Chapter 55: The Gambler

Chen Ji watched the black cloud slowly retreat into the shadows, disappearing inside the gambling house.

The black cloud drilled into the rain curtain, unmindful of the torrential downpour on its body, and headed towards various corners of Hongyi Lane to search.

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

The black cloud saw it was the orange cat, feeling a slight disappointment, but it hesitated for a moment and still asked: "Have you seen an injured human escape tonight?"

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

The black cloud replaced the bamboo winnowing basket. "I just asked you superfluously."

Topped with the heavy rain, it climbed back onto the roof of the tallest building in Hongyi Lane, the "Jin Fang".

It stood on the eaves corner, overlooking the entire Hongyi Lane, and quickly analyzed the possibilities for the Sanhua and Li Hua cats.

However, the black cloud suddenly saw that in several nearby streets, there were just over a hundred secret agents wearing raincoats, quietly hiding in dark places, ambushing.

Not only that, there were some secret agents disguised as ordinary people, going door-to-door searching.

Although the heavy rain was washing everything away and it was very difficult to search for that escaped rebel spy, Jin Zhu had not truly given up.

The black cloud's heart urgently leaped down from the eaves corner. It had to find that person before the Secret Service.

At this moment, Chen Ji walked through the back door of the gambling house, looking at the dark night outside, and felt a sense of unease, as if a crisis was approaching.

Even if Chen Ji was no matter how skilled at reasoning, it would be impossible in this current situation to find that escaped rebel spy.

Fortunately, the black cloud brought a turning point.

Let's see if the black cloud can find that escaped rebel spy before the Secret Service.

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

He found a secret agent and pointed to Chen Wenxiao squatting among the crowd: "Drag him into the room and hang him up. I have things to ask him."

Chen Wenxiao had been squatting on the ground for too long, making his legs numb. He kept changing postures, as if he urgently needed to urinate.

Just as he was speaking, a secret agent came to Chen Wenxiao's side, lifted his topknot and walked: "You, come with me!"

Chen Wenxiao's scalp was pulled painfully, and he could only grin in pain as he was dragged into an upstairs private room and tied with a rope, hanging from the ceiling.

After a long time, the secret agent retreated, and Chen Ji walked in with his bamboo hat. He slowly asked: "Name!"

"My father is the Magistrate of Luocheng, Chen Liqin. You cannot treat me like this!"

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

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

Bang.

Chen Ji used a feather duster to hit Chen Wenxiao's body and said coldly: "Answer what I ask you, understood?"

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

"Name!"

"Chen Wenxiao!"

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

"Ah?" Chen Wenxiao was confused. He didn't know how he had just gotten involved with this monstrous crime.

Chen Wenxiao said in a panic: "Wrongly accused! I haven't colluded with the Jing Dynasty! I just came to the gambling house to play."

"Wrongly accused you?" Chen Ji laughed coldly and asked: "Then why are there no your IOUs and account dealings in the account books of all the gambling houses in the entire Hongyi Lane? You are not a gambler here. You are clearly a Jing Dynasty spy who came here to meet colleagues."

Chen Wenxiao was anxious: "I just came back from Donglin Academy a few days ago! How could I have account dealings and IOUs?"

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

Chen Wenxiao heard the word "inner prison" and was so scared he almost lost control. In recent years, how many people had walked out of the inner prison alive?

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

He thought for a long time: "Wait, before I went to Donglin Academy, I used my younger brother Chen Ji's name to borrow money from the gambling houses. That's why my name isn't there! You can check the account books of each house, and you will definitely find Chen Ji."

Chen Wenxiao added: "In these three years, I would go home to visit relatives for a month every Spring Festival. You can definitely find the name Chen Ji on the accounts during this time every year."

Chen Ji was silent!

Does he have the account books of each gambling house?

Of course not.

He was just bluffing Chen Wenxiao based on his own guess.

Once upon a time, he truly thought that he had been a gambler in his previous life, and that the Chen family detested him because he really had behaved badly.

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 houses find to demand the debt?"

Chen Wenxiao replied: "Naturally, they should find my father. If my father doesn't want the family scandal to spread outside, he can only acknowledge each of those IOUs."

Chen Ji doubted: "Does your father know this is your debt?"

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

Chen Ji was even more doubtful: "Then Chen Ji himself won't refute?"

"He refuted before, but what's the use of his refuting? His reputation has been ruined for years, and my father simply doesn't believe his words! Sir, please let me down, I'm really not a Jing Dynasty spy, hanging up here is too uncomfortable!"

Chen Ji sighed softly: "I am still not sure if what you said is true. For Master Chen's sake, 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, our Secret Service will still go to the Chen residence to find you!"

Chen Wenxiao was overjoyed and cried: "Sir, please rest assured, every word I said is true, and I will definitely write it clearly."

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

He saw two secret agents walk into the private room and close the door. Not long after, one of the secret agents came out holding a piece of Xuan paper full of writing and handed it to Chen Ji: "He has written it well!"

"Thanks!" Chen Ji nodded, turned and headed for the second floor, carefully tucking the confession statement inside his chest, protecting it under his raincoat.

"Da... 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, so he should also be a trusted figure of Jin Zhu: "How should the person in the room be dealt with?"

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

Just as Chen Ji was going upstairs, he saw a spy rush in from outside the door. The other man threw off his raincoat, which was full of rainwater, onto the floor, pressed his waist knife, and rushed up to the second floor.

Coming to the door of the private room on the second floor, the secret agent cupped his hands to Jin Zhu, who was drinking tea opposite, and said: "Sir, fortunately, I did not disgrace the mission. This humble subordinate finally found an eyewitness. The eyewitness is a small street vendor. He saw a person covering a waist wound running towards the west side tonight."

Chen Ji's mood gradually sank to the bottom. He did not expect that Jin Zhu had said he couldn't find anything on the surface, but had still arranged a large number of people to investigate clues.

And they actually found something.

Where was that escaped rebel spy now? Would other people see him? What would he confess after being captured?

Chen Ji knew nothing.

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

Jin Zhu smiled, narrowed his eyes, and stood up: "Send people to continue searching to the west. When he escaped in difficulty, he must have been seen by other people. Get all the eyewitnesses out. The Jing Dynasty Military Intelligence Department sent so many people to capture him. This person must be hiding a big secret. Tonight, we must find him."

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

However, just as he walked out of the main door of the gambling house, he heard a loud bang, and his entire body flew back into the gambling house, crushing the gaming tables.

Clang, all the secret agents drew their knives and aimed their waist crossbows at the black night outside the main door of the gambling house and shot.

But the comer wore a blue cloak. The other man just took off the cloak from his collar, shook it in front, and rolled it, then rolled all the crossbow arrows into the cloak, himself unharmed.

The rain curtain, which was pouring down, fell around his body, but it was actually pushed away like by a magnet, not a drop fell on his body.

Chen Ji heard Jin Zhu beside him laugh coldly: "This may not be a Jing Dynasty spy. Looking at this move, it's more like a certain official. I heard a few years ago that he changed his name to hide and returned to the mountains to retire. I didn't expect him to reappear in the world today! Attack, I want him alive."

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

Sounds of shouting and killing came from outside Hongyi Lane. Over a hundred secret agents covered in shadows killed their way over and surrounded that official tightly.

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

He weighed several copper coins in his hand, as if he was ready to throw them out at any time to take a life.

Chen Ji silently observed the situation. He didn't care whether this fight was won by the Military Intelligence Department or the Secret Service.

A cat call suddenly rang out. Chen Ji turned his head to look out the window and saw the black cloud standing on the windowsill: "Found! A Li Hua cat said he saw the person escape to Anxi Street, right inside the backyard of the cloth shop that just moved away on that street!"

Chen Ji frowned. How could that person escape to Anxi Street so coincidentally?

Anxi Street is not a main road, nor is it as convenient to hide in as the East Market or West Market, which are full of all sorts of people. Instead, because it is near the Prince's Mansion, there are even more night patrol soldiers.

Did this spy go to find himself, or did he really coincidentally escape to Anxi Street?

It's impossible to be so coincidental.

The more skilled at reasoning people are, the less they believe in coincidences.

Chen Ji knew that he could no longer stay here. He had to go and solve this spy.

But how to leave?

Just as he was pondering, he heard the sound of roof tiles cracking above his head.

Chen Ji looked up and saw that on the wooden roof beams above, it seemed that someone was coming to the eaves with heavy footsteps!

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

That official outside the door was used to lure the tiger away from the mountain. These spies invading from all directions were just here to kill and silence.

Whoosh.

A masked figure in black flipped in through the window from the roof, like a hawk or falcon, and without saying a word, drew his knife and slashed towards Chen Ji.

In the narrow room, Chen Ji picked up a chair and threw it towards the spy, then quickly exited the private room and came to the corridor on the second floor, shouting loudly: "Master Jin Zhu, someone has snuck 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 him into the corridor.

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

Hiss.

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

Just when everyone thought Chen Ji was going to die, they saw Chen Ji burst out with courage from somewhere, actually roaring angrily. Instead of retreating, he advanced and crashed into the Jing Dynasty spy's embrace headfirst.

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 his legs slightly exert force, 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 who had fallen down the building stumbling steps, chasing the heavily injured Chen Ji, and killing into the black night rain curtain outside Hongyi Lane.

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