Chapter 620
World 2
There was a heavy snowfall in the capital, and the world was completely deserted.
The snow had stopped, but the sky was still gray. The clouds hung low, as if some unapproachable entity was looking down upon the capital with lowered eyes.
Chen Ji and Wu Yun sat side by side on the roof ridge, looking up at the low-hanging clouds. He placed the whale knife across his lap, repeatedly pushing it out of its sheath, closing it, then pushing it open again, and closing it again.
The rooster crowed.
The cloud meowed, "Want to go fetch water?"
Chen Ji stared intently at the sky: "We won't need to fetch water anymore."
The dark cloud tilted its head to look at him, its tail tip sweeping across the snow, drawing a shallow arc: "Why?"
Chen Ji smiled and said, "I used to think that as long as we could get all the people from Anxi Street together, things would be the same as before. In the morning, I went to fetch water, She Dengke chopped firewood, Liu Quxing was lazy, and Master got up cursing and grumbling. When he lifted the pot lid, the porridge was burnt again."
He paused, his gaze piercing through the gray sky as if trying to see into the distance: "But those people can never be gathered together again."
The cloud seemed to understand but not quite, so it rested its head on his knee and rubbed against him.
Chen Ji stroked its head, his fingers sinking into the thick black fur, which felt warm and cozy. "I've worked so hard for a year, but it seems like I haven't accomplished anything and I've been scolded by so many people. Thinking about it this way, I might as well have left back then."
The dark clouds pricked up their ears: "Where are you going?"
“Let’s go to sea,” Chen Ji said, placing his knife across his knees. “We’ll find a ship and be sailors. Well, we don’t have to be proper sailors. We’ll just drink ourselves into a stupor every day and go wherever the ship goes.”
Chen Ji's thoughts drifted off to somewhere: "The kings of small Western countries might be easier to kill. Killing two of them might be enough to reach the Dao Seeking Realm... I wonder if killing them would be useful? I wonder if they've discovered the New World yet. If not, we should be able to pull off a big heist over there."
Chen Ji naively dreamed of places he couldn't reach. It might seem childish to others, but it was just right to tell the one-year-old Wu Yun.
After pondering for a moment, Wuyun meowed, "Shall we go after the wedding? Let's sneak away."
Chen Ji pondered for a long time before saying, "Okay."
"Then shall we come back?" asked Wuyun curiously.
Chen Ji fell silent.
At this moment, Xiaoman pushed open the door of the side room and came out.
She looked up and saw Chen Ji and Wu Yun sitting on the roof. She immediately went into the kitchen, tied on her apron, and said, "Young master, I'll cook you some porridge. Drink it while it's hot to warm yourself up."
Chen Ji patted Wu Yun's head, climbed off the roof, and looked at Xiao Man's dark circles: "Didn't sleep all night?"
Xiaoman didn't answer, but squatted by the stove stuffing firewood and straw into the fire: "Young master, if you go to fetch the bride, will the Pao Ge and Erdao be able to come back?"
Chen Ji leaned against the kitchen doorway, offering no reply.
Xiaoman didn't press for details, only muttering to herself, "The neighbors are such snobs. When you were still the Viscount of Wuxiang, they were so attentive, calling me 'Miss Xiaoman, Miss Xiaoman.' But now that you've been stripped of your title, they all pretend not to recognize me. Oh, and the other day a Jiefan Guard came and said that since you're no longer the Viscount of Wuxiang, this house has to be taken back, and we have seven days to find a place to stay."
At this point, Xiaoman looked pitifully at Chen Ji: "Young master, could you ask someone to discuss with us about buying this small house? It's our first home in the capital."
Chen Ji suddenly spoke: "Xiaoman."
Xiaoman asked in confusion, "Hmm?"
Chen Ji thought for a moment: "I'll go buy two jars of good wine later. When the brothers come back at noon, we'll drink together and make up for what we owed yesterday."
Xiaoman's eyes lit up: "Young master, can you really save the Gelaoge?"
Chen Ji said confidently, "We definitely can."
Just then, someone outside the courtyard was making a crunching sound as they stepped on the snow.
Chen Ji walked over and pushed open the courtyard gate; the alley was already full of people.
Jin Zhu stood at the front, followed by twelve men in gray cotton robes, each carrying a wooden box wrapped in red silk, neatly folded cloth, sealed wine jars, and fruit boxes tied with red ropes, all arranged in an orderly fashion.
Not far away stood four people, dressed in brand-new blue cloth gowns, with red headscarves wrapped around their heads, and carrying suona horns, gongs, drums, and cymbals.
“Everyone’s here, and the horses are just outside the alley,” Jin Zhu said, patting the snow off his clothes. “Twelve servants, a band of musicians, and everything is ready… We’re a little short on people and gifts, but we’ll make do.”
Chen Ji looked everyone over for a moment, then turned to the golden pig and said, "Thank you."
Jin Zhu pulled a newspaper out of his sleeve: "Don't thank me yet. This is this morning's Wen Yuan Morning Post. Read it first."
Chen Ji took the newspaper and looked down at it.
But the front page featured huge characters: "The illegitimate son of the Chen family is marrying the legitimate daughter of the Qi family today."
However, the article makes no mention of the wedding procession, but instead describes the whole story of Prince Jing's framing: Wu Xiu, a member of the eunuch faction, colluded with Lin Chaoqing of the Jing Dynasty's military intelligence department to frame Prince Jing. Because there was no evidence to convict Prince Jing, Chen Ji was sent to the inner prison to trick Prince Jing into writing a letter in blood, attempting to induce the Thousand-Year Army to break into the prison and plot a rebellion.
Chen Ji's merits led to his meteoric rise in rank, from a low-ranking spy to a sixth-rank gyrfalcon.
When Chen Ji arrived in the capital, he used the same trick again, gaining the trust of Han Tong, the biological father of Princess Baili, before arresting him and torturing him in the inner prison. This man had long coveted Princess Baili's beauty in Luoyang. After Princess Baili was sent to the Jiaofangsi (Imperial Music Bureau), he used 540,000 taels of silver, obtained through embezzlement and the extortion of the people, to redeem Princess Baili from the Jiaofangsi and keep her as his own.
However, Princess Baili learned the truth and saw through Chen Ji's true colors. She then took the opportunity to rescue her biological father, Han Tong, and fled to another place. After the three judicial officials of the Qi family exonerated Prince Jing, the ringleader Wu Xiu was sentenced to immediate execution, while the accomplice Chen Ji was stripped of his title and demoted to a commoner.
Xiaoman, holding an iron spoon, stood nearby indignantly and said, "Isn't this turning black into white? The young master almost lost his life for Prince Jing and the princess, how did it become like this in their mouths?"
Jin Zhu sighed, “But in the eyes of the common people, that is indeed the case, and that is the only way. Even the imperial court says so to the outside world. If you tell the people that it was the eunuch faction that risked their lives to clear Prince Jing’s name, the people will not believe it. In this world, no one will believe that someone would risk their life to travel four thousand miles just to save a friend.”
Xiaoman waved the iron spoon: "But..."
She thought for a long time but still couldn't figure out how to make others believe her.
Jin Zhu looked at Chen Ji: "I don't know how that old bastard Xu Bin persuaded Qian Ping and Qi Gong. The streets are full of people from the Sanshan Society selling Wen Yuan Morning Post. The Sanshan Society is fair and just, so people trust them a little more when they see that the newspaper is sold by the Sanshan Society. Today, the heavy snow has blocked the roads, and people have nothing to do. I'm afraid a lot of people will go to watch the excitement, and there will be a lot of gossip."
Chen Ji lowered his head and remained silent, his eyes hidden in the shadows.
Xiaoman also cautiously examined Chen Ji: "Young master, please don't pay attention to these things. Justice will prevail, and the truth will come out sooner or later."
Chen Ji hummed in agreement: "It's alright."
Jin Zhu asked in confusion, "The Qi family is making you go to the wedding while simultaneously slandering you in the morning paper. What exactly is Miss Qi trying to do?"
Suddenly, snow began to fall again.
Chen Ji closed the newspaper and looked up at the falling snow: "I have a pretty good idea of what she's going to do."
The golden pig asked curiously, "What is she going to do?"
Chen Ji raised his hand to catch the snowflakes falling from the sky: "She wants to break off the engagement. She wants to tell the whole world that she herself didn't want this marriage."
The golden pig was stunned.
Chen Ji patted the golden pig on the shoulder: "Let's go, let's go get the bride."
Before leaving, he looked back at Wuyun one last time. Wuyun nodded, stepped over the snow on the rooftops, and disappeared into the snow.
……
……
The drums and music began.
Chen Ji stepped out, mounted his horse, and slowly followed behind four musicians. In the vast expanse of white snow, the wedding procession walked alone through the long street.
As he approached Fuyou Street, he gradually heard a great commotion of voices.
Fuyou Street was already filled with people, who trampled the snow into black mud.
As the wedding procession turned onto Fuyou Street, someone in the crowd shouted, "They're here!"
The crowd seemed to be pushed forward by an invisible hand, all taking a step forward at once. Those in front were pushed from behind, their feet slipping in the snow. Someone cursed, but it was unclear who was being cursed before the sound was drowned out by the new clamor.
A man stood on tiptoe in the crowd, peering at Chen Ji: "They really came!"
Among the crowd, a woman asked curiously, "Why is he wearing gray cloth clothes? Didn't they say he had a royal robe with a qilin emblem?"
The man sneered, "What kind of ancient history are you talking about? The eunuch faction has already been stripped of its titles by His Majesty, and its unicorn robes have been taken back. Now it's nothing."
The woman asked doubtfully, "But I heard that he broke into the prison to save Prince Jing, which shows he is quite loyal and righteous."
The man scoffed, "Didn't you read the Wen Yuan Morning Post? Prince Jing was imprisoned by the eunuch faction. This kid didn't enter the inner prison to break him out; he wanted to gain Prince Jing's trust. Otherwise, would Princess Baili have left him? Otherwise, would His Majesty have stripped him of his title?"
"This eunuch faction had been having an affair with Miss Zhang the Second, which angered Miss Qi the Third so much that she tore up the newspaper in the street. Later, they went to the brothel to redeem Princess Baili, showing no regard for the Qi family at all. In the end, Princess Baili saw through their true colors and abandoned them."
"They didn't cherish the engagement back then, and now that they have nothing left, they come back to ask Miss Qi for a marriage proposal, trying to climb the social ladder by marrying into the Qi family. They are truly shameless."
"Bah! The eunuch faction is ruining the country!"
"You eunuchs, how dare you come to the Qi family to welcome the bride!"
The shouts of rebuke grew louder, almost drowning out the drumming and music.
Chen Ji rode his horse through the murmurs, his eyes fixed straight ahead, as if the discussion wasn't about him at all.
Just like when you cut your hand with a knife, it hurts the first time, but the hundredth time, you'll just look down and continue doing your own thing.
The ruins are like an empty valley, where winds from all directions blow in endlessly.
Amidst his angry shouts, he suddenly felt something and looked up, only to see Zhang Xia standing in the sea of people, holding Zaozao's hand, gazing at him through the heavy snow. She was dressed in red, as bright and dazzling as when they first met.
Chen Ji's gaze shifted.
He saw Zhang Xia, ignoring Zhang Zheng's advice, lead Zaozao forward and squeeze through the crowd.
Hearing the clamor of curses around him, Chen Ji stopped looking at Zhang Xia. He continued riding forward as if they were complete strangers, until the sea of people separated them completely, and they drifted further and further apart. (End of Chapter)