Collection of strange powers and chaotic gods

During the Qianlong and Dinghai years of the Qing Dynasty, a Chenghuang Temple was built in Zhenjiang (now Zhenjiang City, Jiangsu Province).

The temple directors who organized and initiated this incident belonged to three families: one was named Yan, the other was named Gao, and the third was named Lu.

The three surnamed families jointly set up a merit book and built a simple shed at the place where the temple was to be built to encourage donations.

One morning, it was raining heavily, and a woman came to donate money in a sedan chair despite the rain.

Because it was a rainy day and Yan’s home was close, he was the only one who arrived at the donation shed at this time.

After the woman got off the sedan chair, she walked directly to the donation shed. Without any polite words, she took out a letter of silver from her sleeve and handed it to Yan. She said: "Sir, the three of you have taken the lead in building the Chenghuang Temple, and their merits are immeasurable. This is fifty taels of tattooed silver. It is a little girl’s thought. Let’s add some bricks and tiles to build the temple! I also need to trouble my husband to register it in the merit book.”

Yan quickly asked the woman who her last name was and where she lived so that she could register easily.

The woman smiled and said nonchalantly: "What's the big deal about a small kindness?! There's no need to register your name and address! Sir, just keep a clear record of how much money you received!"

After saying that, the woman got on the sedan again without looking back. The bearer lifted it up and left immediately.

Yan secretly admired: What a great benevolent person who has accumulated merits and left no name for himself!

After a while, the rain subsided, and Gao and Lu came together slowly.

Yan told the two about the woman just now and discussed with them how to register the money.

Lu smiled and said: "Why register? It's a rainy day and no one else came here, so no one knows about it. Let's just divide the fifty taels of silver among the three of us! The three of us will take the lead. Building this city emperor’s temple is a huge merit. It’s not a big deal if you give away a few taels of silver here, right?!”

Gao said: "I think it's okay! Since no one is coming, let's just split it!"

Yan was a loyal and honest man by nature. When he saw that the two of them were going to do this, he quickly stopped him: "No! Never! This is against the laws of nature and you will be punished by the City God!"

Lu and Gao didn't listen at all and insisted on sharing the money.

When Yan saw that his persuasion was ineffective, he had no choice but to walk away, out of sight!

Lu was even happier after seeing Yan leave: "It's better if he leaves, and there is one less person to share the money with!"

So the two of them divided the fifty taels of silver in half.

Yan knew about this matter from beginning to end. However, he did not tell anyone else until the construction of the Chenghuang Temple was completed.

Eight years later, in the year Yiwei, Gao passed away!

In the blink of an eye, in the Bingshen year, Lu Mou also died one after another!

Even though the two of them had passed away, Yan still remained tight-lipped and did not make the scandal of their illegal money sharing public.

In the spring of the Year of [-], Yan fell seriously ill and was bedridden.

That day, in a daze, he saw two police officers coming to his bedside with an arrest warrant and saying, "A woman sued you in front of the city god's hall. We were ordered to arrest you." , went to confront you! If you just come with us honestly, we won’t make things difficult for you!”

Yan asked hurriedly: "You two gentlemen, do you know what the woman accused me of?"

The officer said, "We don't know. We were just ordered to come and take you!"

Yan no longer asked any more questions and followed the two guards obediently.

When I walked to the entrance of the Chenghuang Temple, I found that the bustling scene was different from usual. It's deserted outside. The usual fortune tellers, fortune tellers, and people selling various gadgets were all gone.

Entering the temple gate, Yan found that it was different from before.

People used to live on both sides.

Now both sides have been turned into prison cells, with many government officials guarding them.

After a while, I crossed the Immortal Bridge and walked into the second gate.

Suddenly he saw a shackled prisoner and shouted to him: "Brother Yan is here!"

Yan took a closer look and found that it was an acquaintance, the deceased Gao.

When Gao Mou saw Yan Mou, he was like a wronged child who saw his parents and complained loudly: "Brother Yan, you don't know something! Since the death of Yiweinian, I have come here During the four years in the underworld, I spent every day in suffering. The torture I suffered in the underworld were all the sins I committed in the earth! What retribution!"

Yan sighed and said: "I had known this, why did I do it in the first place!"

Gao sobbed and said, "That's right! It's too late to say anything now! I just complained to my brother!"

Yan asked: "Why are you still kneeling here in shackles?"

Gao Mou said: "I went to the underworld and was sentenced to shackles. Originally, my sentence had expired and I could be reincarnated and enter the cycle of reincarnation soon. Who knew that when I was building the imperial temple in the city, the embezzlement of money was discovered, and I went back to the underworld. He was put in shackles and taken here to be tried!”

Yan felt a little strange and said: "It has been more than ten years since this incident, and I have never told anyone about it, so why did it suddenly come to light?

If you think about it carefully, apart from me, only that woman knew about this matter. Could it be that she turned you in? "

Gao shook his head and said: "As far as I know, she was not the one who reported this matter. The woman died in February this year.

People in this world who become ghosts in the underworld, no matter whether they are good or evil, must first be taken to the City God's Mansion for trial.

The woman was a very good person when she was alive. When she arrived in the underworld, she was brought to the underworld with a few ghosts who had done good deeds.

The Chenghuang Master asked jokingly, intentionally or unintentionally: "You have accumulated good deeds throughout your life. As soon as you hear about doing good deeds, you will immediately follow them like ducks." That year we built an official office, but you were reluctant to fund it. Why was that? Is it because I am not worthy of your respect? ’

The woman immediately said with fear and fear: 'Master has misunderstood! Why do I feel that the master is not worthy of my respect? In fact, the ghost woman also contributed money back then!

I still remember that it was June [-]th of that year. The ghost woman took fifty taels of silver and took it to the shed where the master was collecting donations in the rain.

At that time, it was handled by a scholar named Yan.

Yan Xiucai also asked me my name and address. The ghost woman felt that it was a small good deed, not worth leaving her name in the merit book.

So I didn't tell Yan Xiucai his name and asked him to just record the amount of money.

Maybe it's because of this that the master doesn't know that I contributed money to build the master's official residence, right? ‘

The City God was very angry: Someone dared to deceive me? I almost blamed a good person wrongly!

The City God immediately ordered the Hengsi (the legendary department of the underworld to punish evildoers) to carefully find out the truth!

After this investigation, the matter came to light! My matter was discovered by the evil police, not the woman who reported it! "

Yan Mou said dissatisfiedly: "Since the matter has been found out and has nothing to do with me, why do you have to summon me here?"

Gao couldn't answer for a while...