Rebirth in 1958: Getting rich starts from Nanluoguxiang

Little Ear talked incessantly, his saliva soaking the handkerchief covering his face. Dabao listened with great interest. If you want to listen to stories, you have to be the old Beijing Tianqiao people. They tell stories vividly, just like telling a story.

The two have arrived at the ghost market of Chaoyang Gate. From a distance, the dotted lights of the horse lanterns really look like ghost lights in a cemetery, which is a bit creepy. In the Qing Dynasty, if you stood on the gate tower of Chaoyang Gate and looked outside the city, you would see a large cemetery.

Little Ear whispered, "The people who hang out here are different from those on the overpass. There are a lot of gangsters here, and the language they speak is called Chundian, or jargon."

Dabao was not familiar with this at all. He had been a civil servant in both of his lives. Although he had practiced martial arts, his skills in his previous life were not good enough to be noticed by experts, so no one told him this.

Xiao Erduo is different. He is a native of the world and is naturally familiar with these things because of what he has learned from his surroundings.

"This Buddha refers to street thieves, and it's named after the Thousand-Armed and Thousand-Eyed Buddha. There's also the Ditou Zhai, also known as the Yigan Tiao, which is actually the vendors who buy old clothes and shoes, refurbish them, and then sell them on the street.

In the old capital, there are people who walk the streets and buy second-hand goods. People call them drummers. Drummers are divided into two types: hard drummers and soft drummers.

These hard-selling people have a lot of capital and specialize in going to the old official residences and wealthy families in the capital to buy valuable items such as gold and silver jewelry, soft fur goods, hardwood furniture, antiques and jades, calligraphy and painting scrolls. These hard-selling people make a lot of profit. There is a saying: If you don’t open for business for half a year, you can make a living for half a year after you open. As long as you come across a hot item, it is enough to feed the whole family for half a year.

Most of the soft drummers were from the slums outside the city, collecting the waste and old items from ordinary people. Even if they filled two large baskets with goods, they could not sell them for much money, and ended up having no food to eat. Therefore, in the early years of the Republic of China, the soft drummers would put a few packs of matches in the big baskets and use them to exchange for things. Therefore, the soft drummers were also called lamp exchangers.

There are two types of people in this ghost market called Bingnianzi and Chigenian. When they are trading, one of them helps out and the other acts as a middleman, specifically to deceive people who are visiting the ghost market for the first time.

There are also jargons for numbers from one to ten: is it, press, search, smelly, crooked, material, pretty, stupid, foot, spoon."

Dabao and the other two walked into the ghost market while talking in low voices.

This is under the city wall. Even if there is a little moonlight, it is covered by the shadow of the city wall. The only light is the faint glow of the kerosene lamp.

Dabao looked over curiously and saw that the stalls with the conditions had lanterns or kerosene lamps, while those without the conditions only had a piece of candle, which could barely provide a little light.

There are many people here, all with their faces covered, leaving only their eyes exposed. The rule in the ghost market is that you cannot shine a light on the faces of buyers and sellers, otherwise someone will come up to warn you.

In the crowd, there were several young men moving back and forth. They did not cover their faces, but they were carrying large baskets covered with cloth.

Little Ear whispered, "This is where they sell food. They sell sesame cakes, fried dough twists, tofu pudding, old tofu, fried liver and mutton, soy milk, stewed meatballs, almond tea,

In the early years, there were donkey meat, mutton head meat, braised beef, pork head meat, smoked fish, horse meat jerky, and the most delicious was dog meat. It was said that it was made from dog meat and was very authentic. Unfortunately, it is rarely available now.

Dabao asked in surprise: "There are still people selling sesame cakes and fried dough twists? With food control so strict now, who can get food out?"

Little Ear pouted and said, "Chickens don't pee. Everyone has their own way. Look, those people along the wall are all selling grain. Brother, you are a government official, you don't understand the ins and outs here.

Throughout the dynasties, no matter how bad the market was, it was only the ordinary people who suffered, while those in power continued to enjoy a life of luxury.

Dabao was silent. He knew that what Xiaoerduo said made sense, but he had no choice because he was now one of the people with vested interests.

The grain sellers were all strong men without exception. They had a small bowl in front of them, which contained cornmeal, cornmeal, sweet potatoes, and potatoes, but no fine grains.

Dabao knew that not only they couldn't get it, but even the people behind them couldn't. Even Gao Gao and the logistics director of the military region who had instigated the rebellion might not be able to eat fine grains every day.

The people selling grain were obviously in the same group. They would occasionally gather together to talk in low voices.

Dabao had already released his consciousness, covering the area within a hundred meters. At this moment, he thought of the two little foxes again. Although he knew they would live well in Changbai Mountain, he still couldn't help but miss them.

Little Ear waved to a child carrying a basket to come over. Although the weather in the early morning was not as hot as during the day, the child's face was still sweaty.

Little Ear made two gestures, the child nodded, opened the cloth, and took out two sesame cakes, also known as Hu cakes,

He waved to another child to come over. This child's basket contained mutton's head meat. The child selling sesame cakes stuffed the mutton's head meat into the cakes and handed them to Little Ear.

Little Ear took out five dollars and put them in his hand. The child gave him one dollar in change and then left happily.

Dabao was listening attentively to the conversation of the grain seller, but he didn't pay attention until Xiaoerduo stuffed a pancake with mutton head meat in it into his hand.

He took it and took a bite, and couldn't help but whispered: "This meat-filled pancake is so authentic, I didn't expect there is such a thing here."

Little Ear laughed and said, "It's really expensive. Just these two are the price of half a roast duck."

The thing Dabao lacks the most now is money. He has no feelings about money anymore. He waved to the kid selling sesame cakes to come over and whispered,

"How many sesame cakes do you have here?"

The child thought for a moment and said, "Forty-five."

Dabao said in a choked voice: "If it's like this, stuff it all with mutton, I'll buy it all."

Anyway, he came to the ghost market to investigate. If he didn't buy anything, it would attract other people's attention. He might as well buy some meat-filled pancakes and take them home to share with his family.

Little Ear didn't stop Dabao. In the ghost market, all kinds of weird things can happen. If something is ordinary, it would be a strange thing.

The two children squatted on the ground and worked hard. They found a piece of candle to light up the room.

Dabao and Xiaoerduo were waiting on the side.

Dabao saw a well-proportioned man walk up to the grain seller like a raccoon cat and sit down gently. The other three grain sellers came over.

The five people lowered their voices to a very low level, almost whispering, but they had nowhere to hide under the influence of Dabao's consciousness.

"Fifth brother, why are you here today? Didn't Master Gou ask you to take care of those southerners?"

"I'm just hiding in the house my godfather prepared for me. He asks me to bring girls back every day. When I see a girl, I can't wait to jump into her arms."

"Fuck, is it so fierce?" A grain seller chuckled.

"Alas, I actually understand them. My godfather once told me that these old men are all doing shady work and have no time to work. They should enjoy themselves while they can."

"Fifth brother, what era is this? Still using this trick? If the government finds out, it will be a disaster."

"That's right. If we sell grain, at most we'll go to jail for a few days. But if we get involved in this, even the slightest contact will cost us our lives."

The fifth brother gave a bitter laugh: "What the hell can I do? My life was saved by my godfather. I will do whatever he tells me to do. The worst that can happen is that I can just give my life back to him."