27. Inner prison

The early morning in Luocheng City was brimming with vitality, with people bustling about.

Bullock carts headed to East Market to attend the fair, occasionally causing traffic jams on the narrow roads, as the cart drivers munched on their pastries and cursed impatiently for people to make way.

Laughter, anger, shouting, the sounds of selling were endless.

You might never guess from its bustling scene that this city has been in decline for hundreds of years; it seemed as though it still dwelled in its most glorious moments.

At Taiping Medical Hall, Chen Ji stood behind the counter with his sleeves rolled up, weighing medicine with copper scales for the patients with a clean smile that would never associate him with "catching spies."

On the other side, Old Yao was examining the students.

She Dengke sat straight behind the counter, eyes closed as he took a patient's pulse. Old Yao stood by, holding a bamboo strip, and sternly asked, "Speak quickly, what is the pulse?"

She Dengke placed three fingers on the patient's wrist and guessed tentatively, "Surging pulse?"

Snap! The bamboo strip struck She Dengke's back, startling the middle-aged male patient across the counter.

Old Yao signaled for the patient to stay calm and pressed She Dengke again, "What pulse?"

She Dengke grimaced, "Excessive pulse!"

Snap! Another hit!

She Dengke quickly said, "Deep pulse!"

Snap! Yet another hit!

The patient hurriedly stood up and grabbed Old Yao, "Stop hitting the boy, Doctor Yao. Please calm down. I can take a deep pulse; let it be a deep pulse then!"

Old Yao slowly turned his head to look at the patient, speechless for a long while, "...Would you accept it if it was a happy pulse too?!"

After speaking, he turned his gaze toward Chen Ji and Liu Quxing, considering who to hit next. As his gaze swept over them, it suddenly stopped at the door.

At that moment, a little black cat was dodging through the crowd outside the Medical Hall, carefully looking up at human feet before avoiding them.

Reaching the hall door, Wu Yun sneaked a peek inside, tentatively standing on the threshold. However, it happened to meet Old Yao's gaze.

Old Yao watched it expressionlessly while Chen Ji's heart tightened; his master didn't seem like a person fond of small animals, and he hoped he wouldn't harshly chase Wu Yun away.

But as Wu Yun faced Old Yao's gaze, it just shrank its neck a bit before gaining the courage to hop over the threshold and slowly approach.

To see Wu Yun began leaping onto the counter and lying down right in front of Old Yao's hands!

Old Yao paused for a long while, his stern expression slowly changing into a smile that creased his face. She Dengke and the other disciples were stunned—they had never seen their master look so pleased!

So the old man could actually smile!

Realizing something was amiss, Old Yao immediately regained his composure and said indifferently, "This little thing is quite charming."

Liu Quxing leaned in wanting to pet Wu Yun, but Old Yao slapped his hand away, "Go away!"

Liu Quxing: "..."

The next moment, Wu Yun nuzzled its head into Old Yao's hand. Old Yao was silent for a while, then turned to She Dengke and said, "Go get the purple wooden box from my room."

With his other hand, Old Yao gently tapped Wu Yun's head and casually said, "Your name is Wu Yun, isn't it?"

Chen Ji's pupils contracted suddenly, and his chest felt as if it was tightly clutched by someone's hand.

The fact that he had named Wu Yun was a secret between him and the cat alone. How did Old Yao come to know it? Could it be that he already knew everything?

At this moment, Chen Ji recalled the incidents—Old Yao picking him up from Zhou Mansion, pulling him back to the Medical Hall during Buddha and Bodhisattva's procession, and the consultation at Late Star Garden—each of which seemed filled with hidden significance.

As Chen Ji pondered, he caught Old Yao glancing at him silently, a look that seemed to see right through him.

Old Yao just gave him a glance before returning his attention to Wu Yun. She Dengke approached and asked, "Master, that's the cat from Late Star Garden, isn't it? I remember you haven't been to Prince Mansion for a long time; how do you know its name is Wu Yun?"

Old Yao glanced at him sideways, "I divined it, is that a problem?"

Liu Quxing was taken aback for a moment, "You can divine that too? Then please divine my childhood milk name."

Old Yao pulled six copper coins from his sleeve, spread them calmly on the counter, and looked emotionlessly at Liu Quxing, "Your milk name is 'Idiot.'"

Chen Ji: "..."

Liu Quxing: "..."

She Dengke brought the purple wooden box, and when it was opened, it was filled with exquisite pastries.

Liu Quxing exclaimed, "Pastries from Zhengxin House!"

Old Yao lifted a pastry to his palm and offered it to Wu Yun, "Eat."

Wu Yun swiftly downed it, then eyed the box again.

Old Yao was not stingy and took out another piece, "Enjoying pastries is a good thing. Only foolish cats know to eat meat, while smart cats understand the value of pastries."

After Wu Yun devoured two pieces of pastry, it ran back to lie down by Chen Ji without a backward glance.

Seeing this, Old Yao simply ate the pastry crumbs from his hand and wasn't upset.

He looked at Chen Ji and casually remarked, "It seems quite fond of you."

Then, he went back to examining She Dengke's studies.

Chen Ji, seeing everyone's attention diverted, whispered, "Why have you come during the day?"

Wu Yun responded, "Princess Consort Jing has left Prince Jing Mansion and gone who knows where. Now, with nobody taking care of Late Star Garden, the maids are all slacking off, so I went out to find you to play!"

Chen Ji grinned, "Then you can just stay at the Medical Hall. I need to dispense medicine for patients first."

As they were talking, a richly dressed middle-aged man arrived. He held a prescription in his hand, "Doctor Yao, I've come to get medicine, but I left home in such a hurry this morning that I forgot to bring enough money. Could you let me take the medicine first to treat my mother, and send a young apprentice with me to fetch the money from home? I'll give him twenty wen for his trouble."

Old Yao glanced at the prescription, "These medicines you need aren't cheap, are you sure there's enough money at home?"

The middle-aged man nodded, "Positive!"

Liu Quxing eagerly said, "Master, let me go!"

Old Yao gave a chilling smile, "You little brat don't want to take your academic assessment with me, is that it? Chen Ji, you go!"

Liu Quxing's face turned ashen as he watched Chen Ji leave with the man, unable to do anything!

Arriving at the door, the middle-aged man led Chen Ji onto a horse carriage.

After the curtains were lowered, the man leisurely peeled off the beard and wrinkles on his face, revealing the true appearance of Yun Yang, "You sent word to me, wanting to make a trip to the inner prison?"

"Exactly," Chen Ji nodded, "I feel there's more to the case of Liu Shenyu than meets the eye. It doesn't seem like his personal action—there's likely a bigger fish behind it."

"Ah, you're actually volunteering to earn merit for me? Short of money?" Yun Yang was suspicious, "You've just made fifty taels of silver; even if you went to Hongyi Lane, you couldn't spend it all in a month. Don't tell me you've been to Baiyi Lane? Let me give you some advice, those thin horses from Yangzhou have been trained from a young age in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, flirtatious in all their actions; they're more than a little apprentice like you could afford."

Chen Ji smiled, "Lord Yunyang, aren't you happy that I want to earn merits for you? If one day you rise to a high position, maybe you could help me get a rank in the Spy Department."

Yun Yang was noncommittal, "You suspect that the remaining offspring of the Liu Family also have issues?"

"Only by meeting them will I know."

Yun Yang refrained from further dialogue, pulling out a black blindfold, "Close your eyes. The location of the inner prison is a secret; you shouldn't know it, and your ears must be plugged too."

With eyes closed and ears plugged, Chen Ji's world quieted down. Luocheng City's bustle seemed to have nothing to do with him.

Yun Yang lifted the curtain and went out to drive the carriage. The carriage slowly traveled along the cobblestone road, with no one noticing the small black cat that, at some unknown time, had perched upon the roof, accompanying the vehicle as it swayed towards the south.

Old Yao stopped his assessment, stood with his hands behind his back, and watched at the entrance of the Medical Hall as the carriage drove away, deep in thought.

...

"We're here!"

Yun Yang removed the cotton from Chen Ji's ears, grabbed his arm, and alighted from the carriage. He saw Chen Ji take a piece of gray cloth from his bosom to cover his mouth and nose, and commented with a slight sneer, "You're quite cautious."

Chen Ji said with a smile, "This inner prison in Luocheng must have been infiltrated by the Liu Family; otherwise, why would they have been notified of Liu Shenyu's death so swiftly? Visiting a place like this to investigate the Liu Family's case naturally requires extra caution. Speaking of which... with the Spy Department's inner prison being infiltrated like this, doesn't that infuriate Lord Yunyang?"

Yun Yang chuckled coldly, "The prison guards of Luocheng were all exiled to Lingnan last night. The people here now have been pulled in from other places."

Blindfolded, Chen Ji stumbled forward under Yun Yang's tugging. He heard nothing but stillness all around, save for the sounds of birds, with no sign of anything unusual.

They reached an iron gate outside which Yun Yang knocked three times quickly, then twice slowly. Only then did the gate slowly open inwards.

The heavy and decayed gate made a piercing, squeaky noise as it moved, grating on one's teeth.

A young spy awaited them on the other side of the door.

Once inside the inner prison, Yun Yang said, "You can take off the blindfold now."

Chen Ji opened his eyes, shielding them from the brightness with his right hand, and squinted as he looked around.

He saw a narrow staircase slanting downward, extending deep into the ground.

On the walls beside the staircase, an oil residue lamp was hung at every fifteenth step, like lamps that guide souls in the afterlife.

Oddly enough, each oil residue lamp was marked with an Eight Diagram Pattern engraved on its base. Chen Ji curiously asked, "What's the deal with these Eight Diagrams?"

Yun Yang recalled, "It's said that seven years ago, the Prime Minister brought in an 'Executive Officer' who was adept at Qimen Dunjia. They drew these in every inner prison. It's rumored that... Each lamp represents a cell; with the Eight Diagrams present, as long as the lamp is lit, the prisoner will not perish."

Chen Ji furrowed his brow, "What does that mean?"

Yun Yang shrugged, "How should I know?"

The young spy led Yun Yang and Chen Ji down to the ground level, where a stone corridor extended into the darkness ahead. On both sides of the corridor, dim cells were "embedded" into the stone walls.

As the two men appeared, someone gripping the iron bars called out desperately, "My lord, I am innocent! I have no ties to the Jing Dynasty spies. My elderly mother is over sixty, and I still have two small children to feed at home, please let me go back!"

The cries of injustice were endless, but Yun Yang acted as if he heard nothing, "Come on, the dossier is inside."

However, just as Chen Ji was about to follow him, he froze in place.

In the gloom of the inner prison, two streams of gray-white Ice Flow shot out of the cell in front of him, burrowing into his body through the center of his forehead.

Yun Yang turned back, "What's wrong?"

Chen Ji appeared normal, "Nothing, it's just my first time in the inner prison, and I'm a bit unsettled by seeing these withered prisoners."

Yun Yang casually remarked, "I was scared at first too, but you get used to it."

Chen Ji took a step forward again, and as he walked deeper into the inner prison with Yun Yang, streams of gray-white Ice Flow flew out of various cells.

They seemed to sense Chen Ji's presence, surging and coiling toward him like dragons in the air.

Chen Ji watched this scene in shock as hundreds of Ice Flow streams entered his body through his forehead, eventually merging together and coiling in his Dantian.

The momentum of the Ice Flow was so immense that they almost extinguished the stove with their presence!