Facing each other

Ah Li nodded curiously, and Cha Suxun began to tell him what happened at that time. When he just passed by the tavern, the drunk old woman was pushed out by two tavern waiters.

One of the waiters warned, "Dirty woman, you come to our tavern drunk every day and act crazy! You talk nonsense! There are so many taverns in this town, and you're targeting ours. Our boss said that if you dare to come again tomorrow, we'll do more than just kick you out!"

"You are so ungrateful! Look at the mean faces of you profiteers! Am I talking nonsense? Who doesn't know that the tomboy from the Chen family died unjustly? Have some conscience. I'm telling stories here and attracting so many people to your tavern, and you don't even give me two taels of wine as a reward? You always wait until I finish my story before sending people away! You will suffer retribution from the devil!"

"You're not leaving yet? Someone come here! Beat him up!" As he said that, the waiter started to call people back to the house to get sticks, as if he was really going to start a fight.

Fortunately, a middle-aged man suddenly emerged from the crowd and pulled her over to a nearby wine stand. He poured her a bowl of fine wine and placed it in front of her. He even said in a veneer of justice, "You're really bullying customers with your size! Come, sit here and drink. I'll give you as much wine as you want."

"Boss, you are really good at handling things. Go and do your own thing. I, an old woman, won't cause trouble for good people. I'll pay for the wine." As she said that, she put ten copper coins on the table.

Seeing that the old woman was so drunk yet still continued to drink, someone in the crowd said, "The owner of this wine stall is a good person. Since you said you wouldn't cause trouble for good people, why don't you continue to talk about the Chen family's youngest son at his stall, so as not to run into anyone from the Chen family."

"His family dared to cling to the powerful and swallow their anger, and they are not allowed to say anything? If you have the guts, just don't do it! In this case, our family is the real victim! Come on, come on! Everyone, come and judge for me. I am not afraid of revenge and death today. I will tell you all from the beginning! If you are afraid, leave quickly. If you are not afraid, buy a bowl of wine from this conscientious boss and listen to me. Anyway, you are just customers drinking, no one knows each other. How can the Chen family beat you?"

As soon as the old woman finished speaking, while everyone was hesitating, Cha Suxun calmly walked out of the crowd, bought the first bowl of wine, and chose an empty table not far from the old woman to sit down.

And there were actually some people who dared to sit here and listen just to join in the fun. Driven by curiosity, more and more people bought wine and joined the table.

The owner of the wine stall made money, but he did not forget to protect his "God of Wealth" and hurriedly lowered the tarpaulin of the wine stall, leaving only the door exposed.

"I wasn't originally a beggar. I came from the next town over, earning a little money selling night-blooming incense to support my little granddaughter. My little granddaughter took after her mother, who worked in a brothel, and was born with a beautiful face. I hid her at home, afraid to let anyone see her. But she was young and ignorant, and she thought I was cruel. She sneaked out while I was out selling night-blooming incense, and happened to run into the Chen family. That night, the Chen family detained my granddaughter, sent someone to find me, stuffed two taels of silver, and said they wanted to marry her. Their words were full of threats, implying that their master's sister was the county magistrate's favorite concubine, and that with just one word, we would all die. It's better to live a miserable life than to die. But my granddaughter, attracted by the handsomeness of the Chen family boy, insisted on marrying him. I couldn't help but disagree, but I thought it was a good thing. Who would have thought that although she was nominally the Chen family boy's concubine, she was actually mainly serving his father. The Chen family boy only likes men!"

At this time, someone in the crowd interrupted and said, "Your granddaughter has a mother who works in a brothel. Being able to be a concubine for someone else is actually not bad. It's better than being like her mother. My second uncle's daughter is also a concubine in the Chen family. Every year the Chen family sends one or two taels of silver. Don't be ungrateful."

The old woman turned around and rolled her eyes at him. "Master Chen is incredibly licentious. He's taken in at least a dozen concubines, right? I'm sure everyone here, or someone you know, knows one or two men who married their daughters into the Chen family as concubines, right? But what you don't know is that Master Chen doesn't enjoy pleasure alone, but rather enjoys it with others. He also dislikes going to brothels, disliking them as unclean. He always invites a few bastards to enjoy themselves at home."

Someone questioned, "How do you, a neighbor who lives next door and suppresses Yexiang, know about the inner house?"

"Because the condition for my granddaughter to enter the Chen Mansion was that I had to serve in the backyard, they assigned me the job of sweeping and cleaning. Master Chen and his men did these beastly things without hiding from others, and the Chen family's servants were used to seeing it, so they just pretended they hadn't seen anything. They signed a death contract, so who could escape? Until I saw with my own eyes that my granddaughter was tortured beyond recognition, and we couldn't escape! We couldn't kill those bastards either, I hated it! Fortunately, the kid from the Chen family died suddenly! He was poisoned and hanged on the beam in front of his father's bed. The wind was so strong that night that it blew in through the open window, causing his son's body to swing around the room all night. Master Chen was awakened and saw this scene, and he was scared to death on the spot."

"How could such a thing actually happen? Didn't they say that Master Chen had dementia due to old age? I heard that his youngest son was poisoned to death, but I haven't heard that he hanged himself from the beams for a whole night. No wonder his father went crazy."

"Yes, yes, there's a dead body hanging in front of the bed..."

For a moment, everyone lowered their voices and said that the money was well spent.

"You all think that the Li family, the cloth merchants who were originally sentenced, are the real culprits. In fact, they are not. The Li family simply offended the officials and took the blame. Who knows if it is just the thief crying thief? Who killed the Chen family's son? I am afraid that only the current head of the family, Mrs. Chen, knows."

"The Chen family's son was hanged to death. Are you assuming that those who have hanged themselves in the town recently are seeking revenge because the Chen family's son died unjustly? It wasn't these people who killed him, so where does the hatred come from? Besides, the families of the people who died last night all said that the ghost was a female ghost!"

The old woman turned to look at them, snorting coldly and scornfully, "Everyone in Dishui Town is implicated in the death of the Chen family's son. No one can completely absolve themselves of the blame. Let me ask you, when the rumors started circulating in town about the Chen family's son being cowardly and acting like a woman, with a penchant for men, which of you didn't add fuel to the fire? You even told stories about what he did and didn't do as if it were true. Is that true? Besides, who hasn't laughed at the Chen family's son's figure, his manners, and the fact that he looks like a woman from behind?"

She looked at the crowd who were silent and pretending not to hear, with disgust and disdain in her eyes.

"After the death of the Chen family's son, weren't many houses haunted? For example, the one in the west wing saw the Chen family's son hanging by her bed when she woke up at night, with his tongue hanging out. When she looked up to see his face clearly, his eyeballs had fallen into her face. Does anyone who lives in the west wing know about this?"

The auntie at the back table, who was cracking edamame, immediately responded, "Yeah, yes, yes, it's true. My aunt lives next door to that family, and I heard about it the next day. It's true."

The old woman continued, "For example, the man on Dongshui Street had an unbearable stomachache and went to the toilet at night. He squatted there for a long time. His wife came out with a torch to check and fainted from fright. The man panicked and quickly pulled up his pants and stood up, but before he could stand straight, he felt something on his head. Looking up, he realized it was a ghost's feet. The next day, neighbors rescued the two people who had fainted. When they told the story of the previous night, the man learned that his wife fainted because she saw something swaying in the distance through the broken door of the toilet when she came out. The man opened the door, and with the help of the torch, the woman saw that it was a hanged ghost and immediately fainted from fright."

"Yes, yes, yes! It was my wife who found them lying outside the toilet when she got up in the early morning to feed the pigs. She said she didn't know how long the ghost had been hanging over their heads. After that, the couple didn't dare to go to the toilet outside, so they just used the bucket inside the house. Even now, even if they can't afford to eat, they still light candles all night, and the house is covered with talismans."

"I won't go into all the other haunted stories one by one. I think everyone sitting here knows a lot. You can all talk about it. Ask them again, who among those who died or saw ghosts didn't spread rumors about the Chen family's son that were too exaggerated."

"So this is all revenge from the Chen family's son?"

When someone asked about this, the old woman suddenly stopped talking, sat down, finished a bowl of wine, and fell asleep on the table. Not many people left the bar, and everyone started discussing the old woman's drunken talk. Most of the conversations were about haunted houses. Cha Suxun listened for a while, then lost interest and left.

After hearing this, Ah Li asked, "There's been a lot of talk about ghosts in Dishui Town. I think this old woman might have something to do with it."

"How do you say that?"

"Let's not talk about whether the ghost story is true or not. She is just the mother-in-law of a concubine. She knew so much about the Chen family but was not silenced. She even escaped from the Chen family. At this time, she dared to say these things in the tavern in broad daylight, which is undoubtedly leading to the Chen family being blamed. This matter has caused trouble with the government. Let's not get involved and stay away from it. We are not gods who can save the world, but just mortals. I just hope that our family will be safe. The murderer has killed so many people. He will go to the underworld and be judged by the King of Hell."

Ah Li pulled Ah Xun closer, somewhat worriedly, and confirmed with him, "Promise me that you won't get involved in this matter and put yourself in danger."

"My lady, I promise I'll take care of my own life. But I can't watch so many people die if I can help."

Cha Suxun was willing to agree to anything she said, but duty came before feelings. Since he was the Lord of the Underworld, he couldn't bear to watch so many mortals die before their life span was up.