Merchant of the Underworld

I opened my eyes in confusion, only to find myself standing in a dark, tunnel-like environment.

He couldn't see anything around him. He could only touch the wall next to him with his hands and move forward little by little.

I tried my best to call out the names of Li Mazi and Boss Xiao, but no one responded, and the further I walked, the stronger the chill became.

Is it a commemorative medal?

After walking forward for a while, I saw the medal lying quietly on the ground. It was like a bright diamond, particularly dazzling in the dark environment!

Just as I was about to step forward and pick it up, I saw a few mice squeaking and running to the medal. Gululu rolled his eyes and looked at the medal. One of the mice naughtily peed on it.

At this time, an accident occurred. The mouse suddenly fell to the ground, its limbs twitched, and it tried to stretch its body as if it wanted to make a final struggle.

The other mice had already been scared away. I stepped forward in confusion to see what was going on.

But he was shocked to find that the mouse's whole body looked like it had been splashed with sulfuric acid, and was in disarray.

Looking at the pink and tender flesh exposed on its body, I suddenly felt sick and couldn't help but retched, and then I found myself still lying on the bed.

It turns out that I just had a dream!

Even though I'm awake, I haven't come out of the dream yet. The mouse looks so miserable and so real!

Having such a dream at this time is definitely not an accident. It must be some message that the ghost wants to convey to me.

The other mice were all fine, but something happened to the one that peeed. Could it be that the ghost wanted to tell me that I wouldn't die if I didn't seek death?

But who doesn’t understand this truth? After thinking about it, I feel that it is mainly to shock me. Dreaming at this juncture may have something to do with my visit to the old man tomorrow.

I was not in the mood to sleep, and all I could think about was the bloody appearance of the mice, so I just leaned on the bed and sat there until dawn.

Until Li Mazi woke up, I still had lingering fears about last night's dream.

He saw that I looked bad and asked me what was going on.

I smiled bitterly and said that I was too excited yesterday so I couldn't sleep, which made him laugh at me.

After breakfast, we followed Boss Xiao to visit the old man. At first, I thought the old man lived in the suburbs, but I didn't expect that he actually lived in the countryside.

At first our car could barely drive, but halfway through, the mountain road suddenly turned into stone steps, so we had to abandon the car and walk, which took about half an hour to reach our destination.

The old man lives in a dilapidated tile-roofed house with walls made of large stones. It looks simple but is strong.

I stood on a high place and looked at the tile-roofed house as a whole. I felt that the yang energy of this house was very low, and it felt like a cemetery or a morgue.

But the old man had fought in the imperial court and crawled out from among the dead. His yang energy was definitely strong enough. There was no reason for the place where he lived to be so deserted.

The only explanation is that there is something wrong with the old man!

I was afraid that Boss Xiao wouldn't be able to bear it when he finally found out the truth, and at the same time, I needed him to cooperate with us in finding clues, so I tactfully revealed the following suspicions about the old man.

Not surprisingly, Boss Xiao didn't believe that his father would harm his grandson, but he was open-minded and agreed to cooperate with us to test the old man.

After discussing it, we cautiously entered the door, only to find that the old man was not at home at all!

Boss Xiao invited us to sit on the bamboo chairs and said that the old man likes to go to the nearby neighbors to play chess and other things when he has nothing to do. If he is not at home at this time, he must be playing chess.

After saying that, he got up and went to find the old man and asked us to wait at home.

Neighbors in the mountains are not like neighbors in big cities. Two households ten miles apart in the mountains can be considered neighbors.

I followed Boss Xiao out to take a look, and found that the nearest home was five or six miles away, and it would take at least an hour to go back and forth.

After Boss Xiao left, I went back to the room and sat on a chair to catch up on my sleep, but Li Mazi was thrashing around in the room obscenely.

I'm too lazy to talk about him. This guy can't change his careless habits.

After a while, I just felt sleepy and was about to lose consciousness, when Li Mazi suddenly exclaimed: "Brother Zhang, there is a secret room here!"

"What?" After hearing this, I felt no sleepiness at all. I sat up from the chair and ran over to ask Li Mazi where the secret room was.

"The screen on the wall is empty, and I discovered it accidentally." Li Mazi said, pointing to the screen hanging on the wall.

This screen is a picture of a great man pointing out the country. It looks very high-quality. How can it be empty?

I knocked on the screen with my hand suspiciously, and sure enough I heard a crisp sound. I excitedly searched for the mechanism with Li Mazi, but we never found it. Even Xiao Weiyu was helpless.

When we were busy, Boss Xiao's voice came from outside. We didn't expect them to come back so quickly. We quickly restored our things and sat back on our chairs honestly.

When Boss Xiao and a gray-haired old man walked in, Li Mazi and I quickly stood up and greeted the old man for a while before sitting down.

In the process of saying hello, I kept paying attention to Mr. Xiao’s eyes and found that he was also staring at me!

Experts will know if they are there as soon as they go out. This old man's eyes are firm and he is definitely a man with a story.

I pretended to accidentally talk to him about the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea, and then gradually led the conversation to the commemorative medal according to his state.

After all, the old man is old. When he talks, it’s like there’s a lump of phlegm in his throat. His ears don’t work well, so we have to shout loudly to hear him clearly.

After spending a long time, I didn't get any useful information. The biggest information is that he was a company commander in the army at the time. This can well explain why he was able to get the medal back from the museum easily. After all, it was in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China. Before the reform and opening up, the value of company commanders was still very high.

Since I couldn't ask for any information from here, I didn't stay long, greeted Li Mazi and Boss Xiao, and rushed back. On the way, Boss Xiao said with a smile: "Master Zhang, look, did you guess wrong? How can my father control that thing if he is like this..."

"Maybe!"

I nodded and said nothing more, but Li Mazi opened his mouth several times to say something, but was shot back by my sharp gaze.

After returning to the antique shop, Boss Xiao sent us upstairs to do business. Only then did I ask Li Mazi what he wanted to say.

"Brother Zhang, we have already discovered the secret of the screen. Why don't you just expose it? Even if it doesn't work, you have to observe it secretly. Why did you withdraw so quickly?"

"Haha, look at how frizzy you are."

I sneered and lowered my voice and said, "I already left Otama there, do you really think I would give up such an important clue?"

The reason why I came back is because I don’t want Boss Xiao to be caught in the middle. I can see from the look in Mr. Xiao’s eyes that the real him definitely does not speak like an old man!

He is acting and he doesn't want Boss Xiao to know his secret, so I will act with him and see who is better in the end!

Li Mazi saw that I had saved my back, smiled with satisfaction, stretched out his hand to stroke his non-existent beard on his chin, and said quietly: "Boys can be taught!"

"Just say it."

I still had important things to do, so I gestured to him with my middle finger, then went downstairs to get the medal from Boss Xiao.

Maybe the dream last night was caused by Mr. Xiao. I must find out the secret of the medal as a negative thing as soon as possible, otherwise I will easily suffer a loss.

Unfortunately, all the information on it had been corroded, and Li Mazi was snoring loudly next to me. Gradually, my upper and lower eyelids began to fight. Finally, I couldn't bear it anymore, so I put the medal on the table and fell asleep.

I suddenly heard Li Mazi's cry for help in my sleep. At first I thought I was dreaming again. I was still thinking about last night's dream subconsciously, so I subconsciously recited the Tao Te Ching.

It's okay not to think about it, Li Mazi's voice became clearer this time. I thought to myself, "Oh no!" I sat up and rushed outside with the Sirius Whip in hand. At a glance, I saw Li Mazi curled up on the ground, his hands constantly pulling out of his neck.

I pinched my fingers and quickly poked towards the Heavenly Palace. Then I looked over, and I was shocked to find a phantom wearing a grass-green military uniform sitting on Li Mazi, squeezing Li Mazi's throat.

"Zhang Jun!"

I yelled, then rushed forward with a whip, secretly saying that I had offended the old hero, and then whipped him on the head without hesitation!