midnight.

Chen Ji woke up from his dream and slowly sat up.

In the simple apprentice dormitory, Liang Maoer, She Dengke, and Liu Quxing were fast asleep. Liang Gouer was still fooling around somewhere and did not come back at night.

The cats and dogs, who are usually inseparable, did not go out together today.

Chen Ji got off the bed with difficulty and walked cautiously into the yard. He wanted to find out whether Wu Hongbiao had lied.

In the empty yard, only crows stood on the branches of the almond trees.

Chen Ji turned around and looked at the courtyard wall where the ladder was set up.

No one is stepping on his brother's shoulders, sticking his head out from the eaves of the wall, and no one is supporting his sister tottering on the other side of the wall.

The prince and Princess Baili suddenly stopped going out to play, or stopped borrowing the way from the medical clinic, and the Taiping Medical Center returned to its former tranquility.

Chen Ji took some leftover food and water from the kitchen and turned around to walk outside the medical center. However, Crow blocked his way and pointed to the outside of the medical center.

"Uncle Crow, what do you want to say?" Chen Ji was confused.

The crow spread its wings and gestured, first pointed outside the medical center, and then made a gesture of pulling out the knife from its waist.

Chen Ji was stunned: "Are you trying to say that Taiping Medical Center has been monitored?"

The crow nodded happily.

Chen Ji's heart trembled: "Uncle Crow, who is monitoring the hospital? If it's the Secret Intelligence Department, just blink your eyes. If it's the Military Intelligence Department, just blink twice."

The crow blinked three times...

Chen Ji: "..."

The crow grinned, as if laughing at Chen Ji's imminent disaster.

Chen Ji frowned and thought, why did these two parties monitor him? What went wrong?

Moreover, with these two parties monitoring him at the same time, how should he go out to see Wu Hongbiao?

The crow stopped looking at Chen Ji's joke. It waved its wings to signal Chen Ji to follow, and then flew up to the roof of the main hall of the medical center.

Chen Ji moved the ladder and sneakily climbed up to the roof with the crow.

At midnight, a man and a crow poked half their heads out of the roof and secretly looked at the shop opposite the main hall.

The two sides were separated by Anxi Street, so it was difficult to see clearly in the dark night.

Crow pointed at the second floor of the third shop on the right. The room was dark, but the window was opened a slit, just enough to see the main entrance of Taiping Medical Center.

Crow pointed to the second floor of the second shop on the left. The window also had a slit, facing the main entrance of Taiping Medical Center.

Both sides seemed to be observing who was coming in and out of the hospital.

Chen Ji muttered: "Fortunately, we didn't rent the same room..."

The crow laughed silently.

Chen Ji retracted his head behind the ridge of the roof and asked in a low voice: "Uncle Crow, how many people are there in the room on the right?"

The crow blinked three times, three times.

"What about the left side?"

The crow blinked three times, also three times.

Chen Ji felt a strong sense of crisis. If he sent only one person, it was a normal surveillance behavior, but if he sent three people at the same time, he was preparing to arrest or kill someone.

Fortunately, Uncle Crow helped...

Chen Ji turned around and smiled at Crow: "Thank you, Uncle Crow, for helping me again... Why are you willing to help me?"

The crow smiled silently and did not answer.

Chen Ji asked again: "How should I go around to the cloth shop?"

The crow flapped its wings and circled back.

Following the crow's guidance, he followed the shadows between the buildings on Anxi Street and entered the backyard of the cloth shop.

Not only that, Uncle Crow was even responsible for cleaning up the aftermath. When the traces entered the courtyard, he stopped on the courtyard wall to keep a lookout.

Hearing the movement over the wall, Wu Hongbiao, who was originally lying on the ground, stood up from his cross-legged position and said, "I've finally waited for you. Are the Military Intelligence Department and the Secret Intelligence Department still arresting me?"

Chen Ji said: "They are still being arrested, but they have been led to the West Market. I heard that the cloth shop is going to be sold outside recently. This is not a place to stay for a long time. Someone may come to visit the shop at any time."

Wu Hongbiao thought for a while and said: "Then I will clean this place tomorrow. If anyone comes, I will dig out of the yard first, and then dig in after they leave."

"It's never safe."

Wu Hongbiao thought for a while and said, "Have you found Si Cao's true identity?"

Chen Ji was silent for a moment: "You answer some questions for me first and do something for me before I can answer your question."

Wu Hongbiao looked at Chen Ji carefully: "You have changed."

Chen Ji leaned against the door frame, letting the moonlight lengthen his shadow. The former good brothers, one stood at the door and the other sat on the ground, one more embarrassed than the other, like brothers who were in trouble together, but they kept a safe distance.

.

Wu Hongbiao said softly: "In the past, you did not receive long-term hard training, and your vigilance was very low. Of course, this is also related to the environment in which you grew up. We were conscripted into the harshest military camp in the north when we were twelve years old in the Jing Dynasty. We grew up in the bitter cold

It is cultivated in a land where it is winter for half of the year. There are only so many meals in the military camp. If you are not good enough, you will go hungry. If you go hungry for two meals, you will freeze to death. There, you can have a full meal.

Let’s plot against each other.”

Wu Hongbiao continued: "You grew up in the Ning Dynasty in the south where birds are singing and flowers are fragrant. There are gorgeous dancers and singers here, as well as elegant literati and scholars, and the shadows of oars on the Qinhuai River. Living here, naturally... you are weaker.

"

Chen Ji calmly asked: "What about now?"

Wu Hongbiao answered seriously: "It's different now. Although I don't know what you have been through, you are more like a qualified warrior now. Although it will be a bit disappointing not to be trusted, I am happy for you from the bottom of my heart.

Only you like this can survive until the day you and I meet again."

Chen Ji lowered his head: "Then you were betrayed by Jing Chao, haven't you considered joining the Secret Service?"

But Wu Hongbiao looked solemn and said: "It was not Jing Chao who betrayed me, but Si Cao. I have told you before that I will never shake my faith because of some people's dirty politics. I

I also believe that your uncle and the others will definitely make a comeback and wipe out the Chaoye Xiaoxiao. I, the people of Jingchao, have suffered enough, and I will not betray my motherland just because of a few villains."

Silently, this was the first time he heard the word "faith" after coming to this world.

He didn't want to dwell on this issue, so he asked the question he wanted to ask the most: "You said that Si Cao, who wears a green-faced fang mask and is good at using swords, wants to kill us. Why do you say that?"

Wu Hongbiao said strangely: "Si Cao is Si Cao. Why have so many adjectives been added? There is only one Si Cao."

Chen Ji shook his head: "Answer my question first."

Wu Hongbiao recalled: "The people who came to kill me first lied to me that Si Cao had ordered me to go to Dongshi Caobang to pick up a batch of goods. I am a pigeon-level spy. Apart from you, only Zhou Chengyi and Si Cao in the entire Luo City are qualified to know

My information. In addition, I also asked them to show Si Cao’s token on the day the killer came, and they did.”

"What is Si Cao's token?"

"The Chronicle of Luo City is printed with the special seal of 'Rongbaozhai'. A corner of the upper right corner of the seal is chipped off, so it cannot be copied."

Chen Ji finally understood that in fact Wu Hongbiao did not know that there were other Si Cao, nor did he know that a new Si Cao had arrived in Luo City and squeezed out the original Si Cao.

Therefore, according to my own inference, it was Shopkeeper Yuan who wanted to kill them, not Si Cao, the coachman.

However, Chen Ji had to verify that Wu Hongbiao was not lying.

After a long silence, he said, "I need you to do something."

"What's up?"

"Meet Si Cao."

Wu Hongbiao looked shocked.

…

…

Early morning, Luocheng magistrate's office.

A gold-lacquered plaque reading "Luocheng Government Office" hangs on the yamen gate. Officials at the yamen gate came to order in a hurry. One clerk lowered his voice and said, "Hurry up, hurry up. If you get there late, you will have to be escorted by Tongzhi."

Just as he was talking, a carriage engraved with a canary pattern slowly stopped at the entrance of the government office. The officials stopped and bent down to salute.

The coachman opened the curtain and hung it on the hook on the carriage, picked up a stool and placed it beside the carriage, and then whispered: "Second Master, we are here."

Liu Mingming was wearing a blue official robe, a black veil on his head, a jade leather belt around his waist, and black-faced white-soled soap boots, and he slowly stepped out of the carriage.

"Hello, Lord Tongsan."

"Hello, Lord Tongsan."

Liu Mingming snorted from his nose, and the officials dared to straighten up and hurried to the government office.

According to the rules, Liu Mingming, a fifth-grade official, was not qualified to ride on this canary carriage, but the Liu family and Liu Ge held a high position, and Yuzhou was the Liu family's private territory, so naturally no one dared to say anything.

When Liu Mingming entered the Yamen, the coachman drove the carriage aside, put on a bamboo hat and squatted at the door, chatting with other coachmen and sedan bearers.
To be continued...