Chapter 46: Art

At the banquet, a silence fell over the crowd, and even the sound of the zither ceased.

They no longer felt comfortable mocking the names and attire of She Dengke and Liu Quxing, and they could not help but reflect: if they were the ones being slandered, how many would be willing to stand up and demand justice for them?

When ordinary people hear rumors about you, they merely repeat the snippets they've heard from others.

But you might not care what others say; you might care more about whether your friends said anything on your behalf when those rumors were being spread.

Chen Ji had not expected She Dengke and Liu Quxing to stand up for him. It was precisely because he hadn't expected it that it felt so unexpected.

At this moment, the Prince Heir drained his cup in one gulp. The wine cups in the Prince's Mansion were somewhat small; finding them unsatisfying, he considered calling someone to bring a larger wine bowl.

However, after receiving a glare from Princess Baili, he had no choice but to drop the idea.

A sense of "jianghu" roughness was, naturally, incompatible with a refined literary gathering.

The Prince Heir muttered under his breath, "These scholars are ultimately not as interesting as people from the martial world... That name, Chen Ji, sounds somewhat familiar. Have I heard it somewhere before?"

Princess Baili then looked toward Chen Wenxiao. "May I ask, is the promissory note belonging to your younger brother authentic?"

Chen Wenxiao straightened his posture and sat formally, pulling back his sleeves. "My brother, Chen Ji, is a gambler. He owes a total of 1,231 taels of silver to seven gambling dens. Every word of the statement is true."

A scholar cupped his hands toward the Princess and said, "Wenxiao is a man of high character; he would certainly not lie regarding such a matter."

"Fine," Princess Baili sighed in resignation.

Listening silently by the side of the pavilion, Chen Ji was also contemplating what kind of person he used to be. Was he truly a gambler?

It was possible; after all, those promissory notes from the gambling dens could not be faked, and such things were easy to verify.

But those things had nothing to do with him now; they were in the past.

Behind the bamboo curtain, Consort Jing glanced vaguely toward Chen Ji. "Does your family not know you are part of the Secret Intelligence Bureau?"

Chen Ji replied, "Reporting to Madam, I am not part of the Secret Intelligence Bureau. At most, I am a falcon of the Bureau; I am not even a spy."

"Oh?" Consort Jing was somewhat puzzled. "What do you do for the Bureau then?"

Chen Ji answered candidly, "For money. They give me fifty taels of silver for every lead I find."

Consort Jing froze for a moment. "Only fifty taels? For a mere fifty taels, you would risk your life working for the Bureau?"

At this point, she believed everything Chen Wenxiao had said. This medical apprentice was indeed a gambler who would throw his life away for money.

However, Chen Ji thought to himself that this was the disparity of the world: he worked himself to death to earn fifty taels, yet such a pittance meant nothing to people like Consort Jing or Consort Yun.

Behind the bamboo curtain, Consort Jing slowly leaned back onto her soft couch. "Help me seek revenge, and I will give you one thousand taels of silver upon success."

Chen Ji thought for a moment. "Do you want Liu Ming dead?"

"Correct."

"There are hidden experts around Lord Liu, and he usually lives in seclusion, making him difficult to kill. If you wish to use the Secret Intelligence Bureau, it will be even harder, as both Yun Yang and Jiao Tu were brought down by him... If you want revenge, it will cost five thousand taels."

"Two thousand taels. Not a penny more."

"Deal."

Chen Ji breathed a sigh of relief. As expected, money from the rich was easy to earn!

With these two thousand taels as a cushion, he would dare to probe the Inner Prison again, collect all the Ice Flows, and ignite hundreds of furnaces.

By then, as long as no Imperial Officials intervened, ordinary spies wouldn't stand a chance against him.

While lost in thought, Consort Jing suddenly asked, "What do you think of Chunhua? She is in the prime of her youth, quite lovely. Though she is a bit older than you, she knows how to care for others. It cost me a hundred taels to buy her from Yangzhou."

Chen Ji hurriedly replied, "Madam, please do not play matchmaker. Providing the money is enough."

...

...

During the banquet.

Chen Wenzong looked toward She Dengke and Liu Quxing, inquiring, "Are you two my brother's colleagues? How has he been lately? Did he come today?"

"He came. Whether he's doing well or not, you're his brother—why ask me instead of asking him?" She Dengke responded gloomily.

Chen Wenzong looked embarrassed. "That is true."

Chen Wenxiao's expression darkened. "He brought such disgrace upon himself; why should we care about him?"

The Ning Dynasty ruled through Confucian ethics, where the hierarchy of ruler, minister, father, and son served to constrain the order of society. However, while everyone spoke of filial piety and brotherly love, how many parents in this world were truly non-biological yet treated a concubine's child as their own?

It was all merely for show.

Just as Liu Quxing was about to argue, someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around to see that Chen Ji had returned to the table at some unknown point.

Chen Ji cupped his hands toward Chen Wenzong and Chen Wenxiao from a distance. "To my two elder brothers: we have met again after a long time, and I did not expect things to turn out this way. Let us just let it go. After all, this is a literary gathering hosted by the Prince Heir; let us not disturb the other guests."

Seeing Chen Ji appear, Princess Baili hurriedly tugged at the Prince Heir's arm. "Brother, it's him! The one who charged us a toll and provided the ladder! If I had known, I wouldn't have spoken up for him!"

The Prince Heir laughed. "I don't think it was a wasted effort. Don't you think he's quite interesting? He even dares to charge the Prince Heir of Jing a toll!"

Princess Baili pouted. "Charging three taels at a time—he's truly black-hearted. But... even though he's a rogue, he doesn't seem like a gambler to me."

The Prince Heir smiled. "What does a gambler look like to you?"

Princess Baili thought back. "I saw them when I went to the gambling dens with you. The gamblers there have all lost their minds; they don't care about anything except gambling. Their eyes are bloodshot, their clothes are filthy, and there's dirt under their fingernails... But he is very clean, and he has a strong spirit."

A gambler's mind is only on gambling; they gamble when they are awake and sleep when they are done. How would they have the energy to care about their appearance?

The Prince Heir nodded. "He indeed doesn't seem like one. Regardless, the little monk said he has already overcome greed and anger, and I trust the little monk."

"How has he reformed? Even if he doesn't gamble, he's still a rogue!" Princess Baili grumbled.

The Prince Heir soothed her with a smile, "Alright, alright. Three taels is no more than a box of your rouge."

At this moment, Chen Wenzong found Chen Ji somewhat familiar.

It was only then that Chen Wenzong realized Chen Ji had been watching him earlier at the banquet, yet he had failed to recognize him.

Of course, it was also because they had never been close; his mother had always instructed him not to associate with the other party.

Chen Wenzong stood up. "Wenxiao was in the wrong earlier. I apologize on his behalf; please do not take it to heart."

Chen Ji smiled. "It's fine. Words come from other people's mouths; there's no stopping them."

Chen Wenzong said, "Father has been home lately. When you have time, come back and fulfill your filial duties. He will surely be happy to see that you have reformed and are studying medicine earnestly."

Chen Ji replied, "My studies at the Imperial Medical Academy are quite busy, so... there is no need."

He had no intention of returning to the Chen family, nor did he plan to ever return. As he had told Old Man Yao, he truly considered the medical clinic his home.

Chen Ji understood that having a son who was a gambler and a mother with a suspicious identity would naturally make one unwelcome.

Since he was unwelcome, it was better not to interact, sparing everyone from having to perform a charade.

At this moment, someone stood up and smiled. "The so-called principles of ruler, minister, father, and son must not be disturbed. Perhaps you resent your father for not sending you to the Donglin Academy, or perhaps you resent his neglect, but he is your father after all, and you are his son. You must still fulfill your filial duties."

Chen Ji looked at the man's face with confusion. "And you are?"

The speaker was handsome, dressed in a blue scholar's robe, wearing an exquisite black gauze cap, and cinched with a jade belt that held a costly jade pendant.

Upon hearing Chen Ji's question, the man replied with an air of pride and reserve, "Donglin Academy, Lin Chaojing."

It seemed that merely uttering this name should have told Chen Ji who he was.

But Chen Ji's attention was elsewhere; he was merely struck by the realization of why the man looked familiar!

This Lin Chaojing bore an eighty-percent resemblance to Lin Chaoqing of the Main Punishment Bureau; if they weren't biological brothers, they were certainly related.

But Chen Ji clearly remembered this voice—it was this Lin Chaojing who had spoken of denouncing the eunuch faction during the imperial examinations... and Lin Chaoqing was a member of that very faction.

He stopped thinking about it and patted Liu Quxing and She Dengke on the shoulder. "Let's go. This place isn't for us. I'm sorry for making you suffer for my sake."

"Yeah, let's go," Liu Quxing sniffled.

"Wait a moment," Lin Chaojing said loudly. "The three of you are also here for the literary gathering. I presume you are people of talent. Just now, everyone has presented their new works for recitation. I wonder, do the three of you have any works to bring?"

Chen Ji looked directly at Lin Chaojing, remaining silent.

Works? He had no works.

Should he copy works from his previous world? He couldn't do that either.

Chen Ji had been heavily skewed in his studies; over the years, he had focused on science, popular science, reasoning, investigation, and counter-intelligence. Even when he studied the humanities, it was only in cryptography.

So, if you asked him to produce gunpowder right now, it wouldn't be a problem, but asking him to recite poetry was quite difficult...

If he truly had to recite poetry, he could probably only remember the most famous line of each poem.

For example, "A time will come to ride the wind and cleave the waves, and hang the cloud-white sail to cross the vast sea." What came before or after that, he couldn't recall immediately.

And most importantly, the allusion of the Double Ninth Festival weighed heavily on his mind. He did not yet know how this world was connected to his own; if he recited a poem that had already been written by someone here, he would make a fool of himself.

Wait!

Suddenly, the thoughts in Chen Ji's mind cleared like clouds parting to reveal the sun, leaving a vast, clear sky.

The previous haze vanished instantly: Gunpowder?

Gunpowder!

He might not know how to recite poetry, but he knew how to make gunpowder.

Poetry is an art; is an explosion not also an art?