18. non-returning guest

Outside Zhou Mansion, there were boiling shouts and flames, while inside, over a dozen horses belonging to the Spy Department were tied to trees in the courtyard, disturbed by the restless air, pacing anxiously.

Someone forcefully shoved the mansion's gate, which was barricaded with a horizontal bolt and shook with loud thuds.

Yun Yang looked at Chen Ji, "The Liu Family might break through the door in less than fifteen minutes, and by then, no one can guarantee what will happen. Can you find the evidence within fifteen minutes?"

Another quarter of an hour.

Chen Ji asked himself if he could really decipher the secrets of the book in fifteen minutes. Impossible.

His face, hidden under a masked gray cloth, bowed his head in thought before responding, "Fifteen minutes won't be enough. I need at least…"

Outside Zhou Mansion, someone roared loudly, interrupting his thoughts, "People inside, come out and explain yourselves quickly! If you have evidence, present it; if not, let the murderer pay with their life!"

But Yun Yang tucked the hem of his robe into his waistband and casually drew a long knife from the belt of a nearby spy. He walked toward the door. "Qiwan, Wubing, guard the gate well for me; Jiao Tu, watch the rear wall. Anyone who dares to break in shall be considered a traitor and killed without mercy! Chen Ji, I'll give you fifteen minutes. Find the evidence, or we all die here!"

Chen Ji no longer hesitated, turned around, closed the door, and shut out the noise from outside.

He flipped open the "Four Books with Chapter Notes" transcribed by Zhou Chengyi and rapidly sifted through all the ancient secret communication techniques he could recall to see which method was used by the other side to convey messages.

Was it hiding characters? No.

Was it verifying characters? No…

Could it be dissecting characters?

The so-called 'dissecting characters,' for example, a thousand miles of grass translates to the character 'Dong,' and ten days of divination to the character 'Zhuo,' used to hide information.

If it was the dissecting characters method, then it would be troublesome. Although it wasn't hard to decipher, it would require a tremendous amount of work, impossible to break in a few days!

Time ticked by second by second. The gates of Zhou Mansion could be toppled by the agitated crowd at any moment, and on this cool autumn day, a thin layer of sweat beaded on Chen Ji's forehead.

It wasn't the dissecting characters method. Chen Ji searched long and found no clue that fit!

What to do?

Chen Ji closed the book, shut his eyes, and thought deeply…

Wait!

The answer to the problem, often did not lie within the problem itself!

A spark of inspiration struck Chen Ji's mind, and he turned back to rummage through the bookshelf again—one book, two books, three books… The more he read, the brighter his eyes became.

At this point, the noise outside had strangely quieted down after the chaos, giving a sense of eeriness.

Someone shouted through the gate, "Liu Mingxian from the Liu Family requests Lord Yunyang to open the gate for a meeting."

The spies silently looked towards Yun Yang.

Jiao Tu whispered, "Liu Mingxian, the son of Official Liu, grandson of Old Master Liu, currently in charge of the second house of the Liu Family and serving as the Luocheng City Judge from the fifth rank."

Yun Yang, after a moment's consideration, tossed the long knife to a spy, "Open the gate. Let's not diminish the prestige of our Spy Department!"

With a creak, the vermilion gate slowly opened inward, and hundreds of people outside, holding torches, quietly waited.

Liu Mingxian, mounted on horseback, stood among the crowd, prominent like a crane among chickens.

He wore a white linen robe and a mourning hat, his eyes red-rimmed, and even the brown horse he rode had a white ribbon tied around its chest.

Yun Yang walked forward and finally stopped within the threshold, "Lord Liu, gathering hundreds in the middle of the night to besiege the Spy Department, are you plotting treason?"

"Not at all," Liu Mingxian's voice was hoarse as he tightly held the reins, "We are just here to ask Lord Yunyang why he arrested the Liu Family without reason. Do you have evidence?"

"Of course, I do!" Yun Yang stated firmly.

"Then present it and see. If the Liu Family members are truly guilty, they are at your disposal!"

Yun Yang shook his head, "I cannot show it to you now. This matter is confidential and must be presented to Lord Prime Minister."

Liu Mingxian spurred his horse forward, confronting Yun Yang across the air, and shouted angrily, "Then you have no evidence! If you think you can dismiss me like this, where is the dignity of my family, who have been officials for generations? How could the old master rest in peace? How could I explain this to the Empress Dowager?"

"Lord Liu, I advise you not to burden yourself with the serious crime of plotting treason," Yun Yang, unwilling to engage further, retreated step by step into the shadows of Zhou Mansion, "Close the gate! If anyone dares to step one foot into Zhou Mansion, they will be charged with treason!"

The gate closed again, and the flickering torchlight made Liu Mingxian's face appear somewhat ferocious, "The Eunuch Party causes national disaster, merely the hunting dogs of the Poison Minister… Call Liang Gou'er over, be ready to break the gate at any moment."

The young man hesitated for a moment, "Second Uncle, Liang Gou'er was drinking in Hongyi Lane late at night. He might be asleep in some girl's house by now… Do we need to wake him up?"

Liu Mingxian sneered, "Train soldiers for a thousand days to use them at a crucial moment. Let him bring his broken knife over quickly. If I don't see him later, I'll cut off his allowance for wine and then the materials he needs for cultivation. Someone fetch kindling and stack it at the roots of the walls of Zhou Mansion, ready to set a fire and force them out!"

...

...

Yun Yang, returning quickly, was no longer as calm as before, "Jiao Tu, they've started to show their murderous intentions!"

Jiao Tu blinked her eyes, "Liu Mingxian is planning a rebellion?"

Yun Yang sighed, "Tonight, he didn't bring the troops from Luocheng City with him, clearly treating the situation as a family affair. If he is truly determined to avenge his grandfather, he might get exiled afterward, but you and I would simply die in vain. The magnitude of this matter could vary greatly, isn't it all just up to the remarks from the officials in the court? Civil servants usurping the state! No wonder Jin Zhu said this task was a bit hot to handle when we left the capital, he really is shrewd…"

Jiao Tu blinked again, "Then what should we do? While they haven't surrounded the back wall, let's run away."

Yun Yang hesitated, "If we just run away, where would the dignity of the Spy Department stand?"

Jiao Tu rolled her eyes, "Then I'll run away on my own."

Yun Yang responded, "Let's run together!"

"But there's a problem," Jiao Tu said with a smile as she looked toward Chen Ji, "The spies could fight their way out, but if the Liu family has experts hidden among their troops, having him with us would be a burden."

As they spoke, they exchanged glances and then collectively looked towards Chen Ji.

Yun Yang expressionlessly picked up the two volumes of "Four Books with Chapter Notes" from the table, "Leave him here, we've already got the books. Someone from the Spy Department will naturally be able to decrypt them."

Jiao Tu said, "We need to kill this kid. Otherwise, if he falls into the hands of the Liu Family, they'll know we don't have any evidence and he'll become a living witness."

These two ruthless characters decided to abandon Chen Ji in a heartbeat. Jiao Tu signaled to the spies, but saw that more than a dozen spies silently sheathed their long knives and quickly retreated toward the back wall, even abandoning their battle horses.

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

Chen Ji stood in front of a bookshelf, picking one book after another, rapidly flipping through them as if he hadn't heard Yun Yang and Jiao Tu's conversation at all.

He didn't meticulously read each book; mostly, he briefly skimmed through them before dropping them to the floor, as if he was searching for something specific with a clear goal in mind.

Books piled up thickly around Chen Ji's feet, nearly burying his knees.

Eventually, he dropped all the books to the ground and fell into deep thought.

Just as Jiao Tu was about to make a move to silence him, she heard Chen Ji suddenly ask, "Don't you two want to find evidence of the Liu Family colluding with others?"

…

…

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

Yun Yang and Jiao Tu looked at each other, with Jiao Tu curiously saying, "Somehow, he feels different from that night, doesn't he?"

"It is different."

"Ah," Jiao Tu cocked her head and examined Chen Ji, "Did you decipher the secret in that book?"

Chen Ji confidently responded, "I already know where the evidence of the Liu Family's collusion is."

Yun Yang doubtfully asked, "You're not lying to make us take you with us in our escape, are you?"

Chen Ji replied, "I'm just a mere apprentice from the Medical Hall. Even if I tricked you into taking me out, wouldn't you still kill me?"

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

Chen Ji tightened the gray cloth covering his face a bit and calmly analyzed, "Tonight is a struggle between the Group of Royal Relatives and the Ritual Supervision. The Prime Minister clearly knew you weren't good at handling this kind of situation, yet he didn't send someone more tactful and worldly, using your personalities as blades to strike at the Liu Family. If you two escape without finding the evidence, you won't avoid punishment once you're back at the Ritual Supervision, will you?"

"Are you threatening me?" Yun Yang narrowed his eyes.

"Lord Yun Yang, even if I tell you now where the evidence is, without me, you wouldn't know how to find it," replied Chen Ji.

Meanwhile, Jiao Tu made a decision. She called out to a spy, "Qiwan, take him with you and protect him!"

The group retreated towards the back wall of Zhou Mansion. Jiao Tu agilely climbed over the wall first to keep watch outside and then signaled, "No one around, hurry!"

Yun Yang then stood at the base of the wall and, with both hands, helped one spy after another onto the gray tiles of the boundary wall.

When it was Chen Ji's turn to climb over, he stepped on Yun Yang's hands and suddenly stopped to earnestly say, "Lord Yun Yang, the merit of this operation is greater than you can imagine."

Yun Yang scoffed, "Trying to intentionally step on me a bit longer, huh? You think I can't see that? Hurry up and get over!"

With that, he pushed Chen Ji up over the wall.

However, no sooner had they all crossed over than they saw a group from the Liu Family approaching, carrying firewood to set the Zhou Mansion ablaze. The Liu Family, spotting the figures of the Spy Department, roared, "Someone come quickly, they are trying to escape from the back!"

Not keen on engaging in a fight, the Spy Department quickly slipped out through the deep alleys of Luocheng City. Yun Yang asked in a subdued voice, "Where should we go now to find evidence?"

Chen Ji asked, "What was the name of the scholar who died in the inner prison?"

"Liu Shenyu!"

"Let's go to his house!"

Chen Ji followed after the spies, racing through the streets of Luocheng City.

The cool night breeze roamed the bluestone paths of Luocheng, causing everyone's clothes to flutter and hair to whip chaotically.

Ahead was darkness, behind them were cries of pursuit; in that moment, Chen Ji felt as if he too had become a non-returning guest in this realm of Jianghu.