Chapter 123: Mr. Feng

Chen Liqin observed with cold eyes, but Jin Zhu remained insistent: "Chen Daren, suppressing civil unrest is originally a matter for your Luocheng government office. Since you arrived, I haven't heard you say a single word of thanks."

Chen Liqin let out a cold snort and remained silent.

Jin Zhu laughed angrily, turned his head to look at Chen Ji, and said loudly: "I told you early on not to get involved in this matter. You insisted on getting involved. Now look, other people don't appreciate it. Let's go. If I participate in civilian affairs again in the future, then I'm just not learning!"

Chen Ji shook his head: "Daren, we still can't leave this matter. There are still things left undone."

Jin Zhu said urgently: "You have overthrown Liu Xianxian and captured the Jing Chao Si Cao. That's already a great merit. Without any surprises, your cultivation path will soon be sent to Luocheng. If you withdraw now, then if they mess things up later, it will have nothing to do with you. If you continue to stay here, who knows what kind of trouble these civil officials will put on your head."

Chen Ji did not answer.

Jin Zhu let out a cold laugh: "Forget it, forget it. I won't care about your life or death anymore. If you want to stay here, then stay here. If something happens later, don't come crying to me."

With that, Jin Zhu actually led Tian Ma and turned to leave. Xi Feng turned back several times, wanting to advise Chen Ji, but ultimately gave up.

Zhang Zhuo put down the killing stick in his hand and advised Chen Ji: "Actually, he's also doing this for your own good."

Chen Ji hummed: "I understand!"

The white porridge gradually thickened. Zhang Zhuo ordered people to extinguish the fire under the pot.

An official runner asked: "Daren, shall we distribute the porridge?"

Zhang Zhuo shook his head: "Not yet, we need to wait for the porridge to cool down a bit."

When it was time to distribute the porridge, the victims lined up one by one to come forward and receive it. Those with bowls used bowls, and those without used their cupped hands.

Only at this moment did Chen Ji understand why Zhang Zhuo wanted to wait for the porridge to cool down a bit. It was because many of the victims had fled without even a proper bowl.

At this time, a man held a bowl, drank a mouthful of porridge, and suddenly threw the bowl on the ground: "Damn it, these officials are fooling us. They actually mixed sand in the porridge!"

Saying that, he went and pulled a middle-aged man who was holding porridge with both hands, spilling the porridge from the other person's hands onto the ground: "Don't drink this damn stuff! Pick up your tools and fight them! We'll rush into the city and eat and drink well, not suffer this kind of indignity!"

The man still wanted to incite the victims to riot early, but in the next moment, the victims who were lined up around him all rushed over and lay on the ground, scraping the rice porridge mixed with mud and dirt into their mouths. No one paid him any attention.

The man was startled. He turned back and looked among the victims, then slowly retreated into the crowd.

Among the victims, some men who were originally eager to move suddenly quieted down.

After receiving their porridge, they silently squatted on the ground, swallowing the sand mouthful by mouthful, pouring all the white porridge into their mouths without leaving a single drop.

Time passed by little by little.

The distribution of porridge continued from Mao time to Chen time, and there was actually no one who cursed again.

Chen Ji wanted to catch the Liu family's dead soldiers, but there was no trace of them.

Zhang Zhuo saw the situation and said to Chen Ji: "Your method is not effective. They are smarter than you imagined. As soon as they see that something cannot be done, they immediately hide and don't move. These dead soldiers raised by the Liu family are not rough men. They are all elites among the elites from the Yan Shi large camp. They have both courage and strategy."

Chen Ji cupped his hands towards him and said: "As I said before, now I need to trouble Zhang Daren a bit."

"Oh?"

Chen Ji explained: "I often hear that Zhang Daren has the ability of photographic memory and can recite classics, history, and collections backward and forward. Did you remember when I instructed Zhang Daren to pay attention to the details earlier?"

Zhang Zhuo laughed loudly: "So you had already calculated my photographic memory skill. Rest assured, this official has already remembered the people you mentioned. Follow this official to catch them."

Saying that, he led the official runners to rush into the crowd and catch people. In a short few breaths, he pulled a person out from among the victims and knocked him to the ground.

That man was pressed to the ground by an official runner's knee and roared forcefully: "Daren, why are you arresting me?"

"Do you have parents here?"

"No, this commoner's parents died in the floodwaters!"

"Do you have a wife or children here?"

"No, my wife and children also died in the floodwaters."

Zhang Zhuo sneered: "The victims have been hungry for several days. They drink the porridge immediately upon receiving it and wish they could get another bowl. You have no wife, children, or parents, yet you received the porridge and did not drink it immediately. How do you explain that?"

The man cried out in injustice: "Daren, you are convicting me based on this alone? This is wrong!"

Zhang Zhuo said silently: "This method may catch the wrong person, but in an emergency, we have to prioritize expediency. We will arrest all of you and put you in prison first. If you are truly innocent, this official will release you. It is better to kill the wrong person than to let them go. We can only use this special measure."

However, just at this moment, the Liu family's dead soldiers saw that Zhang Zhuo was taking risks and actually stopped holding back.

They drew short knives from their sleeves and scattered, bypassing Zhang Zhuo and the official runners, and shuttled straight through the victims towards the porridge shed.

Zhang Zhuo suddenly turned back. These people were not rushing towards him but wanted to kill Chen Ji.

He roared angrily at the official runners: "Stop them!"

The official runners, however, shrank back.

Their monthly salary was only a few coins. Why should they exchange their lives with these dead soldiers?

More than twenty dead soldiers surged with killing intent. Chen Liqin suddenly turned his head to look, only to see Chen Ji standing under the porridge shed with a blank expression, staring coldly at the dead soldiers.

The dead soldiers were getting closer and closer, but Chen Ji neither retreated nor yielded.

The next moment, he saw meteors streaking from the city wall, piercing the legs of the Liu family's dead soldiers one by one like thunder.

The dead soldiers suddenly looked up. Tian Ma had actually returned.

Tian Ma, dressed in a set of white clothes, stood on the battlements of the wall, holding an invisible bow in both hands, drawing the string and shooting with force.

When the meteor arrows burst forth, a strong wind swept up, making his clothes flutter up and down.

Chen Liqin said in surprise and uncertainty: "You hinted earlier for Jin Zhu to argue with me and then leave, and then deliberately mentioned in front of the victims that you overthrew Liu Xianxian. Was that all to use yourself as bait?"

Chen Ji calmly glanced at him, then turned his gaze back to the battlefield.

Under the rain of meteor arrows, the Liu family's dead soldiers had nowhere to hide.

Someone shouted: "Raise shields!"

The Liu family's dead soldiers were extremely strong. They actually roughly grabbed the clothes off the backs of the victims and held them up as shields, wanting to use the victims to make Tian Ma hesitate.

But who would have thought that Tian Ma would not stop drawing the bow? The bursting meteor arrows actually pierced the chests of the victims first without mercy, and then pierced the chests of the dead soldiers.

There was not the slightest hesitation.

The hostage dilemma did not trap Tian Ma in the slightest, as if his very bones and blood were born cold.

It was also as if his eyes never saw the victims, only the dead soldiers behind the victims.

This was where the Si Li Jian was often criticized.

As Jin Zhu said, inner ministers raised people like raising poisonous gu. There were no gu more poisonous than them in the world.

"Withdraw!"

"Withdraw!"

The Liu family's dead soldiers turned and fled. With the ruthless cold hand of the top three positions, they had no fighting spirit left.

Zhang Zhuo picked up a waist knife and roared angrily: "Don't let them run!"

The sound of iron hooves echoed from inside the city gate cave. Jin Zhu, leading a horse, rushed out first, leading the secret agents to kill their way in, chasing the dead soldiers one by one from behind and cutting them down.

Chen Ji gently exhaled a mouthful of turbid air. The overall situation was already set.

He didn't know how long it had been, but when Zhang Zhuo and Jin Zhu escorted the Liu family's dead soldiers back to the porridge shed, they proudly displayed them: "There are still six survivors, boy, quickly interrogate them. See who their mastermind is. Eh, where is he?"

Under the porridge shed at this time, where could Chen Ji's figure still be found?

Zhang Zhuo looked at Chen Liqin: "Where is he?"

Chen Liqin replied: "He said he still had important matters to attend to and left first."

Zhang Zhuo stroked his beard and said with regret: "What a pity, I still wanted to chat with him more!"

Chen Liqin was a little doubtful: "Is Zhang Daren familiar with him?"

Zhang Zhuo thought for a moment and said: "I feel like I'm a little more familiar than you."

Jin Zhu turned around and pulled out all the Liu family dead soldiers' fingernails inside the porridge shed, actually torturing them on the spot: "Speak, who instructed this matter? Was it Liu Xianxian?"

The Liu family's dead soldiers did not say a word, only stared viciously at everyone present.

When their gaze swept to Jin Zhu, they spat forcefully: "Eunuch party, lackey."

Jin Zhu chuckled: "Tough enough... Come here. Pull out these yellow teeth for me, so he can only eat soft rice from now on."

But just as the words fell, he heard the sound of carriage wheels rolling on the stone road from the city gate cave.

Jin Zhu turned his head to look, only to see a carriage slowly driving out of the city gate and stopping in front of the porridge shed.

A middle-aged scholar in green clothes and a scholar's robe sat in the coachman's position and smiled: "Jin Zhu Daren, long time no see."

Jin Zhu narrowed his eyes, as if facing a formidable enemy: "Feng Mister!"

Feng Mister, in green clothes and a scholar's robe, jumped down from the carriage and cupped his hands: "There is a gift for Daren inside the carriage. Please take a look yourself."

Jin Zhu looked up at Tian Ma on the city wall, then slowly moved forward and used the tip of his knife to open the carriage curtain: "Liu Xianxian?"

Feng Mister cupped his hands, smiling like a spring breeze: "My family's old master said that this unfilial son, with his heart set on killing the Jing Chao thieves, almost caused a great disaster, and fearing punishment, committed suicide at home."

As stated in the details, Chen Ji removed his hood and ran wildly. He clearly passed by Taiping Medical Hall but did not go in, instead continuing to hurry with his head down.

He stopped in front of a small library door, lifted his head to look at the "Zhi Xing Academy" plaque. From inside the room came the sound of thick reading: "《Shi》 says: 'Bang Gui a thousand li, the people are dependent on them...'"

Chen Ji tidied his clothes, wiped the sweat from his forehead, and lifted his foot to cross the threshold.

Walking to the backyard, he saw a middle-aged man in a blue scholar's robe holding a classic, his pace resounding clearly. It should be Wang Dao Sheng without a doubt.

In the yard, Chen Wen Zong, Chen Wen Xiao, Zhang Xia, World Son, and White Carp County Lord knelt and sat on grass mats.

White Carp County Lord turned back and saw that it was Chen Ji. His face immediately changed, and he gave him an eye signal.

At this time, Wang Dao Sheng lifted his eyes to look at Chen Ji, put down the classic in his hand, and asked unhurriedly: "You are Chen Ji?"

Chen Ji hummed, "Sorry, Mister, I had important matters to handle, so I am late."

"What kind of important matters?"

"Sorry, Mister, I cannot say!"

Wang Dao Sheng waved the classic indifferently: "Go and stand facing the wall in the front hall."

"Okay!"

Chen Ji walked back to the front hall, faced the wall, and smelled the scent of books in the room. He only felt fatigue assaulting his brain.

Two days and two nights.

Even an official's body couldn't endure it.

He didn't know when, listening to the sound of reading in the yard, he leaned his forehead against the wall and slowly closed his eyes.