245: Chapter 43: Everything Can Be Bought at the Ghost Market 245: Chapter 43: Everything Can Be Bought at the Ghost Market Li Mumu could not understand why Senior Sister Zuo Yan would be interested in this pair of bronze candlesticks.
It didn’t feel like it was for the living…
Ah, no problem then.
Crouched in front of the stall, Zuo Yan quietly explained to her and Wendy, “Look at the style of these candlesticks, they should be burial artifacts from the Spring and Autumn Period.
The owner has an accent from Yuzhou, probably a newcor in the trade, knows a bit but not much.”
She turned back to the stall owner and asked, “Didn’t your master teach you that there are three things in a tomb that must not be taken?”
The owner’s face turned pale, and he muttered, “I’m just collecting goods, how would I know this…”
Zuo Yan didn’t continue to entangle with him and said to Li Mumu, “An old saying goes, ‘when people die, they’re like extinguished lamps, the dead can’t take care of mortal affairs.’ Throughout history, countless emperors and generals have had luxurious burials, and it’s quite normal for their graves to be later excavated.
Taking other burial goods is one thing, but candlesticks, coffins, and corporeal remains shouldn’t be touched.
This isn’t called burial goods, it’s part of the actual tomb itself.”
“To take soone’s candlesticks is like destroying their pathway back to the Mortal World to enjoy the incense offerings from descendants; that’s tantamount to incurring serious karma.
It’s one thing for lost souls and stray ghosts, but if the tomb’s owner has achieved significant cultivation, it might lead to life-threatening and litigious troubles.”
The stall owner buried his head even lower, not uttering another sound.
Li Mumu was confused, “Sister, why are you telling this?
I’m not going to rob graves.”
“This is all common knowledge.”
Zuo Yan said helplessly, “You’ve just returned from overseas and aren’t familiar with dostic situations.
There are many local customs and Jianghu World rules that are passed down by word of mouth and not written down.
I can’t compile them for you; I can only tell you as I rember them, so you don’t make mistakes in the future.”
“Thanks, Sister!”
Li Mumu sincerely thanked her.
Local customs and Jianghu World rules can be divided into many types.
So are based on common consensus, while others can be called obedience tests.
Just like playing Werewolf, there are not only the written ga rules, but also unwritten social rules.
Agreed-upon rules stipulate not to use outside information, such as ‘he looks like a werewolf, he has always been a werewolf, so he must be the werewolf this ti’…
such rationales are not permissible.
Another type of “village rule,” for example, ‘XX is my goddess, no one is allowed to kill her’…
such a rule destroys the ambiance.
Local customs are the sa.
In an ordinary family’s wedding, when the groom arrives at the bride’s house, the bride’s family traditionally makes it slightly difficult for him, which is a matter of convention.
If you insist on making the groom kneel and bark like a dog for a full one hundred and eight tis, then claim it’s a family rule, that’s plainly disgusting.
Zuo Yan brought Li Mumu to the Ghost Market to explain these so-called customs and rules, which ones seem far-fetched but actually have deep aning and historical heritage, and which ones sound reasonable but are in fact fabricated to bully the honest and the inexperienced.
Li Mumu listened carelessly while Wendy listened attentively.
When they reached a stall selling Western goods, Zuo Yan picked up a blood-red test tube potion, intending to explain to Li Mumu, but soone suddenly spoke from behind, “Whose bride are you, running around for fun in the middle of the night?”
The mont these words were spoken, the whole Ghost Market fell silent.
Li Mumu turned to look and saw a young man, extravagantly dressed with a jade pendant on his waist and a folding fan in hand, adorned as a wealthy and flirtatious young master.
It wasn’t strange for a wealthy master to co to the Ghost Market looking for bargains.
But to brazenly hit on a strange woman in the Ghost Market like this was very unusual.
Within a ten-ter radius, whether buyers or sellers, everyone seed to be under a Freezing Spell, staring wide-eyed at this young master.
Who was this reckless upstart?
However, the young master himself seed completely unaware of the gravity of the situation and continued to unabashedly eye the young and beautiful woman before him, the graceful figure wrapped under her red bridal gown.
The two attendants who had followed the young master over had turned pale, desperately tugging at their master’s sleeve, trying to pull him away.
But the young master was as immovable as if he’d been weighted down, flinging the two attendants off with a shake of his hand, “Stop pulling !
Can’t you see I’m talking to this young lady?”
It’s precisely because we see that we want to pull you away!
Facing the young master’s unguarded, fervent gaze, Zuo Yan smiled warmly and whispered softly, “How could you forget, young master?
I am your new bride, after all!”
“Ah?
Oh…”
The young master’s eyes grew hazy, and he asked subconsciously, “Wife, what are you doing here?”
“I ca to find you!”
“You ca to find …”
Lost in his daze, the young master murmured, “At this dead hour, it’s unbecoming for a young lady to be out.
Quickly, co ho with !”
“Exactly so, young master.
If I may, what is your honorable surna and residence?”
“How could you forget, wife?
My na is Yang Yanchang, and my ho is…”
Before the young master could finish his sentence, an attendant struck him on the back of his head, knocking him out cold.
They didn’t say another word, hoisted the young master onto their shoulders, and took off running.
“Sigh, how prejudiced the world is,”
Zuo Yan turned back and sighed, “Your elder sister here is not getting any younger, after all; I truly wish to settle down.
The young master from earlier seed to co from a wealthy family, what a pity.”
I feel like that’s not exactly prejudice and how should I put it…
“As long as you’re happy.”
“That’s right, life is short and we must seize the mont to enjoy ourselves.
What’s most important is to live in the present.”
Zuo Yan, thwarted in her attempt to mooch off a man, was only downcast for a few seconds before she rallied her spirits, “Let’s go, let’s keep looking.
Who knows, we might co across sothing good.
Let tell you, there are so tricks to this place.”
By the ti she finished speaking, almost everyone else had left, hustling and bustling as though they had seen a ghost.
Seeing ghosts in the Ghost Market is rare but not impossible.
If you’re afraid of ghosts, why bother getting up in the middle of the night to do business?
Wouldn’t it be better to sleep in a few more Chinese hours and sell breakfast pancakes instead?
So there were still many stall holders confident in their tough luck, sitting unabashedly in their places without so much as moving an inch.
In their hands, one might find just about anything.
Wendy had set her eyes on a set of seals.
It was a set of ten Chicken Blood Stone seals strung together without any specific nas on them, only decorative patterns.
To the common eye, these might have seed functionless.
The vendor was simply trying to sell them for the value of the Chicken Blood Stone, which wasn’t of particularly high quality.
Such a set would not be highly valued among those familiar with the trade, unless a sucker ca along.
Like Wendy Freud.
“How much for this?”
The vendor looked up and saw a foreign girl , speaking incredibly broken Chinese.
He was about to speak, when he suddenly caught sight of Zuo Yan beside her, swallowing his saliva instinctively and reeling in the embellished story he had ready at the tip of his tongue.
“Two hundred…
If you like it, you can have it for a hundred.”
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