Folklore and Strange Tales: At the Start, You Retrieve the Sea-Suppressing Black Iron

Chapter 123 Cracks at the Base of the City Wall, Shen Jiulou Makes His Move

"Master Shen."

When Boss Lin entered, the cracks at the base of the city wall were still emitting white steam, half of the streetlights were off, and the surveillance cameras were full of snowflakes.

Shen Jiulou sat in a grand chair, his dark blue robe dry, a white porcelain teacup beside him, the tea already cold.

He looked at the black mist in the crack.

"The third key point is lost, the old pits throughout the city are not defended, and even the street selling braised dishes near Huguo Temple is inaccessible to you —"

Mr. Lin's sleeves were dripping with water, and his head was bowed.

"Cheng Xiaojin has things left behind by Cheng Shouyi, and Ma Wenchang has also gotten involved."

Shen Jiulou covered the rim of the cup with the tea lid.

As soon as the porcelain fell, the scratching sounds from the wooden box in the corner of the yard stopped a beat short.

"Ma Wenchang is getting old."

He raised his eyelids slightly. "People who are getting old are not afraid of death, but they are afraid of having fewer and fewer people around them."

Boss Lin didn't respond to that.

The sorcerer knelt beside him and pushed the copper plate forward half an inch. Three thin iron wires floated in the black blood in the plate, with the ends of the wires burrowing into the bottom of the plate and the other end connected to a wooden box in the corner of the courtyard.

The lid of the box was covered with yellow talismans, which were being pushed up and down by the fingernails inside.

Boss Lin looked at the bronze plate.

"Huguo Temple has been released?"

The sorcerer picked up a piece of broken thread, the cut end glistening with white salt.

"The head was severed, and the main line at the back of the neck was snapped off."

Two Southeast Asian rulers stood under the eaves, each carrying a wooden box. The man on the left snorted.

"Using salty soup to break a curse, Beijingers really know how to save money!"

Shen Jiulou didn't laugh; the tea lid pressed a circular mark into the water stains on the table.

"Cheng Shouyi was like that back then, with a few pieces of scrap iron and a bowl of muddy soup, a villain's three-year plan."

Boss Lin took half a step forward.

"The ashtray is in Ma Wenchang's yard. We might be able to grab it tonight."

Shen Jiulou's finger stopped at the edge of the cup, and the thing in the wooden box scratched against the box wall twice.

"Even if you manage to get into the courtyard, you can't open the mortise and tenon joints."

He looked at Boss Lin.

"If you pry open the things left by Cheng Shouyi even slightly, the nails will break."

Boss Lin looked up.

"Does Master Shen want Cheng Xiaojin to open it himself?"

"He is both the key and the scale."

The sorcerer pressed the second iron wire into the copper plate, and the incantation from Southeast Asia sank down along the bloody surface.

Shen Jiulou looked towards the base of the city wall.

"Send two more over."

The sorcerer raised his face.

"Someone is guarding the pot at Huguo Temple."

"Let them guard it."

Shen Jiulou tapped the table with his fingertips.

"The first one they dismantle, the second one forces the pot, the third one bites people."

Mr. Lin hesitated for a moment.

"Cheng Xiaojin injured her wrist, and that girl from the Tang family is keeping a close eye on her."

"A soft heart leads to taking the first step."

Shen Jiulou pushed aside his teacup.

"If Cheng Shouyi's son could just stand back and watch others die, I'd save myself a lot of trouble."

The crack opened up by half a foot, revealing an old brick archway with water plants and black threads hanging on the walls.

Two wire-bound puppet corpses crawled out along the wall, their shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles all bound by thin wires. They landed without making a sound, only the short cracking of the wires being pulled in and out.

The ruler on the right opened the wooden box and took out a Nanyang copper ruler.

The copper ruler was removed from the box, and blue smoke rose from its tail, while black lines appeared on its surface.

The ruler retracted his wrist, "This city is xenophobic."

Shen Jiulou did not turn around.

"Don't measure the seventh gate."

The ruler asked, "What are you measuring?"

"Measure the living person."

Shen Jiulou looked towards Huguo Temple.

"When will Xiao Jin finally give in?"

At the entrance to Huguosi Street, the second puppet corpse stepped onto the gray circle.

The gray circle could block the monkeys from the water, but it couldn't stop the puppet corpses.

With a lift of its foot, it took away half of the gray edge, and black water immediately gushed out from under the well.

Tong Kexin stuck the spatula into the side of the stove.

"Repair the ash!"

The young man from the pancake shop rushed out carrying an ash basin, and the puppet corpse on the left turned and pounced.

Tieguai Li threw out the old brine wire mesh.

"Get down!"

The young man fell face-first onto the brick surface.

The puppet's upper body was covered with barbed wire, and the barbs of salt crust hooked onto its shoulders and elbows.

The puppet corpse stretched its arms outwards, the mesh of the net was stretched, and the barbs burrowed into its rotten skin.

Tieguai Li stepped on the edge of the net, and the pliers reached for the back of his neck.

Another one went straight to the braising pot.

Liu held the pot lid in front of him.

"You dare touch the pot and see what happens!"

Tong Kexin grabbed the back of her clothes.

"Aunt Liu, go back to the back of the shed!"

Aunt Liu slowed down by half a step. The puppet corpse grabbed with its right hand, pulling three grooves out of the thick iron cover, which then landed and swung around the edge of the well.

Cheng Xiaojin stood by the stall.

Tang Wanqing wrapped the copper coin into the medicine cloth, and tied the other end to his sleeve.

"You promised not to go forward."

"I didn't reach out."

"The toe of the shoe is past the seam."

Cheng Xiaojin took a half step back and stared at the pot.

"There was something protecting the back of the neck."

Tieguai Li cursed.

The black bone fragments were pressed against the back of the puppet corpse's neck, which was covered by the net. The pincers slid twice but did not bite down.

The puppet corpse turned around and crashed through the barbed wire fence, and Tieguai Li was pushed against the side of the tofu pudding stall, causing the stall to crack.

Old Li was so anxious that he slapped his thigh.

"I'll spread it!"

Tieguai Li wiped the dust off his shoulder.

"I'll make it up to you later!"

"What will you use to compensate us?"

"I'll use the piece of its neck bone to prop up the table leg!"

The pot was already raised with its arms raised, and Tong Kexin flicked a spoonful of boiling soup onto the ground, pouring oil, salt, scallions, and ginger into the cracks between the bricks.

The puppet slipped and crashed into the pot stand.

The pot stand tilted at one corner, the stove fire licked the bottom of the pot, and the blue flame leaped up half an inch.

Someone behind the stall took a deep breath of cool air.

Cheng Xiaojin shouted, "Stop yelling, stop banging the pot!"

Aunt Zhang used a rolling pin to smash the edge of the pot.

"Knock! Keep all the lights on upstairs! Whoever turns them off, I'll hang their cabbages out to dry in the stairwell tomorrow!"

A lamp behind the window was lit again.

Tang Wanqing flung out the Bagua Mirror, the mirror surface flashing across the puppet corpse's face, the right elbow crease turned outwards, oozing black water.

Cheng Xiaojin tilted his head and listened for a while.

"Right elbow, the line is showing."

Tong Kexin poured the second spoonful of soup into the crevice of her right elbow.

The puppet's arm twitched twice before hanging down.

"Left knee!"

Tong Kexin changed half a spoonful of the old soup and poured it down her knees.

Salt and oil seeped into the joints, and the puppet corpse knelt on the bricks.

Tang Wanqing looked at Cheng Xiaojin.

"How much deeper can we hear?"

"If my hands are useless and my ears are lazy, I'll have no choice but to go back to Panjiayuan to sell socks."

Tieguai Li wrapped his arms around the second corpse again, used the iron whip to wrap around the puppet's neck, and used the prosthetic limb to wedge the head back by inserting it into the crack in the brick.

"It's protected by bone fragments, so the clamps can't get in."

Cheng Xiaojin heard a muffled sound in the back of his neck, and there was a cavity between the bone fragment and the iron wire.

He turned towards Old Li's stall.

"Aged vinegar!"

Old Li hugged the vinegar jar.

"This jar is expensive!"

Aunt Liu snatched it and threw it to Tieguai Li.

"Is life more valuable or vinegar?"

"Vinegar isn't cheap either!"

Tieguai Li uncorked the jar and poured the entire jar of aged vinegar onto the back of the puppet corpse's neck.

The sour smell wafted out of the stall, and bubbles rose from the edges of the dark bone slices, with the meat curling outwards at the edges.

Cheng Xiaojin shouted, "Pliers!"

The pliers got stuck in the raised gap.

Click~ Main storyline disconnected————

The puppet corpse knelt down, spitting out black water from the back of its neck, which landed outside the gray circle, burning two black spots.

The one in front of the pot is still left.

Its right arm hung down, its left knee slumped, and it was still crawling forward, its fingers gripping the iron foot of the stew pot.

The soup sloshed around, and the red oil swirled along the edge of the pot.

Tong Kexin gripped the spoon handle, her hands reddened by the steam, but her feet didn't move.

Cheng Xiaojin took half a step forward.

Tang Wanqing flipped her palm, and the copper coin thread wrapped around his sleeve, with the other end fastened to the stall pillar.

"Don't force me to tie you up here."

Cheng Xiaojin stared at Tong Kexin's back, sweat dripping from his forehead.

"Kexin, listen to me."

"explain----"

"Don't pour it on your head, pour it on your chest."

"There may not be a line on her chest."

"It's about to lift the pot; the force comes from the sternum, and the line runs along the front of its chest."

Tong Kexin scooped up the largest spoonful of broth.

The puppet had already bent the pot's legs. She stepped onto the edge of the pot and poured the old soup over her chest.

Salt, oil, dried ginger, and brine were poured into the crack in the chest of the puppet corpse, the iron wires under its skin tightened one by one, the sternum collapsed with several indentations, and it crawled around in a chaotic mess.

Tieguai Li arrived with a net and stepped on its back.

"Should we cut the third quarter?"

Cheng Xiaojin tilted his head.

The sound transmission wires inside the puppet's chest cavity were still vibrating, sending intermittent sounds into the ground.

"Scissors, they can also deliver messages."

Tieguai Li switched to a third pair of pliers, and the jaws gripped the back of his neck.

Inside the old house in Deshengmen, the third iron wire in the copper plate was being pulled so hard that the blood-red surface swayed wildly.

The sorcerer raised his hand.

"Mr. Shen, should we cut it off?"

Shen Jiulou looked at the line; the edge of the teacup was cracked.

"Need not."

Boss Lin frowned.

"If we let them cut it again, the wiring will be exposed."

"I want to see how far he gets from here."

At the entrance of Huguosi Street, Tieguai Li twisted his wrist.

Click!

The third puppet corpse lay scattered in front of the pot, its fingers still gripping the pot's foot, its body motionless.

I shook the pot a couple of times, but the soup didn't spill.

Tong Kexin used a damp burlap sack to cushion the pot's base and looked up at Cheng Xiaojin.

"If you take another half step forward, I'll really slap you."

Cheng Xiaojin is not poor.

At the moment the wire broke, deep in the underground ditch, someone tapped the copper plate three times with their finger.

The gray circle around the wellhead of Huguo Temple has collapsed inward by half a finger.

Then, a muffled thud came from the direction of Liulichang, as if someone had pushed the broken meal ticket cabinet from the inside.

As the last sound faded, the old ashtray in Master Ma's courtyard seemed to echo in Cheng Xiaojin's ears across half the city.

"Back to the hospital."

As soon as Cheng Xiaojingang uttered those two words, Tong Kexin bent down to straighten the crooked pot stand.

"The business at Huguo Temple hasn't been completely shut down yet."

"Before the puppet's connection was severed, it sent its voice back."

Cheng Xiaojin didn't look at the three corpses on the ground; his ears were turned to the north.

"Shen Jiulou was thinking about the ashtray."

Tang Wanqing pulled out the silver needle from his sleeve, her fingertip coated with a layer of blue medicine.

"What did you hear?"

"Bronze plate".

Zhou Banxian squeezed out of the crowd, his compass tucked between his fingers. The needle of the compass was grinding against the bottom of the plate, while the tail of the compass was tilted towards Master Ma's courtyard.

"Something happened in the courtyard?"

"It hasn't been released yet, but if it's delayed any longer, things might get complicated—"

Tieguai Li squatted down next to the first puppet corpse and picked out the remaining thread on the back of its neck through the tattered cloth.

"Shall we take this thread back and have a look?"

Tang Wanqing raised her hand to block it.

"Don't go into the courtyard, it's sealed off outside."

Cheng Xiaojin nodded.

"Leave one strand outside the gray circle, far from the well. Brother Li, remember its path, and we'll do a reverse loop later."

Tieguai Li raised his eyebrows.

"Still thinking of fighting back?"

"If we don't fight back, are we just going to let Shen Jiulou send corpses into the pot every day?"

Cheng Xiaojin twitched his lips, and only then did the neighbors dare to move closer.

Three wire-worn corpses lay across the street corner, their skin bluish-purple, with black lines protruding from their shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles.

Someone took out their phone, and as soon as the screen lit up, it was covered in snowflakes.

Aunt Zhang slapped his hand away.

"What are you filming for? If word gets out tomorrow, people will say that Huguo Temple is selling fake human flesh in the middle of the night!"

The man quickly put his phone back in his pocket.

Old Li sat by the tofu pudding stall, staring at the cracked board, his face even uglier than the broth at the bottom of the bowl.

"Li Tiezhu, you just said you'd compensate me by using a table leg as a makeshift table."

Tieguai Li removed a piece of iron bone from the puppet's ankle and threw it onto the stall.

"Borrow this place first."

Old Li craned his neck and took a couple of glances.

"Does this thing crawl at night?"

Cheng Xiaojin answered readily.

"meeting."

Old Li kicked the bone fragment back.

"Then I don't want it."

Tong Kexin adjusted the heat of the braised pot, moved bricks to support the bent pot frame, and wrapped her scalded hands with strips of cloth.

"Aunt Liu, make sure the gray rim is thickened, and cover the iron grate at the street corner with a wooden board first, don't put the iron plate on it."

Liu Yingxia then looked at Cheng Xiaojin.

"Are you really going back?"

"There are ashtrays in Master Ma's yard."

Aunt Zhang spat.

"Why does that guy surnamed Shen always have his eye on other people's ashtrays? It's shameless and disgusting."

Cheng Xiaojin smiled.

"He's eyeing your rolling pin, so tonight will be even more difficult."

Aunt Zhang hoisted the rolling pin onto her shoulder.

"He dares."

Tong Kexin walked up to Cheng Xiaojin and handed a small aluminum kettle to Tang Wanqing.

"Take it back."

Cheng Xiaojin glanced at it, and Tang Wanqing put it into the medicine bag.

"It will come in handy."

Just as Cheng Xiaojin was turning to leave, Tong Kexin called out to him again.

"Cheng Xiaojin".

"Um?"

"Don't try to use yourself as a key to push into a lock."

Tieguai Li was amused.

"That's a rough way of putting it, but the point is valid."

When Cheng Xiaojin saw the strip of cloth around the back of her hand, his sarcastic tone subsided somewhat.

"Let Miss Tang take a look at your hand later."

Tong Kexin stuck the iron spoon back into the pot.

"I'm going to chop off lungs with this hand tomorrow, it's more useful than yours."

Tang Wanqing grabbed Cheng Xiaojin's sleeve.

"Walk."

Several people rushed back to the outside of Master Ma's courtyard, where the tricycle at the alley entrance was still crooked.

The tattered quilt in the truck bed was turned over; a bundle of scrap wire was missing, but a wet cloth had been added.

Tieguai Li used his iron whip to pry open the wet cloth, revealing a severed finger lying underneath.

Inside the courtyard gate, Han Shaobai shouted until his voice cracked.

"Don't come in, Master Ma wants you to see the threshold first!"

The incense ash line outside the threshold was torn in one place, with a gap half the width of a copper coin, and a wet mark left by a thin black line.

Master Ma stood inside the main room, his pipe pressed against the floor tiles.

"Nothing has been brought into the yard."

Zhou Banxian leaned over to look at the compass.

"The incense ash has broken, and you still say it didn't go in?"

Master Ma looked up at the corner of the wall.

"It's the sound that's coming in."

On the round table in the main room, one of the three layers of coarse cloth underneath the old ashtray was askew.

White ash was spitting out from two dents on the rim of the jar, landing on the table and crookedly forming half a vertical hook.

Han Shaobai's face turned pale.

"After you left, the brass plate under the teacup lid stopped beeping, and I thought it was nothing. Then the ashtray beeped twice by itself."

He quickly raised his hand.

"Master Ma told me not to move, and I really didn't move."

Tieguai Li swept him away.

"Where's your rolling pin?"

Han Shaobai pointed to the table leg.

"The table leg is stuck; I'm afraid the table will shake."

The rolling pin lay across the table leg and between the blue bricks, a layer of wood worn away from its edge.

Cheng Xiaojin walked to the door of the main room but did not step inside.

Tang Wanqing tied one end of the bandage to a pillar in the corridor and fastened the other end to his cuff.

"Say it here."

Cheng Xiaojin stared at the ashtray.

"How many times did it ring?"

Han Shaobai held up two fingers.

"Two taps. The first tap was the lid hitting the table, and the second tap was when a small nail rolled inside."

Master Ma spoke.

"Shen Jiulou placed his bet at Deshengmen. He used the broken string of the puppet corpse to send the sound of the copper plate into the ashtray compartment."

Zhou Banxian cursed.

"They can send them in from half a city away?"

"He was familiar with Cheng Shouyi's things, and also with the old ways of Shenmen."

Cheng Xiaojin stopped on the threshold with her toes, without touching the door frame.

"He's trying to force me to drive."

Tang Wanqing interrupted.

"Not open."

"Even if we don't open it, we have to keep it quiet."

Cheng Xiaojin listened to the faint sound coming from the bottom of the tank.

"Drill it three more times, and the interlayer tenon will loosen on its own."

Tieguai Li took out his clockwork knife.

"Should I press the mortise and tenon through the cloth?"

Master Ma shook his head.

"The mortise and tenon joint is a Cheng family technique. If an outsider presses it wrong, the thing inside will flip over."

Han Shaobai huddled by the table.

What happens if I flip it over?

Zhou Banxian glared at him, but didn't start cursing in the main room.

A faint metallic friction emanated from the bottom of the ashtray.

The sound of the neck threads from the three puppet corpses at Huguo Temple still lingered in Cheng Xiaojin's ears, and now, listening to it again, he could distinguish the different layers.

Short and thin, with an empty cavity in the middle, and the final sound lingers on the porcelain base, circling halfway around.

"There is a movable tenon under the fake burn marks on the southwest corner of the bottom of the jar."

Cheng Xiaojin tilted her head slightly.

"Something was placed around the outside of the tenon, which absorbed half of the sound."

Mr. Ma's brows furrowed.

"What's the padding?"

"Paper or leather that hasn't rotted in twenty years has probably been soaked in tobacco oil."

Tieguai Li put the clockwork knife away.

"No wonder it's stuffy; the e-liquid pad is metal, and the sound of Shen Jiulou bringing it in is slippery."

Tang Wanqing looked at Cheng Xiaojin.

"Is it possible to just seal the sound without opening the tank?"

Cheng Xiaojin's gaze fell on the small aluminum kettle.

"Use the old broth."

Cheng Xiaojin raised his chin.

"Dab a little along the four corners of the table leg, then cover it with stove ash. Shen Jiulou sent a copper plate sound, which is close to the table, close to the ground, and close to the crevices in the yard. Let's turn this table into a dining table, not an offering table."

Han Shaobai turned and ran to the kitchen.

"We still need to set the table for dinner, right?"

Cheng Xiaojin looked at him.

"At least you asked something useful."

Master Ma gave the order.

"There's still half a pot of cornmeal porridge in the kitchen, heat it up."

Han Shaobai ran to the stove and poked his head out.

"Do I know how to cook?"

Tieguai Li went over and carried him to the stove.

"If you don't know how, you should learn. Even rich kids need to learn how to cook."

Firewood was added to the stove, and flames licked the blackened bottom of the pot.

Han Shaobai fanned himself twice with a palm-leaf fan, but the smoke filled his face, and he coughed until tears streamed down his face.

Tieguai Li snatched the palm-leaf fan.

"With your magic, even the Kitchen God will have to move."

Not long after, four rough porcelain bowls were placed on the table in the main room.

The cornmeal porridge was steaming hot, with a small dish of pickled vegetables on the side.

Tang Wanqing lit the soup at the base of the four table legs, Zhou Banxian sprinkled stove ash, and Master Ma used tobacco ash to draw four vertical hooks on the ash.

The ashtray made another noise.

This time, the sound didn't dissipate; it was trapped at the bottom of the pot by the smell of porridge and old broth.

Cheng Xiaojin's shoulder relaxed by half an inch.

"it works."

Han Shaobai brought in the last bowl of porridge, his hand red from the heat.

"Would you like some?"

Tieguai Li took the bowl.

"You take a bite first."

Han Shaobai took a sip with a bitter face, and gasped as it was scalded.

The metallic sound from the bottom of the ashtray rolled half a circle, then stopped beneath the fake burn marks.

Zhou Banxian finally moved the compass from Master Ma's courtyard and pointed the needle back at Deshengmen in the north.

Master Ma looked at the needle.

"Shen Jiulou has arrived in the capital."

Cheng Xiaojin stood outside the door, her eyes reflecting the steaming porridge on the table.

"He just had us dismantle three puppet corpses to test where I can hear."

"7

Tang Wanqing asked, "Did you let him figure it out?"

"Let's try it out—half of it—"

Tieguai Li tucked the pliers behind his waist.

"And what about the other half?"

Cheng Xiaojin looked across the main room at the fake burn mark at the bottom of the old ashtray.

"He doesn't know yet, but I heard two sounds coming from the mezzanine."

Mr. Ma's hand, which was holding the pipe, paused on the edge of the table.

"Two?"

Cheng Xiaojin nodded.

"One is scratching the nail head off the porcelain."

The steam from the porridge in the room swirled around the ashtray, dissipating half of the vertical hook shape with the heat, but the white ash didn't completely settle.

Cheng Xiaojin stared at the bottom of the tank.

"The other one is under the nail head."

He paused for a moment.

"Someone used their fingernails to tap the vertical hook of the Cheng family's house from the inside."