Yuwen Tong glanced in the direction Ling Zhang was looking and asked, “Who are they?”
Ling Zhang replied, “Zhang Chong’s lackeys. Since Zhang Chong’s dead and Jia family ended up like this, they got scared.”
Yuwen Tong lost his interest in the two men after hearing this and withdrew his gaze. “Let’s go. You’re still recovering.”
…
In the small town in Yan Zhou, Yuwen Qi, who had been waiting in the inn for quite some days, was informed of Zhang Chong’s death before Zhao Fugui and the other two, whom he had been expecting, could return to report.
It threw him in astonishment that Zhang Chong had met his end only a couple of days after his leaving Tanyang. He also heard about Dai Cheng’s presence in Tanyang, which also greatly perplexed him, since he had been in this town all along but never seen any armies pass by. He specially made some inquiries and was told it had been through a passage in the Grand Mang Mountain that the army had got to Tanyang.
“Zhang Chong had been hiding such a secret route. It seems that the Sixth Prince had long ago made preparations. What a pity…” Yuwen Qi didn’t finish his sentence, secretly muttering that the Sixth Prince and those on his side had been so unlucky. ‘They’d been concealing this trump card so well yet Yuwen Tong still found it and destroyed it.’
‘This matter would definitely cause quite a stink in the capital city. What’s been keeping Zhao Fugui? Why is he still not back after such a long time?’ He wanted to return to the capital city immediately to take a look.
Yuwen Qi had just privately complained about Zhao Fugui’s not coming back in time when the next moment Zhao Fugui and the other two men showed up.
Surprisingly, apart from Zhao Fugui and the other two men, he also saw Xie Shi, Yuwen Tong’s bodyguard!
“You–You!” Yuwen Qi was filled with anger and anxiety.
Zhao Fugui, face full of depression, didn’t dare to look at Yuwen Qi. The other two men were also keeping their heads down.
“Second Young Master, I brought word from Marshal that if you don’t take your men and go back to the capital city right now, he’ll make sure you never get back.” Xie Shi threatened him in a flinty tone of voice.
Yuwen Qi flied into a temper. How dare a mere bodyguard talk to him like this!
“Son of a bitch! Who do you think you are? How dare you threaten me!”
“This is the Marshal’s order. If you’ve got a problem with it, please go and talk to the Marshal.”
“You think you can scare me by mentioning Yuwen Tong’s name?!” thundered Yuwen Qi after overturning an inn stool with a hard kick.
Xie Shi coldly looked at him and folded his arms across his chest, saber in hand. “Second Young Master, please hurry and start packing.”
After panting with gritted teeth for quite a while, Yuwen Qi furiously turned around and abruptly slapped Zhao Fugui hard across the face, reprimanding, “Start moving, good-for-nothing! You want me to do it myself?!”
“Ouch!” Zhao Fugui let out a pained cry and, frightened out of his wits, hastily went upstairs to pack.
No matter how reluctant he was, Yuwen Qi didn’t really dare to challenge Yuwen Tong’s authority. Though barely able to forbear to kill people due to extreme rage, eventually he was still forced into leaving the town.
Xie Shi followed them and didn’t leave until they were out of the town, which infuriated Yuwen Qi to such an extent that he nearly vomited blood.
When they were far away from the town, Yuwen Qi kicked Zhao Fugui off his horse and thundered, “What the fuck is wrong with you?! Why did you lead Yuwen Tong’s man to me?!”
Zhao Fugui was trembling all over from the pain caused by the heavy landing, but he still rose to his knees in the knowledge that his young master’s question was not to be ignored. Head hanging, hate and ferocity glinting in his eyes, he replied in a loud and tearful voice, “Second Young Master, it was all because of that wild-card Ling Zhaowen! We were tricked by him real bad!”
Zhao Fugui skipped the part where he had been coerced into disclosing the secrets and signing the confession document, and told Yuwen Qi about Ling Zhaowen’s threatening to put them in jail.
“That Ling Zhaowen was very arrogant. He was fully aware of our identities but refused to show us a shred of respect, laying ill-concealed humiliation and total disregard on Yuwen family. It was outrageous!”
Yuwen Qi’s face was livid with rage. “It was not Yuwen family but us, people of secondary Yuwen family that he was humiliating! Ling family are nothing but a bunch of uneducated country bumpkins. I’ll have them know just because they have Yuwen Tong at their back doesn’t mean they get to scorn secondary Yuwen family. They should have peed on the ground and looked into it to find out what they look like!”
“Young Master, what should we do?” asked Zhao Fugui, weeping.
“We return to the capital city,” replied Yuwen Qi through gritted teeth. “Since Ling family have such a strong death wish, my father’s fury will befall them.”
“Yes!” Zhao Fugui secretly felt a sense of relief and hurriedly got on his horse.
After they left, Xie Shi showed up again, a shallow frown on his face.
Xie Shi returned to Tanyang, reported Yuwen Qi’s remarks to Yuwen Tong and then observed, “Marshal, Second Master would probably do something to harm Ling family. We have to take precautions.”
Yuwen Tong had a cold expression on his face all along.
Yao Yi and a couple of others exchanged glances with one another, all looking somewhat worried.
“Yao Yi, send word to the Shadow Battalion and tell Qi San to dispatch a team to Tanyang. They are to keep their identities secret protecting Ling family covertly.”
“Yes, Marshal!”
However, this was merely an expedient after all. In the final analysis, the root of the problem was in the capital city. But the crux of it was that Yuwen Zhi was Yuwen Tong’s uncle. Yao Yi and others were all privately worried about Yuwen Tong.
“This is a matter concerning the Marshal’s future marriage. Why does Second Master have to get involved in it? Back then when Marshal was having a tough time, they didn’t even–”
Yao Yi shot a dark glance at the speaker.
The speaker shut up but looked rather unreconciled.
“That’s enough. Do what the Marshal told us to do. I believe the Marshal will have it properly handled,” said Zhang Liu.
After the others left, Zhang Liu and Xie Shi exchanged glances, both their faces sullen.
“If it weren’t for the last words of the Old Master, the Marshal would never have to put up with Second Master and his men,” commented Zhang Liu in a contemptuous tone of voice, manifest disgust in his eyes.
“Even a lifeless statue has its own little temper, not to mention Marshal. Let’s just wait and see,” replied Xie Shi blandly.
…
At the same time. In Jiangzhou.
A downtown variety store in Jiangzhou was suddenly ringed by a large team of Yamen runners. Seeing this, all customers in the store were scared and hurriedly left.
“Excuse me, officers. May I ask why are you doing this?” asked the keeper of the variety store in a surprised and bewildered tone of voice.
“Where are your bosses?” asked the head constable, a serious look on his face.
“Well…our bosses are otherwise engaged. Can I take a message for you?” replied the storekeeper discreetly.
“Go and get your two bosses here. Tell them that their presence is requested in the yamen.” The head constable, still having a cold expression on his face, didn’t disclose any details.
Seeing their unfriendly faces, in the fear that something bad might have happened, the storekeeper went to inform Wang Xingfeng and Zhou Gaoyi without asking any further questions.
Both Wang Xingfeng and Zhou Gaoyi were greatly surprised to hear that their variety store had been surrounded by a lot of Yamen runners headed by some constables, and that their presence was requested in the yamen. In their perplexity, they wondered whether any of their previous doings had offended people of the yamen.
Perturbed, the two of them arrived at the hall of the variety store and met the head constable. Wang Xingfeng put on a smile. “Greetings, Head Constable Wang. May I ask if I can be of service to you?”
“Your service is unwanted. The two of you stand accused of illegal possession of important antiques as well as bribing the county magistrate of the Lotus County into granting you permission to open an unlawful gunpowder workshop with the intent to make profits, both of which are felonies. We’re here to arrest you. Constables, restrain them!”
Faces of Wang Xingfeng and Zhou Gaoyi changed drastically. They turned around with the intention to flee but their path had already been blocked. After a short while’s resistance, they were put under restraint.
“All properties in the names of Wang Xingfeng and Zhou Gaoyi have been seized awaiting further check of the yamen. You people are not allowed to live in this place any longer, and neither are you allowed to leave the city. Be ready to go to the yamen at a moment’s notice.”
Head Constable Wang gave an instruction to the storekeeper and store assistants and then took Wang Xingfeng and Zhou Gaoyi away with Yamen runners.
From start to finish, Wang Xingfeng and Zhou Gaoyi had on idea how their deeds had suddenly been brought to light.
The next day, the yamen ordered the seizure of all properties in the names of Wang Xingfeng and Zhou Gaoyi, who were convicted of the felony of running gunpowder workshop without official consent and sentenced to life imprisonment. Before long, their businesses in Yan Zhou, both big ones and small ones, were carved up by other business owners.
When news of this matter reached Ling Zhang, his countenance stood unchanged. Of course, he was the one who had sent his men to Jiangzhou to do those things.
Even Yuwen Tong had been unaware of this matter. “When did you send people to Jiangzhou?”
‘All these people in Ling family have been here all along. When did Ling Zhang send people to Jiangzhou?’ he wondered.
Ling Zhang looked at him. “You don’t know?”
Surprisingly, there were things that even Yuwen Tong didn’t know about. He had thought that Yuwen Tong knew everything he had done.
It had never crossed Ling Zhang’s mind that this matter would escape Yuwen Tong’s notice. He couldn’t help but secretly feel a little smug.
The rhetorical question asked in a surprised tone and the ill-concealed complacency on Ling Zhang’s face brought Yuwen Tong to an instant realization of what he was thinking. ‘Um… He looked pretty cute with this smug little expression on his face, as if there’s a tail behind him that’s going to be cocked up.’
“Yeah. I don’t know. Please tell me,” Yuwen Tong replied in an appealing tone of voice, feeling as if he was acting.
Ling Zhang said, “It was actually very simple. I had my uncle’s men go there.”
“Your uncle?” Yuwen Tong was sent into a brief trance of surprised. Then he couldn’t help but give a chuckle. ‘That figures. Ling Zhaowen is a Tongzhi of Tanyang after all.’
“How did you come to be so sure that the two men were up to something?” asked Yuwen Tong. Ling Zhang had been rather hostile towards the two men from the very beginning. As far as he knew, there had not been any conflicts between them and Ling family.
Ling Zhang’s eyes went flinty. “Those two guys harbored evil designs. The day has eyes, the night has ears.”
Even if the two men had done nothing illegal, Ling Zhang would have figured out a way to set them up. Under no circumstances would he show them any mercy. But apparently the two men had committed a serious crime. They had been so bold as to secretly run a gunpowder workshop without official consent. It was a pity that the gunpowder workshop was not of a large scale. Otherwise, it was likely that what they had been condemned to would have been death instead of life imprisonment.
Yuwen Tong felt that this matter was definitely not as simple as it seemed, but he had no idea how he could figure out exactly which part of it was not right. This feeling was just like Ling Zhang’s previous attitude towards him –it had come under suspicious circumstances, but there was no way to find out the reason.
‘Exactly what secrets has Ling Zhang been hiding?’
Yuwen Tong was eager to know the answer, but he wouldn’t make Ling Zhang tell him. He had plenty of time, and he would slowly have Ling Zhang open his heart and willingly tell him about it.
“When do you plan to tell you grandfather about going to the capital city?” Yuwen Tong asked him.
“I’ll talk to my grandfather about it later this day,” said Ling Zhang. The very thought of talking with his grandfather about going to the capital city with Yuwen Tong made his blood freeze. He had already had a premonition that his grandfather, inevitably, was going to ask him some questions about Yuwen Tong, his engagement to Yuwen Tong undoubtedly included.
‘Alas…’ Thinking about this, Ling Zhang didn’t feel like talking with his grandfather any longer.
“What’s the matter?” Yuwen Tong, who saw the strange expression on his face, couldn’t help but ask, “Is there anything bothering you?”
Ling Zhang flicked an inexplicable glance at him. “No.”
But Yuwen Tong disbelieved him. “Are you worrying that your grandfather would disapprove? That’s not very likely. I remember very well that he supported you in your remaining engaged to me.”
‘It’s his being over-supportive that is vexing me!’
Ling Zhang softly snorted, believing that Yuwen Tong would definitely be smug if he told him about this.
“I’m going there right now. Talk later.’
Watching Ling Zhang leave with a somewhat annoyed look on his face, Yuwen Tong was thrown into perplexity, unaware of which remark of his had caused offence to Ling Zhang.
