My protective talisman failed? I widened my eyes, my mind went blank for a moment. The strange person in front of me reached out and grabbed my shoulder, the force was strong, pulling me backward continuously.
I snapped back to my senses, pulled out my dagger and stabbed it, the sharp blade pierced its arm, blood gushed out, but the strange person seemed not to feel any pain, holding onto my hand tightly.
"Fatso, fatso, pull me up!"
I shouted loudly, but the sound didn't carry effectively in this low cave, there was no response from above.
The strange person didn't give me any chance, the other hand reached out, about to grab my other shoulder, if both shoulders were caught by it, escaping would be difficult.
The situation was urgent, I had a sudden inspiration, if stabbing its arm didn't work, then I would just go for its head and see if it's afraid!
The dagger adjusted its direction, aimed at the strange person's head and fiercely stabbed. The strange person finally dodged, turning its head, the force on its hand relaxed. This was a good opportunity for me to escape, I quickly shook off its hand, grabbed the fallen Daba protective talisman, and climbed out quickly, the strange person also reacted at this point, muttered a low growl, crawled forward quickly. However, by this time, I had retreated to the outside of the wooden door, standing on the giant turtle's corpse. The strange person at the door reached out to grab me, but at that moment, I saw the sunlight shining on its hand, the white skin seemed to be reddened as if it had been burned, the strange person, who clearly didn't feel any pain when I stabbed its arm before, was now screaming in pain, retreated into the wooden door, and sprawled on the ground, looking at me with a pair of black eyes.
It seemed that this guy was afraid of sunlight, I leaned against the well wall, looking at it with the same intensity. As we looked at each other, even though I didn't know its background, the evil aura and the cold hostility emitted from its eyes made me feel very uncomfortable.
After staring at each other for a while, it slowly retreated and disappeared into the dark cave behind the wooden door.
"Fatso, pull me up."
I shouted upwards, and Fatso slowly pulled me up, and now I was sitting next to the well, sweating on my forehead, my limbs felt numb as if they were about to break. It felt like I had walked with the grim reaper.
"What's wrong?"
Fatso asked, puzzled, taking a drag of his cigarette.
"There's a hole under the wooden door, there's a monster inside. It's the guy we saw on the bus, wearing a military coat."
I reached out to take the cigarette that Fatso handed over, but when I raised my hand, I realized that my whole hand was shaking and I couldn't even hold the cigarette.
"What's going on? That person... I remember now, it's that guy who's dressed so well!"
I explained the whole story to Fatso, and he looked at me wide-eyed, shouting, "Shanzi, why the hell didn't you tell me such an important thing!? Do you consider me an outsider!?"
"It's not like that, I just didn't know how to tell you. I don't know anything about the origin of this strange person. And why does he want to kill me, why does he live at the bottom of the well, and why does he eat dead cats, I don't know anything about it, how do you expect me to talk to you about it!"
After taking a couple of puffs on the cigarette, I felt a little calmer, I didn't know what real fear was until I experienced life and death. I put out the cigarette butt and I knew I couldn't go into the well. It was already late, if that strange person climbed out of the well at night, Fatso and I wouldn't necessarily be its match. After some thought, I said, "Let's go back first, the Xuanming Temple must have a big secret, but with our current skills, we can't make money. I'll ask Zhu Zi if he's willing to come here for a visit."
On the way back, we agreed to go to the early market the next morning, and then we went home.
I slept soundly that night, I don't know if it was because I was so relaxed after being so tense and scared, or if it was because I was too tired, after the 430 a.m. alarm clock rang, I didn't have any dreams all night.
Shanghai's early morning market was different from Beijing's, it wasn't as big, mainly because Shanghai didn't have the same heavy cultural atmosphere as Beijing. Fatso and I went to have a look with a try-it-out attitude.
We ate our fried breadsticks early in the morning and arrived near the City God Temple. Nowadays, most of the City God Temples sell crystal, stationery, and tea. When we were young, there were still some interesting things to see in the early market. But there were rules for buying things, first you had to pay a few cents for the entrance fee, and secondly, you couldn't buy things on credit.
Most of the street was full of stalls and there were quite a few people coming to the early market, but most of them were older men.
We strolled around for a while, but didn't find anything interesting. At the east corner, we came across a seller of Tibetan knives. I felt the urge to buy one as I couldn't always use the fat man's dagger, but these items were not cheap. Plus, they were considered controlled knives. What if my family found out?
At the southwest corner, there were several sellers of antiques. I didn't know much about them, but the fat man had a keen eye and quietly informed me that they were all replicas.
After circling around, we didn't buy anything. It was already six o'clock in the morning, and the sky was getting brighter. The morning market was about to close, so the fat man and I were preparing to leave, when unexpectedly, we made a find!
There was a small stall, about three feet long and wide, with a few random items placed on it - there were Buddha statues, bracelets, and a few daggers that looked like they were made of bones. It was those bone daggers that caught my eye!
I had seen similar ritual objects from Lao He and Zhu Zi before. Generally, bone daggers were rare to find nowadays, and if available, they were typically the ritual objects of some sect. I found it suspicious, so I went up to the stall, pulling the fat man along.
He observed from the side, while I squatted down to chat with the stall owner.
The stall owner was a middle-aged man, around forty years old, wearing an old blue work suit. Though he seemed a little shabby, overall he appeared quite spirited and tidy, especially his neatly combed hair.
"Hello, could I take a look at these bone daggers?" I asked with a smile.
He nodded and didn't say much. Unlike other pushy stall owners, his silence made me feel intrigued. I picked up one of the bone daggers, not very long, with a wooden handle carved with some strange patterns, including stars and dragon designs. The blade, made of bone, was slightly longer than the palm of my hand, and the edge was finely polished, with two blood grooves that I had not seen in other bone daggers. Moreover, the color of these bone daggers was a yellowish hue, not like new ones, especially the one I held had faint red stains at the tip, possibly bloodstains.
At that time, my understanding of these things was shallow. Later, I learned that there were bone daggers made from cow or pig bones in the market, but sellers falsely claimed that they were made from wolf bones or even exotic animal bones to deceive people. At that time, I relied on my intuition to judge, feeling that these bone daggers seemed authentic.
The fat man came over and lightly patted my shoulder three times. It was a kind of silent agreement we had used when playing poker.
With his three pats, I knew he believed that there was genuine merchandise here. I became more confident and asked, "Boss, what are these daggers made of?"
"Made from the bones of steppe wolves," he replied, sounding like a southerner.
"You're a southerner, right? How did you manage to get the bones of steppe wolves?" I asked with a smile.
"Don't worry about that. Thirty yuan each, or equivalent in food stamps," he said.
At that price, both the fat man and I felt it was expensive. Ten yuan was not a small amount to us, and as we also didn't understand the market for these items, we could only rely on our own standards to evaluate.
"A bit pricey, boss," I shook my head. Unexpectedly, he snatched the dagger from my hand and frowned, shouting, "If you think it's expensive, go find another place."
Although the attitude of shopkeepers or stall owners at the time was not good, he was the first one to be so rude. The fat man was a little unhappy, and the shopkeeper glanced at us and sneered, "I don't sell my treasures to poor folks. Get lost, don't block my business."
"Hey!" The fat man had never been called poor since he was a child, and these words struck a nerve with him. He took a stack of ten-yuan bills from his pocket and shouted, "Damn it, how many do you have? I'll take them all!"