Ling Zhang was shocked by Jiang Yu’s words. Most importantly, he could tell that Jiang Yu meant every word he said.
“I don’t need you to serve me heart and soul. You’re a childe of the Jiang family. Why are you so insistent on being my attendant?” Ling Zhang was baffled.
Jiang Yu replied, “Firstly, I want to repay you for saving my life. Secondly, I trust you.”
Trust him? Trust him to do what? Ling Zhang gazed at Jiang Yu, whose face manifestly registered determination. The tricky part was that the current situation struck him as a trifle thorny. By saying those words in the presence of all so many people, Jiang Yu had virtually humiliated himself numerous times, and he would become a laughing stock of the whole capital city the moment he walked out of this hall. He really didn’t mind? Ling Zhang was really astounded by Jiang Yu’s act. What would Jiang Yu have to face if he declined Jiang Yu’s offer?
Ling Zhang felt somewhat awkward. He had merely saved Jiang Yu’s life in passing, and after that Jiang Yu had stopped seeing him as an enemy and even forewarned him of the King Duan’s trick once. He had thought that the two of them were even.
“What do you say?” Yuwen Tong asked Ling Zhang.
On hearing this question, Ling Zhang came to know Yuwen Tong’s take on this matter. If Yuwen Tong didn’t want him to agree to Jiang Yu’s request, he would never have asked this question – he wouldn’t even have summoned him to this hall. In other words, Yuwen Tong actually wanted him to grant Jiang Yu’s request.
Ling Zhang was somewhat bewildered, but owing to his trust in Yuwen Tong, he hesitated for a brief moment and then looked at Jiang Yu. “I’ll only ask you once – are you sure you’ve thought it through?”
“I am,” answered Jiang Yu without a second thought.
Ling Zhang’s eyes swept across all the others present in the hall and then said slowly, “Then get to your feet and come with me.”
“Yes, Childe Ling. Thank you.” A hint of delight appeared on Jiang Yu’s face and Ling Zhang noticed it.
Yuwen Tong sitting in the throne, however, suddenly furrowed his brows, his piercing eyes flashing towards Jiang Yu, who sensed it but just glanced at Yuwen Tong in a seemingly unintentional way before following Ling Zhang out of the great hall.
Yuwen Tong’s face fell.
After walking through the doors of the hall, Ling Zhang led Jiang Yu forward for a certain distance before he came to a halt and pivoted around to look at Jiang Yu. “Why are you doing this? I want to hear the truth,” he said.
Jiang Yu gazed at him silently for quite a while and then replied, “I meant it when I said that I wanted to repay you. Apart from that, I’m also doing this for the Jiang family and my own aspirations.”
Ling Zhang looked at him in bemusement. “Even if you want to restore the Jiang family’s status, there’s no need for you to go to such great lengths, and if you have some particular aspirations, it’d be yet another reason why you shouldn’t ruin your career prospects.”
Jiang Yu shook his head and replied, “No. Serving you will allow me more opportunity to realize my aspirations. You might feel that I’m being reckless, but like I said, I trust you.”
“And that’s all?” asked Ling Zhang.
Jiang Yu inclined his head. “That’s all.”
Ling Zhang stared at him for a long moment. “No. I think there’s something you’re not telling me.”
Jiang Yu was astonished. Beneath Ling Zhang’s gaze which was calm but penetrating, he suddenly gave a smile. “You’re right. Returning the favor, revitalizing the Jiang family, fulfilling my aspirations – these are all just pretexts. I just… I don’t know the reason either. If I must give one, I would say it’s because of my curiosity. I’m uncontrollably curious about how far you could go. You’ll have to face many knotty problems after you become the empress, and I want to know how you’re going to tackle them. Also, I want very much to find out what kind of scenery you’d be seeing when you’re at the top of the hierarchy. The decline of the Jiang family made a lot of things clearer to me. I loathe the official circles, but I have a craving to see the ebb and flow of those struggling in official circles. My thoughts sound quite contradictory, right?”
Ling Zhang remained silent for quite a while, gazing at Jiang Yu as though he were a madman.
“They’re not contradictory. They’re lunatic.”
Jiang Yu didn’t take offence. Instead, he smiled, “I think you’re right. Maybe I’m really soft in the head.”
“Never mind. Back in the hall, you didn’t really have a chance to extricate yourself from the awkward situation. I’ve agreed to your request, but I’ll also give you some more time to think about it. If you regret it, you may tell me at any moment,” said Ling Zhang.
Jiang Yu frowned. “I don’t regret it.”
Ling Zhang raised his hand. “Stop right there. Don’t jump to any conclusions, okay? I’m asking you to go back home and reconsider it. This is an order, okay? Give me a reply in three days. Now go home.”
Jiang Yu looked him in the face. “I won’t regret it.”
After saying this, he made a bow and left.
Ling Zhang, “…”
When the meeting in the hall was finally over, Ling Zhang hastened there to see Yuwen Tong. “Why do you want me to take Jiang Yu as attendant?”
Yuwen Tong’s face instantly darkened.
Ling Zhang was thrown into perplexity. Why was he having this look on his face?
Yuwen Tong said, “I kind of regret it.”
“Ah?” Ling Zhang’s bafflement deepened.
Yuwen Tong explained, “I know very well what Jiang Shennian is up to, but it never crossed my mind that he would go so far as to bet his own grandson on it.”
“Bet?” Ling Zhang looked at him.
“Jiang Shennian is retreating in order to advance. As for the matter of Jiang Yu, it’s because Jiang Shennian has seen the true nature of the relations between you and me. It’s next to impossible for Jiang Yu to become a top-ranking official in the imperial court and restore the Jiang family to its former glory. The imperial court is heaving with wily old foxes who would kill to get a promotion, and even if Jiang Yu is willing to pay heavy prices, his chance of defeating them would still be slim, but with you, the situation is totally different – you barely have any advisers, and you certainly don’t a real right-hand man. Others may think that becoming an attendant of yours would be destroying one’s own career prospects, but Jiang Shennian knows very well that serving you is one of the quickest ways to get to a high position. Very few people in this city see the true nature of the relations between you and me. Even Chu Liangyan and those on his side don’t see it, but Jiang Shennian is one of the few who do,” said Yuwen Tong.
“Well, hang on.” Ling Zhang was confounded. “What do you mean by the true nature of the relations between you and me?”
Looking at him, Yuwen Tong sighed, “You really lack perception in this regard. How could you not have seen it when even Jiang Shennian has?”
Ling Zhang’s temper began to fray. “What have I not seen? Are you saying that even Jiang Shennian, an outsider, is better than me?”
Yuwen Tong took Ling Zhang’s face in his hands and planted several kisses on his cheek in succession before Ling Zhang’s anger appeared to ebb slightly. “You’ll be the empress, my wife. In my eyes, this country is not only mine but also yours. Can you understand it now?”
Ling Zhang was astonished. “You…”
“This is my country and also yours. In addition, this is not the only country we’ll be ruling. In the future, more lands will be added to our territory, and all of them will be ours,” said Yuwen Tong. “Jiang Shennian caught on to this, which was why he put a bet on it, sending his own grandson to be your attendant. He’s the first one to have done this, and I think it won’t be long before some others come to realize the reason and line up to do the same thing. Let’s leave that aside for now. We’ll handle them later. I have many courtiers in the imperial court, but you have nobody. Jiang Yu’s the first one to come. As long as he stays loyal to you and makes full use of his ability and wisdom, he’ll no doubt become the most hard-core member of your think tank. As far as I could tell, Jiang Yu has the required courage and intelligence.”
Ling Zhang’s heart fluttered at these words. He had got a general idea of what Yuwen Tong meant. “Are you saying that although I’ll soon become the empress, I’ll still be able to do what I want to do and achieve my personal goals?”
Yuwen Tong smiled, “Exactly.”
“Jiang Yu is intelligent and full of dash, and he will make the right-hand man of yours, which was why I had you grant his request, but…” Yuwen Tong broke off in the middle of a sentence, a fairly concerned look on his face.
Ling Zhang looked at him. “What’s the matter? Is there anything suspicious about Jiang Yu?”
“There’s nothing suspicious about him. His gratitude to you for saving his life is real, and he’s indeed far more loyal to you than he is to me, which is a good thing for you, but the problem is that he has some ulterior motive.” Yuwen Tong’s voice dropped to a murmur when he made the last remark, so Ling Zhang didn’t hear him clearly.
“What did you just say about his motive?” asked Ling Zhang.
Yuwen Tong looked at him. “This person will do your bidding only, and I won’t be able to put him under my control. I’m afraid he might make things difficult for me.”
“Ah?” Ling Zhang looked back at him, a quizzical expression on his face. “How do you know that? It was only earlier this day that he expressed he’d do that, wasn’t it?”
“It doesn’t matter how I know that. Anyway, I kind of regret it now,” said Yuwen Tong. Back in the hall, the smile of delight Jiang Yu had had on his face when looking at Ling Zhang had been a wake-up call for Yuwen Tong, and when Jiang Yu had casually shifted his gaze to him, a warning bell in Yuwen Tong’s mind had rung madly, but eventually he had still restrained himself.
Jiang Yu would become Ling Zhang’s best assistant if Ling Zhang used him in the correct way.
Ling Zhang was thrilled by Yuwen Tong’s words, and his mind was racing with excitement on his way back, because Yuwen Tong had let him see another possibility, another future.
Yuwen Tong, however, sent some men to ascertain the facts of everything about the Jiang family and Jiang Yu down to the smallest detail.
…
News of what had happened in the hall soon spread through the whole city. Everybody, to a greater or lesser degree was surprised by Jiang Shennian’s and Jiang Yu’s deeds, especially by Jiang Yu’s.
“Is that Jiang Yu guy out of his mind? Why did he ruin his own career prospects?” Most people saw it this way.
However, like Yuwen Tong had expected, there were also a limited few who began to realize the truth.
In the residence of the Ji family.
“Grandfather, why did Jiang Yu do that?”
Old Master Ji flicked a glance at his grandson, let out a little sigh and clicked his tongue, thinking that this grandson of his was indeed no match for Jiang Yu in terms of wits, that Jiang Shennian, a wily old fox, had made a wily little fox of his grandson.
“Why do you think Jiang Yu did that?” Old Master Ji inquired of Ji Feng.
Ji Feng gave it some thought and replied, “Jiang Yu said that he did it because he wanted to return the favor, but I don’t buy it. If he did it for the sake of the Jiang family… Is he trying to use Ling Zhang to protect the Jiang family? After all, His Majesty cares about Ling Zhang very much. With Ling Zhang’s protection, he and his family would have nothing to worry about.”
“That’s it?” Old Master Ji gaped at him.
Ji Feng seemed a trifle aggrieved. “Well, what other reason could there be?”
Old Master Ji shook his head. “Thinking more about it won’t kill you. What you said was just part of the reason, not all of it. There are many ways to keep the Jiang family safe, and Jiang Yu didn’t have to do that to achieve this end. The reason why Jiang Shennian and Jiang Yu did that was because they saw the true nature of one particular thing. In another sense, they’re also gambling. If the gamble pays off, they’ll be able to return the Jiang family to its former glory; if not, they’ll lose everything.”
“What’s this particular thing?” inquired Ji Feng.
“His Majesty’s feelings for Ling Zhang,” replied Old Master Ji slowly.
Ji Feng was thrown into puzzlement. What?
