46. Art
At the banquet, everyone was silent, even the sound of the piano stopped.
They could no longer ridicule the names and attire of She Dengke and Liu Quxing, and they could not help but reflect on themselves: if they were slandered, how many people would be willing to stand up and speak up for them?
When ordinary people hear rumors about you, they will only pick up a few words from others and tell them to you.
But you may not care about what others say. You may care more about whether your friends say something on your behalf when others spread rumors about you.
Chen Ji didn't expect She Dengke and Liu Quxing to stand up and speak for him. It was precisely because he didn't expect it that he was surprised.
At this time, the prince drank the wine in the cup. The wine glasses in the palace were a bit small, and he felt it was not enough, so he wanted to ask someone to change it for a bigger wine bowl.
However, after being glared at by Princess Baili, he had no choice but to give up.
The gangster spirit is naturally incompatible with the elegant gathering of literati.
However, the prince muttered quietly, "After all, these scholars are not as interesting as the people in the martial arts world... The name Chen Ji sounds familiar, as if I've heard it somewhere before."
At this time, Princess Baili looked at Chen Wenxiao and said, "Excuse me, is your brother's IOU authentic?"
Chen Wenxiao rolled up his sleeves and sat upright. "My brother Chen Ji is addicted to gambling. He owes seven gambling houses a total of 1,231 taels of silver. Everything I've said is true."
A scholar bowed to the princess and said, "Wen Xiao is a man of noble character. He would definitely not lie about this matter."
"Okay," Princess Baili sighed.
Chen Ji was listening quietly beside the pavilion. He was also thinking about what kind of person he was in the past. Was he really a gambler?
It's possible. After all, the IOUs from the gambling house cannot be forged, and this kind of thing is easy to verify.
But those things have nothing to do with me, they are in the past.
Concubine Jing, who was standing behind the bamboo curtain, glanced vaguely at Chen Ji and asked, "Don't your family know that you're from the Secret Service?"
Chen Ji replied, "Madam, I am not from the Secret Service. At most, I am a hawk in the Secret Service, not even a secret agent."
"Oh?" Concubine Jing was a little confused: "Why do you work for the Secret Service?"
Chen Ji answered frankly: "For money, I will give you fifty taels of silver for every clue you help them find."
Concubine Jing was stunned for a moment. "Only fifty taels? For fifty taels of silver, you risked your life to work for the Secret Service?"
At this time, she had already believed what Chen Wenxiao said. This apprentice in the clinic was indeed a gambler who would not even give up his life for money.
However, Chen Ji thought that this was the disparity in the world. He worked so hard to earn fifty taels, but in the eyes of Concubine Jing and Concubine Yun, this little money was nothing.
Concubine Jing leaned back on her couch behind the bamboo curtain and said, "Help me to take revenge. I'll give you one thousand taels of silver if you succeed."
Chen Ji thought for a moment and asked, "Do you want Liu Mingxian to die?"
"That's right."
"Lord Liu has hidden experts around him, and he rarely goes out. Killing him would be difficult. If he uses the Secret Service, Yunyang and Jiaotu have already been taken down by him, making it even more difficult... If you want revenge, you will receive five thousand taels."
"Two thousand taels, no more."
"make a deal."
Chen Ji breathed a sigh of relief. It turned out that it was easier to make money from rich people!
With these two thousand taels of silver, he dared to explore the inner prison again, collect all the ice flows, and light hundreds of fires.
By then, only
If the officials hadn't taken action, three or five ordinary spies would have had no chance of doing anything to me.
While he was thinking, Concubine Jing suddenly asked, "What do you think of Chunhua? She's in her prime, a lovely girl. Although she's older than you, she knows how to care for others. It cost me a hundred taels of silver to buy her from Yangzhou."
Chen Ji quickly replied, "Madam, please stop messing around with matchmaking. Just give me the money."
…
…
During the banquet.
Chen Wenzong looked at She Dengke and Liu Quxing and asked, "Are you my brother's colleagues? How is he these days? Did he come today?"
"Come on. How has he been doing recently? As his brother, why don't you ask him instead of asking me?" She Dengke responded dully.
Chen Wenzong looked embarrassed: "That's true."
Chen Wenxiao's face darkened. "Why should we care about him if he did something like that?"
The Ning Dynasty governed the country with the moral code of principles, and the system of ruler-ruler, minister-minister, father-father, and son-son governed the order of the entire society. However, although everyone said that mothers should be loving and children should be filial, and brothers should be friendly and respectful to each other, how many parents in this world who were not biological parents could really treat the children of a concubine as their own?
It's just for face.
Liu Quxing was about to open his mouth to refute when someone patted him on the shoulder. He turned around and saw that Chen Ji had returned to the table without him noticing.
Chen Ji bowed to Chen Wenzong and Chen Wenxiao from a distance and said, "My dear brothers, we have been reunited today. I didn't expect it to turn out like this. Why don't we just let it go? After all, this is the literary gathering organized by the Crown Prince. We should not disturb the other guests."
When Bai Li saw Chen Ji appear, he quickly tugged at the prince's arm and said, "Brother, it's him. The one who collected our toll and set up the ladder for us. I should have stopped speaking up for him earlier!"
The prince laughed: "I don't think there is a Bai Gang. Don't you think he is very interesting? He even dares to collect tolls from Prince Jing!"
Bai Li curled his lips and said, "To take three taels of silver at a time, one must have a dark heart. But... although he is a very bad person, I don't think he is a gambler."
The prince laughed and said, "Have you ever seen what a gambler looks like?"
Bai Li recalled and pondered, "I saw it when I followed you to the gambling house. The gamblers there had all lost their minds, completely unconcerned with anything other than gambling. Their eyes were bloodshot, their clothes were filthy, and their fingernails were covered in mud... But he was clean and full of energy."
A gambler only has gambling in his mind. He gambles when he wakes up and goes to sleep after gambling. How can he have time to pay attention to his appearance?
The prince nodded: "It's true. Anyway, the monk said that he has given up greed and anger, and I believe him."
"How can he have reformed? Even if he stops gambling, he is still very bad!" Bai Li said angrily.
The prince smiled and soothed him, "Alright, alright. Three taels of silver is just a box of rouge and powder for you."
At this time, Chen Wenzong found Chen Ji looked familiar.
It was at this moment that Chen Wenzong remembered that Chen Ji had looked at him at the banquet before, but he did not recognize him.
Of course, this was also the reason why we were not close before, and my mother always told me not to associate with each other.
Chen Wenzong stood up and said, "Wen Xiao was wrong earlier. I apologize to you on his behalf. Please don't take it to heart."
Chen Ji smiled and said, "It's okay. The mouth is on someone else's body. No matter what you say, you can't stop it."
Chen Wenzong
He said, "Father has been at home lately. If you have time, come back and fulfill your filial duties. He will surely be happy to see that you have reformed and are studying medicine diligently."
Chen Ji replied, "I'm also very busy with my studies at the Imperial Medical Academy, so... it's not necessary."
He had no plans to return to the Chen family, not even to return in the future. As he had said to Old Man Yao, he truly had already considered the clinic his home.
Chen Ji could understand that with a son who was a gambler and a mother whose identity was questionable, it was natural that she would be unpopular.
Since you are not welcome, then we will stop associating with each other, so that we don’t have to put on a show.
At this moment, a man stood up and said with a smile, "As the saying goes, the relationship between ruler and subject, father and son, must not be violated. Perhaps you blame your father for not sending you to Donglin Academy, or perhaps you blame him for neglecting you, but he is still your father and you are still his son. You must still fulfill your filial duties."
Chen Ji looked at the other person's face with some confusion: "Who are you?"
The man who was speaking was handsome, wearing a blue Confucian robe, an exquisite black gauze hat, a jade belt around his waist, and a jade pendant hanging on the belt, which was very valuable.
When the other party heard Chen Ji's question, he said proudly and reservedly, "Donglin Academy, Lin Chaojing."
It seemed that just by saying the name, Chen Ji would know who he was.
But Chen Ji's attention was not here. He just suddenly realized that it was no wonder that he felt the other person looked familiar!
This Lin Chaojing actually looks 80% similar to the Chief Judge Lin Chaoqing. It seems that they are either brothers or relatives.
But Chen Ji clearly remembered this voice. It was Lin Chaojing who said that he would denounce the eunuch party during the palace examination... Lin Chaoqing was a member of the eunuch party.
He didn't think any more about it, but patted Liu Quxing and She Dengke and said, "Let's go. This place is not suitable for us. I'm sorry for making you suffer for me."
"Well, let's go," Liu Quxing sniffed.
"Wait a moment," Lin Chaojing said loudly, "You three are also here to participate in the literary gathering. I believe you all have great ambitions. Just now, everyone brought out their new works and recited them. I wonder if you three have any works with you?"
Chen Ji looked straight at Lin Chaojing and remained silent.
Works? He has no works.
Should he copy the works of his former world? He couldn't do that either.
Chen Ji has a serious imbalance in his studies. Over the years, he has been studying science, popular science, reasoning, investigation and counter-reconnaissance knowledge. Even when he studied some liberal arts content, he only studied cryptography.
So, it's not a big deal for you to ask him to make gunpowder now, but reciting a poem is really difficult for him...
If you really want to memorize poems, you can probably only memorize the most famous line from each poem.
For example, there will be a time when we will ride on the wind and waves and sail across the vast ocean, but he couldn't remember what happened before and after for a while.
And most importantly, the story of the Double Ninth Festival weighed heavily on Chen Ji's mind. He didn't know what the connection was between this world and his own world. If the poem he recited had been written by someone else, it would be a joke.
etc!
Chen Ji's thoughts suddenly cleared up like the sun after the clouds had parted, and the sky was clear.
The earlier haze dissipated in an instant: gunpowder?
gunpowder!
Although I can't recite poems, I can make gunpowder.
Poetry is art, so explosions are not art?
…
There's another chapter coming up later
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