Unparalleled Double Harmony

Chapter 13 Luzhou Ghosts

Master Zeng, surnamed Zeng and Mingyun, styled Ruxuan, descended from an official.

Officials represent power; power means wealth; the ancestors were rich, so he was born rich.

At that time, only rich people could afford to study, so Mr. Zeng was not only rich, but also famous.

Of course, his little fame is limited to allowing him to invite servants (without fame, the family cannot employ servants, even if he has money), he has never been an official; he has no need to be, Because only relying on the property left by his ancestors, even if he doesn't do anything, he can live a life of luxury and wealth all his life.

However, as the saying goes... people have no long-term worries, but they must have near-term worries.

Master Zeng is not stupid, he understands that no matter how rich you are, if you don't have the protection of power, you will not be stable in the long run.

Therefore, many years ago, he wisely married his only daughter to a young and promising official in the court, and spent a lot of money to manage the son-in-law; Shangshu, his grandson also has two; the son-in-law is very grateful to him, and the interests of the two families are also closely bound together, so this master Zeng is quite a man, not to mention the place, even if he looks at the whole Dazhu. Powerful people.

However, at the end of the summer of the 18th year of Yongtai, a series of strange incidents suddenly occurred in the Zeng Mansion, which had always been peaceful.

Looking back now, the cause of that incident should have been half a month ago...

There are two helpers in the back kitchen of Zeng's mansion. They are brothers. One is He Da and the other is He Er.One day, when the two of them were pushing the swill cart out to pour out the swill, He Er happened to see something shining in the sun on the grass by the river. into carp.

In our eyes today, this thing is roughly a degraded version of the "Eight Stars and Eight Arrows 998 Crystal Diamond". It is relatively rare, even if you take it to a pawn shop, you can get a lot of money.

The He brothers are just ordinary people living at the bottom. They don't have the ideological consciousness of "finding the owner if they find something valuable". After picking up something, their first thought is: "God It’s an eye-opener, and let my brothers pick up such a big deal.”

In their cognition, if they picked up this thing, it already belonged to them. Even if the owner came to the door afterwards, they might not be willing to give it to them... at least they have to take some benefits.

So, on the way back home, the two couldn't wait to discuss how to sell the thing afterwards, how to divide the money from the sale, how to spend it after the division, and so on.

That night, both of them were so excited that they couldn't sleep, but because there were other people beside them, they couldn't discuss this matter openly, so they could only hold back.

When they arrived at midnight, they were really tired, so they went to sleep one after another.

The big family has a special room for the servants to sleep in, which is similar to the current collective dormitory. The He brothers and four other people sleep in one room, in the Datong bunk, and the two brothers' bunks are next to each other.

The "fish" they picked up during the day, because they were afraid of being seen by others, they never took it out, and kept it in He Er's arms all the time, and he didn't mind sleeping like this.

In this way, until the first moment of Yin Shi.

In today's words, it is past three o'clock in the morning, which is the time when people sleep the most.

suddenly……

Outside the window of the servant's room, there were hissing—hissing—strange noises.

At first the sound was very soft, like the sound of branches being blown by the wind and sweeping against the window paper, but then it became louder and more urgent.

The He brothers slept deeply because they were too tired, so they didn't hear it, but a servant named Zhao Daqiang, who lived in the same room with them, woke up rather startled when sleeping, and he was woken up by the sound after a while.

Zhao Daqiang was just in his early twenties this year, a young man, full of vigor, he didn't think much about it, he sat there and relaxed a little, then got up and went out, wanting to see what the sound was about, and went to the toilet by the way.

He thought that what he heard might be the movement of wild cats or owls in the trees, but unexpectedly, he pushed the door and turned his head...

It can be seen that under the moonlight, a group of black unknown objects exuding a salty smell stood less than half a meter away from him, and its height was half a head taller than him.

As soon as this thing came into view, Zhao Daqiang lost all sleepiness instantly, and his whole body was as cold as if he had fallen into an ice hole; at that moment, he felt a rush of hot blood rushing from the soles of his feet to his forehead, making him Dizziness, pupil constriction, trembling all over.

And his eyes, which had gradually adapted to the dim light, finally saw clearly after a few seconds... The black thing in front of him was a sticky black long hair that had been soaked in water for an unknown amount of time. Hair, and from the gap in the long hair, there is a pale face, staring at him with a pair of eyes rolled up.

Fortunately, he is a young man, if another woman or an old man came here, he would faint from fright even if he didn't die of fright on the spot.

Zhao Daqiang was fine, but his legs went limp, and he sat down on the ground, shouting that he was choked in his throat, but he couldn't get out...

A few seconds later, his pants were wet, and the warm touch brought him back to his senses, his throat was not blocked, and he immediately shouted: "Help! There is a ghost!"

In the middle of the night, his voice was very lively... Not only the servants, but even the masters and wives were awakened by this hoarse cry.

The fastest to arrive at the scene were the five lying in the room next to him, but when they came out to see, there was no one around except Zhao Daqiang who was sitting on the ground and peed his pants.

Not long after, the housekeeper and other servants also came. They poured two mouthfuls of hot water on Zhao Daqiang, and gave him two slaps. Only then did he calm down and repeat what happened just now.

But when asked where his "ghost" went, he couldn't tell, he just said that if he looked away for a moment, the ghost disappeared.

Then, until the hour before dawn, it became very difficult... The entire Zeng family, including Master Zeng who had heard the butler's report, didn't dare to close their eyes anymore.

People of that age were afraid of this.Even if they have never seen them before, they are more or less in awe of ghosts and gods.So Master Zeng immediately ordered to wake up all the servants, hold up lanterns and patrol back and forth in their backyard...that is, within the Xiaoyaojin area, and report any abnormalities immediately.

It continued like this until dawn, when the sun came out, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, after all, evil spirits couldn't see the sun.

It's been a temporary lull here.

But at this time, He Dahe Er didn't feel that this matter had anything to do with him...

That afternoon, while they were out pouring out the slop, they sneaked to a nearby pawn shop and wanted to sell the glazed fish.

When the pawnshop guy saw the thing, he called the shopkeeper out. The shopkeeper took it and looked at it for a while, then Li Mian let go and asked He Dahe Er to take the thing away, saying that they would not accept it.

The He Brothers don't understand this. Is there a reason why pawnshops don't accept things?But if they asked again, the shopkeeper would not say anything, but told them to take the things away quickly, or he would have thrown them out.

The He brothers had no choice but to take the things back again, thinking that when they came out tomorrow, they would go a little farther and ask other pawnshops.

So on this day, they brought the glazed fish back to Zeng Mansion, and hid it in He Er's arms.

That night, there was no movement, nothing to say all night.

Unexpectedly, in the early morning of the next day, He Da opened his eyes and saw that He Er was gone. At that time, He Da thought to himself: Could it be that my younger brother ran away with his things?
He got up quickly and asked all over the courtyard to look for him, but no one saw He Er.

He Da was furious, thinking that He Er must have left him and ran away, maybe He Er had swallowed the money from selling things, left Luzhou, and went to other places to do small business.

But if you really want to look for it, the sky and the earth are big, and He Er's appearance is not special, so where can he look for it?

Thinking of this, He Da regretted that his intestines were green. He believed in his brother so much, so he kept putting the fish in his brother's place, and ended up losing his money.

Another day later, the housekeeper found He Da and asked him where his younger brother had gone and why he didn't come to work. He Da could only answer that he didn't know; After paying the wages, he can leave at any time, so when He Er disappeared before the wages were paid, the housekeeper would not ask any more questions, after all, there are no shortage of one or two people in the mansion gate.

And so, on the third day... two things happened.

The first thing - Zhao Daqiang died, died of illness.

Since the night of "Breaking Ghosts", Zhao Daqiang has been sick, unable to eat, and unable to sleep; when he asked a doctor to show him, he couldn't find any illness, so he could only treat him as being overly frightened and arrest him casually. Some prescriptions to help calm the nerves and fall asleep.

But that medicine, he vomited as soon as he drank it... He didn't take a few sips at all.

He is a small servant, and it is impossible for the mansion to arrange any special and thoughtful care for him. It would be nice if he could get a small room for him to lie down and recuperate.

In this way, he did not eat, drink, or sleep for several days. When someone came into the house to see him in the evening of that day, he had already lay there dead.

Almost at the same moment, also in the backyard of the Zeng Mansion, another incident happened - He Er's body floated up from Xiaoyao Pond.

In just half an hour, two dead people were found in a row, which was no small matter.

Zhao Daqiang's death was easy to deal with, he was sold to Zeng's mansion since he was a child, let alone died of illness, no one cared if he was beaten to death; but He Er's death...is not easy.

He Er died in your Zeng Mansion without knowing why, and he still has a brother alive. They are not from your Zeng Mansion, they are just helpers. You have to give an explanation to the sufferer, right?

At first, Master Zeng didn't want to report to the police, so he just assumed that He Er had drowned himself by mistake, and it was fine to give his brother some money to send him away.

And what's the big deal, the idea is simple, although he doesn't know how his younger brother drowned, but since everyone is dead, he thinks: the "fish" on my younger brother is me alone I'm a man; I'm old and not young, and I can't turn over for the rest of my life by being a helper for others, but I want to sell the fish, and then take the money that Zeng's mansion gave me, and use the money to start a small business, marry A daughter-in-law is also good.

Thinking of this, he felt that his brother's death was nothing to be sad about, it could even be said to be a happy thing; he didn't even bother to find out how his brother died...

Unexpectedly, when he asked the steward's younger brother afterwards if he had any relics, the steward told him that there was nothing; and the compensation paid to him by the Zeng Mansion was not as good as he expected.

He Da jumped the wall in a hurry, he thought that someone had stolen "his fish", but he couldn't explain it clearly, because if people asked about the origin of this thing, he couldn't answer, so he opened his mouth like a lion, Ask Zeng's family to pay him 20 taels of silver.

What is the concept of 20 taels of silver in Dazhuo?Let's put it this way, one tael of silver is equal to consistent money, that is, one thousand Wen, and the purchasing power... Today, it can probably buy 500 catties of potatoes.

Master Zeng is rich, but it is impossible to agree to this kind of request. If he agrees to your He Da today, tomorrow ten hooligans who are a hundred times bigger than you He Da may come to your door and use similar methods to blackmail you.

But human life is at stake, Master Zeng has a good reputation in the local area, and he doesn't want to bully others unless it is absolutely necessary, so he can only report to the government.

As soon as the government came, the ordinary people who watched the excitement and spread the gossip would naturally come, not only the bizarre drowning of He Er, but also the fact that Zhao Daqiang was frightened to death by the "water ghost" soon became a reality. It became a topic that the people of Luzhou talked about after dinner.

What's the big deal, the work is gone, but he has no other place to go, even if there is, he doesn't want to go until he gets the money, so he just stays in Zeng's house.

The housekeeper was afraid that he would interfere with the other servants, so he arranged a separate room for him and took care of him, saying that he could live there until the government found out the results.

One night a few days later, He Dazheng was sleeping alone in his room. In the darkness, the voice of his brother He Er suddenly sounded in his ears: "Brother, I died so miserable..."

After He Da heard this sentence, he woke up with fright. He couldn't tell whether it was a dream or real just now, but at this moment, his hand...touched something——a piece of glass that was still wet on the surface. fish.

"Ah!" At that moment, He Da was frightened out of his wits.

Before he could figure out what was going on, he suddenly heard...

Hiss - hiss -

Outside the window, strange noises began to sound.

Regarding the strange noise, He Da had heard it from Zhao Daqiang himself, and when he recalled it now, a thought flashed in his mind: "Could it be... that the ghost that Zhao Daqiang ran into was running along this road from the very beginning. Fish?"

Hiss hiss hiss...

The voices outside became more and more urgent. He Da was so frightened that he hugged his head and lay down under the bed board, shouting for help.

After an unknown amount of time, the sound stopped, and then several people called the door.

Presumably, someone heard the call for help.

He Da plucked up the courage to crawl out from under the bed, opened the door, and was relieved to see the housekeeper and several servants holding lanterns at the door.

Up to now, he really couldn't hide it any longer. That night, he told the housekeeper the whole incident, and took out the "glazed fish", and the housekeeper showed the things to Master Zeng again. , Retold the story of He Da.

Master Zeng is a scholar, how can he understand this, just treat this glazed fish as an evil thing, and quickly find a barren mountain and bury it. As for how big it is, give him ten taels, let him go if he likes it people.

Early the next morning, He Da took the money and left the Zeng Mansion, the sufferer ran away, and the government stopped investigating the case of his brother He Er.

As for the "glazed fish", the housekeeper ordered a few servants to specially pick a day when the sky was high and the yang energy was at its peak, and ran to a wasteland outside the city, dug a fairly deep hole, and buried it on the spot.

I thought this was the end of the matter, but...

A few days later, Master Zeng's second wife was suddenly found dead in the room, and the hands of the corpse were folded on the chest, tightly clutching a glazed fish...

………………

Huang Donglai ordered a jug of wine for the strange old man at a wine shop on the side of the road, and listened to him tell the story vividly.

After listening to it, Huang Donglai's first question was: "Well... this old man, let alone whether this thing is really so evil... why did you explain it in such detail, as if you saw it with your own eyes? "

"Hey! Boy, don't you believe me." The old man replied confidently, "I heard it from Grandma Li from the old Li's next door."

"Did Grandma Li from the old Li's next door see it with her own eyes?" Huang Donglai asked again.

"She didn't see it, but she heard it from her grandson's friend's cousin." The old man said again.

"Then her grandson's friend's cousin..." Huang Donglai couldn't bear to hear it any longer. He turned around and said, "Hey, just tell me, where is the source of this news?"

"It's the housekeeper of Zeng's mansion, Zeng Su." The old man replied, "He knows all about these things before and after, and he told Zhou Butou at the gate of the yamen himself, and Zhou Butou knew about it. , his yamen servant brothers will naturally know, and then..."

"Ok, okay... there is no need to mention 'and then'." Huang Donglai stopped the other party from continuing to be poor, and asked again, "By the way, when did the Zeng family's second grandma die?"

"Just yesterday." The old man said, "The corpse was left in the room for a day and a night, and no one dared to move it. Today, Master Zeng and the county magistrate discussed it. Simply, let the messengers take the corpse of the second lady together with the colored glaze. Take the fish together, send them directly to the temple, ask the monks to recite scriptures for a few days, and see if this matter can be settled."

"Well...yesterday..." Huang Donglai rubbed his chin and read, "The people who died yesterday are known all over the city today, and the common people here really like to gossip..."

"Small." The old man smiled, "Heh... don't you also like to listen to gossip? Why don't you buy me wine?"

Huang Donglai thought, yes; this is not the world he used to, where people can stare at mobile phones and computers all day, looking for almost unlimited information and fun on the Internet... Here, there is not even a newspaper, and the common people just love it. Do you gossip with each other in a lavish way?

After a while, Huang Donglai remembered that he still had things to do, so he put down the money for the drink, said goodbye to the uncle, and went to the sub-helm of the high-speed rail gang.

Originally, I just listened to this matter today, didn't care about it, and didn't plan to take care of it.

But what Huang Donglai didn't know was...he was destined to be related to these mysterious and strange things in his life; in the end, he didn't look for the trouble, but the trouble came to him...

(End of this chapter)