【Ghost White】Floating Lantern on the Other Shore

I mean. An adult threw the hoe in his hand on the ground, gasped for a few breaths and replied, "My wife is so hungry that she can't produce milk, how should I live this day."

The mother who was holding the baby said helplessly, "Someone should think of a way."

"This drought lasted for too long, which is not unusual at all. I have never encountered such a long drought. If this continues, there will be no food to eat in winter. Everyone will starve to death."

"Ahem... I told you not to cut down that sacred tree. Look, you have been punished!" The old grandmother who was recuperating on the bed was obviously coughing non-stop, but she still shouted loudly to the villagers outside: "This It must be God’s retribution...cough cough...revenge, who told you to destroy him...cough cough...his residence!"

"Shut up! Damn old woman." The grandmother's daughter-in-law kicked her and kicked her down on the bed: "I should have insisted on transporting you to the mountains and throwing you away, if my husband didn't allow it... What a waste of family rations. The rice vat is almost bottomed out, and I still need to support you, an old man, I get angry when I think about it!"

The old grandma fell back on the bed and was so out of breath that she couldn't yell anymore.But the purpose of those words has been achieved, and the villagers began to blame each other for why the big tree was cut down.Later, it was the village chief who came forward to let the villagers who had already fought a truce temporarily.

"Shut up." The village chief tapped the ground with his cane and said sternly, "It's hot and everyone's temper is bad, but do you have enough to eat after fighting each other? Let’s figure out how to fix it.”

"How can I fix it?"

"Yeah, the god is angry. He must be angry at us for cutting down His dwelling place, so that he will send disasters to us. If it doesn't rain, the rice won't bear ears."

Amidst the ups and downs, the village chief hit the ground hard again to make them calm down.

"Sacrificing a living person to appease the wrath of the gods."

Immediately, the villagers seemed to explode, and began to express their opposition, but it was not against the sacrifice of living people, but against themselves or their family members as sacrifices.

"A living... living sacrifice? I don't want it, don't want my child to be a sacrifice."

"I don't want it either. My wife died early. If I leave, who will take care of our only child?"

"Can the old woman do it? If so, my family can provide it."

Just when the atmosphere was deadlocked, someone in the crowd said something.

"Why don't you let Ding go?"

"That is to say, there is no more suitable candidate than Ding. Several households in the village are related by blood, so there is no reason to choose among us."

"Yes."

"Ding is an orphan, no one will object."

The village chief nodded and made the final decision.

"Just Ding."

Just when Ding was considering whether to run away or give up struggling altogether, a man grabbed Ding by the collar from behind and threw him into the crowd.

"Hey, this guy is eavesdropping here."

Miraculously, Ding didn't feel the slightest bit of fear.He reached into his arms and stroked the lock of hair, thinking about the agreement between Bai Ze and himself.

But the calm look on his face when he was caught clearly made the villagers feel very uncomfortable.

From before, I felt that this child was unspeakably annoying, and he always had an unpredictable look, as if he would not be angry no matter what happened, and he was at the mercy of others.He doesn't want to get close to them, but lives alone near the village in silence. He has thrown countless stones over the past few years, but nothing can drive him away.

The village chief motioned the other villagers to be quiet, and walked over to pat Ding's head kindly: "Will Ding be willing to sacrifice for the village you grew up with?"

If there really is another world in this world, perhaps it is nothing more than this.

They all smile at themselves, why can they feel so different?Ding was in disbelief. This was the first villager to smile at him, but this smile did not make people feel kind. His eyes were cold, as if looking at an animal waiting to be slaughtered.

It's no surprise that he would be forced to be a human sacrifice by the villagers, but laughing and saying cruel things like this, I can't express my disgust for such "good intentions".

Ding Bie opened his eyes and did not speak, only nodded his head a few times to express his agreement.With this movement, the immature nape was exposed to the air, like a dying crane.

Due to the drought, they only used a pitiful amount of water to help Ding clean his body. The force of the wipe was extremely strong, as if to brush off his epidermis. The place where the coarse cloth passed was red and swollen. They move.

Bai Ze's hair was tightly held in his hands, and he never let go.

A woman came over to tie his messy and loose hair. She looked at Ding expressionlessly, quickly tied up the clean white clothes he had just put on, and then put on a necklace strung with gouyu for him.

"Don't blame us, we're just here to survive."

Trying to survive, what is it for?What is the meaning of being born in this world?

Is it to grow up to be able to live as one wants, to bury the current despair in the heart and entrust the misty future; or to sacrifice for the benefit of others, in exchange for a few words of insincere gratitude?

He remembered what he said when he first met Bai Ze. Day after day, he thought that he would live in the mountains and forests like this, spending lonely but not lonely days with birds and beasts.However, due to the reduction of the habitat, the animals gradually disappeared from the side, and then came the arrival of Bai Ze.

That person was like a beam of light at dawn, shining on him through the gaps in the leaves, dazzling but not dazzling.Sometimes he will show a cold expression, but he does not hesitate to show his soft side.

If it is necessary to define the meaning of being born in this world, if it is necessary to give the reason why he has survived so hard alone, maybe now he has a way to hypnotize himself - all this is to meet Bai Ze.

In order to experience the feeling of being treated tenderly, in order for him, who has never felt the warmth of others since birth, to experience the emotion called "love" that he has been longing to know for a long time.

Rather than dying for the selfish desires of others, such a sad cause.

On the rugged mountain path to the altar, Ding kept thinking about such things over and over again.

The villagers sent three strong men to escort him on the last journey under the guise of pretense, but in fact they wanted to monitor whether he actually went to the altar to become a sacrifice.

"It's great that he's willing to be a sacrifice."

"He was an orphan who escaped from nowhere, and he's not from our village."

"Don't hate us, Ding."

"It's okay." Ding looked down from the altar, and said calmly, "In this era, this is a way to calm the fear in people's hearts. I won't hate you."

However, after all, it is impossible to completely suppress the hatred in my heart.

Ding opened his eyes wide, gritted his teeth and whispered: "But if there really is another world, after the death of the people in the village, I will definitely impose severe sanctions..."

The villagers were some distance away from the altar, and they couldn't hear the last words very clearly, but they all trembled, and felt a little chill all over for no reason.

"I always feel like he said something scary just now."

Ding turned his back to them, and coldly issued the order to evict the guests.

"Goodbye, everyone please take care."

Even if you are at the end of the road, you don't want to be watched by those people as you walk towards death.

■

The time of living and suffering passes by as slowly as a minute, and the dream of death is so far away.

At the beginning, he could still feel the high temperature and sun exposure, but gradually the near-death warning signal came from his body, so that he had no time to take into account how harsh the surrounding environment was.The body that had been sitting with folded palms in prayer fell limply on the altar, powerless to support it.

Unable to distinguish reality from fiction, dizziness and hallucinations began to plague him.

The only thing left in my mind is "hungry, so hungry... I really want to drink water...." This kind of message is like a fish that has been washed to the shore and can't go back to the sea. It doesn't even have the strength to open and close its mouth to breathe .

Dizzy Ding sometimes had salt-baked rice balls in front of him, sometimes tasted the peach wine that Bai Ze gave him, and sometimes smelled the smoke from the village women cooking at dusk.

But in the end it was just an illusion, and all he could taste in his mouth was the blood from his chapped lips and tongue that had been dehydrated.In the end, even this hallucination gradually disappeared, replaced by a terrible pain, which seemed to tear him apart.

He tightly grasped the bundle of hair given to him by Bai Ze, even if his lips were cracked, his throat was dry, his whole body was in severe pain, especially the unbearable pain in his abdomen, he was unwilling to let go.

He was weak and still kept praying, praying for that person's name.

--Man…….

When he was exhausted, he seemed to hear the man whispering in his ear, calling his name.Stepping slowly on the withered yellow dry grass, accompanied by faint fire.

Hallucination?But whether it was a hallucination or not, he had no time to confirm it.That little child ended his long and arduous death journey at this moment.

As a result, I still couldn't catch up in time.

If it was a human being, it would be "sad" to encounter such a thing.So, who can't feel "sadness" like a human being, what kind of expression should he put on to face Ding at this time?Even if you say "Sorry, I'm late." The other person can't hear you, so there is no point in apologizing.

If you really want to get to the bottom of it, "apology" itself is meaningless.Verbal compensation for "regret" for irreversible things in the past, but can't make the past things never happen, then such behavior is nothing but self-satisfaction.

Bai Ze has never said that he "regrets" anything, but now he feels a little "regret" for being late.

There were some fine scratches left on the altar, and the surrounding area was also in a state of mess, silently telling what happened during this period of time.Ding must have been in extreme pain before he died, and his nails were also full of bloodstains.

He clearly made an appointment with this child to call him if he was afraid, but he turned a deaf ear to such a call, and focused on looking for a light that would give Ding a "new life".

Bai Ze stared blankly at Ding's increasingly cold body, shook his sleeves and waved the will-o'-the-wisps that glowed from bright to dark, watching those will-o'-the-wisps happily hovering around the child, his always calm heart had no reason There is a sense of restlessness spontaneously in the body.

To successfully transform a ghost, one must have strong emotions as a support.

The reason why Bai Ze came to Ding's side so late was because he was looking for the will-o'-the-wisp that Qihui died with different strong emotions, but no matter how hard he searched, he couldn't find the emotion called "love".As a last resort, he had to put the found six wisps of will-o'-the-wisps into Ding's body before the soul escaped.

The will-o'-the-wisps were very pleased with the newly dead body.

"This body is really good, and it's still a child."

"It seems to hold a deep regret."

"If we all go in, maybe we can make him a complete ghost."

"Then let's all go in." Bai Ze scratched his head, sighed and said to the will-o'-the-wisps, "A dead horse is a living horse doctor, and the rest is up to Ding himself."

I don't understand the emotion itself like "love". Compared with the other six emotions, joy, anger, worry, fear, hatred, and desire, "love" is such an illusory thing, and it is more "" than "" itself.

Bai Ze let Ding's head rest on his lap, guiding the will-o'-the-wisps into Ding's body one by one.The ghost fire and Ding did not disappear immediately after merging, and the glowing fire burned through the skin, warm but not hot.As if to re-warm his hypothermic body, the fireworks enveloped Ding inside.

Bai Ze once thought about whether it was right for him to attract the will-o’-the-wisp and let the child escape into the eternal darkness, but anyway, he never decided to do something because it was right, so whether it was right or not was quickly left behind by him. Behind the heads.

"It'll be fine soon, just be patient."

Bai Ze spoke softly, and touched Ding Xin's soft little horn, which was sure to be a success.This child successfully crossed that line and became something special.I suddenly felt that I "as if" could understand the feelings of parents in the world when they saw their children just born, so I was amused by my own thoughts.

It's just "like", that feeling is still too bad.

Bai Ze put Ding Xianwen's body back on the altar, stood up and took a sip of peach wine, then transformed into a beast and walked away in the void, his figure melting into the starry night sky.

After waking up, Ding blinked and looked at the empty surroundings. The wind at night was refreshing, and the stars were constantly shining in the sky, as if welcoming his "new life". residual.

The "rebirth" of the night is so beautiful, but looking at the bright Milky Way flowing across the sky, he only feels empty inside, as if he has forgotten a very important thing, but no matter how he thinks back, he only has a vague impression .

He looked at the palm of his clenched hand, there was a charred black residue on it, but unfortunately it had been burnt beyond recognition, and he could no longer tell what it was.

Ding got up staggeringly, followed the night, stepped on the rolling loess and walked on an unknown road.Then he was pulled by the wood spirit and started another period of time that was longer and longer than the time he spent as a human being.

■

After the human sacrifice, God really gave abundant rain.

The rain that started dripping was exhilarating, but this rain seemed to have no end, and it continued to rain day and night, making people panic and overwhelmed.No matter how much they prayed while hiding in the house, there was no sign of stopping, just like the irony of God.

Too much rain caused flash floods and destroyed the village.

No one survived.

■

"Hey Ding!"

Wutou waved his hands vigorously at Ding, but unfortunately the person he called just glanced in his direction, and continued to do his own thing without raising his head.Behind him who was running wildly was the panting Peng, afraid that the aconitum would run too fast and throw him off.

"How is it? Have you found the beast?" Ding kept his eyes on the information about the residence of Muhua Sakiyahime in his hand, and asked along the source of the voice while looking for useful information: "This is the most difficult thing to do, after all, only the beast can break it. The boundary line freely enters and exits the underworld and the human world.”

"Yes. I just yelled at the lively crowd and found it right away."

"You actually found it?"

Ding raised his head from the data, feeling a little surprised.Creatures like divine beasts are different from turnips, so it's impossible to call them casually, and the aconite's luck is too good.Originally, with such an ambiguous idea—if you don’t find it, it will just make the aconitum retreat from difficulties, and if you find it, it’s okay to go to the world to play together—so everything will be easy if you find the divine beast.

"Where is the beast?"

To be honest, Ding is also a little curious about what the beast looks like, after all, it is a very rare creature.Selfishly hope that Wutou and the others found a furry mythical beast with comfortable fur.

"In the back, that big brother walks so slowly."

As soon as the words fell, when I turned around, I saw the Master Divine Beast who had followed in the distance just now appeared not far away, walking towards the three of them in a leisurely manner.Wearing a square scarf on her head, wearing snow-white clothes with special patterns on the cuffs, the most special thing is the bright red at the corners of her eyes.

Bai Ze looked at the child holding the scroll and smiled.

Ding glanced up and down at the person who came, only to feel that this person was indescribably familiar.But if he really wanted to recall where he had seen it, there was no clue at all. Ding put his little hand on his chin, thinking calmly.

It's a pity that this act of thinking was interrupted in less than a minute, because he remembered that he still had to plan the best route to Konohana Sakiyahime's residence.And compared to beautiful men, he is now more interested in furry animals. Seeing that the furry animals that he was not interested in appeared, he turned his gaze back to the scroll again.

"Wife~." Bai Ze smiled troubledly: "So you want to find the grandson's daughter-in-law? This is a bit difficult. I uphold the principle that I don't do anything to wives. Seeing the courage of the three children For the sake of it, I can give you a ride.”

Wutou heard that the other party was willing to help them, so he asked the name of the reliable-looking divine beast with a face like a little adult's fart.

"What's the big brother's name?"

A look of "Report your name! You have done us a favor today, and you will repay us tomorrow!"Bai Ze glanced not far away from the corner of his eye, and Ding closed the scroll in his hand at some point, and listened seriously to his chat with Wutou.

"At times like this~ it's better to remain anonymous, in order to avoid trouble later on."

Wutou saw that he didn't want to answer, so he didn't force much, "Okay, then I'm sorry, big brother." After saying this, he grabbed Peng and ran forward impatiently, only interested in excitement, I completely forgot that I didn't know the direction at all.

Ding let the two in front run away first as usual, while he walked up to Bai Ze and spread out the scroll, pointing at the picture and began to describe the next travel route.

This child looks like a little adult without pretending. The appearance is still childish, but the inside is beginning to exude a mature smell.In time, he will become a good adult.Bai Ze stretched out his hand, and gently stroked Ding's head under Ding's confused eyes.

Just like when they first met, so gentle.

talk later

The ghost lamp is awakened by the smell of rice balls, to be precise, salt-baked rice balls.

I have always been irresistible to rice-based foods, especially rice balls. Every time I go to inspect hells, I always take two or three to eat on the road.

Although he was still a little sleepy, he couldn't resist the charm of rice balls in the end. He sat up on the bed, straightened his clothes and opened the half-closed door, and saw the figure baking rice balls in front of the fire.

"Woke up?"

"Um."

"Sit and wait, I'll try it and make sure the taste is okay, then... Hey!"

The ghost lamp embraced his waist, kissed his temples lightly, then raised Bai Ze's hand, and began to eat the rice ball that Bai Ze was supposed to try, and devoured it completely in two or three bites .Seeing that he had finished eating, when Bai Ze was about to withdraw his hand, his red tongue stuck to his palm, climbed up along the curve of the palm lines, sucked his fingers in his mouth, and sucked all the rice grains and salt stuck on it into his mouth .

"You...forget it, is it delicious?"

"Eat and see."

As soon as the words fell, he pressed the back of the other's head and gave a salt-baked rice ball-flavored kiss.The tip of the tongue gently touched every inch of the gums, and then pried open his teeth and overlapped with the soft tongue. The salty taste of the salt and the sweetness of the fully chewed rice overflowed between the teeth, teasing each other's taste buds.

"Let me ask you instead, is it delicious?"

"If I don't eat like this, I will return to 'delicious'." Glancing at the ghost lamp, Bai Ze washed his hands and continued to bake the rice balls: "Go over there and wait, and I have to bake it for a while. If you feel bored, watch Hell News first, I put it on the table for you.”

Having said that, just as Ghost Lantern spread out the newspaper, he heard the divine beast who was unwilling to be lonely talk to him.

"The memory is still coming back slowly. Sometimes I dream about some past events." Bai Ze turned his back to him, flipping the rice balls one by one with a tong: "I dreamed about your childhood yesterday... I am I mean, when you were still human.”

"You mean, what happened when I was still a 'human being'?" Ghost Lantern looked at him calmly, "I didn't remember anything about you before last night, but after the dream last night, I also remembered it." .”

"You also dreamed the same dream?"

"It's better to say that I was influenced by you, so I peeped into your dreams."

In other words, they had the same dream.

"No matter how hard I searched at the time, I couldn't find the last one, which is the will-o'-the-wisp that needs to hold strong love. To be honest, I don't know whether you will succeed in turning into a ghost."

Ghost Lantern didn't intend to tell him that the will-o'-the-wisp that he couldn't find back then that wandered in the human world with "love" in his arms actually existed in the body of Ding who died holding the longing for Bai Ze, and the will-o'-the-wisp that blends the seven emotions has a profound effect on the human world. His nostalgia enabled him to regain his "new life".

"It doesn't matter, as long as it turns out to be successful."

"I'm sorry." When he put the hot coffee on the table, he suddenly apologized to the ghost lamp. Seeing the other party's confused expression, he explained: "I made an appointment with you, but I couldn't stay by your side."

This was the first time Bai Ze had said sorry to him, but what Ghost Lantern wanted was never his apology.

"Mr. Bai Ze, I will be very troubled when you say that."

Seeing the other person's gloomy face, Bai Ze thought he was angry, and when he reflexively prepared to back away, he was hugged tightly in his arms.

Ghost Lantern hugged him across the table, leaned on his shoulder and said, "You don't owe me anything, if it wasn't for your whim, I wouldn't be sitting here."

"Idiot, you scared me to death." Bai Ze put his arms around his neck, and by the way, he reached out to help Ghost Lantern straighten his sleepy hair: "I thought you were angry again, and you used to beat me half to death when you were angry. , it hurts me to death.”

"That's what you asked for."

On this point, Ghost Lamp did not intend to compromise at all.Hearing this answer, Bai Ze was so angry that he bit his pointed ear and grinded his teeth.

"I didn't even know that you liked eating my ears more than salt-baked rice balls."

"Bah bah!" Bai Ze hurriedly let go of those sharp ears, and yelled angrily next to the ghost lamp's ear: "You were cute and sensible when you were young, but why did you become like this when you grew up? It's fine if you're not cute." Very awkward."

"The one who is really awkward is you." Ghost Lantern tugged at Bai Ze's round cheeks that had finally become as round as before: "I keep everything in my heart and don't say it. If I didn't give up chasing you, you would have Disappeared from this world forever."

"I don't care, return my cute little Ding!"

"Give me back my first kiss first."

Note 1. Ringo: These two characters are the ancient name of Apple in China. It is only after checking the information that I found out why the Japanese word for Apple is embedded in "Ringo". There is a feeling of surprise but not surprise.In addition, the red Ringo can also be called "Dannai".