Chapter 055 Difficulties
After Chen Meiyu gave the instructions, she held Li Daming's hand and walked in front, and I followed behind.
The stairs were deep and dark, winding and twisting, leading all the way down to the pitch-black depths below.
After walking down for a long time, the staircase still had not been completed and the end was almost invisible. The air was filled with white flying catkins, as if it had snowed. The scene was both weird and sad.
I really couldn't help it and wanted to communicate with them, but Chen Meiyu had just emphasized that I must not speak, so I gritted my teeth and endured it.
The stairs came to an end and there was light outside.
The light was not strong, but soft as if it was wrapped in oil paper.
Chen Meiyu pulled Li Daming out of the stairs and into the light, and I hurriedly followed. After we walked out, it was snowing heavily outside. The snowflakes were very small and fluttered in the sky. There was no wind. These snowflakes were like ashes from burning paper.
The light came from a street lamp not far away. Chen Meiyu said softly, "Brother Li, do you see the light?"
"I see it." Li Daming's voice was a little hoarse: "It's a street lamp."
"Do you see me?" the girl asked.
Li Daming gasped: "I can feel you pulling me, right next to me, but I can't see you."
I was very surprised when I heard this from behind, and asked, "Can you see me?"
When Li Daming heard my voice, he was about to turn back in surprise, but Chen Meiyu said loudly, "Don't turn back. We have already reached the bardo realm. We cannot go back or look back at the way we came."
Li Daming smiled bitterly: "I feel like I'm the only one in this damn place. You two are in the safe zone, and I'm taking risks here alone."
"I'm here too." Chen Meiyu said softly, "We need to find my dad now. Just follow the light."
Li Daming walked towards the street light, followed by Chen Meiyu, and I hurried behind him. When we reached the street light, Chen Meiyu asked softly, "What did you see?"
Li Daming said: "I saw a puddle with a yellow talisman floating on it."
"Pick it up." Chen Meiyu said, "This is a pass to the underworld. We will use it to board the ship later. It will take us to my father's checkpoint."
Li Daming took a deep breath, bent down and picked up a wet yellow piece of paper. I couldn't see clearly from behind, so I thought, if that's the case, I'll just follow them.
Li Daming walked against the direction of the water flow in the puddle , and Chen Meiyu followed him all the time. I followed behind, feeling a little confused as to why Chen Meiyu didn't do it and had to let Li Daming do it.
This ghost place is weird and unpredictable. Any situation that happens is understandable. We can only take it one step at a time.
We followed the current for a short distance and arrived at the shore, where we saw a vast river. The scene here was colorless, and it was dark in all directions. Only the outline of the river could be seen, and white flocs like debris were floating in the sky. It was really like the road to the underworld, and it made people feel gloomy.
At this time, a black-sailed boat came from the depths of the sea. At first, only a small outline was seen, but it grew bigger and bigger in a flash. It leaped here in a very short time and slowly approached the shore .
The person rowing the boat was actually a little girl, about seven or eight years old, with a cold expression.
When I saw this scene, I was instantly shocked. Isn’t this the Seventh Master I met before?! Ma Danlong told me that she was the White Impermanence of the underworld.
Chen Meiyu said softly: "Brother Li, get on board."
It can be seen that Li Daming, who is fearless, was also a little nervous. He walked to the boat and was about to board when the little girl came over to stop him and stretched out her hand. Li Daming was really smart and quickly handed over the pass he had picked up from the puddle.
The little girl took the deflection and made way for them to get on the boat, and I quickly followed behind.
The little girl just glanced in my direction, and I don't know if she saw me or not. She slowly walked to the back of the boat and began to row. The boat left the shore and went deep into the river.
Li Daming sat casually on the boat, Chen Meiyu sat beside him, and the two held hands tightly. I roughly realized that the two of them holding hands was not for intimacy, but a way of walking, and the specifics of it were still unclear.
I stood behind the two people. The boat was very stable. There was nothing in the river. All I could see was the vast expanse of water. I couldn't even see the shore.
At this time, my eyes fell on the black awning of the boat. It was covered by a curtain and I couldn't see what was inside.
It was supposed to be Liu Yang sitting there, but it was hard to be sure at this moment. I whispered, "Damin, go over and open the curtain and take a look inside."
Chen Meiyu was very unhappy: "Don't make trouble."
I squatted beside Li Daming and said to him, "The person sitting behind the curtain is the flesh mummy you saw in the Garden Community, the one called Liu Yang."
Li Daming was visibly shocked. He turned his head to look at me, but couldn't see me. He was puzzled: "Are you sure?"
"Remember what I told you about my experience of meeting Ma Danlong? At that time, I used the psychic bracelet to enter the underworld, and it was on a boat like this that I met Liu Yang." I said.
Li Daming stood up, but he still held Chen Meiyu's hand tightly.
Chen Meiyu was anxious. She glared at me fiercely and said, "Brother Li, we need to save my father now. Don't make things complicated."
Li Daming had already raised his foot, and without the slightest hesitation, he said only four words: "This is a rare opportunity."
He came to the black boat and stretched out his hand to lift the curtain. Chen Meiyu nudged him and asked him to go and see. Li Daming looked up and saw Qiye, the little girl paddling the boat, at the stern, looking at us coldly.
Li Daming held Chen Meiyu with one hand and made a half cross salute with the other hand, which meant that he was being rude. He still pulled the curtain open without hesitation. When the curtain was pulled open, I also saw it from behind, and we were both stunned.
There was nothing behind the curtain, and Liu Yang was not there.
Li Daming hesitated for a moment, and Chen Meiyu spoke quickly: "Go back quickly."
He quickly lowered the curtain, returned to the bow, and sat cross-legged on the ground. Master Qi continued to paddle, seemingly unconcerned. The boat slid quickly on the river.
"What's going on?" Li Daming asked me.
I said I don’t know.
Chen Meiyu's voice was filled with strong displeasure: "I don't know what you are looking for, but don't do this again in the future. What if you cause trouble?!"
"Meiyu." I said, "I used to go to the underworld on a boat like this, with a person sitting in the black sail. Why wasn't there one this time?"
"Who?" Chen Meiyu asked.
I was speechless for a moment, not knowing how to tell her.
Chen Meiyu didn't have the patience to listen to me. She said, "That person might be just like us, a passenger on the boat. He will get off the boat when it reaches the other side."
"No, no, his situation is very special." I said, "It seems that he practiced on the boat."
Chen Meiyu took a breath and said, "There are people like this? Then there is another possibility. The ship we are on now is not the same ship you have been on."
“It was this little girl I remember,” I said.
Chen Meiyu said: "Every ghost who wants to cross the sea of suffering needs the Seventh Master to row the boat and lead the way. There are as many boats as there are people. The Seventh Master has tens of millions of incarnations here."
I was shocked: "What should I do if I want to find the boat?"
Chen Meiyu shook her head: "There is no solution at the moment, we can only rely on chance."
At this time, the boat slowly stopped at a shore, and it was unknown when it had landed. The sky was full of white flying catkins, which looked very scary.
We abandoned the boat and went ashore, and when we looked back, the boat had disappeared.
What a weird place we are in. Not far away is a forest covered with snow-white branches, which are intertwined together like ghosts.
Chen Meiyu saw a stone tablet next to and her breathing became rapid. There was a thick layer of white debris on the stone tablet, and many flying insects with light dancing like fireflies. Two words could be seen engraved on the tablet: Chen Jian.
“This is the bardo level where my father was tested. Let’s go in quickly.” As she said this, she pulled Li Daming towards there, and I followed closely behind.
When we got to the woods, there were even more white debris, as if it had snowed, which particularly affected our vision. The branches of the surrounding big trees were filled with this white.
There was a large open space in the middle of the woods . Li Daming suddenly took a breath and said, "It's so cold."
I couldn't feel the temperature, but I could see Li Daming open his mouth and spit out a lot of white gas. You can imagine how cold it was here.
Chen Meiyu suddenly screamed, "Dad!"
We looked in the direction of the sound and saw a person sitting under a big tree, his body covered with white debris, looking like a sculpture. He was motionless, as if frozen.
Chen Meiyu let go of Li Daming's hand, ran over like the wind, hugged the man, and desperately brushed off the debris on his body with his hands.
Li Daming and I followed him. Li Daming helped Chen Meiyu clean up the mess.
Not long after, a person's face appeared under the white debris, and his appearance gradually became clear. It was indeed Chen Jian, Chen Meiyu's father. In the real world, I have seen his corpse, and it is exactly the same as the person now.
As the debris fell, Chen Jian's tightly closed eyelids moved, and it seemed that he might regain consciousness. Li Daming hurriedly said, "Let's take Uncle away from here first."
Chen Meiyu's face turned pale: "I can't get out."
Li Daming quickly stood up and ran back along the way we came in. I followed him and we saw that the road we came from was no longer there. I don’t know when the place was covered with thick and dense trees, blocking the way completely.
