The Ascension of Ghosts

In mid-September, a caravan entered Yizhou City. It was supposed to set off for the Central Plains within a day. Unexpectedly, it rained heavily that night, destroying the road and turning the wilderness outside the city into a swamp. The caravan had to stay in Yizhou temporarily. Wait for the weather to clear up and the roads to dry out before heading out on the road.

After the torrential rain that night, it rained heavily for two or three consecutive days. The leader of the caravan watched the sky at night, guessing that the rain might last for another four or five days, so he simply started a business locally.

The accompanying Xie Rong, Lu Sheng and others had to stay in the inn. At the beginning, the door was closed and they lived a ridiculous and lawless life. Lu Sheng didn't even have a chance to put on his clothes.

After two days like this, Lu Sheng finally couldn't bear it anymore, he kicked Xie Rong under the bed, tidied up his clothes, accepted the name card from Sun's residence, and went to visit alone.

The name card was sent in the name of Sun Zhao, because Lu Sheng and Sun Zhao were similar in age, and Sun Taishou and his wife were afraid that he would be uncomfortable, so they just came to meet him, said some words of gratitude, sat down for a while, and then He said with a smile, "Don't bother you young gentlemen." Then he left.

Sun Zhao also invited a few friends to accompany him, and held a banquet in the east wing of his small courtyard to entertain his benefactor. Although they were all gentry princes and brothers, Yizhou is located in the border area, and the local gentry have dealt with the barbarians all the year round, so their horizons were naturally broadened. Sitting at the same table and eating at the same table with the Han people didn't show any grievances at all. On the contrary, they were all very interested. They asked Lu Sheng about his trips to the Western Regions.

After the banquet was over, Lu Sheng drank another cup of tea with Sun Zhao. Sun Zhao was able to hold on until Lu Sheng said goodbye, and then he showed a little tiredness.Lu Sheng could not help but praise him, and Sun Zhao smiled and said, "It's fortunate that my parents found a good doctor. I take medicine every day, and I also practice boxing and kicking with the martial artist. Now I'm getting better every day. Let me be stronger. , will be able to withstand the exhaustion of the journey, and set off to the Western Regions Protectorate to meet the Jieluozong."

He has a goal in his heart, he is determined to do it, and he is not afraid of difficulties, but it is also moving.

After a few words of encouragement, Lu Sheng left and went back to the inn.

The next day was still cloudy and rainy, the raindrops were hitting the tiles and stones densely, and the noise made people upset, so Ruoxia went to find the innkeeper and invited some singers to relieve the boredom of the two young masters.

Xie Rong was reclining on the bamboo imperial concubine's couch reading a book, while Lu Sheng sat beside him. After meditating and practicing according to Ling Wang Jingyuan's method, he leaned in Xie Rong's arms and read the same book with him. It was probably history books mixed with local chronicles. What is described is when there was a hill in such a place, how many years have passed, what has been renamed, what special products have been produced, and what characters have been produced. The description is plain, unadorned, and very boring.

Lu Sheng fell asleep after reading a few lines. There was a light gauze curtain hanging more than ten steps away from the imperial concubine's couch. The singer was outside, singing softly to the accompaniment of silk strings. The sound of rain outside the window gradually slowed down, as if she was catering to the singing , there is a vague charm of hanging around for three days.

A singer outside the curtain sang a few songs, stopped, and then changed to another singer with a clear voice, and sang a lingering song from the south of the Yangtze River. Arrive at the ancient ferry in Guazhou. Wu Shan is a little sad. Thinking and hating, and hating will not stop until he returns. Yueming people lean on the building."

He was used to listening to folk songs from outside the Great Wall, but now he changed to Jiangnan minor tunes. Lu Sheng suddenly felt refreshed. He opened his eyes and listened carefully. Xie Rong put down the book and saw that he was listening attentively. She lowered her head and kissed the tips of her ears. Feeling that this person is becoming more and more handsome and eye-catching, he seems to be bewitched, he raised his head to meet him, the two kissed for a long time, the sweet taste penetrated into the bones, and there was peace and tranquility in his heart.

After the singer outside the curtain sang, Xie Rong sucked Lu Sheng's wet and slightly swollen lower lip, and ordered: "Reward."

The singer was overjoyed and thanked her repeatedly. Ruoxia took the reward and gave it to her, casually saying: "The libretto is so beautiful that we have never heard of it before."

The singer and her companion looked at each other, and said with a smile: "Miss, you don't know something. This libretto comes from Yizhou City, but it doesn't exist outside."

Lu Sheng was also a little curious, ordered his servants to open the curtain, sat up straight and asked, "I don't know which talented person in Yizhou did it?"

The singer was only sixteen or seventeen years old, and she was very handsome. She hurriedly blessed the two sons, and then replied hesitantly: "...In fact, it is rumored that it was done by ghosts and gods."

Xie Rong also sat up straight, he was rarely interested, and asked: "How do you say this?"

The singer suddenly saw a rare and handsome young man in the world, she lost her mind, and no one could understand what she was muttering, Xie Rong couldn't help frowning slightly.

Seeing the younger generation lose their composure, the older singer hurriedly took a step forward and replied with a smile on her behalf: "My lord, this is also an anecdote in Yizhou."

The older diva had a mellow voice and clear words, and told a story to everyone present.

It turned out that an idle young man went to a family's house as a guest one day. He drank too much and walked the wrong way when he was drunk. He heard someone singing under a tree in the courtyard.

That young man didn't pay attention at the beginning, because it was a man who sang, he was naturally very disappointed, but when he was about to leave, the lyrics wafted into his ears, it was beautiful and mournful, leaving a fragrance on his teeth and cheeks.

Seeing Lie Xinxi, he walked into the courtyard, intending to get acquainted with the singer and ask who wrote the lyrics.

Unexpectedly, when he approached the banyan tree in the courtyard, the singing stopped suddenly, and he took a closer look through the lantern in the porch, where is there anyone under the tree?

However, within a few breaths, the singing voice rang out behind itself.

The young master thought he was drunk and misheard, so he turned around and followed the direction where the singing sound came from, he turned around and walked around. After walking a few steps, the singing stopped again, but this time, it sounded faintly from behind him again.

The young master came back to his senses, and was immediately terrified, he fled the courtyard, and he recuperated for several days before recovering.

He only heard later that the courtyard was originally the study of the old man in the mansion, but the old man had passed away long ago, the old lady missed her husband, so he sealed off the courtyard, and the study remains the same until now.

This young man has always been affectionate and loves to linger in brothels, so he was never frightened. Instead, he lamented that the old man was affectionate and persistent, and his soul refused to leave after death. He even wrote lyrics and sang songs for his beloved wife. .

He enthusiastically wrote down the lyrics and gave them to the musicians in the brothel. Afterwards, the musicians modified and beautified them several times, and changed them into tunes suitable for singers to perform. Unknowingly, they were sung in Yizhou City.

Naturally, Lu Sheng didn't want to believe it. He was afraid that the writer of the lyrics didn't want to show his face, so he made up a story, pretended to be a ghost, and used this deeply sad story as a commentary while singing, which was elegant and touching.

Xie Rong asked, "Do you know which family it is?"

The singer shook her head in embarrassment: "I don't know..."

If there is a ghost living in someone's mansion, most of them are unwilling to tell outsiders about it.The young master didn't want to offend his relatives and friends, so he kept his mouth shut and never revealed anything.

Lu Sheng was in high spirits, and after offering the reward, he asked the singer to sing it again.At this time, Ruozhu came in with the greeting card and said, "Young master, there is a Mr. Huang asking to see Mr. Baoyang."

Lu Sheng accepted the name card, recalled it after a while, and said with a smile, "I met you at Taishou Sun's residence yesterday, please hurry up."

Ruozhu should be here, and after a few moments of effort, a young man in a brown shirt came in. The young man was about the same age as Lu Sheng. amiable.

Lu Sheng remembered that the young man's surname was Huang Mingqi, he was the son of Master Huang, the vice guard of Yizhou, and he was also a good friend with Sun Zhao, so he was with him yesterday.

The singer was singing emotionally and earnestly, Huang Qi sat quietly at the side, and after the singer finished singing, Fushen exited the guest room, and then he said with a smile: "So you two have already heard this song Bian Shui Liu, save the trouble." Some tongue-in-cheek."

Lu Sheng's heart skipped a beat, "Could it be that Mr. Huang is saying..."

Huang Qi smiled wryly, and raised his hand to touch his nostrils, "I heard that Sun Zhao mentioned Lu Sima's name many times, so I took the liberty to come here to ask for help. The haunted mansion...is the humble house."

Lu Sheng's eyes widened, and he lost his voice: "This, is it true?"

Huang Qi lowered his head and sighed in a low voice before explaining the cause and effect.

This matter began to show its clues in June. After a heavy rain, water accumulated on the steps outside the main house of the Fuming Hall where the old lady lived. At first, everyone didn't care about it and just cleaned it up.

However, when the weather cleared up, there was another puddle of water marks on the steps. The lady in charge just thought that some careless person had spilled the water, and became furious. The servant girl beat her severely once.Unexpectedly, there was another puddle of water on the dry steps the next day.

Every now and then, there would be a puddle of water on the steps and stone tiles around Fuming Hall, sometimes faintly showing the footprints of a man.

After more than a month, there was another heavy rain in Yizhou. During the night watch, two maidservants of the old matriarch walked through the corridor outside Fuming hall to fetch hot tea for the old matriarch, but they saw the continuous In the middle of the rain, there were people standing beside the rockery in the yard, and one of them, Chun Ying, boldly asked, "Who trespassed on the old lady's house?"

The figure didn't move at all, Chunying asked again, there was a flower in front of her eyes, but there was no one in the rain.

She was horrified in her heart, looked at each other in dismay with her companion, and checked in private, if it was only Chunying's eyes dazzled, it would be fine, but both of them saw the figure standing still in the rain and disappearing suddenly, it was really hard to use "misreading" to cover things up .

The two quietly reported to the lady in charge, and a few days later, the vision became more and more rampant in the middle of the night: outside the old man's study, singing Jiangnan ditties; or standing on the steps of Fuming hall, watching The place where the old lady lived stood for a long time, leaving a pool of water stains where she stood.

The number of servants who came across "that thing" increased day by day, and some older servants were horrified to find that "that thing" looked like the old man who passed away 20 years ago.

Xie Rong interrupted at this moment and asked, "Old Mr. Huang died of the flood?"

Huang Qi sighed: "It's not bad. My grandfather was transferred to Bianzhou 20 years ago. On the way to the post, he was killed by a water thief and his body fell into the river...but he was never found."

Lu Sheng played with a wine cup, pondered: "Could it be... someone who offended someone and came here to play tricks and trick people?"

Huang Qi smiled wryly and said: "Lu Sima's words are reasonable, and I'm not hiding the truth. After my grandmother said the same thing, I kicked out all the Taoist monks my mother invited to practice." The young man hesitated to speak, and then said: "It is natural to strengthen the defenses at home, and doubling the number of nursing homes will not help. The Huang's Mansion is only a family of sixth-rank officials, so it is worthwhile for someone to make great efforts to invite an expert who comes without a trace and goes without a trace to make a mystery. Therefore... In the name of entertaining friends, I want to ask Lu Sima to go over the house and hold his eyes, whether it offends the living or haunts the ghosts, only when we have a clue can we make a countermeasure."

Lu Sheng heard his words were sincere and reasonable, even though he still didn't take it seriously, he was still a little moved, so he turned his head and asked, "Ah Rong, what do you think?"

Xie Rong said: "There must be something strange."

Huang Qi also saw that Lu Sheng was very close to this unparalleled handsome nobleman, maybe they were close friends, so he cautiously asked, "May I ask who this is..."

Lu Sheng smiled and said, "This is Mr. Xie Rong, Mr. Xie. If you want to catch ghosts and exorcise them, you have found the right person."

Huang Qi was moved, he hurriedly got up and gave Xie Rong a deep salute, and sighed: "I studied in Jianye a year ago, and Mr. Xie Rong's name is as loud as thunder. I never thought that I would be lucky enough to see his true face today. Mr. Xie Rong is really beautiful...cough cough beauty, the reputation is well-deserved " He lost his tongue for a moment, seeing Xie Rong's complexion changed slightly, he hastily swallowed the word "beautiful" abruptly, and changed his words in time.

Lu Sheng couldn't help but look at Xie Rong comfortingly, and said softly, "Ah Rong, why don't you go and have a look?"

Xie Rong gently put down the wine cup, Shi Shiran stood up and said, "Let's go."

Lu Sheng readily followed suit and said, "Let's go."

The group left the inn and went to Huang Qi's home.