Qingchen replied, "Is this shack unoccupied?"
The old man looked at him, grinned, revealing a mouthful of black teeth, and said, "Dead."
Qingchen took two steps back in fear, and the old man was very satisfied with his reaction: "From now on, just call me Boss Wang. Go to sleep."
Qingchen bent down and crawled into the shack, only to find that someone had gathered branches and dry grass to make a small bed, and a small makeup mirror was scattered beside the bed... The previous owner of this shack was probably a woman.
He looked around and suddenly paused.
On the wooden pillars of the shack, someone had carved lines of small characters with a knife. Next to the pillars lay a broken eyebrow razor, with dried, blackened bloodstains on the blade.
"Someone is shouting behind you, don't answer!"
The sentence "Don't drink the blood flowing from the tree trunk!" was crossed out, and someone added, "It's not a tree; trees don't cry."
"Don't give the sign to others!"
"Remember your name!"
"The roller coaster is to the left of the haunted house!"
"The roller coaster is to the right of the haunted house!"
Below that line of small print, a single word was crookedly carved: "Escape!"
Qing Chen frowned. The person who carved the words was clearly mentally unstable. He was quite certain that not all of this information was helpful, and the chaotic logic might even mislead him.
He must see the truth through that chaotic mind.
This forbidden place is unlike any other forbidden place he has ever been to.
Chapter 915, Ginkgo Paradise
The town was plunged into darkness by the clanging of blacksmiths.
Qingchen sat on the bed made of branches and withered grass, closed his eyes, listened to all the murmurs around him, and played with catching lice.
At 4 a.m., two shirtless men suddenly rushed in, grabbed him, and dragged him outside.
Qingchen, his legs dragging on the mud, cried out in terror, "What are you doing? Who are you? Let me go!"
At this moment, Boss Wang emerged from the darkness: "Alright, let go. He's not some expert. An expert wouldn't react this instinctively."
Qing Chen glared at him angrily: "What are you trying to do? Let me go! I'm not making this money anymore, I'm leaving!"
Boss Wang chuckled: "It's too late to leave now."
Just then, someone emerged from the darkness carrying a black box. Qing Chen immediately recognized it as something the Underworld Society used to preserve organs.
This used to be very common; people in the lower three districts would even carry it through the streets and alleys.
However, after the parents' meeting, Xiao Qi and Xiao Wu would kill such people and hang them in front of the building as a warning. Gradually, no one dared to be so arrogant anymore.
Qing Chen looked at the middle-aged man carrying the black box, only to see the man walk over and hand the black box to a man next to Qing Chen: "Send it to City 19. Remember to avoid the people from the parents' meeting. When you come back, be careful that no one is watching you. If they find out and trace it back, none of us will be in trouble."
“Okay, Brother Gouwa,” the man replied, “This parent-teacher meeting is too nosy.”
"Don't talk nonsense," the middle-aged dog glared at him. "Remember, loose lips sink ships. Don't talk bad about the parent-teacher conference outside."
Qing Chen: "..."
Has the reputation of parent-teacher associations become so tarnished in this murky world?
The organs in this box must have been taken from the person who just attacked others with a knife.
There is a complete industry chain here. They release information about getting rich overnight, just like how people in northern Myanmar deliberately promote how profitable it is, and then lure people there to be exploited.
Those who were mentally sound continued to help them explore forbidden lands, while those who were not were harvested for organs and sold to various cities.
At this moment, the middle-aged man named Gouwa looked at Qingchen and said, "Don't even think about running away, or I'll kill you too."
Foreman Wang shook his head: "Don't always scare the newcomers like that, it'll make them less efficient at their work. The day after tomorrow, you'll lead one team and Niu Laosan will lead another. This time, you two will see who finds more. Remember, I won't live much longer. Even if I make money, I'll have to go back to the city and enjoy a few years of leisure. This year, let's see who's more capable, you or Niu Laosan. Whoever wins takes over this small town."
Gouwa lowered his head: "I understand... What about Erhu? Haven't you considered him?"
“Erhu is too ambitious; his heart isn’t in this,” Wang Tou’er said with a smile as he looked at Qingchen. “Go back to sleep. Get some rest; we have to go into the forbidden area to work the day after tomorrow.”
They watched as Qingchen scrambled back to his shack and burst into laughter.
Suddenly, Gouwa said, "Why did the sound of blacksmithing stop?"
"Huh?" said Boss Wang. "Forbidden Zone 001 has opened!"
“But the supplies haven’t arrived yet; they won’t be delivered until tomorrow morning,” Gouwa said.
Wang said, "Then let's go in as soon as the supplies arrive, and set off tomorrow!"
After entering the shack, Qing Chen's fear disappeared. He realized that the sound of blacksmithing did not come from the town, but from the depths of Forbidden Land No. 001.
But the sound of hammering seemed to linger in my ears.
As he pondered this, a woman suddenly screamed from the shack next door: "Don't kill me! Don't kill me!"
Qing Chen's mind became serious. Both the gods Ren Xiaosu and Qing Zhen acted with integrity, so why would they design such bizarre rules for the forbidden land?
Something must be wrong... But what exactly is wrong?
The next morning, the town suddenly became lively. The roar of engines came from outside the town, and gold prospectors rushed out of their shacks, surrounded the trucks outside the town, and handed over their hidden "treasures" from forbidden places.
A young man handed over a few dried leaves: "I have some cloud leaves here. Give me ten chicken legs, thirty protein bars, four cans of beer, and three packs of cigarettes!"
The middle-aged man in the truck happily accepted the cloud leaves and shouted to the cargo box behind him with a smile, "Brothers, get this young master Chen his goods!"
Another woman took out a stone and looked expectantly at the middle-aged man in the truck: "Do you think this stone of mine will be of any use?"
The middle-aged man sneered and threw the stone far away: "Trying to fool people with just a random stone? Get lost!"
The woman pleaded, "Give me something to eat, just a few protein bars will do!"
The middle-aged man said coldly, "If you work in the forbidden area, they will give you food."
"I'm too scared to go in!"
"Then we'll just starve to death in town."
Qingchen looked at the gold prospectors, who were emaciated and had sunken eyes. This was no gold prospecting; it was as if their yang energy had been sucked away by evil spirits.
On the other side were two trucks, and Gouwa was leading people to unload goods from them: protein bars, mineral water, cigarettes and alcohol, and frozen meat.
There are no stories of getting rich overnight here.
The town's "managers" colluded with outsiders, exchanging extremely cheap goods for the forbidden treasures in everyone's hands. Wang Tou'er and Gouwa didn't rob the gold prospectors, because if they did, everyone would be unwilling to work. They just used this clever method to make the gold prospectors willingly degenerate.
The gold prospectors were like pigs they raised.
Just like those illegal mines, miners who are under house arrest can never escape for the rest of their lives.
Taking advantage of the commotion outside, Qingchen turned around and went into each of the small shacks. He looked at the pillars and wooden walls of each shack, trying to see if there were any inscriptions similar to those in his own shack.
Upon finding the third shack, they discovered a sign carved on one of its pillars: "Don't get too close to those big trees with human faces!"
"There's no haunted house at all!"
"There's someone behind me!"
Qing Chen frowned as he looked at the three warnings. The second one clearly contradicted the information he had received last night.
As Qingchen stepped out of the shack and was about to crawl into the next one, he saw a middle-aged man playing with a boning knife, looking at him with a sneer: "What are you doing?"
Qingchen stammered, "I'm a little hungry, but I don't have anything to exchange, so I thought I'd see if there's any food in other people's shacks."
The middle-aged man sneered, "You're here to see the warning signs, aren't you? Almost every new recruit is like you. Don't bother, those words are useless. If they were useful, they wouldn't be dead."
"Then what's useful?" Qing Chen countered.
Just then, a young man called out from afar, "Erhu, Boss Wang is calling you. He wants you to bring some men into the forbidden area today, along with Third Brother and Gouwa! Oh, and these two are with you!"
In the town, Wang Tou'er held the highest position, followed by Gouwa, Erhu, and Niu Laosan, with Gouwa being the eldest.
Just then, another convoy arrived outside the town.
More than twenty bald men jumped out of the car, each with a hideous tattoo on their head. Boss Wang took small, quick steps to greet them: "Hey, isn't this Buddha? What brings you, our big spender, here?"
The bald man leading the group laughed and said, "I've always gotten my goods from you, but I've never come to check it out before. Everyone outside says that Forbidden Land No. 001 is eerie, so I thought I'd come and take a look. I've been relatively free lately, so I've come here to have a couple of drinks with you."
Erhu sneered: "What do you mean by leisurely or not leisurely? He's probably hiding from the parents' meeting."
Qing Chen: "..."
Although the parent-teacher meeting isn't held here, legends of parent-teacher meetings are everywhere.
He had indeed seen this "Buddha" in Luo Wanya's report. The other party was involved in drug trafficking, human trafficking, and organ trafficking; he did almost anything that was most profitable.
Originally based in City 17, Xiao Wu later took over the lower three districts there and secretly tried to capture him throughout the city, but he managed to escape.
He's a pretty clever person.
However, you can't call someone "Buddha" in front of a knight. The last "Buddha"... was in a terrible state.
Qing Chen suddenly realized that a gust of wind had blown all sorts of demons and monsters over. These were probably advance teams sent by Chen Yu to find his whereabouts.
While he was thinking, Gouwa came over with a simple backpack and threw it to Qingchen: "This is your food for three days inside, a newbie gift pack. Next time you go in, you'll have to buy your own. Remember, don't give it to others, or you'll have no right to starve to death."
"Thank you, Brother Gouwa," Qingchen said.
"Let's go! Take advantage of the forbidden area opening and get in quickly! Everyone remember this: once inside, keep your mouths shut and don't discuss the rules!"
Gouwa waved his hand, and more than forty people followed him toward the forbidden area.
Qing Chen silently followed in the group. Suddenly, he looked up and saw that the forbidden area was as dark as ink, and it was impossible to see what was inside from the outside.
Upon entering, he felt a gust of cold wind sweep over him... He had crossed the border.
After silently walking twenty kilometers through the dim forest, the view suddenly opened up ahead. There was a clearing without any trees, where the intense sunlight poured down... No, there was a huge, golden ginkgo tree, with golden fan-shaped leaves covering the ground, shimmering in the sunlight.
Emerging from the dim environment, the ginkgo tree suddenly seemed dazzling and magnificent.
The ginkgo tree, the symbol of the Qing family.
Only at this moment did Qing Chen find some information related to Qing Zhen in this forbidden place.
Small wooden plaques, like prayer plaques, are hung on the ginkgo trees with red ropes. When the wind blows, the plaques sway and knock together, making a clanging sound.
One by one, the gold prospectors stepped forward and took a wooden plaque from the bent branches.