27. Inner Prison
Los Angeles is full of vitality in the early morning, with people bustling about.
Ox carts went to the East Market, and from time to time they were stuck in small roads. The drivers chewed the bread in their mouths while cursing and shouting at people to make way.
The sounds of laughter, cursing, and hawking were endless.
You can't seem to see its decline over the past few hundred years, and the city seems to still be in its most glorious moment.
In the Taiping Medical Clinic, Chen Ji stood behind the counter with his sleeves rolled up, smiling as he carried a copper scale to dispense medicine for the patients. His smile was pure and innocent, and no one would ever associate him with something like "catching a spy."
On the other side, Old Man Yao was taking an academic test.
She Dengke sat upright behind the counter, eyes closed as he felt the patient's pulse. Old Man Yao, holding a bamboo stick, asked in a deep voice, "Tell me quickly, what's this pulse like?"
She Dengke placed three fingers on the patient's wrist and asked tentatively, "Hong pulse?"
With a snap, the bamboo stick hit She Dengke's back, scaring the middle-aged male patient opposite the counter.
Old Man Yao extended his hand to signal the patient to calm down and continued to ask She Dengke: "What's the pulse?"
She Dengke bared his teeth and said, "Solid pulse!"
Snap! Another one!
She Dengke hurriedly said: "Shen pulse!"
Snap! Another one!
The patient quickly stood up and grabbed Old Man Yao: "Don't hit the child, Doctor Yao, please calm down first. I can take a deep pulse, so let it be a deep pulse!"
Old Man Yao slowly turned his head to look at the patient, and for a long time he was speechless: "...If I feel a pulse that shows pregnancy, you will accept it?!"
After saying that, he turned his head and glanced at Chen Ji and Liu Quxing, wondering who to beat up next. As his eyes swept across, they suddenly stopped at the door.
At this time, a little black cat was dodging left and right in the crowd outside the clinic. It carefully raised its head to observe the human footsteps and then avoided them.
When they arrived at the door of the clinic, Wuyun climbed onto the threshold and peeked inside furtively, but happened to meet the gaze of Old Man Yao.
Old man Yao looked at it expressionlessly. Chen Ji felt nervous. His master didn't seem like someone who liked small animals. He must not drive the dark cloud away.
However, when Wu Yun met Old Man Yao's gaze, he simply shrank his neck, then mustered up the courage to climb over the threshold and approached little by little.
But Wuyun jumped onto the counter, came in front of Old Man Yao, and lay directly on his hands!
Old man Yao was stunned for a long time, and his originally serious expression slowly changed, and he actually smiled. She Dengke and his three fellow disciples were all stunned. It was the first time they saw their master so amiable!
It turns out this old man can laugh!
Old Man Yao realized something was wrong and immediately became serious. He said indifferently, "This little thing is quite likable."
Liu Quxing came over and tried to touch the dark cloud, but Old Man Yao immediately pushed his hand away and said, "Get out of here!"
Liu Quxing: “…”
The next moment, Wuyun's head nodded in Old Man Yao's hand. Old Man Yao was silent for a moment, then turned to She Dengke and said, "Go and get the purple wooden box from my room."
Old Man Yao gently tapped Wuyun's head with his other hand and said nonchalantly, "Your name is Wuyun, right?"
Chen Ji's pupils suddenly contracted, and his heart became tense as if someone was pinching it.
Only he and Wuyun knew that he had given Wuyun a name, so how did Old Man Yao get the information? Did he already know everything?
At this moment, Chen Ji recalled the incident of Old Man Yao picking him up at Zhou's house, the incident of Buddha and Bodhisattva pulling him back to the clinic during their tour, and the incident of his visit to Wanxing Garden. Each of these incidents seemed to have a deep meaning hidden in it.
Chen Ji was thinking, but he saw Old Man Yao glance at him silently, and this glance seemed to see through him.
Old man Yao only glanced at him, then turned his gaze back to the dark clouds.
Deng Ke came over and asked, "Master, this is the cat from the Evening Star Garden, right? I remember you haven't been to the palace for a long time. How do you know its name is Wuyun?"
Old Man Yao glanced at him and said, "I figured it out through fortune-telling, isn't that okay?"
Liu Quxing, standing by, was stunned for a moment: "You can even calculate this? Then can you calculate what my childhood nickname was?"
Old Man Yao took out six copper coins from his sleeve and scattered them on the counter with a calm expression. Then he said to Liu Quxing expressionlessly, "Your nickname is Retarded."
Chen Ji: “…”
Liu Quxing: “…”
She Dengke brought the purple wooden box over and opened the drawer, revealing pieces of exquisite snacks.
Liu Quxing exclaimed: "Zhengxinzhai's dim sum!"
Old Man Yao held a piece of dessert in his palm and placed it in front of Wuyun: "Eat it."
After showing off for a few seconds, Wuyun set his eyes on the box again.
Old Man Yao was not stingy and actually took out another piece and said, "It's a good thing to be able to have snacks. Stupid cat slaves only know how to eat meat, only smart cat slaves know the benefits of snacks."
After eating two pieces of snacks, Wuyun ran to Chen Ji without looking back and lay down in front of him, without any reluctance to leave.
Seeing this, Old Man Yao just slapped the snack crumbs in his palm into his mouth without getting angry.
He looked at Chen Ji and said casually, "It actually likes you very much."
After saying that, he continued to test She Dengke's academic performance.
Seeing everyone's attention shifted away, Chen Ji asked in a low voice, "Why are you here during the day?"
Wu Yun responded, "I don't know where Concubine Jing went after leaving Prince Jing's Mansion. Now that there's no one in charge of the Star Garden, and the maids are all slacking off, I came out to play with you!"
Chen Ji smiled and said, "Then you stay in the clinic. I'll weigh the medicine for the patient first."
As they were talking, a middle-aged man in elegant clothes arrived, holding a prescription in his hand. "Doctor Yao, I'm here to get some medicine, but I was in such a hurry to leave this morning that I forgot to bring enough money. Could you please let me get the medicine and take it home for my mother's treatment? You can send one of your apprentices to accompany me home to get the money. I'll give him twenty cents as a fee, so he doesn't have to work in vain."
Old Man Yao glanced at the prescription and said, "These medicines are not cheap. Are you sure you have enough money?"
The middle-aged man nodded: "Sure!"
Liu Quxing hurriedly said, "Master, I'll go!"
Old Man Yao smiled grimly: "You don't want to be tested on your academic performance, right? Chen Ji, you go!"
Liu Quxing's face suddenly turned pale, and he watched Chen Ji leave with someone!
When they arrived at the door, the middle-aged man led Chen Ji into a carriage.
After lowering the curtain, the middle-aged man slowly and leisurely tore off the beard and wrinkles on his face, revealing Yunyang's true appearance: "You sent someone to tell me that you want to go to the inner prison?"
"That's right," Chen Ji nodded. "I think the Liu Shiyu case is not simple. It doesn't seem like Liu Shiyu's personal behavior. There must be a big fish behind it."
"Hey, you actually volunteered to help me gain merit? Are you short of money?" Yun Yang was suspicious. "You've only earned fifty taels of silver. Even if you went to Red Clothes Lane, you wouldn't be able to spend it all in a month. Did you go to White Clothes Lane? Take my advice, those skinny Yangzhou women have been trained in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting since childhood. They are so charming in every way they walk, lie down, sit, or stand. They are not something a junior apprentice like you can handle."
Chen Ji smiled and said, "Lord Yunyang, aren't you happy that I want to help you make a contribution? If one day you get a high position, maybe you can help me get a position in the Secret Service."
Yun Yang remained noncommittal: "Do you think the remaining Liu family members have problems too?"
“You’ll know it only if you see it.”
Yun Yang stopped talking nonsense and took out a black blindfold. "Close your eyes. The location of the inner prison is confidential. You can't know it. You have to plug your ears too."
Close your eyes, plug your ears, the old world becomes quiet, and the bustle of Los Angeles seems
It has nothing to do with him anymore.
Yunyang lifted the curtain and went out to drive the carriage. The carriage was moving slowly on the bluestone road. No one noticed that a small black cat had been squatting on the roof of the carriage, swaying with the carriage as it drove towards the south.
Old man Yao stopped testing and stood at the door of the clinic with his hands behind his back, watching the carriage leave, wondering what he was thinking.
…
…
"arrive!"
Yun Yang took the cotton out of Chen Ji's ears and pulled his arm out of the car. He saw Chen Ji take out a piece of gray cloth from his arms and cover his mouth and nose, then curled his lips and said, "You are quite cautious."
Chen Ji smiled and said, "This Luocheng Inner Prison must have been completely infiltrated by the Liu family. Otherwise, how could they have learned of Liu Shiyu's death so quickly? Coming to a place like this to investigate the Liu family case, one must be cautious. Speaking of which... the Secret Service Inner Prison has been infiltrated to this extent. Isn't Lord Yunyang angry?"
Yun Yang sneered, "All the jailers in Luocheng were exiled to Lingnan last night. The ones here are all recruited from elsewhere."
Chen Ji was blindfolded and stumbling along as Yunyang pulled him along. He could hear that there was silence and no one around, and apart from the sound of birdsong, there was nothing unusual.
Arriving at an iron gate, Yun Yang knocked three times quickly and twice slowly, and the iron gate slowly opened inward.
When the heavy, rotten door opened, it made a harsh sound of rotten iron rubbing against each other, which made one's teeth ache.
Inside the door, a young spy was waiting.
After entering the inner prison, Yun Yang said, "You can take off the blindfold now."
Chen Ji opened his eyes, slightly blocked the light in front of him with his right hand, and looked around with squinted eyes.
But I saw a narrow staircase slanting downwards, extending deep into the ground.
On the wall beside the stairs, there is an oil residue lamp hanging every fifteen steps, like a ghost lamp to summon souls and guide the way.
Strangely, under each oil-slag lamp, there was an eight-diagram pattern engraved on the lamp base. Chen Ji asked curiously, "What are these eight-diagrams?"
Yun Yang recalled, "It's said that seven years ago, the Internal Minister summoned a 'traveling official' proficient in Qimen Dunjia to paint these on every inner prison. The rumor goes... every lamp is a prison, and as long as the Bagua diagram is there, the lights will not go out, and the people will not die."
Chen Ji frowned: "What do you mean?"
Yun Yang shrugged his shoulders: "How would I know?"
The young spy led Yun Yang and Chen Ji underground. When they reached the flat ground, they saw a stone corridor leading to the darkness in the distance. On both sides of the corridor were dark cages "embedded" in the stone walls.
When the two figures appeared, someone immediately clung to the iron railings and cried, "Sir, I am innocent. I have absolutely no connection with the Jing Dynasty spies. My mother is over sixty years old at home, and I have two children to feed. Please let me go back!"
There was an endless stream of cries of injustice, but Yun Yang seemed to hear nothing: "Let's go, the files are inside."
However, as soon as Chen Ji took a step behind him, he froze in place.
In the dim inner prison, two gray-white streams of ice flew out from the cage in front of him and penetrated into Chen Ji's body through his eyebrows.
Yunyang turned around: "What's wrong?"
Chen Ji looked calm and composed. "It's nothing. This is my first time in the inner prison, and seeing these emaciated prisoners is a bit off-putting."
Yun Yang smiled and said, "I was scared at first, but I got used to it slowly."
Chen Ji took another step, and as he and Yun Yang walked deeper into the inner prison, streams of gray-white ice flew out from each cell.
They seemed to sense Chen Ji's presence and swam over violently, like dragons tumbling in the air.
Chen Ji looked at this scene in shock. Hundreds of icy streams penetrated into his body from his eyebrows, and finally merged together and settled in his dantian.
The ice flow was so powerful that it seemed to be extinguishing the fire!
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