Republic of China

Chapter 356: Stake
"What's wrong? Is there someone you love outside?" After returning from the toilet, Old Liu found the scholar still standing by the wooden window looking out, and he couldn't help but murmur.

We are in an unfamiliar place, so drinking so late at night won't lead to any uninvited guests, right?
"See that street corner? I remember there was no noodle and cigarette stand yesterday, and I didn't see it when I came back tonight. How come it suddenly appeared?"

In terms of sensitivity, Lu Xiucai is the most outstanding among the brothers. He had a certain degree of awareness before being caught in the vortex many times, and this time was no exception.

Old Liu peered through the gap in the wooden window and saw two stall owners greeting passers-by who happened to pass by. They smiled and were polite to everyone they met, no different from ordinary stall owners.

"I don't see anything wrong, but I believe you. Tell me what you think you can do?"

When it comes to his quick mind, Liu Mangfan is very self-aware. Xiaokang aside, Zhao Xiucai and Sanyuan are both older and have become more mature, so they have to admit their age. What's more, Zhao Xiucai is a young talent who has attended university and has a sharp mind. So even if Liu Mangfan can't understand many things, he just believes in one thing: it's always right to trust his brothers.

"It's not a big problem, actually. It's winter night and it just snowed. If you want to sell noodles, you have to make sure the water in the pot is at a certain temperature so that you can take the noodles out of the pot immediately when customers come. Otherwise, who would be willing to wait in such a cold day? If you make them in advance, you're afraid the noodles will be ruined. It's more suitable to sell steamed dumplings on this winter night."

"Yeah, that makes sense. I didn't notice it before. I don't think I've ever seen anyone cooking noodles on the street at night in winter. To keep the water in the pot warm, you need a lot of firewood. If you don't sell a few bowls a night, you'll lose money. Dry firewood is not cheap in winter."

Lu Xiucai continued to express his opinion, "Brother Liu, look, although the stall owner is very polite when welcoming guests, he rarely adds firewood. What do you think he wants?"

Liu Mangfan alone would definitely not be able to see so many tricks. They are just two night stalls, so just sell whatever they want.

But after such reasoning, the taste changes.

"How about we go and find out?"

"No, listen to me and wait and see. Even if they have some ulterior motives, they are definitely targeting us, so it's better not to make things complicated. The water in a big city is deep, and our safety is our first priority."

"Okay, I'll listen to you, brother."

Lu Xiucai did not insist and temporarily suppressed his doubts.
After three rounds of drinks, ears are hot and eyes are dizzy, and then it’s time to get down to business.

The brothers didn't hesitate to talk to Zhang Linyi and Cherry. The father and son were also curious about why they were stepping on the plates everywhere.

"There are all kinds of people in brothels. When I was visiting, I met many capable people, but they were just one-time deals, so they probably weren't Yuan Wenqu's job."

Zhao Sanyuan gently wiped the rim of the wine cup with his fingers, looked at Zhang Xiaogou and asked, "How many brothels does Yuan Wenqiu have in Tianjin?"

"There are about forty reputable ones, and about twice as many smaller ones, not counting the Anliu Haimazi under his jurisdiction. In short, almost all the prostitution business east of Jintang Bridge is related to Yuan Wenqi."

"Are all the forces just going to watch him grow bigger?"

"Well, what can we do? Yuan Wenqiao has opened a brothel on Yoshino Street. Everyone in Tianjin knows that he has the support of the Japanese. It is said that they will consider making Yuan Wenqiao the chief Chinese detective of the Japanese Concession next year."

Behind such glamor and splendor, I wonder how many times the price was paid.

kneel?
Stop it.

In this world where people laugh at the poor but not at prostitutes, no matter how many people cry and shout and want to kneel down to the Japanese, they have no chance to do so.

Liu Guanghai doesn’t want to kneel to the foreigners?

"Brother Gou is right." Liu Mangfan took over the conversation. "I didn't find out the key points, but I did hear a lot of rumors. For example, Yuan Wenqiu wanted to swallow up Liu Guanghai's foot business and antique trading. Yuan Wenqiu himself also tried it, but it was not as prosperous as Liu Guanghai's."

"That's right." Zhang Xiaogou had a bit of arrogance on his face. "I dare not say anything else. When doing business with anyone, Master Hai always abides by the moral code. What kind of bastard is Yuan Wenqiu? He cheats people when collecting antiques and always deducts the wages of his subordinates. How many people will work for him?"

Cherry couldn't help but sneer, "Why do those people with the word 'Shan' always have more people than those with the word 'Hai'? Before I went abroad, I knew that Yuan Wenqiu from Tianjin was the face of the Anqing Gang, so Liu Guanghai had to step back a bit."

Rough words are not rough.

Either Yuan Wenqiao has some outstanding qualities, or Liu Guanghai's ass is not so clean.

Zhang Xiaogou had no way to refute the ironclad facts and could only drink in silence, thinking that Yuan Wenqiu was rich and had the Japanese to help him in all aspects, so it would be a miracle if he could be a good person.

"Um"

The information was still too fragmented and too little to be pieced together. Zhao Sanyuan looked at Kang Muang and asked, "Old Kang, did you get anything?"

"Yes, I have."

"Tell me."

slam-la-

Looking at the valuables and jewelry that Kang Muang had shaken out, Zhao Sanyuan rolled his eyes helplessly.

We may not be so well-off recently, but we don't need to go to the gambling house to make money, right? Aren't you afraid that Master will hit you on the head if he finds out?

"In addition to winning money, I also heard a rumor, but I'm not sure if it's true or not."

Kang Muang observed the changes in Zhang Xiaogou's expression as he spoke. It seemed that he was not in a position to speak.

"It's okay, Brother Kang, just tell me what you want to say, I'm pretty tight-lipped."

"It is said that some of your high-ranking members in the Hai group owe a lot of money to Yuan Wenqiu. I don't know who they are, and I don't know how many there are."

"No way?" Zhang Xiaogou looked as if he had eaten fly shit. "Our leader owed a large gambling debt to Yuan Wenqiu? That doesn't make sense. It's not like Haizitou doesn't have his own gambling house. He went to Yuan Wenqiu to gamble when he had nothing better to do? What's wrong with his brain?"

Kang Muang sighed, "When I say this and you hear this, it's just gossip, and it's very likely to be false."

If this is true, just imagine how big the impact will be.

The two characters regard each other as mortal enemies, but one of them runs to the other side to be a money-giving boy, which is almost equivalent to eating from the inside and betraying the outside. Who can guarantee that it is not a rat moving? How much will the money lost be divided?

"Xiucai, you came back later than the other two, so you should have gained something."

"Yes, and there are quite a few of them." Lu Xiucai said softly, "There is a opera house called Su Luo Yuan near the Tianjin Telegraph Bureau. It is a place for drinking tea and listening to music. It has only been open for two or three years, but the business is very prosperous. Do you know why Su Luo Yuan has suddenly become popular in Tianjin?"

Zhang Xiaogou personally poured wine for Lu Xiucai, "Is it because of their boss Nalan Rongcuo? Not only is he the boss, but he is also the mainstay of the show. Many bosses from other places come here to listen to eight or ten shows in a row without getting tired of it. I guess Nalan Rongcuo's skills are very high, right?"

Lu Xiucai shook his head. "I haven't heard it. Maybe Nalan Rongcuo sings well, but in my opinion there is another important reason."

"What?"

"There are stakes driven into the ground beneath the Su Luo Garden." As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere at the table suddenly froze.

Except for Zhang Xiaogou, the expressions of the others, including Cherry Zhang Linyi, were extremely grim.

They understood what a cruel and horrible man-made feng shui scheme this was.

As the name suggests, driving living piles means using living people as wooden stakes to drive into the ground when the building is still in the foundation stage, and then pouring mud and covering the ground with tiles.

The written records about driving piles actually started very early, and can be found in "Lu Ban Shu", which not only introduces various carpentry and construction techniques, but also includes some sorcery and spells.

There are many different opinions about its origin and it is no longer possible to verify it. One of the more well-known explanations is that in ancient times, human technology was limited and construction techniques were crude. If encountering extreme weather, houses would easily be damaged.

Small families could endure and get through it, at worst they could patch up the mess with some wood or straw, but large families could not afford it, and before the level of construction could make a qualitative leap, they could only seek other methods, that is, relying on mysterious powers, believing that by driving human pillars into the ground they could prevent punishment from the gods, and use this method of human pillar sacrifice to endure the next wrath of God and pray for peace in their homes.

As time goes by, there are countless rumors about pile driving among the people. Many large buildings are circulated with various legends. For example, when a certain bridge is aged, not only steel bars and concrete are exposed, but also piles of bones. Even today in the Republic of China, there are still people who practice the sacrificial ritual of "boys guarding the head of the bridge and girls guarding the end of the bridge."

Apart from the common people's association with mystery, the real masters in the field know that the practice of hitting the living stake is real. To put it bluntly, it is a kind of man-made feng shui layout with great aftereffects.

As for why we have to use living piles?

Of course, since ordinary manipulation of Feng Shui could not achieve the goal, they cruelly chose blood sacrifice, which was despised by people of the righteous path. There was even an unwritten tacit understanding in the martial arts world that if they encountered a shady and unorthodox method of killing a living person, they would kill him if they could, but if they did not, they would expose his identity. There would always be someone who stood up to enforce justice.

So when Lu Xiucai said the three words "hitting the living stake", even Lao Kang changed his expression.

"how many?"

Zhao Sanyuan did not ask for confirmation but directly asked for the quantity, which was enough to prove that he believed in what Lu Xiucai said, even if what he said was horrifying.

"Conservatively speaking, there are no less than seventeen."

hiss--

Zhang Linyi took a deep breath and the flesh on his lips trembled.

At least seventeen stakes were driven into the ground?
frenzied!

"I discovered the clue by accident. There are many patios in the buildings of Su Luo Garden. There is an apricot tree planted under almost every patio, but they are all half-dead. I used magic to explore it, and then I saw a lotus seat made of flesh and blood corpses in front of me."

Zhao Sanyuan clenched his fists. "You have reached a certain level in bone meditation. The fact that you can see this scene is enough to prove that there is a big problem down there."

The speaker may not mean it, but the listener certainly does.

Zhang Linyi knew that Lu Xiucai and Liu Mangfan were not Mo Wenshan's disciples, and thought they would be much worse than those two disciples.

Zhang Linyi was greatly surprised to learn that Lu Xiucai had achieved a high level of attainment in the practice of bone contemplation. He thought to himself that many great monks who had been vegetarians and chanted Buddhist scriptures all their lives might not have even reached the threshold of bone contemplation.

Which monk is this kid's master?
It's not easy
It's not easy.
"Since I knew that there were piles of live stakes everywhere in Suluo Garden, I had to investigate. Then I found that once you enter Suluo Garden, your senses will change subtly. The donkey's bray sounds like nature's music. This may be a bit exaggerated, but even I am greatly affected, let alone ordinary people."

Cherry sneered, "Back then, my uncle was unwilling to build the Qing Mausoleum for the old Buddha because he knew that the old Buddha insisted on driving the living stakes and flatly refused. Later, he was killed by the court's lackeys. He would rather die than do such a conscienceless evil. But then again, I don't believe that driving seventeen living stakes was just to retain visitors."

In fact, it is true. Lu Xiucai nodded slightly, "Brother Che is very good at predicting things. In addition to affecting the senses of visitors, the piles in Su Luo Garden are also covering up something else. Somewhere behind the main building, there is something even more sinister. Most of the earth energy sucked away by the piles is gathered there. To be on the safe side, I followed Sanyuan's instructions and did not act rashly."

silence.

The brothers were all carefully savoring Lu Xiucai's information.

It's scary enough that there are so many living stakes under the Su Luo Garden. As long as they are used properly and some special spells are performed, it will be twice as effective with half the effort.

Let me put it this way, if Huang Aimin had driven seventeen living stakes into Fu Dachang's camp, Zhao Sanyuan's attempt to summon all the gods would have been a fifty-fifty chance at best.

Is there anything more sinister in such a powerful and cruel Feng Shui situation?
Kang Muang asked, "Brother Zhang, what was Suluo Garden like before it was built? Was it built by Yuan Wenqiu later, or was he just looking after the place?
"It turned out to be a villa for a noble relative of the previous dynasty. If I remember correctly, the construction of Su Luo Garden should have nothing to do with Yuan Wenqiu. It was Nalan Rongcuo who did it."

Liu Mangfan could neither eat nor drink. As a funeral clerk, he knew too well how cruel and inhumane it was.

They were all living people before they were beaten down.

Just thinking about what it would feel like to be buried alive chills me to the bone.

Our ancestors left us so many wonderful things, but you chose to learn evil ways?
Cherry still had a sneer on his face. He had always disliked Yuan Wenchu's filthiness, and now he hated it even more. "It's possible that the Shengzhu was taken down a long time ago, but this guy called Nalan is definitely not a good guy. At least he knows there's a Shengzhu down there, but he's still happily acting like a big shot."

Zhao Sanyuan said nothing. He carefully reassembled all the information he had collected.

However, many key nodes are still shrouded in mystery and cannot be connected together at all.

excusable.

In Tianjin, the forces are intertwined and complex.

Even the Japanese special forces couldn't figure out the whole truth in a short period of time, so outsiders like Zhao Sanyuan certainly couldn't figure out the whole thing.

"Don't let your brain get so fussy. It'd be strange if you could figure anything out based on what you know now. Drink some wine to cool your brain down." Cherry pointed at the wine glass in front of Zhao Sanyuan and drank the first glass.

Zhao Sanyuan smiled bitterly.

It really doesn't make sense.

This game is as complicated as the one in Nanyue Village, and even more so, involving many aspects.

Since I can't figure it out with my brain, there is only one solution left.

"Have a good sleep tonight, and let's go to the brothel to listen to music tomorrow!"

"Hey~ Don't bother, I'm not going, I just like to listen to the allegro."

"Who the hell wants to take you? Drink your wine."

(End of this chapter)