Chapter 34: Pride — Flirting With Me On Purpose

In the end, Lu You couldn’t bring himself to leave the dog alone in this place. He wiped the rouge from his own lips and drew a single vertical line across the little dog’s forehead.

“You’ve seen me now. Can you go reincarnate with peace of mind?”

The little dog wagged its tail and gave his chin one last lick.

The little dog’s tongue carried a lot of drool, and its licks were wet. Truthfully Lu You had never liked being licked by it — but this time, just as on the countless days when the little dog had still been alive, he quietly patted its head as a reward.

Nothing pleased the little dog more than being patted on the head by its owner. Not even meat bones.

Out of Evil Dog Ridge, the road ahead led to the Terrace of Homeward Longing.

Reach the Terrace of Homeward Longing, gaze far toward home — and you cannot return.

This terrace had been established by Guanyin Bodhisattva specifically to grant souls one final wish: to look upon their native soil one last time. To lodge their grief, settle their earthly ties, and thenceforth be done with the trifling affairs of the living.

Legend holds that when a person dies, they do not know they are dead — they only believe they have gone somewhere — until they ascend the Terrace of Homeward Longing and witness their family weeping before their grave. Only then does realization strike, and for the remaining gates they know themselves a dead soul, and go on their way with an easy heart.

Lu You gazed into the distance and could just make out a high stone platform far off, carved with the three characters “Terrace of Homeward Longing.”

The platform was crowded with people, weeping rising in waves. Some of the crying drifted out from the scenes of the World of the Living shown upon it; some came from Departed Spirits who could not let go of their homeland, weeping into their own hands.

The dead may watch the living weep; the living know not the dead’s tears.

Lu You had seen his fill of partings and deaths in life, yet even now his heart ached with reluctance. He half-turned his head away, meaning to simply pass the terrace and go on to the next station — but the moment he lifted his foot, He Zhuchun caught his wrist. Turning, he found him pointing at the platform. “Aren’t we going to look?”

Lu You frowned. “You’re not even dead. What is there for you to see?”

“Just to look.” He Zhuchun’s face was full of eagerness. “I’m curious what a living person sees up there.”

Lu You hesitated a moment; finding he truly couldn’t outstubborn the man, he let himself be led up the platform, and looked alongside the Departed Spirits there.

Perhaps for the living, the Terrace of Homeward Longing shows the place where one’s own body lies. On the platform, Lu You saw Qin Shuheng, Yang Shengnan, and Yang Yun — and his own Altar Hall. Huang Kuaipao crouched at the bedside, guarding him without so much as a blink.

He watched a while, then turned to look at He Zhuchun.

He Zhuchun’s eyes, though, were blank and empty — nothing at all. Nor was there any expression on his face; he gazed down at the terrace below with indifference, mouth a flat line.

Lu You asked him, “Did you see anything?”

He Zhuchun asked back, “What am I supposed to see?”

“Doesn’t this place show the scene where a Living Soul’s body lies?” Lu You studied him, inexplicably.

He Zhuchun drew out a long “Ohhh,” and only then said, “I saw. My body’s being very well protected.” He smiled as he said it. “My thanks for your hard work, Great Immortal Lu.”

Something flickered in Lu You’s eyes as he fixed his gaze on him. He Zhuchun turned him by the shoulder: “Well, we’ve looked. Next station — let’s not waste time.”

Lu You checked the time and only then answered “All right,” turning to leave with him.

The next station was the Yellow Springs Road.

As the saying goes: The Yellow Springs Road is hard to walk; on the Yellow Springs Road there is no old or young.

The Yellow Springs Road stretched empty. Look up — no sun, moon, or stars; look down — no earth or dust; look ahead — no broad sunny road; look back — no family or neighbors.

The trade of buying lifespan and stealing souls was mostly conducted on the Yellow Springs Road as well, because at this point the soul did not yet know itself dead. Past the Terrace of Homeward Longing, dragging one back grew very hard indeed.

Of course, this sort of case referred to souls whose Yang Lifespan had run out in natural death — He Zhuchun plainly did not number among them.

At first sight of the Yellow Springs Road, Lu You’s first impression was sheer awe.

Manjusaka Red Spider Lilies bloomed over mountains and plains. The flowers bore no leaves — bare stalks holding up bent, blood-red blossoms, dyeing this stretch of world scarlet. Fortunately there was no wind; if a gust were to sweep through, one would presumably see tens of thousands of Manjusaka swaying together — and at a second glance, it might look like a surging sea of blood.

Newly dead souls walked the banks of the blood sea — departed souls sent by the sea, meaning to ferry them across to the other shore.

He Zhuchun took in the positively magnificent scene, and before he could even marvel, a Wandering Soul happened to pass beside them. Lu You dodged instinctively — and in doing so caught the back of He Zhuchun’s foot; the two of them stumbled over each other and fell, neatly and in unison, into a stretch of flowers alongside.

The ground beneath was hard; the person on top was not. The back of He Zhuchun’s head took a knock that left him briefly dizzy. As he moved to rise, the first thing that met him, before anything else, was a familiar waft of cosmetic fragrance.

That scent had been circling him all day.

Lu You had been startled too and was climbing up off the ground — and the moment he moved, the first thing He Zhuchun saw was the smeared lipstick mark left from when he’d wiped his finger on the little dog’s forehead.

“Great Immortal Lu, you smell wonderful.” He Zhuchun remarked for no reason at all.

A very familiar line.

Lu You’s expression didn’t change. Propping on one hand, he shifted to sit off to the side, and He Zhuchun likewise pushed himself up to sit cross-legged.

He Zhuchun was still grinning roguishly. “Why so quiet…”

“How long do you intend to keep flirting with me?” Lu You cut in abruptly.

He Zhuchun’s face stiffened. “What?”

Lu You simply repeated, “I’m asking you — how long do you plan to keep flirting with me?”

The smile fell off He Zhuchun’s face.

Lu You’s face remained expressionless — he even let his eyelids droop half-mast, listless. “From the very first time I came to you, you were flirting with me on purpose. I don’t know whether it’s your mean streak or something else — perhaps teasing a Homosexual gives you a real sense of achievement.”

“…” He Zhuchun said nothing for a moment.

His eyes narrowed halfway, dazed, as if puzzling over what had made him angry.

Lu You paid his confusion no mind and pressed on: “You seem to have many secrets you won’t tell me — won’t tell anyone else. Fine. I respect your decision; I even played the fool and played along with you. But respect goes both ways, He Zhuchun.”

Those amber eyes were pale in color, yet every time their gazes met, one could always glimpse a little glittering light within. Lu You raised his own eyes and looked straight into He Zhuchun’s. “You’ve been able to see ghosts all along, haven’t you? You have a pair of Yin-Yang Sight eyes. Patron Spirits, Ghosts and Monsters — you can see them all. But you’ve been acting the whole time. And that Negative Yin Peach Blossom Karma of yours was by no means the first troublesome ghost you’ve ever met, was it? Why did you keep only her — because she was the weakest?”

He Zhuchun stared down, dazed, apparently still mired in confusion, and answered only, “…No.”

Lu You said, “I don’t care whether it’s no or yes. In any case, I don’t believe for a second that you’re truly helpless against those Yin Entities around you, He Zhuchun. Jokes have their limits. You have genuinely made me angry.”

Beside them, the Manjusaka swayed lightly on their stems. The two sat among the flowers — one with eyes burning, the other silent.

“Perhaps we can pick up where we left off at Golden Rooster Mountain. Tell me — how did you know what the stations ahead held? Or perhaps you’d like to tell me something even more interesting. Like yesterday morning — why did you use delivering Jasmine to me as a pretext to go see Li Bingjun? And why, when that Old Ghost at Qi Feng’s door spoke the name Splendid Flower Compound, did you fall silent?”

He Zhuchun seemed a little taken aback. “You know all that?”

Lu You’s fingers curled unconsciously a few times. “I did promise to save you. So I forced my way through the Divine Formation, and I Descended to the Netherworld for you. He Zhuchun — as far as I can tell, I have failed you in nothing.”

He Zhuchun’s lips moved. “I never said you failed me.”

His whole momentum had been thoroughly crushed beneath Lu You’s — he didn’t dare put on his usual devil-may-care front, sitting there like a primary schooler taken to task by the Homeroom Teacher, wanting nothing so much as to grab his trouser seam and quietly wipe away tears.

Lu You glanced at his watch; seeing the time still ample, he elected to sort it all out with him right there: “All those critical moments, when I was dragging you around hunting for clues — weren’t you grinning through every one of them? He Zhuchun. Keep smiling, then.”

He Zhuchun said, “…I don’t feel like smiling right now. Is smiling something that can be forced out of me?”

The moment he refused to smile, Lu You gave a cold laugh on the spot.

He Zhuchun: “…”

Lu You, apparently still unsatisfied, laid into him again: “Morality obliterated, life despised, proud and reckless, arrogance upon arrogance — He Zhuchun, is there anyone in this world you hold in any regard at all? Who do you regard? You are simply—”

He broke off mid-sentence, as if snagged, a spark flashing through his mind as some realization struck — and then his voice dropped from high to low, a murmured whisper: “…Pride.”

It was too quiet for He Zhuchun to hear, and he didn’t intend to press at a moment like this. Head still hanging, he said, “Surely I’m not as wicked as all that, the way you tell it.”

Lu You’s eyes widened slightly as he stared at him, stunned.

It fits. Everything fits — the information long since written on the Paper Slip.

At first, Lu You had thought of He Zhuchun only as the target of his task. But on first contact, there had been nothing especially worth investigating about him; Lu You had simply resolved to respect personal eccentricities — loving to act a part was hardly rare.

Later, as the investigations piled up, Lu You had treated He Zhuchun as merely one thread among many, a pointer leading him into contact with this task, and afterward had kept his eyes fixed on Qi Feng and Li Bingjun — as though rescuing their other victims was the whole of the mission.

But only now did Lu You finally understand: the answer to the riddle had been written out, plain as day, on the paper all along.

Pride — He Zhuchun.

And just like that, everything made sense.

While Lu You on this side achieved his grand awakening, He Zhuchun was still sunk in the aftermath of his emotions. He hardened his tone: “You say I’ve been playing you the whole time — fine, then here’s your chance to get it all straight. Ask. Whatever you ask, I’ll answer. Does that count as sincerity? Does it count as repaying Great Immortal Lu the debt of a saved life?”

Lu You steadied himself, and at the words gave an honest nod. “It does.”

He Zhuchun hadn’t expected him to agree so quickly; he even stalled a beat.

“Then ask.”

“How do you know the Netherworld’s structure?”

“Because I’ve been here many times.” He Zhuchun shifted his sitting posture, his tone carrying a thread of impatience. “I don’t know why, but as a child I kept coming to places like this — usually I’d be dragged here for a round while asleep. Sometimes it was this road, sometimes the Ghost Realm Fortress. Walk it enough times and you remember it naturally. Though after my twelfth birthday, I hardly ever came here anymore.”

He added, “That muddled stretch on the way in — that part wasn’t a lie.”

Lu You nodded, pensive.

He Zhuchun asked, “Anything else?”

So Lu You pressed on: “Why did you go looking for Li Bingjun yesterday morning? And why did you do all those things behind our backs?”

“Because it was fun.”

The corner of He Zhuchun’s mouth curved into a contemptuous smile. “I never believed for a moment they could harm me. You may not believe this, Lu You, but in this lifetime, everything I have ever wanted, I have gotten — as if I were heaven’s favored darling. Even this time, having descended to the Netherworld — even if you hadn’t saved me, I could have walked back out safe and sound.”

Lu You nodded, thinking: Of course. Pride itself. He never took that crowd seriously in the slightest.

He Zhuchun laughed softly to himself, then went on: “And your little dog. I knew you wanted to see it, so I thought in my heart — I want to see that dog too. And so I did.”

With an air of having smashed the jar and let it shatter, in a tone that pretended to boast while truly baiting, he said, “Pretty incredible, right?”

Lu You, however, abruptly went still.