Chapter 23
The county magistrate has been very busy lately. Two murders have just occurred in Jianye Town, with the victims' bodies nailed to a wall in the bustling city center. Public resentment is boiling over. The victims' families cry outside the government office every day, and some people are asking whether it's revenge or the work of demons.
His superiors have questioned him many times, and even forced him to sign a pledge, demanding that he solve the case within a specified time and guarantee that such incidents will not occur again in Jianye Town for the next three years.
It was at this moment that a young woman came to the government office, repeatedly saying that she wanted to turn herself in.
When he heard the servant's report, he almost jumped up. Two murder cases solved just like that? Great, he could finally keep his hat.
When he arrived at the hall, he saw a woman with a sallow complexion and a thin figure. Could such a person have tortured and killed two men? Could she have nailed people to the wall?
Upon seeing the magistrate arrive, Zhang's eldest daughter-in-law rushed forward as if she had seen a savior, grabbing his leg and crying, "My lord, I've killed someone! Kill me!"
The magistrate was taken aback when the woman grabbed his leg like that. He immediately tried to push her away, but couldn't budge her. He didn't know how the woman could be so strong, so he called to the people around him to pull her off.
When news of someone turning themselves in reached the government office, the people watching the commotion with the victim's family immediately spread the word: the murder case was about to be solved, and the murderer had surrendered.
The next day, everyone in Jianye Town knew the murder case had been solved, and the town was abuzz with discussion. Because the murderer was a woman, for some reason, the story became circulated as a revenge plot by a promiscuous woman. In short, the rumors were extremely offensive, and Zhou Xuanzhi felt very uncomfortable listening to the people in the tavern talking about it.
However, with Zhang's eldest daughter-in-law turning herself in, the Zhang family must be having a hard time right now. He left the tavern and went to the Zhang family's house. As soon as he entered the alley, he saw a crowd gathered together, pointing and whispering about the Zhang family.
The Zhang family was surrounded by government officials, and the entire family was arrested. At this point, everyone noticed that the family's mental state was off; it seemed as if some kind of monster had drained their life force.
He gave a thumbs-up to the little beast on the roof. The dream-eating tapir was quite pleased with itself, even doing a forward roll. Luckily, no one could see it; they might be scared to death.
"Why was the entire Zhang family arrested?" a woman asked.
"There's been a murder! Look at their faces, they're definitely terrified because of the killing."
"Killed by a family?"
"Otherwise, not one person could nail it up."
...
This news needs to be told to Su Qiwen. He has been waiting for so long, and finally, he has received good news.
After Zhou Xuan visited the Ye family's shop, he found Su Qiwen.
Upon seeing Zhou Xuanzhi's arrival, Su Qiwen's smile vanished. He usually communicated with Xiao Mu, but today it was Zhou Xuanzhi instead, making him quite uneasy. Had something changed? He stepped forward: "Has something happened?"
"Go wait outside the government office and call Ye Lingxi's parents," Zhou Xuanzhi said. He knew that this family still held onto a sliver of hope until they saw Ye Lingxi's body.
Rumors are circulating outside that the murderer has turned himself in. Could it be that this person tortured and killed Lingxi? He stumbled out the door, even tripping over the threshold.
Zhou Xuanzhi and Zhou Xuanzhi followed behind Su Qiwen, while Xiao Mu guarded the Ye family's shop to protect the young lady Ma.
Upon arriving outside the government office, the two hid in the crowd and listened to the magistrate's questions in the courtroom.
Only after hearing the family's answer did everyone realize that they had killed someone to arrange a ghost marriage for their deceased son. When asked who the killer was, Ye Lingxi's family members arrived.
"The daughter of the Ye family, who run a general store."
Upon hearing this, Ye Lingxi's mother fainted. Ye's father rushed into the hall, intending to kill the entire family, but was stopped by the constables. Su Qiwen, on the other hand, stood there stunned, unable to hear anything around him.
The practice of killing living people to arrange ghost marriages for the dead in Jianye Town was brought to the magistrate's court for the first time.
The magistrate looked at Ye's father, who was crying his heart out in front of the court, and Ye's mother, whose philtrum was being pinched outside. He also recalled the missing women's reports piled high in the warehouse.
These evil deeds in Jianye Town have been unable to be resolved for various reasons, so starting today, this disgusting drama should come to an end.
When his eldest daughter-in-law revealed how Ye Lingxi was killed, Su Qiwen closed his eyes. He wished he could rush up and kill those people.
Some of the onlookers left, while others continued to hurl insults.
Sensing the murderous intent and ferocity emanating from Su Qiwen, Zhou Xuanzhi wanted to go up and persuade him, but since he was inside the government office, they couldn't expose themselves to the crowd yet and could only wait for an opportunity.
After the case was concluded at the government office, familiar neighbors went to comfort Ye's parents. Shi Yunzhou and Zhou Xuanzhi also approached Su Qiwen. Seeing his menacing aura, Shi Yunzhou worried he might cause them trouble and asked, "Don't you want to take her home?"
Su Qiwen, who hadn't reacted until he heard Shi Yunzhou's words, finally responded. He looked up at Shi Yunzhou and heard him say, "She has suffered so much injustice and wants to go home."
Su Qiwen knew that the person in front of him was a cultivator who had come to help him. He was about to speak when he fainted and fell into Zhou Xuanzhi's arms behind him.
"What did you do to him?" Zhou Xuanzhi asked Su Qiwen through mouthing.
"Let him get some sleep." When he wakes up, everything will be alright tomorrow.
At this point, we can't let Su Qiwen be provoked any further, or he'll easily go to extremes. If he's targeted by demons and they plant something bad in him, he'll be completely finished.
Everyone felt sorry for Su Qiwen when they saw him faint. If it weren't for this incident, he would probably have passed the imperial examination and married Ye Lingxi by now. What a pity.
Since they had killed someone, they naturally wanted to see the body. Early the next morning, a group of people arrived at the cemetery and watched as the government officials dug up the grave.
When the coffin marked with talismans appeared before everyone, Ye's parents collapsed onto it, weeping bitterly. Their daughter, missing for a year, hadn't truly disappeared; she had been murdered. How could this couple, who only had one daughter, bear such a tragedy?
When the coffin was opened, black smoke billowed out, and everyone around gasped. Ye Lingxi's body was not yet decomposed, and her wounds were similar to those of the two men nailed to the wall.
The magistrate naturally witnessed this as well. A year after his death, his body remained incorrupt, and black smoke continued to emanate from it.
Among the onlookers was an elderly man with gray hair. Upon seeing Ye Lingxi's appearance, he exclaimed, "Her resentment is overwhelming! How pitiful!"
The crowd of onlookers retreated, and even the constables guarding the coffin took a step back. Ye Lingxi's parents didn't back down; they pushed through the obstruction to see their daughter, who appeared to be asleep. But the stitches in her mouth and the several thumb-thick iron nails in her body were impossible for them to ignore.
"You knew all along?" Su Qiwen asked Zhou Xuanzhi and the other two beside him. They had said it before, but he didn't believe it and held onto the hope that such a thing wouldn't happen to Ling Xi.
Seeing Su Qiwen's dejected appearance, Zhou Xuanzhi didn't know what to say for a moment. "We also discovered it by accident."
"So what?" So why didn't you say so from the beginning? Why make Ye Lingxi suffer for so many more days? Why couldn't you let her go home earlier?
Zhou Xuanzhi lowered his head and said, "I'm sorry, this is the only thing we can do."
"Why?"
“I don’t know what Junior Brother Xiao told you, but Miss Ye can’t enter the cycle of reincarnation right now. She’s burdened with resentment and can only wander the mortal realm as a lonely ghost,” Zhou Xuanzhi explained. “If we want her to get rid of the resentment, we can go to the underworld.”
He pointed to another coffin and asked, "What about him? Why is he allowed to?"
That was Zhang's second son, a petty thief who harassed women. Why was he allowed to reincarnate? Why did Ye Lingxi have to suffer so much?
“He won’t have a good time in the underworld either. Even if he is reincarnated as a human, he won’t have a good ending,” Zhou Xuanzhi said.
"Evil in this life will lead to suffering in the next?" Su Qiwen's eyes were bloodshot, and the veins on his forehead and neck were bulging.
“This is a problem with your laws. If Jianye Town had punished all families who arranged ghost marriages from the beginning, we wouldn’t be in this situation today.” Hearing Su Qiwen’s words, Shi Yunzhou was a little annoyed and said bluntly, “As far as I know, every magistrate who has come to Jianye Town wants to change this situation, so why hasn’t it changed yet?”
“I understand that you, Young Master Su, harbor resentment. You are also a scholar, so study hard, pass the imperial examination, and you can do whatever you want.”
According to the government's interrogation and investigation, a clandestine industry came to light. This practice of arranging marriages between the living and the dead required consulting birth dates and times. Some people specifically sought out the birth dates and times of girls in town, and once a suitable match was found, they would find a way to murder that girl.
While the Zhang family's case was being heard by the government, families whose daughters had gone missing arrived at the yamen. Besides demanding severe punishment for the Zhang family, they also requested an investigation into families whose sons had died in recent years. They suspected their daughters had been murdered and forced into ghost marriages.
Recently, because of Ye Lingxi's incident, Jianye Town is extremely averse to arranged ghost marriages. Some people are even daring to kidnap people directly in the streets. Jianye Town has an official government, and every family has a daughter.
After the Zhang family was punished, the number of girls on the street visibly decreased. Everyone was afraid of falling into the traps of those bad people, and those who had been arranged for ghost marriages were cursed and unable to leave their homes once others found out.
The young lady surnamed Ma is in much better spirits now. When Xiao Mu visited her, she was helping to manage the Ye family's shop. The Ye family knew that this girl was rescued from another family by a cultivator; she was a pitiful girl. They told others that she was the child of a distant relative and had come to stay with them.
After learning about these things, Miss Ma sneered, "They only dare to curse those without power or influence. Why don't they dare to curse the Gou family outside the city? The famous wealthy families here haven't done anything to them!"
"We have to take it one step at a time, but I don't know how this magistrate is." Does he dare to arrest all the families in Jianye Town who are arranging ghost marriages with living people?
Miss Ma wasn't a local either; she was sold to Jianye Town. She didn't have a good impression of the place, saying, "I wish they would really dare to do that."
If all of these issues are addressed, the situation regarding ghost marriages in Jianye Town will improve, and gradually it will get better.
Seeing Miss Ma in this state, Xiao Mu was still somewhat worried. She had been sold by her own parents. Even after this matter was over, she couldn't leave with him, and he didn't know what the future held for her. Would she leave Jianye Town and go to another unfamiliar place?
Miss Ma could see Xiao Mu's worry, and she reassured him, "I'm not worried at all, so you don't need to worry either. There's a place for me in this vast world."
Yes, the world is vast, and there will always be a place for someone. So now we should take care of the other people's affairs. Just like when I promised Su Qiwen to let him meet Ye Lingxi.
A few days ago, Zhou Xuanzhi sent her soul to a temple, where the old abbot preached to her every day. Now the resentment in her body has disappeared, and she should enter reincarnation in a couple of days. We must make sure they see each other in the next couple of days.
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