Back to reading #ZhangGongAn. 🥰 This ‘ghost market’ reminds me of the market overt concept in the UK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_overt
On the outskirts of the capital, there is a ghost market. It was originally a place where the children of some wealthy families took out their belongings and sold them, but they couldn't bear to lose face, so they set up stalls in the market late at night, with only one oil lamp lighting the stalls. It was bright, and people buying things couldn't see who was selling them. Later, this kind of market gradually became a climate and turned into a specific black market. Generally, the market opens on the third or fourth day and closes at dawn on the fifth day. Yushitai got wind that this black market had become a specific place for certain officials to sell bribes, and there was a force behind it. Liu Yuan, together with two officials from Yushitai and Dali Temple, disguised themselves as common people and went to the ghost market to get a feel for it. In order to disguise themselves, the three officials randomly bought some worthless things from the stalls. Liu Yuan bought this pen holder casually.