I was woken up by the pain.
In my sleep, I turned over and my arm bumped into something very hard. I sat up with a start and bumped my head into something again.
Because I got up so suddenly, it hurt so much that tears came to my eyes. I lay back down and touched myself for a long time before I realized that I was in a very small space.
coffin!
I surveyed the surrounding space and instantly remembered that those who entered Fengmen Village were required to sleep in coffins.
I fumbled around for a long time but couldn't find any mechanisms or tools at hand. I reached out to push the coffin lid, but it wouldn't budge.
"Bang! Bang!"
I tried to push the coffin lid open with my hands, but it wouldn't budge. I kicked it twice more, but it still wouldn't budge.
This situation made me break out in a cold sweat instantly. These guys from Fengmen Village made us live in coffins. Could they have nailed the coffins shut?
Just as I was wondering if I was still dreaming, I suddenly felt a handrail on the coffin lid above my head. I tried to push it down and suddenly the coffin lid opened.
Looking at the light streaming in from outside, I was so angry my teeth ached.
I don't know which grandson designed this. You made a sliding coffin like a dry chicken feather?
After the false alarm, I slowly sat up from the coffin.
The room was extremely narrow, and in the center hung a bright yellow lantern, its orange glow making the room look eerie.
Aside from my coffin placed at the door, there was only a wooden table and four chairs in the room. There was nothing else. The air was filled with a smell similar to incense paper, but I didn't know what kind of special fragrance it was or if something was moldy.
I stood up and stretched, then walked to the door, unlatched the wooden bolt, and slowly opened the door.
Outside the door was a narrow stone-paved road, and across the street was a long row of small courtyards filled with stone houses. Each room had a white lantern hanging at its door, providing dim lighting and creating a particularly eerie atmosphere.
As I looked at the empty streets, I recalled what the man from Fengmen Village had said when we drank the drug.
In this place, people are not allowed on the street only when the red light is on, but the lights outside are clearly all red, so why is there not a single person?
I knew nothing about this completely unfamiliar place and just wanted to find Jiang Man and Monkey to meet up with them.
After I got out onto the street, I looked up at the sky and saw nothing but darkness overhead.
Could it be that it's the middle of the night and everyone has gone to rest?
But that doesn't make sense. Even at night, how could there be no stars in the sky?
If it's a cloudy day, you can't feel even a hint of wind.
I turned to look at the house I had just come out of. It was no different from the other rooms, also made of bluestone, except that the white lantern in front of the door had the words "Ding Si" written on it.
I roughly guessed that since all the houses in Fengmen Village are the same, the "丁" character on the lantern should be the street number, and the "肆" character should be the number of my house.
I walked along the street for several dozen meters and found that all the houses were closed. I thought about calling out Jiang Man's name, but after thinking about it, I decided to give up.
After all, there are all sorts of people in Fengmen Village. If I call out their names, I will first expose my identity. If I offend some strange people, it will be a loss for me.
Unsure of Jiang Man's location, I wandered around the streets alone, intending to familiarize myself with Fengmen Village.
After exiting the T-junction, there is a main road outside, but the street is still deserted.
The rows of white lanterns along the street made me feel like I was walking in a graveyard. It was eerily quiet; I could even hear my own footsteps and heartbeat.
Just as I was looking around, a man dressed in funeral clothes suddenly walked out of the alley ahead. He looked particularly ferocious under the lantern light, which frightened me so much that I blurted out a curse.
"Holy crap!"
The other person was startled by my shout and glared at me angrily: "What are you yelling about in the middle of the night? Are you mentally ill?"
"How dare you say that to me?"
Hearing the other person speak, I patted my chest and cursed, "Are you out of your mind?! What are you doing wandering around the streets in a funeral shroud in the middle of the night?!"
The other person glared at him: "Please, before you criticize others, take a look at yourself first! Do you think you're wearing normal clothes? How can you complain about others' stench when you're covered in shit yourself?"
Hearing him say that, I looked down at myself.
The clothes I was wearing before have been changed. I am now wearing the same set of funeral clothes as the other person, and I am also wearing a bracelet on my left hand with a wooden plaque that reads "Ding Si".
Because there were no mirrors here, and I was a little nervous, I didn't even notice that I was dressed the same way as him.
At that moment, the young man walked over and offered me a cigarette: "Friend, is this your first time entering Fengmen Village?"
I was wary of this stranger: "This is my second time here. I've been here once before."
"Haha, stop pretending. Although there aren't many good people in Fengmen Village, they aren't all bad either. If this is your second time here, how could you not even know what this place is like?"
The young man smiled at me: "When I first came here, I was also completely clueless. I wandered around for a long time before I figured out what was going on in Fengmen Village. You're really lucky to have met me. Come with me."
I looked at the young man warily: "What are you doing here? Why do you want me to go with you?"
"Nonsense, this is just the residential area of Fengmen Village, and it's the middle of the night, everyone's asleep. What are you doing wandering around here?"
Without a word, the young man shook me off and walked toward the side of the street: "Fengmen Village is a black market. No matter why you came here, you have to go to the functional area to achieve your goal. If you trust me, then come with me. If you don't trust me, then just wander around here by yourself."
I thought about it for a moment and felt that I had no conflict of interest with the young man, so I quickly followed him and asked, "What do you mean by 'functional area'?"
"Fengmen Village is divided into two areas: the residential area and the functional area, which is further divided into many smaller areas! Of course, we named the functional area ourselves. All transactions take place there. In this place, as long as you have the resources, you can get almost anything you want: money, assassins, women, drugs, antiques, even foreign land and private armed forces... everything you could want!"
As the young man spoke, he turned to look at me: "Did you come here to buy and sell physical goods, or to conduct an information exchange?"
I countered, "Is there a difference?"
The young man looked at me like I was an idiot: "Of course, this is the black market, not a vegetable market. If you don't know the rules, you won't get anything."
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