Merchant of the Underworld

"What do you want to drink, tea or a drink?" Zhao Yihan wiped away her tears and turned to ask me.

"Tea." I replied casually, and then looked around.

Her home is very large, with three bedrooms and two living rooms, nearly 200 square meters.

It was tidied up and everything was in order, but it seemed a little deserted.

It can be seen that she has been in a bad mood recently, and she is not in the mood to take care of it carefully. The leaves of several lucky bamboos placed in the living room have all turned yellow. They must have not been watered for a long time. Even the window sills and cabinet corners are covered with water. A light layer of dust.

Only the kumquat tree placed on the coffee table was polished until it was shiny and spotless.

"He likes this pot of kumquats the most." Zhao Yihan gently placed the tea cup in front of me and sat on the sofa opposite, recalling: "Every time he comes home, no matter how late or tired he is, he never forgets to take care of me. Kumquat, that cautious look is like a child who hasn’t grown up yet.”

After saying that, a smile appeared on the corner of Zhao Yihan's mouth, but the smile was very bitter.

"Does your husband have a hobby of collecting antiques?" I asked immediately, holding the teacup in both hands.

"No." Zhao Yihan shook his head slightly: "His cultural level is not high, so he is not interested in this aspect."

"Then did he ever bring back anything special?" I continued to ask.

Although I don’t hope that something unexpected happened to her husband, there is something strange about this incident from beginning to end. How can a husband only come home once a year? And it just disappears when the rooster crows?

"It seems... not." Zhao Yihan thought hard for a moment, then shook her head.

"Oh, right!" Suddenly, she remembered something and shouted loudly: "Two years ago, he brought back a safe and put it under the bed, but he never gave me the key."

"Go take a look." I suddenly became alert.

There was a huge wedding photo hanging above the bed in the bedroom. The two of them smiled extremely sweetly. You can imagine how happy they must have been at that time.

Zhao Yihan bent down and took out a small box from under the bed. The box was only one foot square, but it was very heavy. Zhao Yihan handed it to me with great difficulty.

This is a special encrypted safe with a steel plate inlaid on the outside. The space inside should not be very large. When it shakes gently, it makes a slight noise, which sounds like something like a paper document.

As I shook, an eerie breath spread from inside, and even the thermometer in the room suddenly dropped several degrees.

"There's something weird about this box!" I immediately made a judgment, raised my head and asked Zhao Yihan: "Do you know the password?"

"I don't know." Zhao Yihan's eyes were confused: "He got this back two years ago, and he never told me about it. I discovered it accidentally when I was cleaning the room, and I never asked what was inside. .”

"There's something wrong with this box. There must be something special hidden in it." I looked at her inquiringly: "If there is no password and key, I can only open it by force!"

Zhao Yihan nodded without hesitation, and then followed my instructions and quickly found some tools.

Although the tools she found were very awkward, and I didn't have much experience in breaking into safes, fortunately, I didn't have to be as careful as a thief, and I wasn't in a hurry.

After more than ten minutes, I finally opened the lock of the safe with a sweaty invisible needle.

What was hidden inside surprised me. It was just a yellow leather envelope.

However, I didn't dare to be careless at all - because the strong Yin energy emitted from the envelope.

I took out the cinnabar, smeared it on the lip of the envelope, and then opened the envelope carefully.

There are only two things in it.

A wedding photo. In the wedding photo, the two people are cuddling together sweetly, with happy smiles on their faces. There are two lines of words written next to them: fly together and grow old together.

The other thing is a small pink bamboo slip.

The style of the letter is very simple, with pictures of bright stars and a large group of magpies flying in the sky, forming a curved bridge.

This is……

My heart skipped a beat, and I immediately had an ominous premonition. I quickly opened the letter and saw it written in blood: Jiayin, Dingmao, Xinyou, Yizi.

Obviously, this is a person's birth date.

"When was your husband born?" I asked anxiously.

Zhao Yihan seemed to have noticed something, her expression changed, she spoke quickly, and then asked me: "What's wrong? Is he...is he okay?"

I counted with my fingers and found out that the birthday and horoscope left on the letterhead belonged to her husband!

Although I have never seen this slip, I know a great love legend about it, which is the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.

It is said that the Weaver Girl was a fairy who met the Cowherd once when she came down to earth. She was attracted by the Cowherd's simplicity and kindness, so the two got married. Unexpectedly, Weaver Girl's mother, the Queen Mother, forcibly took Weaver Girl back to the Heavenly Palace, where they faced each other across the Milky Way but could not get together.

Later, their steadfast love moved the magpies, who spontaneously built a magpie bridge across the Milky Way, allowing the two to meet happily. After the Jade Emperor and the Queen Mother found out, they were also very moved, so they designated July 7th every year as the Chinese Valentine's Day and allowed them to meet on this day.

Gradually, Qixi Festival has also become China’s Valentine’s Day.

This is a myth and legend, but a very bizarre thing happened in the Tang Dynasty.

During the reign of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, a poor scholar fell ill in a barren mountain on his way to take exams. He was saved by a civilian girl who visited his father's grave. After various treatments, the scholar gradually recovered from his serious illness, and he also fell in love with the girl and made a secret love for the rest of his life.

After Shu recovered from his illness, he went to the capital. The women sent him off for eighteen miles and said goodbye with tears.

The scholar was so talented that he won the first prize in Wenkui in one fell swoop. He declined the good intentions of hundreds of officials to take him as his son-in-law, and even refused the intention of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty to recruit him as his consort, and decided to marry the common woman as his wife.

But it was extremely unfortunate that not long after he came to Beijing to take the exam, the girl also fell seriously ill and soon passed away and returned to the west. People in the village said that when she died, she still held tightly to the token of love left by the scholar and did not close her eyes.

The scholar was so distraught that he crashed into a tree in front of the grave of a common girl and died. Because he had become the top scholar in high school, this matter was reported to the case of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty.

Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty sighed after hearing this, and immediately ordered people to build a joint tomb for the scholar and the peasant girl to commend their steadfast love.

But at this moment, Yuan Tiangang, the first fortune teller of the Tang Dynasty, reported: "The number one scholar came to the world from the stars, and he ascended to heaven after death. But when the girl died of illness, she would inevitably turn into a lonely ghost, even if she was buried. If we are in the same place, I’m afraid we won’t be able to stay together forever.”

Taizong asked hurriedly: "What should we do?"

Yuan Tiangang smiled and said: "I can personally create a letter and report it to King Yama, so that these two people can get together again every Chinese Valentine's Day."

Taizong immediately agreed.