Chapter 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 you.

But you may not care about what others say. You may care more about whether your friends say something for you 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 have heard it somewhere before?"

At this time, Princess Baili looked at Chen Wenxiao and said, "Excuse me, is your brother's loan note 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 said is true."

A scholar bowed to the princess and said, "Wen Xiao is a man of noble character, and he will definitely not lie about this matter."

"Okay," Princess Baili let out a sigh of relief.

Chen Ji was listening silently 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 looked at Chen Ji vaguely from behind the bamboo curtain and said, "Don't your family know that you are from the Secret Service?"

Chen Ji replied, "Madam, I am not a member of the Secret Service. At most, I am a hawk of 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 be paid fifty taels of silver for every clue I 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 point, she had already believed what Chen Wenxiao said. This apprentice in the clinic was indeed a gambler who was willing to sacrifice his life for money.

However, Chen Ji thought that this was the disparity in the world. He worked so hard to earn only fifty taels, but in the eyes of Concubine Jing and Concubine Yun, this little money was nothing at all.

Concubine Jing slowly leaned back on her couch behind the bamboo curtain and said, "Help me to get revenge. If you succeed, I will give you one thousand taels of silver."

Chen Ji thought for a moment and asked, "Do you want Liu Mingxian to die?"

"Yes."

"Lord Liu has hidden experts around him, and he rarely goes out. It's not easy to kill him. If he uses the Secret Service, Yun Yang and Jiao Tu have been defeated by him, which makes it even more difficult... If you want revenge, you have to pay 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.

At that time, as long as the officials don't take action, the ordinary three or five spies will have no chance of doing anything to me.

While she was thinking, Concubine Jing suddenly asked, "What do you think of Chunhua? She is in her prime, a lovely girl. Although she is older than you, she knows how to love others. It cost me a hundred taels of silver to buy her from Yangzhou."

Chen Ji quickly replied: "Madam, please don't match people up randomly. Just give the money."

……

……

Banquet room.

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?"

"I'm here. How is he doing recently? As his brother, why don't you go and 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 when he did something like that?"

The Ning Dynasty ruled the country with the moral code of principles, and the system of ruler-rule, minister-minister, father-father, and son-son constrained the order of the entire society. However, although everyone said that mothers are kind and children are filial, and brothers are friendly and respectful to each other, how many parents in this world who are not biological children can 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, but someone patted him on the shoulder. He turned around and saw that Chen Ji had returned to the table without him knowing.

Chen Ji bowed to Chen Wenzong and Chen Wenxiao from a distance and said, "My two brothers, we are reunited today after a long absence. I didn't expect it to turn out like this. Why don't we just let it go? After all, this is a literary gathering organized by the prince. Don't disturb the other guests."

When Bai Li saw Chen Ji appear, he quickly pulled the prince's arm and said, "Brother, it's him. He's the one who collected our tolls and set up the ladder for us. I should have known not to speak up for him!"

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: "To collect three taels of silver at a time, his heart is black. But... although he is a bad person, I don't think he is a gambler."

The prince smiled and said, "Have you ever seen what a gambler looks like?"

Bai Li recalled and thought: "I saw it when I followed you to the gambling house. The gamblers in the gambling house had lost their minds and didn't care about anything other than gambling. Their eyes were bloodshot, their clothes were dirty, and there was mud under their fingernails... But he was very clean and full of energy."

A gambler only thinks about gambling. He gambles when he wakes up and goes to sleep after gambling. How can he have the 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 the monk."

"How can he have reformed? Even if he doesn't gamble anymore, 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 also at this moment that Chen Wenzong remembered that Chen Ji had previously stared at him at the table, 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, "It was wrong to ask Xiao before. 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 said, "Father has been at home recently. If you have time, come back and fulfill your filial duty. He will be happy to see that you have reformed and studied medicine diligently."

Chen Ji replied: "I am also very busy with my studies at the Imperial Medical Institute, so... it's not necessary."

He had no plans to return to the Chen family, and he didn't even plan to go back in the future. As he said to Old Man Yao, he really had already regarded the clinic as 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 the family would be unpopular.

Since you are not welcome, let's stop associating with each other, so that we don't have to put on a show.

At this time, one of them stood up and said with a smile: "The so-called monarch, minister, father and son, the rules and regulations must not be violated. Maybe you blame your father for not sending you to Donglin Academy, or you blame him for neglecting you, but he is still a father and you are still a son. You still have to fulfill your filial duty."

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, no wonder he felt that the other person looked familiar!
This Lin Chaojing actually looks 80% similar to the Chief Judge Lin Chaoqing. I guess they are either brothers or related.

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 and just patted Liu Quxing and She Dengke on the shoulder 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 in a clear voice, "You three are also here to participate in the literary gathering. I believe you all have something special in mind. Just now everyone took out their new works to read. I wonder if you three have any works to bring?"

Chen Ji looked straight at Lin Chaojing and remained silent.

Works? He has no works.

Want to copy the works of his former world? He can't copy them either.

Chen Ji has a serious imbalance in his studies. Over the years, he has been studying science, popular science, reasoning, reconnaissance and counter-reconnaissance knowledge. Even when he studied some liberal arts content, he only studied cryptography.

So, it's not a big problem for you to ask him to make gunpowder now, but it's really difficult for him to recite a poem...

If you really want to memorize poems, you can probably only memorize the most famous line of each poem.

For example, there will be a time to ride on the wind and waves, and set sail to cross 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 heart. 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.

and many more!

Chen Ji's thoughts suddenly cleared up like the clouds and the sun appeared in his mind, 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 will be another chapter later

(End of this chapter)