When the day passed, there was no one in the middle of the night.

Even if it is a husband, he can't help but take a nap at this time. In the huge capital, the deep alleys on the streets have also faded away from the prosperity of the day, soaked in a kind of gloomy loneliness.

After the curfew, no one was allowed to travel from the merchants of the fang market to the yamen of the street government, according to the law. The doors of the houses on all four sides were closed, and only the banners of the guards on the tower of the city were hunting in the night wind.

But at this time, in an alley on South Street, there was a faint hint of brilliance. A yellow lamp hung at the door of the alley, swaying in the wind, silently, flashing an eerie atmosphere.

In the depths of the alley, there were no lights, and in the darkness, there were faint figures of people, shuttling back and forth, whispering, as if they deliberately did not want to be discovered. The dark street corners, the shadows of hidden whereabouts, are more like ghost gatherings.

An old man, leaning against a pillar at the corner of the street, was napping, his messy white hair was unkempt, and he looked like an ordinary janitor.

Hearing a series of footsteps, the old man opened his eyes and saw that a young man was coming, so he closed his eyes again and said directly: "Enter the ghost market and pay a tael of silver." ”

"Smack." Qiu Shaohu didn't say a word, and directly threw some broken silver to the ground, and the old man didn't look at it, just scratched and pulled it all away, and let him in.

As soon as he walked into the alley, Qiu Shaohu felt that many eyes around him were fixed on him, but those people quickly shifted their attention to their own business. Looking at the stalls, many people are selecting goods, and some people are bargaining with the stall owners in a whisper, which is no different from an ordinary street market. The special sense of depression has also dissipated a lot in silence.

"The night does not enter its door, and the day does not see its shadow. People don't talk about business, ghosts do their own business". The legendary ghost market is actually not so mysterious. In the past, there were always hawkers who came to the market in advance to occupy a place in order to grab a good stall, and those who came early could also sell their own batch of good goods in advance. After a long time, it became a convention to go out at night in a specific place, and gradually it became known as the "ghost market".

Due to the secrecy of the night, there are often some shady things in the ghost market, including some amazing things. There are also people who come here to try their luck by finding a thing or two here, of course, such people often come back disappointed when they encounter fakes.

However, there are still more regular customers in the ghost market, and if ordinary people don't have a way, I'm afraid they won't even be able to find the gate of the ghost market at night. It is also because of this that Qiu Shaohu has just arrived, which has attracted a burst of attention.

Living outside the capital when he was a child, Qiu Shaohu had heard of the name of "Ghost Market", and it was naturally not difficult to find it this time.

He came here this time to investigate the matter of the two tomb robbers. During the day, I rummaged through the official and private periodicals in the study house in the past few days, but I did not write any news of tomb robberies around the capital in recent days. used the star map to explore the past experiences of the two people, and found nothing suspicious.

Since nothing has been found in the investigation on the surface, it is necessary to use some channels in the dark. Whether it's recruiting fellow tomb robbers or selling stolen goods, the ghost market is an unavoidable link. If you come here, you may be rewarded.

Walking through the dark market, in just a short distance, Qiu Shaohu saw countless "treasures" placed in the stalls on both sides, either magic weapons or elixirs. Although the vendors in the ghost market will not take the initiative to solicit customers, as long as they ask, they all say how amazing the origin of their things is, either they are picked up by nine deaths under the cliff, or they are stolen from the sect with great difficulty.

"If it's true, why don't you use it yourself, but sell it?" Qiu Shaohu secretly slandered in his heart, he naturally saw too much of this kind of routine of deceiving people with fakes, so he never paid attention to it.

At this moment, a stall caught his eye.

On this small stall, most of the pots and pans, bottles and crockpots are placed, and occasionally there are one or two three-color pottery horses, each of which looks dirty, and it seems that the stall owner is too lazy to take care of it.

This stall is specially to sell all kinds of antiques, and the trading of antiques is also a big head in the ghost market, but the ghost market street is highly skilled in counterfeiting, and no one knows which stall is old last week, or really pulled out of the previous grave.

Seeing Qiu Shaohu come forward, the stall owner didn't get up, still sat on the ground, and said, "If you see something, look at it yourself, be careful not to break it." A new batch of goods had just arrived from outside the city, and it was the treasures that the poor people had dug up their ancestral graves. ”

"There are still people in the world digging their ancestral graves?" Qiu Shaohu said.

"Why not if you can change your meal? No matter how good the ancestors are, the dead can't reward the hungry to death, so it's better to take some things from the ancestors to help their descendants. Anyway, the group of homeless people outside have even lost their own land, so what else do they care. The stall owner said.

"Don't look at the goods, ask something." Qiu Shaohu got straight to the point.

"Inquiring? Don't say. The stall owner rejected him directly.

Qiu Shaohu was speechless, and directly threw two pieces of silver in front of the other party.

"Hehe, what do you command, just ask." The stall owner immediately changed his face, put away the silver, and said with a smile. The money is enough, but I know everything, after all, the people who come to the ghost market have their own goals, but there is no need to hide it.

"These tools should have been spread from the ghost market." Qiu Shaohu said, throwing a package in front of the other party, and the one in it was the tomb robber of the two people before. "Have you heard anything about this lately?"

"You're going to get into the industry too?" The stall owner's eyes lit up, and he picked up the contents of the package and looked at it, and said, "It's true that everything that is dug out of the surrounding graveyards will pass through the ghost market nine times out of ten." But these tools, heh, you're going to make it difficult for me. ”

Qiu Shaohu threw him another piece of silver.

"This kind of thing, there are many people in the ghost market, there are not a hundred but eighty people who can do it, I really don't know where you come from, but," after accepting the money, the stall owner continued, "There have been some rumors recently, but it's just ......"

Speaking of this, the stall owner deliberately lengthened his voice.

Qiu Shaohu threw him another piece of silver.

"Actually, I don't know." Putting away the money, the stall owner said apologetically.

"Give me back all the money." Qiu Shaohu was speechless, and he took a step forward to get all his silver back.

"Don't worry, listen to me." The stall owner hurriedly protected his hand holding the silver and said, "Some news in the market can't escape the ears and eyes of those street slickers and little deflated people, you can definitely know if you ask them." ”

Qiu Shaohu turned around and left.

After spending this money, although I didn't ask what I wanted to know, at least I had an eyebrow, and it was considered a gain.

"Ah......h The people in the ghost market seemed to be accustomed to it, and they were not surprised, but they just said, "The old madman is here again?" ”

"Yes, it's like this every day, and it's not annoying."

"Heh, it looks like I'm going to be teased by that group of little deflated people again, it's pitiful."

"Poor what, a madman."

The chatter of everyone aroused Qiu Shaohu's curiosity, so he couldn't help but walk towards the source of the sound.

After walking for a short time, I heard an old man's wail, accompanied by the scolding of some teenagers.

"You old fellow, why don't you die!"

"Phew, old and ugly trash!"

"Don't say it so ugly, if he really dies one day, won't no one let us bully?"

"Old madman, you let us fight every day, why don't you fight back?"

"He's gone crazy and doesn't understand anything."

"Then you say, we give him shit to eat, will he eat it?"

I went around the corner and saw that inside the alley, a group of little beggars surrounded an old man, beating and scolding. The old man was in rags, with only his head buried in the ground, looking delirious. And those little beggars scrambled to beat the old man, with innocent cruelty on their immature faces.

Born into filth, they have faced the ugliness of existence since they were children, and naturally have no mercy.

"Hey, you guys," Qiu Shaohu suddenly spoke, and all the little beggars stopped and looked at him, "Isn't it interesting that a group of boys bullied an old man?" ”

"Hey, look at your white and clean, you actually want to set up a beam for this dirty old man!" The little beggar who took the lead said unceremoniously.

"Children, don't be so impulsive," looking at them who were eager to try, Qiu Shaohu planned to send them away with silver, "I have something to ask you." ”

As soon as the words fell, I watched as out of the hands of those little beggars took out all kinds of guys, knives, sticks, hammers, and even a few people took out army-standard spears, and they were about to do it.

This kind of group of beggars, of course, is not just begging on the street, robbery, stealing bags, and even kidnapping tickets and extortion are their daily routine, so they are also extremely ruthless, often insignificant.

"I said, young people, don't be so impulsive." Qiu Shaohu looked at this group of boys, he was really angry and funny, and the thought of sending them money was gone, and he planned to teach them a lesson first.

"Go!" Shouting slogans, the beggars swarmed up.

……

"This year's examination is about to start again."

"Yes, thanks to this, the test questions in our study have been selling very well in the past two days."

"But who do you think will be the top spot this year? I heard that a thirteen-year-old lifter, named An Jin, also came to participate in this test, which can be regarded as breaking the record of Shi Yi when he was fifteen years old, right? ”

"But Shi Yi was the first person to take the township test Xie Yuan, and he was the first to raise people, this An Jin is only younger than Shi Yi but not the first place, and it is still uncertain whether he can surpass Shi Yi in his learning."

In the Kangjing Zhilezhai semicolon, the people inside are discussing the things that will be examined. Suddenly, I saw a woman walk in, and immediately respectfully, "Boss." ”

"Well," Li Yixuan just lightly agreed, took out a book of this year's test questions from the bookshelf next to him, and said, "This is what was printed this year?" ”

"Yes, boss, ...... this year" Zhile Zhai's entourage was about to say carefully, but he saw Li Yixuan's brows tightly locked, thinking about something, so he didn't dare to continue talking.

There is no need for others to introduce him, Li Yixuan naturally knows that in previous years, in order to facilitate the review of the scholars, the imperial court in charge of the imperial examination, will also deliberately print a batch of such collections, and sell them through major booksellers, so that the scholars who come to Beijing can purchase at will, and the Ministry of Rites and booksellers will share the profits with each other.

In other words, only the imperial court was qualified to print such collections, and if other booksellers published and printed them privately, they would have confiscated their homes at least and connected the three clans in the name of fraud. Unification is a channel monopolized by the imperial court, and there will only be a single source.

This year, however, the paper on which these collections were printed seems to be different.

"Soft lotus silk paper." Li Yixuan smelled this fresh and familiar smell from above.

It is also the paper used in the letter sent to her by Yangzhai Hanke.