Outside the Zhou residence, there were roaring shouts and firelight, while inside the Zhou residence, more than ten secret agents’ warhorses were tied to trees in the courtyard, startled by the restless atmosphere and restlessly stomping their hooves.

Someone forcefully pushed and shoved the large door of the Zhou residence, making the heavy door shake and rumble with the door bolt.

Yun Yang looked at Chen Ji: “The Liu family people will probably break down the door in less than a quarter of an hour. At that time, no one can guarantee what will happen. Can you find the evidence in a quarter of an hour?”

Again, it was a quarter of an hour.

Chen Ji asked himself, could he really decipher the secret of this book in a quarter of an hour? Impossible.

His face was hidden under the gray cloth covering it. After lowering his head and thinking deeply for a moment, he replied: “A quarter of an hour is not possible, I need at least…”

Outside the Zhou residence, someone roared loudly, interrupting his thoughts: “Listen up inside! Come out quickly and explain clearly! If you have evidence, then bring it out! If there’s no evidence, then let the murderer pay with his life!”

Yun Yang tucked the hem of his robe into his waistband, casually drew a long knife from the waist of a secret agent beside him, and walked towards the door: “Qī Tiáo, Wǔ Bǐng, guard the door well for me. Jiāo Tú, you go watch the back wall. Anyone who dares to rush in will be treated as plotting rebellion and killed without mercy! Chen Ji, I’ll give you a quarter of an hour to find the evidence, otherwise we will all die here together!”

Chen Ji no longer hesitated, turned around, closed the door, and entered the room, isolating the noise from outside.

He opened the book of Zhou Cheng Yi’s annotations on chapters and sentences of the Four Books and quickly used all the ancient secret message techniques in his memory to screen, to see what method the other side had used to transmit information.

Was it the hidden character method? No.

Was it the character verification method? No…

Could it be the analysis character method?

The so-called ‘analysis character method’, for example, “thousand miles grass” represents the character ‘Dōng’, and “ten days divination” represents the character ‘Zuǒ’, used to hide information.

If it was the analysis character method, then it would be troublesome. It was not difficult to crack, but the workload was extremely large. It would take several days to crack it fundamentally!

Time passed minute by minute, second by second. The large door of the Zhou residence could be pushed down by the excited crowd at any time. On this cool autumn day, a layer of fine sweat seeped out from Chen Ji’s forehead.

It wasn’t the analysis character method. Chen Ji searched for a long time, but couldn’t find a single clue conforming to the analysis character method!

What to do?

Chen Ji closed the book and closed his eyes to think deeply…

Wait!

The answer to a problem is often not in the problem itself!

Chen Ji’s mind had a flash of inspiration. He turned around and went to the bookshelf to flip through books again. One book, two books, three books… The more books he flipped through, the brighter his eyes became.

At this time, the sounds outside actually gradually quieted down. After the noise, there was a strange feeling of silence.

Someone spoke loudly through the big door: “Liu family’s Liu Ming Xian requests Lord Yun Yang to open the door and see.”

The secret agents silently looked at Yun Yang.

Jiāo Tú said in a low voice: “Liu Ming Xian, son of Liu Gé Lǎo, grandson of Old Master Liu, now in charge of the Liu family’s second house, the current Luòchéng Circuit Judge, from the fifth rank.”

Yun Yang deliberated for a moment, then threw the long knife in his hand to a secret agent: “Open the door, don’t weaken the prestige of our secret agents office!”

With a creaking sound, the vermilion painted large door slowly opened inwards. Outside, several hundred people held torches, waiting quietly.

Liu Ming Xian sat on horseback in the crowd, like a crane standing among chickens.

He was wearing white hemp cloth, a mourning hat on his head, his eye sockets were red, and even the front of the chest of the brown horse he was riding was tied with white silk flowers.

Yun Yang walked forward and finally stopped just inside the threshold: “Lord Liu, whistling and gathering several hundred people to surround and attack the secret agents office late at night, is this to plot rebellion?”

“Dare not,” Liu Ming Xian’s voice was hoarse as he tightly grasped the reins: “We just came to ask Lord Yun Yang, why did you arrest my Liu family people without reason? Do you have evidence?”

“Of course we do!” Yun Yang said firmly.

“Then bring it out to see. If my Liu family descendants are truly guilty, then you can dispose of them as you see fit!”

Yun Yang shook his head: “I cannot show it to you now. This matter involves secrets and needs to be presented to the Inner Minister.”

Liu Ming Xian urged his horse forward, confronting Yun Yang inside the door, and said angrily: “Then there is no evidence! If you just send me away like this, where will the face of my Liu family, which has accumulated generations of high officials, be? How can Old Master Grandfather close his eyes? And how can I explain to the Empress Dowager?”

“Lord Liu, I advise you not to burden yourself with the serious crime of plotting rebellion,” Yun Yang was unwilling to reason further and retreated step by step back into the shadows of the Zhou residence: “Close the door! If anyone dares to rush into the Zhou residence one step, they will all be treated as plotting rebellion!”

The large door closed again. Liu Ming Xian’s face was illuminated by the flickering firelight and looked somewhat ferocious: “Eunuch party is harming the country, nothing but poisonous minister’s hounds… Call Liáng Gǒu Èr to come. Be ready to break down the door at any time.”

The young man hesitated for a moment: “Second Uncle, Liáng Gǒu Èr was drinking wine in Red Clothes Alley tonight. He’s probably already asleep in some girl’s room at this time… Do we need to use him?”

Liu Ming Xian gave a cold laugh: “Raise soldiers for a thousand days, use them for one moment. Tell him to bring his broken knife and come over quickly. If I don’t see him in a while, I’ll cut off his wine money, and then cut off the medicinal materials he uses for cultivation. Come on, pile firewood at the foot of the Zhou residence’s wall and set fire to force them out shortly!”

……

……

The hastily returned Yun Yang was not as composed as before: “Jiāo Tú, the other side has killing intent!”

Jiāo Tú blinked: “Liu Ming Xian wants to rebel?”

Yun Yang sighed: “Tonight he didn’t bring the Luòchéng soldiers. Clearly, he’s treating it as a family matter. If he is determined to avenge his grandfather, he might be exiled afterwards, but you and I might just die in vain. This kind of thing can be big or small. How it’s defined is still just a matter of one sentence from the various officials in the temple hall, isn’t it? Civil officials steal the country! No wonder Jīn Zhū said this trip’s merit was a bit hot when he left the capital. He’s smart indeed…”

Jiāo Tú blinked again: “Then what do we do? Let’s run away before they surround the back wall.”

Yun Yang hesitated: “If we just run away like this, where is the dignity of my secret agents office?”

Jiāo Tú rolled his eyes: “Then I’ll run away myself.”

Yun Yang: “Let’s run together!”

“But there’s a problem,” Jiāo Tú smiled and squinted his eyes at Chen Ji: “What about him? It’s no problem for the secret agents to kill their way out, but if there are experts hidden in the Liu family team, bringing him is a burden.”

Saying that, the two looked at each other, then together looked at Chen Ji.

Yun Yang expressionlessly picked up the two books of Four Books chapters and sentences annotations on the table: “Leave him here. The books have been taken. Someone in the secret agents office can naturally decipher them.”

Jiāo Tú said: “We need to kill this boy, otherwise if he falls into the hands of the Liu family, the other side will know we have no evidence, and he will become a witness.”

These two scorpion-like characters changed their faces faster than flipping a book, and had already decided to abandon Chen Ji. Jiāo Tú made a hand signal to the secret agents. The more than ten secret agents silently sheathed their knives and quickly retreated towards the back wall, even abandoning their warhorses.

Yun Yang and Jiāo Tú originally thought that Chen Ji would cry out and beg them to take him, but he didn’t.

Chen Ji stood in front of the bookshelf, taking down book after book from the bookshelf and quickly flipping through them, as if he hadn’t heard Yun Yang and Jiāo Tú’s conversation.

He didn’t look carefully at each book. Most of them were roughly flipped through before being thrown to the ground, as if he was clearly searching for something.

Chen Ji had already thrown a thick layer of books at his feet, almost burying him up to his knees.

Finally, he threw all the books to the ground and fell into deep thought.

Just as Jiāo Tú was about to make a move to silence him, he heard Chen Ji suddenly open his mouth and ask: “Don’t you two want to find the evidence of the Liu family descendants colluding with the enemy anymore?”

……

……

Chen Ji gathered the books in his hand and stepped out of the pile of books.

Yun Yang and Jiāo Tú looked at each other. Jiāo Tú said curiously: “Why do I feel he’s a bit different from that evening?”

“He is different.”

“Eh,” Jiāo Tú tilted his head and sized up Chen Ji: “Did you decipher the secret inside that book?”

Chen Ji affirmed: “I already know where the evidence of the Liu family descendants colluding with the enemy is.”

Yun Yang doubted: “You’re not lying to make us bring you out, are you?”

Chen Ji said: “I’m a small apprentice at a medical hall. Even if I trick you into bringing me out, you’ll still kill me anyway.”

Yun Yang looked at him with a half-smile: “Then tell me, where is the evidence?”

Chen Ji tied the gray cloth covering his face a bit tighter and calmly analyzed: “Tonight is a struggle between the outer relatives group and the Directorate of Ceremonial. The Inner Minister clearly knew that you were not good at handling this kind of scene, yet he didn’t send a more experienced person. He just wanted to use your personalities as knives to chop at the Liu family. If you two escape without finding the evidence, you probably won’t avoid punishment even if you return to the Directorate of Ceremonial, will you?”

“Threatening me?” Yun Yang narrowed his eyes.

“Lord Yun Yang, even if I tell you where the evidence is now, without me, you probably won’t know how to find it,” Chen Ji replied.

On the other side, Jiāo Tú had already made a decision. She called a secret agent: “Qī Wàn, you bring him and protect his small life!”

Everyone retreated towards the back wall of the Zhou residence. Jiāo Tú was the first to agilely flip over the wall and alert on the outside. After she said: “No one, quick!”

Yun Yang then stood at the foot of the wall and made a ladder with both hands, sending the secret agents one by one onto the gray tiles of the wall.

When it was Chen Ji’s turn to flip over the wall, his left foot stepped on Yun Yang’s hands. He suddenly stopped and said seriously: “Lord Yun Yang, this time’s merit is beyond your imagination.”

Yun Yang gave a cold laugh: “You want to deliberately step on me for a while longer, do you? Do you really think I don’t see through it? Quickly roll over!”

Saying that, he used force with both hands and sent Chen Ji over the wall.

However, just as they had all flipped over, they saw a team of Liu family people hugging dry firewood, preparing to come and set fire to the Zhou residence to burn it down. When the Liu family people saw the figures of the secret agents office, they roared angrily: “Quickly, someone! They want to escape from behind!”

The secret agents office did not linger in battle, quickly threading through the deep alleys of Luòchéng. Yun Yang asked in a low voice: “Where do we go now to find the evidence?”

Chen Ji asked: “What was the name of the scholar candidate who died in the inner prison?”

“Liu Shī Yǔ!”

“Go to his home first!”

Chen Ji followed behind the secret agents, running madly through the streets of Luòchéng.

The cool night wind stuck to the green stone slab road of Luòchéng, wandering and blowing, making everyone’s clothes flaps fly and their hair tips disorderly.

In front was the black night, behind were the sounds of shouting and killing. At a certain moment, Chen Ji felt as if he had also become a guest who could not return to the Jianghu.