The sunset in Guyuan was somewhat more magnificent and vast than in Luo City.
In the distance, a red sun dyed the yellow dirt, the city, and the clouds entirely into an orange-red hue. It was as if a fire was burning at the edge of the sky, turning into strong, fiery wine that slashed into the throat.
It was just that when the sun sank behind the city, the temperature plummeted.
Chen Ji stood quietly by the window, looking at the street downstairs through a crack. Only when the final trace of light shining through the crack vanished from his face did he slowly close the window.
Chen Liqin had already been summoned away by the Crown Prince for three Shichen, and had yet to return.
Chen Ji looked at Zhang Xia by another window: "How is it?"
Zhang Xia frowned: "In half a day's time, over a thousand people have come and gone before the Guyuan Relay Station. Among them, thirty-four people have come multiple times pretending to be nonchalant. Seventeen people stayed before the gates for over pointing-an-incense-stick of time. There were the elderly, children, men, and women. In addition, nine people entered and exited the Guyuan Relay Station."
Chen Ji cast a surprised glance at her: "Second Miss Zhang can truly remember so clearly?"
Zhang Zheng laughed 'haha': "Frightened, aren't you? When she and Father play chess, the two of them don't even need a chessboard; they just close their eyes and declare where they place their pieces. Don't provoke her! People with good memory remember gratitude, but they also remember grudges. When I was six, I provoked her once, and she still remembers it to this day! However, if you've helped her, she will similarly remember it in her heart, remembering it for a very, very long time."
Zhang Xia glared at him: "Brother, you talk too much."
Chen Ji instructed on proper business: "During our time in Guyuan, you must securely lock your doors and windows when sleeping at night. If you encounter danger, you must immediately call for help at the top of your lungs."
Zhang Xia lowered her head in deep thought: "With so many people keeping an eye on the Chen Family, they inevitably aren't all from the same group. How strange. Exactly how many factions are keeping an eye on us?"
Chen Ji shook his head: "It's unclear. Just be careful."
Zhang Zheng shrank into his chair and lamented with emotion: "The weather in Guyuan is truly strange. During the day, the sun roasts you until you sweat; one wishes they could shed a layer of skin to escape the heat. In the end, just after the sun sets, it instantly becomes chilling straight to the seams of your bones!"
Xiaoman said in a low voice: "Some people say Guyuan is a Cursed Place. The vengeful spirits of the soldiers from the two dynasties who died in battle in Guyuan refuse to disperse. There are no flowers in spring, no rain in summer, no fruit in autumn, and no survivors in winter. It is destined for year-round warfare."
Chen Ji looked at her: "Did Auntie say that?"
Xiaoman gave an "Mhm": "I heard it when Auntie and Nanny Li were chatting when I was young."
Chen Ji smiled: "That's not how it is. The large temperature difference between day and night in Guyuan is caused by the arid climate. Without a cloud layer, the earth cannot preserve the heat from the daytime. Of course, this is only one of the reasons."
Xiaoman said sulkily: "Where did Young Master hear such crooked reasoning from? Light and fluttering clouds can actually preserve the heat of the earth? That makes absolutely no sense. I still believe what Auntie said."
Chen Ji was dumbfounded and amused.
Thump, thump, thump
, the sound of knocking on the door.
Chen Ji was just about to get up to open the door when Xiaoman blocked him: "I'll go, I'll go!"
The room door opened. Wearing short coarse work clothes, a minor official walked in using two tongs to carry a charcoal brazier, saying politely: "Official lords, our Guyuan is cold at night. We've burned a basin of charcoal fire for you."
Zhang Zheng let out an exclamation of surprise: "You came at precisely the right time!"
He reached out both hands, pointing his palms toward the charcoal brazier to roast them. Waves of heat rushed at his face like tides, roasting his cheeks until they felt swollen.
Pointing at Zhang Zheng and Zhang Xia, Chen Ji asked the minor official: "These two friends of meine reside in the Heaven-Character Xu Room and Gui Room. Could you add a charcoal brazier for them as well?"
The minor official hesitated for a moment, saying in a difficult spot: "Please forgive us. Our Relay Station is uninhabited year-round. Not to mention charcoal for heating, even firewood for cooking isn't plentiful. This charcoal was still specially allocated from the Regional Military Commission by General Zhou, explicitly stating it is only for your use."
Zhang Zheng rubbed his palms together, before pointing his palms at the charcoal brazier once more, complaining with disgust: "I can be considered to have visited quite a few official relay stations, but yours here is the most dilapidated and crude."
Zhang Xia frowned: "Brother, since we're out traveling, stop being so particular. It's not like anyone begged us to come."
Zhang Zheng laughed 'haha': "I was just speaking casually... I won't say anymore, I won't say anymore."
The minor official said embarrassedly: "Lord, in our impoverished backwater here, there usually aren't any officials willing to come at all. The Relay Station is just for show. Even when military intelligence documents from the Ministry of War arrive, they are sent directly to the Regional Military Commission. Originally, the Eunuch Faction was still here investigating Jing Dynasty spies, but in the end, they found it too bitter and arduous, and all withdrew as well."
Zhang Zheng let out an "Oh": "Then it should be fine if we go out ourselves to buy some charcoal, right? Where can we buy it?"
The minor official hurriedly said: "Honorable Person, this lowly one will speak an extra sentence: it's best you don't go out to purchase it yourselves! Once night falls, it is not too peaceful outside... Right, will you all require dinner? Our Guyuan Relay Station only has some coarse tea and plain rice today. Corn porridge and pickled vegetables, they're all things meant for servants to eat. I fear it's not to your tastes."
Chen Ji smiled and said: "There is no need. We ate mutton at noon; we're still feeling overly full right now."
"Right away!" The minor official cupped his hands toward Chen Ji, and backed out the door.
Xiaoman originally had the mind to keep him to ask for a few bowls of porridge to taste, but seeing the expressions of the others, she could only lower her flags and silence her drums.
Zhang Xia said to Zhang Zheng: "Brother, we've traveled for an entire day today. Let's head back and rest as well."
Zhang Zheng carelessly and shamelessly lounged in the chair, refusing to leave: "I'm not going back! The room is like an ice cellar! I'll just stay in Chen Ji's room tonight; I'll sleep in the same bed with him!"
Xiaoman became anxious: "Why are you acting like a ruffian?! Don't cause my family's Young Master to not rest well!"
Zhang Zheng didn't take offense: "Otherwise, I can also sleep leaning against the chair. Either way, wherever the charcoal brazier is, that's where I'll be! Ah Xia, don't go back either. How about the two of us roll up our bedding and sleep on the floor in Chen Ji's room tonight? It's just right so we can look after each other."
Xiaoman's eyes widened: "Does this accord with Propriety and Law?! Is Second Miss Zhang not going to marry?! Let alone my family's Young Master being an outsider, even if you were siblings, you still couldn't sleep in the same room, ba!"
Zhang Zheng laughed cheerfully: "As long as we don't speak of it, who would know? The thing our Zhang Family loathes the most is excessive formalities and red tape! With matters urgent, we must act according to circumstances! It's still safer if we all stay together."
Chen Ji pondered for a moment: "That works too. Living together will indeed save some worry. Second Miss Zhang will sleep on the bed, while the rest of us will make pallets on the floor."
Xiaoman muttered softly, reluctant and unwilling: "The floor is so cold. What if you catch an illness from sleeping on it... Young Master, I'll go fetch another quilt to lay underneath you."
Zhang Zheng laughed cheerfully: "You little slip of a girl, I thought you would continue to drive us away."
Xiaoman rolled her eyes at him: "Who are you looking down on? The things Young Master has decided on, I won't speak out of turn again."
Saying that, she turned around and left the room.
Not long after, an array of footsteps transmitted over. Someone was stepping on the wooden floorboards of the Relay Station's second floor, producing creaking sounds.
Zhang Xia stood up and said: "I'll go open the door for Xiaoman."
She walked forward and pushed the door open, only to freeze in place. Outside the door was only the pitch-black corridor, completely devoid of anyone.
Without the slightest hesitation, Zhang Xia swiftly retreated back into the room: "Chen Ji, something's wrong!"
As she was retreating, Chen Ji had already picked up the Whale Blade and brushed past her shoulder, arriving at the corridor to inspect.
No one to the left, no one to the right, and no one on the roof beams either.
Those footsteps just now seemed to have come from thin air, and vanished into thin air.
Gripping the Whale Blade, Chen Ji slowly untied the cloth strips wrapping the Whale Blade. Before he finished untying them, however, he heard Xiaoman's cry of alarm transmitting up from downstairs!
Instantly, he carried the Whale Blade and dashed out the door, untying the Whale Blade's cloth strips as he ran. The room door by the stairs opened, and Chen Wenzong, wrapped in his fox-fur coat, asked with concern: "What happened?!"
Chen Ji passed by him without turning his head, tossing the newly untied cloth strips onto the ground: "Eldest Brother, return to your room! Don't come out!"
Arriving downstairs, Xiaoman stood by the counter, utterly terrified and shaken.
Chen Ji asked in a condensed voice: "What happened?"
Xiaoman cast a glance at the Whale Blade in his hand, and then pointed behind the counter: "I just came to look for that minor official to ask for a new set of bedding, but I found him collapsed inside the counter, bleeding from his seven orifices!"
Chen Ji wanted to go over to inspect, but Xiaoman grabbed his arm forcefully like her life depended on it: "Young Master, don't go! This person is bleeding from his seven orifices. I fear the vengeful spirits of this Guyuan have come to demand a life! It's unclean!"
He turned his head to look. He saw that the minor official who had delivered the charcoal brazier to them earlier had collapsed onto the floorboards. Purple blood flowed from his eyes and nostrils, resembling unwilling tears of blood!
Chen Ji thought in his heart 'Not good'. Picking up the tallow-dreg lamp from the counter with one hand and holding the Whale Blade with his other, he traversed the corridor, pushing open the main doors of the common sleeping quarters in the Man-Character Rooms one by one.
The maids and pages of the Chen Family were actually all bleeding from their seven orifices, dead on their beds!
(End of this chapter)