Luo City bustled with life in the early morning, its streets teeming with pedestrians.
Ox carts headed to the East Market, occasionally clogging the narrow roads. Their drivers chewed on flatbread as they cursed and shouted for people to get out of the way.
Laughter, angry curses, and vendors' cries rang out without cease.
There seemed to be no sign of the decline the city had suffered over the past several centuries. It was as though it remained frozen at the height of its glory.
Inside Taiping Medical Hall, Chen Ji stood behind the counter with his sleeves rolled up, smiling as he weighed out medicine for patients on a copper balance. His smile was so pure that no one would ever associate him with something like "capturing spies."
Meanwhile, Old Yao was testing his students.
She Dengke sat perfectly straight behind the counter, eyes closed as he felt a patient's pulse. Old Yao stood beside him with a bamboo switch in hand and asked sternly, "Hurry up and tell me, what kind of pulse is it?"
She Dengke rested three fingers on the patient's wrist. "A surging pulse?" he ventured.
Smack! The bamboo switch struck She Dengke across the back, startling even the middle-aged male patient on the other side of the counter.
Old Yao gestured for the patient to stay calm and continued questioning She Dengke. "What pulse?"
She Dengke grimaced. "A forceful pulse!"
Smack! Another blow!
"A deep pulse!" She Dengke hurriedly said.
Smack! Another blow!
The patient quickly got up and grabbed Old Yao. "Stop hitting the boy, Imperial Physician Yao. Please calm down first. I can have a deep pulse. A deep pulse it is!"
Old Yao slowly turned to look at the patient and was speechless for a long while. "...If he felt a pregnancy pulse, would you accept that too?!"
With that, he turned and swept his gaze over Chen Ji and Liu Quxing, considering whom to beat next. But as his gaze passed over them, it suddenly stopped outside the door.
A little black cat was dodging through the crowd outside the medical hall, carefully looking up at the humans' feet and avoiding them.
When Dark Cloud reached the entrance, she clung to the threshold and furtively peered inside, only to meet Old Yao's gaze.
Old Yao looked at her expressionlessly. Chen Ji's heart tightened. His master didn't seem like someone who liked small animals; he hoped the old man wouldn't drive Dark Cloud away by force.
But under Old Yao's gaze, Dark Cloud merely ducked her head, then worked up the courage to climb over the threshold and approach him bit by bit.
Dark Cloud leaped onto the counter, came up to Old Yao, and promptly lay down on his hand!
Old Yao froze for a long moment. His stern expression slowly changed, and he actually broke into a smile that creased his face. She Dengke and his two fellow disciples all stared in astonishment. It was the first time they had seen their master look so kindly!
So the old man did know how to smile!
Old Yao realized something was amiss and immediately put on a stern face. "This little thing is rather likable," he said mildly.
Liu Quxing leaned over to pet Dark Cloud, but Old Yao immediately slapped his hand away. "Get lost!"
Liu Quxing: "..."
The next moment, Dark Cloud nuzzled her head against Old Yao's hand. He fell silent for a moment, then turned to She Dengke. "Go fetch the purple wooden box from my room."
Old Yao gently tapped Dark Cloud on the head with his other hand and said casually, "Your name is Dark Cloud, isn't it?"
Chen Ji's pupils abruptly contracted, and his chest tightened as though someone had seized his heart.
Only he and Dark Cloud knew he had named her. How had Old Yao found out? Could the old man already know everything?
Now, looking back on Old Yao fetching him from the Zhou Residence, pulling him back to the medical hall during the procession of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and making a house call at Evening Star Court, Chen Ji felt each incident seemed to conceal a deeper meaning.
As Chen Ji pondered, Old Yao silently glanced at him. That single glance seemed to see right through him.
Old Yao gave him just one glance before turning back to Dark Cloud. She Dengke leaned over and asked, "Master, isn't this the cat from Evening Star Court? I remember you haven't been to the prince's estate in a long time. How did you know her name was Dark Cloud?"
Old Yao cast him a sidelong glance. "I divined it. Can't I?"
Liu Quxing, standing nearby, was taken aback. "You can divine that too? Then divine what my childhood nickname was."
Old Yao took six copper coins from his sleeve and calmly scattered them on the counter. Then he said to Liu Quxing without changing expression, "Your nickname was Idiot."
Chen Ji: "..."
Liu Quxing: "..."
She Dengke brought over the purple wooden box and pulled open a drawer. Inside were rows of exquisite pastries.
Liu Quxing exclaimed, "Pastries from Zhengxin House!"
Old Yao held a pastry in his palm and offered it to Dark Cloud. "Eat."
Dark Cloud wolfed it down in a few bites, then fixed her eyes on the box.
Old Yao was not stingy. He actually took out another piece and said, "It's a good thing to be able to eat pastries. Dumb cats only know how to eat meat. Only clever cats know how good pastries are."
After eating two pastries, Dark Cloud ran over to Chen Ji and lay down in front of him without a backward glance, showing no reluctance to leave.
Seeing this, Old Yao merely brushed the pastry crumbs from his palm into his own mouth. He wasn't angry.
He looked at Chen Ji and remarked casually, "She seems quite fond of you."
Then he went back to testing She Dengke.
When Chen Ji saw everyone's attention had shifted, he asked in a low voice, "Why did you come during the day?"
Dark Cloud replied, "Consort Jing left Prince Jing's Estate, and I don't know where she went. No one's in charge of Evening Star Court now, and the maids are all slacking off, so I came out to play with you!"
Chen Ji smiled. "Then stay here at the medical hall. I need to weigh out medicine for the patients first."
While they were talking, a richly dressed middle-aged man came in holding a prescription. "Imperial Physician Yao, I've come to get some 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 home to treat my mother first and send a young apprentice with me to collect the money? I won't make the apprentice run the errand for nothing. I'll give him twenty copper coins for the trip."
Old Yao glanced at the prescription. "These medicines won't be cheap. Are you sure you have money at home?"
The middle-aged man nodded. "I'm sure!"
Liu Quxing hurriedly said, "Master, I'll go!"
Old Yao smiled grimly. "You brat, you just don't want me testing you, do you? Chen Ji, you go!"
Liu Quxing's face instantly went ashen as he watched Chen Ji leave with the man!
At the entrance, the middle-aged man led Chen Ji into a carriage.
After lowering the curtain, the man leisurely peeled the beard and wrinkles from his face, revealing Cloud Goat's true appearance. "You had someone pass me a message saying you wanted to visit the inner prison?"
"That's right." Chen Ji nodded. "I don't think Liu Shiyu's case is simple. It doesn't seem to be Liu Shiyu acting alone. There's a bigger fish behind it."
"Oh? You're actually volunteering to help me earn merit? Short of money?" Cloud Goat grew suspicious. "You've only just earned fifty taels of silver. Even if you went to Red Clothes Alley, you couldn't spend it all in a month. Don't tell me you went to White Robe Lane? Take my advice: those Yangzhou slender horses are trained from childhood in the zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Every way they move, lie, sit, or stand is full of allure. They aren't women a little apprentice like you can handle."
Chen Ji smiled. "Lord Cloud Goat, aren't you happy I want to help you earn merit? If you reach a high position someday, perhaps you can help me land some minor post in the Secret Intelligence Directorate."
Cloud Goat made no comment. "You think there's something wrong with the remaining Liu Family descendants too?"
"I'll have to see them to know."
Cloud Goat wasted no more words. He took out a black blindfold. "Close your eyes. The inner prison's location is a secret; you can't be allowed to know it. Your ears have to be plugged too."
Chen Ji closed his eyes and plugged his ears. His world fell silent, and the bustle of Luo City seemed to have nothing more to do with him.
Cloud Goat lifted the curtain and went out to drive. The carriage rolled slowly along the flagstone road. No one noticed the little black cat that had somehow appeared on the roof, crouching there as the carriage swayed its way south.
Old Yao stopped testing his students and stood at the medical hall's entrance with his hands behind his back, watching the carriage depart. No one knew what he was thinking.
"We're here!"
Cloud Goat removed the cotton from Chen Ji's ears and pulled him out of the carriage by the arm. Seeing Chen Ji take a gray cloth from his robes and cover his nose and mouth, he curled his lip. "You're quite cautious."
Chen Ji smiled. "The Liu Family must have infiltrated this Luo City inner prison until it's as full of holes as a sieve. Otherwise, how would they have learned of Liu Shiyu's death so quickly? Coming to a place like this to investigate the Liu Family's case, I naturally have to be more careful. Speaking of which... doesn't it anger you, Lord Cloud Goat, that the Secret Intelligence Directorate's inner prison has been infiltrated to this extent?"
Cloud Goat sneered. "All the jailers from Luo City were exiled to Lingnan last night. Everyone here now was transferred from elsewhere."
Blindfolded, Chen Ji stumbled along as Cloud Goat pulled him forward. He heard no one nearby; apart from birdsong, there was nothing unusual.
When they reached an iron door, Cloud Goat knocked three times quickly and twice slowly. Only then did the door slowly open inward.
As the heavy, decaying door opened, its rusted iron scraped with an ear-piercing screech that set one's teeth on edge.
A young secret agent was waiting inside.
Once they had entered the inner prison, Cloud Goat said, "You can take off the blindfold now."
Chen Ji opened his eyes and raised his right hand to partly shield them from the light, squinting as he looked around.
A narrow staircase slanted downward, extending deep underground.
An oil-residue lamp hung on the wall beside the stairs at every fifteenth step, like underworld lanterns guiding summoned souls.
Strangely, an eight-trigram design was engraved into the base of every lamp. Chen Ji asked curiously, "What are these eight trigrams for?"
Cloud Goat searched her memory. "It's said that seven years ago, the inner court minister found a 'traveling official' skilled in Qimen Dunjia and had him draw them in every inner prison. The story goes... each lamp is a prison. With the eight trigrams there, as long as the lamp doesn't go out, the person won't perish."
Chen Ji frowned. "What does that mean?"
Cloud Goat shrugged. "How would I know?"
The young agent led Cloud Goat and Chen Ji underground. When they reached level ground, a stone passage stretched into the darkness ahead, with dim cells "embedded" in the walls on either side.
As soon as the two appeared, someone seized the iron bars and cried out, "My lord, I've been wronged! I've never had anything to do with Jing Dynasty spies. My mother at home is already over sixty, and I have two children to feed. Please, let me go home!"
Cries of innocence rang out one after another, but Cloud Goat acted as though she hadn't heard them. "Come on. The case files are inside."
But Chen Ji had barely taken one step behind her when he froze in place.
In the dim inner prison, two grayish-white streams of ice flew out of the cell in front of him and entered his body through the spot between his brows.
Cloud Goat looked back. "What's wrong?"
Chen Ji's expression remained normal. "Nothing. It's my first time in the inner prison. I'm not quite used to seeing these gaunt prisoners."
Cloud Goat smiled. "I was frightened at first too. You'll get used to it."
Chen Ji started forward again. As he and Cloud Goat ventured deeper into the inner prison, grayish-white streams of ice flew out of the cells one after another.
They seemed to sense Chen Ji's presence, surging and swimming toward him like flood dragons churning through the air.
Chen Ji watched the scene in utter shock. Over a hundred streams of ice entered his body through the spot between his brows, finally merging and coiling within his dantian.
The streams of ice were so immense that they faintly threatened to extinguish the furnace fire!