Chapter 103 Sizhu
The whole family gathered around a small octagonal table, each holding a small ceramic bowl in one hand and chopsticks in the other, and it was very lively.

Not far away, the apricot trees were hung with red ribbons, and the symbols of peace, joy, health and longevity swayed gently in the breeze.

“Is this the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea?”

"Correct!"

"I have never seen the ingredients here before," She Dengke looked at Chen Ji, "Chen Ji, why don't you eat it? Don't let Liu Quxing finish it all by himself."

Liu Quxing rolled his eyes: "Didn't you eat it? How can you say that I ate it all by myself?"

Chen Ji smiled and explained, "I'm not used to the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, let's eat something else."

Liu Quxing curled his lips and said, "I'm not lucky. The ingredients for Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea were transported back from the sea by the Cao Gang. Yingxianlou may not be able to buy new ingredients every day. If you want to eat it, it depends on your luck."

Chen Ji smiled and did not refute.

The so-called Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea is a dish made with shark fins, sea cucumbers, abalone, fish bones, fish maws, shrimps, asparagus and ham.

For the people of Los Angeles at that time, these ingredients might only be seen once in their lifetime, but Chen Ji had already eaten a lot of them, so he only put a small bowl on the table and gave the rest to others to try.

Liu Quxing suddenly asked: "Hey, what do you think the sea looks like?"

Bai Li raised his hand: "I know my father said that the sea is boundless, the water in the sea is all blue, and there are particularly beautiful shells and starfish on the shore pushed to the beach by the waves. The big boatmen along the coast also go out to sea to hunt whales. It is said that the big fish called whales can be as big as a building."

Liu Quxing's eyes widened: "Are you bragging? Can a fish grow that big?"

Bai Li was unhappy: "Who is bragging? That's what my father said!"

Liang Gou'er held a jar of Shaoxing Huadiao wine and asked, "Has Your Majesty ever been to the seaside?"

Bai Li hesitated: "...No, but my Ning Dynasty has a fleet that goes out to sea. They have seen it."

The prince suggested excitedly, "How about we make an agreement to go to the seaside together in the future? I heard that it only takes three months to reach the coast by car. Then we can buy a boat from a boatman, go fishing, and cook the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea for ourselves on the boat!"

Everyone looked at each other, their eyes becoming brighter and brighter.

She Dengke couldn't help but ask, "Can we really go to the beach?"

Old Man Yao put down his chopsticks and said slowly, "What's so difficult about seeing the sea? Go and smash the plaque of the Luocheng government office today. After you are exiled to Lingnan next month, you can see the sea every day."

Prince: “…”

Baili: “…”

Chen Ji said with emotion: "Master, you know how to ruin the atmosphere."

The prince changed the subject and looked at Chen Ji curiously: "By the way, Chen Ji, where did you go last night when you didn't come home? If you have any difficulties, you must tell us. Friends will go through fire and water for each other!"

Chen Ji was silent.

Everyone knew that he didn't want to go back to the Chen Mansion. He was just an apprentice in a small clinic with nowhere to go, and he really couldn't explain where he was going.

He couldn't tell the prince that he was actually the eunuch party that the other party hated the most; he also couldn't tell everyone that he actually went to clear the prince and the princess of suspicion last night.

There is no real confidentiality in this world. The secrets you tell others will always leak out unknowingly.

in silence.

Liu Quxing muttered quietly, "Maybe he went to gamble again. I saw bloodshot eyes. He must have not slept all night."

She Dengke stepped on his instep under the table. Liu Quxing raised his voice: "Why did you step on me? I just said it casually. I believe Chen Ji is not that kind of person!"

At this moment, Bai Li thought of Chen Ji's mysteriousness and immediately said, "Stop asking. Everyone has their own secrets. If he needs help, he will definitely tell us. Maybe Chen Ji has a girl he likes and just got a promise of dividends yesterday, so he wants to tell her the good news? Right, Chen Ji."

When Liu Quxing heard the gossip, he immediately became excited: "Really?"

Chen Ji smiled and explained, "I see patients every day in the clinic, so there is no girl I like."

Liu Quxing asked, "Has your family arranged a marriage for you?"

Chen Ji also shook his head: "I haven't heard of it."

Liu Quxing said happily: "I have."

She Dengke was helpless: "Who asked you?!"

Liu Quxing said to himself, "My mother told me about a marriage proposal. The man's father is a scholar and now manages lawsuits in the government office. The two families are considered to be well-matched. The two families agreed that when I become an imperial physician and enter a certain rank, we will get married... I want a ninth-rank doctor."

As he spoke, his eyes kept drifting towards Old Man Yao.

Old Man Yao glanced at him and said, "What about me?"

Liu Quxing hurriedly said: "No, no."

At this moment, a cat's meow was heard from the eaves.

Chen Ji looked up and saw that Wuyun had naturally jumped off the eaves and jumped into... Old Man Yao's arms.

Old man Yao picked up the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea from his bowl and put it close to Wuyun's mouth: "Eat it."

Liu Quxing was stunned: "Master, you feed such expensive dishes to cats?"

Old Man Yao glanced at him and said, "He is much more valuable than you."

After that, Old Man Yao turned to look at Liang Gou'er and said, "We agreed at the beginning that you can live with me, but the prerequisite is that you have to teach me how to use the sword. Let's get started, don't be lazy."

Liang Gou'er put down the wine jar with a reluctant look on his face: "Okay! Prince, Liu Quxing, She Dengke, all come over to practice swordplay!"

Chen Ji watched the prince and others standing in horse stance in the yard, while Liang Gou'er pulled Liang Mao'er aside and whispered. Wu Yun didn't even want to eat the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea, and just squatted obediently on Liang Mao'er's shoulder with his ears perked up.

He looked at Wuyun, then at Old Man Yao, and suddenly had a very absurd guess: Master is helping Wuyun secretly learn the Liang family swordsmanship? !

"Master, this is..."

Old man Yao looked at him and said, "Go to sleep. You don't need to worry about the dark clouds. Just come back alive every day."

"Oh."

Old man Yao sneered: "You put your head on the line every day, and I don't know what you want to do."

"Master, you said that fate can be changed."

"Ok?"

"I want to try."

……

……

It's quiet at night.

Chen Ji came out of Qingshan’s dream, breathing slightly.

Liang Gou'er's snoring was in my ears, and the whole room was filled with the smell of alcohol from his breath, so strong that it seemed that one would get drunk just by smelling it. If possible, it would be nice to be a carefree, heartless and playboy like Liang Gou'er.

Chen Ji looked at the people sleeping in the room, smiled silently, climbed out of bed quietly, walked under the apricot tree, looked at the red ribbons covering the tree, and suddenly became absent-minded.

Knock, knock, knock. There was a soft knock on the door, but Chen Ji ignored it.

It was not until the knocks on the door became more urgent that he looked at the two red cloths at the top of the apricot tree again, turned around and walked to the main hall: "Who?"

The Golden Pig said, "It's me, open the door."

Chen Ji unbolted the door and opened the two wooden doors. Rong Jinzhu stepped in sideways and asked, "Master Jinzhu, did you get anything?"

The Golden Pig, wearing a bamboo hat and straw sandals, pretended to be a tenant farmer and said solemnly, "Nothing was found." "Oh?" Chen Ji asked curiously, "Is there no movement from the Liu family?"

Jin Zhu frowned, "Today, the old secret agents transferred from the capital have also arrived. I ordered them to take care of the warehouse of the Craftsmen's Office and the Documents Warehouse respectively."

"and then?"

In the main hall of the clinic, there was only a kerosene lamp flickering above the counter.

In the dim firelight, Jin Zhu looked straight at Chen Ji: "I can guarantee that no one broke into the Craftsmen's Bureau today, and no one took anything related to firearms from the Craftsmen's Bureau. There were people in the East Market who bought saltpeter and sulfur, but after a careful check, there was nothing wrong with them... You don't seem to find it strange?"

Chen Ji calmly replied, "Sir, I don't have to show all my emotions on my face."

Jin Zhu circled around Chen Ji twice and asked, "Are you pretending to cooperate with me in the play, but in fact you are secretly informing the Liu family?"

Chen Ji asked doubtfully, "Sir, overthrowing the Liu family is the most important thing now. Seeing that we are about to succeed, why should we be suspicious of each other? After you overthrow the Liu family, it won't be too late to suspect me. I can't run away."

The look in Jinzhu's face when he looked at Chenji didn't seem fake.

He waited from morning to evening today, and from evening to late night, watching his hopes dashed little by little and finally turning into anger.

Last night, he almost thought that he was only one step away from bringing down the Liu family, but today he felt that that one step had once again turned into a chasm.

But Jin Zhu knew that Chen Ji was right about one thing: the apprentice in the clinic in front of him could not escape, and it was never too late to deal with him.

His expression was gentle, and he patted Chen Ji's shoulder and said with a smile: "Don't worry, Doctor Chen. Our Secret Service has had traitors more than once or twice. All Haidongqing spends almost half of their time purging their own team to prevent the thieves from Jing Dynasty from infiltrating. This is just a suspicious habit I have developed over the years, and I don't mean any other meaning."

Chen Ji consoled him, "It is understandable that Lord Jinzhu is bent on revenge."

Jin Zhu analyzed, "There are two possibilities now. The first is that Liu Mingxian has reestablished contact with the Jingchao thief. He confirmed our identities with him and found out that we were faking it. The second is that time is too tight and Liu Mingxian doesn't have the courage to take the risk, so he didn't act today."

He looked at Chen Ji: "Which one do you prefer?"

"Did your Excellency send anyone to keep an eye on the Liu family?"

"The three people around Liu Mingxian are all masters of operatives. Ordinary spies can't keep an eye on them at all."

Chen Ji thought for a moment and said, "Sir, let's go to Mudan Bridge to have a look. No matter what, we have to verify it before we can know."

Jin Zhu looked at Chen Ji deeply and said, "Then let's go and take a look."

The two men went out of the door, and Chen Ji turned back and closed the door. The wind outside the door caused the kerosene lamp on the counter to shake.

……

……

"Master Jinzhu, what was the origin of the old man who played with copper coins last night?" Chen Ji sat at the door of the carriage, lifted the curtain, and asked Jinzhu who was driving.

"The old man's name is Zhang Guoer, and the copper coins in his hand are called 'Mountain Flower Ghost Money'," Jin Zhu answered casually, "He was a member of the Beggars' Sect, but later disappeared. The court has been looking for him for a long time, and it turns out that he fled to the Liu family."

"escape?"

Jin Zhu sneered, "During the Lantern Festival in the winter of the eighth year of Jianing, the Hu family's grandson Hu Junyan sneaked out to visit the temple fair, but was accidentally kidnapped by the Beggars' Sect. The Hu family was furious and turned the capital upside down, only then did they find Hu Junyan. At that time, the most important members of the Beggars' Sect escaped under different names, including Zhang Guoer."

Chen Ji frowned: "The Beggars' Sect is trafficking in people?"

The Golden Pig sneered, "Do you think the Beggars' Gang lives by begging and doing good deeds like in the storytellers' stories? They are just a bunch of extremely vicious people gathered together. They not only kidnap and sell people, but also blind and maim the children they kidnap but cannot sell, and make them beg. The money they make is no less than that of the brothel."

The Golden Pig continued, "The Mountain Flower Ghost Coin was originally a thunder talisman used by the Taoist sect to ward off evil spirits, but I don't know which evil cultivator turned it into an evil way of cultivation. The practitioners of this way of cultivation must remain a virgin, trick a woman into falling in love with them, and then kill her on the night of the wedding ceremony, and store her soul in the Mountain Flower Ghost Coin for nourishment."

Chen Ji felt a chill in his heart.

The Golden Pig laughed and said, "You're not going to talk anymore? There are more weird ways in the southwest. I've seen people using skulls and leg bones as magic weapons."

Chen Ji was silent for a moment and asked, "Why do you know so much about Shanhua ghost money?"

The Golden Pig replied cheerfully, "This method is practiced by more than one person. Our Secret Service has killed two of them. In the secret room in the basement of the Jiefan Building of our Secret Service, there are two mountain flower ghost coins that have been kept for hundreds of years. The longer this thing is kept, the redder it becomes. The one in our Jiefan Building...tsk tsk, it's so red that it's almost blood-red. If you are interested, when you are promoted to Hai Dongqing, I will ask the Minister of Internal Affairs to grant you this method."

Chen Ji lowered the curtain and said, "Thank you for your kindness, Master Jinzhu. It's not necessary."

"arrive."

Jin Zhu parked the carriage in a small alley one mile away from Mudan Bridge. The two men put on ox and tiger masks and slowly walked towards Mudan Bridge.

Just as they arrived, a carriage slowly approached from a distance.

There was clearly no one sitting in the carriage driver's seat, but the reins moved automatically without wind.

Jin Zhu narrowed his eyes slightly. Liu Mingxian came again? He thought he would not come. "It seems that the first possibility can be ruled out. If Liu Mingxian has reestablished contact with the thief Jing Chao, he should not come tonight."

However, the person who got off the car was not Liu Mingxian, but the old man who was playing with the mountain flower ghost money.

The next moment, the old man opened the car curtain and jumped out of the car carrying a sackcloth bag in one hand.

There was a thick hemp rope wrapped around the pocket of the sack. When the old man jumped out of the car, the sack suddenly struggled and shook violently!
The old man walked to the bridge, threw the sack on the ground with a chuckle, and untied the hemp ropes on the sack while looking at the golden pig and Chen Ji: "I brought the goods you wanted."

The sack was opened, revealing the terrified face of a middle-aged man.

The Golden Pig moved slightly as if he was about to take action, but Chen Ji suddenly grabbed his wrist and said, "This is not what we want."

The old man knocked the middle-aged man unconscious, stroking the mountain flower ghost money on his waist and said with a smile: "In an emergency, we have to make decisions based on our urgency. The Secret Service is keeping a close eye on us. You can't steal the things you want from the Artisan's Office."

As he spoke, he pointed at the middle-aged man's head with his finger and said, "But everything you want is in his head. This man is the deputy chief of the Craftsmanship Bureau. If you have the ability to transport him back to Jing Dynasty, what can't you make?"

The bridge became quiet and the moonlight was shrouded by clouds.

Chen Ji took a deep breath behind the mask. Neither he nor Jin Zhu had expected Liu Mingxian to be so bold. He did not take action in the Craftsmen's Supervisory Office, but found another way and kidnapped the deputy supervisor who had returned home on vacation!

Jin Zhu said in a serious tone: "It's a thousand miles to Jingchao, with a total of seventeen checkpoints. It's as difficult as ascending to heaven to transport a person out!"

The old man chuckled and said, "That's not something we can control."

Jin Zhu thought for a moment and asked, "Where is Lord Liu? Is he in the carriage? Please ask him to come down and have a chat."

The old man replied, "Master Liu? What Master Liu? This was done by me, Zhang Guoer, alone. I don't know any Master Liu. Besides, I have done what your company asked me to do. When can I see the company owner?"

Just as Jin Zhu was about to answer, Chen Ji spoke first: "We need to transport the person to Kaifeng Prefecture first. We will meet at Mudan Bridge again in three days. However, you will not have the final say by then. Call someone who can take charge."

Zhang Guoer cupped her hands and said, "I understand. I'll take my leave now."

Golden Pig stared at the carriage that was gradually going away and sighed softly, "I misunderstood you before. It wasn't because you leaked the news that Liu Mingxian didn't take action against the Craftsman Supervisor. It was really... this person was too bold."

Chen Ji said softly: "If you are not brave enough, you will not dare to commit treason."

Golden Pig turned around and walked down the bridge, waved towards an alley, but saw Xifeng in black clothes flash out.

Chen Ji looked carefully and saw that there were many spies hiding in the alley with knives on their waists.

He asked in confusion: "Sir, this is..."

Jin Zhu sighed, "I originally planned to arrest Liu Mingxian and interrogate him tonight, but I haven't even seen him yet. What should I do now?"

Chen Ji wore a mask and lowered his head in thought.

When he looked up again, he looked at the Golden Pig: "Sir, can these spies be trusted?"

Jin Zhu said confidently, "It's credible. I selected these people time and time again, and I spent a lot of money to ask Meng Ji to interrogate them. There won't be any problems."

Chen Ji looked at Xifeng and said, "From today on, you will be the head of the Military Intelligence Department."

Xifeng: "Ah? Me?"

(End of this chapter)