The old man Chen Fang was no longer allowed to say many words at that time. In short, he still said the secret that had been weighing on his mind for a long time.

  This is a very common yet touching story:

  He was sixteen years old when he went to the landlord's house in our village at that time to work as a long-term worker. Chen Fang was young and handsome, and he was down-to-earth, so he was very welcome by his master.

  This landlord had a daughter named Xiaodie, who was two years younger than Chen Fang.

  This young man and the young lady were at that time two people who were worlds apart, not to mention that this little butterfly was not only the old master's darling but also a beautiful woman. Little Butterfly had been well-read in poetry and books since childhood, and within a hundred miles of the countryside, she was also a prominent lady of the aristocracy.

  In short, these two young people who lived in the same yard but were far apart from each other fell in love.

  From the very beginning, this was a tragedy. In an era that emphasized matching doors and households, Chen Fang had no qualifications to marry into this noble family.

  And so, in Chinese romance, the most frequently appearing and tragic term also appeared on them: elopement!

  Eloping is a thing with an extremely low success rate, especially in our place where transportation is inconvenient and everywhere are big mountains, there's only one way to go, bringing along a pampered young lady, how can Chen Fang run fast.

  A large group of servants seized the wailing, heartbroken Xiaodie and the trembling Chen Fang and brought them back to the village. To save face, Master ordered that Chen Fang be executed on a chosen day.

  In the end, this young lady was indeed a romantic. She used her own jewelry to bribe the guard's family servant. Before leaving, Chen Fang, who was covered in bruises, promised the tearful young lady that he would formally marry her one day.

  Later, Chen Fang took advantage of the night to escape to the outside world and became a strong man by mistake. After this separation, he returned to the village many years later, only to see that the landlord class had been overthrown by the vigorous revolutionary movement. People told him that the young lady had passed away several years ago, and from then on, Chen Fang lived a lonely life in the half-earth house left by his parents, disheartened and disappointed.

  He just never knew why that girl died.

  Soon after Chen was gone, Xiaodie discovered that she was pregnant, which was unimaginable at that time. Illness could be endured, but pregnancy couldn't be hidden, and the belly would grow bigger day by day.

  After this incident, the landlord still wanted to marry Xiaodie to a wealthy family in the village, but Xiaodie refused to comply. The old master could only persuade her gently and forcefully, but ultimately found out that his daughter was already pregnant with Chen Fang's child.

  This is absolutely a great shame for the old master, and Xiao Die doesn't want to give up the child either. In order to cover up the family's shame, the old master found a scoundrel in the village and planned to marry Xiao Die off to him.

  The little butterfly would not marry, the old master prepared to force her to send someone, but did not expect that the little butterfly was born with a hasty and violent temper, so she hung herself with a rope in the west wing, finally ending up with one corpse and two lives.

  In order to prevent the scandal from leaking out, the old master put his daughter into the white coffin prepared for himself overnight, planning to find a time to secretly bury her, and after some days, he would casually find an excuse to tell outsiders that his daughter had married far away.

  It so happened that the next day, guerrilla troops arrived and our village was liberated. After the guerrillas defeated the family's servants at home, the landlord took his remaining family members and went to an unknown destination. In those turbulent years, survival was the most fundamental thing.

  Later, this old house that had been baptized by the flames of war became a common property of the people. At first, several households in the village were also allocated to move in and live there, all the doors were open, except for the west wing which hung a large copper lock.

  There was a good thing about the person who smashed the lock, but inside, they found a large white coffin and a foul odor of corpses. However, the coffin boards were already nailed tightly shut.

  Nobody knows who is buried here, so they think about finding a time to bury him.

  This man has made up his mind and refuses to leave; even if he dies, you can't budge him.

  The coffin was lifted for the first time, and the rope broke. The falling coffin severely injured a villager's foot.

  When the coffin was lifted for the second time, a large group of butterflies suddenly rushed into the room. The powder on their wings temporarily blinded everyone's eyes, and several people almost lost their sight forever.

  Moreover, the few households living inside could hear the sound of a woman wailing and children crying coming from the west wing every night, so no one dared to continue living here.

  After moving out of this old house, the village had indeed thought about changing this piece of Feng Shui treasure land into an office location. On one hand, the house was indeed built with a grand atmosphere back then; on the other hand, this area is also top-notch.

  But people of that generation, more or less, have heard that this house is haunted, especially the white coffin, so the villagers also invited someone who can handle such things to come here.

  The person who did the Buddhist ceremony, Old Man Chen said his name and it really startled Cha Wenbin, his name was Ma Suifeng, also Cha Wenbin's master.

  This Qingfeng Daoren was not drunk all day long in his younger years, it is said that he had some similarities with the current Cha Wenbin, and that was a style of Feng Xian Dao Gu's appearance.

  After the Taoist came, he lit incense to check and then told the villagers that it's best not to live in this house for a few years. There are still lingering spirits inside, if you force them out, it's not impossible, but be afraid that after moving in, it won't be peaceful either. So the best solution is to re-lock the west wing, and wait until one day when the door lock falls off automatically, that will be the time when this house is completely clean.

  Cha Wenbin understood about 70-80% of it by now, and realized that Master wasn't being sloppy with his work, but rather as a Taoist priest, sometimes one had to show some courtesy. Humans have emotions, why wouldn't ghosts? Such a devoted person, how could he bring himself to harm him?

  Later, the house was abandoned again and again, with only useless things like straw piled up. As time passed, fewer and fewer people knew the story of this house.

  Chen Fang knew only so much, and he had also heard from the village rumors that the former East House was haunted, but how could he have imagined that the ghost was the small butterfly that had been waiting for him in misery?

  It wasn't that he had forgotten the original promise, but when he returned, the mansion was already empty. The news he received was also that the master had long taken his family far away, and he knew that the old master's most beloved was Xiaodie, thinking that she must have been taken away too, for which he even went out to search, only all the news sank into the sea.

  Then, Chen Fang returned to the village and devoted himself to guarding the broken house. He thought that Xiaodie might come back again, so in order not to let her go astray, he never dared to leave the village for a lifetime.

  What about Little Butterfly? She wasn't intentionally trying to obstruct, but she was afraid others would occupy the house and Chen Ping would never be able to find his way back. So she guarded the wing room, watching for decades, along with her unborn daughter at the time, waiting for that man. For decades, as if it were just one day, her ghost had never stepped out of the mansion even half a step, unless it was for Yu'er, or else she probably wouldn't have left the wing room either.

  What a pity, two people who have been waiting for each other all their lives are near yet cannot meet. The closest distance is sometimes also the farthest distance, that's just fate. Chen Fang had passed by the temple at the village entrance countless times, but he always stopped himself from stepping inside. How many nights did Little Butterfly lean against the doorframe and cry alone?

  A river of forgetfulness separates two worlds, a moment's hesitation is half a lifetime apart.

  When Zha Wenbin said that the person lying in the white coffin was indeed Xiao Die, Chen Fang could no longer hold back his sobs and burst into loud wails, his cries were so heart-wrenching.

  She named their daughter Yu'er, because on the night Chen Fang escaped, it rained heavily, which was Xiaodie's longing for Chen Fang.

  Chen Fang held onto Zhang Wenbin's hand until his death, begging the young man to take him back through that gate once more.

  When Ah-ba found the villagers using a board to carry this dying old man to the entrance of the ancestral hall, his hand finally loosened, and he ultimately did not live to return to find Little Butterfly before his death.

  According to rural customs, no matter where the death occurred, the funeral must be held in the main hall of one's own home. However, this time Chen Fang's funeral was placed in this old mansion that had been abandoned for decades.

  In the old house, a simple tent had been set up. In front of a white coffin, workers were busy brushing it with bright red lacquer, and next to it was a new coffin bought by the villagers who had chipped in together.

  Because Chen Fang was a five-guarantee household, his home was empty and bare, but the elderly people in the village had also vaguely heard about his story with the young lady here.

  Although Chen Fang had no children, his funeral was exceptionally grand. Firstly, Cha Wenbin's reputation in our area at that time was extremely loud, and secondly, this unfinished love affair between a man and a ghost moved all the women in the countryside to tears.

  Everything, the village took care of it with one hand, everyone hoped that this couple who had been separated for decades could walk through the last part of their life with dignity, and this was also the most united thing our village had ever done.

  Cha Wenbin had promised Xiaodie that he would let them meet again tonight, and not only meet, but also make up for the missed wedding of this pair of star-crossed lovers!

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