Translator: Atlas Studios
Editor: Atlas Studios
So what was happening now?
The Special Affairs Bureau field staff member, Xing Hechou, held onto his halberd while looking stupefied. Along with Hanging Sword for Ten Thousand Miles, who was also stunned, they looked at Li Ang, who was communicating with the female ghost and had no intention of making a move on it.
The female ghost’s name was Chai Cuiqiao, and she had been born in a family of officials and scholars. Her paternal grandfather used to be a Vice Minister of the Ministry of Employment, and her father currently held a position in the Ministry of War. Her various uncles also held official positions. The Chai Family was considered influential in the provisional capital, the city of Nanjing.
Unfortunately, Chai Cuiqiao’s birth mother used to be a famous courtesan by the Qinhuai River. She could only be content with remaining in a lowly position after getting pregnant. She had been bought by the Chai Family and bullied and oppressed by the first wife. The servants, who had been loyal to the first wife, had also never respected Chai Cuiqiao and her mother and thought of ways to create all kinds of difficulties for them.
Over more than a decade, Chai Cuiqiao and her mother had concluded that the human mind was fickle and grown accustomed to the dirtiness of that huge household. Although Chai Cuiqiao had wanted to break away from this wealth, she had been powerless.
When she had reached the right age to be married, by following the matchmaker’s words, the Chai Family had set its mind on making the best use of everything. They had betrothed Chai Cuiqiao, who lived in the side chamber, to the second son of a very rich salt merchant in the city of Nanjing with the surname Jia and received a huge amount of betrothal gifts in exchange.
Chai Cuiqiao had initially thought that a woman should stand by her man. Since she could not lead a picturesque life like women in novels, she would fulfill the traditional role of a good wife and be the sincere wife of a wealthy family.
Nobody had expected that the second son of the Jia Family would have a habit of wearing short-sleeved shirts and would only be fond of males. Before they had gotten married, he’d had too much fun and retained an inhumane habit. The night of his wedding, the second son of the Jia Family had gone to the study through a secret passageway in the consummation room and slept with a page-boy.
After three months, Chai Cuiqiao, who had been in the inner chamber, had witnessed her nominal husband either hanging around with a pure, gifted scholar or having sexual intercourse with a delicate catamite. He usually wouldn’t utter a word or even show up before her.
The salt merchant the Chen Family had betrothed to Chai Cuiqiao only wanted to go after the Chai Family’s money. The Chai Family had also needed a middleman for money laundering so they could make profit and gain benefits. Therefore, both parties had only taken what they’d needed.
However, they needed to have one or two heirs to have stabler profits.
Huge pressure had fallen upon the household, and Chai Cuiqiao’s mother had also mentioned it a few times. Chai Cuiqiao, who had gone through unspeakably bitter suffering, occasionally heard her bestie talk about rumors that prayers for a son in Solitary Temple would be heard and had remembered that. With no other way out, she had taken her servant to Solitary Temple to pay a visit to the Buddha one day.
A female believer had to kowtow for a whole night before the Goddess of Mercy statue to pray for a son in Solitary Temple. Chai Cuiqiao, who had told her servant to wait outside the temple, had been focused on paying her respects to the Buddha. However, she had suddenly seen a group of lewd monks coming out of the wooden base of the Dragon-Subduing Arhat stand.
As the eldest daughter of the family, she had been raised in the boudoir and inner chamber. She had thus read too many novels about young men and women being deeply in love but unable to fulfill their passion, pledging their lives to fight against that as a result. Since she had been ready to die to preserve her chastity, she’d knocked her head against the pillar and died on the spot.
The group of monks, who had been flustered upon seeing blood, had been in for a penny and in for a pound. They had taken a knife blade and chopped Chai Cuiqiao’s corpse into pieces before the Gautama Buddha statue, buried them in the back mountain of Solitary Temple, and lied to her family, who had come to look for her by saying that Chai Cuiqiao had never paid a visit to Solitary Temple.
Since the relatives had to find her, they had reported this to the authorities. The monks had ended up being locked up in jail and suffering sandalwood punishment.
The monks, who couldn’t bear hardships, had revealed the inside story of Solitary Temple in front of the fellow countrymen of the county government when they had been interrogated.
The scandal had spread like wildfire. In the county city and the city of Nanjing, the women of the families who had gone to Solitary Temple to pray for a son had received a divorce letter from their husbands. The wives had hidden their faces and returned to their parents’ homes. The children who had just been born had been placed in a golden basin and thrown into the well to be drowned, while the older children had been kicked out of the house and sent into peasant households without children.
Many of the aristocratic households who had successfully prayed for a son and had donated money and goods could not hold back and had used their connections. They’d asked the county magistrate to throw all the monks of Solitary Temple in jail, behead them after fall, and confiscate all the Buddhist fields before they sold them to local despots at a low price.
The Chai Family was a noble family, while the Jia Family was a local despot. In order not to let the family be humiliated, they’d insisted that Chai Cuiqiao had not gone to Solitary Temple and had gone missing after entering the dense forest by mistake on the way. They had not even cleared Chai Cuiqiao’s remains and skeleton to avoid making the ancestor’s spirits in Heaven unhappy when they went down the ancestral tomb.
Chai Cuiqiao’s mother had died of overwhelming sadness. Her daughter had suffered an immeasurable injustice, had been abandoned, and left unburied. Due to this pent-up resentment and anger, she’d cultivated into a malicious spirit that demanded people’s lives and lingered above Solitary Temple.
The rascals who wreaked havoc among the fellow villagers harbored errant thoughts and wanted to go into Solitary Temple to obtain windfall. They had raked in some valuable golden paint for the Buddhist statue and Buddhist Dharma instruments. However, they had died thanks to Chai Cuiqiao, chopped into pieces and sprinkled in the forest outside the temple.
The people who had been sent over by the authorities had also been frightened by the spirit bound to the ground and had retreated in a flurry.
Over a long time, the rumors of a ghost inside Solitary Temple had spread like wildfire. It was not just like infants crying at night. The local villagers and the past itinerant traders did not dare approach the temple at all.
Li Ang and the others were the only guests to step into that place after half a year.
Li Ang cupped his hands and said very sincerely, “Although the five of us are robbers and thieves, we have read the Eight Honors and Eight Shames and the Core Values of Chinese Socialism.
“Miss Chai, who was an unyielding victim ready to die to preserve her chastity, has made us feel touched and admire her. If you have any unfinished business, tell us.”
Hanging Sword for Ten Thousand Miles, who was holding tightly his sword hilt, had a different expression. He had nearly died in the hands of this malicious spirit just now. However, after hearing Li Ang’s tone, he seemed to want to have peace with the other party.
He secretly shot a glance at Xing Hechou and pointed at the thick bones under his feet with his finger in an uncheckable manner. His gaze’s meaning was very obvious.
“We have collected the bones of this spirit and we just need to burn it. Not only can this solve the worries of these seven days, but we can also earn a sum of EXP, lest undue delays bring about trouble.”
Xing Hechou shook his head silently and said in his heart, “Things aren’t that simple. The quest that the system has issued states that we have to survive for seven days. It originally wanted us to resign ourselves to our fate and live with difficulty until the time was up. In other words, the system believed that it would be hard for us to contend against this malicious spirit given the strength of our entire team.
“Although Hanging Sword for Ten Thousand Miles slashed Chai Cuiqiao’s vengeful spirit with his sword in front of the Hall of Great Strength and injured her shoulder, her injuries seem to have fully recuperated by now.
“Not only did we not reveal all our trump cards, but Chai Cuiqiao has also vaguely hidden part of her power. However, we managed to find the human remains so we have to step forward to work together.
“If we can’t come to an agreement and have an open fight, we might be able to win. However, the number of survivors is still uncertain…”
After deciding, Xing Hechou returned the glance of Hanging Sword for Ten Thousand Miles, signaling to the other party to hold his horses to see how Li Ang was going to reason.
Chai Cuiqiao looked at everyone with flickering eyes. After sizing up gloomy Hanging Sword for Ten Thousand Miles a few times, she then bowed before Li Ang and said softly, “Humans and spirits follow different paths. I wouldn’t dare request anything…
“Humans know that spirits are terrifying, and spirits know that the human heart is vicious. Hell is empty, and the spirits are everywhere in the world.”
Li Ang waved his hand in a rather open-minded manner. He didn’t mind the arousing suspicion between men and women and the difference between humans and ghosts. He just held onto Chai Cuiqiao’s ice-cold palm. “Miss Chai, in my eyes, you’re really a hero among women. Compared to those compassionate and pretentious hypocrites, you’re more like a living person.”
“So… Shall I just say it?”
“Speak your mind.”
Chai Cuiqiao bowed and said mournfully, “Although a lot of the lewd monks in Solitary Temple have been executed, the principal culprit has yet to be eliminated.
“Grand Master Dao Zhi, who is the Abbot of Solitary Temple, is a demon in disguise. He feigned death to escape the authorities’ pursuit. He is a Daoist monk, used Wang Guan1 as his name, and is still wandering around leisurely!
“Seven days later, that evil monk invited the demons of the mountain to dinner in Solitary Temple. Please uphold justice on my behalf!”