Chapter 6 Colleagues
"There are at least twenty shops selling rice paper in Luo City, and behind them are dignitaries. Which one should I go to?" Jiaotu rolled his eyes.

Chen Ji: "Then you have to ask Lord Zhou."

Jiaotu jumped off Zhou Chengyi's back and turned him over: "Master Zhou?"

"Hey, Master Zhou?!"

But Zhou Chengyi's face was dark blue, his eyes were wide open, and he was already dead.

"Jiaotu, you killed him accidentally!" the Yunyang monster screamed.

Jiaotu rolled her eyes and said, "Don't blame me. He was poisoned to death."

Yun Yang was surprised: "I took out the poison sac from his mouth."

Jiaotu: "He must have hidden poison somewhere else on his body. I just wanted to kill him, but that was fake. I wanted to secretly take the poison from him."

"That's also your responsibility. You are responsible for watching over him."

"If you try to blame me again, I will get angry."

Yun Yang: "Sorry, it was just an instinctive reaction..."

Jiaotu looked at Chenji and said, "It's too slow to search one by one. If we delay for too long, we will definitely lose this big fish. Do you have any ideas?"

Chen Ji slowly stood up and walked to the table. His palms gently stroked the lines of the rice paper. "Xuan paper is all handmade. Every craftsman has different habits. Some like to put more euphorbia bark, and some like to put more straw. Some like to grind it finer when beating it with a stone mill, and some like to be lazy and grind it coarser. The craftsmanship of the rice paper determines its price... If you find the same paper, you can find this store."

Jiaotu leaned closer and bent down to carefully observe the texture of the rice paper. In the past, all rice paper looked the same to her...

……

……

At this time, there was a knock on the door outside the courtyard. Someone picked up the copper ring on the gate of Zhou's mansion and knocked on the door rhythmically.

Outside the door, a hoarse voice asked, "Master Zhou, is Chen Ji in your house?"

In an instant, Yunyang, Jiaotu, all the men in black, and Chen Ji in the yard all looked towards the source of the sound.

dong dong dong.

The knock on the door sounded again, and the animal head with a ring on the gate hit the red painted door, neither fast nor slow, but with an inexplicable sense of oppression.

In the dead of night, the knock on the door seemed particularly abrupt.

The men in black in the yard slowly drew out their swords without making any sound, waiting for Yun Yang's instructions.

These people are the elite among the elite. Chen Ji recalled that from the time he traveled through time until now, no one had said a single word.

dong dong dong.

Seeing no response from the person outside the door, the old voice asked again: "Chen Ji, are you in there?"

Chen Ji was a little confused.

Who will come to find me?

He looked at Yun Yang, but saw that the young man's face was uncertain. After thinking for a moment, he winked at a man in black and said, "Drag all the bodies into the house."

Jiaotu looked at Yunyang: "Who is coming?"

"Don't be nervous, I can tell who it is," Yunyang walked over and lifted the bolt.

When the door opened, I saw an old man with a hunched back standing outside in the darkness. He was wearing a gray gown and a pair of black cloth shoes with white soles. His face was full of wrinkles like gullies on the dry earth.

The old man’s beard grew to his chest, and his hair was tied up on top of his head with a green hairpin. His hair and beard were both snow-white, and he could not be any older.

The old man was a little surprised to see Yun Yang, but Yun Yang smiled and said, "Doctor Yao, I haven't seen you for a long time. Are you still healthy?"

The old man was silent for a moment: "It's you, shouldn't you be in the capital, why are you in Luocheng?"

Yun Yang explained: "I came here because of something urgent. I happened to meet Chen Ji when I came to visit Mr. Zhou tonight, so I asked him to stay and talk."

The old man asked, "Is the minister's leg disease better?"

"Much better. He even praised you as a miracle doctor. The cold he caught at the Firewood Bureau a few years ago has finally been cured." Yun Yang said with a smile, "It's a pity that you didn't stay in the capital, otherwise the emperor would have summoned you to the palace long ago."

"I can't cure His Majesty's illness," the old man said, then changed the subject: "Where is Chen Ji? Now that the medicine has been delivered, it's time for him to go back."

Yun Yang thought for a moment and said, "Chen Ji, go back with Master quickly. Doctor Yao cares about you so much that he has come so far to pick you up at his age."

Chen Ji didn't expect Yun Yang to be willing to let him go...it seemed to be because the old man mentioned the 'Inner Minister'?

He hurried out, but when he passed by Jiaotu, he was grabbed by the other party and said, "Don't talk nonsense when you go back. We will come to find you again."

Chen Ji said nothing and walked out the door quickly: "Master, let's go back."

"Ah."

Doctor Yao, with his hands behind his back and his back hunched, walked unsteadily into the depths of the long street without asking another question.

Chen Ji felt two pairs of eyes staring at his back like hooks. He turned around and saw Yun Yang and Jiao Tu looking at him with a smile at the door.

Yunyang and Jiaotu were dressed in black. They were both handsome with straight backs. They were the kind of people who were pleasing to the eye when they walked on the street.

But these two people killed people without blinking an eye, as if human life was the least valuable thing in the world.

Serious and vicious, this is Chen Ji's most profound impression of the two people.

Chen Ji trotted two steps and followed the old man. With a clang, the door of Zhou Mansion closed behind them.

Phew, Chen Ji breathed a sigh of relief.

This seems to be a world where human life is as cheap as grass.

At the beginning of the time travel, he did not have much desire to survive. He just observed everything like a bystander. His life or death was not really important.

But since he could be reborn once, would his parents also have a chance to be reborn? This was extremely important to him. He had to survive first.

"Master, thank you for coming to pick me up," Chen Ji said sincerely.

The old man sighed, "If I had known that the Secret Service was here tonight, I wouldn't have come."

Chen Ji: "..."

What do you mean?
Don't you want to be my apprentice anymore?
The old man muttered to himself: "Strange, the divination before I left home clearly said it was auspicious, and I thought I would pick up gold ingots... What a rubbish."

Chen Ji was confused by this: "Master, why don't you ask about tonight..."

The old man walked in front, with his back to him, and raised a hand to block the topic: "Wait a minute, don't tell me, I don't want to know about this kind of troublesome things, it will definitely not be good if I know. I can live to be 92 years old, relying on not interfering in other people's business."

Chen Ji: "You are quite good at seeking good fortune and avoiding danger..."

The old man stopped and said, "The medicine has been delivered. Where is the money?"

Chen Ji was stunned. How could he know that there was money for medicine? "I forgot to ask Mr. Zhou for it..."

The old man turned back unhappily and said, "Go back and ask them for it."

Chen Ji said decisively: "I won't go."

The old man thought for a long time and said, "Then you should pay for the medicine."

Chen Ji changed the subject: "...You are very familiar with them?"

The old man said, "I dealt with them in the capital a few years ago. They are cruel and ruthless. They always like to do things that anger the heavens and the people. If you meet them on the street in the future, just pretend not to know them. Or, you can just pretend not to know me when you go out on the street in the future."

Chen Ji: "..."

The old man muttered to himself, "With the arrival of a big shot from the Secret Service, I'm afraid that Los Angeles will be in turmoil."

The long street was quiet, and Luo City seemed to be asleep. Even the East Market, which was usually the busiest place, became quiet and many lights were dimmed.

The night watchman, with a white lantern tucked under his armpit, walked towards them, beating the gong out of boredom and shouting, "It's dry, be careful with fire."

When they reached a crossroads, Chen Ji suddenly saw the master take out three copper coins from his sleeve.

The next second, the old man looked up at the position of the stars, squatted down, and threw a coin six times on the bluestone road: "Hmm... go left."

"Master, is there any danger on the right?" Chen Ji was curious.

"It's not dangerous. You might run into a beggar when you read the divination. As I get older, I have become more compassionate. If I see him, I might throw money to him, so I'll just take a detour and not read the divination," the old man explained calmly.

Chen Ji: "..."

……

……

Inside Zhou's house, Jiaotu squatted on the armchair, holding up his chin and looking up at the night sky: "Just let him go like that? Because his master knows the internal minister?"

"How could that be? The Minister of Internal Affairs is a cruel and ruthless person. Not to mention the apprentice of Imperial Doctor Yao, if he really stands in the way of the Minister of Internal Affairs, Imperial Doctor Yao will also have to die."

Jiaotu sighed: "Okay, do you think that boy could be a spy from Jing Dynasty?"

"It must be," Yun Yang said firmly, "How could an ordinary apprentice withstand my injections? He would have fainted from the pain long ago. Besides, look at his ability to adapt to changing circumstances, which is definitely not something an apprentice in a medical clinic can do."

Jiaotu was puzzled: "Then let him go?"

Yun Yang smiled and said, "If he is really a spy, then he came tonight to meet Zhou Chengyi and pass on information. The Military Intelligence Department of Jing Dynasty must also know about this. After Zhou Chengyi disappeared tonight, he is still alive. The Military Intelligence Department must have concluded that he betrayed Zhou Chengyi."

Jiaotu's eyes lit up: "The Jing Dynasty has always been harsh on traitors, and they will definitely send someone to get rid of him. When the time comes, we can catch the person who came to kill him and make another contribution!"

"That's right!"

After a while, a man in black came back and reported: "My lords, we found two corresponding rice paper shops according to the patterns on the rice paper. The shopkeepers and their employees are being taken to the prison in Luocheng."

Jiaotu stood up: "I will go to interrogate overnight!"

Yun Yang stretched and said, "Then I'll deal with the body. I'll go back and rest early after that."

"Let's first talk about how to calculate the credit for our contribution!"

"Fifty-fifty, of course."

"No."

Yun Yang raised his eyebrows: "Why not."

Jiaotu: "I killed nine people tonight, and you only killed six. I also captured Zhou Chengyi, so it's 60:40. Otherwise, don't invite me to join you in the future."

Yun Yang sighed: "The interpersonal relationships among colleagues are really harder to deal with than corpses. June 4th is June 4th."

Jiaotu jumped down from the armchair and led the men in black away happily, leaving Yunyang alone to clean up the mess.

When everyone left, Yun Yang took out a dozen palm-sized...shadow puppets from his sleeves.

He pierced the wrist of each corpse with a silver needle and squeezed out drops of blood.

Then, he stuck the drops of blood on silver needles and used them to add eyes to each shadow puppet.

The blood flowed into the shadow puppet's eyes, turning them bright red, and the puppet seemed to come alive.

"It's done!"

The next moment, all the dead bodies in the yard stood up one by one and followed Yun Yang out of Zhou Mansion with expressionless faces.

The group walked in a line on the long street for an unknown amount of time before Yun Yang suddenly saw a little beggar lying on the side of the road covered with a straw mat. Due to the cold weather, the little beggar curled up into a ball.

Yun Yang stared at the other party for a long time, took out a string of copper coins from his sleeve and threw it on the ground, then walked into the night with more than a dozen corpses.

(End of this chapter)