Xiaoqing is a Pei Mansion who entered the age of thirteen. When she was very young, she had a fortune teller who passed by her home, and she showed her face and said that she was rich and noble. Unfortunately, this gentleman seemed to be inaccurate, and soon the hometown was plague and his parents passed away one after another. Xiaoqing was sold to a family named Pei as a maid.
Maybe Xiaoqing is the life of a prosperous master. In less than a year, her master, Mr. Pei, became Sima of Jizhou. Xiaoqing served Mrs. Pei's side. The Pei family has four daughters, the oldest is already at the age of getting married, and the youngest is one year younger than Xiaoqing.
This year, the Pei family’s master suddenly resigned. The family returned from Jizhou to , Chang'an City, . Not to mention Xiaoqing, even the four daughters of the Pei family were shocked by the prosperity of Chang'an City. The Pei family bought a big house in Songxian in the city, and the family settled down.
When they returned to Chang'an , it was still early spring. After these days, the weather has gradually become hot and it is already May. On that day, the streets in Chang'an City were very lively and crowded with people coming out to watch. Because in the first month, something big happened to the dynasty of the Tang Dynasty. Emperor Xianzong of Tang Dynasty died.
On this day in May, the court finally arranged the funeral and Emperor Xianzong was about to be buried. This Emperor Xianzong reigned for fifteen years, and his time as a prince, he was a neighbor of the people in Chang'an City for decades. Although everyone has never met the emperor, everyone has lived a comfortable life over the past decade and they have a bit of feelings in their hearts. I heard that people were leaving, so I rushed to see them off.
Mrs. Pei took four daughters out to watch the fun, and Xiaoqing also followed her out to serve her. Emperor Xianzong was going to bury Jingling . When they arrived at Tonghuamen , there were already crowds of people and could only watch from a distance.
When the Emperor's funeral team passed by, the crowd automatically moved away. The spiritual flag is white and the white is all over the body. Although the team was very arrogant, it was very depressing. No one dared to make a sound, only the sound of horse hooves stepping on the street. Xiaoqing couldn't see the emperor's coffin, but she was a little scared. The funeral team such as
went far away, and the crowd gradually dispersed. Mrs. Pei took the family onto the carriage and prepared to go back. After such a struggle, the sky has become dark.
While the sky was still visible, the carriage walked home in a loud voice. When she was about to arrive at Pingkangfang North Street, Mrs. Pei suddenly asked Xiaoqing if there was an old woman following the carriage.
Xiaoqing sat next to her wife and could see the situation behind the carriage. Although it was dark at this moment, you could still see a figure walking towards the carriage.
The man was a little strange. He seemed to be hunched over and didn't walk fast, but he could always keep up with the carriage.
The eldest daughter of the Pei family thought that the old lady was very pitiful and said that there was still a seat in the car, so it would be better to take her for a ride.
Mrs. Pei was a little hesitant, she seemed to have some taboos.
The second daughter agreed to the elder sister's words and asked the coachman to stop. When the mother-in-law approached, the second daughter lifted the curtain and called her mother-in-law to come up and walk with her.
The old lady didn't thank her either, climbed onto the carriage and sat next to Xiaoqing.
For some reason, Xiaoqing felt a little chilled and subconsciously shrank back. The old lady's hair was gray, she was wearing black clothes, and she was carrying a package in her hand. When I got into the car, I didn't sound at all.
The eldest daughter asked enthusiastically, where is the mother-in-law going?
Xiaoqing saw that the mother-in-law opened her mouth and spit out three words: "Songxianli."
Xiaoqing thought to herself, it turned out that she was also from Songxianlili.
The eldest daughter said happily, we also live in Songxianli, and the big house at the intersection of the street is our home.
The old lady didn't say anything anymore.
The daughters felt bored and started talking about the emperor's funeral.
Soon, when I arrived in Songxian, the old lady got off the car.When he left, he did not thank him. He walked silently to the corner and soon disappeared into the darkness.
The carriage was about to continue on the road, and the little daughter was sharp-eyed and saw a package thrown in the corner. It seems that the mother-in-law fell behind.
Mrs. Pei's face was nervous and immediately asked the coachman to stop, and asked Xiaoqing to take the bag and chase him back to the mother-in-law immediately. They were waiting for her to come back here. Mrs. Pei's tone was very fast, and she repeatedly reminded Xiaoqing to return the burden to the mother-in-law.
Xiaoqing agreed, took the bag and chased him out, and soon merged into the darkness.
After a while, Xiaoqing came back panting. The mother-in-law didn't walk fast and had already caught up and returned the bag to her.
Mrs. Pei then breathed a sigh of relief and asked the coachman to go home quickly.
Nothing happened along the way. The maids had prepared steaming food. Mr. Pei also came back from outside, waiting for them to have dinner.
Another three days passed. Xiaoqing accompanied his wife to Luohan Temple to get incense. When she passed by her daughter's room, she heard a strange sound from inside. I wanted to push the door and go in, but I found that the door was locked. The voice of my eldest daughter inside came out, saying that they were changing clothes.
Although Mrs. Pei felt a little weird, she felt relieved when she heard her daughter's voice and took Xiaoqing back to her room.
When it was time to light the lights, the food was ready, but I didn’t see four daughters coming to have a meal. Mrs. Pei asked Xiaoqing to call her daughters to come and have a meal.
After a while, Xiaoqing hurriedly ran back and said that the ladies' doors were closed, and no one agreed no matter how they called.
When Mrs. Pei heard that it was wrong, she quickly took the servants and maids straight to the lady's room with Mr. Pei. The door was locked, and it was pitch black inside, with no sound or light. Immediately, someone took the key. As soon as I pushed the door in, a cold wind blew over my face, and the chill made people tremble involuntarily.
Xiaoqing lit the candle. Suddenly, a group of people were scared to death. The four daughters of the Pei family lie on the ground, wearing white -faced clothes for the dead on their faces. Mrs. Pei was already scared and fainted. Mr. Pei was brave after all, so he immediately went up to take off the faces on his four daughters' faces.
But strangely, the face dress could not be removed. In the end, multiple servants tried hard to tear off their faces, but the faces of the four daughters had turned gray and haggard, like an old woman in her eighties and nineties.
After one night, the four daughters of the Pei family died mysteriously at the same time. Mrs. Pei fainted from crying several times. Mr. Pei was more calm than his wife and found an untied package in his daughter's room. There are also a few white face clothes inside.
Mrs. Pei's face looked like earth. She recognized that this was the package that the weird old lady had dropped on the carriage.
Xiaoqing was frightened. She said that she had obviously returned the package to the mother-in-law that day, why was she here? She has always had a great relationship with the four daughters of the Pei family, and her eyes were swollen when she cried with her wife.
Since her daughter died bizarrely, Mrs. Pei has been crying every day. Mr. Pei was also silent all day long. Xiaoqing endured the sadness and took good care of the two old men every day.
Later, the Pei couple never had children again. Seeing that Xiaoqing was kind-hearted and clever, she simply accepted her as her daughter.
Xiaoqing still remembers what the fortune teller said back then, she is a wealthy life. She has always believed and never doubted it. Now, she succeeded. Before Mr. Pei passed away, he told a story about the past, which surprised Xiaoqing. It turned out that when Mr. Pei was a Sima of Jizhou, he accepted huge bribes from local gentry in a family extermination case to help his son get away with the law. There were three people in the family killer. Seeing that there was no hope of complaining, the surviving old lady hit the stone pillar in front of Mr. Pei and kept cursing Mr. Pei before her death.
Master Pei felt guilty and resigned from office and moved his family to the capital. He wanted to change to a new environment and start his life again, but he didn't expect that the old lady's curse would still work.
■Feng Yumiao
Selected from "New Strange Stories from Chinese Studio"
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