1. A Night of Ghosts It was cold winter, the sky was covered with snow, and Xuanzhou City was covered in silver makeup.The night, which should have been as thick as Su Mo, turned into endless haze under the light of the white snow.Snowflakes fell in large swathes, filling the streets and alleys. This day is the New Year's Eve, thousands of families reunite and celebrate together, the sound of firecrackers is endless, the people in Guizhou Province forget the hard work of the year and immerse themselves in the ocean of joy. Yu sings and dances. This is the most important festival of the year. On this day, almost all people will forget their sorrows and feel happy.

On this night of celebration with thousands of households, two figures, a man and a woman, walked rustlingly in the cold wind.They have no intention of appreciating the freehand brushwork of the flying snow in the sky, no intention of indulging in the New Year's songs, they just stagger forward anxiously. The man is dressed as a scholar, the long gown is full of needle marks and patches, it seems that he has been in trouble for a long time; the woman's blouse is faded, her belly is high, she is actually pregnant.It was snowing heavily, but both of them were wearing single clothes, which showed that they were indeed extremely poor.

When the two came to the door of a big house, the woman stopped and stepped aside, and the man stepped forward and knocked the door knocker.Not long after, the door opened with a squeak, and a middle-aged man with the appearance of a housekeeper came out with a smile on his face. After seeing the scholar's appearance, his expression darkened, and he said, "I don't know who it is, so it's the high official Jun. People. It’s Chinese New Year, why don’t you stay at home, what are you doing here?” This scholar's surname is Jun and his name is Wei Zhai. He was originally a son of a rich family. His parents died early when he was young, leaving him a lot of money.He likes to make friends, and he spends a lot of money. There are countless friends in the world, but most of them are people who hang out with wine and meat, and most of them come here to admire his money. Wei Zhai felt that something was wrong when money was tight, so he settled down, married a wife, and thought about doing some business to start a family business.However, he didn't have any great skills, and he still didn't stop squandering. Unknowingly, his family's wealth was wiped out. Gradually, no one came to pay any attention to him.Not to mention that the house leak happened to be raining overnight, and his wife, Qi Shi, who had never been able to conceive, had a big belly at this time, and the life of the two became more and more difficult.

The two of them had very little money left and were unable to pay the rent. The landlord was so angry that they drove them out in the middle of the winter.When he was desperate, Jun Weizhai bit the bullet and asked his old friends to borrow money, but he ran into walls everywhere. The mansion in front of me is the mansion of Zheng Xianming, an old friend of Jun Weizhai. When Jun Weizhai was rich, the two of them were very close. Jun Weizhai couldn't help thinking of him in this crisis, so he came to Zheng's mansion to borrow some money. Money tides over. The person who opened the door was Liu San, the steward of Zheng's residence. In the past, when Jun Weizhai was rich, he often rewarded him. I don't want to be in trouble today.

Jun Weizhai was sore in his heart, but he said with a smile on his face: "Butler Liu, please tell brother Xianming that an old friend is visiting." Liu Sanyi stared, and said: "Old man? What kind of old man are you! Don't insult our master's name, go!" Then he turned around and wanted to enter.Jun Weizhai stopped Liu San in a hurry, and begged: "Butler Liu, because of the love we met back then, please let me know. I really have nowhere to go..." Liu San said angrily, "Do you have any advice?" What does Lu Wulu have to do with me? I didn’t lose your million-dollar wealth to you, so don’t bother me here, if you disturb our master, you will bring me down and get scolded! Get out of here!”

Jun Weizhai was trembling with anger, pointing at Liu San with a halberd, and said in a trembling voice: "Liu San, don't deceive people too much! Back then, the money I gave you as a reward was hundreds if not thousands. Don't say it was just for you to report. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to ask you to borrow a few taels of envoy, right?" Liu San laughed and said, "That's right, I received a lot of money from you back then, but I was also sent by you to run errands for you. After all, we don't owe anyone. If you want to borrow money, you can, if you let your beautiful lady stay with me for a few days, you can borrow as much as you want." After saying this, he burst out laughing.

Jun Weizhai couldn't bear it anymore, and slapped Liu San heavily across the face with a palm. Liu San covered his cheek with his hands and shouted angrily: "You poor man, dare to beat me, come on!" After rushing out, Liu Sanyi pointed at Jun Weizhai and said, "Call me!" All the servants responded and rushed forward.Jun Weizhai is just a scholar, how can he stand up to these many servants, he was knocked to the ground in a few strokes, those servants still kept punching and kicking, Jun Weizhai screamed, and Qi, who had been hiding aside, saw With a cry of sorrow, he rushed over and pulled the servants hard, but he couldn't hold back, but was pushed to the ground, and immediately passed out.

Liu San was startled when he saw this. He was afraid of causing death, so he hurriedly told the servant to stop.Jun Weizhai struggled to get up, lifted his wife and shouted loudly but did not wake up, couldn't help being extremely sad and angry, raised his head to the sky and yelled, rushed towards Liu San, shouting in his mouth: "Liu San, pay back my wife's life! "Liu San was also a little scared, and rushed inward, but Jun Weizhai had already grabbed his sleeve. Liu Sanqing made a violent struggle, and the sleeve broke immediately. Jun Weizhai used too much force and couldn't hold back. Falling backwards, the back of the head hit the stone lion next to the door heavily, blood gushed out suddenly, and the soul returned to the sky.

Liu San was in a cold sweat from fright, and was stunned on the spot, not knowing what to do. All the family members were stunned when they saw that someone was killed.After a long while, Liu San came back to his senses, gritted his teeth and said: "You all saw it, but he accidentally hit him to death, and it has nothing to do with me! But you killed that little lady, if someone finds out, don't you know?" I'm going to jail!" All the family members were so frightened that their faces turned ashen, and Liu San continued: "But if I go to the government, I can't get rid of the responsibility, why don't I find a place to bury the corpses of these two poor ghosts. Without anyone noticing, let's try to clean it up!" All the housekeepers had long since lost their minds, and when they saw that the housekeeper was caressing, they all echoed.Liu San made arrangements for a while, and ordered several servants to set up the car quietly, and led five servants to pull the two corpses straight to the deserted place in the east of the city.

Not long after, the cart arrived in front of an abandoned house.The moonlight was bleak, illuminating the sky, but it couldn't penetrate the house surrounded by darkness.One of the gates of this house has been toppled over, leaving the other half-opened and half-closed. The original vermilion paint color on the gate has been eroded by the wind and rain into a dark red color, like blood that has coagulated for many years.