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

Chapter 141: Dominoes Ask for Directions, Old Nails Seal the Empty Walls of the Drum Tower

Cheng Xiaojin stared at the intersection sign on the deliveryman's chest.

"Old Beijing has rules for leading the way. The person asking for directions must speak, and the person leading the way must respond. If things are clear, people can't just be led astray for nothing."

Tieguai Li weighed the steel pipe in his palm.

Speak like a human.

"They put up three signs to force us to choose a route, but we didn't choose a route; we asked people for directions."

Tang Wanqing used the end of the needle to tap the deliveryman's neck tag, stopping half an inch away.

"Call him by his name?"

"You can't call out names randomly. The names are suppressed by the cards. If you call out the wrong name once, you'll get a bite out of the game."

The operative immediately flipped through the files, the pages rustling as he turned them.

"Chen Liang, 24 years old, platform name Liangzi Deliveryman".

Cheng Xiaojin pressed down on the file page.

"The registered name cannot be used; the platform name is for buying and selling. Please contact your home phone number."

The operator scrolled to the contact information.

"His mother has a phone number."

"Call her on speakerphone and have her call out the names she uses at home."

The agent was stunned.

"Should we call the family now?"

Cheng Xiaojin stared at the empty wall.

"If we don't call her, are we supposed to go wish Shen Jiulou a Happy New Year?"

The phone rang six times before it connected, and a woman's panicked voice came through.

Who is it?

The operative glanced at Cheng Xiaojin.

Cheng Xiaojin tapped the ID card on his chest.

"Tell the truth, don't scare people."

The operator licked his chapped lips.

"Hello, we are on-site contact for cultural relic protection. Chen Liang is lost and we need you to call out to him. Please don't call him by his ID card, call him by the name he usually calls at home."

There was the sound of a cup clinking against the table and a chair leg scraping against the floor on the other end of the phone.

"What happened to my son? Has something happened to him?"

Cheng Xiaojin took the phone and stood three steps away from the empty wall.

"Auntie, Liangzi is lost. Call him as you normally would when you call him for dinner. Don't cry, just call him back first."

There was a brief silence on the phone, then the woman's voice trembled.

"Xiao Liang, it's time to come home for dinner."

The word "Go Home" on the dominoes lit up briefly, and the deliveryman's finger twitched.

Shen Jiulou chuckled softly from inside the wall.

"They dare to use their home radio on the street; the Cheng family is truly not afraid of shortening their lifespan."

Cheng Xiaojin brought her phone closer and ignored him.

"Auntie, say it again, and add that phrase he hated hearing the most when he was little."

There was a pause on the other end of the phone.

"Xiao Liang, stop dawdling, the soup won't taste good if it clumps together."

The intersection sign on the deliveryman's chest swayed, the sign rope tightened around his neck, he coughed up a mouthful of black liquid, and raised his head half an inch.

Han Shaobai's pen tip hovered.

"Can I write now?"

"I still owe money for asking for directions."

Cheng Xiaojin reached out his hand.

"coin."

Han Shaobai took out three one-yuan coins and handed them to Tieguai Li.

Tieguai Li glanced at him.

"The spending habits of the rich second generation are getting increasingly stingy."

Cheng Xiaojin told him to place the coins in front of the three road signs, one coin for each, and not to touch the bone pole.

Tieguai Li squatted down, placed the steel pipe in front of him, stretched out his arms, and placed the three coins one by one on the edge of the black soil.

The three road signs remained unmoved.

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the white plaster on the wall.

"We've paid the money for directions, so we'll take the person away. We don't let the living walk on the roads of the dead, and we don't accept the names of the living from the dead. This deal is settled."

As Han Shaobai put pen to paper, when he wrote the two characters for Chen Liang, moisture rose from the surface of the account book.

Tieguai Li cursed.

"Trying to embezzle the money again, that's shameless."

Cheng Xiaojin spoke into the phone.

"Auntie, this is the third time, be a little harsher."

This time, the woman didn't cry; instead, she raised her voice.

"Xiao Liangzi, if you don't come home soon, I'll sell your broken electric bike for scrap."

The deliveryman struggled forward, and a strand of the rope on the intersection sign snapped.

As Han Shaobai's brush touched the paper, the moisture on the paper receded by half an inch.

Tang Wanqing shot out two silver needles, the tips of which did not touch anyone, but only pinned the two ends of the broken card rope.

The rope twisted and tried to crawl towards the deliveryman's neck, but was blocked by the silver needles, and black energy climbed up from the needle's tail.

Tang Wanqing tied the two needles back with a red thread and inserted them directly into the bag of discarded needles.

"Two strands remain."

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the cloth bag at Tieguai Li's waist.

"Old nail."

Tieguai Li unfolded his cloth bag, and several old nails from the threshold of Master Ma's courtyard lay in his palm. The nail heads were polished by years of footsteps, and the nail bodies were covered with old ash from the well.

"Where should we nail it?"

Cheng Xiaojin listened for a moment.

"Don't nail the bones, nail the shadows."

The three road signs at the base of the wall cast shadows on the whitewashed wall. The sunlight shines at an angle, but the shadows fall in the opposite direction, disappearing into the cracks in the wall.

The longest shadow of the dominoes is the one that falls on the way home, stretching to the black soil beneath the deliveryman's feet.

Tieguai Li grinned.

"Hitting shadows, this job will be on my resume today."

He poked the shadow with the tip of a nail, and the shadow immediately dodged to the side.

Shen Jiulou's voice came a little closer from inside the wall.

"If you dare to use your influence, those three people at Deshengmen will go down the ditch, and the water in Andingmen will boil over. Cheng Xiaojin, you're not going to have enough hands."

Cheng Xiaojin tugged at the bandage in his sleeve.

"I don't have enough hands, and you're not exactly a genius either."

Tieguai Li almost burst out laughing.

That's a pretty sarcastic remark.

Cheng Xiaojin turned to the operative.

"Tell Deshengmen not to pull people away, throw coins in front of three people, three coins each, and shout 'No payment, no guide'."

The operator immediately repeated the instructions into the walkie-talkie.

"At the Deshengmen site, as instructed by Mr. Cheng, coins were tossed in front of his feet in groups of three, and he was told that no one would be led the way until all coins were paid."

Cheng Xiaojin added.

"Andingmen told Tong Kexin not to argue with Shuili, and shouted that they would close up shop today and start selling again tomorrow morning, sealing the pot with soot, finishing with acidic water, and covering it with three layers of furnace ash."

The operator switched channels to relay the message.

Tong Kexin's voice immediately came through the walkie-talkie.

"Tell Cheng Xiaojin that he owes me a pot of soup later. Nobody should go near the water. Spread the soot evenly. If you spread it crookedly, I'll hit you on the head with a spoon."

Tieguai Li chuckled.

"The frontline commander is online."

The scent of sandalwood in the wall stopped abruptly, and Cheng Xiaojin raised his chin.

"nail."

Tieguai Li swung the steel pipe and used the bottom of the pipe to hold the nail head in place.

The first old nail was driven into the shadow of the domino, and the shadow was nailed in place. The domino tilted back, and the second thread around the deliveryman's neck snapped.

Tang Wanqing stepped forward, wrapped the red thread around the deliveryman's shoulder, and dragged him out.

Several bony fingers emerged from the black soil and grabbed the deliveryman's shoe.

Tieguai Li pressed the second nail onto the door of Andingmen, the steel pipe fell, and the nail head sank into the crack in the ground.

A shout came from the walkie-talkie.

"The water level at Andingmen has receded, but the ashes haven't dispersed, and the people announcing the names of dishes in the water have stopped."

As the third nail was aimed at the shadow of the Desheng doorplate, the sound of fingernails scratching bricks came from inside the wall.

The bluish-green thread on Cheng Xiaojin's left wrist swelled up half a finger. He tilted his head and bit his tongue, suppressing the metallic taste behind his teeth.

There are living people inside the wall.

The operative's face turned pale.

"Who else?"

"Of the three people who were not found, Shen Jiulou did not display them all. One was used as a prop, and the other two were placed in the wall as the middle of the road."

Han Shaobai stared at the third old nail.

"Won't nailing them down hurt them?"

Shen Jiulou was waiting for this sentence, and laughter came from the crack in the wall.

"If we nail it down, the road will be blocked, and people will be cut off. If we don't nail it down, the road in the north will be cleared tonight."

Tieguai Li's steel pipe stopped in mid-air.

Tang Wanqing looked at Cheng Xiaojin, a silver needle between her fingers.

Cheng Xiaojin swallowed the blood in his mouth and pointed to the bottom of the Desheng Gate signpost.

"The nail is off by half an inch."

Tieguai Li didn't ask, and moved the nail tip away by half an inch.

Shen Jiulou's voice turned cold.

You can't hear me correctly.

"I don't rely on spices to boost my courage."

Cheng Xiaojin stared at the small section of rough edge on the card's shadow.

There are traces of yang energy left from binding the shoelaces of living people; the heart of the road is hidden within them.

A nail in the center will cut off the path and also kill people; a nail with a rough edge can tear open the shadow of the card, allowing the yang energy to leak out.

Tieguai Li made his move.

The third old nail fell, its tip biting into the shadow's hair, and a thin crack appeared in the ground at the base of the wall.

The shadow of the Desheng door sign was nailed crookedly, and the arrow on the entire sign was raised, just pointing to the empty wall, before being pressed back down by the old nail.

The shouts over the walkie-talkie were accompanied by a burst of static.

"The three people at Deshengmen stopped, the coins under their feet turned black, the road sign receded, and the cordon was restored to half its original position."

Han Shaobai quickly made the entries, and as the ink settled on the ledger pages, the deliveryman's toes loosened one by one.

Tang Wanqing and the operatives, one on each side, dragged the person out a couple of steps.

The deliveryman fell to the ground, coughing up black liquid mixed with bits of white ash, still clutching his phone strap in his hand.

The operative knelt down to check his breathing.

"Alive, still has a pulse."

Cheng Xiaojin stared at the empty wall. The two living people inside were still breathing, but their breaths had sunk even deeper.

The empty walls of the Drum Tower are the real entrance; the three road signs are just small stalls in front of the door.

Tieguai Li carried the steel pipe back.

"The signs are nailed down, the people are dragged away, next step is to break down the wall?"

"Don't smash it, forcing it open will only open the door for it."

Han Shaobai looked up.

"Then how do we save them?"

"Let the wall spew its own vomit."

Cheng Xiaojin raised his hand and listened through the iron parts in the wall, which was three feet away. He couldn't hear anything through the entire wall, only the sound of a few nails behind the white plaster.

Shen Jiulou nailed copper plates inside the wall and used them to transmit sound.

"We won't tear down the wall, we'll tear down the sound."

Tieguai Li patted the cloth bag.

"There are two old nails left."

"enough."

Cheng Xiaojin pointed to two cracks in the white plaster on the wall.

"One on top, one on the bottom, don't touch the lime, use a nail to pass through the lime in the yard and send them in."

Tieguai Li looked at the wall, and then at the nail.

"The plaster on this wall is old; it will shake if you nail something in."

"Let it shake."

Cheng Xiaojin turned to Han Shaobai.

"The ledger is prepared, but it is written on an empty wall with no door, so that no living person enters and no old voices are heard."

Han Shaobai opened the ledger, pen in hand, ready to strike.

Cheng Xiaojin then spoke to the operative.

"Notify the town's property management bureau to clear the intersection in the Gulou area within three minutes. Everyone must turn their backs to the road signs, no taking photos, no calling out names, and turn off your phone if navigation pops up."

The operative scrambled off to deliver the message.

Tieguai Li took out the fourth old nail and rolled it in the dust on the ground.

"Up there?"

Cheng Xiaojin heard the sound of copper plates inside the wall.

"Three inches to the upper left, don't go too high."

The steel pipe was nailed, its tip piercing the edge of the crack in the lime plaster, and the whistling sound of a Southeast Asian copper plate came from inside the wall.

The red rope and copper buckle in Tang Wanqing's hand made a sound through three layers of cloth.

She lifted a corner of the cloth bag, and the sound of a copper reed cut off half of the whistle.

"quick."

Tieguai Li pushed the nail into the crack in the wall.

The first nail was driven into the wall, but the plaster didn't fall off. Instead, a bulge appeared on the wall, as if something was pushing outwards from inside.

Cheng Xiaojin heard that a corner of the copper sheet had cracked.

"below."

The fifth nail was aimed at the crack at the base of the wall.

Shen Jiulou's voice shifted, becoming closer to Cheng Xiaojin's ear.

"Your father stood in front of this wall back then, but he didn't dare to nail a second one."

Cheng Xiaojin paused for a beat.

Tang Wanqing looked at him.

Don't answer.

Cheng Xiaojin pulled his hand back into his sleeve and turned to ask Tieguai Li.

"Did you hear me?"

Tieguai Li, biting the nail, mumbled a curse.

"I heard it. Shen Lao Er from Nanyang is writing another family drama. How annoying."

Cheng Xiaojin smiled.

"Second one, nail it deeper."

Shen Jiulou's voice trailed off.

Don't you want to know why he didn't dare?

"I'll wait until I'm done with this, then you can get a number."

Tieguai Li pressed down the steel pipe, and the fifth old nail was driven into the base of the wall.

A series of cracking sounds came from inside the empty wall, and white ash bulged outward, revealing blackish-red mud after it cracked open.

Embedded in the mud is a fragment of purple copper, with the character "Shen" engraved on its edge, and two blackened shoelaces beside it.

Tang Wanqing used a silver needle to hold the shoelaces in place.

"A living person?"

Cheng Xiaojin listened for a while.

"Platform shoelaces, and there are two errand runners inside the wall."

The operative had just returned after relaying the message when his expression changed again.

"All three missing persons are food delivery workers."

Han Shaobai stared at the account book.

Why choose delivery drivers?

Cheng Xiaojin pointed to the overturned delivery scooter by the wall, with half a bag of cold buns still in the basket.

"They know the roads well, they know the back roads when they run errands, and they dare to go into alleys even if the navigation is off. They have bad road rules, and the first people to make a living by running errands were those who relied on the roads."

Tieguai Li cursed.

"People earn money by their own legs, but this company uses their legs as road signs."

"And one more thing, food delivery drivers."

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the half-bag of steamed buns.

"As soon as the meal rules were settled, Shen Jiulou used the people who delivered the meals to link the meal rules with the road rules."

Tang Wanqing wrapped the red thread around her shoelace and pulled it outwards. The wall immediately blocked the pull, and the red thread became taut.

"I can't poop."

"Don't tug on the shoelaces, get the orders."

The agent was stunned.

"Order?"

"Delivery drivers carry mobile phones; orders are sales records and also serve as living guides."

The operative searched Chen Liang's pockets and pulled out a phone with a cracked screen.

The screen was still lit, the navigation page was frozen, the destination was showing "home", the order number was changing, and the merchant name was sometimes Huguosi Luzhu and sometimes Deshengmen Bridge.

Han Shaobai moved closer.

"The order has been changed."

Cheng Xiaojin said.

"Don't click 'Done,' click 'Cancel,' and write 'Merchant does not exist' as the reason."

The operator's fingertip hovered over the cancel button, a professional habit triggering a sudden thought.

"The system will determine that the rider must pay compensation."

Tieguai Li glared at him.

"You're almost dead, and you're still thinking about the platform?"

The operator gritted his teeth and clicked cancel, but the reason field popped up with "Customer has arrived" repeatedly, and the phone vibrated until it was hot.

Cheng Xiaojin looked at Han Shaobai.

"Note: The perpetrator impersonated a customer, neither delivering the goods nor showing up, so the order was not fulfilled."

Han Shaobai put pen to paper.

The customer on the phone screen is one line short of arriving.

Two lines remain.

Cheng Xiaojin picked up Chen Liang's half-bag of steamed buns and smelled them. The buns were cold; they were still considered "living food."

Whose is it?

The operative is reviewing the orders.

"Aunt Wang's steamed buns, delivered from Huguosi."

Cheng Xiaojin placed the steamed buns in front of the three cards.

"There are rules for food delivery. The food is only delivered when it reaches the person's hand. This wall has no hands, only bones, so we don't accept deliveries from it."

Two muffled coughs came from inside the wall.

That was the voice of a living person.

Tang Wanqing immediately revealed a half-inch copper buckle, cutting off the sound of the purple copper whistle.

Cheng Xiaojin said to the person on the other end of the phone.

"Auntie, don't hang up. Just tell her to come back before the food arrives, and don't make her pay for it."

The person on the other end of the phone couldn't understand, but kept shouting.

"Xiao Liang, come back before the food is delivered. Mom will make it up to you. Just come back."

The message "Customer has arrived" on the second line of the phone screen has disappeared.

Two shoelaces inside the wall were a bit loose.

Han Shaobai added a note.

"A living person delivers food, a living person receives food; dominoes are not accepted, empty walls are not accepted, and the underworld is not accepted."

The third line shows customers arriving and leaving; phone screen goes black.

The black and red mud that cracked in the wall spat out a helmet, then a hand, and then half an arm.

Tang Wanqing tied a red thread around her wrist.

Tieguai Li dropped the steel pipe, grabbed the edge of the helmet, and the two dragged him out.

The wall wouldn't budge; a dozen bony fingers emerged from the white plaster, grabbing the red thread, the cuffs, and Tieguai Li's arm.

Tieguai Li stepped on the old nail at the base of the wall, twisted the steel pipe horizontally, and the nail head sank in half again.

The bony finger retracts.

The first person was dragged out; he wore a yellow vest, his face was covered in mud, and he had a food delivery receipt in his mouth.

The operatives rushed over.

"The second one is Sun Hao."

The third person inside the wall had only one foot showing, the sole of his shoe being dragged back by the black soil.

Shen Jiulou's voice came from inside the Desheng gate.

"Cheng Xiaojin, you save one, release one at Deshengmen, save two, open half an opening at Andingmen, do you need a third one?"

Two reports came through the walkie-talkie at the same time.

"A new road sign at Deshengmen has been raised, with the arrow now pointing towards the Drum Tower."

"A step appeared below the water cavity at Andingmen. Stall owner Tong was pouring out acidic water, but he didn't have enough."

Tong Kexin's voice squeezed into the channel.

"Cheng Xiaojin, don't worry about me, get them out first. Those bastards in the water who want braised pork will have to wait their turn tomorrow."

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the foot inside the wall and suddenly asked Han Shaobai.

"How much money do you have on you? The more broken pieces, the better."

Han Shaobai opened his bag and took out a handful of change: coins, five-yuan notes, ten-yuan notes, and a few crumpled banknotes.

Tieguai Li leaned towards him.

"A rich kid carrying change from the market?"

Han Shaobai was so anxious that sweat beaded on his forehead.

"Don't be picky about the form of assets left over from Huguo Temple's share of the expenses."

Cheng Xiaojin divided the change into two piles, giving one pile to the operatives.

"Let them scatter loose change at the foot of the road sign at Deshengmen, and if they don't pick it up, they won't acknowledge it, and they'll shout that they've gone the wrong way and they'll refund the money."

Another pile was handed to Tang Wanqing.

"They scattered loose change and soot along the water's edge near Andingmen to tell the water that they weren't taking orders today and that the money would be refunded."

Han Shaobai understood.

"Is the road blocked for buying and selling accounts?"

"Shen Jiulou used takeout orders to pave the way, and we used order cancellations to block the way. The journey didn't go through, the food wasn't delivered, and the money was returned to the mortal world. This debt is settled."

Han Shaobai's pen flew across the paper.

"Orders placed through the Yin Road are void; money will be refunded, but the person will not be returned. The living will return to the living, and the dead will have their accounts cleared."

The foot in the wall has loosened.

Tieguai Li and Tang Wanqing worked together to drag the third deliveryman out.

The person was even younger, with white and gray hair, and was holding an incubator in his arms.

The sound of dripping water came from the box.

Cheng Xiaojin's face darkened.

"Don't open the box."

Tieguai Li stopped his hand, which was reaching for the box buckle.

"What's inside?"

"Road sign seeds".

Shen Jiulou laughed from inside the wall.

"It's too late."

The insulated box opened up by itself, and a small plastic road sign, about the size of a palm, rolled out, with the words "Go Home" written on it.

The small road sign landed, and he immediately crawled towards the nearest operator's shoes.

The operator raised his foot to stomp.

Cheng Xiaojin stopped him.

"Don't step on it, or you'll have to recognize the footprints."

Tieguai Li could only use the end of a steel pipe to block the way. The small road sign went around the steel pipe and crawled out of the alley, following the wet marks.

Han Shaobai became anxious.

"Is it trying to run away?"

"Run out and you'll find the next intersection."

Cheng Xiaojin tore off a piece of the steamed bun wrapper and threw it in front of the small road sign.

The steamed bun wrapper fell to the ground, the heat was long gone, but the dough still smelled of fresh rice.

Stop at the small road sign.

Cheng Xiaojin said.

"If it's learning how to deliver food, then let it collect the meals."

Tieguai Li picked up half a bag of steamed buns and placed three of them around the road sign.

Han Shaobai looked down at the account book.

"Write what?"

"Wrong address delivered, food left at the store, rider returns it."

Han Shaobai put pen to paper.

The small road sign burrowed into the dumpling skin, black liquid seeping from the plastic edge. Aunt Wang's dumpling skin absorbed the black liquid, and the skin turned bluish and collapsed.

Tieguai Li stepped on the edge of the steamed bun, not on the road sign.

"Will it be nailed this time?"

Cheng Xiaojin heard the faint sound of the broken copper whistle from the small road sign fade away.

"Nail it to the back, but don't nail any words on it."

Tieguai Li pulled out the last old nail, aimed it at the back of the plastic sign, and with a swift movement of the steel pipe, the small road sign was nailed to the ground.

The words "Go Home" on the sign trembled a few times, turning into a blob of black ink, which was then absorbed by the bun skin.

Reports came continuously over the walkie-talkie.

"The Deshengmen road sign fell down, and three people brought it back to the cordon."

"The water in the Andingmen well receded to below the manhole cover. Stall owner Tong said the acidic water had dried up and asked you to put it on your tab."

Han Shaobai quickly added the missing parts.

"I canceled my order for Andingmen sour water, but I owe Tong Kexin a pot of soup."

Cheng Xiaojin glanced at him.

"This sentence doesn't need to be written so explicitly."

Han Shaobai looked very serious.

"If the debts in the mortal world are true, she remembers them more clearly than she does in the underworld."

Tieguai Li laughed, his shoulders shaking.

"The ledger has finally learned about human relationships."

Silence fell in front of the empty wall.

The three large road signs are still there, their shadows pinned down by five old nails. Three food delivery workers lie against the wall, while town officials are busy cleaning the black mud from their mouths and noses.

Tang Wanqing inserted two needles into each person's wrist. The needle tips slowly turned white, and the vitality returned.

The operative sat on the ground, the blood on his forehead dried near his eyebrow.

"Mr. Cheng, is the empty wall of the Drum Tower considered sealed off?"

Cheng Xiaojin did not answer.

He stared at the cracked black and red mud on the wall, where half a piece of bronze with the character "Shen" was still inside, with a fine engraving visible on the back of the fragment.

It was a hook, with a half-stroke at the end.

The Cheng family's old name.

Tang Wanqing followed his gaze.

"Your dad's account?"

Cheng Xiaojin squatted down, keeping his hand three inches away from the fragment, but did not touch it.

"Don't move."

Tieguai Li immediately stopped the agent.

"From now on, if anyone reaches out, I'll use a steel pipe to file a work injury claim on the spot."

Cheng Xiaojin listened to the half-piece of broken copper.

The copper fragments contained no main voice of Shen Jiulou, only a worn-out old voice hidden in the engravings on the copper back, worn smooth by the empty walls and shadowy paths.

Three short pauses, one stop.

Avoid the door.

Two more times.

The character "人" is formed by a half-stroke.

Just like in an ashtray.

The fact that this piece of bronze is inside the empty wall of the Drum Tower indicates that Cheng Shouyi visited this place twenty years ago and even engraved the same warning on the back of the bronze plaque at Shenmen.

Han Shaobai lowered his voice.

"Brother Cheng, are you going to write it or not?"

Cheng Xiaojin used chopsticks to pick up some of the dust that had fallen from the old nails and sprinkled it next to the broken copper pieces.

The dust didn't fall to the ground; it circled halfway around the fragment and then seeped into the wall.

There was still a sound behind the wall.

Cheng Xiaojin heard the road extend northward, bypassing the Drum Tower and leading into a deeper cavity.

There was a sound of wooden crates being scraped inside the cavity.

one more time.

The rhythm was consistent with the contents of Shen Jiulou's Nanyang agarwood box.

Tang Wanqing's expression changed.

"What did you hear?"

Cheng Xiaojin withdrew his hand, the edge of the medicated cloth brushing against his bluish skin. He felt nothing, only noticing a layer of black ash on the cloth.

"Shen Jiulou is not inside the wall."

Tieguai Li frowned.

"Was that tape recorder that was just joking with us a sentient being?"

"The sound was recorded on a copper plate and transmitted through an empty wall. The other person might be behind Deshengmen or further north."

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the fragments of bronze.

"He attached the wooden crate to the road regulations."

Han Shaobai swallowed.

"That wooden crate that hasn't been opened yet?"

Cheng Xiaojin nodded.

"The three chaotic sections of the road just now were a test to see if it was passable in the north of the city. Once the main pillar of the empty wall is breached, his next step will be to make the things in the box walk."

Tieguai Li picked up the steel pipe.

"Is that thing a corpse?"

"It's hard to say."

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the three deliverymen on the stretcher; the soles of their shoes were still covered in dust from the Drum Tower ground.

At least the person is back.

Tang Wanqing carefully put away the silver needles, and the bag of discarded needles became even thicker.

"Your hands can't listen anymore."

Cheng Xiaojin glanced at his left arm, which was ashen and stopped below the elbow. The wooden tension in his wrist was drilling into the bone, and his fingertips were a beat slower.

"I won't listen, we have to follow the navigation."

Tieguai Li immediately responded.

"Then you should listen to this; the navigation business isn't doing well today."

Tang Wanqing turned to look at him.

"Shut up."

Tieguai Li held the steel pipe upright.

"Okay, I'll close my eyes for half a minute, and you can pay me based on my working hours."

The operative ran back with a walkie-talkie.

"Section Chief Zhou asked, 'The lockdowns at Deshengmen, Andingmen, and Gulou are temporarily under control. Should we go back to Mayeyuan to regroup next?'"

Cheng Xiaojin stared at the empty wall.

"Return."

Han Shaobai was stunned for a moment.

"Don't chase?"

"What are you chasing? The recording, or the scent?"

Cheng Xiaojin bent down, put the small road sign that was nailed in place by an old nail, along with the dumpling wrapper, into the tin box, and handed it to Han Shaobai.

"Shen Jiulou laid out the road for us, just to make us work ourselves to death in the alleys of the northern city."

Tieguai Li touched the empty cloth bag.

"We've run out of old nails."

"Go back and get nails, ashes, and pot ash."

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the operative.

"Tell Section Chief Zhou not to lift the lockdown. Leave a message at each of the three locations: Deshengmen: don't lead the way until you pay; Andingmen: pack up and sell tomorrow morning; Gulou: empty walls and no gates."

The operatives took notes one by one, looking up when they got to the Drum Tower.

"The wall is bare with no door, do you want some stickers?"

"Make it a written agreement, without an official seal. If you put an official seal on it, it will only recognize your bureau's name."

The operative put the stamp back into his bag.

"clear."

Han Shaobai lowered his head to fix the accounts.

The black ink on this page of the ledger receded quickly, leaving only a small damp patch in the corner, with half of the character "沈" floating in it before being pressed down by the ink.

He had just breathed a sigh of relief when the cracked red needle in the bamboo tube made a sound.

The sound came from inside the tube and pushed outwards.

Han Shaobai's expression changed.

"Brother Cheng, the red stamp has moved."

Cheng Xiaojin turned his head.

"Put the bamboo tube on the ground, don't hug it."

Han Shaobai immediately placed the bamboo tube on the blue brick and stepped back.

The bamboo tube rolled halfway around, and a thin line of moldy blue emerged from the mouth of the tube. Instead of going towards the empty wall, it crawled towards the half-piece of bronze fragment.

Tang Wanqing pressed with the red thread, the thin thread retracted slightly, and then continued forward.

Cheng Xiaojin stared at the cracked red stamp.

"The trading rules were also triggered."

Tieguai Li cursed.

"The food service rules have just finished, the road rules have just started, and now the sales rules are joining the fray. Is there no one queuing up underground in Beijing?"

Cheng Xiaojin did not laugh.

"Shen Jiulou used the takeout order to record the transaction, and the red stamp confirmed the transaction. He wanted to stamp this refund order."

Han Shaobai became anxious.

"Shouldn't we cover it up?"

"If the accounts of the three deliverymen are covered up, their livelihoods can be secured, and it might even turn a fraudulent order into a legitimate one."

Cheng Xiaojin used chopsticks to hold the bamboo tube and moved it towards the account book, preventing the opening of the tube from aligning with the broken piece of copper.

"Shaobai, write this: Today's order cancellations only accept stamps from the living world, not from the underworld."

Han Shaobai quickly wrote it down.

The cracked red stick pushed against the bamboo tube again.

Suddenly, the half-piece of bronze fragment inside the empty wall turned over, and below the old Cheng family name on the back of the fragment, there was a line of small characters covered by black mud.

Tang Wanqing used a silver needle to pry open the mud, revealing four characters.

Do not stamp with red seal.

Han Shaobai's pen stopped on the paper.

"Brother Cheng, did your dad know the Red Stamp Association would be here twenty years ago?"

Cheng Xiaojin stared at those four words for a long time without moving.

Shen Jiulou's voice came through the walkie-talkie; this time, he wasn't inside the wall.

"You've finally seen what Cheng Shouyi left behind."

The operative's hand trembled, and the walkie-talkie almost fell to the ground.

Tieguai Li snatched it away and used the steel pipe to block the walkie-talkie casing.

"Shen Lao Er, your channel-hopping technique must use up a lot of electricity, right?"

The walkie-talkie crackled and hissed.

Shen Jiulou ignored him.

"If the red stamp is applied, the lives of the three people will be secure; if it's not applied, they'll still be sleepwalking back home tonight."

Han Shaobai held the account book with his white hands, his forehead covered in sweat.

"Brother Cheng?"

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the three deliverymen on the stretcher, and then at the red stamp on the other side.

He stretched out his bluish-gray hand from his sleeve, but did not touch the red stamp; he simply held it half an inch above the bamboo tube.

The cracked red needles inside the bamboo tube struck even more urgently, each sound urging the account to close.

Cheng Xiaojin slowly withdrew her hand.

"No cover."

Shen Jiulou laughed into the walkie-talkie.

"You dare?"

Cheng Xiaojin handed the chopsticks to Han Shaobai.

"Write, the living are sleepwalking, the family wakes them up, tonight each of the three households leave one lamp, leave a bowl of hot soup on the dinner table, scatter ashes on the soles of shoes at the door, do not open the door when someone comes by, do not answer when someone comes in a dream."

Han Shaobai immediately picked up his pen, writing with increasing steadiness.

Cheng Xiaojin looked at the walkie-talkie.

"Shen Jiulou, don't try to scare the stall owners with your stamps. Poor people are most afraid of getting their things stamped without even looking at them. Your after-sales service is terrible. Thumbs down."

Tieguai Li slapped his leg.

"I love hearing this."

The cracked red poker bumped into something again, then fell silent, and the moldy blue tip of the tube shrank back halfway.

Shen Jiulou's voice faded into the distance over the walkie-talkie.

"If you don't cover it tonight, it will come to you to cover it tomorrow night."

Communication was lost.

The white plaster in front of the empty wall fell down, revealing a narrow brick seam. There was no dark path in the seam, only a short section of old copper pipe.

There was a piece of paper stuck in the copper pipe. The paper had been soaked in black water and the edges were rotten.

Tang Wanqing used a silver needle to pick it out and placed it on the lid of the tin box.

There was only one line of text on the note.

Do not cross the bridge or walk on the water near Desheng Gate.

After reading it, Cheng Xiaojin looked up at the north.

Tieguai Li asked.

"Left by your father?"

Cheng Xiaojin shook his head.

"His handwriting doesn't look like his."

Han Shaobai moved closer.

"Who is that?"

Cheng Xiaojin stared at the small crease at the end of the note.

The indentation was shaped like a copper spring, consistent with the reverse spring inside Lu Mingzhu's red rope copper buckle.

He closed the note and handed it to Tang Wanqing.

"My mom left it for me."

Tang Wanqing paused for a moment, then put the note into her cloth bag, separating it from the copper buckle.

Tieguai Li picked up the toolbox.

"Fine, Dad leaves without a red seal, Mom leaves for fire, your family's message system is more chaotic than the Bureau of Treasures."

Cheng Xiaojin glanced at the empty walls of the Drum Tower.

Five old nails pinned down the shadows, three road signs bowed their heads, and a small road sign inside the takeout box was sealed with a steamed bun wrapper.

The entrance to the Drum Tower is temporarily closed.

But there is still water over at Deshengmen.

He turned and walked toward the containment vehicle.

"Go back to Master Ma's courtyard and show this paper to Master Ma."

Han Shaobai followed with the ledger in his arms, but after taking a couple of steps, he turned back to look at the three deliverymen.

"Are they really not leaving tonight?"