My legs gave out, and I collapsed onto the ground, my mind a near-total blank. Jiyé, Man Niao Niao, and even Hua'er were in the same state. Only Qin Ping'er was scrambling about, trying to help the three men up one by one. But the three limp, boneless bodies were as heavy as dead pigs, and how could a girl as delicate and charming as Qin Ping'er manage such a feat?

After resting for half a day, I managed to scramble up, reached into Jiyé's pouch, and pulled out a stub of the grass cigarette he hadn't finished. I gestured for Qin Ping'er to find a lighter and light it for me. I took a deep drag. The sharp, acrid taste of the smoke only made me take two puffs before the slight stimulation jolted my system. I then tossed the mangled remnant of the "demolition charge" far down below. Jiyé sighed and tried to stand up to retrieve it, but it was long gone. He shot me a sharp look, then resignedly slumped back onto the ground.

I was immensely frustrated. Here I was, Man Yingying, a man who, while certainly no great saint, had never committed any heinous crimes, nor wasted grain—so why was this damned thunder chasing after my tail? I knew we’d encountered an awful lot of bizarre things lately, and my nerves had long since grown dull, so I should have been used to something as unbelievable as lightning striking in broad daylight. But something inside just felt wrong, because the most vicious curse in the local dialect was, "May you be struck dead by lightning!" And in people's minds, if someone was actually killed by lightning, it meant they must have done something unforgivable. Though this was superstitious nonsense, it felt terrible to have it hang over you.

I glanced at Man Niao Niao, sprawled out on his back, and thought, Could it be that you, you unlucky sod, angered Heaven? Me saving you was purely a case of carrying coals to Newcastle, getting dragged down with you. Man Niao Niao's eyes were tightly shut, paying no mind to my suspicious glare. He let out intermittent sighs, clearly also wondering how strange this sudden lightning and thunder were.

Of course, the thunder and lightning weren't the only things I found strange; I was also pondering the oddity of this whole location. I never imagined we’d fall from the surface into the underground, nor that after all that running around, we’d emerge from the sunless underground Imperial City into the sky. Although this "sky" wasn't the real heavens, looking at how high these towering structures reached, no one would deny that the place made one’s heart feel unsteady. Most unexpectedly, after finally reaching this place, we were chased around like scared rats by the Thunder God and Lightning Goddess, reduced to a state of utter humiliation, nearly losing our lives in the process.

The power of the Thunder God and Lightning Goddess was certainly undeniable. The exquisitely constructed and beautifully carved tiger-shaped corridor beneath our feet had been completely ravaged by the lightning strikes, collapsing into a pile of rubble. At the bottom of the pool, there was a massive, oval sphere glowing with a silvery-white light—this sphere was naturally formed by countless scattered beads of quicksilver congregating at the bottom of the pool. Reflecting and refracting the sunlight, one might mistake it for a massive lump of silver! Damn it all!

After staring for a while, I vaguely registered that there were a great many enormous bronze tripods. I quickly got up, intending to count them with my fingers. Qin Ping'er spoke from beside me, "No need to count. There are forty-nine in total, placed at all the critical points on both tigers."

"Forty-nine?" I turned sharply, looking at Qin Ping'er with suspicion.

"Yes!" Qin Ping'er looked at me steadily, her answer firm.

"Why forty-nine?" I said doubtfully. This number was slightly outside my expectations. Ever since entering the Tusi Imperial City, the number "forty-eight" had been ubiquitous; now suddenly, "forty-nine" had appeared. What was going on? Moreover, Qin Ping'er sounded so self-assured. Connecting this to her inexplicable period of absence, I suspected something had happened to her, or perhaps she had learned something.

Qin Ping'er sensed my thoughts, paused briefly, and then said to the three men, "Do you all wonder why I am so certain?"

No one answered, but the six pairs of eyes looking straight at her answered everything.

"Because... I have been to this place before!" Qin Ping'er said.

Huh? I was thunderstruck! Was Qin Ping'er starting to talk nonsense due to some shock? Hadn't she clearly told us she had never been to Xidu before, that she was born in a distant place, raised by an old monk, and had very little contact with the outside world until university? How could she have been to this remote, seldom-visited place?

"When did you come?" Man Niao Niao believed her instantly and asked solemnly, "When did you come?"

Qin Ping'er hesitated. "That... how should I put it? Actually, I myself have never been here!"

Qin Ping'er’s words left me completely bewildered. I glanced suspiciously at Jiyé. Seeing the old man keeping his eyes down, he didn't seem surprised, carrying an air of "just as I expected."

"Ping'er... is your head 'short-circuited'? I can’t make head nor tail of what you’re saying?" Man Niao Niao pushed himself up with one hand, sprang up, and reached out as if to touch Qin Ping'er's forehead.

Qin Ping'er tilted her head away, avoiding his palm. "Wait until I finish. It's true I’ve never been here myself, but I am incredibly familiar with this place. The environment is as if it already existed in my mind, only it seemed obscured by something before. When I followed Uncle An towards this bird's head, the sense of déjà vu grew stronger the closer we got. When I saw that bronze tripod, it was as if... as if chaos had first opened, and a scene from a long time ago became vivid... I felt everything here was so familiar, so intimate..."

I was utterly stunned! This was the second time Qin Ping'er had mentioned feeling intimate with this place!

I looked again toward Old Man An, the Tija master of the Tujia people. Jiyé met my dazed gaze, cleared his throat, and began to speak. "Do you remember what I told you all before? That someone might, in a specific environment, under specific circumstances, feel like they are visiting a completely unfamiliar place for the second time, and even feel like everything happening has happened before?"

I nodded silently.

"Actually, many ordinary people have experienced this phenomenon..." Jiyé glanced at me, then continued, "It is said that this is a residual memory from a past life. Upon arriving at a specific location, a person recalls events from that previous existence..." Before he finished speaking, Man Niao Niao threw up his hands and yelled loudly, "Are you saying there's watered-down Meng Po soup?"

I had been listening intently, enjoying it immensely, and was furious at being interrupted by Man Niao Niao’s sudden witty remark. I shot him a vicious glare, losing all interest in listening to Jiyé drone on. I mostly understood what he was trying to convey: that people have past and present lives, and under certain specific conditions and times, one can recall things from the past.

Originally, I didn't really believe such talk, and what saddened me was that I couldn't find a scientific explanation for this phenomenon, because I myself had encountered similar things, not just once. At the time, I found it strange, but as time passed, I didn't delve too deeply. Now, juxtaposing Qin Ping'er's account with Jiyé’s explanation, those same experiences I had lived through resurfaced from the depths of my heart, becoming more jarring and impossible to suppress.

"You came to this bird's mouth because of memories from a past life?" I interrupted the conversation among the three of them, speaking to Qin Ping'er.

"Yes—! This bird isn't just any bird!"

"What exactly is going on? What kind of bird is this?"

"Hehe!" In such a moment, Qin Ping'er actually had the mood to laugh. "This bird... you must have heard of it. It is the legendary Vermilion Bird (Zhuque)!"

"Zhuque? The 'Zhuque' of 'Front Zhuque, Rear Xuanwu'?"

"Exactly!" Qin Ping'er continued to laugh. "As for how I got here, I'll tell you slowly. Didn't I just say there were forty bronze tripods? Actually, only forty-eight of them contained quicksilver; the other one is a secret passage, hollow inside. After I felt that I had been here before, I accurately found that secret passage and climbed up here through it!"

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