Chapter 556: Dream Journey

Wang Li gnawed on a chicken drumstick, not daring to get too close to Ji Yuan. He maintained a respectful distance, admiring the calligraphy Ji Yuan was writing. Though a storyteller by trade, he considered himself a literate man and had always thought his own handwriting was decent enough – after all, storytellers need to speak a lot, but also to record a fair amount. However, it was clear his writing couldn't even compare to Mr. Ji's; he truly was an immortal.

Although to Wang Li, Mr. Ji simply seemed to be creating a calligraphy piece, he had heard the gentleman mention before that this was actually a deduction of profound methods, a technique Mr. Ji called "Derivation Script."

Wang Li didn't understand such arcane matters, but he had his own thoughts: a proud scholar suffering in prison, sharing hardship with an ethereal, dignified gentleman. He had initially thought the gentleman was merely a master, but who would have imagined he turned out to be an immortal in the end...

The plot of the story gradually formed in Wang Li's mind, and this time, he was the protagonist. The thought made Wang Li quite excited, and an irrepressible, joyful smile naturally spread across his face. With his mouth glistening with chicken grease and a piece of chicken skin hanging from the corner of his lips, he looked bizarre and unsettling.

In the distant prison corridor, the jailer, who had been carefully watching Wang Li's cell, suddenly shivered.

"Hiss..."

The jailer looked at the surrounding cells, especially the three opposite Wang Li's. The inmates inside were all huddled in corners, some even covered with straw, clearly feeling a sense of dread. After watching for a while longer, the jailer's scalp began to tingle, and he couldn't stand it anymore. He left and walked towards the outer hall.

A moment later, the jailer returned to the outer hall, finally feeling a sense of relief. He rubbed his arms to warm himself up.

"Why are you back? Did he eat the food?"

The old man sitting at the table, sipping wine, saw the jailer rubbing his hands as he returned and asked. The latter forced a smile and nodded.

"He ate it, all the food and wine. He still hasn't had diarrhea, but his condition here is getting worse."

The jailer tapped his head, indicating Wang Li's mental state, then hesitated and added,

"Chief, Wang Li's current state looks increasingly frightening..."

The old man frowned and took a sip of wine. He was, of course, well aware of Wang Li's condition and, to be honest, it gave him the creeps too.

"Chief, Wang Li's situation is too bizarre. I've heard the old timers say that people like him become powerful ghosts after they die..."

"Hiss..."

The jail chief also shivered, reaching for the wine pot and pouring some into an empty bowl nearby.

"Here, have some wine to calm your nerves."

"Alright!"

Over two months passed, and Wang Li's "madness" had truly become his normal state. No jailers came to listen to his stories anymore, and for quite some time, no more special food boxes had been delivered, nor had anything been added to the prison meals.

On this day, Ji Yuan put down his brush. The stack of Xuan paper on the table was covered with tiny, dense characters, some overlapping, some spread out. Although the pages weren't physically connected, there was a sense that all the characters were linked, faintly echoing each other as if cloud and mist intertwined among them.

Of course, Wang Li couldn't perceive these deeper aspects. He simply found Mr. Ji's writing beautiful and harmonious, though looking at it for too long inexplicably made him feel sleepy.

"Uh, Mr. Ji, are you finished writing?"

Ji Yuan placed his wolf-hair brush on the stand, stretched his limbs, and looked at the characters on the paper spread across the low table. He nodded with a smile, saying,

"Yes, it's mostly done. It just needs a bit more refining. I must thank you for your help in completing this piece, 'Journey through Dreams.'"

"Me?"

Wang Li pointed to his nose and smiled awkwardly.

"Mr. Ji, please don't tease me. How could I possibly guide your calligraphy practice? All I did was eat and drink and cause a ruckus nearby..."

As he spoke, Wang Li glanced outside and saw no jailers approaching the end of the prison corridor. When his gaze returned, he noticed the inmate in the opposite cell immediately recoiling into a corner upon meeting his eyes.

"Mr. Ji, they haven't sent wine and food for a while, and I wonder when Miss Zhang will visit again..."

Ji Yuan shook his head and smiled.

"What, you're still hoping they'll send more?"

Wang Li smiled sheepishly and answered truthfully,

"Well, with you here, they can't poison me anyway. And even though their food and wine aren't as good as Miss Zhang's, they're still much better than prison slop..."

At this, Wang Li seemed to finally realize something and said with alarm,

"Mr. Ji, do you think they've given up on poisoning me? Are they planning to deal with me another way, like stabbing me in my sleep? My release date isn't far off!"

"Face obstacles as they come; what are you afraid of? Given the Yin family's reputation, they would never openly attack you. Just stay put and relax. Perhaps they think your current state means there's no need to kill you."

Wang Li scratched his head.

"Exactly, for someone as insignificant as me, wouldn't it be easier for Lord Xiao to just let me go?"

Just as he was speaking, footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor, and soon the jail chief and a jailer arrived in front of Wang Li's cell. Although Wang Li exuded a strategic demeanor when storytelling, under normal circumstances, he was just like any ordinary scholar, secretly glancing at Ji Yuan several times, wanting to see his reaction.

Wang Li's supposedly discreet actions were obvious to the old man and the jailer, but this only made him seem more eerie. During this period, more than one jailer had wondered if Wang Li's cell was haunted, and now every jailer carried a protective talisman.

"Ahem, Wang Li, your sentence is up. You can go!"

"Huh?"

Wang Li instinctively looked at Ji Yuan, then at the jailer.

"No, officers, I should still have at least half a month left, shouldn't I?"

"Hey, you storyteller, are you complaining you haven't been in prison long enough? You've got your dates wrong!"

"I got it wrong?"

Wang Li subconsciously glanced at Ji Yuan again, who said nothing.

"Yes, you misremembered. You can leave prison now."

Meanwhile, Ji Yuan sneered faintly and nodded to Wang Li, who quickly responded to the jailer.

"Oh, oh, oh, I understand, I, uh..."

Wang Li glanced around his cell; there was nothing to pack. Mr. Ji had already swept the Four Treasures of the Study from the low table into his sleeve.

"Let's go then!"

With that, Wang Li braced himself and stepped out of his cell, then saw a few other jailers opening the doors of nearby cells as well.

"Come on out, come on out! You two can be released!"

"Come out, your sentence is up!"

Seeing inmates from four or five surrounding cells also being released, Wang Li breathed a sigh of relief. If everyone was being released together, it should be fine.

"Uh, officers, is this a general amnesty from His Majesty, or some other joyful decree?"

Wang Li asked the jail chief, sounding somewhat fawning, and the chief looked at him.

"Oh, as expected of a scholar, you're sharp!"

Wang Li completely relaxed. His fellow inmates who were also released were all overjoyed, though they instinctively kept some distance from Wang Li once they were out, as did some of the nearby jailers. Only Ji Yuan watched everyone with a faint, enigmatic smile.

The area where these prisoners were held seemed somewhat secluded, but it wasn't far from the main prison entrance, not deep within the dungeon. Yet, as they walked out, they found few prisoners in the cells along the way. It was unclear if they had been moved to other quarters or if they had all been released.

When the group of released prisoners reached the open area of the outer hall, they saw several other jailers standing there. Upon seeing them emerge, these jailers suddenly cried out in surprise.

"Prisoners escaping!"

"Close the outer gate! Close the outer gate! Prisoners escaping!"

"Clang!" "Clang!" "Clang!"

One by one, the jailers instantly drew their swords from their scabbards, leaving Wang Li and the other prisoners wide-eyed in astonishment.

"Your Honor! This is a misunderstanding!" "Officers, officers! We weren't escaping!"

"These officers told us we could..."

Some prisoners turned back, only to find that all the surrounding jailers, including those who had escorted them out, now held weapons with glinting blades.

"Are you trying to kill us!?"

"Prisoners are escaping and daring to resist! Capture them all!"

Although they said "capture them," the grim-faced jailers swung their swords without hesitation.

"Thud..." "Thud..." "Thud..."

"Ouch..." "Ah..."

Swords flashed a few times, and several screams rang out. At that moment, the jail chief felt a tearing pain in his back. He turned his head and saw that a jailer had struck him with a sword.

"Stop! Everyone stop!"

The jail chief's pained shout made all the jailers stop. Many had bloodstains on their swords, but their faces revealed horror. Everyone looked left and right, then exchanged bewildered glances.

There were no prisoners, no sign of Wang Li. There were only them, the jailers, almost all injured, with one even lying on the ground, severely wounded.

"What... what were we doing?"

"W-Wang Li? Where is he?"

After a long while, all the jailers, except for the severely wounded one who had been bandaged and lay aside, stood in the front hall as if they had seen ghosts after receiving basic first aid. Their faces were pale, not just from blood loss, but mostly from fright. Because Wang Li and the other inmates were still safely in their cells, their locks unopened, yet the jailers clearly remembered everything that had just happened.

"Chief... we didn't just see a ghost, did we?"

The jail chief took a deep breath but couldn't refute it.

"So, Wang Li, should we still kill him?"

The jail chief's mouth twitched, and he looked at the subordinate who had asked.

"Kill him? You go kill him?"

Money was certainly good, and this task might offer some career advantages, but one had to be alive to enjoy them!

Half a month later, under the wary escort of one or two jailers, Ji Yuan and Wang Li emerged from Changyang Prefecture Prison. Zhang Rui was already waiting outside, smiling sweetly.