Schoolhouse of Wronged Souls

Chapter 28

"No way, his daughter looks at least ten years old, but his wife looks no more than twenty. How could they..."

"How could she possibly have given birth to such a big daughter?" Zhang Xiaodi finally found a chance to speak, and she said something very important.

The doubts.

Yes, judging from the photos, this girl couldn't possibly be Lu Shaohuai's daughter with the woman standing behind him.

Xian and Li Ke thought at the same time.

"Take a look at the second one." Jiang Yu didn't explain, but simply handed over another photo. It showed a child who was about ten years old.

A little girl wearing a cheongsam and holding a kite stood behind her, along with a boy of about ten years old dressed in a simple cloth jacket.

A boy dressed as a farmhand.

"This boy looks like Lu Shaohuai, but his daughter looks about the same age as him, and they're dressed like this..."

"How strange," Li Ke said, frowning.

"Let's take a look at the third photo one last time."

The third photo shows the same girl with the kite, but she looks more mature than in the previous one; she is sitting upright.

The woman sitting on the chair no longer held a kite in her hand, but instead cradled a swaddled baby. Her expression was quiet and dignified, her face revealing...

A happy smile. Standing behind her was Lu Shaohuai, still dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and looking young, with the same smile on his face.

Rong. This is the most heartwarming of the three photos.

"What's going on?" all three asked at the same time.

"It's obvious that the first photo was taken last, the second photo was taken first, and the last photo was taken after the first one."

"The photo was taken sometime between Zhang's and the second one. If that's the case, the problem isn't hard to imagine," Xu Xian analyzed, looking at the photo. Then...

Then he looked at Jiang Yu and the others.

"You guessed right. The first photo was taken in 1921. Lu Shaohuai's daughter was eleven years old that year. The second photo was..."

The first photo was taken in 1906, when Lu Shaohuai was 14 years old, and the girl beside him was 12. The third photo was taken in 1910. His daughter was also...

He was born in 1910.

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [36]: So that means his daughter wasn't born to his wife, but to the woman sitting in front? And who is this woman?

"Who...where did they go afterward? What is their connection to this whole affair?" Li Ke rattled off a string of questions.

.

"Alright, time is limited, so let's skip the guessing and just tell you directly." Jiang Yu closed the file.

Sitting at the table, he slowly recounted a long-forgotten story.

Author: Binglingxuewu Reply Date: 2003-09-30 19:45:00

"The Peng family—oh, the same Peng family we mentioned earlier, the largest local gentry. The patriarch of the Peng family passed away a long time ago, leaving behind one son..."

He had one son and one daughter, all of whom were still young at the time. The Peng household was jointly managed by Madam Peng and Master Peng. My main task now is...

This refers to Master Peng's daughter. Master Peng had two wives in his life. His first wife was a daughter from a prominent family of equal social standing, because...

Her family was in business. She was shrewd and capable, and after marrying into the Peng family, she gave birth to a son, so her status in the Peng family was considerable.

It is known that his second wife was bought by Master Peng from a farmer's household; it is said that she was originally intended to be a maid for Master Peng's first wife. Later, Master Peng...

The master, seeing her cleverness and obedience, took her as his concubine. However, she died in childbirth, leaving behind only a daughter. And this daughter...

The boy turned out to be mute, which Master Peng disliked very much. Strangely, however, Madam Peng was very protective of him.

The younger aunt gave birth to a mute child. But this girl's background and her disability made her quite lonely and pitiful in the Peng family. Just then...

When the girl was 10 years old, she met a young farmhand who had been sold into slavery in her family. The farmhand was only two years older than her and had been raised by her parents...

Orphaned and with tragic pasts, these two pitiful children came together. As they grew older, their feelings for each other deepened.

Things were becoming increasingly different, but no matter what, the Peng family was still a wealthy and powerful family, while the young farmhand was merely a servant who had sold himself into the Peng family.

Therefore, the Peng family strongly opposed this matter, beat him severely, and kicked him out. But not long after, rumors spread that Miss Peng and that...

The scandal of the young farmhand's elopement. Two years had passed, and everyone had almost forgotten about it, but on a rainy day, Peng...

The young lady and her young farmhand returned to the Peng family seeking refuge with a two-year-old girl, saying the child was sick and they urgently needed money. However...

At that time, Madam Peng was terminally ill, and the eldest son of the Peng family was in charge. Therefore, no matter how much Miss Peng pleaded,

The Peng family remained unmoved. At the time, the eldest son, fearing that Miss Peng would return and claim a share of the family fortune, conspired with his relatives to frame her for promiscuity.

On the day of the accident, Ms. Peng, whose name was on a pig cage, drowned in the river. She used sign language to tell her husband that he must live for their daughter's sake, and she also told him...

She told him she would come back to him. Just like that, a perfectly good family was torn apart. The farmhand and his daughter also disappeared without a trace.

Therefore, some people sympathized with Miss Peng and the young farmhand's tragic fate, and placed Miss Peng's body in the place she frequented as a child.

It was buried.

Jiang Yu recounted this tragic story, which seemed quite ordinary for that era, in one breath.

"If we assume that the young farmhand is Lu Shaohuai, and that Miss Peng is the dignified and beautiful woman in the photo,"

"And the little girl later was their daughter. Were they involved in the whole thing?" Li Ke said.

"Before Miss Peng was thrown into the river, she said she would come back to find Lu Shaohuai. What do you think she meant by that? Something feels off."

“Yes,” Zhang Xiaodi said.

"The Peng family's final fate in this story is the most bizarre," Jiang Yu said solemnly, then stared intently at Xu Xian.

I discovered these things while investigating my sister's death; they were written by an elderly man who had once worked as a servant for the Peng family.

The description of the rise and fall of the Peng family. Later, I only learned some unknown inside stories from his books and the mouths of his descendants.

The most bizarre aspect is the inside story of the Peng family's decline. It is said that on the forty-ninth day after Miss Peng's death, what was supposed to be a daytime event...

The sunny weather suddenly turned terrible at night. It was still August, but snowflakes that looked like they were falling in March were drifting down from the sky.

Some were fine willow catkins. The next day, people found the eldest son of the Peng family dead in his own water vat, and in all of this, Peng...

All of the young master's accomplices were found dead in the river three days later. It was later said that neither the young master nor these people were directly killed.

They weren't drowned, but rather frightened to death and then thrown into the water. As for what they actually saw, no one knows. From then on, the Peng family...

I don't know why, but no more children have been born, and even those adopted haven't lived past 18. So no one dares to...

After giving their own child to the Peng family for adoption, no one dared to do business with them anymore. Everyone said it was the vengeful spirit of Miss Peng seeking retribution.

hatred."

---Magpie Bridge Fairy

Reply [37]: "Xu Xian, do you think this is true?" Li Ke looked at Xu Xian.

Xu Xian had barely spoken from the beginning, seemingly deep in thought about something in the three photos. Hearing Li Ke's question...

Xu Xian paused for a moment, then said, "It seems so. But... if her enemies are already dead, why would she need to kill again?"

And why was she so certain to her husband that she would come back? And what did those five hand gestures mean? However, there's one point...

I'm certain now, the whole thing that's happening right now is definitely related to Miss Peng and Lu Shaohuai's story."

"Why?"

"Do you guys still remember Wu Xi's dream?" Xu Xian looked at Li Ke and Zhang Xiaodi. "It was Wu Xi's dream after he met the red shoes..."

The dream we talked about.

This reminder brought to mind a passage from Wu Xi's description of his dream: