Chapter 164 Tuogu
On the bluestone road of Anxi Street, Chen Ji was walking back alone, carrying a shoulder pole.

Two wooden barrels filled with water pressed down on the carrying pole and shook it up and down, but not a single water spilled.

As he pondered the information provided by the Golden Pig, he felt as if there was a layer of haze hanging over the city of Los Angeles, making it hard to breathe.

If the Liu family really rebelled, the first thing they would probably do would be to sacrifice the "eunuch party" of the Imperial Household Department, and he, a small secret agent under the Imperial Household Department, would inevitably bear the brunt of the attack.

This time, many people will die.

As soon as he returned to the clinic, he saw Princess Baili wearing clean white clothes and riding on the wall. She smiled and waved to him, "Chen Ji, Chen Ji, please pass me the ladder."

Chen Ji bent down, put down his carrying pole, and moved the ladder over.

Bai Li walked down the ladder and asked curiously, "Did you help clean the tiles on this wall? There's not a speck of dust left."

Chen Ji held the ladder and hummed, "I saw your white clothes were always rubbed with dust when you climbed over the wall, so I wiped them off."

Bai Li looked down at his clean pants, then looked up and said with a smile: "Thank you!"

When the prince's head popped out of the wall, Chen Ji asked curiously, "I haven't seen the little monk for a long time. Where is he?"

The prince said proudly, "My father said that if he stayed in Luocheng, he would learn bad things from me, so he sent him to the Imperial Observatory in the capital to practice with the deputy director Xu Shu."

Chen Ji said helplessly: "What on earth is the prince so proud of... Why did the prince and the princess come so early?"

The prince slid down the ladder and said, "I came to learn swordsmanship from you, Chen Ji. Can you teach me swordsmanship?"

After he finished speaking, Prince Jing opened the door curtain with a weak look and said, "He is just a little apprentice. What's the point of learning from him?"

Chen Ji was puzzled. Prince Jing was fine when he was listening to the opera yesterday, but he felt strong resentment and hatred towards him early this morning.

Strange, where does this resentment come from?

At this time, Bai Li's eyes widened: "Dad, why do you say that about Chen Ji?"

Prince Jing also widened his eyes: "That's what I want to say, is that not okay?"

Bai Li wondered, "Father, why do you suddenly dislike Chen Ji? You were praising him before."

Prince Jing said unhappily, "This is a different time. My son and daughter came today and instead of visiting me first, they started chatting with him first. I'm afraid you've forgotten that your father is still sick!"

Bai Li quickly brought out a bamboo chair from the house and helped Prince Jing sit down awkwardly: "Dad, we came here early in the morning to visit you."

Prince Jing said slowly: "You know who you are here to see..."

Bai Li quickly covered Prince Jing's mouth with his white palm and said in a low voice, "Dad, please stop talking. Of course I'm here to see you."

She glanced at Chen Ji secretly, but Chen Ji seemed not to have heard their conversation just now. He looked at Prince Jing and asked curiously, "Your Highness, Xu Shu is the deputy director of the Imperial Observatory. Who is the director?"

Bai Li explained: "I know that the young supervisor of the Imperial Observatory is Hu Junyan, the junior master of the Laojun Mountain Taoist Temple."

"This name sounds familiar," Chen Ji tried to recall. "Wait...someone told me before that in the winter of the eighth year of Jianing, the grandson of Hu Ge Lao was abducted by the Beggars' Gang during the Lantern Festival, and was later found by the Hu family. Was it him?"

Bai Li stood beside the bamboo chair and massaged Prince Jing's shoulders. "It's him, it's him. I heard from my mother that there was quite a stir back then. After he was found by the Hu family, the head of the Taoist temple in Laojun Mountain, Cen Yunzi, went to the capital in person to recruit disciples on behalf of his master, and accepted Hu Junyan into the Taoist sect. So, this Hu Junyan is considered Cen Yunzi's junior fellow apprentice and Taoist Zhang Li's uncle."

Chen Ji suddenly felt puzzled as to why Cen Yunzi suddenly showed up to accept him as a disciple, turning Hu Junyan into the junior master of the Taoist temple.

Did something unknown happen when the Beggars' Sect kidnapped him? Or, was this person, like Xu Shu, from the Forty-Ninth Heaven?
Chen Ji asked curiously, "How old is he?"

Bai Li counted on his fingers: "Twenty-seven years old?"

Chen Ji sighed, "At the age of 27, he was already the fourth-rank director of the Imperial Observatory."

Bai Li smiled and said, "You can do it, too."

Prince Jing changed his posture and pouted: "Him? He's dreaming!"

Chen Ji listened silently without saying anything back.

As they were talking, the guards in front of the clinic came with a respectful voice: "Madam Jingfei, Feng Daban has instructed that except for the imperial physicians and apprentices in the clinic, no outsiders are allowed to enter or leave the clinic at will."

There was a crisp slapping sound.

Nanny Chunrong said fiercely, "You said my wife is an outsider? Who taught you to do things like this? Get out of here."

Concubine Jing said softly, "Chunrong, they are just following orders, don't blame them. But I would like to ask the generals to move aside. I am the prince's concubine, how can you stop me?"

In the courtyard, Prince Jing heard Concubine Jing's voice and hurriedly got up and returned to the main house. Before entering the house, he said to Chen Ji, "Stop her later. I don't want to see anyone today."

Chen Ji hesitated for a moment: "Madam Jingfei is coming with such force that I'm afraid I can't stop her."

Prince Jing said mercilessly: "We must stop it even if we can't."

After entering the house, he pressed his lips against the window and listened quietly to the noise outside the door.

While listening, he whispered to Old Man Yao: "Do you think your disciple will also be slapped?"

Old Man Yao asked slowly, "Does the prince want him to be slapped, or does he not want him to be slapped?"

Prince Jing thought for a moment and said with a smile, "I quite hope so."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Ji was heard outside the house saying, "Madam, my master is giving acupuncture to the prince. It will be over soon. You just wait a moment." Prince Jing's face suddenly darkened.

He slowly looked towards Old Man Yao, only to see that he had silently taken out a set of silver needles and motioned for him to lie on the bed.

Prince Jing reluctantly lay down, letting Old Man Yao give him acupuncture while he complained in a low voice, "Why is this kid so vindictive?"

Old Man Yao laughed cheerfully and said, "Isn't it the same for the prince?"

After a while, Old Man Yao lifted the door curtain and said to the outside, "Princess Jing, please come in."

Chen Ji leaned against the window and quietly eavesdropped on the conversation inside the room. However, the voices were too quiet, so they could only hear Princess Jing saying intermittently: "Old Liu and Taoist Cen Yunzi are old acquaintances. They used to be together... As long as the prince is willing to help the Liu family, the Liu family will definitely help the prince get the Shengyu Pill..."

In less than an incense stick of time, Concubine Jing left in a hurry with red eyes.

The house was silent for a long time, just like a chess player sitting with chess pieces in his hand, lost in deep thought over the intricacies of the game.

Suddenly, Prince Jing whispered, "It's time."

The next moment, he said calmly in the house: "Chen Ji, come in for a moment."

Chen Ji glanced at the prince and Bai Li in the courtyard, then he opened the door curtain and went in, only to see Prince Jing sitting up from the bed, pulling out the silver needles one by one with a dark face: "I have to go out for a while, you come with me."

Chen Ji was stunned: "Your Highness is going out during the day? What if Concubine Yun and Feng Daban come to visit you?"

"Don't worry, they are busy now and can't take care of me."

……

……

Los Angeles, East Market, Anle Street.

This is the liveliest place in Los Angeles at noon. The long street is lined with teahouses and restaurants.

The idle gentlemen in the city like to sit in a teahouse, order a pot of tea, a portion of melon seeds or fennel beans, and listen to storytelling from day to night.

In front of the Fulou Teahouse, Prince Jing stood with his hands behind his back, looked up to confirm the sign, then stepped over the threshold and led Chen Ji to find a corner to sit down.

The waiter in the teahouse was sweeping up the melon seed shells on the floor with a white towel draped over his shoulders. When he saw the two people coming, he immediately came over with a smile and asked, "What kind of tea would you like, gentlemen?"

Prince Jing casually said, "A pot of Maojian, a plate of melon seeds, a plate of fennel beans, a plate of candied fruit, and a plate of sour corn. By the way, what is the storytelling about today?"

The waiter smiled and said, "Sir, Mr. Zhou just told us a story about how the Master became a saint. It was an old story told in a new way, and it was very exciting. Next, he said he would tell us something current, which seems to be a new story about the debate at Luhun Mountain Villa, and it is about our Prince Jing."

Prince Jing's eyes lit up: "This is interesting, I have to listen to it!"

After the waiter left, Chen Ji sat at the Eight Immortals Table and couldn't help asking, "Your Majesty, the serious matter you are talking about is not listening to storytelling in the teahouse, right?"

Prince Jing asked back, "Who said that only family and national affairs are important matters? Listening to storytelling is not an important matter?"

Chen Ji asked curiously: "Then what is considered business?"

Prince Jing tapped the table with his fingers: "Being happy is the most important thing!"

It's no wonder that Chen Ji was confused. This powerful vassal king took him to watch a play yesterday, and today he took him to a teahouse to listen to storytelling. Seeing that Yuzhou was about to be in chaos and war was sweeping across the country, the other party was not in a hurry at all.

Chen Ji thought about it again and again, and said in a low voice: "Prince, are you really going to let go of the Liu family's rebellion?"

But Prince Jing looked at the storytelling stage and said slowly, "Young man, when I was crowned king at the age of twenty-one, I wore a black robe with a four-clawed golden dragon embroidered on it, standing second only to one man and above ten thousand men."

"That year, I was ordered to share the worries of Your Majesty, to kill the treacherous ministers, to protect the throne, to unite the north and south, and to divide the civil officials. I got up at three in the morning every day to handle government affairs, worried about floods and droughts, worried about banditry and disasters. I dared not make any mistakes, dared not waste any time, and only thought about unifying the country, so that one day my name would resound throughout the world."

"Now I am forty-five years old, and your Majesty no longer needs me. It occurred to me that I always heard people talking about interesting stories in teahouses, but I never had the time to sit down and listen to them."

"Tell me, what is the real thing in life?"

Chen Ji remained silent. It seemed that Prince Jing had a lot to say today, but he didn't know why he wanted to say it to him.

At this time, Prince Jing looked at him calmly across the table: "The house on Tongji Street yesterday did not belong to Mr. Lin. He rented it from me. The title deed is with me."

"This Fulou Teahouse is also mine, and half of the properties on Anle Street are mine."

"Thirty-one shops in the capital, and 1,200 acres of fertile land in the suburbs of the capital... These are not in the palace's account, and no one knows that they are the palace's assets. I will leave them all to Bai Li."

Prince Jing stared at Chen Ji and said, "Young man, if the Dragon King had not stationed his troops there and you risked your life to save Baili, this good thing that fell from the sky would never have fallen on your head. There are not many princes in this dynasty who have a good end. Let me ask you, if I am thrown into prison one day, are you willing to risk your head to save Baili?"

Chen Ji looked up suddenly, he finally understood what Prince Jing was going to do... to entrust his son to the care of others.

The two of them were silent, shutting themselves out from the hustle and bustle of the teahouse.

After Chen Ji considered for a long time, he finally nodded.

Prince Jing said solemnly: "I want you to say it yourself, if Bai Li is in danger, you will save her at all costs."

"If Baili is in danger, I will save her at all costs."

(End of this chapter)