Transmigrated into a fat wife, farming, raising children, and picking up husbands

Children's ability to imitate and their creativity are boundless; I wonder which clever little devil started it.

The children playing in the streets and alleys began to sing a nursery rhyme.

"West Garden, ghostly howls, Black Fish Gang, terrified!"

"Chains clang, white shadows flutter, seven scoundrels wet their pants!"

"The King of Hell's decree, the soul-chasing talisman—those who commit numerous evils are doomed!"

"I'll teach you to be arrogant and wicked; the King of Hell will judge you tonight..."

The children ran and sang, laughing and giggling, finding it both fun and a little exciting about the unknown horror.

This colloquial and rhyming jingle has a simple melody.

It spread faster than the adults' mysterious whispers, and in an instant it seeped into many corners of the town.

Let the story of "haunted abandoned gardens" be known to more people in a more vivid and down-to-earth way.

Even those who were initially skeptical were inexplicably shrouded in a shadow.

But what truly brought this "ghost story in the deserted garden" to its climax and made it all the more vivid was Wanfu Teahouse.

Wanfu Tea House is located near the pier, where many travelers stop to rest and businessmen make a brief stop.

Aside from having a meal at the inn or restaurant, people come to this teahouse to listen to local customs, chat about business details, and take a break.

In the afternoon, the teahouse business was just beginning to pick up.

The hall was almost full, and the tea drinkers were whispering among themselves, all of them talking about the strange incident from the previous night.

Zhang Wanfu and Liu Songnian, these two old men who made a "guest appearance" last night, had a great time.

After hearing about the miserable state of the Black Fish Gang members and Master Zhou's warning, instead of restraining themselves, they felt that their opportunity had come!

"Old Liu, did you hear that? Master Zhou even said 'The Master did not speak of such things'!"

Zhang Wanfu slapped his thigh, his face crinkling with laughter. As someone who had witnessed it firsthand, he knew all too well what had happened to those people.

"The whole town has seen the behavior of those bastards from the Black Fish Gang! This is perfect material for a story; wouldn't it be a waste of the opportunity given to us by the Lin family girl if we didn't use it?"

Liu Songnian stroked his sparse beard, his small eyes gleaming, and chuckled.

He personally participated in the operation as an off-site supporter. And Zhang Wanfu's white figure directly terrified several people.

"That's right! We saw with our own eyes how scared they were, and the decorations in the garden, the bones, the white phosphorescence—we all contributed to that."

"Hehe, plus what was circulating this morning, you could easily embellish it and make it into a great story! It'd be more believable than the real thing!"

After discussing it, the two decided that this matter needed to be "added fuel to the fire"!

It wasn't just to add another layer of mystery and terror to last night's operation, but also to completely extinguish any thought the Black Fish Gang might have of rising again.

That's true... well, it's for the sake of the teahouse's business!

Such a sensational "local wonder" should not be used to attract tea drinkers; wouldn't that be a waste?

Seeing that it was almost time, Liu Songnian changed into a clean storyteller's robe, held a gavel, and stood on the prominent storytelling stage in the center of the teahouse.

He cleared his throat, his gaze sweeping over the countless expectant eyes below the stage. The gavel snapped with a crisp "snap," and the entire hall fell silent.

"Dear readers, young and old, today we will not discuss the old history of the previous dynasty, nor the grudges of the martial arts world."

Although Liu Songnian's voice was not loud, it had a peculiar attraction that instantly captivated everyone's attention.

"Speaking of Peach Blossom Town alone, a bizarre, horrifying true story unfolded last night!"

He paused deliberately and took a sip of tea.

After whetting the appetite of the audience, he slowly began to tell the story in a tone that was as if he were there in person, and with a chilling undertone.

"Speaking of which, in the west of our Peach Blossom Town, there is an old garden that has been abandoned for countless years."

In that garden, vines entwine the beams, and wild foxes make their dens. At night, the wind howls eerily like ghosts wailing, broken walls reflect the cold moon, and overgrown weeds accompany lonely graves.

Normally, even the boldest neighbors wouldn't dare to go closer for a closer look. Because...it's said that some 'unclean' things live inside...

The tea drinkers held their breath, as if they had been drawn into that gloomy, dilapidated garden. Many of them shrank their necks and felt a chill run down their spines.

"But there are those who refuse to believe in evil and are not afraid of death!"

Liu Songnian abruptly changed the subject, his voice rising sharply and becoming sarcastic.

"It's the Black Fish Gang, the gang of seven led by Jia Heiyu, who usually runs rampant in our town, bullying the good and honest!"

"These seven evil spirits, who boasted of their tough lives and were incredibly audacious, actually seized that desolate garden as their lair! They even boasted that 'if there really is a female ghost in this garden, we'll capture her to warm our beds.'"

"After a bunch of scoundrels seized the garden and turned it into a den of filth and a lair for plotting evil deeds, they added more than three parts malevolence and seven parts sin to the garden!"

Liu Songnian spoke eloquently, recounting the evil deeds committed by the Black Fish Gang, including their bullying of the market, extortion of villagers, forced marriage of women, and collusion with officials.

Each and every incident was brought up again and perfectly integrated into the narrative, leaving the tea drinkers in the audience both indignant and enlightened.

It turns out that all these years, this group of people had been entrenched there, unknowingly committing so many evil deeds! No wonder they got their comeuppance!

"Little did they know, their audacious, reckless, and self-destructive behavior of usurping the place had already violated a grave taboo of the garden's 'master'!"

"Just last night, under a dark and windy sky, as a sudden downpour was imminent..."

He had laid a lot of groundwork beforehand, and now it was finally time for the main event.

Liu Songnian's voice lowered again, becoming ethereal and mysterious, accompanied by his rich facial expressions and gestures.

"From the garden came a soft, sobbing sound, like the lament of a woman grieving in her boudoir..."

Then came the heavy iron chains, dragging across the stone pavement with a screeching sound, clanging, clanging...

From afar to near, and from near to far, it drifted erratically, like a soul-summoning messenger, pacing the garden, searching for its target…

He described it in such detail, and with his superb ventriloquism, it was as if everyone had personally experienced the events of the previous night alongside him.

How do white shadows appear and disappear mysteriously everywhere? How do will-o'-the-wisps ignite out of thin air? How does a female ghost with blood flowing from her seven orifices play the zither in the pavilion to seduce souls? And how do the Black and White Impermanence wield chains to claim lives?

And how Jia Heiyu knelt down and begged for mercy, how the soul-snatching rope was tied around his shoulder, and how he was finally stripped of his lifespan and given the "King of Hell's Soul-Chasing Order"...

Liu Songnian, as expected of an experienced storyteller, perfectly blended his rich imagination and storytelling skills with the fragmented information he had seen and heard.

The plot is full of twists and turns, the details are vivid, and the atmosphere of horror builds up layer by layer.

He was eloquent and his performance was so vivid that it seemed as if he had witnessed it firsthand while peering over the wall.

The tea drinkers below the stage dared not breathe, sometimes gasping, sometimes exclaiming, and sometimes whispering as he spoke.

His face was filled with fear, excitement, and relief when he finally heard the ending, "evil will be punished."