Green Mountain
Chapter 180 - 135, black jade

Chapter 180: 135, black jade

In the dimly-lit room, Chen Ji slowly opened his eyes.

The room was dark with doors and windows tightly shut, allowing only the moonlight to filter through the paper windows, casting a hazy light and shadow.

He heard the soft footsteps outside gradually moving away, finally heading downstairs.

Chen Ji, lying flat on the common bed, slowly slipped the short knife back into his sleeve and breathed a sigh of relief: at least those guests with knives weren’t there to assassinate them.

No wonder Prince Jing, an old hand in Jianghu, hadn’t noticed anything amiss with this inn; no wonder Prince Jing, albeit sick, insisted on making a secret inspection. It turned out everything was for tonight’s meeting.

But Chen Ji’s heart suddenly tightened again: who was meeting with Prince Jing? What did they want to discuss?

Rebellion!

Other than that, Chen Ji couldn’t think of any other reason why a powerful Vassal Prince would come incognito to a small county town and shroud the meeting in such secrecy.

He sighed inwardly, "Rebellion."

Once involved in such matters, it was likely that the entire Prince Mansion would face unpredictable dangers. Taking Ning Shi as an example, a civil servant could perhaps find a way out after defying the Emperor, but a Vassal Prince had no such hope. Some princes had been steamed to death in caged baskets; others starved in sealed rooms— their deaths strange and especially cruel.

If they failed, the Princely Heir, Princess Bai Li...

However, Chen Ji was now even more puzzled: who exactly was Prince Jing meeting with—Official Liu of Liu Gun or perhaps... the Chief of the Jing Dynasty Military Intelligence Department!

He sighed deeply and slowly sat up, scrutinizing all the guests closely.

Mr. Wang, the Princely Heir, and others, weary from their travels, had gone to sleep early; the rest of the guests slept even more deeply, their snores thunderous.

After hesitating for a moment on the common bed, Chen Ji finally got up quietly and stealthily approached the window, slightly misaligning it to peer outside.

He dared not open the gap too wide, only switching angles to scan the courtyard through the slit.

Outside the window lay the backyard, where a horse carriage and several ox carts were parked, the carts loaded with crates.

Several men in black were scattered around the yard, seemingly guarding something.

Chen Ji looked over and saw a figure in a black robe standing quietly under the eaves of the hay-shed stable, calmly waiting.

This was the person Prince Jing was meeting!

Chen Ji changed his angle, trying to discern the person’s face. But the upper half of the figure was obscured by the hay-shed roof, making it impossible to see his face or determine his age.

Just then, a faint light reflected off the black-robed figure’s waist—a jade pendant.

The ancients say, a gentleman is never without reason, nor does he part with his jade.

Ordinary scholars and high officials would wear jade at their waist, but usually white or green jade; bizarrely, this person wore black jade!

Traditionally, a gentleman is likened to jade, always symbolizing noble, pure character. What kind of person would wear black jade?

While pondering, Prince Jing followed a man in black out of the inn and approached the stable.

Prince Jing stood tall, and the person under the stable roof was neither cringing nor arrogant, showing no intention of bowing. Their voices were so low that Chen Ji couldn’t hear the slightest thing from the second floor.

In the courtyard, a man in black casually glanced over at the second-floor window. Chen Ji was startled and leaned back slightly to avoid being noticed.

Through the crack, he saw that the man’s glance swept past without reaction, merely continuing his casual inspection of other areas in the courtyard.

Chen Ji breathed a sigh of relief.

However, the next moment, he felt something was off... there was one fewer man in black in the courtyard!

Chen Ji didn’t hesitate, swiftly retreating and lying flat on his bed, pretending to sleep.

Within a few breaths, he heard the wooden door to the common room creak slowly open.

A man in black, holding a long knife, entered with a serious expression, bending down to observe each sleeping person under the vague moonlight.

If someone were awake, their eyelids would invariably twitch, impossible to disguise.

Chen Ji hadn’t expected the black-robed figure’s follower to be so vigilant that merely a slight opening of a window would alert him.

Moreover, upon sensing something amiss, the man didn’t cause an uproar but calmly and quietly signaled for someone to check upstairs... Chen Ji didn’t even know when he had passed the message to his colleague.

The black-clad man held his long knife against Chen Wenzong’s neck, leaning in to watch his eyelids quietly; any slight movement might cause the blade to slice through Chen Wenzong’s artery.

After dozens of breaths, the man in black slowly stood up, moved a step to the right, and once again bent over in front of Chen Wenxiao to repeat what he had just done.

The man was extremely serious and focused, clearly not intending to overlook any suspects.

As time slowly passed, and only two or three people were left to be checked before reaching Chen Ji, Chen Ji immediately controlled the Ice Flow within his body, spreading it from his Dantian and pulling himself into the dark clouds above Qingshan.

A moment later, the man in black bent down to check on Chen Ji, his knife, emitting a cold aura, stopped at Chen Ji’s neck as if it could fall at any moment.

However, Chen Ji did not move an eyelid, showing no abnormalities.

After dozens more breaths, the man in black eased his mind and proceeded to check the Princely Heir next to him.

Inside the room slept more than ten people, none were missed.

Once everyone was checked, the man in black holding the knife silently withdrew from the room.

He whispered to his colleague waiting outside, "They are all asleep. Did you see it wrong earlier?"

The other showed a puzzled expression, "I clearly remember that the windows on the second floor were tightly closed, but now one of the windows was slightly ajar. Besides, who would sleep with the window open in the dead of winter?"

"That’s true," the responsible man in black whispered, "Shall we kill them all? Tonight’s meeting between Prince Jing and the Official must not be leaked!"

The other slightly squinted his eyes, "I can’t decide on this matter, you wait here, I will go ask the Official. No, I cannot ask Prince Jing, I have to ask the Official alone."

...

...

The crowing of a rooster sounded.

The Princely Heir patted Chen Ji who was beside him, "Hey, wake up, how can you sleep more than me?"

Chen Ji opened his eyes and immediately glanced towards where Prince Jing was lying, only to see Prince Jing also just getting up, smiling and saying, "We need to hurry, otherwise we won’t make it to Lu Hun Manor before nightfall."

Prince Jing’s face showed no signs of the events that transpired last night, it seemed as if everything Chen Ji experienced was merely a dream. But the man in black was real, and being chased by Feng Huai on Qingshan all night was also real.

Had the crisis been averted?

Had the person who came to see Prince Jing left?

Chen Ji had no way of knowing what happened after he fell asleep, but it seemed he had somehow muddled through.

He stood up, and along with the Princely Heir, went downstairs to squat in the courtyard, broke off a willow branch, and cleaned his teeth.

As he was brushing, Prince Jing, without any pretense, squatted alongside them and casually asked, "Did you sleep well last night?"

The Princely Heir helplessly responded, "Father, the inn was terribly cold, and the bedding stank. If you hadn’t insisted on hiding your identity, we could have stayed at the Prince Mansion’s farmstead, with people available to burn charcoal for heating."

"You should suffer a bit every year to understand the lives of the common people," Prince Jing scolded jokingly before turning to Chen Ji, "How about you, how did you sleep?"

Chen Ji smiled and answered, "Not bad, I sleep deeply, it’s the same anywhere."

Prince Jing nodded, "That’s good."

At that moment, Princess Bai Li and Zhang Xia were seen walking hand in hand out of the inn, only separating as they entered the backyard.

Zhang Xia said to Bai Li, "Wait a moment, I’ll go to the Shopkeeper to get you a willow branch and some green salt."

Bai Li replied with a smile, "Okay."

As Zhang Xia hurried to the front hall, the Princely Heir, watching Bai Li, exclaimed in astonishment, "You two couldn’t stand each other before entering the room yesterday, how come you are holding hands this early in the morning?!"

Bai Li laughed and said, "We talked until midnight last night, and I realized Zhang Xia is actually not bad, just a bit too straightforward, not as overbearing as I imagined."

The Princely Heir sighed, "The mood of you girls is like a gust of wind; it comes fast and goes fast too!"

Bai Li shot him a glance, "Better to ask and interfere less in girls’ matters."

Prince Jing stood up, threw away his willow branch, and put his straw hat back on his head, casually instructing, "Finish washing up and head out quickly, we still have a journey ahead."

"Alright," the Princely Heir replied.

As daylight grew brighter, everyone boarded an ox cart, swinging leisurely toward Lu Hun Manor.

Chen Ji silently observed his surroundings, but noticed when the ox cart started moving, several young men dressed as scholars also shouldered their trunks, chatting and laughing as they followed neither too close nor too far behind the ox cart.