“What’s wrong with Young Master? He looks terrifying.”
As soon as Xiafeng walked out of the hall, the servants in the yard gathered around him.
Xiafeng was the most competent servant around Ling Zhang, enjoying the highest status among these servants in the yard. The house steward came specially to tell him what had happened outside, so he certainly knew more than these servants.
“Go and call Dongshan and Dongsong over, and don’t pry into even a single word that you shouldn’t ask,” Xiafeng said seriously.
Noticing the tone of Xiafeng was severe, the two servants shrunk their necks, and turned around to call Dongshan and Dongsong, not daring to ask any more.
After two servants left, Xiafeng pulled a long face. He didn’t follow Young Master to Jia’s mansion to attend the banquet because he had been caught up in something else. He didn’t expect something so serious had happened. If it were not for young master’s calm way of handling it, he would have suffered a great loss today!
Dongshan and Dongsong had followed young master to Jia’s mansion, so they shouldn’t have let Jia Yuanling get such a chance to harm young master.
No matter whether they hadn’t done their duty or there had been some turns and twists, they absolutely couldn’t be forgiven today.
Soon two servants in gray were shown to Xiafeng. They kneeled down directly before Xia could say something. They begged, “Brother Xia, young master will punish us, won’t he? Please intercede for us to young master! We didn’t mean to leave his side. It was the servant of Jia Yuanling who refused to let us into the yard.”
With a straight face, Xiafeng looked at them coldly and said, “If you have anything to say, enter the house and report to young master.”
Having heard the speech outside faintly, Ling Zhang was not to be swayed yet. When he entered the yard of Jia Yuanling, these two servants were still following him, but they disappeared later. Therefore, he didn’t believe at all there had been no dirty trick.
When it happened in his previous life, he didn’t get time to deal with the two guys because of the disordered situation at that time. It was not until Ling family met with the catastrophe later, and the two guys suddenly ran away without a trace that he realized there was something wrong with them.
“Bring them in.” Ling Zhang shouted coldly.
Waving his hand, Xiafeng called the servants in the yard to escort Dongshan and Dongsong into the hall.
Dongshan and Dongsong dropped to their knees the moment they entered the hall, crying and pleading for forgiveness.
“Young Master, please forgive us. It is not that we didn’t want to be with you. It is the servants of Jia family who stopped us and drove us out of the yard.”
“That’s true, Young Master! We tried to go back to your side and protect you, but the servants of Jia’s family were just too detestable. They called some helpers to stop us.”
“When were you driven out of the yard? Who did it? How many helpers were there, and where were you stopped?” Ling Zhang asked slowly.
“It was…It was Jia Er, Jia Yuanling’s servant, who stopped us.”
“Yes, Yes, Yes!”
“We wanted to dissuade you from drinking too much, but he drove us away.”
“Yes, Yes, Yes!”
“He…He stopped us in the garden behind the corner door.”
“Yes, Yes, Yes!”
“There were five or six helpers, and all of them were servants of the Jia’s family. We were not very familiar with them.”
The other guy was about to nod and echo again, however, Ling Zhang pulled a long face suddenly, and threw the tea cup in his hand onto the ground violently!
The garden behind the corner door? He was in the pavilion of that garden then. He didn’t hear any noise, nor did he notice a damn shadow of man.
“Xiafeng, take someone to the rooms of these two men, and search. Bring any suspicious thing here,” Ling Zhang ordered angrily.
Both of their faces got pale, and they crawled on the ground, “Young Master! Young Master! We really didn’t mean to do it! Believe us.”
Although Xiafeng didn’t figure out any loophole in the two guy’s words, he took someone to search their rooms without hesitation since Ling Zhang had given the order.
Having kicked the door open, Xiafeng shouted with a loud voice, “Search intensively, and don’t ignore even the smallest corner. You will be held responsible if anything is left out.”
The servants who had sent to search the room didn’t dare to be careless, and every corner of the rooms had been rummaged, digging out many things.
Xiafeng looked through these things one by one. The more he looked, the more serious his face got. He finally yelled in a rage, “Take all of these things back!”
These things were piled before Ling Zhang soon, and Xiafeng went up to report, “Young Master, suspicious things have been searched out, and they both have this, a big pouch with a hundred taels of silver inside. The embroidered pattern and stitches of the two pouches look exactly the same, which were clearly designed by the same person, and were hidden in a corner that was difficult to find.”
When Xiafeng was describing, the faces of Dongshan and Dongsong got paler and paler. Both with dense cold sweats running down from forehead, they didn’t dare to raise their head and look at Ling Zhang.
“Young Master, the embroidered pattern and stitches of the pouch look very much like those of the clothes and pouches worn by Jia Yuanling, which are designed by Wang Sanniang, the female embroider of Jia family. In the beginning of the year, Wang Sanniang once presented an embroidery handkerchief to you. Do you still remember, Young Master?” Xiafeng continued.
How could he ever forget it! Now Ling Zhang looked at Dongshan and Dongsong as if he was looking at two dead creatures. A hint of murderous intention flashed in his eyes.
“Spare me, Young Master! Spare me! We won’t do it again! Spare me!” Being the first one to quit resisting, Dongsong cried to beg for forgiveness.
With his face looking pale like a ghost, Dongshan raised his head, and met Ling Zhang’s eyes. Catching the cold eyes, Dongshan trembled all over, and couldn’t hold on any more. “Young Master! Spare me!”
To spare their lives? If he spared them, who would spare the lives of those dozens of people of Ling family in previous life?
“To gag them.” Ling Zhang spoke in a flat tone.
But the flatter his voice was, the more frightened the crowd in the hall got. Even Xiafeng didn’t dare to speak, and he gagged Dongshan and Dongsong along with a couple of servants.
There was a pressing atmosphere pervading in the hall, which weighed so heavily on their hearts that they even didn’t dare to breathe.
“Give each of them a bowl of medicine, and poison them,” said Ling Zhang.
Dongsong collapsed heavily onto the ground, with his head knocking on the ground with a loud sound and the whites of his eyes shown.
“Young Master…” Xiafeng intended to say something, but when his eyes met Ling Zhang’s, he shivered and swallowed back his words.
“Shall I ask your help to do it?” Ling Zhang said in a cold voice.
Xiafeng lowered his head. “No, I dare not. I’ll go get the medicine.”
“Well, don’t disturb master. If you were seen by accident, tell him it is for acute disease,” Ling Zhang said.
“Yes, I got it.” Xiafeng went backwards out of hall with his head lowered.
The four remaining servants bowed their heads. They pressed Dongshan and Dongsong down firmly with their hands, not daring to raise their heads even one time.
Xiafeng was quick in action and soon the medicine was presented after having been decocted.
While carrying the medicine, Xiafeng had recovered his composure. “Young Master, the medicine is ready.”
Seeing Xiafeng had composed himself so quickly, Ling Zhang felt slightly surprised. Xiafeng had followed him for many years, so Xia might tend to behave like him, resembling his former characters to a degree. He thought Xia could have gone to the front hall to lodge a complaint, but Xia not only didn’t do that, but also had already boiled the medicine.
It seemed that he hadn’t found out the other aspect of Xia’s personality.
In this world, no one was really weak. But it was great. Since he was going to take a bloody road, people around him couldn’t be that feeble.
“Force them to take the medicine! Don’t leave even one drop!” Ling Zhang said in a flat tone.
While Dongsong had already fainted without any reaction, Dongshan struggled to stand up. When looking at Ling Zhang, he appeared very frightened as if he was looking at a terrible devil.
As soon as the cloth in his mouth was taken out, Dongshan began to shout loudly. “No, Young Master! Spare me! Spare…”.
He didn’t even finish his words before he was pinched in the cheeks by Xiafeng, and forced to drink down the bowl of medicine.
All his struggles were in vain. The medicine couldn’t be spat out once it was taken.
After a while, Dongshan began to have a reaction. He was not only foaming at the mouth, but also kept trembling all over. After about a cup of tea’s time, he lost his breath completely. He died!
Soon Dongsong died too.
Sitting on the chair, Ling Zhang looked at the scene calmly as if he was not witnessing the death of two lives, but a most ordinary and indifferent performance.
He looked so calm, and his calmness even made others involuntarily tremble.
“Wrap them up and send the bodies to the mass graves.”
Xia shivered slightly. After inhaling deeply, he responded calmly, “Yes.”
“Carry them away.”
Xia led other four servants to carry the two bodies away swiftly.
The moment they walked out of the hall, a blast of wind blew. These five guys including Xiafeng all quivered with cold. It was not until now that they began to realize they had got soaked at the backs. Cold sweat, of course!
Xia raised his hands to have a look. They were shaking.
Every family had that kind of medicine in their homes, which was a covert secret. What was different was that some of them were so cruel that a couple of people were poisoned to death every year. However, as for the Lings, they had never seen anything like what happened today. The medicine was more symbolic of deterrence than something for people to take. Today, it was the first time for Xia to get to know the reaction of people after taking the medicine.
Young master changed! He had followed young master for many years, so he could clearly sense the difference. It was also the reason why he finally chose to follow the order, prepared the medicine and presented it after he had hesitated in the kitchen for quite a while.
His face froze as his thoughts got here. Xia clenched his fists tightly, put his shivering hands at his back, and spoke to the four servants, “You guys have witnessed what happened today. I think you know what to say and what not. You have been sold to the Lings. Since your indentures are in the hands of young master, just shut up your mouths firmly if you don’t want to have a miserable fate like them.”
The four trembled all over, and looked at each other. Gritting their teeth, they nodded. “Don’t worry, brother! We all got it and won’t speak out. Since they have betrayed young master, and put him in such a dangerous situation, it is their retribution.”
“Good! You are very clear about what kind of person our young master is. He has never treated you harshly. The reason why he is so angry this time is that these two servants have touched the bottom line. As long as you behave yourselves, and don’t go over the line, young master won’t do that to you,” said Xia.
“We get it, brother,” responded the four, quite relieved.
“Go! Wrap their bodies with white cloths, and throw them to the mass graves. Remember if anyone catches sight of it, just tell him they died of acute illness,” Xia warned.
“Yes.”
Ling Zhang who was standing far away didn’t turn around to leave until he heard their whole conversation.
