God's Gift

On the other side, the misty rain in Gusu City did not trap only Yu Youyou and a few others. Fang Ling and Ning Jin were sitting in the pavilion of the teahouse, while the white-haired storyteller downstairs was sitting behind a screen, recounting eloquently the anecdotes of Gusu City.

"What we are talking about today is the incident in which the entire Fang Mansion was wiped out a hundred years ago."

When Fang Ling heard this, he quickly explained to Ning Jin who was sitting opposite him, "The Fang family that was wiped out was not referring to us. Our ancestors were related to us, but it has been more than ten generations. Our Fang family is honest and self-disciplined, and has never done anything evil."

Ning Jin looked at Fang Ling's nervous expression, afraid that he might misunderstand him, and nodded with a smile, saying, "I know."

"Okay... okay..." Fang Ling looked at Ning Jin's gentle smile, her face turned red again. She picked up the teacup on the table at a loss, and was about to take a sip when she was stopped by Ning Jin.

Ning Jin stopped his raised hand, looked at the steam rising from the teacup, and said gently, "It's hot, wait a little longer."

Fang Ling looked at Ning Jin holding her hand, her face turned even redder, she quickly put down the teacup, straightened her back, and said seriously as if she was receiving a precept: "Got it."

Ning Jin looked at Fang Ling sitting upright, raised his hands to cover his face, and chuckled.

The voice of the storyteller downstairs came, and Ning Jin lowered his eyes to look at the storyteller behind the screen downstairs.

"In fact, the annihilation of the entire Fang family was caused by themselves. It was their own sins that caused them to die. It is nothing more than karma and retribution. You reap what you sow."

A person who was drinking tea downstairs heard this and asked:

"What kind of sin could have caused the entire Fang family to be wiped out and killed hundreds of people in one night? I heard that the entire Fang family died in a fire, and no one escaped from the fire. Who could have such means?"

The storyteller just smiled and said, "Even if it is as you said, it is indeed impossible for ordinary people to quietly start a fire that is big enough to burn down a hundred hectares of mansion overnight."

"Because it was not caused by humans, but by evil spirits."

As soon as these words came out, there was an uproar in the teahouse, but the storyteller spoke slowly and calmly:

"If a person has hatred in his life, when he dies, he will not be able to reincarnate because of the heavy hatred. He will turn into a fierce ghost and wait for his enemy to come down in the underworld before reincarnating."

"And if a ghost has a grudge, that grudge will only be directed at her enemy. Only by taking revenge on that person directly can she be reincarnated."

But the evil ghost didn't look for anyone else, but just looked for Shangfang Mansion.

Someone in the teahouse asked, "What did Fang Fu do?"

"Then we have to talk about the Su Mansion in Gusu City. It is said that there is a concubine in the Su Mansion, who is born with bright eyes and white teeth, and I feel pity for her..."

When the tea drinkers in the building heard the storyteller talking about a woman, they muttered, "I want to hear why the Fang family was wiped out. What do you mean by Miss Su?"

The storyteller placed the book on the table. A "click" sound came from behind the screen, silencing the noisy discussions in the building. He then continued:

"But Su Jinlan was not favored in the Su Mansion. It was rumored that she had wandered around in the streets when she was young, and was later found by the Su Mansion."

"And people love to talk about this kind of thing between men and women. This unmarried woman has been wandering among the people for more than ten years, and people have started to gossip about her."

"The Su family listened to those rumors and gradually began to doubt Su Jinlan. However, Su Jinlan did not have the manners of a rich lady and was even unwilling to stay in the Su Mansion. She threatened to leave the Su Mansion many times, which made the Su Mansion gradually dislike her."

"At this time, the Fang family asked the Su family to marry Su Jinlan."

"The Fang family is wealthy, which is a good thing, but the Fang family is seeking Su Jinlan's hand in marriage for their eldest master who was beheaded by horse thieves."

Fang Ling's expression changed when he heard this. He frowned and said, "Isn't this just to kill Su Jinlan? How can it be so vicious!"

Ning Jin was not as disgusted as Fang Ling. He just thought it was a story. Seeing Fang Ling's reaction, he found it quite interesting. "Mr. Fang is indeed a chivalrous man."

"This is too vicious. Fang Fu is going to harm other girls just for his dead son. It's really abominable!"

Seeing Fang Ling's righteous words, Ning Jin only chuckled and said nothing more. He looked at the storyteller and continued to listen to him:

"The Su family knew about this, but they were just running a small business. The Fang family was the most powerful in the city, and they still had to rely on the Fang family. Su Jinlan was a stain they wanted to get rid of, so they agreed to this."

"Poor Su Jinlan, she was betrayed by her own parents. She asked them for help, but they said they could do nothing and were unwilling to save her, pushing her to death with their own hands."

"When she was seeing her bride off, she asked passersby for help, but they ignored her. When she was getting married, she begged the Fang family to let her go, but they refused. She asked the guests for help, but they were waiting for this strange drama of ghost marriage, and they were unwilling to save her either."

"Everyone watched coldly and waited for her death, so she swore before she died that she would slaughter all the people in Gusu and turn Gusu into a ghost town."

"The Su family was frightened by her, and became even more vicious. They sewed her lips shut with black thread, so that she could not open her mouth to complain to the King of Hell even in the underworld."

"They nailed her limbs into the coffin alive, and invited a Taoist priest to perform a ritual to trap her soul in the coffin. She will never be able to be reborn, and will be a ghost in the Fang Mansion for generations to come."

"Originally, the Fang family had done so meticulously that Su Jinlan could not turn into a fierce ghost and could not harm the Fang family."

"But something went wrong. People in the Fang Mansion began to encounter strange things frequently. When they realized something was wrong and went to check the place where the young master and Su Jinlan were buried, they found that the tomb had been dug up and only an empty coffin was left in the tomb."