Chapter 12: House Call

Dawn, the world was still shrouded in a gray haze.

Chen Ji slowly sat up from bed. He instinctively reached for the phone beside the pillow, but there was nothing there.

At this moment, he suddenly understood that the world he once lived in was no longer an accessible place to him, but a homeland.

"Wait, shouldn't I be in the courtyard?" Chen Ji's last memory was standing by the apricot tree, practicing the Shi Baobei technique, but after waking up, he was back in the west wing room, still wearing the same tattered clothes from last night.

Did Master send him back? Or his two senior brothers? Chen Ji couldn't tell; he didn't remember anything at all.

At this time, the ice flow was peacefully and quietly staying in his dantian, no longer the fierce presence it was last night.

Chen Ji pondered, "Why did the ice flow surge again this time? The first time it appeared was from Zhou Chengyi, the second time was..."

Each time the ice flow appeared, several people died. But the ordinary people in Zhou Chengyi's mansion didn't produce ice flow, nor did the dead maid in Wanxing Garden...

This time, could it be from the fetus that Jing Fei just miscarried?

Thinking of this, She Dengke, who was sleeping on the lower bunk, suddenly sat up. He closed his eyes and said, "Master, just kill me! Kill me, and no one will be there to see you through your old age!"

Chen Ji turned his head speechlessly to look. After She Dengke finished speaking, he thumped back down again. It turned out he was sleep-talking...

The rooster hadn't even crowed yet.

Strange to say, Chen Ji came back at Chou Shi last night and had slept for less than four hours, but at this moment, he was full of energy, with no hint of tiredness or sleepiness.

Was this the change brought by the ice flow and the inverse Shi Baobei technique?

He sat on the bed and thought for a long time, finally getting out of bed to change clothes. He went to the courtyard, shouldered a carrying pole, and with two wooden buckets, his young, thin figure headed towards Anxi Street outside the door.

Yesterday, while waiting for his family to send the school money, Chen Ji had observed that there was a well there. All the neighbors on the street had to go there to fetch water, and if you went late, you had to queue in a very long line.

When he stepped out the door, Chen Ji was slightly stunned. He saw the black cat from Wanxing Garden squatting on the eaves of the grain and oil shop opposite, quietly watching him.

So last night wasn't an illusion. This black cat was indeed attracted by the bead in his sleeve, and it even chased him all the way to outside the Prince's Mansion without giving up!

Chen Ji stepped onto the bluestone road in the early morning and walked towards the well. The black cat followed silently on the gray tiles of the roof eaves, its gaze never leaving him.

On the long street, there was only him, and on the roof eaves, there was only one cat.

They walked side by side, passing through the thin fog of early autumn, as if they had traveled through a long time together.

He stopped and looked at the black cat across the air, the carrying pole on his shoulder. He said curiously, "Meow meow?"

The black cat just looked at him coldly.

What proper cat calls out "meow meow"?

Seeing that it had no reaction, Chen Ji said, "Sang Biao?"

Black cat: "..."

Chen Ji tentatively took out the bead and held it in his hand: "You want this one?"

Although the black cat was covered in injuries, it still looked at Chen Ji with a noble posture, showing no reaction, as if waiting for the young man to actively offer the bead.

Chen Ji raised his hand slightly.

At this moment, the black cat stood on the gray tile roof eaves, its body slightly leaning forward, preparing to jump down and snatch the bead. But the moment it craned its neck out, Chen Ji closed his palm again and put the bead away.

Black cat: "..."

It opened its mouth slightly, wanting to meow, but ultimately suppressed its pride.

Finally, it returned to its cold posture, silently gazing at the young man.

Chen Ji stuffed the bead back into his sleeve and continued to walk leisurely towards the well. The black cat also followed silently, staring at him coldly. A wound just received on its brow bone last night made it look a bit fiercer.

Chen Ji stood at the well edge, shook the wooden handle, and lowered a wooden bucket. Just as he planned to haul the wooden bucket up, he saw the black cat, who knows when, had jumped down from the roof eaves and come to the well edge, looking up at him.

"You..." Chen Ji thought for a long time, then suddenly asked, "You want this bead, right? Here."

He opened his palm, holding the bead in the center of his hand, no longer deliberately teasing the little cat.

But the black cat just stood at the well edge, the corner of its right mouth slightly hooked up, seeming a little disdainful: Absolutely not falling for your dirty trick again!

"Wait, is this expression mocking me?" Chen Ji didn't expect that he could actually see such an anthropomorphic expression on a cat... He sized up the empty long street, finally put the bead on the ground, and then retreated three meters away: "It's there, snatch it yourself."

Animals have instincts. They seem to naturally know what to eat and what not to eat. Even if poisoned, they will find their own antidote.

Humans, on the other hand, lack such instinct and dare to eat anything, even taking pleasure in eating poisonous mushrooms...

Therefore, Chen Ji wasn't worried about the black cat having an accident if it ate the bead. He wanted to know why the black cat was attracted and what would happen if the black cat swallowed the bead.

The answer to the ice flow lay in this black cat.

Beside the well, the black cat approached cautiously, looking at the bead for a moment, then vigilantly at Chen Ji. After a long time, it finally leaned over and lightly sniffed the bead from a distance.

"Eat it," Chen Ji looked on with anticipation.

But when the black cat opened its mouth to snatch it, the snake-like wisp of gray fog inside the bead violently churned as if alive, and the black cat was also shaken away by an invisible force!

"Eh?" Chen Ji was shocked by this supernatural phenomenon. He was very sure that just now, an invisible force erupted from the bead and pushed the black cat away!

The small black cat arched its back, facing the bead with a fighting stance, no longer daring to approach.

"This is why," Chen Ji wondered.

As he spoke, urgent hoofbeats sounded in the distance.

Chen Ji turned his head and saw a carriage rushing towards the medical hall from far away, breaking through the quiet fog. The carriage passed in front of him. The driver was urging the horses with an anxious expression; perhaps there was a very important matter.

"It seems like someone is looking for Master. I must hurry back," Chen Ji said. "Right, you..."

When he turned his head back, the black cat was already gone without a trace, only the bead remained lying quietly on the ground.

......

......

When Chen Ji swayed back to the medical hall with the carrying pole, the carriage that had stopped outside the medical hall was there. The two horses were handsome and powerful, with well-defined muscles and clean manes.

The body of the wooden carriage was carved with a pattern of gold silk birds, whose tails extended all the way to the rear of the carriage, intricate and exquisite.

Beside the carriage, She Dengke was helping the driver move some luggage onto the carriage.

Chen Ji walked over with his carrying pole and asked, "What is this?"

At this time, the joy between She Dengke's eyebrows couldn't be suppressed: "Master is going to diagnose an illness for someone."

"Why are you so happy..."

"Of course I'm happy!" She Dengke lowered his voice and said, "Master will be gone for at least ten days to half a month. We won't get beaten or scolded, and we won't be tested on our studies. Aren't you happy? At that time, we can still go to Dongshi together, go to Hongyi Alley... If my third brother helps a noble person hold a hall meeting, I can sneak you in to listen to a big opera. I heard a few days ago that the Liyuan Ma Family Troupe wants to come back to sing at the hall meeting!"

"Who is he going to see a doctor for?" Chen Ji was curious.

She Dengke lowered his voice and said, "I heard that when the Neicheng secret police department was investigating Jing Dynasty spies, they caught several young disciples of the Liu family and locked them in the inner prison. One of them was tortured to death in prison. The old master of the Liu family fainted from anger after hearing the news and is now in a dying state."

When Chen Ji heard this, he suddenly recalled Yun Yang's seemingly smiling and not-smiling expression at the gate of the Zhou mansion. This was the sense of crisis he couldn't shake off now: "The secret police department's power is so great?"

"Maybe not," She Dengke said. "The daughter of Old Master Liu is the current Empress Dowager, and his son is the current Minister of Personnel. Even for such a family, the secret police department still arrested people without error. It is said in Jianghu that the secret police department can execute first and report later, specially permitted by the imperial power."

Chen Ji vaguely felt something was wrong. Even if the secret police department was powerful, they shouldn't disregard the Empress Dowager and the Minister of Personnel, right?

As the two were chatting, they saw Old Man Yao walk out of the medical hall, accompanied by a dignified middle-aged man.

Old Man Yao instructed his three disciples, "In the few days I'm away, none of you are allowed to diagnose pulses for patients privately. If a patient brings a prescription, just dispense the medicine according to the prescription. Don't weigh the medicine wrong and make me lose money. The first thing I'll do when I get back is check the inventory. Whoever dares to make me lose money will have to make it up!"

Chen Ji's heart sank. He still hadn't figured out how to deal with that old ginseng. What would happen if Old Man Yao came back and checked the inventory and found out?

The middle-aged man accompanying him said, "Old Master Yao, we must hurry. My family is probably waiting impatiently. We have to drag it out until my father rushes back from the capital to see the old master for the last time."

Old Man Yao nodded: "Let's go."

Liu Quxing stepped forward to help Old Man Yao onto the carriage. They watched the carriage speed away, the sound of the horses' hooves echoing crisply on the bluestone road.

She Dengke praised, "How much money would it cost to buy a carriage like that?!"

Liu Quxing laughed, "You have no experience, right? See the gold silk bird on that carriage? That's a pattern that can only be used after my Liu family had a second-rank high official, granted by imperial decree. In our Great Ning Dynasty, common people sitting in sedan chairs is overstepping. How many heads do you have to sit in this kind of carriage?"

She Dengke scoffed, "You say that as if you are really a member of the Liu family!"

Liu Quxing's eyes widened in anger: "Why am I not a member of the Liu family?"

"Although your family is a distant branch of the Liu family, do they recognize you?" She Dengke countered, "Although our family is poor, we have backbone. We rely on our abilities to make a living at the docks and never climb the social ladder by attaching ourselves to powerful people."

Liu Quxing was angry: "I still went to Old Master Liu's ninetieth birthday banquet with my parents!"

"Right, sitting at the servants' table."

"You damn it!"

Chen Ji looked speechlessly as the two fought their way into the medical hall. Suddenly, he sensed something unusual. He turned his head and saw that the small black cat hadn't actually left, but was hiding in the staggered shadows of the opposite roof eaves, secretly observing them.