Aoyama

Chen Ji has many questions he wants to ask.

For example, will the inner minister keep his promise? And with the marriage alliance imminent, how will Bai Li escape?

Could they persuade Emperor Ning to abandon the marriage alliance and pardon Bai Li? Would Emperor Ning agree to change the national policy?

Or is it to help Bai Li fake his death and escape? Can this method deceive Wu Xiu and Jie Fanwei?

Chen Ji was full of questions, but Bai Long didn't give him a chance to ask them. He turned and walked out of the alley: "I know what you want to ask, but I'm in a hurry to see the Grand Chancellor right now. I don't have time to argue with you. Everything will be clear when I go to the palace to meet the Emperor tomorrow."

At this point, Bai Long turned around and glanced at Chen Ji: "Remember to change your clothes. Don't go in front of His Majesty wearing this and get in his way."

Chen Ji looked down and saw that his body was covered in blood and tears. When he looked up again, Bai Long had already left the alley.

Bai Long took the reins from the spy, mounted his horse, and led the group of spies galloping north of the city until they stopped outside Taiye Pond.

He strode towards the Eagle House, holding the rank three ivory token in his hand, and proceeded unimpeded.

Arriving at Xihua Gate.

The palace gates, which should have been locked, were ajar, and a young eunuch whispered, "My lord, the Grand Chancellor is waiting for you at the Jiefan Tower."

Bai Long nodded and followed the little eunuch through the deep palace.

As he passed by the Cining Palace, he couldn't help but take another look at the charred hall, where hundreds of thousands of taels of silver had been reduced to ashes.

The young eunuch walked ahead, but seemed to have eyes in the back of his head: "The Empress Dowager has moved to Yikun Palace temporarily. His Majesty has ordered the renovation of Cining Palace, but specifically requested that six-zhang-long golden nanmu wood from Yunzhou be used as the main beam, in order to highlight the Empress Dowager's nobility. But in this day and age, where can you find six-zhang-long golden nanmu wood? You might be able to find some by confiscating the property of a Grand Secretary, but there's definitely no way you can find any in Yunzhou... I'm afraid Cining Palace won't be able to be renovated anytime soon."

Bai Long watched the little eunuch's retreating figure: "Changxiu, you've been in the palace for seven years. Have you ever planned to leave the palace to work? Go and train in the Jiefan Guard for a few years. The position of Jiefan Guard Commander will be yours sooner or later."

The little eunuch smiled and said, "My lord, I am different from you. You like the world outside the palace walls, but I like the world inside the palace walls."

Bai Long asked with a smile, "Why is that?"

The young eunuch named Changxiu, Yue Hehe, replied, “People say that the palace is like a vast sea, and people’s hearts are hard to fathom. But how good can people’s hearts be outside the palace walls? There are only a few thousand people working inside the palace. As long as you can understand these few thousand people, you can live quite comfortably. But once you leave the palace walls, you will face far more than just a few thousand people. Are their hearts really good?”

Bai Long laughed heartily: "That makes sense. The world outside the palace walls isn't much better than the world inside. No, it might even be more dangerous."

Changxiu hummed in agreement: "I entered the palace the year I left Wunian Mountain. It's quite nice to have some free time each day to read books in Jiefan Tower."

Bai Long asked, "How much have you seen?"

Changxiu said somewhat embarrassedly, "I've only looked at 20%."

Bai Long laughed and said, "That's not a small amount; it's more impressive than many great Confucian scholars."

Arriving at the foot of Jiefan Tower, I found the tower's doors wide open and no lights on.

Changxiu bowed to the darkness inside the Jiefan Tower and said, "Brother Shanniu, Lord Bailong has arrived."

Mountain Ox sat in the darkness inside the door, raising his eyes to scan the white dragon, casually cupping his hands in greeting before silently closing his eyes again.

Bai Long lifted the hem of his robe and climbed the steps, knocking on the door of the Inner Minister: "Your Excellency, your humble servant has returned."

A copper bell rang out from inside the house.

Bai Long pushed open the door and entered, cupping his hands in greeting. "Your Excellency, Han Tong has been captured and imprisoned in the inner prison. He can be sent to the palace for trial early tomorrow morning... Should we order the Secret Service to immediately arrest Si Liang Ba Zhu and the heads of each incense hall?"

The Grand Secretary grunted in agreement, still engrossed in his imperial edicts behind the screen, his tone calm and collected: “No need. If we arrest them all, the grain transport will likely descend into chaos. Arrest two and execute them to deter the wicked. Give the rest official positions… those who obey will be appointed as centurions of the grain transport, and after five years of stability they can be promoted to commanders of a thousand. The most obedient can be promoted to battalion commander and lead five thousand soldiers of the Nanjing grain transport garrison.”

Bai Long agreed: "I will take care of it tomorrow."

At this moment, the inner minister wrote a few lines on a piece of paper, picked it up and blew on the ink: "Give it to Mengji later. Tomorrow, interrogate according to the instructions on the paper. Ask what you should ask, and don't ask a single word you shouldn't ask."

Bai Long walked around the screen, took the Xuan paper in his hand and examined it, but suddenly froze.

The Minister looked up at him: "What is it?"

Bai Long pondered for a moment: "Chen Ji has now captured Lin Chaojing and Han Tong. Will the Grand Chancellor release Princess Baili as promised?"

The Grand Secretary stopped writing, looking at the screen with a half-smile: "What, you don't trust me?"

Bai Long bowed and clasped his hands: "This humble servant dares not. However, after reading about the matter to be tried tomorrow, I feel that there may be some twists and turns, and it seems that the Grand Chancellor intends to break his promise."

The Minister of the Interior said slowly, "They're becoming increasingly ignorant of the rules."

Bai Long did not back down, but calmly said, "Before Mr. Feng left, he said that when speaking with the Grand Chancellor, there is no need to follow the rules or talk about personal relationships. As long as the matter is done right, nothing else matters. Mr. Feng said that the Grand Chancellor only cares about the result and does not care about the process."

The inner minister chuckled: "He's getting more and more audacious. Is this something you can just teach anyone?"

Bai Long said softly, "This humble servant thinks Mr. Feng's teaching is correct."

The Minister rose from behind his desk, walked to the window, and looked out: "More than twenty years ago, someone taught me many principles. He said that when judging others' actions, you should only look at the results, otherwise, others can easily make up an excuse to fool you, and how can you become a leader? As long as the result is perfect, then everything is perfect." "But when judging yourself, you should only look at the process, not the result; just do your best. He said that the most tragic thing for a person is to judge others by their process and judge themselves by their result. In the end, they spend their whole lives getting stuck in a rut, sitting by the oil lamp for twenty years, just for that one result, trapped in it. Like a relic of the past."

Bai Long looked up and asked, "Is the Grand Chancellor referring to Chen Ji, or to himself?"

The inner minister smiled and said, "Feng Wenzheng has corrupted you. The old folks often say that the ten most important things in a person's life are: first, fate; second, luck; third, feng shui; fourth, accumulating good deeds; fifth, studying; sixth, associating with noble people; seventh, respecting the gods; eighth, meeting a good person; ninth, seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune; and tenth, not being fixated on good and evil. If one can achieve three of these ten things, one can live a good life."

"But the reverse of these ten things is the way to success. First, you must not be fixated on good and evil, then learn to seek good fortune and avoid misfortune, and then meet a good person who will not cry, make a fuss, or hang himself. Once you have met a benefactor and understood the books, if you still haven't succeeded, the rest is no longer your concern and must be left to fate and destiny."

Bai Long cupped his hands and said, "I have learned a lot."

A cold wind blew in from outside the Jiefan Tower, and the Inner Minister felt the chill in the wind: "The weather is getting cold... The hardest time for poor people is winter. In spring, summer, and autumn, there is still a way to survive. As long as they are diligent and willing to work, they will not starve to death. Only in winter is there no way for the poor to survive. Therefore, firewood comes first among the necessities of life: firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea. Chen Ji was indeed generous in giving away honeycomb briquettes. This year, if anyone hoards coal, we will find a reason to kill them all."

Bai Long replied, "Yes."

The inner minister closed the window and turned to look at Bai Long: "Is there anything else?"

Bai Long pondered for a moment, then shook the Xuan paper in his hand: "Since the Grand Chancellor has already decided to release Princess Bai Li, why not just release her directly instead of going through all this trouble?"

The Grand Chancellor laughed: "That brat was so audacious as to burn down the Cining Palace. What's wrong with making him pay some compensation? Alright, go back and rest."

The white dragon stood still.

The minister asked in confusion, "Is there anything else?"

Bai Long asked earnestly, "Is the Grand Chancellor truly willing to release such a valuable bargaining chip as Bai Li?"

The Prime Minister sat back down at his desk: "I already have something better."

……

……

Chen Ji returned to the Chen residence at midnight, and the palace gates would open in three hours.

He glanced inside; the dark clouds had vanished. Xiaoman was fast asleep in the west wing, her snoring audible even through the window. The little monk was sleeping even more soundly.

Chen Ji's emotions gradually calmed down.

He went into the side room, took off his clothes, and looked at the bloodstains all over his body—his own dried blood. Beneath the dried bloodstains were four faint streaks, and four others that were perfectly intact.

The patterns were formed from the molten flow. He hadn't noticed any changes when he used only one pattern before, but now that he had used three in one go, he was surprised to find that the faded patterns had all turned back into molten flow and flowed back into the furnace fire.

At this moment, the 720 furnaces within my body are burning fiercely, more intensely, and more vigorously than ever before.

What was once just a small campfire is now a raging inferno fueled by hundreds of pieces of firewood, its flames soaring several meters high. The mottled fire never disappeared; it returned once he used up the mottled patterns.

After a moment's thought, Chen Ji lifted the large water vat filled with water with his bare hands, and was able to lift it up with ease... In the past, even if he could lift it up, he would never have been able to do so with such ease.

He muttered to himself, "I still don't know how to break through to the Dao Seeking Realm, so having more strength is a good thing."

Chen Ji used a wooden ladle to scoop up clean water and wash the blood off his body before changing into his bright red official robes, which represented his identity as a male from Wuxiang County.

A white gauze undershirt with a blue-edged collar.

He wore a crimson gauze robe with a round collar and right-fastening front, adorned with plain gold square patches on the front and back, each patch embroidered with a qilin (Chinese unicorn) pattern.

He wore a black lacquered gauze turban with two straight corners, each about 1.2 feet long.

Chen Ji was dressed exceptionally formally today.

After getting dressed, he sat quietly on the stone bench in the courtyard, waiting for dawn.

Wu Yun returned unnoticed and sat down at the stone table beside him: "Did you catch Han Tong?"

Chen Ji nodded: "We've caught him."

"So what are you thinking about?" Wu Yun asked curiously.

Chen Ji said calmly, "I hope everything goes smoothly from now on."

Wu Yun then asked, "What do you plan to do after we rescue the princess?"

Chen Ji pondered for a moment: "I originally planned to take her with me to Jingchao. I heard that Master is there, the Crown Prince is there, and Brothers Liang Mao'er and Liang Gou'er are there too. Once we meet up with them, we might go to the deep mountains and forests further northeast to kill wild boars, hunt bears, gather lingzhi mushrooms, collect honey, and dig for ginseng. When we're hungry, we can stew some chicken and mushrooms, and when we're thirsty, we can drink spring water. We can build a wooden house in the forest... Wu Yun, I've heard people say that when you see a friend, you'll feel like you've returned to the age when you first met them. As you grow up, you constantly lose yourself, and a part of that is preserved in your friends. When you see them, those lost parts are found again."

Dark Cloud tilted its head: "That was the original plan... but what about now?"

This time, Chen Ji didn't answer; it seemed many things had quietly changed. (End of Chapter)