The twelve directorates, four bureaus, and eight offices of the Inner Court were collectively known as the Twenty-Four Offices of the Inner Court.
The Directorate of Ceremonial ranked first among the twenty-four offices. It was controlled by the grand eunuch who held the seal, placing nearly all the power of the Inner Court in one man's hands.
Emperor Ning devoted himself to cultivating the Dao. For years, he had neither attended court nor attended to affairs of state. Even the officials' memorials from the Outer Court had to be endorsed in red by the Directorate of Ceremonial on his behalf.
Because the grand eunuch who held the seal had kept everything in perfect order, Emperor Ning had bestowed a building upon him and named it "Relief from Troubles," in recognition of the Directorate of Ceremonial's service.
At noon, Wu Xiu backed out of the shadow of the building, his body bent in a deeply respectful bow.
Only when the sunlight fell on him did the red python embroidered on his robe regain its vivid color.
He slowly let out a breath, straightened up, and strode toward the pigeon house.
All along the way, the eunuchs caught sight of his python robe from afar and knelt well before he reached them. Wu Xiu kept his eyes straight ahead, not so much as glancing at them.
At the pigeon house, he dismissed the young eunuch cleaning the cages, picked up a brush at a table, and wrote a note.
He examined it again and again, making sure both the writing and the meaning were correct before carefully rolling it into a slender bamboo tube.
Wu Xiu went to the pigeon cage marked with the characters for "Luo City" and reached inside to take out a pigeon. He fastened the bamboo tube to its leg with meticulous care, then went outside and tossed it into the sky.
He watched the pigeon fly away, his thoughts unknown.
A young eunuch hurried over. "Godfather, His Majesty has summoned you. He says Daoist Master Shituzi of Yellow Mountain has arrived with his eldest disciple, Zhang Li."
Wu Xiu nodded. "I know."
He watched the pigeon rise into the sky and circle the imperial city once before flying south. Lost in thought, Wu Xiu said, "The birds in the sky are truly free."
The young eunuch quickly gave an ingratiating smile. "Godfather, why envy a bird? Once you take his place, you'll stand beneath one man and above ten thousand. You'll be much freer than it is."
Wu Xiu gave him a sidelong glance. His eyes were as still as an ancient well, yet the young eunuch's heart trembled. "Godfather, I spoke out of turn."
"If you do it again, get yourself to the Firewood and Charcoal Bureau and chop wood." Wu Xiu lifted the hem of his robe, stepped over the threshold, and hurried toward the Palace of Benevolence and Longevity in the Western Garden.
Meanwhile, the gray pigeon in the sky flew out of the vast Forbidden City and beyond the capital region, over clouds and plains, rivers and mountains.
On the first night, the pigeon rested at a pigeon station in Hebi.
The next day, it headed straight south. At last, early on the third morning, it flew into a small courtyard in Luo City.
In the courtyard, black-clad intelligence agents were gathered before a terrain model, which clearly depicted the Liu Family compound and the Liu Family's ancestral graves.
Cloud Goat spotted the pigeon circling overhead and raised a hand holding a handful of corn. The pigeon fluttered down onto his palm.
"Bright Rabbit! A letter from the capital!" Cloud Goat called.
Bright Rabbit answered from inside. "Quick, open it and see what the Lord Inner Minister says."
Cloud Goat broke the wax seal and took out the letter. "It's Wu Xiu passing on the message again. I recognize his handwriting... Wu Xiu says we should decide for ourselves whether to mobilize the Trouble-Resolving Guard to open the coffin and examine the corpse."
Bright Rabbit came out and leaned against the doorframe. "What a pain. If anything goes wrong, the two of us will be the scapegoats. What do we do? Do we go ahead or not?"
"The Lord Inner Minister didn't stop us, so he wants us to act. It's just that if we succeed, it'll be a great merit for us, but if we fail... the lightest punishment will be exile to Lingnan," Cloud Goat said thoughtfully, standing in the courtyard.
Bright Rabbit rolled her eyes. "Of the criminals in Lingnan, at least eight hundred were sent there by us. If the two of us go to Lingnan, can we possibly come to a good end?"
"What are you afraid of? We're both officials," Cloud Goat said.
"There are dozens of officials among the people we've exiled to Lingnan!"
"Their families are still in our hands. They wouldn't dare make trouble. Given our relationship with the Lord Inner Minister, even if we were exiled there, we wouldn't suffer... Wait, why are we talking as if we're bound to be exiled? We definitely won't fail this time. The Liu Family can just wait to have their property confiscated and be brought to justice!" Cloud Goat said cheerfully.
Bright Rabbit tilted her head to look at the note. "What else did the Lord Inner Minister instruct?"
Cloud Goat looked down at the note again. A moment later, his expression changed. "Wu Xiu wants us to give him information on that masked man at the Liu Residence!"
"Huh? Lin Chaoqing must have tattled! Those people from the Bureau of Punishments do nothing but tattle all day!" Bright Rabbit said indignantly. "...But if Chen Ji became an intelligence agent, he could still help us earn merit. We could just transfer him under us."
Cloud Goat shook his head. "No... What sort of person do you think Chen Ji is?"
Bright Rabbit thought for a moment. "...When he's thinking things over without saying a word, he does look the part."
"That's not what I meant!" Cloud Goat frowned. "That night at the Zhou Residence, he killed the Zhou Residence's steward outright to stay alive. I could tell he probably wasn't practiced at it then. There was still hesitation in his eyes. But now? It's only been a few days, and when I hanged someone in the inner prison, he could look straight at it quite calmly."
Cloud Goat looked at Bright Rabbit and said gravely, "Bright Rabbit, he's a man who holds grudges. He'll never forget how we treated him back then. The Inner Minister likes clever, unscrupulous people like him. If he ever climbs higher than us, we won't get to live."
Bright Rabbit thought for a moment. "Then should we kill him? We don't need him for the Liu Family case anymore, anyway. But if the Inner Minister finds out, he'll definitely investigate the cause of death. Whether Dark Snake or Jinzhu comes to investigate, we won't be able to hide it."
Cloud Goat shook his head. "That's why we can't do it ourselves. We have to borrow someone else's knife to kill him."
"What do we do now?"
"Take the royal command token and mobilize the Trouble-Resolving Guard. I'll go borrow a knife. Success or failure will be decided today."
The autumn morning in Luo City was crisp and clear. The ninth day of the ninth month clashed with the monkey and brought misfortune to the north. It was an auspicious day for travel, marriage, praying for blessings, treating illness, and killing.
Taiping Medical Hall.
The three fellow disciples leaned against the entrance to the medical hall, cheerfully watching the passersby.
With the Double Ninth Festival approaching, wealthy households had brought out images of buddhas and bodhisattvas for processions to ward off disaster and evil for everyone. Wealthy merchants also went from house to house handing out Double Ninth cakes.
Taverns set out signs advertising chrysanthemum wine, while peddlers roamed the streets and alleys selling crimson sachets, each with a sprig of dogwood thrown in.
Chen Ji sighed. "The Double Ninth Festival is really lively."
Back in his former hometown, the festive atmosphere was no longer so strong. Firecrackers were banned at Spring Festival, while the Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival had both become carnivals of the commodity economy.
Wait. Chen Ji suddenly asked, "How did the Double Ninth Festival originate?"
Liu Quxing answered casually, "You don't even know that? During the Eastern Han, a plague demon once afflicted Runan in Yu Province. A man named Huan Jing sought an audience with the immortal master Fei Changfang over the matter. Fei Changfang gave Huan Jing a flask of chrysanthemum wine and a sprig of dogwood, telling him to take his family to high ground on the ninth day of the ninth month to avoid disaster, where evil spirits couldn't harm them. After the ninth day had passed, Huan Jing brought his family down the mountain and found that all their cattle and sheep had died of illness. His family had escaped a calamity."
Chen Ji froze. In his hometown, that was also the origin of the Double Ninth Festival.
The same Eastern Han period, the same Fei Changfang and Huan Jing.
If it were just the same moon and the same sun hanging in the sky, he could still force himself to accept it. But even the legends were the same. He had to think deeply about it: why?
What connection was there between the two worlds?
As he pondered, he saw Chunhua from Evening Star Court coming down the street with two sturdy servants carrying four food boxes.
She Dengke's eyes lit up. "Chunhua, what brings you here?"
Chunhua wore a pale green ruqun with a golden chrysanthemum embroidered on the hem to suit the occasion. Lifting her skirt, she said with a beaming smile, "Isn't it the Double Ninth Festival? My lady sent me to bring some pastries to the medical hall."
Liu Quxing hurriedly took the pastry boxes from the servants. "Miss Chunhua, how thoughtful of you. The last time we had pastries from Evening Star Court was at the Lantern Festival. I still haven't forgotten them."
But Chunhua changed the subject and looked at Chen Ji with a smile. "My lady happens to have some free time today and would like to invite the doctors from your medical hall to have tea and chat. What do you think?"
She Dengke hastily said, "Sure!"
Just then, however, Chen Ji caught sight of Dark Cloud on the eaves across the street. He didn't know when Dark Cloud had arrived, and she was panting heavily.
Dark Cloud meowed, and only Chen Ji understood. "Someone told Consort Jing you're the masked man from Liu Shiyu's residence. She's going to lure you into a trap and kill you!"
Chen Ji's heart tightened as an enormous sense of danger suddenly rose within him.
Who had told Consort Jing his identity?
It had to be Cloud Goat and Bright Rabbit, because they were the only two who knew his true identity.
Was it because they were about to catch a big fish in the Liu Family case, and the other side felt they no longer needed him and planned to burn the bridge after crossing it?
Chen Ji looked at Chunhua without betraying anything and asked with a smile, "Miss Chunhua, why is Lady Consort Jing inviting us?"
Chunhua explained, "Thanks to your help last time, that cup was found. Otherwise, my lady would still be drinking from it. She said before that she wanted to thank you, but she's been busy with other matters and only has time today."
But Chen Ji's question wasn't really directed at Chunhua. He was asking Dark Cloud: why did Consort Jing want to kill him?
Dark Cloud meowed again. "Consort Jing is a member of the Liu Family. Liu Shiyu is her own elder sister's only son. She left the prince's residence a few days ago to return to the Liu Family and pay her respects to the late Old Master Liu!"
So the important figure in the prince's residence who was in league with the Jing Dynasty's Military Intelligence Directorate wasn't Consort Yun, but Consort Jing!
But if Consort Jing was that important figure, why had she wanted to kill him back then? Didn't she know he was a spy for the Jing Dynasty?
Strange. Far too strange!
Seeing that Chen Ji wasn't answering, Chunhua waved a hand in front of his face. "Chen Ji? What are you thinking about?"
Chen Ji came back to himself and said to Chunrong with a smile, "Sorry, it's the Double Ninth Festival today, and Master has allowed us to go home for a family reunion. Sorry for the trouble, but please apologize to Consort Jing for me. Definitely next time."
With that, he ignored everyone's surprise and left without looking back.
This wouldn't be Consort Jing's only attempt at revenge. Having failed this time, she would certainly try again.
Chen Ji didn't know whether he would be able to escape so easily next time, but he knew he needed only one chance to take his revenge.
He muttered softly, "I wonder if there's still time..."