It wasn't until Chen Shuning laboriously climbed out of the pit and stood at its edge that he saw the small patch of weeds left behind, probably because the grass cutters were lazy and didn't bother to go down into the pit. Now, the weeds were swaying back and forth in the wind.

Chen Shuning then roughly understood why Gu Xinyi was frightened. She had just fallen into the pit because the height of the uncut weeds was now about the same as the height of the cut grass roots.

He had just stood up when he saw Gu Xinyi. He was so happy to have company that he forgot he was still standing in the pit. With the weeds covering him, from a distance it looked like he was just a head bobbing in the grass.

Silently apologizing to Gu Xinyi for being frightened by his blunder, Chen Shuning had no choice but to resign himself to carrying the bamboo basket and going to find the location of the black market again.

Startled, Gu Xinyi stumbled upon the alleyway where the black market was located. She ran until she collapsed into the arms of the gatekeeper, Da Zhuang, before finally stopping, still shaken.

He gripped Da Zhuang's shirt tightly with both hands, feeling the warmth in his clothes, and then breathed a sigh of relief.

He plopped down on the ground, wiped the sweat from his brow, patted his chest, and muttered, "What the hell is this? Why is it out and about in broad daylight?"

Da Zhuang, who shouldn't have been on guard duty today, was already in a bad mood because he was temporarily assigned to a shift. When someone suddenly bumped into him, he smelled a faint fragrance on the tip of his nose and thought he had a romantic encounter, but he didn't even have time to be happy.

That warm body left his embrace. He wanted to comfort the beauty and ask if he had hurt her.

But to his surprise, when he looked down, he saw the face of an old woman who was even older than his mother.

His face was covered in wrinkles and his skin was so dark that Da Zhuang almost threw up his dinner from the night before.

Before the cursing could even get out, they heard the old woman sitting on the ground wailing and howling about seeing ghosts in broad daylight.

Enraged, Da Zhuang completely forgot his last remaining sense of respect for the elderly and loved children, and cursed loudly, "You old geezer, who the hell are you calling a ghost? At your age, why aren't you staying at home? What are you doing running around like this? Aren't you afraid of hurting your old arms and legs?"

Gu Xinyi had just been frightened and had run such a long distance that her throat was so dry it was almost burning. So the voice she made didn't need to be deliberately faked; it sounded like the sharp, piercing sound of a broken bellows.

With her face deliberately made up, Da Zhuang naturally mistook her for a real old lady.

Thinking about how he had just had those kinds of thoughts about an old lady who was even older than his own mother, Dazhuang felt a wave of nausea. His words, which were usually quite easy to talk to, became less pleasant to hear.

Gu Xinyi, who was initially embarrassed for bumping into someone, was about to apologize when she was suddenly berated before she could even utter a word of apology.

Already fuming from the morning's misfortunes, she suddenly became even more furious. She got up, ready to retort, but immediately recognized Da Zhuang as the gatekeeper of the black market.

The curse that was about to escape her lips instantly changed into a smile as she said, "Nephew, I was just running too fast and didn't notice. To be honest, I was in such a hurry to find your place that I encountered a ghost. It was really there in the woods in the eastern suburbs. It was terrifying. There was just a head floating around in the grass. It was so scary."

Perhaps because she saw the person, and also because she had already died once, Gu Xinyi's heart gradually calmed down. She thought that this person was from the black market, and she would need to rely on this black market to make money for many years to come, so she couldn't afford to offend him.

As for Dazhuang, don't let his tall and fierce appearance fool you. It's just his face that looks scary. People who know him well know that he's the kind of person who responds better to gentleness than force.

Hearing the old woman across from him soften her stance, and realizing that she was probably doing business on the black market, he stopped pressing the issue.

However, his tone was still somewhat unfriendly as he said, "Since you came here specifically for this, you know the rules, right? Buy for one cent, sell for two cents. Pay up and get in quickly. They're cracking down hard these days, so don't cause me any trouble."

Gu Xinyi was after money. In her previous life, she had encountered all sorts of people and things on the internet, and she had heard even more offensive things than this. So, she didn't care that Da Zhuang was talking nonsense. After paying two cents, she walked towards the alley behind Da Zhuang.

Chen Shuning searched left and right for quite a while before finally finding the alley where the black market was located. When Chen Shuning arrived, the gatekeeper was no longer Da Zhuang, but a short, thin, dark-skinned man.

Since she hadn't seen this person before, Chen Shuning hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to approach him. After all, she was carrying a lot of valuables on her back, and if this person wasn't from the black market and happened to be a bad person, wouldn't she be in great danger in this deserted environment?

Just as Chen Shuning was wondering if she could beat the man, he seemed to sense her hesitation and stepped forward to speak to her: "Auntie, you've finally come! My brother was worried you wouldn't be able to find this way, and he told me to wait for you in the woods in the eastern suburbs. I didn't expect you to find me here before I even got there. Come this way, my brother is waiting for you at home."

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