In the dimly lit room, Chen Ji slowly opened his eyes.

The windows and doors of the dark room were tightly shut, and the moon could only cast a hazy glow through the paper-covered window. He heard soft footsteps outside the door, fading away and eventually going downstairs.

Lying flat on the shared bed, Chen Ji slowly tucked the short knife back into his sleeve. He breathed a slight sigh of relief, realizing that at least the knife-wielding guests weren’t there to assassinate them.

No wonder Prince Jing, a seasoned veteran, hadn’t noticed anything amiss with this inn. No wonder Prince Jing undertook this incognito inspection even while ill. It turned out everything was for tonight’s meeting.

But Chen Ji’s heart suddenly tightened again: Who was meeting Prince Jing? And what did they want to discuss with him?

Treason.

Other than treason, Chen Ji couldn’t think of anything else that would require a powerful prince to come incognito to a small county town and keep a meeting so secret. He sighed softly to himself, “Treason, indeed.”

Once involved in such a matter, Prince Jing and his entire household would likely face an uncertain fate. According to historical records from the Ning Dynasty, civil officials who defied the emperor might still have a chance to survive, but princes had no chance at all. Some princes were steamed to death in a steamer, while others were sealed in a room and starved. Their deaths were bizarre and varied, and exceptionally cruel. If they failed, the Crown Prince, Bai Li…

However, Chen Ji was now more perplexed about who Prince Jing was actually meeting. Liu Gun, Grand Secretary Liu? Or perhaps, the head of Jing Dynasty’s Military Intelligence Bureau…

He slowly exhaled a long breath, then slowly sat up and carefully observed all the other guests. Mr. Wang, the Crown Prince, and others, exhausted from their journey, had fallen asleep early. The other few guests were in an even deeper sleep, their snores echoing loudly.

Chen Ji sat on the shared bed, hesitating for a moment. Finally, he quietly got up, crept to the window, and shifted it open a crack to peer outside. He didn’t dare open the gap wider, instead changing angles to scan the courtyard through the slit.

Outside the window was the backyard. In the backyard, a carriage and several ox-carts were parked, along with boxes of goods on the ox-carts. Several figures in black were scattered around the yard, subtly guarding something.

Chen Ji looked to the side. Under the thatched eaves of the stable, a person in a black robe stood silently, waiting patiently. Is this the person Prince Jing is meeting?

Chen Ji shifted his angle to look, hoping to get a clear view of the person’s appearance. But the person’s upper body was obscured by the thatched roof’s eaves, making their face invisible and their age indistinguishable. Just then, a faint glint of light reflected from the black-robed person’s waist: it was a jade pendant.

As the ancients said, “A gentleman never parts with his jade without reason.” Ordinary scholars and officials typically wore jade ornaments at their waists, but the jade most people wore was either white or green. This person, however, wore a piece of black jade. The saying “a gentleman is like jade” has always been used to describe a gentleman’s noble character. What kind of person, then, would wear black jade?

As Chen Ji pondered, Prince Jing walked out of the inn with one of the black-clad figures and approached the stable. Prince Jing stood tall. The person under the stable’s eaves was neither humble nor arrogant, showing no intention of bowing. Their voices were extremely low; Chen Ji couldn’t hear a word from the second floor.

In the courtyard, one of the black-clad figures casually glanced up at the second-floor window. Chen Ji’s heart leaped. He leaned back slightly to avoid being seen. Through the slit, he saw that the person, after glancing over, showed no reaction. They merely continued to survey other parts of the courtyard as if nothing were amiss.

Chen Ji breathed a slight sigh of relief.

However, the next moment, he felt something was off… one of the black-clad figures in the courtyard was missing.

Chen Ji swiftly retreated without hesitation, lying flat on his bed and feigning sleep. Just a few breaths later, he heard the wooden door of the shared room creak, slowly being pushed open.

A black-clad figure, holding a long saber, gravely surveyed the room. Seeing that everyone was asleep, he gently leaned down and observed each person’s eyelids in the dim moonlight. If a person wasn’t truly asleep, their eyelids would inevitably twitch, making it impossible to fake.

Chen Ji hadn’t expected the attendant of the black-robed person downstairs to be so alert. They could detect something amiss from just a slight crack in the window. Not only that, after detecting something unusual, they didn’t make a sound, but calmly and discreetly signaled someone to go upstairs and check. Chen Ji didn’t even know when they had relayed the message to their colleague.

The black-clad figure held the long saber above Chen Wenzong’s neck, leaning in to quietly stare at Chen Wenzong’s eyelids. At the slightest stir, the blade would likely immediately slit Chen Wenzong’s artery.

Dozens of breaths later, the black-clad figure slowly straightened up, took a step to the right, and leaned down again in front of Chen Wenxiao, repeating the same action. The person was extremely serious and focused, clearly not intending to miss anyone who might be awake.

Time passed slowly. Seeing that only two or three people remained before the search reached him, Chen Ji immediately controlled the icy current within his body to spread from his Dantian, drawing himself into the ‘dark cloud sea’ state.

A moment later, the black-clad figure leaned down to examine Chen Ji. The cold-gleaming saber hovered at Chen Ji’s neck, as if ready to fall at any moment. Yet Chen Ji’s eyelids remained motionless, showing no abnormalities.

Dozens of breaths later, the black-clad figure relaxed, then proceeded to examine the Crown Prince next to him. There were over ten people sleeping in the room, and not a single one was missed.

After checking everyone, the black-clad figure, still holding the saber, quietly backed out of the room. He whispered to his colleague waiting outside the door, “They’re all asleep. Were you mistaken just now?”

The other person looked puzzled. “I distinctly remember all the second-floor windows being tightly shut. But now that window has a slit open. Besides, who would sleep with a window open in the dead of winter?”

“You have a point.”

The black-clad figure who had checked the room whispered, “Should we just kill them all? The matter of Prince Jing meeting the Master tonight must not be leaked.”

The other person narrowed his eyes slightly. “I can’t make that decision. You stay here and guard. I’ll go ask Prince Jing. No, not Prince Jing. I must ask the Master directly.”