The dark night is silent.
Ji Liyou and Wei Lang were under the faint light of the lantern. They seemed to be the only ones in the darkness, and they seemed to be the only ones left in the world.
The sky is not completely dark, but has a slightly empty and desolate gray-white color, like the increasingly gray eyeballs of the dead when they cannot close their eyes.
Wei Lang saw Ji Liyou's expression changed and said, "I won't take you to the ghost market next time."
"Why?" Ji Liyou's arms were covered with dense goosebumps. It was really cold, completely different from the warmth when he first entered this place.
"You're scared, aren't you?" Wei Lang said.
"I'm scared, but it's quite interesting."
Wei Lang smiled helplessly and said, "Mr. Wen is really a man of great powers. He can control the divine body when he advances, and he can drive away ghosts when he retreats."
Ji Liyou nodded, "I didn't know before that he actually dealt with ghosts."
Gray and black are the colors closest to death. This endless street is like a road to the other side with no end. The two girls leading the way did not even make a sound of breathing, let alone footsteps.
Ji Liyou asked the two girls. This was the first time he had spoken to them, "How long will it take to go like this?"
The two people leading the way did not answer him and continued to lead the way.
After a while, the sky became darker, but from a distance, you could already see a faint outline of the market.
Ji Liyou was overjoyed, "Okay, okay, we are almost at the end, and the market in Liangzhu should be over there."
Wei Lang's expression changed drastically, "No."
The two girls turned around and bowed slightly.
Ji Liyou couldn't hear what they were saying, but could only see their lips rubbing up and down.
"What are you talking about?" Ji Liyou was confused.
Wei Lang threw the talisman from his hand, spun it around in the air and flew back to his hand.
Wei Lang said, "As expected, they also said that we have reached Fengdu."
"Ghost town Fengdu?" Ji Liyou broke into a cold sweat.
"That's right."
"Aren't we in a ghost market? How come we are here in Fengdu in the blink of an eye? I remember that ancient books say that Fengdu is by the Liutian Qinghe River. How come it is near Liangzhu Imperial City?"
Wei Lang said, "The ghost market is actually a trail leading to Fengdu, similar to the Ancient Tea Horse Road."
"Brother Wei, have you been here before?"
"Unfortunately, I've never been here before. I've only heard about it. I was lucky enough to stumble upon this place today."
The two girls spoke again, but Ji Liyou still couldn't understand what they were saying.
"What did they say?"
Wei Lang said, "They said, let's go back the way we came, go back to the crossing, and don't go any further."
Ji Liyou nodded, "You're right, let's go back. I don't think Fengdu is a good place."
Wei Lang refused to go back, "You go with them first, I will go to Fengdu for a walk by myself."
His face was full of excitement. Ji Liyou had never seen Wei Lang like this before.
He turned around and looked at the road, with no end in sight.
"Why don't I go back alone? Since you are going, I will accompany you. One more person means more care." Ji Liyou said.
Two women stopped Ji Liyou, and one of them took one of his arms, trying to pull him back.
Wei Lang saw this and asked, "Do you really want to go with me?"
"Well, I also have my own plans." Ji Liyou said.
Wei Lang said, "Do you still remember what I gave you when I came here?"
Ji Liyou thought of the handful of glutinous rice, took it out, and threw it towards the two women. When the white glutinous rice touched their bodies, it immediately glowed like a spark, and they immediately let go of their hands.
Wei Lang asked him to continue throwing.
But when Ji Liyou saw their sad faces, as if their faces were burned by glutinous rice, he bowed and apologized, saying, "You should go back first, and just tell Old Man Wen."
The woman nodded and left together. Before leaving, she gave the lantern in her hand to Ji Liyou and Wei Lang.
The two of them continued walking forward.
Although the street is neither long nor wide, there are dozens of shops and houses.
"It looks like a market for doing business in the human world, no different from the human world." Ji Liyou said.
Soon, Ji Liyou discovered that there was no one in the entire street. Although the sky above his head was different from when he came just now and it was no longer dark, the gray sky still made people panic.
Some of the doors and windows on both sides of the street were closed, but they were all dilapidated. Thick dust accumulated inside and outside the houses, and spider webs had formed under the eaves of the houses.
Ji Liyou asked, "Let alone a human being, I didn't even see a ghost."
A black cat was startled by the footsteps, but it had lost its original agility and agility. It panted and staggered across the long street, and it hardly looked like a cat anymore.
Wei Lang reminded him, "Didn't I draw a talisman for you in the ferry?"
Ji Liyou thought of it and took out the talisman.
"How do I use this?"
Wei Lang put the talisman on his back.
Ji Liyou turned around and saw that the street in front of him was no longer what he saw at first.
There were people bustling around. When he saw someone walking towards him, he hurriedly got out of the way, but the man was walking fast on horseback and passed directly through his body.
The broken and cracked signboards were originally like the teeth of an old man, but after Ji Liyou put the charm on them, all the signs looked brand new.
When Wei Lang waited for the wind to stop, he slowly walked past a winery, opened the door, and walked into the winery, as if he had walked into a cold tomb.
Ji Liyou followed him and saw travelers coming from north to south, drank a few glasses of old wine and rested here.
Ji Liyou was leaning on one of the tables, his elbows covered with dust. He looked down and saw that the clean table was covered with dust. There were broken wine jars everywhere on the floor. The tangy aroma of wine had been replaced by a strange smell. The putrid smell of human nausea replaced it.
For a moment, it was difficult to distinguish between illusion and reality.
He seemed to be back in his dream.
Wei Lang watched all this calmly.
Not long after Ji Liyou sat down, he took off the talisman behind him.
Suddenly, the smile in front of the hall was noisy, guessing the sound of wine and gambling, shovel and spoon behind the hall, the oil pan burst, but now I can't hear it. It is the bone-white evil bird of hell that is fluttering its wings.
Ji Liyou asked Wei Lang, "Who are you looking for?"
Wei Lang asked, "What about you?"
"The man in the dream." Ji Liyou said.
Wei Lang nodded, "Me too."
In the deathly silence, a melodious string sound suddenly came from the distance in the wind.
At this moment, this feeling, this scene, this music sounds like fairy music coming down from the sky.
When Wei Lang heard the music, a look of surprise suddenly appeared in his empty eyes. He immediately sat up from his chair, opened the door and ran away.
Before Ji Liyou could react, there was no one around him.
Ji Liyou put the talisman that he had just put away back into his hand, and in an instant, various "people" appeared in front of him.
Ji Liyou still sat there quietly, listening quietly.
He thought that if he ran away now and got separated from Wei Lang, the two of them might get lost here. If they waited here, Wei Lang might come back to find him.
Just as I was thinking about it, suddenly, several men walked in quickly, each holding a bamboo basket in their hands. The bamboo basket contained all kinds of strange things, including rags and brooms.
They didn't even look at Ji Liyou. As soon as they rushed in, they immediately started cleaning and tidying up the area around Ji Liyou.
When this distinguished guest came in, everyone around him became quiet, as if they all knew who this guest was.
At this time, another watch drum sounded suddenly amid the music outside the door, as if it was the first watch. Looking from the window from a distance, you could see a man in white holding a watch drum, standing in the darkness like a ghost.
It was dark in Fengdu, and it was still gray when we arrived. It was so dark that we couldn't see anything. If it weren't for the several lights in this winery, I might not have been able to see them all, but the lights in this winery were really weird. There are blue lights everywhere, and everyone's face looks faintly gloomy in this blue light.
The guest sat down beside him.
He sat down next to Ji Liyou.
Before he could speak, Ji Liyou said, "Did you send my friend away?"
The man smiled, his green eyebrows showing a bit of charm.
"You can think of it this way," he said.
"Who are you?" Ji Liyou asked.
"dead."
Ji Liyou's palms were cold. Of course he knew there were dead people here. He looked up at the watchman outside, who was still doing his watch along the street.
The green-browed man said, "The watchman in Fengdu is not the one who tells the time."
"Oh? What does that do?"
"Report death."
Ji Liyou nodded, "Interesting."
"You came to see me?" Ji Liyou asked.
He shook his head, "You're looking for me, aren't you?"
Ji Liyou said no, "I'm looking for Shi Wei, but you're not."
"How do you know I'm not?"
"Shi Wei is a woman, and you are a man."
He smiled and said, "Could the person who can enter the four schools be a woman?"
Ji Liyou said, "You don't have to trick me. I won't be fooled at all. I'm looking for Shi Wei. If you know where she is, just tell me. If you don't know, we won't say more."
The man raised his eyebrows and said, "You haven't asked me who I am yet."
Ji Li said worriedly, "I have no intention of knowing who you are."
The man said, "I have to tell you."
So he drank wine and wrote on the table, "Zhao Qingqi."
Ji Liyou felt that the name was very familiar, "Zhao Qingqi? The name is Meiren?"
"It seems you know who I am."
Ji Liyou thought of the scroll in the Four Schools, "Are you Zhao Qingqi from Beizhai No. 2 School, and are you a member of the same studio as Shi Wei and my grandfather?"
"I didn't expect you to know more about it."
Ji Liyou asked, "Can you tell me what is the relationship between Shi Wei and me?"
The man smiled, "Shi Wei and you? I don't know if she has anything to do with you, but... she and Ji Fuwei... keep arguing."
"Ji Fuwei is my grandfather, but he has passed away long ago. I don't know what his relationship is with Shi Wei."
Zhao Qingqi shook his head, "They are the ones who are crazy about men and women."
"But, my grandfather is the Prince Consort, my grandmother is Princess Jianqu, and this woman named Shi Wei..."
Zhao Qingqi knocked on the table, "If you want to know about Shi Wei, you shouldn't look for her here, because she is not here."
"where is she?"
Zhao Qingqi said, "It's for Wei to go up the mountain and cast ghosts. She is not a human being. You can't find her whereabouts in the human world."
"Please ask senior for guidance."
"What am I guiding? Even if I know the past, it's not my place to tell you. When did you know that the dead can talk?"
"Then who should I ask?"
"Tang Shuo."
"Princess Tangshuo?"
"Ask her."
Ji Liyou still wanted to ask, but Zhao Qingqi had already picked up a small cup on the table and smashed it directly at Ji Liyou's head. Ji Liyou was shocked, "What are you doing?"
He tilted his head and hit the pillar beside him.
He closed his eyes and rubbed his head, "Did I provoke you?"
When he opened his eyes again, there was no one in front of him. At his feet was the courtyard of Ji's Mansion, and not far away was his room.
"came back?"
Ji Li was extremely worried and hurriedly wanted to look back for Wei Lang, but he couldn't see where Wei Lang was.
While he was anxious, he suddenly touched the talisman Wei Lang had drawn for him on his waist.
Then I heard Wei Lang say, "Are you still in Fengdu?"
Ji Liyou said, "I met a strange man and he sent me back to Ji's Mansion."
"That's good. I went back to look for you, but I couldn't see you anymore, and I was worried that something had happened to you."
"Where are you, Brother Wei, where are you?"
"I also left Fengdu and now I'm back at the inn."
"Brother Wei is not injured, is he?"
"No, everything is fine."
He didn't say who he was going after, and Ji Liyou didn't ask, and they reached a perfect consensus.
He and Wei Lang are different from the storyteller. Even if there are secrets between each other, it will not affect the others. However, if there are too many secrets hidden between him and the storyteller, the two of them will become a lot stranger.
Ji Liyou kept walking.
"Is Princess Tangshuo here?"
The serving servant shook his head, "The princess is taking a nap, why don't you come back later?"
Ji Liyou nodded.
I heard someone in the house say, "Who's here?"
Ji Liyou shouted, "It's me."
"Brother Liyou?" Ran Ran ran out.
"Why are you here? I'm practicing calligraphy."
Ji Liyou was about to ask her, but saw the people around her running out secretly, perhaps to report to Ji Shanjing.
Ji Liyou didn't plan to stay any longer, so he said a few polite words, "What words are you practicing?"
Ran Ran invited him to come in and watch together. Ji Liyou turned around and glanced at the maid, "Isn't that inconvenient?"
She shook her head and said, "There's nothing inconvenient, just come in."
Then he said to the maid, "If you dare to tell Brother Shanjing, I won't want you anymore."
Everyone lowered their heads.
Ji Liyou followed her to her study.
Ran Ran picked up a piece of paper and said, "Brother Liyou, look at my handwriting. How do you think it is?"
Ji Li said worriedly, "Yes, he has both character and character."
If you look closely, you will see that the poems written are those of mountain ghosts.
"Are you writing about mountain ghosts?"
Ranran said yes.
Ji Liyou followed his intuition and said, "Ranran, do you know a woman named Shi Wei?"
Ran Ran's expression suddenly changed, "How did you know?"
"Where did you know that?"
The servants in the room had all been sent away by Ran Ran, who asked him to listen attentively, "I saw the emperor's grandmother once wrote the word "Shi Wei" on a piece of paper."
"Queen Minhui?" He was surprised.
"Yes, it was written by the imperial grandmother."
"Isn't Queen Minhui the one who carved the title?" Ji Liyou asked.
"Yes, my imperial grandmother's surname was Su, not Shi at all."
Ji Liyou was even more confused, "Then why does she know about Shi Wei?"
"Tell me first, who is this Shi Wei?" Ran Ran asked.
"There are four students and one student member."
"Four disciplines? But didn't you just ask me if I knew a woman named Shi Wei?"
"Shi Wei is indeed a woman."
"How can a woman enter the four schools?" Ran Ran didn't believe it.
"I'm not lying to you, she is really a student of the Four Schools, and she is an acquaintance of my grandfather."
"Really?" Ran Ran also became interested, "This Shi Wei actually knows Ji Xiang. It's really amazing. Ji Xiang knows that she is a woman?"
"You should know, I think." Ji Li said worriedly.
He stayed in Ranran's room for a while, and suddenly had a bold idea and asked, "Ranran, do you still remember the appearance of Queen Minhui?"
"Remember, the imperial grandmother is very beautiful. She always hugged me when I was a child. How could I forget her."
"Can you draw me a picture of her?"
Ran Ran shook her head, "No."
(End of chapter)