The books blocked the light, and Jiang Lin closed his eyes. The whole world seemed to fall silent.
Scene after scene from the three-day annual meeting replayed in his mind.
First, King Jian An invited him for a drink. After that drink, his vision and thoughts began to blur.
All sorts of strange ideas also surfaced.
For example, why did he suddenly want to study the seven-colored eggs and chase them all over the venue...
For example, when he saw Meng Po charging an appearance fee...
Beggars, people from the martial world, swallows...
Fragments of memories from three lifetimes also intertwined in his mind.
The acrobatic performance was something he learned in that lifetime as a person of the martial world.
People of the martial world also needed to eat.
Moreover, acrobatic performances were a job that could conceal one's identity.
It allowed one to travel through streets and alleys, observe others openly, and not arouse suspicion.
While performing on the circular stage, Jiang Lin seemed to return to those times in a flash.
He performed in the center of the crowd, surrounded by the discussions and cheers of the people.
In the distance, a jingling carriage, a maid helping a young lady into it, wearing round green earrings.
A man selling sesame cakes draped his sweat towel over his shoulder, deftly wrapped a steaming hot sesame cake in paper, and handed it to a large and a small person in front of the stall.
The air carried a hint of char and the smell of scallion oil...
The memories of three lifetimes felt as if he had lived three extra lives, yet these worldly experiences were so precious.
Sweet, sour, bitter, spicy...
Jiang Lin's thoughts drifted further and further away.
The room was silent.
This time, the seven-colored eggs dared not move rashly.
They obediently stayed in their owner's sleeve.
Cleaning ghosts emerged from the pillars, walls, and ceiling, drifting through the eighteen halls.
One of them, while drifting, landed on the book covering Jiang Lin's face and lightly began its daily work.
What was slightly noticeable was that this cleaning ghost had a red ribbon tied to it, seemingly for the festival celebration.
It looked silly, festive, and a bit amusing.
In this harmonious and quiet environment, Jiang Lin's heart slowly regained its calm.
"Ding~ Congratulations to the host for completing the daily mission: Promoting Underworld Culture - Annual Meeting! Points +500!"
"Ding~ Congratulations to the host for completing the daily mission: Live Stream for Two Hours (3/3), Points +1500!"
"Ding~ Congratulations to the host for completing the daily mission: Gaining 1000 Faith Hearts (3/3), Merit Points +3000!"
"Ding! Congratulations to the host for exceeding the mission objectives, this mission's point reward is doubled!"
These notification sounds seemed to constantly remind Jiang Lin of the annual meeting.
Those hazy scenes reappeared in his mind.
Jiang Lin: "..."
He suspected the system was doing it on purpose.
Jiang Lin took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and then opened them again.
A bullet comment from the live stream suddenly appeared in his mind.
He removed the book from his face, got up from his seat, and walked out of the eighteen halls.
He opened the passage connecting the underworld to the human world and stepped in.
Three lifetimes of memories, hundreds of years of ghostly existence...
Throughout these years, Jiang Lin had tried various experiences, including many awkward and helpless moments.
When it comes to matters that do not concern them, people mostly just watch the excitement and soon their memories are blurred by time.
Even Jiang Lin himself would forget many things if he didn't deliberately recall them.
So, people often say: let the past be the past.
However, Jiang Lin felt that this time, humans might not easily forget.
It's even possible that they might leave something behind as a carrier of memory...
Although he was not a prominent figure in history books, he also understood that the "Underworld Healing Daily" live stream was becoming increasingly popular in the human world.
...
...
The Human World.
It was noon.
But a large group of humans were still lying in their beds, sleeping soundly.
This was not only because of the New Year holiday, but also because...
Many of these people had just stayed up late and had only recently fallen asleep.
Even some people who didn't usually stay up late had recently joined the night owls.
Is staying up late fun?
It is fun.
However, what made this late-night revelry enjoyable was a live stream.
It was an underworld annual meeting that happened once a century, a once-in-a-lifetime event!
Many people had already predicted that after this annual meeting, new trending topics would appear online again.
#UnderworldAnnualMeeting, A Once-in-a-Century Event#
#WhatDoGhostMessengersDoDuringNewYear?#
#OnGhostMessengersWhenTheyAreDrunk...#
#UnderworldImmortalWine, One Sip and You're Drunk for Three Days#
Thinking that they had witnessed this feast firsthand, many humans smiled in their sleep, their mouths curling up in excitement.
This feast, even if told to their descendants in the future, would be a very bizarre and wonderful story.
At this moment, a primary school student, frowning while doing homework, wrote the first sentence in his diary:
— My sister personally witnessed an incredibly awesome event and unlocked a new identity!
...
Some slept soundly, while others slept with contorted faces, or even suffered from insomnia.
This was a studio with a lounge area, filled with various drawing tables and art supplies.
Tu Xiaozhu, with dark circles under her eyes, got out of bed and floated eerily to the drawing table.
She had...
stayed up for two nights.
In these two days, she had slept less than four hours.
Heaven knows how she managed to endure it.
But now that the underworld annual meeting was over, even though she was lying in bed, she still couldn't sleep.
She opened her computer and flipped through the underworld paintings she had drawn before.
Because she drew them in real-time following the live stream, she drew them very quickly.
Some were in chibi style, while others were just a few strokes outlining the general shape.
Although they were all drawn in a hurry, the art style was very pleasing to the eye at first glance.
In the chibi versions, there were soft and cute ghost messengers.
There was Meng Po making soup, standing on tiptoe and stirring vigorously with a large ladle.
There was the streamer looking drowsy while sitting at the dining table, nodding, with two red blushes on her face.
And there were ghost messengers hiding under the dining table, secretly clearing the table...
In addition, there were some simple sketches.
For example, tableware and dishes being controlled by the streamer, flying and spinning all over the venue, and several drunken ghost messengers holding wine pots in a dazed state.
There was also the streamer leaning on the dining table with one hand, sleeping with her eyes closed.
Although not much ink was used in these paintings, they effectively depicted the scenes at the time.
The character depictions were particularly vivid.
Tu Xiaozhu was an avid fan of the underworld live stream.
At the same time, she was a renowned artist in the drawing community, having created comic works as famous as "Scare."
Since she started following the underworld live stream, her online homepage often featured underworld illustrations, most of which were about the streamer.
But at this moment...
Tu Xiaozhu looked at the paintings of the annual meeting on her computer and was struggling with whether to delete them.
When she drew these paintings, she was very excited, even wanting to keep them as heirlooms for the future...
But now,
Every time she closed her eyes, the image of the streamer waking up and looking at the camera at the end of the annual meeting would appear in her mind.
Delete, or not delete?
It's worth noting that the work "Scare" had recently stopped updating, and rumors in the industry suggested that the author had "seen a ghost."
As Tu Xiaozhu was agonizing, a cool breeze suddenly blew from somewhere, and she quickly wrapped herself tighter in her small quilt.
...