Late at night and early in the morning, in a dilapidated village in the wilderness, the lights are brightly lit.
He Zhao stood not far away and watched, and saw people in disguise pouring in from all directions.
“It’s spectacular.”
If he hadn't come here once in his previous life, he might have really been blinded.
The black market is located at the foot of the mountain thirty miles away from Sichun City and twenty-five miles away from Qingshan Village.
It is said that it used to be a big village, but unfortunately it was attacked by bandits decades ago and everyone was killed. There are rumors around that when you pass by this place at night, you will faintly hear sobbing.
At first, few people believed it. Later, more and more people encountered the same thing, and everyone unanimously designated it as a forbidden area. Even in broad daylight, they would rather detour a few miles than pass by this place.
So, the owner who founded the black market set his sights on the haunted Zhuangzi. After a period of operation, everyone found that there was nothing scary, and it gradually became prosperous.
"The hot mutton soup costs thirty cents a bowl. I guarantee you won't suffer any loss or be cheated."
"Steamed buns, steamed buns stuffed with pork and green onions. One bite will fill your mouth with oil."
"The home-brewed rice wine is not expensive and is sold cheaply!"
When you first entered the black market, the first thing you saw were the various stalls on both sides of the street. Most of them sold food, and there seemed to be a lot of customers.
People strolling on the street can easily tell whether they are poor or rich at a glance. The poor people's clothes are shabby and have been mended for three years. Their faces are wrapped with a piece of black cloth that was torn from somewhere and can be wrapped.
Rich people who are more sophisticated tend to wear low-key clothing, and you can tell by looking at the fabric that it is of high value. They wear black gauze on their faces, which can cover their entire faces without obstructing their line of sight, which is the best of both worlds.
In addition, there is a group of people wearing big bamboo hats on their heads, with a circle of black gauze hanging from the corners. Some are holding them, some are sitting on their waists, or some are carrying various weapons. At a glance, others will know that they are not easy to mess with.
.
Of course, the master of the black market is not without countermeasures. A group of strong men wearing strong armor and armed with long soldiers patrol every now and then.
If someone makes trouble, no matter how hard one person fights, can he beat more than a dozen, twenty, or even forty or fifty people?
A lone tiger cannot withstand a pack of wolves.
In addition to the small vendors on the road, some vacant houses have been converted into shops.
Pawn shops, grocery stores, silk and satin shops, grain shops, wine shops, tea shops, inns, etc. are said to be black markets, but in fact they are almost the same as small and medium-sized markets.
In front of each shop, a large lantern is hung, and the words written on it indicate what it is for.
"Medicine Hall."
He Zhao followed the crowd and searched step by step.
"Give, let, give, give."
Behind, there was a commotion.
Subconsciously, he turned his head and looked around, only to see a few tough men with thick backs and black gauze on their faces, violently pushing away the pedestrians who were blocking their way.
Seeing this, he hurried to the nearby inn.
"Hey young!"
"Who is this person? Doesn't the patrol team care about him?"
"Hey, as long as it doesn't get into a fight, I don't care about such trivial matters."
Everyone complained and cursed softly.
A few rough guys walked wildly all the way to the inn door and walked in with big strides.
The famous ruthless man stretched his head curiously and looked inside. He saw a mysterious man shrouded in a black robe, standing up from the table full of wine and meat, and came forward to greet him.
"Mr. Shen?"
The leading man asked tentatively.
"Go upstairs, there are many people downstairs." The mysterious man named Shen nodded, his voice was hoarse and low, and he raised his hand and pointed upward.
"A book is not enough"
"Shut up!"
The leader scolded his three subordinates, and then the five of them went upstairs and disappeared from the sight of the people drinking in the inn, and at the same time disappeared from He Zhao's eyes.
"interesting."
He could clearly hear the conversation between the two groups of unknown people.
Maybe it's the "Monkey Step", maybe it's the "Eight Postures of the Diamond", in short, my ears and eyes are sharp, and I have become different from before.
"But what does it have to do with me?"
The street returned to calm, and he continued to look for the medicine hall.
【medicine】
After a while, he saw the words on a lantern hanging on the door of a shop.
"Sir, we have guests arriving."
The waiter sitting at the door immediately shouted to the counter.
"Um."
The gentleman at the counter put down the book in his hand after hearing this and stood up slowly.
"Sir, may I ask if you are here to buy medicine or sell medicine? If you are buying medicine, the medicine boys in our store are honest, so you don't have to worry about buying fake products. The master of the black market has said that for any fake products, you will be compensated ten times.
.
If you are here to sell medicine, our store will always buy it at half the market price. The money we give you and we keep is more than those gangs with evil intentions."
The waiter came forward to greet him and invited him in.
He Zhao had heard about this.
All shops in the black market must pay a large amount of money. Once someone deceives a customer and is reported, ten times the amount of money will be used as compensation.
Of course, only in shops.
If you are deceived by someone selling goods at a stall, they will ignore it.
"Selling medicine."
After he finished speaking, he took out the wild ginseng wrapped in red cloth from his arms.
"Young man, you have a good harvest tonight."
Mr. Yaotang could tell at a glance that the wild ginseng was genuine, but the year had yet to be determined.
"Get started."
The other party took it with both hands, observed it carefully, and smelled it carefully.
"Well, in terms of appearance and smell, it is undoubtedly a real old wild ginseng. That special smell cannot be grown by growers. As for the age, judging from the ginseng's beard, it must be at least twenty-five years.
On the market, the price of 25-year-old wild wild ginseng is about three hundred taels. I will give you one hundred and sixty taels, and the extra ten taels of silver will be considered a good start tonight."
After the gentleman finished speaking, the waiter immediately handed over a delicate wooden box.
"Crack!"
The box is closed tightly and placed under the counter.
Then, he counted one hundred and sixty taels of silver and pushed it on the table.
"A gold ingot weighs ten taels. There is a scale in the store. If you don't believe it, you can weigh it. There are sixteen pieces in total, and you have both money and goods."
"Thank you."
He stuffed the sixteen ingots into his arms one by one and left without looking back.
scales?
Master, let me weigh it with my hands and I will know how many taels it is.
"Sir, didn't you teach me that there is not much difference between 20-year-old wild ginseng and 25-year-old wild ginseng? Most people can't tell it at all. Why?"
Before the clerk finished speaking, Mr. Yaotang interrupted with a wave of his hand.
"Xiao Liu, you must be down-to-earth when doing things. If you do something unconscionable once, there will be a second or third time. As the saying goes, there is no impermeable wall in the world.
If you work for a long time, your conscience will not only deteriorate, but sooner or later the matter will be exposed. Suddenly, the reputation of our shop will be ruined, can you still eat this bowl of rice?
Furthermore, a matter of dozens of taels of silver is not worth it! If the business is a few thousand taels or tens of thousands of taels, I will eat my conscience. But with such a small amount of money, who are you looking down on?"
He Zhao, who had already walked away, did not hear the conversation between the two.
However, he kept in mind that the old gentleman said that the wild ginseng was twenty-five years old and gave him an extra ten taels of silver.
From now on, if you have any good medicine, come to their store to sell it!
Or, when preparing the medicinal materials for the second recipe of the Four Sanshou Forms, purchase them from this store.
After leaving the medicine hall, he went straight to the West District.
The black market was divided into two areas by the people behind the scenes, namely the east and west ends.
In the East District, regular stores do not allow fakes.
In the West District, there are small stalls owned by various people, selling everything. The main thing is that most of the things are cheap. At the same time, there are also a lot of fakes. If you are deceived, you can only suffer at your own peril.
Stepping into the Western District, you immediately feel the fiery atmosphere.
From gold, silver and jade to furniture and clothes, everything is available.
Some of the people who come to the black market are poor people, thinking about selling some gadgets to support their families. Some are thieves in the city, planning to sell their stolen goods in exchange for money.
There are also some bandits who come from all over the country to steal money. Most of them rob merchants' goods. After all, who has nothing to do with running around with a lot of money?
From this we can see how ruthless those who control the black market are.
If we are not tough, we will not be able to suppress the lawless thieves. If we are not tough, we will be even less able to suppress the family gangs who are looking forward to the black market.
"Brother, do you need medicinal oil?"
An unfamiliar voice sounded behind He Zhao. He turned around and saw a man wearing a black hood, with only his eyes, nose, and mouth exposed.
"Medicated oil?"
"That's right, a bottle of medicinal oil for a certain profession costs twenty taels of silver. Don't think it's expensive. The disciples of the outer courtyard can only buy one bottle every month. There is no more!"
Wait a minute, that's not right.
Tang Yuankui once said that there was once a rich boy who used one bottle a day for thirty days during exercise.
If you are only allowed to buy one bottle, how did the other party do it?
Just the next second, he immediately came back to his senses.
The disciples of the same profession who did not know their identity in front of me dared to take the medicinal oil and sell it on the black market.
Then it is not impossible for a rich kid to spend more money and buy it from other outer courtyard disciples.
"What's the internal price?"
"What!"
The man selling medicinal oil was stunned when he heard this.
"What I mean is, if you, an outsider, buy medicinal oil from others, how much money will it cost?"
""
The man holding a bottle of medicated oil twitched his eyelids.
I never expected that people could see through it in an instant.
"You're not the same person as us, are you?"
"no."
"Forget it, it's still twenty taels. To tell you the truth, the price for the brothers in the sect to buy and sell each other is fifteen taels. Alas, if I didn't have no hope of entering the inner courtyard, how could I take the medicinal oil and sell it on the black market?
."
twenty taels
He thought for a while and decided to buy it.
One hundred and sixty taels of silver, not bad money!
"twenty."
He took out two gold ingots from his arms and placed them in the hands of a disciple. With the other hand, he took back the medicinal oil from the other disciple's hand.
"Thank you."
After receiving the money, the man immediately disappeared into the crowd.
It's not that I don't want to negotiate the price, but I'm very firm in saying that I won't sell it for less than twenty. If you are stubborn, don't think about using words to break it up. Even if you say a flower, you still won't sell it.
"Brother, I have the medicinal oil from Liuhemen, no more than twenty taels of silver."
Seeing some business going on, another person appeared.
"Can."
He practiced "Monkey Step" and "Eight Vajra Postures" respectively, and the medicinal oils from the two companies were perfect for each other.
What's more, my ambition is not just that, I also hope that I can crack the recipe of medicinal oil.
If you succeed, it will be of great benefit to your future cultivation.
As for whether it's just wishful thinking, I still have to give it a try.
Then he rejected a few other people who were about to sell medicated oil and began to wander around the West District.
Antiques, unknown prescriptions, all kinds of weapons, and even a few people selling their sons and daughters.
Not long after, he stopped in front of a bookstall.
Most of the stalls were miscellaneous books, with only two or three medical books standing out.
"How to sell?"
"Miscellaneous books are cheap. You can choose three books for one hundred cents. If you buy them individually, they cost fifty cents each. The medical skills passed down by our ancestors are priced at one or two silver each!"
He personally did not believe in the medical books handed down by the stall owner's ancestors.
It’s really passed down from our ancestors, how can you still come to the black market and set up a stall?
Either it was stolen from the home of an ancestor who practiced medicine, or it was obtained cheaply from other sources.
He squatted in front of the bookstall, picked through four books, and flipped through them a little.
""Zhang's Medical Skills", "Naqiliu Acupuncture Meridian", "Compendium of Materia Medica", "Poison Tie"."
"Four taels of silver."
After the stall owner finished speaking, the man named He stood up and left.
Do you think I'm a victim?
"Hey, hey, don't leave! You can negotiate the price, ask for a high price, and pay back on the spot. Young man, don't be so angry, why are you leaving just like you said?"
"Half a tael of silver!"
Hearing this, he stopped and turned around to quote the price.
"What?"
Damn it, other people are just talking about the price, and you show your knife and slash my aorta. It's really not a joke.
"No"
Without waiting for the word "possible" to come out of his mouth, he turned back and continued walking forward.
"Okay, half a liang is half a liang."
The stall owner, like a frustrated football, set up a stall in the West District at night.
Three hours passed, but no one cared.
Even those who were interested shook their heads and left after hearing the price.
It's not easy to meet a buyer, but you can't let him run away.
"Crack!"
He Zhao reached into his arms and took out a gold ingot, then took out a sharp knife from his waist and chopped it into pieces.
"Half two, put it away."
The stall owner took the money and handed over the four books heartbrokenly.
He put away his books and walked out with long strides.
We have gained a lot tonight, it’s time to go home and sleep.
What he didn't know was that there were a few pairs of eyes secretly staring at him.
"Follow me, I didn't expect to run an errand for Manager Xu, and I'll meet a fat sheep. It's a fat sheep in the wilderness. After killing it, the body will be thrown away. The next day, there will only be a few bones left."
"Boss Gu, there's no need to add anything to the problem, right? Judging from his body shape and footwork, he should be a good practitioner." The remaining subordinates put forward different opinions.
"Idiot, two fists can't beat four hands. What's more, we have weapons at our side, what are we afraid of? If you don't want to get rich, just go back alone." After saying this, Boss Gu waved his hand, indicating that those who were willing to go would follow.
Several people looked at each other, gritted their teeth, and did it!