The storeroom, thick with the smell of medicinal herbs, was like some forgotten corner of the world.
Chen Ji pondered in silence. The post of administrative officer in the Military Intelligence Directorate involved highly classified matters. If his uncle could ask the officer to look after him, he was probably an important figure in intelligence as well.
But why had his mother married into the Chen Clan of the Ning Dynasty? And why had he stayed in the Ning Dynasty?
Seeing him remain silent, the officer seemed to misunderstand. "You still seem to hold a grudge against your uncle."
Chen Ji lowered his eyes and asked, his meaning unclear, "Does my uncle still remember me?"
The officer brushed the dust from his clothes and said casually, "Don't say things like that in anger. Given the position he held back then, he had to consider the whole picture. Naturally, he had his reasons for not bringing you back to the Jing Dynasty. If he had taken you back, perhaps you would have fallen victim to some petty schemer instead."
"Is that so? Is my uncle in a difficult position?"
After the shopkeeper of the Hundred Deer Pavilion left, the officer seemed to have more to say.
He said calmly, "Your uncle was framed by petty schemers and has now been demoted and forced out of office."
So his uncle had already been forced out of office?
Chen Ji asked, "Then when can I return to the Jing Dynasty?"
He felt no sense of belonging to either the Jing Dynasty or the Ning Dynasty, but anywhere had to be better than walking a tightrope here.
The officer, however, said sternly, "You can't leave yet. Since you've already gotten close to Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit, you must make good use of that identity."
His tone brooked no argument.
Chen Ji was silent for a long time. "Then I'll follow your arrangements, my lord. I'll do my best to earn Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit's trust."
At that moment, the officer abruptly changed tack. "Wait... your intelligence line uses Zhou Chengyi's deliberately misspelled character method to pass messages. The Military Intelligence Directorate never taught any of you the fanqie method. Where did you learn it? And how did you find the Records of Reflections on Things at Hand?"
For a moment, Chen Ji did not know how to answer.
He could not explain to the people of this world that he had wanted to become a diplomatic military attaché since childhood, so he had read widely in popular science, intelligence, and detective fiction.
He could not explain to the people of this world that seven months ago, he had been admitted to the Army Foreign Languages Institute with the highest scores in both the written exam and the interview.
And that school, which was about to be renamed the Army Strategic Support Information Engineering University, had never been a place that taught only foreign languages. The written exam and interview for special admissions had not tested foreign languages, either.
The officer narrowed his eyes slightly. "Why aren't you speaking? Who taught you?"
As he spoke, an invisible pressure suddenly closed in. Chen Ji clearly saw him reach for the dagger in his sleeve again.
He rapidly weighed the information in his mind and answered, "My mother taught me."
"Oh?" The officer's tone remained guarded. "I didn't expect your mother to have taught you such things when you were so young... What else did she teach you? Surely she didn't teach you only the fanqie method. That would be too much of a coincidence."
Chen Ji "recalled" something. "My mother also told me that if you used the fanqie method alone to conceal information, it would be easy to expose if you encountered someone else who knew it. So she created a new method on top of fanqie to conceal intelligence."
"Oh?" The officer's interest was piqued. "What method?"
"My mother called it a codebook," Chen Ji said.
"A codebook?"
Chen Ji found a jar of medicinal wine in the storeroom. Dipping a finger into it, he wrote on the floor: "By the willows, seeking breath, he lowers himself, the waves contend with him as the sun rises. The orioles, shrouded, speak out in joy, clapping hands to let you know."
The officer asked in a grave voice, "What use is this poem?"
Chen Ji did not answer. He simply went on writing: "Spring flowers are fragrant, autumn mountains open, honored guests sing joyfully and need golden cups, a solitary lamp shines, burning in a silver vessel. To the eastern suburbs, across the western bridge, the rooster's crow hastens the first light, an unusual plum tree leans crookedly over the ditch."
Chen Ji explained, "The first poem has twenty characters in all, each with a different initial consonant. The second has thirty-six characters, each with a different final. Use these two poems as a codebook and number the characters in order. The twenty characters in the first poem are numbered one through twenty, and the second is numbered the same way, from one through thirty-six."
The officer looked a little puzzled. "How do you use it?"
Chen Ji said, "With this codebook, if you wanted to send the two characters '继续'-'continue'-you would only need to write nineteen, twenty-seven, fifteen, eleven. Anyone who knew the codebook could translate the message as soon as they saw the numbers, but someone who didn't know it could spend a lifetime trying and never crack it. Suppose the Records of Reflections on Things at Hand had been used to pass a message this way. Even if someone intercepted it, they still wouldn't be able to understand it."
The officer said appreciatively, "Interesting."
Multilayer encryption techniques like codebooks had existed since ancient times and were developed to their fullest during the First and Second World Wars.
They were not foolproof, but in intelligence work, being one step ahead had always been enough to win a crushing victory over an opponent.
At last, the officer's tone softened, and he chose to believe Chen Ji. "Your mother taught you well, and you learned well, too. When she came to the Ning Dynasty to work undercover, it took her only three years to become a talented woman renowned throughout Jinling. I never expected that besides excelling at music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, she had also studied the applications of fanqie so deeply. I'll report both this codebook and the matter of the Records of Reflections on Things at Hand to the director and request a commendation for you. You're a 'sparrow'-rank spy now, aren't you? This achievement is enough to raise you to 'pheasant' rank."
Chen Ji heaved a long sigh of relief inwardly. He had bet right.
By his reckoning, his mother and uncle were both from the Jing Dynasty, yet his mother had strangely married into the Chen Clan of the Ning Dynasty. The only explanation was that his mother had been a spy, too!
Back then, his mother and uncle had come to the Ning Dynasty together. His uncle had built the Military Intelligence Directorate's southern intelligence network single-handedly, while his mother had married into the Chen household to obtain intelligence.
Chen Ji changed the subject. "My lord, my main task from now on is to get close to Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit. Could you tell me about them in detail?"
The officer nodded. "When dealing with Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit, never believe a word either of them says. Those two climbed to their present positions entirely by stepping over the bones of their colleagues. They may use you today and discard you tomorrow."
Chen Ji asked, puzzled, "Wouldn't that make their colleagues resent them?"
"No. The Secret Intelligence Directorate has always been a place that values only merit, not personal ties. They're ruthless toward their own, and even more ruthless toward us." The officer thought for a moment, then added, "Of course, given their relationship with the Venomous Chancellor, their other colleagues may be angry but afraid to speak."
"Hmm?"
"Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit were both orphans adopted by the Venomous Chancellor. He spent more than ten years raising them into the sworn killers they are today. Others may be more capable, but when they kill for the Venomous Chancellor, they show no mercy."
Chen Ji suddenly recalled how, on the night Zhou Chengyi died, Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit had each sworn on their own parents...
As they spoke, Shopkeeper Yuan pushed the door open. "My lord, everything has been arranged. Long Whale is tonight at..."
The officer said coldly, "Slap your mouth."
Shopkeeper Yuan froze for a moment, but in the end he gritted his teeth and slapped himself ten times.
The officer's muffled voice came from behind his mask. "Separate intelligence lines must not share information with one another. You've forgotten even that basic rule, yet you still want to take Zhou Chengyi's place as the Gyrfalcon of Luo City?"
Shopkeeper Yuan lowered his head. "I was rash, my lord."
Then Chen Ji suddenly spoke from the side. "My lord, I'll do my utmost to get close to Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit, but I have one request."
"Speak."
Chen Ji stared at Shopkeeper Yuan. "I need the Military Intelligence Directorate to transfer everyone who knows I'm a spy back to the Jing Dynasty, and never let them return to the Ning Dynasty. Otherwise, after I've gone to all that trouble to get close to the Twelve Zodiac Animals, if someone else is captured and gives me up, all my efforts will have been for nothing."
The officer looked thoughtful.
Shopkeeper Yuan's expression changed drastically. "My lord, he's using official business to settle a personal grudge!"
Chen Ji shook his head. "I'm not using official business to settle a personal grudge. You already know who I am. If you're captured, you'll certainly give me up."
"I won't!" Shopkeeper Yuan said urgently. "My lord, I've been operating in Luo City for six years. No one is better suited to this place than I am."
The officer considered for a moment, then walked straight over to a chest of medicinal herbs.
He opened it, pulled out a sheet of oilpaper used to preserve the herbs, and calmly spread it on the floor.
Seeing this, Shopkeeper Yuan turned to flee the storeroom.
But he had only just turned when the officer darted behind him, lifted his fat body with one hand, and carried him onto the oilpaper.
The next moment, the officer kicked the back of Shopkeeper Yuan's knee, forcing him to kneel.
He drew a dagger from his sleeve and looked at Chen Ji. "I had no choice but to interrogate you today. Don't let it come between us. If what happened today has become a thorn in your heart, I'll pull it out for you now. From now on, you can focus on getting close to Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit. Apart from me, the director, and your uncle, no one else will know you're a spy."
As he spoke, the officer gripped Shopkeeper Yuan by the jaw and stabbed him through the heart. "Yuanming, you used your position to embezzle 8,327 taels of silver from the Hundred Deer Pavilion over six years. The pavilion was established to raise funds for the Military Intelligence Directorate, but you turned it into a place to line your own pockets. You have been disloyal."
Shopkeeper Yuan gasped for breath, unable to say a word.
The officer twisted the dagger, grinding Shopkeeper Yuan's heart to pieces, while raising his blue-faced, fanged visage to look at Chen Ji. "Without absolute loyalty, there is absolute disloyalty. Chen Ji, those words are for you, too. Remember them."
Chen Ji silently watched the scene. He knew that from now on, he would be walking among jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards.