Chapter 84： past life

There is a local custom for newlyweds that requires the bride and groom to pay homage to the Moon God—

The groom will set off from his home at noon and go to the bride’s home to welcome the bride. Then he will take the wedding procession and the sedan chair out of the city, and both will worship at Yuelao Temple, praying to Yuelao to bless the couple’s love and grow old together.

After worshiping Yue Lao, the wedding team will return to the city and go to the groom’s home to prepare for the ceremony.

Weddings in ancient times were also called dusk ceremonies, which meant that the worship ceremony was held at dusk. The groom set off at noon, walked around outside the city and came back, arriving home at just the right time.

What the group of horse bandits needed to do was to kidnap Qin Xiaoyu when the sedan chair was leaving the city.

The purpose is to ruin this marriage.

Zhao Yanshu's request to the horse bandits was that after they kidnapped Qin Xiaoyu, whether they stayed to play with her or killed her, they should not let her appear in the city.

At that time, a woman’s reputation was of paramount importance.

As long as the news that Qin Xiaoyu was kidnapped by horse bandits reaches the Qin family, then the marriage will be considered a waste.

Both the Qin and Zhao families are respectable people. Guests have been invited and the banquet has been prepared. If word spread that something happened to the Qin family's daughter and she lost her bride, wouldn't it mean that the two families would be unable to hold their heads high in Chizhou?

Zhao Yanshu thought very well. When Qin Xiaoyu is taken away by the horse bandits, he will propose to let Linglan marry on his behalf.

On the surface, Ling Lan went to marry him as Qin Xiaoyu, blocking the guests and the people of Chizhou from talking, and preserving Qin Xiaoyu's reputation.

Privately, send people to the mountains outside the city to suppress the bandits, rescue Qin Xiaoyu, and cover up the matter. By then, both families will be able to live up to their reputation.

But this was all just Zhao Yanshu’s imagination. Things did not happen according to his preset trajectory, but an accident occurred——

Because, in this **** love story, there is also a heroine, Suzuran.

Suzuran is a heroine who has a miserable life experience but is still kind and strong. She is not a green tea and white lotus flower, and she has never thought about seeking wealth.

At first I followed Zhao Yanshu, but I didn't know that he was engaged, thinking that I was going to meet my love.

Later she returned to Chizhou. She heard that Zhao Yanshu had a fiancée, and that this fiancée had been waiting for him for five years and supported two businesses for him. She had the intention of quitting.

Linglan once secretly inquired about Qin Xiaoyu. In her eyes:

 Qin Xiaoyu is dignified and dignified, with extraordinary ability and outstanding methods. He can manage the business in an orderly manner and can manage so many servants without making mistakes.

Qin Xiaoyu is very kind. Even though she has been rumored for so many years, she still has a good heart and has helped refugees privately. She has also helped some beggars in the Chenghuang Temple.

In certain years when the weather was bad and the harvests were bad, her kindness saved countless lives and kept the hope of living for countless people.

More importantly, Qin Xiaoyu is very sensible.

Even if she knew that Zhao Yanshu came back with Ling Lan and wanted to cancel her marriage and make her lose face, she never caused any trouble for Ling Lan.

Suzuran felt that she should not ruin the marriage of a good girl.

As long as she leaves, Zhao Yanshu will stop thinking about her and live a good life with Qin Xiaoyu. From then on, they will be in love with each other for a lifetime.

So, she prepared to leave Chizhou secretly.

But Zhao Yanshu usually watched her very closely, and she had no chance to leave alone. It was not until the day when the two families got married that she found the opportunity.

She found a way to dress up as a maid, got into the wedding procession, and followed her out of the city.

Linglan thought very well. After leaving the city and the bride and groom stopped at Yuelao Temple, she would leave quietly. By then, the mountains would be high and the water would be far away, so Zhao Yanshu would naturally forget about her.

Perhaps something unexpected happened and the horse bandits came.

More than a dozen fierce horse bandits surrounded the wedding party and robbed Qin Xiaoyu, as well as part of the gold, silver, jewelry and other dowry.

The wedding team led by Zhao Yanshu was no match for the horse bandits, and they were all knocked to the ground.

Linglan had already packed her bags, avoided the crowds, and hid in the inaccessible mountains, but when she looked up, she saw the horse bandits tying up Qin Xiaoyu and galloping past.

She didn't think about anything at the time, except that she couldn't let Qin Xiaoyu be taken away.

So she rushed out directly.

But she was alone and didn't know martial arts, how could she be a match for those horse bandits? Soon, she too was caught.

The horse bandits saw her wearing the clothes of a little maid and thought she was Qin Xiaoyu's dowry maid, so they decided to take the "master and servant" back to the village and reward them to the brothers.

***

Zhao Yanshu spent a lot of money to seal the entrance of the welcoming team, returned to the city as if nothing had happened, met with the parents of both families, and told them about the horse bandits.

For the sake of Qin Xiaoyu's reputation, the Qin family had no choice but to agree to his proposal to "find someone to marry as a substitute", and at the same time privately sent people to negotiate with the horse bandits and rescue her.

Zhao Yanshu was overjoyed.

Just when he thought everything was going well, he realized that Lily of the Valley was also missing.

After careful investigation, he found a little maid who had been knocked unconscious in the woodshed, and then deduced that Linglan had taken the identity of the little maid and sneaked out of the city.

Zhao Yanshu’s expression suddenly changed:

If Suzuran went out of the city with the wedding party, where would she go?

—Yelao Temple.

What will she encounter if she leaves Yuelao Temple?

—Horse bandit.

After figuring this out, Zhao Yanshu went crazy at that time.

The face of the two families and Qin Xiaoyu's reputation are not as important as Linglan. As long as he thinks that Linglan might fall into the hands of the horse bandits, he will go crazy with anger.

He immediately stopped getting married and ignored the house full of guests. He took the Zhao family's two hundred servants and the hired young and mature workers and went up the mountain in a mighty manner.

He is going to find Lily of the Valley.

It would be fine if Linglan didn't fall into the hands of the horse bandits; but if Linglan got into the den of horse bandits, then he would go to suppress the bandits and rescue Linglan.

But how can horse bandits be so easy to deal with?

The opponent has a large number of people and occupies a commanding position. It is easy to defend and difficult to attack due to natural dangers. Moreover, they are all powerful, tall and fierce, and everyone has seen blood on their hands.

Zhao Yanshu and his men were discovered before they even got close to Ma Bandit's village.

What followed was a tug-of-war.

While the fighting was raging outside the village, the two girls who were kidnapped in the village were also supporting each other and trying to save themselves.

They didn’t know that the root of all this was Zhao Yanshu’s selfishness.

But they knew they had to go back alive.

These two girls—

 Qin Xiaoyu was born into a wealthy family. He has seen the world, done business, and dealt with all kinds of people. He is well versed in the temptation of interests and is very stable.

 Suzulan was born in a poor peasant family. She has been responsible for supporting her family since she was a child. She knows many plants and herbs and has many life skills. She never starves to death.

They complement each other exactly, supporting each other and waiting for rescue.

When they learned that Zhao Yanshu had brought people to suppress the bandits, they thought they were saved.

Unexpectedly, the leader of the horse bandit hated Zhao Yanshu for not keeping his word, and he had clearly agreed on the deal, but then regretted it at the end. In a fit of anger, he directly raised the knife and stabbed the two girls to the core.

As long as there are gold and silver treasures, what is a woman? In the eyes of the horse bandits, they are worse than objects.

So, killing these two girls will not cost them anything. So, what Zhao Yanshu got was the corpses of two girls, one was his fiancée who was about to marry him, and the other was the woman he loved most in his life.

Two such good girls, their beauty and fate are ruined just because of his selfishness.

***

Zhao Yanshu knew that he could not defeat the horse bandits, and since Linglan was dead, there was no need to continue fighting against the horse bandits, so he went back with the two corpses.

Happiness turns into mourning, red silk turns into white cloth.

The story that the Qin family's daughter was kidnapped by horse bandits on the day of her wedding and died in death was widely circulated, and everyone said that her fate was bad.

But if it wasn’t for Zhao Yanshu, how could she have suffered a bad fate?

She was born well, had a kind heart, and had meritorious deeds. How could she have a bad fate?

The Qin family brought back their daughter's body, held a funeral for her with grief, and made up their mind to sever ties with the Zhao family.

Although they knew that the Zhao family could not be blamed for this incident, they still couldn't help but express their anger.

The two families gradually stopped contacting each other.

 Zhao Yanshu, on the other hand, was unwilling to admit that he had killed Ling Lan, let alone accept the fact that Ling Lan was dead. He embarked on a crooked path -

When he was studying abroad, he heard many legends about ghosts and evil spirits.

He knows that there is a kind of master in this world who can communicate with yin and yang and see ghosts. He wants to call back Linglan's soul and bring her back to life.

For several years since then, he has been looking for an expert who can help him realize his wish.

Three years later, he finally found it.

That is an evil way.

What is evil? He does not respect cause and effect, does not look at good and evil, does not talk about reasons, and only seeks profit. He uses the skills he has learned to make a lot of money.

No matter whether he is a good person or a bad person, he will help whoever gives him more money.

It happened that he had this ability, and Zhao Yanshu happened to be rich. The two hit it off and started a soul summoning ceremony.

Linglan and Qin Xiaoyu died on the same day and arrived in the underworld on the same day.

But Qin Xiaoyu did too many good things during her lifetime, and with her merits and virtues, and the faith given to her by the people she helped, she was able to reincarnate quickly.

Suzuran doesn’t have this chance. She needs to wait for the opportunity to be reincarnated in the underworld.

At this point, Zhao Yanshu and Xie Dao summoned her soul back to the underworld. After three years, she saw Zhao Yanshu again.

Linglan still doesn’t know about the deal between Zhao Yanshu and the horse bandit.

When she reunited with Zhao Yanshu and saw him traveling all over the country for her, seeing him tossing and turning after her death and being unable to sleep at night, and seeing how deeply he loved her, she suddenly felt unbearable.

She thought, since Qin Xiaoyu has been reincarnated, and she has become a ghost, staying with Zhao Yanshu in this way should not be considered as ruining other people's marriages, right?

Hence, she sought evil ways and wanted to stay in the earth.

That evil said:

“There is no way, it just depends on what price you can pay.”

When Zhao Yanshu heard that there was still a way to stay together with Linglan, he immediately patted his chest and promised:

“I am willing to pay any price, as long as it allows me and Suzuli to be together.”

For the sake of money, Xie Dao agreed. He said:

“Lan Suzu is a ghost who has been registered in the underworld. She stays in the world at will. If she is discovered by the underworld, she will have to go to the 18th level of **** and suffer severe punishment.”

“Unless someone is willing to use his own ghostly spirit to cover up her ghostly spirit.”

“Mr. Zhao, if you are willing to give up this life, I can help you become a ghost, escape the pursuit of the underworld, and let the two of you live freely as a ghost couple.”

How could Zhao Yanshu not agree?

After all, the evil way said that it only turned him into a ghost, but did not completely kill him. After he turned into a ghost, his soul was immortal, wouldn't he be able to live with Suzulan for a long time?

So, the evil ways started to get busy.

He spent a lot of time, collected a lot of blood from pigs, cattle and sheep, drew a formation that others could not understand, then dug a hole in the middle of the formation and buried Zhao Yanshu in it.

After being buried for seventy-seven and forty-nine days, Zhao Yanshu died under the guidance of the formation. His soul left his body and turned into a ghost.

This is not over yet.

In order to hide Lily of the Valley's aura, she needs an object to live in.

So, the evil spirit refined Zhao Yanshu's body and turned it into a green bead, which became the "house" where Linglan lived.

Since the beads were refined from Zhao Yanshu’s corpse and their aura came from the same source as him, they could easily blend into his ghost body.

In this way, the beads covered Linglan's ghostly aura, and Zhao Yanshu's ghost body covered the beads' aura. With double insurance, Linglan successfully avoided the pursuit of ghosts from the underworld.

At this point, it’s still not over yet.

Xie Dao also said:

“Newly deceased ghosts are too weak. When you meet slightly more powerful ghosts, you can only become their supplement and food.”

“If you really want to stay with your beloved and protect her forever in this world, you need to be strong.”

“I have a book of ghost cultivation techniques here that will allow you to quickly improve your cultivation and become a ghost king in less time than other ghosts.”

"At the same time, there is another benefit to practicing this technique. As long as Suzulan stays in the bead in your heart, the stronger your cultivation is, the more you can nourish her soul, so that she does not have to suffer the hardships of cultivation. I can also improve my cultivation just like you.”

“But this book is not cheap.”

Having turned into a ghost, how could he not become stronger?

Good things like ghost cultivation techniques are exactly what Zhao Yanshu needs.

As for money?

He has become a ghost. What does the Zhao family’s money have to do with him? He didn't need it anyway, so he spent a lot of money to buy this technique from evil sources.

For the next three hundred years, Zhao Yanshu continued to practice according to the ghost cultivation method.

As Xie Dao said, his cultivation was indeed rapid. It took other ghosts three hundred years to become a ghost general, but he became a ghost king in one fell swoop.

Suzuran lives in the bead in his ghost body and absorbs his cultivation.

Although her growth rate was not as fast as his, in three hundred years, without any causal human life on her hands, she was able to become a resentful ghost by relying on these cultivation skills.

Zhao Yanshu and Linglan have lived happily together for three hundred years.

In the past three hundred years, it’s not like I haven’t encountered ghosts.

But Guizha didn't realize at all that he was hiding another ghost who had escaped from the underworld. Of course, there were also ghosts who wanted to capture him and take him to the underworld, but he escaped.

In the world of heaven, the sky and the earth are vast, wouldn’t it be good to be free and at ease?

If he really goes to the underworld, not to mention the punishment of the eighteen levels of hell, even if he is reincarnated, he and Suzuran may not meet again.

Just when they thought that life would continue like this, an accident happened.