Good and Evil Will Be Repaid in the End!

The female ghost's story went roughly as follows. In his heart, Liu Xiu briefly summed it up as a Tang Bohu Picks Qiuxiang version of The Injustice to Madam Liu. "I report to you, young master. This humble woman once lived in the east of Lianshui Town. The house and courtyard had good fields, and our days were joyful without end. Who could have known that concubine's heart was venomous as heaven? In secret she poisoned my mother-in-law, and heaped the false charge upon me. I turned on her right there in the hall, only for a household traitor to collude and string testimony together out of nothing. My husband would not hear my defense. He had me beaten with rods dozens of times—dozens of times! A single bill of divorce drove me from the house. Rumors and curses, bitterness without end. Fallen low upon the road, I met a scholar, his mouth full of righteous words, his heart all kindness. I told him of my wrong and trusted him to uphold heaven's justice. I asked only that he clear my name. The two of us slipped quietly into the house and gathered every piece of proof. A moonless night, the hour deep, candle shadows swayed. Feeling rose between us in secret, and my heart was in a tangle. Coarse cloth slipped, a fragrant shoulder showed, and I gave myself to him right in front of the proof. He said, 'I shall surely not betray your kindness.' I drew out silver notes and set them by his hand. 'This body I have already entrusted to you. Let this little wealth be money for the road. I hope you will help me wash this buried injustice clean. In the next life I shall serve as ox and horse, and repay you in full.' Who could have known the county yamen's laws were harsh, and to bring a charge one must first suffer torment? Thirty heavy strokes upon the body, and clamping sticks locked about the knees—agony beyond words! That scholar saw the instruments of torture, and both his legs went soft. He turned, took the money, and fled. In the blink of an eye he had run beyond all sight. Alone and wretched, I drifted across the barren hills. Hunger and cold together sent my life to the Yellow Springs. A wisp of a lonely soul kept watch by a brook, conjuring illusions in search of a worthy man. A hundred men swore their oaths. At one look at the cruel punishment, every heart went cold. Each drew back and dared not step forward. Not one dared carry the plaint before the officials. Only you, young master, had iron bones that rang true. Facing the instruments, your face was calm. You stepped forward and took the punishment, blood staining your clothes, and washed from me the filthy slander of unfilial conduct. A hundred years of grievance scattered in a single morning. Every mortal tie was cut!" Of course, Liu Xiu did not sing it aloud. He only briefly told how the female ghost, Madam Liu, had been harmed by the concubine and later deceived by the scholar, and how he had brought her to deliverance. Strictly speaking, it hardly counted as deliverance. He had only taken the punishment once, and Madam Liu's obsession had dissolved on its own. And then, before long, Madam Liu killed herself! Honestly, that was absurd! Shi Jian listened with a knit brow and said nothing. Shi Shaojian listened with a face full of confusion. The reason for his confusion was simple: why was the illusion Liu Xiu had met nothing like his own? "That can't be right, Junior Brother. I remember clearly that after I saved her from the river, she would give herself... cough..." Shi Shaojian coughed a few times and hurriedly lowered his head. Shi Jian expressionlessly drew his gaze back and looked at Liu Xiu. Liu Xiu spread his hands. "I can't swim!" "..." "..." Well reasoned, and impossible to refute! Because he couldn't swim, he hadn't saved her! The two of them nodded, feeling this quite reasonable. Shi Shaojian grew puzzled again. "But didn't you say you still saved the female ghost?" "That? Afterward this female ghost used another illusion, disguising herself as being chased by several big men. I noticed at once that her clothes were wrong. They were too intact. And she ran the whole way without a flushed face or a gasp for breath. How was that someone being chased? She clearly meant to run a honey-trap scam on me. Would I fall for that?" "..." "..." Are you laughing because I fell for it? Setting aside the slight startlement on Shi Jian's face, Shi Shaojian's expression went black. Liu Xiu looked at the two of them, curled his lip, and said nothing. He only thought to himself that if these two fellows ever reached a later era, nine times out of ten they would first be looted for their coins and then used as the ones who died in someone else's place. "But she was so beautiful. How could you bear to see her die and not save her? If she really had been taken by villains... cough..." Shi Shaojian had not finished before he lowered his head again and fell silent. Under Shi Jian's gaze, his fists clenched tight without a word. Liu Xiu knew what Shi Shaojian was thinking. He even wanted to tell him that the one who had taken him to bed was not actually a beautiful female ghost. Who it had been, he would not say. In any case, thinking now of those scenes Madam Liu had shown him still turned his stomach a little. He put them out of his mind and looked at Shi Jian. "Master, is this female ghost really dead?" "???" Shi Jian froze for a moment. He knew this was Liu Xiu refusing to trust a ghost's words, and wanting him to confirm it again. He worked a calculation on his fingers, then nodded. "Mm. It really is dead... Its obsession is already gone. It truly killed itself, just as you saw!" Shi Jian said mildly. But the look he turned on Liu Xiu showed satisfaction. Although Liu Xiu had only mentioned in passing the matter of pleading the grievance and taking the punishment, Shi Jian could still guess how painful that punishment had been. It was not that his calculation had revealed anything. He had simply lived a long time, and had seen, in the yamens of old, the wretched sight of having to suffer punishment before one could plead a wrong. "Really dead. Then that's fine!" "..." "..." How very cautious of you! Shi Shaojian and the other muttered it in their hearts. Shi Jian then remembered what Liu Xiu had said earlier, and looked at him with a frown. "You said this female ghost had never harmed anyone before? Then what about Young Master Tan this time, and Daoist Sun's disciple?" "This Young Master Tan looks like that scholar from a hundred years ago, the one who not only tricked her into giving him her body, but reached the yamen and, instead of pleading her case, took the money and ran. As for Daoist Sun's disciple, that was purely an accident..." Liu Xiu explained. In any case, judging by what Madam Liu had said before she killed herself, she had never taken another person's life. Of course, he was not very sure whether what Madam Liu had told him was true or false. After all, the whole world said a ghost's talk was nothing but lies piled on lies. And Madam Liu was a female ghost, no less! Besides, not taking a life did not mean she had never harmed anyone. Crippling a person without killing them could still be called never having taken a life. But honestly, he did not quite understand how Madam Liu's obsession had been nothing more than finding someone who could clear her name. This... he didn't understand. No, that wasn't right either. He could not say he failed to understand it completely. There was only a little he did not understand, and a very, very great deal he could not keep a straight face over. Take now, for example. If he were the female ghost, he could not be bothered with the rights and wrongs or any of the rest of it. He would first take all thirteen lives in the Tan household, high and low, and only then talk about anything else. Even if this Eldest Young Master Tan were not the reincarnation of that scholar from back then, he knew only one thing: better to kill the wrong person than to let one go. Truly, the female ghost's suicide made Liu Xiu feel that, besides her obsession having already dissolved, she might also have been beaten by Shi Jian until she had no choice but to die, and had wanted to put on an act in front of him at the end. Hm? Now that he thought of it, this was pretty likely! Got it. This Madam Liu was just posing! "So that's how it was..." Shi Jian and the other nodded, understanding why Madam Liu had sought out this Young Master Tan. So it was because he looked like the faithless man. "Master, would you say this Young Master Tan is the reincarnation of that scholar from back then?" Liu Xiu asked Shi Jian, curious. "No..." At those words Shi Jian worked a calculation on his fingers and shook his head. Seeing Liu Xiu's face full of regret, he blanked, then glared at him. No—what are you trying to do! "Huh? Master, Senior Brother, why is there still a female ghost here? Don't tell me there are two batches of ghosts?" Liu Xiu did not answer. He pointed at the maid ghost on the ground not far off and asked, though he already knew. Shi Jian did not answer. He only gave Liu Xiu an expressionless look. Shi Shaojian, however, brightened as he looked at the maid ghost. Thought showed in his eyes, and he answered in earnest. "She should be that female ghost's maid, right?" "..." Very clever, aren't you? Shi Jian's face was cold. He shot Shi Shaojian a somewhat unkind look. Shi Shaojian hurriedly lowered his head and thought, aggrieved, What was wrong with him this time! Unwilling to look any longer at his own foolish son, Shi Jian reached out a large hand and seized across empty air. The maid ghost shrank where she was and flew toward his sleeve. As the maid flew toward his cuff, threads of azure lightning formed a single thunder prison and locked the maid ghost inside. "Right, Master. The female ghost is dead. Will those maids of hers harm people?" Liu Xiu asked. He had not forgotten that the several pretty maids beside the female ghost were ghosts as well. Shi Jian froze a moment, thought, and calculated on his fingers again before saying, "They shouldn't. After all... this maid doesn't have much baleful qi on her!" Like seeks like, and each kind keeps to its own. That was not said only of people. It was the same for ghosts. Neither the maid ghost nor the red-clothed female ghost was an evil ghost, so the remaining maid ghosts naturally were not evil ghosts either. "Oh, oh, then that's fine... All right, you can come over. The matter's settled. This time we really have my master to thank, suppressing evil spirits with supreme thunder arts. If not for my master, who's to say your Tan household wouldn't have died out after tonight..." As Liu Xiu spoke, he suddenly shouted toward the outside of the courtyard. "..." "..." Shi Shaojian and the other froze. Shi Jian looked expressionlessly at Shi Shaojian. The meaning in his eyes was very simple. Look at your junior brother. Then look at yourself! "..." Damn it. This little junior brother talks far too pleasingly! Fury rose in Shi Shaojian's heart... He beamed at the sweet-talking Liu Xiu, and heard him say to Master Tan and the others, "Don't only thank my master. You must thank my senior brother as well. This time we have him to thank for putting himself in danger and holding the female ghost off in the dream..." "Not at all, not at all..." Faced with the flattery of Master Tan and the others, Shi Shaojian smiled with embarrassment all over his face. The sight made the displeasure in Shi Jian's heart even worse. He looked at Liu Xiu again, then at Shi Shaojian. "If only this boy were my so— my disciple! How good that would be!" Shi Jian sighed inwardly, growing ever more satisfied with Liu Xiu. The three of them stayed a while longer at the Tan household, and only left once the silver was paid and the account settled. Honestly, the Tan household really was filthy rich. They had spoken of one hundred silver dollars, yet they paid a full one hundred and ten. A little open-handed. But not by much! That was Liu Xiu's thought! Shi Jian declined Master Tan's kind offer to send a carriage to see them off. After exchanging a few courtesies with Master Tan, who had walked the three of them the length of a street, he watched Master Tan and the others go back. "Master..." Liu Xiu began, meaning to go on, but a sudden feeling stirred in his heart, and he looked toward two old men passing not far off. "Heh, the Tan family is truly rich..." "Isn't that so. But who's to say they won't suddenly lose it all one day. Just like that Qin Erniu's family. A hundred years ago, didn't they get rich all of a sudden too? But now—tsk, tsk, tsk..." "You mean Qin Along's family, right... I heard that yesterday he was caught cheating at the gambling den, and they cut his fingers off..." "Hahaha, serves him right! With people like that you have to be ruthless and teach them a lasting lesson, so they don't harm others and themselves..." The two old men's voices grew farther and farther away. Liu Xiu's brows creased for an instant. Shi Jian looked at him strangely. "What's wrong?" "N-nothing... cough. There is something, there is. Before that female ghost, Madam Liu, killed herself, she told me she had left something in the neighboring town, and asked me to go fetch it. I'd like you to come with me, Master!" Liu Xiu said it with a smile. He was absolutely not afraid that the place where Madam Liu had left something might have a trap, or a pack of ghosts, or anything of the sort. How could that be? He, Liu Xiu, had the biggest guts of all!