Deadlift Bridge over the Sanzu River

Introduction. Sanzu River

A pleasant voice, taking for the soul, gently persuaded and prophesied:

"The Sanzu River has overflowed! The grief of the people has caused the Sanzu River to become full-flowing and seething. You who are reading this now, try not to hurt those who are nearby for the next ninety days, for no one is eternal, and you do not know what fate has prepared for you .
May the sun be above your head, and become the sun for someone at least once in these ninety days, or better yet, be the sun every day and may the road across the Sanzu River pass you by in the near future! "
The IT department of the waterfront across the Sanzu River broadcast this text every ninety minutes. The voice penetrated into the hidden depths of everyone who heard these words. The text was inaudible for the deaf at heart, those who were open to the world received this message in the form of sounds of nature. It was raining, the wind was blowing, the fog was dropping, the sea was noisy.
 The IT staff at the Sanzu Riverfront had many ways to convey information to those who could hear without creating too much hype.
The Sanzu River really overflowed and the waterfront attendants were knocked off their feet to prevent flooding.
There were wars on earth, and this year they were especially bloody. The pain and tears of people poured into the river, and the river obediently accepted the suffering of people.
There have been wars on earth in all ages, but with the development of science and technology, the art of war has also developed to destroy entire nations.
Ghosts, apparitions, gods, heroes, villains, all those Sanzu Riverfront attendants were in turmoil right now. The waters of the river were steadily filling up and rising higher and higher! A catastrophe could happen if the main war, which claimed one human life after another, did not stop.

Chapter first. Sanzu riverfront

According to Buddhist philosophy, the human soul experiences rebirth until it has passed its entire path.
Before continuing my story, I want to tell you a little about the Sanzu River. The Sanzu River served those who died and went to a better world. There were three ways to cross the Sanzu River: by bridge, ford, or swim across it. People who crossed the river on the bridge in comfort and tranquility were very worthy people during their lifetime. Those who forded across the river, uniformly throughout their lives, sinned and did good deeds. I want to dwell in more detail on those who were forced to swim across the Sanzu River. Those who were forced to be transported to the next world in this way were sinners. These people committed such bad deeds during their lifetime that now they had to pay for their sins. All the wealth that they accumulated during their lifetime remained there, in the real world, but here, near the crossing, the soul of such a person was in huge stains of sin that could not be washed away or erased by anything. Sinners went swimming, but the waters of the Sanzu River are a dangerous place. The waters of the river boiled and rolled menacingly. However, this was not the danger that met the sinners who sailed. Something more terrible was waiting for them in the water. The waters of the river were teeming with ferocious dragons. The dragons had teeth like sharpened daggers, and their breath burned like hot steam. No matter how hard the sinner tries, how fast he swims, he could not avoid meeting the dragon. Those sinners who were overtaken by the dragon were doomed. The dragon wrapped its tail around its victim, and dragged it to the bottom with it. There, at the bottom of the Sanzu River, there were caves where dragons lived. So, the dragon took his prey and, together with it, sank to the bottom of the Sanzu River. Maybe you think that the sinner, having sank down with the dragon to the bottom of the river, was dying?
 No.
We have already agreed that this earthly life is fleeting, and the soul lives, undergoing one after another rebirth, until all rebirths are over. As soon as the dragon took with him a living soul, which still had the form of a human body to the bottom of the river, the soul began to take on its own form. Here, at the bottom of the river, it no longer made sense for the human soul to pretend, only here the sins of a person were exposed. The dragon carried the soul with him. The dragon caves were a dark place. The dragons did not need to see, their vision in the dark was replaced by their five senses. So, here, in complete darkness, the dragon punished the soul of the sinner minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day. The unfortunate soul screamed and strained, but no one was in a hurry to run to her aid. The dragon tore off piece by piece from the soul with its teeth. The torture was sophisticated and varied. So, the dragon burned the unfortunate soul with steam, tore off pieces after pieces, slashed with claws sharp as daggers. However, every day the sinner had exactly nine minutes to take a breath and remember why he ended up in this hell. If sinners who sin during their lifetime knew, felt and believed what happens to such souls after death, they would probably be corrected during their lifetime and begin to live differently.
But this rarely happens!
 The nature of man is such that he does not listen to other people's advice, he prefers to go through his sinful path himself and sin again and again.
Especially notthe dragons saw those people who mocked the weak during their lifetime.
Sinners who abused children, defenseless women and the elderly were especially punished by dragons.
The dragons could not be fooled. They easily read all the sins and vile deeds from the souls.
However, sometimes sinners managed to escape punishment. Such a person could swim across the river, but when he reached the other side, he, however, like all souls, lost his memory and tumbled into the ranks of the staff of the Sanzu River. However, these were isolated cases. I will deal with such people in more detail in the next chapter. The sinners who swam across the Sanzu River and managed to escape the dragon's teeth were marked with the spot of the god. However, in the memory of the manager of the Sanzu River Embankment, there were only two such cases during his entire time at this place.

Chapter two. Sanzu River Customs Post

As I said in the introduction, in order for the Sanzu River crossings to work smoothly and smoothly, the Sanzu Riverfront had a large maintenance staff, even its own IT department. There is a small theme park on the approaches to the Sanzu River embankment. A person who came to such a park could see all nine circles of hell that a sinner goes through. However, since the park was Asian, the circles of hell were made with an eye to the east.
The IT department is located on the territory of the park, in the main administrative building. The main function of the IT department was small announcements, which sounded with a certain frequency under the arches of the park. These announcements were heard by all visitors. Unlike those announcements that were disguised as the noise of nature and which were heard only by people tuned in to this wave, the announcements that sounded under the arches of the park were heard by everyone. The park staff, like the rest of the staff at the Sanzu Riverfront, had a clear purpose. Their task was to convey to the guests who came to the park the main idea:
"Do not sin, and your life now and after death will be beautiful"
That is, in this park it was clearly shown what awaits a person after death, depending on what lifestyle he led during his lifetime. Of course, there were ordinary carousels in the park, various themed quests, you could even celebrate your birthday here, but I have already voiced the main theme and idea of this park to you. Terrifying figures are located throughout the park. There was a special pavilion where one could see what happens to a person after death if he caused pain to others during his lifetime. However, such parks were not new. Many countries in Asia have such parks: in Thailand, China, Korea, Japan and so on. However, the park near the riverfront of the Sanzu River was certainly special and I will return to this park in the pages of our history from time to time.
Of course, ordinary people did not even suspect that the beautiful embankment, which could be accessed directly from the park, was the Sanzu River embankment. However, people saw before them an ordinary river. However, ordinary human eyes could not see the afterlife bridge. The bridge for people is located a little further. I want to clarify, the human river was not wide and not very deep, except for the bridge, it was possible to cross this river on small river buses made in the shape of a dragon, or on a cable car in the cabin of the trailer. Now you know about as much about the Sanzu River Park as I do now. My brain, the brain of the author of this book, will learn what I do not know now, in the process of writing the book with you.
I wrote it rather confusingly, but I will not correct it.
We pass to the customs post.
The dead man, who found himself in front of the palace of the customs post, did not know what was ahead of him. The man, of course, did not know how he would cross the Sanzu River, wade, swim, or cross the bridge. There was also a fourth way to cross the Sanzu River. For people who crossed the river in this way, a special boat with a carrier was prepared. In European mythology, the carrier Charon transported dead people across the river Styx. Here, on the Sanzu River, there was also such a service, but it was provided to special people.
However, we will talk about these people later, now my task is to give you a complete picture and tell you about the customs post of the Sanzu River embankment, about the theme park, and also tell a little about the manager, who had a huge responsibility for the smooth operation of the Sanzu River customs post.
The manager was a man, but he was, as you understand, a special man. Firstly, this person had to have good organizational skills, he had to get along well with both the world of the living and the other world. I have already said that he had a huge team under his command. Apart from the manager, there was not a single living person here, but ghosts, villains, heroes - all who were people during their lifetime, being here all twenty-four hours a day side by side, sometimes quarreled with each other. However, there is nothing special about this, because these creatures were once people, and even turning into undead, they still had some qualities of people, some microscopic particles of memories of their past. That is, among themselves, they behaved simply like a team of people who were forced to meet every day and perform certain functions. The manager had a huge responsibility, however, I have already said this. Among other things, the manager had to deal with living people. Every day he signed some documents, very often he had to go to official offices and so on, he kept financial records for the theme park, paid taxes, etc. . The manager has already written reports to his superiors many times that he needs an assistant, and preferably even two, from among living people, but so far there has been no response to his reports.
So, back to the customs post, or rather, to the customs palace. The customs palace was divided into sectors. There was a bathhouse where the dead people, if desired, could wash themselves and be cleansed of minor sins, there was a hotel where the deceased person could rest before setting off on his last journey, but this was not necessary. Some dead people went to the customs post immediately, and some needed time to think and rest. Well, and, of course, the main hall here was the customs post.
To make the transition easy, male customs officers appeared before the women, and, accordingly, beautiful girls appeared before the men - customs officers of the underworld. As you understand, passports were not needed here, the deceased were asked to put their hand to the glass separating the customs officer from the one who was ready to cross over to the other side now. People put their palms on, and the customs officer read the full information about his life from the palm of a person with a scanner. Immediately, information from the scanner entered the afterlife computer, and a ticket was issued to the person. According to this coupon, he went to the transition that was indicated on the coupon. Sometimes a deceased person had to wait in line and listen carefully to the announcements that sounded under the vaults of the customs palace. If a person was distracted and for some reason did not hear that his turn had come up, then the manager of the hall would approach him. This year, as the war raged on earth, and the coronavirus epidemic continued, people who died had to wait a long time for their turn. Here, in the customs palace, time certainly did not have such power as in the outside world, but still, those who died still had a clear idea of time. The built-in clock, which was supposed to stop after death, in some people was still ticking and counting the time, and therefore, if you had to wait a long time, people began to get nervous and turn to the ash managers. If a person began to get nervous, then he was sent to the rest room. There, a person could watch a movie, listen to music, or even play computer games. The computer of the afterlife already knew all his preferences in advance, since by attaching a scanner to a person’s hand, the customs officer gave the computer access to every piece of the deceased’s memories. As a result of this, people now could listen to exactly the music that they loved during their lifetime, watch all the films that they wanted to watch for a long time and even, as I said, play their favorite computer games. When the turn of this man approached, he, rested, appeared where the stewards were waiting for him to see him on his last journey. The stewards treated all people equally, it did not matter to them who was in front of them - a sinner or a saint. The administrators did not now have the task of dividing people into good and bad. This will be handled by other officials who have been waiting for people at the end of each crossing. The customs hall stewards, as I have already said, treated all people equally, even, I can clarify, they treated people with a certain tenderness, caution and compassion. Because the person who found himself here, in the customs hall, was still full of memories, pain and anxieties. And the task of the administrators of the customs hall was to ensure that people reached their crossing without losses and tears.
So, the person safely passed from the customs hall to his transition. Well, it's kind of like at the airport, when people go through the passages to the plane. If we follow this analogy, then at certain transition points, employees in uniform were waiting for the deceased people and supervised the whole way from point A to point B.
In general, here, in the customs hall, order reigned.
It could not have been otherwise. The people who found themselves in this place were still full of rebellious thoughts, memories, pain, fear, and the task of the manager of the hall was to lead these people to where they were already expected.
And so the man approached the goal for which he was prepared from the very moment he entered the customs palace.
The man was met by an old man and an old woman. These two, for many centuries, performed the same functions and were quite stubborn.
The manager spoke to them many times and asked them to keep up with the times, but the old man and the old woman did not want to change, and in front of the frightened mantavali in its centuries-old form.
The old woman took off the man's shirt, the old man hung this shirt on a scale tree to measure the man's sins and decide exactly how he would cross the Sanzu River, in accordance with his sins.

Chapter three. Incident at the Sanzu River Customs Post

The morning started with trouble. When the manager entered his office, he saw that his computer had burned down. This has happened over and over again. As soon as they began to get angry up there in the sky-high realms, the manager's computer turned out to be charred. The lightning that struck the computer burned it over and over again. The manager was philosophical about such blows. Of course, the first time it happened and he didn't have time to save important information, he was damn hurt. But then he began to save all the information that had accumulated during the day on a flash drive, and every evening he disconnected the flash drive from the computer. Of course, this was a rather troublesome business, but there was no other way out. The manager never knew at what point thunder and lightning would turn his computer into a piece of burnt plastic. The burnt computer was a signal that something was wrong in his afterlife kingdom and the authorities were angry. Each time the computer was struck by lightning, the manager called the warehouse manager and the computer was replaced. However, while the computer was being changed, the manager, of course, did not sit still. As I said, the lightning strike was a signal that something was wrong on the Sanzu River embankment. Workers and maintenance personnel also perfectly understood what a lightning strike on the manager's computer meant. And so now, when the manager went on an inspection, each of the workers was especially attentive and careful. The steward walked around his entire afterlife kingdom in three hours, but to his surprise, there was nothing to complain about. Everything was in perfect order. Sitting on a bench and immersed in thoughts, the manager nevertheless did not forget to watch those around him. Something was wrong. The lightning that hit the computer was so strong that it also burned down the manager's desk. And this was a signal that the top was angry in earnest. Not that the manager was afraid, he knew that he was an indispensable person for this job, but still he was unpleasant. And anxious. The manager did not know where to go and where to look for that person, or rather, not a person, but a ghost, because of which his computer and table were damaged. However, he did not have to wait long. The watch he had on his hand started beeping. The manager took out his phone. That's right, a message came to the phone. The underworld computer pretty quickly figured out the one who was causing the Sanzu Riverfront Underworld Realm to be on their toes right now. The manager read the message and clutched his head. Everything was very bad. The service staff of the kingdom, as I said, consisted of former people who used to live on this land. On what basis the supreme authorities chose who would serve in the kingdom, and who should go to where the rebirth takes place, the manager did not know, and he did not care. He worked with those who were provided to him by the supreme authorities and easily found a common language with everyone. In general, I will not pull the cat by the tail, but I will explain what happened. One of the customs hall workers, a man, suddenly regained his memories when he saw a woman walking through customs. The woman had once been his lover. You can't say she was a bad person, but she wasn't particularly good either. However, I must have given this woman the wrong description. The woman was a bad person, she was very bad. During her lifetime, many people died because of her. I will not go into details now, but I will only say that the customs officer who suddenly regained his memory also died because of this woman. However, his death was unintentional. That evening, he was not the target of this woman, but it turned out that it was she who killed him. When the woman realized what she had done, she screamed and cried, and tried to bring her lover back to life, but the man died. And now he suddenly recognized this woman. And not only learned, but immediately remembered everything. I even remembered that this woman did not kill him on purpose. He remembered her screams and tears, at the moment when she realized that she was left alone. All these thoughts, memories, grief of loss - all this flashed quickly through the man's head and he instantly made a decision. The ghost man understood what lay ahead for this woman. She was terrified. Probably, a dragon is already circling in the waters of the Sanzu River, which was awakened from a short sleep by the signal of the afterlife computer. The dragon was already ready to capture the sinner and take her to his cave. However, the dragon did not wait for its prey, because the male ghost made a decision and immediately brought it to life. The customs officer changed the ticket. It was almost impossible, and yet the operation could be done. And now the manager was forced to correct what the ghost customs officer had done. The customs officer has not yet been punished. It was the height of the working day. There was no one to replace the customs officer. The dragon was sent back to sleep. And the woman, however, the decision on the woman, which the manager made, I will announce in the next chapter. Everything was calm in the customs hall, everyone tried to control himself so as not to create disorder, but whispers flew and stung the guilty customs officer like bees. The man knew that he would be punished and punished very seriously. However, he didn’t care much now, he thought about the woman and realized that he had only made her worse. And, there was something worse than torture in an underwater cave, but now I will not talk about it. A decision had to be made quickly. The manager was forced to apologize to the woman. He explained to her that there was an overlay, the computer issued the wrong ticket. The woman was escorted to the hotel and even allocated a suite. Of course, the manager was not to blame for the situation, but the man knew that he was responsible for everyone here, and if something out of the ordinary happened, then it was he, the manager, who overlooked it.

Chapter Four

FIRST LOOP
I ended the last chapter on the fact that the customs officer, who wanted to help his wife, realized that he had only made things worse. Now, when everything was revealed, he realized that his idea was doomed to failure from the very beginning. But, unfortunately, he realized it only now. From the moment he saw his wife walking through the customs hall and suddenly remembered everything, he stopped being aware of what he was doing. Emotions, ordinary human emotions, suddenly overwhelmed him and confused all thoughts. Now the customs officer smiled learnedly at those who stood on the other side of the customs booth and mechanically performed their duties. Glancing at his watch, he saw that his shift was coming to an end. The customs officer took off his uniform and changed into casual clothes. Before leaving his workplace, he smoothed out the crease in his jacket and, with regret, thought that he would probably never wear these clothes again.
After that, he gave up his place to the shift and left the customs palace. The customs officer expected that he would immediately be picked up by white hands and taken to the manager's office, but nothing of the kind happened. He hesitated a little, and then opened the door of the customs palace and went outside. His path lay in the direction of the park. The sun was setting and the Sanzu River was beautifully lit. Of course, you understand that the people who walked along the human river did not see the customs officer, but he saw them. Of course, he did not see them as people see each other, he saw only the souls of these people. But, since these were the souls of living people, and the path of these people had not yet been completed, the customs officer could not distinguish who, after death, would go over the bridge, and who would try to swim across the Sanzu River. Near the IT department, which, as I said, was in the park, there was a small area that people did not go into. It’s not that there was a fence or some kind of fence, it’s just that people subconsciously understood that they weren’t allowed to go there. This was the territory for ghosts. After a hard day's work, the ghosts could rest in this area. There was a garden, and this place was a favorite resting place for those who worked a whole shift. The garden was fragrant, flowering plants from all over the world were collected here. Some plants have a calming effect. Since the ghosts, as I said, sometimes behaved quite emotionally, this garden was invented precisely so that they could rest here. A visit to this garden could be equated with a session of psychotherapy. But the ghosts weren't human, and a therapist wouldn't have helped them.
There were several cafes in the garden where you could get a light snack, as well as coffee. As you understand, the ghosts did not need all this, and yet they needed it. The ghostly coffee with the ghostly croissant was as soothing as the ghostly music that blared from the loudspeakers that were located at the four corners of the garden.
A camellia blossomed on the western corner of the garden, the customs officer sat on a bench near a flowering bush and simply tried to immerse himself in the aroma of the departing evening, but he did not succeed. After sitting on a bench for about two hours, he went to where singing fountains beckoned with ghostly happiness. But today it was quite crowded here, and the customs officer could not be near a large crowd of people. Too much energy came from people, the waves of this energy crossed and were carried away into the sky, but part of the energy still settled on the ground. Each ghost treated human energy in its own way, but our hero began to have a headache at the moment when he accidentally fell into the epicenter of the intersection of human energies.
But this problem was easily solved, the customs officer simply moved away from people and his headache gradually disappeared. The sun had set, and the Sanzu River's embankment was gradually deserted. Sighing, the customs officer slowly wandered to the place where he spent his nights. I specifically marked the rest with the words spent the night, because the ghosts do not sleep.
But they, like all living things and do not liveWhoever on earth needed a rest. The park was surrounded by a ring of small houses, and it was in these houses that the staff of the Sanzu River spent all their nights and rare weekends. The customs officer entered his house and mechanically wanted to turn on the light, but then he remembered that he had not been a man for a long time and he did not need the light. However, there was a light in the house and, if desired, it could even be turned on. The ceiling chandelier and the lights on either side of the bed were as ghostly as coffee and a croissant in a haunted caf;. But for the customs officer, the lamps were real. If he wanted to, he could turn them on, but he didn't want to. Sitting on the bed, the customs officer thought, he did not understand why the manager was slow and did not call him to the disciplinary commission. The ghost man thought that the expectation of punishment was harder than the punishment itself. He would rather get his punishment and disappear. Because the customs officer understood that his offense was so serious and disgusting that he would not be forgiven.
However, when morning came, the customs officer realized that for some reason the punishment was being postponed today, because he received numbers on his phone. These numbers indicated the number of the customs post where he would work today, and the exact time by which he should start work. The customs officer had another hour before work. The ghost man decided to use this hour to find the manager and talk to him. However, the grand lady manager did not let the customs officer into the manager's office. She simply advised the customs officer to go and mind his own business. But the male ghost was not going to give up so easily, he told the grand lady that he would not budge until the manager spoke to him. The grand lady had to enter into a dialogue with a male ghost, she didn’t like it terribly, but there was no way out. Apparently, the customs officer really won't budge until the manager talks to him.
The lady steward insisted on her own, the customs officer was also not going to give in. The lady in charge was flustered. We have already talked about the fact that sometimes the ghosts working on the Sanzu River embankment were overwhelmed with emotions. Emotions were like greetings from that life, where the ghosts, being people, left. The lady manager during her lifetime was the secretary of the president of one company, which is why, when the question arose that the manager needed a secretary, the choice fell on the lady manager. Those who gave instructions to the manager did not like such obvious decisions. Usually ghosts worked in positions completely opposite to those they occupied in life, but the case of the lady manager was special, and therefore it was she who was now working as an assistant to the manager. And yet her appointment was wrong. It was more logical to give her a job that was not as responsible and nervous as it is now. However, there was nothing more to be done. The appointment, which was given by those who controlled the manager, could not be changed. So, the manager lady began to get nervous, for some reason she began to leaf through the calendar, and toss the sheets of the calendar back and forth. The customs officer followed the work of the lady's fingers with his eyes and suddenly realized that the woman, leafing through the sheets of the calendar, stubbornly stops at the same date. Having made a note on this sheet of the calendar, the lady manager looked up at the customs officer.
"Very well," she said, "the manager will see you the day after tomorrow." It will be July 9th. Will it suit you if you meet him at 9 am?
- Excuse me, - the customs officer rubbed his eyes, - you are confusing something. The ninth of July was yesterday.
“I don’t confuse anything,” the grand lady again began to show too much emotion, “today, the seventh of July, tomorrow the eighth, and naturally, the day after tomorrow is the ninth.
“But,” the customs officer tried to interrupt the lady, “probably you are looking in the wrong direction. Do you have an old calendar?
- Sir, how are you, - the woman checked the list, - here, I found it. Sir, 199B, have you changed your mind about meeting with the manager? So tell me, and do not fool me.
The calendar is new, the date is accurate, and my nerves are not iron! Today is the seventh, the day after tomorrow the ninth. And point. And this is non-negotiable. Are you clear?
-Yes, - the customs officer was forced to agree.
“In that case,” the lady sighed, “why are you still here?” Come the day after tomorrow.

SECOND LOOP
The day when the customs officer again took up his post was a mirror image of the previous one. The man could have sworn that yesterday he had already issued coupons to those people who were now walking one by one. Having received their ticket, people checked the numbers on the scoreboard and moved on. Time moved towards noon. The customs officer remembered that yesterday afternoon, at 12:45 to be exact, he saw his ex-wife walking towards his customs post. There were 15 minutes left until X-hour and now the man was very nervous. He convinced himself that his memory was somehow misleading him. What he remembered now probably just didn't happen. Yesterday was a big holiday. A large number of vacationers have accumulated on the embankment of the Sanzu River and, probably, the energy that came from these people had a negative effect on the customs officer, and therefore, it now seemed to him that yesterdayIndeed, something out of the ordinary has happened. The man looked at his watch again and took a breath, it was 12:45 on the clock. However, it turned out that the joy of the customs officer was premature. Looking up from his watch, he saw a woman standing on the other side of his customs booth. When the eyes of the customs officer and his wife met, the man saw her eyes widen. And yet the situation was a little different, not the same as yesterday. Yes, in front of the customs officer was his ex-wife. Yes, the customs officer recognized her, but only yesterday he recognized her, and she never recognized him. Now the man saw that the woman standing behind the glass of the customs booth perfectly understands who exactly should give her a ticket. Maybe due to the fact that almost the same thing happened yesterday or for some other reason, but the man did not react so sharply to the situation today. Of course he recognized his wife! Feelings flooded over him and almost crushed him like an avalanche, but this time the customs officer quickly came to his senses. As I said, he was in great pain, but he managed to restrain himself and pretended not to recognize the woman. He placed the coupon in the glass chute and pushed it. However, the woman apparently was not going to take a coupon, she just stood and looked at the customs officer. The man held on with all his might, it even seemed to him that a little more tears would flow from his eyes. Although, of course, this could not happen, because ghosts do not cry. The customs officer lowered his head, hoping that by the time he raised it again, this woman would have already taken her ticket and gone to where she was expected. However, time passed, and the woman was not going to budge. A line gradually formed behind the woman. The customs officer couldn't do anything. According to the rules of the customs palace, he had no right to contact those who came for the ticket. The only thing he could do was repeat the same words over and over. To those who approached his post, the customs officer offered to put his hand to the glass of the customs booth.
The customs officer knew the character of his wife, her character was like a time bomb. As it turned out, the woman's silence was only the calm before the storm. Suddenly, the woman came out of her stupor and started banging her fist on the glass separating her from the customs officer and shouting something.
Everything happened at the customs post. I have already said that those who came here were still full of all sorts of emotions, such as anger, joy, pain.
That is why the glass separating the customs officer from everyone who stood outside the customs booth was bulletproof. Also, for security reasons, the customs officers did not hear what people were saying to them. That is, the voice of the customs officer, coming from the amplifier, people heard, but there was no return answer. Sometimes it was very inconvenient. Here, in the customs palace, people of different ages came. Sometimes, if a person died very old, he might not even hear the voice of the customs officer coming from the amplifier. In principle, once in the customs palace, the deceased person should have already heard and seen everything as young, because the memory of the past should have already left him, but, as I have said several times, this did not always happen. And, therefore, because of the habits that did not want to let people go, it seemed to people that they still did not see and hear well. Although, once in the customs palace, everything in these people should have already changed. I repeat, sometimes people did not hear what the customs officer was saying to them and asked again, but the customs officer could not hear in response what people were saying and it was very inconvenient. The only thing he could do was to repeat the same text over and over again that people need to put their palm on the glass. So, back to the man's ex-wife. Suddenly going off the rails, the woman began banging her fist on the glass and screaming something. The people who were standing behind her moved away in fright. However, this did not last long, several people ran to the customs officer's booth. Excuse me, I made a slip of the tongue again, of course, it was not people who were running, it was ghosts, that is, those who were guarding the customs post. But I think you won't mind if I call them people in some cases. So, the guards in the amount of four people ran to the booth, where the customs officer was sitting in a daze. The ghost man didn't know what to do. All his thoughts and feelings were now with this woman. Even in death, she remained as passionate and unbridled as before, as in life. Finally, the guards reached the customs post. The head of security went into the customs booth, his subordinates began to persuade the woman, and then took her away. The frightened people who had previously stood behind the woman were taken to another customs post. The head of security was very unhappy. He did not even listen to the objections of the customs officer's man. Soon it was quiet again in the customs booth. Like yesterday, the customs officer was again threatened by a disciplinary commission.
The situation was different, and the outcome was expected to be the same.

THIRD LOOP
Needless to say, when early in the morning our hero, the customs officer, glanced at the calendar, the ninth day was on the calendar. The customs officer did not forget anything, the previous two days, with their time loops, fit perfectly in his head, with the fact that today is still the ninth day. Of course, the man was just a ghost who worked as an employee for the supreme deity, who in turn oversaw the customs palace and the passage of the dead across the Sanzu River, but the customs officer did not believe in coincidences. Of course, he understood that the current situation with his work in the customs palace did not fit into the system of the universe and his ideas about the laws of the surrounding world. However, I want to tell you that his work in the customs palace was strictly regulated and obeyed the laws, which every Monday the manager announced over and over again at the planning meeting. Those who worked in the customs palace did not work for nothing. Each year their work was read out and entered into a common computer. Everyone who worked here had their reasons. Someone wanted to clear karma, someone wanted to interrupt the wave of rebirths, and someone wanted to be born in the next life in the image that he himself invented. To fulfill their desire, each ghost had to work in the customs palace, as you understand, a certain amount of time. For the fulfillment of each desire there was a time limit. So we have already found out that our customs officer was a realist and did not believe in miracles. And now he was faced with a dilemma, he had to understand what he was doing wrong, and find the path that would satisfy the supreme deity. Our hero understood that it was he, the supreme deity, who controlled this whole situation. Here, in the customs palace, nothing could be hidden. As you remember, in one of the chapters of our story, it was the supreme deity who sent lightning, which incinerated the manager's computer. This lightning was a signal that something was wrong in the customs kingdom. It was the day of that first time loop. Then the customs officer changed the coupon, but this misconduct was not followed by punishment.
The second day of the time loop was not a gift either, and although the customs officer refrained from taking decisive action when meeting with his ex-wife, he still remained guilty. The head of security accused the customs officers of the fact that it was because of his wrong actions that the incident occurred and the queue gathered. The customs officer tried to object, but the head of security did not even listen to him. The head of security was annoyed, and, having threatened the customs officer that the ghost customs officer would have to state all his excuses to the disciplinary commission, he left.
The customs officer suspected that at exactly 12:45, as on the first day and the second, his wife would again be standing near the customs booth. And this, the third time, the customs officer had to choose the right path.
If you know the laws of the theatrical world, then you know that the gun that hangs on the wall in the first act must fire during the entire play, and preferably at the climax. Otherwise, it makes no sense to hang this gun on the wall. What do you think, who in this situation, figuratively speaking, was this gun that hangs on the wall? I will not intrigue you for a long time, and I will say that the protagonist, who will have to move our story further, was the grand lady, the manager's manager.
I have already told you briefly the history of the Grande Dame. According to the laws of the afterlife, the grand lady had to work in a different position in the customs palace. But I didn’t tell you why the grand lady was a special person and when distributing work, the supreme deity took into account the wishes of the grand lady.
I think that all of us, when we are still small, are inspired that we will be rewarded for good behavior, and punished for bad behavior. These are the laws of the universe, which in general terms operate in the real world and in the afterlife. However, alas, this does not always happen. So, the story of the grand lady. The woman was so devoted to her boss that she shielded him with herself when the unfairly dismissed worker came to sort things out with the employer. So, the lady manager died instead of her boss. This was not a very typical case and the supreme deity became interested in this story. If this story had a romantic background, then everything would be clear and banal. Many secretaries love their bosses. But this case was not of that category. The grand lady simply respected the boss and admired his integrity and truthfulness.
When, when choosing a place of work in the customs palace, the grand lady was offered several options, she without any hesitation chose the place of manager at the manager.
I already told you that it wasn't supposed to be like that. Ghosts were supposed to work in a different field than they did in life. But the supreme deity sometimes liked to joke and break the laws that he himself had once decided.
So, the grand lady began to work as a manager for the manager, or, to put it simply, as a secretary.
However, like all other ghosts, she did not remember her past life, and her choice was not the choice of consciousness, but of the subconscious.
In general, I sum up. For the good deed that the lady did in real life, she received that award. du, which she chose.
It was nine in the morning on the ninth when the customs officer opened the door to the waiting room.
As he suspected, the Grand Dame did not remember him. There was the same dialogue that was the day before yesterday. That is, the lady secretary insisted that today was the seventh day, and the customs officer tried to convince her. However, his attempts came to nothing. Like last time, the lady opened the calendar sheet and made a note. After that, she invited the customs officer to come the day after tomorrow at nine in the morning. The day before yesterday, when the conversation was over, the customs officer had no choice but to open the door and leave the waiting room. But now the customs officer was in despair. He wished that the time loops would finally end. Each loop brought him mental anguish. He didn't want to go through this situation anymore and didn't want to see the face of the woman he loved so much in his past life.
Instead of leaving after the conversation was over, the customs officer walked over to a scarlet, plush chair, of which there were many in the waiting room, and sat down in it.
The secretary was puzzled.
She hinted that it was time for the customs officer to go where the main computer had assigned him today. But the male ghost was not going to leave. He said he would wait for the manager. It was unheard of! The lady secretary was confused. She informed the customs officer that the manager was not in the office now, he was supposed to return only by noon. However, the customs officer did not care. According to his plan, he had to play for time. The customs officer was going to rise from this chair only after one in the afternoon.
The lady secretary disagreed.
She said that the customs officer would interfere with her work and suggested that he leave the office and wait in the corridor, along which were the same scarlet, plush chairs. However, the customs officer said that he would not budge until the manager came and received him. The situation has reached an impasse. Finally, exactly at noon and one minute, the door creaked and the manager entered the waiting room. How the conversation with the manager ended, I will tell you in the next chapter.