The Exorcist

Chapter 23 The First Kiln

Wan Li lay on his back on the bed with his eyes closed, his limbs stretched out comfortably. He seemed relaxed and leisurely, but in fact, no part of his body was tense, including his heart muscle and brain nerves.

He didn't know whether to admire or hate Sima Nan.

He originally thought that his tactics were very effective - didn't Sima Nan want to send various assassins to deal with him? He left himself in the center of the field under the sun. If anyone wanted to touch him, he must also stand in full view of the public. Because currently Sima Nan did not have the conditions to attack with a black gun or stab him in the back, so this was the best defensive strategy.

However, Sima Nan was indeed a treacherous person. He actually showed up generously and lived next door to him, which made him feel like a thorn in his back. He was very nervous and helpless.

Sima Nan is now a legitimate businessman, and he came to Hongqing Town to investigate the possibility of cooperating in the porcelain business. His appearance immediately overshadowed Wan Li's halo. After all, real business is much better than simple publicity, so now Wan Li not only feels that there is a knife hanging above his head, which will fall at any time, but also he wants to find out the news of his plan. Also destroyed. The people in the town were all trying to get in on Sima Nan, and there was no one left to accompany him. Not only was he a rich man, but he also had a daughter who was good at dancing. His attractiveness immediately dropped to zero.

Moreover, Sima Nan could just attack him directly, but he made no move and just stared at him. This made him itchy with hatred, and he felt a little powerless. He understood that Sima Nan was trying to torture him mentally, and felt that Sima Nan's behavior of making things simple and complicated was somewhat psychopathic. In addition, he also knew that things were not that simple, and Sima Nan had other reasons for doing this.

Sima Nan wanted to let him choose. If he is afraid of all this and leaves secretly because he cannot bear the psychological pressure, Sima Nan will not stop him, but if he insists on helping Ruan Zhan, then he will not be polite either!

Therefore, before the time for the final showdown, he did not worry about his safety, because he concluded that Sima Nan would not touch him at the moment. The reason was that he was afraid that his death would arouse Ruan Zhan's ferocity and make a person anxious. He will exert huge energy, which is not what Sima Nan wants to see. In fact, he felt that Sima Nan was a bit jealous of Ruan Zhan and would never want to fight Ruan Zhan.

If he leaves, Ruan Zhan will lose an important helper. If he stays, he will be good bait in Sima Nan's eyes. Now he will only monitor him until he is fat and the time is right. Kill again to sacrifice the flag!

Sima Nan has always used everything available, and he has to use it to the maximum limit and squeeze out the maximum value! Treating him is like a hunter treating his prey, surrounding him but not killing him!

What should he do? Time is running out, he must find out the truth of the matter as soon as possible, and save his own life. Of course, he must also try not to let Sima Nan guess what he has done!

In the past two days, he has been conducting "social networking and interviewing" activities, and it is not without any achievements. First, he found out that a major event had indeed happened in Hongqing Town, in a village under the town. Although what kind of village it was and what happened were kept secret by the adults in the town, and he had not figured it out yet, but by calculating the time based on the information he got, he felt that this incident must have happened ten years ago.

Secondly, based on this time, he checked some public information and learned that the current leaders of the town, including the mayor and the missing officials, had been in power ten years ago.

Third, among the missing people, except for those officials who are the direct descendants of the town mayor, the parents of several other young people were once the people in charge of the town. Even Liu Hong, a beautiful reporter from the provincial capital, and The same goes for camera reporter Zuo De. This is fun, because there is indeed a thread connecting all the people trapped in the empty city. Now all we have to do is find this thread and pull out the whole thing that has been buried for ten years.

Most of the people who came to him for free publicity in newspapers were high-ranking people in Hongqing Town. Maybe he should go to the ordinary people at the lower level to inquire, although when he occasionally did so, he found that People seem to be afraid and don't want to say anything, but it may be right to work in this direction.

Finally, the owner of this store is a bit eccentric. He always looks at him and says a lot of strange things. The shop owner said that he didn't look like a rich man. It wasn't cost-effective to stay in a hotel for a long time, and his employer wouldn't necessarily reimburse him. It was better to rent a private residence. According to common sense, no store owner would say this. This person is either very kind, or he has something wrong, but he dare not say it openly.

He tried to inquire, but the result was that the boss was impeccable in what he said and did, and he couldn't find out anything about it. He just said that private houses in the west of the town were quite cheap, and suggested that Wan Li take a look.

Also, he has never found out about the person who has been hiding behind the incident - the Feng Shui Mr. Long. But this man is a god-like existence to the people in the town, and Wan Li always feels that he is related to these resentful ghost incidents.

He lay in bed for a long time, ostensibly taking a nap, but thinking about what to do next, and finally decided to build a plank road openly and cross Chencang secretly.

Isn't Sima Nan staring at him? He let the old fox keep an eye on him. He would wander around the town during the day, using the invisibility charm to get rid of those who were watching him all day long when no one was prepared. Then he could act freely, and at night he would still come back and sleep next door to his enemy. As far as he knew, Sima Nan was moody, and everyone around him and his men were afraid of him, so as long as he let the people following him chase him for a while, and then find a way to let these lackeys find him before returning to the hotel at night, he believed that those people would definitely He will not take the initiative to report his whereabouts in the middle period. The lackeys were just trying to make ends meet, so how could they be as loyal to each other as he and Ruan Zhan were.

He could not shrink the Bloodwood Sword, but it was inconvenient to carry it with him, and he was worried about hiding it. So he simply used Xiao Xia's method and bought a fishing rod, put the sword in the fishing rod box, and put the talisman left by Ruan Zhan in it, and carried it with him every day. In addition, he also prepared some ordinary self-defense weapons for himself, so that no matter whether it was a person or a ghost attacking him, as long as Sima Nan did not send a boss-level figure, he would not be afraid.

With this plan in place, Wan Li took action in the afternoon. First he entered the busiest shopping mall in the town, and then disappeared in the toilet, leaving those who were following him waiting there while he himself had already gone to the town to inquire about the situation. Of course, those 'poor' people will see the toilet door open, but no one comes out.

He felt that the store owner had a hint for him, so he went directly to Zhenxi.

The development of a place, whether it is a big city, a town or a village, will not be very balanced. Some places are richer and some are poorer. Although Hongqing Town is the richest man in the province, most people living in the west of the town live ordinary lives, are not very wealthy, and have no money or power. Because most people do not have their own business, or the business is not big, the houses are relatively dilapidated. Originally, because all the financial resources of the town were used to support the construction of the new town, the infrastructure construction of the old town was already relatively backward, and more construction was needed in the west of the town. A new word. The dirt road is narrow and bumpy, and the houses on both sides are low-rise bungalows.

After several conversations, Wan Li discovered that the people here yearned for the new town more than people in other places, because the quality of life there would be significantly improved, so they were more grateful to the leaders of the town in awe, and Wan Li didn't dare to ask openly for fear of alerting others, which made it even more difficult to inquire about the situation.

When he was at a loss what to do, Wan Li suddenly remembered that on the first day he came to the town, the old man Feng Niang who lost his son he met also lived here. He promised to help her treat her illness, but he never found time to visit. Since he was here this time, he decided to visit. According to his judgment, the people around Feng Niang are very kind. It would be better if he could meet that middle-aged woman who spoke frankly and did not hide anything. Maybe he could be unintentional.

He took out the notepad he had on him, checked the address, and made sure that no one was following him around, then he found Feng Niang's house.

Although the houses here are dilapidated, they are all small houses with single houses and are not as crowded as in the city. Feng Niang's home is at the end of an alley, which is very narrow. Only two people can pass side by side. And because there are no street lights, it is expected to be very dark after dark.

Fortunately, the person who came to take care of Feng Niang this time was the middle-aged woman she met last time.

"I really have a fate with this gentleman from other provinces!" She was very happy and quickly let Wan Li into the yard.

As soon as he entered the courtyard, Wan Li saw Feng Niang sitting on a small stool in the shade of the courtyard and busy. She was not as excited as she was when we met on the street that day. Instead, she was calm and calm, even a little peaceful. Her clothes and hair were neatly dressed, as if she was a mother waiting for her child to come home from work. If you want to live, just look up at the courtyard door.

She saw it as soon as Wan Li came in, and a gentle, timid smile broke out on her face, obviously remembering Wan Li. This proves that her thinking is not very chaotic, her memory is not bad, and she is more likely to be cured. He judged it from a doctor's perspective, and then moved closer, trying to see clearly what the old man had been wiping on his hand.

It's porcelain.

Under the big clean towel, there was a piece of porcelain that the old man wiped carefully and gently. There was a wooden box with a lid beside it. Every time the old man finished wiping a piece, he carefully put it in the box and took it out again. Take out another piece and close the lid carefully.

Is it an antique?

Wan Li thought about it and squatted down, letting the old man's eyes stay on his face, "Feng Niang, can I see your baby?" he asked.

The old man looked up at Wan Li and said nothing, but showed an acquiescing smile.

Wan Li gently opened the lid of the box and saw that although the box was large, there were only four pieces of porcelain inside, a pair of vases and a pair of bowls and plates. These porcelains shocked Wan Li. Although he knew that the porcelain in Hongqing Town was very famous and the price of top-quality porcelain was quite high, these four items were still so beautiful that he felt a little surprised.

There are no fancy colors or patterns, just snow-like white, with some smooth ripples in appearance, which feels very rhythmic to the touch. The material of porcelain is very thin, and the light red flowers bloom in the white, as if they are soaked from the inside, which is natural and soft, making the whole thing look extremely exquisite. Although Wan Li doesn't understand porcelain, he also understands these things. The stuff is top quality.

"These things are Feng Niang's treasures. No one is allowed to touch them. You can't even get close to them. Today, you are actually willing to pick them up and look at them. It shows that you are a good person, sir, and Feng Niang knows it in her heart!" The middle-aged woman said in surprise at the side. explain.

"These porcelains are so beautiful, are they antiques?" Wan Li looked at Feng Niang and asked the middle-aged woman.

"No, he came from the first kiln."

"The first kiln?" Wan Li was a little confused.

"Oh, you are from another province and don't know."

The middle-aged woman explained patiently, "In the past, almost no one in our town knew how to make porcelain. Even those who knew how to make kilns only made bricks or some rough porcelain tiles and sold them to people in their own town. But later Mayor Yuan, who was only the deputy mayor back then, spent a lot of money to hire an old man with ancestral craftsmanship to teach him this precious technique, and transformed the former brick-burning kiln into today's porcelain factory."

"How long ago was that?"

"Only ten years - no, eleven years." The middle-aged woman said, "In the past, our town was so poor that many people had to go to other counties to find jobs if they wanted to support their families. Later, this porcelain factory was established. , recruited a large number of workers, and then used the money from this factory to open several other factories. Only then did everyone have a way to survive without having to leave their hometown. If this porcelain factory had opened earlier, Feng Yongzi would not have to leave my mother. If you become someone's son-in-law, you won't - well, a person's fate is destined by God!"

"After talking for a long time, is this No. 1 kiln the first kiln to be opened?"

"No, there is one kiln owned by our town official, and the rest are all the business of the 'capable people' in the town." The middle-aged woman snorted through her nostrils, looking a little contemptuous, "Those small kilns They don't produce the good stuff that porcelain factories do at all, but they just deceive people who don't know the business and only care about their reputation. Real experts won't buy their stuff. I heard that a big city guy came to town a few days ago. Reporters from major newspapers, all these people are fawning over, just because they want to be in the newspaper and get free publicity. My family is honest and refuses to open a private business to deceive people, otherwise we can make more money. But only people like me can live a stable life. If you don’t make money that you don’t care about, you will feel at ease——”

Wan Li didn't dare to say that the so-called 'reporter' was him, he just smiled in cooperation. This woman was kind-hearted and decent, but she talked endlessly. She could talk a lot in one sentence, and she would go further and further, answering questions that were wrong. He had to wait for her to take a breath and interrupt her.

"Does that mean 'the first kiln' means the only kiln?" He patiently returned to the topic and asked again.

The middle-aged woman was stunned for a moment, apparently forgetting the original question, "No. Sir, you haven't understood yet. The first kiln is the first batch of porcelain produced after the kiln was opened."

"So it's like this, it's so beautiful!" Wan Li admired and looked at the white porcelain again.

"Actually, most of the products from the first kiln are bricks." The middle-aged woman said proudly, as if it was a secret. "Since Mayor Yuan knew the secret recipe for firing the kiln, he has been leading his men to conduct repeated experiments in the kiln. , it didn’t come out for two weeks. For insurance reasons, most of the products from the first kiln were bricks, and there were only a few porcelains. However, I heard that these porcelains had some quality problems, and the mayor said that they were all smashed in order to maintain a good reputation. , What a pity. But we are talking privately-" She suddenly came closer and lowered her voice, "Later, I don't know who it was. Maybe it was a waste of things, so they poured out a few pieces from it and sold them."

"Who did you sell it to?" Wan Li asked hurriedly, feeling an idea flash in his mind and feeling like he had caught something uncertain.

"How did I know that? I heard about it too." The middle-aged woman was stunned for a moment, "I don't understand how the crazy lady came to have this treasure. She had four pieces when she returned it. Now this is worth a lot of money. If you want to sell it, Feng Niang can hire a servant to wait on her. My family is one of the first workers in the porcelain factory. He has done serious research before, and he said that this is indeed something from the first kiln. Alas, Feng Niang is so old. Well, if we hadn’t met kind-hearted people like us, we might have been defrauded of these four pieces of porcelain.”

"You just said that your husband was the first batch of workers in the kiln, so was he present when the first batch of things came out of the kiln?" Wan Li continued to delve deeper.

"Didn't I just say that? When the first kiln came out, the mayor led his people to make it himself. Although most of the bricks were produced and only a few porcelains were smashed, the experiment can be considered a success. From there The workers who will be recruited later will be done by my family. I heard that this is also done to keep it secret. Although we are the only one who produces that kind of clay, if the craftsmanship is leaked, we will not be able to keep this business. The same goes for the workers in the factory. Everyone does his own thing, no one can fully know the secret!"

Wan Li didn't want to listen to her talk about things in the factory. He only cared about the situation in the first kiln, so he asked, "Who was locked up in the kiln with the mayor at that time for experiments?"

"Who are they?" The middle-aged woman glanced at Wan Li and felt that he looked smart on the outside, but his mind was indeed a bit unclear. "Of course they are all the bosses. Are they going to let us plain-headed people know the secret recipe? Yes?" The mayor led his men to experiment, and they didn’t come out for two full weeks!”

"You're really responsible." Wan Li thought, "Who are they specifically, my sister-in-law doesn't know, right?"

"Everyone in the town knows this. They are the gods of wealth who bring benefits to everyone!" The middle-aged woman shouted, not knowing whether to praise or curse, and then counted the names of those people.

When she mentioned a person's name, Wan Li's heart seemed to be scratched by something, because those people were the ones imprisoned in the new town, or their fathers. There was also an official named Sun who died not long after coming out of the kiln. He was not on his list, but he remembered that the owner of the store happened to be named Sun.

coincide? Or is there indeed a problem?

"Perhaps they have contributed so much to bringing money to our town. These people have all been promoted later!" the middle-aged woman concluded.

"Where are those bricks? They won't be smashed too, right?"

"No, it's said to be of commemorative significance. It was piled in the borrow pit next to the kiln. It was later used to build a new town."