Text/Murong Zijun
During the Qing Dynasty, there was a young man named Aqiu in Jinan, Shandong, who came from a poor family and worked as a servant and bodyguard for many years. Achu is loyal to his master, so he is very trusted by his master, but he loves to drink, is casual, and often follows his master to run around, so he does not often go home.
Achu's father died of illness for many years, and there was only his mother and a younger sister in the family, the younger sister named Hideko, who was not yet married and served his mother at home. Although Achu is nearly thirty years old, because of his family's poverty, the matchmaker also walks around his home.
On this day, when Ah Qiu was out of office and riding his horse through Linqing County, he was very thirsty because he had drunk a lot of wine at noon. But there was no tea seller around, and after walking forward for a while, I saw a few grass huts in the woods on the left, as if it were a small village.
When he came to the door of a house, he saw a beautiful young woman sitting under a shed made of pine trees buying fresh fruit, and Achu jumped off his horse and looked closer, only to see that there were five peaches as big as the mouth of the bowl in the basket, and the peaches were bright red in color and with dew.
So I asked the woman: Why is this peach so big, it won't be a demon peach, right?
The woman smiled and replied: This is the peach that my brother brought back from the snowy mountains, the name is Di Fu Xiang, we don't have this variety in this place, this peach is sweet and thirst-quenching, but it is delicious.
Achu asked how much money was one, the woman smiled and said: Every hundred yuan, Achu hurriedly took money from the pocket in his waist, but did not feel the money, it turned out that he paid for the wine when he was drinking, and he hurriedly unwrapped the package to get the money.
The woman said: Since there is no change, let's give it to one, it is just a peach, and it is not worth a few dollars. With that, he took a peach from the basket and peeled it for him with a knife.
Achu took the peach and ate it, and it was very delicious, he had never eaten such a sweet and delicious peach, so he thanked the woman again and again.
The woman saw that he had eaten the peaches in three or two bites, and knew that he had not eaten enough, so she gave him the remaining four peaches in the basket and said: Leave it to eat on the road, the hotel in front of you is still fifty or sixty miles away from here, and you still have to walk for a while.
Achu took the peach and put it in the bag, and he was very impressed, so he asked the woman's name.
The woman said: My surname is Song, my name is Erniang, there is a mother in the family, she is also surnamed Song, this will just go to my aunt's house to drink happy wine. There is also an older brother named Guro, who wanders the world, but often appears in front of you suddenly, often frightening me to the point of scattering, in fact, he is a good man, filial to his mother, and loves his sister.
After Ah Qiu thanked him, he bid farewell to the second lady, and after he finished his business in the capital, he bought rouge pollen and other supplies that girls liked, and passed by the place where the second lady lived again.
I saw that the second lady was laughing with an old woman in the courtyard, it must be her mother, and when she saw him coming, the second lady said to her mother: The person who ate our peaches a few days ago came over. When Ah Qiu entered the courtyard, he first performed a greeting ceremony to the old woman and handed the gifts he bought to the second lady.
The old woman said politely: Only a few peaches can be worth a few dollars, so you can buy such a valuable gift at a cost.
Ah Qiu said: This rouge gouache did not use much money, and the second lady took the gift back to the house with a red face, and then brought tea to Ah Qiu. When Ah Qiu sat down to drink water, he found that the second lady had deliberately dressed up again, looking more feminine and beautiful, and Ah Qiu couldn't help but flirt with her eyebrows.
Erniang also squinted her eyes at him and smiled, Ah Qiu was suddenly fascinated, it was already dusk, he still refused to get up and leave, Song Shi also guessed his heart, so he left him to eat.
The second lady heard that her mother kept the guests, so she hurried to the kitchen to cook. Achu took the opportunity to ask about the old woman's age and the age of the second lady, and what Guro was doing outside.
Song Shi smiled and said: As for my age, I don't remember it clearly, but I haven't forgotten the age of the second lady, when she was young, I could hold her up with one hand, and in the blink of an eye she was eighteen years old, some time ago the matchmaker came to the house to propose to the family, but the second lady did not match the family.
When Ah Qiu heard that the second lady had not yet married, she was very happy in her heart, so she went to this village to find a matchmaker and came to the Song family to propose relatives. Unexpectedly, Song Shi actually agreed to it happily, and the second lady was also very fond of him. Therefore, Ah Qiu did not leave, and entered the Song family, and after marriage, the two couples were also very affectionate.
Shortly after the marriage, Jiulang, the brother of the second wife, suddenly sent a letter saying that he was married in Shaanxi and would take his newlywed wife home in the next few days. After receiving the letter, Song Shi was very worried and said to his daughter: There are only three houses in the family, how will your brother and sister-in-law live when they come back?
Ah Qiu wanted to take his new daughter-in-law home, so he asked his mother-in-law to let him take the second wife back to Jinan to live, and said that the mother at home was also looking forward to the return of the couple. When Song Shi heard this, he smiled and said: "My daughter is already married, and I should go back with you, but I am too spoiled with her, so I stayed with you."
Early the next morning, Ah Qiu and Er Niang packed their bags and said goodbye to their mother, and Er Niang shed tears and could not bear to be separated from her mother. The mother sent them to the carriage waiting outside the door and said: Don't cry anymore, the girl will always get married, the son-in-law is also chosen by yourself, after you go back, you must honor the mother-in-law, obey the husband, and love the sister-in-law.
In this way, Ah Qiu returned to Jinan with the second lady, and the second lady first met her mother-in-law, who saw that the second lady was not only beautiful, but also very docile, so she liked her very much. The sister-in-law Ying Zi also often revolves around her sister-in-law, doing needlework with her sister-in-law, cooking together, and getting along harmoniously with her sister-in-law.
The neighbors on the left and right were very surprised how Achu suddenly had such a blessing and actually married such a virtuous wife, and for this reason, the mother-in-law was even happier.
The following year, Aqiu's mother suddenly fell ill and died, and the second mother also cried her heart and lungs, and After Aqiu's funeral for her mother, she still followed her master to do things.
On this day, Ah Qiu passed through Linqing, planning to visit his mother-in-law by the way, you can also get to know your brother-in-law Jiulang, who knows where to look, the side of the avenue only sees rows of poplar trees, there is no village at all, the person who gave him the matchmaker is also gone, the second mother's house has disappeared out of thin air, for this reason, the heart is very uncomfortable.
Ah Qiu suspected that his wife Erniang had come, and when she returned home, she interrogated Erniang, who did not seem to worry at all about where her mother had gone, but only said lightly: Maybe her mother moved with her brother to live somewhere else.
Achu suspects that his wife is not a human, perhaps a fox spirit, which is best at using beauty to seduce men, so he often secretly follows the second wife, and secretly asks his sister Hideko. And Hideko always said that her sister-in-law was clean and self-loving, and never talked to other men.
Ma Xiucai, a neighbor who lives on the left side of Aqiu, always passes in front of Aqiu's house when he goes to the academy every day to study. On this day, when he passed by the door of Aqiu's house, Erniang happened to sweep the floor at the door, and after seeing Ma Xiucai, he suddenly covered his mouth and smiled, and Ma Xiucai also smiled at Erniang.
In fact, it was Ma Xiucai's classmate who made a joke with him, pasted a paper-cut turtle on his turban, and when he came home in a hurry, he actually forgot to take it off, so the second lady couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Unexpectedly, this scene was just seen by Ah Qiu, so he said that Erniang was interested in Ma Xiucai, so he grabbed Erniang's hair and beat her violently, and Hideko rushed forward to stop her brother, but Ah Qiu pushed her sister to the ground, and Ying Zi knelt in front of her brother to intercede for her sister-in-law.
From then on, Ah Qiu looked for stubble for three days, and as long as the second lady could distinguish a few words, he punched and kicked the second lady, beat the second lady to the nose and blue face, and said that he was blind and married a woman of unknown origin.
The second lady cried and said: Although I am a humble person, I am also a good family woman, and I have not disobeyed the way of women, so why did the second head provoke an incident in three days to beat me?
On this day, Achu went to the tavern to drink, drunk, and on the way home he met a woodcutter, carrying a load full of firewood, and three fresh peaches hung in front of the burden, and seeing how drunk Achu was, the woodcutter was handed him a peach to sober up.
After Achu ate the peach, he immediately sobered up, he asked the woodcutter how much money, the woodcutter said: This is the peach from my tree, since I like to eat, the remaining two are also taken to eat, and then don't lose your temper, it is not good for you.
Achu took the peach and asked where the woodcutter lived and why he said something inexplicable, but in the blink of an eye, the woodcutter was gone.
Ah Qiu gave the peach core to his wife, saying that in the next year to plant in the courtyard, the second lady put the peach core in the plate, who knew that it was stolen by the cat in the middle of the night, the second lady did not care, Aqiu found that the peach core was gone, and said that the second lady gave it to Ma Xiucai. Therefore, he did not listen to Erniang's defense, and angrily came to Ma Xiucai's house to search.
Sure enough, Ma Xiucai happened to have three peach cores on his desk, so he scolded Ma Xiucai. Ma Xiucai said angrily: When I came out of the academy yesterday, I saw an old man selling peaches in front of the academy, so I bought a few.
Ah Qiu listened and had nothing to say, after returning home, he beat erniang violently, and erniang was wronged, and he was also heartbroken, so he no longer defended, nor did he cry, and Ren Aqiu's rainy fist hit his body.
The next day, after Achu went out, Hideko felt that her sister-in-law had been wronged, so she went outside to buy wine and meat, and asked her sister-in-law to drink wine indoors to dispel her resentment. The second lady also knew that the little sister-in-law was kind and also to persuade herself, so she did not resign, and the two sat down to drink.
Who knew that after drinking a few glasses of wine, the second lady suddenly turned into a white fox, and Hideko understood why her brother was looking for her sister-in-law's stubble every day, so she hurriedly covered her sister-in-law with a quilt and guarded her side, anxiously waiting for her sister-in-law to wake up.
Who knows, when the second lady was still asleep, Aqiu suddenly returned home, entered the house and saw the wine and meat on the table, so she angrily asked her sister: Why do girls want to drink, after passing it out, how do you marry, where did your sister-in-law go? Hideko looked at her brother's fierce face, and she didn't dare to hide it, so she pointed to her sister-in-law in the quilt.
Ah Qiu opened the quilt to see, sure enough, Erniang is a fox spirit, he did not say a word, he actually tied the hands and feet of Erniang with a rope, but Erniang still did not wake up, he drew a self-defense saber from his body, Ying Zi was frightened and hurriedly knelt down to plead with his brother, saying: Sister-in-law is a virtuous woman, even if she is a fox spirit, has he hurt you?
At this moment, erniang was awakened by Hideko's crying, but her hands and feet were bound firmly, and she drank wine, so she could not break free, so she begged her husband to let her go with a complaining look.
Who knew that this Aqiu, raised his saber, slashed at the second lady's body, and slashed several times in a row, and the knife was fatal. In this way, the second lady, who was like a peach blossom, disappeared.
After Ying Zi waited for her brother to go out, she quietly wrapped her sister-in-law in a white cloth, and then buried the second lady under a peach tree. Then came a twenty-eight or nine-year-old man, who dug the second lady out of the soil again, and he cried and said: Sister, I will definitely avenge you, and then hold the second lady and disappear.
Soon, the neighbors on the left and right all knew about this matter, and everyone thought that Ah Qiu was too cruel, even if the second lady was a fox spirit, she could get along, and hated her and sent her away, why did she kill the second lady so cruelly. Therefore, everyone stopped talking to him and hid far away when they saw him coming.
Achu also knew that he had become infamous, but he didn't care at all, and soon after, he hurriedly married his sister and sold the family.
Who knew that he had just sold his home, his master had been dismissed from his post because of a case, and Aqiu had no place to go, so he had to live in the White Cloud Temple.
In the White Cloud Temple, he found a young Daoist monk, sitting cross-legged in the East Head Corridor every day, looking silly, but he heard that this Daoist priest could predict people's misfortunes, so Aqiu asked the Daoist about his future.
The young Daoist priest looked at him and said, "You are tall and mighty, you are very good-looking, you are a person with a great future, and there are many opportunities." Achu asked him where his chances were.
The Daoist priest said: There is an official named Ye Chen, who was recently appointed by the emperor as the Taishou of Yanzhou, but his foot was suddenly injured, and it was difficult to enter the court to see the emperor for a while, and he found several langzhong and did not cure his illness, and now he is in a hurry, it just so happens that I have a panacea here, I will give you the medicine, so that you will not have a chance?
With that, the Taoist priest took out a small gourd from the inside of the sleeve, poured out some medicinal powder from the gourd, and took out a peach the size of a date from the sleeve, squeezed the peach juice into the medicinal powder, and then made a pill and handed it to Aqiu.
Achu took the pill and said, "If this medicine really works, how can I repay you?"
The Taoist priest looked into his eyes and said, "You and I have a relationship and we don't need your recompense."
Achu didn't believe in this Daoist priest at first, and he didn't know him, but why was he so kind to help himself? But then I think about it, now that I am desperate, I might as well try it.
Therefore, he came to Ye Mansion with the pill and told the janitor that he could cure Ye Taishou's illness. Ye Taishou was in a hurry at this time, and after listening to the janitor's report, he unthinkingly asked people to invite Aqiu to the palace. After Ye Taishou listened to Ah Qiu's words, he couldn't wait to take the pill.
In the middle of the night, Ye Taishou felt that the bones and joints of his whole body clicked so loudly that he could hear it, and there was also a hot gas coming from the heart of his feet, and his illness was miraculously cured.
Early the next morning, he called Achu to him and said, "You have cured me of my illness, and hey, because of my foot disease, I almost delayed my future, and said, let people bring money to Achu to reward him."
Achu hurriedly knelt down and said, "I don't want to accept money and rewards, I just want to follow the adults on errands." Ye Taishou happily agreed to his request.
Soon, Ye Taishou took Ah Qiu to Yanzhou to take up his post, and before leaving, Ah Qiu came to the Taoist Temple to thank the Daoist, who knew that the Daoist was gone, and asked about the other Daoists, and everyone said that there was no such person in this Taoist temple.
Because Aqiu healed Ye Taishou's stubborn disease, he trusted Aqiu very much, so important things were entrusted to him. As a result, Achu gradually swelled up, and in less than two years, he secretly embezzled more than two thousand taels of silver.
In fact, Ye Taishou also knew some of Aqiu's bad deeds, but Aqiu was strict and did not leak, Ye Taishou had to pretend not to know, and repeatedly endured him.
In this year, the road around the Yellow River fell into disrepair and collapsed for a long time, and the emissaries of the Jianhe River went up to the emperor to re-build the embankment, and inspector Fengzhao cooperated with the river emissaries to supervise such a major project as the construction of the fiber road, and Ye Taishou was also ordered to go to the construction site to supervise.
Before Ye Taishou left, he told Ah Qiu: Where my convoy passes, don't alarm the local officials, just find a clean hotel outside the city to stay.
Ah Qiu was very unhappy to hear this, and although he agreed on the surface, in his heart he began to curse Ye Taishou, because doing so made him lose a good opportunity to embezzle and take bribes.
That night, the owl was barking in the room, and the sound was like a ghost crying wolf. The next day, Achu rode on his horse, following behind Taishou's carriage, and the two messengers who followed Achu were surprised to find that behind Achu's tail were two clusters of ghost fire, flying up and down, and the two servants hurried forward to tell him that Achu was having nowhere to vent his stomach fire, so he took the horse whip and beat the two messengers.
After going for more than a month, the construction of the embankment was completed, and Ye Taishou returned to Gunzhou. On the way back, passing through the west of Caozhou City, Ah Qiu suddenly saw two boys of seven or eight years old, with snow-white skin and scattered capes, sitting on the treetops picking peaches to eat.
Achu asked the child on the tree: How can so many peaches be produced at this time? A child said: This peach is called Yishuizi, which is a specialty of our hometown, and there is no other place at all. Achu asked them to give him a peach to taste.
A small child threw him a peach from a tree, and after eating it, he immediately felt chest tightness and palpitations, and there was an inexplicable fire, and he forced himself to come to the hotel he had found before, and the yard was very dirty. After Ye Taishou got out of the car, he frowned and asked Ah Qiu: How did you find this place?
Ah Qiu couldn't bear it any longer, he narrowed his eyes and shouted to Taishou: You poor talent, but only three or four years ago, just in this arrogant and arrogant, I have served Zhongcheng and Yushi, I have never seen a poor person like you, if I don't give you the elixir, can you take office as this official? Maybe you'll die a few more times. With that, he raised his horse whip and whipped Ye Taishou up.
Ye Taishou was defenseless, and his cheeks and head immediately swollen with bruises and purple lumps, as if they had grown bad sores, and the pain was unbearable. The other servants who followed him immediately came to subdue him, and Achu struggled to escape, but was finally tied up by several people and escorted to prison.
The next day, when Xu Observant heard the news, he was furious, and he further learned that Na Aqiu had embezzled two large amounts of silver and deceived him, so he sentenced Aqiu to death.
Ah Qiu was escorted to the Dharma Field, and only then did he wake up, and he remembered that the JiaoFu he had encountered was not accidental, but at that time, he did not repent, but he killed his wife and second wife, and the mysterious Taoist monk, and after eating the peaches thrown to him by the two children, he was confused and immediately became a devil. Thinking of this, he cried loudly.
At this time, Hideko had not seen her brother for three years, and the night before, she suddenly dreamed of her sister-in-law Erniang, took her hand and smiled, and she asked her sister-in-law: Do you still hate your brother?
My sister-in-law smiled and said, "I was about to go to Gunzhou to pick up your brother, and as she spoke, she looked up at the sky and laughed."
Eiko suddenly woke up from the dream, knowing that the dream was an ominous omen, so she and her husband hired a carriage and came to Gunzhou to visit her brother. Who knew that he had arrived and learned that his brother had been escorted to the execution ground.
Hideko and her husband hurried to the execution site, and before Achu died, she finally saw Wei Yi's relatives, so she cried and said: Sister, please collect the body for me, I now know that I am wrong, I should accept this punishment. As soon as he finished speaking, he was executed.
Ye Taishou knew that Ah Qiu's sister was coming, so he asked Ying Zi and her husband to take Ah Qiu to the room where Ah Qiu was staying, and all the money in Ah Qiu's chest, the two tolerances were sealed in front of them, and then confiscated the treasury.
Ye Taishou took out his own money, let Ying Zi and his wife buy a coffin door for Ah Qiu, and buried Ah Qiu thickly, and gave Ying Zi some money, which made them return, for this reason, Ying Zi was very moved.
That night, suddenly a young man in the form of a scholar came to see Taishou and gave Him a yellow peach, saying: This is Chu Tao, which can heal the wounds you have been hit by Aqiu. After Ye Taishou ate it, the place that had been injured by the whip had indeed healed, and it was painful to sleep a few days ago, and now it didn't hurt at all.
Ye Taishou wanted to repay him and asked for his name.
Shusheng smiled and said: I am actually the brother of the second mother, Aqiu is my brother-in-law, Aqiu knew my sister's true origin, he brutally killed her, so I used a knife to kill myself, after all, he is my brother-in-law, I can't bear to kill him personally, otherwise it will reduce my spells by a few percent.
My mother heard that Lord Ye was a clean official and had been hurt by Aqiu, so she asked me to come and treat the wounds of the adults.
After saying that, the scholar suddenly disappeared in full view of everyone.