A master of comedy!

Chapter 24 A way to survive
Inside the room, Zhou Sheng felt a chill run down his spine, knowing that his master had already decided to kill him.

Over the years, Master has hardly ever made a move, to the point that sometimes even Zhou Sheng would forget how many shocking things this seemingly old man had done back then.

During the years when they did not settle in Qinggu County, the two traveled around. Their master would occasionally disappear for a period of time, and when he returned, he would smell strongly of blood, and a lot of money would suddenly appear in his home.

The master said it was because the feng shui fish brought wealth, but the news would soon spread.

Either all the evil bandits in the area were slaughtered overnight, or corrupt officials who bullied men and women were beheaded in the night.

Then the master would take him away to the next place.

It wasn't until we arrived in Qinggu County that my master stopped 'disappearing' and settled down to be a doctor.

If this were on Earth, calling him a ruthless killer would be no exaggeration.

Zhou Sheng quickly opened the ghost-raising altar and gently tapped the altar wall.

The next moment, a gust of cold wind blew out from it, transforming into a semi-transparent figure.

His beard was white, his skin was wrinkled like withered wood, and his eyes were sunken, as if he hadn't had a good night's sleep in a long time.

Zhou Sheng's gaze fell on his hands.

Uncle Xu is usually very casual about everything, but he cherishes his hands, which he uses to play the violin, and always keeps them clean so they don't get dirty.

But now those fingernails are full of black dirt and blood.

His hands were cracked and bleeding.

"Uncle Xu".

Upon hearing the somewhat familiar address, Old Man Xu was visibly startled, and then looked at Zhou Sheng in surprise.

"Old Xu, your spirit is severely damaged and is about to dissipate. I can't save you now."

Yu Zhensheng suddenly spoke, his voice calm and without the slightest tact, directly pronouncing the death sentence.

"But considering that you've been helping this child practice his singing for three years and getting him through his vocal cord slumber, my apprentice will avenge you."

"This can be considered as repaying your kindness."

Zhou Sheng nodded and said, "Uncle Xu, don't be afraid, my master and I can help you."

At this moment, Old Xu realized that the boy who had asked him to practice his singing back then was no ordinary person.

No wonder he has such a good singing voice, yet he never goes to perform in opera troupes.

He no longer concealed the truth and, with tears in his eyes, revealed the murderer.

"The person who killed me was that villain Zhu Zong, and his pack of wolves and dogs who wore official robes but devoured people without spitting out the bones!"

Zhou Sheng nodded. As expected, the real culprit who killed Uncle Xu was Magistrate Zhu.

However, one is a high-ranking county magistrate, the most respected person in the county, while the other is an entertainer who plays the violin and sings in restaurants and brothels. The two are worlds apart, so how did they come to have such a deep hatred?
"Back when you and Doctor Yu hadn't come to Qinggu County yet, I was playing the erhu in a brothel. There was a sick girl who gave me her newborn daughter before she died."

"She said she wouldn't live much longer. The madam would definitely not raise a three-month-old baby to adulthood. Even if she raised her to four or five years old and sold her to a slave trader, she might not be able to recoup her investment."

"She begged me to give this child a way to live."

At this point, Old Xu sighed, "Although I am poor and often go hungry, I can't just watch a child die!"

"So I raised that child, steamed the black flour in a steamer, dried it, rolled it into fine noodles, and then soaked it in boiling water to make a paste. I fed it to the child spoonful by spoonful."

As he spoke of these things, the lingering resentment in Old Xu's eyes unconsciously dissipated, and his voice softened involuntarily. "That child was quite sturdy; he actually survived. Later, as he grew up, he followed me through wind and rain to sing for money, carrying a basin bigger than himself, bowing to everyone and asking for tips."

“Cui Cui is cute and has a sweet tongue. With her around, I can always earn more money.”

"But how can she, a girl, always go to places like that with me? She's still young now, how will she get married when she grows up?"

"Later, I saved up some money and used my connections to get her a job as a farmhand in the Zhu family. I thought that working in the county magistrate's mansion would be a good job, but I never expected... I was pushing that child into a pit of fire!"

At this point, Old Xu clenched his fists unconsciously, his eyes turned red, and his voice trembled.

"Everything went smoothly at first. The child was diligent, intelligent, and articulate, and soon she gained the favor of the county magistrate's wife, who took her in as her personal maid."

“Cui Cui is also filial. She often comes back to visit me. Each time, she leaves most of her wages, which I save for her dowry in the future. But just over a month ago, Cui Cui suddenly stopped coming back.”

"I was worried about her, so I wanted to go to the Zhu residence to see her, but the servants there wouldn't let me in. Luckily, I found a dog hole and crawled in in the middle of the night."

"Thank God, I found Cuicui in the woodshed, but by then she had already... gone mad!"

"She was very excited when she saw me, and kept talking nonsense, saying things like... 'Madam is not madam,' 'There is a ghost in the well,' and 'Don't kill me.'"

“I felt sorry for the child and wanted to take her away, but the servants found out. They said I was a thief, beat me dozens of times, and threw me out of the Zhu mansion after my skin was torn and bleeding.”

"A few days later, they brought Cuicui back, but at that time..."

Old Xu practically ground his teeth to powder, his eyes bloodshot, and said, word by word, "Cui Cui is now a corpse!"

"Those beasts said that Cui Cui stole the madam's things and committed suicide out of shame, but how could a person who has gone mad steal anything?"

"What's even more heinous is that the child... was violated by many people before he died!"

"Although she's not my biological daughter, she's called me 'Grandpa' for so many years. I can't let her die with regrets!"

"So I wrote a letter in blood, preparing to go to the Bingzhou government office to beat the drum and appeal to the prefect, but alas..."

Zhou Sheng lowered his eyes and said, "What's hateful is that you couldn't even leave Qinggu County, let alone Bingzhou City."

Old Xu nodded, his eyes filled with deep-seated hatred.

"That night, I was strangled to death by the yamen officials and then thrown into the Pear Blossom River!"

Zhou Sheng remained silent.

He already knew what happened next. Not only did Uncle Xu suffer a tragic death, but more importantly, the anger in his heart for seeking justice for Cuicui lingered and eventually turned into an evil corpse.

This period coincided with his trip to Yangcheng to perform at the Broken Stage Opera.

Perhaps the resentment that nearly burst open the corpse's abdominal cavity was not a cry for justice, but rather stemmed from an old man's most simple and genuine love for his children.

"When I held her in my arms back then, she was so tiny, like a kitten, and she cried every day because she was hungry..."

"You've survived such hard times, how come you can't go on living now?"

Old Xu's eyes reddened, and he clenched his fists.

"That night I died at the bottom of the Pear Blossom River, but I couldn't close my eyes. I dug into the mud with my hands, thinking that even if I had to crawl, I would crawl to the Zhu mansion and ask that beastly magistrate..."

"Why can't we poor people have a way to survive?"

……

(End of this chapter)