Ox-head and Horse-face also nodded after hearing Meng Po's words.
"Friend, we've seen you standing in the Wangchuan River for so long. Even though we hated you at first, seeing how much pain you went through, we're also willing to help you reincarnate. Waiting for so long, but your loved one haven't passed through the Naihe bridge, it might be because the two of you are destined to never cross each other."
They had not seen Zhao Cheng for a while, so they didn't notice the changes in his emotions. None of them saw how tightly he held to the hand of the woman behind him, as if holding on to a life-saving buoy. Or how the gloominess and despair that always flickered behind his eyes had completely disappeared.
It wasn't until Zhao Cheng curved his lips up and showed his first smile to them that they finally registered how differently he looked from the past.
"If our destinies were determined to never cross each other, then I would just have to look for her myself." He tugged Song Jia forward, proudly showing her to them. "See, I finally found her. This is my wife, Jia'er."
Song Jia, "..."
Who did you say was your wife?
Song Jia shook her head. Never mind, these things, she had already been used to hearing. Just pretend she didn't hear, anyway, what the eyes didn't see, or the ears didn't hear, is regarded as clean.
Meng Po immediately frowned.
"Her soul..."
Zhao Cheng nodded.
"Yes, she's the reincarnation of the one I had been looking for."
Meng Po fell silent. In fact, what she wanted to say was that this girl's soul neither belonged to this body nor to this world...
Perhaps, the girl he had been looking for was actually a 'body possessor.' No wonder he had waited for so long, but hadn't met her. In fact, if this was true, then this girl should have all of her memories intact...
Song Jia and Meng Po locked gazes.
Meng Po understood. The flower has intentions, but the water has no feeling.
Moths happily fluttering their wings around the burning light, blind*, hypnotized and obsessed.
But at the moment of contact, heart, wings, and skin are burned to ashes.
Meng Po and the two guardians were busy people. It didn't take long for them to exchange farewells and return back to doing their jobs.
After they left the Naihe bridge, Song Jia became quiet. Zhao Cheng held her hand as he fiddled with her fingers, not looking at her.
He wrenched his lips into a small, self-depreciating smile.
"I'm sure Jia'er is wondering, right? How could they say that I was waiting in the Wangchuan River for a thousand years when I'm supposed to be gathering power to ultimately become the Great Demon King?"
Song Jia stayed silent. In fact, she had already guessed his 'secret', so what she was thinking about was her encounter with Meng Po. But it was also good for him to tell her his identity himself.
Zhao Cheng stopped walking, making the two of them stop in front of the San Sheng Shi rock. He lowered his head while his eyelashes hung down, covering his expression.
"I want to tell you the truth. Jia'er, I'm not Xu Jinhai. I think I might be his past incarnation, his past life more than a thousand years ago."
Zhao Cheng looked at the San Sheng Shi rock.
"You might not know this, but you were my wife when I was still alive. If you still had your memories, I'm sure you will despise me. I didn't protect you properly, didn't treasure you properly, didn't love you properly...I wasn't a good husband to you. For all of my regrets, you were the deepest and the one I regret most of all."
He tightened his hold on her hand.
"Jia'er, I didn't want to drink Meng Po's soup. Our memories together were my only remaining memento of you, and I couldn't let it go. I wanted to wait for you, but because you died before me, I could only wait to meet you in our next life. This time, even if you have a different appearance, I was sure I'll be able to recognize you.
"For those who refuse to drink the soup, they will fall into the Wangchuan River, bitten by ghosts and demons. They would stay there until they gave up and decided to drink the soup, or their consciousness was completely swallowed by ghosts. Everyday, you would feel as if you were being stabbed a thousand times by sharp knives. I wouldn't say it was painful, because it was.
"But my expectations of meeting you completely overshadowed that, until I stayed there for several years. Year after year, I kept hoping I'll see you walking into the bridge. But decades of years passed, and I've never seen you appear. I started thinking, what if your curse came true, that I'll never see you in my next life? I didn't want to believe it. I didn't...I couldn't believe it. It was the only thing that kept me holding on. If even that hope was taken away from me, I would..."
Zhao Cheng took a deep breath.
"After staying there for so long, I learned that the Wangchuan river actually tortures you by ripping apart your soul, a way to feed the ghosts and demons living there. I suddenly realized a way for me to keep both my memories intact and still be able to reincarnate to find you."
Song Jia's eyes widened. She immediately understood. "You tore a part of your soul?"
Zhao Cheng nodded.
"It wasn't easy, but I finally managed it. I allowed the Wangchuan River to tear my soul in half, and before the ghosts and demons could feed on it, I sent it to the Naihe bridge. Of course, the sole reason for reincarnating myself was to find you."
Zhao Cheng curved his lips upwards into a smile, but one could find a trace of sadness in it.
"Jia'er, do you know how I lasted in the Wangchuan River for more than a thousand years? That's because every time my other half reincarnates, before he drinks the soup, he gives away his memories for me to keep."
Song Jia was stunned.
Memories were an inherent part of one's soul. That's why in every underworld story, there is always some kind of device or place that washes away memories of their past life. In China, there was Meng Po's soup, in ancient Greece there was the underworld river Lethe, in Gnostic myths, there was the 'heavy sleep,' along with many others...
It was obvious at a glance how important memories are, just like how Buddha can be called 'omniscient' as he could remember all of his former lives, or how Hermes gave his son Ethalidos an 'unchangeable memory' to make him immortal.
Zhao Cheng actually managed to circumvent around this law of samsara, and keep every record of his incarnation for himself.
"When I managed to come across my new incarnation, Xu Jinhai, I didn't want to combine our souls back at first. But when I saw you, I didn't hesitate to use every energy that I barely managed to collect to join our souls back together. At first, I couldn't wake up because his mental energy was too strong. But when you took away his power..."
Song Jia finished his sentence for him.
"You managed to wake up."
Song Jia pursed her lips. So that was Nova's real purpose for giving her such a weird condition.
Zhao Cheng moved his hand to brush a stray lock of her hair back from her eyes. He tucked it behind her ears, and his fingers lingered there for a moment.
The wind here was too strong, which rippled through the abundant red spider lilies in a tidal wave. Finally, with a soft whoosh, their petals flew and scattered in the air like snowflakes.
"Jia'er, I kept the memories of all my incarnations, but they were too violent and resistant to integrate into my own memories. Like me, they also have their own thoughts and personality. Since Xu Jinhai's power is weak, I was the first one to 'wake up,' but it wouldn't be long before they followed...Jia'er, you should be careful."
Zhao Cheng wasn't saying this lightly. He was really worried about his other incarnations and even had half a mind to try destroying them because they were too unstable. But if he did that, they would forget so many things about Jia'er.
He also knew that like him, they wouldn't be able to hurt her. But...paranoia, possession, obsession, hurt, grief, and overwhelming desire...he didn't know if Jia'er could take all of these. His incarnations were not like him, with guilt and shame to hold him back.
The moment they got her back, he himself didn't know what would happen. He could only warn her and do his best to not let them suppress his consciousness in the meantime.
Song Jia nodded. Zhao Cheng was a high-ranking male god, and his incarnation, Xu Jinhai, was also a Rank SSS. This goes without saying that his other incarnations were also dangerous and powerful individuals that couldn't be provoked.
Not only this, but there was also the danger of unpredictability.
Song Jia knew Zhao Cheng and had a good relationship with Xu Jinhai. But with his other 'personalities,' she didn't have this advantage. It was indeed a good thing that Nova made her take away Xu Jinhai's powers first...
Song Jia inwardly shuddered. What a potentially dangerous situation that could have been!
Song Jia really felt that Nova, this dog-man A.I. with a wolf's heart, had cheated her out of her salary. Even the most experienced transmigrators in their department didn't have such a hard task as her!
*because love is blind QAQ