Chapter 1: Strange Phenomena in the Underworld

  Lan Yutong and others came to Zhong Yi Nightclub with joy, they wanted to celebrate the victory of the lawsuit properly, more importantly, everyone was reunited again.

  But just as they were rejoicing, Chou Xiaoqian, who had been sentenced to prison, was making a big fuss. He couldn't understand why he had worked so hard but ended up with nothing and still had to spend several years in jail.

  As he was taken to prison that day, through the small window of the prisoner's van, he saw a beautiful ray of sunlight spreading on the ground, saw the evergreen trees swaying in the wind along the way, and also saw a group of white ducks playing and calling out in the water. He, with handcuffs on both hands and heavy chains on his feet, looked like an old dog being dragged to the slaughterhouse, pitiful even with eyes full of desire for survival, but no one would pay attention.

  However, he didn't think about freedom. In his heart, there was still a burning fire of anger. Qian Xiaohong's deception and Lan Yutong's ruthlessness made him not sad because he was about to enter prison. He only had one concept in his mind, which was revenge.

  When it comes to revenge, his eyeballs are like a flammable substance that can ignite fire, and at this time they are filled with blood and bright red. In addition, he clenched his fists tightly, his teeth chattering "squeaky" sounds, as if the two rows of big steel teeth were only visible, lying on Lu Xiaoying, Qian Xiaohong and others, he was trying his best to bite them to pieces.

  At last, the black prison van stopped in front of the gate. With a loud creaking sound, one side of the big gate slowly opened. Several armed prison guards rushed out to surround the van. Then the back door of the van opened and two policemen jumped down from the van and reached out to pull out Zhou Xiangyin. Under the "escort" of the armed guards, he walked into the prison. The heavy iron gate closed again with a loud bang, which made Zhou Xiangyin tremble with fear.

  He glanced up at the high wall where armed police with live ammunition were patrolling back and forth, and only then did he realize that he had lost his freedom, and everything else.

  He became even more filled with hatred and a desire for revenge, hating everyone in the Lan family group. It was these people who had left him with nothing and had also saddled him with several years of imprisonment. He blamed everything on the laws of society, without blaming himself at all.

  His eyes were filled with a terrifying killing aura! It was the devilish killing intent that could destroy everything. Suddenly, his eyes turned cold and sharp, and even the heavily armed prison guards who met his gaze had to lower their heads under his piercing stare.

  Inside the prison, sitting behind iron bars, clenching fists, eyes bulging with rage, wanting to sprout wings and fly out of the cage to kill those who are celebrating.

  Just as the judge said, apart from life and health, there are also family, love and friendship that forever belong to oneself. If a person is always nostalgic for things outside of themselves, they may not even have their own life.

  Chou Xiao Qian had been in prison for over a decade, yet he still thought about his company and his money. As he became increasingly bewildered as to how things had ended up this way, he suddenly stood up, stretched out his head and violently smashed it into the wall. A loud "bang" was heard, followed by hot blood splattering everywhere, brain matter spraying onto the wall, while his body slowly collapsed to the ground.

  The prison guard heard the sound and rushed over to take a look, seeing this scene, he shouted loudly, then waited for the forensic doctor to come and announce the death of Qiu Xiaoqian.

  Qiu Xiaoqian died, his soul drifted away from his body and slowly rose into the air above the prison house. Hei Bai Wuchang arrived with a pair of handcuffs, looking calm and collected.

  "Sorry," said Bai Wuchang, "you have to come with me. Since your head hit the thick wall of the prison, you were destined for another destination - a dark, damp, cold and gloomy underworld. Don't think about anything else, because there won't be any other way to help you solve your current worries. The only choice is to follow us."

  "I know this is the end," Qiu Xianqian said with a smile, looking down at his own body being carried out of the prison by several guards like a pig, and then he floated along with them, reluctantly looking at his poor empty shell without a soul.

  Qiu Xiaoqian's ghost followed his body out of the prison, and Hei Bai Wu Chang, out of sympathy, did not immediately implement "capture", but instead followed behind Qiu Xiaoqian's soul, watching his every move with unblinking eyes, just like a policeman monitoring a fearful fugitive.

  Finally, Hei Wuchang grew impatient and stepped forward to block Qiu Xiaoqian's path, saying: "Can your soul still enter that body? We've followed you for so long, reluctant to part with you. We can't wait any longer, there are many souls in the mortal world waiting for us."

  "Come on, dear," said Bai Wuchang, sounding a bit more gentle. He used the term "dear" to address Xiao Cai, which he had picked up from a young girl who had just died a few days ago.

  "Oh," said Bai Wuchang, pausing for a moment before continuing, "Do you have anything to bring with you to the underworld? We have this service." He handed over a list of services to Qiu Xiaoqian.

  Qiu Xiaoqian didn't go to pick up his so-called list, but he glanced at it with his eyes and saw that on a piece of cowhide paper was written:

  Give away TV for 3000 yen Give away water dispenser for 3000 yen

  Send electricity refrigerator 5000 yuan Send flower ring 2500 yuan

  Send mahjong table 5000 yuan, send clothes 3500 yuan

  Send iron stove fire 4000 silver coins, beautiful girl attendant 12000 silver coins

  No cheating of old and young, clear code marked price, welcome to visit.

  "Also," said Bai Wuchang, "if you want to buy a house in the underworld, we can also serve you wholeheartedly, with fair prices. Do you have any other questions?"

  Mentioning business, it also stirred up Qian Nai's inner anger, his eyes widened and stared at the price list of the express company handed over by Bai Wuchang, his fists clenched.

  "Let me think," he said, suppressing his emotions.

  Hei Bai nodded slightly and the two of them turned their heads back, implying that they were letting Chou Xiaoqian think for a moment.

  But unexpectedly, Qiu Xiaoqian clenched his fists and struck the two of them violently on their temples, causing them to become dizzy and disoriented, almost scattering their souls. Fortunately, they had some magical techniques that prevented their souls from dispersing. By the time they slightly regained consciousness, Qiu Xiaoqian was nowhere to be seen.

  Qiu Xiaoqian's soul had turned into a gust of resentment, a black mass of resentment that floated above Haizhen City, crossing the sky with wolf-like howls and charging straight at the mountain below "Hei Sha Xing".

  Hei Xing is the god that Jiang Ziya gave to Gao Heng during the Western Zhou's conquest of the Shang Dynasty, it has been thousands or tens of thousands of years since then. People who can understand astrology see that this star recently has a black aura surrounding it, but no one knows why.

  Chou Xiaoqian's soul drifted unknowingly towards the Black Killing Star due to his resentment. As for why he drifted there, perhaps even Chou Xiaoqian himself couldn't explain it clearly, and we don't need to make any guesses either. Now, let's return to the mortal world, back to Lan Jingyu and the others' side.

  When they heard that Qiu Xiaoqian had died by crashing into the wall, a few people thought he got what was coming to him, but still felt some regret. They didn't disperse until midnight before returning home one after another.

  After returning home, Lu Xiaoying and Qian Xiaohong lay on the same bed, having been apart for several months, and were finally reunited. They chatted for a long time, lying on the same bed, seemingly never getting tired of talking.

  "Is Zhang Mingyu scaring you to death?" asked Lu Xiaoying.

  "I'm getting rid of the evil for girls as innocent as us!" Qian Xiaohong said.

  "Do you still believe in love?" Lu Xiao Ying continued to ask.

  "I believe in love, there will always be true-hearted people in the world. I think you also think so, it's just that we two are not lucky enough to meet a true-hearted one. However, your driver is slightly better off. Originally, she fell in love with you just because of your appearance, and when she saw you at Naihe Bridge, that was your true self, so she couldn't recognize you; as for Zhang Mingyu, he's simply his mother's scoundrel."

  "Alright, let's not talk about this depressing topic," Lu Xiao Ying said, seeing Qian Xiao Hong getting agitated, and quickly changed the subject, "Today is so happy, Lan uncle's family finally reunited and became happy, our friendship also came back, but I don't know what happened to that kid He Ju Cai and Ouyang Qing."

  "Huo Jucai occasionally meets, he is doing well, with a wealthy family and an easy job. But Ou Yangqing has not been heard from for a long time, and it's unknown how he is now."

  The two of them let out a sigh and suddenly fell silent. It seems that even good friends who haven't seen each other for many days will still miss each other.

  They are missing Ouyang Qing, but they don't know that the current Ouyang Qing is also missing them.

  At this time, Ouyang Qing was lying in a simple room on the second floor of the village public house. He had been living here since he arrived at the village. The village public house had two floors with six rooms. One room was an activity room for the elderly, but it had never been used because the villagers were too poor to have any leisure time. Another room was a library, but except for the sign on the door that said "Library", there was no other indication that it was a library, as there were no books inside. There was also an office for village officials, with many desks and chairs covered in dust, indicating that they had not been used in a long time. The dining hall where the officials used to eat was now Ouyang Qing's personal kitchen. Another room was an exhibition hall, cluttered with various miscellaneous items. When Ouyang Qing arrived, he searched this room for anything useful but only found two pairs of rain shoes that he could use. He lived in the leftmost room on the second floor, which used to be a storage room for miscellaneous items and had been cleaned up by the village officials. However, the room was quite simple and leaked when it rained, with peeling plaster on the walls. The ceiling corners were covered in spider webs, and there were two windows without glass, one of which only had a wooden frame that hung crookedly from the wall. When the wind blew, the window frame creaked against the brick wall, making an annoying sound. Ouyang Qing used some nails to secure the window frame to the wall and covered it with plastic sheeting. He intended to buy glass for the windows but the village was too far from town and transportation was inconvenient, so he had no choice but to do this.

  He came to a village called Sakura Village, the village is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and people live at the foot of the mountain like a basin. The village has more than 100 households, which is not a small village.

  The mountains and rivers here are beautiful, but the traffic is inconvenient, so the people who live here have generally backward thinking. Few villagers have read books, and even those who have read books only read up to elementary school sixth grade before dropping out of school and inheriting their ancestors' land to farm from then on.

  The second day Ou Yang Qing arrived here, he started working. First, he went around the village to take a look and then understood what people were doing for a living and how their lives were like. After understanding all this, he began planning how to help villagers get out of trouble and become rich.

  After wandering around the village for two days, he thought the climate was pretty good and even in winter it didn't feel too cold, so growing flowers should be a great idea.

  He then brought up the matter with the village head.

  The village chief was a very tall but also very old man, with white hair and no teeth. His dark face showed the hard work and hardships he had endured over the years. He was the only person in the village who had attended school up to the first year of primary school, which he did in 1962. So, he was the most educated person in Cherry Blossom Village, and at nearly sixty years old, he was still serving as village chief, probably for this reason.

  "Old village chief," Ouyang Qing came to the old village chief's home, and after being invited to sit down, he said straightforwardly, "I see that the villagers have been farming on this land for generations, and it's all traditional agriculture that has remained unchanged. If things go on like this, I think poverty will never be eradicated."

  "Ouyang... cadre," the old village chief seemed to be searching for a suitable title, thought for a moment and finally still used the term "cadre" to address Ouyang Qing. He was smoking a dry tobacco pipe, sitting on a large stone in his own courtyard, with his pants legs rolled up and his feet bare, speaking to Ouyang Qing who was sitting under the eaves of the asbestos tile roof: "You are from a big city, you must have seen and known a lot, but people in the village only know how to farm and plow the land, they don't know anything else. So what's the point of not farming?"

  Ouyang Qing nodded and said: "Plant flowers!"