Green Mountain
Chapter 98 - 76, Explode again_2

Chapter 98: 76, Explode again_2

Quiet.

Silence.

No one answered from inside the door.

Bai Li grew more confident in her speculation. She bent down and called through the door crack again, "Chen Ji, I’ll give you ten silver taels this time!"

Still quiet.

Still no answer.

Bai Li muttered, "He really isn’t inside, huh."

As her words fell, the door creaked open.

Bai Li was taken aback and slowly lifted her head, only to see Old Yao standing calmly at the doorway.

She said awkwardly, "Doctor Yao, did I disturb you? Where is Chen Ji, why didn’t he come to open the door?"

Old Yao’s expression was blank as he said, "Why are the Commandery Princess and the Princely Heir up so late at night, coming to Taiping Medical Hall? I’m ninety-two years old, and I can’t withstand this kind of disturbance."

Bai Li blurted out in desperation, "Doctor Yao, my brother and I are feeling unwell, could you let us in and take our pulse?"

Old Yao glanced at her and, unexpectedly, reached through the door threshold to grasp her wrist to feel her pulse.

After a moment, Old Yao said, "There’s something wrong with your brain, it’s incurable, please leave."

"Could you have misdiagnosed? Let me come in and sit down so you can check more carefully," Bai Li tried to squeeze past Old Yao into the door, but, as if he had anticipated it, he quickly shut the door.

With a clang, the wooden door closed tightly.

Old Yao’s voice drifted from beyond the door, "The Princely Heir and the Commandery Princess should find another way back to the Prince Mansion. If you cause more trouble, I will certainly report this to the Prince when he returns."

Bai Li wanted to knock again, but the Princely Heir, pulling her away, hurried her along, "Let’s go, let’s go. It seems Chen Ji has already enraged Doctor Yao by lending us a way; we shouldn’t make it difficult for Chen Ji. Let’s leave via the back garden. If Doctor Yao really reports this to our father, I fear your monthly salary might get cut off..."

Bai Li was dragged away, looking back every three steps, her gaze repeatedly drawn to that tightly closed wooden door, yet she had to give up on pursuing the truth.

She wondered in her heart: Could it be that Chen Ji hasn’t returned yet, so Doctor Yao is covering for him? It must be so...

But if, as the Jiefan Guard said, the Spy Department hadn’t captured Chen Ji, where could he be right now?

...

...

Under the cover of night, Chen Ji was limping through the complex maze of alleys.

He gradually stopped, panting and bending down to unwrap the cloth around his injured right leg before tightening it again.

The wounds on his chest and leg throbbed painfully, but he had things to do tonight and couldn’t afford to rest.

Chen Ji looked around and continued towards the meeting place he had arranged with Wu Yun.

After turning through two more alleys, he saw Wu Yun crouched on the eaves of an alley wall, asking with concern, "Are you alright?"

Chen Ji gasped and remarked, "Jin Zhu must be a master of the Seeking Dao Realm; even such powerful firecrackers couldn’t kill him. A Grand Official has unfathomable depths. This world is more terrifying than I imagined. If it weren’t for the gunpowder I had, I’d probably be on my way back to the inner prison now."

Wu Yun meowed again, "I was asking about your injuries. Why don’t we go back to your master first and have him treat your wounds?"

Chen Ji shook his head, "No, I must kill Manager Yuan first. Tonight, the Spy Department will raid the Golden Workshop, and if he thinks I’m the leak, he might already be thinking about ways to kill me... Can you track his location now?"

Wu Yun replied, "He delivered goods to other Medical Halls at noon, then went straight back to his residence on Tongji Street and hasn’t come out since."

During the day, Manager Yuan had driven a bullock cart delivering goods to Taiping Medical Hall, and two Li Hua cats had stealthily attached themselves to him, following him from there.

Chen Ji had earlier split up with Wu Yun to let him find the two Li Hua cats.

Chen Ji frowned, "It seems Manager Yuan knew about Jin Zhu’s siege plans by noon... Who leaked it to him? It must be those other Medical Halls! Wu Yun, which Medical Halls did he visit?"

Wu Yun shook his head, "Li Hua cats can’t remember that much information; they can only recall part of it."

Chen Ji pondered, "Alright, once Manager Yuan is dead, it won’t matter who passed him information."

Saying this, he used the wall to pull himself up, intending to continue on his way.

He had already killed six spies that evening, and after severely injuring Jin Zhu, leaped across rooftops to escape, nearly exhausted. He had barely taken a few steps when he felt his legs go weak, hardly able to move.

Wu Yun expressed his concern, "Shall we return to the Medical Hall?"

Chen Ji shook his head, "Take me to his residence, Manager Yuan must die tonight."

...

...

Tongji Street had always been a gathering place for merchants to live. Unlike the doorways of scholarly families, the stone lions outside here were each more imposing than the last, the carriages parked in front were each more exquisite than the last, and the plaques above doorways each taller than the last, almost as if fearing they would be outdone by their neighbors.

Under the laws of the Ning Dynasty, neither merchants nor pear garden performers were allowed to ride in carriages, only those with the status of Scholar or higher could.

However, in recent years, as more private workshops and merchants emerged, they began converting their carts into carriages, and if inspected, they would just bribe their way through with silver, turning this law gradually into mere lip service.

Currently, Tongji Street was as silent as a graveyard in a mansion, totally devoid of servants and attendants.

Manager Yuan sat in the main hall with doors and windows tightly shut. Although it was late at night, he was still fully dressed, seemingly patiently waiting for the long night to exhaust itself.

Suddenly, he heard a strange noise outside the door—the crackling sounds were very jarring in the middle of the night.

Manager Yuan’s expression turned stern as he stood up and slowly approached the door, pressing his ear against the crack to listen...

With a creak, Manager Yuan saw someone outside opening his window, throwing in a bamboo tube, and then meticulously closing the window again.

Not good!

Manager Yuan watched the medicine wick burning to its end and immediately tried to force the door open, but it seemed like someone had propped it shut with a wooden beam from the outside, and he couldn’t push it open at once!

"Death wish, open up!"

Yet, as Manager Yuan, furious, struck with his palms, the double doors couldn’t withstand the overwhelming force and instantly shattered!

What level of expertise could be hindered by mere doors?

However, after breaking the door, Manager Yuan didn’t see anyone outside but noticed a bamboo tube, already burnt out, not far from the door!

It was over!

In that moment, Manager Yuan didn’t know whether to advance or retreat!

With a loud boom, both bamboo tubes inside and outside the house burst open, the mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal combusting violently, with sugar mixing with gunpowder at high temperatures, releasing a massive amount of gas.

In an instant, a colossal shockwave swept through the house, carrying shards of iron from within the bamboo tube, tearing Manager Yuan’s clothes to shreds.

Another boom, the brick walls of the house couldn’t bear the burden any longer, collapsing under the weight of the roof. Countless roof tiles shot up like a landslide, raising a huge cloud of dust and burying Manager Yuan alive in the house!

Chen Ji emerged from a corner of the courtyard, his ears ringing as if a tremendous metallic noise was raging next to him.

He couldn’t hear any outside noises, cautiously watching the pile of ruins.

Was Manager Yuan dead?

The first bamboo tube had burst in the air, and the power of the gunpowder hadn’t been fully unleashed.

This time, the bamboo tube had exploded inside the house, and even though Manager Yuan had broken the door, the force had increased several times over.

Chen Ji inwardly hoped incessantly, Manager Yuan must be dead!

But... there was no Ice Flow!

Chen Ji staggered towards the ruins, intending to dig through the tiles and deliver another strike.

But, having barely staggered a few steps, he heard a crack.

The pile of ruins suddenly arched upwards!

Chen Ji backed away with a grave expression... Could Manager Yuan still be alive?