Aoyama

The Secret Service and the Anti-Corruption Guard mobilized in full force, and the drums announcing the curfew in the capital resounded throughout the city.

Chen Ji watched as Jin Zhu and the others rode away. One after another, the huge braziers on the city wall lit up, illuminating the shadows of people bobbing and swaying on the bluestone road.

Lin Chaoqing.

This Si Cao Ding is indeed cunning; he has remained undetected for so many years while infiltrating the Jie Fan Wei. Now, having only revealed the slightest clue, he immediately fled, not even caring about the life or death of his own younger brother, Lin Chaojing.

No, whether Lin Chaojing is Lin Chaoqing's younger brother or not, we'll only know after Mengji finishes his investigation.

But Chen Ji didn't care about any of that. He only cared about what would happen to his agreement with the Grand Chancellor if the Secret Service failed to capture Lin Chaoqing.
Under the cover of night, he carried Lin Chaojing and continued north until he reached the Meridian Gate. From afar, he saw the white dragon standing under the city gate, giving instructions to the black snake.

As Chen Ji approached, Bai Long finished explaining his tasks and waved to Xuan She. Xuan She glanced at Chen Ji and then led a group of men south.

Bai Long looked up and saw Chen Ji approaching. He turned and walked into the Meridian Gate, saying, "The Jie Fan Guard is waiting outside the Meridian Gate. The magistrate of Wu Xiang County will come with me."

Chen Ji followed Bai Long up the stone steps to the Wumen city wall.

This was his first time here, and the Meridian Gate was so majestic that he could see the entire Forbidden City in its entirety.

The doors and windows of Jiefan Tower were tightly closed, except for a small window on the top floor, where a person dressed in a black python robe stood by the window, gazing at the brazier on the Zhengyangmen city wall and listening to the drumbeats.

Palace maids carrying lanterns were going back and forth in Renshou Palace, busy with something.

There were lights in Jingyang Palace, but they were too far away for him to see clearly.

Bai Long turned around and reminded him with a half-smile, "Stop looking, or you'll lose your head."

Chen Ji quickly lowered his head, picked up Lin Chaojing, and followed Bai Long into Yan Chi Lou.

The guards stood watch outside the Swallow Wing Tower, which was deserted and deep inside. Yet, the strains of opera music drifted from the shadows: "Years ago, I left home as a young man, wielding a silver spear and riding a white horse, laughing in the spring breeze. Now I return, bowing at the steps, my broken armor knocking on the door, but not a single old friend is found..."

Chen Ji had heard this opera in the Eight Great Hutongs; it was a segment from the Dingxi Mountains.

Bai Long calmly said, "Stop playing tricks and get out there doing something."

The opera singing abruptly stopped, and Mengji's figure, draped in a brown robe, slowly emerged from the shadows. The robe was embroidered with colorful feathers, resembling a theatrical costume.

Mengji said slowly and deliberately, "Lord White Dragon, after I finish this matter, may I return to Kaifeng Prefecture?"

Bai Long casually asked, "So you're that eager to leave the capital?"

Mengji smiled and said, "At least we'll be far away from this Forbidden City."

Bai Long beckoned, signaling Chen Ji to throw Lin Chaojing to the ground: "You can't leave yet. If you capture Lin Chaoqing, you'll be the one to interrogate him."

Mengji sat cross-legged opposite Lin Chaojing: "I have dealt with Lin Chaoqing before, he's not so easy to catch. Once this kind of person disappears into the crowd, his reappearance will surely be earth-shattering."

He casually helped Lin Chaojing put his chin back in place, and Lin Chaojing opened his mouth and moved his jaw.

Mengji sized up Lin Chaojing: "His eyes are filled with love, hate, resentment, and desire. He has a good voice and is handsome. He's a good candidate for male female roles. What a pity."

Knowing he had no way out, Lin Chaojing lost his usual affected scholarly air and instead became more composed: "I've never heard before that a male male role singer has to be aware of these things."

Mengji became interested: "The female roles in operas are mostly women of deep feelings and strong character, and they always encounter unfaithful and heartless men. If the actors themselves do not understand these things, how can they sing out the sorrow of the women in the opera? Look at Chen Ji, he is different. He only has infatuation and stubbornness in his heart, and can only play martial arts roles. When he gets old, he may be able to play a powerful minister with a white face, but not now."

Lin Chaojing laughed heartily: "Then what role would Lord White Dragon be best suited to play?"

Mengji shook his head: "I dare not say who I can afford to offend and who I cannot. I know in my heart."

Bai Long interrupted, "Let's begin. Every incense stick's time that's too late reduces our chances of capturing Lin Chaoqing. Let him speak; I want to hear what he has to say."

With a flick of his wrist, Mengji revealed a small razor in his palm.

He took out a yellow talisman from his pocket, bit his finger, and wrote and drew on the talisman with his blood. Finally, he wrapped a lock of Lin Chaojing's hair in the talisman and swallowed it.

In an instant, Mengji and Lin Chaojing's pupils rolled upwards simultaneously, leaving only the whites of their eyes!

Mengji asked, "Where is Lin Chaoqing?"

Lin Chaojing: "They have already fled the capital."

Where would he run to?

"Yangzhou."

Chen Ji and Bai Long exchanged a glance. The interrogation was simpler than they had imagined. He had thought they wouldn't be able to get anything out of Lin Chaojing.

Bai Long pondered for a moment: "It's fake."

Chen Ji nodded in agreement. Lin Chaoqing was shrewd and decisive in betraying Lin Chaojing; he wouldn't reveal his true whereabouts to Lin Chaojing. He knew that if Lin Chaojing were ever caught, he would face interrogation by Meng Ji, so he had laid the groundwork long ago.

They planned to wait for the secret service to track him down in Yangzhou so they could escape in another direction.

At this moment, for some unknown reason, Mengji saw something in Lin Chaojing's dream and suddenly exclaimed, "You are not biological brothers?"

Lin Chaojing replied, “I am an orphan he adopted on his journey south. In the twentieth year of the Lisheng era, the Ning Dynasty’s border troops from Guyuan launched a surprise attack on the Yan army’s Zhechong Prefecture in Heishui Town, Longyou Road. Qing Wentao allowed his border troops to kill all the men in the town, leaving only women and children. My mother took me to seek refuge with my uncle who was serving in the army in Xijing Road, but she died of illness on the way, leaving me alone sitting by the roadside.”

Chen Ji pondered in his heart that it was now the forty-first year of the Jing Dynasty's Lisheng era, and twenty-one years ago Lin Chaojing was only four years old.

Lin Chaojing's speech slowed down, as if he were savoring a distant past: "He was riding a skinny horse, with a child about my age, covered in dust, a long knife hanging from the saddle, heading towards Guyuan. Seeing me huddled by the roadside, too hungry to speak, he tossed me half a flatbread. The flatbread was mixed with bran, which cut my throat and hurt, but it was enough to keep me alive."

Mengji's voice seemed to drift in the empty Yan Chi Lou: "And then?"

Lin Chaojing's eyes gleamed eerily in the candlelight: "Then he left, and I followed their hoofprints for three days. On the third night, it rained heavily, and I took shelter in a dilapidated temple where they were also warming themselves by a fire. He asked me why I was following him, and I said I didn't know where we were going."

Chen Ji noticed a slight smile playing on Lin Chaojing's lips.

Lin Chaojing paused for a moment: "He said that if I followed him, I would go hungry less often and die more often. I said I was not afraid of death, and that hunger was more painful than death. He killed the child next to him and said that from now on I would be called Lin Chaojing."

Chen Ji's pupils suddenly contracted.

According to Lin Chaojing, Lu Jin should have already arranged a covert identity for Lin Chaoqing, intending for Lin Chaoqing to bring a child to Ningchao to play the role of a brother. However, Lin Chaoqing saw a more suitable candidate on the way and killed the previously chosen child, replacing him with the current Lin Chaojing.

Mengji suddenly asked, "Is he good to you?"

Lin Chaojing's laughter was dry, and this time he answered irrelevantly: "He often said that I was his best student, with the fewest flaws, and most like him."

Mengji inquired, "Like him? How so?"

Lin Chaojing's eyes moved slightly beneath the whites of his eyes, as if he were waking up: "He said it was about eyes. He said that when we look at people, our eyes are empty. He said that people like us are best suited to live in the shadows, but to survive, we must first learn to deceive others. To deceive others, we must first learn to deceive ourselves."

Bai Long's voice was completely calm: "Press him a little harder and ask him about Lin Chaoqing's whereabouts again."

Mengji suddenly asked in a low voice, "Do you know that he will abandon you and leave?"

This time, Lin Chaojing answered very quickly, so quickly it didn't seem like he was dreaming: "I know. The first lesson he taught me was that loyalty is the bait, and life is the hook. The bait can be thrown away, but the hook cannot be let go."

Mengji's voice deepened: "Do you hate him?"

There seemed to be some emotion surging in the whites of Lin Chaojing's eyes, but it was ultimately covered by a blankness: "I don't hate him. He has to live. I haven't dared to rest for a moment in the past twenty-one years, just to repay him for this life."

Mengji said sternly, "You hate him, but you can't tell the difference! Tell me his whereabouts, where would he run off to? Speak!"

The next moment, two lines of bloody tears streamed from Lin Chaojing's eyes: "He went out of Dongzhimen and headed towards Miyun. He has an old knee injury and walks slowly in the rain..."

Dream's pupils rolled back down, and she turned to look at Bai Long: "We can't interrogate him anymore, or it'll be ruined. Not a single drop of rain has fallen yet, and that last sentence is almost certainly a cover-up for Lin Chaoqing... This kid is risking his life to lie in his dream."

Bai Long stood silently in the Swallow Wing Tower for a long time.

The two dynasties stood apart for a thousand years, and the grudges between them had long become a mess. The hateful people also had their pitiable aspects, and the pitiful people also had their hateful aspects.

This is a score that can't be settled.

Bai Long turned and walked out: "Guards, take Lin Chaojing to the imperial prison."

Two secret agents entered from outside the door and dragged Lin Chaojing away.

Chen Ji followed behind Bai Long hesitantly and said, "My lord, I have found Si Cao Ding. Although Lin Chaoqing has not been caught yet, but..."

Bai Long glanced at him sideways: "I know what you're worried about. Don't overthink it. Those who can relieve the Prime Minister's worries will be treated well by the Relief Pavilion. The Prime Minister instructed that it was already difficult enough for you to find Si Cao Ding today, which can be considered as relieving his worries. Although you haven't caught Si Cao Ding yet, it's enough to pay for his life."

Chen Ji immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

The Relief Pavilion helps people relieve their troubles. If you want to save someone's life, you must give up your own life as payment. If you use someone else's life, you must pay up two lives.

Now I've paid with one life, but I still have one life to lose.

Chen Ji asked, "Who else does the Grand Chancellor want to kill?"

“He’s quite impatient,” Bai Long said as he walked down the stairs from the city gate. “If you can capture Lin Chaoqing, you’ll have made up for your second life. Princess Baili will definitely be able to go to the Huangshan Putian Grand Ceremony as promised next April.”

Chen Ji suddenly turned around and walked south without any hesitation.

From the Yan Chi Lou behind him, the faint sound of Meng Ji singing opera drifted: "Kindness and righteousness are always hard to reconcile, swallowed unspoken beneath the sword. Foolish child, only in death do you realize that the reunions sung in operas are only for others..." (End of Chapter)