5. Broken porcelain pieces
Only a quarter of an hour.
Very short.
Chen Ji stopped talking nonsense and quickly looked around the study. His eyes stopped on the scattered books and rice paper, and he quickly flipped through the books on the bookshelf.
"The rice paper is blank, and the books are all those that can be found in the world. There is nothing mixed in them," Jiaotu reminded.
Chen Ji turned and walked into the yard.
This was a two-story courtyard. He carefully observed every detail of the courtyard, trying to find clues. Chen Ji knew in his heart that he was not completely sure of finding a clue. He said that just now because he was facing a group of murderous snakes and scorpions. If he didn't say it, he might die immediately.
As time passed, Yunyang gradually lost his patience. "It's too slow, too slow. We need to add another game. See the sycamore tree in this yard? While you're looking for clues, every time a leaf falls, I'll prick you with a needle."
As soon as he finished speaking, a leaf fell off the branch.
Yunyang raised his hand and picked up the withered leaves in the air, sighing, "Your luck is really bad."
As he said that, he walked up to Chen Ji and stabbed a needle into the boy's palm.
Chen Ji's face suddenly turned red and he bent over due to severe pain. It was autumn, but beads of sweat the size of beans fell from his forehead one after another.
He cursed Yun Yang in his heart for being a pervert, but it couldn't relieve the pain at all.
Yun Yang said slowly, "The time lost due to pain is also counted within that one hour."
Chen Ji slowly straightened up with the help of the sycamore tree and moved into the kitchen step by step. He had to find the clue before the second leaf fell!
Inside the kitchen, there was nothing more than a stove made of blue bricks and a pile of bottles and jars filled with seasonings.
The house is clean and tidy, without a single unnecessary thing.
Chen Ji walked out of the kitchen after checking all the bottles and jars. However, he just stood there motionless after walking out of the kitchen.
He muttered to himself, "Something seems wrong. It seems I missed some details."
Yun Yang leaned against the kitchen door frame, yawning, and playing with the silver needle on his fingertips: "You are running out of time. It seems that I wasted a quarter of an hour."
Chen Ji still stood there motionless, trying hard to think about what details he had just missed!
While he was thinking, another leaf fell from the paulownia tree, and Yunyang pierced his ear with another needle.
In an instant, Chen Ji bent down and squatted on the ground, curled up like a shrimp, unable to move, and almost passed out in shock.
But this time, without waiting for Yun Yang to urge him, he stood up and returned to the kitchen, taking out two jars filled with fine white crystalline powder.
Yunyang glanced at it curiously: "Two cans of salt, what's the problem?"
"Why are there two jars of salt in one kitchen?" Chen Ji asked, pinching a fine white powder from one of the jars and rubbing it between his fingers. "This isn't salt."
"It's not salt?" Yun Yang was curious. He and Jiao Tu were good at killing people and cleaning up aftermath, shifting the blame, and taking credit. They were really weak at finding clues.
Chen Ji extended his finger to Yun Yang and said, "Try what it tastes like."
Yun Yang said unhappily, "You're quite cautious, kid. What if it's poisonous? I won't taste it."
Jiaotu laughed out loud.
If it weren't for the corpses on the ground, this vicious girl would be quite cute when she smiles.
Yun Yang said coldly: "Hurry up and try it."
Chen Ji pinched some white powder and put it in his mouth: "It tastes very astringent and has no obvious taste."
He fell into deep thought.
What could this thing be?
Chen Ji quickly searched his memory, trying to find the answer from some books he had read.
Wait, it's alum!
Some popular science books on military intelligence have mentioned that alum is a
, one of the main materials used to write secret letters.
Writing with alum water, which disappears when it dries, is a spy technique that originated in the 13th century and became increasingly common during World War I and World War II.
Chen Ji pondered for a long time, and he was sure that he had found the answer: Jing Dynasty spies used alum to write secret letters. Zhou Chengyi hid this thing at home together with salt to obscure the view. He placed it in such a close and convenient place to himself, which meant that the secret letters must have been exchanged very frequently. So... Zhou Chengyi's home must have secret letters between him and other spies.
He immediately took a jar of vinegar from the kitchen and returned to the study. He spread sheets of snow-white rice paper on the table, tore a piece of cloth from his body, dipped it in vinegar and gently wiped every part of the rice paper.
He wiped five or six pieces of rice paper in a row, but did not get the answer he wanted. Time passed minute by minute, and in the cold autumn, beads of sweat appeared on Chen Ji's forehead.
He turned to look at Zhou Chengyi, only to see that his expression was calm and he was not panicked.
Did I guess wrong?
No, absolutely not wrong!
At this time, a cold wind blew, and the withered yellow leaves on the sycamore tree fell like rain. Yunyang smiled and said, "Your luck is not good enough..."
“Found it!”
"Hmm?" Yunyang's gaze was drawn over.
When Chen Ji reached the twelfth sheet of rice paper, a line of red characters appeared where the pale yellow vinegar had touched him: "Li's Sweet Water Shop, Lijing Lane, East City. If you are in danger, go there immediately."
When Yun Yang saw these words, his eyes suddenly sparkled: "This means that the Jing Dynasty spies have established a new base. Maybe a big shot from the Jing Dynasty's Military Intelligence Department has come to Luo City!"
As he said this, he looked at Jiaotu and said, "Great achievement!"
Jiaotu thought for a moment and said, "Kill this guy and the credit will go to us."
"No, I promised not to kill him. He's not from our Secret Service anyway, so the credit will eventually go to you and me."
"All right……"
In contrast, Zhou Chengyi, the Jing Dynasty spy, looked as pale as death.
He no longer pretended, and immediately pulled out a hidden soft sword from his belt and rushed towards Chen Ji, determined to kill him at the risk of his life.
This Jingchao spy rushed forward quickly, and in the blink of an eye he got rid of his previous embarrassed appearance and became as ferocious as a beast.
Chen Ji flew backwards, while Jiaotu on the other side suddenly leaped up like a phantom, dancing like a butterfly.
But she blocked Zhou Chengyi's way, and when the two figures flashed past each other, the silver needle between her two fingers pierced Zhou Chengyi's waist like a dragonfly touching the water.
With a loud bang, Zhou Chengyi lost his strength and fell to the ground, raising a cloud of dust.
It was at this moment that a stream of cold air surged out from Zhou Chengyi's body, like a gray, flowing dragon in the dark night, and penetrated into Chen Ji's body.
This was a feeling he had never experienced in his seventeen years of life. The ice flow was like glacial water on the snow-capped mountains, clear and crisp, constantly flowing in his blood.
Where did this ice flow come from? Why did it come? Chen Ji didn't know.
The scenes he saw tonight would only appear in movies in the past. This world is completely different from the world he knows!
Chen Ji observed Jiaotu and Yunyang and found that the two of them didn't seem to have seen what happened just now. Could it be that he was the only one who could see it?
Seeing that Zhou Chengyi was no longer able to resist, Yun Yang turned to look at Chen Ji with interest: "How can you, an apprentice at a medical clinic, know all this?"
Chen Ji explained without hesitation: "Alum can be used as medicine. It has the effect of stopping bleeding, treating ulcers, and relieving pain, so I know something about it."
"Oh?" Yun Yang pinched some alum from the jar and put it in his mouth. "It just so happens that I've been getting a sore throat lately."
Jiaotu stood upright on Zhou Chengyi's back and said, "Why are you still chatting at this hour? First, send someone to Lijing Lane and take down Li's Sweet Water Shop."
Immediately, eight men in black on standby went out and mounted their horses.
, and rushed straight to Lijing Lane.
The crisp sound of horse hooves on the bluestone road at midnight tore apart the tranquility of the night.
Chen Ji asked, "Can I leave now?"
"Uh... I'm afraid not," Yunyang shook his head.
"Regret it?"
"That's not the case. I just said you could live, but I didn't say I'd let you go." Yun Yang dusted himself off. "I have to take you to the inner prison and interrogate you thoroughly."
"What are you interrogating?"
"For example, why would you, an apprentice at the Imperial Physician's Clinic at Prince Jing's mansion, show up at Zhou Chengyi's residence in the middle of the night? Has Prince Jing already colluded with the Northern Jing Dynasty through Zhou Chengyi, intending to use the Jing Dynasty's power to rebel?" Yun Yang spread his hands. "Look, I have a lot of questions."
Jiaotu tempted, "Zhou Chengyi is just a small county magistrate, but if you can bite out Prince Jing, we will give you wealth and glory!"
Chen Ji secretly sighed at the complexity of his situation, which seemed beyond his imagination.
Where is Jing Chao? Who is Prince Jing?
Were the deceased’s social relationships so complicated during his lifetime?
He responded: "I came to deliver medicine and was innocently implicated."
Chen Ji answered this way because he saw two packages of medicinal materials with "Taiping Medical Clinic" labeled on them in the kitchen. They were wrapped in yellow paper and placed next to the casserole stove in the kitchen, and had not been opened yet.
Yun Yang shook his head: "That's just your one-sided statement. I only believe the answers I got from the interrogation."
Chen Ji changed the subject: "You want to arrest that big shot from the Jing Dynasty Military Intelligence Department?"
"His captors are already there."
"You won't be able to catch that guy at the Sweet Water Shop in Lijing Lane. It's obviously just a place used to help Zhou Chengyi escape. There won't be any important people there."
Yun Yang looked thoughtful: "Do you have any other clues?"
Chen Ji kept silent.
Yun Yang came to Chen Ji, and between his middle and index fingers he pinched the thin silver needle and gently tapped Chen Ji's shoulder.
Instantly, Chen Ji felt a piercing pain. Within a few breaths, his clothes were soaked with sweat. However, the pain had come and gone just as quickly, disappearing without a trace within a few more breaths, as if it had all been an illusion.
Yun Yang said nonchalantly, "I have many more methods like this. In all these years of wandering around the martial arts world, there are only a handful of people who can withstand three of my needles."
However, Chen Ji remained silent.
Yun Yang stabbed another needle into the back of Chen Ji's hand. The young man's body trembled uncontrollably, but he didn't say a word.
Yun Yang gave Chen Ji two more injections, but he still said nothing.
"Can you withstand this?" Yun Yang exclaimed.
The next second, broken porcelain pieces suddenly appeared in Chen Ji's palm, and he wiped them towards the carotid artery in his neck with trembling hands!
The broken piece of porcelain had actually been hidden in his palm all along.
The broken porcelain pieces suddenly stopped when they were about to reach his neck. Yun Yang grabbed Chen Ji's wrist and said, "You're threatening me with death?"
"Forget it. If we delay any longer, our great achievement will be lost." Jiaotu raised three fingers. "I swear on my mother's honor, if you can only reveal the information that helps us achieve merit, I will give you freedom."
Yun Yang held up three fingers. "I also swear on my parents' honor. If I lie, they will be condemned to eternal damnation."
Chen Ji remained silent, pondering the value of this oath.
People in this era are probably superstitious, so oaths carry a lot of weight... No, I still can't believe it.
But if you have demonstrated enough ability and made yourself useful enough, would you be willing to risk your life for it?
Finally, he gasped and said, "That rice paper must have been written with alum water when it was bought. It was most likely written by that great figure from the Jing Dynasty you mentioned. So if you want to find clues now, you shouldn't go to Lijing Lane. Instead, look for the shop that sells rice paper. This shop is the channel for the most important information."
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