It is very common to put a little thing in the open shop to attract fortune and fortune, and to ward off evil spirits, such as the statue of Guan Gong, the statue of the God of Wealth, the beckoning cat, and the like. It's no surprise that this custom is practiced all over the globe.

It's just that Nanlin Street is full of gossip mirrors, which is a bit strange.

People who come to open the store come from all over the world, how can they be so unified?

Combined with the suspicion revealed in the unreasonable suicide eucalyptus, the suspicion shown here on Nanlin Street can't help but make Lu Ming think more.

After telling Zhang Dingshan and He Wei about their findings, the three of them quickly decided to dig deeper to see if they could find any clues.

Zhang Dingshan spoke directly to Feng Guozhu on the phone: "Transfer a group of security officers to Nanlin Street." Don't wear a uniform, wear a regular attire. It's better to have a tender face, and the more student-like the better. ”

After about an hour, a team of security officers, totaling twenty people, arrived at Nanlin Street.

Lu Ming glanced at it and saw that these security guards were all very young. After putting on the regular clothes, they are just like ordinary young people. No one should doubt that it is a college student.

"From now on, you will play the role of a college student majoring in folk culture who participates in social practice activities. Most of the shops here on Nanlin Street have the habit of putting a gossip mirror at the bar, and you have to interview the shopkeeper one by one, what is the purpose of the gossip mirror, and where do they know about this custom? ”

The young vigilantes showed good qualities. Lu Ming obviously saw doubts on their faces, as if they were very puzzled by the so-called gossip mirror. But they still didn't hesitate at all, didn't ask more, and took the task directly.

After Zhang Dingshan finished speaking, Lu Ming added: "I'll assign the task." According to statistics, there are a total of 936 shops of all kinds here on Nanlin Street, numbered from 1 to 936. There are 23 forms, each with about 40 stores and their names. Each person will receive one and will be responsible for the investigation of the corresponding store on the form. Also, here are some small gifts, you should bring some with you. ”

Next to the crowd was a van. The car was full of small gifts like paper pumps, wet wipes, and keychains. The vigilantes each took some and set off separately.

To do social research, a small gift is indispensable.

The three members of the second team of the operation were not idle. Each of them took a form and set off to investigate with a small gift.

At this moment, the afternoon rush hour has passed. Most of the diners have dispersed, and the restaurant is in the process of cleaning and preparation. They shouldn't be very busy at this time, and if they investigate now, it shouldn't delay them so much that they will be disgusted.

Lu Ming came to a restaurant that was mainly engaged in skewers.

"Hello, we're not open yet, it's not until five o'clock."

When a waiter who was mopping the floor saw Lu Ming, he immediately straightened up with a standardized smile on his face.

Lu Ming looked at the bar and saw that there was also a gossip mirror there.

"Hello hello, I'm not here to eat. I'm a folklore student and want to conduct a social survey, don't worry, I'll just ask a few questions, and I won't be able to delay you for long. This is a small gift, please accept it. ”

Lu Ming smiled and was very polite.

The waiter hesitated slightly and said, "Okay." What do you want to ask? ”

"I found that there seems to be a gossip mirror in the shops and bars on Nanlin Street. Do you know why? Is it your boss who put it here? ”

"Of course the boss put it. How can we part-time workers care about this thing. ”

The waiter said, "The reason, what else could it be?" Ward off evil spirits. ”

"Did the boss say that?"

"I don't know, I guess."

Lu Ming said: "Can you please call the boss and ask?" We will make a documentary after conducting a folklore survey, and this restaurant may also be featured, which will have a certain publicity effect. Your boss shouldn't say no. ”

When the waiter heard that Lu Ming wanted to find the boss, he instinctively refused. But when he heard the words behind him, he still said, "I don't have a boss phone." Find the store manager. Store manager! ”

"It's coming, it's coming."

A very neat middle-aged woman walked over. After listening to Lu Ming's words, he happily took out his mobile phone and made a call.

After telling what happened here, she handed her mobile phone to Lu Ming: "No, you tell the boss." ”

"Hello, hello."

A non-standard Mandarin came out of the microphone: "Documentary, please make my shop beautiful." You say that gossip mirror, huh? It's to ward off evil spirits. Everyone else does this, and I do the same. Go with the crowd and don't suffer...... The shopkeeper told me that it didn't matter anyway, so I put one. ”

"Thank you, thank you."

After making a note on the form, Lu Ming came to the second store.

The owner of this shop happened to be here, so he met Lu Ming directly.

"Ward off evil spirits. The landlord said that all the shops here are like this, so I put them on the table. ”

After investigating 40 in a row, whether it is a restaurant or a supermarket, a cigarette hotel or a massage parlor, as long as the boss can be contacted, Lu Ming got almost all the same results.

Avoid disasters and evil spirits, and attract fortune and blessings. As for where this statement came from, it is nothing more than the former boss, landlord, peers, etc.

Those who couldn't be contacted by the boss also got similar results from the mouth of the store manager and clerk. There are also those who do not cooperate, but the number is small, only two, which is not enough to affect the overall statistics.

The human psyche is wonderful. Lu Ming could clearly perceive that a considerable number of these bosses actually didn't believe in this set at all. But in a certain environment, people have a herd mentality.

Since everyone does this, then I'll do it too, and it doesn't hurt anyway, right? Maybe it will work.

In the evening, after summarizing all the investigation reports, Lu Ming saw that the results of the rest of the people's investigations were no different from his own investigations.

The answer is still the answer. The sources are still the same.

The next day, another investigation began. It's still the twenty vigilantes. It's just that this time, the scope of the investigation has been changed from Nanlin Street to the rest of the place.

The vigilantes began to count the proportion of shops outside Nanlin Street that placed gossip mirrors.

A total of 20 blocks were randomly selected this time, some of which were adjacent to Nanlin Street, and some were far away. It took a whole day to summarize a total of more than 4,000 statistical results to Lu Ming.

Lu Ming saw that except for Nanlin Street, only about 12% of the shops in the rest of the blocks placed gossip mirrors. On South Grove Street, 97% of the total.

Even with this 12 percent, it is the two neighborhoods adjacent to South Forest Street that contribute most of the figure. If these two blocks are removed, the overall proportion will be reduced to less than 10%.

This indicates a clear trend.

Placing gossip mirrors to ward off evil spirits is almost a custom unique to Nanlin Street. Except for the two neighborhoods that are slightly affected by this, and the probability of placing gossip mirrors is a little higher, there is no such custom in the neighborhoods outside of it.

So the obvious question is, why does Nanlin Street have this custom? Is there a connection between this custom and the unreasonable suicide?

It is impossible for a "serious" investigative team to find out this step. For the same reason, they have to follow "common sense". And according to common sense, how can it be related to suicide if you don't put a gossip mirror in place?

Shops or families that don't put gossip mirrors have a high suicide rate among their residents? Absurd.

But Action 2 is different.

For Zhang Dingshan, Lu Ming, He Wei, and Lu Qingliang, no matter how strange things are, as long as they show suspicion, they will definitely continue to investigate, and they will inevitably dig out the deep logic hidden behind them before they give up.

In this investigation, investigating the source of this custom in Nanlin Street has become the next step to do.

"Most of the people who run shops here on Nanlin Street are tenants, and most of them are new. This custom existed before they opened the store. To investigate the origin of this custom, it is necessary to find the landlords of these storefronts, as well as the aboriginal owners of old shops that have been open for at least ten years. ”

"It's simple. I asked Feng Ju to make a statistical table. ”

Lu Ming grabbed the phone and called Feng Guozhu. The next day, a document was delivered to several people.

The document details the owner of each shop on Nanlin Street and the opening date of each store. If the business has been open for more than 10 years, the contact information of the boss is also listed.

This is followed by a new round of surveys.

Blue Lake City, on the outskirts of the city, in an old community of some years, a group of elderly people are sitting in the sun at the door of a chess and card room, chatting casually. There are several mahjong tables in the chess and card room, as well as chess, Go and the like, and there are also people fighting with great interest.

"Excuse me, is Mr. Liu Baohua here?"

The arrival of Zhang Dingshan and his entourage attracted many observations.

This kind of elderly chess and card room, young people still rarely come.

"I am, you're looking for me?"

At the door of the chess and card room, an old man with a birdcage in his hand and a half-bald head looked at the three of them.

Lu Ming had a smile on his face, and said very respectfully: "Hello uncle, we are students of the Folklore College, and we are here to do a social survey. We'd like to ask you a few things, okay? ”

The old man seemed to be very interested in talking, and said with a smile: "Isn't it just chatting." Okay, just ask. Xiao Zhao! Take three mazas. ”

"Hey! Here it comes! ”

The big-bellied middle-aged man who was called Xiao Zhao brought three Maza. He Wei piled up smiling faces, took out small gifts, and sent them to the old people who were chatting in the sun. Liu Baohua, in particular, directly gave three times the amount.

Liu Baohua has a sense of accomplishment of "I let you shine today", and it became more and more pleasing to the eyes when he looked at the three young people.

"That's right, we inquired that you have a shop on Nanlin Street, and you have lived in Nanlin Street for a long time, and you only moved here a few years ago."

"yes. There are too many people on Nanlin Street, and it is too noisy. It's not as clean as here. ”

"That's right. We noticed that on Nanlin Street, no matter what shop, restaurant or supermarket, there is a habit of placing a gossip mirror on the bar. You are an old man from Nanlin Street, do you know how this custom came about? ”

The old man Liu Baohua became more and more proud: "You are asking me the right person." This kind of thing, newcomers don't know, young people don't pay attention, and only old people like me know about it. ”

"Yes, yes, aren't we going to ask you?"

Lu Ming became more and more respectful: "Can you tell us?" ”

"Nanlin Street, you say? I also know that I used to have a house there, but it was demolished and I moved here. ”

】

"I've heard of it too."

The old people began to talk about it.

seemed to feel that his "uniqueness" and "uniqueness" had been broken, and the old man Liu Baohua was a little dissatisfied: "The dolls are here to ask me!" ”

Lu Ming said respectfully: "Don't worry, let's say one by one, we must ask as many questions as possible." Uncle, you speak first. ”

Liu Baohua's face improved a little: "Where is Nanlin Street...... Wicked. ”

He Wei took out the voice recorder before and recorded the old man's words in detail. She herself listened intently.

"In the past, there was a big archway at the west end of Nanlin Street, you know, right? You don't know where this torii came about, right? I know. ”

The old man said triumphantly: "That archway has been around for a long time. I've had it since my grandfather's generation. ”

"I really don't know."

"Lao Liu, don't sell Guanzi, what's going on with the archway? What does it have to do with that? ”

Liu Baohua said: "At that time, our Blue Lake City was just a small town. There was a rich man in the town, surnamed Zhou. Yes, yes, the old Zhou who died last year was his ancestor. This rich man of Zhou, that is more ruthless than Zhou's skin, in strong winds and rains, and forces people to go to the lake to fish. In normal times, there are no fewer things like bullying men and women. ”

"Tut, Lao Zhou's cerebral hemorrhage, if you can't say it, it's the retribution of your ancestors."

"Don't interrupt, listen to Lao Liu."

"The second son of the rich man of Zhou's family robbed the youngest daughter of a peasant family one day and wanted to be his sixth concubine. This girl also has a strong personality, she would rather die than give in, and while the son of the rich man of Zhou didn't pay attention, she hit the wall directly and died.

For the rich man Zhou's family, it is a big deal to die a person. Except for a little pity, the bastard son didn't feel anything else, so he just threw it out and buried it. ”

The old man Liu Baohua spoke vividly, as if he had experienced it himself.

"This kind of thing, the rich man Zhou's family has done a lot of it. No one can take care of it. If someone dies, throw it out and bury it. Where is it like now, dead people, and the security officers are eager to find out the eight generations of people's ancestors. ”

Old man Liu Baohua sighed a few words and continued: "Do you know where the Zhou family's corpse was dumped? ”

Speaking of the critical moment, the old man Liu Baohua slowly lit a cigarette and took a puff full of intoxication, which provoked the rest of the old people to urge: "You old Liu, don't sell it!" ”

"Speak quickly! Where the hell is it! ”

The old man Liu Baohua spat out a puff of cigarette and said slowly: "It's the archway." ”