The Taste of Ghosts in the World

Qi Mu stopped in his tracks, standing in front of him was an antique archway with a plaque of "Hell" hanging on it.

He turned his head to look at Bai Wuchang, "I wanted to ask just now, since you are even implementing such modern things as road maintenance fees, why are you pretending to be ancient?"

Bai Wuchang touched the rotten pillar of the archway, "This is something that has been passed down for thousands of years, and no one dares to change it. It is said that if it is moved, it will bring disaster to the underworld."

"What about the sedan chair?"

"Low carbon, we are connected to hell here, and the living environment is already very bad."

"..." Qi Mu was suddenly embarrassed, and was speechless for a long time.

Bai Wuchang patted him on the shoulder with a smile, "Advance with the times, understand?"

He nodded stiffly, his gaze wandered between the black and white ghosts, "So you really are wearing couple outfits, right?"

"..."

"Let's go, I'll take you to see Hades first."

Walking through the archway, you will arrive at the Hall of the King of Hell. Two rows of white candles are lit on both sides of the hall, flickering with strange candlelight.

Seeing them, a question came from the high platform: "Who is here?"

"It's me and Lord Hei." Bai Wuchang replied, then pointed to the two people beside the table and introduced to Qi Mu and Feng Baisui: "These two are judges."

The man in the green robe nodded with a smile on his face, "Sincere reward."

"Punish the Evil Division." Another man in a red robe said with a serious face, his eyes wide open.

"This..." Bai Wuchang pointed to the man in black behind the table, paused, and then said, "It's the King of Hades."

"Her?" Qi Mu was surprised, "If I'm not mistaken, it's a woman, right?"

"What's wrong with the woman?!" The female Hades jumped up dissatisfied. She looked like she was only in her early twenties, which was really unconvincing.

Bai Wuchang quickly poked his wooden partner, and whispered to him, "Go and call the other one over."

Hei Wuchang walked away with a straight face, but Bai Wuchang still felt uneasy, and added behind him: "Hurry up and come back!"

Of course their little actions could not escape the eyes of the female Hades, but Hei Wuchang had already gone far, so she could only run down angrily and pointed at Bai Wuchang's nose and asked, "Going to call that idiot again! He can do anything other than feed fish." do what?!"

Bai Wuchang hurriedly smiled and said, "My lord, according to the rules, these two are out of your control."

"What doesn't fit? What doesn't fit? I want to take care of it!" She turned to Qi Mu and glared at him angrily.

Qi Mu was baffled by her stare, and turned to Bai Wuchang for an explanation.

"So Hades is a woman?"

"not quite……"

"Could it be..." Qi Mu subconsciously looked at this seemingly genuine woman, and whispered, "Androgynous?"

"What nonsense are you talking about!" the female Yama put her hands on her hips and taught a lesson: "There are already two Hades. My brother manages the male ghosts, and I manage the female ghosts. I really lack common sense."

"...My common sense says that King Hades should be a man."

Upon hearing this question, the female Hades immediately exploded, "That's slander! Absolute slander! You humans look down on women, so you deliberately obliterated my existence! Don't think I don't know..."

As she was talking, she suddenly approached Qi Mu, took a serious look, and asked doubtfully, "Have you been here?"

"At least this is the first time in my life..."

The female Hades ignored him, and simply turned her head and asked Bai Wuchang, "Xiaobai, has he been here?"

Bai Wuchang nodded, "I haven't been here for nearly 20 years, but I used to come occasionally."

"Why are you here with us?"

"...with my lord's brother...to feed the fish."

"Is he my brother's friend?"

"That's it."

"Well... my brother has a good eye... I like this kind of thing," she looked at Qi Mu, "Do you want to stay in the underworld?"

Qi Mu took a step back uncomfortably, Feng Baisui held his shoulders possessively, and cast a warning look at the female Hades.

"This..." She looked at Feng Baisui, rubbed her chin and thought for a while, and then asked Bai Wuchang: "He also looks familiar."

"He's from here." Bai Wuchang took out the scroll of the wanted warrant, and opened it for her to see.

"Oh... so it's this bastard!" The female Hades suddenly realized.

Bai Wuchang reminded her in a timely manner: "My lord, misfortune comes from your mouth."

The female Hades frowned displeasedly, "Why? What is there to be afraid of?! We haven't settled the debt with him last time!"

Dissuasion was ineffective, Bai Wuchang was about to change his strategy, "Then... can I be given a three-year vacation?"

"Fart!" The female Hades stared immediately, "Now that there is such a shortage of manpower, how dare you mention a holiday to me?!"

"..."

Just when Bai Wuchang felt that he couldn't hold on anymore, he finally heard a voice like the sounds of heaven——

"Sister, you are bullying Xiaobai again."

A young man wearing a black robe almost identical to that of the female Hades came out from the back of the hall, followed by Hei Wuchang who had just flashed away.

"I'm educating and criticizing!" the female Hades said angrily: "The longer he spends in the world, the more glib he learns, and he doesn't have the demeanor of the underworld at all!"

"What is the demeanor of the underworld?"

"At least you can't laugh like this!" She twisted Bai Wuchang's face, trying to tear his smile off, "Our underworld is a place for ghosts! Everyone laughs like this, so how can you do anything!"

"Alright, alright, I will teach him a lesson." Brother Yan stepped forward to pull his sister away in a good-tempered manner.

"You always say that, you are not used to them! It is because you don't care, these brats are so courageous!"

Bai Wuchang still smiled, rubbed his face, and complained: "My lord, we are one of the top ten handsome men after all, so you should save some face?"

"You have lost all your face a long time ago!" Yan Wangmei scolded Bai Wuchang, then glared at Feng Baisui, and finally her eyes stopped on her brother's hand.

Several fingers were wrapped in a thick layer of gauze.

Brother Yan Wang hurriedly hid his hands behind his back.

"Don't hide!" Yan Wangmei said angrily, "Why don't you just jump down and feed them? Don't you think it's too slow to come one by one?"

Her elder brother just smiled hehe.

Yan Wangmei turned to Qi Mu, "You really don't want to stay? I think you are very smart, you should be much better than these few, and our treatment in the underworld is also good. You have one day off a year, and you can use Ming coins as you like."

"What do you mean by using casually?" Bai Wuchang seized the opportunity to dismantle the boss' desk, "I have worked here for so long, and I have never spent it casually... There is also a day off, and the vacation I didn't take is almost saved up. How many years?"

"Shut up! When will you go out on vacation?" She shook the scroll in her hand, "How many of these did you catch?" She glanced at Feng Baisui, "And let someone deliver it to you!"

"It didn't say that they must be caught..." Bai Wuchang muttered in a low voice.

"You men are really useless!"

Yan Wangmei threw the scroll to her brother and stomped away.

"Sister She made the two laugh..." Brother Yan Wang didn't even look at the scroll, and handed it to Hei Wuchang who was next to him, and then looked at Qi Mu.

"haven't seen you for a long time."

"..." Qi Mu didn't know how to answer.

"By the way, you shouldn't remember the past..."

Qi Mu frowned, as if everyone knew who they were, but he didn't.This feeling has been there for a long time, but now it feels more obvious when I come to the underworld.

"What happened before? Have I seen you?"

Yan Wang nodded, "But it's not my turn to say those things, so let others tell you."

"other people?"

Yama beckoned, "Xiaoheixiaobai, take them to see Jizo."

"Yes."

Black and White Wuchang responded in unison, then made a "please" gesture, and said to Qi Mu and Feng Baisui: "Please, both of you."

Qi Mu hesitated for a moment, and after making eye contact with Feng Baisui, he decided to take a walk.

Before leaving the main hall, he felt the candle light jumping suddenly, and turned his head slightly, the King of Hades was still standing on the high platform looking at this side.

Was he... was his friend before?

When I think about it, I feel some strange feelings in my heart.

Black and White Wuchang led them all the way, passing a city, Qi Mu immediately thought of the famous "City of Dead Death", but before he could take a closer look, he was urged to move forward.

After passing a red river, I walked along the river bank for a while, only to realize that the red is the color of blood, and it emits a strong stench, which makes the stomach churn.

Bai Wuchang explained next to him: "This river is the Nai River. Don't touch its water. Ordinary ghosts can't last for 3 minutes. If they are alive, they will turn into bones."

Qi Mu glanced down, and sure enough, he saw poisonous insects swimming in the river, as well as very ugly big fish, with their uneven backs occasionally protruding from the water.

"Isn't your King of Hades just here to feed... fish?" Qi Mu even felt that those creatures could not be called "fish" at all.

Bai Wuchang nodded, "This is his hobby."

"...a nice...leisure activity."

Qi Mu secretly sighed in his heart, just now he was thinking, what kind of fish can bite people like this?What I think now is, who will feed this kind of fish?To kill or commit suicide?

That King of Hades looked very approachable, but he turned out to be a psychopath.

After walking for a while, he saw a bridge over the river. When he got closer, there was an old woman sitting on the bridge.

When passing by, the old man suddenly waved to them, "Come here."

Qi Mu thought she was calling everyone at first, but then he found that the black and white Wuchang next to him didn't move, so he pointed at himself, "You called me?"

"Yes, yes, it's you."

Qi Mu turned his head and glanced at Bai Wuchang, who nodded, before he walked over, Bai Wuchang whispered in his ear again: "Don't drink."

"What do you mean?" He wanted to ask, but the mother-in-law at Qiaotou had already brought a bowl of soup to him.

"Is this Mengpo soup?"

"No, Mengpo soup is here." The mother-in-law lifted the lid of the other bucket, and the liquid inside was translucent brown-yellow.

Qi Mu looked down at the soup in his hand, it was a beautiful cherry red color, at this time Bai Wuchang also came over and greeted Granny Meng.

"Grandma, have you developed a new soup?"

"Yes, I have nothing to do all day, so I just cook soup to pass the time."

"Is this really not Mengpo soup?" Qi Mu was still a little skeptical.

"No, no, drink and watch."

Seeing the earnest eyes of the old woman, he couldn't bear to refuse, hearing Bai Wuchang's tone, this seems to be another soup, it should just be a taste, right?

But what happened to the sentence "don't drink" just now?

Bai Wuchang asked in a chatty manner: "Grandmother, what is the soup made of this time?"

"The water under the bridge, I've always wanted to try making soup with the water from this river..."

The following words were interrupted by Qi Mu, he thought of the blood of poisonous insects churning in the river, and couldn't whet his appetite, so he declined the invitation to drink soup.

"Then try this." The mother-in-law made another bowl for him, this time it was lavender.

With the lessons learned from the past, he dared not speak easily, and asked cautiously: "What is this made of?"

"Those." The mother-in-law pointed to the few flowers and plants growing on the river bank, all of which were brightly colored, at least they didn't look so unpalatable.

Just as I picked up the bowl to drink, I heard my mother-in-law say again: "After drinking this, within seven days, you will be surrounded by invisible spikes, and no one can get close."

His hand stopped in the air for an instant, and Qi Mu declined again.

The mother-in-law was very disappointed, "Then next time I come, I must try it next time. These soups made by my mother-in-law are only for children, and after drinking it, you can get twice the result with half the effort."

Qi Mu smiled, Feng Baisui came over and said to Granny Meng: "I won't let him have another chance to drink." After speaking, he pulled him away.

Bai Wuchang was stunned for a moment, and soon put on his smile again, beckoning his partner to follow.

---

The author has something to say:

Note 1: The "Yan" of Yan Wang means "double" in Sanskrit, so there are records of the sayings of the brothers and sisters of Yan Wang, but it was spread to the Central Plains at that time. Because of the low status of women, the queen was blocked o (╯╰)o Note 2: According to legend, Po Meng was a virgin for life and chaste all her life... So what... the old woman said she was lonely...