Chapter 695: The Ferry Crossing

It was not just Du Zhengyi; there were other Mages from the Qionglin looking for the Grass Market, or rather, they were all likewise searching for the new owner of the Grass Market.

Du Zhengyi could only tell that those few people circling nearby were Mages; he did not even recognize them, which was somewhat unusual. Before receiving his first assignment, Du Zhengyi had been stationed at the Qionglin; there were not many veteran Execution Mages he had never even seen or had no impression of. This meant that the Head Venerable of the Qionglin had activated reserve forces, forces that even he did not know about.

He had guessed that Pei Shu would have a backup plan. Now it seemed that even if Pei Shu had encountered political setbacks in the past and had been forced to relocate some key personnel, it had not yet reached the point where he needed to activate reserve forces. Clearly, in Pei Shu's eyes, this was the moment that was truly out of control.

The weather here already had the muggy feel of early summer, but it could still be considered good weather for the year. There were many pedestrians on the street, and under the traffic lights, the tide of shared bicycles surged rhythmically like a tide. Du Zhengyi sat down at a bus stop on the side of the road, lit a cigarette, and silently observed his surroundings.

Those few Mages who were working were not particularly sharp; it was possible they were skilled in certain Magic, but they lacked actual investigative experience. They had been observing which of the surrounding pedestrians looked more like Mages, while secretly using Magic to conduct environmental scans. But they themselves could be identified as Mages at a single glance: their necks were held too straight, they were too dismissive of the people around them, and the clothes they wore were too outdated.

Du Zhengyi could not guess what these people usually did; they should rarely appear in the Qionglin, yet they still carried the characteristics of those who had lived in a closed Mage community for a long time. They believed that the relocated Grass Market would leave a Beacon at its original site, so they tested many different types of Magic, hoping to get lucky once.

But Du Zhengyi did not think Luo Qi would leave behind a Magic Beacon; that was not Luo Qi's style, and Luo Qi would not know such complex and obscure Magic. At this point in time, there must already be many cunning Mages who had long since found the Grass Market; bored Mages had a high demand for the Black Market, and young Mages were also closer to Luo Qi's way of thinking.

Du Zhengyi pondered, looking up to size up the surrounding buildings. Some building exteriors had human advertisements on them; it was very possible that Luo Qi had simply spent money to rent a large human screen. But it certainly wasn't this one; the pink-background screen flashed a massive 520 declaration, "Wish to win one heart, avoid the old blind date," and it certainly wouldn't be "The wise do not enter the river of love, build a beautiful China."

It wasn't that Luo Qi couldn't do such a thing, but rather that these words really didn't count as any kind of riddle.

Du Zhengyi finished his cigarette and also finished looking at all the surrounding building advertisements. A bus came, but no one got on or off.

It was a silent electric bus, very new and quite pretty. The body of the bus was painted with a blue night sky and warm human fireworks, with a line of advertising copy floating in front of the fireworks, "The setting sun remains at Gudu, a thousand years of flowing water." Only then did he realize that the lower half of the bus body was painted with abstract river water and an ancient ferry crossing. But in the city where he was now, there was no great river, nor was there an ancient ferry crossing.

By the time Du Zhengyi thought of this, the bus had already driven away. However, there certainly wouldn't be only one bus; a bus circulating through half the city was indeed a very good information carrier. Du Zhengyi stood up, wanting to see the departure interval for this bus route. But as he turned around, he realized the same advertisement was posted on the bus stop's advertising board.

The advertising board was crowded with a bunch of dense, tiny characters.

"Come to Gudu, not to leave, but to meet the past."

#AThousandYearsInAGlance #AncientCapitalTime #NicheTravelDestination.

Scenic Area Information: Address/Opening Hours/Boat Experience/Gudu Night Tour/Misty Jiangnan/Intangible Cultural Heritage Performance/Most Beautiful Night Market/Midnight Fireworks/Pet Friendly. Scan code to see detailed information #￥%... Scan code to join group and get discount coupons ￥%%............

#IWaitForYouAtGudu #WhereHaveYouMetAFerryCrossingThatSlowedDownTime? Snap a moment of Gudu through your eyes, post it with the topic, and we will select the three most moving photos to give away one "Gudu Night Voyage" Ship Ticket. Let us together tell the thousand-year-old story to the people of today.

Du Zhengyi struggled to finish reading these words and took out his phone to scan the code. The address for Gudu could be found on the phone; it was quite far from here. This was still a real human address; he even looked up human travel information, which was another set of advertising slogans, but overall it was extremely similar to this one. The end of the address even stated that the 130 bus went directly there; that was indeed a human bus. He took another look at the bottom right corner of the bus stop advertisement: a cat was extending a paw, preparing to knock over a water glass on the table, looking like a signature stamp.

Perhaps Luo Qi had set the new Sandbox entrance in a human tourist Gudu district.

Du Zhengyi took a taxi to the local Pendragon Orbital System station and transferred to the city where Gudu was located; it was already very late. He waited until the next day to set off. To prevent Luo Qi from pulling any more tricks, Du Zhengyi even took the bus according to the schedule, but the facts proved that a bus was just a bus, with nothing special about it.

The entrance to Gudu was also very ordinary; after getting off the bus, he was almost at Gudu. There were no tickets, and there was no entrance. Du Zhengyi unfortunately happened to catch the weekend; he had forgotten this point, and as a result, he was swept up in a huge crowd of tourists. Many human girls were wearing clothes from the medieval period to take pictures here. Du Zhengyi could tell that this was not a historical site, but the restoration ability of modern humans could be considered excellent; not to mention repairing the old as the old, at least it was very coordinated and quite aesthetically pleasing. Those girls shuttled back and forth here, making the thousand-year-old Gudu vaguely have the shadow of yesterday.

It was just that in this situation, the single Du Zhengyi appeared very abrupt; he was stopped by girls several times. At first, he thought it was the front desk of the Big Tanuki Cat King, and when the girls asked to add his WeChat, he obediently took out his phone. After adding them as friends, the other party did not have any of the expressions he expected, and he even somewhat confusedly probed and asked the girl, "Do you have a cat?"

He didn't know what had been pressed to trigger an acceleration, but the girl was exceptionally happy and stated without ambiguity that she had a cat, praising it as being peerless in heaven and on earth, a supreme kitty. Then she took out her phone and sent him a photo. He confusedly clicked on the photo and caught a glimpse of a long-haired kitten as spirited as a little lion.

"Shall I treat you to a cup of milk tea?" the girl suggested happily.

"No... thanks," Du Zhengyi said with difficulty, his brain feeling overwhelmed.

"But you're all alone, how boring! Why not hang out with us?" The girl was not yet willing to give up; she had already added his WeChat, so there must be a way, and the opportunity was truly rare.

"I have plans with a friend," Du Zhengyi smiled awkwardly and tried his best to slip away politely.

This Gudu itself was a street market built against the mountain; he stretched his long legs and walked up the steps, relying on his physical advantage to quickly distance himself from the disaster scene.

But then he was even more confused; there were humans everywhere here, human tourists, human shops. He searched for special signs and caught a glimpse of an archway in a narrow street that read Gongdu Cihang; only this place looked like a node.

As he walked over, he vaguely sensed someone staring at him. But this feeling was fleeting, and all around were still human shops. Tourists also seemed to favor this place; there were many people queuing on the other side to take pictures, and he tactfully stepped aside.

In a place with so many human activities, it was very difficult to set up a Grass Market entrance. Every time he stopped to check if there were any traces of the Grass Market, his appearance might look like he was spacing out to humans. He didn't know if he looked particularly pathetic or what, but every time this happened, girls would come to try to add his WeChat or secretly take his photo, so he couldn't have a moment of peace to check for traces of Magic.

Just when he was speechless to the extreme, his phone suddenly vibrated.

A WeChat message slid in, "What are you doing just standing there? Standing still is just harassing girls with your melancholy."

Sent by Luo Qi.

"Where are you?" He looked up and scanned his surroundings.

"I'm not there," Luo Qi replied to him.

All nonsense.

But he heard the sound of a camera rotating. He looked toward the sound, and a camera under a human eave rotated a few times and then faced him again. Alright, he understood.

"If I were there, wouldn't I just be waiting to be a turtle in a jar?" Luo Qi replied to him again.

"Where is the Grass Market?" he asked.

"It's all around you; pick a shop you like?"

Soon Luo Qi sent another WeChat. "Brother, be careful. Someone might have some ideas about you; I suggest you hurry back to the Qionglin; that is the safest place for you."

"What happened?" Du Zhengyi asked, and just then he felt the prying gaze once again.

Luo Qi's WeChat turned into a voice message, his voice somewhat hurried, "Brother, what are you looking at over there?"

"Nothing, just a feeling."

"Don't walk any further! There are too few humans ahead!"

Du Zhengyi stopped his steps.

"Go back, then go down!"

"Hurry up, take the alley on the left at the intersection; there is an Alice in the alley... just a little girl in a blue dress and a big-mouthed cat, go into the shop behind that!"