On the bluestone-paved road of Anxi Street, Chen Ji carried his carrying pole and walked back all alone.
The two wooden buckets filled with water weighed down the carrying pole, swaying up and down, yet not a single drop of water spilled out.
Pondering the information provided by Jin Zhu, he only felt that a layer of haze shrouded Luo City, pressing down on people until they could barely breathe.
If the Liu Family really rebelled, their first action would probably be to sacrifice the Directorate of Ceremonial's "Eunuch Faction" to their banners. As a lowly secret spy under the Directorate of Ceremonial, he would inevitably be the first to bear the brunt. This time, many people were going to die.
As soon as he returned to the medical clinic, he saw Commandery Princess Baili, having changed into a set of clean white clothes, straddling the top of the wall and waving at him with a smile. "Chen Ji, Chen Ji, help pass me the ladder."
Chen Ji bent down to lower his carrying pole and moved the ladder over.
As Bai Li climbed down the ladder, she asked curiously, "Did you help wipe the tiles on this wall? There's not a speck of dust left."
Holding the ladder steady, Chen Ji gave a hum of affirmation. "I noticed your white clothes always rub against the dust when you climb over the wall, so I wiped it down."
Bai Li looked down at her clean pants, then looked up and said with a beaming smile, "Thank you!"
...
When the Prince Heir's head popped out over the wall, Chen Ji asked curiously, "I haven't seen the Little Monk in a long time. Where is he?"
The Prince Heir said smugly and triumphantly, "Father said he would pick up bad habits from me if he stayed in Luo City, so he sent him to the Imperial Observatory in the Capital City to cultivate under the Vice Director of the Imperial Observatory, Xu Shu."
Chen Ji said helplessly, "What exactly is the Prince Heir so smug about... Why did the Prince Heir and Commandery Princess come so early today?"
The Prince Heir slid down the ladder. "To find you and learn blade techniques, of course! Chen Ji, teach me blade techniques, okay?"
As soon as his voice fell, Prince Jing lifted the door curtain looking weak and feeble. "He's just a lowly apprentice, what use is learning from him?"
Chen Ji was puzzled. Prince Jing had been perfectly fine while listening to the play yesterday, yet early this morning he harbored an intense resentment and hatred toward him. Strange, where did this resentment come from?
At this time, Bai Li's eyes widened. "Dad, why are you speaking about Chen Ji like that?"
Prince Jing also widened his eyes. "I just wanted to speak like that, is that not allowed?"
Bai Li asked in perplexity, "Father, why do you suddenly find Chen Ji displeasing to the eye? You were just praising him earlier."
Prince Jing said in an annoyed tone, "That was then, this is now. Today my son and daughter came and didn't visit me first, but instead started chatting with him first. I'm afraid you've completely forgotten that your dad is still sick!"
Bai Li hurriedly brought a bamboo chair from the room and embarrassedly helped Prince Jing sit down. "Dad, aren't we visiting you right now, having rushed over bright and early?"
Prince Jing said unhurriedly, "Who you came to visit, you know in your heart..."
Bai Li hurriedly covered Prince Jing's mouth with her clean white palm and lowered her voice. "Dad, quickly stop talking. Of course I came to visit you."
She sneaked a glance at Chen Ji, but Chen Ji seemingly hadn't heard their conversation just now. He looked at Prince Jing and asked curiously, "Your Highness, Xu Shu is the Vice Director of the Imperial Observatory. Who is the Director?"
Bai Li explained, "I know this. The young Director of the Imperial Observatory is named Hu Junyan, the little junior martial uncle of the Mount Laojun Daoist Court."
"That name sounds somewhat familiar," Chen Ji said, trying hard to recall. "Wait... Someone told me before that in the winter of the eighth year of Jianing, Elder Hu's legitimate grandson was abducted by the Beggars' Gang during the Lantern Festival, and was later found and brought back by the Hu family. Is it him?"
Standing beside the bamboo chair kneading Prince Jing's shoulders, Bai Li said, "That's him, that's him! I heard from my mother that it caused a huge sensation back then. After he was found and brought back by the Hu family, the headmaster of the Mount Laojun Daoist Court, Cen Yunzi, personally went to the Capital City to accept a disciple on behalf of his master, taking Hu Junyan into the Daoist Sect. Therefore, this Hu Junyan is considered Cen Yunzi's junior brother, and Daoist Master Zhang Li's junior martial uncle."
Chen Ji suddenly felt somewhat bewildered. Why did Cen Yunzi suddenly visit to accept a disciple, transforming Hu Junyan into the little junior martial uncle of the Daoist Court?
Could something completely unknown to the public have happened when the Beggars' Gang abducted him? Or perhaps, like Xu Shu, this person came from the Forty-Nine Heavens?
Chen Ji asked curiously, "How old is he?"
Bai Li counted on her fingers and pondered. "Twenty-seven?"
Chen Ji sighed with emotion. "To be a proper fourth-rank Director of the Imperial Observatory at twenty-seven..."
Bai Li smiled and said, "You definitely can do it too."
Prince Jing shifted his posture and curled his lip. "Him? Keep dreaming!"
Chen Ji listened silently without talking back.
As they spoke, the respectful voice of a guard came from outside the medical clinic's gate. "Madam Consort Jing, Eunuch Feng gave strict orders that apart from the imperial physicians and apprentices of the clinic, outsiders are not allowed to casually enter or leave the medical clinic."
A crisp
smack
resulting from a slap rang out.
嬷嬷 Chun Rong said fiercely, "You call my madam an outsider? Who taught you to do things this way? Scram."
Consort Jing consoled gently from the side, "Chun Rong, they are also acting on orders; do not blame them. However, I must trouble you generals to step aside. I am His Highness's secondary consort; what right do you have to stop me?"
In the courtyard, upon hearing Consort Jing's voice, Prince Jing hurriedly stood up and returned to his main room. Before entering, he instructed Chen Ji, "Block her for a moment later on. I don't want to see anyone today."
Chen Ji hesitated for a moment. "Madam Consort Jing is coming in fiercely; I'm afraid I won't be able to block her."
Prince Jing said heartlessly, "Even if you can't block her, you must block her."
After entering the room, he pressed himself against the window and quietly listened to the movement outside.
While listening, he asked Old Yao in a low voice, "Do you think this disciple of yours will also get slapped?"
Old Yao asked back unhurriedly, "Does Your Highness want him to take a slap, or not?"
Prince Jing thought for a moment and said with a smile, "I somewhat hope he does."
As soon as his voice fell, they only heard Chen Ji say outside, "Madam, my master is currently applying needles for His Highness. He will be done very soon; please wait for a moment."
Prince Jing's face immediately darkened.
He slowly looked toward Old Yao, only to see Old Yao had already silently taken out a set of silver needles and was signaling for him to lie down on the bed.
Prince Jing lay down unwillingly. While letting Old Yao apply the needles, he lowered his voice and complained, "How can this brat hold grudges like this?"
Old Yao chuckled merrily. "Isn't Your Highness the same?"
A moment later, Old Yao lifted the door curtain and called outside, "Consort Jing, please enter."
Chen Ji leaned close to the window, silently eavesdropping on the conversation taking place inside. However, the voices were too quiet. They could only intermittently hear Consort Jing saying, "Elder Liu and Daoist Master Cen Yunzi are old acquaintances. They once... As long as Your Highness is willing to help the Liu family, the Liu family will definitely help Your Highness obtain the Feather-Generating Pill..."
In less than the time it takes an incense stick to burn, Consort Jing hurried away with red-rimmed eyes.
The prolonged tranquility inside the room was like a chess player pinching a piece, sitting entirely still, sinking into a long deliberation when faced with an intricate and complicated position.
Suddenly, Prince Jing said softly, "It's time."
The next moment, he called out calmly from inside the room. "Chen Ji, come in for a moment."
Chen Ji glanced at the Prince Heir and Bai Li in the courtyard before lifting the door curtain and going inside, only to see Prince Jing sitting up from the bed, his face dark as he pulled out the silver needles one by one. "I need to go out for a bit. Follow me."
Chen Ji was stunned. "Your Highness is going out during the day? What if Consort Yun and Eunuch Feng come to visit you?"
"Don't worry, they have endless matters to attend to right now. They don't have time to worry about me."
Luo City, Eastern Market, Anle Street.
This was the most bustling place in Luo City at noon. The long street was lined with teahouses.
Idle gentlemen in the city loved sitting in teahouses, ordering a pot of tea and some broad beans, and listening to storytelling from daytime until nightfall.
In front of the Fulou Teahouse, Prince Jing stood with his hands behind his back. He looked up to confirm the signboard before finally stepping over the threshold and leading Chen Ji to find a corner to sit down.
A young attendant working in the teahouse with a white towel draped over his shoulder was sweeping up melon seed shells from the floor. Seeing the two men enter, he immediately greeted them with a smile. "What kind of tea would you two guests like to drink?"
Prince Jing casually ordered, "A pot of Maojian tea, a dish of melon seeds, a dish of fennel broad beans, a dish of preserved fruits, and a dish of sour tamarind. By the way, what is the storytelling about today?"
The young attendant beamed with joy. "Sir, Mr. Zhou just finished a segment about the Confucius becoming a Saint. It's an old story told in a new way, and it was extremely brilliant. He said he'll talk about something trendy next. It seems it's a new storybook about the scripture debate at Luhun Villa, involving our Prince Jing."
Prince Jing's eyes brightened. "This is interesting, must listen to it!"
After the attendant left, Chen Ji sat beside the Eight Immortals table and couldn't help asking, "Your Highness, this proper business you mentioned... couldn't just be listening to storytelling at a teahouse, could it?"
Prince Jing asked back, "Who says only great matters of state and family are proper business? Listening to storytelling isn't proper business?"
Chen Ji asked curiously, "Then what counts as proper business?"
Prince Jing tapped his finger on the tabletop. "Being happy is proper business!"
You couldn't blame Chen Ji for being confused. This regional prince holding real power had led him to listen to a scene of a play yesterday, and today led him to a teahouse to listen to storytelling. It was obvious that massive turmoil was about to erupt in Yuzhou and the flames of war were going to sweep the land, yet the other party wasn't anxious in the slightest.
After deliberating over and over, Chen Ji still said in a low voice, "Your Highness, do you really intend to wash your hands of the Liu Family's treasonous plot?"
However, looking at the storytelling stage, Prince Jing slowly said, "Young man, when I was enfeoffed as a prince at the age of twenty-one, I wore a black Ceremonial Robe embroidered with four-clawed golden dragons, standing below only one person, and above ten thousand times ten thousand people."
"That year, I was given crucial duties in the face of danger to share the Emperor's burdens. I executed treacherous ministers, secured the Emperor's throne, allied horizontally and aligned vertically, and divided the northern and southern civil officials. Every day, I woke up at the third late-night watch to handle government affairs. I worried about floods and droughts; I worried about bandit soldiers and disasters. I didn't dare make a single mistake, or waste a single moment, thinking only of uniting the mountains and rivers, so that one day the entire world would resound with my name."
"Now that I am forty-five, His Majesty no longer needs me. Only then did I remember that, while I always heard people mentioning how interesting the stories in the teahouses were, I never had the time to sit down and listen to them."
"Tell me, in a person's life, what exactly is proper business?"
Chen Ji remained silent. Today, Prince Jing seemed to have too many things he wanted to say, yet Chen Ji didn't know why he chose to say them only to him.
At this moment, Prince Jing looked calmly at him from across the table. "That residence on Tongji Street yesterday doesn't belong to Squire Lin. He rented it from me, and the Land Deed is with me."
"This Fulou Teahouse is also mine, and half the properties on the entire Anle Street are mine."
"Thirty-one storefronts in the Capital City courtyard, one thousand two hundred acres of fertile farmland in the suburbs of the Capital City... None of these are recorded on the prince's estate's ledgers, and no one knows they belong to the prince's estate. I will leave them all entirely for Bai Li."
Prince Jing stared fixedly at Chen Ji. "Young man, without the incident of you risking your life to save Bai Li at the Longwang Village military garrison, this wonderful pie falling from the sky event would absolutely not fall upon your head. Regional princes of this dynasty have rarely ever met a good end. I ask you: if one day I am imprisoned in chains, are you willing to risk the danger of getting your head chopped off to save Bai Li?"
Chen Ji abruptly lifted his head. He finally understood what Prince Jing was doing...
Entrusting an orphan.
The two sat in silence, distancing themselves from the clamor of the teahouse.
After deliberating for a long time, Chen Ji finally gave a hum of affirmation.
Prince Jing said solemnly, "I want you to say it yourself: if Bai Li encounters danger, you will completely disregard everything to save her."
"If Bai Li encounters danger, I will completely disregard everything to save her."