Aoyama

Chapter 234: Slang
The moonlight in Guyuan is silver, making the world feel cold and desolate.

The four horses shuttled between the mud houses and the small road, but heard a "whoosh" sound. Chen Ji pulled the reins and looked back at the empty street behind him: "The prince should not have sent anyone to look for us. He has already gotten rid of them."

He was wearing a black cloak, and the dark cloud was sleeping soundly inside the cloak.

Xiaoman followed behind on a pony and asked curiously, "Master, why do we have to sneak away quietly?"

Chen Ji replied without even turning his head: "Li Xuan and Qi Zhuozhuo are brave but not wise, and Lord Chen is not a capable official with quick wits. If the prince wants to investigate the case of killing Liang for false credit, he will have to rely on himself. That's fine, but now someone is secretly plotting against the prince and the border troops. If we follow them, we might end up in trouble together."

Zhang Zheng said with emotion: "The Yulin Army is the face of the Imperial Guards after all. I don't know why they recruit so many sons of nobles. Qi Zhuozhuo used to be chased by us at the foot of the Imperial City, but now he is riding on a white horse of the Yulin Army."

Zhang Xia glanced at him and said, "The reason why we use the sons of nobles is not just because of nepotism, but because of their loyalty. The Yulin Army guarding the palace gate is the most important job, and we cannot use people without ties to such positions. If we use a bachelor and he makes a mistake, it will be difficult for the court to execute his entire clan."

She turned to look at Chen Ji: "Will it be dangerous to follow the prince?"

Chen Ji nodded: "I suspect that it was not the Border Army that poisoned the Chen family tonight, but the spies from the Jing Dynasty Military Intelligence Department."

Zhang Zheng was startled: "Spy?"

Chen Ji explained: "As I said before, the border troops had no motive to do this, and neither did the local tyrants in Guyuan City. But if it was the Jing Dynasty spies who wanted to sow discord between the crown prince and the border troops, then it would make sense. It's just that the people around the crown prince seemed to have identified the border troops and didn't infer anything else."

At this time, Zhang Zheng held the reins and laughed, "It's strange, how come there is no one available around the prince? No wonder he was anxious to transfer Master Chen here."

Chen Ji thought for a moment and asked, "Who is Mr. Qi that the prince mentioned? Why didn't he follow the prince to Guyuan?"

Zhang Xia shook his head and said, "I don't know. We know very little about what's going on in the palace. My father and uncle never mentioned it. They are very secretive about the crown prince."

She pondered for a few breaths and guessed, "If you ask me, when the crown prince was deputy academician and investigated the private minting of copper coins, his attitude of trying to smooth things over had disappointed His Majesty to the extreme, so His Majesty simply transferred all the staff who were giving him advice as a warning."

Zhang Zheng said cheerfully, "Your Majesty is afraid that those shrewd and calculating aides will lead the Crown Prince astray."

Chen Ji thought to himself that after he returned to the Chen family, Chen Liqin was immediately promoted to an official of the Eastern Palace, and then the staff around the prince were transferred away one after another, resulting in a power vacuum.

This series of events seemed to be making room for Chen Liqin... Was it a coincidence or a conspiracy?
If Chen Ji was still a newly arrived apprentice in the clinic, he might not have thought about these things. But after seeing how Bai Long and the inner minister swallowed up the Liu family and Prince Jing's mansion, he couldn't help but think about it.

Zhang Xia asked: "So what do we do now?"

Chen Ji came back to his senses and said: "Find the spies from the Military Intelligence Department. Otherwise, they will cooperate with the Jing Dynasty army outside the city, and Guyuan will be in real danger."

Zhang Xia seemed to be thinking: "You want to help the prince?"

Chen Ji was silent for a moment: "Well, I have a reason to get close to the prince, but I can't tell you the reason yet..."

At this point, he suddenly realized: all the people around the prince were transferred away. Could it be that they were not making way for Chen Liqin, but making way for himself?

……

……

In the darkness of night, Chen Ji rode his horse along the narrow dirt road in Guyuan City, looking for something.

A moment later, he found an old man in a dark alley. He was dozing behind a pile of debris, with a worn-out gong and gong hammer beside him.

Chen Ji leaned over and asked, "Old man, are you the night watchman?"

The old man was disturbed, but he didn't even lift his eyelids. He just tucked his hands into his sleeves more tightly and continued to doze off.

Zhang Zheng sat on the saddle, took out a piece of broken silver from his sleeve and threw it on the dirt road, making a puff sound and raising some dust. The old man immediately opened his eyes, crawled over with his hands and feet, and picked up the silver.

Zhang Zheng said to Chen Ji cheerfully, "Ask."

Chen Ji repeated the question he had just asked: "Are you the night watchman?"

The old man smiled flatteringly and said, "My lords, I am the night watchman of Wushifang."

Chen Ji asked curiously, "If he is the night watchman, why doesn't he do the night watch?"

The old man said with a bitter face: "You all just came from outside, right? You don't know, it's not that I'm lazy, but there are many local thugs in Guyuan at night. If you happen to meet the criminals who just committed a crime, you might be killed to silence them..."

Chen Ji asked in confusion: "Doesn't the Guyuan Dusi Mansion care?"

The old man hesitated to speak.

Zhang Zheng threw another piece of silver, and the other party spoke up, "Gentlemen, if the Dusi Mansion wanted to control it, it wouldn't let so many outsiders in. Guyuan's city gates are usually open, and you don't even need a pass to enter or leave. As long as you are willing to pay taxes and tolls, all the tyrants who commit crimes will run here to hide. How can it not be chaotic?"

Chen Ji thought thoughtfully: "When we came, the city gate was closed."

The old man explained: "It's only been more than half a month since the city gates were closed."

Chen Ji asked again: "Did the prince close the city gates when he came to Guyuan?"

The old man shook his head and said, "That's not the case. The prince has only been here for about ten days. The city gates were closed before he arrived. No one was allowed to enter or leave. Many caravans were trapped in the city, making Qiuci Street very busy."

Chen Ji looked at Zhang Xia and said, "It seems that the border troops are still hiding something. Their scouts should have discovered Jing Dynasty's movements earlier."

Zhang Xia's heart tightened: "Do you think the Jing Dynasty army really wants to besiege Guyuan?"

Chen Ji nodded: "The timing of the Jing Dynasty's Tiance Army's arrival is very coincidental... What do you think is the best time to choose if the Jing Dynasty wants to surround this place into an isolated city?"

Zhang Xia was slightly startled as he sat on his horse: "Right now."

Zhang Zheng scratched his forehead: "What are you talking about? Why now?"

Zhang Xia considered, "Guyuan has frequent caravans. If Guyuan was besieged on normal days, Taiyuan would be suspicious if they didn't see caravans for many days. But now it's almost New Year's Day and Lantern Festival, and it's freezing cold, so no one would find it strange even if there are no caravans." She continued, "If it's true as the border troops said, the officials of the Jing Dynasty have infiltrated Guyuan, then Guyuan is probably an isolated city."

The old man panicked: "What are you talking about, are the Jing Dynasty's bandit troops coming?"

Chen Ji did not answer, but continued to ask: "Why do merchants gather in Qiuci Street?"

The old man explained, "The best brothels, restaurants, inns, and gambling houses in Guyuan are all on Qiuci Street. Don't merchants go there when they have nothing to do at night? It is said that a caravan from the northwest was set up by a gambling house and lost all the antelope skins they brought in just seven days. Now they don't even have money to stay in an inn, so they are working as pimps in brothels."

Zhang Zheng sighed: "He is quite flexible."

The old man hurriedly said, "They don't want to be pimps either. They were sold into the gambling house."

As he was talking, he heard hurried footsteps in the distance, and someone was shouting, "Don't run, if I catch you, I'll chop off two of your fingers!"

Chen Ji silently touched the whale knife lying across the saddle. The next moment, several servants dressed in short Hu clothing, holding short knives, passed by them, chasing a middle-aged man with a short knife on his shoulder. This group of people did not even look at Chen Ji and others from beginning to end.

After these people ran away, the narrow road returned to silence, as if nothing had happened.

Zhang Zheng hesitated and asked, "What is this...?"

The old man replied, "Those boys are from Wuqia Gambling House. I think they are gamblers who lost all their money and want to refuse to pay the gambling house."

Chen Ji thought for a moment and asked, "One last question, where is the Dragon Gate Inn?"

"Master, the Dragon Gate Inn is on Qiuci Street. It's the tallest building."

……

……

Red lanterns were hung in the brothels and wine shops on both sides of the long Qiuci Street. The sounds of drinking and the chirping of women in the brothels were endless, like a boiling stove in the cold winter, preventing this frontier military town from being completely frozen.

Chen Ji and others had already dismounted and were walking on the bluestone road, holding the reins.

Zhang Zheng looked around and said, "This is the only place in Guyuan that is paved with blue bricks. I thought I was back in the Red Clothes Lane in Luocheng."

Zhang Xia frowned and said, "Brother, this is a critical moment, don't wander around or play around."

Zhang Zheng laughed cheerfully and said, "What do you think of your brother? I have been through a lot of flowers without getting a single leaf on me. I am tired of playing around. Even if the brothel bosses in the eight alleys of the capital beg me to be their lover, I may not agree. What are you playing for in the imperial city? You are playing for appearances. The wild flowers here cannot attract you."

Xiao Manzhui muttered quietly behind him: "What kind of boasting are you making? Aren't you afraid of blowing your own trumpet out of shape?"

Zhang Zheng said, "Who are you looking down on, little girl?"

Xiaoman looked at Chen Ji and said, "Master, he is mean to me."

Zhang Zheng: “…I don’t have any!”

Chen Ji ignored the two of them. He looked up and saw a three-story octagonal building standing out from the crowd in the middle of the long Qiuci Street.

He led the three people to the door, where he saw a golden plaque with the words "Longmen Inn" hanging in front of the door. The upper couplet on the right read "Observe things, observe the sky, the earth, the sun, the moon, observe up, observe down, observe others, there are always highs and lows"; the lower couplet on the left read "Laugh at the past, laugh at the present, laugh at the east, laugh at the west, laugh at the south, laugh at the north, laugh here and there, laugh at your own ignorance."

Chen Ji's eyes were filled with deep thought. Other inns all had welcoming couplets hanging up, wishing guests from all directions and wealth from all over the world. Why did this Longmen Inn not look like a business, but instead looked like a place for practicing Zen?

He lifted the heavy cotton door curtain and walked in wrapped in wind and frost.

Before he could see the furnishings in the store clearly, a waiter came up with a piece of white cloth and used it to brush the dust off him: "Dear guests, are you staying in our hotel or just passing through?"

Chen Ji lowered his head and watched as the waiter swept him all over his body while sweeping the floor, even touching his sleeves. It was obvious that he wanted to take the opportunity to see how much valuables or weapons he had on him.

When the waiter touched the whale knife wrapped in cloth in Chen Ji's hand, his hand paused slightly, but his face looked calm.

Chen Ji was silent for two breaths and said, "Four people, staying in the hotel."

The waiter stood up with a smile and asked: "Sir, would you like to pay with copper coins or silver?"

Chen Ji narrowed his eyes slightly. If it was an ordinary inn waiter, he would only ask how many rooms you want and what kind of room you want, but this waiter asked a puzzling question... Do you want to use copper coins or silver?
This Longmen Inn is weird in every way.

Chen Ji asked calmly, "How about using copper coins? How about using silver?"

The waiter laughed and said, "Don't think too much, sir. You can use anything. I'm just asking casually."

After that, he called out to the shopkeeper behind the counter, "Shopkeeper, here come Jian Guo and Jian Sun. They might be the copperheads who have gone astray. Come and have a look at the bottom of the sea."

Chen Ji asked: "What does this mean? Why don't I understand?"

The waiter said politely, "Sir, this is our Guyuan dialect, calling the shopkeeper to entertain you."

However, at this moment, Zhang Xia suddenly stepped forward and said to the waiter with a smile: "Brother, there is a fire."

She translated for Chen Ji, "What he just said to the shopkeeper was underworld jargon. A handsome man and a pretty woman have come. Maybe they are ex-traitors who have come to the wrong shop. Let the shopkeeper check our background."

The guy was startled: "Hard work?"

Zhang Xia explained to Chen Ji in a low voice: "He asked if we were fellow Jianghu people."

After that, she turned to the waiter and said, "No need to ask any more questions. The four of us are just passing through Guyuan. We won't delay your business. Please arrange a guest room."

(End of this chapter)