Having said that, I didn't plan to continue to go around the bend, and said directly to Chen Laohan: "I don't want to run the paper." ”

Old Man Chen frowned: "What's the matter, think our Shantang's rune paper is not good enough?" ”

I smiled: "The rune paper of Shantang is definitely a good thing, but I don't want it." ”

Old Man Chen was still frowning, but he didn't speak, just stared at me.

I then said to him, "I want your inheritance." ”

Old Man Chen's face immediately showed consternation: "Want my inheritance? Do you want to learn to make paper? No, according to the ancestral system of Shantang, I can no longer accept disciples. ”

Although Chen Laohan's tone was still so emotionless, I felt that he should be a little tempted by my proposal.

If there are other descendants in Shantang after Chen Laohan washes his hands, and now I put forward such a condition, Chen Laohan will definitely pick up the bench at hand and smash me out.

After all, for any sect, inheritance is an unpassed secret that they have to protect all their lives.

But now that the inheritance of Shantang is about to be broken, what I am doing now is to continue the incense for the inheritance of Shantang.

The sect may disappear, but your legacy will continue with me.

I didn't speak, just looked at Chen Laohan silently.

After saying what he said just now, Chen Laohan also fell silent, and looked at me with a frown.

After a long time, he shook his head: "No, I can't accept you as an apprentice." ”

I smiled and said, "I'm a disciple of Yu Dong, and I can't just apprentice without his permission." I mean, you just have to pass on your legacy to me, you don't have to teach, I just teach myself. ”

Old Man Chen pondered for a moment, and then smiled helplessly: "It's really a cheap deal." You just want to help me deal with a case that doesn't hurt or itch, and you want to take away the inheritance of Shantang. ”

I still just smiled and didn't speak.

After a short moment of silence, Chen Laohan nodded vigorously at me as if he had made a lot of determination: "Okay, I believe that the family can keep the inheritance of the Shan Tang immortal, and I made this deal!" ”

Then he changed his tone again: "But I can't give you the skill of making rune paper." ”

Actually, I didn't covet Shantang's papermaking skills, not because I didn't want to do the rune paper business, but because I couldn't do it, after all, there were so many shops selling rune paper in the back alleys of the house, and if I used Shantang's skills to compete with them, then their business would not be able to do it.

If these people's business can't be sustained, the annual dividends that can be received by the back alley will be reduced by at least half.

I have observed that most of the employers who go to the back alleys go to the rune paper shops, although they can't find such good goods as Shantang in the back alleys, but after all, there are many people who do the same kind of business, and the people who buy things can also take a look at it, go shopping, and shop around.

And the reason why the back alley has a lot of dividends every year, the doorway is in this "take a look, go shopping", employers finally come to the back alley, of course, it is impossible to only visit the rune paper shop, other stores will also go in to take a look, this is like going to the supermarket, originally made up my mind to buy a few things and hurry home, but when the dazzling array of goods in front of me, I always want to buy a little bit of everything, and finally empty my purse, but let the store earn a lot of money.

In the old alleys, each store has its own fixed customers, as long as these stores are there, there is no worry that no one will go to the alley to do business, and it is precisely because of the large customer flow that the newly opened stores are easy to survive as long as the things are good.

You may ask, I don't often see people in the old alleys, why do I say that there is a lot of traffic now?

In fact, it's not that there is no one in the alley, but that you usually walk on the road and can't see these people, because all the guests who enter the old alley don't take the yang road.

As for what Yang Road is, and where did the employers who entered the old alley go, these things have nothing to do with the current matter, so let's not talk about it for the time being, and it will naturally be mentioned later.

In fact, in the year of '07, although I had been in the old alley for a short time, most of the time I didn't care about the things in the alley, so I didn't know much about many things.

In any case, it is not necessarily a good thing for me to get my hands on the papermaking skills of Shantang.

So when Chen Laohan said that he couldn't pass on the papermaking craft to me, I felt a little more relaxed and said to him: "If you don't pass it on, you won't pass it on, to be honest, even if you pass on this craft to me, I may not be able to learn it." ”

Chen Laohan nodded: "Indeed, to learn this craft well, you must need the master to teach experience, and you can't learn it by self-study alone." But...... In addition to the craftsmanship of papermaking, the inheritance left by Shantang is a set of Tengyunbu. ”

I said, "Tengyunbu, is that the set of light body kung fu you used just now?" ”

Chen Laohan smiled a little embarrassedly: "It's ugly." ”

All I want is his lightweight kung fu.

I gave a smile: "Tell me about the village." ”

Now that he's offered the price I'm hoping for, let's get down to business.

Chen Lao Chen took a deep breath and sorted out his thoughts a little before he spoke: "You have already seen Chen's big stick, right?" ”

Seeing that I nodded, Chen Laohan continued: "In the past two years, Chen Dabang has brought a woman from other places into the village every once in a while, and every time he comes back, he will transport people to Widow Wang's house, but the villagers only see people going in, but no people coming out. ”

I couldn't help frowning: "Only in but not out?" How many people did Chen bring back in total? ”

Chen Laohan: "According to the villagers, he brought back at least a dozen people. ”

When I was walking around the village before, I had carefully looked at the earthen houses on the side of the village road, almost every household had a big yard, but the house was not big, and it was the limit to live for four or five people, and more than a dozen people would definitely not be able to live.

I asked Chen Laohan, "Where have all these people gone?" ”

Chen Laohan shook his head: "I don't know where they went, but I heard that every time Chen Dabang transports people back, within three days, a car with a foreign license plate will appear near the fort." ”

I folded my hands and thought about Chen Laohan's words repeatedly, trying to figure out what Chen Dabang was doing, and what the car that appeared near the fort had to do with him.

There are too few clues to draw conclusions no matter how I think about it.

While I was thinking, Chen Laohan also frowned silently, as if he was sorting out the words again.

After a long time, he continued what he had just said: "The people who were transported back by Chen Dabang should have been picked up by these two foreign vehicles. ”

I said, "Didn't Chen Dabang transport people to the village?" Out-of-town cars appear on the side of the fort, how to pick up people? ”

"I don't know, that's what the villagers say." Chen Laohan said: "People in the village say that Chen Dabang and Widow Wang teamed up to abduct and sell women from other places, and I rarely come back, so I can't tell if it's true or not." ”

Could it be that Li Huaishan and I traveled thousands of miles from Kunming to Ningxia just to deal with a case of human trafficking, and we should go to the police for this kind of thing?

But then Chen Laohan's words made me realize that things are not so simple: "This year's Midyear Festival, Widow Wang suffered a little cold when he burned yellow paper for his dead man, at first she thought it was a common cold, and she didn't catch the medicine, so she cooked a little ginger soup to drive away the cold, but I didn't expect that the illness has been bad, and after a long time, there are even signs of aggravation, Chen Dabang couldn't see it, so he took her to the county hospital, but what Chen Dabang didn't expect was that as soon as she entered the gate of the hospital, Widow Wang suddenly shouted, 'Don't kill the child!' Then he slammed into the hospital doorpost. Chen Dabang saw that the situation was not right, and hurriedly took the widow back to the village. ”

I interjected and asked, "People are crazy, shouldn't they be loosened in the spiritual hospital, how did they bring it back?" ”

Chen Laohan: "Chen Dabang's reaction is really strange, after he came back with Widow Wang, he didn't enter the village, and even locked Widow Wang in the fort, and he lived there. ”

I said, "But I heard Boss Huang say that isn't the fort often haunted?" ”

Chen Laohan: "Logically speaking, the fort is just yin, but my rhubarb is still alive, and it is unlikely that something will happen in that place." Speaking of which, during the Republic of China, the fort on the east slope was indeed a restless place, and it happened that my grandfather took a fancy to the local water quality and planned to move the good hall over, so he helped the villagers to calm the disaster in the fort. ”

I asked, "What happened in the fort?" ”

Chen Laohan pursed his lips: "I was still young at the time, I can't remember clearly, I only vaguely remember that it seems to be several powerful ghosts in the castle." By the way, my grandfather said that there are things in the fort itself, and the ghosts can only make a fuss in it, and they can't get out, but if Shantang wants to use the water under the ground, it is necessary to uproot the town, for this, my grandfather had to buy a spirit cow from Yunnan, and use the cow's yang shou to sacrifice to the sky, and level the ghosts in the fort. ”

Note that Chen Laohan said that he "leveled" the disaster, "leveled" the ghosts, this kind of statement is very rare, in our industry, to deal with ghosts, either town, or degree, I don't understand what the so-called peace means.

Thinking of this, I asked Chen Laohan: "Did your ancestor kill the ghosts in the fort?" ”

Chen Laohan shook his head: "No, my grandfather let these ghosts return to the yang." ”

When I heard this, I was shocked.

Returned to the yang? What kind of joke, forcibly let the ghost return to the yang, that is to be damned!

Chen Laohan's words were not finished: "In my grandfather's generation, Shantang's Taoism was basically lost, my grandfather thought of a way that was not a way, the cow he bought from Yunnan itself has a strong spirituality, originally able to live for more than twenty-five years, my grandfather used the five-year yang life of the spirit cow to sacrifice to the sky, in this way, the cow has folded five years of life, but there is a strong yang energy on the body, this yang energy will follow the bloodline, in the descendants of the spirit cow from generation to generation." ”

(End of chapter)