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Meng Po pointed with her finger and then tapped the ground with her foot, indignantly saying, "You are mistaken, sir. Besides you and me, there is also the earth that knows. There is a saying that you must have heard."
"What saying?"
"To make people unaware, one must not act themselves!"
Li Tai's face turned red, and he looked somewhat embarrassed, but still tried to force the jade he held into Meng Po's hands. Unexpectedly, Meng Po's expression grew colder as she pointed at him and shouted, "Li Tai, do you think this is still your territory in the living world? In the living world, you can act recklessly, take shortcuts, flatter others, and shout orders. But in our Yin Si, everything must be done according to the rules. It’s not like in your world where a little effort, some flattering words, and a few dirty coins can settle everything. In the underworld, money is not omnipotent. If I, Meng Po, were greedy for wealth, I would have long been a billionaire in this realm. No matter how you lived before, after death you must follow the laws of karma from your past life to this life and beyond; otherwise, where would fairness exist in this world? A wealthy person in their past life may be a beggar in this life; a poor person now will surely become rich in the next; an official in their past life may be a commoner now; a commoner today will surely become a high-ranking official in the next; debts from past lives must be repaid in this one. Those who commit sins in the living world must pay for them in the underworld. This is why Yin Si has established the Eighteen Layers of Hell and the Ten Yama Kings!"
Li Tai listened with fear and trembling, but still insisted stubbornly, "I, Li Tai, stand firm; I have not done anything wrong in the living world. Don’t try to scare me!"
"Are you really standing firm?" Meng Po let out a cold laugh. "Then may I ask if you still remember Zuo You?"
Li Tai was taken aback and stared at Meng Po without speaking.
"Back then, Wu Zetian summoned you to the palace and ordered you to accompany General Zuo on a secret mission to the southern border. In order to gain credit and win favor, you wrote a secret letter implying that General Zuo had ulterior motives. Just as the mission was about to succeed, you actually poisoned General Zuo's food, even though he treated you as a close friend and took care of you in every way. Li Tai, do you truly understand what that secret mission was? How dangerous it was? If it weren't for General Zuo giving you this protective jade before he died, do you think you'd still be alive today?"
Li Tai's face turned both red and pale as he tightly gripped the jade in his hand and remained silent for a while.
"You thought that by killing General Zuo you could take all the credit for yourself. Little did you know that this was something beyond your capability as an ordinary person. You were afraid and worried about punishment from Wu Zetian, so you designed to shift all blame onto Old General alone. General Zuo knew he was doomed and understood that it was you who poisoned him; yet he still took all responsibility upon himself. Do you know why?"
"Why?"
"Because he considered you a friend; he thought of you as that old friend with whom he could discuss state affairs and lament about people's livelihoods. He couldn't bear to think ill of you and believed your actions were merely following orders. So even at his deathbed, he protected you and allowed you to escape blame. Li Tai, do you deserve his kindness?"
"You’re talking nonsense! He is a dignified General; how could he possibly regard me highly? He merely used me to show everyone how friendly he is as a great General to gain more fame for himself. If he truly cared for me, why would he hide everything from me? You may be Meng Po, but you're just someone selling soup by Naihe Bridge; how could you possibly know everything about this living world!"
"Why must you argue so stubbornly? The truth or falsehood is known by us all."
Li Tai turned his face away and fell silent.
Meng Po continued: "If your plot against General Zuo was for fame or self-preservation, it might earn some understanding after all; everyone has greed and selfishness. But Li Tai, you've already become Minister of War! Given your talents, you've already reached the pinnacle of your career; why are you still unwilling to give up and resorting to old tricks against Zuo You?"
"I did not harm Zuo You. Even if you are Meng Po, you cannot falsely accuse me!"
"Li Tai, you are the Minister of War. Although you are not at the Border Defense, you control the appointments and dismissals within the Ministry of War. You use this as bait to make things difficult for Zuo You. Moreover, you secretly signaled others to provide Zuo You with false military intelligence, incorrect maps, and wrong routes. When he was in trouble, you even had people ambush him. Those arrows in his body—were they not shot by your orders?"
Meng Po waved her long sleeves, and the scene of Li Tai's guards shooting Zuo You appeared before them. The fatal arrow to his forehead was his finest work. Li Tai did not attain the position of Deputy Minister of War solely through words; he had some skills as well. He was adept at horseback riding, archery, and military strategy, but unfortunately, he never used these talents for righteous purposes.
Seeing Li Tai close his eyes, Meng Po said softly, "Li Tai, what happened in life must be repaid in death. You cannot escape the Eighteen Layers of Hell."
At this moment, Li Tai's face turned pale. He looked into Meng Po's eyes and asked, "What punishments await me in the Eighteen Layers of Hell?"
"Let me simplify it for you. If you lied too much or sowed discord in the mortal world, when you reach Yin Si, your tongue will be cut out and fed to dogs, making you mute in your next life!"
"Why cut off my tongue?"
"Because disasters come from the mouth; words are born from the tongue."
"What about me? What other punishments will I face?"
"You abused your power to exploit women and forced the poor into submission while being corrupt. When you arrive at Yin Si, your male organ will be cut off and fed to venomous snakes, ensuring that in your next life you will be a woman. Since you are skilled at lying and sowing discord, in your next life you will also be mute and unable to speak. Then your abdomen will be sliced open to extract your fat intestines for starving wolves to fight over. Because your heart is dark, it must be removed and fried in oil until it turns red before being put back inside you so that in your next life your heart will not be dark."
Li Tai listened with trembling legs and broke out in a cold sweat. He muttered, "I don't want to go! I don't want to go to the Eighteen Layers of Hell!"
"Li Tai, once you reach Yin Si, it will no longer be up to you!" Meng Po shook her head. "Everything you have done in the mortal world must be borne by yourself after death."
As she spoke, an old man approached and asked Meng Po for Meng Po Soup.
Meng Po replied, "Old sir, sacrificing oneself to save another—especially a stranger unrelated to oneself—means you need not drink this Meng Po Soup; keeping your memories is quite good."
"Meng Po, you are mistaken. I saved a life—not for the sake of preserving beautiful memories for myself. Besides, it was merely a small effort on my part; why should I worry about the Next Life? When one dies, it's all over—cleanly coming and cleanly going is just fine." The old man said as he lifted a bowl of Meng Po Soup and drank it all down before returning the bowl to Meng Po and stepping onto Naihe Bridge without looking back until he reached the end.
"He also has the surname Li, named Li Si. Unlike you, he has no great achievements; his entire life was spent ferrying people across the Luoyang River, known in the mortal world as a boatman or a ferryman. He had no other possessions, just that worn-out boat, and what he earned each day barely allowed his family to make ends meet. Yet in his lifetime, he saved seven people—young and old, male and female—some who fell into the water by accident and others who attempted to take their own lives. His last act was also to save someone, but although that person was rescued, he succumbed to exhaustion and an old illness and arrived in the Underworld." Meng Po waved her long sleeves again, revealing another scene before Li Tai: "Li Tai, do you know who this young man he saved is?"
Li Tai looked at the center of the scene, where a drenched young man appeared. Judging by his appearance, he was just an ordinary person with nothing remarkable about him.
"He is the next Deputy Minister of War. Unlike you, he is a good official!" After Meng Po finished speaking, she waved her hand and the scene disappeared. Li Tai stood aside, feeling a mix of emotions that left him quite unsettled.
At that moment, a group of four or five wailing wronged souls arrived, crying and cursing: "It's all because of those greedy officials who embezzled the funds meant for repairing the river, causing the Luoyang River to flood and drown us!"
As they drank Meng Po's soup, they continued to curse.
Li Tai could no longer bear to listen and interjected: "The flooding of the Luoyang River is not something that happened during my reign. Why can others escape while you cannot? To put it bluntly, it's your own lack of survival skills; it has nothing to do with the officials! Besides, have you seen any officials embezzling funds?"
"Ten years as a county official means nine years of corruption; only in the first year do they dare not be corrupt. They preach integrity while stuffing their pockets full—that's the reality of your officials!" As they spoke, those souls finished their soup and began sizing up Li Tai's attire. They pointed at him and shouted: "You are also a corrupt official! Don't ask us how we know; we can smell your greed and copper stench from ten miles away. Do you dare say you haven't embezzled?"
Li Tai opened his mouth but found no words to argue with them. Yes, he was also a corrupt official, and among the officials he knew, none were free from greed—only differing in degrees. He understood that ordinary people didn't care whether they were corrupt; they only cared if those officials did something for them after taking their money—even if it was just a tiny bit of good.
As those souls walked away, they continued to curse with phrases like "cut off descendants," "dismembered by five horses," and "struck by lightning," which made Li Tai's heart race with fear and embarrassment. After pondering for a while, he reached out to Meng Po again for another bowl of her soup, but she shook her head.
"Li Tai, living one life is not like playing chess in the mortal world; when you lose, you can start over or even cheat by taking back your move. My Meng Po soup may not be precious, but each person can only have one bowl. Yours has already been spilled; what remains depends on your fate. You can walk straight across this Naihe Bridge; if you don't fall midway, it means there’s still some fortune left from your past cultivation. If you fall into the river of oblivion, you'll immediately turn into a fish that sees bait but not hooks—caught by mortals to be slaughtered for food. Of course, even if you become a fish and return to the Underworld, you'll still suffer in the eighteen layers of hell because these are debts you've incurred in this life; they must be repaid."
Meng Po stepped aside. Li Tai saw behind her a bridge made of white jade that looked very smooth and had no traps or obstacles. Faintly, he seemed to hear the sound of a bell tolling from the mortal world; dawn was approaching. With a sense of hope mixed with anxiety, he hurriedly stepped onto the Naihe Bridge. However, when he reached the middle of the bridge, it suddenly shook—the smooth white jade slipped beneath him—and before he could stabilize himself, he fell into the river.
In the Li family's bedroom, Xing Ruyi tiptoed in with a fox closely following her.
Xing Ruyi first approached the bed and checked Li Tai's breath before turning back to the fox and saying: "He's dead!" Then she quietly walked over to the dressing table and tucked away a box labeled "Soul" containing Rouge into her sleeve. She winked at the fox: "What a close call! I was worried that Madam Li wouldn't know how to use this Rouge or that Li Tai wouldn't get close to his wife. I feared he'd stubbornly resist crossing Naihe Bridge in his dreams or hear the bell tolling and return to the mortal world. Who would have thought he'd eventually step onto that bridge out of guilt?"
"Why not directly capture his soul? Even if his lifespan isn't over yet, we could make him a wandering ghost!"
"That would be too lenient on him. In this Underworld, ordinary evildoers only need to go once; someone like him deserves two visits!" Xing Ruyi held up two fingers in front of the fox: "I’m finally helping Rouge and Zuo You get some justice."
As soon as the words were spoken, two shadowy figures appeared in the room, which were Rouge and Zuo You. They held hands and smiled gently, thanking Xing Ruyi. Xing Ruyi nodded, and the two shadows immediately dispersed.
"Where will they go?" Xing Ruyi asked the fox.
"The world is vast, and they roam freely. In any case, regardless of life or death, they will always be together," the fox replied, lightly tapping Xing Ruyi's nose. "What about Li Tai? What will he do?"
Xing Ruyi tilted her head and thought for a moment. "At this time, he should be at the edge of the Naihe Bridge!"
"Do you think he will spill Meng Po's soup?" The fox raised an eyebrow playfully.
Xing Ruyi exchanged a glance with him and covered her mouth as she laughed. "How about we go watch?"
"Forget it, Underworld; it's better if you stay away!" The fox shook his head. "You still haven't told me, what did you use to make this Rouge?"
"Fragments of the soul-calling bell and bones from Zuo Family's Old Servant." Xing Ruyi took out the box of Rouge. "As long as Li Tai lightly touches it, his soul will be drawn to the underworld immediately, and the King of Hell can't blame me because it has nothing to do with me."
"You! You're so clever; how could that ghost not know?" The fox shook his head affectionately, referring to the King of Hell.
In the Underworld, by the Naihe Bridge, Li Tai looked at Meng Po selling soup and thought to himself, "Why am I back so soon?"
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