Chapter 142: Flaw

Two human heads fell to the ground.

From afar, Chen Ji saw the wine shop become a scene of fresh blood dripping. The street, which had been noisy just moments before, suddenly became as silent as cicadas in winter. Mr. Feng, wearing a blue shirt, sat calmly on his horse. No blood had splattered on his body, yet he was enveloped in a bloody aura. The people in this world who were most skilled at killing were not warriors, but scholars and students.

The lights in the wine shop shone on the numerous portraits. Chen Ji suddenly realized that every single one of them depicted him. With just a few strokes, his likeness was captured vividly, his features clear.

It turned out the Liu family had intended to kill him from the beginning.

Why?

He thought it might be because the things he did for the secret agent department had been leaked. The Liu family wanted to use him as a tool.

Chen Ji turned and began to retreat in the opposite direction, preparing to take the young master and the white carp and escape. But then he gradually slowed his steps.

There were probably over a thousand soldiers in this small town. If the enemy searched everywhere, he wouldn't be able to get far with the white carp, the young master, and Zhang Xia.

He turned his head and glanced in the direction where the young master and the others were hiding. They were too far away; he could only vaguely see the high chimney of the iron smelting workshop in the night. The firelight from the wine shop and the shouts of assembling soldiers intertwined around him.

The next moment, Chen Ji came back to his senses and headed in the opposite direction.

He didn't know how far he had walked before arriving at a small noodle shop. He waved to the shopkeeper inside and said, "Shopkeeper, a bowl of noodles, please."

The shopkeeper, who was currently wiping tables, put his towel on his arm and smiled as he asked, "What kind of noodles would the guest like?"

Chen Ji found a wooden table by the door and sat down. "Any kind of noodles, as long as it's hot."

"Okay!"

A moment later, the shopkeeper carried a bowl of fatty intestines noodles and placed it in front of Chen Ji.

Outside the door were the sounds of chaotic soldiers. Inside the noodle shop, Chen Ji didn't look outside anymore. He let the soldiers run past the door. He also didn't mind the heat. He picked up his chopsticks and rolled up a large mouthful of noodles, sucking it into his mouth.

After the first mouthful went down, Chen Ji sighed deeply. "Delicious."

After fleeing for a day, being able to eat a mouthful of hot fatty intestines noodles was simply one of life's happiest moments.

After one mouthful of noodles, his body seemed to become warm all over.

Chen Ji finished the noodles in a few quick mouthfuls, reluctantly glancing at the red soup in the bowl. He really wanted to drink it all, but if he did, he wouldn't be able to run.

He sighed softly. "What a pity."

The shopkeeper was puzzled. "Guest, what's a pity?"

"Nothing!"

Chen Ji grinned. He threw a piece of broken silver on the table. "Shopkeeper, here's the money for your noodles."

The shopkeeper was startled at first, then calmly put the silver into his sleeve. "Guest, the noodles at my small shop are cheap. You've given too much silver. I'll go next door and exchange some copper coins for your change."

Chen Ji smiled and waved his hand. "Go, go."

After the shopkeeper went out, he glanced at the noodle soup again, then stood up and walked along the slag road towards the camp fence in the northeast direction, his pace quickening. Finally, he started running.

The shopkeeper returned to the noodle shop with several soldiers. "Several military lords, that young man is still waiting for his change in my shop... Eh, where did he go?"

One soldier cursed and kicked the shopkeeper over. "You dare play tricks on this old man?"

The shopkeeper said urgently, "He was just here. He couldn't have gone far."

After saying that, he began searching in all directions. He just happened to see Chen Ji's figure lightly leaping over a wooden fence. "There!"

The soldiers turned their heads to look, watching Chen Ji disappear into the deep mountains and old forests. Suddenly, a loud shout went up. "Found him! He's over here, chase!"

More and more soldiers gathered towards the northeast, chasing along the route Chen Ji had fled, like a swarm of locusts, covering the sky and earth.

Under the moonlight, the bare, dry trees in the mountain forest couldn't hide people. Several hundred soldiers rushed in, yet they couldn't find Chen Ji's figure.

One soldier stepped on soft, rotten leaves, drew his waist knife, and searched vigilantly forward.

However, just as the soldier turned his head to look to the left, Chen Ji suddenly flashed out from behind a tree trunk on the right side, wiping a knife cleanly across the soldier's neck. The edge of the knife shallowly cut across the neck artery, as light as a cool breeze touching it.

When the soldier covered his neck and turned to look, Chen Ji had already brushed past him and disappeared behind another tree trunk.

By the time the others discovered him, blood was already gushing from between his fingers. He could only come and point at the tree trunk where Chen Ji was hiding, then unwillingly fall onto the rotten leaves.

"Over here!"

Two soldiers shouted loudly as they flanked the tree trunk from the left and right. The two looked at each other, then leaped forward together, their two long knives crossing out like scissors.

The two long knives chopped on the tree trunk, making a muffled sound. The two men stared intently. Where were the people behind the tree trunk?

Something wasn't right.

The two men's eyes blurred. They only saw Chen Ji jump down from the tree, lightly tiptoeing onto the bodies of their knives stuck in the tree trunk and squatting down.

The two soldiers were astonished and lifted their heads, staring fixedly at Chen Ji squatting on their knife bodies. A gust of wind blew through the mountains, rustling the piles of rotten leaves on the ground.

In their eyes, Chen Ji just looked back at them, his eyes devoid of emotion, only leaving behind a cold calculation: "Open your mouths and call for help."

The two soldiers suddenly felt their hair stand on end. A chill rose from their tailbones and ran all the way to their scalps.

"Help! He's here!"

"Help!"

The two soldiers let go of their knife handles and retreated, but before their lifted feet were completely off the ground, Chen Ji casually waved his knife and wiped, leaving a line of blood on their necks.

With another leap, Chen Ji had already stepped over the two men on the knife bodies stuck in the tree trunk and disappeared into the forest without turning his head.

These two calls for help finally alerted everyone. Several hundred soldiers stepped on the gray, decayed leaves and madly chased after Chen Ji's retreating figure.

But strangely, they could clearly see Chen Ji's tracks, yet no matter how they chased, they couldn't catch up. There seemed to be a fixed distance between them, neither near nor far.

Every time the soldiers felt about to lose him, Chen Ji's retreating figure would gradually become clearer again.

The next moment, Chen Ji, who had climbed to the top of the mountain hill and was about to go over the mountain, suddenly stopped for an instant. He turned his head and took a deep look at the military town behind him, then moved again, disappearing behind the mountain.

Inside the military town, Mr. Feng led several dozen black-clothed followers to the front of the noodle shop. He lightly leaped off his horse, lifted his clothes hem, and walked into the noodle shop, sitting at the table where Chen Ji had previously sat.

The bowl that Chen Ji had eaten from was still there.

He smiled and said to the shopkeeper, "Shopkeeper, a bowl of noodles, exactly the same as the one that young man had earlier."

The shopkeeper, trembling with fear, cooked a bowl of fatty intestines noodles and brought it over. Mr. Feng took a mouthful and praised loudly, "Delicious, ah. Did that young man praise it earlier?"

The shopkeeper said in a low voice, "Yes, he did."

Mr. Feng finished his noodles cleanly. A black-clothed attendant handed him a clean white silk handkerchief, and he wiped his mouth. Then he threw the handkerchief on the ground.

Next, he looked at Chen Ji's bowl. After thinking for a moment, Mr. Feng compared his bowl with Chen Ji's, then picked up Chen Ji's bowl and drank a mouthful of soup. "The taste is the same. A person who has been hungry for a day and fleeing for a day, how can they bear not to drink this mouthful of hot noodle soup?"

Mr. Feng said to himself, "A thoughtful person. How could he leak a flaw in a small matter like wood chips?"

After saying that, he stood up and went out the door.

A black-clothed follower asked, "Mr. Feng, shall we chase?"

Mr. Feng flipped onto his horse and laughed heartily. "That young man deliberately leaked a flaw here, thinking it was to cover the tracks for the young master and the county princess. Send people to continue searching the military town. The young master and the county princess should still be here."

The black-clothed follower asked, "Then are we still chasing this young man?"

Mr. Feng urged his horse in the direction Chen Ji had fled. "Chase. Why not chase? This old man is still waiting to take his head and bury it for the second master. He is the most important prey."

...