Chapter 104: The Substitute Bride
As soon as she finished speaking, Liu Xiuxiu's body went limp, and she fell into Aunt Liu's arms.
"Master, this..."
Aunt Liu panicked instantly, fearing that something was wrong with her daughter again, and hurriedly asked her questions.
"It's alright. She'll forget what she saw while she was being controlled by the ghost after she's had a good night's sleep."
Jingwu said calmly that she still remembered that she was being controlled by a ghost, but she had just forgotten the details.
"Master, what exactly is going on? Is it because I brought my wedding dress home that she started targeting Xiuxiu?"
Aunt Liu helped her daughter to bed, her panicked heart finally calming down. Her eyes were red as she asked anxiously.
"No, it's just that your daughter's birth date and time happen to be very compatible with hers, making her suitable as her substitute." Jingwu said, while looking at the wedding dress.
The finest brocade is covered with delicate patterns embroidered with gold thread, the stitches are fine and dense. Although there are a few places that have been roughly repaired after being torn, it is still clear that the owner of this wedding dress was either rich or noble.
No wonder the shopkeeper was willing to pay ten taels of silver to buy it.
"There's nothing left on this wedding dress. You can send it back to the embroidery workshop."
Aunt Liu readily agreed, and after this incident, she never dared to touch the wedding dress again.
After her daughter woke up, she was asked to choose another wedding dress style, one that absolutely could not be the same as the one she had chosen before.
Seeing that the master was about to leave, Aunt Liu immediately ran to the inner room, rummaged through a wooden box by the bedside, and found fifty taels of silver notes.
This was all her savings, which she originally planned to divide equally among her three children when she got old.
Now that the master has saved Xiuxiu's life, he should give this money away as a reward.
Jingwu looked at the silver notes that Aunt Liu was holding in her hands and shook his head: "Give me twenty taels, that's enough."
"Huh?" Aunt Liu was stunned for a moment, then a warm feeling welled up in her heart, and her eyes reddened: "Master, you really have the heart of a Bodhisattva."
Jingwu couldn't bear to watch this sentimental scene and felt somewhat uncomfortable. She coughed lightly and said, "If you really want to thank me, then do more good deeds."
Aunt Liu readily agreed, and then asked her son to exchange the silver notes for smaller denominations, giving the young girl twenty taels.
After receiving the silver notes, Jingwu did not linger any longer and turned back to South Street.
She planned to finish the divination for the person who was waiting first, and then release the soul to help her pass on and be reincarnated.
Jingwu returned to South Street and immediately saw the scholarly-looking man still sitting in the chair waiting.
As soon as she saw that I was back, she immediately stood up.
"Master, you're back."
Jingwu nodded, sat back down in his chair, and said to the person in front of him, "What do you want to know?"
The scholarly-looking man was named Su Yunqin. He was just twenty years old and had recently passed the imperial examination and become a Juren (a successful candidate in the provincial-level imperial examination).
His ancestors once produced a high-ranking official, but the family later declined and no scholars emerged for decades.
Now, he has finally passed the imperial examination and become a scholar, and the whole family is proud of him.
In the period following the provincial examination, his doorstep was practically worn down by all his relatives and matchmakers.
His extended family believed that he had already passed the imperial examination and would surely have a bright future, so they introduced him to their nieces and friends' daughters.
Even his parents urged him to choose a suitable girl from among these women and get married as soon as possible.
But he didn't want to get married so early; he always felt that he should establish his career before starting a family.
He only passed the imperial examination and became a scholar, not an official. Why is he in such a hurry to get married?
But his parents and all his relatives were pressuring him so much, nagging him every day, that he was so annoyed that he wanted to just marry any girl.
Su Yunqin looked conflicted. After paying ten coins for the fortune telling, she looked up at the master with pleading eyes and asked, "Master, do you think I should get married or not?"
After accepting the money, Jingwu carefully examined his face.
Then, he chuckled and said, "Judging from your face, your true love will appear when you are twenty-five. If you marry at that time, you will inevitably be unfaithful and your wife will have an affair."
Upon hearing this, Su Yunqin immediately solidified his resolve.
He stood up and bowed deeply to the person in front of him: "Thank you, Master, I understand now."
After saying that, he turned and left.
Su Yunqin then hurried towards home, wanting to tell his parents what the master had said and ask them to calm down for a while.
Jingwu watched his retreating figure disappear into the distance, then prepared to pack up his stall.
Aunt Chen, who sells vegetables next door, asked curiously, "Little Awu, why are you closing up shop so early today? Didn't you just have two fortunes told?"
Jingwu said with a smile, "Aunt Liu also had her fortune told just now, and I have something to do, so I have to leave quickly."
Upon hearing this, Aunt Chen immediately realized that the person who had hurriedly taken the girl away was Aunt Liu.
She nodded and, with a smile, helped her move the tables and chairs into the steamed bun shop.
After thanking him, Jingwu turned and went home.
When she returned home, her family had not yet come back, so she went back inside and released the soul from the Qiankun Bag.
Jingwu cast a calming spell into her soul's body, and seeing that her eyes had become clear, he asked her a question.
How about I send you to be reincarnated?
The female ghost saw the golden light surrounding the person in front of her, her bloodshot eyes brightened, and she immediately said, "Master, I have a favor to ask of you. If you help me with this, I will immediately reincarnate."
"What is it?" Jingwu picked up the tea that Xue Wenhui had prepared in advance and took a sip.
"Go to Qili Mountain, collect my body and bury it, so that I may rest in peace."
The female ghost's name was Gu Suyue, and she was a maid in the wealthy Gu family of Jiangning Prefecture, Yuncheng.
She was sold into the Gu family at a young age and became the personal maid of the third daughter.
Inside the bridal sedan chair should have been her mistress, the Third Miss, but the Third Miss was unwilling to marry the sickly Young Master Ji through a political marriage, so she was allowed to take her place in the sedan chair.
Gu Suyue had no choice because the indenture was in the hands of the Gu family. But then she thought that as a maid, being able to marry a wealthy merchant's son and become his wife was a good deal.
So she obediently got into the bridal sedan chair.
The Gu family was afraid that the Ji family would find out that she was an imposter, so they prepared a wedding dress and dowry that were appropriate for a legitimate daughter of the Gu family.
The grand procession of ten miles of red bridal procession set off from Yuncheng and was bound for the capital, a journey that would take more than a month.
When the wedding procession passed through Qili Mountain, it was spotted by bandits.
The dowry contained a considerable amount of gold, silver, and valuables, which aroused the greed of the mountain bandits. They blocked the wedding procession, looted the money, and then stole her bridal sedan chair into the mountains.
The bandits of Qilizhai originally intended to use her identity to threaten the Gu family and demand five hundred taels of gold in exchange.
But Gu Suyue wasn't the real Third Miss; she was just a maid. How could they possibly exchange so much gold for her?
When the Gu family didn't come, the bandits became furious and tortured her.
Tormented to the point of despair, Gu Suyue ran away under the cover of night.
After running through two mountains, she got lost. Looking at the towering mountains, she was momentarily bewildered.
Just then, the bandits caught up with her, grinning maliciously as they tried to capture her and take her back.
Unwilling to endure any more torment, Gu Suyue looked at the cliff and leaped off.
Her body plummeted rapidly, the branches scratching her face and her wedding dress.
Gu Suyue fell heavily to the ground, hitting the back of her head, and a large amount of blood flowed out. She died at the foot of the cliff.
"Master, I have only one wish."
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