Chapter XXIII. Door-to-door negotiations
Da Mao told me that Jia Ma Dan gave you a good bone, and left after applying the medicine, and told you to rest more, don't work too hard, this kind of small injury can recover in a day or two, but the soreness is inevitable. I asked Da Mao, what should I do now, do I just lie down all the time? Da Mao said that it seems that it can only be like this, but it doesn't matter if you can't move, you tell me what to do, and I'll do it.
I turned my head to look at the light coming in through the window, and then asked, what time is it, Da Mao told me, you have been in a coma for a long time, and it is almost noon. I asked Da Mao to help me sit up, and then said to him, "All right, until about three o'clock in the afternoon, you will go to Jia Ma Dan, and say that I hope he will come to our house anyway and tell me about last night." I especially told Da Mao that he must make this matter more serious, and he must persuade him to come over, and if he can't persevere, you will come back and help me over, even if it is to climb, I must meet him before the ghost market opens tonight.
Da Mao understood what I meant, frowned and nodded. I think this young man suffered a loss in the fight last night, and now that I think about it, I'm afraid I have some lingering palpitations. So the two of us discussed how to open this mouth with Jia Ma in the afternoon, and ate steamed buns at the same time.
The injuries on my body were actually not serious, even if they were a little sore, and I couldn't do anything. The dislocation is just a misalignment between the joints, and I hurt all the joints, mainly in the knees, which can directly affect my walking, but it doesn't matter what matters in my hands. So I was prepared, and I was going to say that if Jia Ma Dan refused to come, I would have to go to him and talk about it, even if I held back the pain.
At about three o'clock in the afternoon, Da Mao left the house to find Jia Ma Dan, and unexpectedly, after about half an hour, he really brought Jia Ma Dan over. As soon as he entered the house, he looked at me lying on the ground like a wasted man, and said to me in the first sentence, "Young man, I will say the words in front, if you want to thank you, then you don't have to, it's a good thing." I want to thank you instead, I don't know how you lured out that female ghost so easily, you must know that over the years, there have been many masters who want to catch it, and this is a cheap discount for me.
Then Jia Ma Dan said, one more, you don't expect me to hand over this female ghost to you, first of all, she can be worth a sum of money, and when she sells it, I will give away all my remaining ghosts, and I can leave this ghost place alone, and secondly, even if it is handed over to you, you may not be able to control it, your little soldier and horsemanship, the temple is small, I am afraid that it will not be able to fit this big Buddha.
It seems that Jiama Dan had expected that we would go to him, and even expected what we wanted to say. But what he said was actually what I expected. I asked Da Mao to hand Jia Ma Dan a steamed bun, and said Brother Jia Ma, you eat radishes and vegetables every day, I'm afraid this mouth has long been tasteless, eat some steamed bread noodles, we still have pickles here, although it's not a decent thing, it's better than radish and cabbage, that thing, eat old fart.
I laughed, trying to lighten the mood a little bit in this way. Jia Ma Dan was not polite, he sat in front of me with a puff of ass, took the steamed bun and began to eat the pickles. While eating me, he said to him, "Brother Jiama, I can't hide it, this time I came to this place with my little brother, in fact, it was not mainly for the female ghost of the green cheongsam, but it was the key to the whole thing. You also know that the main purpose of the mysterious person behind the scenes, controlling this ghost market, is to find this guy. If you put it out for sale tonight, all the efforts we've made so far will be in vain. This ghost belongs to you, we absolutely don't want it, but can you please give us a little more time to investigate this matter.
While nibbling on the steamed bun, Jia Ma Dan snorted and said, "Young man, don't be overwhelmed, there are some things you can manage, and some things you can't manage." If it is really as easy as you say, we will unite to resist early in the morning, and it is precisely because we can't resist that we have been abiding by the old rules. This Sanchuan ghost market has existed for some years, and as long as the essence remains the same, everyone will not care if there is anyone actually controlling this place, or who is the person who is controlling it.
Jia Ma Dan actually made a lot of sense, it's like if I went to rent a shop to do business, and I have to pay the rent anyway, and I don't care about handing it over to you or to him. Jia Ma Dan and I just met two days ago, and people don't have to sell my face, and besides, the people here are all fighting their own battles, and it's even a bit selfish to say that it's ugly, so why should people risk taking risks by getting involved in it for me and Da Mao's not pure motives.
And listening to Jiama Dan's meaning, this mysterious person behind the scenes seems to have a very strong wrist, so strong that even if these masters join forces, they may not be able to resist. I don't believe this very much, but I know that if I want to unite the masters in this market, I am afraid it will be more difficult than overthrowing this mysterious person behind the scenes.
So I told Jia Ma Dan about the content of the conversation between me and the silly girl last night, and by the way, I added fuel and vinegar, saying that this mysterious person behind the scenes can be said to be unscrupulous in order to achieve the goal, if you sell this ghost to him today, maybe this ghost market will cease to exist tomorrow, because such a person is very likely to directly eradicate this place in order to cover up the news, and maybe it will also affect those innocent masters who don't even know what happened. Then I also told Jia Ma Dan that this man also spent money to buy a silly girl with yin and yang eyes, and you may know that the silly girl is here to find a ghost, just like the masters who came before, but you may not know that if this ghost is found tonight, the fate of the silly girl is difficult to say. If this person still has some humanity, he can still give her a proper placement, if not, if he is just a mercenary person, where do you let this stupid girl live?
Although he knew that I was adding fuel to his heart, Jia Ma Dan still nibbled on the steamed bun without saying a word. On the contrary, it was Da Mao, and when he heard me say that the silly girl might be miserable after that, he couldn't help but look anxious on his face. Jiama thought for a while and said to me, "Tell me, what do you want to do?"
I said to Jiamadan, first of all, please wait for me for two or three days, until my body is restored and I can move freely. During this period, I will ask my brother to buy a ghost from you every day, as a compensation for your delay. Secondly, as you said just now, even if this ghost is handed over to me, I may not be able to control it, in this case, if you hand it over to that silly girl, she will be even more uncontrollable. Isn't that harmful?
Jia Ma Dan didn't seem to think of this, and even his mouth paused while eating steamed buns. He asked me, what should I do, do I have to wait for a good master from the other party to sell it? I shook my head and said, "That's not necessary, but you can tell the other party that this thing can't be handed over by someone, whoever buys it belongs to whom, and you can't buy it by these people and then give it to the mysterious person behind the scenes, he has to buy it himself."
After listening to me, Jiama looked at my face for a long time, and it was clear that he understood what I meant, and I was saying that I wanted to take this opportunity to lure that person out, so that we would not have to dig into the bottom of it. I have injuries on my body, I can't run too much, and Da Mao's ability is limited, at least when it comes to dealing with ghosts, he doesn't seem to have many tricks. So our situation at the moment is very passive, and now the ghost has been taken away again, and we don't actually have any weights in our hands to use, and a few steamed buns are probably not enough to convince Jia Ma Dan to do what we say.
As I said this, Jia Ma Dan suddenly frowned and asked, "Young man, can you tell me what you are trying to do this?" I glanced at Da Mao, and then said to Jia Ma Dan, because we all feel that the existence of this ghost market is unreasonable, and ghosts are not commodities and should not be bought and sold. They should go where they need to go, not be sold and used as tools.
My straightforwardness, perhaps a bit out of his mind, probably didn't expect me to be so forthright about our true motives. And I also know in my heart that even if we burn down this ghost market today, as long as the mysterious person behind the scenes is still manipulating, it will resurge sooner or later. Since we have to do it, we have to do it thoroughly, and once the identity of the mysterious person behind the scenes is revealed, we can directly decide what we should do next.
I thought that Jia Ma Dan would think that I was a smashing person, and then he brushed his sleeves away in a rage, and even smashed the half of the steamed bun in his hand on my face. But who knew that he seemed to be very emotional, sighed without saying a word, put the steamed bun on his lap, and then took out two things from his arms, one left and one right, in front of me.
I looked closely, and on the left was a round copper ball, about the size of an orange. There is a gap in the middle of the copper ball, which seems to be the kind that can be split in half and then screwed together. The surface of the copper ball has been a little mottled, and it can be seen that it has been used for a long time, and this is probably what Da Mao said, the magic weapon that Jia Ma Dan used to imprison ghosts before.
And the other one, is the "horse rope" in Da Mao's mouth, the two ends are a small thing like a scale, black paint, connected to a belt about two grains of rice thick in the middle, the belt is red and black throughout, but it is painted with yellow lacquer, painted with a lot of strange words.