Siheyuan: I can always stay out of it

Chen Xu paid two dollars and ninety cents to buy the peppers and took away the cloth bag that the man used to pack the peppers.

Seeing Chen Xu holding the bag without looking back, the man held the money and his mouth twitched twice. He wanted to say that the bag needed to be returned to him, but he didn't say it in the end. He sighed and thought, forget it, at least the pile of unsaleable peppers was dealt with, and a bag was not worth much money...

Chen Xu walked around the alley next to him for a few times, and the bag in his hand had disappeared without a trace. At this moment, he was quite interested in the black market. He felt like he had found a treasure trove. Even looking at the supplies in front of each seller, he felt like opening a blind box.

Turning to the other side, Chen Xu saw Yi Zhonghai and Jia Dongxu. The two were whispering with a cornmeal seller. Nowadays, anyone who can sell grains has some skills. Not to mention cornmeal, even those who sell sweet potatoes have their own channels.

There are already quite a few people gathered there. Food is a necessity right now, and it will be sold out as soon as it appears. If you go too late, you won’t be able to buy anything.

Chen Xu did not join in the fun. He did not come to the black market to buy food. He was a little surprised to see an old man. Everyone who came to the black market was dressed the same as Chen Xu. Except for their eyes, there were basically no other features that could be seen.

He was able to recognize Yi Zhonghai and Jia Dongxu, but only by looking at their clothes. The old man in front of him was particularly different. He sat there calmly without any cover. His gray hair, beard and old face were clearly visible.

While others were being cautious, he was smoking his pipe.

The most important thing is not that the old man did not hide it, but that Chen Xu knew him. He was the old man who sold fishing rods by the Shichahai Sea...

I took a closer look at the goods in front of the old man. Wow, they were all valuable stuff, from radios to tape recorders to clocks, and so on. There were more than a dozen items arranged in a mess.

Chen Xu looked at an alarm clock and felt a little moved.

He doesn't necessarily have to buy a watch, a clock will be fine. It's just in the space anyway, so he can just take a look when he needs to know the time.

"Uncle, how much is this alarm clock?"

Chen Xu fell in love with this alarm clock at first sight. It has a metal appearance and looks like a palm-sized brass cake with two silver bells on it and a small hammer in the middle. It is obviously a gear alarm clock.

The old man was neither impatient nor anxious. He blew out a smoke ring before speaking slowly.

"Thirty, no bargaining."

"May I have a look?"

"can."

Chen Xu squatted down and picked up the alarm clock. He was a little surprised by the row of English words engraved on the back. It was a foreign product.

The alarm clock was only about 70% new, but it looked intact and the seconds were still ticking. Chen Xu looked at the time. It was 2:16:17 in the morning, which seemed to be the current time.

After turning it over and over and not finding any damage, Chen Xu decided to take it.

"Okay, I bought it."

Looking at the three big black tens that Chen Xu handed to him so neatly, the old man was a little surprised. The things here were quite attractive, but generally there were more people asking the price than buying. After all, most people who came to the black market now came for food.

"You have good taste. This alarm clock was a trophy from the north. Thirty dollars is not expensive."

The old man took the money and introduced the origin of the item to Chen Xu.

"That's a good feeling, let's just treat it as a commemoration."

Chen Xu didn't stay long. He just replied casually and left with the alarm clock.

The old man looked at his back and smiled slightly. Obviously, the old man also recognized Chen Xu. Although this guy was wrapped tightly, his voice was not disguised and it was easy to distinguish.

"This little guy is quite interesting."

The old man muttered to himself, pinched some tobacco from the pipe and put it into his pipe, and continued to smoke, as if everything around him had nothing to do with him.

Having solved his biggest need at the moment, Chen Xu felt that this trip to the black market was worthwhile. He could take a look around when he had time in the future, and who knows, he might find unexpected surprises.

Sure enough, the surprise came very quickly.

Before he had finished looking at several alleys, he heard the sound of bamboo poles hitting the wall from the entrance. The sound was particularly clear in the quiet alley.

The entire black market was in an uproar in an instant, with buyers and sellers alike hurriedly picking up their belongings and heading into the alley.

Chen Xu understood what happened instantly, and he randomly found an alley and went in. Finally, he glanced over to the side where Gangcheng bought the alarm clock. The old man was still sitting there smoking calmly, in stark contrast to the panicked crowd.

Chen Xu didn't bother to do anything else and went straight to a dark alley.

From many places behind me, I could hear people shouting, "Stop, don't run."

Chen Xu complained in his heart that anyone who didn't run was a fool. At this moment, he ran faster than anyone else. Others had some weapons in their hands, but he was unarmed, so he naturally had some advantages when running.

If there wasn't someone following him, he would have hidden in the space by now.

After turning a few corners, Chen Xu disappeared around the corner when the people behind him couldn't see him.

After a few seconds.

Chen Xu looked at the people who came here from behind. Oh, it's an old acquaintance.

Jia Dongxu was carrying a bag, which seemed to contain a lot of things. This place was far away from the black market.

He and Yi Zhonghai got separated, and when he saw someone running very fast in front of him, he followed without thinking. At the beginning, there were three or four people running together, but they all ran separately on the way, and finally he was the only one left.

At this moment, Jia Dongxu was extremely tired. It was because of the adrenaline that he was able to keep up with Chen Xu's speed with the bag on his back. Now that he stopped, he almost fainted. He put the bag aside and leaned against the place where Chen Xu had just disappeared, gasping for breath.

After finally feeling a little more comfortable, Jia Dongxu quietly stuck half of his head out to look around the corner. He didn't see anyone chasing him, so he felt relieved and looked at the alley ahead.

"That guy in front of me just now ran really fast."

Jia Dongxu muttered softly.

He ran after the person in front and it only took him a few seconds to reach the corner, but the person in front of him had disappeared without a trace.

"I don't know what happened to Master."

Jia Dongxu murmured to himself, feeling that this place was not very safe, so it would be better to go back to the courtyard first.

After figuring out his current position, Jia Dongxu reached out to pick up the bag next to him, but ended up grabbing nothing.

"Ok?"

Jia Dongxu thought he had grabbed the wrong place or the bag had arrived, so he squatted down and fumbled carefully for a long time, then kicked around with his feet. Except for the fact that he accidentally kicked the wall and caused severe pain in his toes, the ground was clean. There was no spot on the ground, not even a hair, let alone the bag.

"Where's my bag?"

Jia Dongxu looked around for a long time without giving up. Although it was night, it was not so dark that he could not see his hand in front of him. He could still see clearly from a close distance.

There was indeed nothing on the ground. His bag had disappeared. Jia Dongxu squatted there in confusion, doubting his life.