Chapter 40 The Soul of Peony: Memories
Shao Yanzhe flipped his fingers, and his literary energy surged into the jade hairpin brush, causing the tip of the brush to suddenly explode with white light.
This time, he used a newly completed parallel prose poem, which has a total of one thousand characters. It is considered his first poem and is very suitable for use now.
Characters composed of literary energy intertwined in the air, forming a massive magic array.
He quickly took out a dagger and slashed his hand, blood flowing down the wound and dripping onto the black coffin in the split grave.
Once there was enough blood, he pointed with the tip of his pen: "Go!"
One by one, the elegant characters, in their current combination, suddenly burrowed into the black coffin.
With a bang, the black coffin exploded, revealing the corpse preserved inside.
Because the body was constantly enveloped by Yin energy, and because Madam Yin was a natural freezer, the body inside did not decompose.
As the written characters drew closer, black chains slowly appeared on the corpse. One end of the chains was bound to the corpse's hands, feet, waist, and neck, while the other end plunged into the ground, leading to an unknown destination.
The chains binding the corpse extended outwards to form an even thicker chain, which bound Lady Yin's soul, preventing her from leaving the body.
"I'm starting now!"
Shao Yanzhe spoke up to remind Madam Yin to prepare.
Madam Yin nodded immediately, focusing intently on what was about to happen.
With a flick of his wrist, Shao Yanzhe's jade hairpin pen caused the characters near his calf to hum, and the chains binding his calf to rattle violently.
The literary characters suddenly crashed into it, the chains shattered with a few cracking sounds, and an invisible energy wave spread outwards.
Shao Yanzhe's vision blurred, and he seemed to see a man helplessly picking up a crying baby. After seeing the baby's face, the man revealed a bright smile.
The image quickly disappeared. He shook his head, continued writing with the jade hairpin pen in his hand, and the chain on his other calf also broke.
Then another image flashed before my eyes: a little girl giggling and running towards a tall man. The man bent down, lifted the little girl high, and spun her around. Both of them had genuine smiles on their faces.
After the image disappeared, Shao Yanzhe guessed that it should be fragments of Lady Yin's memories from before her death.
This was another unexpected situation, one that Xuan Yao hadn't mentioned.
He glanced at Xuan Yao and saw that it was facing this way, but it covered its eyes with its two front paws, as if it had also noticed what was happening here, pretending that it hadn't seen anything.
He was both annoyed and amused. Could he possibly hit it?
Shao Yanzhe focused his mind and continued to break the next chain.
The three chains on his hands and waist shattered one by one.
Images flashed before Shao Yanzhe's eyes: the little girl began to learn to read and write, the little girl developed a love for writing poetry, and the final images grew increasingly dim. In the end, a man who looked much older lay in a coffin with his eyes closed, and the little girl broke down in tears.
As the chains binding his neck broke, he seemed to fall into a vortex of memories.
After the man died, the originally kind relatives became strange, subtly urging the young girl to get married quickly.
According to the regulations of the Dayong Dynasty, one could get married after observing a three-month mourning period. However, she insisted on observing a three-year mourning period for her father. Her relatives could not persuade her otherwise and could only reluctantly agree.
In just six months, the young woman became visibly haggard, and relatives came to her door every day to urge her to get married, which made her quite anxious.
One day, she encountered danger while out, and a scholar saved her. The two became acquainted.
The scholar often wrote her letters, along with a few poems for her to critique, and the two became acquainted.
One day, the young girl and the scholar made an appointment to attend a poetry gathering. On the way, they encountered a difficult situation caused by a concubine's daughter from a collateral branch of the family. Because she could not beat her in poetry, the concubine's daughter pushed her in a fit of anger and shame. Caught off guard, she fell into the lake behind her.
Finally, it was the scholar who rescued the little girl.
With many people witnessing the event, the young girl, under pressure, had no choice but to break off her engagement with Chen Jingxing of the Chen family and instead marry this scholar.
She could only take her own dowry with her; the rest of her property, due to the intervention of the clan elders, had to remain in the Shen family.
The young girl was powerless to fight against the clan elders, and even reporting it to the authorities was of no use; she could only grit her teeth and swallow her grievances.
After marriage, the scholar treated the young girl fairly well, and the young girl gradually became content with the status quo.
Until one day, by chance, the little girl was enjoying the cool afternoon air and sat alone in the artificial hill to watch the lotus flowers in the lake.
She overheard her scholar husband and his concubine recounting how he accepted money from the Shen family, plotted to meet her, obtained some good poems from a classmate and pretended they were his own, and finally, under the Shen family's plan, jumped into the lake to save the girl, thus helping the Shen family achieve their goal and seize the family property from the girl.
The delicate concubine leaned weakly against the scholar's chest: "Husband, does that mean you'll have to live with her for the rest of your life? Is it worth it for some money?"
Scholar Yan, with a mocking smile, sneered, "How could that be? She's just a merchant's daughter, still vulgar and filthy from showing her face in public, reeking of money, yet she's secretly exchanging favors, shameless! She has a few words of literature but dares to dream of taking the imperial examinations, truly ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth! Once I get my hands on her money, I'll divorce her and make you my principal wife, how about that?"
As he spoke, he jokingly reached out and pinched his concubine's fair and delicate chin, then lowered his head to kiss her.
But the scholar, along with his concubine, was kicked into the lake from behind by the enraged girl.
After discovering that the young girl knew about his scheme, the scholar decided to go all out and, revealing his true nature, conspired with his concubine to kill the man and then throw the body into the well in the courtyard.
The young girl's lingering resentment manifested as a vengeful ghost. The scholar, from who knows where, found someone to suppress her body, preventing her spirit from leaving the mansion. The scholar then left with the money and the people.
By a twist of fate, the little girl possessed a white peony in the courtyard.
The white peony turned red as a result, and she was able to move freely. When she tried to lift the suppression, she not only failed, but also suffered damage to her soul and fell into a deep sleep. The scholar took advantage of this and she became tainted with karmic burdens.
"What a scumbag!"
After reading Madam Yin's last memory, Shao Yanzhe really wanted to beat Leng Yanshan up. It was the first time he had ever seen such a shameless person!
Click, click, click!
The sound of chains breaking repeatedly drew his attention.
He turned his head and saw that the thick chains connecting the corpse and Madam Yin were breaking one by one.
She's free!
"Brother Shao, is this really a good idea?" Liu Mingyuan asked in a low voice, frowning, glancing around every now and then, afraid that Madam Yin, who was hiding somewhere, would hear him.
Shao Yanzhe glanced at Madam Yin, who was lazily leaning against the corner of the carriage reading a book, but did not tell him that Madam Yin was there.
He placed a chess piece, raised an eyebrow, and asked, "What's wrong with it?"
Liu Mingyuan absentmindedly placed a chess piece, his expression shifting unpredictably. After hesitating for a long time, he finally said, "If we take a coffin to Jiangzhou, the city guards will probably stop us."
"Don't worry, with Brother Zhou here, we'll get in smoothly." Shao Yanzhe placed a piece, beaming with joy, and said, "Brother Liu, I've won this time!"
Liu Mingyuan looked down and realized that he had placed the chess piece in the wrong place, and he was extremely annoyed.
After a long journey, perhaps because they had encountered someone like Madam Yin, their luck finally turned around. They did not encounter any danger along the way and arrived safely in Jiangzhou City.
Entering Jiangzhou City required a search by the city guards. Shao Yanzhe had been itching to get out of the carriage for a while, so he lifted the curtain and got off, intending to go outside for some fresh air.
Jiangzhou City was very prosperous, attracting many people to come here for business or study, resulting in long queues at the city gate.
Most of the caravans were full of goods and followed closely in front, with very little space between them, except for the caravan that Shao Yanzhe and his group were in.
After all, very few people can remain unmoved when faced with a dark coffin with a white cloth flower tied to the front.
The convoy behind the coffin was about a carriage's distance away, but no one had the idea of cutting in line. They preferred to stay to the back rather than be at the back.
Shao Yanzhe's gaze swept around and he actually saw a three-story teahouse.
"Brother Liu, Brother Zhou, Brother Chen, would you like to go to the teahouse for tea?"
"go!"
The three, who were also feeling stifled, immediately agreed.
Shao Yanzhe went up to the third floor and walked inside. His eyes swept over the teahouse's layout and he immediately took a liking to a spot near the window.
He sat by the window, turned his head to look outside, and was immediately drawn to a tall tree in the distance.
Outside the window was a vast expanse of green, and in this green expanse, the tall tree stood out like a crane among chickens.
He squinted and could vaguely see the tree swaying in the wind, looking just like a willow tree.
“Look, is that a willow tree?” he asked.
The three of them looked over, and Zhou Jiming immediately realized, "That is indeed a willow tree, and it's the oldest tree in Jiangzhou. I heard it's been alive for nearly a thousand years."
"A thousand years? Really?" Liu Mingyuan couldn't help but show a look of shock.
Chen Yunhe said thoughtfully, "Is it the famous 'Wish-Fulfilling Willow' of Jiangzhou?"
"That's right!"
"You all know about this willow tree?" Shao Yanzhe asked.
"Yes, I heard that praying at the Wish Willow is very effective."
Have you been there too?
"No, we know that relying on such vague and unrealistic prayers is not as practical as studying hard."
“That’s true! However, I’ve never seen such a tall willow tree before. How about we go and take a look after the provincial examination?” Liu Mingyuan suggested.
He glanced at the willow tree in the distance; because of his surname, he had a natural affinity for willow trees.
Now that he's encountered the legendary ancient tree, especially the willow tree, he'll definitely want to take a look.
“Okay!” Shao Yanzhe nodded happily. Even in modern times, he had never seen such a big tree, and he definitely wanted to take a look.
After the four finished their tea, they were almost at their group's destination, so they returned to the carriage.
Shao Yanzhe casually picked up Xuan Yao, who was lying and playing in the carriage, and stroked its fur on its back, squinting his eyes contentedly.
With Zhou Jiming present, their convoy quickly completed the search.
"Madam Yin, do you know where Leng Yanshan's residence is now?" Shao Yanzhe asked.
Madam Yin shook her head: "I don't know, but someone does."
After she finished speaking, she flicked her sleeve, and a white figure appeared in the carriage.
Xuan Yao, who was squinting, noticed this, opened his golden-black heterochromatic eyes, and bared his teeth at him.
Leng Zhijie, who had already become a spirit, suddenly shuddered as if he had encountered some natural enemy, and hid in the corner of the carriage.
“Tell us the location of Leng Yanshan’s current residence,” Madam Yin said coldly.
“Okay!” Leng Zhijie nodded hurriedly.
With his guidance, Shao Yanzhe led the cart carrying the coffin all the way to Leng Yanshan's residence.
When he arrived at his destination, he lifted the carriage curtain and saw a luxurious mansion with the words "Leng Mansion" written on the plaque above it.
He ordered his men to carry the coffin down and place it in front of the main gate of the Leng residence, ignoring the gatekeepers' attempts to stop him. He left as soon as the coffin was down.
All that remained was a pitch-black coffin and a dumbfounded gatekeeper.
Liu Mingyuan lowered the carriage curtain, frowned, and asked, "Isn't this a bit unethical?"
Shao Yanzhe smiled gently: "Morality is something you talk about with people."
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