Yin Shou Shu

Chapter 194 Rushing to the scene
In Qiangke, going to the market is a very important thing.

Towering mountains fragmented towns and villages, leaving little room for interaction. In the isolated and impoverished countryside, even the most basic food, including grains, oil, and seasonings, could not be self-sufficient.

The weekly market is a place where villagers can buy daily necessities and sell household items for money. It is the most important channel for communication among villagers.

The scarce money was circulated among the people in such a rush.

On the crowded Longchang Street, in addition to those small merchants who are engaged in business and drive their cars to carry goods around, there are also many small stalls formed by villagers squatting on the roadside and selling some vegetables, fruits and melons.

Pears that have just ripened this year, dried beans, fresh vegetables with insect bites on the leaves, free-range chickens with their feet tied with ropes... The noisy and crowded street market is full of goods.

July and August are the seasons when mushrooms and chicken mushrooms emerge. Some villagers fill their small bamboo baskets with fresh mushrooms and chicken mushrooms covered with mud.

Goods picked from the mountains can fetch excellent prices, but because they are so expensive, most people who visit the market just pass by and don't even bother to ask the price.

Mo Li stood in front of a roadside stall, waiting for the pig cakes cooked in the stall owner's pot to be cooked.

Ran Qing followed beside him, looking around. He was no longer at the age where he was interested in sweets.

Long Zongshu stayed outside the town and slept, guarding the four paper figures and two motorcycles.

He needed sleep very much. He had left too early today and now needed a nap. He slept soundly under a cherry tree.

Ran Qing and Mo Li, two energetic people, did not need to rest and walked into the street to explore.

Ran Qing wanted to stroll around Longchang Street during the day to familiarize himself with the traffic conditions and look for ghosts.

Mo Li said that he came to accompany him to find ghosts, but the girl was more interested in the excitement at the market.

The goods and commodities in the rural market were very cheap for her, and she had a strong desire to shop. If Ran Qing hadn't stopped her, she would have bought a lot of things and carried them on her back.

I even wanted to buy a fresh rooster I saw on the roadside, saying that it would be delicious if I stir-fried it with spicy chicken, but I completely forgot that no one at home knew how to stir-fry spicy chicken.

Seeing the chicken mushroom, she also wanted to buy some: "My wife makes chicken mushroom oil every year. It's delicious when eaten with noodles!"

In the crowded street market, the two of them walked from the beginning to the end of the street, completing a complete circle of Longchang Street.

It took more than four hours to walk.

Longchang Town is already quite large, and the streets are crowded with people, making walking very slow. Mo Li also stops from time to time to buy things or eat, making the two of them walk even slower.

When they walked out of the town, there were not many people here. The road became empty, with no people or houses on both sides.

The air was finally free of the noisy and shrill voices and hawking sounds. Ran Qing breathed a sigh of relief as his ears became quiet again.

Many pack horses were tied to the spacious grassland ahead.

Seeing Mo Li and Ran Qing appear, the pack horses looked at them curiously.

Mo Li said: "I've walked around, have you found any ghosts?"

It was already afternoon, and Mo Li was walking and eating a bowl of potatoes. She'd been eating non-stop all afternoon, wanting to try everything.

She even squeezed in to watch the monkey show on the roadside.

However, the monkey performer was just an ordinary person, not a shady person like Meng Laoqi, and the monkeys he raised were just ordinary macaques.

Ran Qing watched from the side for a long time, feeling a little disappointed.

It is said that Longchang Street is eerie and ominous, with baboon wearing human skin and evil spirits drinking among the crowd.

But Ran Qing walked all over the street without encountering any monsters or evil spirits.

Under the bright sunshine, the whole market is bustling and prosperous, and the air seems to be burning with enthusiasm.

With such great popularity, it is impossible for any evil spirit to sneak in.

As for the legend that half of the residents of Longchang Street are ghosts, this is pure nonsense.

Ran Qing walked around the area himself and confirmed that there was no ghost. Facing Mo Li's question, Ran Qing shook his head and said, "No..."

He turned out the gloomy little wooden sign.

The natal chart is his most important signpost.

Now the horoscope card points to this small town, but after entering Longchang Street, the direction indicated by the horoscope card becomes erratic, as if the cursed evil spirit is walking around in the market.

Ran Qing suspected that the abnormality in Longchang Street would not appear until after dark.

At least there is nothing dangerous in this town during the day.

Mo Li said, "Then let's go back and reunite with Zong Shu first. He should be almost asleep."

The two of them had been out for the entire afternoon, and no matter how sleepy Long Zongshu was, he should have gotten enough sleep.

Ran Qing and Mo Li walked around the town from the main road outside and came to the other end of the town street. They found the sleeping Long Zongshu under a cherry tree on the side of the road.

The afternoon sun had changed its angle, casting rays of light over the distant mountains.

The warm and bright sunshine fell under the cherry tree, just shining on the tall and thin boy.

Lying under a tree with four paper figures standing beside him, Long Zongshu covered his face with a hat and slept soundly.

When Ran Qing and Mo Li got closer, they could hear Long Zongshu snoring.

The two looked at each other, and Ran Qing said: "Forget it, let him continue to sleep..."

Anyway, there is nothing to do now, even if I wake up Long Zongshu, he will just stare blankly.

They have to wait until it is dark and the people in the streets have dispersed before they can start looking for ghosts.

Ran Qing and Mo Li walked to the side. Mo Li took out a box of playing cards and said with a smile, "Let's play cards. We have nothing to do anyway."

Little Cotton lay beside her and fell asleep with her eyes closed.

The sun in the sky began to gradually move westward, and the young boy and girl sat on the grass by the roadside, playing playing cards boredly.

Under the cherry tree not far away, Long Zongshu was snoring intermittently and sleeping soundly.

The crowd had already begun to disperse.

On the loess road below, the villagers who had gone to the market began to return one after another.

Some of these villagers, who come from all over the place, have to walk for three or four hours, crossing mountains and hills to get to the market, and naturally they also have to go home before dark.

Women holding their children walked in groups of three or four, talking about the recent gossip in and out of the village.

The young people chased each other back and forth on the loess road, laughing constantly.

Older middle-aged men stood on the roadside, holding plastic cups from the store and drinking white wine that cost a few cents per two ounces, saying goodbye as they drank.

But he said goodbye three or four times, drank the wine in the plastic cup and refilled it, but in the end he still didn't leave.

The child in charge of pouring wine sat beside the jar, his chin in his hand, watching the adults chatting boredly, waiting for them to pay.

While playing cards, Ran Qing kept an eye on the villagers leaving the loess road.

But among this crowd of men and women, young and old, there were no evil monsters.

It was not until the sky gradually turned red and the street market that was bustling and noisy a few hours ago quickly became deserted that Ran Qing turned around and looked to the side.

"Did Zongshu sleep for too long..."

(End of this chapter)