Chapter 329 Archway

It is very common for shops that are open to put up some things that attract wealth, bring good fortune, and ward off misfortunes, such as statues of Guan Gong, the God of Wealth, and lucky cats. It’s not surprising that this custom is found all over the world.

However, Nanlin Street is full of Bagua mirrors, which is a bit strange.

The people who come to open a store come from all over the world, how come they are so unified?

Combined with what was revealed in the unreasonable suicide case and the suspicion shown here on Nanlin Street, this can't help but make Lu Ming think too much.

After telling Zhang Dingshan and He Wei about their findings, the three of them quickly decided to dig deeper to see if they could find any clues.

Zhang Dingshan directly spoke to Feng Guozhu on the phone: "Deploy a group of security guards to Nanlin Street. Don't wear uniforms, wear regular clothes. It's best to be gentler and look more like students, the better."

About an hour later, a team of twenty security guards arrived at Nanlin Street.

Lu Ming took a look and saw that these security guards were all very young. After putting on regular clothes, he looks like an ordinary young man. No one would doubt that he is a college student.

"From now on, you have to play the role of a college student majoring in folk culture who participates in social practice activities. Most of the shops here on Nanlin Street are accustomed to setting up a Bagua mirror at the bar. You have to interview the shopkeepers one by one and set up the Bagua mirror. What is the purpose, and where do they know this custom."

The young security officers showed good qualities. Lu Ming obviously saw confusion on their faces, as if they were very confused about the so-called Bagua Mirror. But they still didn't hesitate at all, and directly accepted the task without asking any questions.

After Zhang Dingshan finished speaking, Lu Ming added: "I will assign the tasks. According to statistics, there are a total of 936 stores of various types in Nanlin Street, numbered 1 to 936. There are twenty-three forms here, each form There are about 40 stores and store names on it. Each person gets one and is responsible for investigating the corresponding stores on the form. Also, here are some small gifts, please bring some."

Next to the crowd was a van. The car is full of small gifts such as paper towels, wet wipes, and keychains. The security guards each took some and then set off separately.

To do social research, a small gift is indispensable.

The three members of the second action team were not idle either. Each of them also took a form, took the corresponding small gifts and set off to investigate.

The afternoon rush hour has passed by now. Most of the diners have dispersed, and the restaurant is in the cleaning and preparation stage. They shouldn't be very busy at this time. If they go to investigate now, it shouldn't waste their time or cause resentment.

Lu Ming came to a restaurant that specializes in skewers.

"Hello, we are not open yet, until five o'clock."

When a waiter who was mopping the floor saw Lu Ming, he immediately straightened up with a standardized smile on his face.

Lu Ming looked at the bar and saw a Bagua mirror placed there.

"Hello, hello, I'm not here to eat. I'm a student majoring in folklore and want to conduct a social survey. Don't worry, I will only ask a few questions and won't delay you long. This is a small gift. , please accept it.”

Lu Ming smiled and was very polite.

The waiter hesitated slightly and said, "Okay. What do you want to ask?"

"I noticed that the shops and bars here on Nanlin Street seem to have a Bagua mirror. Do you know the reason? Did your boss put it here?"

"Of course it was the boss who put it there. How can we, part-time workers, care about this thing?"

The waiter said: "The reason, what else could it be? To ward off evil spirits."

"Did the boss say that?"

"I don't know, I guessed."

Lu Ming said: "Can you please call your boss and ask? After we conduct a folklore survey, we will make a documentary. This hotel may also be featured, which will have a certain publicity effect. Your boss will not refuse."

When the waiter heard that Lu Ming was looking for the boss, he instinctively refused. But after hearing what he said next, he still said: "I don't have the boss's phone number. You can ask the store manager. Store manager!"

"I'm coming."

A very clean-cut middle-aged woman walked over. After listening to Lu Ming's words, he happily took out his mobile phone and made a call.

After telling what happened here, she handed the phone to Lu Ming: "Nuo, tell the boss."

"Hello Hello."

A substandard Mandarin came out from the microphone: "Documentary, please make my shop look prettier. You mean that Bagua mirror? It's to ward off evil spirits. Others do it this way, so I do it too. Just follow suit. "Flow, you won't suffer a loss... The last shop owner told me that it doesn't matter anyway, so I just put one on the table."

"thanks, thanks."

After making a note on the form, Lu Ming came to the second store.

The owner of this store happened to be here, so he met Lu Ming directly.

"It's to ward off evil spirits. The landlord said it. He said all the shops here are like this, so I put it up."

After investigating 40 stores in a row, whether it was a restaurant or a supermarket, a cigarette shop or a massage parlor, as long as the boss could be contacted, Lu Ming got almost the same results.

Avoid disasters and evil spirits, attract wealth and receive blessings. As for where this statement comes from, it is nothing more than a former boss, landlord, colleague, etc.

Those whose bosses could not be contacted also obtained similar results from store managers and clerks. There are also those who are uncooperative, but the number is small, only two, which is not enough to affect the overall statistics.

Human psychology is very strange. Lu Ming could clearly sense that quite a few of these bosses did not believe in this at all. But in a certain environment, people have a herd mentality.

Since everyone is doing it, then I should do it too. There is no harm in it anyway, right? Maybe it will be of some use.

In the evening, all the investigation reports were summarized, and Lu Ming saw that the results of other people's investigations were no different from his own.

The answer is still the same answer. The sources are still the same.

The next day, another investigation began again. Still the same twenty security guards. But this time, the scope of the investigation was changed from Nanlin Street to other places.

The security guards began to count the proportion of shops with Bagua mirrors outside Nanlin Street.

This time, a total of twenty blocks were randomly selected, including those adjacent to Nanlin Street and some further away. It took a whole day to compile more than 4,000 statistical results to Lu Ming.

Lu Ming saw that, except for Nanlin Street, only about 12% of the shops in other blocks had Bagua mirrors. However, the rate here on Nanlin Street is as high as 97%.

Even for this 12%, it is the two blocks adjacent to Nanlin Street that contribute most of the figures. If these two blocks are removed, the overall proportion will be reduced to less than 10%.

This shows an obvious trend.

It is almost a unique custom in Nanlin Street to place Bagua mirrors to ward off misfortune. Except for the two closest blocks that are slightly affected by this, and the probability of placing Bagua mirrors is a little higher, the other blocks do not have this custom at all.

So an obvious question is, why does Nanlin Street have this custom? Is there any connection between this custom and unreasonable suicide cases?

It is impossible for a "serious" investigation team to find out this step. For the same reason, they have to follow "common sense." According to common sense, how could it be related to suicide whether or not the Bagua Mirror is displayed?

Do shops or homes without Bagua mirrors have higher suicide rates among their residents? absurd.

But Operation Team 2 is different.

For Zhang Dingshan, Lu Ming, He Wei, and Lu Qingliang, no matter how bizarre the matter is, as long as there is suspicion, they will definitely continue to investigate and dig out the deep logic hidden behind it. give up.

Regarding this investigation, investigating the origin of this custom in Nanlin Street has become the next step.

"Most of the people who run shops here on Nanlin Street are tenants, and most of them have been tenants for a short time. This custom already existed before they opened their shops. To investigate the origin of this custom, we still need to find the landlords of these storefronts. , as well as aborigines and owners of old stores that have been open for at least ten years."

"This is simple. I'll ask Director Feng to make a statistical form."

Lu Ming grabbed the phone and called Feng Guozhu. The next day, a document was delivered to several people.

The document details the owner of each store on Nanlin Street and the opening time of each store. If the business has been open for more than ten years, the contact information of the boss will also be listed.

Next is a new round of interviews and surveys.

In Blue Lake City, on the outskirts of the city, in an old community with some age, a group of elderly people were sitting in front of a chess and card room, basking in the sun and chatting casually. There are several mahjong tables in the chess and card room, as well as chess, go, etc., and people are also fighting enthusiastically.

"Excuse me, is Mr. Liu Baohua here?"

The arrival of Zhang Dingshan and his party attracted many eyes to observe.

Young people still rarely come to this kind of elderly chess and card room.

"I am, you are looking for me?"

At the door of the chess and card room, a half-bald old man holding a birdcage in his hand looked at the three of them.

Lu Ming put a smile on his face and said very respectfully: "Hello, uncle, we are students from the Folklore College and are here to conduct a social survey. We want to ask you a few things, okay?"

The old man seemed to be very interested in talking. He smiled and said, "It's just chatting. Okay, let's ask. Xiao Zhao! Bring three horses."

"Hey! Here we come!"

The pot-bellied middle-aged man called Xiao Zhao brought three matzas. He Wei put on a smile, took out small gifts, and gave them to the old people chatting in the sun. Especially Liu Baohua, who directly gave three times the amount.

Liu Baohua felt a sense of accomplishment that "I have made you happy today", and he became more and more pleased with the three young people.

"That's right. We found out that you own a shop on Nanlin Street and have lived there for a long time. You just moved here a few years ago."

"Yes. There are too many people and it's noisy there on Nanlin Street. It's not as clean as here."

"That's right. We noticed that on Nanlin Street, no matter what shop, restaurant or supermarket, they have the habit of placing a Bagua mirror at the bar. You are an old man on Nanlin Street, do you know how this custom came about? ?”

Old man Liu Baohua became more and more proud: "You are asking the right person when you ask me. Newcomers don't know about this kind of thing, and young people don't pay attention. Only old people like me know it."

"Yes, yes, aren't we here to ask you?"

Lu Ming became more respectful: "Can you tell us?"

"You mean Nanlin Street? I know that too. I used to have a house there, but it was demolished, so I moved here."

"I've heard about it too."

The old people started talking about it.

It seems that his "uniqueness" and "uniqueness" have been broken, and old man Liu Baohua was a little dissatisfied: "The dolls are here to ask me!"

Lu Ming said respectfully: "Don't be anxious, everyone. Talk one by one. We must ask as many questions as possible. Sir, you speak first."

Liu Baohua's face became a little better: "That place on Nanlin Street is... so evil."

He Wei had taken out the voice recorder before and recorded the old man's words in detail. She herself listened attentively.

"In the past, there was a big archway at the west end of Nanlin Street. Do you all know about it? How did this archway come about? You don't know, right? I know."

The old man said proudly: "That archway is quite old. It has been there since my grandfather's generation."

"I really don't know that."

"Old Liu, don't be too pretentious. What's going on with the archway? What does it have to do with this?"

Liu Baohua said: "At that time, our Blue Lake City was just a small town. There was a rich man in the town, his surname was Zhou. Yes, yes, that old Zhou who died last year was his ancestor. This rich man Zhou, he was a bigger man than Zhou Bapi was so cruel that he even forced people to go fishing in the lake on windy and rainy days. In normal times, he often bullied men and dominated women."

"Tsk, tsk, Lao Zhou's cerebral hemorrhage, maybe it's retribution from our ancestors."

"Don't interrupt, listen to Old Liu."

"The second son of the rich man Zhou's family, one day he kidnapped the little daughter of a farmer's family and made her his sixth concubine. This girl also had a fierce personality and would rather die than surrender. When the rich man Zhou's son was not paying attention, she Just hit the wall and die.

For Mr. Zhou’s family, it’s not a big deal if someone dies. The bastard son didn't feel anything other than a little pity, so he just threw it out and buried it. "

The old man Liu Baohua spoke vividly, as if he had experienced it himself.

"Zhou Caizhu's family does this kind of thing all the time. No one can take care of it. If someone dies, they just throw it out and bury it. It's like now. If someone dies, the security guards will want to investigate the eight generations of people. clear."

Old Liu Baohua sighed a few words and continued: "Do you know where the Zhou family's body dumping place is?"

When talking about the critical moment, old man Liu Baohua slowly lit a cigarette and took a puff of it intoxicatedly, causing the other old people to urge him: "You old Liu, don't show off!"

"Speak quickly! Where is it!"

Old man Liu Baohua blew out a puff of smoke and said slowly, "It's right at the archway."

Taking a day off tomorrow...

Last month, I said that I would try my best to take at most two days off this month. At present, I only need to take one day off tomorrow. Give yourself a thumbs up.

Updates will resume the day after tomorrow.