Chapter 1
"I told you long ago that she was a jinx, but you refused to listen. Just for a few taels of silver, you brought her into your home to bring disaster upon others! Now Shang'er is in trouble, and it's all your fault, you vicious woman!"
"My dear Shang'er, my dear Shang'er...it's all because grandma has no money, so I can't marry you off to a girl from a good family!"
"It's all your fault, you damned unlucky star! You can't do the housework, and you can't take care of Shang'er! Kneel down in front of Shang'er's spirit. If anything goes wrong, I'll sell you to a brothel and keep you there forever!"
It was a funeral, but the villagers heard a lot of dirty things.
When Lu Shang, the eldest son of Lu Laoer, died of illness, the whole village felt it was both normal and unexpected.
It is normal because Lu Shang has been weak since he was a child, and he would cough up blood and faint easily. He was critically ill several times. He was still alive today thanks to God's blessing. Since the Chinese New Year this year, he has been ill. Even the doctor in the town shook his head and said that it was not good, and asked his family to prepare for his funeral.
The unexpected thing was that Lu Laoer's family had just bought a wife for Lu Shang not long ago. They had hoped that the wife would help them get by for a few more years, but who would have thought that the wedding would turn into a funeral after only two months.
With an indeterminate feeling of regret or to watch the fun, all the villagers ran to Lu Laoer's house. On the surface, they came to express their condolences, but only they themselves knew what they were thinking in their hearts.
After two days, they were not disappointed.
Ever since Lu Shang was put into the coffin, there has been a drama every day at Lu Laoer's house. There are more than a dozen people in the family, big and small, and even a three-year-old child can step on Jiang Wanning and curse back. Not only will he not be blamed by the adults, but he will also be praised for cursing well.
Jiang Wanning was the wife that Lu Laoer's family bought for good fortune at a cost of three taels of silver.
The people in Lujia Village did not know the background of this bride who was brought for good fortune. They only knew that she was the daughter of a convicted official who was sentenced to exile and was sold as a wife on the way to exile.
It must be said that they were once a wealthy family. Even though they have fallen on hard times, they are still different from these peasants.
But no matter how different he was, in the eyes of Lu Laoer's family, he was just a cheap guy who could be ordered around and beaten at will.
Just like now, when someone dies in the village, there is rarely a stay at home for a while, especially in summer. In order to prevent the body from stinking, most of the time it is only kept at home for half a day before being buried. Rich families will prepare a coffin, while those with less money will just use a straw mat.
Who would have thought that Lu Laoer's family would imitate the wealthy families in the city. They hastily built a thatched hut, set up a mourning hall, and insisted that Lu Shang's wife kneel day and night for seven days.
The thatched hut used as the mourning hall was built too hastily. Not only was it leaky on all sides, but even the roof was tattered. When the wind blew, the whole house seemed to be crumbling.
This mourning hall is more for torturing Jiang Wanning than for commemorating Lu Shang.
After all, the person who can help the family with tax exemption is gone, and someone has to let them vent their anger.
——Yes, although Lu Shang was in poor health, he was one of the few scholars in Lujia Village.
The Da Zhao calendar stipulated that if a scholar did not bow when meeting an official, he would be exempted from punishment for committing a crime. In addition to a monthly salary of two taels of silver, he would be exempted from taxes on thirty acres of land, and all his family members would be exempted from all labor.
It was precisely because of the privileges brought by his status as a scholar that Lu Shang, the only son left by his ex-wife, was able to survive smoothly at home. Even though he was sick, he did not die in bed with no one to take care of him.
Although he managed to survive for so many years and struggled for a long time, he ultimately could not escape death.
…
The moon was above the willows, and the villagers who came to pay their respects dispersed one after another, leaving Jiang Wanning alone in the lonely mourning hall.
Through the half-open door, a thin figure was reflected on the ground. The candlelight flickered, and the shadow became unreal and distorted.
The thatched hut was empty, with only a dark coffin placed in the middle. Four candles were lit at the four corners of the house, but because they had been used for too long, only a short candle head was left, and the flame was even weaker.
At this time of night when everyone is asleep, even being alone in a thatched hut would be scary, let alone there being a coffin in the hut.
After two days, Jiang Wanning was pressed in front of the coffin by her mother-in-law Wang Cuilian. The straw mat for kneeling was also removed. Her knees had been kneeling on the cold ground for days, and her legs had long been numb due to her thin summer clothes.
After everyone left last night, Jiang Wanning wanted to get up and rest, but she had only stood up for a moment when she was caught by Wang Cuilian who came to check. If she hadn't dodged around the coffin, she would have been beaten and scolded again.
Fortunately, it was the middle of the night. Wang Cuilian was afraid of the dead person in the house, so she put her hands on her hips and cursed, then left angrily.
But after yesterday's lesson, Jiang Wanning was afraid of being caught again, so even though her knees were numb with pain, she didn't dare to move.
She was not afraid of scolding or beating, but she could not bear being sold to a brothel.
The Lu family can not only say such words, but also actually do things.
Jiang Wanning had been at the Lu family for three months and had a thorough understanding of this family. All the fantasies she had when she was bought here were completely shattered by the cold treatment and abuse she received day after day.
When the Lu family bought her, it was to bring good luck to the sick in the family. Now that Lu Shang is gone, she...
Thinking of everything that had happened since the Jiang family fell from power, Jiang Wanning's eyes flashed with despair, and she felt even more hopeless about the days ahead.
As the night deepened outside, the summer breeze blew into the thatched cottage, bringing a bit of coolness.
Jiang Wanning's health has not been as good as before in the past six months. When the wind blows on her, she doesn't feel refreshed, but rather a little cold.
She moved her knees and wanted to stand up and move around a bit, but as soon as she moved a little, she felt a pain on her face from the pricking sensation on her knees. She had to stop immediately and dared not move again for a moment.
Through the dim candlelight, I could see that the young face had a waxy look, and the ends of the jet-black hair had a little yellow. The ten fingers that had never touched water were covered with a thin layer of calluses, and tiny scars were faintly visible on the fingertips.
Jiang Wanning is really too thin.
The clothes were not big to begin with, but the cuffs were still empty on her. The exposed wrists could be covered with two fingers, and there was no flesh on the back of her shoulders, only protruding shoulder blades.
As her breathing gradually calmed down, her back became more hunched, and she looked even smaller under the heavy coffin.
As the chickens, ducks, geese and dogs in the village fell asleep, the mourning hall fell into complete silence. The slightest movement outside the house sounded like a midnight noise to Jiang Wanning.
She repeatedly told herself not to be afraid, but many emotions could not be controlled by reason.
"It's okay, it's okay. Lu Shangke is weak. Even if he comes back to life, I can still beat him..." Thinking of her husband who was so sick that he would fall down at the slightest gust of wind, Jiang Wanning secretly encouraged herself.
Boom——
"Ahhh!" A knocking sound coming from somewhere made her shudder and scream uncontrollably.
Jiang Wanning's sleepiness disappeared in an instant. If her legs hadn't been holding her back, she would have crawled away.
Although she couldn't move at the moment, it didn't stop her from beating her legs. She would wait for the numbness to ease so that she could escape from this damn place as soon as possible.
only--
Jiang Wanning's hands suddenly stopped flapping. She raised her head in a daze and looked at the coffin not far away. She couldn't think of where else to escape to.
Not to mention that they haven't seen any ghosts yet, if there really is something, it would be good if the Lu family didn't sacrifice her to the ghosts and gods, let alone take her in for refuge.
She looked around blankly, looking back at the past year or so. She had gone from being a pampered young lady to a wife on the road to exile trying to raise money for her mother's medical treatment. She had never told anyone about her hardships, and there was no one she could talk to.
But this doesn't mean that she isn't afraid or aggrieved.
The summer breeze blew out the candle in the corner, making the hut even darker.
Sadness dispelled the fear of the unknown. Jiang Wanning knelt dejectedly on the ground, holding her breath and listening carefully. After making sure that there were no more strange sounds, she finally couldn't help sobbing softly.
I don't know how long it took, but she stopped crying and just wiped her tears pitifully.
Just as she was about to sit down and rest, another muffled knocking sound was heard.
"Ahhhhhh!" Jiang Wanning was terrified.
This time, as if to deliberately scare her, the knocking sound did not disappear, but instead rang twice at regular intervals. The sound was irregular and of varying strengths.
Jiang Wanning didn't want to find out where the sound came from, but the sound was too obvious in this thatched hut. However, if she focused a little, she could find the source of the sound.
She swallowed and pinched herself hard.
——The source of the sound has not changed.
Jiang Wanning widened her eyes and stared blankly at the coffin that made the sound.
Boom, boom, boom...
The knocking sounds were like a death warrant, hitting her heart again and again.
After another knocking sound, Jiang Wanning burst into tears: "Wuwu, although you don't like me, I am your wife after all. Considering that I have taken care of you for two months... Lu Shang, don't scare me--"
She backed away while crying and accidentally bumped into the guest table. She was so frightened that she didn't even know how to get around it. She just kept squeezing back and didn't move for a long time.
Accompanied by the knocking sounds from the coffin, the night wind became gloomy.
Just when Jiang Wanning was about to faint from fright, the sound from the coffin suddenly stopped, and the next moment, the entire coffin lid began to shake violently.
"!" Jiang Wanning was so shocked that she had forgotten to cry. She just sat there in a daze, staring at the coffin without blinking.
The coffin lid shook up and down and moved out of the slots on both sides.
With a bang, the coffin lid was pushed out and fell heavily to the ground.
For a long time afterwards, the hut was dead silent.
Only the faint gasps from the coffin and the occasional familiar coughs reached Jiang Wanning's ears, but their power was no less than that of summer thunder.
The next moment, a pale, bluish hand climbed onto the edge of the coffin. The hand slowly moved outward until it grasped a point of leverage, then suddenly exerted force and pulled the person out of the coffin.
Then, Jiang Wanning saw her sickly husband, who had been dead for two days, gasping for breath and crawling out of the coffin little by little.
In the dim candlelight, she vaguely saw Lu Shang's eyes, which were shining with a ghostly light.
“…”
“It’s haunted!”
Jiang Wanning's tears streamed down her face, and she bumped into the table leg in panic. She didn't care about the pain and turned around to run outside.
Half of Lu Shang's body was hanging on the edge of the coffin. He was really out of strength, so he loosened his grip and let himself fall out of the coffin.
He endured the drowsiness and listened to the screams in his ears. When he opened his eyes, he saw a woman using all four limbs to crawl out in panic.
After finally climbing out of the coffin, Lu Shang didn't want to lose his life again in an unclear way. He took two heavy breaths and shouted, "Stop—stop—"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
