Chapter 25: Decoding

On Anxi Street, outside the doors of the Taiping Medical Hall, Yun Yang and Jiao Tu, clad in matching black tight-fitting attire, squatted side by side before the prostrate form of Meng Ji, who cradled his chin. "He appears to be in considerable pain," Yun Yang observed. "Is it always thus when he weaves a dream?"

Yun Yang shook his head. "I know not. Perhaps this time, the reward I offered was greater, compelling him to invest more effort into the dream?"

Opposite the duo, Meng Ji's face contorted in a ferocious twist, his body jerking uncontrollably, resembling a shaman possessed during a frenzied dance.

A flicker of familiarity touched Yun Yang. He furrowed his brow and remarked, "Meng Ji seems as though he's being stabbed by me. No wonder he demands such exorbitant prices for his dreams; the cost is indeed substantial."

Jiao Tu nodded in vigorous agreement. "Precisely, precisely! The money is well spent, truly earned by him!"

Within the dream world, Meng Ji, transformed into the guise of Zhou Cheng Yi, was being relentlessly assailed by the illusory figures of Jiao Tu and Yun Yang, conjured by Chen Ji. Blow after blow landed, shifting locations every three seconds, until his entire body was a map of imagined wounds.

Chen Ji stood at a distance, lost in contemplation. He now knew this was a dream realm, but how had it come to be?

Yun Yang!

He recalled the incident at Liu Shi Yu's doorstep, where Yun Yang had inexplicably severed a wisp of his hair!

Only this peculiar act could explain his current predicament!

With this realization, Chen Ji resolved to escape the dream world.

In an instant, the courtyard of the Zhou residence before him became transparent, revealing a fuzzy image behind it – the main hall of the Medical Hall. The two scenes overlapped. Chen Ji yearned to return to reality, yet felt as though he was ensnared in a vast spiderweb, unable to breach the barrier of this dream realm.

Meng Ji let out a cold laugh. "You wish to depart? Come, linger a while in the endless abyss!"

As his words echoed, the Zhou residence suddenly crumbled into an abyss, the heavens and earth shifting in a riot of color. Yun Yang and Jiao Tu dissipated into wisps of green smoke. The original dream world, a mere courtyard, now expanded into an immeasurable vastness.

In a daze, Chen Ji struggled to discern which layer was reality and which was the dream. Once more, he plunged into confusion.

Meng Ji reverted to his own form. Standing within the abyss, he shook his body, adjusting the lapels of his double-breasted robe, and smoothed his slightly disheveled hair with both hands. His sharp voice softly stated, "Almost stumbled and fell in your presence, little apprentice. It truly vexes our family... I did not anticipate you possessed the makings of an 'official'. You forced me to conjure a first-grade dream!"

Following Meng Ji's words, Chen Ji felt as though he were splitting apart, unable to distinguish left from right, or up from down, as if the world itself had inverted.

Suddenly, the ground of the abyss gave way, and Chen Ji's body plummeted into darkness. When he reopened his eyes, he found himself amidst molten lava, surrounded by tens of thousands of others struggling in the inferno, suffering the agony of the searing heat.

The next moment, the world of lava vanished. Chen Ji fell downwards again, into a frigid pool, assailed by the suffocating cold. He strove to maintain his reason, but each attempt sent him plunging into another layer of the dream world. With every new world, he lost a portion of his grasp on true reality, and the fuzzy image of the Medical Hall's main hall faded from view.

Just then, four streams of molten light poured from the nests of four lamps, enveloping his entire body. Chen Ji discovered he could move his hands!

Those molten streams lifted him from the world of the cold pool back to the world of lava, then back to the abyss, and finally to the Zhou residence!

They slowly came to a halt.

But what use was being able to move only his hands? He was still a step away from escaping this dream world...

No, it was useful!

Chen Ji extended his arm, groping the counter. His fingers brushed against the Medical Arts General Outline. He flipped through the pages, the sound echoing through the stillness.

Moments later.

"Chen Ji?" Liu Qu Xing's voice resonated, tearing through the dream world and instantly pulling Chen Ji back to reality.

He awoke from the dream!

Chen Ji stood behind the counter, slightly out of breath. He turned his head to face Liu Qu Xing. "Senior Brother Liu, how did you come?"

Liu Qu Xing, clad in a jacket, stood beside the counter, looking at the messily flipped pages of the Medical Arts General Outline before Chen Ji. His heart ached with a mix of pain and indignation. "Your midnight book-flipping is deafening; I could barely sleep... Junior Brother Chen, please don't read books in the dead of night anymore. I fear..."

Chen Ji chuckled. "Very well, I won't read."

Liu Qu Xing's eyebrows lifted in a smile. "That is good. Master always says, one must sleep during the Hai hour to nourish oneself!"

Chen Ji sincerely replied, "Thank you for the reminder, Senior Brother."

At this moment, he was truly grateful to Liu Qu Xing. Had it not been for him, he might still be trapped within the dream world.

Liu Qu Xing took Chen Ji's arm. "Rest early. We are brothers, sharing both blessings and hardships. When Master administers punishment, we shall bear it together!"

On the other side, Meng Ji also stirred awake from his cross-legged posture, his pupils fluttering open.

He looked at Yun Yang and Jiao Tu, his body trembling slightly. He immediately unleashed an angry torrent of words. "Did you not claim he was merely an ordinary person? Henceforth, if I must weave dreams for individuals possessing official talent, you must inform me beforehand. That commands a different price!"

Yun Yang and Jiao Tu exchanged bewildered glances. "We did not know either," they replied. "Does he possess official talent?"

Meng Ji retorted angrily, "Could it be false? A C-grade dream trapped him for only the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, and a B-grade dream held him for merely half an hour."

Though, in his heart, he harbored some doubt: how had Chen Ji ultimately escaped the dream world?

Yun Yang waved a hand dismissively. "Let us set that matter aside for now. I ask you, is Chen Ji a spy for the Jing Dynasty?"

Meng Ji replied in a displeased tone, "Confirmed, he is not."

Having said this, he rose and patted his buttocks. "The reward? Double it, and I shall only accept universal treasures of the Buddhist faith."

Yun Yang pondered for a moment, then finally removed a string of Buddhist beads from his wrist. Each black-purple bead was intricately engraved with strange patterns and densely packed numbers.

With a pained expression, he said, "Five hundred taels of silver, accepted at all temples."

Meng Ji, seeing the universal treasure of the Buddhist gate, was finally satisfied. He brushed the dust from his clothes. "Deal. Remember to find me for interrogation duties in the future."

Jiao Tu remarked, "So much money, enough to purchase how many new clothes, how many jade bracelets! Bao Hou's rewards are likely lower than yours. Next time, let us seek him out."

Meng Ji stroked his hair, speaking slowly and deliberately. "Then by all means, seek him out. He is a blabbermouth, unable to keep a secret."

Jiao Tu pouted. "We are still colleagues, yet all you care about is collecting money, money, money."

Meng Ji scoffed, "Go and help me slay a Wu Xiu for free."

Jiao Tu rolled his eyes. "I shall not."

Meng Ji donned the string of Buddhist beads on his wrist, turned, and waved a hand. "I go. The matter of Kaifeng Prefecture is concluded. I shall depart for Jinling tomorrow."

Watching his retreating form, Yun Yang murmured in a low voice, "Chen Ji actually possesses the talent to become an official. That makes it even more imperative that the Minister does not learn of his existence... Otherwise, he may truly ride roughshod over us."

...

...

The night deepened. Chen Ji lay on the communal bed, unable to sleep, his mind a swirling vortex of the events that had recently transpired.

Suddenly, a rustling sound emanated from the adjacent bed. He slightly opened his eyes and saw Liu Qu Xing, clad in a jacket, with a book tucked under his arm, tiptoeing out of bed and towards the door.

Chen Ji peeked through the crack in the door, witnessing Liu Qu Xing slip into the kitchen and immediately light an oil lamp within...

You mother...

Chen Ji also sat up. First, he lifted the quilt to check the wooden board gap, ensuring the five small silver ingots hidden within were safe. Then, from under the quilt, he retrieved a book: Near Thoughts Record.

This was the book Wu Yun had retrieved for him from Liu Shi Yu's residence. At the time, everyone's attention had been drawn to the Four Books Chapter Sentence Notes by Chen Ji, leaving no opportunity to examine the peculiar nature of other books.

But Chen Ji had only glanced at it twice before determining that this book contained a secret letter technique: the Anti-cutting Method.

The so-called anti-cutting method involved using the initial sound of a preceding word and the rhyme sound of a succeeding word to form a new word. For instance, the initial and rhyme sounds of the eight words Shi Zhang, Xiao Da, Zong Luo, and Yi Jiu corresponded to the four sounds: Upper, Down, Left, and Right.

Chen Ji, using the faint light filtering through the window, sat on the communal bed and meticulously went through the Near Thoughts Record, word by word, sentence by sentence, arranging every possible combination that could form a new word.

After reading for a little over half the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, his heart suddenly pieced together the individual words: "The Jing Dynasty does not believe I convey the words of the Wang Residence. Confirmation is required from you personally."

Chen Ji's pupils constricted slightly. The information contained within this book was even more explosive than that in the Four Books Chapter Sentence Notes, directly implicating the Jing Wang Residence.

Zhou Cheng Yi was a spy for the Jing Dynasty; he was the one conveying messages from the Jing Dynasty to Liu Shi Yu. And this book in Liu Shi Yu's home was meant for a high-ranking figure within the Wang Residence. Liu Shi Yu was merely a hub for intelligence exchange between the Jing Dynasty and a prominent figure in the Jing Wang Residence!

When Yun Yang had initially instructed Chen Ji to implicate the Jing Wang Residence, Chen Ji had suspected a setup. He had not anticipated that Yun Yang's words would become a prophecy, and that there was indeed a connection between the Jing Wang Residence and the Jing Dynasty!

Chen Ji's eyes gleamed. The Ning Dynasty and the Jing Dynasty held no sense of belonging for him. Therefore, whatever transpired was unimportant. What mattered was his ability to seize the initiative.

He continued to decipher the latter half of the book, until the sky was almost bright, finally obtaining the remaining information: The spy within the Wang Residence will find an opportunity to meet with you.

Chen Ji was astonished.

Who was this spy from the Military Affairs Division within the Wang Residence?!

Wait, could the spy within the Wang Residence be someone from the Taiping Medical Hall?

Earlier, Master had used the Six Lines Technique for divination, and the image had indicated a great ominous sign for venturing out. Yet, Master had accompanied the Liu family that very morning...

Considering this, Master and the Liu family seemed to share a friendship. Could it be that Master hadn't gone to diagnose a disease, but rather to exchange intelligence?

Could Master himself be a spy for the Jing Dynasty?!

Wait again, Liu Qu Xing's refusal to wash his soiled clothes and insisting on bringing them back to his mother could also be a means of concealing intelligence within the garments...

Chen Ji was both amused and distraught by his own deductions. His nerves had been stretched too thin these past few days; now, everyone he looked at seemed like a spy.

Thinking this, he propped himself up on the communal bed, peering out half his body, and quietly pulled open the crack in the door, looking towards the kitchen opposite.

At that very moment, Liu Qu Xing, book in hand, also emerged from the kitchen, stealthily surveying the apprentice bedroom to ensure no one had discovered his clandestine studies...

Their eyes met.

Liu Qu Xing: "..."

Chen Ji: "..."

Both silently retreated back into their respective spaces, leaving only She Deng Ke on the bed, snoring away, blissfully unaware.