Chapter 23: Claw marks left on the wall of the dry well
Chapter 23: Claw marks left on the wall of the dry well
After Zhou You said goodbye to Song Fugui, he did not rush home.
He took a detour and bought two kilograms of braised beef, some side dishes, etc.
These stores are all time-honored brands in the city. They use secret recipes passed down from generation to generation, and the taste is amazing.
Customers who come to the store every day have to queue up, otherwise they won’t be able to buy it if they are late.
More importantly, the addresses of several stores are distributed around Tianjingfang, in the east, south, west and north.
While waiting in line, Zhou You calmly looked at the terrain of Tianjingfang and chatted with the residents who were waiting in line with him.
"This Tianjingfang has been abandoned for more than 20 years. I used to drink water from the well when I was a child."
"Tsk tsk, at that time, the eldest son of the Qi family in the city had to have good water from the sweet well for tea every day, and he was very particular about it. He would only start drawing water when the first ray of sunlight hit the well in the early morning."
"There's no one left. Ever since the well ran dry, there's been no one left in Tianjingfang."
"It's so barren that you can run horses and graze sheep there. What would people do in there?"
You can collect all the information you want to know by chatting with others.
The weeds in Tianjingfang have grown to a height of one person. It is rarely visited on weekdays and there are even rumors that it is haunted.
Judging from Fang Guiqi's decision to come here, he most likely saw the hidden terrain as a huge advantage.
He carried the beef and braised dishes he had sold and walked safely back home.
His parents were very happy to see him come home, but they also blamed him for spending money recklessly and should save it for his own health.
"Let's eat something good together."
It's a rare occasion for the family to have a meal together. Although the meal is simple, it is very warm.
After dinner, while my mother was washing the dishes, my father took out a few pieces of silver from his pocket and said, "Keep it."
Zhou You spread out his palm, and the loose change totaled about 10 taels.
"Don't treat yourself badly in the martial arts hall. Treat others when you should and make more friends."
"I, your father, just don't know how to behave. I've been a laborer all my life."
Zhou You nodded silently and accepted the silver, "I understand."
It is impossible for him to be treated to a meal. When he becomes successful in the future, he will be treated to meals by others.
Not a penny of the money my father gave me will be wasted.
At night, Zhou You stared at the picture of a hungry tiger on the wall and felt a crazy hunger spreading through his limbs.
That feeling of hunger is not because of not having eaten enough for dinner, but because of dissatisfaction with the status quo and a desire for all resources to improve and strengthen oneself.
He wants all the secret medicines and experience points, the more the better.
At midnight, the moonlight shines into the house from the window.
After Zhou You confirmed that his family was asleep, he quietly pushed the door open and went out. He looked left and right and saw that the street was quiet and empty.
Under the cover of night, he quickly shuttled through the streets and ran towards Tianjingfang.
The cool breeze enters your lungs, making you feel refreshed.
Tianjingfang has been abandoned for decades. The tallest weeds are more than a person tall. Snakes and rats roam around, and the air is cold and gloomy.
He practiced martial arts to build up his courage. Ordinary people would never dare to set foot here late at night.
Wandering in the deep grass, I found a barely visible path that was created by human hands.
He pushed aside the weeds and walked along the path. There was silence all around, only the occasional chirping of insects could be heard.
"There's no sign of human presence in this place."
The lush wild grass grows upright, and the moss is still on the uneven gravel piles on the ground.
It doesn't look like anyone frequents this place?
Abandoned site, haunted legends, is there really a black market here?
Zhou You became more and more alert and sensitively realized that he was involved in a dangerous situation.
However, things have come to this point, and even if I turn back I cannot stay out of it, so I might as well take a gamble.
A familiar pungent smell wafted through the wind, the unique smell of tiger bone ointment. Zhou You shuddered, the bushes in front of him had come to an end, and the moonlight poured down onto the open space ahead.
A three-meter-high well stands on the ground, surrounded by one-meter-long thick wooden fences.
Tianshuijing, the landmark building of Tianjingfang.
The well had long been dry, and at the bottom of the well there was nothing but dry soil, dead grass and fallen leaves.
The smell of tiger bone paste came from the bottom of the sweet water well, lingering faintly in the night sky.
Zhou You climbed onto the horizontal beam at the edge of the well and raised the torch to shine downwards. Although he could not see clearly, the smell of tiger bone paste became stronger.
The square well points vertically downward, dozens of meters deep into the ground, and the walls of the well are covered with tenacious weeds and mosses.
He climbed down holding onto the well rope. The firelight was like a faint firefly, illuminating section of the earth wall.
Zhou You fell to the bottom of the well and finally breathed a sigh of relief after his feet touched solid ground.
He held up a torch and saw a shocking scene.
It turned out that the deep bottom of the well was filled with piles of rocks and fallen leaves, and the smell of tiger bone paste was coming from the corner.
Pieces of intact tiger bone ointment were thrown carelessly at the bottom of the well and stacked into a small pile.
Fang Guiqi came to Tianjingfang not to sell tiger bone paste privately, but to find an empty corner to dump it.
But, why is this?
He traveled around and collected tiger bone ointments scattered around, totaling 13 sets.
Fang Guiqi had been in the outer courtyard for more than three months, and this amount of tiger bone ointment was the total amount he had received so far, which meant that he had not used any of it.
"There must be something fishy going on here."
Tiger bone paste is a secret medicine for martial arts practitioners. It contains many precious medicinal materials and is harmful rather than beneficial to physical exercise.
According to the market price outside, a piece of tiger bone plaster can be sold for 5 taels of silver.
Fang Guiqi would rather throw away the tiger bone paste than use it himself, and he didn't even sell it for money.
Such behavior is not consistent with the character of the young refugee from Sucheng.
Zhou You looked at the tiger bone ointment in his hand again. This was a huge fortune. It was a rare opportunity and should not be missed.
Fight!
Zhou You gritted his teeth, put all the tiger bone paste in his arms, and climbed up to the well by grabbing the rope.
As he passed by the wall of the well at the exit, his eyes caught sight of a claw mark as deep as a chisel.
The claw marks were as big as watermelons, extremely scary!
Ok?
There is no black market for Tianjingfang.
Fang Guiqi came here not to sell the stolen goods, but to abandon the tiger bone ointment.
Once such abnormal behavior is exposed, it will definitely trigger a massive investigation by the martial arts school.
Zhou You thought that he must not get involved in this, otherwise all his efforts would be in vain, but he also wanted all the tiger bone ointment.
"You can only pull chestnuts out of the fire."
Zhou You looked back at the dark bottom of the well and recalled the claw marks on the well wall, as if he saw a mysterious and unpredictable future.
He finally made up his mind that the greater the risk, the greater the reward, so he took the risk this time.
There are still 7 days left before the next distribution of tiger bone ointment. As long as he builds up his strength during this period, he won't have to worry about Fang Guiqi noticing anything unusual.
By then, he will have become a formal apprentice of the martial arts school and can meet with the owner of the school to explain the situation.
"We must check to make sure that the tiger bone paste has not been tampered with before we can use it."
After Zhou You returned home, he packed the tiger bone ointment in a lacquered box that could isolate odors, wiped the mud off the soles of his shoes, and went back to bed to sleep.
Before falling asleep, he looked at the picture of a hungry tiger on the wall and said, "I have already had my first bite of delicious meat."
A hungry tiger is always dormant and can never be full.
After Zhou You fell asleep, he saw the tiger again. The tiger licked its bright red tongue and let out a silent roar. The dream was incredibly close to reality.
(End of this chapter)