At dawn, the world was still a gray haze. Chen Ji slowly sat up from bed. He subconsciously reached for his phone by the pillow, but there was nothing there. At this moment, he suddenly understood that the world he once lived in was no longer a place within reach for him, but a distant homeland.

“Wait, shouldn’t I be in the courtyard?” Chen Ji’s last memory was standing by the apricot tree, practicing the Negative Stone Hugging Stance, but after waking up, he was back in the west wing room. He was still wearing the same tattered clothes from last night.

Did Master send him back? Or his two senior brothers? Chen Ji couldn’t be sure; he didn’t remember anything. At this time, the icy current was peacefully and quietly resting in his dantian, no longer as fierce as last night.

Chen Ji pondered, “This time, who caused the icy current to surge again? The first time it appeared was from Zhou Chengyi. The second time was…”

Each time the icy current appeared, several people died, but the ordinary people in Zhou Chengyi’s mansion didn’t produce the icy current, and the dead maid in Wanxing Garden didn’t produce the icy current either…

This time, could it be from the fetus Jing Fei miscarried?!

Thinking of this, She Dengke at the end of the bunk suddenly rose, closed his eyes, and said, “Master, just beat me to death! Beat me to death, and no one will be here to take care of you in your old age!”

Chen Ji turned his head speechlessly to look over. After She Dengke finished speaking, he thumped back down. It was sleep talk…

The rooster had not yet announced dawn. It was strange that Chen Ji had returned at the hour of the Ox last night, and had slept for less than four hours by now, yet he felt full of spirit and had no trace of tiredness.

Was it the changes brought about by the icy current and the Negative Stone Hugging Stance?

He sat on the bed and pondered for a long time, finally getting out of bed and changing his clothes. He went into the courtyard, picked up the shoulder pole, and the thin young figure, carrying two wooden buckets, headed towards Anxi Street outside the door.

Yesterday, while waiting for the family to send school money, Chen Ji had observed that there was a well there, and the entire street’s residents went there to fetch water. If you went late, you had to queue for a very long time.

As he left the door, Chen Ji was slightly startled. He saw the black cat from Wanxing Garden perched on the eaves of the grain and oil shop opposite, quietly watching him. So last night was not an illusion. This black cat was really attracted by the bead in his sleeve, and had even secretly chased him all the way to outside the prince’s mansion!

Chen Ji stepped onto the blue stone road in the early morning and walked towards the well. The black cat followed soundlessly on the gray tiles of the eaves, its gaze never leaving him. On the long street, there was only him, and on the eaves, there was only one cat. They walked side by side, passing through the thin fog of the early autumn morning, as if they had walked through a long time together.

He stopped and looked at the black cat across the air, carrying the shoulder pole. He said curiously, “Meow meow?”

The black cat just looked at him coldly. What proper cat from a good family would meow meow?

Seeing it didn’t react, Chen Ji said, “Sang Biao?”

Black cat: “…”

Chen Ji tentatively held out the bead in his hand. “Do you want this?”

Although the black cat was full of injuries, it still maintained a noble posture as it looked at Chen Ji, showing no reaction, as if waiting for the youth to actively hand over the bead.

Chen Ji stretched his hand up a little. At this moment, the black cat stood on the gray tiled eaves, its body leaning slightly forward, preparing to jump down and snatch the bead. But when it leaned out its neck, Chen Ji closed his palm again and withdrew the bead.

Black cat: “…”

It opened its mouth slightly, wanting to meow, but ultimately did not lower its dignity. Finally, it resumed its aloof posture, gazing silently at the youth.

Chen Ji stuffed the bead back into his sleeve and continued to walk leisurely towards the well. The black cat also followed silently, looking at him coldly. A scar on its brow bone, just left last night, made it look somewhat fierce.

Chen Ji stood at the well edge, shaking the wooden handle to lower one wooden bucket. Just as he planned to shake the wooden bucket back up, he saw the black cat, without him knowing when, had jumped down from the eaves and come to the well edge, looking up at him.

“You…” Chen Ji thought for a long time and suddenly asked, “Do you want this bead? Here, take it.” He opened his palm, holding the bead in his hand, no longer deliberately teasing the small cat.

But the black cat just stood at the well edge, the corner of its right mouth slightly hooked up, seeming a bit disdainful: I won’t fall for your dog trick again!

“Wait, is that expression mocking me?” Chen Ji didn’t expect that he could actually see such a human-like expression on a cat’s body… He looked around the unmanned long street and finally put the bead on the ground, retreating three meters away. “It’s there, snatch it yourself.”

Animals have instincts; they seem to naturally know what to eat and what not to eat. Even if they are poisoned, they will seek their own antidote. Humans simply lack such instincts. They dare to eat anything, even taking pleasure in eating poisonous mushrooms…

Therefore, Chen Ji wasn’t worried that the black cat would have an accident if it ate it. He wanted to know why the black cat was attracted, and he also wanted to know what would happen if the black cat swallowed the bead. The answer about the icy current was right there on this black cat.

By the well, the black cat cautiously and carefully approached, looking at the bead for a while, then vigilantly looking at Chen Ji again. After a long time, it finally leaned over and lightly sniffed the bead from a distance.

“Eat,” Chen Ji looked on expectantly.

But when the black cat opened its mouth to snatch it, the cluster of snake-like narrow gray fog inside the bead violently churned like a living thing, and the black cat was also shaken away by an invisible force!

“Eh?” Chen Ji was shocked by this supernatural scene. He was very certain that just now an invisible force had erupted from the bead, pushing the black cat away!

The small black cat arched its back, facing the bead in a fighting posture, no longer daring to approach.

“Why is this?” Chen Ji was puzzled.

As he spoke, the sound of urgent horse hooves echoed in the distance. Chen Ji turned his head to look and saw a carriage rushing from far to near towards the direction of the medical hall, shattering the quiet fog. The carriage passed in front of him, the driver urging the horses with an anxious look. Perhaps there was a very important matter.

“It seems like someone is coming to find Master. I must hurry back,” Chen Ji said. “Right, you…”

By the time he turned his head back, the black cat was nowhere to be seen, only the bead remaining quietly on the ground.

……

……

When Chen Ji swayed back to the medical hall carrying the shoulder pole, the carriage was stopped outside the medical hall. The two horses were handsome and powerful, their bodies full of muscles, their manes combed clean. The wooden body was carved with gold wire bird patterns, the bird’s tail extending all the way to the tail of the carriage, complex and exquisite.

Beside the carriage, She Dengke was helping the driver move some luggage onto the carriage. Chen Ji walked over carrying the shoulder pole and asked, “What is this?”

At this moment, She Dengke couldn’t suppress the joy in his eyes. “Master is going to diagnose a patient.”

“Why are you so happy…”

“Of course I’m happy!” She Dengke lowered his voice and said, “Master will be gone for at least ten days to half a month. We won’t be beaten or scolded immediately, nor will we be tested on our schoolwork. Aren’t you happy? At that time, we can still go to the East Market together, go to Red Clothes Alley… If my third brother helps a noble person hold a gathering, I can secretly sneak you in to listen to a big opera. I heard a few days ago that the Ma Family Troupe from the Pear Garden is coming back to sing at the gathering!”

“Who is Master going to see for their illness?” Chen Ji asked curiously.

She Dengke lowered his voice and said, “I heard that when the Inner Minister’s Secret Spy Department was investigating Jing Dynasty spies, they arrested several young disciples of the Liu family and locked them in the inner prison. One of them was tortured to death in prison. The old master of the Liu family fainted from anger after hearing the news and is now in a dying state.”

When Chen Ji heard this, he suddenly recalled Yun Yang’s seemingly smiling expression standing at the door of the Zhou mansion. That was the sense of crisis that he couldn’t shake off now. “The Secret Spy Department is so powerful?”

“Perhaps so,” She Dengke said. “The Liu old master’s daughter is the current Empress Dowager, and his son is the current Minister of Personnel. Even such a family, the Secret Spy Department still arrested them without fail. It’s said on the Jianghu that the Secret Spy Department may execute first and report later, with special permission from the imperial power.”

Chen Ji vaguely felt something was wrong. Even if the Secret Spy Department was powerful, they shouldn’t disregard the Empress Dowager and the Minister of Personnel, right?

Just as the two were chatting, they saw Old Man Yao walk out of the medical hall, accompanied by a middle-aged man with a majestic air.

Old Man Yao instructed his three disciples, “During these few days I’m away, none of you are allowed to privately diagnose patients. If a patient brings a prescription, just dispense the medicine according to the prescription. Don’t mix up the jin and liang and cause me to lose money. When I come back, I will check the inventory the first time. Whoever dares to make me lose money will make up the money themselves!”

Chen Ji’s heart pounded. He still hadn’t figured out how to deal with that old ginseng. What would happen if Old Man Yao found the problem when he came back and checked the inventory?

The middle-aged man accompanying him said, “Old Mister Yao, let’s hurry. My family is afraid they can’t wait. We must at least wait until my father rushes back from the capital to see the old master for the last time.”

Old Man Yao nodded. “Let’s go.”

Liu Quxing stepped forward to help Old Man Yao into the carriage. They only saw the carriage drive away, the sound of horse hooves making a crisp sound on the blue stone road.

She Dengke praised, “How much money would it take to buy a carriage like that?!”

Liu Quxing laughed. “You don’t have any experience, do you? See the gold wire bird on that carriage? That pattern can only be used by my Liu family after being rewarded by the emperor, as we have a current second-rank high official. In our Great Ning Dynasty, ordinary people sitting in a sedan chair is already overstepping. How many heads do you have to sit in this kind of carriage?”

She Dengke sneered, “You talk as if you’re really part of the Liu family!”

Liu Quxing glared back. “How am I not part of the Liu family?”

“Even if your family is distantly related to the Liu family, do they recognize you?” She Dengke retorted. “Although our family is poor, we have backbone. We rely on our abilities to make a living at the docks and never try to climb the social ladder.”

Liu Quxing was angry. “I still went to Old Master Liu’s ninetieth birthday banquet with my parents!”

“Right, sitting at the servants’ table.”

“You damn it!”

Chen Ji watched speechlessly as the two wrestled their way into the medical hall. Suddenly, he detected something unusual. He turned his head and saw that the small black cat hadn’t actually left, but was hiding in the staggered shadows of the opposite eaves, secretly observing them.