★ Selling ghosts
This is what my uncle said.
His comrade's grandfather was a gambler when he was young.
But his luck and his skills are both poor, or a bit worse.
Later, he ran out of money and had no choice but to hang out in the casino, saying a few lucky words to the winning gamblers, or running errands and so on, and collecting a few rewards to survive.
Once he met an old gambler. This old guy always won every bet. He gambled in the casino for three days, staying at the gaming table except for going to the bathroom.
When the old gambler left the casino on the third night, the younger gambler followed. His idea is very simple, say a few nice words and ask for a few dollars. The old gambler went out and turned into a secluded alley next to the casino. He lifted up his clothes and looked like he was about to let loose. Suddenly his body shook a few times and slowly collapsed to the ground. The young gambler walked up to the Taoist priest and monk Gui Huai and found that the old gambler was dead. He was so frightened that he turned around and ran away. After running a few steps, he stopped again, pretended to be brave, walked over, and touched the old gambler all over his body. Strange, where is the money he won? In the end, he only touched something the size of a water chestnut, like a compass. After touching the dead man for a long time, I only found this thing. The gambler was angry.
He walked back dejectedly, walked under the street lamp, took out the water chestnut compass, and saw that the pointer on the compass kept expanding and contracting in one direction. He was very curious, didn't the compass pointer rotate in circles, and what did it mean to expand and contract? He walked in that direction.
We walked out of the town, crossed the river, and arrived at a pine forest. In the distance he saw someone hanging on a tree. Hang yourself! His head swelled with a bang, and he continued the previous procedure: turning around and running, only to come back after running a few steps. What if the Hanged Ghost has something on him? He bravely went over, stretched out his free left hand and touched it, and found that the hanged man was still a little warm, and that he could still be saved. He also stretched out his right hand, trying to help the man pull out the rope. As soon as the compass in his right hand came into contact with the man, the man's body trembled. When the gambler put him down to see, he was already dead. The gambler still found no money on that man.
A few days later, the gambler stayed up all night at the casino. When he was about to go home and sleep, a man who looked like a fortune teller stopped him. This man wants to negotiate business with a gambler! Gamblers only know that the compass is used to collect souls, specifically to collect ghosts who are about to die in vain. The two quickly struck a deal, with the gambler providing the ghost and in return the fortune teller would give him good luck. The gambler proposed to try it for a few days, and the fortune teller smiled and agreed. The result, of course, is that the gambler's luck has been surprisingly good these days. He is secretly glad that I got this compass. Otherwise, if the fortune teller makes and sells his own compass, how can I make a fortune?
From then on, in addition to going to the casino, gamblers would go everywhere to find out what happened. Fortunately, wars were frequent in China at that time, and gamblers were bold. He even went to the battlefield after the war to find goods. So for three years. The life of a gambler is too satisfying. Until one day he met a Taoist priest on the street.
The Taoist priest stopped the gambler and said, "You only have three days to live. Why are you still thinking of harming others?" The gambler thought that the Taoist priest was playing tricks with him and ignored him. The Taoist priest took out a mirror and asked you to take a look. The gambler looked in the mirror and saw that it was the scene of the old gambler's death. What followed was how he met the fortune teller and how he went around collecting ghosts. The scenes were very clear. The gambler was afraid.
The gambler asked the Taoist priest to save him. The Taoist priest said that the ghosts were seeking their own death, but if you did not save them when they were about to die, you would instead urge them to die and bring peace to the world. Moreover, your good luck was actually obtained by the fortune teller using your longevity. You think you are selling ghosts to make a profit, but in fact you are just the fortune teller's commodity. No one can save you, just go back and prepare for the funeral. The gambler cried loudly . The Taoist priest and the monk ghost were even more afraid of Huai . The Taoist priest didn't care. He just stretched out his hand and took the compass from his arms. Put it on the ground, murmur something, pull out the sword on your back and point it, a flash of fire turns the compass into ashes. The Taoist priest drifted away. The people in the town were dumbfounded.
The gambler has no choice but to go home and prepare for his own funeral. His relatives all laughed at him, but he didn't care. He only found a brother in the clan and said he wanted to adopt his son. His brother was a greedy gambler and had money, so he agreed immediately. The next day the gambler held a banquet and took the child home. This child is the father of my uncle's comrade-in-arms.
On the third day, the gambler passed away very faithfully.