Mojing, the city that never sleeps
"Ah..." Shu Shenan was a little annoyed, "I'm late. I wish I hadn't talked to you so much on the way."
Ding Can raised the corner of his mouth: "I was the one who asked you for help. It's okay. I should know where they are."
The beggar said they were heading towards the main street, and she could roughly guess where that was.
She thanked the old beggar: "Thank you very much, uncle."
Just as he was about to take out the copper coins, he found that he didn't have the standard broken bowl next to him.
Shu Shenan noticed her putting her hand into her purse and whispered, "No need. This is an elder from our Beggars' Sect, responsible for answering questions and solving problems for junior disciples like us. The symbol I just gave you is displayed there."
What? An elder? I didn't expect him to be so...low-key.
"You go find them first. I'll chat with my senior brother for a while and leave soon."
*
After thanking and saying goodbye to Shu Shenan, Ding Can set off.
They didn't go to many places yesterday, and the closest one was Duxi Temple.
They didn't know where they went, and they were not familiar with Mojing, so they would not search rashly and would definitely choose a place they were familiar with.
When Ding Can was about to reach Duxi Temple, he saw Gao Wenwen looking around among the pilgrims coming and going at the entrance.
She walked quickly over, stood behind Gao Wenwen, and patted his shoulder gently.
"Who is it..." Gao Wenwen frowned and turned around, feeling strange to see someone he didn't know.
It was not until Ding Can lifted the veil and saw that it was her that he relaxed and smiled with his teeth bared.
"Finally found you. We were all shocked when we saw you weren't in the room this morning."
The other two also looked relieved when they saw her.
They didn't expect that even though they had taken precautions last night, they still fell into the trap.
In order to prevent the three from waking up early, Yang Pu gave them a larger dose of incense.
Early in the morning, Xu Linfeng came to the courtyard again, wanting to inform everyone in the flower hall that they were safe, but he found the courtyard quiet.
After knocking on the door, the three of them woke up and discovered that Ding Can was gone.
As she expected, the servants in the mansion were in chaos after learning that one of the detectives who came yesterday was missing.
Although there are rules in the mansion that must be followed, looking at everyone's faces, they are all in panic.
Some are glad that it didn't happen to them this time, while others are worried that the same fate will befall them next time.
I just don’t know if Zhang Gusheng will feel shaken if someone disappears right under his nose again this time.
Ding Can didn't wait any longer and told him everything about Yangpu.
They were also shocked to learn that Zhang Gusheng was the person in charge of the lifeline of Furong slices.
Now that all the clues that were in the open have been discovered by Yang Pu, and he can no longer move forward, he can only go into the dark.
Lingxi Ghost Market is the first place to go.
There are all kinds of people there, and ordinary people don't dare to get close to it. Places with many desperate criminals may not care about the spread of news.
They will have more opportunities to find out where the people who trade hibiscus tablets are. By tracking them, they will be able to find out the location of the warehouse and the drug manufacturing factory.
Zhang Gusheng often traveled around for his pottery business, and the people he met were all in public.
No one had ever discovered the transaction, perhaps because he was just the person behind the scenes and never actually appeared at the Furong slice transaction scene.
If they can't catch the culprit in the act, they can only compile more private evidence together to make it impossible for them to deny it.
As they walked through the busy city, the surroundings became increasingly quiet, and the number of pedestrians on the road became increasingly rare.
Gao Wenwen looked at the map in his hand and stopped where he was: "It should be right, this is the place."
The location on the map is clearly marked, and even the names of several surrounding shops correspond to it.
Judging from the location, it should be located in an area where industry has declined, but there is nothing extra here except a dusty sundry stall that looks like no one has taken care of it for a long time.
It is even impossible to verify what the stall was used for before.
"Maybe there is a mechanism nearby..." Shi Yan casually kicked away a wooden stick that was blocking her feet.
The stick was round and rolled on the ground before hitting the abandoned cabinet next to it. After the crisp strike, a loud rumbling sound was made.
Shi Yan raised her hand, looked at the others' instantly widened eyes of astonishment, and spoke innocently.
"It has nothing to do with me. Even though I'm a bit stronger, I can't achieve the same effect of hitting the bull from behind the mountain."
As he was speaking, a thin stone slab next to the cabinet fell down, revealing a messy head. The man was carrying a bulging bag and climbing up from underneath.
When I saw several pairs of feet in front of me, I realized that someone was blocking the exit.
Before he could even look up, he started cursing: "A good dog shouldn't block the road, why are you blocking the road here?"
"How can you talk like that!" Shi Yan felt puzzled as to how this man looked like he was playing whack-a-mole, with his head still at her feet, and she wanted to step on him.
The man saw that the other party had four people, all of whom were young and strong. It seemed that he had no reason to be arrogant when he was outnumbered.
But before running away, he didn't forget to say a provocative sentence: "I'm happy that I made money today. The next time I see you, I will definitely not let you go."
He carried the bag and ran into the nearest alley at a rapid speed.
Gao Wenwen took a small step forward, lowered his head, and looked into the dark cave entrance. Except for the first few steps that could be seen clearly, the underground was pitch black and gloomy.
He was very skeptical whether this was actually the entrance or exit: "The famous Lingxi Ghost Market, enter through this place."
"Let's go down and take a look first." Xia Jialian lifted the cloth on the side of his waist with one hand, and the bottom of his robe was away from the ground, revealing a pair of clean shoes and boots.
He walked down the stairs first, followed by the other three.
Gao Wenwen was the last one to come down. He paid attention to the stone slab and considerately closed it again.
It looked pitch black from the outside because of the glaring light during the day. Only when we got underground did we find that there were lights on both sides of the stairs.
Every ten steps or so, there is a dim lamp hanging on the wall, with a dark green glass lampshade covered with dust.
The light emitted is extremely weak, looking like a ghostly fire in the dark night.
This passage is extremely narrow. Even when one person walks, there is still some space left. However, if you meet someone coming from the opposite direction, they will almost be shoulder to shoulder.
Therefore, the space will feel closed. If someone with claustrophobia comes here, they probably won't be able to last long.
Measuring distance underground is not as convenient as having reference points on the ground.
Ding Can estimated that they had been walking for almost ten minutes, and since their pace was a bit slow due to their exploration, it must have been at least four or five hundred meters.
They didn't meet anyone on the way, and the only sounds in the passage were their footsteps and breathing.
There was no progress, and Gao Wenwen was a little scared: "Why haven't we reached the end yet? Are we entering some kind of maze?"
"Didn't we see people coming out just now? We didn't see any forks in the road along the way, so we shouldn't have missed anything." Xia Jialian walked steadily and continued to move forward while talking.
"Perhaps because the ghost market is so special, the setting is relatively magical."
Ding Can suddenly said, "Have you noticed that we seem to be going down all the time?"
As we walked along, the ground looked flat and the walking was very smooth, no different from usual.
That's because the floor is tilted at a relatively small angle, and they are more focused on the situation in front of them and not paying attention to their feet.
In fact, it can be inferred that it has descended a lot from the ground.
After walking for a while, I came to a dead end.
Xia Jialian knocked on the wall in front of him and found that it was an iron door that looked very thick.
The surface is carved with some ancient patterns, including strange beasts and Rakshasas. Various elements are mixed together, which looks unusual.
Is this the real entrance to the ghost market?
Xia Jialian placed his palm on the iron door. There was no handle on the door, so it should be possible to push it open directly.
He turned around and looked at the three people behind him. After receiving everyone's affirmative glances, he began to exert force on his wrist and pushed the heavy iron door open.
Looking at the material of the door, I thought it would take some effort to push it open.
Unexpectedly, he only needed to exert a little force, and the entire door opened wide, and the connection with the wall was very smooth.
As it was opened, many noisy sounds came into my ears one after another.
The door just now blocked out all the sounds from this place. From now on, I feel like I have arrived in another world.
The iron door opens and closes on both sides, and the connecting device will automatically return to the closed state due to the action of the mechanism after the person comes out.
The four of them stood in a row outside the iron gate, looking at the scene in front of them, so surprised that they were speechless.
This place was very different from the dark and crawling scene they had imagined. It was simply too large in scale.
It is obvious that the Lingxi Ghost Market is based on a huge cave, and then other branches were developed and established based on it.
There is a ceiling on top, so no sunlight can get in, but there is still something that can illuminate the view clearly.
Several huge night-shining pearls are inlaid on the top of the stone wall.
It is called a night-shining pearl, but I don’t know if this description is accurate. There are nine luminous objects on it.
Each one is about the size of a basketball, with a small part embedded in the stone wall, emitting a bright and translucent white light, like a few shining moons hanging in the sky.
Under the dome is a very mature market scene, with brightly colored lanterns hanging on both sides of the street, and the paper surfaces are the same as the background color of the paper figurines used in funeral ceremonies.
The bright red and green colors make people's faces look colorful and extremely strange.
The people here were also walking in a hurry, most of them covering their faces with masks and their bodies with wide cloaks, making it almost impossible to see the expressions on their faces.
Looking at it this way, the four of them coming here so brazenly seemed completely out of place here.
"You guys should disguise yourself a little." Ding Can was fine. She was wearing a conical hat, and the veil almost reached her waist.
Otherwise, if you just walk in like this, you will probably attract the attention of most people.
Shi Yan covered her face with the round fan in her hand and lowered her voice a bit: "It's so sudden, we don't have anything with us."
"Are you new here?" A very sharp voice suddenly sounded in my ears.
Gao Wenwen was so frightened that he raised his foot and took a step to the side. The first thing he saw was a bird of prey with a pointed beak and hair on its face. He almost thought it was some kind of ghost bird.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
