The Spy Departnt and Jiefan Guard launched a full-scale operation, the sound of curfew drums spreading across the Imperial Capital.
Chen Ji watched as Jin Zhu and others rode away, the large fire basins on the city walls lighting up one after another, casting shadows that swayed and bobbed on the stone-paved road.
Lin Chaoqing.
This Si Caoding is indeed a seasoned old hand, having infiltrated the Jiefan Guard for so many years without being discovered. Now, with just a slight slip, he imdiately flees far away, not even caring about the life and death of his own brother Lin Chaojing.
No, whether Lin Chaojing is truly Lin Chaoqing's brother needs to be confird only after ng Ji's interrogation.
But Chen Ji is unconcerned with this; he only worries that if the Spy Departnt fails to capture Lin Chaoqing, then how will his agreent with the Pri Minister be accounted for?
Under the night sky, he continued northward with Lin Chaojing in tow, until he reached the Imperial Palace Gate and saw Bai Long standing under the gate, advising Xuan Snake on sothing.
As Chen Ji approached, Bai Long finished giving instructions to Xuan Snake and waved a hand. Xuan Snake glanced at Chen Ji, then led a group southward.
Bai Long raised his eyes to see Chen Ji coming and turned towards the ridian Gate: "The Jiefan Guard is waiting outside the Imperial Palace Gate, Marquis of Wuxiang County, follow ."
Chen Ji followed Bai Long, walking up the stone steps to the city wall of the Imperial Palace Gate.
This was his first visit here; the majesty of the Imperial Palace Gate allowed him to take in the entire Forbidden City.
The windows and doors of Jiefan Building were tightly shut, save for a small window on the top floor. Appearing to be a figure clad in a black Python Robe standing there, gazing at the fire basins on Zhengyang Gate's city wall, listening to the drums.
In Renshou Palace, palace maids carrying palace lanterns ca and went busily, though their purpose wasn't clear.
In Jingyang Palace, there were lamps, but it was too far away for him to see clearly.
Bai Long turned around, teasingly warned: "Stop looking, if you keep looking, you might lose your head."
Chen Ji hurriedly lowered his head and followed Bai Long into Yanchi Building with Lin Chaojing.
The Jiefan Guards were stationed outside Yanchi Building, while inside, the building was eerily empty. Even an operatic voice echoed from the shadows: "In the pri of youth, I left ho, laughing in the spring breeze with a silver spear and white horse. Now as I return, I kneel at the stairs, knocking in armor, yet no old acquaintance is t…"
Chen Ji had heard this opera segnt in Eight Great Hutongs, a piece from Dingxi Mountain.
Bai Long calmly said: "Stop pretending to be mysterious; co out and get to work."
The operatic voice stopped abruptly, and the silhouette of ng Ji, wearing a brown robe, slowly erged from the shadows, the robe embroidered with colorful feathers, resembling an actor's costu.
ng Ji languidly asked: "Lord Bai Long, once this task is completed, can humble subordinate return to Kaifeng Prefecture?"
Bai Long casually asked: "Are you so eager to leave the Imperial Capital?"
ng Ji chuckled: "At least to be a little farther from this Forbidden City."
Bai Long gestured for Chen Ji to throw Lin Chaojing to the ground: "You cannot leave yet; if Lin Chaoqing is captured, it must be you who interrogates him."
ng Ji sat cross-legged facing Lin Chaojing: "I have dealt with Lin Chaoqing before; he won't be easy to catch. Once he disappears in the crowd, his reappearance would surely be stunning."
He casually helped Lin Chaojing reset his jaw, who then opened his mouth, moving his jaw.
ng Ji studied Lin Chaojing: "His eyes are full of love, hate, resentnt, and desire; he has a good voice and handso looks. He's a promising perforr for female roles, what a pity."
Lin Chaojing, aware he has no way out, abandons his usual pretentious scholarly tone and becos more relaxed: "I have never heard before that those singing female roles must have these in their eyes."
ng Ji grew interested: "In operas, the young lady role often embodies true passion, yet frequently encounters heartless, faithless n. If the perforr doesn't understand these emotions themselves, how can they portray the lady's lant? See, Chen Ji is different; he only has foolishness and stubbornness in his heart, so he can only play martial artists. Perhaps he might play a white-faced minister when old, but not now."
Lin Chaojing laughed heartily: "What role suits Lord Bai Long then?"
ng Ji shook his head: "I dare not say, knowing who can be offended, and who can't; I'm quite aware."
Bai Long interjected: "Let's begin, being late by thirty minutes reduces our chances of capturing Lin Chaoqing. Make him speak, I want to hear what he says."
ng Ji flipped his palm, revealing a small razor in his palm.
He took a piece of yellow talisman paper from his arms, bit his finger to draw with fresh blood on the paper, finally wrapping it around a lock of Lin Chaojing's hair, then swallowed it.
In an instant, the pupils of both ng Ji and Lin Chaojing rolled upwards, leaving only the whites of their eyes!
ng Ji asked: "Where is Lin Chaoqing?"
Lin Chaojing: "He has already escaped from the Imperial Capital."
"Where will he flee?"
"To Yangzhou."
Chen Ji and Bai Long exchanged a look; the interrogation turned out to be simpler than expected, he feared asking Lin Chaojing might yield nothing.
Bai Long pondered for a mont: "Fake."
Chen Ji nodded in agreent.
Lin Chaoqing was shrewd and decisive in selling out Lin Chaojing; there was no chance he would reveal his true movents to Lin Chaojing. The other party knew that if Lin Chaojing were ever caught, he would certainly undergo interrogation in the dream state. Therefore, he planned for this in advance as a precaution.
When the Spy Departnt pursued him in Yangzhou, he could escape from a different direction.
At this mont, it was unclear what ng Ji saw in Lin Chaojing's dream, but suddenly he exclaid: "You are not biological brothers?"
Lin Chaojing replied: "I am an orphan he adopted on his way south. In the twentieth year of Li Sheng, the Ning Dynasty's Guyuan Border Army attacked Heishui Town's Yan Army Zhechong Prefecture on Longyou Road. Qing Wentao allowed his border army to slaughter all the n in the town, leaving only won and children. My mother took to seek refuge with an uncle serving in the army on Western Capital Road, but she died of illness halfway there, leaving to sit alone by the roadside."
Chen Ji calculated in his mind; it's Li Sheng's forty-first year in the Jing Dynasty now, aning Lin Chaojing was four years old twenty-one years ago.
Lin Chaojing's speech slowed down, as if savoring the distant ti: "He was riding a thin horse, accompanied by a child my age, dusty from travel, with a long knife hanging from the saddle, heading to Guyuan. Seeing curled up by the roadside, too hungry to speak, he gave half a piece of bread. The bread, mixed with bran, scraped my throat painfully, but it kept alive."
In the empty Yanchi Building, ng Ji's voice sounded ethereal: "Then what happened?"
Lin Chaojing's eyes glead with a strange light in the candlelight: "Then he left, and I followed their hoofprints for three days. On the third night, it rained heavily. I hid in a broken temple, and they were also there by the fire. He asked why I was following him, and I said I didn't know where to go."
Chen Ji noticed a slight curve at the corner of Lin Chaojing's mouth.
Lin Chaojing paused: "He said, following him would lead to less hunger, but more chances of dying. I said, I wasn't afraid of dying; hunger was worse than death. He killed the child beside him and said from then on, I would be called Lin Chaojing."
Chen Ji's pupils contracted suddenly.
According to Lin Chaojing, Lu Jin should have already arranged an identity for Lin Chaoqing to live in disguise, bringing a child to the Ning Dynasty to play the role of a brother. However, Lin Chaoqing saw a more suitable candidate on the road and killed the previously chosen child, replacing him with Lin Chaojing.
ng Ji suddenly asked: "Did he treat you well?"
Lin Chaojing's laughter was dry, this ti responding in an entirely unrelated manner: "He often said I was his best student, the one with the fewest flaws and most like him."
ng Ji probed further: "Like him? In what way?"
Lin Chaojing's eyeball seed to move slightly under the eye whites, as if regaining consciousness: "He said it was the eyes. He said when we look at people, our eyes are empty. He said people like us are best suited to live in the shadows, but to survive, one must first learn to deceive others. To deceive others, one must first learn to deceive oneself."
Bai Long's voice was utterly devoid of emotion: "Press him further, ask again about Lin Chaoqing's whereabouts."
ng Ji suddenly spoke intensely: "Do you know he'll abandon you and leave?"
This ti Lin Chaojing responded quickly, so quickly it hardly seed like he was dreaming: "I know. The first lesson he taught was that affection is the bait, life is the hook. Bait can be discarded, the hook must not let go."
ng Ji's voice deepened: "Do you hate him?"
In Lin Chaojing's eye whites, so emotion seed to be surging, yet ultimately it was covered by emptiness: "I don't hate him. He has to live, and for twenty-one years I haven't dared to rest for a mont, just to repay him with this life."
ng Ji shouted fiercely: "You hate him, but you're just confused! Tell his whereabouts, where will he escape? Speak!"
The next mont, blood tears flowed from the corner of Lin Chaojing's eyes: "Out through Dongzhi Gate, heading toward Mi Yun. His knee has an old injury; he moves slowly in the rain..."
The pupils in the dream turned again, looking at Bai Long: "Do not interrogate further; anymore and he'll be useless. Not a drop of rain has fallen; the last line is likely nine tis out of ten cover for Lin Chaoqing... This kid would rather risk his life to say falsehoods in the dream."
Bai Long stood in Yanchi Building for a long ti, silently.
The two dynasties have been divided for a thousand years, their grudges long a tangled account, evoking pity and resentnt alike in everyone.
This account is impossible to reconcile.
Bai Long turned to walk outside: "Summon soone, send Lin Chaojing to the Imperial Prison."
Two spies entered from outside, dragging Lin Chaojing away.
Chen Ji hesitated as he followed Bai Long: "Your lordship, I pulled out Si Caoding, although Lin Chaoqing has not been caught yet..."
Bai Long glanced at him: "My seat knows what you're worried about. No need to overthink; those who relieve trouble for the Pri Minister will not be refused by the Jiefan Building. The Pri Minister has said, finding Si Caoding today was already a hard effort, enough to ease a worry for him. Although Si Caoding hasn't been caught yet, it's worth a life."
Chen Ji imdiately breathed a sigh of relief.
Jiefan Building relieves troubles for others; saving one life requires repaying with one's own, using soone else's life requires two.
Now one life is repaid, another remains.
Chen Ji asked: "Who else does the Pri Minister want dead?"
"Quite impatient," Bai Long descended the tower along the stairs, changing the topic outside the Imperial Palace Gate: "If you can catch Lin Chaoqing, the second life will be supplented. By next April, Princess Bai Li will surely be able to go to Huangshan Mountain for the grand ritual as scheduled."
Chen Ji turned and walked south with no hesitation.
From behind him in Yanchi Building ca the faint sound of ng Ji singing: "Never can both favor and duty be fulfilled, choking back unsaid words beneath the sword. Foolish child, only at death do you know, the stories sung in the opera are all other people's reunions..."
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