People worship their ancestors: I'm just burning some paper money, how did I become a Taoist ma

Seeing the smiling man approaching, Li Mu spoke directly.

"Boss Zhou?"

"Indeed. May I ask your name, sir?"

"His surname is Li."

"What would you like to see, Mr. Li? I wouldn't dare say that the items in my shop are the best in the world, but they are quite presentable in Tianhai Antique City." Zhou Maolin walked in, sat down at the tea table, and began to boil water to make tea.

Li Mu walked to the tea table and sat down opposite him.

"Boss Zhou, I'm not here to buy anything. I'm here to inquire about something."

Zhou Maolin's hands didn't stop moving as he poured boiling water into the purple clay teapot, filling the air with the aroma of tea.

"What do you want to know?"

"A bronze tree. Bells hang from its branches, and it's about thirty centimeters tall. You sold it to Mr. Shen Yi three months ago."

Zhou Maolin paused slightly as he poured the tea, then resumed his normal motion.

He picked up his teacup, took a sip, put it down, and looked at Li Mu.

"Mr. Li, is there a problem with that item?"

"This is a serious problem." Li Mu didn't beat around the bush. "After Mr. Shen bought it, strange things started happening in his house. He had nightmares every day, dreaming of a black forest with people hanging from the trees. He asked several people to take a look, but none of them could figure it out."

Zhou Maolin's expression changed slightly.

"Mr. Shen never mentioned any of this to me."

"He asked me to ask you where you got that item from."

Zhou Maolin remained silent for a while, then poured himself another cup of tea, picked it up, didn't drink it, and put it down again.

"Mr. Li, I've been in the antique business for twenty-three years, and I've handled at least eight or ten thousand items. Bronze artifacts, especially the very old ones, all have... indescribable characteristics."

"That bronze tree isn't a matter of 'more or less'," Li Mu said, looking him into the eyes. "There's something on that thing. Mr. Shen saw it, I saw it, and if you've seen it yourself, you should be able to see it too."

Zhou Maolin tapped his fingers lightly twice on the table.

"Mr. Li, may I ask what you do for a living?"

"I am a Taoist priest... I help people resolve strange things, and lately many people have been calling me Master Li."

Zhou Maolin stared at Li Mu for several seconds, then sighed, stood up from his chair, walked behind the counter, opened a drawer, and took out an old notebook.

He turned to one of the pages and handed it to Li Mu.

"This is the provenance record of that bronze tree. I have a habit in business: I record the origin and destination of everything I handle. I usually don't show this record to others!"

Li Mu took the notebook.

The inscription reads: Tree-shaped bronze artifact, 31.5 cm high, weighing 4.2 kg. Source: Liu Laogen, villager, Dongshan Village, Qingxi Town!

"Have you been to Dongshan Village? Have you found Liu Laogen and verified his identity?"

"No." Zhou Maolin shook his head. "I came back as soon as I picked up the things. I've been to Qingxi Town many times. Dongshan Village is a small village in the mountains, and the roads are difficult to travel. Liu Laogen is an old farmer who is dirt poor. He suddenly took out a bronze artifact to sell. I asked him where it came from, and he said he dug it up from the ground."

"Dug out of the ground."

"Yes. They said they dug it up while tilling the land. This kind of thing is not uncommon in the countryside. When old houses are demolished or fields are dug up, old items are often found. I didn't think much of it."

Li Mu returned the notebook to him.

"Boss Zhou, write down the address of Dongshan Village for me, I'll go take a look."

Zhou Maolin took the business card, took out a pen from the drawer, tore a piece of paper from his notebook, and wrote down an address.

"This place is hard to find. Once you get to Qingxi Town, find a local to guide you, otherwise you might get lost."

Li Mu took the note, glanced at it, and put it in his wallet.

"Thank you, Boss Zhou."

"Mr. Li," Zhou Maolin called out to him, then hesitated for a moment, "that bronze tree...did Mr. Shen mention anything about returning it or demanding compensation?"

"No. He only told me to deal with the problem with that thing."

Zhou Maolin visibly breathed a sigh of relief.

"That's good, that's good."

Li Mu didn't say anything more, turned around and walked out of Maolin Antique Shop.

……

After leaving the antique market, Li Mu rented a car and went directly to Qingxi Town.

Upon arriving in Qingxi Town, Li Mu did not enter the ancient town scenic area, but instead drove into the mountains along a narrower cement road.

The road became narrower and narrower, turning from a cement road into a gravel road, and then from a gravel road into a dirt road.

The road was shrouded in darkness, with dense forests on both sides blocking the sunlight.

Because the road was really difficult to drive on, the driver was unwilling to drive in until Li Mu offered to pay more, which dispelled Li Mu's concerns!

This also gave Li Mu the idea of ​​building his own car for easier travel in the future!

After walking for about forty minutes, a small village appeared ahead.

A dozen or so houses are scattered on the hillside, most of them with mud walls and black tile roofs, and a few are red brick houses, but they are also quite old.

The village is surrounded by terraced fields, where the rice has just been harvested, leaving only short stubble.

Li Mu walked into the village and stopped in front of the first courtyard at the village entrance.

An old woman was feeding chickens in the yard. When she saw Li Mu, she stopped what she was doing.

"Auntie, could you tell me how to get to Liu Laogen's house?" Li Mu asked over the low wall.

"Auntie, could you tell me how to get to Liu Laogen's house?" Li Mu asked over the low wall.

The old lady looked him up and down, then pointed to the hillside.

"Go upstairs, that red brick building is it."

Li Mu thanked him and walked up the stone path.

The gate to Liu Laogen's courtyard was half-open, and firewood and some farm tools were piled up in the yard. A man in his sixties was sitting on the threshold smoking a pipe. His face was deeply wrinkled, his skin was tanned dark by the sun, and his fingers were yellowed from the smoke.

"Liu Laogen?"

The old man looked up, saw Li Mu, and his eyes were filled with wariness.

"Yes, that's me. Who are you?"

"My name is Li Mu, and I'm from the city. I'd like to ask you something."

Liu Laogen tapped his pipe on the threshold and stood up.

"What is it?"

"Did you sell a bronze artifact to an antique dealer from the city? A guy surnamed Zhou?"

Liu Laogen's expression changed.

He didn't say anything, turned around and went into the house.

Li Mu did not go in; he stood at the door and waited.

After a while, Liu Laogen came out in a panic, holding a cloth bag in his hand, and handed it to Li Mu.

"This is the money the antique dealer gave me. Three thousand yuan, I didn't spend a penny. I shouldn't have sold the item, please return it to him and refund the money."

Li Mu did not take the cloth bag, but looked at the old man.

"Uncle Liu, I'm not here to ask for anything back. That bronze artifact has already been sold and is now in the hands of one of my clients. I've come to you to find out where it came from."

Liu Laogen's hand froze in mid-air, his expression a mixture of relief and increased tension.

"Where did it come from?" He put the cloth bag back into his arms, sat down again on the threshold, and took out his pipe and lit it. "It was dug out of the ground, where else could it have come from?"

Which plot of land?

"The back mountain. My family's contracted land is halfway up the back mountain. Last autumn, when I was turning the soil, I hit something hard with my hoe. I thought it was a stone, but when I dug it out, it turned out to be a lump of copper." Liu Laogen took a puff of his cigarette, and the smoke slowly came out of his mouth. "After wiping off the dust, I could see that it was a tree-shaped copper object with a bell hanging on it."

"What did it look like when you dug it out? Did anything strange happen?"

Upon hearing Li Mu's question, Liu Laogen's hand trembled slightly.