Chapter 77 Another explosion
On the dim street, the Prince and Bai Li were fleeing from the Red Lane with their heads down, first heading north and then turning west.

The two were no longer calm and composed, their clothes were torn in several places and their hair was disheveled.

The two were running breathlessly when they suddenly heard a loud explosion behind them. Then the whole city of Los Angeles seemed to be awakened, and the watchdogs in every household were barking wildly.

Bai Li stopped and looked back at Hongyi Lane with a worried look on his face: "What happened? Why is there such a noise?"

The prince thought for a moment and said, "It sounds like someone is using firearms... I heard this kind of noise when I followed my father to observe the Shenji Camp's firearms and artillery drills."

"Fire gun?!" Bai Li was shocked and turned around to go back to Anxi Street.

The prince's face changed drastically, and he quickly grabbed her arm: "Little Ancestor, where are you going? We finally escaped!"

Bai Li turned around and asked anxiously, "Could this fire cannon be used against the man who just saved us? The power of the fire cannon is so strong that even the high officials have to temporarily avoid it. How can he resist it?"

The prince was also troubled. "Logically speaking, the Shenji Camp is a hundred miles away. If there is no serious matter, they will never enter Luocheng. Moreover, even if the Shenji Camp came, they would not dare to use fire guns and cannons in the city. I guess it is not fire guns and cannons, but something else... Should we go back to save him? That knight saved us, we can't be so ruthless."

"Is there any way to save him?" Bai Li asked.

The prince thought for a moment, gritted his teeth and said, "We can't save him if we run back like this. You follow me to the Qiansui Army camp and ask Uncle Wang to send troops to surround Hongyi Lane. As long as you and I can persuade Uncle Wang to send the Qiansui Army, no matter how elite the Jiefan Guards are, they only have 500 people!"

"Can we convince Uncle Wang? He won't move unless he sees father's tiger talisman," Bai Li said worriedly.

"I'll kowtow to Uncle Wang, I guarantee it will work!"

Baili: “…”

At this time, the sound of horse hooves was heard in the distance. The prince hurriedly pulled Bai Li into the dark alley and found an abandoned bamboo basket in the alley to cover the two of them.

A moment later, five hundred cavalrymen of the Jiefan Guard passed by from outside the alley. Their neatly-dressed hats, straw raincoats, and swords looked particularly eerie and solemn on the stone road under the moonlight.

Next to Lin Chaoqing, a young man was walking by his side, holding the reins: "Sir, will the Golden Pig fall this time?"

"No," Lin Chaoqing said calmly.

"He mobilized the Jiefan Guards of our Mengjin camp without authorization but returned empty-handed. He didn't catch a single thief from the Jing Dynasty. Why don't we take this opportunity to arrest him and bring him back to the capital?" The young man asked doubtfully, "Even if this matter is reported to the Minister of Internal Affairs, we are still right. These twelve zodiac signs of the Secret Service are arrogant and domineering. Catching them will eliminate harm to the people."

Lin Chaoqing looked forward, and although he was riding on a horse, his back was straight, like a spear. "Jiaotu and Yunyang have no foundation in the Secret Service, so it's fine if they are dealt with. But Jinzhu is different. He has been loyal to the Minister of Internal Affairs over the years, and he has Tianma to protect him. Such a small matter alone cannot move him."

As he was talking, Jie Fanwei gradually walked away.

An unknown amount of time passed before the prince made sure that no one was outside the alley. He then took off the broken baskets on him and Bai Li and said, "It seems that they didn't catch anyone. We don't need to rescue them. This person is so powerful that he could escape from the Secret Service and Jiefanwei?"

Bai Li hesitated for a moment and asked, "Brother, do you know the man who saved us? Does he look familiar to you?"

The prince said awkwardly, "At that time, I was only thinking about how to escape, and I really didn't observe carefully... Could it be that the people from the underworld that I made friends with before saw that we were in danger and came out to risk their lives to help us?"

Speaking of those Jianghu people, Bai Li immediately said in a bad mood: "What kind of people are you making friends with? They run away when there is danger! It must not be those Jianghu people, they are all fake friends!"

“There are also some good ones…”

"Anyway, I won't pay for their drinks anymore," Bai Li said angrily, "These people spend money like water when they drink. They want to choose the best food and drink the best wine. They talk about delicious food, fine wine, and beautiful women, but when it comes to the critical moment, none of them can be trusted. I don't feel sorry for the money, I just look down on their chivalrous talk."

The prince scratched his head and said, "Okay, okay, I won't pay for their drinks in the future... By the way, you just said that the knight who saved us looked familiar. Did you recognize who he was?"

Bai Li was silent for a moment: "No, I didn't recognize who it was either."

She actually had a guess in her mind, but she didn't say it out loud. Instead, she chose to bury it in her heart and prepare to verify it carefully.

Bai Li took off her hairpin, raised her arms and tied her hair up again, then set off again.

The two of them hid all the way back to Anxi Street. When they saw the guards and plaque of Prince Jing's Mansion from afar, they finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Bai Li did not climb back to the palace from the back garden. She suddenly said to the prince, "Brother, let's go back from the Taiping Clinic. There is a ladder there."

The prince supported his knees with his hands, panting and saying in surprise: "When you came out tonight, you said that you would never go to Taiping Clinic again and would never let the little thief Chen Ji make money from your tolls. Why did you change your mind again?"

Bai Li rolled his eyes: "Is it okay if I don't want to climb over the wall? It would be much more convenient to have a ladder."

The prince also rolled his eyes: "Women are so fickle."

The two men quietly sneaked to the door of Taiping Medical Clinic and were about to open it, but found that the door was bolted from the inside.

Bai Li thought for a moment and called out, "Chen Ji, Chen Ji, we are here to pay you the toll!"

Quiet.

silence.

No one answered the door.

Bai Li's guess became more and more certain. She bent down and tentatively shouted at the crack in the door, "Chen Ji, I'll give you ten taels of silver this time!"

Still quiet.

Still no one answered.

Bai Li muttered, "It's really not in there."

As soon as he finished speaking, the door opened with a creak.

Bai Li was stunned and slowly raised his head, only to see Old Man Yao standing calmly at the door.

She said awkwardly: "Doctor Yao, am I disturbing you? Where is Chen Ji? Why didn't he come to open the door?"

Old man Yao said expressionlessly, "Why are the princess and the prince not sleeping in the middle of the night and coming to my Taiping Clinic? I am 92 years old and cannot stand your torture."

Bai Li thought of a solution in a hurry: "Doctor Yao, my brother and I are feeling a little unwell. Can you let us in so that you can check our pulses?"

Old man Yao glanced at her, then reached out and pinched her wrist to feel her pulse across the threshold.

After a while, Old Man Yao said, "Your brain is sick and cannot be cured. Please go back."

"Did you take the wrong pulse? Let me go in and sit down and I'll take it again carefully," Bai Li tried to squeeze through the door past Old Man Yao, but Old Man Yao quickly closed the door as if he had predicted it.

With a clang, the wooden door closed tightly.

Old man Yao's voice floated out from the crack of the door: "The prince and the princess should return to the palace from other places. If you make trouble again, I will report this to the prince when he comes back." Bai Li wanted to knock on the door, but the prince pulled her away hurriedly: "Let's go, let's go. I guess Chen Ji's borrowing the road for us has angered Doctor Yao. Let's not make Chen Ji embarrassed and go through the back garden. If Doctor Yao really reports this to father, I'm afraid your monthly salary will also be cut off..."

Bai Li was pulled and looked back every few steps, his eyes cast towards the tightly closed wooden door again and again, but he had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​finding out the truth.

She wondered: Could it be that Chen Ji hadn't come back yet, so Doctor Yao was helping to cover for him? This must be the case...

But if it is true as Jie Fanwei said, that the Secret Service did not catch Chen Ji, then where would Chen Ji be now?
……

……

Under the cover of night, Chen Ji was limping through the intricate alleys.

He slowly stopped, bent down panting, untied the cloth wrapped around the wound on his right leg, and then tightened it again.

The wounds on his chest and legs were aching, but he hadn't finished his work tonight and had no time to stop and rest.

Chen Ji looked up at the surroundings and continued to run towards the meeting place he had agreed to meet with Wu Yun.

After turning two more alleys, I saw Wuyun squatting on the eaves of the alley and asked with concern: "Are you okay?"

Chen Ji bent over and panted with emotion: "Jin Zhu must be a master in the realm of seeking the way. Even such a powerful firecracker could not kill him. The background of the great official is unfathomable. This world is more terrifying than I imagined. If I hadn't had the gunpowder just now, I would have been taken back to the inner prison now."

Wuyun meowed again: "I'm asking how your injury is. Why don't you go back to your master and let him treat your injury first."

Chen Ji shook his head: "No, we must kill Manager Yuan first. The Secret Service will be surrounding Jinfang tonight. If he thinks I leaked the secret, he might be thinking about how to kill me now... Can you track his whereabouts now?"

Wu Yun replied, "He delivered goods to other clinics at noon, and went straight back to his residence on Tongji Street in the afternoon. He has not come out since then."

During the day, Manager Yuan drove a bullock cart to deliver goods to Taiping Clinic. When he was leaving, two tabby cats secretly followed him.

Just now, Chen Ji and Wu Yun separated to let it go to find the two tabby cats.

Chen Ji frowned. "It seems that Manager Yuan knew about the Golden Pig's capture plan at noon... Who told him? It was those dozen clinics! Wuyun, which clinics did he go to?"

Wuyun shook his head: "The brain of the tabby cat cannot remember so much information. It can only recall part of it at most."

Chen Ji thought: "Well, as long as Manager Yuan is dead, it's none of my business who passed the message to him."

As he said this, he stood up with the help of the wall and wanted to continue on his way.

However, tonight he first killed six secret agents, then severely injured the Golden Pig and fled across the rooftops, almost completely exhausted. He took just two steps when he felt his legs go weak and could hardly walk.

Wuyun asked worriedly, "Let's go back to the clinic?"

Chen Ji shook his head: "Take me to his residence. Manager Yuan must die tonight."

……

……

Tongji Street has always been a place where merchants gathered and lived. Different from the courtyards of literati families, the stone lions in front of the doors here are more majestic than each other, the carriages parked in front of the doors are more exquisite than each other, and the plaques and door lintels are higher than each other, as if they are afraid of being outdone by their neighbors.

According to the laws of the Ning Dynasty, merchants and opera actors were not allowed to ride in horse-drawn carriages. They had to be scholars with a status higher than that of a scholar to do so.

However, in recent years, there are more and more private workshops and merchants in the Ning Dynasty. With the support of their own backers, they convert trucks into horse-drawn carriages. Once they are inspected, they just stuff some silver into the carts to fool people. As a result, this law has gradually become a dead letter.

At this time, a mansion on Tongji Street was as quiet as a cemetery, without a single servant or servant.

Shopkeeper Yuan sat in the main hall with the doors and windows closed. Although it was clearly late at night, he was still neatly dressed, as if he was patiently waiting for the long night to end.

scoff.

He suddenly heard a strange noise coming from outside the door. The crackling sound was extremely abrupt in the middle of the night.

Shopkeeper Yuan stood up solemnly, slowly approached the door, and listened through the crack of the door to see what the sound was...

There was a squeak.

Shopkeeper Yuan saw someone open his window from the outside, throw in a bamboo tube, and then carefully help him close the window.

not good!

Shopkeeper Yuan looked at the medicine cord that was about to burn out and wanted to break out of the door immediately, but the door seemed to be blocked by a wooden beam and could not be pushed open for a while!

"You're looking for death, open it for me!"

But Manager Yuan attacked angrily, slamming the two doors with both palms. The two wooden doors could not withstand the overwhelming force and broke into pieces!
How could a door stop a master of this level?
However, after Manager Yuan smashed the door, he did not see any figure outside the door, but instead saw a bamboo tube with a burnt-out medicine stick lying upright not far from the door!
Finished!

Shopkeeper Yuan didn't know whether he should advance or retreat!

There was a bang.

The two bamboo tubes inside and outside the house exploded at the same time. Saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal mixed together and burned violently. White sugar mixed with gunpowder under high temperature released a large amount of gas.

In an instant, a huge shock wave swept through the house, carrying with it the broken iron pieces in the bamboo tube and tearing the clothes on Manager Yuan into pieces.

There was another loud bang, and the brick wall of the house could not bear the weight of the roof anymore. Countless gray tiles raised huge dust like a landslide, burying Manager Yuan alive in the house!

Chen Ji flashed out from the corner of the yard, and amid the tinnitus, it seemed as if a huge metallic noise was roaring in his ears.

He could not hear any sound from the outside world and looked at the ruins of the house vigilantly.

Is Manager Yuan dead?

The bamboo tube exploded in the air before, but the power of the gunpowder was not fully exerted.

This time the bamboo tube exploded inside the house. Even though Manager Yuan had broken the door, the power still increased exponentially.

Chen Ji kept hoping in his heart, dead, Shopkeeper Yuan must be dead!
But... there is no ice flow!
Chen Ji staggered towards the ruins, wanting to peel off the tiles and then give it another try.

But he had just staggered a few steps when he heard a click.

The ruins suddenly arched up!
Chen Ji stepped back with a solemn expression... Shopkeeper Yuan could actually still move! ?

(End of this chapter)