Heaven Has Eyes, a Twist of Fate

Heaven Has Eyes, a Twist of Fate

On a bitter winter night, beneath the frozen river, a sodden ghostly figure wept in mournful grievance.

Such a bizarre sight would have made even an eight-foot-tall brute piss his pants, yet Yu Chen felt not the slightest ripple.

No helping it. He was used to it.

He could even grumble about it in his heart.

Was it tragic?

How tragic could it be?

He had seen people freeze to death alive beneath bridges, seen people half-eaten by tigers. Could it be more tragic than that?

After muttering a couple of remarks, Yu Chen beckoned to the drenched ghostly figure. As though summoned by something, it followed step by step behind Yu Chen up the mountain.

In the dead of winter, perhaps because it had frozen to death, the ghost wailed while shivering, making even Yu Chen feel a little pity for it.

After returning to the earthen hut at Qingfeng Mausoleum, he lit the firewood and then the oil lamp. Only when warmth spread through the room did the ghost seem to feel a little better.

Taking advantage of the moment, Yu Chen finally examined the ghost before him.

It had likely been a man in his thirties when alive, neither tall nor short, neither fat nor thin. His features, however, were impossible to make out—his face was only deathly pale, his eyes rolled upward, and water continuously spilled from his nose and mouth, soaking the floor of Yu Chen's home.

His entire body seemed drenched through by the icy river water, a pitiful and miserable sight.

After quite a while, when Yu Chen saw that the ghost had recovered somewhat, he opened the Scripture of Deliverance and drew the soul inside. Then he left it alone for the moment and opened the box Xie Qing had given him.

The moment the lid opened, the gleaming silver nearly blinded him.

Yu Chen counted it carefully and found exactly two hundred taels—not one more, not one less!

Apart from Old Master Wang's reward, the remaining hundred taels must have been Xie Qing's additional gift.

After taking stock, he shoved the silver and the box beneath his bed, then sat at the bedside for a long while without coming back to himself.

He was somewhat dazed.

Once upon a time, the money he had saved over five or six years had not even amounted to a fraction of what was in this box.

No matter how frugally he ate and lived each day, he had never managed to save much.

But now, two hundred taels of bright silver—enough to buy a house on Skybridge—were hidden beneath his own shabby bed.

For a moment, Yu Chen's mouth went dry.

It seemed he would not have to worry about money for quite some time.

—Even if he ate at Spring Breeze Pavilion every day, so long as he did not host banquets or invite guests, this silver would last Yu Chen three to five years!

After calming himself, Yu Chen picked up the Scripture of Deliverance and unfurled it.

The river-bottom ghost from before was curled up amid the mist. The Yellow Springs loomed starkly before it, and as it shivered, it continued to wail mournfully.

Yu Chen sighed and looked toward the opening scroll.

Smoke-black characters emerged.

[Ordinary Wish, Ninth Rank]

[Criminal Brought to Justice]

[Time Limit: Ten Days]

[Reward Upon Completion]

It was as simple as ever. Other than the words "Criminal Brought to Justice," there was not the slightest hint of any other information.

Before the revolving lantern began to turn, Yu Chen had already roughly guessed what had happened.

Nothing more than the deceased having been thrown into the river and murdered, unwilling resentment turning him into a ghost like this.

As he pondered it, the ghost's revolving lantern began to turn.

The ghost was named Jiang Hui. His family had been poor since childhood, and when he was around ten, his parents had sent him to an inn to work as a kitchen helper.

Over the next ten-odd years, Jiang Hui learned quite a few skills in the inn's back kitchen. Later, he even changed jobs and went to Weishui's famed Spring Breeze Restaurant.

By then, Jiang Hui's cooking had become exquisitely skillful. He was particularly good with fish; the three fish dishes he made were fragrant, fresh, and delicious beyond compare.

Later, people stopped calling him Jiang Hui and simply called him Jiang Sanyu.

And Spring Breeze Pavilion's famous Gui Snowfish was one of those three fish dishes.

Seeing this, Yu Chen slapped his forehead!

So the Gui Snowfish from Spring Breeze Pavilion that he had bought for that beggar ghost had come from Jiang Sanyu's own hands!

What a coincidence.

He continued reading.

Jiang Sanyu had changed jobs to Spring Breeze Pavilion several years ago. Since his cooking was good, his treatment was naturally good as well, and he had earned quite a bit of silver.

As the saying went, once you had made money, what came next?

Settling down!

At a certain banquet, Jiang Sanyu met a tavern girl from Hanging Bridge and fell in love with her at first sight, pursuing her passionately.

Jiang Sanyu was rather dull-witted, and his face was not especially handsome either. But he could cook a fine meal, had saved some money, and, more importantly, treated that tavern girl wonderfully—he would have gladly torn out his heart and liver to give them to her.

As the saying went, sincerity was the ultimate killing move.

Jiang Sanyu finally won the beauty's hand. Then came the matchmaker's proposal, a grand wedding feast, and the bridal chamber. A perfect pair was made!

From then on, the husband was worthy, the wife virtuous, and they lived happily ever after... my ass!

Had things truly gone that way, Yu Chen would not have encountered Jiang Sanyu's ghost today.

After marriage, Jiang Sanyu remained as he always had, unchanged. But that tavern girl was no peaceful lamp.

Before long, she grew tired of honest Jiang Sanyu and hooked up with a wastrel who frequented the pleasure quarters.

This wastrel was not only handsome, but silver-tongued as well.

Before long, he had bewitched the tavern girl out of her wits. With the household doors shut while blossoms bloomed outside, their days were thrilling indeed.

And dull-witted Jiang Sanyu had no idea he had long since been cuckolded. Kept in the dark, he only learned the truth shortly before his death!

Returning to the point, as the tavern girl and the wastrel played around, they somehow developed real feelings and wanted to fly away together.

But paper could never wrap fire. One day, Jiang Sanyu had an upset stomach and returned home early. The moment he pushed open the door, he saw his own wife tangled up with another man, turning clouds and tossing rain.

Yet even then, Jiang Sanyu had not considered divorcing the tavern girl. Once she promised never to do it again, he forgave her.

But how could a cat that had stolen fish endure loneliness?

Besides, Jiang Sanyu had caught them in their shameful affair. The adulterous pair lived in constant terror, afraid that Jiang Sanyu would tell people outside.

—In this world, there was no such thing as divorce and remarriage. If the people of the county learned of their illicit affair, they would surely be branded with infamy.

Thus, with nothing to lose, the wicked pair let evil rise from the gallbladder.

At dinner tonight, the tavern girl had made a meal for the first time in ages and waited for Jiang Sanyu to return from Spring Breeze Pavilion.

Jiang Sanyu ate with a cheerful grin, completely unaware that his darling wife had secretly slipped knockout drug into his cup.

Even more cruelly, after Jiang Sanyu had been knocked down by the drug and his mind had become muddled, he saw the wastrel push open the door and, right before his eyes, join the tavern girl in climbing Mount Wu.

Afterward, under cover of night, the two of them hauled the drugged and paralyzed Jiang Sanyu onto a cart and threw him into the Weishui River.

The adulterous pair had likely thought that the river was swift. Once Jiang Sanyu drowned, his corpse would drift downstream, and no one would ever find it.

Jiang Sanyu's parents had died early, and he had no relatives to speak of. If the people did not report it, the officials would not investigate it. When the time came, they could simply make up any excuse and muddle through.

But they had not expected that Heaven had eyes. Through a twist of fate, their wishful calculations had ultimately failed!

Tonight, the wind was fierce and the snow fell hard. The Weishui River had frozen!

The once-rushing river remained still for the entire night!

Ordinarily, that would have been no problem. Once the river thawed, Jiang Sanyu's corpse would drift away, and no one would find him anyway.

But just as the drugged Jiang Sanyu drowned, Yu Chen happened to be traveling from the old street south of the city, crossing the Weishui River on his way up the mountain!

This matter was far from over.

(End of Chapter)