Feng Yugui is a poor scholar in Liaocheng, Shandong, who has no stable life**. During the great famine during the Wanli years, he fled to the south alone, and when he returned, he fell ill in Yizhou. He struggled for several more miles, and when he came to a deserted grave in the south of the city, he was too tired to walk, so he lay down against a grave. Suddenly, as if in a dream, he came to a village, and an old man walked out of his house and invited him in. When he entered, he saw two simple rooms, and in them was a woman of sixteen or seventeen years old, dignified, elegant and virtuous. The old man asked the woman to cook him a cypress soup and asked him about his place of origin and age. The old man, who claimed to be Li Hongdu, a native of Pingyang who had lived there for thirty-two years, told Feng Yugui to remember the location of his home so that his children and grandchildren could find it when they visited. He also said that his righteous daughter, Wei Niang, could marry Feng Yugui as a wife, and when his third son returned, he would officiate for their wedding. Feng Yugui was very happy when she heard this, but she was worried that she would not be able to find the old man's family to inform them. The old man told him that he only had to wait in the village for more than a month, and that someone would come, and told him not to be impatient. Feng Yugui was worried that the old man would not keep his promise, so he bluntly said that his family was poor and worried that he would be abandoned when the marriage was not successful, and the old man smiled and said that he had already known the situation of his family, and this engagement was not only for him, but also for the comfort mother to rely on each other. In the end, the old man took Feng Yugui's arm and sent him out, closed the door and left after saying goodbye.
When Feng Yugui woke up, he found himself lying by the grave, and it was almost noon. He slowly got up and walked hesitantly into the village. The villagers were shocked to see him because he was believed to have died on the side of the road the day before. Feng Yugui immediately realized that the old man was actually the deceased in the grave, and he was hiding his true identity and just wanted to find a place to spend the night. But because the villagers were afraid that he would die again, they did not dare to take him in.
There was a Xiucai in the village, with the same surname as Feng Yugui, and when he heard that Feng Yugui was coming, he hurried to ask about his family history. It turned out that Xiucai was Feng Yugui's distant uncle. He happily took Feng Yugui home and treated him. It didn't take long for Feng Yugui's illness to heal.
* Later, Feng Yugui recounted her experience to her uncle. The uncle was also amazed when he heard this, so he decided to sit at home and wait to see what else strange things would happen.
Soon after, sure enough, guests came to the village to look for his father's grave. The guest claimed to be a Jinshi from Binh Duong, named Li Shuxiang. It turned out that Li Shuxiang's father, Li Hongdu, was doing business with a fellow villager A and died in Yizhou, and a certain A buried him in a mass grave. A also died after returning home. At this time, Li Hongdu's three sons were still very young. The eldest son, Li Boren, was a jinshi and served as the commander of Huainan County, and sent people to find his father's grave many times, but no one knew the specific location. The second son, Zhongdao, was lifted. Uncle Xiang was the youngest, and he was also admitted. So he personally came to find his father's bones and came to Yizhou to inquire around.
On this day, Shu Xiang came to the village, but the villagers didn't know him. Feng Yugui led him to the cemetery and pointed him to his father's grave. Shu Xiang couldn't believe it, so Feng Yugui told him what happened to him, and Shu Xiang was very surprised. They looked closely and found that the two tombs were connected, and some people said that three years ago there was an official who buried his concubine here. Uncle Xiang was worried about digging the wrong grave and didn't know what to do. And the woman suddenly sat up, looked around, and said, "Is the third brother here?" Uncle Xiang was shocked, approached and asked, it turned out that she was the comfort mother. So he took off his clothes and put them on his mother, and had her carried back to the inn. He hurriedly opened the grave next to him, hoping that his father would also be resurrected. When I opened the tomb, I saw that my father's ** was still there, but it was stiff and dry, and he was crying sadly. Uncle Xiang put his father in a coffin, invited monks and Taoists to chant for seven days, and overlived the dead, and comforted his mother like his own daughter.
One day, Wei Niang suddenly said to Shu Xiang: "Once upon a time, my father had two ingots**, and he once gave me one as a dowry. Because I was lonely and weak, I had nowhere to collect it, so I only tied it with silk thread and did not take it. Uncle Xiang didn't know about it, so he asked Feng Yugui to go back to the tomb to look for it, and sure enough, he found it, just as Wei Niang said. Uncle Xiang still gave the ingot ** tied with silk thread to comfort his mother.
In his free time, Uncle Xiang inquired about his mother's life experience.
It turned out that Xue Yinhou, the father of the mother, had no son, only one daughter, and loved her very much. One day, Wei Niang came back from her uncle's house in Jinling with an old mother who wanted to hire a boat. It was a matchmaker in Jinling who rowed the boat. There happened to be an official, who entered Beijing after his term of office expired, and sent this matchmaker to pick a beautiful concubine for him. The matchmaker searched for several houses, but did not find a suitable one, he was about to row to Yangzhou to choose, and suddenly met Wei Niang. So he had a trick in his heart, and hurriedly beckoned them to get on the boat. The old mother has always known this matchmaker, so she got on the boat with her mother. Halfway through, the matchmaker poisoned the food, and both the mother and the old mother were fascinated. The matchmaker pushed the old mother into the river, returned to Jinling with the comforting mother, and sold her to the official with **.
After the mother entered the door, the eldest wife of the official found out about the purchase of a concubine and was very angry. Wei Niang was still a little confused at this time, and she didn't know how to salute the eldest wife, so the eldest wife beat her up and locked her up. It wasn't until they crossed the river and walked north for three days that Wei Niang woke up. Yahuan told her what had happened, and the comforting mother cried loudly when she heard it. One night, they stayed in Yizhou, and the comforter hanged herself, and the officials buried her in a mass grave.
In the grave, she was bullied by a group of ghosts, and Li Hongdu always cared for her, so she recognized Li Hongdu as her father. Li Hongdu said: "You don't deserve to die, you should find a son-in-law for you." After Feng Yugui came to meet last time, Li Hongdu came back and said to his mother: "This scholar's friendship is worthy of lifelong trust." When your third brother comes, let him marry you. One day, he said, "You can go back to the tomb and wait, your third brother is coming." "That day was the day when Shu Xiang dug the grave.
During the mourning, Xiang Shuxiang recounted her past in detail. Uncle Xiang sighed for a long time after hearing this, and decided to recognize his mother as his sister and let her have the surname Li with him. He bought a little dowry, let Wei Niang and Feng Yugui get married, and offered to take them back with him to make his mother happy. Comfort Niang is also very happy. So, the husband and wife followed Uncle Xiang, loaded the coffin in the car, and set off home together.
After returning home, her mother learned about her mother's situation and loved her more than her own daughter, so she and her husband lived in another compound. During the mourning period for Li Hongdu, the mourning of the consolation mother was even more painful than that of his own children and grandchildren. The mother took pity on her even more, did not let them go back to Liaocheng, and asked her son to buy them a house. There happened to be a man surnamed Feng who sold the house, and the price was six hundred taels of silver. Because the money was not gathered, the deed was first collected and the date was made for payment.
On the appointed day, Feng arrived early, and Wei Niang also came from other yards to greet his mother, and suddenly saw Feng, very similar to the matchmaker who rowed back then, Feng was also surprised when he saw Wei Niang. Comfort Niang hurriedly walked past him. The two elder brothers also came to their mother's house because their mother was a little unwell. Comfort Niang asked who the person in front of the hall was, and Nakado said that it was the person who sold the house the day before yesterday. After Nakado finished speaking, he got up and was about to go out. Comfort Niang stopped him, told her the doubts in her heart, and asked Nakado to interrogate him. Zhongdao agreed and went out, but Feng had already left, and only Mr. Xue, the private school teacher in Xiangnan, was sitting there.
Zhong Dao asked Mr. Xue why he came, and Mr. Xue said that last night Feng asked him to come to your mansion in the morning to help sign the documents and be a guarantor. I met Feng on the road just now, and he said that he occasionally forgot one thing, so he went home first and then came back, and asked Mr. Xue to sit here and wait for him. Because of Feng, the comforting lady quietly came to the screen to peek at the guests. She took a closer look, and it turned out that this Mr. Xue was her father. She suddenly ran out, hugged her father and cried loudly. Mr. Xue also shed tears in surprise and said, "How did my son come here!" Only then did everyone know that Mr. Xue was Xue Yinhou. Nakado could often be found on the streets, but it was not clear what his name was.
At this point, everyone was very happy, told Xue Yinhou the previous story, and set up a banquet to celebrate. In the evening, Xue Yinhou stayed at Li's house again and recounted his whereabouts. It turned out that since the disappearance of his mother, his wife died of grief, and he lived alone, so he taught people everywhere and lived here. Feng Yugui made an appointment with Xue Yinhou to buy a house and bring him to live with their husband and wife.
Xue Yinhou went to Feng's house the next day to inquire about the news, and the Feng family had fled with the whole family, only then did he know that it was this Feng who killed the old mother and sold the comfort mother. When Feng first arrived in Pingyang, he made a fortune by doing business, and later he gambled for many years, and his family property gradually decreased, so he had to sell his residence; The money for selling the comfort mother back then is almost gone.
After Wei Niang got the house, she didn't have a deep hatred for Feng, she just chose a good day to move in, and did not pursue Feng and fled to **. Mother Li constantly gave things to the mother, and all the daily necessities were made by the Li family. Feng Yugui settled in Pingyang, but he needed to go back to Liaocheng to take the exam, and it was very hard to go back and forth between the two places. Fortunately, Feng Yugui won the lifting in this subject.
After comforting her mother and becoming rich, she often remembered that her mother died for her and wanted to repay her son. The old mother's husband's family name is Yin, and she has a son named Fu, who likes to gamble, and the family is very poor. One day, Yin Fu was gambling and struggling to place bets, killed someone, fled back to Pingyang, and went to comfort his mother far away. Feng Yugui left him under the door. When asked about the name of the person Yin Fu killed, he learned that it was the matchmaker Feng who rowed the boat. Feng Yugui sighed in horror for a long time, and then told Yin Fu the truth, and Yin Fu knew that Feng was his mother-killing enemy. After hearing this, he was even more pleased, and became a servant in Feng Yugui's house.
Xue Yinhou also moved to live with his son-in-law, and Feng Yugui bought him a daughter-in-law, and later gave birth to a child. Such an ending is relatively satisfying, and the lives of Wei Niang and Feng Yugui have gradually stabilized and become happier.
Excerpt from "Strange Tales" Disclaimer: The content of this story is fictional, and the literary creation aims to enrich the reader's spare time.