Abnormal Gourmet Chronicle-Chapter 962 - 471: Truly Worthy of a Mayfly_2

To sum it up, two words: courting death.

But it can't be purposelessly courting death, purposelessly courting death might end up like the Plant Spirits, coming muddle-headedly, dying muddle-headedly, opening and closing their eyes and somehow surviving the tribulations.

When a Mayfly courts death, it must first enter the world before doing so. Thus, Zhao Cheng'an in his first life found a boss and mingled with humans. As long as humans treated him slightly badly, making Zhao Cheng'an feel dissatisfied, resentment, or regret, he could ascertain his failure in surviving the tribulations, then freely let himself go.

But things didn't turn out as expected, Zhao Cheng'an indeed found a boss, but everyone was too nice to him, nice to the point that Zhao Cheng'an never failed the tribulations. Until right before his death, Zhao Cheng'an thought it was because he didn't recognize medicine and wasted too much time stealing it, causing Ping'an to not wait for him to return, and he felt he caused Ping'an to die before himself. He was both angry at himself and felt guilty and unwilling, thus failing the tribulations just before dying.

But due to the muddled nature of Mayflies, just like the Plant Spirits, Zhao Cheng'an didn't know he failed the tribulations before dying, and he always believed he had succeeded and would return.

"You guys are as muddled as the Plant Spirits, then how do you judge when you've failed the tribulations normally?" Qin Huai asked.

"By seeing if we've grown." Zhao Cheng'an said, "We Mayflies never choose adult forms, we're usually teenagers. Kids easily die, adults are hard to discern changes, teenagers aren't easy to die yet easy to judge. As long as you observe diligently, you can soon confirm the failure."

"For a period, Xia Mubing was growing really fast, suddenly shooting up in height. Originally he was shorter than me, but in just a few months, he surpassed me. I was really unhappy then and wanted to fail the tribulations to surpass him in height. Seeing I wanted to grow taller, Ping'an comforted me with a pair of shoes with thicker soles. But I wasn't aware, I discovered I seemed taller and got excited, thinking it was a failure and directly told them."

"You directly said it?" Zhao Cheng'an's brief words once again shocked Qin Huai.

"Yeah, having failed the tribulations, what was there to worry about, I directly told Xia Mubing, saying I'm so glad I finally failed. Now I'm not afraid to die, when someday I don't want to live, I'll go to the Prince Mansion to steal something big, leaving the gold, silver, and jewels for everyone, then go die."

"What was everyone's reaction?" Qin Huai asked.

"Master Chen invited a doctor to check my pulse, forced me to drink medicine for two months."

Qin Huai: ...

Xia Mubing calmly added, "A Sheng used to ramble nonsense frequently, saying things like 'can't die now, haven't failed yet, must fail to reincarnate', we all thought he was having episodes."

"But later, when everyone was gone, sometimes I would think of A Sheng's ramblings, hoping people really have a next life, hoping after reincarnation they could really come back to find me like A Sheng said."

"I don't believe in ghosts, but I hope what A Sheng said is true."

"So for years, I've stayed in Beiping, never leaving, never changed my name, bought the Prince Mansion that A Sheng wanted to steal and opened Fen Garden here."

"What?!" Zhao Cheng'an was startled, "This is actually the old Prince Mansion? Xia Mubing, have you ever dug the garden in the mansion? I heard the old prince buried lots of gold, silver, and jewels there, back then Master wouldn't let me steal, but I had thought of sneaking into the garden at night to dig a bit, we Mayflies dig real fast."

Xia Mubing said: "False, nothing's hidden."

Qin Huai: Mr. Xia, you really dug it all...

Zhao Cheng'an sighed regretfully: "Ah, then you bought poorly. The old prince was so poor he almost tore down the Prince Mansion to sell it; the Prince Mansion isn't as wealthy as the Prince's Mansion, if it wasn't for hearing the garden was filled with treasures, I wouldn't have wanted to steal from the Prince Mansion."

"I bought it after the founding of the country, not a loss."

"That's good then."

Qin Huai felt he didn't quite understand the conversation between these brothers.

"Then why didn't you return to Beiping to find people in your second reincarnation, Zhao Cheng'an?" Qin Huai asked.

"I wanted to, but in both second and third lives, my reincarnation didn't go well; died choked on a soybean at 4 in the second, died of a fever at 5 in the third, and by the fourth life I'd already forgotten I was a spirit, only had vague memories. In that life, my parents thought I was possessed, babbled daily, fed me talisman water, not knowing what the witch mixed into it, causing me diarrhea, died again of diarrhea at nine."

"By the fifth life, I'd completely forgotten, and now it's the 7th. I feel it's ridiculous; I knew Mayflies reincarnate fast, but not this fast. Four reincarnations in 18 years, I couldn't get to Beiping to find Xia Mubing even if I wanted to." Zhao Cheng'an felt extremely aggrieved.

"The deaths after, count it as my own doing, but the earlier ones weren't my fault."

"How did you die in the later lives?" Qin Huai questioned soulfully.

Zhao Cheng'an: "Fifth life, both my parents were traditional medicine doctors, got influenced, tried to learn how to taste herbs like Shennong, accidentally poisoned myself with a self-prescribed recipe."

"Sixth life, finally reached adulthood, got a job, was about to marry and have kids, but loved watching a commotion too much, witnessed a gang fight at the street and got killed in crossfire, stabbed in an artery, died there."

"Seventh life went quite alright actually, had pretty good grades in school, graduated with a master's, got a job and was assigned to Africa. Thought the world is big and wanted to see, drove to see lions on the plains; car malfunctioned, while fixing got fed to the lions."

Qin Huai: ...

Indeed, each life's death method exceeded his imagination, each life reaching new heights.

Xia Mubing sighed helplessly: "Can't be ridiculous like this from now on."

"Don't worry, now I've awakened, this is definitely my final life, I'll cherish it well and live properly, definitely die after you." Zhao Cheng'an promised with a pat on his chest, "I absolutely won't break my word this time."

"Okay." Xia Mubing nodded with a smile.

Qin Huai: Can't you guys not talk about these hellish topics in such a heartwarming way!

Qin Huai asked, "Should I pull you into the group now for a video call with everyone, or shall we chat a bit more?"

Zhao Cheng'an said, "Let's chat a bit more, we're heading back to Hangzhou tomorrow afternoon, don't know when we'll return to Beiping again."

Qin Huai was taken aback, "We're leaving tomorrow afternoon? Not staying in Beiping a few more days?"

Qin Huai thought Zhao Cheng'an and Xia Mubing, having reunited as brothers, would surely spend three to five days in Beiping, they had plenty of topics between them to talk about.

What Xia Mubing went through after leaving Beiping, how he spent these past decades, and Zhao Cheng'an's seven lives after death. Truly speaking, theoretically it would take three days and nights to finish.

This is a century reunion after half a century, to have only a brief chat overnight and then go separate ways?

"Our flight is tomorrow afternoon and I've already taken more leave than planned, taking more leave would surely upset Master." Zhao Cheng'an said, "I'm not Chen Sheng anymore, and Xia Mubing isn't the teenage Xia Mubing either, we all have our own matters. I can't linger in Fen Garden and hinder Xia Mubing from earning money, right?"

"We can chat on WeChat if we have anything to say, if it doesn't work I can create a group for the three of us, we can video call directly for any matter."

Xia Mubing nodded, "Tomorrow Fen Garden has eight tables of guests, I won't be able to send you off at the airport, I'll have Xiao Hang see you off. At that time, I'll prepare a clay pot shark fin for you to take on the plane and eat during the flight."

Qin Huai looked at the two of them and suddenly felt these two truly were brothers.

One dared to be honest, the other could accept, and neither lived in the past.

In the fateful reunion, after resolving their regrets, they didn't let the plot progress like a family reunion so often seen in dramas, but chose to smile and give each other a hug, continuing with their lives.

If Chen Qiusheng and Chen Ping'an could see, they would likely be happy for them too.