I wanted Jie Sanbao to start from the beginning so I wouldn't miss any clues.

There's always some difference between legend and reality. In reality, what are the chances of stumbling into a mountain cave, falling off a cliff, and meeting an old man who gives you a treasure map?

Even if it happens, it might just be bait deliberately set by evil gods and demons to lure people in.

These things would be hard to explain over the phone, which is why I had to bring Jie Sanbao with me.

Jie Sanbao lit a cigarette and said slowly, "After I retired from the army, I went to the forestry center. I was young and ambitious back then, and I wasn't willing to just chop wood for the rest of my life."

"But I didn't have any capital, no connections. What could I do?"

"Back then, there wasn't much entertainment at the logging camp. When we were idle, we'd just chat and tell stories. After hearing so many stories about the jin jiaozi, I don't know what possessed me, but I was determined to go up the mountain and find some."

The "jin jiaozi" that Jie Sanbao was talking about were places where bandits hid their money.

Before liberation, banditry was rife in the Northeast, to the point where people said, "One in ten is a bandit." Some bandits didn't actually live that well, their food, clothing, and belongings weren't much better than ordinary people's back then. The ones with money and guns were the notorious bandits and desperados.

Bandits weren't highly cultured, but they understood the principle of having multiple escape routes. Money wasn't necessarily all hidden in the mountain stronghold. Bandits often hid some of their wealth in the deep mountains and forests, just in case.

These places where they hid money were called jin jiaozi.

Jie Sanbao said, "I heard people say that our logging camp used to be a bandit lair back in the day. During the剿匪 (suppression of bandits), this group of bandits went into the deep mountains and never came out again, and everything in the lair disappeared with them."

"I was extremely excited when I heard this news, and I started looking for clues about the bandits in the mountains. Later, I actually found someone who had come from a 'qian louzi.'"

Lin Zhao asked when he heard this, "What's a qian louzi?"

I explained, "It's a place where bandits spend money!"

The winter in the Northeast lasts for five months, from November to March according to the Gregorian calendar, all of which can be considered winter. Northeasterners have the habit of "mao dong" (hunkering down for the winter).

Bandits also "mao dong." When winter comes and the mountains are covered in snow, bandits have no "business" to do and not enough food to get through the winter, so they can only disband temporarily and hide separately. They gather again when spring comes.

The leaders of the bandits are more particular about mao dong than ordinary bandits. They usually don't go down the mountain for mao dong, but gather in specific places. Bandits call those places "qian xuanzi," meaning: money goes there as if it's being sucked into a vortex, and you can't get it back.

Of course, that's just what the bandits call them. These places all have names to outsiders: some are called towns, some are called stockades, some are called markets.

Inside, they have food, drink, gambling, opium dens, women—everything you could want back then, except you can't cause trouble.

Moreover, bandits really don't dare to cause trouble there. The behind-the-scenes bosses who run the qian xuanzi are either warlords or Japanese. They're people that the bandits can't afford to offend. So, the news in the qian xuanzi is the most well-informed.

Jie Sanbao waited for me to finish explaining before saying, "That person told us that the bandits in the logging camp once hid a fierce bandit whose real name was Cai, nicknamed: Xuelihong."

Lin Zhao couldn't help but laugh when he heard this, "Xuelihong? Like the xuelihong used to stew tofu?"

Xuelihong is a common vegetable in the north. Its leaves turn dark red in autumn and winter, hence the name xuelihong (mustard greens).

Jie Sanbao shook his head and said, "The name Xuelihong means that he likes to kill people in the snow. After killing someone, he always buried the dead in the snow before the blood on the corpse had dried. Besides a patch of blood red, you couldn't see the body in the snow."

"It's said that the most people Xuelihong ever killed at once turned half a mountainside blood red. His bandit gang wasn't big, but not many people dared to provoke him."

"Xuelihong couldn't be called a righteous bandit, but he never robbed ordinary people either. In principle, Xuelihong should have been treated as an object of contention during the suppression of bandits. But he disappeared with his entire gang."

"After the suppression of bandits, some of the bandits who had managed to escape the encirclement came down the mountain one after another, but not a single member of Xuelihong's gang ever came down. Xuelihong and his gang became a legend."

Jie Sanbao said, "The person I contacted said that he knew the whereabouts of Xuelihong. According to him, I found a place called Erlin Town!"

Jie Sanbao had just said "Erlin Town" when he fainted without any warning.

"Old Jie!" Before the other party could fall onto the car, Lin Zhao pushed him up with a backhand strike, then pointed a finger at Jie Sanbao's brow.

By the time I turned my head from the front seat, a plume of black gas had burst out between Lin Zhao's fingertip and Jie Sanbao's brow.

Lin Zhao retracted his hand and said, "A restriction has been placed on Jie Sanbao! I reckon that as soon as he tries to say certain key things, the restriction will take effect."

"It seems that Xie Yueling doesn't want Old Jie to go looking for him!" Lin Zhao glanced at me deliberately as he spoke.

I said in a deep voice, "I understand what you mean. Ghosts and gods have their own rules. Their territory isn't allowed to be entered by mortals. If Jie Sanbao really goes to the territory of ghosts and gods, Xie Yueling might not be able to protect him either."

"But Ye Yang's chance at life is there. Even if I have to become something other than human, I'll have to drag Jie Sanbao along for the ride. Wake him up!"