IBGSW Chapter 164
Fate’s Cruel Joke
After the incident, the couple came to hate this “troublemaking” daughter, and her father reproached her:
“You household jinx! Your brother’s name is ruined, he’ll never find a wife, and you wouldn’t be worth mourning if you died!”
Fourth Madam Zhuang’s mother cursed her too:
“It was one egg. You should have just owned up to it. But no, you had to make a scene so everyone would know. I could tell from when you were little that you’d never behave. Giving birth to you was giving birth to a curse.”
That day Fourth Madam Zhuang had done nothing wrong, yet she was dragged off by her sister-in-law and beaten and cursed. After the truth came out, her parents scolded her too, and never spoke a word of comfort.
“I pitied this child’s hard life, and I learned she now had nowhere to live.”
Fourth Madam Zhuang’s family wasn’t rich, and as her brothers married, rooms were divided off one by one, and her own dwelling was arranged in what had once been the family’s pigsty, now converted.
She was then in the loveliest years of a girl’s life and her virtue was known far and wide, but her parents did not like her. They considered her a freeloader in the house, and no matter that she worked nonstop all day long, she never earned a kind look.
“I felt for her situation. I thought of my husband’s cousin, whose youngest son wasn’t yet married, and whose wife and he were asking around everywhere for an unmarried young woman of good character, and I came up with the idea of playing matchmaker.”
Sixth Aunt sniffed and lifted a corner of her clothes to wipe away her tears:
“At the time, Fourth Madam was crying as if she’d stop breathing, so I kept her there and coaxed her for a long while, and then asked if she’d be willing to marry into Kuailiang Village.”
“Isn’t that harming her?” Zhang Chuanshi cut in:
“Zhuang Laoqi said Kuai Wu was notoriously lazy—”
“No, no.” Sixth Aunt, hearing that, hastily waved her hands:
“Wu wasn’t like that before.”
Sixth Uncle, who had been silent since his wife began speaking, now said:
“Wu was a good boy back then. He was a handsome lad, about Fourth Madam’s age, and quite diligent at home. He was a skilled hand in the fields. He was also good at weaving bamboo strips, and in his spare time he’d weave baskets and back-baskets to sell in Wulidian.”
The Kuai Wu he described seemed a completely different person from the Kuai Wu Zhao Fusheng had heard about from Zhuang Laoqi.
Zhao Fusheng asked in surprise:
“Did Zhuang Laoqi lie?”
“No, he didn’t lie.” Sixth Uncle shook his head again.
“Then that’s strange. If Zhuang Laoqi didn’t lie, then Kuai Wu is a lazy bum, but you insist Kuai Wu was diligent. Isn’t that a contradiction?” Zhang Chuanshi grumbled.
“Please hear me out, Your Honor. If you want someone to blame for this, blame heaven for having no eyes.”
Sixth Uncle said:
“When my old lady brought up this match, I was truly happy for Kuai Wu. That same day, once she had talked it over with Fourth Madam, I hurried over to my cousin’s house and raised the matter, and my cousin was overjoyed.”
Once Kuai Jumin’s wife took it to heart, she asked around about Fourth Madam Zhuang’s character and heard only praise. She also learned that the girl had a hard life at home and was gentle by temperament, not a sharp-tongued trouble-maker. She felt great pity for her and had already decided in her heart that this was the daughter-in-law she wanted.
After the couple discussed it, they prepared gifts and asked Sixth Aunt to go to her natal home and sound out her cousin and his wife.
Fourth Madam Zhuang’s parents didn’t much like this daughter, but they took her marriage seriously. As she got older and more suitors came, the couple held the match tightly, and many who didn’t meet their conditions were turned away.
Sixth Aunt arrived bearing gifts. She said that her husband’s family had a young nephew about Fourth Madam’s age, from a decent household, whose parents were not harsh to their daughters-in-law, a household living in great harmony. They had heard of Fourth Madam Zhuang’s fine reputation and wanted to propose on their youngest son’s behalf.
Fourth Madam Zhuang’s parents were immediately keen on the match Sixth Aunt described.
Kuailiang Village’s unity and prosperity were famous in the surrounding villages. If their daughter could marry into it, then, bride price aside, she might even help support her brothers at home someday. They had seen Sixth Aunt come back to her natal home often after her marriage, laden with bundles big and small, and had long coveted that.
The couple had no objection to the match, but because the family was poor and Fourth Madam Zhuang’s fine reputation was well known, they set one condition: the bride price1 had to be larger.
“There was nothing for it,” Sixth Aunt said. “My cousin’s family was scraping by. With so many children there was always someone’s mouth to feed, and my cousin’s wife at the time also had a late-in-life son in his teens.”
The boy had a bad name. At twelve or thirteen he still wouldn’t work with the family properly, and hadn’t learned a trade, and just ate, drank, and loafed in the streets with others his age. Finding him a wife later wouldn’t be easy.
Fourth Madam Zhuang’s parents were so troubled by this that they were nearly going bald, and they remembered how a few years earlier a daughter of Zhuang Laoqi’s great-aunt had married into Fengmen Village and collected a large bride price, and they were tempted.
The couple wanted to use their daughter’s marriage to save up some money for their son’s future wedding.
“They asked for one tael of silver as the bride price, plus some pork and bolts of cloth.”
That was no small sum.
But when Kuai Wu learned the two sides were considering this match, he had secretly taken a look at Fourth Madam Zhuang, and fallen for the girl at once.
He had thought the match was as good as settled, but at the last moment it hit this snag, and he was stunned. He told his parents he would put off marriage for now and wait for something suitable later.
“As parents, how could they miss what was in his heart?” Sixth Uncle said. “My cousin and his wife couldn’t bear to disappoint their son, and gritted their teeth and agreed.”
One tael of silver was not easy to save, especially since the couple had already tightened their belts to the breaking point for their first four sons’ weddings.
Now they had to save another tael, and the couple worked even harder than before.
The four sons and their wives were considerate too. Learning their parents were in a bind, they wanted to help their younger brother, and all pitched in to save.
“The whole family pulling together made Kuai Wu happy, and he kept running to Zhuang Family Village, often helping them fetch water and do chores, and the Zhuangs liked him very much.”
Everything had been heading in a good direction. The year was nearly over and the silver nearly saved when something happened.
“That year in September, my cousin said that after selling that year’s white perilla they would still be a little short, so he wanted to net more fish later in the month. He’d sell most of them and salt some to add to Kuai Wu’s bride price.”
Sixth Uncle’s voice grew choked as he recalled the past:
“When they went to catch fish, some men had been in the water a long while and couldn’t take it, so they climbed ashore early. But he was thinking of his son’s bride price and refused to come up. In the end he got tangled in the river weeds. By the time he was pulled out, he was already dead.”
The rope always snaps at its thinnest point; misfortune hunts only the unlucky.
“...”
Since her rebirth, Zhao Fusheng had inherited the original host’s memories and always thought the original Zhao Fusheng had a pretty bitter lot. But hearing this account of Kuai Wu and Fourth Madam Zhuang’s past, she couldn’t help sighing too.
Before the wedding, one of them had been gentle and the other hardworking and hopeful. Having now taken such a blow, even if they married anyway, they would likely become a bitter couple.
Even the sharp-tongued Zhang Chuanshi was speechless.
“After it happened, the family was badly shaken, and Kuai Wu blamed himself most.”
His father had died, one could say, because of his marriage, and that dealt him a heavy blow.
“He said at the time he wouldn’t marry anymore. He insisted on using that money for his father’s funeral, and his mother gave him a hard slap, saying he didn’t understand.”
Before his death, what Kuai Wu’s father had wanted most was for his youngest son to marry and settle down and live a good, happy life.
Sixth Uncle shook his head.
The villagers pooled money and goods and saw Kuai Jumin’s funeral through, and afterwards Kuai Wu’s mother took her husband’s hard-earned money and proposed marriage to Fourth Madam Zhuang’s parents.
Although the wedding went ahead as agreed, inwardly it had changed flavor.
Fourth Madam Zhuang’s parents were both awkward and resentful. They hadn’t wished for their in-laws to suffer a death, yet having now married off their daughter, they got no friendly face from her husband’s family.
“After the wedding Kuai Wu was a disgrace, and found fault with Fourth Madam over everything.”
Sixth Aunt said: “We tried to talk to him too, but he wouldn’t listen.”
His father had died because of his marriage, and while his brothers and sisters did not blame him, his mother fell gravely ill soon after the wedding and died after a year and a half of suffering, and his resentment peaked.
From then on, the couple who should have been affectionate became a bitter, resentful pair.
“When my cousin was alive, what a good boy Wu was. Everyone who saw him praised him. In those days he ran to Zhuang Family Village every other day, and the little boy of Fourth Madam’s elder brother would see him and climb right onto his shoulders and trail after him all the way.”
Sixth Uncle sighed:
“At New Year, Fourth Madam would also come to our village, smiling at everyone she saw. Who could have predicted what came later?”
From Kuai Jumin’s death on, this marriage took a sharp turn and was cast in shadow.
After Kuai Wu’s old mother died, the couple’s relationship broke down completely.
From then on, Kuai Wu was extraordinarily idle and became a habitual drunk. He did nothing at home. He no longer gathered white perilla, and fed none of the livestock.
On the day Fourth Madam Zhuang gave birth, he was still out drinking and carousing, and it was Kuai Da’s wife who brought along three sisters-in-law to fetch the midwife and help run the household.
“At first they could just about get by, but later it got worse and worse. The family sank deep into debt, and Wu was still borrowing money outside to buy liquor.”
With so much owed, however united the village was, people couldn’t help being displeased.
“By then the taxes were heavy too, and his family couldn’t pay, so his brothers had to chip in. After a long time the four sisters-in-law got unhappy as well, and came to dislike the couple,” Sixth Uncle said:
“Once, there was talk of dividing the household, but the brothers wouldn’t allow it.”
Kuailiang Village had always been close-knit. While the children were young, parents threw themselves into helping them make a living, and when the parents grew old, the children in turn supported them. There had never been a precedent for splitting a household.
Kuai Wu had given up on himself and was often drunk, and the reproaches and scoldings of his brothers and their wives turned into resentment toward Fourth Madam Zhuang, and he’d go home and beat his wife.
One line he often had on his lips was: You’re bought with my money. It’s only right I beat you to death.
Back when they weren’t yet married, the two of them had once shared sweetness. Who would have thought they’d turn their life into this?
...
Sixth Uncle rambled on for quite a while, finishing the story of how Kuai Wu and Fourth Madam Zhuang came to marry, and suddenly asked:
“People get old and start to ramble when they talk about the past. By the way, Your Honor, when you mentioned Mancai earlier, this gentleman said he—”
His gaze turned to Fan Wujiu, and he stopped halfway through the sentence.
“He’s dead.”
Zhao Fusheng answered.
“Nonsense!”
Kuai Mancai, who had been moved by Sixth Uncle’s account of Kuai Wu’s past, heard this and jumped up in agitation, shouting:
“I’m standing right here, alive and well.”
“It’s true,” Wu Shaochun said. He had formed a very poor impression of the Kuailiang Village people from what Zhuang Laoqi had told him beforehand, but after hearing Sixth Uncle and the others recount those old grievances, he felt a pang of sorrow himself.
He explained:
“Zhuang Laoqi said that before it all happened, the people in Zhuang Family Village looked across the river and saw the village on the other side shrouded in fog, so thick they couldn’t see through it. Her Honor said that is a ghost domain—”
Saying this, he turned to look at Zhao Fusheng.
Zhao Fusheng nodded:
“When a malignant ghost revives, it forms a ghost domain. Living people in an area covered by a ghost domain can hardly escape. They get trapped inside.”
Sixth Uncle knit his brows tightly. Zhao Fusheng went on:
“Seven or eight days ago, according to Zhuang Laoqi, someone from Kuailiang Village suddenly crossed the river in a black boat and ran into Zhuang Family Village asking for help, saying something terrible had happened in Kuailiang Village.”
That terrible thing was Fourth Madam Zhuang’s death. “The one who carried the message was Kuai Mancai.”
As she spoke, her gaze turned to Kuai Mancai.
Sixth Uncle and the others looked at Kuai Mancai too. Sixth Uncle’s expression was stern:
“Mancai—”
“No, Great-Sixth Uncle.” Kuai Mancai looked wronged and shouted his defense: “I’ve never seen a black boat, and I never crossed the river to ask for help. With a disgrace like that in our village, how could I spread the news outside?”
He said:
“Besides, after what happened that day our village was ‘sealed’ in. The riverbank is overgrown with those strange flowers and nobody can get through. How could I have gotten out?” he said, feeling aggrieved.
Hearing that, Sixth Uncle nodded:
“Your Honor, there is certainly something uncanny about this.” His expression was grave.
“That day we did indeed use private punishment and put Fourth Madam to death, and after she died, strange things happened in our village.”
“What strange things?” Zhao Fusheng asked, her curiosity stirred.
“When she died her body wouldn’t sink, truly bizarre. We dragged her corpse ashore, found firewood, and meant to burn her, but halfway through the fire suddenly went out, and the body that wouldn’t burn all of a sudden turned into blood-water, seeped into the ground, and disappeared without a trace.”
“That was the malignant ghost reviving after death,” Zhao Fusheng said.
Saying this, she felt something very odd.
A revived malignant ghost is ferocious and kills at the drop of a hat. By rights, Fourth Madam Zhuang, now advanced to at least Calamity-tier, should have killed a great many people.
Beneath that spring water stained yellow, apart from the ghost there had been nothing but corpses.
The situation at the time had been dangerous, and she hadn’t known where those corpses came from, whether they were the Zhuang Family Village people who tried to cross the river, or—
Thinking of this, Zhao Fusheng looked up at Sixth Uncle again.
His brow was deeply furrowed, and dread and heaviness seemed ready to spill from his eyes.
The people before her were too real. They couldn’t possibly be fake.
She suppressed her suspicions and asked again:
“After the malignant ghost revived, what happened?”
Sixth Uncle said helplessly:
“Your Honor may not believe it. At the time we wondered whether ghosts had come, too. But after the blood-water vanished, nothing strange happened, so we went back to the village.”
It was the dead of night, and after witnessing that eerie event, the villagers were frightened and panicked. After returning they didn’t dare go home to rest.
“We were afraid something would happen, so we camped around the ancestral hall for the night, planning to see how things were once day broke—”
