Yuwen Tong gazed at Ling Zhang for a while. Right at the instant when Ling Zhang couldn’t help but feel uneasy beneath his gaze, Yuwen Tong said, “This carriage is sure to be spotted when we pass by the station of Prefecture Guard. There’s a high risk that my identity will be exposed if I follow you on horseback.”
Ling Zhang’s brow corrugated in a brief frown. Indeed, Yuwen Tong couldn’t afford to be exposed, given the circumstances. Though eager to have him get off the carriage, Ling Zhang forbore from doing so eventually and bade the driver depart. “Let’s go.” The driver raised his horsewhip, gave an order to the wheelers and the carriage started moving.
Ling Zhang was very uneasy with Yuwen Tong’s presence. Not only was the whole carriage filled with Yuwen Tong’s breath, but also he took up half of the room, which made physical contact inevitable. Ling Zhang’s body involuntarily tightened, and his nerves went tense as well. All his attention was concentrated on this small, narrow space.
“Elder Brother?” Ling Maomao, who was leaning against Ling Zhang, also felt uncomfortable after Ling Zhang tensed his muscles. With his mental acumen, the little boy sensed Ling Zhang’s unusual reaction, looking at him with a puzzled face.
Ling Zhang lowered his head and flicked a glimpse at him, saying, “What’s wrong?”
Ling Maomao directly stretched out his hand and stroked Ling Zhang’s body, curling his lip. “Uncomfortable.”
Ling Zhang understood and his muscles went even tenser, because he distinctly heard Yuwen Tong chuckle.
“It’s hard,” Ling Maomao added.
Ling Zhang softly slapped Ling Maomao’s little butt and said, “Sit by yourself.”
Ling Maomao pouted and reluctantly moved aside to sit by himself, but Yuwen Tong stretched out his long arm, put it around Ling Maomao and drew him over.
Ling Maomao widened his eyes in surprise and soon discovered that Yuwen Tong’s chest was broader, thicker than that of his elder brother and more comfortable to sprawl in. As if having just found something amazing, he delightedly leaned against Yuwen Tong’s chest and said, “Thank you, Elder Brother Yuwen.”
Ling Zhang was very unhappy to see Ling Maomao gladly let Yuwen Tong hold him. “Maomao, don’t be impolite. Come here.”
Ling Maomao was just about to stand up after hearing this when Yuwen Tong pressed his hands on Ling Maomao’s shoulders and said, “It’s okay. Just sit with me. I don’t mind.”
Without any hesitation, Ling Maomao sat back.
Ling Zhang darted an angry glance at him.
Ling Maomao, who happened to be looking outside scratching his head, didn’t see this.
But Yuwen Tong did, a meaningful smile in his eyes.
Ling Zhang’s expression briefly froze and he withdrew his gaze.
Fortunately, Yuwen Tong merely rested his eyes on Ling Zhang’s face for a while. He made no other remarks to irritate him further.
The horse-drawn carriage progressed along the path. When they were crossing the woods outside the station of Prefecture Guard, Ling Zhang specially raised a corner of the curtain to look outside. As expected, he saw someone on a watchtower staring in his direction. And then someone went down the watchtower, probably heading for Zhang Chong’s place to report.
The look in Ling Zhang’s eyes went sullen.
“Commander, Ling Zhang’s carriage is going back to the city.” In the station of Prefecture Guard, someone immediately reported to Zhang Chong.
“This is too soon. Send some men to Ling family’s herb farm and check. See if Ling Zhang really left,” Zhang Chong said coldly.
“Commander, should we continue arresting Ling family’s herb farmers if he’s already left?” asked the Deputy Commander.
Zhang Chong said with a chilly face, “Once he returns to the city, it won’t be easy to lure him here again, but even if we can’t kill Ling Zhang for the moment, we can make life difficult for people of Ling family. Stick to the plan. I don’t believe Ling family will keep standing by after problems arise.”
“Yes,” answered the Deputy Commander.
The carriage jolted along the way for a long time. Eventually, Ling Zhang couldn’t hold it any longer. He relaxed his tense muscles, leaned against the inside of the carriage and stealthily moved his hands to his back, gently massaging it.
Yuwen Tong suddenly raised Ling Maomao to put him down into the seat beside him and then said to Ling Zhang, “I’ll be back in two hours.”
With that Yuwen Tong left.
The moment Yuwen Tong left, that intense aura about him disappeared. Ling Zhang involuntarily felt relieved and all his muscles also fully relaxed.
“Where did Elder Brother Yuwen go?” Ling Maomao opened the curtain to look outside out of curiosity and was amazed to discover that Yuwen Tong had disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Ling Zhang had no idea where Yuwen Tong had gone either. That man had superb lightness skills and was able to appear out of nowhere and disappear into thin air, which was really horrifying.
“Forget about him. Be careful. Don’t crane out of the carriage,” said Ling Zhang.
However, while making these remarks, he couldn’t help wondering where Yuwen Tong was heading.
That extremely faint scent left by Yuwen Tong still lingered in the carriage. This scent was not that of some kind of incense but an inexplicable smell, which was still affecting his thoughts.
He couldn’t understand. Given what had happened in his last incarnation, Yuwen Tong wasn’t supposed to be in Tanyang. How come the butler so coincidentally encountered him…
Wait… In his last life, the butler didn’t go to the capital city, which meant that by no means could Yuwen Tong have met the butler even if he went to the capital city at that time!
Ling Zhang’s face briefly changed. He suddenly realized that maybe his breaking off the engagement ahead of schedule was the exact reason why the butler met Yuwen Tong, which caused him to change his mind and come to Tanyang.
So it was his decision which led to all this?
While Ling Zhang was annoyed with himself, Yuwen Tong quietly returned to the station of Prefecture Guard after leaving the horse-drawn carriage. Ling Zhang had told him that Zhang Chong had been purchasing ore. He decided to come here and see it with his own eyes. Around the station of Prefecture Guard was vast emptiness, and the top of that hill in the herb farm of Ling family was the only spot suitable to observe the station.
Standing on the hilltop, he could see the whole station of Prefecture Guard. There was a forest of tents in it, along with several large-scale drill fields. As he saw the defense disposition in its main areas and the large quantity of troops walking around, the look in Yuwen Tong’s eyes went cold. Every year, local authority of Tanyang submitted reports on bandit suppression to the Imperial Court, which contained the number of casualties Prefecture Guard suffered. Zhang Chong requested additional fresh soldiers to supplement his army in every report. There must have been some dirty tricks. Were the casualties really that heavy? Not necessarily. The scale of this station was far larger than that of the station of any other army in any other prefecture. It was almost as large as the one in Sheng Zhou. Sheng Zhou was a border city, so its Prefecture Guard deemed a defense line. But why were there so many troops in Tanyang?
It was merely because of some people’s ulterior motives.
But he had fought so hard to defend this country. He wouldn’t allow those people to steal the fruit.
…
After two hours, the carriage returned to Tanyang.
Before they entered the city, Yuwen Tong suddenly materialized again and sat back into the carriage.
“Wow, your kung fu is so good, Elder Brother Yuwen.” This time, Ling Maomao saw Yuwen Tong come back by performing lightness skill, his eyes wide open with amazement.
“This is lightness skill. Do you want to learn it?” Yuwen Tong said.
“Yes!” Ling Maomao answered aloud in haste.
Ling Maomao’s reaction gave Ling Zhang a headache, who then rubbed his temples to ease it. Seeing that Ling Maomao was fixedly staring at Yuwen Tong with expectant eyes, Ling Zhang couldn’t help thinking, ‘This brat doesn’t worry that Yuwen Tong might be a bad guy. He’s bold enough to agree to anything.”
The carriage slowly entered Ling Family where Ling Xingzhong and Ling Zhaowen had already been waiting in anxiety.
In the morning, Yuwen Tong told them that he was going out for a walk, but he disappeared in the blink of an eye, which terribly scared them. Fortunately, Yuwen Tong was thoughtful enough to send a man back to tell them his whereabouts. Otherwise the two of them would have searched the whole Tanyang.
But after being informed of Yuwen Tong’s whereabouts, they had their hearts in their mouths.
There was a wide range of choices open to him. Why did he have to go to the herb farm?
Yuwen Tong must really have a plan for Zhang’er, didn’t he?
While Ling Xingzhong was considering the possibility of Yuwen Tong and Ling Zhang working together, Ling Zhaowen had begun to worry about Ling Zhang. As the only one who knew about the dreams that Ling Zhang had been having, Ling Zhaowen was well aware of Yuwen family’s attitudes in Ling Zhang’s dreams, so he was not at all as optimistic as Ling Xingzhong was.
The carriage stopped in front of them. Yuwen Tong was the first one to get out of it. Then they saw Ling Maomao jump off. Ling Zhang was the last one to get off.
