novelcrest Chapter 116 The Broken Cabinet Presses Down on the Door, Liuli Walks Through the Underworld
Chapter 116 The Broken Cabinet Presses Down on the Door, Liuli Walks Through the Underworld
Chapter 117 The Broken Cabinet Presses Down on the Door, Liuli Walks Through the Underworld
The elevator climbed upwards, and only the sound of the chain dragging could be heard inside the metal cabin.
Han Shaobai was hugging a tattered meal ticket cabinet, the corner of which was pressing against his stomach, his face pale and almost unrecognizable.
Tieguai Li's teeth itched with rage. "You wouldn't even be this attentive when you're holding your wife, would you?"
Han Shaobai was almost in tears. "Brother Li, I don't have a wife."
Cheng Xiaojin leaned against the elevator wall, a cigarette dangling from his mouth, and muttered, "No wonder, it's the first time I've ever hugged someone with a door."
I gently touched the inside of the cabinet door.
Han Shaobai's arm went limp, and the cabinet almost slipped down.
Tang Wanqing flicked out the red thread, the end of which stuck to the cabinet door, suppressing any noise from inside the cabinet.
"Hold on tight, and if you let go, it will go to him."
Han Shaobai looked at Cheng Xiaojin, "Looking for Brother Cheng?"
Cheng Xiaojin looked pale, but still joked, "Why are you looking for me? I didn't steal its meal ticket."
Zhou Banxian pressed the compass to his chest, the needle swaying wildly at the seven positions. "Don't fight after the door opens, the air on the street has changed."
Han Shaobai swallowed hard. "What did you change it to?"
Tieguai Li moved the wrench to his left hand. "If your ancestors saw this, they'd want to move the ancestral tablet overnight."
The elevator doors opened.
The first floor of Boguzhai was dark, with the emergency lights glowing green and yellow mist seeping in through the cracks in the door. The porcelain bowls in the display case were spinning on their own, with their bottoms facing outwards.
The two men huddled against the wall, their jaws clenching.
"Young master, a woman is coming out from across the street."
Han Shaobai, clinging to the cabinet, dared not move. "What woman?"
"In the painting, her hair drags on the ground, she's holding a box, and asking who wants to buy rouge."
Cheng Xiaojin immediately asked, "Did anyone talk to me?"
Old Feng almost spoke, but I stopped him.
Old Feng peeked out from behind the counter, saying, "I just wanted to say that we don't sell rouge in our shop."
Tieguai Li rolled his eyes. "Your mouth is more of a nuisance than my prosthetic leg."
Tang Wanqing used a red thread to weigh down the threshold, peeked out and glanced around, then retreated back into the house.
"The framing shop opened halfway up the door, but something seemed off inside."
Cheng Xiaojin asked, "Are there any living people left on the street?"
The shop assistant hurriedly said, "A few shops still have staff. Master Wang from Rongbaozhai called and said that a row of scrolls on their side are coughing."
Han Shao's eyelids twitched. "Even a scroll can cough?"
Cheng Xiaojin said, "The painting has been imbued with the popularity of people, and it has run into the old atmosphere of the Yin City. They are capable of doing all sorts of shameful things."
Zhou Banxian handed the compass to the crack in the door and pulled the needle outwards.
"The shadows haven't settled yet, only a layer of light is visible. Let's take this opportunity to gather the people from both shops together."
Han Shaobai hurriedly asked, "Where?"
Master Ma spoke up: "At the entrance of Boguzhai."
Han Shaobai nearly knelt down. "At my doorstep?"
"Your Buddha's belly is topped with the seventh gate, and the gate's energy recognizes this place."
Looking at the street, Master Ma said, "Once people disperse, they will be dragged away by paintings and objects."
Tieguai Li patted the broken cabinet and said, "Young Master Han, you're providing the money, the land, and even the cabinet tonight. You've really made quite a splash."
Han Shaobai made a face and said, "Thank you for praising me."
Cheng Xiaojin gestured to his two employees with his chin, "Go and call for help. Don't say it's haunted, just say Boguzhai is having a late-night snack. Whoever comes out will get two hundred each."
Han Shao's face twitched. "You're still giving out money?"
Cheng Xiaojin looked at him. "Is life more valuable, or two hundred?"
Han Shaobai gritted his teeth, "Send five hundred, go now."
The two men mustered their courage and ran out the door, while Huang Wu crawled forward, close to his heels.
Across the street, inside the framed shop, a woman in palace attire stood on the threshold, her long hair spread out on the floor, holding an empty box in her arms.
She spoke in a drawn-out tone, "Sir, would you like to buy rouge?"
The guy running behind was a beat slower.
Cheng Xiaojin shouted through the door, "Tell her that Han Shaobai can't afford it."
Han Shaobai almost choked on his saliva. "Brother Cheng, why are you using me as a shield again?"
Tieguai Li grabbed the copper paperweight from the counter and slammed it to the ground.
A metallic clang echoed across the street.
The woman in palace attire closed the box in her arms, retreated back into the doorway, her hair trailing across the threshold, leaving a wet, cold water stain.
Tang Wanqing looked at the copper paperweight in Tieguai Li's hand, "Don't hold it for too long."
"Know."
Tieguai Li threw away the copper paperweight.
The paperweight rolled to the threshold, its beast head pointing towards Cheng Xiaojin.
Cheng Xiaojin narrowed his eyes. "Young Master Han, your family's stuff wants to join in the fun too."
Han Shaobai hugged the cabinet, not daring to turn his neck. "Brother Cheng, please stop talking. I feel like everything in my house is trying to harm me."
"If you can figure this out, your ancestors didn't spoil you for nothing."
People gradually came out from both sides of the street.
Wang, the bespectacled man from Rongbaozhai, was wearing a cotton-padded coat, protecting a scroll of paintings in his arms, with two apprentices following behind him.
The proprietress of Boyaxuan, leaning against the door frame, cursed all the way there.
"Han Shaobai, offering money to call for help in the middle of the night, isn't that unethical again?"
Han Shaobai quickly said, "Aunt Wang, don't scold me yet, stand at my door."
"Is the feng shui good in front of your house?"
Cheng Xiaojin added, "With more people, the shouting gets louder."
The proprietress glanced at him. "That Xiao Cheng from Panjiayuan?"
"It is I."
"Aren't you a street vendor?"
"We're going out on fieldwork today."
When Glasses King reached the door and saw Master Ma, he tightened the scroll in his arms.
"Old Ma, how long has it been since Liulichang has seen any ghostly activity?"
Master Ma said, "Twenty years."
The bespectacled man's expression changed. "That time with Shouyi?"
"Um.
""
King Glasses looked at Cheng Xiaojin and hesitated for a moment before speaking.
"When your father came out of Boguzhai, he was also carrying a broken cabinet in his arms."
Cheng Xiaojin looked up. "What's in the cabinet?"
King Glasses shook his head. "I didn't see it. He only left one sentence: 'The Seven Gates should be suppressed by humans, not immortals.'"
"Zhou Banxian looked at Tang Wanqing and said, "That matches up, the living layer."
Tang Wanqing said, "When people press down on a door, they are pressing down on their lives. When someone is eating, someone is cursing, someone is settling accounts, the door will not dare to be climbed over."
Cheng Xiaojin looked at the closed shops on both sides. "No one lives in Liulichang at night, only goods live there. Old things breathe more than living people. If we don't go through here for the Seventh Gate, where else can we go?"
Tieguai Li cursed, "No wonder it made the sound first."
Han Shaobai frantically tapped his toes, "What should we do? Should I find someone to sleep at the hotel?"
The proprietress of Boyaxuan scolded, "You think someone can sleep on Ghost Street for five hundred? Do you think we're brainless?"
Cheng Xiaojin turned to look at her, "Aunt Wang, do you have an induction cooker?"
"Yes, for brewing tea."
"Take it out."
"What?"
"Cook noodles."
Han Shaobai almost shouted, "Cooking again?"
Tieguai Li laughed so hard his shoulders swayed. "Huguosi meat porridge, Liulichang noodles, Little Jinzi, are you planning to open a branch?"
Cheng Xiaojin said, "These people in Liulichang are so pretentious. They even breathe more than people when they're dealing with old things. If we don't have some hot food and some heated arguments tonight, the streets won't be calm."
The bespectacled man glanced down at the yellow mist. "That makes sense."
Han Shaobai looked at him, "Teacher Wang, you also believe in cooking noodles?"
"I believe in the power of living people."
The proprietress snorted, "I have the noodles, I have the scallions, but who's going to cook it?"
Han Shaobai quickly chimed in, "I'll pay."
"Of course you'll pay for it."
The proprietress tossed the keys to her apprentice. "Go get the pot, and bring that box of noodles over too. Don't touch the painting of the lady by the door; she just asked to borrow a comb, and I didn't."
Someone in the crowd laughed out loud.
With that laugh, the yellow fog on the street receded by half a foot.
Zhou Banxian looked down at the compass. "It works."
Cheng Xiaojin sat down on the inside of the threshold, her hands wrapped in thick cloth, keeping a safe distance from the water stains on the ground.
"Don't just cook noodles, you also have to set a price."
Han Shaobai didn't understand. "What price are you asking?"
"You guys in Liulichang know how to sell things, right? Get your stalls up and running. Don't actually sell the calligraphy, paintings, and porcelain yet. Shout out old prices, say you're selling at a loss, say you're getting a bargain. The more vulgar, the better."
The bespectacled man chuckled, "You've been refined your whole life, tonight you, a Panjiayuan vendor, will teach us a lesson in vulgarity."
Cheng Xiaojin said, "Teacher Wang, those elegant things are the scariest when they get rowdy. If you keep up that act, those scrolls might cough up blood tonight."
.
The bespectacled king turned to his apprentice and instructed, "Open the door, turn on the lights, and call for the night shift."
Han Shaobai's eyes widened. "Rongbaozhai is shouting too?"
The bespectacled man gazed at the fogged old street. "Aren't we going to shout? Are we just waiting for Yin City to open for us?"
The pot was quickly set up.
An induction cooker was placed at the entrance of Boguzhai. The proprietress put the food into the pot, sprinkled chopped green onions, and the steam rolled out along the threshold.
Han Shaobai stood to the side holding the broken cabinet, while several shop assistants carried money and pulled people out one by one.
Rongbaozhai lit up its lights, and an apprentice shouted that it was free to look at old books and paintings.
The owner of Boyaxuan scolded, "Whose painting coughs again? Drag it out and let it see how popular it is!"
Tieguai Li took a wrench and banged on the copper bucket, shouting as he did so, "Scrap copper and iron, if it's alive, I'll take it; if it's not, get lost."
As the noise increased, the empty box at the entrance of the framing shop closed itself shut.
The porcelain bowl in the display case stopped spinning, and the bottom of the bowl slowly sank back down.
Cheng Xiaojin couldn't touch anything or go far; he could only sit on the threshold, looking in the direction of the Boguzhai underground.
The sound from inside the Buddha's belly lowered.
But the door of the secondhand bookstore at the end of the street opened by itself.
A thread-bound book slid out from under the threshold, its pages turning, the words on the paper twisted together.
Within thirty paces, no one can escape.