1. Bewitched
In the mid-Ming Dynasty, there was a Lijiazhuang in Cangzhou, Hebei Province. Most of the people in the village were surnamed Li, and their ancestors were more or less related. There is a family in the village, the man's name is Li Qing, and he is a farmer's family. The couple are still loving, and although their lives are not rich, they still have enough food and clothing. Unexpectedly, due to unexpected events, Li Qing's wife suddenly became bewitched by an evil spirit. Apart from chanting over and over again, "The one who killed a thousand swords, put a stone on me, it's too uncomfortable, I can't breathe." Holding my head and screaming for pain. People in Lizhuang have also heard about bewitching, but this is the first time they have seen a living example, and it spreads all over the place. Some people said to look for a doctor, others said to look for a witch, which made Li Qing dizzy.
After seeing the two doctors, Li Qing's wife remembered that there was a sorceress in her natal Zhangzhuang, who was said to be quite effective, so she sent Li Qing to invite her. After the sorceress came, she first burned incense and prayed, and then began to dance to the gods. While dancing, she asked Li Qing: "Has your wife been like this for half a month?" Li Qing quickly said yes. The sorceress asked again: "Did your wife go to the northwest half a month ago?" Li Qing thought about it carefully, and remembered that his wife had gone back to her natal home half a month ago, and it became like this after she came back. in the northwest direction. The sorceress closed her eyes and muttered something, and opened her eyes after a long while: "Your wife is haunted by a ghost, and one of her three souls has been detained." Li Qing's face turned green with fright: "Please help the immortal! The sorceress said: "Go out from here and go northwest, but is there an ancient well within half a mile? Li Qing nodded and said yes." Your wife was entangled by the evil spirit in that well. "Li Qing's face turned pale with fright:" You mean…there are ghosts in the ancient well? "The sorceress nodded:" I don't know why that evil ghost sought your wife, but the ghost can increase mana if the soul of a living person is alive. However, it is difficult for people to lose their souls, and they must be cracked as soon as possible, otherwise their lives will be in danger." Li Qing hurriedly asked if there was a way to crack it, and the sorceress stretched out her fingers to calculate: "Yes, but it is very dangerous. It must be done in the middle of the night. When there is no moon, set up an altar to summon the evil ghost to negotiate directly with him, asking him to release your wife's soul back. If the evil ghost refuses to obey, maybe even my life will be in danger. You'd better hire another Gao Ming. "Li Qing hurriedly bowed and begged:" Master, please save my wife, I don't care how much money it costs. The sorceress sighed, "Seeing how much you value love and righteousness, I will make an exception and take the risk this time." Li Qing was overjoyed and thanked you repeatedly. The sorceress explained to Li Qing what should be prepared, and Li Qing went to prepare by himself.
The next day happened to be cloudy and moonless, and after the third watch that night, in the backyard of Li Qing’s house, the sorceress held a mahogany sword in her hand and waved the sword in front of the incense table. On the incense table were various sacrificial offerings. The talisman dangled on the incense candle a few times, then stabbed it with a mahogany sword, muttering something, suddenly the sorceress was shocked and sat cross-legged on the futon. Her eyes suddenly opened, with a murderous look in her eyes, and a heavy voice came out of her mouth: "I died so badly, I didn't die without eyes." Then the sorceress trembled all over, and Li Qing was already frightened. He ran to the back of the altar. Then I saw the witch's sword waving in the air, and for a while it was the heavy voice of the wronged ghost crying for grievances, and for a while it was the witch's incantation: "Taishang Laojun, hurry like a law, etc., and toss like this for half an hour. Finally quiet down. The sorceress sat there without moving, Li Qing yelled twice, but didn't answer, so he boldly came closer. I saw the sorceress opened her eyes with sweat all over her face, and let out a sigh of relief: "Fortunately, the ghost promised to let your wife go. After tonight, your wife will be fine tomorrow." Li Qing was overjoyed thank. The witch said: "Don't be too happy too early, your wife's illness is cured, but you must do what I say, otherwise you will still commit a crime, and if you commit the crime again, it will be a god. You will find someone else, you can't tell others this, or they will beat you to death." Li Qing quickly agreed. The next day, his wife recovered from her illness. Li Qing thanked the sorceress and gave her a lot of money, but the sorceress only took incense paper money, saying that she was saving people with immortal methods and would not accept money from the world . Since then, Li Qing's wife has never had any illnesses again.
The witch's words really came true. Ever since Li Qing's wife recovered from her recovery, strange things have happened one after another. Some people say that they saw a figure beside the ancient well in the middle of the night, and it disappeared after a flash. And soon another bewitched incident happened.
Li Wenjin's wife at the west end of the village had exactly the same symptoms as Li Qing's wife at that time. Li Wenjin quickly invited the sorceress, and after the sorceress burned incense for a while, Li Wenjin's wife also recovered, and the sorceress also only charged incense paper money. The occurrence of the second bewitching incident terrified the villagers of Lizhuang. It seemed that there were really evil spirits in the well. But the only way for the ancient well at the entrance of the village is to go in and out of the ancient well, and it is impossible to stay away from it completely. After some discussion, the village head decided to go to the county government to report to the magistrate, and let the magistrate give him an idea. The county magistrate was furious after hearing this, saying that the villagers were talking nonsense and disturbing the law and order with ghosts and gods, so they should be punished. The villagers returned disappointed, and were even more worried about the ghost in the well.
Two, bones
Someone in Li Zhuang was bewitched again, but the sorceress refused to come again. She said that many times the practice had consumed a lot of original gods, and the ghost had already given in twice. up. When the village head was worried, the county magistrate suddenly brought officials to Lizhuang, and went directly to the ancient well for investigation. The villagers were very puzzled, how did the magistrate's attitude change so quickly? All of a sudden, he started to take care of the ghosts and gods. But either way, it's a good thing. The county magistrates and officials first pumped out the water in the well with buckets. The magistrate shot around the crowd and said loudly: "The reason why I came here today is mainly to relieve the people's worries, and at the same time let you understand that there are no ghosts and gods in this world. After this incident, you should be better." Live your life."
The well was very deep, and water kept seeping in from the bottom of the well. Although the officials sent the common people to take turns to pump water, it took a full day to pump, and I guess they could barely get down. The county magistrate sent an official to tie a rope to his body and go down to the bottom of the well to have a look. After a while, the official sent a response, saying that there was something at the bottom of the well. The magistrate froze for a moment, and ordered the officer to pull the things up first. Soon a bunch of messy things appeared in front of people. In addition to a pile of junk, there was a large bag, which was heavy. Opening the pocket, not only the villagers present, but even the magistrate was stunned on the spot. It was a pile of snow-white bones and a few big old heads. He wanted to take this opportunity to educate these villagers, but he didn't expect to dig out a pile of bones. This surprised the magistrate, and he ordered someone to call for an examination to see the bones.
The yamen servant found another blue embroidered bag from the well. The county magistrate asked someone to show the bag to the villagers for identification, and asked if anyone knew them, but everyone said they didn't. At this moment, a young woman rushed out of the crowd, knelt down in front of the bones and cried loudly, crying, "Li Chun! , why are you here? You have no conscience, you said you made a fortune outside, how could you die here?" Zhixian asked: "Who are you? Why are you crying here? Who are the bones in the well? The woman said: "The little girl's name is Hong Lian. I sewed that blue embroidered bag for my ex-husband Li Chun. A year ago, Li Chun and Li Da went out to do business. Later, I heard Li Da say that Li Chun was sending out clothes outside." After I got rich, I married another wife, and wrote a letter of divorce to me. Because I had no one to rely on, Li Da took good care of me, and then I married Li Da as his wife." The magistrate asked: "Only With an embroidered bag, you dare to conclude that this pile of bones is your husband? Maybe it was stolen by this person or maybe it was given to him by Li Chun.” Honglian stopped crying: “It must be him, This embroidered bag was our token of love back then, and Li Chun regarded him more than his life, so he would not give it away, and Li Chun was careful in his work, and would never be stolen." According to bone quality, the deceased was about 30 years old, male, and the time of death was about one year. The cause of death was fatal hit on the back of the head by a heavy object. The magistrate asked Honglian: "Where is your husband Li Da?" Was it cured by the sorceress?" "Yes, my lord." "I'd like to meet this man of great power."
The official sent to Zhangzhuang to find the witch, and the county magistrate took the pile of bones and related people back to the county government for questioning. After an hour's work, the sorceress brought it to the magistrate, and asked the sorceress, "I heard that you cured the two bewitched women in the village?" The sorceress nodded, "Go back to your lord Yes." The county magistrate asked, "How do you know that there is a ghost in the ancient well?" The sorceress said calmly, "I can psychic, so I can invite the gods to see ghosts." The county magistrate smiled slightly, "If so, who is the ghost? Who did the harm? You must have known it too?" The sorceress shook her head: "The gods don't care about worldly affairs, not to mention that the ghost refuses to tell me some things, and I can't tell the adults to listen."
The magistrate shouted loudly: "Bold mother-in-law, you dare to pretend to be a ghost in front of this county. You know that my master has never believed in ghosts. Since you said you can psychic, you must investigate this matter for me today, otherwise I will The board does not recognize people!" The sorceress did not panic, "If the lord insists on doing this, I can't help it. The lord beats you if you want, but the old woman hurts people one step at a time, and she doesn't want to make money. She treats the villagers just to help. For what crime will your lord deal with the old woman?"
After learning that the county was speechless, the people of Lijiazhuang who were hearing the trial outside the yamen also cried out for the witch in unison, so the magistrate had to wave his hand and let her go.
Three, revenge
A few days later, the official came to report that the village head of Lizhuang informed Li Da that he was back today. In order not to clean up the alarm, the county magistrate blocked the news a long time ago. Discuss. Now that Li Da is back, it's time to unravel all the truth.
The official sent Li Da back to the Yamen, and Li Da resisted at first, saying that he did not know that Li Chun was killed. The magistrate sneered, and threw a piece of paper in front of Li Da: "What do you think this is?" The handwriting on the divorce letter was indeed written by Li Chun himself, but there is a slight discrepancy between the word "Honglian" and the font. And why is the paper of this divorce letter so thin?" Li Da broke out in cold sweat: "This, villain I don’t know, maybe he just found paper and wrote it in a hurry.” The magistrate shouted loudly: “It’s clear that you covered Li Chun’s divorce letter with this thin paper and traced the entire divorce letter, but only changed the name to After losing Honglian, you still want to lie to me? Let me ask you, you said that Li Chun made a fortune outside and married another, so where does Li Chun live now? Who is his alias?" Li Da hesitated, and the county magistrate slapped the gavel: " Come, execute the punishment!"
As soon as the sentence was mobilized, Li Da called all of them. It turned out that Li Da had coveted Honglian for a long time and wanted to take it as his own, but he couldn't find a chance. During a chat, Li Da heard that Li Chun had the idea of doing business, so he took it to heart. He took a pen and paper and asked Li Chun to help write a divorce letter, saying that his distant relative wanted to divorce his wife, and Li Chun wrote it to Li Da without hesitation. Li Da praised Li Chun for his good handwriting, and asked Li Chun: "Why don't you go outside for such a good knowledge, but you still want to stay at home and guard these acres of land. What is the way out?" Li Chun sighed. He said in a tone: "I have no connections, and besides, I have never been out, so I have no idea." Li Da said: "I have a distant cousin who is in the silk business in Jinan, and I am planning to join him. How about you?" Come with me, with your knowledge, you can earn a few taels of silver a month as an accountant there." Li Chunxi was overjoyed.
A few days later, Li Da said that he had already greeted his cousin, who would send a carriage to pick them up, but it was best to go at night, because there were too many people on the road during the day, and the journey was too slow. Li Chun was very happy, so he went home to prepare silver and clothes for going out. After dinner, Li Chun waited for Li Da by the well at the entrance of the village at the appointed time. At this time, Li Da was already hiding in the crop field beside the well. He fell down without making a sound. Li Da searched out the silver taels on his body, took out the pocket he had prepared in advance, and put Li Chun in it. Fearing that the corpse would float up, he stuffed a few more stones into the pocket, and then stabbed him. Haokou was thrown into the well. After dealing with it, he took Li Chun's money and went out to do business. He went there for three months and made a lot of money. Then he came back to the village dressed neatly, and the villagers were very surprised: "Li Da, you have developed a lot? And Li Chun, didn't you go out with you?" "Oh, don't mention it, Li Chun is better than me, Now I have my own shop, and I saw a female actress there again, and I won’t come back. No, he asked me to bring the divorce letter to his wife, and I couldn’t bear to tell her.” Everyone scolded Li Spring is fickle and ungrateful. Half a year later, Li Da got his wish and married Honglian. Li Da narrated the whole process and confessed that the pickaxe used for the murder was still used at home. The magistrate ordered the officer to bring the pickaxe, and after checking, it matched the scar on the back of the bone. Li Da was sent to death row and asked to be executed after autumn.
4. Conspiracy
After Li Da's murder case was closed, people praised the county magistrate for his ingenuity and resourcefulness, comparable to the sky. And the sorceress naturally became famous, and there were more believers.
At night, at Li Da's house, the sorceress and Honglian are arguing. Honglian said angrily: "You still ask me for money, how much did I give you?" You have to know that I spent a lot of money hiring those people to pretend to be evil. Now that you have fulfilled your wish, you don’t mean to tear down the bridge after crossing the river, right?” Hong Lian said, “Don’t talk about this, if it weren’t for me My idea, how can you be so famous now? I heard that you don’t come to the door without a tael of silver now. I also have no money, so don’t pester me anymore.”
The sorceress was also annoyed: "You think I don't know, but in fact, you have hooked up with the son of the shopkeeper Wang of the village east. His family is the richest man in the village, so you don't have money? The devil will believe it. I will help you get rid of Li Da , can you stay and fly together with Young Master Wang? In fact, it doesn’t matter who you choose with me, as long as you give me enough money.” Hong Lian was about to speak when the door was suddenly knocked open, and the county magistrate and officials appeared at the door forward. Both the witch and Honglian were dumbfounded, and the magistrate sneered: "What a chaste and strong woman, what a great immortal who exorcises ghosts and summons souls." Honglian said tremblingly, "Why did you visit late at night, my lord?" The magistrate sneered: "For you , I really didn't expect that you, a weak woman, would have such a deep city, and you killed your two husbands without showing any signs."
Hong Lian hurriedly said: "Your Excellency is joking, how could it be me who killed Li Da? Li Da killed Li Chun and deceived the little girl. Li Da killed someone and deserved it. What does it have to do with me?" The county magistrate said: "Since you don't want to say it, let the county speak for you. Long before Li Chun died, you and Li Da had an affair. Poor Li Chun has been kept in the dark. He wants you to live. On a good day, he believed Li Da's words and went out to seek business. He didn't expect that what awaited him was death. It is true that you did not participate in Li Chun's death, but you were also the murderer who indirectly killed him. For adultery, I can sentence you to beheaded?" Hong Lian was so frightened that she trembled all over. The magistrate then said: "You did not participate in the killing of Li Chun, but you knew about Li Chun being killed by Li Da. At first I suspected that you murdered Li Chun together with Li Da, but it was not mentioned in Li Da's confession. One word, I was thinking, why do you know this matter so clearly. Until that night when I went to the prison to try Li Da again, but just in time for Li Da to sleep, I was about to wake him up when I heard Li Da Da Da spoke: "Brother Li Chun, I'm going to see you, don't blame me, the two of us have been on good terms for a long time. She said she wanted to marry me, and that's why I laid a black hand on you. "Then I fell asleep again, and then I realized that he had a problem with talking in his sleep, so the whole thing could be explained. Li Da and you have slept together for a year, what kind of talking in your sleep can hide it from you."
Hong Lian argued strongly: "My lord, maybe Li Da deliberately framed the little girl?" The county magistrate smiled: "It's possible, but your cheating feet have already been exposed. Let me ask you, if Li Da kills Li Chun, will he kill Li Chun?" The money was all searched away, so how could he miss the delicate blue cloth bag? Even if he missed it carelessly, the blue cloth bag had been soaked in water for a whole year, and the corpse had turned into bones. How could the cloth bag have no color at all? How much did you drop?"
Honglian was speechless, and the magistrate continued: "There is only one explanation, this cloth bag was thrown in by someone later, just in the past few days! Why did you do this? It is so that you can come out and identify the corpse after it is salvaged !"
Hong Lian remained silent for a long time before saying, "When did your lord start to doubt me?" The county magistrate said, "The last time the village chief took people to the county government office, I kicked them out. In fact, I have already paid attention to this case. I I found a strange phenomenon, that is, all the women who are bewitched by evil spirits, their natal families belong to Zhangzhuang. Of course, according to the sorceress, because going to Zhangzhuang must pass through the ancient well, so they will be bewitched by evil spirits. But I don’t believe it. I asked people to investigate and found that these women had private contact with the sorceress when they returned to their natal homes. So I passed the Li Qing couple who were the first to be enchanted by the evil to the county government. Under interrogation, they admitted that the sorceress paid Li Qing's wife My wife pretended to be possessed by an evil spirit. I thought it was not that simple, so I asked the two of them to keep quiet. I asked other bewitched people, and they unanimously confessed that the witches bribed them to do it. Since the witches are involved in the case The central character, of course it starts with her. The witch is from the same village as your natal family, and she is familiar with your mother. I started to suspect you, but I have no evidence for you, so I can only stare at the witch. Sooner or later there will be a day when I can't hold back and come to you." The sorceress lowered her head silently, and Hong Lian gave her a hard look.
The county magistrate continued: "You want to marry the shopkeeper Wang's son to be a young boy, so you came up with a clever plan to kill two birds with one stone. You asked the witch to create an incident of haunting ghosts. The purpose is to get rid of Li Da without having to come forward. Li Da doesn't know why. If you expose him, you will not confess the adultery with you. Am I right."
Honglian nodded, "I don't have anything to say now. I'm just a little girl who wants to live a better life. It's just that God won't help me." Zhixian shook his head: "It's true that you want to live a better life, but you Adultery kills husband first, design harms husband later, this hurts nature and reason, don't say it is intolerant, even the sky will not tolerate it."
end
When the first snow fell, Li Da and Hong Lian were executed together. The sorceress was severely beaten forty times, and was fined to return the cheated money to the villagers. She was in pain and distressed, and she lay on the bed screaming all day long. Only the secluded ancient well, after a few months, was filled with seeping water again, bright as a mirror, reflecting the blue sky.