12. Making a visit

Dawn was breaking, and the world was still a hazy gray.

Chen Ji slowly sat up from his bed, instinctively reaching for his cellphone by the pillow, but there was nothing there.

At that moment, he suddenly realized the world he had once lived in was no longer a place within reach, but rather, his homeland.

"Wait, shouldn't I be in the yard?" Chen Ji's last memory was of practicing the carrying stone while hugging a stake technique by the apricot tree, yet he had woken up back in the west wing room, still dressed in last night's tattered clothes.

Had his master brought him back? Or perhaps it was one of his two senior fellow disciples? Chen Ji couldn't be sure; he didn't remember a thing.

Right now, the Ice Flow was quietly residing within his Dantian, no longer as ferocious as it had been the night before.

Chen Ji pondered, "Whom did the Ice Flow surge for this time? The first occurrence was due to Zhou Chengyi; the second time was..."

Every time the Ice Flow had emerged, several people died, but the ordinary people in Zhou Chengyi's Mansion didn't trigger the Ice Flow, nor did the maidservant who died in Late Star Garden...

Could it be from the fetus that Princess Consort Jing had just miscarried?

At this thought, She Dengke suddenly rose from the end of the communal sleeping quarters, closed his eyes, and said, "Master, just kill me and be done with it, then there will be no one to care for you in your old age!"

Chen Ji turned his head speechlessly to look. After She Dengke finished speaking, with a thud, he lay back down—it had been a sleep-talk...

The rooster had not yet crowed.

Oddly enough, Chen Ji had returned at 1 AM last night and had slept less than four hours, yet now he felt completely refreshed, without a trace of fatigue or sleepiness.

Was this change brought about by the Ice Flow combined with the carrying stone while hugging a stake technique?

He sat on the bed, deep in thought for a long time, before finally getting up to change his clothes and heading outside with a carrying pole; the slim figure of the youth picked up two wooden buckets and walked toward Anxi Street.

Yesterday, while waiting for his family to send tuition fee, Chen Ji had noted there was a well there where the entire neighborhood fetched water, and arriving late meant waiting in long lines.

As he stepped outside, Chen Ji paused; he saw the black cat from Late Star Garden squatting silently on the eaves of the grain and oil store across the street, quietly watching him.

So last night was not an illusion. That black cat had truly been attracted by the pearl in his sleeve, even secretly following him to the outside of Prince Mansion!

Chen Ji walked on the bluestone road in the early morning toward the well, while the black cat silently followed on the eaves, its gaze never leaving him.

Only he walked on the long street, and only one cat was on the eaves.

They walked side by side, passing through the thin fog of an autumn morning, as if traveling together through a long span of time.

He stopped, facing the black cat across the space between them, curiously asking, "Meow meow?"

The black cat just coldly looked at him.

What proper cat says meow meow?

Seeing no reaction from it, Chen Ji tried another name, "Rackless?"

The black cat: "…"

Chen Ji, testing, spread the pearl on his palm, "Do you want this?"

Though wounded, the black cat still maintained its dignified composure as it watched Chen Ji, unresponsive, seeming to wait for the youth to voluntarily offer the pearl.

Chen Ji stretched his hand upward.

This time, the black cat stood on the gray tile eaves, body slightly leaning forward, ready to leap and snatch the pearl, but at the moment its neck stretched out, Chen Ji quickly closed his palm, concealing the pearl.

The black cat: "…"

It opened its mouth, trying to emit a "meow" but ultimately couldn't lower its dignity.

Eventually, resuming its aloof posture, it silently watched the youth.

Chen Ji tucked the pearl into his sleeve and continued leisurely toward the well. The silent black cat followed, coldly watching him. The fresh wound on its brow made it appear a bit more fierce.

Chen Ji stood by the well, turning the wooden handle to lower a bucket into the water. Just as he was about to haul the bucket back up, he noticed the black cat had silently jumped from the eaves to the wellside and was looking up at him.

"You…" Chen Ji thought for a while, then suddenly asked, "Do you want this pearl? Here, you can have it."

He opened his palm, presenting the pearl in his hand, no longer teasing the kitten.

But the black cat just stood on the edge of the well, the right corner of its mouth slightly raised, seemingly scoffing: I definitely won't fall for your tricks again!

"Wait, are you mocking me?" Chen Ji didn't expect to see such a human-like expression on a cat... He surveyed the deserted long street, eventually placing the pearl on the ground, retreating three meters away, "There, take it yourself."

Animals have instincts; they seem to naturally know what to eat and what not to, even finding their antidotes if poisoned.

Humans lack such instincts; they dare to eat anything, even finding pleasure in eating poisonous mushrooms...

So Chen Ji wasn't worried about the black cat swallowing the orb; he wanted to know why the cat was attracted to it, and what would happen if it swallowed the orb.

The answer lay with this black cat.

Beside the water well, the black cat approached cautiously, glancing at the orb and then warily at Chen Ji. After a long time, it finally came closer and sniffed the orb from a distance.

"Eat it," Chen Ji watched expectantly.

But as the black cat opened its mouth to bite, the snake-like thin grey mist inside the orb surged violently as if it were alive, and the cat was repelled by an invisible force!

"Huh?" Chen Ji was shocked by this supernatural phenomenon; he was sure that an invisible force had burst from the orb and shoved the black cat away!

The small black cat arched its back, positioning itself for battle against the orb, daring not to approach it again.

"Why is that?" Chen Ji wondered.

As he spoke, urgent hoofbeats sounded in the distance.

Chen Ji turned his head and saw a carriage approaching from afar, heading toward the Medical Hall, shattering the tranquil mist. The coachman drove past him, his expression anxious as if he were dealing with something very urgent.

"It looks like they're coming for my master. I better get back," said Chen Ji. "Oh, and you..."

By the time he turned back around, the black cat had already vanished without a trace, leaving only the orb lying quietly on the ground.

...

...

As Chen Ji returned to the Medical Hall, swaying under the weight of his carrying pole, the same carriage was parked outside. The two horses were strong and majestic, their muscles tightly coiled and their manes neatly groomed.

The wooden body of the carriage bore an engraved canary pattern, which extended ornately and intricately to the rear of the carriage.

Beside the carriage, She Dengke and the coachman were moving some luggage onto the vehicle.

"What's going on here?" Chen Ji asked, approaching with his carrying pole.

At that moment, She Dengke couldn't hide his joy: "Master is going out to treat someone."

"Why are you so happy about it..."

"Of course I'm happy!" She Dengke lowered his voice, "With master gone for at least ten days to half a month, we won't have to suffer beatings or scoldings, nor be tested on our studies. Aren't you happy? We can even go to East Market, to Hongyi Lane... If my elder brother helps the nobles run a theatre, I can sneak you in to watch the great plays. I heard just a few days ago that the Ma Family Troupe from the pear garden is coming back to perform!"

"Whose family is he going to treat?" Chen Ji was curious.

She Dengke lowered his voice, "I heard that the internal Spy Department was pursuing a spy from the Jing Dynasty when they arrested several youngsters from the Liu Family and locked them up in the inner prison; one of them was tortured to death. Old Master Liu fainted from anger upon hearing the news, and now he's on his deathbed."

At the mention of this, Chen Ji suddenly remembered the scene of Yun Yang standing in front of Zhou Mansion with a smirk on his face, an ominous sense of crisis haunting him: "Does the Spy Department have so much power?"

"Indeed," said She Dengke, "Old Master Liu's daughter is the current Empress Dowager, and his son is the Minister of Personnel. Even with such a family background, the Spy Department still goes ahead with the arrests. It's said in the Jianghu that the Spy Department acts first and reports later, with the emperor's special permission."

Chen Ji felt something was amiss, even if the Spy Department had great power, surely they shouldn't disregard the Empress Dowager and the Minister of Personnel like that?

While they were talking, Old Yao came out from the Medical Hall, accompanied by a dignified middle-aged man.

Old Mr. Yao instructed his three apprentices, "While I'm away these few days, you all are not to diagnose or pulse the ill secretly. If a patient brings a prescription, just prepare the medicine according to the prescription. Don't miscount the weight and cost me money. I'll check the inventory the minute I get back, and if there are losses, whoever caused them will have to pay up!"

Chen Ji was startled; he hadn't figured out how to handle the old ginseng yet. What should he do when Old Yao came back to check the inventory and found something amiss?

The middle-aged man said, "Mr. Yao, we should hit the road; my family can hardly wait, and we must delay until my father returns from the Imperial Capital to see Old Master Liu for the last time."

Old Yao nodded, "Let's go."

Liu Quxing stepped forward to help Old Yao into the carriage, and soon the carriage rode off, its hoofbeats echoing sharply on the cobblestone road.

She Dengke exclaimed, "How much would it cost to buy such a carriage?!"

Liu Quxing laughed, "You're unenlightened, see that canary on the carriage? That's a design given to my family when someone became a second-rank imperial official, a reward bestowed by the emperor's presence. In our Daning Dynasty, even commoners riding in sedans is overstepping bounds; how many heads do you have to ride in such a carriage?"

She Dengke sneered, "Sounds like you really think you're one of the Liu Family!"

Liu Quxing glared back, "How am I not part of the Liu Family?"

"You're just a distant relative hardly related to the Liu Family, do they even recognize you?" She Dengke retorted, "Though my family is poor, we have dignity. We earn our living working on the docks without sucking up to nobles."

Liu Quxing became furious, "I even attended Old Master Liu's 90th birthday banquet with my parents!"

"Yeah, at the servants' table."

"You dickhead!"

As Chen Ji silently watched the two argue and head back into the Medical Hall, he suddenly sensed something unusual. Turning his head, he was stunned to see the little black cat hadn't actually gone. It was hiding in the shadows under the eaves across the street, secretly watching them.