The journey to the Peach Banquet had taken forty-one days for the round trip. However, one day in heaven is a year on earth. Forty-one years had already passed in the mortal realm. The green-eyed zombie did not understand this world, where in the blink of an eye, the scenery remains but the people change, and seas turn into mulberry fields.
The small town of Yingzhou had changed too much. It had to ask many people before it finally found the Qin Estate; most of the street views had been transformed. Its heart ached slightly; it was somewhat afraid to see her living in marital harmony with another. It had waited over a hundred years, yet a missed connection could happen in the snap of a finger.
It stood outside the Qin Estate from nightfall until dawn. It wasn't until the master of the Qin house stepped out the next day that he saw the zombie dazing in front of the stone lions. Forty-one years later, Qin Guan’s hair had long since turned grey, and wrinkles crowded the corners of his eyes, but his gaze remained clear. He stared at the green-eyed zombie for a long time, his eyes filled with uncontrollable shock. "Young Master Hou?"
The green-eyed zombie wanted to ask for news of Qiao’er, but though it opened its mouth, it could ask nothing. On the other side, Qin Guan took its hand, his eyes shining with the joy of reuniting with an old friend. "I truly have grown old. It has been forty years, hasn't it? How could you be Young Master Hou? Are you his descendant?"
The Hou did not know how to explain it to him, or whether he would even believe it if it told him. Instead, the man pulled it inside. "He still remembered to send you back to find us. Good, very good. Then Xiu’er’s lifelong wait was not in vain."
The green-eyed zombie froze at those words. It finally found its voice. "Where is Xiu’er?"
Qin Guan led it into the estate, his back no longer as straight as it once was. "You look exactly like Young Master Hou, exactly the same..."
The green-eyed zombie saw Qin Xiu’er in the Qin Estate. That year, she was forty-nine years old. Her youthful bloom had faded, and only a trace of her former vivacity could be seen in her features.
The green-eyed zombie walked over slowly and took her hand. "Qiao’er, I’m back," it said softly to her.
She looked up, her expression merely confused. "You are...?"
As expected, she had been young when it left. Forty-one years was more than enough time for her to forget it.
"Why were you so foolish?" It reached out to touch the white hair at her temples. "Forty-one years. If I didn't come back, couldn't you have married someone else? If I never returned for a lifetime, would you have waited a lifetime?"
Qin Xiu’er looked at it in bewilderment, until her brother, Qin Guan, clarified things. "Xiu’er, this is Young Master Hou’s descendant. Young Master... Young Master Hou, forty-one years ago, my father accepted a marriage proposal from your family. Before he passed away, he left instructions for Xiu’er to wait for that Young Master Hou to return."
Qin Xiu’er then understood. "So you are from the Hou family. Brother, please annul this marriage for me."
The green-eyed zombie reached out, but only brushed the edge of her sleeve. It could not understand. Waiting in vain for forty-one years, exhausting her most beautiful years, all for the sake of a single promise.
The green-eyed zombie wandered the streets. An old man, supported by others, stopped it. "May I ask, Young Master, is your surname Hou?"
His voice was also aged and hoarse. The green-eyed zombie turned to look at him but could not remember who he was. "How do you know my surname is Hou?"
The man held onto it. "It really is Young Master Hou’s descendant. Truly... exactly the same as he was back then. It’s good that you’re back, good that you’re back..."
Without another word, he dragged the green-eyed zombie forward. "Come, Young Master, follow me home."
The green-eyed zombie then realized who he was. He led it into a baked wheaten cake shop to sit and ordered the young man who had been supporting him to bring over a cabinet from the wall.
"Young Master Hou, forty-one years ago, your elder established three businesses in Yingzhou and entrusted them to my care. It has been forty-one years! I only feared my life would not last long enough; I was terrified every day. Finally, Young Master has returned." He bent over with difficulty to place the items from the box onto the table—they were ledgers, one after another. "Young Master, please audit the accounts. These are the income and expenditure records for the three shops over the past forty-one years."
The Hou flipped through the ledgers, but it wasn't actually auditing them. "I remember Liu Er did not know how to read?"
The old man looked up at it, his face filled with an indescribable awe. "I did not know how to read, but later, fearing I would fail Young Master Hou’s trust, I specifically learned from an accountant. How did you know, Young Master?"
Those ledgers recorded every detail, no matter how small, with extreme clarity. It flipped through them silently, unable to say another word.
A gentleman values integrity; a promise is worth a thousand bars of gold. As long as I nod in agreement, I do not dare to betray that trust.
Liu Ergen passed away peacefully three days later. The green-eyed zombie personally carried his coffin. It had kept every word promised to Qiao’er etched in its heart, believing this was already a priceless devotion. Yet in the human world, Qin Hongsheng and Liu Er could give this kind of devotion to a stranger they had only met a few times.
The zombie race had drunk the blood of countless humans, but no zombie had ever truly understood this species. It remembered what Guanyin had said: *No species is born to be lonely. The reason the zombie race is forsaken by all things is only because they forsake all things.*
In truth, every sentient being has a door. If you do not open the door, how can others walk in?
When the green-eyed zombie returned to Guantian Abode, the red-eyed zombie was busy trying to invite several dragons for a drink. Unfortunately, the dragons' mouths were too large and they lacked beaks; they couldn't even take a sip from ordinary wine cups. The mouths of the wine jars were too small for them to fit their snouts inside. Since Yinglong was skilled in ingenious crafts, the red-eyed zombie begged him to create a cup specifically suited for the dragon race.
On the other side, the ancient god Yinglong was already fuming with rage. "You idiot! Can't they just pour the wine into their mouths?"
The red-eyed zombie suddenly realized the obvious.
Seeing the green-eyed zombie, Yinglong was surprised. "You didn't restore her memories?"
The green-eyed zombie shook its head. "Her lifespan in this life is very short; she doesn't have many days left. I don't want her to go through another parting. I think there are some things I need to think through. Before, she was always the one teaching me—language, writing, etiquette, benevolence, and righteousness. At first, I took it seriously, but later I found that others didn't, so I stopped taking it seriously too. But today, I discovered that there are still many people who are very serious, and have been very serious all along."
Yinglong said nothing, but Bingyi walked over from behind him. Bingyi had also returned to his divine position by now. He and Yinglong were fellow cultivators; at first, they were always fighting, and they fought ruthlessly. The two dragons often bit each other until they were covered in wounds. Later, as their beastly nature diminished, they stopped fighting as much. They simply realized that everyone they knew had either been beaten to death or chased away, leaving only each other, so they reluctantly settled into being companions.
In their spare time, they bickered and fought to relieve their loneliness.
"It’s good for you to think," Bingyi said, his temperament being gentler than Yinglong’s, who was like a hedgehog to everyone. "The world speaks of 'leaving home' to become a monk, but leaving home is merely to settle one's nature. Entering the world is the true cultivation."
Seeing the green-eyed zombie, the group of lesser zombies was overjoyed, swarming over to act spoiled and roll around. The green-eyed zombie patted each one, then coldly announced it would test their learning progress from the past century. Upon hearing this, the zombies scattered with a *whoosh*.
The green-eyed zombie watched them run away with a smile. It could guess with its toes what kind of "progress" they could have made under the leadership of the red-eyed zombie.
At that time, the nominal head of Guantian Abode was Yaoguang. He had achieved some success in his cultivation and could have become an Earth Immortal, but his ambitions did not lie in ascension. He was a leisurely person who felt that lingering between heaven and earth was quite pleasant and had no heart for seeking the ultimate Dao. Yinglong felt he lacked great ambition, but Bingyi greatly appreciated this indifferent elegance and would occasionally point out some profound Daoist techniques to him.
In the evening, the red-eyed zombie actually managed to invite over a dozen dragons to Guantian Abode for drinks, which kept Yaoguang incredibly busy—these dragons could really drink!
Dragons were born as a proud species. That they could mingle so well with the red-eyed zombie was a source of constant amazement not only to the green-eyed zombie but also to Yinglong and Bingyi. Those dozen or so dragons hadn't known this small Guantian Abode housed so many ancient high gods—and war gods at that—and were quite startled when they first arrived.
Later, seeing that these ancient gods were not fierce or malicious, they relaxed. A dragon's body was too massive; although the rooms in Guantian Abode were not small, they couldn't accommodate a dozen dragons drinking, so they all transformed into human forms.
The green-eyed zombie, Yinglong, and Bingyi naturally sat at the same table to drink. They drank until the sky was almost light. All the wine in the fishing village's shops had been bought out, and many zombies were flying off to other places to fetch more. The green-eyed zombie was not a strong drinker and didn't have much. Meanwhile, the dozen dragons had already let their tails slip out; their thick tails rhythmically tapped the ground to the sound of the tide, harmonizing with the waves from afar.
Yinglong had also drunk a bit too much. He usually drank often, but *Autumn Dew White* was a mild wine; he couldn't quite hold up against such heavy drinking of strong spirits. Bingyi had tried to stop him at first, but later, swept up in the heroic spirit of the moment, he let him drink until he was dead drunk.
Consequently, all dozen dragons were wasted, revealing their true forms and packing the room to the brim. Outside, the number of pilgrims was gradually increasing, making Yaoguang anxious. "I beg you all, close the doors! Don't let anyone see!"
But the room was too crowded; the dragons were squeezed together like potstickers. They grew unhappy, and one of the more impatient ones suddenly shot out. A dragon flew out from Guantian Abode, baring its claws and fangs, flying unsteadily through the air. Yinglong and Bingyi were both drunk; though their cultivation was high and they hadn't revealed their true forms, they were slumped over the table napping.
"A dragon!" All the pilgrims were stunned. Yaoguang pressed his hand to his forehead, Tianquan covered his eyes, and Kaiyang clutched his chest. The three brothers had been practicing for less than two hundred years; dealing with this drunken dragon would be difficult. The green-eyed zombie, however, knew that the dragon race had strict orders forbidding flying while intoxicated. These creatures had bad habits—once they got high, they tended to spit fire or water while flying.
Fearing the dragon race would be spotted, the green-eyed zombie instantly transformed into its beast form. About ten feet long, its feet treading on raging flames and radiating ten thousand streaks of golden light, it soared into the sky. It caught the drunken dragon in its mouth, rolled in the air to wrap the dragon around its body, and dove back into Guantian Abode. Yaoguang, always skilled at hoodwinking people, immediately shouted, "Ahem! The evil dragon has been subdued by the divine beast Jinmao Hou, the mount of Guanyin. All is well now; there is no need for alarm."
From then on, a rumor spread through the mortal world—that the Golden-Haired Hou, the beloved mount of Guanyin, fed on dragons...
The green-eyed zombie stayed at Guantian Abode for a while. Surprisingly, it did not scold the red-eyed zombie. Sometimes, it even envied this unaccomplished zombie. In a lifetime, one might conquer the eight directions and subdue the six realms, but in the end, how many friends would one have who could accompany them for a drink?
How many friends do you have who can drink with you?
Guantian Abode began to take in more dark races with indifferent temperaments. The green-eyed zombie hired many sorcerers to teach them, translating many scriptures into the Ghost Script, teaching them the principles of being a demon or a human. For the first time in its life, it felt it could do something for its own race.
Having calculated the date of Qiao’er’s reincarnation, it left Guantian Abode once more, following the directions from the Book of Fate. When it arrived in Mianyang, Qiao’er had just been born. Inside a small thatched hut, there was the loud cry of a baby. It hid its form and entered, seeing a woman. There wasn't even a midwife; she had suffered a hemorrhage after giving birth to Qiao’er and had fainted on the bed. Standing nearby was even a White Impermanence, waiting to hook her soul.
The green-eyed zombie knew that heavenly fate could not be defied. Once the White Impermanence had taken the soul and left, it buried the woman in the courtyard, considering it a final act of filial piety on Qiao’er’s behalf.
However, looking at the heart-wrenchingly crying Qiao’er, it was at a loss—she hadn't even had a drop of milk yet.
Raising an infant was a technical skill. The green-eyed zombie felt panicked whenever it heard her cry. It found the apples she used to love, but she just kept crying in its arms, not even glancing at them. Remembering that the food she used to cook tasted good, the green-eyed zombie found a nearby small inn and ordered some plain porridge and side dishes, intending to feed her.
But she was clearly not interested in these foods either. The green-eyed zombie was quite helpless, but the waiter serving the food was startled. "Guest, this child is so small; she can't eat these dishes."
The green-eyed zombie grabbed onto him like a literal lifesaver. "Then what should she eat?"
The waiter was a kind-hearted soul. He said nothing more and went out for a moment. When he returned, he was carrying half a bowl of warm horse milk. "Guest, I see you're a grown man, and it might be inconvenient for you to look after a child. If you picked her up on the road, it might be better to find a good family to adopt her."
Though the words were well-intentioned, the green-eyed zombie couldn't help but glare at him. *Picked up? Give her away? Truly, he has eyes but cannot recognize Mount Tai!*
Following the waiter's advice, it used a spoon to dab a bit of horse milk and carefully fed her. Seeing her slowly drink some, it finally felt relieved. From then on, it knew that human babies needed to drink milk when they were just born. But where was this milk collected from? It was full of curiosity and even tasted some, but found it neither salty nor sweet, with a mediocre flavor. It looked like water, but the color and taste were slightly different.
Sleeping together at night was even more of a hassle. Staying in a strange inn, it already preferred sleeping in a coffin, let alone on this bed. It intended to continue the journey, but little Qiao’er had already closed her eyes and was sleeping very sweetly. As before, it placed Qiao’er face-down on its chest. But she was truly too small; it was terrified that if it rolled over, it would knock her off the bed. If it put her to one side, it was even more worried about crushing her. Although it did indeed want to "press" her, it certainly wasn't that kind of pressing.
She, however, refused to be appreciative. After sleeping for a while, she woke up again and continued to wail. The green-eyed zombie had no choice but to have the waiter look for horse milk again. It gave the waiter a lot of money, and the waiter didn't find it troublesome. He went out immediately and returned not with horse milk, but with a woman. "Guest, I can't get horse milk right now. This is Sister-in-law Wu; her daughter just passed away."
Sister-in-law Wu seemed to have a natural affinity for Qiao’er. She immediately took the incessantly crying baby into her arms, unbuttoned her clothes, and began breastfeeding her. The green-eyed zombie watched the woman's chest with great suspicion until it was dragged out of the room by the waiter. It waited outside the door, still very puzzled, and asked the waiter, "So, milk can be stored inside the chest?"
The waiter nearly fell over. "Gu... Guest... haha, you must be joking. Isn't milk supposed to be stored in the chest?"
The green-eyed zombie cheered up a bit. "Then can't I also install some in my chest? That way, I won't have to trouble others in the future."
The waiter collapsed and couldn't get up...
***
| Chinese | English | Notes/Explanation |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| 郢州 | Yingzhou | A historical location/town name. |
| 秦观 | Qin Guan | Qiao'er's brother in her previous life. |
| 秦秀儿 | Qin Xiu'er | Qiao'er's name in her previous reincarnation. |
| 刘二根 | Liu Ergen | The pancake seller who remained loyal to the zombie. |
| 观天苑 | Guantian Abode | The temple/residence where the zombies and dragons stay. |
| 摇光 | Yaoguang | One of the disciples/monks at the temple. |
| 天权 | Tianquan | One of the disciples/monks at the temple. |
| 开阳 | Kaiyang | One of the disciples/monks at the temple. |
| 冰夷 | Bingyi | An ancient river god/dragon. |
| 秋露白 | Autumn Dew White | A type of traditional Chinese wine. |
| 沔阳 | Mianyang | A location name where Qiao'er is reborn. |
| 白无常 | White Impermanence | A deity in Chinese mythology who escorts souls to the underworld. |
| 殄文 | Ghost Script | Also known as Tianwen; a script used to communicate with the dead/spirits. |
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