110. Betting
Los Angeles at night is like a huge chessboard, with straight bluestone roads dividing the buildings into twenty-one neat vertical and horizontal lines.
The spies were dressed in black and held swords at their waists.
Like black chess pieces, they follow different paths and are placed where they should go.
If you look down from the sky, the spies connected in silence like a network, look like a big black dragon, coiled on the chessboard.
On the quiet street of Xinglongzhai, Xifeng was walking in front with a newly carved dragon head mask on his face, while Chen Ji and Jin Zhu were walking side by side with masks on.
Behind them, two secret agents arranged by Jin Zhu followed Chen Ji all the time, blocking his possible escape routes.
As he was walking, Chen Ji suddenly stopped and turned around.
In an instant, the two spies suddenly drew their swords halfway and stared at him with cold eyes.
Chen Ji was puzzled: "Master Jinzhu, are you trying to protect me or detain me? You're treating me like a prisoner now. Should you throw me into the inner prison next?"
Golden Pig patted his shoulder and sighed, "We are all smart people, why do we have to make things so clear?"
Chen Ji's tone was calm and emotionless. "Master Jinzhu, I helped you find a way to get hold of the Liu family. Now that we're on the verge of success, you're going to demolish the bridge! When will you trust me?"
The Golden Pig laughed and said, "I will only trust you when you can explain the many doubts about you."
Chen Ji asked in a serious tone, "What are the doubts?"
Jin Zhu pondered for a moment and said, "You're an apprentice at the medical clinic, yet you were able to decipher the Jing Dynasty's secret letter. You're a powerless person, yet you managed to survive the Jing Dynasty's spies at the Asakura gambling house. You're not good at investigation, yet you were able to shake off two of my subordinates. Do you know that even in my Secret Service, there are not many people who can do these things, let alone you, a mere apprentice at the medical clinic?"
The Golden Pig put his hands behind his back and asked with interest, "So, can you help me answer these questions?"
Chen Ji did not answer.
Golden Pig laughed: "It doesn't matter if you don't want to answer. When this matter is over, Mengji will naturally ask for clarification."
Chen Ji suddenly asked, "Sir, aren't you afraid that when you're pretending to be nice to Liu Mingxian later, I might suddenly speak up and ruin your plan? You still need me to play along, so why don't we make a deal?"
The Golden Pig asked slowly, "What's the deal?"
However, at this moment, a secret agent suddenly whispered, "Sir, why bother making a deal with him? You always wear masks when you meet Liu Mingxian. Now Liu Mingxian has no idea who is underneath the mask, so it doesn't matter who wears it. Why don't I wear his mask? As long as I don't speak, Liu Mingxian won't notice anything unusual."
Jin Zhu smiled and looked at Chen Ji: "Excuse me, at this gambling table, whoever has the most chips will have the last laugh. Now you have no chips, but I still have some."
As soon as he finished speaking, Jin Zhu took off the tiger mask on Chen Ji's face.
He looked at Chen Ji's calm eyes, then at his unconsciously clenched fists, and suddenly said with emotion: "I know you are actually very angry, but you don't have to be angry. I know it must be hard to be betrayed, but if you are really okay, I will personally apologize to you and give you a satisfactory answer. Take him away and hold him aside, and make sure he doesn't make any noise to disrupt the situation."
Two spies stepped forward and tightly strangled Chen Ji's mouth with a cloth strip.
Jin Zhu smiled, weighed the wooden tiger mask in his hand, and finally handed it over: "Liu Tiao, you put on the mask,
From now on, you are the Chief of the Military Intelligence Department."
After that, Jinzhu, Xifeng, and Liutiao put on their masks and continued walking towards Mudan Bridge, while another spy took Chen Ji into the alley to meet up with other spies hiding in the dark.
In the alley, Chen Ji slowed down, trying to delay time.
But just as he slowed down, the spy hit him hard on the back with his scabbard: "Walk faster, don't think of anything crooked."
Chen Ji felt a burning pain in his back, but his expression became calmer and calmer.
Yin time, the fourth watch of the night.
The so-called first watch is a human, second watch is fire, third watch is a ghost, fourth watch is a thief, and fifth watch is a rooster.
At four o'clock in the morning, the night is darkest and people are sleeping the deepest, which is the best time to kill and set fire.
Golden Pig could already see the Peony Bridge from afar. He slowed his pace and whispered, "Remember, wait for me to confirm Liu Mingxian's appearance. If he doesn't show up, tonight's operation will be canceled. We must continue to earn his trust... With the court in such turmoil, we must capture Liu Mingxian in the act to silence the criticisms of the high-ranking officials."
"clear!"
Jin Zhu double-checked that the three of them had properly donned their masks, ensuring there were no omissions, before slowly making his way towards the Peony Bridge. In the distance, the night watchman's distant voice echoed: "All is well, no illness, no disaster!"
Golden Pig shook his head. Everyone said the night watchman's job was tough, having to get up five times every night to report the shift, barely getting a good night's sleep. But wasn't his job in the Secret Service the same?
However, just as he reached the Mudan Bridge and saw the carriage waiting on the bridge, he suddenly felt that he seemed to have missed some details: "I always feel like something is not right."
"What's wrong?"
“It’s so quiet…”
"Sir, the area is under surveillance by our people. It is right to remain quiet."
"No, no!"
The Golden Pig suddenly looked up at the stars and said, "'Safe and sound, free from illness and disaster' is the morning watch's message. It's clearly the fourth watch now. Why would he have given the wrong message?"
Xifeng's muscles suddenly tensed up. "If the night watchman or the drummer reports the wrong time, they will be thrown into prison. The time cannot be wrong!"
"The person who just reported the night watch is not the real night watchman!"
"There's an ambush!"
…
…
On Anxi Street, an old man wearing a pair of black cloth shoes with white soles and carrying two bags of snacks in his hands walked slowly to Chaiji Grain and Oil Shop.
As he stared at the dark alley, dozens of pairs of green eyes in the alley turned to look at him.
In the silence between them, the old man smiled and waved his hand: "Nine Heavens Yingyuan Thunder Sound Universal Transformation Heavenly Venerable."
As soon as he finished speaking, a pair of eyes stood out from the crowd. The other person walked from the shadows to the moonlight, slowly revealing a dark and furry figure.
Wuyun looked up and meowed, "Master, why haven't you rested yet?"
Old Man Yao sighed, "How can I sleep with all the shit Chen Ji has done? I'm afraid the sky will fall when I wake up. Here, I brought you two bags of snacks. Give some to the cats behind you."
The dark cloud picked up the hemp rope on the paper bag, turned around and took it away into the darkness.
The next moment, those pairs of eyes became rounder and greener.
Wuyun meowed, but saw that the pairs of eyes in the alley disappeared one after another, and no one knew where the snacks were taken away.
It walked back into the moonlight and lightly jumped into Old Man Yao's arms: "Master, may you live a hundred years!"
Old man Yao smashes it
He smacked his lips and said, "It sounds like he doesn't have many years left to live."
dark clouds:"……"
It has not been dealing with people for a long time, and it only knows that it should praise people at this time, but it doesn't know how to praise them most appropriately.
Wu Yun changed the subject and asked, "Master, why are you here?"
Old Man Yao patted Wu Yun's head and said, "I read Chen Ji's fortune tonight... but ever since he learned the sword technique, my fortune-telling skills seem to have lost their effectiveness on him. They're vague, sometimes accurate, sometimes not. I can only tell that he's in danger tonight, but I don't know the outcome."
Wu Yun was stunned for a moment. "He said he was not in danger. I wanted to follow him, but he didn't let me go."
Old Man Yao smiled and said, "He probably doesn't want you to be in danger."
Wuyun hurriedly said, "Then help him!"
Old Man Yao was silent for a few seconds. "Why should I help him? I've said before that he and I don't have any master-disciple relationship."
Wuyun was puzzled: "Then why are you going out so late?"
Old Man Yao thought for a moment and said, "I'm just going to see if I need to collect his body."
Wu Yun was filled with awe and said, "You have a kind heart."
"If you don't know how to praise, you don't have to," Old Man Yao said cheerfully, "I'm not kind-hearted. If I were, I wouldn't be this old. Dark Cloud, all the great men in this world, the higher their position, the colder their blood becomes."
Old Man Yao looked down at Wu Yun and asked, "He came to see you before he left. What did he say?"
Wuyun thought for a moment and said, "He asked me to come and tell you at daybreak. He might not be back for several days, but he'll be fine."
Old Man Yao uttered a sigh, "Did he guess that he wouldn't be back for a few days? But now that kid Jinzhu has started to suspect Chen Ji and even invited Mengji for this purpose. How can he be so sure that he will be fine?"
Wu Yun was puzzled: "Jin Zhu said before that he would invest in Chen Ji, why is he doubting Chen Ji now? Was he lying before?"
Old Man Yao smiled and said, "It's true that he wants to invest. This is because the Golden Pig's cultivation method is to place heavy bets on others. As long as the cultivation level of the person he bets on improves, he can share the benefits. After his previous bet on Tianma was successful, Tianma reached the threshold of the Divine Dao Realm in ten years. At the same time, the Golden Pig's cultivation realm was also brought to a new level."
"After tasting the sweetness of success, Golden Pig yearned to unearth the next Pegasus. However, he failed repeatedly, causing his realm to decline instead of rise, from the Seeking Dao Realm back to the Innate Realm... Now that he saw Chen Ji's potential, he naturally wanted to make another bet and help Chen Ji obtain the path and resources for cultivation."
"I see."
"Let's get down to business first," Old Man Yao asked. "Three days ago, after Chen Ji saw you, you disappeared. Where did you go that night?"
The dark clouds hesitated.
Old Man Yao sneered, "Can't you tell me?"
Wu Yun answered honestly, "Chen Ji said that he would only tell you if you asked again and again, and you've only asked twice."
Old Man Yao laughed: "...Now I'm asking you for the third time, where did you go that night?"
"I went to deliver a note to the Liu family mansion."
"What did the note say?"
"The boss is pretending to be someone else. You can ask the owner of Bailu Pavilion to verify it."
Old man Yao narrowed his eyes slightly.
The skinny old man stood on the long street, looking back at the endless bluestone pavement stretching into the darkness, as if he had seen the end of the world. "He wants to cure Gu Tunlong?"
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