During the Hongwu period of the Ming Dynasty, there was a Xiucai named Cheng Wanli in Wendeng County, whose parents died early and lived alone. He has a bold and unrestrained temperament, and has always been unrestrained, but he is somewhat stupid and has not been able to win the move.
Once, Cheng Wanli and his literary friends gathered to drink, and after three rounds of drinking, one of the new friends joked to him: "Brother Cheng, I heard that you are bold and brave, and you slept in the mass grave for one night, and the younger brother really admired it." If you can go with me to the ruined temple in the southern suburbs for a night, the little brother will definitely feast on you. The new friend's name is Zhou Ziye, who thinks he is bold, and he wants to fight with Cheng Wanli through wine.
After Cheng Wanli listened, he was just about to get up and agree, but he was dragged by an old friend on the side. The old friend's name is Gu Zhiyuan, who is kind and honest, and has a good friendship with Cheng Wanli. He lowered his voice and said, "I heard that strange things have happened in the broken temples in the southern suburbs recently, and when people pass by at night, they can always hear the cries of women in the temple, which scares pedestrians to take a detour, and they are afraid of attracting unclean things, so you still don't want to go." ”
Cheng Wanli had not heard of this, and only then did he understand that Zhou Ziye was struggling for himself, so he patted Gu Zhiyuan's shoulder and thanked him. But Cheng Wanli still got up with a smile and said to Zhou Ziye, "Tonight I will go with you to the southern suburbs to break the temple, but after tonight, you must not forget your promise." ”
Zhou Ziye listened, patted his chest, and confidently said: "A gentleman's word, the horse is difficult to chase!" If you run away halfway, you'll have feasted on us!" Cheng Wanli promised to come down, and after dark, the two went to the broken temple.
When they entered the broken temple, they saw that the temple was covered with spider silk and dust, lifeless, and there was a headless stone statue standing in the middle of the temple, which was very terrifying. Cheng Wanli was drunk, and after looking around, he came to a wall and leaned back to sleep. Zhou Ziye also found a place to rest.
I don't know how long ago, they suddenly heard the woman crying, and when they woke up, they found a young girl curled up in the corner of the wall crying. Cheng Wanli suddenly remembered what his friend Gu Zhiyuan said, and felt that the woman in front of him was most likely a ghost fox elf.
But Cheng Wanli saw the girl crying bitterly, and thought to himself, even if the girl is a monster, she should be kind. Not frightened, he got up and walked over, asking, "In the dead of night, why is the girl here alone, and why is she crying?" Zhou Ziye did not want to show weakness, and also got up and followed.
The girl looked up at the sound, Zhou Ziye saw the girl's appearance, suddenly screamed out loud, scared to run out of the broken temple, and kept shouting in his mouth: "Hell! "Then I didn't know where to go. Why is this happening? Look at the official and look down.
It turned out that the girl's cloak was scattered, her face was miserable, there was still blood in the corners of her two mouths, and her eyes were staring angrily at Zhou Ziye. After Zhou Ziye ran out, the young girl turned her head to look at Cheng Wanli, her mouth was talking, and her hands were still constantly comparing.
Cheng Wanli was also shocked to take two steps back, he saw the girl like this, only to realize that the girl in front of him was a mute girl, so he squatted down and tentatively asked, "Where are your parents?" When the girl heard this, she cried even harder and shook her head.
Cheng Wanli saw this and then asked, "Can a girl write?" The girl still shook her head, and Cheng Wanli continued to ask, "Do you need me to help you?" The girl began to nod her head, and even knelt down in thanks.
Cheng Wanli hurriedly lifted up the young girl and frowned: "You and I can't communicate at the moment, when I bring paper and ink tomorrow, teach you to read and read, then you write down and tell me, I will try my best to help you." "The young girl is very grateful to Cheng Wanli,
At this moment, the sky was about to dawn, and the young girl took a few steps back, gave a salute to Cheng Wanli, and then disappeared. Cheng Wanli saw the situation, which determined that the woman was not human. He waited until dawn before he walked out of the broken temple.
As soon as he came out, Cheng Wanli saw a person standing not far away, and this person was Zhou Ziye. Zhou Ziye smiled ashamedly and said to Cheng Wanli: "Brother Cheng is really bold and brave, the younger brother is really not as good, since he lost the bet, he should be willing to gamble and lose, so go to the banquet to invite you." Cheng Wanli smiled and agreed.
At the banquet, Cheng Wanli said the truth of the matter and said that he would live in the broken temple for a long time. The literary friends all felt incredible, but they all said that they would help him move things, and Cheng Wanli was very grateful.
That night, Cheng Wanli lived in the broken temple, and he used the straw mat as the bed and the large stone as the table. As soon as it was dark, the young girl appeared in front of Cheng Wanli, the corners of her mouth were less bloodstained, and her face was like an ordinary person, looking about fourteen or fifteen years old. After she saw Cheng Wanli, she performed another salute.
When Cheng Wanli saw the young girl, his heart was inexplicably happy, so he taught the girl to read and write. In this way, day by day, the girl came every night, and before dawn left, they talked and laughed together, and there was a fight and a fight, just like a husband and wife. However, Cheng Wanli never knew the girl's name.
A month passed, and one night, the young girl came as usual, but held a piece of paper in her hand and handed it to Cheng Wanli. Only to see that it reads:
Thanks to the help of benefactors, she can now write and tell that the little girl's name is Li Xiangjun, her nickname is Qiu Xia, her mother died early, and she and her father are dependent on each other. My father and I used to live in the countryside and sell tofu for a living, but we were destroyed by a local scoundrel.
Described on paper, there is a local scoundrel named Ma Er, who is rich in family, sinister and cunning, and has always been overbearing. Ma Er covets Qiu Xia's beauty and borrows tofu to rub oil, and Qiu Xia's father learns of this and asks his daughter to stay at home.
However, Ma Er refused to give up, and even brought more than a dozen servants from the family to Qiu Xia's house, not only smashing things, but also snatching Qiu Xia away. Qiu Xia's father vigorously resisted, but was beaten to death by the people brought by Ma Er and buried in his own courtyard.
Qiu Xia watched her father die tragically, but she was powerless and grief-stricken. Afterwards, the villagers were afraid of retaliation and did not dare to report to the officials. Soon, the matter reached the county seat, and ZhiXian did not track down the murderer. Because Ma Er had already given the money to Zhi County.
Qiu Xia was powerless to resist, and in order not to be humiliated, she bit her tongue and committed suicide halfway. Ma Er saw the situation, very disgusted, at that time happened to pass by the broken temple, let people bury Qiu Xia in the broken temple, there is no grave. After Qiu Xia died, she still couldn't speak, and because her resentment was too deep, she couldn't reincarnate, and she became a lone ghost, and she didn't know where her father was.
Shortly after Qiu Xia's death, he went to take revenge on Ma Er, but it happened that a long guest was in Ma Er's house, driving Qiu Xia away and protecting Ma Er. After that, a charm was posted at the gate of Ma Er's house and in front of each door, so that Qiu Xia could not get close, and hid in the broken temple at night to cry.
The last sentence on the paper reads: "I hope that the benefactor will help to get justice, although he will die in this life, he is willing to repay the cattle and horses in the next life." ”
The more Cheng Wanli looked, the angrier he became, and said to Qiu Xia, "I will do my best to help in this matter, and I will definitely let the evil people be severely punished and seek justice for you." Qiu Xia listened and was extremely grateful.
Cheng Wanlituo inquired and learned that there was indeed a scoundrel named Ma Er in the countryside, who had no one in sight on weekdays, did all the evil deeds, and no one dared to provoke him, and even when Zhixian saw him, he had to give three points of courtesy.
One night, Cheng Wanli said to Qiu Xia, "Recently, I am going out to report this matter to the prefect, and I must not let the evil people continue to stumble." Qiu Xia was so excited that she hugged Cheng Wanli, and Cheng Wanli was overwhelmed for a while.
After this night, Cheng Wanli set off for the prefect of Dengzhou Prefecture to beat a drum and complain, saying that Ma Er of Wendeng County was overbearing and taking people's lives, and told the story of Qiu Xia's family. However, the prefect did not act, verbally agreed to come down, but hesitated.
At that time, there was an aide in the Dengzhou capital named Hu Zhengye, who was righteous and upright, found Cheng Wanli to ask about the situation, and decided to thoroughly investigate the matter. However, he knew that he could not convict Ma Er alone, and just when he was worried, he heard that the inspector Yushi was going to inspect the Dengzhou capital, so he wrote a complaint and submitted it.
After watching the imperial history, he was furious and found the prefect of Dengzhou for accountability. Subsequently, Inspector Yushi personally investigated Ma Er, and the final evidence was conclusive, Ma Er was imprisoned, and Qiu Hou asked for beheading.
When Cheng Wanli learned of this, his heart was very excited, he found Hu Zhengye to thank him, and then returned to prepare to inform Qiu Xia of the news. When he returned to the broken temple, he did not see Qiu Xia for several days in a row, and Cheng Wanli was very disappointed in his heart.
Suddenly, one day, Qiu Xia came to the Broken Temple, and Cheng Wanli was very happy. Qiu Xia smiled slightly, and actually said, "The benefactor has won justice for me, so that the wicked can be severely punished, and my resentment has dissipated." The reason why I didn't come recently was because yin and yang found me and took me to see the king of Yama. Yama took out the roster, checked on me, and asked me to meet my father, and then my father entered the reincarnation. Listening to Qiu Xia speak, Cheng Wanli was surprised and happy.
Qiu Xia smiled again, and then said, "King Yan heard that you had eliminated harm to the people, and he was full of praise. I was able to speak. It is the gift of Yama that makes me come back and say goodbye to you, and I will be reincarnated. I heard that I was going to be reborn in the Wang family, the richest man in Zhaoyuan County, and maybe at that time, I won't remember what you look like. ”
After speaking, Qiu Xia's eyes lit up with tears and she said, "Can you hug me?" Cheng Wanli hugged Qiu Xia and said that the boy had tears and did not flick, but at this time he was in tears. Although the two did not give up, they had to go through the separation. When it was almost dawn, Qiu Xia quietly left.
After Qiu Xia left, Cheng Wanli spent more than half a month to find out that there was indeed a richest man named Wang Zun in Zhaoyuan County, and his wife was pregnant in October, just a few days ago, he suddenly gave birth to a daughter, named Wang E.
Fourteen years later, Cheng Wanlituo's matchmaker went to the Wang family to propose to him, and the matchmaker told the story of Cheng Wanli's previous efforts to eliminate evil for the people, but Wang Zun felt that although Cheng Wanli's character was good, at the age of thirty-five, he was still a talent and did not want to marry a daughter.
When Cheng Wanli heard the news, he was very disappointed. Wang E listened to the close servant Huan talk about Cheng Wanli's kissing, and also told about Cheng Wanli's courage not to be afraid of evil forces, and heard Wang E's praise.
The next morning, Wang E found her father and insisted on marrying Cheng Wanli. Wang Zun regarded his daughter as a pearl, thought about it, and was afraid that her daughter would do something stupid, so he agreed to the marriage.
After marriage, Cheng Wanli took great care of Wang E, and Wang E was lively and smiled, bringing many joys to Cheng Wanli. Since then, Cheng Wanli has been like an enlightened trick, reading books and never forgetting, no longer as stupid as before. He went all the way from the examination to the jinshi, and was assigned to the local area as a zhixian county.
Cheng Wanli took Wang E with him, and a year later, Wang E gave birth to a son. Cheng Wanli is just for the people, deeply respected by the people, and has made considerable achievements. Many years later, he was promoted to prefect, and finally became a major courtier.
This story is a folk tale called "Autumn Xia", original author: Chen Bai.