The roads in Fengmen Village are interconnected. At my suggestion, we removed the middle-aged man's highly recognizable outer garment and quickly led him into an empty tunnel.
After Wang Hong and Man Jing went to stand guard on both sides, Wang Qing took out several silver needles and pierced several key acupoints on the middle-aged man's body. Then he stuffed a pill into the man's mouth.
"Cough cough!"
After more than ten seconds, the middle-aged man suddenly coughed violently and then abruptly opened his eyes.
The middle-aged man lay on the ground, staring at us masked strangers for a moment, a look of surprise flashing in his eyes: "Who are you? Where is this place?"
"Stop talking nonsense, listen to me if you want to live."
I held a short knife I'd bought at a street stall against the middle-aged man's chin and said in a deep voice, "We have no intention of killing you, but if you push us too far, I'll send you on your way right now!"
"Are you all crazy? This is Fengmen Village!"
The middle-aged man, his hands bound behind his back, looked utterly shocked: "You dare to cause trouble in Fengmen Village? You really have a death wish!"
"Let's not talk about how long we can live, but if you keep spouting nonsense, you'll be the first one to die!"
The monkey slapped the middle-aged man across the face: "What's wrong with you? Can't you see the situation you're in?"
"You lunatics! Fengmen Village has never seen anyone like you before!"
The middle-aged man looked at us coldly: "Since I live in a place like Fengmen Village, I'm already a worthless life. You won't get anything out of me, so just kill me and drag me down with you! Anyway, you've violated the taboos of Fengmen Village, so you won't live much longer!"
I knew the middle-aged man was trying to scare us, so I scoffed: "Don't be so absolute. You earn millions a month in Fengmen Village. You can live a life of luxury with that money after retirement. Besides, if you were really a desperate criminal, why would you be thinking about calling your old mother back home?"
How did you know my background?
The middle-aged man was taken aback at first, then suddenly realized: "You were eavesdropping on our conversation while you were hiding in the tunnel, weren't you?"
"These things are not important. What is important is that we have no enmity or grudge against each other, and there is absolutely no need for us to end up dying together."
I smiled at the middle-aged man: "We asked you to come here just to know a trivial piece of information. It's been less than twenty minutes since you fainted. As long as you tell us what interests us, I promise I won't make things difficult for you. You can go back to work and still talk to your mother on the phone, and we can continue with our business. How about it?"
The middle-aged man looked at me warily: "Why should I believe you?"
You have no choice.
I knew I couldn't push him too hard, so I thought for a moment and added, "Of course, although we risked kidnapping you, we didn't come here to bring about our own destruction. Once an employee of Fengmen Village goes missing, a detailed investigation will definitely be launched. No matter how clever our methods are, we can't possibly grind you to dust."
"Not necessarily. I know the formula for Bone-Dissolving Powder, which can corrode him into a pile of mud in a short time."
Wang Qing glanced at the middle-aged man: "If this bastard really doesn't cooperate with us, then we'll have no choice but to kill him. That way, we'll still have time to catch the next person and won't waste too much time."
I turned my gaze to the middle-aged man: "You heard what my friend said. We just don't want things to get any worse, but you're not our only option! I did hear what you said before. Maybe there aren't many good people in Fengmen Village, but I believe that someone who is still thinking about his mother in this situation can't be a bad person."
I understand that Fengmen Village has strict rules, and you are afraid of retaliation for leaking information. But we acted very secretly. If we had been exposed, the people of Fengmen Village would have caught us by now, wouldn't they?
"As long as you're willing to confess and tell us the information, I'll send you back the way you came as soon as possible. There's still a chance we'll expose you, and if you get caught, you won't have a good ending. But at least you'll have a chance to talk to me. That's better than silently taking us all down with you, right?"
After listening to me, the middle-aged man lay on the ground and thought for about five seconds before sighing and asking, "What information do you want to know?"
Seeing that the middle-aged man had relented, Wang Qing quickly pressed on, "Do you know someone named Qu Xuelin?"
The middle-aged man replied expressionlessly, "I don't know him! In Fengmen Village, no one uses their real name. We employees address each other by code names, and we are strictly forbidden from inquiring about the guests' identities. Whether you believe it or not, I'm telling the truth."
While he was speaking, I kept observing his micro-expressions, and I felt that he probably wasn't lying to me.
Fengmen Village is essentially a huge black market, and naturally, all the guests who come here hope to keep their identities a secret.
If these guys find out the guests' identities and make private deals, they'll lose all of Fengmen Village's customers.
For example, Wang Qing had previously mentioned that many of the items in the pharmacies here are rare treasures that are hard to find on the market.
Besides making money from these things, Fengmen Village is also attracting customers from outside. If the pharmacy staff have ulterior motives and collude with outsiders to act as middlemen, they can make a large profit simply by selling the goods on the ground.
But if this guy knows nothing about buying and selling information, doesn't that mean all the effort we put into catching him was completely meaningless?
Hearing the middle-aged man's answer, Wang Qing pressed on, "Don't you have any recollection of who bought the Emperor Datura, the Netherworld Peony, and the Horse-face Flower from your pharmacy before?"
The middle-aged man glanced at us and said, "I don't remember most of the medicines you mentioned, but that Netherworld Peony did indeed leave my hands. However, it wasn't bought from the counter; it was something that was taken by boat."
What does "走船" mean?
I squinted at the middle-aged man: "Does your place have an underground river?"
"You misunderstood me. What I meant by 'going by boat' is actually a homophone for 'passing away'."
The middle-aged man explained, "In Fengmen Village, many super-rich customers don't need to go to the shops to make transactions in order to hide their identities. They just need to put what they need in the mailbox, and someone will deliver the items to the designated location. This is a kind of privilege."
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