Chapter 18: The Unreturning Guest

Outside the Zhou residence, there were boiling shouts and flickering flames; inside, over a dozen warhorses belonging to the secret agents were tethered to trees in the courtyard, their hooves stomping restlessly, disturbed by the agitated atmosphere.

Someone shoved the main gates of the Zhou residence with force, causing the doors, held shut by a heavy crossbar, to wobble and boom.

Yun Yang looked at Chen Ji: "The Liu family might break through the doors in less than fifteen minutes. Once that happens, no one can guarantee what will occur. Can you find the evidence within fifteen minutes?"

Another fifteen minutes.

Chen Ji asked himself: could he truly decipher the secrets of this book in fifteen minutes? Impossible.

His face was hidden beneath a hooded gray cloth. After lowering his head in thought for a moment, he responded, "Fifteen minutes is not enough. I need at least..."

Outside the Zhou residence, someone’s loud roar interrupted his thoughts: "Listen up, people inside! Come out at once and explain yourselves! If you have evidence, produce it; if you don't, let the killer pay with their life!"

Yun Yang tucked the hem of his robe into his belt, casually drew a long saber from the waist of a nearby agent, and walked toward the entrance. "Qi Tiao, Wu Bing, guard the gate for me! Jiao Tu, go watch the back wall. Anyone who dares break in is to be treated as a rebel and killed without question! Chen Ji, I’m giving you fifteen minutes to find the evidence, otherwise, we all die here together!"

Chen Ji no longer hesitated. He turned, closed the door, and entered the house, isolating the noise of the outside world.

He opened the copy of the *Four Books with Explanatory Notes* transcribed by Zhou Chengyi and rapidly screened it using every ancient secret messaging technique in his memory to see exactly what method the opponent was using to transmit information.

Was it a hidden character method? No.

Was it a character verification method? No...

Could it be a character decomposition method?

The so-called "character decomposition method" involved, for example, using "thousand-mile grass" to hide the character "Dong" or "ten days of divination" to hide the character "Zhuo."

If it were character decomposition, it would be troublesome. While not difficult to crack, the workload was immense; it couldn't be solved without several days!

Minutes and seconds ticked by. The gates of the Zhou residence could be pushed down by the enraged crowd at any moment. In this cool autumn day, a fine layer of sweat broke out on Chen Ji's forehead.

It wasn't character decomposition. After searching for a long time, Chen Ji couldn't find a single clue that fit the method!

What should he do?

Chen Ji closed the book and sat in silent contemplation...

Wait!

The answer to a problem often lies outside the problem itself!

A flash of inspiration struck Chen Ji. He turned back to the bookshelves and began searching again—one book, two books, three books... the more books he flipped through, the brighter his eyes became.

At this moment, the noise outside actually began to subside. The silence following the chaos felt eerie.

Someone shouted through the gates, "Liu Mingxian of the Liu family requests Lord Yun Yang to open the gates and meet us!"

The agents looked silently at Yun Yang.

Jiao Tu whispered, "Liu Mingxian. The son of Grand Secretary Liu, the grandson of Old Master Liu. He currently manages the second branch of the Liu family and serves as the current Luocheng Vice Prefect, a fifth-rank official."

Yun Yang deliberated for a moment, then tossed the long saber in his hand to an agent. "Open the gates. Don't let the prestige of our Secret Intelligence Bureau be diminished!"

With a creak, the vermilion-lacquered doors slowly swung inward. Hundreds of people stood outside holding torches, waiting quietly.

Liu Mingxian sat atop his horse amidst the crowd, standing out like a crane among chickens.

He was draped in white linen, wearing a mourning cap, his eyes rimmed with red. Even a white silk flower was tied to the chest of his brown horse.

Yun Yang walked forward and finally came to a halt just inside the threshold. "Lord Liu, gathering hundreds of people in the middle of the night to besiege the Secret Intelligence Bureau—are you attempting treason?"

"I wouldn't dare," Liu Mingxian said, his voice hoarse as he gripped the reins tightly. "We have only come to ask Lord Yun Yang why you have arrested my family members without cause. Do you have evidence?"

"Of course we do!" Yun Yang said with certainty.

"Then produce it. If my Liu family members are truly guilty, we will accept whatever punishment is meted out!"

Yun Yang shook his head. "I cannot show it to you yet. This matter involves state secrets and must be presented to the Grand Secretary."

Liu Mingxian spurred his horse forward, facing Yun Yang across the threshold in a standoff, and shouted angrily, "That means you have no evidence! If you think you can just brush me off like this, where is the dignity of my Liu family, a lineage of high officials? How can the Old Master rest in peace? How can I answer to the Empress Dowager?"

"Lord Liu, I advise you not to burden yourself with the crime of treason," Yun Yang said, unwilling to engage further as he stepped back into the shadows of the Zhou residence. "Close the gates! If anyone dares to step one foot into the Zhou residence, they shall be treated as a rebel!"

The gates closed again. Liu Mingxian's face looked somewhat distorted under the swaying torchlight. "The eunuch faction is ruining the country; they are nothing but the hounds of a poisonous minister... Call Liang Gou'er. Be ready to break through the gates at any moment."

A young man hesitated. "Second Uncle, Liang Gou'er was drinking in Hongyi Alley tonight. He might already be asleep in some girl's room... do we need to use him?"

Liu Mingxian sneered. "We train soldiers for a thousand days just to use them in a moment. Tell him to bring that broken saber of his and get here immediately. If I don't see him soon, I'll cut off his drinking money and his medicinal supplies for his cultivation. Someone, pile firewood at the base of the Zhou residence walls. We will set a fire later to force them out!"

...

...

Yun Yang, walking back in a hurry, was no longer as calm as before. "Jiao Tu, they intend to kill!"

Jiao Tu blinked. "Does Liu Mingxian want to rebel?"

Yun Yang sighed. "He didn't bring the Luocheng troops tonight; he clearly intends to treat this as a family matter. If he is determined to avenge his grandfather, he might be exiled afterward, but you and I would die for nothing. This kind of matter can be made large or small; how it is defined depends on a single word from the officials in the imperial court. Civil officials stealing the state! No wonder Jin Zhu said this mission's credit was a bit 'hot to handle' when we left the capital. He truly is shrewd..."

Jiao Tu blinked again. "Then what do we do? Before they surround the back wall, let's run."

Yun Yang hesitated. "If we just run, where will the prestige of our Secret Intelligence Bureau be?"

Jiao Tu rolled her eyes. "Then I'm running by myself."

Yun Yang: "We run together!"

"But there's one problem," Jiao Tu said, looking smilingly at Chen Ji. "What about him? The agents can fight their way out, but if there are experts hidden in the Liu family's ranks, carrying him will be a burden."

With that, the two exchanged a glance and then looked at Chen Ji simultaneously.

Yun Yang expressionlessly picked up the two copies of the *Four Books with Explanatory Notes* from the table. "Leave him here. We have the books; the Bureau will have someone capable of deciphering them."

Jiao Tu added, "We'll have to kill this kid. Otherwise, if he falls into the hands of the Liu family, they'll know we have no evidence, and he will become a witness."

These two venomous characters turned their backs faster than turning a page, having already decided to abandon Chen Ji. Jiao Tu signaled to the agents, but the dozen or so agents silently sheathed their sabers and retreated toward the back wall, even abandoning their horses.

Yun Yang and Jiao Tu expected Chen Ji to cry and beg them to take him, but he did not.

Chen Ji stood before the bookshelf, taking one book after another and flipping through them rapidly, as if he hadn't heard Yun Yang and Jiao Tu's conversation.

He didn't examine every book closely; most were tossed onto the floor after a cursory glance, as if he were searching for something with a specific target in mind.

A thick layer of books had already accumulated at Chen Ji's feet, nearly burying him up to his knees.

Finally, he threw all the books onto the floor and fell into deep thought.

Just as Jiao Tu was about to move in to silence him, Chen Ji suddenly spoke up, "Do you two not want to find the evidence of the Liu family's collusion with the enemy anymore?"

...

...

Chen Ji closed the book in his hands and stepped out from the pile of books.

Yun Yang and Jiao Tu stared at each other. Jiao Tu asked curiously, "Why do I feel like he's a bit different from that night?"

"He is different."

"Eh?" Jiao Tu tilted her head, studying Chen Ji. "Did you crack the secret in that book?"

Chen Ji said with certainty, "I already know where the evidence of the Liu family's collusion is."

Yun Yang was suspicious. "You aren't lying just so we'll take you with us to escape, are you?"

Chen Ji said, "I am just a lowly apprentice from a small medical clinic. Even if I lied to get you to take me out, wouldn't you just kill me anyway?"

Yun Yang looked at him with a half-smile. "Then tell me, where is the evidence?"

Chen Ji tightened the gray cloth covering his face and analyzed calmly, "Tonight is a struggle between the consort kin faction and the Directorate of Ceremonial. The Grand Secretary clearly knows you are not good at handling such scenes, yet he didn't send someone more tactful or worldly. He intended to use your personalities as blades to strike at the Liu family. If you two flee without finding evidence, I'm afraid you won't escape punishment when you return to the Directorate, will you?"

"Threatening me?" Yun Yang narrowed his eyes.

"Lord Yun Yang, even if I told you where the evidence was right now, without me, you probably wouldn't know how to find it," Chen Ji responded.

On the other side, Jiao Tu had already made her decision. She called to an agent, "Qi Wan, take him. Keep him alive!"

As the group retreated toward the back wall of the Zhou residence, Jiao Tu agilely vaulted over the wall first to keep watch. When she signaled, "No one, hurry!"

Only then did Yun Yang stand at the base of the wall, using his hands as a ladder to hoist the agents one by one onto the gray tiles of the wall.

When it was Chen Ji's turn to climb, he placed his left foot on Yun Yang's hands and suddenly stopped, saying seriously, "Lord Yun Yang, the credit for this will be greater than you can imagine."

Yun Yang sneered, "Trying to stay on my hands a little longer on purpose, are you? Do you think I can't tell? Get moving!"

With a forceful shove, he sent Chen Ji up onto the wall.

However, just as they had all climbed over, they saw a group of Liu family members carrying firewood, preparing to set fire to the Zhou residence. Seeing the figures of the Secret Intelligence Bureau, the Liu family members roared, "Someone come quickly! They are trying to escape from the back!"

The Secret Intelligence Bureau did not linger to fight. They quickly maneuvered through the deep alleys of Luocheng. Yun Yang lowered his voice and asked, "Where do we go to find the evidence now?"

Chen Ji asked, "What was the name of that scholar who died in the Inner Prison?"

"Liu Shiyu!"

"Let's go to his house first!"

Chen Ji followed behind the agents, sprinting through the streets of Luocheng.

The night wind drifted along the bluestone paths of Luocheng, blowing everyone's robes and disheveling their hair.

Ahead was the dark night, and behind were the sounds of shouting and fighting. At that moment, Chen Ji felt as if he, too, had become a wanderer in this chaotic world.

(End of Chapter)