This is a middle-aged man in his forties, with a thin body, a sallow complexion, unkempt hair, and a beard that has not been shaved for a long time. He looks like a beggar who has been malnourished all year round. The clothes on his body are also the same.
He was in tatters, wearing a black jacket full of scratches on his upper body, a pair of jeans with several holes in them, and a pair of cracked Nike sneakers on his feet, which were covered with yellow mud.
However, around the middle-aged man's waist, there was a brand new satchel, which seemed incompatible with his clothes. The satchel must contain some important items. One of his big hands like a dead branch held it tightly.
He was holding on to his satchel as if he was afraid of being snatched away by others.
The middle-aged man raised his head, looked around, and asked us: "Do you accept antiques here?"
When I heard this, I immediately understood what was going on. This guy must have thought our store was an antique store.
In fact, I am not surprised by this kind of thing, because the name of our store - Qibao Zhai does sound like the name of an antique store, and the store is located not far from Qingshui Pond Antique Street
, so people often regard our store as an antique store.
I glanced at the middle-aged man in front of me who claimed to have antiques to sell. If it were normal, I would have immediately pointed my hand to the other side and asked him to take the antiques to Guyuan Pavilion. After all, I don’t know anything about antiques.
He Jianjian is a complete amateur, not to mention that the guy in front of him doesn't look like the owner of antiques.
But today I don’t know which part of the string was wrong. Maybe I was just bored and wanted to tease this person. I asked him: "What good treasure do you have in your hand?"
The middle-aged man came up to me and said in a low voice: "It's a human skin map!"
When I heard about the human skin map, I couldn't help but be surprised. This was the first time I heard that there was a map drawn with human skin in the world. I was immediately interested and said quickly: "Take it out and show it to me."
Look!"
The middle-aged man did not take out the contents of the satchel immediately. He seemed very alert. He first turned his head and looked outside the door. After making sure that no one was waiting outside, he took out the contents of the satchel.
come out.
This is a boxy, dark brown wooden box. The box looks like it has been around for many years. The corners have been severely worn. The surface of the box should have been engraved with patterns, but they are so worn that they cannot be seen clearly.
.
The middle-aged man opened the box, carefully took out the contents, and spread them out in front of me and Jianjian.
This is a piece of yellow-brown leather paper that is about one foot square. The edges of the leather paper are extremely irregular and the surface is covered with cracks. This must be due to its age.
As for whether this piece of paper is the human skin that the middle-aged man said, neither Bian Bian nor I can be sure.
There is indeed a map drawn on the leather paper, and the back is full of strange words. The words are crooked and look like a foreign language. Anyway, Bian Bian and I don't recognize anyone.
"Is this really a human skin map?" I asked the middle-aged man.
"Since you two are open to doing business, you should be considered experts, can't you see it?" the middle-aged man asked rhetorically.
I calmed myself down and asked, "How much do you want to sell this thing for?" I thought to myself, if the other party offers a price of 800 yuan, I will buy it. Even if it is fake, the loss will not be big.
The middle-aged man waved five fingers in front of me and said, "At least this number!"
"How much, five thousand?"
"Are you kidding me? This thing is a treasure that has been around for thousands of years, and it is most likely a treasure map. It is worth inestimable value. Just give me 5,000 yuan!"
"You don't want fifty thousand, do you?" I couldn't help but be startled.
Unexpectedly, the other party actually shouted: "Fifty thousand? Are you kidding me? At least half a million!"
"What!? Five hundred thousand!" I didn't expect that the other party would offer such a high price. Without saying a word, Jianjian immediately took the so-called human skin map from my hand and stuffed it back into the wooden box.
He handed the wooden box back to the middle-aged man and pushed him out of the door. While pushing it back, he said: "Brother, we are not interested in this thing. You can sell it elsewhere!"
Perhaps because he was too thin, the middle-aged man seemed a little frail. Although Jianjian just pushed him gently, he staggered and almost fell. Fortunately, I reacted quickly and hurriedly supported him. He was a little angry.
He said: "If you don't want to buy it, don't buy it! Why push it!"
The middle-aged man put the wooden box back into his bag, turned around and walked out. Perhaps he was curious about the human skin map, so I hurriedly called him: "Brother, please stay!"
The middle-aged man who had already reached the door of the store stopped, turned around, and asked angrily: "What else is there?" Jianjian thought I was going to buy the human skin map, so he immediately stood in front of me and said:
"Brother, do you really want to buy it? Who knows if this thing is real or not, but he actually offered it for 500,000 yuan? Just listen to his nonsense!"
"If it's true, just ask Boss Wen to have a look." After saying that, I walked straight to the middle-aged man, raised my hand to him, and said, "Brother, can you wait here for a moment while I find someone?
An expert, come and take a look at this human skin map."
The middle-aged man glanced at Jianjian, hesitated for a moment, and nodded.
I quickly asked Jianqian to call Wen Qingshan. Jianqian muttered a few words and reluctantly walked towards Guyuan Pavilion opposite.
I asked the middle-aged man to sit down. Since the shop had not been open for a while, there was no tea prepared. Fortunately, when we came in the morning, we brought a pot of cold water, so I poured him a cup. The middle-aged man seemed very happy.
As if he was thirsty, he grabbed the cup and drank heavily.
He drank three glasses of cold water in one go before stopping, wiped his mouth, raised his head and asked me: "Do you have anything to eat in this shop?"
I couldn't help being slightly stunned, and thought to myself: What is going on? Did this guy come to my store to eat and drink for free?
Although I was doubtful, since the other party spoke, I couldn't refuse. However, this is not a restaurant after all, and it has not been open for many days. There is really nothing to eat in the store. Fortunately, there is one next to the store.
It was a stall selling steamed buns, so I walked to the door and shouted to the owner of the steamed bun stall: "Uncle Zhang, bring me two big meat buns!"
Unexpectedly, as soon as I finished speaking, the middle-aged man said: "Two are not enough, come on five! No! Come on eight!"
I couldn't help being startled: "Brother, Uncle Zhang's buns are really good. There are at least two or three of them. Can you finish eight of them?"
"Eat up, finish up! Hurry up!" The middle-aged man seemed to be extremely hungry and couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva.
Eight steamed buns were quickly brought, and the middle-aged man immediately grabbed one with each hand and ate it hungrily.
When Jianjian led Wen Qingshan into the shop, the guy had already eaten four big meat buns, and his mouth was still full. Jianjian was stunned for a moment, looked at me, and asked in a daze: "
Brother, what’s going on!?”
"This brother may be hungry and wants to eat steamed buns, so I gave him eight buns!" As I said this, I raised my hand to make an "eight" gesture, and deliberately emphasized the last two words.
Hearing that this middle-aged man actually ordered eight big meat buns, Jianjian and Wen Qingshan were both shocked. Jianjian stared at him and said, "Brother, you haven't eaten for a long time, right?"
The middle-aged man's mouth was full and he couldn't answer. He could only nod his head. But as soon as he nodded twice, he suddenly reached out and grabbed his neck, and screamed "Uh... uh...".
Looking at his face again, I saw that it had turned purple. It took me a moment to realize that this guy had eaten too quickly and choked.
I hurriedly stepped forward, raised my hand and slapped the middle-aged man on the back several times. Following a violent cough, a large piece of stuffed buns spurted out from his mouth. He was busy again.
He grabbed the water glass on the table and drank more than half of the glass, and then he felt relieved.
I lowered my head and glanced at the large piece of bun he had squirted out. It was three fingers wide, and he hadn’t chewed it much. It was strange that he was devouring it so voraciously that he didn’t choke. I couldn’t help but joked: "Brother, you can eat a lot of buns."
Your momentum is really rare."
The middle-aged man gasped and said, "I'm not going to hide it from you, but I haven't had a good meal for more than half a month."
Hearing what he said, I couldn't help but be slightly startled, and quickly asked: "Why is this?"
The middle-aged man looked at me, then looked outside the shop door, and said in a low voice: "Because someone wants to snatch the human skin map in my hand, I am afraid that someone will poison the food, so I don't dare to eat.
If I hadn't been so hungry today, I would have..."
This guy's answer was simply ridiculous. This was the first time I heard that someone would not even eat because he was worried about being poisoned. Wen Qingshan smiled and said: "I said brother, you will always die if you are poisoned."
It’s better than starving to death, which is more painful!”
Unexpectedly, this guy waved his hand and said: "That's not necessarily the case. The poison these guys inflicted is not an ordinary poison, it is a poison that can make life worse than death!"
"What!?" When we heard about the poison, the three of us were shocked. I quickly asked: "Who wants to harm you?"
When he mentioned those people, the middle-aged man looked very afraid, and his body trembled slightly. He murmured: "Those are a group of murderous devils. They not only killed my wife, but also turned her into a
The walking dead..." As he spoke, the middle-aged man suddenly buried his head and began to sob.
After listening to what he said, I immediately understood what was going on. I glanced at Wen Qingshan and whispered: "It seems that the Black Evil Ghost Cult did it."