Chapter 92: Actually, It's a Male Ghost

"Get away! Get away, don't hurt my husband!" the proprietress shrieked, shielding the man—this was her husband, the father of her children; how could she watch him die with her own eyes?

Just as the scissors were about to pierce the proprietress's body, a flash of red light suddenly streaked by with a "swish," and a blood-red long whip lashed out, coiling like a spirit snake around the woman's wrist as she gripped the weapon.

Xie Shouzheng shouted, "What kind of evil spirit are you? Get off the victim at once, or I shall beat you until your soul scatters and you never reincarnate!"

"Get away, don't meddle in other people's business! These men deserve to die; those with three wives and four concubines, all fickle men deserve to die!" The woman's eyes glinted with malice, her teeth bared and mouth snarling as she still tried to resist, clearly possessed by an evil spirit.

Xie Shouzheng lashed out with his whip again. This time he used a clever technique; while the force appeared immense, it was aimed only at the evil spirit, leaving only a faint mark on the woman, causing no real harm.

A single gasp of "Ah!" was heard.

A mass of black matter rolled out from the woman's body, landing on the ground and slowly coalescing into a human shape—

Disheveled hair, a hunched figure, and a deathly pale face. It was actually the soul of a man around fifty years old.

Dongfang Qi felt surprised when he saw the entity: "You kept shouting that those with three wives and four concubines deserve to die, so I thought you were a woman who had suffered deeply because of it. I didn't expect you to be a man."

Lin Qingyue also felt puzzled: "Three wives and four concubines—aren't men the beneficiaries? Why, as a man, do you hate it so much?"

"Who says the beneficiaries of three wives and four concubines are all men? That is clearly a monopoly held by a small minority of men!"

After being whipped out, the ghost knew he had encountered a formidable opponent and dared not act recklessly anymore, so he poured out all his grievances at once.

The ghost was named Zhang Goudan, and in his lifetime, he was a villager from a small village under the jurisdiction of Yushi Zhen, born into poverty.

Children from poor families had a high mortality rate. Furthermore, since they were all illiterate and didn't know how to choose names, they liked to give their children lowly names, believing that lowly names were easier to raise.

Zhang Goudan was the same.

At six years old, Zhang Goudan followed his father up the mountain to dig for jade, having heard that those stones could be made into exquisite jewelry and sold for high prices.

Unfortunately, the jade they dug up with their blood and sweat did not belong to them. The expensive raw jade could only fetch a meager reward, barely enough to scrape by.

After Zhang Goudan grew into his teens, he gradually began to understand the ways of the world. He would secretly watch the young women passing by the village entrance and had even peeked at the old widow next door bathing with his companions.

His father knew it was time to find a match for his son.

But their home was destitute, and the half-basket of eggs they had painstakingly saved to give to the matchmaker ended up like a meat bun thrown at a dog—gone forever.

His father was helpless, yet he couldn't bear to see his son remain a bachelor, so he steeled his heart, borrowed half a basket of eggs, and went to a distant relative's house.

That distant relative had three daughters but not a single son.

Because of this, they had often been mocked by villagers in the past, saying their family had no son to carry on the family line. When the clan discussed important matters, their family had no say.

But once their three daughters grew up, they suddenly became the talk of the town, and suitors came in an endless stream.

Zhang Goudan and his father went to propose, but they were rejected as soon as they opened their mouths.

The relative said, "You are too late; my three daughters have already been promised to other families."

"Ah? So fast?" Zhang Goudan's eyes were filled with disappointment.

Father Zhang hurriedly pressed, "Promised to whom? How come I haven't heard of it? Which family in the village is marrying into yours? We are relatives, don't try to fool us!"

The other party laughed, "The families they are promised to are not in the village, but in the town! You know that in recent years, more and more shops have opened in town, and those shopkeepers are doing better and better business, earning quite a bit of wealth."

Zhang Goudan couldn't help but say, "How could those wealthy merchant bosses in town look favorably upon the daughters of us poor families?"

"They aren't good enough to be the main wives, of course, but they can be concubines!"

"What? You are actually letting your three daughters be concubines for others? Aren't you pushing your daughters into a pit of fire?"

The relative snorted coldly, "What's wrong with being a concubine? Better to be a rich man's concubine and eat fish and meat every meal than to be a poor man's wife and eat grass every day. Goudan's mother—wasn't she dragged to her death because she had a high fever after childbirth and couldn't afford medicine? That poor woman never even dared to eat an egg in her whole life. Take this half-basket of eggs back."

It was only then that Zhang Goudan realized there were more and more unmarried men of his age in the village just like him.

The women in the village were unwilling to live a hard life, preferring to be a rich man's concubine rather than a poor man's wife.

On the day the relative's family married off their daughters, Zhang Goudan went to watch.

His distant cousin, who had worn rags her whole life, finally wore new clothes that day, with a moist jade bracelet on her wrist, sitting in the bridal sedan chair and never returning.

It was also on that day that Zhang Goudan realized that the unremarkable jade stones he and his father dug up every day could actually be so beautiful.

After returning home, he couldn't help but roar at his father: "Why did you have to give birth to me as a man?"

No matter how ugly a woman was or how poor her family, there was always someone to marry her.

But men were different; those who couldn't find a wife were everywhere.

They say men can carry on the family line, but if one can't even find a wife, where would the family line come from?

Just like that, Zhang Goudan wasted his life, living a precarious existence every day, until he reached the end of his life.

And his greatest regret in this life was failing to take a wife. Thus, he gave birth to a heart of resentment.

He hated those men with three wives and four concubines; they already had wives, yet they were not satisfied and still wanted to take concubines!

"That so-called 'three wives and four concubines' is just a way for powerful and wealthy men to reasonably and legally possess more women! I heard that Changshi Miao of Donglin Fu has already taken 18 concubines, and he is going to take another one this month..."

Upon hearing the name "Miao," a trace of hatred surfaced in Hong Yao's eyes.

"... The rich can be surrounded by beauties with wives and concubines in droves, while we poor men at the bottom can't even marry one wife. It's bitter!"

Zhang Goudan's tone turned cold, and he glared viciously at the unconscious man: "It is because of the existence of such men—one person marrying multiple women—that I couldn't find a wife! I am not reconciled, I hate it so much! So I want to take revenge on them!"

As he spoke, he began to sob again: "Actually, I am not a bad person; I haven't harmed any innocent people. I don't interfere with families that marry wives properly. I only target those who take concubines. Who told them to be greedy? They don't want the virtuous wives they have at home and insist on taking concubines!"

"By what right can they take one concubine after another, while I can only grow old in loneliness?"

"Pity me, I lived a whole life without even tasting the flavor of a woman, let alone having descendants to offer sacrifices. Wuwu... I am truly so pitiful!"