Merchant of the Underworld

After this incident, I changed the "three no-charges" rule set by my grandfather to the "four no-charges".

I added another one at the end, don’t take anything from people in the officialdom.

Later, the T-shirt man also came to see me. He told me that the reason why he entrusted the last business to me was mainly to teach me a lesson, so that I should remember not to be blinded by money when doing business in illicit goods.

Because once a person in this business is greedy for money, there is only one word: death!

In my heart, I am more moved by the T-shirt man. He didn't have to help me at all, but he still went out of his way to help me.

I intend to let the T-shirt man stay and do business with me. But he told me that he was used to drifting and would lose his direction once he stopped, so he declined me politely.

He didn't even stay one night and left.

This is really a mysterious guy. Looking at his back, I shook my head.

Time flies so fast, and winter comes in the blink of an eye. Looking out the window, the heavy snow is crushing the branches, and the whole world is covered in snow. I am in a particularly good mood.

Surrounding a big stove, making a pot of old tea, and leaning on a lounge chair, this life is quite comfortable.

Although there is no business, one cannot be greedy. I am not planning to open a business this year. I have a few close friends, a pot of old wine and a big stove, which is enough.

Li Mazi was so idle that he caught two pheasants from somewhere, borrowed my gas stove to stew them, and encouraged me to buy some peanut salad to go with the wine.

I was so happy that I got a little drunk.

Yin Xinyue came unexpectedly, wearing a coat and a pair of sneakers. She was still in good shape, but her hands were red and cold.

I felt distressed and put her hand into my arms for warmth, and asked her why she didn't drive here?

She smiled and said that she rarely saw snow in her hometown, and she didn't want to waste the beautiful scenery, so she walked all the way here. Although I fell a few times, it was worth it.

Only then did Li Mazi and I realize that Yin Xinyue was actually a southern girl.

When the south was mentioned, Li Mazi immediately became interested and said that the south is like spring all year round. Why don't we go to the south to spend the winter? By the way, if you explore the market in the south, you might be able to find some treasures.

I am also a little moved. The snow scenery in the north is beautiful, but it would be nice to see small bridges and flowing water in this season.

After making up our mind, we took action immediately.

Yin Xinyue and Li Mazi went back to pack their luggage, and we agreed to meet at the antique store in two hours.

But I ran from the inner room to the outer room, and from the outer room to the inner room without even packing anything, because I really didn’t know what to bring.

Li Mazi also came empty-handed, and said awkwardly that it was so hot in the south, so he shouldn't need to bring a down jacket, right?

Two hours later, a taxi stopped in front of the store. Yin Xinyue got out of the car and carried out large and small bags.

Li Mazi and I smiled helplessly and hurriedly ran up to help carry the bags. We found that Yin Xinyue packed large and small bags of clothes, shoes, and even two dolls. I guess Li Mazi couldn't even fit them in the trunk.

Yin Xinyue said with a smile that she wanted to take us to see the peacock dance of the Dai people.

After careful questioning, Li Mazi and I found out that Yin Xinyue was actually from the Dai ethnic group, and her hometown was in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan. This made Li Mazi and I even more ecstatic, and we couldn't wait to let Yin Xinyue perform a dance for us live.

The three of us took turns driving. After getting on the highway, we stepped on the accelerator to the maximum. Even so, it took two days and two nights to finally reach Yunnan.

Our initial excitement and impulse were completely consumed by the fatigue on the road. I suggest that everyone find a place to sleep first.

However, Yin Xinyue was eager to get closer to her hometown and resolutely refused. She had to drive to her hometown in one go!

I had no choice but to continue driving despite my fatigue.

After getting off the expressway, there are provincial roads, county roads, and finally the rural road.

I was jolted along the way and felt like my butt was almost split in two. I was so exhausted that I couldn't even open my eyes. I felt like the world was spinning inexplicably.

But I can't stop. Once I stop, I don't have the courage to continue driving...

When I was still ten kilometers away from Yin Xinyue's hometown, I vaguely saw someone lying on the road ahead.

I was shocked and stepped on the brakes quickly.

But after the car stopped, the figure disappeared. Maybe he was hallucinating?

Being frightened like this, I felt a little energetic and continued driving.

But when I opened it, I felt tired again, and my eyelids seemed to be filled with lead, very heavy.

At this moment, a white shadow suddenly appeared on the roadside. This time I could see clearly. It was a bald woman wearing white clothes with no hair. The woman's back was turned to us. She walked to the middle of the road and lay down.

For fear of bumping into each other, I stepped on the brakes as hard as possible, waking up both Li Mazi and Yin Xinyue from their deep sleep.

After the two of them woke up, they asked me what was going on. How many times had I stopped during this stretch?

I took a deep breath and said, "Damn, I've encountered a scammer, be careful."

After saying that, I nervously checked. I wasn't worried, after all we had a dash cam.

But before I got out of the car, Li Mazi suddenly grabbed me and said, "I'm sorry, there's no one in front of me."

I immediately opened my eyes and looked forward. When I saw this, I was stunned. The woman in white was really gone.

How is this going? It’s understandable that I just had one hallucination, but how could I have two hallucinations in such a short period of time?

What's more, what I can't understand is that I could clearly see the woman before, but it was so weird that she disappeared without a trace.

I smiled helplessly and had no choice but to switch to Li Mazi to drive and lie down in the back seat to rest.

But I felt that not long after I closed my eyes, the car suddenly stopped, and the huge inertia made me bump into the seat.

I opened my eyes and yelled: "Li Mazi, you fucking want to kill me!"

Li Mazi's voice was extremely trembling: "Brother Zhang family, wake up quickly, don't sleep anymore."

Speaking of this, Li Mazi quickly locked all the car doors, trembling all over.

Looking at Li Mazi's state, I knew something must have happened to him, so I asked immediately.

Li Mazi said tremblingly: "I...I just saw a female ghost in white. It's really a female ghost. She has a flat face and no nose or facial features. It scared me to death."

"Don't talk nonsense." I yelled angrily: "How can there be anything in the middle of the night?"

After saying that, I glanced out the window. It was dark outside, and there were tall trees more than ten meters high on both sides of the narrow path. It was extremely eerie, and the howling wind made a whining sound, as if countless women were crying.

I quickly asked Li Mazi to take a sip of water, and then spoke in detail.

Li Mazi said that he was feeling dizzy while driving when he suddenly saw a woman in white suddenly appearing in the middle of the road. He didn't even have time to apply the brakes before he hit her head-on.

The woman in white flew up and pressed against the windshield. He saw the woman's face, which was square, like a paper doll.

But I checked the front and windshield of the car, and it didn't look like it had hit anyone.

I was frightened when I heard this, and quickly asked Yin Xinyue what happened? Do you Dai people have any weird welcome ceremony?

Yin Xinyue was also frightened, her face was paler than both of ours, and she choked with sobs and said, Brother Zhang, are you kidding me? Let's drive quickly. This road seems really unclean. There are many car accidents every year.

Li Mazi didn't dare to continue driving this car, for fear of running into that female ghost again, so I had no choice but to drive.

Yin Xinyue was still a little worried and asked me to drive slowly. He called her fourth uncle and asked him to pick us up.

I nodded. Among such ethnic minorities, it would be better to have a local person lead the way.

I drove slowly and watched both sides vigilantly.

The surrounding atmosphere was extremely heavy. There was no one on the remote dirt road. There were cries and howls in the tall woods. Occasionally, one or two small animals would cross the dirt road and disappear in front of the headlights.

If this place is not haunted, then it is evil...

When I was thinking about it, a bright light appeared in front of me, and I stopped the car immediately.

Seeing the light in front of her, Yin Xinyue breathed a long sigh of relief and told us that her fourth uncle was here.

It was a tractor, and sitting on the tractor was an old man with a floral scarf on his head. He looked to be in his fifties.

Although my face is full of wrinkles and my skin is dark, it gives me a feeling of hale and hearty. Maybe this is the unique temperament of the Dai people?

Since we were our own people, we felt much more at ease and quickly got out of the car to say hello to our fourth uncle.

The Dai people are really hospitable, and our fourth uncle greeted us as soon as we arrived. After learning about the strange things we encountered along the way, my fourth uncle immediately took out a large handful of ashes from his pocket, spread the ashes around our car, and then took us to his home as guests.

I feel baffled and I don’t understand what my fourth uncle meant by doing this?

Yin Xinyue quietly told me that this is a unique exorcism ritual of the Dai people. My fourth uncle said that we were entangled by ghosts that blocked the way, so we had to use this method to scare the ghosts away.