Aoyama

Chapter 411 Jingcang
By the time of Xu (7-9 PM), it was completely dark.

The people of Changping County stayed indoors, with only the Jiefan Guard and the Secret Service holding torches, their horses' hooves rushing past on the rammed earth streets, amidst shouts of battle and the sound of copper whistles.

The innkeeper of Fulai Inn was running in the opposite direction of the granary. He seemed to know where the Lu family would hide, so he wanted to buy them some more time.

Only when he heard the whooshing sound behind him, knowing that the Black Serpent had arrived, did he bite open the venom sac in his mouth, turn around and spit at the Black Serpent: "Eunuch!"

Having said that, he slowly fell to the ground, his breath ending.

The black serpent, its body shrouded in a black cloak, slowly walked to the shopkeeper's side, bent down, and looked down: "A death squad with poison hidden in its mouth?"

Just then, a fast horseman arrived and quickly reported: "Sir, our colleagues at the inn have been murdered. We ambushed them around but didn't hear any cries for help. Judging from the marks, they crawled out of a well, and there's a secret room at the bottom of the well."

The black serpent said with a sinister expression, "No cries for help... A Dao Seeking Realm official? Then it's not Chen Ji. Could it be Liao Zhong? Are the facial features still on the corpse?"

The spy reported back, "It's still there."

Xuan She was puzzled. He stared at the shopkeeper's corpse for a long time without saying a word: "It's not Liao Zhong either. Where did that Dao Seeking Realm official come from? Did the Crown Prince's assassins rescue Liao Zhong? No, the Crown Prince's assassins would never rescue Liao Zhong now. They would only kill him."

He meticulously deduced, but repeatedly overturned his own conjectures, eliminating one erroneous possibility after another.

The spy whispered, "Could it be assassins from another family, unrelated to Chen Ji and Liao Zhong?"

Xuan She glanced at him sideways: "Fool, if it had nothing to do with what he was doing hiding in the well, wouldn't he have been able to get away with it by pretending to be a guest at the inn? He must have a reason to hide in the well... Chen Ji must be with him! Strange, why would there be a Dao Seeking Realm official in Changping County to meet Chen Ji? Could it be the Chen family's main branch? Chase after him!"

The spy asked, "Sir, which way should we pursue them?"

The black serpent fell silent.

Just then, he suddenly looked down at the shopkeeper on the ground, and then looked in the direction the shopkeeper had come from.

Xuan She narrowed her eyes slightly and pointed in the opposite direction from where the shopkeeper had fled: "What's over there?"

The spy was taken aback: "Sir, this is the Changping County granary. Sir, this granary is the capital granary, which supplies provisions to the three main imperial camps."

Xuan She sneered, "The capital warehouse? So that's how it is. They're inside the capital warehouse. Surround it and search it!"

The spy hesitated: "Sir, the capital's granary is enormous, and we don't have enough manpower."

Xuan She slowly suppressed his smile, beckoned to his confidant and whispered, "Go find Wu Xuange and have him immediately mobilize the Fanwei troops. If I become one of the top three, it will also benefit Lord Wu Xiu."

……

……

In front of the granary in Changping County.

Chen Ji silently observed through the wooden fence: This granary was like a military camp, with towers between the granaries, archers patrolling in all directions, and every now and then, groups of ten infantrymen would patrol by.

This was the first time Chen Ji had ever seen a granary so heavily guarded.

Madam Lu glanced back at him, and seeing his curiosity, she explained, "The granaries in Changping County are the capital granaries and the imperial granaries, storing grain exclusively for the three imperial camps, which is why they are so heavily guarded. There are eight hundred granaries here, and eight hundred soldiers of the Emperor's Army are stationed here. They are patrolled once every incense stick's time, day and night... This is also why the eunuch faction doesn't need to search this place."

As they walked, Madam Lu continued, “The capital granary, the river granary, the prefectural and county granary, and the garrison granary are all different. If you know the capital granary well, it is the safest. There are always grain transport boats near the river granary. Ordinary people can pay tolls and escape with the help of the grain transport gang, but the grain transport gang is greedy for money and is most likely to turn against you. Don’t hide in the prefectural and county granaries, because the eunuch faction has the right to open the granaries and search them. Don’t hide in the garrison granaries in the border towns either, because nine out of ten granaries are empty.”

After listening for a while, Chen Ji realized that hiding in the most heavily guarded Jingcang was actually the safest option. However, how could he hide in the Jingcang, where the guards were so numerous and complex?
Su Zhou, lying in the grass outside the granary, asked Lu Shi beside him, "Aren't the granaries all sealed off? Where can we hide if we go inside?"

But Madam Lu seemed not to hear her and completely ignored her.

Su Zhou cursed under his breath: "You damned woman!"

The next moment, after Lu and her troop of guards passed by, they immediately scaled the ten-foot-high fence and entered the capital's granary. She turned back and saw Chen Ji following, then stealthily moved forward without looking back, completely disregarding Su Zhou's life or death.

Still outside the wooden fence, Su Zhou cursed and swore, then quickly climbed over the tall fence and quietly followed.

Lu moved between the granaries and warehouses.

The so-called granaries were rows of high-ridged brick houses with gray tiles and blue bricks, no windows, and seals on the doors.

Suddenly, Lu stopped beside a granary and waited quietly for something.

The next moment, the sound of the guards' footsteps rang out a few feet away. Chen Ji could not see the guards, but he could hear a group of guards "brushing past" them on the other side of the granary.

Only after the footsteps faded into the distance did Madam Lu set off again.

The Lu family walked and stopped intermittently, and they didn't see a single garrison along the way. It seemed they were precisely weaving through the "gaps" in the garrison's patrols.

Four words suddenly popped into Chen Ji's mind: leisurely stroll.

At this moment, Lu arrived at a granary, only to find that the granary door was not sealed.

Lu pushed open the door and entered: "This is the 'Rat-Catching' granary. There are holes in the surrounding brick walls, specifically for catching rats. The guards don't usually go this way. The granary workers patrol it every seven days. The last patrol was three days ago."

Chen Ji entered the "Rat-Killing" warehouse and saw several open urns buried inside. Grain was scattered in the urns, and rats that fell into the urns while looking for food could never get out.

Su Zhou muttered softly behind her, "It feels like I'm back home."

Madam Lu ignored her and waited for Su Zhou to enter before turning back to close the warehouse door.

…… ……

Sudden changes occur.

The moment the warehouse door closed, Lu Shi lunged forward from the darkness and pressed a palm against Su Zhou's face.

Su Zhou's expression changed. He retreated while using his left hand to parry the palm strike. However, Lu's palm was like a swimming dragon, suddenly flipping at Su Zhou's wrist and parrying Su Zhou's hand, leaving Su Zhou wide open and exposing his weakness.

Suddenly, Lu's left hand emerged from under his right arm, as if parting the clouds to reveal the sun or a flower hidden beneath a leaf, and in an instant, he grabbed Su Zhou by the neck and slammed him against the blue brick wall of the granary.

Chen Ji's heart skipped a beat.

The masked woman's moves were so fast and swift that Su Zhou was completely powerless to fight back.

With her neck gripped, Su Zhou, her face flushed, said, "Hidden flowers beneath the leaves...where did you learn that?"

In the darkness, Madam Lu stared intently at Su Zhou: "Why are you still following us? No one has put a warrant for your arrest, and no one knows you were just at the inn. You can leave on your own."

Su Zhou drew the Emei dagger from his waist and stabbed it at Lu's wrist, forcing Lu to let go and retreat.

She bent over, breathing heavily, and said, "You doubt me? The shopkeeper and I have been friends for many years!"

Madam Lu calmly replied, "Human hearts are fickle; who knows whether you are a human or a ghost now?"

Su Zhou said in a deep voice, "I, Su Zhou, have been working in the Lighthouse for over ten years. I've seen all kinds of situations, big and small. If I wanted to betray the Lighthouse, I wouldn't have waited until now."

Madam Lu calmly said, "Others would avoid a warrant for arrest like the plague, but you deliberately came up to it. What are your intentions? Even if you didn't sell him, according to what you said before, this kid offended you. It's hard to guarantee that you won't hold a grudge against him and seek revenge."

Chen Ji was slightly taken aback.

Su Zhou was also taken aback: "You must have misunderstood. Although I complained earlier that he and that brat Xiaoman abandoned me, they actually saved my life. If it weren't for them, I would have been captured by the Secret Service. Besides, I am, after all, this kid's elder. How can I sit idly by and do nothing when he is in trouble?"

Lu looked at Chen Ji: "A life-saving grace?"

Only after Chen Ji nodded did she say to Su Zhou, "I can spare your life, but after dawn we'll part ways and not bother each other anymore."

“Whether I leave or not is not up to you,” Su Zhou said, scrutinizing Lu Shi with suspicion. “On the contrary, you are hiding your true identity. I’ve never heard of you in the Lighthouse. Why are you helping him?”

Lu was silent for a moment: "There are many things you don't know about the lights."

She leaped onto the roof beam, lifted a gray tile, and let a ray of moonlight shine into the granary through the gap in the tile.

In the dimly lit barn, Madam Lu chose a corner to sit down.

Su Zhou sat far away from the Lu family in another corner, as did Chen Ji. The three of them were traveling together, yet they were extremely far apart from each other.

After a long silence in the granary, Su Zhou looked at Lu Shi, who was resting with her eyes closed, and then at Chen Ji, who was also resting with his eyes closed. He felt that the two were very similar in their bones, both of them having an unapproachable demeanor.

Su Zhou couldn't help but ask Chen Ji, "Now that arrest warrants are plastered all over the streets, what are your plans to leave Ningchao?"

Chen Ji opened his eyes, but did not speak.

Su Zhou teased, "What, you can't bear to part with the Chen family's legacy? There are rumors going around that you're going to be adopted into the Chen family's eldest branch and marry the third young lady of the Qi family, thus turning your life around as an illegitimate son."

Chen Ji remained silent.

Su Zhou smiled and said, "I was just joking with you. I inquired about you when I went to Luocheng and learned about your falling out with Chen Liqin. I don't think you're a vain person."

She leaned against the wall and sighed, "Your mother passed away early..."

Lu suddenly opened her eyes and glanced at her, then slowly closed them again.

Su Zhou continued talking to himself: "Your stepmother can't tolerate you, and your father is a master at pretending to be confused. Chen Ji, why don't you join my Lamplight? Do you know what Lamplight means? Where there is light, there is home."

Chen Ji remained silent.

Su Zhou glanced at Madam Lu: "Although there are cold-blooded women like this in the lights, most people are still good."

Chen Ji suddenly said softly, "She doesn't want you to get involved in this mess, so she wants to force you to leave. She doesn't really suspect you. If she really suspected you, she would have taken your life without hesitation. You, a Xiantian Realm cultivator, have no reason to live when facing a Dao Seeking Realm cultivator."

Lu opened her eyes again and stared straight at Chen Ji.

Chen Ji continued to say to Su Zhou, "Let's part ways at dawn. This trip is indeed fraught with danger."

Madam Lu spoke up, "Since you know you're facing a nine-out-of-ten chance of death, why do you still choose to stay in Ning Dynasty? Could it be that you're truly coveting the power of the Chen family?"

Chen Ji leaned against the blue brick wall, looking at the sliver of moonlight shining through the roof: "Of course not."

Lu looked at Chen Ji: "I can help you capture Liao Zhong, but not in Changping. Liao Zhong fled to Changping, so there must be assassins here to meet him. You can't go back to the capital, and neither can he, so he can only escape outwards."

She drew a map on the ground in front of her with her index finger: "There are three routes out of Ningchao: one is Guyuan, one is Datong, and one is the sea route. The sea route is in the hands of the Chen and Xu families, so he can't use it; he has no base in Guyuan, so the route through Guyuan is also blocked; he can only go to Datong and leave through the smuggling routes of the eight major Shanxi merchants."

Lu looked up at Chen Ji and said, "Come with me to Datong. We'll wait there and surely catch him."

(End of this chapter)