During the apocalypse years of the Ming Dynasty, Prime Minister Liu Gong's family had a servant named Lu Xiu, who was not only handsome, but also proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, especially good at playing the guzheng. Every time there was a banquet at home, Liu Gong would always let him come out to play and sing, and everyone was impressed by his superb skills and applauded.

Duke Liu was very fond of Lu Xiu. He always took her with him when he went out as a guest, and the purpose was to grow his face for himself.

Now Lu Xiu was in his twenties and had yet to marry and have children. Therefore, he also had a grudge against his master.

On this day, Liu Gong went out to work, and Lu Xiu was bored and went for an outing in the suburbs. He lingered in the scenery outside for a while, but he forgot the time. When he remembered going home, the sun had already set.

Thinking that there was no entertainment tonight, he was not in a hurry. He walked to a remote restaurant alone and asked for a pot of wine to drink alone.

Just after drinking two mouthfuls, a man sitting at the next table suddenly sat over: "Is that Brother Lu? I haven't seen you for a long time!"

Lu Xiu looked up and saw that this person was Liang He, the servant of the prince of a large family. The two were old acquaintances and had always had a good friendship. Think back to the beginning, when the two were not servants, they were often together.

Lu Xiu was very happy. He quickly ordered a few dishes and another pot of wine. The two of them chatted while drinking.

I learned from the chat that Liang He no longer works at the prince's house and has moved to another one.

The two drank happily, and after drinking for a long time, they were a little drunk. The moon came out, and the two helped each other out of the restaurant.

On the way back, Liang He asked, "Brother Lu, are you still married?"

Lu Xiu said sadly, "I have lived for more than 20 years, and I have never even touched a woman's hand!

Liang He said, "My current main family is a woman surnamed Zhang, young and beautiful, and her husband died. You are handsome and talented, so why don't you go to her house to work, maybe something good will come!"

When Lu Xiu heard this, his heart moved. Liang He told him how beautiful and reasonable the woman was. He gritted his teeth and decided to follow Liang He back to have a look.

There were twists and turns along the way, and Lu Xiu felt that the surrounding environment was unfamiliar and increasingly desolate. After walking about ten miles, a beautiful big house finally appeared in front of him.

Liang He walked in with Lu Xiu, turned around a few doors, passed through a few small courtyards, and finally came to a room. The bead curtain hung low on the door, and the candlelight in the room was dim. There was a woman playing guzheng behind the gauze tent.

Liang He saluted the woman in the gauze tent and said, "Master, this is my old friend Lu Xiu. I want to come to my house to do things for you. I wonder if it is possible?"

After a while, a sweet voice came from the tent and said, "I am very happy that he is willing to come over to please me. It's getting late now. Arrange for him to go to the west room to rest first, and we will discuss the specific matters tomorrow."

Although he had not seen the true face of his master, Lu Xiu knew that this woman was not an ordinary person just by relying on this voice and the graceful figure that faintly appeared through the veil.

Liang He took Lu Xiu to the West Room and left. Lu Xiu couldn't sleep in bed. He had always been curious about the identity of his master.

At the third watch, Lu Xiu came out to relieve himself, and when he passed by the master's room, he heard a voice inside: "Miss, the hot water has been poured, it's time to take a bath."

Lu Xiu quietly came under the window, pierced a layer of window paper with his fingers, and looked inside.

He saw two handmaids undressing the hostess. After taking off his clothes, he saw the girl with skin like snow, skin like fat, a graceful figure, pink cheeks, and peach blossoms. Lu Xiu was very excited.

After the woman took a shower, she went to bed to rest. The lights turned off in the room, and Lu Xiu walked quietly back to his room, lying on the bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep, his mind was full of the woman's appearance.

The next evening, the hostess summoned Lu Xiu, who met her outside the gauze tent. The woman said gently, "I heard that you have a stunt, can you play a song for me?"

Lu Xiu said, "Then you will be ugly in front of the girl."

After saying that, he picked up the guzheng that he had already prepared, stirred the strings, and played the song he was best at in his life.

After playing the song, clapping sounds came from the tent, and then a figure slowly came out from inside. Lu Xiu took a closer look and saw a woman with a smile on her face. What surprised him even more was that the woman was not wearing clothes, but he could not see how embarrassed she was. The woman patted Lu Xiu's shoulder with her jade hand and said, "It really lives up to its reputation!" After saying that, she sat down with him.

Under the candlelight, Lu Xiu only felt a burst of aroma, and when he looked at the woman next to him, it was even more beautiful and fragrant, like a celestial being. Lu Xiu could no longer control it, he put down the guzheng and gently hugged her into his arms…

From then on, Lu Xiu would go to the hostess's room every day. The woman was good at playing the pipa, so Lu Xiu used the guzheng to sing with her, and in the evening, he would naturally make out again.

After about half a month, Lu Xiu's body was getting thinner and his mind was dazed all day. He wanted to be more restrained, but at night he couldn't resist the temptation and couldn't help but go to the hostess.

These days, eating at the woman's house has always been vegetarian. Lu Xiu was a little greedy, so he took the opportunity to come out and came to the restaurant back then, asked for a few plates of meat and a pot of wine, and ate and drank alone.

Before he could finish eating, a few people suddenly broke in and held him down, saying, "I finally found you!"

Lu Xiu looked up and saw that they were all servants of Duke Liu's family. They had been looking for him for more than a month on the order of Duke Liu.

Returning to Liu's mansion, Duke Liu asked, "Who have you been with these days? Why did you run away?"

Lu Xiu said: "I didn't run away, I just went to play with my friends for a few days, my lord could find Liang He to testify."

At that time, a servant said, "Stop talking nonsense. I know the Liang He you mentioned. He used to be a servant in the prince's house, but he died three years ago!"

Hearing this, Lu Xiu was astonished, so he told everyone the truth, including his relationship with that beautiful woman. Everyone was astonished when they heard this, and Duke Liu sent someone to look for him to see what was going on.

When he got there, where was the big house? He saw that this place was full of weeds as tall as a person, and there were many deserted graves that had been silent for a long time. Only then did everyone know that he had encountered a ghost.

On the way back, Lu Xiu met a local pedestrian, and the person said, "The girl you mentioned seems to be the only daughter of the Zhang family. The Zhang family used to be a powerful family here. Her family has a daughter named Zhang Ling, who is very beautiful and loves to play the pipa. Zhang Ling fell in love with a servant in the family, and her father was furious and beat the servant to death with a stick on the spot. That night, Zhang Ling also committed suicide by hanging a beam. The Zhang family thought she had humiliated her ancestor, so they buried her in this wilderness."

After returning, the servants reported what they had seen and heard to Duke Liu. Duke Liu saw that Lu Xiu's body was very weak now, and he looked like he was ten years old. He couldn't play famous songs like before, so he gave him some silver taels to dismiss.

After being kicked out of the house by Duke Liu, Lu Xiu was very sick and weak. One day, he fainted on a path. When he woke up, he found himself in a temple.

Despite this, Lu Xiu still couldn't forget Zhang Ling. Seeing that he was unhappy all day, the abbot advised him to let go of the red dust, not to mention that he met the ethereal red dust. Not long after, Lu Xiu really became a monk here.