Wei Xunzhou's lips curled faintly. "So that's the reason? I suppose I should be angry."
The next morning, Di Yao got up to wash and saw Wei Xunzhou pushing a cart back from outside. On it were seven or eight buckets of water. Di Yao looked closely; each bucket held clear water—definitely purified water.
She hurried down the steps and circled the cart. "Husband, where did you get this cart?"
"Borrowed from across the street."
Di Yao vaguely remembered their neighbor across the street as a fierce-looking man who wasn't easy to get along with.
"Did he give you trouble? I recall he's hard to deal with." Di Yao pulled on Wei Xunzhou's clothes, making him turn around for her inspection.
Wei Xunzhou sighed. "No."
Since they had no real conflict, Di Yao and Wei Xunzhou's cold war ended. They returned to their old routine—one chatting, the other quietly listening.
Three days later, the small backyard plot was nearly ready for planting. The next step was to start sowing.
The most urgent issue was seeds.
With only the half-bag of seeds Di Yao had, even in the Mortal World, they wouldn't yield much, let alone in this barren land where nothing grew.
But Di Yao had already planned for this.
She took a day off from Meng Po and followed the directions she had gotten earlier to Golden Rooster Mountain.
Golden Rooster Mountain was a mandatory checkpoint on the path to rebirth. The mountain was covered with chickens that fed on souls. Any soul that passed without paying a toll—food—would have its Three Souls pecked away. In mild cases, the soul would be reborn confused and dazed; in severe cases, it would scatter completely, unable to be reborn.
The food carried by souls came from the Mortal World. According to folk custom, relatives would scatter grains over a corpse after death, precisely for this purpose.
So, when Di Yao had overheard the ghost messengers extorting souls earlier, she had gotten an idea.
She planned to gather seeds from Golden Rooster Mountain.
The path to rebirth was singular, though winding, making it hard to get lost. Moreover, she could follow the new souls led by messengers. She soon reached the foot of Golden Rooster Mountain.
Di Yao stopped at the base and looked up. The mountain was lush with dense forest, a deep green she had never seen in Fengdu or Wrongful Death City.
Her confidence grew. "It seems the Underworld's soil can grow things. With a bit of luck, I might even dig up some wild vegetables or mushrooms."
Then she heard faint, intermittent crowing from the mountain, mixed with the pitiful screams of souls.
She retracted the foot she had just stepped forward.
She didn't know how she had crossed this mountain before, but considering she still had all her limbs, a clear mind, and most of her grain bag, the chances of success were high.
Di Yao tightened her grip on the sachet of grain, regained her confidence, and strode up the mountain.
But once on the mountain, she realized that the flatter and easier the path of rebirth seemed, the harder each checkpoint truly was.