Chapter 12: House Call

At dawn, the world was still a hazy gray.

Chen Ji slowly sat up from his bed, instinctively reaching for his phone beside the pillow, but found nothing.

At this moment, he suddenly understood that the world he once lived in was no longer a place within reach for him; it was now a distant homeland.

"Wait, shouldn't I be in the courtyard?" Chen Ji's last memory was practicing the Stone-Embracing Stance by the apricot tree, but he had woken up in the west wing, still wearing the tattered clothes from last night.

Had his master sent him back? Or his two fellow disciples? Chen Ji couldn't be sure; he didn't remember anything.

At this moment, the Ice Flow rested quietly within his Dantian, no longer exhibiting its fierce demeanor from last night.

Chen Ji pondered, "Who caused this surge of Ice Flow this time? The first time the Ice Flow appeared, it was from Zhou Chengyi, and the second time was..."

Each time the Ice Flow appeared, several people died, but the ordinary people in Zhou Chengyi's mansion didn't produce an Ice Flow, nor did the deceased maid in Wanxingyuan.

This time, could it be from Noble Consort Jing's recently miscarried fetus?!

As he thought this, She Dengke, at the end of the communal bed, suddenly sat up and said with his eyes closed, "Master, why don't you just kill me? If you kill me, no one will be here to care for you in your old age and bury you!"

Chen Ji turned to look at him, speechless. After She Dengke finished speaking, he flopped back down with a thud. It turned out he was talking in his sleep.

The rooster hadn't crowed yet.

Strangely enough, Chen Ji had returned around 1 AM last night and had slept for less than four hours by now, yet he was full of energy, without a hint of fatigue or drowsiness.

Was this a change brought about by the Ice Flow and the Stone-Embracing Stance?

He sat on the bed, deep in thought for a long time. Eventually, he got out of bed and changed his clothes. He then went to the courtyard, hoisted a carrying pole, and the slender figure of the young man carried two wooden buckets, heading towards Anxi Street outside the gate.

Yesterday, while waiting for his family to deliver his tuition money, Chen Ji had observed that there was a well there where the entire neighborhood fetched water, and if one went late, there would be a long queue.

As he stepped out, Chen Ji paused in surprise. He saw the black cat from Wanxingyuan crouching on the eaves of the grain and oil shop across the street, silently watching him.

So, last night wasn't a hallucination; this black cat was truly attracted by the bead in his sleeve and had even secretly followed him persistently outside the prince's mansion!

Chen Ji walked along the bluestone path in the early morning towards the well, while the black cat followed silently along the gray tiles of the eaves, its gaze never leaving him.

He was the only one on the long street, and there was only one cat on the eaves.

They walked side by side through the thin autumn morning mist, as if passing through a long stretch of time together.

He stopped, and with the carrying pole on his shoulder, he looked at the black cat across the way and asked curiously, "Meow-meow?"

The black cat simply stared at him coldly.

What respectable cat answers to "Meow-meow"?

Seeing no reaction from it, Chen Ji tried, "Sang Biao?"

The black cat remained silent.

Chen Ji cautiously opened his hand, revealing the bead. "Do you want this?" he asked.

Although covered in wounds, the black cat still looked at Chen Ji with a noble demeanor, showing no reaction, as if waiting for the young man to voluntarily offer the bead.

Chen Ji extended his hand upwards slightly.

This time, the black cat, standing on the gray tiled eaves, leaned slightly forward, ready to leap down and snatch the bead. But the moment it stretched out its neck, Chen Ji closed his palm again, putting the bead away.

The black cat remained silent.

It opened its mouth, as if to meow, but ultimately couldn't bring itself to.

Finally, it resumed its aloof posture, silently watching the young man.

Chen Ji tucked the bead into his sleeve and continued to walk leisurely towards the well. The black cat silently followed, staring at him coldly; a fresh wound above its eyebrow, left from last night, made it look fiercer.

Chen Ji stood by the well, turning the wooden handle to lower a wooden bucket. Just as he was about to reel the bucket back up, he saw the black cat, which had, at some point, jumped down from the eaves and was now by the well, looking up at him.

"You..." Chen Ji thought for a long time, then suddenly asked, "You want this bead, don't you? Here, take it."

He opened his palm, holding the bead in his cupped hand, no longer deliberately teasing the little cat.

But the black cat simply stood on the well curb, the right corner of its mouth curving slightly upwards, as if in disdain. It seemed to say, "I won't fall for your tricks again!"

"Wait, is that expression mocking me?" Chen Ji hadn't expected to see such a human-like expression on a cat. He glanced at the deserted long street, then placed the bead on the ground and retreated three meters away. "It's there," he said, "pick it up yourself."

Animals have instincts; they seem to instinctively know what to eat and what not to eat. Even if poisoned, they will find their own antidote.

Humans, however, lack such instincts; they dare to eat anything, even finding joy in eating poisonous mushrooms.

Therefore, Chen Ji wasn't worried about the black cat getting into trouble by eating it. He wanted to know why the black cat was attracted to it and what would happen if the black cat swallowed the bead.

The answer to the Ice Flow lies with this black cat.

By the well, the black cat cautiously approached, glancing at the bead, then warily at Chen Ji. After a long while, it finally moved closer and delicately sniffed the bead from a distance.

"Go on, eat it," Chen Ji watched expectantly.

But as the black cat opened its mouth to pick it up, the narrow, snake-like gray mist inside the bead roiled violently like a living thing, and the black cat was pushed away by an unseen force!

"Huh?" Chen Ji was stunned by this supernatural phenomenon. He was certain that an unseen force had just burst forth from the bead, pushing the black cat away!

The small black cat arched its back, adopting a defensive posture towards the bead, no longer daring to approach.

"Why is that?" Chen Ji wondered.

As his words fell, the rapid sound of horse hooves echoed from afar.

Chen Ji turned to look, only to see a carriage approaching from a distance, speeding towards the medical hall and breaking through the quiet mist. The carriage passed in front of him, the coachman urging the horses with an anxious expression, perhaps on a very urgent matter.

"It looks like they're looking for Master; I should head back quickly," Chen Ji said. "Oh, and you..."

When he turned his head back, the black cat was long gone, only the bead lay quietly on the ground.

As Chen Ji swayed back to the medical hall with his carrying pole, he saw the carriage parked outside. The two horses were handsome and powerful, their bodies rippled with strong muscles, and their manes were neatly groomed.

The wooden carriage body had engraved canary patterns, the bird's tail extending all the way to the rear, intricate and exquisite.

Beside the carriage, She Dengke was with the coachman, moving some luggage onto the carriage.

Chen Ji, carrying his pole, went over and asked, "What's going on?"

At this moment, uncontrollable joy shone in She Dengke's eyes and brows. "Master is going to treat a patient," he announced.

"Why are you so happy...?"

"Of course I'm happy!" She Dengke lowered his voice and said, "Master will be gone for at least ten days to half a month. We won't get beaten or scolded anymore, and we won't have our studies examined. Aren't you happy about that? Then we can go to East Market together, or Hongyi Lane... If my third brother arranges a private performance for a noble, I can sneak you in to watch the grand opera. A few days ago, I also heard that the Ma Family Troupe from Pear Garden is coming back to perform at a private banquet!"

"Whose family is he going to treat?" Chen Ji asked curiously.

She Dengke lowered his voice and said, "I heard that when the Privy Secretary's Secret Service investigated Jing Dynasty spies, they arrested several young descendants of the Liu family and imprisoned them. One of them was tortured to death in prison. Old Master Liu fainted from anger upon hearing the news and is now on his deathbed."

Upon hearing this, Chen Ji suddenly recalled Yunyang's enigmatic smile when standing in front of the Zhou mansion—a sense of crisis that now haunted him. "The Secret Service has that much power?" he asked.

"Indeed," She Dengke said, "Old Master Liu's daughter is the current Empress Dowager, and his son is the Minister of Personnel. Even with such a prominent family background, the Secret Service still arrested them without hesitation. It's said in the martial arts world that the Secret Service can act first and report later, with special authorization from the Emperor."

Chen Ji vaguely felt something was amiss. Even if the Secret Service had great power, they shouldn't disregard the Empress Dowager and the Minister of Personnel, should they?

As the two were talking, they saw Old Man Yao emerge from the medical hall, accompanied by a dignified and stern middle-aged man.

Old Man Yao instructed his three disciples, "While I'm gone for these few days, none of you are allowed to privately diagnose patients' pulses. If a patient brings a prescription, you are to prepare the medicine according to it. Don't get the measurements wrong and make me lose money. The moment I return, I will check the inventory, and whoever dares to make me lose money will have to pay it back!"

Chen Ji's heart jolted. He still hadn't figured out how to handle that old ginseng root. What if Old Man Yao discovered the problem when he returned to check the inventory?

The middle-aged man beside them said, "Old Mr. Yao, let's get going. My family probably can't wait any longer. We must at least delay until my father rushes back from the capital to see Old Master for the last time."

Old Man Yao nodded. "Let's go."

Liu Quxing stepped forward to help Old Man Yao into the carriage. The carriage then drove off, its horse hooves making crisp sounds on the bluestone path.

She Dengke exclaimed admiringly, "How much would a carriage like that cost to buy?!"

Liu Quxing laughed. "You're clearly uncultured, aren't you? Did you see the canaries on that carriage? That pattern is only allowed to be used by my Liu family after we had a second-rank official in the current court and it was granted by imperial decree. In our Great Ning Dynasty, even commoners riding in sedan chairs is a transgression. How many heads do you have to ride in such a carriage?"

She Dengke sneered, "You talk as if you're truly a member of the Liu family!"

Liu Quxing glared back angrily, "What do you mean I'm not a Liu family member?"

"Your family is just a distant, unrelated branch of the Liu family. Do they even acknowledge you?" She Dengke retorted. "Our family may be poor, but we have integrity. We make a living on the docks with our own abilities and never fawn over the powerful."

Liu Quxing was furious. "I even went with my parents to Old Master Liu's ninetieth birthday banquet!"

"Yes, at the servants' table."

"You!"

Chen Ji watched, speechless, as the two wrestled their way into the medical hall. Suddenly, he noticed something peculiar. He turned his head and was surprised to see that the small black cat hadn't actually left; instead, it was hiding in the scattered shadows of the eaves across the street, secretly observing them.