Recalling my previous conversation with Gu Yuan, I became increasingly convinced that something was amiss. That sky lantern must be problematic.
Without hesitation, I rushed under the stone bridge and was about to wade into the River of Oblivion.
"Girl... You mustn't! That's the River of Oblivion... Once you go in, you may never come out."
A voice of an old man came from behind. I turned around and saw an old man with white hair and eyebrows. He had a bamboo hat on his back and looked kind - faced.
"Who are you?" I asked curiously.
"Ah... I'm just a ferryman. If you want to cross the river, I can take you across."
He gave a gentle smile, and the wrinkles on his face all gathered at the corners of his eyes.
I returned a smile and then turned to look at the sky lantern. The firefly was still hovering there.
"Can you take me there?"
The white - haired old man followed my gaze and looked at the sky lantern. He said slowly, "That lantern has been hanging there for a thousand years. I wonder if this silly lad has found the girl named Lan Lan."
"What did you say?" I thought I had misheard. Did the old man just say Lan Lan?
My reaction made the old man straighten his back in surprise.
"Lan Lan. Did I say something wrong?"
I grabbed the old man's shoulders and shook him non - stop, as if I were going to shake him apart.
The old man's head was shaking. Only then did I realize I had been out of control and quickly let go of him.
"Sorry, grandpa. Was that lantern set off by a man named Gu Yuan?"
The old man was dizzy from being shaken by me. He spun around on the ground and looked up at my face unsteadily. "What did you call me? You called me grandpa? No way. You used to call me the little white snake, and now I've become an old grandpa?"
I tilted my head, not quite understanding what the old man meant. He coughed lightly and continued nonchalantly, "Cough... I'm not very literate, but I still recognize the two characters 'Lan Lan'."
Gu Yuan. It must be Gu Yuan. This lantern must have been set off by him. He had been praying for me all along, lighting the way ahead for me. This had lasted for a thousand years.
"Will you take me there? I'll give you whatever money you ask for."
The old man smiled and said, "My boat only ferries those with a fateful encounter and takes no money. Our meeting today is fate. So, give me the necklace around your neck."
Goodness! He really didn't take "a single cent", but only gold and silver. He asked for a big necklace right away.
I touched my neck. This was the used Ba Lei Sheng. Although it was a gift from Gu Yuan, as long as he could take me to the sky lantern, it didn't matter if I gave it to him.
I took off the Ba Lei Sheng. Just as I was about to hand it to him, I noticed that there was an extra teardrop in it.
"This Ba Lei Sheng has been used. How can there be another teardrop?"
"You should ask yourself. Who did you make cry again?"
I lowered my head and looked at the Ba Lei Sheng, feeling indescribable bitterness in my heart. Could it be Gu Yuan?
While I was pondering, the old man snatched the Ba Lei Sheng from my hand. With a gentle wave of his arm, a somewhat shabby small fishing boat appeared on the River of Oblivion.
I stared at my empty palm and thought, forget it. It doesn't matter. A single teardrop won't do much. Without further hesitation, I stepped onto the deck of the small fishing boat. Although the boat looked small and shabby, it was very stable. When I stepped on it, there was no sign of it shaking.
"Girl, sit tight. We're setting sail." At the old man's shout, the boat carried me towards the middle of the River of Oblivion.
When the fishing boat reached below the sky lantern, I looked up at it.
Just as I was thinking about how to take it down, the sky lantern that had been hanging in the air for a thousand years actually floated down by itself.
And it landed right at my feet. The green firefly circled around the sky lantern and then landed on my shoulder.
I quickly bent down to check the sky lantern. When my hand touched the orange - red rice paper of the lantern, Gu Yuan's image suddenly flashed through my mind. It actually contained some of Gu Yuan's memories.
The first memory started from when he set off the sky lantern. It turned out that a thousand years ago, when I possessed the body of Chi Yu and was about to leave the City of Eternal Night, he already knew I wasn't Chi Yu. When he grabbed my hand on the third floor, he said plaintively, "Can't you stay?"
Actually, he wanted me to stay in his world. Just thinking about this made my heart shatter.
In fact, he knew everything but didn't dare to ask me to stay too much. He knew clearly that if he insisted a little, I would surely give up everything and go with him into the void.
At that time, I was blinded by love, while he, at a young age, had to stay calm all the time. He knew that if he did so, I might really be doomed.
Karma is inevitable. Chi Yu was the cause for me, and I was the result for Chi Yu. If the cause was gone, what was there to talk about the result?
Gu Yuan was meticulous. He had thought of everything. All he did was for me to survive. He had walked alone for so many years. I didn't know how much pain he had endured. Just the nine thunders were enough to prove how difficult it had been for him.
Later, the second time we met. This time, I went to the Naihe Bridge and got the Mengpo Soup. Gu Yuan did drink it, but it didn't seal his memories.
After I left, he wanted to cut off his emotions and seal Ying Gou. Most importantly, he didn't want anyone to know my whereabouts.
So he went to the Naihe Bridge again and asked Mengpo for ten bowls of bitter Mengpo Soup. But the Mengpo Soup had no effect on him. Instead, it made his memories of me even more vivid.
Finally, he followed Mengpo's advice and chose to extract his memories and seal that segment of memory inside the sky lantern.
Although he lost a segment of memory, there was always a knot in his heart. It vaguely guided him to look for the person who had made a promise to him.
He came to the Netherworld and built the Goddess Temple based on his memories. He vaguely remembered that the person who had made a promise to him liked to watch sky lanterns. So he asked all the people in the Netherworld to pray at the Goddess Temple, and then he helped the Goddess fulfill the long - cherished wishes of the people in the Netherworld.
It was also a kind of compensation for the Netherworld being massacred by the Heavenly Soldiers because of him. When the people's wishes were fulfilled, of course they would think it was the Goddess showing her divine power. Naturally, they were willing to set off sky lanterns at the Goddess Temple.
In this way, all the merits were counted on the Goddess. Day after day, year after year.
The sky lantern had been shining for a thousand years, and he had been looking for a thousand years. Although there was a small episode of the full - moon, it didn't matter much. Finally, he found me. It was worth all these years of searching.
This memory slowly came back to him after he recognized me. His love for me grew deeper and deeper, which led to Ying Gou awakening again.
At first, he tried to ignore me because he wanted to use the method of cutting off emotions and love to seal Ying Gou again.
But in the end, all his efforts were in vain because he had already loved me so deeply that he couldn't get rid of his feelings at all.
In this life, he was determined not to let go. Until he saw me in despair and pain, Gu Yuan didn't want to suppress his feelings anymore. He simply risked everything.
In the middle, there were episodes like Xi Nv and the Heavenly Emperor. As a result, the two lovers like us ended up like a dream. When we woke up, everything was gone.
After reading Gu Yuan's innermost thoughts, I was really sad. In fact, from the very beginning to the end, Gu Yuan had never changed his original intention of protecting me. It was the same in the past and the same now. Whenever I was in danger, it was always Gu Yuan who came to my rescue in the end.
He said I was his guardian angel, but actually, he was the one who had been silently protecting me all along.
Just thinking about this, my tears welled up and I couldn't help crying out loud.
The sky lantern was densely covered with Gu Yuan's blessings for me.
"Lan Lan... Forgive me for not recognizing you at first. But I will make it up to you in the future."
"Lan Lan... We're going to have our own child. I wonder how you'll react when you know this. But I'm really excited. Do you think I should find out if it's a boy or a girl? I hope it's a girl so that she won't compete with me for your love when she grows up..."
"Lan Lan, Ying Gou has awakened. He's been looking for you. I was afraid that your identity as a snake - scaled being would be exposed, so I put the Teng Snake Eye that I had searched for a thousand years into your heart in an attempt to cover up the spirit of the snake scales. Unexpectedly, the combination of the two actually formed a more powerful magic power. Once this magic power is released, it will have the power to destroy the world. So... Lan Lan, in the future, you will surely be the master of the Three Realms, and I will also bow down to you..."
As I read, I laughed and cried on the cabin. I didn't stop until I had read all the blessings. The last one was actually left two days ago.