Green Mountain
Chapter 109 - 83, Official Correspondences

Chapter 109: 83, Official Correspondences

In the dimly-lit inn room, four corpses were laid on the bed, their manner of death so ghastly and ferocious.

Chen Ji found it difficult to associate the scene before him with that carefree, even somewhat foolish, Princely Heir.

If a person could disguise himself to such an extent, how terrifying would the face beneath that disguise be?

Chen Ji whispered to West Wind, "Go ask the guests on the second floor, whether anyone heard any sounds of fighting, or wailing."

"Yes."

West Wind bowed and left, leading several spies to knock on doors one by one.

Moments later, West Wind returned and said in a low voice, "My lord, it’s strange, nobody heard wailing, could they have been killed and skinned in an instant? So there was no time for wailing."

Chen Ji did not answer but only bent down to examine the corpses closely. He lifted the dead men’s eyelids and discovered to his surprise that two copper nails were driven into each of the dead men’s pupils, the eyeballs next to the copper nails wholly bloodshot.

A moment later, he stood up and said, "These four were skinned and nailed while still alive, tormented terribly for a fair while."

West Wind was taken aback, "Skinned alive?"

Speaking, he took out a handkerchief from his chest and handed it to Chen Ji, "My lord, wipe the blood off your hands."

As Chen Ji wiped his hands, he calmly analyzed, "If it were postmortem skinning, there wouldn’t be so much blood flowing on their faces, nor their eyes be so severely congested... Strange, if they were tormented alive, why didn’t they make any noise?"

In the eerie silence, the spies gripped the hilts of their blades tightly at their waists.

Even these spies, accustomed to the sight of killing, felt a hint of nervousness and solemnity. These four did not seem to have been killed by humans but rather as if their souls were snatched away by ghosts.

Someone whispered, "In the mountains near my hometown, there are face-eating witches; they are said to eat the dead’s faces and impersonate them to continue living."

West Wind scoffed, his face stern as he said, "You, a spy, dare to prattle on about ghosts? How could we, officials of the Ning Dynasty, ever fear such filthy things!"

Someone muttered softly, "Could it be an Executive Officer who controlled a ghost to do this?"

West Wind kicked him, "It must have been an assassin doing it to silence people!"

In this era, most people were superstitious, attributing anything unexplainable to ghosts and gods. Even the ruthless spies might believe in such things.

Chen Ji said calmly, "It’s not the work of ghosts, but humans. I guess the assassin’s Official Gateway is very peculiar, able to control these people to suffer torture alive without being able to struggle."

What he did not say was that, according to criminal psychological profiling, the killer must have also suffered similar physical and psychological trauma to develop this twisted desire for torture.

Chen Ji looked at West Wind, "In the records of the Spy Department, which individuals can do this sort of thing?"

"Some sorcerers from the wayward paths might be able to," West Wind frowned. "My lord, we would have to check the Archive Room in the Imperial Capital for that, and it has to be an area where only someone of Hai Dongqing’s rank can enter. This kind of Executive Officer is usually more secretive and rarely opposes the government. Our official status weakens their ’magic.’"

"Oh?" Chen Ji was surprised.

This was the second time he had heard this.

The previous time, Lin Chaoqing had said to Jiao Tu in Liu Shenyu’s Mansion, "I hold an official status of the Daning fourth rank, so don’t bother showing your petty tricks and embarrassing yourself."

At that time, Chen Ji didn’t understand the concept of an Official Gateway; he hadn’t taken it to heart when he heard that statement.

But now, combined with West Wind’s words, he suddenly realized something: the official positions of the Ning Dynasty were like a kind of Official Gateway, the higher the rank, the less one needed to fear magic.

West Wind looked at Chen Ji, "My lord, what should we do now? The leads have been cut."

Chen Ji fell silent. Although he had hoped the leads would run dry before his arrival, now that they truly had, he did not know whether to be relieved or concerned.

Should he continue to pursue the investigation, or should he give up?

Seeing him unresponsive, West Wind grew puzzled and asked again, "My lord?"

Chen Ji turned and walked out of the room, "Take me to the Inner Prison Archive Room; I need to check a file."

He vaguely remembered that when he was helping Jiao Tu and Yun Yang investigate the Liu Family case, he had glanced at a file depicting a similar method of punishment. But now, he couldn’t recall it clearly; he needed to look at it again.

Also, he could take more of Ice Flow.

Just before stepping out the door, Chen Ji suddenly added, "Have these four bodies encoffined and buried. Be sure to do it secretly, without letting any information leak."

...

...

Under the night sky of East Market Luo Yi Street, a carriage stood quietly by the roadside, the large and muscular horses snorting in the cold wind, exhaling tides of white mist.

West Wind stood behind Chen Ji, covering his eyes with a black cloth.

As he tied the black cloth, he explained, "Please forgive me, my lord, but since Luocheng City’s inner prison was previously infiltrated, nowadays, only those with special approval from Lord Jin Zhu may enter or exit the inner prison without a blindfold. Anyone else must be blindfolded."

"I understand," Chen Ji settled into the carriage with help and, as the wheels slowly began to turn, asked with his eyes closed, "How long have you been following Lord Jin Zhu?"

West Wind recalled, "Seven years."

Chen Ji responded with an "Oh," "So you’ve been with Lord Jin Zhu for quite some time. Do you often see Heavenly Horse?"

West Wind chuckled, "Master Heavenly Horse is elusive, rarely allowing himself to be seen. However, every Lantern Festival, if Master Heavenly Horse is in the Imperial Capital for Lord Jin Zhu’s banquet in honor of his subordinates, he’ll attend."

The spacious carriage rocked back and forth, and gusts of cold air occasionally blew through the gaps in the cotton curtains.

Inside the carriage, West Wind took out a fire inch strip and carefully lit a copper hand warmer, tucking it into Chen Ji’s bosom, "My lord, warm your hands."

"Thank you," Chen Ji fumbled to take the copper hand warmer and then asked, "Have you ever seen Bai Long?"

As West Wind closed the fire inch strip, he replied, "We’ve seen Master Bai Long even less. His whereabouts are mysterious, and he only appears on very important occasions. Even when he does appear, he wears a mask, so I’m afraid only the Prime Minister might know what he looks like."

Chen Ji was silent for a moment before asking, "What about Binghu?"

West Wind paused, "No one has ever seen Binghu. He’s like a ghost, with no presence at all. It’s only when the Prime Minister occasionally says, ’Leave this matter to Binghu,’ that we remember there is such a figure in the Spy Department."

"Never appeared before?!"

"Never appeared," West Wind recalled carefully, "At least since I joined the Spy Department, I’ve never seen him. Six years ago, when Your Majesty made a southern tour, all the zodiac protectors were by his side, yet Binghu’s figure was nowhere to be seen... Maybe he was hidden among the crowd, but we don’t know."

Chen Ji pursued, "What sort of tasks does the Prime Minister typically assign to Binghu? Assassination or intelligence gathering?"

West Wind gave Chen Ji a surprised look, feeling Chen Ji seemed particularly interested in Binghu, "My lord, have you also heard about Lord Binghu retiring? But that position is too far out of our reach, and too many are vying for it. Even with Lord Jin Zhu’s help, it wouldn’t be possible."

The carriage arrived at the entrance to the inner prison, and West Wind jumped out first, helping Chen Ji down the narrow stairs into the inner prison.

After removing the blindfold, the flames from the Eight Diagram Array Lamps flickered along the stone path’s walls, making the inner prison at night seem even more eerie, as if they were descending into hell.

"My lord, which documents would you like to see?" West Wind asked.

Chen Ji made an effort to recall the documents he had previously seen, "The ’A’ series documents from the 7th year of Jianing."

After the prison guard brought over a large box, he quickly flipped through each page of the documents, scanning ten lines at a time.

Minutes and seconds passed, but he still couldn’t find the content he was looking for.

Chen Ji looked up, "No, bring the ’A’ series documents from the 8th and 9th years of Jianing. Everyone search together, and bring to me any that involve a deceased with objects nailed to their body."

He had seen many documents before, only vaguely remembering there being a similar case, but he couldn’t quite recall in which documents.

However, a prison guard hesitated, "My lord, we cannot read..."

"Cannot read?" Chen Ji was taken aback.

He knew the literacy rate was low in this era, but he hadn’t expected that even the Spy Department’s prison guards couldn’t read. Civil servants monopolized the industries of paper and books, controlling knowledge—ordinary families couldn’t even think about taking the imperial exams, let alone find a way to learn to read.

West Wind came forward, "My lord, I will help you search."

"Alright."

The two sat in front of the oil lamp searching through the documents, the prison guards brewing strong tea for them, until their eyes were sore. It was then that West Wind suddenly said, "My lord, could this be what you’re looking for? The case of the Wu Family massacre by Kaifeng Prefecture in the 9th year of Jianing!"

Chen Ji took the documents and saw a record of a case from twenty-two years prior, where Wu Zhuo, the supervisor of a silver facility in Kaifeng Prefecture, and his family of seventeen were massacred overnight. In the case, Lady Wu was found with nails in her mouth, nose, eyes, and ears post-mortem—nails of the type used to seal coffins by coffin makers.

Moreover, Lady Wu had been gruesomely mutilated, her lower body severed.

He read on closely, but suddenly felt something was amiss, "The household registry in the documents says there should be eighteen members of the Wu Family, which means one survived."

West Wind leaned in to examine, "Silver facility... This is someone from our Ritual Supervision’s twenty-four government offices. Those who supervise a silver facility have strong backing—it must be a plum position linked to influential figures from above. Yet, it’s odd, the Ritual Supervision tends to protect its own, so why wasn’t the murderer caught when one of their own was killed?"

Chen Ji pondered, "Perhaps the murderer left no clues?"

"That wouldn’t stop them from pursuing the case," West Wind explained, "According to the rules of the Ritual Supervision, even if the murderer isn’t caught in the same year, the case files are reviewed annually to see if it can be linked with other cases. We never rest until the murderer is caught. But look, my lord, this file was buried at the bottom of the box..."

Chen Ji whispered, "Unless the murderer is a high-ranking official in the Ritual Supervision."

West Wind started, instinctively backing away from the documents.

Chen Ji was confused; the modus operandi of the murderer in this old case closely resembled that of the assassin tonight. Yet if the murderer truly was a high-ranking official from the Ritual Supervision, why would they help the Princely Heir to silence someone?

...

There’s another Chapter following later.