verbal battle
Dad leaned forward with his right hand on the chair handle, his left fist clenched tightly, his eyes fixed on him with a mixture of anger and heartache.
Having lived with him for more than ten years, Yuanli knew her father's temperament too well, and also understood the meaning in her father's eyes at this moment, so she couldn't help feeling a little worried when she looked at Chi Xun.
Chi Xun knelt down and kowtowed deeply, then stood up and faced his stern-looking father in a high position and said firmly, "I've made up my mind."
As expected, my father roared angrily, "Chi Xun!" He stood up suddenly and looked at Chi Xun, who was kneeling upright, and was angry at him for not fighting back. "Why? I know all your feelings clearly. Could it be that you have also fallen in love with someone else down the mountain? I don't believe you are that kind of person!"
"Absolutely not. I have always loved Li'er, and my love for her has only grown stronger. But I don't want to tie her down with an engagement. She should choose her own future husband and marry happily."
"You! Alas..."
"What I said to you by the bamboo forest that day was from the bottom of my heart. It will never change. You also hope that Li'er is well, don't you?"
My father stood with his hands behind his back, head bowed, and remained silent. After a long moment, he looked up at the few people and finally softened his tone, "The engagement... is not yet understood, but whether you fulfill the engagement and get married is up to you. If anything unexpected happens..."
The word "accident" slipped out of his mouth. Dad tilted his head slightly and glanced at Qi Heng. The meaning of "accident" was obvious. "We'll talk about it after it's a foregone conclusion."
Since it involved family matters, the elders were in an awkward position and could not stand by any longer. Elder Chi Xi, as usual, glanced at Yuanli and said goodbye to his father.
Outside the hall, Elder Chi Xi had barely breathed a sigh of relief when a stern-looking Chi Que grabbed his sleeve. As Yuan Li arrived, she had caught a glimpse of Chi Que, a frightened and pale-faced man, scratching his head and hesitating outside the hall door.
He seemed a little excited when he was talking to Elder Chi Xi, and he was gesturing all the time until he was interrupted by Elder Chi Xi. Everyone looked at each other and back at the hall, looking a little embarrassed.
"If you have something to fart, come in and let it out. What are you looking at outside?"
Chi Jiu followed the elders with his head down, looking a little uneasy and nervous. He stood in the hall, fidgeting with his fingers on the seam of his trousers to relieve the tension.
When he was seven years old, he climbed the old locust tree in the village to take out a bird's nest, but he accidentally slipped and dropped the nest on his father's head. Although his father did not care about it, he still felt resentful and was afraid to look his father in the face.
Elder Chi Xi approached Adi's side and spoke softly. After listening, Adi suddenly turned his head and looked at Chi Xi in disbelief, blurting out: "You can increase the food you want, but you can't make up nonsense."
"That Chi Que guy is... a little off-guard, but he's too timid to speak carelessly about such a serious matter." After saying this, he leaned over to his father and whispered, "Besides, the criticism of Chi Huai has already spread among the people in the village. If this matter is not resolved in time, I'm afraid..."
"Master Qi, there is an emergency that needs to be dealt with in the village. Please do as you please. Chi Xun, take good care of the guests." After saying that, my father hurried out with a group of people.
After the several venerables left, the atmosphere became much more relaxed. Yuanli sneaked behind the team and pulled Chi Que aside, asking curiously, "Chi Que, what happened?"
Chi Yu glanced at the people around him and whispered, "Chi Huai has been bewitched by a female ghost."
"Ghost girl? What kind of ghost girl? Did you see it?"
"I haven't seen it. If I had seen it, wouldn't I be as distracted as Chi Huai?" Chi Lu shook his head repeatedly as he spoke, with embarrassment and fear in his eyes.
"Lately, Chi Huai has been acting so carelessly. He's a skinny guy to begin with, and lately he's become even more haggard, looking sickly. Sigh... You could say he's sickly, but his eyes are so bright. He goes up the mountain every day to chop firewood and sell it for money. Strange. Today, I went to get firewood for Mapo, and I saw him the moment I walked in... Alas."
As Chi Que spoke, he recalled that in the morning he had seen from afar that the door of Chi Huai's wooden house was wide open, with things thrown all over the floor at the door, the quilt and pillows on the bed in a mess, and the house looked like it had been robbed by bandits.
According to his understanding, Chi Huai would never act like this. That time, he was in a hurry to deliver firewood and did not put the books back. He just delivered the firewood and ran back immediately. He even went to pick up the firewood he had left behind at night.
He would not just casually throw the Book of Songs given to him by the village teacher on the stool. This made Chi Que suspect that Chi Huai had been murdered, but there were no signs of a fight in the house, not even a drop of blood.
Chi Huai's house was only this small, and one could see it all at a glance. He shouted around the house for a long time until he reached the back ditch and saw Chi Huai lying there with his arms and legs spread out, his clothes soaked by the mountain water.
He hurried over and wanted to help Chi Huai up, but it was because he got closer that he saw that Chi Huai was not unconscious. Instead, his eyes were wide open, staring blankly at the sky, as if he had lost his soul, and no matter how he called him, he did not respond.
Chi Que was about to help him up, but just as her fingers touched his arm, he suddenly woke up, sat up abruptly, and shook Chi Que's hand away, shouting, "Get out! Get out! Don't touch me!"
I thought Chi Huai would do something hurtful, but he didn't. After seeing that it was Chi Que, the fear in Chi Huai's eyes receded a little. He gasped for breath and stole a glance at Chi Que from time to time.
After a long time, Chi Huai climbed up the back slope from the ditch and stumbled back into the house.
Chi Huai was a little worried, so he stayed with him the whole time. Unexpectedly, Chi Huai's condition became more and more abnormal. He lay on the bed and looked at the sky without blinking.
Near noon, Chi Lu wanted to call him to eat, but he did not respond at all, as if he could not hear anything. He looked like he was possessed by a ghost and had lost his soul.
That's why Chi Xu came to look for Elder Chi Xi at this critical moment. Chi Huai was an abandoned baby that Elder Chi Xi found under the old locust tree, and he would not ignore him.
After hearing this, Yuanli asked doubtfully, "Based solely on this, how can you be so sure that Chi Huai was possessed by a female ghost? Didn't he show any signs beforehand?"
"Three months ago, Chi Huai was chopping and selling firewood like crazy. He rushed to do any job that could earn him money, no matter how tiring it was. I thought he was in trouble, so I asked him repeatedly, and he finally said he was getting married. You know, he's the only one living in the back mountains. If he fell in love with the girl in the village, who could he hide it from?"
Chi Huai paused for a moment, then lowered his voice and continued, "After hearing so much gossip in the village, I became worried about Chi Huai. I even sneaked in at night and listened to the wall. There really was a woman in that room. The strange thing is, no one has ever seen her true face, and there are no signs of her living in the room."
"What are the rumors circulating in the village?"
"It's probably said that Chi Huai encountered something shady, and he became half-human, half-ghost. Some also said that he was hiding a woman and was obsessed with women. Plus, someone in the village heard a woman's laughter coming from Chi Huai's house, so the lie became true. The only thing missing was someone seeing the woman with their own eyes."
"We've been playing together since we were little. Since you noticed something was wrong, why didn't you pull him back in time?"
"I don't know how many times I've told him about this, but guess what, he's always hinting that he knows the woman isn't human, but he's not afraid. He always tries to evade me with stories about his surviving wife. I'm not well-educated, so I don't know what surviving wife means. Sex is a double-edged sword, and to me, it's all lies..."
Chi Que was talking excitedly when someone hurriedly shouted, "Chi Que! The elder is calling you, go quickly!" Hearing this, Chi Que hurriedly said goodbye to Yuanli and ran out of the house.
Regarding the word "Tan Sheng", Yuanli always felt as if she had heard it somewhere, but it had been too long and her memory was a little fuzzy, so she couldn't remember it.
Thinking that Qi Heng was well-read and knowledgeable, he might know about it, Yuanli asked, "Have you ever heard of the story of Tan Sheng's wife?"
"Never heard of it." Qi Heng shook his head.
Just as Yuanli was struggling with her thoughts, Chi Xun beside her spoke to himself, "Tan Sheng, forty years old, single. I often feel grateful when I read the Book of Songs. In the middle of the night, a girl appeared, perhaps fifteen or sixteen years old, with a beauty and clothes that were unparalleled in the world."
Yuanli said in surprise: "You know? Tell me the whole story."
"Of course, if you want to listen, I will tell you. Don't be anxious. Sit down and listen slowly. Have a drink of water. Aren't you tired after walking for a whole morning?" As he said that, Chi Xun pulled Yuanli to the seat next to him and sat down.
"Brother, I'm not tired. You tell the story first."
"Well, well, well, when Tan Sheng was forty years old and still had no wife, he often read the Book of Songs with excitement. One night, a girl of fifteen or sixteen came to his house. She was unparalleled in the world in appearance and dress. She talked to Tan Sheng about husband and wife and performed the Zhougong rites. The girl said: I am different from others. Don't use fire to reflect my appearance. You have to wait three years. They became husband and wife and had a son. Two years later, Tan Sheng waited for the girl to fall asleep at night, lit a candle and secretly shone on her. He found that the girl had flesh above her waist like a human, but below her waist were dry bones. The girl woke up and cried, "You betrayed me, I am alive now, why can't you wait another year?" The girl couldn't stop crying, and before leaving, she said: "After we part, you must take good care of our son. If you are so poor that you can't survive, come with me temporarily, and I have something to give you. "Tan Sheng got a pearl robe. The woman tore off a piece of Tan Sheng's robe and left. By chance, Tan Sheng sold the robe to the King of Suiyang. The King of Suiyang recognized the robe as his daughter's and thought Tan Sheng had obtained it by tomb robbery. Tan Sheng explained the reason for the incident, but the king did not believe him. He dug up his daughter's tomb and indeed found the robe. Tan Sheng's son also looked like the king's daughter. The king finally believed it. He immediately summoned Tan Sheng, gave him the robe, and recognized him as his son-in-law and grandson.①"
"So, Chi Huai believed it, thinking that the woman he met was just like his wife?" Yuan Li recalled the taciturn Chi Huai of the past and said in disbelief, "But stories are just stories after all. How can we tell the truth from the legacy left by our ancestors? Brother Chi Huai also studied with the Master, how could it be..."
Qi Heng on the other side interrupted, "Ridiculous! How can there be so many good things that can be done for nothing? Why would the princess's spirit choose to find such an insignificant person? Believing such a story is foolish. But your friend's guess is almost right. That woman is either a ghost or a demon."
Before Yuanli could reply, Chi Xun laughed and said, "Master Qi, you have such insight? It's strange that an official appointed by the imperial court and the people from the Dali Temple didn't even suspect it was man-made, but instead believed in ghosts and gods."
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