With a glimmer of hope, I became even more cautious and inched forward slowly along with the crowd.
I scanned the crowd but didn't spot Si Jiangchen. Instead, I saw seven or eight ghosts attached to some objects...
I couldn't help but sigh. Since ancient times, wealth has always tempted people. Any treasure is stained with human lives!
I've always turned a blind eye to these ghosts who are still attached to the mortal world.
If I got entangled with them, their karmas would become mine.
I'm no do - gooder who likes to meddle in other people's business!
So I deliberately avoided those stalls with a human - life stain on them. Munching on the squid in my hand, I continued to move slowly with the crowd.
For convenience, I never wear skirts. Today was no exception. I was in a T - shirt and shorts, with my long hair tied up in a high ponytail at the back of my head. All the necessary things were in my backpack on my back.
This kind of outfit would prevent me from scratching or bumping into the stall owners' "treasures" in a place like this where goods were piled up messily. I heard from Du Wenzhong that in such a mixed - up place, there were often people who would stage accidents and blackmail others!
While keeping an eye on my surroundings, I stuffed the remaining squid into my mouth.
Suddenly, I stumbled. It seemed that someone had grabbed my ankle. I staggered and almost fell. The skewer of the squid almost poked into my throat!
I quickly looked down and saw a pale little hand quickly retracting into a stall.
"Want to run?!"
I stomped down towards that little hand.
It almost stabbed me through, and now it still wanted to escape?!
"Thud!"
"Clatter, clatter..."
After a dull sound, several clay pots on the roadside stall shattered one by one like dominoes. The stall owner sitting on a small folding stool immediately jumped up and grabbed my backpack.
"You broke my pots!"
The stall owner was a middle - aged man in his forties. His greasy eyes looked at me as if I were a fat sheep that had walked right into his hands. "These are clay pots from the Hongshan Culture. Each one is priceless!"
"No, it wasn't me!! I didn't kick your stall!"
The moment the stall owner grabbed me, I knew something was wrong. I had run into a seasoned blackmailer!
I swear I didn't touch anything.
I was at least half a meter away from those pots!
"Beauty, did they grow legs and walk to your feet by themselves?"
Seeing that I was a young and single girl, the stall owner became even more brazen. He squinted at me and said, "You're not looking at the road at this late hour. Are you checking out the guys?"
I didn't want to get entangled with him. There were no security guards in this spontaneous market, so I could only call the police.
I took out my phone and was about to dial when, unexpectedly, the stall owner snatched it from me and put it behind his back.
"Yo, are you trying to call your friends over? You look so cute. How many boyfriends do you have? Aren't you afraid they'll expose you when they all come?"
I frowned, annoyed by his shameless and vulgar words.
Thank goodness he was a living person. If he were a ghost, I would have stuffed him into a jar and buried him deep underground long ago!!
By now, many people were looking in our direction.
"How much are your pots?!"
With so many people around, I was afraid of being spotted by Si Jiangchen, so I wanted to settle this quickly.
"Hehe, not much. Just three... four... no no no, just eighty thousand yuan!"
The stall owner didn't expect me to give up struggling so easily. He quickly held up his right thumb and index finger to form an "8".
"Eighty thousand?!"
I stared at him with wide eyes. All the things on his stall were fake, newly made with a "fiery aura". The whole stall together wouldn't be worth eighty thousand yuan.
"Yes, eighty thousand each!"
The stall owner's greasy face showed a smug expression in the dim light. "You kicked six of my pots. Six times eighty is four hundred and eighty thousand... But seeing that you're just a little girl, you probably don't have that much money. How about..."
Before he could finish, I interrupted him, "How do you know I don't have the money?"
"Really?"
The stall owner had done this blackmailing business for a long time, but he had never met someone as confident as me. He was a bit at a loss for a moment and forced a smile, "That's good. Then we don't need to waste time. Pay up!"
Saying that, he reached out his hand to me.
"Give it to me!" I also reached out my hand. "If you don't give me my phone, how can I transfer the money to you?!"
"Haha!! That's right, that's right. Look at my forgetful brain!"
Nowadays, all payments were made through WeChat or mobile banking. The stall owner scratched his greasy hair and handed the phone back to me.
I took the phone and put it in my pocket. "It seems you've never received so much money before, right?!"
"Bullshit. When I was making big money, you were still kicking in your mother's womb!"
The stall owner was furious.
"Then, don't you know there's a daily transfer limit?"
I made a face at him and then turned around and squeezed into the on - looking crowd.
"Ah!! You little bitch! How dare you run?!"
The stall owner was really shocked today. He had never seen anyone who dared to turn around and run after being blackmailed.
He tried to get over the stall to chase me, but unexpectedly, he seemed to be tripped and fell head - first onto his own stall. There was a series of "clattering" sounds, and all the pottery on the stall was smashed under him, turning into a pile of fragments.
"Chi!"
I had already run quite far when I heard a soft giggle from a girl behind me.
"Sister, you don't need to run!"
Sure enough, a soft and sweet voice came into my ears. "That guy shouldn't chase after you anymore!"
When I looked back, I saw a little girl in a powder - blue short skirt following me. Her little face was flushed from running. When she saw me looking at her, she waved at me and said, "My name is Xiaofei. Hello, sister!"
"I don't know you. Why are you following me?"
I didn't stop walking.
"Aaaah! Sister, your words hurt my feelings. Now we know each other... "
The girl who called herself Xiaofei pouted, looking depressed. "I just helped you!"
"You were helping me?"
I twitched the corner of my mouth and said, "First, you let that little ghost grab my foot, and then you went to grab the stall owner's foot. I think you're deliberately approaching me, right?"
To my ruthless exposure of her intention, the girl didn't look embarrassed at all. Instead, she said proudly, "How about it? Isn't this a good trick? Hehe, now we're friends. Sister, come with me! It's so boring for me to wander around the ghost market alone!"
"I don't go with strangers."
My cold attitude was in sharp contrast to Xiaofei's enthusiasm. "And I definitely won't be friends with someone who raises little ghosts."
I don't know when it started in Huaguo, but there was a trend among young men and women to raise little ghosts. That evil technique from Southeast Asia claimed that the spirits of premature infants could bring good luck to people. So many discontented young people spent a lot of money to buy so - called "Kuman Thong" or "Kuman Le", which were just crudely - made clay dolls and put them at home.
I didn't know what state the little ghost on this girl was in, but I knew that those who raised these evil things would eventually suffer the consequences!