During the Zhengde period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a family named Zheng Agong in Wu County, Suzhou, who was nearly sixty years old and very tough. When he was young, he was fat and strong, and he looked fierce, and the child would cry when he saw him. Because of this, he was regarded by the county magistrate as an executioner, and after being executed to ninety-nine people according to the rules, he washed his hands and returned to the village.
When Zheng Agong was a teenager, because of his fierce appearance, he frightened the woman from marrying him. In middle age, no woman is willing to marry an executioner. Today, his sideburns are white, his knees are childless, and the evening scene is desolate. Relatives of the family have died one after another, and the only surviving generation is a nephew who is doing business.
On this day, his nephew Zheng Gui came to the door and said that his son was going to marry and invited Zheng Agong to a wedding feast. In fact, Zheng Gui did not want to invite Zheng Agong, because it was a red matter, and he was worried that his uncle who had been an executioner would attract anger. However, the elders in the family did not come, worried about being blamed by the woman's family, so they were reluctant to come to Zheng Agong.
Zheng Agong was very happy in his heart, and after he went into hiding, he almost lived a life of isolation from the world. Neighbors were afraid of him and thought he was an ominous man. He wanted to talk to the child on the side of the road to relieve his boredom, but the child said, "I don't play with you, Daddy said you are a bad person." ”
Hearing that his nephew had specifically instructed him to eat a banquet, he was very happy in his heart, and every day he was looking forward to the day of eating the banquet. On this day, Zheng Agong got up very early, put on the new clothes specially made for the wedding feast, and strode out the door.
But halfway through, he suddenly turned his head and went home, and because he had changed his new clothes, he forgot to leave a piece of his belongings at home. It was a broken knife, a knife that had killed ninety-nine evil people, and when the golden basin washed his hands, in order to show that he was separated from the past, he broke the knife into two pieces, one for souvenirs, and the other for self-defense.
Although Zheng Agong is nearly sixty years old, he still has a knife that does not leave his body, but his body is bloated and wearing fat clothes, and ordinary people can't see that the broken knife is hidden in his clothes. It took some effort to go this time, and when Zheng Agong arrived at the nephew Zheng Gui's house, there was already a banquet.
At this time, the lobby was very crowded, Zheng Gui's son Zheng Shanhai was greeting guests, he found Zheng Agong standing at the door, immediately came forward to greet, he said: "Uncle himself came to Pengxun Shenghui." ”
Zheng Agong took out the gift and said, "I am happy that you can invite me to a wedding feast." The two of them exchanged polite remarks, Zheng Shanhai looked at the seat a little embarrassed, I don't know if his father Zheng Gui forgot that Zheng Agong would come, or deliberately did not set a seat for him, so that there was no vacant seat in the lobby at this time.
Zheng Shanhai had no choice but to apologize to Zheng Agong and take him to the private room of the woman's relatives for dinner. The woman was a foreigner who had married here, but there were many people who came to the wedding feast, this table just accommodated ten people, and Zheng Ahgong was arranged to sit on the main seat.
After Zheng Shanhai let everyone eat and drink well, he closed the door and went out. The private room suddenly became silent, and the guests looked around and ate the dishes on the table. Zheng Agong thought that he could talk to others more, but when he saw that everyone was ignoring him, he could only bow his head and eat, muttering in his heart: "The woman's relatives are really strange." ”
At this moment, Zheng Agong took a bite of the dish and immediately spit it out. This meal is not fresh, and it is a foul smell in the mouth, which is really difficult to swallow. However, the people around them ate with relish.
Zheng Agong had doubts in his heart, and he glanced around and noticed something strange. The decoration of this room is a little strange, white candles are lit around in the daytime, and the window flowers are not red happy characters, but white happy characters.
As an executioner over the years, Zheng Ah Gong had learned some Zhou Yi techniques, because he dealt with evil people all day, so he was very vigilant. He pretended to drop his chopsticks on the ground, bent down to pick them up, and when he lifted the tablecloth and saw that everyone's feet were off the ground, he was so frightened that his back was cold and sweaty, his teeth were trembling, and his heart already knew that this was a white marriage.
At this time, Zheng Gui's father and son entered the house with a wine glass to toast, and the guests present changed their indifference just now, became very enthusiastic, and raised their glasses to greet them, and Zheng Agong took the opportunity to pull Zheng Shanhai and said: "Who is the chef who made this banquet?" ”
Zheng Shanhai said: "Due to the haste of becoming a relative, I couldn't find a helper chef at once, so I had to trouble my mother-in-law, Mrs. Jin, to cook herself, so I made a few decent banquets." "Zheng Agong asked Zheng Shanhai to come over to some of the sticky rice, saying that he wanted to take some home.
Zheng Gui saw the two sneaking and muttering, and went forward to ask what was going on? Zheng Agong said, "I'm a little overwhelmed, you helped me outside to gasp for breath." Therefore, Zheng Gui's father and son helped Zheng Agong out of the private room.
After the three of them went out, Zheng Agong quickly grabbed Zheng Gui's wrist and said, "Do you all know the guests who came today?" Zheng Guizhi said, "Most of them are guests from the woman's family." Zheng Agong asked again, "What is the origin of the woman who shanhai married?" ”
It turned out to be zheng gui's daughter-in-law selected for his son, and he learned from his friends that there was a very rich widow in the countryside who wanted to marry her daughter, this widow was called Mrs. Jin, the daughter was called Jin Mei, Zheng Gui coveted the other party's money, so he found a matchmaker to propose to him. Unexpectedly, the other party happily agreed to the kiss.
However, the other party made a request that the wedding banquet must be arranged by the woman's family. Zheng Gui was also a miserly person, and knowing that he could marry his daughter-in-law without spending money, of course agreed. Not long after, Mrs. Jin came to the Zheng family with her daughter, and Jin Mei never left the room when she arrived at the Zheng family.
After listening to Zheng Agong fell into contemplation, and a moment later, Zheng Shanhai took a bag of glutinous rice over, and Zheng Agong grabbed a handful in his hand and turned around to the private room of the woman's relative. Only to see him wave his big hand, the sticky rice was sprinkled on the dinner table, and a smelly black smoke spread out.
Zheng Gui's father and son wanted to stop Zheng Agong's rash behavior, but they were stunned to see the scene in the private room. Where are the guests in the house? There were ten little people tied with paper, and the dinner table was full of hairy meals.
Zheng Agong asked, "The person who arranged the wedding banquet is weird, who arranged it?" Zheng Shanhai said, "It was all done by my mother-in-law." Zheng Agong was no longer hiding, he took out a broken knife from his clothes, drank a mouthful of old wine, sprayed it on the knife edge, only to see him split the void, as if he was torn apart, and the lobby was instantly quiet.
Zheng Gui's father and son hid behind Zheng Agong, and the three of them came to the lobby, only to see small people sitting in the hall with paper tied, and the tables were some hairy leftovers. The surrounding area is lit with white candles, and the bib decorates the lobby with some gloom.
At this moment, a roar rang out from the back kitchen, and a black shadow flashed in front of the three people. Only to see an old woman with a pale face, sunken eyes, and purple lips appear in front of the three people, she was Zheng Shanhai's mother-in-law, Lady Jin.
Madame Jin looked at Zheng Agong and said, "I didn't expect to meet you, which caused my plan to fail." Zheng Agong said, "I heard that ten years ago, the warlock Wang Changshan was beheaded for evil, and his wife Jin Mei has been on the run, so I guess it's you." ”
Mrs. Jin and her husband Wang Changshan are proficient in jianghu magic, and use this skill to deceive everywhere. Ten years ago, her husband was arrested and beheaded, she hid in Tibet to escape, and fled to the local area, this time, she pretended to be a woman of a high-gate household, and took a fancy to Zheng Gui's son, Lady Jin wanted to wait until after the night of the cave flower candle, and looted the gold and silver of the Zheng family, but she did not expect to be recognized by Zheng Agong.
Mrs. Jin said, "Since you have seen through it, I will not pretend, as long as I hand over the gold and silver, I will spare you." Zheng Agong was not angry with himself, holding a broken knife in both hands and doing a horizontal split. He said, "Wang Changshan was beheaded by my sword, I have killed ninety-nine evil people in my life, and killing you today is just a hundred times more than perfect." ”
When Lady Jin heard that her husband had been killed by Zheng Agong, she lost control of her emotions, stopped hiding, and immediately waved her hand to shoot out silk, controlling the paper man to attack Zheng Agong. Zheng Agong's left hand was empty and the three fingers of Lady Jin's neck were drawn, and his right hand was holding a broken knife, ignoring the attack of the paper man, and he forced it to split at Lady Jin.
Between the shadows of the sword and light, Mrs. Jin slammed to the end, and she was frightened and fainted. When the broken knife cut the silk, she suddenly woke up to the fact that Zheng Agong was an executioner, this broken knife was dedicated to cutting the evil in the world, and seeing that it was doomed, she was under the hegemonic knife, and her mind was frightened and trance, and she did not dare to resist at all.
When Zheng Agong saw Lady Jin fall to the ground, he put away the broken knife and left without turning his head back. Subsequently, Zheng Gui went to the county magistrate to report to the officials, and the servant detained Lady Jin, who had plagued the people for many years. For the rest of his life, Zheng Gui was very grateful to Zheng Agong for his help, and he felt ashamed that he had once alienated Zheng Agong.
From then on, he often visited Zheng Agong to talk with him, and the people around him knew that Zheng Agong was doing harm to the people, and they all changed their previous fears of him and admired his bravery.
Write at the end:
In his twilight years, Because of the misunderstanding of his profession, he wanted to find someone to talk to to relieve his boredom, and as a result, everyone avoided him. Just happened to attend the wedding banquet of his nephew and grandson, he saw through Mrs. Jin's means of using magic to defraud money, he stepped forward to save people regardless of safety, and in the end, he left people under the knife and did not hurt Mrs. Jin.
I have seen a record in the miscellaneous records: In ancient times, when the executioners executed ninety-nine people, they had to wash their hands in golden basins, and they should not kill again, for fear of being contaminated. And after the execution, do not look back, in case the prisoner sees his face and is retaliated against. These executioners, in the eyes of others, are fierce and evil, but in private, they eat and pray to the Buddha, and are happy to be charitable.
People do not distinguish between high and low, noble and low, and work is not divided into three, six, nine and so on. All men are created equal, regardless of whether they are noble or poor. No matter what kind of work you do, you should be respected, not discriminated against.