We were standing at the entrance of the town. In fact, this place was not the entrance originally, it was probably just a part of this street. It was just because it had been abandoned for too long. After some of the houses on the edge collapsed, bamboo also grew. Because we saw several similar foundations left after collapsed houses.
And this place can only see part of the long street, but it is not facing the long street. Judging from the architectural style, it seems not much different from the ordinary Kawachi town. Not so exquisite old houses are lined up on both sides of the road, but it is different from the square ancient city. Here is a The bluestone street was probably not deserted many years ago. People around it sold tea and gave it to the horse teams passing by.
To my great surprise, it was so quiet and silent. Usually, even if one goes deep into the woods, far away from roads and towns, one can at least hear the chirping of insects and birds, but there is no sound at all here. It seems as if the insects and birds are deliberately avoiding this place. I can even hear the breath in my nose clearly when I breathe. If there is any sound here, it is only the rustling sound when the wind blows through the bamboo forest, and when the bamboo leaves fall down, It was just a slight sound on the ground.
Seeing this situation, I felt a little scared and wary, so I covered my mouth with my hand, leaned into Da Mao's ear and said to him, was it the same thing you saw when you came? Da Mao also whispered yes, but it was even quieter today than that day, because besides Wang Chengqian and him, there were some other people that day, and those people were all subordinates of the mysterious man behind the scenes. All of them were neatly dressed, but neither talked nor smiled, as if they were under strict orders. I asked Da Mao again, can you still remember the room where you and your master lived at that time? Da Mao said that of course he could remember it, but it seemed that it was not in this half and he had to move forward.
So Da Mao and I started walking towards the long street. No one here knew me, let alone who I was. So when I walked, I didn’t deliberately slow down my pace, because even if I was discovered, I would probably They won't ask me, just treat me as an ordinary businessman.
So walking along the way, Da Mao told me that every time it gets dark here, many lanterns and candles are lit, and both sides of the street are full of traders. I looked down and saw that the whole street was empty and even looked shabby. Only the bluestone road was still shiny because it had been walked by many people, and there were incense butts and cigarette butts that could be seen everywhere on the roadside. It is not difficult to judge from the condition of these things that the market just opened here last night. What puzzles me a bit is that the houses here are all dilapidated and dilapidated. Generally speaking, in such a place, the doors and windows are not deliberately closed, but walking along the way, I saw almost every house. , or the windows were closed, with boards nailed on or newspapers covered, and most of the doors were covered, as if someone had specially closed all the doors here.
I felt something was wrong. My professional habits over the years made it easy for me to notice the difference in a place. There are no insects or birds chirping here. It is obviously a market but it is quiet in broad daylight. This is an abnormal behavior in my opinion anyway. I even noticed that most of the walls and the ground here are covered with There are ivy and lichen, which means that this place is a damp place and these things will grow. This means that the Yin Qi here will be relatively heavy and easier to gather.
After walking for a while, Da Mao said softly to me, be careful. Have you seen the person standing in front of you? I said I saw it, because at the door of a roadside hut about thirty meters away from me, there was a man in a Chinese tunic suit standing upright guarding the door. Da Mao said, that room was where my master and I were placed under house arrest, but I had never seen the person at the door. But from the looks of it, someone else seemed to be locked up in that room, perhaps the master of the Heavenly Eye or the Yin-Yang Eye. This guy is holding the door here.
And when I saw the man standing upright, he also saw me. Judging from his expression, it seemed that he was still a little alert because of the arrival of Da Mao and me, but he did not make any reaction, which meant that he had seen such a thing before. Perhaps a few days ago, he had seen someone coming here during the day, and thought they were just people setting up stalls to do business. Judging from his upright standing posture, this person must have received some training to be able to stand so tall and straight when no one is supervising him. In addition, Damao and Master Liu both revealed under different circumstances before, The person hired behind this person should be a person with a military background, so this guy is probably also a soldier. But judging from his hair, it is medium-haired, almost an inch longer than Da Mao's hair. Chinese soldiers are not allowed to have such hair, which means that this guy used to be a soldier, but he has left the army.
I asked myself that if I fight Bingdanzi, I have no chance of winning, so I don't intend to cause trouble. Instead, I walked past him calmly. Not only that, I also deliberately made him aware that I was looking at him. Because since he can have doubts, why can't I? And when I was looking at him, I also paid special attention to the room where Damao and Wang Chengqian were imprisoned. There is no difference in appearance from other houses, except that this door looks newer, and there is a lock on the door.
In this way, there are other people locked up in this room now, and they are experiencing the same thing that happened to Wang Chengqian and Damao. Da Mao kept looking forward. If I did the same thing, it would probably easily arouse others' suspicion, so I deliberately looked at that person and looked him up and down. Although he was calm on the surface, his heart was still pounding.
Soon we walked a little further away from the man. Although we didn't look back, I knew that the guy must still be staring at me and Da Mao at this moment. Damao told me at this time, Brother Shankong, this place is almost in the middle of the ghost market. Counting from where we just walked, we have walked almost half of this long street. I raised my head slightly. Because there were houses on both sides of the road, I couldn't actually see the environment behind the house. But when I raised my head, I saw many green bamboos rising high from the back of the house. Against the backdrop of the sky, a long and thin gap appeared in the bamboo, just like the road we were walking on. I asked Da Mao, should we continue walking this road? What should we do after we leave? Da Mao said, if we don’t finish walking, we will see that the door of that house is open later, so we can just get in and hide.
I thought it was the only way, so I just continued walking and found that the doors and windows of those houses were all closed, but none of them had locks like the house where the man was standing before. So I pulled Da Mao's sleeves and walked towards the door of one of the rooms, planning to just get in. The door was ajar anyway, so there was no need to find a room with the door wide open.
But when we pushed the door open and walked in, I immediately closed the door and was thankful that I finally found a hiding place. At this time, a cold voice came, who are you? What are you doing in my house? There are people in this place. Didn’t you see the chicken feathers on the door?
This voice is mixed with a thick northern Sichuan accent, because people in eastern Sichuan and southern Sichuan do not have a high tongue when speaking, but this person's high tongue is very strong. Such a sudden sentence in a dark room, and the place itself gave me an eerie feeling from the beginning, so when this sentence came, I was shocked. , instinctively reached into my shoulder bag and took out my scimitar. In addition to the hair of the previous Miao witches, this knife also had an extra strand of gray hair, which was my first. The hair of Qin Bukong, the second folk master, is a tradition and a kind of commemoration. Since his death, every time I use this scimitar, it gives me enough psychological strength.
But when I took out the knife, the cold voice in the darkness said, Oh, use the knife, right? Do you think I don’t have a knife? You broke into my place and dared to draw a knife with me. You are impatient, aren't you?
It sounded like the other person didn't take me seriously, so I didn't have to ask for trouble. So I lowered my voice and said, "I'm really sorry. We didn't know there was anyone in this room. It was deserted here. We just thought this house was deserted, so we barged in rashly. If we offended, we'll leave now."
Since I had just entered a dark house from the outdoors, it was difficult for my eyes to adapt and I couldn't see anything. However, as I spoke, my eyes seemed to gradually get used to the darkness, and I could also see some outlines in the house. In fact, it can't be called a house. There is something on the ground in the middle of the four walls. I don't know whether it is a cloth or a mat. There is a dark figure with legs crossed on it.
Although I said this, I didn't put away my scimitar. After all, I didn't know if the other party was willing to let us leave, and I started to feel nervous. The figure who was sitting cross-legged on the ground stood up, then with a chirp, he lit the match and then the candle. Then the man held a candle in his hand and walked up to us. Only then did I see what this man looked like. His hair was a little long, his clothes were ragged, and there was a braided colorful rope wrapped around his hair. He was not very tall. He was tall, but his skin looked firm and dark. He had beard on his lips and chin, and he had what looked like earrings on his ears. He looks almost in his forties.
He looked me up and down, maybe because I was still holding the knife, but he wasn't very close to me. Then he raised his chin at me and said, "Baby, are you new here?" Do you understand the rules?
