Knife splashing

Chapter 684: Ghost Market in Beijing
"this?"

The young man looked at the black pottery fragments, a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes, but his expression changed in an instant, he raised his thumb, and said mysteriously: "Sir, I can tell at a glance that you have good eyesight."

"This thing is not ordinary. Have you heard of Borchi?"

Li Yan frowned slightly, "Who is this?"

"That's a big deal!"

The young man waved his fan, posed like a storyteller, and said, "When the Golden Horde occupied the capital, this man was the general guarding the palace. As you know, the capital has a lot of expenses, so it is inevitable to get some money..."

"Stop, stop, stop!"

Before the other party could finish, Li Yan interrupted him impatiently and made a gesture, "Old He, stop talking nonsense and speak the truth!"

The young man was startled, and then he saw the weapon wrapped in cloth behind Li Yan. He immediately broke out in a cold sweat and bowed respectfully, saying, "Forgive me for my poor eyesight. I don't know which mountain you are worshipping and which incense you are burning?"

Li Yan said calmly: "Pray to the Three Pure Ones! If you ask too many questions, you will sink to the bottom of the sea!"

Seeing that Li Yan was a man of the underworld and had an extraordinary aura, the young man did not dare to talk nonsense anymore. He lowered his head and whispered, "I am following the Sixth Master of the Bronze Camel Alliance to make a living. If I have offended you, please forgive me."

"To be honest, this thing is hard to tell from the bottom of your heart, but it does have some origins..."

Li Yan raised his hand to interrupt again. With a flick of his finger, half a silver ingot appeared in the young man's arms. "There are too many people here. Let's find a place to talk. As long as you get things done, you will get something for yourself."

Indeed, several Taoists were walking on the street in the distance, followed by more than twenty soldiers from the Duwei Division. They all had gloomy faces and their target was the City God Temple, but their eyes were sharp as they looked around, as if they were looking for something.

Li Yan had sharp ears and heard them talking about what happened last night.

To avoid trouble, it is best to leave first.

But this young man was just a gangster from the old city. He set up a stall at the temple fair, but it had not been open for ten days or half a month. With the silver in his arms, he didn't care about anything else. He immediately wrapped the stall with rags, bowed his head, and led Li Yan away.

The Ducheng Temple is located in Xicheng, which is considered a wealthy area in the capital. Surrounding it is Xingbu Street. Most of the officials from the six ministries live in the Xidan Archway. The temple fairs attracted silk merchants from Suzhou and Hangzhou and antique dealers from Huizhou to settle in Chengfang Street, forming a clothing appraisal market with "piles of gauze and silk on the ground".

After passing through these busy streets, the two walked deeper into the alleys.

When you get here, the houses are gradually dilapidated, and most of them are small courtyards where ordinary people live.

There are also some small shops in the alley, but the things there are obviously much cheaper.

The young man was very familiar with the place and soon arrived at a brick and wood hut in an alley.

The place has a narrow frontage and a faded blue cloth sign hanging under the eaves with four crooked characters "Liu Ji Bao Du Lu Zhu" written on it.

There is a big black iron pot in front of the door. The charcoal fire under the pot is always burning, and a thick white soup is boiling. A few pieces of green onion, ginger and two star anise are floating in it. The aroma mixed with water vapor rises up, making the signboard shiny and black.

Looking inside through the open door, one could see four square elm tables in the hall. The table legs were padded with tiles, and the table tops had become white from years of scrubbing, but there were still greasy stains that could not be washed off.

But it is an ordinary restaurant.

Things like braised tripe and fried tripe are all offal, which are not looked down upon by rich people. Therefore, they are extremely cheap. They are simmered in a large pot for a long time and added with some spices. A bowl costs a few cents, and ordinary people can eat them to their heart's content with sesame seed cakes.

Therefore, such small shops can be found everywhere in the deep alleys of Beijing.

"Old crooked mouth, I have a distinguished guest, close the door!"

The young man started shouting before he even stepped into the door.

"Hey~ you son of a bitch."

A bald old man with a crooked mouth walked out. He was cursing at first, but when he saw Li Yan behind him, he stopped and muttered, "You've been idle all day, and I don't know what you've been doing. You're hanging up your head with me..."

"Alright, alright!"

The young man glared and said, "I'm going to be rich, do you see that?"

As he spoke, he shook the silver in his arms and said, "Don't worry, yours will be there."

The old man with a crooked mouth was startled, and without further ado, he carefully closed the wooden door. However, he turned his head from time to time to look at the two of them, and the worry in his eyes was difficult to conceal.

Li Yan saw all of this.

It seems that these two people curse at each other, but their relationship is really close.

The braised tripe nowadays is not as clean as in the previous life. In addition, Li Yan has a keen sense of smell, and the smell in the store almost choked him. Fortunately, there is a small courtyard behind the store with jujube trees, so it is relatively clean.

The old man with a crooked mouth placed a small square table under the tree, brought a pot of wine, and cut two pounds of braised meat.

The young man poured wine for Li Yan, picked up a glass and bowed his head and said, "Sir, this place is simple, please don't mind. My surname is Wang, you can just call me son of a bitch."

Li Yan was stunned, "What do you mean?"

The young man scratched his head and said, "Don't be afraid of you laughing at me. I didn't know who my parents were when I was little. I was thrown into a mass grave outside the city and raised by stray dogs. That's why others call me a son of a bitch. They call me an insult, but I think it means I remember my roots!"

Li Yan laughed dumbly, "Names don't mean anything. I also know a young man named Gou Sheng, who is the last disciple of the Sword Immortal of Shu."

The young man was stunned, and lowered his head and said, "You are too kind, but I don't have that blessing."

As if seeing that Li Yan did not look down on him, the young man also put away his frivolous look, took out the black pottery fragment, and said seriously: "I didn't lie to you just now. This thing does have some origins. It was found in the water monkey tomb."

"Oh?"

Li Yan became interested and said, "Tell me in detail."

The young man took another sip of wine and said, "Two years ago, there were water monkeys in the Wuding River outside the city. Several people died one after another. The City God Temple sent people to perform rituals to subdue them. I heard that they used fishing nets to catch many dead water monkeys. They burned them all and buried them in a mass grave. They also asked people to chant sutras to help them pass away. Only then did the situation calm down."

"I grew up in a mass grave and was adopted into the city. Later, my adoptive parents died of illness, and I was left alone. I had no choice but to return to the mass grave and work as a grave digger to support my family."

"Because I don't have a master, I don't dare to hang out with those old masters, for fear of being thrown into a tomb and buried alive, so I can only work alone."

"You know, I was raised by wild dogs, and I'm very familiar with them. I know all the dog holes in the mass grave. It's because of their help that I can run around in the mass grave at night without encountering any evil things."

"Just a few days ago, wild dogs accidentally dug up the water monkey's tomb. I was curious, and the wild dogs didn't warn me, so I went in."

Li Yan asked curiously: "What did you see?"

"Bah, don't mention it."

The young man looked gloomy and said, "There's nothing here, just a pile of ashes with these black pottery pieces mixed in. There are still quite a few of them. I thought that a thief would not leave empty-handed, so I took a piece back."

Then he asked tentatively, "Sir, could this be some kind of precious porcelain?"

"Thinking too much."

Li Yan sneered, made a gesture with his left hand, and pointed at the pottery shard.

It was visible to the naked eye that white frost was quickly condensing on the black pottery fragments.

This was the attraction of divine consciousness, which stimulated the evil energy remaining in the black pottery fragments. It was not a brilliant method.

But when the son of a bitch saw it, his eyes widened, "You...are you a real monk?"

"Then there is still a holiday?"

Li Yan said in a deep voice: "There is something wrong with this thing. Fortunately, you didn't hold it for long. If you had held it for another three to five years, you would have had nightmares every night and suffered from various diseases."

He was not lying. Although the Yin Qi remaining in the black pottery was small, it would affect one's health if one kept it around for too long.

This is also the reason why some collectors often ask people to perform rituals to remove the bad luck after receiving something.

The reason why he was scary was that he saw that this kid was hiding something.

Sure enough, the son of a bitch swallowed his saliva and muttered, "No wonder, the old man asked me to throw it away, saying it would bring bloody disasters..." Li Yan narrowed his eyes slightly, "Who told you that?"

The son of a bitch didn't dare to hide it anymore and said, "After I took this thing, I couldn't tell it clearly, so I went to ask Old Man Wu at the ghost market to have an eye on it. When he saw it, his face changed drastically and he told me to throw it away immediately and not tell anyone about it."

"Old man Wu has always been weird, so I didn't take him seriously. By the way..."

The son of a bitch suddenly thought of something, turned around, ran back to the woodshed, and dug out a small package from the pit.

He looked a little embarrassed, "Don't get me wrong, sir. I just took some extra."

After Li Yan opened it, his pupils suddenly shrank and he picked up a finger bone from the black pottery.

The son of a bitch whispered, "This was dug out from the ashes. I thought the water monkey bones might be worth some money..."

"Can you take me to find that old man Wu?"

Li Yan looked solemn and asked directly.

There are several kinds of so-called water monkeys, and he has seen them.

This thing is clearly a child's bone...

…………

As midnight approaches, lanterns sway in the dark streets.

"To put it bluntly, the ghost market is tacitly approved by the government..."

The son of a bitch was holding a lantern and walking while whispering, "Some of the things that were seized from the government offices are not easy to buy and sell directly, so they are put on consignment in the ghost market. There are also some things that come from unknown sources, from stolen goods to funerary objects, and even clothes of the dead. There are some for sale."

Li Yan frowned, "Why buy clothes from a dead person?"

"You don't know, sir."

The son of a bitch chuckled, "Clothes for the living are expensive, and clothes for the dead are unlucky. There are also silks and satins. Cut off the bloodstained pieces, pack them up and sell them cheaply. Some people with poor families buy them secretly and cut them into new clothes. No one can tell, and no one will laugh at them."

"The capital is a good place, but it's not easy to live a decent life..."

As they were talking, they had already walked out of the dark alley.

Outside the City God Temple at night, the scene is quite different.

Some of the temple fair sheds during the day have been dismantled and small stalls have been set up.

The stalls are just a piece of cloth spread on the ground, with the items to be sold placed on it, and only a small dim candle lit. The stalls are far apart from each other so as not to interfere with each other. Customers walk among them and all transactions are done in their sleeves. Even if they talk, they speak in a whisper.

From afar, the dim candlelight and shadowy figures looked like hundreds of ghosts wandering at night.

"Master, I have to explain the rules to you."

The son of a bitch suddenly stopped and said, "In this ghost market, there are three rows and six markets, each guarding its position."

"The east side of the temple is exclusively occupied by the incense shop, selling sandalwood, paper horses, and statues of gods. Some of them are from the City God Temple. Some are very expensive, but I heard that only you experts can tell whether they are real or fake. They have to pay the 'incense tax' to the temple priests. Even if you see something, don't ask too much..."

"The west side sells antiques and funerary objects. The ghost market is about 'not cheating strangers at night and not judging prices during the day'. No matter if it's 'Suzhou' or 'Henan', you have to explain it. If you pass it off as real, you will chop off your fingers to apologize. But whether it's worth money depends on your eyesight..."

"When trading, people are bargaining with their fingers in their sleeves, which is called 'the secrets of the sleeves' by insiders..."

"Here, genuine goods are called 'hard goods', fake goods are called 'soft films', and bargaining is called 'scrambling for the bargain'..."

"The stall owner suddenly closed the stall and knocked on the copper basin three times, which meant 'the yamen runners are patrolling the streets'. If he knocked twice, long, and once short, it meant 'the enemy is coming'..."

The son of a bitch patiently talked for a long time, and then said carefully: "Don't blame me for being long-winded."

"No, there are rules to follow."

Li Yan shook his head slightly, "What's wrong with old man Wu?"

"Old Man Wu is a very strange person."

The son of a bitch whispered, "I heard that his ancestors were pawnbrokers in Daxing during the previous dynasty. He can tell his origins at a glance. But he has a bad temper and often says unlucky things. He is weird and weird. If he didn't have good eyesight, no one would want to pay attention to him."

Bang~Bang~Bang~
Just then, the voice of a night watchman was heard from the distant street.

"Be careful with candles at midnight!"

As if receiving a signal, everyone stopped.

I saw stall owners taking out paper money and burning it in front of their stalls, and some hung images of Zhong Kui behind them.

Li Yan knew that this was the taboo of the Ghost Market that the bastard had mentioned.

In the ghost market, people believe in “not talking”.

This means that after the hour of Hai, you are not allowed to talk loudly about ghosts and monsters, so as not to attract unclean things. Stall owners need to prepare red cloth to cover mirrors, scissors and other "evil-warding" items. Those who buy and sell unearthed funerary objects need to use cinnabar to draw the word "well" to suppress evil. Those who violate the rules will be expelled if discovered.

The stall owners burning paper is called "opening the market to offer sacrifices to ghosts" to prevent "ghosts from stealing their wealth".

Perhaps it is these taboo customs that deepen the mystery of the ghost market.

Of course, Li Yan saw it differently.

He could clearly sense that many of the items on the stalls had remnants of evil spirits.

But outside the City God Temple in the distance, the incense burning from the two guardian statues directly suppressed these things.

Even if there are some evil things, it is difficult for them to cause trouble.

This is also one of the reasons why the ghost market is located outside the City God Temple.

"Okay, the ghost market is open, and Old Man Wu is in the alley behind."

The son of a bitch winked and took Li Yan carefully through the ghost market.

In this place, there are not only stalls on the street, but also people setting up stalls in the surrounding alleys in a mysterious manner.

Compared to outside, the things in the alley are obviously of higher quality.

Li Yan was not interested in these funerary objects. Even the incense, candles and ritual implements that came out of the City God Temple were not up to standard in his opinion.

The only target is that old man Wu.

Finally, the two came to a dark alley.

But at the corner of the alley, there was an old man in tattered clothes setting up a stall with a curtain hung on it, on which was written "Knowledge of the Past and Present". His hair was white and withered, and his head was nodding, as if he was about to fall asleep.

"Old Wu, big business is coming..."

The son of a bitch smiled and approached the other.

The old man slowly opened his eyes and said in a low voice: "Hey, why aren't you dead yet..."

Before he could finish his words, he saw Li Yan behind him. His face suddenly changed and he stood up and ran away.

Swish!
Li Yan exerted force on his feet, and blocked him in a flash. He smiled and bowed, saying, "So you are a senior."

He sensed a familiar aura from the other person, it was Gou Die.

This old man is actually a living ghost messenger...

(End of this chapter)