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Chapter 364 Haunted
Winters in Zhangping are always very cold.

Although this place is not as bitterly cold as the lands beyond the Great Wall, where heavy snow falls frequently and the snow can even bury people, it is still freezing cold compared to the evergreen and warm water towns of Jiangnan.

But this year it's been even colder.

In this frigid temperature, where one's breath seems to turn to ice, in a corner of the eastern part of the city, Old Master Zhang passed away quietly.

No one knows how he died. Perhaps he died of old age, or perhaps he caught a cold because of the cold weather. In any case, the old man passed away one night later.

By the time his family found him, he was already dead.

This was not a big deal, after all, Old Master Zhang was not a big shot, and his family was not a wealthy family. He was just a kind person, and he had been educated for a few years and had written some letters and couplets for his neighbors, which earned him the respectful title.

Fortunately, he has a filial son.

This man was a renowned filial son. Seeing his father die alone and destitute, he did not want him to go on his journey alone. So he took out his meager savings and specially hired a funeral director so that his father could go on his way in peace.

So at this moment.

Old Li was at the front of the group, still wearing that shiny sheepskin coat—though this time he had at least tied a white cloth around it—and shouted in his hoarse voice.

“Listen to my words, my dear family: life and death have existed since ancient times, and each has its own limit, whether it is long or short.”

"Peng Zu lived for eight hundred years, and Zhang Guolao lived for twenty thousand years."

"Gan Luo became prime minister at the age of thirteen, while Ziya did not emerge from seclusion until he was seventy."

"As Heaven adds years and man adds life, we can only wait until the great man returns to the Western Paradise."

Because it was necessary to adapt to the circumstances, this time Old Man Li did not sing about passing the Seven Gates, but instead performed the more ordinary "Visiting the Ten Palaces".

To be honest, the tone wasn't very pleasant, especially when combined with Old Man Li's hoarse voice—but no one cared, since in this day and age, it's already quite good if someone can preside over a funeral.

As for traveling around...
He was standing beside the group, weakly playing the suona.

He didn't originally have this talent, but he couldn't resist Old Man Li's words: "You are my only personally taught disciple, and you will have to inherit my mantle sooner or later. If you don't learn it, who will?"
So he was forced to learn this skill.

To be honest, putting everything else aside, as soon as he took over, Zhou You discovered that he did have some musical talent—after learning for less than a month, he could actually play it quite well.

Of course, because of those five deficiencies and three lacks, he had absolutely no interest in it.

Old Li also noticed Zhou You's slacking off. While singing in that eerie tone, he subtly nudged Zhou You with his elbow.

Suddenly, the sound of the suona horn rose to a high pitch.

A few hours later.

The coffin was taken to the outskirts of the city and buried in the grave. The old man's son went through the formalities with a heavy heart, then returned to the city and held a simple banquet to thank the relatives and friends who had helped him. Only then did he find the old man Li again.

The simply dressed man bowed deeply, his eyes red and swollen from crying, but he still politely expressed his gratitude.

"Thank you so much, sir, for helping my father through his final journey. Unlike my father, I'm not educated and don't know how to express my gratitude. Oh, this is the payment we agreed on beforehand; please accept it."

Looking at the meager amount of loose silver coins and then at the man's tattered clothes that barely covered his body, Old Man Li hesitated for a few seconds before finally picking out only a few intact pieces.

"Sir, what are you doing?"

"You've spent quite a bit on this trip. This is enough for me. You can use the rest to buy some things for your wife and kids to make up for it."

Old Li glanced one last time at the two thin figures behind the door, shook his head, and led Zhou You out.

Outside the door, the light snow from yesterday has stopped.

Old Li exhaled a breath of hot air, looked at the pristine white scenery, and nudged Zhou You beside him.

"My apprentice, after this ordeal, how much money do we have left?"

Zhou You stared at the snow scene, somewhat lost in thought—but what he was lost in thought about was completely different—until Old Man Li teased him again, and then he spoke.

"Master, there are still a little over six taels left."

To everyone's surprise, Old Man Li immediately became anxious upon hearing this.

"Your master finally found this job, and after all the hard work, you're getting less than you deserve?! Tell me, did you embezzle it?"

Zhou You didn't even refute him, but just looked at him with pity.

“Master, you haven’t even calculated our expenses along the way. There’s the cost of the carriage, food and lodging, and this cotton-padded coat I bought from the pawnshop. Oh, and that bottle of yellow wine you couldn’t resist buying yesterday. It’s quite remarkable that we have all that left.”

When his private business was exposed, Old Man Li's face immediately turned red. However, he was thick-skinned enough that this problem was like a drizzle to him, so he quickly changed the subject.

"Hey apprentice, what were you looking at just now?"

Zhou You's response was a sigh.

"Master, is this how it is here?"

He was looking at a corpse.

Of course, they weren't murder cases or victims of ghosts—in fact, the corpses were just lying there openly on both sides of the road, yet no one paid them even a glance.

The reason is quite simple.

Those were just ordinary roadside corpses.

Those bodies, without any thick clothes to cover their bodies and without any shelter, froze to death in droves after a snowfall.

Old Man Li also looked over, and although his expression darkened, his voice remained perfectly normal.

"What you're saying is still relatively normal. In fact, because the government has banned migrants from entering the country this year, there are already far fewer migrants than last year."

"Is this quantity considered normal?"

Zhou You originally thought that what he saw in that village was the lowest possible standard, but he didn't expect that this place could surpass it again.

Of course, this doesn't mean he dislikes corpses.

In the Tai Sui realm, he witnessed famine stretching for thousands of miles, with bones scattered everywhere. In the Buddha's heart, he saw an entire city's inhabitants sinking into depravity while Maitreya preached. Even in the extermination of evil, he witnessed countless civilians being slaughtered. To put it bluntly, he has witnessed more death along the way than many people have in their entire lives.

But the problem is that, in the end, it was just a natural disaster, just the work of evil spirits—even if corrupt officials were involved, they were only a secondary cause.

And now this scene
It was clearly a complete man-made disaster.

The situation in the late Qing Dynasty is now far worse than he remembered.

Along the way, he saw only incompetent government officials and starving people everywhere. Those officials would rather watch hundreds and thousands of people starve to death outside the city gates than provide even a pot of thin porridge, even if it was completely empty and smelled moldy.

Looking at those corpses now, Zhou You could only sigh softly.

"Master, I remember that great famine was a long time ago, wasn't it? Even if the harvests were poor these past few years, we should have been able to barely fill our stomachs, and we should have been able to buy some food from abroad. How did it become like this?"

But Old Man Li just laughed sarcastically. “Disciple, look at what you’re saying. Even if there’s a good harvest, it can’t withstand the ever-increasing taxes from the officials. What’s the situation now? You’re farming, but the taxes you have to pay are even more than the harvest you get, while those wealthy families don’t have to pay a penny. So all the taxes are on the shoulders of ordinary people. As for foreign grain?”

Old Man Li pointed to the sky.

"At that time, those foreign devils did intend to sell us a batch of grain. Although the price was a bit high, it was still better than those unscrupulous merchants who hoarded and speculated. But the Empress Dowager only said one sentence."

"We, the Celestial Empire, have no need for even a single grain of food from barbarian tribes."

Old Li wouldn't say more, but Zhou You understood.

At that moment, someone was pulling a cart and began to collect the corpses—not from the government, but from the local people who had voluntarily contributed money. Seeing this, Old Man Li stopped the conversation, then pulled Zhou You along and left the place, stepping through the dirty snow.

As they ventured deeper into the city, the number of corpses lying on the road decreased considerably, while the number of beggars gradually increased.

Moreover, for some reason, these guys fight fiercely among themselves, often having to fight before they can beg, with only the victor kneeling before passersby and weeping as they give alms.

However, whether they were pleading, crying, or playing the victim, Old Man Li stopped them all, even those children who were clearly underage.

The old man's answer was quite simple.

“Organized beggar groups like this are usually under the control of the Beggar Clan. If they are normal, that’s fine, they are just begging. But if they are doing something crooked, it’s best to avoid them to avoid causing trouble.”

Although Zhou You didn't understand what it meant, the old man was, after all, a seasoned veteran who had been in this world for decades. He was far more experienced than Zhou You, who was unfamiliar with the place, so Zhou You just let it go.

They walked for another half an hour.

The inn where they were staying wasn't far from here, but for some reason, the old man didn't go in that direction. Instead, he led Zhou You through a maze of turns until they arrived at a tavern.

Zhou You was completely baffled by this.

"Master, didn't I just tell you? We don't have much money left, and we really can't afford to go through any more trouble. How come you still have the leisure to come to the tavern for a drink?"

Old Man Li smiled mysteriously.

"My dear disciple, your master is trying to find a solution. Just shut your mouth and come with me."

The tavern was far more deserted than Zhou You had imagined.

The environment is so bad these days that few people come to buy alcohol. The room is empty except for a man who seems to be both the owner and the employee, who is fast asleep on the table.

Old Li walked over and banged on the table.

Didn't wake up.

Old Man Li exerted a little force.

He still hasn't woken up.

Finally, under Zhou You's watchful gaze, Old Man Li couldn't hold back any longer. He clenched his fists and began slamming them on the table.

This time the other person finally woke up, and with sleepy eyes, they mumbled something.

"What's all the noise about? You're disturbing my sleep. Don't you know I was busy until midnight yesterday? By the way, what are you here for? To buy alcohol?"

It seemed that Old Man Li really wanted to slap this guy, but in the end he held back.

"Why are you all acting like this now? I'm not here to buy alcohol—I'm asking you, do you sell steamed buns here?"

However, upon hearing a strange question, the man suddenly snapped to attention and became fully awake.

"Where do you come from, sir?"

"They're coming from the east."

Which way are we going?

"Go west."

How many steamed buns do you want?

"Exactly seven, no more, no less."

"What do you want to use it for?"

"We were in a hurry to get there, so this served as our provisions."

"How about some wine and meat?"

"I'm broke and have no money left."

The shop owner immediately burst into laughter.

"So it's Elder Bai Men who has graced us with his presence. My apologies for not recognizing you. May I ask what brings you here?"

Zhou You, standing to the side, had pretty much figured it out. It was probably some kind of slang used by bandits to identify people.

—But then again, their lowly status isn't something to be ashamed of, so why are they being so cautious?
Old Li didn't notice anything amiss, and just kept his usual lewd expression as he spoke to the shop owner.

"Actually, it's nothing. You see, we people of the Nine Schools have always taken it upon ourselves to exorcise evil spirits. I recently dealt with a big one, and I'm still in good form, so I thought I'd come to your branch to see if there are any evil spirits in the city and what the bounty is for eliminating them."

His words sounded very respectable, but the shopkeeper immediately recognized his true intentions.

"Sir, are you short of money?"

To everyone's surprise, Old Man Li immediately became unhappy upon hearing this.

You could say he's sleazy, or that he's opportunistic, but you can't say he's short of money—after all, he's quite concerned about his image, especially when he's been exposed to his face.

"How can you talk like that? Do I look like someone who's short of money? Come on, open your eyes and take a good look at this thing."

After saying that, Old Man Li shook his swindling bag full of pebbles again. The other person glanced at it, chuckled, but didn't expose him. He simply took out a bottle of wine from under the cabinet and poured himself a glass.

Old Li swallowed hard when he smelled the aroma of the wine.

The shopkeeper then spoke slowly.

"To be honest, although there have been an absurd number of supernatural occurrences since our Empress Dowager ascended the throne, it's still quite difficult for you, sir, to stumble upon one so easily."

Upon hearing this, Old Man Li's expression turned somewhat disappointed, but at that moment, he suddenly changed his tune.

"However, coincidentally, we have another job here. We don't know if it's related to this disturbance, but if we can figure it out, the reward is quite substantial."

"And this job is actually quite simple."

"That's because recently, for some reason, Zhang Ping has suddenly become haunted."

(End of this chapter)