Qin Xin floated out from behind me and sat in the passenger seat, saying, "I was wondering if that person was the one who killed me back then."

Qin Xin looked out the window, "Are you curious about why I turned into a resentful corpse? Do you want to hear my story?"

I hesitated for a moment before saying, "Qin Xin, let me be honest with you. If it weren't for this job, I wouldn't necessarily want to hear your story."

"Do you understand what I mean?"

Everyone has their past, and things they don't want to talk about. Qin Xin was nailed in a deserted village; that kind of past couldn't have been a good memory. Besides, she was still wearing a wedding dress.

Qin Xin suddenly said, "What if I told you that I used to be a great demon who killed countless people?"

I said with slight anger, "I don't know why you keep asking me the same question over and over again. However, I can explain it to you one last time."

"I don't want anyone to tell me about acting on behalf of Heaven. No one in this world can act on behalf of Heaven, let alone carry out the Way of Heaven. Those who talk about acting on behalf of Heaven are just using Heaven's name to carry out their own way."

"It's like killing someone."

"In this world, the only ones truly qualified to kill are soldiers and executioners, because that's their duty. Killing by anyone else is a sin, and no one can wash it away."

"I'm from the邪道 (xié dào, unorthodox path). I don't want to defend myself either. What's done is done. If Heaven wants to take me in the future, that's my fate. If someone can kill me, that means I'm not skilled enough. That's all."

"As for heroes, hehe, which hero didn't wash their reputation with blood? They're just using their own standards to kill the people they want to kill."

"When the orthodox path wants to kill someone, they have to occupy the moral high ground first. With morality, if I say you're unjust, you won't be able to prove your innocence even with a hundred mouths."

"To put it bluntly, everyone is killing, so don't talk about who is right and who is wrong, who is upright and who is evil."

I paused here for a moment, "People are actually quite interesting. They always like to stand up and talk about others, but who gave you the standard?"

"No one gives them a standard. As long as they feel that something doesn't suit their fancy, it's wrong. In order to prove that they are right, they will quote classics and talk eloquently."

"To put it bluntly, they are eating people and drinking blood. As long as they feel they have won, that is the Way of Heaven, that is justice. But I want to ask, who in this world is truly without sin?"

I stopped here and said, "Qin Xin, since I was able to bring you out, I didn't intend to inquire about your past. When you don't want to kill me, I won't think about killing you either."

"Also..." I paused, "Actually, you are much kinder than me. Just now, if you hadn't stopped me, I would have gone up the mountain and slaughtered that village again, do you believe it?"

"I believe it!" Qin Xin's voice was a little choked up.

But I laughed, "Don't cry. I heard that if a man owes a girl too many tears, King Yama will soak him in tears and pickle him."

"You wouldn't want them to stick a label on my head after I die, saying 'Pickled on such and such a day of such and such a month of such and such a year', would you?"

Qin Xin chuckled, "Have you coaxed a lot of girls?"

"You're the first one." I really wasn't lying.

Qin Xin sighed, "I heard people say that it's lucky for a girl to meet a good person in her life, but unfortunately, I only met a good person after I died."

"When I was little, I didn't live in that mountain. Instead, I wandered around various prefectures with my father. My father was a qin player. You should know this profession, right?"

I nodded.

Musicians didn't have much status in ancient times. In ancient times, musicians were called 伎 (jì, female entertainer). Their status can be imagined.

Literati talked about琴 (qín, a seven-stringed zither), 棋 (qí, chess), 书 (shū, calligraphy), 画 (huà, painting), but that was for the royal families and noble scholars to cultivate their sentiments. They themselves didn't rely on the qin for a living. Real musicians were classified as the lower class.

This situation continued until the late Qing Dynasty before it improved.

Qin Xin said, "Although my father was just a qin player who practiced a lowly profession, he always wanted to make the best qin and compose the best music."

"At that time, my father always believed in the existence of the spirit of the qin. His lifelong pursuit was to create a famous qin with a soul. So, he brought me here. Because he heard that there was a village composed of musicians, a paradise for musicians."

I frowned slightly when I heard this, "When was that?"

Qin Xin said, "The year was Jiajing when I came here."

I said casually, "That village wouldn't be a place where someone was raising ghosts and gods, would it?"

My question wasn't without reason.

Leaving aside the status of musicians in the Ming Dynasty, just from a geographical point of view, this shouldn't be where qin players gathered.

Before the Ming Dynasty, there weren't many people outside the关 (Guān, mountain pass), and there were far fewer musicians than inside the关, let alone compared to 江南 (Jiāngnán, south of the Yangtze River).

What were the musicians doing running outside the关?

At that time, the mountains and ridges, forests and snowfields outside the关 were no different from poor mountains and bad waters for 江南 (Jiāngnán).

What was there here that could attract them?

Unless they had been deceived.