The setting sun sank into the earth, and the sunset clouds at the edge of the sky burned across the firmament like raging flames before finally extinguishing bit by bit. Wearing a Bamboo Hat, Chen Ji stood beside a pastry shop outside Emerald Cloud Lane. While pretending to pick out Traditional Snacks, he carefully used his peripheral vision to observe the lane.
The housekeeper of the Chen Estate was standing at the gate, shouting loudly, "Hurry, hurry, hurry! Carry that chest onto the carriage! There's no telling when the Liu Family's troops and horses will arrive; we absolutely cannot let them get it cheap!"
Two young servants carried a large chest out the door. While crossing the threshold, one of them accidentally tripped, and the chest crashed to the ground, scattering a floor full of gold, silver, and soft valuables. Among them, a 'Blue Floral Appliqué Phoenix Crown Headdress' was exceptionally eye-catching.
The housekeeper's expression changed. Cursing, he lunged forward to retrieve the soft valuables back into the chest. "Do you want to die? If you break it, you wouldn't be able to pay for it even with your lives!"
Counting out twelve copper coins from his sleeve, Chen Ji handed them to the shop owner. While chewing on a golden-fried dough twist from the paper bag, he stared expressionlessly at the lane.
At this moment, the heavy thudding of horse hooves echoed from the distance.
Turning his head, Chen Ji saw movingly that it was Zhang Xia galloping over on Zaozao. Like a thunderbolt, she turned into Emerald Cloud Lane.
He slightly lowered his head to prevent the other party from recognizing him.
Halting her horse in front of the Chen Estate's gate, Zhang Xia looked at the housekeeper and others curiously. "What are you guys doing?"
The housekeeper said awkwardly, "We heard there's a calamity of war in the city, so we're hurrying to pack up the soft valuables and move to another place to avoid being harmed by military ruffians."
Sitting on Zaozao's saddle, Zhang Xia raised her eyebrows. "Right now, Lord Chen and my father are under house arrest in the government office. Instead of finding a way to save them, you guys are actually packing up soft valuables first?!"
The Chen Estate housekeeper put on a bitter face. "Second Miss Zhang is joking. With us being servants who lack the strength to even truss a chicken, how could we save anyone? Preserving the soft valuables for the masters is the best we can do."
Zhang Xia gave a cold harrumph. "As you wish!"
Having said that, she rode her horse to the front of the Zhang Residence in Emerald Cloud Lane, handed the reins to a servant, and hurriedly entered the gate.
This entire lane originally had twelve residences. Later, after Zhang Zhuo and Chen Liqin arrived in Luo City, they successively bought up the other residences and connected them together until eventually, only four official and noble households remained.
Currently, Chen Ji couldn't find Jin Zhu and couldn't leave Luo City, so he could only come seek out Zhang Zhuo to discuss countermeasures. He hadn't expected the Liu Family to strike even faster, directly placing Zhang Zhuo and Chen Liqin under house arrest in the government office, rendering them entirely immobilized.
He turned around intending to leave, only to see a densely packed mass of cavalry charging over from the end of the long street like a dark cloud.
This squad of cavalry was completely different from the Elephant Armor Camp foot soldiers from earlier. Every single one wore black heavy armor and an iron helmet with a white tassel that fluttered in the wind. Beneath the helmets, black-lacquered face masks covered their features, making them inexplicably fierce and aggressive with a blazing, arrogant aura.
These were the Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry secretly raised by the Liu Family.
Standing in place without moving, Chen Ji watched as this squad of cavalry, holding their Spears upside down, spurred their horses and barged into Emerald Cloud Lane, Unbridled and Unscrupulous driving away the miscellaneous idlers.
A young servant spread his arms, blocking the path in front of a horse. "What are you doing? This is the residence of the Luo City Vice Prefect; you are not allowed to act recklessly here!"
A Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry spurred his horse forward and, without any warning, skewered the young servant with his Spear, before trampling over the corpse. The housekeeper was so terrified his liver and gallbladder nearly ruptured, and he hurriedly dodged to the side.
The leader of the iron cavalry halted his horse in front of the Chen Estate's gate. Without so much as a glance at the gold, silver, and soft valuables, an icy voice came from beneath his face mask: "Search! Take all the family dependents of Zhang Zhuo and Chen Liqin away, leave them alive!"
As soon as his voice fell, the Tiger Armor Iron Cavalry split into two squads. One squad charged into the Zhang Residence, and the other squad charged into the Chen Estate.
Chen Ji hesitated for two breaths of time, then immediately dropped the fried dough twist in his hand, turned, and left.
He arrived at the small alley outside the rear courtyard of the Zhang Residence and looked up at the grey-tiled, white walls of the Zhang Residence, which were two men high. In the narrow alley, he leaped up, kicked off the wall on the other side, and relying on the reactionary force, lightly flipped over the high wall of the Zhang Residence.
In the courtyard, screams and wails rose continuously as servants, maids, concubines, and relatives fled in all directions in the Turmoil of War.
Lowering his body behind an artificial rockery, Chen Ji stealthily observed. He saw a fiery-red figure bursting into the rear residence while being pursued by an iron cavalryman—it was Zhang Xia.
Chen Ji closed his eyes and pondered for a moment. By the time he opened his eyes again, he had already taken advantage of the night to quietly sneak over.
In the rear residence, Zhang Xia turned her head to look back in a panic while fleeing for her life. The black-armored warrior behind her was clearly wearing heavy armor, yet he ran even faster than she did.
Forced into a corner and choosing her path in a panic, she could only dive into a two-story side building.
Zhang Xia turned around and closed the doors, then pulled an Eight Immortals table from the room to brace against the doors.
Before she even had a chance to catch her breath, the black-armored warrior outside delivered a heavy kick to the door. With a loud crash, the main doors burst open, and Zhang Xia was knocked to the ground by the table she had used to brace them!
She looked up in terror, only to see the black-armored warrior standing solemnly outside the door. As the moonlight shined into the room, she could only see his pitch-black silhouette opposite her.
Pretending to be calm, Zhang Xia said, "According to the first article of the eighteenth volume of the Great Ning Legal Code, any person committing treason, regardless of whether they are the principal offender or an accomplice, shall suffer death by a thousand cuts! Their grandfathers, fathers, sons, and brothers—and all uncles and brothers regardless of whether they share the same surname—shall all be beheaded!"
Turning a deaf ear, the black-armored warrior's expression remained hidden beneath his face mask. Holding his Spear upside down, he crossed the threshold, pressing closer step by step.
Trembling, Zhang Xia continued speaking, "For any person committing treason, their mothers, daughters, wives, concubines, and sisters shall all be sold to the Imperial Music Bureau as slaves! Anyone who knows of the plot but fails to report it shall receive one hundred strokes of the heavy bamboo and be exiled three thousand miles!"
The black-armored warrior didn't stop walking, and his shadow gradually enveloped Zhang Xia's face bit by bit.
However, right at this moment, he suddenly noticed something seemed to have appeared in his shadow cast by the moonlight...
Looking closely, black shadows seemed to slowly squirm on both sides of his shadow's head, as if two hands had grown out from beside his head.
No, there was someone behind him!
Subconsciously, the black-armored warrior tried to raise his Spear, turn around, and sweep horizontally, but it was already too late.
Reaching out his hands from behind the warrior, Chen Ji clamped down on his neck and violently twisted. The crisp sound of bones fracturing rang out, and the black-armored warrior's body went limp as he collapsed toward the ground.
Supporting the black-armored warrior, Chen Ji slowly lowered him to the ground. Extremely frightened and still in a state of shock, Zhang Xia lowered her voice and asked, "Chen Ji, why are you here?"
He explained softly, "I came to find Lord Zhang to discuss a matter, and I happened to see the Liu Family's private army charging into the Zhang Residence."
Zhang Xia asked, "So you came in to save me?"
"No."
Zhang Xia was somewhat stunned. "Ah?"
As they spoke, Chen Ji lifted the black-lacquered face mask off the corpse's face. Beneath the face mask was a tender, youthful face, at most only twenty-one or twenty-two years old.
He stood up, unfastened his outer robe, and stripped off his clothes piece by piece until he was left with only his white inner lining.
Caught between shock and suspicion, Zhang Xia asked, "What are you going to do?!"
Chen Ji didn't answer, merely crouching down silently to undo the armor on the corpse.
Reacting immediately, Zhang Xia helped him peel off the heavy armor from the black-armored warrior. The helmet, pauldons, torso armor, breastplate, faulds, vambraces, and greaves were laid out on the ground one by one.
She showed her concern. "You want to blend in with them? What if you are exposed?"
Chen Ji explained, "Only by blending in with them is there a chance to find an opportunity to rescue Lord Zhang. He's a prominent figure—smarter than you and me, and he knows better than you and me how to handle this mutiny."
He picked up a vambrace and began putting it on. But the structure of Ning Dynasty Armor was complex; a single vambrace alone required tying three securing straps.
Pursing her lips, Zhang Xia finally mustered her courage and held up the torso armor. "You put it on wrong. You have to put on the torso armor first, then the breastplate, faulds, pauldons, and vambraces... Spread your arms, I'll help you."
Chen Ji stood in place, spreading his arms wide.
Under the moonlight, Zhang Xia forcibly endured her fear, her fingers trembling slightly as she helped him equip the armor components piece by piece.
While tying the armor straps, she asked, "Chen Ji, why aren't you afraid?"
Chen Ji said calmly, "I am also afraid, but being afraid is useless."
Zhang Xia asked again, "After blending in, what's your plan?"
Chen Ji thought for a moment. "No plan. I'll follow them, and as for where we go, that's not up to me to decide."
Zhang Xia gave a hum of affirmation.
The room fell into silence, leaving only the sound of armor Iron Shards rubbing together.
A moment later, Zhang Xia took a step back and appraised Chen Ji. After confirming there were no mistakes, she said, "It's on."
Picking up the helmet from the ground, Chen Ji put it on his head. "Stay hidden in this room and absolutely do not go out. After the Liu Family's private army withdraws, climb out the window at the back and circle around behind the artificial rockery in the southwest corner. There's a spot there you can use to give yourself leverage to flip out of the residence. Remember to change your clothes; your clothes are too eye-catching."
Having said that, Zhang Xia watched as Chen Ji fastened the black-lacquered face mask, held his Spear upside down, turned, and strode away. She opened her mouth, but couldn't bring herself to say anything.
However, not long after Chen Ji exited the door, he saw a squad of black-armored warriors walking toward him from the distance.
As they drew near, the leader's voice sounded deep and low from beneath his face mask: "Why did you take so long? Did you find any of Zhang Zhuo's family dependents in the two-story building behind you?"
Silently tightening his grip on the Spear in his hand, Chen Ji responded with a muffled voice, "No."
The black-armored warrior opposite him fell silent, the eyes behind the face mask seeming to stare fixedly at him.
The black-armored warrior looked at Chen Ji, then looked at the two-story building. "Are you certain?"
"Certain."
The black-armored warrior sneered. "Move aside, I'll go take a look."
With that, he shoved Chen Ji's shoulder, pushing Chen Ji aside, and led the dozen or so black-armored warriors toward the two-story building himself, their black cast-iron armor clattering loudly.
Chen Ji's eyes slowly turned cold. There hadn't been time to deal with the corpse inside the building. If the other party went inside, they would definitely discover the corpse and Zhang Xia, and he would also lose his chance to infiltrate the Liu Family's private army.
Chen Ji silently counted the backs of the black-armored warriors: one, two, three, four... twelve black-armored warriors.
He couldn't possibly kill them all.
At the critical moment where success or failure hung by a single hair, a noise came from the flower bed outside the two-story building, and the tall bushes began swaying continuously.
Instantly, all the black-armored warriors raised their Spears and shouted angrily, "Who is it? Get out here!"
A fiery-red figure fled from the flower bed in a panic, dashing madly into the distance.
Chen Ji was somewhat stunned. How did Zhang Xia appear there?
Wait... the girl must have heard the commotion outside and, worried that the black-armored warriors finding the corpse in the room would ruin his plan, sneaked out through the back window to draw all the black-armored warriors' attention away.
Taking a deep breath, Chen Ji followed behind the black-armored warriors to join the hunt for Zhang Xia. The group scattered throughout the courtyard filled with artificial rockeries, encircling, pursuing, blocking, and intercepting.
While running, Zhang Xia turned to look back, and ultimately chose her path in a 'panic,' running right toward Chen Ji's direction!
They collided, and Chen Ji firmly seized her, twisting her arms behind her back, shouting loudly, "I caught her!"
With that, taking advantage of the moment before the black-armored warriors gathered around, he lowered his voice and asked, "Are you not afraid of death?"
With her back to him, Zhang Xia lowered her eyelids. "You must find a way to save my father. I'm begging you."
(End of this chapter)