By the Road to the Yellow Springs - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

It was a first since the dawn of time.

A female ghost had given birth to a living baby.

My mother stared at the living, breathing infant on the bed, then patted her own empty belly with both hands.

Yes, I was definitely hers.

My mother tilted her head, racking her brain but failing to find an answer.

How could a ghost who had been dead for over eight hundred years give birth to a living baby? I’d really like to know.

My father glanced at my mother, silently picked up a piece of green cloth, and gloomily draped it over his head.

My mother: “…”

My mother was a ghost, and I was a human.

Therefore, she had no milk to feed me.

Perhaps because she had been a ghost for too many years, she had completely forgotten that little humans needed to drink milk.

“Hey, dear, why do you think she keeps wailing like that?”

“Her mouth is so big.”

“Look, she has tears coming out. How miraculous.”

“Her mouth is so big.”

“Touch her. She’s soft and squishy, and she’s even warm.”

“Her mouth… hm?”

My father reached out a finger and had just poked my cheek a few times when I quickly latched onto it and began to suckle vigorously.

“…”

“Dear, do living people… also need to eat?”

“…It seems so.”

This was bad. Very bad.

My mother paced in circles, frantic with worry.

Where in the Underworld could one find something to keep a living person alive?

Driven by parental love, my father shouldered their belongings while my mother carried me, and they moved to the east overnight.

They went there because Black and White Impermanence lived in the east.

And because only they frequently traveled to the Mortal Realm for work.

My father summoned his courage and intercepted the two venerable deities, Black and White Impermanence, halfway through their journey.

“Seventh Lord, Eighth Lord, please wait!”

My father jogged toward the two deities. Before he could even come to a halt, he was recognized.

“Oh, if it isn’t Master Zhao? I heard you were blessed with a daughter the other day. Congratulations, congratulations!”

White Impermanence’s tongue lolled out as he smiled happily.

Black Impermanence kept his usual grim face, but a flicker of interest flashed in his eyes.

The news of the Zhao Family of the West producing a living cub was a curiosity to anyone who heard it.

Even King Yama couldn’t believe it when he heard the news.

He had spent the entire night by lamplight flipping through the Book of Life and Death.

Sure enough, the little girl’s name was not in the Registry of Death, nor was it in the Registry of Life.

Fine.

She wasn’t under his jurisdiction.

“Are you two lords heading to the Mortal Realm for business now?” my father asked, cupping his hands in respect.

White Impermanence nodded with a smile.

“Going to reap a few souls. It can’t be helped; the higher-ups gave us a heavy quota this month. We have to make the trip almost every day. The two of us are exhausted.”

“That’s wonderful!”

“…”