Chapter 17: The Spirit of the Dead

Zhirong didn’t make it past midnight and passed away. Before her death, she kept wanting to see her child, but Liu Zicheng had held her back for fear of upsetting her. It wasn’t until she took her last breath that Liu Zicheng, holding the child, collapsed on her body and wept loudly.

“My wife has left me; now we are separated by life and death. Even with all my wealth, I couldn’t keep her. How can I justify living?” Liu Zicheng said, continuing, “I changed our travel permits, hoping that after she gave birth, our family of three could travel north, sightseeing and venturing beyond the borders... But now, all dreams and hopes are shattered.”

“She fought death every day during her pregnancy, always looking forward to seeing her child, but in the end, they never met. This is my biggest mistake and regret!”

Liu Zicheng was overwhelmed with grief, muttering incessantly. From his words, Di Jiang and the others pieced together why the couple ended up here.

Liu Zicheng, thirty-two years old, was an only son from a wealthy family, considered a small local landlord. Qian Zhirong, twenty-six, had been in love with him for many years but remained childless. Liu refused to take another wife. Under pressure from neighbors, they sought medical help for years and finally conceived at the end of the previous year. Qian Zhirong endured much hardship to maintain the pregnancy, not daring to be careless. However, due to her frailty, everyone said the child wouldn’t survive, yet she managed to carry the baby to full term.

Just as labor approached, her water broke prematurely, forcing them to seek medical help everywhere until they arrived at Liangcheng, where they heard of a renowned doctor.

“I never expected such an outcome. If I had known earlier, I would have preferred no child and spent my life just with Zhirong,” Liu sniffed, tears streaming down again.

“I hope in the next life, she can be a happy mother and never meet me!” As he spoke, he collapsed crying on Qian Zhirong’s body and fainted.

After hearing this, everyone felt defeated. No one wanted such things to happen, and anyone who witnessed it would be moved by his emotions.

Nothing exceeds life and death. Once separated by yin and yang, there’s no more longing. The idle chatter of neighbors became lethal curses. If they had ignored it earlier, perhaps they wouldn’t have ended up like this—but now, it was too late.

“Should we lift him up?” Wen Yao looked at the family of three, noting that both the wife and child were already corpses, but Liu Zicheng was still alive.

Di Jiang shook her head, “Let the family stay together for a while. After this moment, they will never see each other again.”

“Yes.” Wen Yao nodded and exited with Di Jiang and Zhong Xu.

...

The next day, when Liu Zicheng was found, he had been dead for some time.

He maintained the same position from the night before, hugging the child and lying on Qian Zhirong’s corpse. His tear stains had dried, forever frozen in pain.

“Boss, how... how did they all die?!” Wen Yao was shocked, covering her mouth and frowning, “Wasn’t he fine yesterday?”

“Just as he said yesterday, what’s the point of living alone?” Di Jiang sighed, “Bury them.”

Changsheng and Zhong Xu, accustomed to seeing the dead, immediately started wrapping the three bodies in straw mats, planning to bury them outside the city.

At this moment, a “hissing” sound came from outside, as if grinding teeth or sinister laughter.

“Who’s out there!” Wen Yao’s skin prickled, shouting as she rushed out.

Wen Yao quickly returned, dragging the same hunchbacked man inside, saying, “Boss, it’s him again, sneaking around and playing ghost!”

“Haha... Heehee…” The hunchbacked old man laughed menacingly, startling everyone in the room.

“Who exactly are you?” Di Jiang asked.

“I am the gatekeeper of Liangcheng!” The old man grinned, “I told you to leave, but you didn’t listen. Now, they all must die! You’ll die too! This place is cursed! Cursed! Ha… Hahaha...”

The old man seemed mentally unstable, laughing crazily. Unable to bear it, Wen Yao knocked him unconscious with a slap.

The old man’s eyes closed, and he fell stiffly to the ground.

Once he was unconscious, Di Jiang went to check his pulse. After a while, she frowned, “Strange...”

“What’s wrong?” Zhong Xu and Wen Yao asked simultaneously.

“He... should be in his prime. Why does he look so decrepit?” Di Jiang discovered that the man’s pulse and lungs didn’t belong to an old man. She examined him carefully and said, “Moreover, he hasn’t had the plague.”

Di Jiang thought for a moment and said, “We’ll wait until he wakes up.” Then she told Wen Yao, “Next time, don’t be so impulsive. Hurting people isn’t good.”

“Understood...” Wen Yao muttered, nodding.

Subsequently, Wen Yao followed Zhong Xu and Changsheng to bury Liu Zicheng’s family of three at Sanli Slope outside the city.

The maid and servant Liu Zicheng brought along received his money and returned to report the death. Whatever happened afterward was beyond Di Jiang’s prediction.

“Let’s go.” Di Jiang took one last look at the graves of the three and turned to leave.

The four were heading to Gongzhou and had to pass through Liangcheng. When they returned to Liangcheng, it was already sunset. By the octagonal well in the city, the hunchbacked old man stood precariously.

“No good, he wants to jump into the well! Stop him!” Wen Yao dashed forward and firmly embraced the hunchbacked old man.

“What’s wrong with you!” Wen Yao was furious, “Every time we see you, you’re either hiding and scaring people or trying to commit suicide. Nothing good ever happens with you!”

As she spoke, and as Di Jiang and the others approached, they realized the old man was already in tears, his eyes filled with regret.

“What’s wrong with you?” Di Jiang asked gently.

“I’m so regretful... so regretful!” At Di Jiang’s words, the old man suddenly burst into wails.

“I deeply regret not being as carefree as her. Even taking her far away would have been better than letting her commit suicide and causing the entire town to perish!” After the old man finished speaking, everyone was shocked, pondering the credibility of his words.

Had the woman he mentioned jumped into the well thirty years ago, causing the plague that wiped out the entire city?

“Aaaah!” The old man ran off like crazy. Di Jiang quickly led the others in pursuit.

They chased him to the entrance of a tavern. The items inside were neatly arranged, tables and chairs clean, indicating someone lived there—it was likely the old man’s usual residence.

Di Jiang inspected the tavern and eventually found the hunchbacked old man in the innermost room, surrounded by thousands of pottery jars. He was curled up in a corner, trembling.

“Old man, what are you afraid of?” Di Jiang spoke softly, comforting him carefully, which made the old man lower his guard.

“I didn’t want this... I didn’t want this... I didn’t kill her! Those villagers! They forced Zilan to her death! Not me... not me...” The hunchbacked old man’s expression was pained, his nails digging deep into his flesh. Clearly, he was very nervous and somewhat delirious.

That night, Di Jiang and the others didn’t leave him alone. She stayed by the old man’s side, taking care of him.

Meanwhile, Wen Yao found a handwritten journal and some letters in the old man’s room. These items allowed Di Jiang and her group to roughly understand the whole story.

This hunchbacked old man was once a renowned doctor, benevolent and respected. One day, he fell in love with a woman named Zilan through pigeon-delivered letters. He didn’t know her identity, imagining her as a secluded young lady. He idealized the image of his beloved.

But their story didn’t last long. The truth soon came out—his beloved was a courtesan, talented indeed, but perhaps still serving others while writing to him daily. Unable to accept this reality, rumors forced him to cut off contact with Zilan. Soon after, Zilan committed suicide by jumping into the well due to his neglect.

Shortly after, while people were still mocking Zilan’s death, the Black Death suddenly spread throughout the city. Within a month, Liangzhou became a dead city.

The next day, as Di Jiang and her group were about to leave, the hunched old man watched them from afar, his eyes filled with sorrow, making Wen Yao indignant.

“These people are terrible! Words can kill. If they hadn’t criticized Zilan, she wouldn’t have jumped into the well, and there wouldn’t have been a plague killing everyone in the city! And the old man never leaving this dead city might be to accompany Zilan. He repented for his mistakes his whole life. In the end, they were all pitiable people...”

“Not true, things aren’t that simple,” Di Jiang shook her head, “We can’t control what others say. The best we can do is ignore others and follow our hearts, acting according to our own ideas—that’s what makes a meaningful life. Giving up because of others’ words only shows he didn’t truly love her. In the end, the person he loved was himself.”

While Di Jiang spoke, Zhong Xu never got too close to the old man. Similarly, though closer, Di Jiang always kept some distance.

Both seemed to see something, their eyes filled with unusual light.

“The old man’s selfishness is undeniable, but I suspect things aren’t as they seem. There are too many holes in his story,” Zhong Xu said calmly.

“Holes? Where?” Wen Yao was puzzled.

At this moment, Di Jiang interrupted, “This town never experienced a plague. They were poisoned.”

“Poisoned!?”

“Hmph, what plague? It was just a package of poison killing the entire town,” Di Jiang smiled faintly, her eyes flashing with anger, “He even created the illusion of a plague amid the chaos, terrifying the court.”

“What! So it was him who poisoned and killed the entire town?!” Wen Yao was horrified. Even the perennially stoic Zhong Xu couldn’t help but slightly frown, his eyes questioning Di Jiang. He could detect flaws but couldn’t grasp the intricate details.

Di Jiang decided not to hide any longer, “Just now, in his tavern, I saw thousands of jars. On the surface, they looked like wine jars, but each jar clearly had yellow paper stuck on it, inscribed with people’s birthdays and names. These were porcelain bottles left after burning bodies post-plague, containing the ashes of thousands.”

“What!” Wen Yao was shocked, dropping her wine glass, which shattered on the floor with a loud ‘crack,’ spilling the fine wine everywhere.

“He really just gave you wine; there’s no need to panic.”

“But... just this alone doesn’t prove he’s the murderer! Maybe he missed the townsfolk?” Wen Yao suggested again.

“No, those people were definitely killed by him,” Zhong Xu interjected, “I saw a dead spirit on him.”

“What dead spirit? Why can’t I see it?” Wen Yao was frustrated, feeling as if overnight she had become an ordinary person, unable to understand anything.

Zhong Xu continued, “The dead spirit is the ghost within his heart, not a truly evil soul. A woman has been clinging to his back, which is why he hunches over, finding it increasingly difficult to walk.”

“What!”

“If this woman truly jumped willingly, she wouldn’t constantly cling to him. Even if he missed her, she shouldn’t appear like this. It only shows that his feelings towards her weren’t just guilt but mostly fear.”

“Master Zhong is correct,” Di Jiang boldly speculated, “If his story is true, the woman haunted him. Pressured by society, he accidentally killed her and later regretted it, blaming the common folk and poisoning the entire town.”

“Wow, this is too complicated!” Wen Yao shook her head, glancing at Changsheng, “Did you understand?”

Changsheng nodded, “In short, the old man isn’t a good person.”

“...” Wen Yao was speechless, finding herself without words but driven by curiosity to get to the bottom of it.

With no other choice, Wen Yao had to ask Di Jiang, “What’s the truth then?”

“That’s something only he knows.” Di Jiang smiled enigmatically.

“This despicable person should be brought to justice! Boss, let’s report him to the authorities!”

“If reporting worked, this wouldn’t have become a dead city. Besides, living in such a city, drinking well water soaked with the remains of his beloved, enduring a lifetime like this might be worse than killing him, right?” Di Jiang smiled, adding, “As long as he lives, his inner demons will persist, and he will never have peace in this life.”

“He’s already consumed his future existence as a dead spirit and won’t reincarnate. Let’s go to Gongzhou and see.”