Ghost Story of Liaozhai

Fan Xiaoshan, a resident of Qingzhou, sells pens for a living and is away all year round.In April of this year, his wife He Shi lived alone at home and was killed by thieves at night.It was raining continuously at night, and the yamen servants came to handle the case, and found a folding fan in the soil, with a poem written on it, signed: Wang Sheng presented it to his friend Wu Feiqing.

Wu Feiqing is the son of a family with a frivolous character, and he is from the same hometown as Fan Xiaoshan.After the incident, the county magistrate arrested him and forced him to interrogate the case. Wu Feiqing repeatedly called him wronged, but the county magistrate ignored him and ordered him to be tortured. Wu Feiqing was tortured and sentenced to death.

Wu Feiqing knew that his fate was not long, so he spent all his wealth and did good deeds.I bought a lot of cotton trousers and jackets and gave them to beggars in the county, asking them to recite Buddhist scriptures and pray for themselves.But in the end, there is still nothing to make up for, and fate cannot be saved.Seeing that the day of Qiuhou Wen's execution was getting closer, Wu Feiqing didn't want to be a headless ghost, so he secretly bribed the guards and prepared to commit suicide by drinking poisoned wine.When I fell asleep that night, I saw a fairy in my dream and said to myself: "Don't die yet, your savior will arrive soon."

Wu Feiqing asked: "Who is the savior?" The god said: "It's auspicious inside." After finishing speaking, he disappeared.Wu Feiqing frowned in thought, and said to herself, "Auspicious inside, isn't it just the word Zhou? I think my savior is surnamed Zhou."

Soon after, Mr. Zhou Yuanliang was transferred to Qingzhou to take up his post. After looking through the prisoner files, he became suspicious when he saw Wu Feiqing. He immediately interrogated the plaintiff and asked, "What evidence is there for Wu's murder?" Fan Xiaoshan said: "There is a fan for certificate." Zhou Yuanliang opened the fan to look at it, and asked, "Who is Wang Sheng?" Fan Xiaoshan shook his head and said, "I don't know."

Zhou Yuanliang thought to himself, "This is obviously framing. It's April weather, and it's raining night, and the weather is cold. Who would be so careless to wear a fan?" Transfer to ordinary cells.

Fan Xiaoshan refused to accept, and argued hard, Zhou Yuanliang said with a smile: "Do you want to kill a random person to close the case? Or do you want to find the real culprit?" Fan Xiaoshan said: "Of course it is to find the real culprit. What does your lord mean by this sentence?"

Zhou Yuanliang said: "I have seen this inscription on the fan on the wall of a certain inn. You only need to ask the owner of the inn to find out who wrote the poem." Not long after, the owner of the inn came to the county government office , replied: "Last year's scientific research, there were two scholars from Ri Zhao, who lived in the small shop. One of them was surnamed Li, and the poems on the wall were his masterpieces."

Zhou Yuanliang nodded, and immediately ordered the officials to go to the sun to arrest Li Xiucai, and said angrily: "Why did you kill someone?" "Did you write the poem on the fan?" The scholar said, "This poem is indeed written by Xiaosheng, but it has never been copied on the fan. Besides, it is not my handwriting."

Zhou Yuanliang pondered: "Since the owner of the folding fan knows this poem, he must know you. In your opinion, who is the most suspect?" Xiucai said: "From the handwriting, it seems that it was written by Wang Zuo of Yizhou." Zhou Yuanliang said: " Very good. Come on, hurry up to Yizhou and capture Wang Zuo."

Not long after, Wang Zuo arrived and replied, "It is true that I wrote the poems, but I was also a ghostwriter. The person who asked me to write poems was Zhang Cheng, a blacksmith, and Wang Sheng was his cousin." Zhou Yuanliang smiled and said: "Needless to say, the murderer must be Wang Cheng." Immediately he released Wang Zuo, and at the same time sent people to arrest Wang Cheng, interrogated him and confessed.

At first, Wang Cheng got acquainted with Wu Feiqing because of his cousin.Later, when Wang Cheng went to Qingzhou, he accidentally saw Fan Xiaoshan's wife, He Shi, and was greedy for her beauty, so he pretended to be Wu Feiqing and went to tease her. He carried a folding fan with Wu's name on it.In the middle of the night, Wang Cheng climbed over the wall and entered the house, forcing Mrs. He to submit. Mrs. He lived alone, with scissors hidden under the pillow for self-defense.Realizing that Wang Cheng had malicious intentions, he immediately raised his knife to defend himself and shouted for help.In a panic, Wang Cheng grabbed the scissors and killed He Shi, then threw the folding fan into the dirt outside the wall and fled.

After Zhou Yuanliang tried the case, he sentenced Wang Cheng to death and put him in prison. As for Wu Feiqing, he was innocent and acquitted.