The following story is from the notebook novel "Youtai Xianguan Notes" by Yu Yue in the Qing Dynasty, which was slightly modified during translation.
In Huizhou Prefecture , there is an old man whose surname is Xu, who is in his 50s and his family is rich. He married a wife and had children in his thirties. Now he has three sons, and the youngest son is almost 20 years old. Master Xu has only one hobby in his life, which is to study Feng Shui. But he is just a hobby, not proficient.
After the death of his father, Mr. Xu took no time to find a treasured geomantic place where he could bless his family and make his family safe and wealthy. He found all the famous Feng Shui masters nearby, and then took the Feng Shui master to look around every day. For this reason, he ran around thousands of hills.
One day, Master Xu took the Feng Shui masters to continue looking for a place and passed by a woodcutter's house. After looking around, a Feng Shui gentleman said: This place is surrounded by mountains, where the wind gathers energy, it is really a good place! Master Xu didn't believe it, and asked: Since it is a geomantic place, why is this person so poor? Mr. Feng Shui said: Because here is only suitable for burying the dead, not for living.
At this time, other Feng Shui masters also nodded one after another, expressing their approval, Master Xu wrote a letter now.
So, Mr. Xu sent someone to discuss with the woodcutter and was willing to buy at a high price. The woodcutter was unwilling to say: My ancestors have always lived here. This is my home, and he gave me a lot of money. , I will not sell. Master Xu sent a eloquent person to speak again on Tuesday, but the result was also rejected.
When I came out of the woodsman's house on Tuesday, I saw a girl carrying firewood coming in from the outside. She looked good. She was not very old, she seemed to be only sixteen or seventeen. On Tuesday, my heart moved, and I hurriedly asked the woodcutter: Is this girl the jewel in your palm? The woodman nodded and said: The old man has no son, only this daughter. On Tuesday, he asked if he was willing to marry, but the woodman refused, saying that his daughter was still young and he was not considering marrying a daughter. After
came out, he told Master Xu on Tuesday: I have thought of a way. The woodcutter has a daughter who is not married yet, about the same age as your youngest son. Why don't you hire a woodcutter's daughter for your youngest son, and the two families will become one family?Master Xu was unwilling, saying that the other party was just a woodcutter and his status was too low. Persuaded him on Tuesday: You let the son marry his daughter first, and get the treasure, and then if you are unwilling, let your son divorce the woodcutter's daughter, isn't it all right?
Master Xu was persuaded, so he sent on Tuesday to be a matchmaker. The woodcutter was unwilling. He felt that the door was not right. He didn't expect that the other party was calculating his own residence. Once I was rejected, I went again on Tuesday; four times in a row, the woodman found it difficult to be kind, so he agreed to the marriage.
One year later, the two parties had their wedding in a hurry. After the marriage, Master Xu said to the woodcutter: Our family has many houses. You and I are now a family. You don't have to suffer in that place for your relatives. Let's move over and live together. In this way, you can also see your daughter and son-in-law every day, isn't it great? The woodcutter was very moved, and moved in with his wife.
After the woodcutter moved in, Mr. Xu was very kind to him and got along well. Within a few days, Master Xu said that he hoped to bury his father in the woodcutter's residence. The woodcutter did not refuse this time, but rather politely said: Since we are a family, I have also moved over. That ruined place, just use it, I will give it to you.
Master Xu was overjoyed, so he chose an auspicious day, demolished the woodcutter's house, let the Feng Shui master fix a place, and then began to dig down. After digging three feet deep, everyone heard a strange sound, which seemed to be a big stone. A closer look was a broken stele with six large characters engraved on it: This is a must, and this is buried. Mr. Xu clapped his hands and praised the Feng Shui master. As expected, it is not good to live here. It is better to be buried here. God made it clear on the monument.
A few years after his father’s burial, Mr. Xu’s family is richer. His eldest son passed the exam and became a county magistrate. The second son also passed the exam but did not become an official. He did business like his father and did a great job. Yes, I made a lot of money, but my youngest son was bohemian, but he didn't cause much trouble. Mr. Xu was very satisfied when he saw this at home, and he appreciated the Feng Shui master.
Mr. Xu's youngest son, has always been lustful, and often goes in and out of the brothel. Not long after I married the daughter of a woodcutter, I married a prostitute and became a concubine. The woodcutter's daughter said something to him, and he turned against him immediately and scolded him. The woodcutter's daughter couldn't bear it, so she told Master Xu.
Master Xu and his wife said: You are just a woodcutter's daughter, short-sighted, what right do you have to criticize your husband? Your husband is a child of a big family. Even if you sleep outside every day, you often associate with other women. It is common to marry three, five or even a dozen women. This is the case for men who do great things. How can they be like those men who farm the land? Only marry one woman in your life?
After hearing this, the little concubine became more unscrupulous and often bullied the woodcutter's daughter, even though she was a regular wife. Later, the concubine slandered her in various ways, and even stole the money from the family. She falsely accused the woodcutter's daughter of stealing the money from the family and seduce other men. In short, all kinds of dirty water were poured. The woodcutter's daughter could not prove her innocence, and her parents could not help her. She hanged herself in a rage. Qiao and his wife felt distressed for their daughter, and they shed tears every day, and soon died of illness.
Only the woodcutter was left. Master Xu began to evict the guest. He refused to give him a good face, and later drove the woodcutter away.
The woodman regretted it very much. He came to the original residence alone, which is already the cemetery of Mr. Xu's father. He wandered here for a long time, cried for a long time, and then slammed his head on the tombstone and died.
Not long after the woodcutter's death, dark clouds rolled in the originally clear sky, heavy rain was pouring, and thunderstorms continued. The sound of thunder had been on the tomb of Mr. Xu's father. Suddenly, a thunder exploded, directly splitting the tomb of Mr. Xu's father, and even the coffin was exploded. The corpse of the woodcutter next to him slowly disappeared.
A few days later, Master Xu came to worship his father and found that the tomb was struck by lightning, so he had to buy another coffin and continue to bury his father. In order to avoid being struck by lightning again, this time he had people dig down three feet deeper. Everyone was digging and digging, and suddenly they found a hard rock. Upon closer inspection, it was another broken stele with seven characters written on it: righteousness is good, unrighteousness is absolute.
Master Xu took a closer look. It turned out that this broken stele and the broken stele dug the last time were originally a stone stele. I don't know how it was broken, but were buried in different depths of soil.
At this time, Master Xu decided to rebury. But just after the burial, the younger son and concubine died violently. No injuries or poisoning were found on their bodies. I don’t know what happened, and the murderer was not reported. A few days later, the second son took a car to do business, but the horse ran in fright.The second son fell off the car and died. The eldest son was an official in a foreign country and was sentenced to death because of corruption and perverting the law.
In less than a year, Mr. Xu and his wife ran out of money and sold their house. They finally starved and died in the street.
As for the Tuesday under Master Xu's door, once he passed by the old tomb of Master Xu's father (that is, the woodcutter’s home) and found that there was no grave there, but the woodcutter’s house was still there, and the woodcutter invited him Go in. He went in and found that the house was the same as before. The house was obviously demolished back then, and the woodcutter was already dead, so why are you going back to the past now? Is it possible to meet a ghost?
He was frightened, and suddenly woke up, it turned out to be a dream. But when he woke up, he found himself sleeping in the woodcutter's room. Isn't this a dream?
On Tuesday, I was scared and rushed home. When I got home, I was so tired that I was foaming at my mouth. When his family asked him what was going on, he suddenly yelled "The woodcutter is coming again", then he vomited blood continuously, and he died after a short while.
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