Since arriving in this world, Chen Ji had known nothing about his former self. He could only piece himself together bit by bit from what others revealed.
Now, the picture of his past was growing more complete... and more terrifying.
A Jing Dynasty spy? Was he really a Jing Dynasty spy?!
For Chen Ji, this was the worst possible outcome. It was as though he were walking on a knife's edge above a cliff, with a bottomless abyss at his side. Whether he fell to the left or the right, he would be doomed beyond redemption.
What should he do?
The person pressing a blade against Chen Ji's back said calmly, "Don't make any sudden moves, or you'll die."
The voice was dry and muffled, but carried absolute confidence.
The man must be an xingguan who had cultivated for many years, an important figure in the Jing Dynasty's Military Intelligence Directorate!
Chen Ji didn't move, but heard the shopkeeper say, "Lord Sicao, I've confirmed that Lord Zhou exchanged intelligence with this boy on the night he came to grief. Now everyone in Lord Zhou's residence has disappeared, and this boy is the only one still alive. He must have sold us out."
The Military Intelligence Directorate's Sicao pressed the cold blade tightly against Chen Ji's neck and asked in a grave voice, "What do you have to say for yourself?"
Chen Ji's thoughts raced. Finally, he said calmly, "The night I went to Zhou Chengyi's residence, he had already been betrayed by a trained courtesan from Emerald Bamboo Garden in White Robe Lane. That was why Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit came knocking... How can you say he died because I defected?"
The shopkeeper said gravely, "Then how did you survive? Bright Rabbit and Cloud Goat are notorious for their love of killing. If you didn't defect and render them a service, how could you still be alive? You've betrayed the Jing Dynasty!"
The shopkeeper had taken a kick earlier. Now, as his words stirred his anger, he seized the chance to step forward and kick Chen Ji in the stomach, doubling him over.
Chen Ji wanted to strike back, but the man behind him caught him off guard with a kick to the back of his knee.
Chen Ji's knee buckled, and he nearly fell to the ground.
But he forced himself to hold on and rose before his knee touched the floor.
The Sicao of the Military Intelligence Directorate kicked him several more times, but each time Chen Ji struggled back up before he could kneel.
Seeing this, the Sicao pressed down on his shoulders with tremendous force. This time, however, Chen Ji would rather risk having his shoulder broken than bend his knees an inch.
He held himself ramrod straight and stared fixedly at the shopkeeper. "No matter how many times you torture me, the result will be the same," he said fiercely. "I have just one question. If I've defected, why are you still alive and talking to me?!"
The shopkeeper's expression froze.
That was why they hadn't killed Chen Ji immediately. Though every sign indicated that he had defected, everyone except Zhou Chengyi and Liu Shiyu was safe and sound.
Given Chen Ji's identity, his defection would be a disaster for the entire Military Intelligence Directorate network in Luo City. The directorate had to find out what had happened.
The storeroom was packed with medicinal herbs and felt rather cramped. The three of them could hear one another breathing.
Chen Ji slowly let out a breath. Pinching the blade between two fingers, he pushed the dagger at his neck a little farther away. "You were going to kill me without finding out the rights and wrongs? Let me finish. After I arrived at the Zhou Residence, Zhou Chengyi and I had barely exchanged a few words when Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit came to the door. Zhou Chengyi knew he had no hope of surviving, so he told me to protect myself. Later, he killed himself with poison, while I survived as a medical hall apprentice. The Secret Intelligence Directorate still doesn't know my true identity."
With that, he stopped looking at the Hundred Deer Pavilion's shopkeeper and turned to face the Military Intelligence Directorate's Sicao behind him: the number-three figure among the Jing Dynasty Military Intelligence Directorate's operatives hidden in the Ning Dynasty!
The Sicao wore plain gray clothes, with patches at both elbows and both knees.
Strangely, the Sicao wore a thin wooden mask engraved with a blue face and bared fangs, terrifying and sinister.
Before Chen Ji could speak, the Sicao raised a hand and struck him precisely on the neck, knocking him unconscious.
When Chen Ji slowly came to, he suddenly found himself hanging upside down somewhere, with a black cloth over his head and darkness all around him. His wrist hurt as though a cut had been made in it.
He heard a thick dripping sound, as though his blood were falling one drop at a time.
The drip, drip sounded like a countdown to the end of his life, filling him with fear and urgency.
Yet Chen Ji grew calm instead.
"At this rate of bleeding, you have only half an hour to live," the Sicao said, his voice muffled behind the mask. "Now tell me, the Secret Intelligence Directorate has always preferred to kill the innocent rather than let the guilty escape. Even if they didn't know you were a spy, they certainly wouldn't have let you live. Tell me, why did they let you go?"
Chen Ji explained in the darkness, "Because I rendered them a service. I used alum as a clue and brushed vinegar over the paper to find the secret letter the rice-paper shop had sent Zhou Chengyi."
The Sicao asked in a low voice, "If you're telling the truth, the ability you displayed doesn't fit your identity as a medical hall apprentice. Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit would certainly be suspicious! Yuanming, are you sure no one followed him here?"
The shopkeeper shook his head. "No one did."
"Check again. See if any unfamiliar faces have appeared near the Hundred Deer Pavilion."
"Understood."
Yuanming, the Hundred Deer Pavilion's shopkeeper, immediately pushed the door open and went out. Standing in the courtyard, he used a copper whistle to make the clear call of a swallow.
Before long, swallow calls came back in turn from the east, south, west, and north of the Hundred Deer Pavilion.
The shopkeeper returned to the room, a puzzled look on his face. "Lord Sicao, the brothers keeping watch around the area report that no one followed him."
The Sicao fell into thought. "How did you earn the Secret Intelligence Directorate's trust? They haven't even set anyone to watch you."
Chen Ji also fell into thought. Yes, how did I...
He seemed to have suddenly gained Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit's trust. Not only could he go to the inner prison, he could even consult case files at will.
Those files were of the utmost importance to the Secret Intelligence Directorate. If Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit still suspected him of being a Jing Dynasty spy, they would never have let him see them.
Why?
Wait, it was because of that strange dream.
Chen Ji recalled that, in the dream, the other party had taken control of his subconscious and answered some questions.
He had gotten through the interrogation by sheer luck because... at the time, he really hadn't known he was a Jing Dynasty spy!
That was close. By a freak combination of circumstances, he had escaped the interrogation!
Drip, drip.
The sound of falling blood continued, as though urging him toward death.
Chen Ji's expression remained calm, but he spoke hurriedly. "I had a dream before. In it, someone kept asking me whether I was a Jing Dynasty spy. I almost lost control of my mind, but in the end I held on and answered, 'No.'"
The Sicao seemed somewhat surprised. "Dream Rooster acted in person? And you resisted Dream Rooster's interrogation."
Even so, the Sicao wasn't entirely convinced.
Chen Ji felt a pain in his arm, as though it had been cut with a blade again.
The sound of dripping blood vanished. In its place came the sound of blood pouring in a thin stream into a wooden basin, pattering without cease.
The Sicao said calmly, "No matter how convincingly you tell it, the Secret Intelligence Directorate could have taught you to make it all up. If you want me to believe you, prove that you're still loyal to the Jing Dynasty. If you can't, I can only kill you. I trust your maternal uncle will understand."
Chen Ji was taken aback. My maternal uncle?
At that moment, the shopkeeper said, "My lord, don't waste words on him. The Secret Intelligence Directorate must have some plot in letting him live. If we let him go back, the Hundred Deer Pavilion might be destroyed overnight someday. It's one of our most important businesses in the south. A great many people depend on it for their living."
The Sicao didn't answer, simply waiting for Chen Ji's reply.
Chen Ji closed his eyes. How could he prove that he was still loyal to the Jing Dynasty?
When he opened them again, he said decisively, "I saw the copy of Records of Reflections on Things at Hand in Liu Shiyu's home, the one with information hidden using the fanqie method, but I didn't hand it over to Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit. In the book, Liu Shiyu revealed that an important figure from a prince's residence was in contact with our Jing Dynasty's Military Intelligence Directorate. He also revealed that the entire Liu Family had gone over to the Jing Dynasty. If I'd handed the book over, I'm afraid the Liu Family would have found it hard to escape disaster!"
The Sicao caught his breath. "Where is Records of Reflections on Things at Hand?"
"I burned it."
The Sicao narrowed his eyes slightly, a fierce glint in them, and silently pondered something. "You weren't lying about that. The Secret Intelligence Directorate really didn't find Records of Reflections on Things at Hand. Afterward, I slipped into Liu Shiyu's residence to look for it, but couldn't find it either. So you hid it beforehand. Good..."
Chen Ji's heart tightened. The Jing Dynasty's Military Intelligence Directorate actually knew that the Secret Intelligence Directorate hadn't obtained Records of Reflections on Things at Hand? Had there been other spies inside the Liu Family residence that night?!
As the Sicao pondered, the shopkeeper said urgently, "Lord Sicao, no matter how convincing this boy sounds, it doesn't change the fact that he sold out his colleagues. Do you know how far-reaching the consequences were after the Liu Family's rice-paper shop was searched and seized? It not only cost Liu Shiyu his life, it nearly caused a great disaster!"
Hanging upside down from the roof beam, Chen Ji asked solemnly, "May I ask, who else from our Jing Dynasty has gained the trust of the Secret Intelligence Directorate's Twelve Zodiac Animals? Who else can get past Dream Rooster's interrogation?"
The Sicao's expression changed.
Dream Rooster was already one of the greatest obstacles to the Military Intelligence Directorate's infiltration of the Secret Intelligence Directorate. Spy after spy had pressed forward, trying to infiltrate it, only to fall before Dream Rooster in the end.
Now that Chen Ji had escaped Dream Rooster's interrogation, this might truly be an opportunity.
But how could he be sure Chen Ji really had gotten through the interrogation?
After a long time without an answer from the Sicao, Chen Ji finally placed a heavy bet. "Give me one month. Within a month, I can prove that I haven't defected and prove my loyalty to the Jing Dynasty."
The Sicao considered for a moment, then turned to the shopkeeper. "Send word. I want to see Long Whale. I have something important to entrust to him."
The shopkeeper started to speak but stopped himself. Even so, he turned and went out.
The Sicao remained silent in the room for a long time. At last, he cut the rope and let Chen Ji down.
He slowly returned the dagger to the sheath inside his sleeve. "When I came to the Ning Dynasty this time, your maternal uncle asked me to look after you on his behalf. I didn't expect things to take a turn like this. Rest assured, if what you've said is true, not only will I not kill you, I'll protect you. But if you've lied to me, don't blame me for turning ruthless."
Chen Ji pulled the black cloth off his head and saw that he was still in the medicinal herb storeroom. The Sicao held a chicken in his hand, and its blood had been poured into a wooden basin.
Chen Ji wasn't surprised, but he still pretended to be. He felt his arm and found no wound where the pain had been.
The Sicao explained calmly, "I'm still counting on you to infiltrate the Secret Intelligence Directorate. Naturally, I wouldn't casually leave a wound on you and arouse suspicion. Besides, for your maternal uncle's sake, I'm willing to give you a chance to prove yourself."
His maternal uncle wasn't from the Ning Dynasty, but the Jing Dynasty? Then he himself was at least half Jing Dynasty by blood.
Chen Ji had originally thought the Jing Dynasty's people would be nomads who looked entirely different from those of the Ning Dynasty. But judging by his own appearance, the people of the Ning and Jing dynasties clearly shared the same roots, completely unlike what he had assumed about this world.
For a moment, he felt that his identity had become shrouded in mystery once again. No wonder the other party had said before...
"You betrayed your identity. You betrayed your surname."