Seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune: Starting with death row inmates

My real name isn't Qin Pi. It's Qin Pi. My father, a leatherworker, bought it from the village storyteller in a pigskin. He was the only literate person in the village.

The storyteller said that the character "丕" represents a virtuous and noble person. He said that if I took this character, I would definitely be a good son in the future. It would be a worthwhile investment to buy a pigskin. So my silly old man bought it.

Damn it, a single word is worth a piece of pigskin, and that's only for educated people who know how to make money.

There are four people in my family: my dad, my mom, my brother, and me. We run a leather shop. My dad skins animals and tans the leather, and then my mom uses the leather to make shoes and leather goods.

My mother was very skilled. She made all the shoes and leather hats that the villagers wore. Her shop was very successful, and money flowed into the family like water. When my brother turned sixteen, my father bought a house in the nearby county town and moved into the city.

At that time, the imperial court held a martial arts examination, and my brother wanted to learn martial arts so that he could become a martial arts champion and bring glory to our ancestors. My parents naturally agreed, and they even specially invited the best martial arts master in the city to come and teach my brother martial arts.

In his early years, Wu Shi was a镖师 (bodyguard/escort) who traveled all over the country. It is said that he single-handedly killed more than a dozen bandits who were robbing people on the road, and was injured before returning to the city to live out his remaining years in peace.

At the agreed time, the martial arts master arrived at my house. He was a lean man, and I still remember his name: Liu Yidao. Liu Yidao pinched my brother's bones and shook his head, saying that his bones were too weak to learn martial arts.

When my brother heard that he didn't have the aptitude for martial arts, he resigned himself to his fate and, with a forced smile, escorted Liu Yidao to his doorstep.

As soon as Liu Yidao stepped out, he saw me squatting by the wall, sharpening pigskin with a knife.

He took a liking to me at first glance. After feeling my bones, he loudly said, "Good! I'm a good prospect for martial arts!" My brother was so angry... I still want to laugh when I think about his expression at that time.

Then I started learning martial arts from Liu Yidao. Hehe, he was right, I'm a martial arts genius, just like you. I can learn any martial art as soon as I hear it and understand it as soon as I practice it.

When I was sixteen, I had already reached the third level of the Refinement Realm. I could single-handedly defeat three thugs who came to my father's shop to collect money. From then on, apart from government officials, no one dared to come to the shop to collect money anymore.

On my seventeenth birthday, a fat man dressed in fine silk came. His surname was Zhao, and he was the president of the Zhao Family Merchants Association in the city. He approached my father and wanted to buy my father's shop for 80,000 coins.

Eighty thousand coins is no small sum, but my father estimated that the shop could earn that amount in ten years, and that my brother could inherit it afterward, so he decisively refused.

That guy surnamed Zhao didn't give up. He came to see my dad twice more afterward. He was very eloquent, but the price he asked for wasn't much higher.

Seeing that my father was really unwilling to sell, he pretended not to insist and instead said that his daughter's birthday was coming up soon and that he saw my mother's skillful craftsmanship and wanted to order a beautiful dress.

My mother worked on the clothes for three days and three nights by lamplight, until her eyes were swollen, before she finally finished them. On the day of delivery, the daughter surnamed Zhao arrived.

I was seventeen years old at the time. Every day I either practiced knife skills with my master or skinned animals with my father. I had never seen a beautiful woman before. When Miss Zhao came into the shop, my eyes were immediately drawn to her. I realized that a woman's face was as tender and white as a peeled egg, and her body smelled wonderful.

I immediately fell in love with Miss Zhao and inquired about her whereabouts every few days. My parents noticed my feelings for Miss Zhao and repeatedly advised me that it was impossible for me to have a future with her now, and that once I passed the martial arts exam, I could choose any woman like her.

My parents were right, and my brother was also trying to persuade me, saying that if I really wanted to be with a woman, he should take me to a brothel. Now that I think about it, my family really meant well for me. I will repay them even if I have to be their slave in my next life.

My family was right, but I was blinded by lust and wouldn't listen. I insisted on pursuing Miss Zhao, buying her all sorts of rouge and gold bracelets, and even pawning my martial arts sword, which angered my master to the point that he wanted to sever our master-disciple relationship.

As if by divine intervention, one day Miss Zhao was stopped and harassed by a bully on the street, and I happened to save her. Just like the story of a hero saving a beauty in a play, Miss Zhao actually started dating me. At that time, I felt that it was the happiest day of my life. Maybe I was born just for this day to come.

After talking with Miss Zhao for a while, one day she suddenly cried and said that her father wanted to marry her off to the son of the Liu family, but she didn't want to marry him and wanted to elope with me.

Haha, Brother Shen, you know I'm not as smart as you. I was even dumber when I was seventeen, my brain was full of nonsense. I agreed without hesitation and even set a time, Hai Shi (9-11 PM), to go to her house and take her away.

As night fell, I scaled the wall of the Zhao residence and was about to knock on Miss Zhao's door when a group of servants and guards pinned me to the ground and beat me severely without saying a word before taking me to the yamen (government office).

That bald county magistrate was ruthless. He immediately gave me a severe beating, accusing me of sneaking into Miss Zhao's house in the middle of the night with ill intentions towards her. Of course, I denied it. I said that Miss Zhao and I were in love and had planned to elope together. The magistrate said that I was talking nonsense and even made Miss Zhao confront me in court.

Haha, when that woman came up, she looked at me like a stray dog ​​on the street, and only said three words: "Don't know me."

That's how I was imprisoned as a womanizer. The prison guards subjected me to water torture every day. They would put a wet cloth over my face, making it hard to even breathe. It was so uncomfortable that it felt like I was having an asthma attack.

My eyes were covered with a cloth, so I couldn't see anything, and my consciousness was blurred, but my hearing was still sharp. I heard my parents crying outside the prison door, and the slow, deliberate voice of the man surnamed Zhao: "Sell me that shop for five thousand coins, and this matter will be settled."

That's when I realized how stupid I was. Damn it, it was all planned by that Zhao guy. I deserve to die. I can't resist women and I've squandered the family fortune my parents worked so hard to build up over their lifetimes.

To save me, my parents signed a contract with that guy surnamed Zhao right there in prison and took me home.

Sigh, I can't remember what happened that day. I only remember my mother constantly comforting me, saying that it was okay as long as I was alright. My father and brother kept applying medicine to my wounds without saying a word.

The next day, the Zhao Family Chamber of Commerce sent people to move our things out of the shop. My father stood at the door, watching the shop assistants drag the things out of the shop, while my mother held a box containing our family savings.

Our family's livelihood was cut off, all because of this damn fool who was bewitched by a woman.