Dreaming for 10,000 years

Chapter 293 Cleaver Lao Fang
"Hello friends! I'm Caidao Lao Fang. Today I'm bringing you a dish of twice-cooked pork, the main ingredients of which are pork belly and fermented black beans..."

Following the voice, I saw a burly middle-aged man facing the camera, smiling as he introduced the ingredients on the table. His voice was loud, his tone was somewhat friendly, and his movements were casual, as if he was chatting with an old friend.

Apparently this isn't the first time he's filmed himself cooking.

When he got closer, Shi Fei recognized that this person was Fang Debu from the past.

Back then, Fang De De had a leopard-like head, round eyes, and a burly figure. But now, he looks plump, with a face full of flesh and a slightly messy beard, looking like... a cook.

As the saying goes, a person with a big face and thick neck is either a rich man or a cook.

If I remember correctly, he also ran a tavern back then, and a ghost came to order a banquet in the middle of the night. Shi Fei dealt with it easily.

"Let's put this piece of pork belly in cold water first, then add the green onion and ginger, and then we can prepare the side dishes. Everyone, pay attention to my knife skills!"

As Fang Bude spoke, he picked up the kitchen knife on the chopping board and began to chop green onions, ginger, and garlic sprouts with neat and swift movements. His knife skills were skillful, and his movements of cutting vegetables were smooth and flowing, with a unique sense of beauty, as if he was performing a knife show.

Nowadays, the competition in cooking videos is fierce, and everyone is pursuing differentiation. The characteristic of "Lao Fang the Cleaver" is his superb knife skills, especially when chopping bones, which is crisp and neat, cutting in half with one stroke, and flowing like water, which makes people feel very satisfied.

Shi Fei stood aside, quietly watching Fang Bude's busy figure, until he quickly cut the side dishes and started waiting for the meat in the pot to cook, then he said: "Your cooking skills look good!"

"You..." Fang Bude heard the voice and looked up at Shi Fei, frowning slightly. He felt that the person in front of him looked familiar: "I think we have met before."

"Yes!" Shi Fei nodded: "I saw it a long time ago."

Fang Bu De looked at Shi Fei carefully, from initial doubt to gradual surprise, and finally to shock: "Is it you? Benefactor!"

He finally remembered who Shi Fei was! However, it had been so long since he last met Shi Fei that he had almost forgotten the past.

"I can't say I'm a benefactor. I just did it casually at that time." Shi Fei smiled and said, "But you didn't die and are still alive today."

"I..." Fang Bude turned off the camera, welcomed Shi Fei to the small courtyard next to him, and poured him a glass of water, with a bit of emotion in his tone:

"At that time, the eight ghosts came to seek revenge. Fortunately, a benefactor intervened, otherwise it would have been difficult to resolve the situation peacefully! After that, I died of old age and went to the underworld. With the introduction of Judge Zhong Kui, I became a ghost official in the underworld."

"Oh? I didn't expect that he didn't become an official when he was alive, but became an official after he died!" Shi Fei joked with a smile.

"Ha~" Fang Bude laughed at himself: "I am indeed not an official in the human world, but only a clerk. I didn't expect that I would still be a clerk in the underworld."

Most executioners' skills are inherited from their ancestors, and they are considered minor officials in the local area, which is passed down from generation to generation. Fang De was like this when he was alive, and after his death in the underworld, he was still a minor official.

"Then what's the difference between being a ghost official and a minor official in the human world?" Shi Fei asked.

Fang Dede recalled for a moment, and said helplessly, "There is no difference. We are all working for our superiors." Shi Fei nodded and said, "People become ghosts after they die. The dead will be the same as the living. The so-called underworld is just another kind of human world."

"You are right, benefactor!" Fang Bude sighed, with a hint of emotion in his tone: "When I first arrived in the underworld, I felt that the officials in the underworld were all kind and wise men from past dynasties. The underworld must be very clean."

Shi Fei raised his eyebrows, a little surprised: "Why do you have such an idea?"

Fang Bu De smiled bitterly and said, "Perhaps it's because you've seen too much in the human world that you have fantasies about the underworld?"

According to folklore, there is reincarnation, good deeds and evil deeds will be rewarded, and sinners will go to the eighteen levels of hell after death. The officials in the underworld are all kind-hearted people, good people and great sages.

Before going to the underworld, Fang had to have a fear of the underworld and the law of retribution for good and evil. However, when he actually arrived in the underworld, he found out that...they had the final say on reincarnation and the law of retribution for good and evil.

If you are said to be guilty, you are guilty even if you are not guilty. If you are said to be innocent, you are not guilty even if you are guilty. It is no different from the officialdom in the human world.

What’s even more terrifying is that the underworld has remained like this for thousands of years and has not changed at all.

In the human world, dynasties change, and powerful officials eventually grow old, but in the underworld, people never die. The King of Hell is still the King of Hell, and he can always be powerful in the underworld.

It’s really a joy to have that kind of power in your hands without having to worry about losing it!
"I have been to the underworld once, but when I went there I found that they were no different from the human world," said Shi Fei.

When he went to the underworld, he saw lonely souls wandering on the Yellow Springs Road, and saw the big ghost guarding the Ghost Gate interacting with the Black and White Impermanence.

He knew then that in the cycle of life and death, people do not really die, but just go through the process of "reincarnation", just like restoring factory settings.

Therefore, the human world and the underworld are no different.

"So, the old man wanted to reincarnate and start a new life. But..." Fang Bude recalled, with a bit of helplessness in his tone: "Since I mentioned it to Judge Zhong, I have more and more work to do."

"Every time I mentioned it, Judge Zhong would say that after I was done with my busy schedule, I would be doing his brother a favor, and when I was reincarnated, he would help me choose a good family."

"Three years, three years, three years, and so on. Many years passed. One time, I couldn't bear it any longer and wanted to quit. He said that there were wars all over the world recently, and people were like grass in troubled times. How about a few years?"

"I went with him to the human world and saw that it was in a state of constant war! Finally, when the human world finally settled down, I was about to be reincarnated."

"The Three Realms and Six Paths have undergone a major change. The cycle of reincarnation has been broken. When a person dies, he is truly dead and can no longer be reincarnated. We, the ghost officials, have become mortals. When our life span ends, we are truly dead!"

"But this world is quite interesting. I started out as a cook, but later on I got older and couldn't work anymore even though I had some spare money, so I settled down here and posted some videos to entertain myself."

He finished his story. This experience covered nine hundred years and was a testimony to his two lives as a human. So when he saw Shi Fei again, he almost forgot it.

The last time I met Shi Fei was really too long ago!
(End of this chapter)