Chapter 423: Why do I feel like I

The main gate of Yin Dang Hang consists of two doors that open inward, painted bright red, with a bronze beast‑head ring pull on each side, left and right, and it is not locked.

I stepped forward, left hand holding the Soul‑guiding Lamp, right hand gripping the ring pull on the right door, just about to knock, when the right door swung open with a creak all by itself.

And the Soul‑guiding Lamp in my hand slipped from my grasp at the same moment, hanging itself beneath the eaves of Yin Dang Hang.

After a brief moment of surprise, my gaze was drawn to the light that suddenly flared up inside Yin Dang Hang.

Yin Dang Hang has a threshold, and it is rather high.

I stepped over the high threshold, and upon entering Yin Dang Hang I was again stunned by the sight before me.

The façade of Yin Dang Hang is large, the door faces west, and the counter also faces west; there are doors to the north and south, both locked, and I have no idea how many stories the building has.

The counter is nothing like the Nan Shu Fang of our pawnshop; it is simply a desk‑cabinet.

The counter of Yin Dang Hang is too high—about 1.56 meters—and inside it is divided into five compartments, each sealed off except for a square opening at the bottom, through which both parties conduct their transactions.

Below the counter there is a step about thirty centimeters high; anyone a bit shorter must stand on it to communicate with those inside.

But at this moment, the entire Yin Dang Hang is deathly silent.

Inside the counter there is no proprietor, no clerk, no customer—nothing but the harsh white light, and I see nothing else.

I shouted a few times toward the inside of the counter: "Is anyone there?"

Only my own echo answered me.

I felt a creeping unease; this was not quite what I had imagined.

I couldn't help recalling the old woman's words: she said that something had happened at Yin Dang Hang the previous year, her third son had left in a hurry and forgotten to take his blue cloth jacket.

No one knows how many years have passed since the old woman's death, but her third son and that blue cloth jacket became her greatest obsession in life; after death this fixation coalesced into a spirit that still comes to the pawnshop, asking the proprietor to deliver the jacket to her third son.

In other words, that year's end was likely the last time she saw her third son.

What exactly happened at Yin Dang Hang back then?

Is the old woman's third son still alive?

And does Yin Dang Hang… still operate today?

Questions formed one after another in my mind, yet for now I could not find any answers.

But since I have come, I must fulfill the agreement.

Thinking thus, I stepped onto the footboard before one of the windows, took the two eggs from my pack, and placed them on the counter.

Strangely, at that very moment, the sound of turning gears came from inside the window, behind and above the backboard; shortly afterward, a square sandalwood box slid in from the north side and came to a steady stop in the window facing me.

Then I watched as the sandalwood box was pushed out of the window and stopped before me.

The sandalwood box is small, holding only a single 'egg', so I placed one of them inside.

The sandalwood box retreated into the window, continued sliding southward, and at the partition was carried upward by the track.

Immediately afterward, another sandalwood box was pushed out.

Following the same procedure, I put the other 'egg' into the box and watched it being conveyed away.

The track noise continued for a while before gradually fading; then the five windows inside the counter simultaneously raised their shutters, and Yin Dang Hang fell silent once more.

Is… is that it?

No, the two 'eggs' have been taken, these two pawn‑shop transactions are finished, so what should I be redeeming?

Although I don't know what Feng Wu Jiu pawned or what he used as collateral, since it's a live pawn there ought to be both give and take, right?

Why do I feel as if I've been cheated?

I tiptoed, reached out and tapped the shutter, shouting as I did so, hoping someone would come out to attend to me.

Even a brief explanation would do; don't leave me hanging like this.

This feeling is awful, okay!

Too bad, not a single ghostly shadow appeared from start to finish.

I felt like a hysterical psychiatric patient, directing and performing this farce all by myself.

However, I didn't linger long in Yin Dang Hang either; after all, time waits for no one, and we must leave Gui Shi within the allotted time.

I retreated from Yin Dang Hang; the gate slammed shut behind me with a boom, and the Soul‑guiding Lamp fell back into my hand.

I left the pawnshop looking back every few steps, carrying the Soul‑guiding Lamp down the stairs, and just as I was about to retrace my route, a faint waft of incense came from deeper west on the street.

I looked south in puzzlement; all I could see was a vast white fog, nothing else.

At that moment another whiff of incense reached me, and I could smell it distinctly.

I frowned involuntarily; could there be more than just Yin Dang Hang on this street?

Where there is incense, there are offerings.

Where there are offerings, there should be people.

Even if they aren't human, being able to speak and communicate would be nice.

Right now I really want to find someone who knows the inside story of Yin Dang Hang to talk with.

Thinking so, I descended the stairs and walked into the fog to the south.

After entering the fog, the Merit Light inside the lamp's chamber, which had been a faint green, gradually shifted toward yellow, blending green and yellow in a hard‑to‑describe hue.

But this is enough to show that the incense scent in the fog is real and fairly pure; otherwise, in a place so heavy with yin energy, the lamp's interior color would not change.

This made me even more certain that something lies ahead.

Walking on, a tall wall suddenly appeared ahead.

The wall's surface is yellow, its top crowned with red tiles, and behind the crest one can see the roofs of houses layered in orderly rows, stretching out of sight.

As expected!

I hurriedly quickened my pace toward the wall; the closer I got, the stronger the pleasant incense smell became, and the lamp's interior color grew more vivid, finally nearing gold.

Yet what baffles me is that the wall is clearly not far ahead, so why can I never reach it?

It's as if, once I come within a certain range, an invisible barrier arises between me and the wall; no matter how I struggle, the distance stays the same.

If it weren't for that incense smell, I would have thought I was seeing a mirage.

Something's off.

Too off.

My subconscious became alert, I stopped dwelling, turned and ran back.

With that turn, I discovered another hair-raising thing—the west side of this street is a deep ravine!

Because that whole area was pitch black, when we saw the street and the houses to the east, we automatically assumed the west side was also the rear walls of houses.

It's just because the light is dim, we can't see clearly.

Right then I stood on the edge of that ravine, the Soul-guiding Lamp's light shining over it, I couldn't see the bottom at a glance, like a giant beast opening its maw, waiting for me to step off and fall in, to swallow me whole…