The sun set.
The drum sounds from the Bell and Drum Tower echoed from afar. Eight hundred beats marked the end of the day, and as they ceased, night descended.
The Imperial Capital under twilight resembled a piece of blood-soaked green jade, slowly tinged with dark red.
The butcher at the mutton shop sprinkled the last handful of coarse salt on the cutting board; passing carriages clattered over the cobblestones; a worker from the silk shop climbed a stepladder to hang a lantern with the shop’s na on the eaves; the copper bells hanging from the eaves of the Imperial Academy rang out lodiously.
The scent of fried sesa balls mingled with the copper gong sound of the City Patrol Imperial Censor, while the last ray of the setting sun skimd over the archer’s window on the Zhengyang Gate tower.
If one only looked at this mont of the Imperial Capital, it was beautiful.
So beautiful that rchants from foreign lands lingered, unwilling to leave.
But beneath this dusk, thirty spies escorted two hundred of the Yulin Army through the inner city, all silent.
No shackles, no shoving; the Yulin Army simply walked, like a flock of two-legged sheep wearing shoes.
Chen Ji walked among them, attracting curious glances from passersby, even people in passing carriages lifted curtains to peer, while the Yulin soldiers turned away to avoid the gaze.
Qi Zhenzhuo, who had just woken, was sowhat unwilling: "Master, is there really no way?"
Chen Ji replied with a hum.
Qi Zhenzhuo hesitated but finally looked at Li Xuan: "Brother-in-law, to survive this Imperial Prison, I’m afraid our family will have to demote several Imperial Censors who have cursed the Poison Minister to calm things, right?"
Li Xuan replied calmly: "Not only that. The Poison Minister has always liked to target the offspring of officials, he won’t relent unless you hand over a bloody token of allegiance. The Eunuch Party’s influence is thus steadily entrenched in the court."
Qi Zhenzhuo furrowed his brow: "Can’t we retaliate? We can find faults in him too!"
Li Xuan sighed deeply: "Look at Bai Long’s proper deanor, there’s not a flaw to be found... they don’t even have profligate offspring."
The eunuchs do not pursue won, nor do they have children, and naturally have two fewer vulnerabilities than civil servants.
There was once an official in the capital who drunkenly remarked, ’Instead of cultivating virtue and heart, it’s better to first keep control of the flaws at one’s own waist,’ the officials in the capital plagued by their children’s faults are as nurous as oxen hair.
...
...
The escort team headed north past Taiye Pond, then crossed the White Jade Bridge into Qionghua Island. In front of a rock garden, a spy stepped forward and knocked on the iron gate of the Imperial Prison.
The small window on the first iron gate opened, and a prison guard inside said coldly: "Waist tag."
The spy removed the "Court Appearance Ivory Card" with the Hai Dongqing emblem from his waist and held it up to the window: "By order of Lord Xuan She, the Yulin Army is to be detained separately to prevent collusion, awaiting interrogation."
The guard carefully inspected the card before opening the door, saying: "As you command."
He knocked on the second door eight tis, varying in intensity and speed, and the second iron door also opened.
The wind outside surged into the Imperial Prison, causing the Eight Diagrams Lamps on the walls to flicker but never extinguish.
Chen Ji felt slightly reassured.
Indeed.
The Imperial City Prison also had Eight Diagrams Lamps hung, trapping countless wronged souls here year-round.
The next mont, countless Ice Flows surged forth.
As if black tides poured from each cell towards Chen Ji, the Imperial City Prison, having claid the lives of many officials, made Ice Flows inundate like an endless tide.
Chen Ji imrsed in the agitated Ice Flows, letting them enter his Dantian.
The Ice Flow depleted in Guyuan was replenished again. If enough ginseng was available, the Ice Flow accumulating here might sprout three or four more stripes for him.
Chen Ji glanced at the Eight Diagrams Lamps on the dark corridor walls, montarily lost in thought, not knowing what he was thinking.
The spy behind him, seeing him not move, imdiately stepped forward and shoved him into a cell.
From the deepest part of the inner prison, cries echoed from the "Pipa Hall," accompanied by a subterranean breeze infused with the sll of burnt flesh, causing several Yulin soldiers to vomit incessantly.
Gradually, the Yulin soldiers grew restless, so pacing in their cells, others clinging to the iron bars shouting for justice.
Qi Zhenzhuo, frightened, grabbed the bars in the neighboring cell and shouted, "Master, think of sothing."
Chen Ji did not answer, only sat leaning against the cell corner with his eyes closed, resting.
After ten minutes, a spy dragged a bloody, mangled prisoner past all the cells, deliberately saying as he walked: "This man dared to proclaim prophetic scriptures after getting drunk and spread rumors that the floods in Henan Province were due to His Majesty’s loss of virtue, even wanting His Majesty to write an edict of self-bla. Lord Pri Minister has ordered to peel the skin off his back tomorrow."
The Yulin soldiers in the cells beca agitated, and the untested Dandy Army were so frightened by such psychological tactics that they shook in fear.
Hai Dongqing under Xuan She’s command patrolled the corridor and casually pointed to a cell: "Take him to the Pipa Hall, I’ll interrogate him myself."
Li Xuan, seeing it was soone he brought back from Guyuan, imdiately raged: "How dare you?"
Hai Dongqing sneered: "In this Imperial Prison, I’ve even interrogated Second-Grade Officials, what do I not dare to do? Take him away!"
Li Xuan and Qi Zhenzhuo’s eyes brimd with anger, yet they were helpless.
At this mont, Chen Ji, leaning against the wall, casually said: "This person is a hero from Guyuan, who only entered the palace to see the emperor yesterday, and today he’s being tortured in the Imperial Prison. If this spreads, it will surely draw criticism. Lord Hai Dongqing, it doesn’t matter who you interrogate first or later, right? Leave so leeway for yourself, the Qi family will surely reward you generously later."
Hai Dongqing, hearing this, turned back with a cold sidelong glance at Chen Ji. After pondering for a mont, he imdiately told the prison guard, "Send him back, exchange for the next cell’s interrogation."
Li Xuan and the others breathed a sigh of relief; having a comrade they shared life and death with interrogated would’ve been worse than being killed outright.
In the neighboring cell, the Yulin Army under Chen Wenren and Zhao Zhuofan’s command instantly collapsed like mud as they were dragged deeper into the Imperial Prison by the guards.
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