Chapter 1608 - 1455: Yin Yang Inn 11
"What’s wrong with you? The first thing out of your mouth is asking why our Shopkeeper isn’t dead yet—how rude can you get!" Li Yu folded her arms, glaring at the Middle-aged man sprawled on the ground, staring at Qi Shuangshuang in sheer terror, and said unhappily.
The Middle-aged man ignored Li Yu, still fixing his gaze on Qi Shuangshuang. His voice trembled as he asked, "Shuangshuang, are you... are you a human or a ghost? Have you come to claim my life?"
Qi Shuangshuang said nothing, just gripped her round fan and looked at him icily. Seeing this, the Middle-aged man panicked even more, his voice shaking badly: "Y-you can’t kill me, I’m your father! I’m your father!"
"Shopkeeper, this man is your father!?" Qi Shuangshuang kept silent, but Li Yu, standing beside her, was so shocked when she heard this that she blurted out a question to Qi Shuangshuang.
Qi Shuangshuang hooked up the corner of her mouth in a cold, bone-chilling smile that made goosebumps explode all over Li Yu. It was the first time he’d seen Qi Shuangshuang smile like that, and he was a little unsettled.
This Middle-aged man was indeed Qi Shuangshuang’s biological father in this lifetime—parentheses: her biological father when she was alive. As for flesh and blood now, the life he gave her had already been returned. There was no longer any tie between her and this man.
Qi Shuangshuang’s reincarnation in this life was truly miserable, and her father was this Middle-aged man, Qi Shaobo.
Qi Shaobo was born to a farming family. He was intelligent from childhood, so the family all believed this child could study and bring honor to their ancestors.
So the entire Qi Family tightened their belts, scrimped and saved just to put Qi Shaobo through school, pinning their hopes on him to make something of himself and change their family’s fortunes.
Qi Shaobo did live up to expectations—he really had a great Talent for scholarly study. He passed the exam for Scholar in his teens. But reading books devoured money; by the time the Qi Family had supported Qi Shaobo to the level of Scholar, they were already at the end of their rope.
Unable to keep paying, the Qi Family thought of having Qi Shaobo open a private school to earn some money so he could continue taking the exams. Unfortunately, Qi Shaobo refused. A scholar most fears distraction; if he became a teacher, he would inevitably be distracted.
Once distracted, Qi Shaobo feared he would never pass the provincial exam as a scholar, so he racked his brains and finally came up with a solution: marry a wealthy wife.
Qi Shaobo quickly set his sights on the daughter of a rich merchant. Qi Shaobo was good-looking and already a Scholar. Although merchants have money, their social status is nowhere near that of a Scholar.
A Scholar willing to take a merchant’s daughter as his wife—this was like a meat pie falling from the sky for the rich merchant, who happily betrothed his most beloved daughter to Qi Shaobo.
To cultivate a good relationship with his Scholar son-in-law and make sure Qi Shaobo treated his daughter well, the rich merchant also sent over a huge dowry, instantly solving Qi Shaobo’s urgent lack of Silver for his studies.
Qi Shaobo’s wife was also very virtuous. In the first year of their marriage, she gave birth to a daughter, Qi Shuangshuang.
Although the fact she bore a girl displeased the Qi Family, they were living off the daughter’s dowry at the moment, so they didn’t dare complain too much.
In the years that followed, for some unknown reason, Qi Shuangshuang’s mother never conceived again. Qi Shaobo, however, always acted as though he didn’t mind in the least, treating his wife with great tenderness—until Qi Shaobo came first in the palace exam and became the top scholar.
She had thought that with her husband winning the top scholar’s rank, she would also be graced by her spouse’s honor and finally get to sit once as a titled Lady, but she never expected that in the second year after Qi Shaobo became top scholar, Qi Shuangshuang’s mother would suddenly die.
The Qi Family told the outside world that Qi Shuangshuang’s mother had died suddenly from a severe illness, but in fact, she had been strangled to death by Qi Shaobo’s own hands.
Because Qi Shaobo wanted to find a girl from an official family to marry. Qi Shuangshuang’s mother was merely a merchant’s daughter and could no longer offer any help to Qi Shaobo now.
Qi Shaobo had very good looks and the brilliance of a top scholar. In addition, he rarely spoke of his wife and daughter, and few people even knew he was married, so quite a few high-ranking officials’ families had indeed taken a fancy to Qi Shaobo as a potential son-in-law.
Qi Shaobo’s abacus was clicking nicely, but he underestimated how deeply Qi Shuangshuang’s maternal grandfather loved his daughter. The old man spared no expense in seeking justice for her, stripping away Qi Shaobo’s true face until it was laid completely bare.
In the end, everyone in the Capital City knew Qi Shaobo had relied on his wife’s fortune to study, and then had actually killed his own wife. For a time, all those who had been inclined to marry their daughters to Qi Shaobo went back on their word.
For wealthy families, daughters have always been the best tools for forging alliances. They all insist on marrying daughters into high gates; only those who truly love their daughters and don’t want them to suffer will consider marrying them down, seeking a household that can shield them.
A man who can strangle to death a wife who has done him great kindness, just to remarry into a higher gate—anyone who cares about his own daughter, who would dare marry her to such a person?
Qi Shaobo schemed to the utmost, but in the end it was all like drawing water with a bamboo basket—he got nothing. With no better option, he could only take as his second wife the daughter of a minor official, Hou Mingyue.
After a few years of failing to make a name for himself in the Capital City, and with his reputation ruined, Qi Shaobo had no choice but to secure a post outside the capital and become a County Magistrate. While serving as County Magistrate, although he didn’t practice blatant extortion, he still squeezed out quite a lot of Silver.
Qi Shaobo poured all that Silver into currying favor with his Shangguan, hoping for promotion. Unfortunately, his luck was poor. He spent plenty of money, but his rank never rose; he kept circling in the same County Magistrate position.
Driven half-mad by his desire for promotion, Qi Shaobo actually tried to climb higher by marrying off his own daughter, Qi Shuangshuang, to a more than fifty-year-old Magistrate with a penchant for sadistic abuse.
Qi Shuangshuang naturally refused. After a failed attempt to flee, she committed suicide outright. After death, she turned into a fierce ghost and intended to avenge herself and her mother, but was destroyed by the Taoist Qi Shaobo hired in a rage.
The moment Shuangshuang was reborn was precisely after Qi Shuangshuang’s suicide, when she had just become a ghost and not yet a fierce ghost.
The very first thing Qi Shuangshuang did after crossing over was to seal Qi Shaobo’s fortune, ensuring he would die in a landslide and, after death, wander in the Land of Life and Death, unable to find release.
As for Qi Shaobo’s second wife, Hou Mingyue, and those servants, they were already marked as doomed in the Book of Life and Death.
Originally, events should have unfolded with Qi Shaobo’s second wife Hou Mingyue taking the servants to burn incense, encountering a landslide and dying. After ten years of wandering as a pack of ghosts, they would enter the Yin Yang Inn and then set foot on the path of reincarnation.
But because Qi Shuangshuang sealed Qi Shaobo’s fortune, he, who hadn’t originally planned to go burn incense, was mysteriously compelled to go along with Hou Mingyue and the others, and then died with them in the landslide.
After death, Qi Shaobo was trapped with Hou Mingyue and the rest in the Land of Life and Death, wandering endlessly until they emerged from the mists and arrived at the Yin Yang Inn.
After taking revenge, Qi Shuangshuang’s power was so great that it drew the attention of the Underworld. Just then, the Underworld was short-handed in managing the Yin Yang Inn due to a fierce uprising of Evil Ghosts in the Eighteen Layers of Hell, so they simply had Qi Shuangshuang take over the Yin Yang Inn.
As a reward for taking over the Yin Yang Inn and working for the Underworld, Qi Shuangshuang’s mother could be reborn into a wealthy family, with a loving husband, filial children, and a happy life.
If Qi Shuangshuang could accumulate more Merit, she could even ensure that her mother’s next-next life would be just as blessed and content.