Chapter 37: Where the Ghost Market is

Early the next morning, we hurried to Master Liu’s place, but we didn’t expect Shen Xing to be waiting there already, dressed in a field outfit. She looked very energetic and beautiful, and there was nothing abnormal about her at all.

When she saw me and Brother Chengxin, she came up and said hello in a very natural way, saying, “Hello.”

This kind of behavior really shocked me and Brother Chengxin. We originally thought that she would be an unapproachable and lonely person, but now it seems that this is not the case.

Shen Xing’s warm greeting made me and Cheng Xin a bit overwhelmed, but obviously, Cheng Xin was more comfortable with women than I was. He asked, “Where is Master Liu? Are we still going up?”

“No need to go up, I’ll take you there directly,” Shen Xing said very decisively.

“So we’re going now?” I always feel that it’s a bit too sudden.

“Can’t you see what I’m wearing? You should get some clothes too. Oh, and there’s one more important thing to buy,” Shen Xing replied.

Two hours later.

The three of us went to the train station, our destination being a city that was not very well known, where the ghost market was being held.

But the clothes that Shen Xing took us to buy let us know that going to the ghost market was not as simple as it seemed. Otherwise, what kind of outdoor clothing would we wear? Wearing this meant that even if we didn’t have to climb mountains and cross rivers, we still had to climb mountains and wade through water.

Most importantly, she took us to buy a mask each, saying that it was very necessary.

These actions made me and Brother Chengxin even more curious about the ghost market.

The city was just a small one, and since it wasn’t a special holiday, we bought tickets for the soft sleeper train without any hesitation, and we could board the train two hours later.

“This time, we’re not going too far away, to location 5. If we go to the most remote location, 17, we’ll have to leave half a month in advance.” After getting on the train, Shen Xing let out a long sigh and said to us with a sense of relief.

Then she took out a cushion from her bag and comfortably leaned against the bunk bed.

Faced with her cheerful disposition, my doubts about Chengxin and I grew deeper and deeper. It felt like she had changed into a different person. Especially from the details of her taking out a cushion, this girl is very concerned about the quality of life. How could she be willing to stay in the dark and gloomy building of Master Liu?

But that involves other people’s private affairs, and after all, we can’t ask questions, so we just have to keep it to ourselves.

Shen Xing seemed to be unaware of our doubts, or she simply didn’t care. She was very happy along the way, enthusiastically playing cards with us, talking about the scenery along the way, and even telling jokes. Her laughter filled the compartment of the sleeper.

Chengxin said to me in a low voice, “This girl is cheerful and smart, and she has a lot of knowledge. But she’s not frivolous, she’s quite serious. If I hadn’t seen her acting crazy before, I would have tried to get her.”

I didn’t react for a moment, and I asked Chengxin brother blankly, “What do you want to do?”

“Are you really stupid or just pretending to be? Of course I want to go after her,” said Chengxin, looking at me with a look of disappointment.

Okay, I am really stupid.

Thanks to the company of a wise and cheerful girl, the trip was not boring at all. In the morning of the second day, we arrived at the destination without realizing it.

It was just an ordinary small town, surrounded by mountains and water, and the scenery was not bad.

After arriving in the city, Shen Xing took us to a simple lunch, bought some convenient dry food, and hired a local tricycle to take us all the way to the outskirts of the city. At first, there were scattered houses of villagers here, but in the end, there were only mountains.

The driver of the tricycle was not curious about our arrival here, but just said to us while collecting money, “Don’t look at our small place, the mountains and water are good, otherwise why would there be so many people like you coming to our place to climb and camp?”

We smiled and didn’t explain. After the tricycle driver had gone far away, Shen Xing said, “It seems that some people have arrived early. The ghost market will only open when it’s time, but you can also exchange things with people if you arrive early.”

“You seem to know a lot,” Cheng Xin said with a smile. After all, we had become more relaxed on the trip, and our conversation had become more casual.

“Haha, let’s go.” Shen Xing didn’t explain much. This girl can talk to you about anything, but as soon as it comes to a little bit about her personal affairs, she will always cleverly avoid it.

This is a continuous mountain range, and the terrain is not too difficult to traverse. However, it seems that few people come here, and there are no roads. I feel that we have been struggling forward in the thorns, but occasionally we find roads that others have traveled, and we see campfires.

In this way, we talked about irrelevant things all the way, and we kept going. We stopped to eat some dry food halfway, and we were still deep in the mountains at night. I climbed to a high point and looked at the terrain. It seemed that we had already reached the center of the mountains.

That night, around the campfire, while cooking simple instant noodles, Cheng Xin asked Shen Xing, “You said you were a girl with two men in the middle of the night in the middle of the mountains. Aren’t you afraid?”

Shen Xing rested her chin in one hand and played with the fire in the other, saying, “I’ve been fearless since that year. What can you do to me? At worst, I’ll just kill myself. But Master Liu said that suicide is a very serious sin, so I won’t choose it lightly. Don’t force me, hehe…”

She was laughing quite cheerfully, but Chengqing and I were shocked. Who talks about death so lightly? Even if it’s just in a joking tone! Unfortunately, we couldn’t ask, and our understanding of her along the way made us realize that it would be a waste of time to ask.

I didn’t want to talk about it, so I asked, “When will we get there? It’s the eighth tomorrow at dawn, and the ghost market opens on the ninth.”

“You’re in luck, you’ll be there tomorrow afternoon. This time the ghost market is at location 5. I’ve been here before, but I need Master Liu to get me a detailed map of the other locations before I can take you there. I remember that time I came here, alone in the mountains, listening to the sounds everywhere at night, so scared I couldn’t sleep, telling myself not to cry, not to cry.” She finished with a relaxed smile, as if she were talking about someone else.

Chengxin and I were both silent. It was hard to imagine that a girl, according to what she and Master Liu said, an ordinary girl, would dare to enter the vast mountains alone and spend the night there.

How strong does she have to be to not cry? Thinking about this, I have a little bit of admiration for this girl named Shen Xing.

After a simple dinner, we didn’t say a word all night. Several people took turns keeping watch, and we slept in front of the campfire. The next morning, I didn’t feel that the night in the mountains was particularly difficult. It was just the wet dew on my hair that made me feel a little cold.

Fortunately, Shen Xing had let us buy outdoor clothing in advance, otherwise we would have been dripping wet.

After a simple breakfast, we continued on our journey. As we went deeper into the mountains, we could barely see any traces of human activity. Brother Chengxin was having a hard time walking along the way, shouting and yelling, because in such mountains, you can often find some medicinal herbs. Unfortunately, we weren’t here to pick herbs, and we were in a hurry, so he could only shout and yell, and then regretfully walked past.

And he said to me in a self-comforting way, “I’m doing this to leave a little treasure for future generations.”

Shen Xing really didn’t lie to us. In the afternoon, we climbed up a hill. Standing on the hill, we saw at once that there was a valley below the hill, and in the valley there was a continuous building. From a distance, we could see that there were many people moving around in the building.

“Surprised? It’s just waste utilization. This place used to be a military base. After the military left, it became a place for the ghost market to open. We came from behind and walked in the mountains, so it took so long.” Shen Xing explained with a smile.

But I and Brother Chengxin looked at the place in the valley and were shocked. We never thought that the ghost market would be in such a place.