Starting as pearl divers, they have endless jobs.

Chapter 93 A Shocking Turn of Events at the Hall, Playing with Ghosts (1.1 words, seeking subscriptions)
Today is the third and final day of the religious service.

The sky was terribly overcast from early morning, and it started raining in the afternoon.

It was early spring, yet the rain was falling heavily and suddenly, carrying a chill that seemed to penetrate to the bone.

Looking at the torrential rain outside, Guan Sihai was filled with unease, so he went to consult with the head steward of the Lu family.

"Butler, the weather is really not cooperating. Why don't you discuss with Master Lu about postponing tonight's performance for a day?"

The head butler wore a professional fake smile, but his tone left no room for argument: "Master Guan, my master has ordered that the play must be performed tonight; it cannot be delayed."

Guan Sihai was rebuffed, and although he was dissatisfied, he could only nod and bow in agreement.

After all, they take people's money and follow their orders; they have to do whatever their master says.

Backstage, he immediately instructed everyone to prepare.

Chen Ye stood under the eaves, looking at the flowers and plants in the courtyard that had been ravaged by the wind and rain, and the feeling of unease in his heart grew stronger.

However, he couldn't stop the opera troupe just because of his own ominous premonition, so he could only do his best to prepare.

……

As night fell, the wind and rain showed no sign of abating.

Inside the Lu family opera house, however, the lights were on full display, and as soon as the gongs and drums sounded, the lively performance began.

Despite the wind and rain, the senior students performed passionately on stage, portraying the love and hate between talented men and beautiful women.

Everything started off smoothly, and the applause from the audience continued.

Chen Ye stood in the side of the curtain, his tense nerves relaxing slightly, thinking to himself that perhaps he was just overthinking things.

But just then, in that inconspicuous corner at the very back of the stands, the incense burner enshrining the statue of the guardian deity suddenly cracked open without warning.

However, no one noticed this scene because everyone's attention was completely drawn to the stage.

The story being performed on stage right now is about a heartless man who becomes the top scholar in the imperial examination, abandons his wife and children, marries a princess, and eventually even tries to kill his first wife.

Everyone watched intently, and even Lu Jinghong, who previously disliked watching plays, couldn't help but become engrossed in them.

When the scene depicted the unfaithful man drawing his sword to kill his wife, the young actor playing the unfaithful man suddenly froze, standing there stunned.

The stage fell silent in an instant. The drummers exchanged glances, not understanding what was going on, and could only beat the drums by feel.

Just as everyone was watching, the young man suddenly fell backward and crashed to the ground, foaming at the mouth and convulsing uncontrollably.

Chaos erupted both on and off the stage.

But something even more terrifying was yet to come!

The actress playing the abandoned wife is Bai Xiaoyu.

The panic on her face vanished instantly, replaced by an extremely vicious and venomous expression. She then completely ignored the chaos on stage and the screams from the audience and began to sing on her own.

The singing style was shrill and high-pitched, not like the lyrics in a play at all, but more like a death knell. Every word was chilling and made one's scalp tingle.

"A ghost...I'm possessed!"

Someone shouted something, and the entire theater erupted in chaos.

The guests screamed and scattered, trying to escape the theater. But no matter how they ran, once they passed through the gate, they were back in the brightly lit theater hall. They had gone around in circles and ended up back where they started!
Ghost hits the wall!
Fear was written all over everyone's face.

Lu, the wealthy man, was pale. Although he was surrounded by servants and guards, he was also trapped in this small space and could not get out at all.

"Don't panic!"

At the crucial moment, Guan Sihai, with his experience, shouted sharply, which finally calmed the chaotic scene down a bit.

Then he rushed onto the stage, first taking out a copper coin and stuffing it into the mouth of the male actor who was convulsing on the ground. Then he used his fingers like a sword to press several major acupoints on the actor's chest, using the secret techniques of Peking Opera to stabilize his blood and qi and prevent evil spirits from attacking his heart.

After doing all this, he turned to Bai Xiaoyu, who was possessed.

“Friend from where are you? I am Guan Sihai, the troupe leader of Qingchun Opera. My apprentice is young and ignorant. If she has offended you in any way, please be lenient and let her off the hook. If you have any grievances, you can tell me, and I will definitely stand up for you!”

Guan Sihai used the slang of the Peking Opera world to kindly persuade the evil spirit to leave.

But "Bai Xiaoyu" seemed not to hear her, continuing to sing that eerie tune, her eyes sweeping over everyone in the audience with venomous intent, finally fixing her gaze on the pale-faced Lu Dahu.

When Guan Sihai saw that his kind words were ineffective, his face darkened. He took out a ruler engraved with runes from his pocket and said in a deep voice, "Friend, if you are still stubborn, then don't blame me for being ruthless!"

However, despite his best efforts, the ghost refused to leave and instead became even more ferocious!
"Eh-"

The eerie singing suddenly rose in pitch, so sharp it seemed to pierce one's eardrums.

At the same time, Bai Xiaoyu's body began to tremble violently, and bright red blood slowly flowed from her seven orifices!

This was a sign that her life essence was being frantically drained by this evil spirit, and she was about to collapse!

Guan Sihai was extremely anxious, but he was at a loss.

At this critical moment, Chen Ye took a step forward and stepped directly onto the stage.

In fact, he had been observing from the side the whole time. His professional talent and keen senses allowed him to clearly perceive that the ghost's singing voice was not only fierce, but also contained an intense and overwhelming resentment.

That is the despair that can only be born after being betrayed.

Then a thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

Since it's a ghost story, let's use the story to explain it!

At that moment, Chen Ye gathered his energy in his dantian and suddenly opened his mouth, responding to the ghost's lyrics in the same high-pitched tone.

"Why are my wife's cheeks wet with tears? Is it because your husband has returned late?"

His voice was clear and resonant, with perfect enunciation, instantly dispelling some of the eerie and sinister atmosphere.

The ghost, who was singing wildly, suddenly stopped, his empty eyes turning to Chen Ye, seemingly somewhat taken aback.

The audience was stunned, not understanding what the young apprentice was trying to do.

Chen Ye ignored everything and strode onto the stage, walking up to "Bai Xiaoyu" with his eyes filled with deep affection and guilt at their "long-awaited reunion," and continued singing.

"Years of fighting on the battlefield, surviving countless near-death experiences to return home. Never did I imagine that we would meet again today, only to be separated by life and death..."

He sang and acted simultaneously, portraying himself as a devoted husband who fought for his country, tragically sacrificed his life, and whose soul returned to his hometown.

The ghost was stunned for a moment, and was actually drawn into the play. The ferocity in its eyes was gradually replaced by confusion and sadness, and it joined in the duet.

"My lord...is it really you?"

"It's me, my wife, I'm back!"

Chen Ye then steered the plot in another direction.

What was originally a story of a heartless man killing his wife was transformed by him into a tragic tale of a devoted husband whose soul returned to his hometown, separated from his wife by death.

He sang about a man whose love was as deep as the sea, and who was devoted to his wife.

She sang of the woman who waited bitterly in the cold cave, longing for her husband's return with endless yearning.

The two, with their back-and-forth banter and every smile and frown, transformed a chilling murder case into a deeply moving tale of life and death.

The audience below the stage was stunned.

Finally, when Chen Ye sang the last line and slowly collapsed into Bai Xiaoyu's arms, the play came to an end.

"My lord—!"

The ghost let out a heart-wrenching wail, and a thick black aura suddenly shot out from Bai Xiaoyu's crown, condensing in the air into a blurry female figure.

Most of the resentment she felt dissipated during this play.

Then the female ghost looked down and gazed deeply at Chen Ye, her eyes filled with complex emotions—gratitude, reluctance, and endless tenderness.

Chen Ye's heart stirred, and he said, "The obsession is over, so let's go." The female ghost, whose appearance was not clearly visible, shook her head gently and let out a soft sigh.

"Chen Lang, you don't understand..."

After saying that, she turned her head sharply, looking at the wealthy Lu in the distance with eyes full of resentment, her voice icy cold.

"Lu Shouyi, I will come back for you. I will make you taste the bitterness of losing your beloved. I will kill your daughter!"

Before she finished speaking, her figure turned into a wisp of smoke and disappeared into the wind and rain.

With a thud, Bai Xiaoyu's eyes rolled back, and she collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

The ghost wall inside the opera house disappeared, and the sound of wind and rain outside poured in again.

everything is over.

Of course, the play couldn't continue.

In a flurry of activity, everyone carried the unconscious actor off the stage to receive treatment.

Guan Sihai's face was frighteningly pale. He no longer cared about being a host and walked straight up to the ashen-faced Lu Da Hu, his voice filled with suppressed rage.

"Mr. Lu, shouldn't you give me an explanation?"

“There are rules for performing ghost and deity plays, and even the opening is different from ordinary plays. You just told us to sing like this without saying anything. Do you want all of us in the Qingchun Troupe to die here?”

Guan Sihai was truly enraged.

The Lu family's concealment was extremely egregious. They were not invited to perform at a private gathering; instead, they were used as sacrifices to appease their grievances!
If Chen Ye hadn't come up with a quick thinking, the consequences would have been unimaginable!
Faced with Guan Sihai's questioning, Lu Dahu's lips trembled and his face turned pale, but he couldn't utter a single word.

Because everything Guan Sihai said was true, he was indeed wrong in this matter.

Just as tensions were about to rise, Chen Ye walked over.

He first shook his head slightly at Guan Sihai, signaling him to calm down, before turning his gaze to Lu Dahu.

“Master Lu, although that thing has temporarily retreated, you also heard what it said before it left.”

Chen Ye paused, his tone serious.

"So things are far from over. It makes it clear that it will come back."

"So if you want to resolve this matter completely and save your daughter's life, you must tell us everything in detail."

Upon hearing Chen Ye's words, Lu Dahu trembled and then lowered his head, as if deep in thought.

A moment later, he ordered in a hoarse voice, "Someone, take the young lady back to her room. All other people, leave."

Lu Jinghong was about to say something, but her best friend Qi Nana tugged at her, leaving her no choice but to obediently leave.

Then Lu the wealthy man finally breathed a sigh of relief, “Actually, my name isn’t Lu the wealthy man. My real name is Lu Shouyi.”

Then, as Lu the tycoon recounted his story, a long-buried past was slowly revealed.

It turns out that the now incredibly wealthy Mr. Lu was originally just a poor boy carrying bags at the docks.

At that time, he had a childhood sweetheart named Su Lan.

Su Lan's family was slightly better off than Lu Shouyi's, but they could only barely make ends meet.

Even so, Su Lan's parents looked down on Lu Shouyi, who was penniless, and firmly opposed the two of them dating.

But Su Lan was stubborn and was determined to marry Lu Shouyi.

Later, Su Lan's family had no other choice but to send her to a theatrical troupe to learn opera, hoping that distance and time would dilute their feelings for each other.

However, they underestimated their daughter's persistence. Even after joining the opera troupe, Su Lan never lost contact with Lu Shouyi.

“Back then, I worked on the docks every day, and I was so tired that I didn’t want to move a finger when I got back to that dilapidated house.”

Lu Shouyi's gaze became somewhat unfocused, as if he were lost in distant memories. "So whenever she had free time, she would secretly come to see me, do my laundry, cook for me, and tidy up the house..."

"Back then, countless single guys envied me, saying that I, Lu Shouyi, must have accumulated good karma in my past life to find such a wonderful woman."

At this point, a complex look of nostalgia appeared on Lu Shouyi's face, and everyone present listened quietly, even Guan Sihai's anger subsided considerably.

This sounds like a beautiful love story.

But then, Lu Shouyi let out a long sigh, and the nostalgia on his face was replaced by bitterness.

Unfortunately, our happiness was short-lived, and we eventually parted ways.

Do you know why?

Before anyone could answer, Lu Shouyi said to himself, "Because the daughter of the gang leader at the dock where I was working took a liking to me."

Sure enough.

Everyone understood; wasn't this a real-life version of the story of Chen Shimei, where a man abandoned his wife who had shared his hardships for wealth and status?

But what Lu Shouyi said next stunned everyone.

"Actually, I've thought about it many times since then. Even without this incident, Su Lan and I probably wouldn't have made it to the end."

"Why?" This time it was Chen Ye who asked.

“Because she’s too extreme.” A hint of fear flashed in Lu Shouyi’s eyes, as if he were recalling some unbearable past events.

"When she's good to me, she's gentle and considerate, practically the perfect wife and mother. But if I do anything that displeases her, even something as simple as coming home a little late, she'll make a fuss with me."

"At first she just cried, but then she started to threaten suicide, holding scissors to her neck or saying she wanted to jump into the river. Once she even cut her arm with a razor blade, and blood flowed everywhere."

"To appease her, I don't know how many times I knelt down and apologized to her. She often regretted it afterward and swore that she would never do it again, but she still did it the next time."

"Later, after I got close to the leader's daughter, I had a frank talk with her. I took out all my savings at the time and said that I was willing to give her all the money, just asking her to let me go and let herself go."

"But she wouldn't listen at all. She just stared at me with such a vicious look in her eyes, as if she wanted to devour me alive. She said she didn't want anything, but she would make me regret it for the rest of my life."

“I didn’t think too much about it at the time, but a couple of days later, I heard the news that she had hanged herself.”

As he spoke, Lu Shouyi's voice trembled.

"I was really heartbroken at that moment!"

"But it was too late to turn back. I sent a large sum of money to her family through someone, hoping they could bury Su Lan properly, as a small compensation from me. But the money was returned later. I later heard that her parents left Zhenhaiwei after burying her and have not been heard from since."

"Later, with the help of my father-in-law's family, I gradually developed my business and eventually became the wealthy Lu family I am today. As for the name Su Lan, I gradually forgot about it, only remembering it occasionally when I dream in the middle of the night."

“But in the last year, I started dreaming about her frequently again. In my dreams, she was wearing a red wedding dress and asked me why I had wronged her, saying that she was coming to take my life.”

“At first, I just thought it was something I was thinking about during the day and dreaming about at night, so I didn’t pay much attention. But gradually, things started to go wrong at home. I started having nightmares all night long, and later it got to the point where I was hallucinating during the day. I would always see her standing in the corner and smiling at me. Until about two weeks ago, all of the dozen or so guard dogs I kept at home died mysteriously overnight, and their deaths were gruesome.”

"That's when I realized that she really came to find me."

“I was terrified, so I sought help from my good friend, Qi Shihao, who works in the government office. He helped me invite a high-ranking Taoist priest from the Tianhou Temple. That Taoist nun had some real skills and calculated that Su Lan was buried by her parents in a mass grave outside the city.”

“We found the grave, dug out the remains, and the high Taoist priest personally performed a ritual to cremate the remains and suppress them.”

"The Taoist nun said that the female ghost's resentment was too strong. Although the remains had been disposed of, her bad luck still lingered in the house. Therefore, she told me to hire an opera troupe to perform for three days straight, using the yang energy of the living and the lively atmosphere to completely dispel this bad luck. Today was supposed to be the last day. As long as we get through tonight, everything will be fine..."

"Unexpectedly, something still happened in the end."

After recounting the whole story in one breath, Lu Shouyi slumped into his chair, as if he had collapsed from exhaustion.

Everyone fell silent.

This is a story far more complex than imagined; right and wrong, truth and falsehood, are already entangled and difficult to distinguish.

Just then, Chen Ye, who had been lost in thought, raised his head and said, "Master Lu, have you considered one possibility?"

"So the body you painstakingly found and disposed of wasn't Su Lan's at all?"

(End of this chapter)