Merchant of the Underworld

I saw the Yin spirit looking up to the sky and roaring for a while, then sat slumped on the ground, put his head in his hands and cried.

Deep in the empty mountain forest, a ghost was crying in front of us. The cry sounded particularly penetrating and desolate...

The ginseng doll that was hiding behind the big tree also came out. It was next to my legs and timidly looked at the crying spirit in front of me. There was only sympathy in its eyes and it was not afraid at all.

After the ghost finished crying, he quietly told us his story.

It turns out that the ghost's name is Zhao Erbazi, who is also from Gongzhuling Village. His family has made a living by digging ginseng for generations. Originally, the family was able to make ends meet, but unfortunately the good times did not last long. The Cultural Revolution came, and the Red Guards said they were not allowed to dig ginseng, and even charged the ginseng diggers with stealing socialist ginseng.

Once someone is found to be digging ginseng in the mountains, their whole family will be taken to the streets and live in a cowshed.

Villagers were taken from morning to night to listen to the Red Guards speaking Chairman Mao's quotations and shouting slogans.

Seeing that his family was about to starve to death, Zhao Erbozi and several of his fellow villagers decided to take the risk to avoid the Red Guards and go into the mountains to dig ginseng in exchange for some food stamps to buy food.

They did this in a very secretive manner, and quietly climbed up the mountain when they couldn't see anything!

Zhao Erbazi has been walking in the mountains and forests for a long time and has rich experience. The other tribesmen respect him as the leader of this operation, that is, the commander-in-chief. He lived up to expectations and led everyone to find a century-old ginseng hidden under the dense forest.

Everyone was immediately excited, thinking that if they dug it back now, it would be enough for the whole family to eat for a year...

But who can imagine it? When he was about to dig ginseng, a group of Red Guards appeared out of nowhere and chased Zhao Erbangzi, beating and scolding him.

Zhao Er couldn't outrun the group of Red Guards carrying guns and was caught by them. The Red Guards punched and kicked Zhao Erbaozi. He was angry and tried to argue a few words. As a result, the Red Guards beat him even more viciously.

In this way, Zhao Erbangzi was whipped to death on the mountain. Before he died, all his resentment poured into the bamboo kettle he carried with him...

After listening to this, I felt quite uncomfortable. In that era when people were turned into ghosts, how many innocent people were taken alive?

I thought of Zhao Youcai and asked Zhao Erbazi whether he knew Zhao Youcai?

Zhao Erbozi quickly said that they knew each other. Zhao Youcai was one of his tribesmen. At that time, he was being chased by the Red Guards so fiercely that everyone got separated. He also asked us if we had met Zhao Youcai and how is Zhao Youcai's life now?

Li Mazi and others looked at each other in shock. Although we couldn't bear it, we finally told Zhao Erbangzi the truth. Zhao Youcai was dead.

After hearing this, Zhao Erbangzi let out a long sigh, tears streaming down his face, and kept saying that he was the one who harmed his clansmen.

I quickly comforted Zhao Erbozi and said it was none of his business. Once you do something good, you seem to become addicted. I thought I would simply do another loss-making business and save Zhao Ershou too!

I carefully put away the bamboo tube. Although this thing was young, it was still a kind of femininity. I might be able to sell it for a good price when I get back to know its effects.

Seeing me picking up the broken bamboo tube, Li Mazi let out a sigh and scolded me for being more and more stingy and even more obsessed with money than he was...

After Zhao Erbangzi's soul was saved, the surrounding temperature increased a lot. But the sunlight was still blocked by the tall trees. When the ginseng baby saw that Zhao Erbangzi's ghost was gone, he jumped up and down with joy, hugging my neck and constantly being intimate with me.

Li Mazi shook the goosebumps on his body and said sourly: "Damn, this ginseng doll is a spirit after all. How can it be afraid of ghosts? What a worthless spirit!"

I hugged the ginseng doll and explained with a smile: "What do you know! This Zhao Erbangzi was specialized in digging ginseng during his lifetime. He is a natural enemy of ginseng. Of course the ginseng doll is afraid of him! And just now he said that they dug a hundred-year-old ginseng." Ginseng, I guess the century-old ginseng is the ginseng doll, right?”

The ginseng doll seemed to understand what I said, nodded vigorously, and shook its head vigorously.

Then, the ginseng doll slipped off my body, took my hand and ran eagerly towards the largest ancient tree deep in the jungle.

When I walked behind the old tree and took a look, I was completely shocked. This was clearly a ginseng country! I saw the ground full of little dolls wearing red bellybands, all of them snow-white and fleshy.

It seems that this is the home of Ginseng Doll.

As soon as the ginseng dolls saw their companions and family, they immediately let go of my hand, jumped and ran over, babbling and talking to the ginseng dolls, and pointing at us from time to time.

A group of ginseng dolls ran over and surrounded us. They touched our hands and our backpacks curiously.

The ginseng doll is very understanding of human nature and picked a lot of ginseng fruits for us to make food. With these ginseng fruits, we estimate that we can survive for a few more days. I simply gave up my plan to go down the mountain and planned to continue searching for a few days to see if I could find the legendary Fang General?

The ginseng doll was reluctant to let go of us. After two or three days of being together, I also developed feelings for the ginseng doll, but I believe that some things are destined by God, and we will meet each other if we are destined.

Now I say goodbye to the ginseng doll and continue to explore the depths of the jungle.

Along the way, I forced Li Mazi and Boss Bai to swear to heaven that they would never tell anyone about the discovery of the ginseng doll. People nowadays are all about money. If they knew that there were ginseng dolls here, the ginseng dolls would probably be hunted down and killed within a few months!

After walking like this for a full hour, Li Mazi was already very tired. He weakly asked me why I was always wandering around here. Are you so sure that there must be zombies nearby?

I told him that I wasn't sure at first, but the living corpses and ghost objects I encountered before proved that there were zombies in this area, and they were zombies that were more than a hundred years old...

Although this dense forest is full of gloomy winds, it is far from the structure of a yin-nurturing place. Therefore, there is only one explanation for Zhao Youcai turning into a living corpse, and that is that he was affected by the strong corpse energy!

When I saw the bamboo kettle, I was sure there must be a powerful zombie here. Otherwise, how could an object that was more than fifty years old turn into a feminine object? The same is because it absorbs corpse energy.

So, I'm sure the zombie we're looking for is around here, and we're not far away from it...

When Li Mazi heard what I said, he immediately became excited. He said that his favorite thing to watch is "I Have a Date with a Zombie". The love story between the zombie Kuang Tianyou and the heavenly master Ma Xiaoling is really beautiful and the plot is also very exciting.

Boss Bai and I looked at each other and smiled. Boss Bai joked that the zombies we are looking for are probably not as handsome as in the TV series, and you are not a beautiful female heavenly master.

I then teased Li Mazi, saying that if you were a beautiful female heavenly master, you might as well go into battle and seduce zombies yourself. Wouldn't it be easy for us to get zombie teeth?

Li Mazi burst out laughing when he heard our teasing, and Boss Bai and I couldn't help but laugh too.

Li Mazi patted Boss Bai on the back: "I didn't expect Boss Bai to make jokes one after another..."

At this point, Li Mazi suddenly said "Hey", pointed at the back of Boss Bai's neck and asked: "Boss Bai, what is that on the back of your neck? Why is it glowing?"

Boss Bai touched the back of his neck and asked if there were any glowing fireflies on it?

I immediately ordered Boss Bai not to move. There are many bugs in the mountains that are poisonous. If you move casually, you may lose your life.

Li Mazi and I carefully opened Boss Bai's collar and found that there was indeed a trace of blue light on the back of Boss Bai's neck, but it was emanating from the skin and was not a poisonous insect.

I looked carefully at the piece of skin and found that it seemed to be a pattern of a small man holding a spear. The tip of the spear vaguely reflected a little blue halo in the darkness.

I frowned and asked Boss Bai why there was a little figure on his neck. Is it a birthmark or a tattoo he got later?

Boss Bai touched his head in surprise: "Why is there a pattern? My wife has never seen it before. It shouldn't be a birthmark, and I've never had a tattoo."

"That's weird!" I had a vague hunch that this pattern might be related to the zombie we were looking for.

Boss Bai waved his hand and said: "Forget it, it's nothing, it's not painful or itchy."

Hearing what Boss Bai said, Li Mazi and I couldn't say anything more.

The further we go, the less and less light comes. There are so many tall trees that block the sunlight, making the day look like night.

Silence, deathly silence!

I can't feel any life here. But I always feel like there is a pair of eyes behind me staring at me with a sneer.

As soon as I turned around, the feeling of being stared at disappeared, and I didn't see anything behind me.

"Hey, you are so lost in this deep mountain and old forest. Brother Zhang, please quickly take out your compass and determine the direction." Li Mazi leaned against the tree and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

I took out the compass, but the compass needle kept shaking, as if it encountered strong magnetic interference.

"Damn, it's broken..." I raised my head, and before I could finish my sentence, I was so frightened by the sight in front of me that my heart skipped a beat.

Boss Bai's face was also pale, and he stared at Li Mazi motionless, with an expression as if he had seen a ghost!

A dry, thin black arm suddenly stretched out from the tree, grabbing Li Mazi's back bit by bit. What's even more terrifying is that there is a pair of small eyes on the palm of the thing, staring at Boss Bai and me evilly.

I don’t know why, even though there is no mouth, I seem to be able to see an invisible mouth under the palm, giving us a weird smile.

The black arm is like a black python. The leaves wither wherever it passes, and everything turns black! I reacted from the shock and immediately rushed forward to pull Li Mazi back.