world is this?"

Complaining cannot resist exclusion, only resistance can.

But Li Ling's body was not under his own control. As if following some kind of will, he could only move forward mechanically and numbly. The length of each step was not under his control.

I couldn't even utter a single note, and couldn't even open my mouth to curse.

So the exclusion continues.

He was first pushed half a body length out of the stone bridge by the crowd, one foot stepped on empty air, and then, he was completely squeezed out.

Both of his feet were in the air, and his stiff and clumsy body staggered towards the River Styx, but he still maintained a mechanical and numb pace and walked in the air.

It's so funny that it looks like an NPC with a model.

"It's finally over." Li Ling looked at the azure surface of the River Styx below, speechless and calm.

Just when he was ready to say goodbye to the world,

suddenly,

A shriveled and skinny hand grabbed Li Ling's wrist.

"I'm not afraid of stepping on the wind, I'm afraid of grabbing nothing. Grandson, I finally found you."

Grandson?

Li Ling's grandfather died ten years ago from a cerebral hemorrhage caused by drinking too much.

"Did he make a name for himself in the underworld in these ten years, and now he's here to save me?"

Li Ling felt a little lucky and was overjoyed.

"Your name is Zhou Xuan, and I am your grandfather."

Uh...it turns out I recognized the wrong person.

There isn't much else on this bridge, except for a lot of people, all wearing the same white clothes, so it's not uncommon to mistake someone for someone else.

The old man pulled Li Ling onto the bridge with a smile. After carefully observing his "grandson's" face for a few seconds, he frowned.

"You realized you saved the wrong person, didn't you, and want to throw me down again?"

Li Ling really wished he could open his mouth and say something nice to the old man who saved him - Old man, even though you saved the wrong person, you saved him anyway...

"After seeing these few glances, I knew..." The old man was a little sad, and he sighed and said, "...Grandson, you have suffered in Muhun City!"

What?
Old man, what's that look in your eyes? Can't you recognize your grandson?
Also, this place is not the underworld, it’s called Muhun City?

However, if you understand it literally, there seems to be no difference.

"Zhou Xuan, grandpa will take you home!"

The old man carried Li Ling on his back and walked against the direction of the soul tide towards a dark river in the distance.

warm!
warm.

As the old man went further and further back, Li Ling's body became warmer and warmer.

Something called vitality reappeared in Li Ling's body after being away from him for a long time.

His fingers can already move on their own.

He could also make vague sounds with his mouth.

Li Ling had a strong premonition that as long as the old man took him to the Mo Shui River, he would be able to become a living person again.

Of course, the return of vitality comes at a price.

The old man walked against the flow, and every time he walked a distance, a bloody hole would appear on his body.

Blood gushed out from the wound, dyeing the body red.

Li Ling felt a little bit reluctant. The old man spent such a huge price, wasn't he just trying to save his own grandson?
In the end he saved this fake grandson!

Li Ling wanted to tell the truth several times, wanted to tell the old man "I'm really not your grandson", but he couldn't bear to give up the warm feeling.

It’s really good to be alive.

Ugh,
never mind,

Pretend to be your grandson again.

In the face of life, morality, compassion, and shame are worthless.

Finally, after eight bloody holes appeared on the old man's body, he carried Li Ling on his back and walked to the bank of the Mo Shui River. He waved to a small boat and said, "Ferryman, take my grandson back to Pingshuifu, Jingguo. The boat fare has been paid."

The boatman took Li Ling onto the boat. The old man waved at Li Ling and said, "Grandson, remember, your name is Zhou Xuan. When you return to your soul, if your sister asks you where your hometown is, you must say - Wusheng Hell, Fangxiang Mingtang."

After he finished explaining, a ninth bloody hole appeared on the old man's body.

The blood that sprayed out this time was like an extremely strong acid, corroding the old man's flesh and blood into a bloody skeleton.

A cold wind blew, and the old man's skeleton collapsed.

Just now, I was a whole person.
Now there's a whole crowd of people.

Li Ling's heart was shocked. He stood up and wanted to say something to the old man's bones, but nothing came out.

——He was knocked unconscious by the boatman's oar.

……

When Li Ling woke up again, he was lying on a bamboo bed in the outer courtyard of Zhou's class.

He saw a huge, towering willow tree not far away, with thousands of pairs of eyes painted on the trunk with red paint.

There was an old man with gray hair, who was nailed to a willow tree trunk by nine coffin nails as thick as thumbs, which pierced through his old body.

This old man was none other than the old man who saved Li Ling.

"Oh, old man, thank you, and have a pleasant journey." Li Ling clasped his hands together silently and murmured his gratitude.

In addition to the old man, there were dozens of people surrounding the willow tree.

There were men and women, young and old in the crowd. They wore strange costumes and demon-like masks. They circled around the tree and danced a light and strange dance, giving off a witch-like feel.

Li Ling grew up in the countryside. When he was a child, he saw witches performing rituals in the village. They looked exactly like the people dancing in front of him.

Under the tree, there was a barefoot woman in a black robe, hunched over, carrying a white paper figure on her back, holding a copper bell in her hand, ringing it and muttering, "Soul, where have you gone? Soul, come back!"

On the back of the paper man,
Wrote a name——Zhou Xuan.

Every time she murmured, the old man's flesh and blood body nailed to the tree became thinner, and the emerald green leaves of the willow tree emitted a faint blood-red light.

Based on what happened in Muhun City and what he saw with his own eyes, Li Ling

It is not difficult to guess that these many settings should be some kind of mysterious soul-summoning ritual of the Wu family.

The willow tree is the core of this soul-calling ceremony, the old man is the sacrifice of the willow tree, and the host of the ceremony is the woman in black robe who rings the copper bell.

"Cough cough!" Li Ling had just woken up. He was very weak and couldn't help coughing.

Among the dancing crowd, someone with sharp ears heard the noise immediately and shouted, "Young Master has woken up, the soul has been summoned back."

All the dancers gathered around, but the woman in black robe was not as enthusiastic as the others. She walked slowly and steadily in front of Li Ling.

She tilted her head to Li Ling's mouth and asked seriously, "What's your name?"

"Zhou Xuan!" Li Ling said.

"Where is your hometown?"

"The Hell of No Birth, the Hall of Brightness." Li Ling answered according to the old man's last instructions.

The black-robed woman, Zhou Lingyi, then raised the bell and announced to everyone, "Yes, the soul that was summoned is right. It's my brother. My brother is back! Thank you, Grandpa, and thank you, Ancestral Tree."

Everyone bowed their heads to the willow tree and the "grandfather" on the tree, expressing sincere gratitude and blessings: "Thank you, ancestor tree! The old boss and the young boss have returned. Your wish has been fulfilled. Please rest assured and reincarnate!"

"From what the old man said to the boatman, this seems to be Pingshuifu of Jing Country?"

Li Ling had just regained consciousness, and his soul was unstable, causing his body to be too weak. After muttering to himself, he was exhausted and fell into a deep sleep.

It feels good to live again.

The only drawback is that he will have to start a new life under the name and identity of "Zhou Xuan".

I've used this name for many years, and suddenly I changed it, and I felt a little empty inside.

……

Among the many cities in Jing State, Pingshui Prefecture has the largest scale and the best economy, but its cultural exchanges are relatively closed.

Take movies for example. In Mingjiang Prefecture, movies are no longer a novelty, but in Pingshui Prefecture, they are synonymous with fashion.

Rich ladies pursue new trends, and prodigal sons date singers, and they especially like to set the date in movie theaters.

Yun Asi also liked to meet in the cinema. He would book five or six rows of seats around. The venue was spacious and there was interference from the original soundtrack of the movie, so there was no need to worry about anyone hearing through the walls.

At the noon show of Pingshui Grand Cinema, in a corner, Yun Asi was wearing a long gown and sucking from a straw in a glass bottle of soda.

"Ah Si, the old boss who had been in dementia for more than two years, suddenly regained consciousness two days ago. He used his own life as a sacrifice to awaken the ancestral tree that had been dormant for a hundred years and brought back Zhou Xuan's soul."

A middle-aged man in a suit and a mustache sat next to Yun Asi.

The middle-aged man's name is Li Lisheng. He is the owner of the Baizhishan opera house in the Xijiamu District of Pingshui Prefecture.

Yun Asi shook his head and said, "The one who came back to life was a fake Zhou Xuan. The real Zhou Xuan's soul has been killed by me."

"The Hall doesn't care whether Zhou Xuan is real or fake. The Hall only cares whether he can be buried in peace as soon as possible."

"It takes time." Yun Asi said.

"When will you take action again?" Li Lisheng urged Yun Asi.

"I've already taken action."

"Oh?" Li Lisheng was overjoyed and asked, "You are singing ghost drama again? Your movements are so smooth?"

"The ghost play cannot be performed for the time being. A few days ago, Zhou Xuan was bewitched by me, which has alarmed the Zhou family. Now, the Zhou family's gods have been dispatched and are keeping a close eye on the Zhou family troupe. There is no chance to perform."

"How can we deal with Zhou Xuan without playing a ghost play?"

"Haha, Zhou Xuan is a fake. Fake is fake and can never be real! I have already spread the word in the Zhou family that the ancestral tree did not summon Zhou Xuan, but a wandering ghost who took the blame.

The Zhou family will never tolerate the soul of an outsider parasitizing on the blood and body of the Zhou family.

Just wait and see, it won’t be long before Zhou Lingyi kills Zhou Xuan with her own hands.”

(End of this chapter)