Ghost Story of Liaozhai

Niu Tingzhang, a cloth merchant in Jiangxi, married his wife Zheng and gave birth to two children, a boy and a girl.Niu Chengzhang died of illness when he was 32 years old. His son Niu Zhong was only 12 years old at the time, and his daughter Ba was only [-] years old.The wife can't keep her chastity, steals the family wealth, and remarries someone else.The two orphans were left behind, and it was difficult for them to survive. Fortunately, the aunt was kind enough to take in the Niu Zhong brothers and sisters and take good care of them.

My aunt was in her 60s, poor and widowed, and died a few years later.Niu Zhong grew up gradually, and wanted to inherit his father's business, sell cloth and start a business, but he had no capital around him.The younger sister married Mao, a wealthy businessman, and with her help, borrowed dozens of taels of silver.

Niu Zhong took these silver taels and went to Jinling with his friends. On the way, he encountered robbers, all his money was robbed, and he wandered around alone. One day, he came to a shop with an owner who looked exactly like his biological father.Secretly interviewing the name, it is also the same as his father.Niu Zhong was surprised, he hangs around in front of the store every day, although the owner of the store often sees him, his expression is cold, as if he doesn't know him.

In the past three days, the shop owner's words and deeds were all similar to his father's. Niu Zhong was eager to recognize his father, so he recommended himself to do odd jobs in the shop in the name of a fellow villager.Sign a contract with each other, and the contract specifies their hometown, name, and age in detail.

The owner of the store trembled when he saw the content of the contract, and asked, "Who is your father?" Niu Zhong told the truth, his voice choked up.The owner of the shop felt lost, and asked for a while: "Your mother is okay." Niu Zhong dared not say that his father was dead, and said: "Since my father went out to do business six years ago, my mother has remarried and left. The two brothers and sisters owe to their aunt's care, otherwise , there is no bones left."

The shop owner said sadly: "I am your father." The two shook hands sadly.Niu Chengzhang led his son to pay homage to his stepmother, whose surname was Ji. She was in her thirties and had no children. When she saw Niu Zhong, she was very happy and immediately held a banquet for her.

Since then, Niu Zhong has lived in the store and learned the way of doing business from his father.Niu Tingzhang was depressed all day long. After more than three months, he saw that his son was proficient in business, so he proposed to go back to his hometown.

After Niu Tingzhang left, Niu Zhong said to Ji Shi: "Mother, let me tell you the truth. In fact, my father has been dead for a long time. Most of the people in front of me are ghosts." How could it be a ghost?" Niu Zhong sighed and told the truth one by one.When Ji heard the words, she was horrified and half-believing.

One night later, Niu Tingzhang went back and forth, holding a woman in his hand, with unkempt hair and face, it was Niu Zhong's biological mother, Zheng Shi.Niu Tingzhang was full of anger, grabbed Zheng's ear, and cursed: "Evil woman, I don't blame you for remarrying, but why did you abandon your children?"

Zheng Shi trembled all over, lying on the ground, not daring to move.Niu Tingzhang bit his wife's neck with his mouth open. Zheng felt the pain and shouted: "Son, help, help!" In an instant, Mrs. Zheng was nowhere to be seen.

Everyone was shocked, and said one after another: "I've seen a ghost during the day." Looking at Niu Tingzhang again in a blink of an eye, he saw his complexion changed drastically, and suddenly he turned into a puff of black energy, and his soul flew away, leaving only a few clothes, shoes and hats.Niu Zhong was surprised and sighed, silently picked up his father's relics, buried them in the ground, and built a clothes tomb.

Later, Niu Zhong's son inherited his father's business, and his business became better and better, and his family became rich.Once when I went home to visit my sister, I asked the villagers, and it turned out that my biological mother was punished to death by Niu Tingzhang.