Merchant of the Underworld

I was thinking wildly while slowly moving forward with the queue.

There were only three or four people left in front of him.

Click, click, click...

The middle-aged woman took a rice spoon and scraped it a few times in the remaining stainless steel pot, and then shouted loudly without looking back: "Dad, bring the rice!"

"Okay!" Following a greeting, a person walked out of the store.

This man was short and skinny. He was wearing a washed-out white and shabby sportswear, and a large apron covered with oil stains. He was holding a large pot with his two big hands.

This should be freshly fried rice, still steaming from the pot.

He put down the pot and took the empty pot from his wife. He was about to turn around and walk to the kitchen when he suddenly noticed something. He turned his head and looked outside, looking straight at me.

"What are you still doing in a daze? Go ahead and continue the speculation, there are so many people waiting." Seeing him dazed, his wife cursed dissatisfiedly.

"Oh." He nodded numbly and looked away.

But as soon as he took two steps, he turned back and looked at me extremely worriedly.

There were so many people outside the door, why did he only notice me? Did he notice something?

"How many portions do you want?" I was stunned. The few people in front of me had already sold out. The young man in charge of collecting money looked up and asked me.

"One share." I said and took out the money.

"Eat here or take away?"

"Take it away." If you eat here, you can certainly stay and observe more, but knowing that there is something wrong with the food, you can't eat it. If you stay here without eating, it will definitely arouse suspicion.

The young man took the money and skillfully put a box of lunch into a plastic bag and handed it to me.

I walked out of the restaurant calmly with my rice in hand and drove directly back to the antique store.

The first time I returned to the antique store, I poured the rice down, then grabbed a handful of cinnabar, mixed it with some glutinous rice, and then sprinkled it on the rice.

With a hiss, a white smoke suddenly rose from the rice!

The smoke was extremely thick, and it was also accompanied by a fishy smell, which smelled like a rotting corpse, and the rice immediately turned black.

Seeing this scene, I couldn't help but take a breath.

This turned out to be a bowl of ghost rice!

According to Chinese rules, after a mortal dies, a bowl of rice must be offered in front of the soul.

This bowl of rice is called: rice on the head, or rice in front of the grave - it is for the ghost to eat the last bowl of rice in the world, so that it will have the strength to rush to the underworld.

Once the ghost eats it, the bowl of rice becomes ghost rice.

As the saying goes, humans and ghosts do not compete for food. If a living person swallows the rice of a ghost, it will cause the yin energy to enter the body, ranging from listlessness to being riddled with all kinds of diseases. If someone with a weak constitution and insufficient yang energy eats it, they may die.

I just verified it with cinnabar and glutinous rice, which are the most yang-rich, and it is indeed a bowl of ghost rice.

But I also saw with my own eyes that among the people queuing up to buy food, there were quite a few old men. It stands to reason that these people would be bedridden once they had eaten ghost food, but they were energetic. Very good, very filling.

Besides, ghost rice cannot be addictive. What on earth did the shop owner add to it to make customers so fond of it?

When I was confused, my phone rang.

As soon as the call was connected, Zhong Xiaopang's voice came from the other end of the phone: "Master Zhang, you must have discovered the problem, right?"

I was just about to answer, but my heart suddenly moved. How did he know that I went to that restaurant?

"Are you spying on me?" I asked coldly.

"No, no, no, Master Zhang, don't get me wrong. I was also anxious for a moment, so I wanted to see if you had taken any action. According to past rules, Zhao Wangcai should go to that dead end tonight. Are you interested in following me? ?”

I paused and said, "Okay, you can pick me up tonight." After that, I hung up the phone.

At the same moment when I hung up the phone, I suddenly understood Zhong Xiaopang’s intention.

The restaurant was very sneaky and weird, and I am a businessman who specializes in reselling femininity. He probably suspected that Zhao Wangcai bought the femininity from me. So from the beginning, he didn't completely trust me, so he secretly stared at me, trying to see if I was in the same group as Zhao Wangcai.

This little fat Zhong looks naive, but he is quite thoughtful.

But I'm too lazy to argue with him. The focus right now is to find out what secrets are hidden in that egg fried rice!

I didn't sleep last night, and I've been struggling until now. I have to hurry up and get some sleep.

It was already dark when I woke up. Just after washing up and eating something, Fatty Zhong knocked on the door.

Zhong Xiaopang drove a very old van, with mud all over the body and one of the lights broken.

I leaned on the passenger seat and said with a cold smile: "Boss Zhong is indeed a big business man. Isn't he too careful?"

Zhong Xiaopang was stunned for a moment, and then he understood the meaning of my words. He chuckled and said, "I have to be careful. If I always use a car to follow him, he might have been discovered by him. Every time I follow him I had to change cars. Except for following him a little too closely the first time, I waited for him at the alley the next two times. He would show up there anyway, but... I haven't figured him out until now. How did it disappear?"

"This time you drive directly to the entrance of his store and we follow him all the way." I ordered.

"Okay." Zhong Xiaopang responded, skillfully controlling the steering wheel and driving towards the east of the city.

This area in the east of the city is bustling with activity during the day, but at night it becomes pitch black, and not even a single person can be seen on the street.

At this moment, the fried rice restaurant was closed, and the rusty rolling shutter door was locked tightly. Except for a few stray dogs wandering in front of the door, there was no movement at all.

Zhong Xiaopang turned off the car lights, looked down at the luminous watch and said, "Wait, it's almost over! He goes out every seven days. The last time it rained heavily, he didn't delay at all."

Seven days, why seven days?

Ghost rice...

correct! Seven days after the death of the deceased, it is the time when the soul returns. What he added to the meal must be related to this.

I just don’t know why he went to that dead end?