Chapter 260: Doubt

Chen Ji silently watched the crowd madly rushing towards the inn door. Border army armored soldiers, holding knives, drove them away, catching people who were causing trouble everywhere. If there was resistance, they killed on the spot.

A team of border army armored soldiers passed through Kucha Street. As they passed the Dragon Gate Inn, an armored soldier turned his head and looked at Chen Ji coldly but didn't pay attention, continuing forward to chase and kill.

The sky gradually darkened. Chen Ji turned and flipped onto the roof. He wasn't going to get grain, but stepped onto the gray tile eaves and snuck towards Peach Locust Alley.

Arriving at Qu Li Street, the entire street surface was completely quiet. Tailor shops and Bao Feng Zhai were all closed with their door boards.

Chen Ji walked directly to the front door of Li Yuanwai's house and knocked on the courtyard door.

But after a long time, no one inside the courtyard responded.

Chen Ji frowned. He had come to seek out Bai Long to inquire about the situation, wanting to test whether the burning of the grain was Bai Long's doing, and whether there was a coping strategy...

Even if that big fire wasn't Bai Long's doing, at this time, bringing Xiao Man, Zhang Zheng, and Zhang Xia to seek refuge with Bai Long was also the most stable way to save their lives, certainly better than following the Yulin Army and trying to be strong.

He thought again and again, and finally lightly leaped up onto the wall eaves, suddenly using force with both hands, squatting lightly on top of the courtyard wall to look inside.

No one was in the courtyard. The more than ten secret agents who had been holding knives and axes earlier were gone, no one knew where. The courtyard inside was neat and tidy at a glance, as if no one had ever lived here.

Chen Ji jumped into the courtyard and pushed open the rooms in the east and west wings. Inside, only tables, chairs, benches, and beds remained. Besides that, not even a single sheet of white paper had fallen.

For a moment, he felt a little absurd. Where had Bai Long gone?

Could it be that the afternoon was all a dream?

He walked back to the main room and lightly pushed. The room door opened.

No one was inside the room. Only a palm leaf wrap was placed lonely on the Eight Immortals Table.

Chen Ji walked up and lifted open a corner. Suddenly, it was exactly the oranges that Bai Long wanted him to bring to Zhang Second Miss that afternoon!

Everyone was gone, only this pack of oranges was left in its original place, as if Bai Long knew he would come back again, emitting silent mockery from some dark place.

Chen Ji stuffed the oranges into his clothes and returned to Qu Li Street. He walked directly to the tailor shop and knocked on the door, but still no one responded.

He lifted open the door board and walked into the room. Cloth pieces were neatly stacked on shelves, and half-finished clothes were folded on the counter...

The tailor shop proprietress was also nowhere to be seen.

Chen Ji, not believing it, knocked on the door of the next house, but he knocked through the entire Qu Li Street and then discovered that the entire Qu Li Street had been vacated!

This huge, long Qu Li Street was as if haunted, empty, silent.

Chen Ji looked at the dark, long street, surprised and doubtful in his heart: "Could it be that everyone on this street is Bai Long's people? Then where did this street originally hide several hundred people?"

Where did Bai Long transfer so many secret agents from, and why did he transfer so many people?

What exactly does Bai Long want to do?

As he was thinking, a group of people rushed into Qu Li Street openly, holding torches and short knives. The person leading them pointed forward with a short knife: "Search, search house by house for grain! If the border army won't let us old folks live, then no one should think of living. If the border army doesn't give us old folks grain, we'll find it ourselves!"

Not only Qu Li Street, but also the neighboring Duo Hun Street was like this. The powerful families of Gu Yuan were unbearably hungry. Since they couldn't provoke the border army, they could only turn their attention to the common people.

Sounds of crying and cursing were endless.

Gu Yuan was in chaos.

Chen Ji slowly exited Qu Li Street, flipped onto the roof, and hurried towards the grain and oil shop.

Inside the Dragon Gate Inn, Xiao Wu was snoring on the counter. Li Xuan was leading a crowd of Yulin Army soldiers in the main hall, all holding pottery bowls. Inside the bowls was thin, thin gruel.

The young masters of the Yulin Army sat with gray, dirty faces. Forty jin of grain divided among five hundred people was just enough to barely survive.

The Crown Prince finished his bowl. The gruel in his bowl was less than everyone else's.

Li Xuan advised: "Your Highness, let me give you some more gruel. If you only drink this little, what if you starve and your body gets sick?"

The Crown Prince smiled and comforted him: "All the gentlemen soldiers have been running around buying grain all day, they are tired. I just stayed in the inn enjoying the results. Why should I eat more and take more? Everyone doesn't need to be disheartened. Perhaps Right Si Wei can bring the grain back a little later."

Li Xuan said worriedly: "Your Highness, although Chen Ji has ability, he is still too young. He was stirred up a few times by Qi Jianzhe and took on a heavy responsibility. We have been running around all day, and naturally we know how difficult it is to find grain. If he truly cannot find grain back, we cannot blame him."

Qi Jianzhe softly muttered: "He wanted to show off himself, what does that have to do with me?"

Li Xuan stared angrily: "Still not shutting your mouth! At this time, are you still not united in helping His Highness? If I find out again that you are looking for trouble with Chen Ji, I will impeach you with a memorial when we return! At that time, don't blame me for being ruthless!"

Qi Jianzhe said unconvinced: "But what he said was too irritating, what about grain being very easy to find, it makes us Yulin Army all seem very useless."

Suddenly, there was noise outside the inn.

Li Xuan gave Qi Jianzhe a look. After Qi Jianzhe went out to check for a moment, he came back with a sunken face: "Not good, the powerful families inside Gu Yuan are leading their subordinates to plunder the common people, forcibly searching for grain from their homes. Some people whose homes couldn't be searched for grain even had their house walls pushed down."

The Crown Prince suddenly stood up: "How can it be like this? Can't the Gu Yuan border army manage?"

Just at this moment, a person's shadow quietly approached the inn door and squeezed through the door crack into the room.

Everyone's gaze turned. They saw Chen Ji carrying a hemp sack of grain walk in. Xiao Wu suddenly woke up and quickly took out a handkerchief to pat the dust and sand off Chen Ji's body.

Qi Jianzhe's face showed surprise. He took the hemp sack and thumped it heavily onto the table, untied the rope tying the mouth of the hemp sack. Inside were actually all golden-yellow corn kernels.

He looked at Chen Ji in disbelief: "You...where did you get this grain from?"

Chen Ji glanced at him: "Naturally, I bought it from the homes of common people."

Qi Jianzhe immediately questioned: "Impossible, we visited so many homes, and didn't give little silver, why couldn't we collect any?"

Chen Ji glanced at him, not responding.

At this time, Qi Jianzhe pointed at the grain and questioned: "You wouldn't have taken advantage of the fire and robbed it from the homes of common people, would you?"

Chen Ji frowned slightly: "No."

Chen Liqin stood up and said in a deep voice: "Chen Ji, tell the truth, did you rob this grain from the homes of common people?"

Chen Ji answered again: "No."

Chen Liqin took several steps forward: "Then where did this grain come from, which ward, which street, which household, and how much did it cost?"

Chen Ji calmly said: "Peach Locust Alley, Qu Li Street, Li Yuanwai's home, it cost five hundred taels of silver, and I bought sixty jin of corn."

Qi Jianzhe suddenly said: "Not right, you definitely robbed it."

Chen Ji said in a condensed voice: "What if not?"

Qi Jianzhe was silent for two breaths: "Earlier, the Crown Prince gave you the Fodian Qianqiu. If you bought it, I think that string of Fodian Qianqiu must not be on you anymore. If you robbed it, that string of Fodian Qianqiu is definitely still on you, not spent. Let me search you, one search and you'll know."

Chen Ji looked at the Crown Prince: "How does Your Highness see it?"

The Crown Prince hesitated for an instant, then said firmly: "Cannot, Chen Ji worked hard to find grain back, how can we arbitrarily guess and not suspect?"

But Qi Jianzhe didn't give up, and actually looked at Chen Liqin and ridiculed: "Adult Chen, today you still reminded us Yulin Army not to steal chickens and touch dogs, now what do you say? It's your Chen family person, search or not search?"

Chen Liqin looked at Qi Jianzhe, then at Chen Ji, and suddenly cupped his hands to the Crown Prince: "Your Highness, search."

The Crown Prince shook his head: "Cannot search."

Chen Wenzong also stood up and blocked in front of Chen Ji, and said coldly to the crowd: "The Master says: 'Do not go against fraud, do not imagine not believing! Do not pre-suspect others of fraud, do not arbitrarily imagine others are lying!'"

The next moment, Chen Ji smiled and pushed Chen Wenzong aside: "Thank you, elder brother, but since everyone is suspicious, then let's search and see."

After saying that, he spread his arms, indicating for Qi Jianzhe to come forward.

Qi Jianzhe also didn't hesitate. With both hands, he searched from Chen Ji's hair to his ankles, searching out the pack of oranges hidden inside his clothes and the Fodian Qianqiu on his wrist.

Qi Jianzhe proudly handed the Fodian Qianqiu to the Crown Prince: "Your Highness, look, the Fodian Qianqiu is still on him! This boy fundamentally didn't go to buy grain, but took advantage of the chaos to rob grain back!"

The Crown Prince frowned and handed the Fodian Qianqiu back to Qi Jianzhe: "Chen Ji... do you have anything to say?"

Before Chen Ji could answer, Xiao Wu approached Qi Jianzhe and looked at that string of Fodian Qianqiu: "Not right, this is two thousand five hundred taels of silver Fodian Qianqiu ah, not five hundred taels. Look, the six beads in the front are engraved with 'All Bodhisattvas Mahasattvas', this is flowed out from Luoyang Doro Temple; the six beads in the middle are respectively engraved with 'Jing Wang Fu transfer benefit exist', explaining that the first time it left the temple was to be delivered to Jing Wang; the six beads in the back are engraved with 'Hold Essence Self-free Ten Directions', this is the meaning of two thousand five hundred... do you guys understand or not?"

After saying that, he touched the micro-carving on the Fodian Qianqiu: "Hmm, it's real, the feel of this micro-carving is not wrong."

The crowd was doubtful. The Crown Prince said curiously: "Where did this Fodian Qianqiu come from?"

Chen Wenzong quickly explained: "My younger brother once researched something called cement. This was the wealth paid to my younger brother when Jing Wang bought the cement formula."

The Crown Prince breathed a sigh of relief: "So that's how it is. It seems everyone misunderstood Chen Ji."

Li Xuan stood up to smooth things over: "Chen Ji, you also see, just now there were people outside the door plundering common people, so we were..."

Chen Ji didn't listen to what he said, nor did he reply. He just picked up the hemp sack and walked out.

Qi Jianzhe was suddenly startled: "What do you want to do?"

As soon as the words fell, they saw Chen Ji tear open the hemp sack and pour all the corn kernels onto the area in front of the door. The people outside the door rushed up and instantly searched and scraped up all the corn scattered on the ground.