Fire Beneath the Bridge
The yellow eyes on the bridge pillars multiplied, twinkling like venomous meteors. Yi Bao leapt onto Lin Xiu's shoulder:
<
The vagrants gathered behind the old man, their faces pale in the dim firelight.
But Lin Xiu didn't run. Instead, he sat before the fire and began to remove his worn-out shoes.
"If they want to eat our dreams... let's give them a feast they'll never forget!"
He tossed one shoe into the fire. A stench of burning rubber filled the air—but strangely, the flames turned a bluish-green, forming shifting images: a castle in the clouds, a paper dragon circling it.
The old man's eyes widened: "That... that's my childhood dream!"
The bridge ghosts paused. The yellow eyes stared eagerly at the pictures.
Yi Bao whispered: <
Lin Xiu pulled a dirty cloth from his pocket—a meat wrap from the Tianfu Market—and threw it into the azure fire.
"Here! The dream of a man who wanted to become a chef!"
The images changed: massive pots boiling clouds, pickled stars hanging from ropes.
Suddenly, one ghost—a hazy mass with yellow eyes—drifted from a pillar and moved closer. A voice like dry autumn leaves rustling emerged:
<
"Fried Desire" Tavern
Two hours later, the vagrants and the ghosts were sitting together beneath the bridge. The blue fire had become a stove. Over it, a giant pot boiled with Dream Broth.
Ingredients:
The old man's memories of the sea (blue ice flakes)
A young vagrant girl's longing for a red dress (crimson threads)
Lin Xiu's mad laughter (black bubbles popping with "pop!")
The ghosts tasted the soup with unseen hands. With each sip, their misty bodies gained faint color, and their yellow eyes turned into warm brown.
<
<
Yi Bao sat on a stone, polishing the Tian'gu Seal on his chest with a cloth.
<
Lin Xiu stirred the broth with his broken broomstick.
"True madness is seeing a hungry soul... and offering it a sermon instead of food."
Suddenly, a strange wind swept under the bridge—carrying the scent of lilies and copper. The ghosts trembled and vanished. The vagrants fell asleep instantly, as if spellbound.
At the edge of the fire, a tall shadow appeared—its source unseen.
<
Main Course – Stolen Memories
They followed the scent along the riverbank until they reached a floating wooden building. No windows, only an arched door etched with plates and cups swallowing hands. A faded sign read in ancient script:
"Fried Desire Tavern — You feel full, but lose much more."
Inside was a single hall with cold marble tables. In one corner, a fat man wearing a stained apron carved translucent meats on a slab.
"Welcome, hungry souls! Today's special: Bitter Memory Liver in Nostalgia Sauce!"
At the center table sat Yue Yan.
But she wasn't in her icy robes—she wore a simple cotton dress, her hair loose over her shoulders. Before her, a dessert shaped like a phoenix sat untouched. Her eyes stared into emptiness, as if a part of her were missing.
<
Lin Xiu approached. She didn't attack him. Even when he sat across from her, she didn't look up—only whispered:
"Where... where did I leave my sword?"
Her voice was weak, like a lost child's.
The fat chef laughed: "The lady had our specialty: 'Frost Nirvana'. Erases everything painful... but sometimes takes other things too!"
Yi Bao leapt onto the table: <
"Her memory of the first assassins her clan sent. Children... they were just children."
Suddenly, Yue Yan lifted her head. Her eyes flared with icy sparks.
"Children? No... I only kill the guilty." But her voice trembled.
Lin Xiu held her hand—it was cold as a corpse.
"Memories are like ghosts. Banish them, and they'll rebel."
The Secret Kitchen
The chef rang a bell on the table. "Time's up! Either you order or leave!"
Four silent servants emerged from the shadows, wearing black aprons and blindfolds.
Lin Xiu stood:
"I want a plate of 'Fried Wisdom'!"
The chef blinked: "That dish requires a special payment: the memory of your birthplace!"
"Perfect! I don't remember where I was born anyway."
The servants led him to the back kitchen. It had no ordinary cooking tools, only:
Glass pots holding tiny snowstorms
Knives made of condensed darkness slicing the air silently
A stove with black flames that devoured light
The chef raised a shadowy knife: "Now focus on your birth memory..."
But Lin Xiu turned his back and began singing a loud public bathhouse tune:
> "Oh dirty bathwater,
You cleanse the filth from flesh but not from hearts
This divine debauchery..."
The chef shuddered. The black flames rose like a wounded beast.
"Stop! You're polluting my qi!"
"I'm refining it! All culinary arts need chaos!" Lin Xiu tossed a rusty spoon he found on the floor into the flames.
The stove exploded.
The Bloody Ice Dagger
Amid the chaos, a wall crumbled, revealing a secret room. Dozens of floating glass vials drifted inside, each containing:
A shimmering memory like a glowing butterfly
A gelatinous image of its owner
On a high shelf sat a special vial: inside, a tiny frost phoenix flapped its wings slowly. Beneath it, a label: "Yue Yan — Cleansing Memory."
Yi Bao shrieked: <
Suddenly, Yue Yan appeared in the doorway—an ice dagger in her hand that hadn't been there before. Her eyes were a blizzard:
"Lin Xiu! You... where am I?"
Then she saw the vial. The memory inside pulsed blue.
The chef appeared behind her, his face twisted in fury:
"Don't touch that! That memory was paid for!"
But Yue Yan was faster. She leapt and shattered the vial with her dagger!
The tiny frost phoenix was freed, flying straight into Yue Yan's chest. A thick blue mist enveloped her.
When it cleared, she stood transformed. Her eyes were not only icy—but held deep sorrow. The ice dagger in her hand dripped black blood. The chef lay on the floor, dagger through his heart.
She looked at Lin Xiu, frozen tears on her cheeks:
"I remember now... I killed them. The children of Moon Mountain Village. Because they saw Zuo Lan slaughter my frost phoenix mother..."
Shadow of Three Horns
Yi Bao cried out: <
On the ground, Yue Yan's shadow was no longer just a frozen beast. Now, three demonic horns had begun to grow from its head, and a cracked tail writhed behind it.
Yue Yan raised the bloody dagger toward Lin Xiu, but her hand trembled:
"I didn't want to... but he said cleansing requires sacrifice. Zuo Lan... my adoptive father..."
Lin Xiu stepped forward, ignoring the dagger:
"True parenthood doesn't ask children to butcher their dreams."
He reached out and touched her cold forehead.
Suddenly, the celestial seal on Yi Bao's chest glowed. Yue Yan's monstrous shadow quivered and screamed in an inhuman voice:
<
Yue Yan collapsed to her knees, clutching her head:
"What is that voice? It's... inside me!"
Lin Xiu looked at the shadow:
"I don't think Zuo Lan just adopted you... he implanted something in you."
Yi Bao jumped toward the shadow: <
The shadow began to stretch, trying to devour Yue Yan.
A Mad Meal for the Demon
Lin Xiu looked around and spotted a half-eaten dish on a nearby table—the remnants of the "Frost Nirvana" dessert.
"Yi Bao! The flute!"
The monkey blew into the flute (which he'd secretly repaired with magic during their escape). A sharp, jarring note rang out—but Lin Xiu didn't aim it at the shadow.
Instead, he directed the sound at the plate of stolen memory. The remnants on the plate rose into the air like small clouds. Lin Xiu grabbed them in his hand and hurled them into the growing shadow!
"Taste this—leftovers of forgetting!"
The shadow froze. The demonic voices shifted into screams of confusion:
<
The stolen memories were corrupting its essence.
Yue Yan seized the moment. She drove the ice dagger into the shadow of her own heart!
A terrible scream shook the tavern. The shadow shrank like a punctured balloon, then collapsed into Yue Yan's body like black smoke.
She fell unconscious to the ground. The ice dagger melted into a single drop of water on her chest.
Lin Xiu picked her up while Yi Bao rummaged through the tavern.
<
The walls began to melt like sugar in water. Outside, the vagrants awoke one by one, crying out the names of loved ones they had forgotten.
Yi Bao leapt toward the shelf of memories. Among the floating vials, he found a small bottle containing an image of Lin Xiu as a child, sitting in an abandoned temple, playing with a broom larger than himself.
<
But before he could catch it, the vial slipped and shattered. The memory escaped into the air.
Lin Xiu looked at the empty space where it had been:
"My birth memory? No matter... every day is a new birth."
They walked out carrying Yue Yan, while the tavern melted into the river behind them, leaving only the scent of lilies and brass... and the distant sound of children weeping.