Chapter 55: The Gambler

Chen Ji watched as Wu Yun slowly retreated into the shadows, disappearing into the gambling house.

Wu Yun darted into the rain, not caring about the heavy downpour on its body, searching every corner of Hongyi Alley.

It flipped into a backyard and gently lifted a bamboo winnowing basket, revealing a fat orange cat inside.

Wu Yun saw it was an orange cat and felt a bit disappointed, but after a moment's hesitation, it still asked: "Have you seen an injured person escape tonight?"

The fat orange cat lifted its head and meowed: "Ah."

Wu Yun recovered the bamboo winnowing basket: "I was just asking pointlessly."

It climbed back onto the roof of "Jin Fang," the tallest building in Hongyi Alley, despite the heavy rain.

It stood on the eave corner, overlooking the entire Hongyi Alley, and quickly analyzed the possibilities of San Hua and Lihua.

However, Wu Yun suddenly noticed that in the nearby streets, over a hundred secret agents in raincoats were quietly hiding in the darkness, ambushing.

Not only that, but some secret agents disguised as civilians were going door to door searching.

Although the heavy rain made it difficult to find the defected spy, Jin Zhu had not truly given up.

Wu Yun urgently leaped down from the eave corner in its heart; it had to find that person before the secret agents did.

At this moment, Chen Ji, standing by the back door of the gambling house and looking at the dark night outside, also felt a growing unease as if a crisis was approaching.

No matter how skilled Chen Ji was at deduction, it was impossible for him to find that defected spy in the current situation.

Fortunately, Wu Yun provided a turning point.

Now, it just depended on whether Wu Yun could find that defected spy before the secret agents.

Chen Ji tidied his raincoat, pressed down the brim of his bamboo hat, and turned back to the main hall of the gambling house.

He found a secret agent, pointed at Chen Wen Xiao who was squatting in the crowd, and said: "Drag him into a room and hang him up; I have things to ask him."

Chen Wen Xiao had been squatting on the ground for too long, so his legs were numb, and he kept changing postures as if he urgently needed to urinate.

Just as he was speaking, a secret agent came to Chen Wen Xiao's side, lifted his hair tuft, and walked away: "You, follow me!"

Chen Wen Xiao's scalp was pulled painfully, and he could only grit his teeth and grimace as he was dragged to a private room upstairs and tied with a rope, hanging from the ceiling.

After a long time, the secret agents retreated, and Chen Ji walked in with his bamboo hat, slowly asking: "Name!"

"My father is Luocheng Assistant Magistrate Chen Li Qin, you cannot treat me like this!"

Chen Wen Xiao roared angrily, wanting to see Chen Ji's appearance clearly.

But hanging on the beam, his view was completely blocked by Chen Ji's bamboo hat, and he couldn't see clearly at all.

*Bang.*

Chen Ji used a chicken feather duster to whip Chen Wen Xiao and said coldly: "Answer only what I ask, understood?"

"Understood, understood!" Chen Wen Xiao's hands were tied painfully, and he no longer had the elegance he showed when riding a horse in Luocheng.

"Name!"

"Chen Wen Xiao!"

Chen Ji asked: "Why collude with the Jing Dynasty?"

"Ah?" Chen Wen Xiao was stunned. He didn't know how he had just gotten mixed up with this huge, sky-falling crime.

Chen Wen Xiao panicked: "Wrongly accused! I haven't colluded with the Jing Dynasty! I just came to the gambling house to gamble."

"Wrongly accused you?" Chen Ji chuckled coldly and asked: "Then why are there never your IOUs and account details in the account books of all the gambling houses in Hongyi Alley? You're not a gambling addict; you're clearly a Jing Dynasty spy who came here to meet colleagues."

Chen Wen Xiao quickly said: "I just returned from Donglin Academy not many days ago! How could I have account details and IOUs?"

Chen Ji said sinisterly: "It seems you have no way to prove yourself, then follow me to the inner prison!"

Chen Wen Xiao was so scared to hear the word "inner prison" that he almost lost control. In these years, how many people had walked out of the inner prison alive?

Not to mention he was the son of a fifth-rank official, even the number of fifth-rank officials who had died inside was unknown.

He thought for a long time: "Wait, before I went to Donglin Academy, I always used my younger brother Chen Ji's name to borrow money from the gambling house, so my name isn't there! You can look through each account book, and you'll definitely find Chen Ji."

Chen Wen Xiao added: "In these three years, I go home to visit relatives for a month every Spring Festival. You can definitely find the name Chen Ji in the accounts from this time each year."

Chen Ji was silent!

Did he have the account books from each gambling house?

Of course not.

He was just bluffing Chen Wen Xiao based on his own guess.

Once upon a time, he really thought his previous self was a gambling addict and that the Chen family disliked him because he genuinely had vile behaviors.

But now, Chen Ji suddenly understood many things.

He lowered his head and asked softly: "Since Chen Ji's name was written, who should the gambling house collect the debt from?"

Chen Wen Xiao answered: "Naturally, they'd find my father. If my father didn't want a family scandal to become public, he could only acknowledge all those IOUs."

Chen Ji doubted: "Your father knows this is your debt?"

"He doesn't know, he thinks it's Chen Ji's!"

Chen Ji doubted even more: "Then Chen Ji himself wouldn't refute it?"

"He refuted it before, but what was the use of his refutation? His reputation has been completely ruined over the years; my father simply doesn't believe his words! Sir, I beg you to let me down, I'm really not a Jing Dynasty spy, it's too uncomfortable hanging up here!"

Chen Ji lightly breathed out: "I'm still not certain if your words are true, but considering Master Chen's face, I can temporarily let you go, but you must write down everything you just said, sign it, and press your handprint. If there are any untrue parts, my secret agents department will still go to the Chen residence to find you!"

Chen Wen Xiao was overjoyed and cried out: "Sir, rest assured, everything I said is true, and I will certainly write it clearly and clearly."

Chen Ji walked out of the private room and instructed the secret agents a few sentences.

Two secret agents walked into the private room and closed the door. Not long after, one of the secret agents came out holding a piece of rice paper full of words and handed it to Chen Ji: "He wrote it!"

"Thanks!" Chen Ji nodded and turned to go towards the second floor, carefully putting the confession inside his embrace, protecting it under his raincoat.

"Great… sir…" The secret agent didn't know Chen Ji's rank or how to address him, but he saw Chen Ji following Master Jin Zhu and assumed he was a trusted figure of Jin Zhu: "How should we dispose of the person inside the room?"

Chen Ji stepped onto the wooden stairs, his voice floating lightly: "Keep hanging him!"

Just as Chen Ji reached the second floor, a spy rushed in through the door. The person shook off the raincoat full of rainwater onto the floor, pressed their waist knife, and rushed up to the second floor.

Arriving at the private room door on the second floor, the secret agent cupped his hands and said to Jin Zhu, who was standing opposite him drinking tea: "Sir, fortunately, I did not fail my mission. This humble officer finally found an eyewitness, a street peddler. He saw a person covering a waist wound running towards the west tonight."

Chen Ji's mood gradually sank to the bottom of the valley. He hadn't expected Jin Zhu to say he couldn't find anything on the surface, yet still arrange a large number of people to investigate clues.

He actually found one.

Where was that defected spy now? Would anyone else see him? What would the other party confess after being captured?

Chen Ji was completely unaware.

Chen Ji calmed down and looked at Jin Zhu: "Congratulations, sir, merit is close at hand."

Jin Zhu smiled, squinted, and stood up: "Send people to continue searching to the west. When he escaped in difficulty, he was necessarily seen by other people. Investigate all eyewitnesses. The Jing Dynasty Military Intelligence Department sent so many people to capture him; this person must be hiding a great secret on his body. We must find him tonight."

The secret agent received the order and hurried downstairs towards the door.

However, just as he walked out of the gambling house door, he heard a *boom*, and his entire body flew back into the gambling house, smashing rotten gambling tables.

*Clang.* All the secret agents drew their knives and pointed their waist crossbows at the dark night outside the gambling house door to shoot.

But the newcomer wore a blue greatcoat. The person just took the greatcoat off from the collar, shook it in front, and rolled all the crossbow arrows inside the greatcoat, unharmed.

The pouring rain fell around his body, but it was as if it was pushed away by a magnet, not a drop falling on him.

Chen Ji heard Jin Zhu beside him chuckle coldly: "This may not be a Jing Dynasty spy. This move looks more like a certain official. I heard in the early years that he concealed his name, buried himself in the mountains, and retired to the forests. I didn't expect him to re-emerge today! Take him alive."

The next moment, a secret agent took out a copper whistle and blew it.

Shouting and killing sounds came from outside Hongyi Alley. Over a hundred secret agents charged out from the shadows, tightly surrounding that official.

Jin Zhu calmly and unhurriedly walked down the stairs, slowly walking outside the surrounding circle.

He weighed several copper coins in his hand, seemingly ready to throw them out and take someone's life at any time.

Chen Ji silently observed the situation. He simply didn't care whether this fight was a victory for the Military Intelligence Department or the Secret Agents Department.

A cat's call suddenly rang out. Chen Ji turned his head to look out the window and saw Wu Yun standing on the windowsill: "Found him! Hua Lihua said he saw the person escape to Anxi Street, just in the backyard of that recently moved-out cloth shop!"

Chen Ji wrinkled his eyebrows. How could the other party coincidentally escape to Anxi Street?

Anxi Street was not a main traffic road nearby, nor was it like the East Market or West Market, where fish and dragons mixed, making it convenient to hide. Instead, because it was near the Prince's Residence, there were even more night patrol soldiers.

Was this spy going to seek him out, or did he really coincidentally escape to Anxi Street?

It couldn't be that coincidental.

The more skilled at reasoning people were, the less they believed in coincidences.

Chen Ji knew that he couldn't stay here anymore; he had to go and deal with this spy.

But how to leave?

Just as he was pondering, he heard cracking sounds from the roof tiles above his head.

Chen Ji looked up and saw that on the wooden roof beams above, someone seemed to be taking heavy steps towards the edge of the roof!

Not only that, but footsteps were also heard from other directions, rushing towards the windows on the second floor of this gambling house.

The official outside the door was a diversion; these spies invading from all sides were only here to kill and silence.

*Whoosh.*

A masked black-clothed person flipped in through the window from the roof, like a hawk or a falcon, drawing a knife without a word and chopping towards Chen Ji.

In the narrow room, Chen Ji picked up a chair and smashed it towards the spy, then quickly exited the private room, came to the second-floor corridor, and shouted: "Master Jin Zhu, someone has sneaked in from upstairs!"

His shout attracted everyone's attention. Jin Zhu raised his eyebrows, turned around, and killed his way back.

Just at this moment, Jin Zhu saw a spy holding a knife chasing onto the corridor.

The spy's knife skills were fierce, and as he chopped, wood chips flew. Chen Ji, a weak medical hall apprentice, could only desperately dodge left and flash right, without any power to counterattack.

*Hiss.*

The tip of the knife cut across Chen Ji's chest, slitting a large opening in his raincoat, and blood seeped out from his clothes.

Just as everyone thought Chen Ji was going to die, they saw Chen Ji burst out with courage from who knows where, actually roaring angrily, not retreating but advancing, head-butting into the Jing Dynasty spy's embrace.

With effort, Chen Ji used his arm to clamp the spy's knife-holding hand under his armpit, pushing the spy back into the private room, all the way crashing out of the second-floor window.

Jin Zhu was slightly stunned, but then he saw him exert a little force with his legs, and his fat body floated up to the second floor like a feather.

He hurried to the window edge and saw the Jing Dynasty spy falling downstairs, staggering steps chasing the heavily injured Chen Ji, killing into the dark night rain curtain outside Hongyi Alley.

Jin Zhu stuck to the window frame, letting the night rain sweep over him. "Strange, the Jing Dynasty dark spy came to kill and silence, why did he ignore his target and instead chase after Chen Ji?"

...