When the sound of a terrifying scream that mixed laughter and wailing resounded once again, everyone outside immediately bowed to pray.
Binh An chuckled, once they descended to this Underworld from deep within the ground, no god from high above the sky could hear them, thus, what was the point of pleading and praying? What they did while they were alive is also what they themselves wrote down in the book of Life and Death. The ink was clear and indelible. Now it was only time to wait for the Yin Ti council to hand down decisions of their fate.
Binh An didn't waste any effort on such a futile gesture, instead remaining silent and watching each person walk through the main gates as if they were all drifting clouds, similar to all the deeds he performed, which were unfamiliar, unacquainted with, and not worth holding to.
He knew his sentencing would lie at the bottom of hell, where he would have to labor hard to pay for all the misdeeds he had committed, and subsequently redid his life, mending the wicked path he had taken. At the very least, he would be satisfied with this punishment, which was a perfect ending to his long useless days.
Finally, it was the turn of the beautiful woman who accompanied him along the Path. Binh An couldn't help but be intrigued, so he fixed his gaze on her.
In her eyes, the huge, heavy gates slowly opened to each side as the "rumbling" rattled in her heart. This woman, she had lived a life of selling her very own body and soul, at the very least, she had a roof to take cover, a warm bed to sleep in, food and drinks when she was hungry and thirsty, however, she did not have the right to be a human being, she struggled and suffered when she was young under the strict tutelage of her mentors.
When she was old enough, she realized that she had acquired all those prestigious and noble manners only to serve the filth and the corruption, that her body and mind were tainted, that her freedom to choose her own path had been taken away from her, that the rights to dream had never existed, and that the wish to be happy was far too luxurious for her. She was born as a burden, turned into a puppet as a child, and grew up to be a toy, passed through the hands of others for them to smear and play with.
Merely after spending one night gazing at the moon and having a dream about birds moving South to escape the cold, she did not hesitate to take away “the rice bowl” from the madam. As she stared at her lifeless corpse lying in a pool of blood, for the first time breaking all the rules that bind to her, she finally burst into laughter, like a crazy maniac, she had never felt more liberated than ever from these confines of flesh and blood.
That freedom, though only lasted a very short time, until she was picked up by Yin Binh, she was suddenly aware that the ground she touched was cold and the air was obscenely intoxicating, murky, and depressing. She was full of herself just a moment before, this scenario was all of her own choosing, now it was too late to turn back and undo everything, she had no chance but to move forward without looking back. She set her bare feet on the wide yellow brick floor and simply started walking.
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She was still maintaining her calm, with all the etiquette she had trained for many years, lifting her bare feet into the cold stone floor now that the gates had opened.
Standing in front of the Underworld Council, in front of the immense oppression emanating from them, the woman's face was undisturbed by anything, she had done no wrongdoing, and there was no need to lower one's head.
Binh An observed this young woman from the very beginning, still unable to take his eyes away from her, despite her lowly title, her aura was still noble and admirable.
A voice suddenly resounded, loud enough to shake the whole hall and powerful enough to shift the entire mountain.
“The person in front. Go ahead and declare your identity, age, occupation, hometown, and cause of death"
The woman raised her head and opened her crimson lips to speak.
"My name is Le Thi Mi, I'm twenty-two years old, I worked as a prostitute, I didn't know where I was born, the reason for death was because I wanted to free myself."
The woman who bluntly stated her inferior profession, without any formality, without any second embarrassment, was indeed resolute and strong.
That voice once again resounded and shook the ground.
“LOOK UP HER IDENTITY!”
Yin Ti Emperor instructed the Officials who hold her record to search for information about her life, very quickly, just a second later, one of the Officials sitting on the left side of the hall started to raise his voice and narrated.
“Le Thi Mi, age twenty-two, was born in Ha Chau, in a hut next to the Hoang River, her parents were both hired farmers who perished as a result of committing theft, their only child was taken at the age of three months and later sold it into a brothel. She spent her childhood and getting her education there before passing away in her private room from a scissors wound in the stomach. Is it correct?”
The woman, who had up to this point maintained her composure, yelled angrily.
“Wait! What did you just say? What does it mean to say that my parents committed theft and were murdered?"
The woman from a young age was raised without any knowledge of her very origin, by the time she acknowledged her surroundings, she was already the adopted daughter of madam, with the responsibility of growing up to be a dignified prostitute and earning a lot of money, she knew how lowly her status is in the society, however, she always imagined her parents as decent yet mistreated people, who had no chance of feeding her, they could criticize her as much as they want, but they could not taint her parent’s reputation, now, she couldn't help but felt provoked and offended.
The council took no surprise by her impulsive attitude, they calmly said.
"Because they couldn't afford to purchase back their stolen possession, your parents were obliged to take it out by force, the two sides clashed, and both of them perished at the site."
The woman was shocked and kept on yelling in panic.
“So where are my parents now? Have they reincarnated yet?”