Chapter 141: Mengmeng's | Thanh Sơn
Thanh Sơn - Updated on June 26, 2025
**Speaking Elbows**
Chen Ji stepped on the dry, decaying leaves in the mountain forest. As he determined their direction, he swung his knife, clearing branches and bushes from the path for the three people following him.
In winter, water-soaked clothes clung to their bodies like leeches, slowly draining the life from them.
But Chen Ji and the others couldn’t stop to dry their clothes; they had no choice but to keep fleeing for their lives.
He recalled the expression of the official on the covered boat. The man hadn’t been flustered upon seeing him escape ashore, as if Chen Ji’s life was already hanging by a thread, with no room left to struggle.
But what was truly on the other side of the river?
Wasn’t this just a desolate wilderness?
At this moment, Zhang Xia, walking behind him, suddenly asked, “Chen Ji, who exactly are you?”
Chen Ji replied without turning his head, “An apprentice at a medical clinic.”
Zhang Xia was filled with doubt: “Can a medical clinic apprentice sink a boat?”
Chopping at the large-leaf holly blocking their path, Chen Ji casually explained, “That boat was old to begin with; it would break open with just a couple of strikes.”
Zhang Xia glanced at Chen Ji’s back, then at Bai Li. “Don’t you have anything you want to ask him?”
Bai Li shook his head.
Zhang Xia was surprised: “You and the Young Lord already knew, didn’t you? That’s why you’re not surprised at all.”
Bai Li nodded and hummed in acknowledgment.
Zhang Xia fell silent.
After a long while, she spoke freely: “I’m sorry, I was lecturing you about trying to get ahead earlier. Now, I feel you’re at least much stronger than your two older brothers. If you want to scold me, go ahead. I won’t talk back.”
Chen Ji smiled. “Why would I scold you?”
Zhang Xia said seriously, “Thank you. Thank you for saving us.”
Chen Ji thought for a moment and said, “Actually, you didn’t have to jump into the river. These assassins weren’t targeting you. Even if you hadn’t fled, they wouldn’t have laid a hand on you. I guess they initially planned to kill everyone, but the moment they saw the Prince, they changed their minds.”
Bai Li wondered, “Why would they change their minds?”
Chen Ji replied, “Because they need the Prince alive.”
Bai Li asked, “Chen Ji, have you guessed the identity of the mastermind?”
Chen Ji didn’t answer.
Who would need the Prince to be alive?
Those planning a rebellion.
Those planning a rebellion need royal blood as a banner. If Prince Jing were dead, they would lack a legitimate reason to launch their campaign.
Just then, dense hoofbeats echoed in the distance. Chen Ji quickly pulled everyone down to crouch behind a bush, then quietly observed the dirt road outside the forest.
Moments later, dozens of cavalrymen dressed as bandits galloped past on the dirt road.
After the cavalry passed, hundreds more people, wearing leather armor and leading hounds, went by.
Chen Ji’s heart sank. “How could there be so many bandits here?”
“Not bandits.”
Bai Li leaned closer and asked, “Chen Ji, are these the bandits from Dragon King Hamlet?”
“No.”
Chen Ji said gravely, “Refugees who become bandits only have cleavers, hoes, and rakes as weapons. How could they have organized cavalry and leather armor? The refugees in Dragon King Hamlet have already been slaughtered by them. These are private soldiers, raised by the nobility.”
Bai Li and the Young Lord exchanged a glance, horror evident in their eyes.
This group of private soldiers was clearly hunting them down, which meant whoever had raised these soldiers was trying to kill them.
This place was only fifty li from Luocheng and still under the jurisdiction of its nine counties. Only two people had the ability to raise private soldiers here: Liu Gun and Prince Jing.
The Young Lord said with difficulty, “It definitely wouldn’t be my father trying to kill us. He’s not that kind of person.”
Bai Li was about to defend his father, but then saw Chen Ji nod. “I also don’t think it’s Prince Jing.”
Both were startled.
Chen Ji continued, “Given the Prince’s methods, if he wanted to kill us, why would he give us a chance to live? It’s precisely because the other party didn’t know the Prince was with us that we’re still alive now.”
Therefore, the ones trying to kill them this time could only be the Liu family.
“Let’s go quickly.”
Chen Ji stood up. “They’re searching from the riverbank. With those hounds, they might catch up quickly.”
Chen Ji turned his head and was startled to see Bai Li’s cheeks flushed, as if she were drunk. When she stood up, she swayed unsteadily and nearly fell.
Chen Ji looked at the Young Lord. “Young Lord, feel the Princess’s forehead.”
Bai Li raised her hand to stop him. “I’m fine. Don’t worry about me.”
The Young Lord pressed down her arm and reached out to check. “She’s burning hot.”
She had a fever.
Everyone had been exposed to cold winds all day yesterday on the ox cart. Today, they had been soaked in icy river water for half a day and were now fleeing in wet clothes.
It was only a matter of time before the Young Lord and Zhang Xia also fell ill.
As he pondered, dog barks echoed in the distance.
Chen Ji glanced at the sky. “We can’t wait. We have to go now. Princess, excuse me!”
With that, he scooped up Bai Li, put her on his back, and turned to run wildly towards the southwest.
That was the territory of Luhun Mountain Villa, the subordinate residence of Laojun Mountain Daoist Temple at the foot of the mountain.
Bai Li’s head rested weakly on Chen Ji’s shoulder. She whispered, “Chen Ji, are we going to die here?”
Chen Ji said confidently, “No, we won’t.”
“Mm!”
The girl slowly closed her eyes, resting securely on his shoulder, breathing faintly. “Chen Ji!”
“Hmm?”
Chen Ji turned his head slightly, his cheek tickled by Bai Li’s hair. When he wanted to ask what she had called him for, she was already asleep.
In the mountain forest.
More than ten soldiers, dressed in bandit clothes, grim-faced, led hounds as they tracked their prey.
The hounds quickly found where Chen Ji had cut through the bushes.
They gestured back behind them: “Found them.”
On the other side, Chen Ji heard the dog barks growing closer, seemingly only a few hundred paces away.
The barks were like a death knell, unsettling and irritating.
The next moment, the dog barks suddenly ceased.
It was as if the cicadas that had bothered them all summer had suddenly vanished.
Even the world felt a bit clearer.
But Chen Ji’s heart sank: the sudden silence of the hounds could only mean one thing—the hunters had released their leashes, and the dogs were now sprinting full-force towards their prey.
They couldn’t escape.
Once hounds set their sights on prey, they wouldn’t give up until they had bitten it.
Chen Ji suddenly turned to the Young Lord. “Young Lord, you carry the Princess and run. I’ll block these hounds. Unless we kill them, we’ll never get away.”
Zhang Xia froze. “You…”
The Young Lord took a deep breath. “You carry my sister and run. I’ll stay and deal with these people. You’re faster; I wouldn’t get far even if I ran. Chen Ji, take my sister back alive.”
Chen Ji said gravely, “Stop being sentimental. I don’t have time for this nonsense right now. Carry Bai Li and run quickly…”
He hadn’t finished speaking when sudden whimpers and mournful cries of hounds echoed through the forest.
One sound, two sounds, three sounds.
The hounds’ pained cries continued without end, exceptionally piercing.
Chen Ji suddenly turned back. Someone had killed the hounds?
Had Jin Zhu already arrived?
To rush from Luocheng, even at full gallop, would take until after sunset. Jin Zhu couldn’t possibly be here so fast.
Just as Chen Ji wondered, a dark, furry shadow flashed past from the forest ahead.
A hound was sprinting at full speed when, unexpectedly, the dark shadow gathered its claws and delivered a punch to its head, sending the dog sprawling head over heels.
The punch was incredibly fierce. The hound fell to the ground, its limbs twitching, clearly not going to survive.
Dark Cloud? How powerful.
Zhang Xia asked, her voice filled with surprise and uncertainty, “What was that dark shadow that just flashed past?”
Chen Ji, with Bai Li on his back, turned and continued fleeing southwest. “I didn’t see clearly either. Whatever it was, escaping is what matters.”
Half an incense stick later, several soldiers arrived at the spot where the hounds had died.
One soldier crouched down, lifted the hound by the scruff of its neck, and carefully examined its condition.
He first lifted the hound’s eyelids to look, seeing they were entirely red and bloodshot.
He then felt the hound’s skull, finding a fractured mark on it.
“Killed with a single blow!”
The soldiers exchanged glances.
Good hounds were said to have ‘bronze heads, iron bones, and tofu waists’, with only their waists being a weakness.
Even a direct hit to the head with a musket might not kill them.
Yet now, someone had struck a hound directly on the head with a palm, beating it to death.
One soldier said gravely, “A master.”
No sooner had he spoken than a rustling sound faded away from the southeast.
The soldiers immediately drew their waist knives. “Pursue!”
Chen Ji led the Young Lord and Zhang Xia through the mountain forest, avoiding the cavalry’s pursuit and encirclement.
They fled from midday until sunset, finally crossing a small hill, where their view suddenly opened up.
Below the hill, an unknown small town lay nestled in a mountain hollow.
Inside the town, sturdy men were pushing single-wheeled carts back and forth along the dirt streets.
The streets were paved with coal slag, as black as ink.
Along the streets, workshops stood with chimneys, billowing thick smoke.
Beyond the workshops, residential mud houses stretched for hundreds of *zhang*, enough to house thousands of families.
Chen Ji instantly crouched low. “What town is this?”
The Young Lord wondered, “I’ve never heard of a town here. I remember there were only four small towns on the way to Luhun Mountain Villa, and this one definitely isn’t among them… What are these people doing?”
Chen Ji looked at the blast furnaces and said gravely, “Iron smelting.”
No wonder there were organized private infantry and cavalry here. Someone was secretly smelting iron in this place.
This was a capital offense.
“What do we do now?” the Young Lord asked.
Chen Ji thought for a moment. “We go into the town.”
The Young Lord was startled. “Isn’t that walking straight into a trap?”
Chen Ji said, “We need to go in and change into dry clothes. Otherwise, the Princess won’t be able to last.”
End of this chapter.
**Novel Related**
A thrilling and compelling masterpiece by the author: Speaking Elbows.