Chapter 135: Jade Ink

In the dim room, Chen Ji slowly opens his eyes.

The door and windows of the dim room are tightly closed. Only the hazy light and shadow of the moon can be cast through the white paper windows.

He hears faint footsteps outside the door gradually fade away, finally going downstairs.

Chen Ji lies flat on the bunk bed, slowly puts the short knife back into his sleeve, and lets out a slight sigh of relief: at least the guests with knives are not here to assassinate them.

No wonder Jing Wang, this "old jianghu," didn't discover the problem with this inn.

No wonder Jing Wang, even when ill, wanted to travel incognito.

It turns out everything was for tonight's meeting.

But a thought suddenly arises in Chen Ji's heart: who is meeting with Jing Wang? What does the other party want to talk about with Jing Wang?

Rebellion.

Besides this, Chen Ji can't think of anything else that would require a powerful vassal king to hide his identity and come to a small county town to meet so secretly.

He sighs softly in his heart, rebellion.

Once involved in this kind of thing, it's likely that the entire Jing Wang family, from top to bottom, will have their lives hanging in the balance.

Take the Ning Shi as an example, civil officials who disobey the emperor might still have a chance to live, but vassal kings have absolutely no way to survive.

There are vassal kings who were put into steamers and steamed to death, and there are vassal kings who were sealed in rooms and starved to death.

The methods of death are strange and varied, and especially cruel.

If the matter fails, what about the heir, Bai Li...

However, what puzzles Chen Ji more now is, who exactly is the person Jing Wang wants to see?

Liu Gun, Liu Ge Lao?

Or, the director of the Jing Chao Military Intelligence Department...

He slowly exhales a breath of stale air, sits up slowly, and carefully observes all the guests.

Mr. Wang, the heir, and the others were tired from their journey and had long since fallen asleep.

The other few guests are sleeping even more soundly, their snores shaking the sky.

Chen Ji sits on the bunk bed and hesitates for a moment. Finally, he still gets up lightly and carefully, quietly comes to the window, and slightly opens the window a crack to look outside.

He didn't dare to open the crack wide, so he could only change angles to scan the courtyard through the crack.

Outside the window is the backyard. In the backyard, there is a carriage, several ox carts, and boxes of goods on the ox carts.

Several black-clothed people are scattered in the courtyard, vaguely guarding something.

Chen Ji looks to the side, and only sees a person wearing a black robe standing still under the eaves of the stable's thatched roof. He is waiting patiently and without haste.

Is this the person Jing Wang wants to see?

Chen Ji changes his angle to look, wanting to see the other person's appearance clearly.

But the upper body of the other person is blocked by the eaves of the thatched shed roof, so he simply cannot see their face or distinguish their age.

At this time, a weak light reflects from the waist of the black-robed person, it is a jade pendant.

Ancient people say, a gentleman does not leave his jade without reason.

Ordinary scholars, officials, and nobles will wear jade objects at their waist. But ordinary people's jade is either white or green.

This person happens to be wearing a piece of ink jade.

The so-called gentleman is like jade, which always describes a gentleman's noble and pure character.

Exactly what kind of person would wear a piece of ink jade?

While thinking, Jing Wang follows a black-clothed person out of the inn and comes to the front of the stable.

Jing Wang stands upright, and the person under the stable is neither humble nor arrogant, without any intention of bowing.

The two people speak in extremely low voices, and Chen Ji on the second floor can't hear a single sound.

In the courtyard, a black-clothed person's gaze casually sweeps over the second-floor window.

Chen Ji is startled in his heart and slightly leans back. To avoid being discovered by the other.

Through the crack, he sees that after the other's gaze sweeps over, he doesn't react at all. He just patrols other places in the courtyard as if nothing happened.

Chen Ji breathes a slight sigh of relief.

However, the next moment, he feels something is wrong... there is one less black-clothed person in the courtyard.

Chen Ji quickly retreats without hesitation, lying flat on his bunk and pretending to sleep.

In just a few breaths, he hears the wooden door of the bunk creak, slowly being pushed open.

A black-clothed person holding a long knife, with a serious face, examines the room inside.

He sees everyone is sleeping and actually bends down slightly, using the hazy moonlight to observe everyone's eyelids.

If a person is not sleeping, their eyelids will inevitably tremble, and they absolutely cannot pretend.

Chen Ji did not expect that the retinues brought by the black-robed person downstairs were actually so alert.

Even opening the window a tiny crack can be detected as an abnormality.

Not only that, after the other detects the abnormality, he doesn't make a fuss but calmly and composedly signals people to go upstairs to check.

Chen Ji doesn't even know when the other person passed the message to his colleagues.

The black-clothed person holds the long knife at Chen Wen Zong's neck and leans over, quietly staring at Chen Wen Zong's eyelids.

If there is any movement, the blade of the knife will probably immediately cut open Chen Wen Zong's artery.

After dozens of breaths, the black-clothed person slowly stands up, moves one step to the right, and bends over in front of Chen Wen Xiao to repeat what he just did.

The other person is extremely serious and focused, clearly not planning to miss anyone.

Time passes bit by bit. Seeing that there are still two or three people to check before reaching Chen Ji, Chen Ji immediately controls the ice flow in his body to spread out from his dantian, pulling himself into the dark cloud sea, onto the green mountain.

Moments later, the black-clothed person bends over to check Chen Ji. The knife emitting cold air then stops at Chen Ji's neck, as if it could fall at any time.

However, Chen Ji's eyelids do not move at all, and there is no abnormality.

After another dozens of breaths, the black-clothed person puts his heart at ease and continues to check the heir beside him.

There are more than ten people sleeping in the room, and not a single one is missed.

Until everyone is checked, the black-clothed person holding the knife quietly and soundlessly backs out of the room.

He says softly to his colleague waiting outside the door: "They're all sleeping. Didn't you just... didn't you see it wrong?"

The other person shows doubt: "I clearly remember that the second-floor windows were originally all tightly closed. But now that window is open a crack, and furthermore, in this cold winter month, who would open the window to sleep?"

"That's true."

The black-clothed person responsible for checking says softly: "Or should we kill them all? Tonight's meeting between Jing Wang and the adult absolutely cannot be leaked."

The other person's eyes narrow slightly: "I cannot decide this matter. You wait here, I'll go ask Jing Wang. No, I cannot ask Jing Wang, I must ask the adult separately."

This chapter is not finished, there's more in the middle...