A quarter of an hour was a short time.
Chen Ji quickly surveyed the study, his gaze lingering on the scattered scrolls and sheets of xuan paper, before he rapidly leafed through the books on the shelves.
"The xuan paper is all blank, and the books are all ones you can find on the market. There's nothing hidden inside them," Bright Rabbit reminded him.
Chen Ji turned and went out into the courtyard.
It was a two-courtyard residence. He carefully examined every detail of the grounds, trying to find the faintest trace of a clue.
As the seconds ticked by, Cloud Goat gradually lost patience. "Too slow, too slow. We need to add another game. See the parasol tree in the courtyard? For every leaf that falls, I'll stick a needle in you."
No sooner had he spoken than a leaf came loose from a branch.
Cloud Goat raised a hand and caught the withered yellow leaf in midair. "Your luck isn't very good," he remarked.
With that, he walked up to Chen Ji and drove a needle into the web between his thumb and forefinger.
Chen Ji's face flushed crimson, and he doubled over in agony. Though it was a chilly autumn day, beads of sweat as large as beans fell one after another from his forehead.
Cloud Goat said unhurriedly, "The time you lose to pain counts toward that quarter of an hour too."
Bracing himself against the parasol tree, Chen Ji slowly straightened and shuffled into the kitchen, one step at a time. He had to find a clue before the second leaf fell!
There was nothing in the kitchen but a stove built of gray bricks and a collection of bottles and jars filled with seasonings.
The room was clean and tidy, without a single unnecessary item.
After checking every bottle and jar, Chen Ji walked out of the kitchen. Yet the moment he stepped outside, he stood rooted to the spot.
Cloud Goat leaned against the kitchen doorframe, yawning as he toyed with the silver needle between his fingertips. "You're almost out of time. Looks like I've wasted a quarter of an hour."
Chen Ji remained rooted to the spot, racking his brains over what detail he had just missed!
As he pondered, another leaf fell from the parasol tree, and Cloud Goat drove another needle in behind his ear.
In an instant, Chen Ji dropped into a crouch, curling up like a shrimp, unable to move and nearly passing out.
But this time, without waiting for Cloud Goat to urge him on, he had already straightened up and returned to the kitchen. He carried out two jars, both filled with a fine white crystalline powder.
Cloud Goat glanced at them curiously. "Two jars of salt. What's wrong with that?"
"Why would a kitchen have two jars of salt?" Chen Ji pinched a little fine white powder from one of the earthenware jars and rubbed it between his fingertips. "This isn't salt."
"Not salt?" Cloud Goat was curious. He and Bright Rabbit were good at killing people, cleaning up afterward, shifting the blame, and snatching credit. Finding the faintest traces of a clue really was their weak point.
Chen Ji held out his finger to Cloud Goat. "Taste it and see what it's like."
Cloud Goat said irritably, "You're a cautious one, aren't you, kid? What if it's poisonous? I'm not tasting it."
Bright Rabbit laughed out loud.
If not for all the corpses on the ground, this snake-and-scorpion girl would probably have looked quite cute when she laughed.
Cloud Goat's face went cold. "Hurry up and taste it."
Chen Ji pinched some white powder and put it in his mouth. "Extremely astringent on the tongue, with no distinct flavor."
He fell into thought.
What could this stuff be?
Wait, this is alum!
Alum was one of the main materials used to write secret messages in intelligence warfare.
Words written with alum water would disappear once they dried. This espionage technique originated in the thirteenth century and came into frequent use among spies during the First and Second World Wars.
Chen Ji pondered for a long while, certain he had found the answer: the Jing Dynasty's spies used alum to write secret messages. Zhou Chengyi had hidden it in his home alongside the salt to throw people off. He had kept it so close at hand, in such a convenient place, which meant he probably exchanged secret messages very frequently. In that case...
There had to be secret messages between Zhou Chengyi and other spies in his home.
He immediately fetched a vinegar jar from the kitchen and returned to the study. Spreading the snow-white sheets of xuan paper on the table one by one, he tore a piece of cloth from his clothing, dipped it in vinegar, and gently wiped every part of each sheet.
He wiped five or six sheets in succession but failed to find the answer he wanted. As the seconds ticked by, fine beads of sweat formed on Chen Ji's forehead despite the autumn chill.
He turned to look at Zhou Chengyi and saw that the man's expression was calm, showing no sign of panic.
Could I have guessed wrong?
No, I'm absolutely right!
Just then, a cold wind swept through, and the withered yellow leaves on the parasol tree fell like rain. Cloud Goat smiled. "Your luck has run out..."
"I found it!"
"Hm?" Cloud Goat's attention was drawn over.
As Chen Ji wiped the twelfth sheet of xuan paper, a line of red characters appeared where the pale yellow vinegar had passed: "Li's Sweet Water Shop, Lijing Lane, east of the city."
The instant Cloud Goat saw the writing, his eyes lit up. "The Jing Dynasty's spies have set up a new base. For all we know, some important figure from the Jing Dynasty's Military Intelligence Directorate has come to Luo City!"
With that, he looked at Bright Rabbit. "This is a great merit! Kill this kid, and the credit will be ours."
Bright Rabbit blinked. "We already promised not to kill him. Besides, he isn't one of us in the Secret Intelligence Directorate. The credit will go to you and me anyway."
"All right..."
Zhou Chengyi, by contrast, was ashen-faced.
Dropping his pretense, the Jing Dynasty spy immediately drew a soft sword hidden in his belt and lunged at Chen Ji, intent on killing him even at the cost of his own life.
As he charged forward, he shed his disheveled appearance in the blink of an eye, becoming as ferocious as a wild beast.
Chen Ji shot backward, while Bright Rabbit suddenly sprang up like a phantom, fluttering through the air like a butterfly.
She blocked Zhou Chengyi's path. As their figures flashed past each other, the silver needle between her fingers pricked his waist as lightly as a dragonfly skimming the water.
With a boom, Zhou Chengyi lost his strength and fell to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust.
At that very moment, a stream of icy air surged out of Zhou Chengyi's body. In the darkness, it flowed like a grayish-white flood dragon and burrowed into Chen Ji's body.
It was a sensation he had never experienced in his seventeen years of life. The icy stream was like glacial water from a snowy mountain, cool and clear, coursing ceaselessly through his blood.
Where had this icy stream come from? Why had it come? Chen Ji didn't know.
Everything he had seen tonight would previously have appeared only in movies. This world was completely different from the one he knew!
Chen Ji watched Bright Rabbit and Cloud Goat and found that neither seemed to have seen what had just happened. Could he be the only one who could see it?
Seeing that Zhou Chengyi could no longer resist, Cloud Goat turned to Chen Ji with great interest. "How does an apprentice from a medical hall know about these things?"
Chen Ji explained without hesitation, "Alum can be used as medicine. It stops bleeding, treats ulcers, and relieves pain, so I know a little about it."
"Oh?" Cloud Goat pinched some alum from the jar and put it in his mouth. "I've had too much internal heat lately and developed an ulcer in my mouth."
Bright Rabbit stood straight-backed on Zhou Chengyi's back. "How can you still be chatting at a time like this? Send people to Lijing Lane first and wipe out that Li's Sweet Water Shop."
At once, eight black-clad men who had been standing by went out, mounted their horses, and raced straight toward Lijing Lane.
The crisp clatter of hooves on the bluestone road at midnight tore through the stillness of the night.
Chen Ji asked, "Can I go now?"
"Uh... I'm afraid not." Cloud Goat shook his head.
"You're going back on your word?"
"Not exactly. I only said you could live. I never said I'd let you go." Cloud Goat brushed the dust off his clothes. "I'll have to arrest you and take you to the inner prison for a thorough interrogation."
"Interrogate me about what?"
"For example, why would an apprentice of the Imperial Medical Hall at Prince Jing's Estate show up at Zhou Chengyi's home in the middle of the night? Has Prince Jing already colluded with the Jing Dynasty to the north through Zhou Chengyi, intending to use its power to rebel?" Cloud Goat spread his hands. "See? I have so many questions to ask."
Bright Rabbit tempted him. "Zhou Chengyi is just a minor county deputy, but if you can implicate Prince Jing, we'll give you glory and riches!"
Chen Ji sighed inwardly. Where is the Jing Dynasty? And who is Prince Jing?
Were the deceased's social connections this complicated when he was alive?
He replied, "I came to deliver medicine and got caught up in this through no fault of my own."
Chen Ji gave that answer because he had also seen two packets of medicinal herbs marked "Taiping Medical Hall" in the kitchen. Wrapped in yellow paper, they lay unopened beside the stove and clay pot.
Cloud Goat shook his head. "That's just your side of the story. I only believe answers obtained through interrogation."
Chen Ji changed tack. "You want to capture that important figure from the Jing Dynasty's Military Intelligence Directorate?"
"The people sent to capture him have already left."
"You won't catch him at the sweet water shop in Lijing Lane. It's obviously just a place meant to help Zhou Chengyi escape. There won't be any important figure there."
Cloud Goat looked thoughtful. "You have another clue?"
Chen Ji said nothing.
Cloud Goat came up to Chen Ji, holding the slender silver needle between his middle and index fingers, and lightly pricked the hollow of Chen Ji's shoulder.
In an instant, Chen Ji felt a piercing pain sweep over him. In the space of only a few breaths, sweat soaked his clothes. But the pain vanished as quickly as it had come. After another few breaths, it disappeared without a trace, as though it had all been an illusion.
Cloud Goat said casually, "I have plenty more methods like that."
Yet Chen Ji still kept his mouth shut.
Cloud Goat drove another needle into the back of Chen Ji's hand. The young man's body trembled uncontrollably, but he made no sound.
Cloud Goat stabbed him twice more in succession, but Chen Ji still said nothing.
"You can withstand even that?" Cloud Goat marveled.
The next second, a shard of porcelain suddenly appeared in Chen Ji's palm, and his trembling hand swept it toward the artery in his neck!
He had been hiding the shard in his palm all along.
The shard stopped abruptly just before it reached his neck. Cloud Goat had seized Chen Ji's wrist. "Threatening us with your life?"
"Forget it. If we waste any more time, that great merit will get away." Bright Rabbit raised three fingers. "I swear on my mother's honor, as long as you give us the information and help the two of us earn this merit, I'll give you back your freedom."
Cloud Goat raised three fingers. "I swear on my parents' honor too. If I'm lying, may they be condemned to the Avici hell forever."
Chen Ji remained silent, considering how much the oaths were worth.
People in this era should be superstitious, so oaths carry a lot of weight... No, I still can't trust them.
But if I prove I'm useful enough, can I gamble for my life?
At last, he panted, "Those words must have been written in alum water on the xuan paper when it was bought. Eight or nine times out of ten, they were written by that important Jing Dynasty figure you mentioned. So if you're looking for clues now, you shouldn't go to Lijing Lane. You should find the shop that sold the xuan paper."