The physician’s voice was no longer old but fairly young. Also, he was not hunchbacked any more, and his eyes became much more penetrating than they had been a moment ago. It was as though the body beneath his geriatric exterior had suddenly been replaced by a young one.
Yuwen Zhi, who was supposed to be comatose, abruptly opened his eyes and sat up. After taking a couple of breaths, he pointed in the direction of the doorway and spat, “What a heartless creature! Did you hear what he said? Just now he was threatening me. He said he would have me carried out, hand me over to Yuwen Tong and let him exile me. What did he mean by that? He wants to trade his own father’s life for wealth and status? Had I known earlier he would grow into such an unfilial son, I would never have brought him up in the first place!”
While cursing loudly, he bore no resemblance whatsoever to what he had looked like when pretending to be so sick as though he could die at any moment.
The physician calmly watched as Yuwen Zhi swore. It was after Yuwen Zhi finished cursing that the physician said, “Lord Yuwen, currently your son has got ears and eyes everywhere in this residence. Although I’ve controlled the couple of servants assigned here to wait upon you with Gu worms, the guards out there still have their free will and might overhear your words. If you’re exposed, there might not be severe consequences, but if my cover’s blown, there would be nobody helping you.”
Yuwen Zhi breathed in several gasps before he gradually collected himself and then said through gritted teeth, “I had a hard job to extricate myself from the Court Prison on the pretext of nursing my cold. This undutiful son, instead of trying to figure out a way to help rid me of the accusation, plans to have me carried out of this house. He’s such an ungrateful creature. Since father-son bonding means nothing to him, I’ll stop treating him as my son and show him no mercy.”
“What do you want to do, Lord Yuwen?” the physician asked him.
Looking out of the window with a sinister expression in his eyes, Yuwen Zhi replied, “Let’s stick to the plan, put Yuwen Feng under our complete control and use him to get close to Yuwen Tong. If it weren’t for Yuwen Tong, the whole country would have been in my son’s pocket. Yuwen Tong ruined everything, so I’ll take the throne back from him!”
It was at this moment that the physician said, “Just now I’ve planted a Gu worm in Yuwen Feng’s body. It’s Manipulation Gu. This kind of Gu worms work in pairs. Each pair consists of a Puppet Gu and a Puppeteer Gu. The Puppeteer Gu is in my hands, and the Puppet Gu is inside Yuwen Feng’s body. Over time, the Puppet Gu will slowly worm its way into his head and gradually turn him into my puppet, and then you may have him do whatever you want him to do. He will be totally powerless to resist.”
At first Yuwen Zhi was astonished, but then delight registered on his face. “So this kind of Gu worms do exist? They could have him do my bidding with unquestioning obedience? Can you plant one inside Yuwen Tong’s body and turn him into my puppet?”
The physician answered, “I can, but we’ll have to figure out a way to get close to him first. I have only two pairs of this kind of Gu worms in my possession. It took me many years to raise them. I wouldn’t have used them if it weren’t for the favor Your Lordship did me.”
Yuwen Zhi said, “I appreciate the trouble you’ve gone to. You showed up in time and has been of great help to me. I promise you’ll get whatever you want after my big plan succeeds, as long as it’s within my power to give.”
The physician said, “Thank you in advance, Your Lordship.”
Suddenly, Yuwen Zhi cast a piercing look at him. “You said that the Puppeteer Gu’s in your hands, but it’s still kind of an inconvenience. Can you let me keep the Puppeteer Gu?”
The physician appeared rather awkward. “It’s not that I don’t want to give you the Puppeteer Gu, but that I’ve been nurturing the Puppeteer Gu with my own blood since its larval stage. It’s living right inside me, and it won’t survive if it leaves my body, so there’s no way to get the Puppeteer Gu out unless I’m dead, but if I die, the Puppet Gu will become useless.”
Yuwen Zhi’s face changed. It surprised him that a Puppeteer Gu could only live inside its master’s body and fed on its master’s blood. Yuwen Zhi was a selfish man, so he naturally wouldn’t stake his own life on this kind of thing. However, given the current circumstances, he must ensure the safety of the Gu master. At least he couldn’t let anything happen to the Gu master before he got what he wanted. Otherwise all his efforts would be in vain.
“You should never act alone again. Make sure you’re accompanied by some guards wherever you go. You have to stay safe. If anything happens to you, all of us will be doomed. You won’t be able to get what you want if my big plan fails.”
The Gu master disguised as a physician replied, “Presently this courtyard house is surrounded by guards whose sole duty is to prevent you from escaping. The couple of servants in here are the only ones at our command. For the moment these useless servants are also the only ones we could rely on to protect us.”
Yuwen Zhi, who appeared somewhat embarrassed at these words, inquired, “How long will it take for the worm to control Yuwen Feng thoroughly?”
“Two days. Yuwen Feng will be reduced to a complete puppet of ours in two days,” responded the Gu master.
Yuwen Zhi clenched his teeth. “I see. Let’s wait for another two days.”
…
When Yuwen Feng had left Yuwen Zhi’s courtyard house with a forbidding face, he subconsciously shook his arm which the physician had bumped against a moment ago. Back in the room he hadn’t felt anything out of the ordinary, but after walking out of the room, he had felt as though someone had stuck his arm with a needle. A few moments later his arm had felt fairly itchy, numb and uncomfortable, and now it was even a little limp, so he had to shake it to ease the discomfort.
But in his eyes this was just a trivial matter and it didn’t bother him. What concerned him was Yuwen Zhi’s condition.
Back at the time when he had first brought Yuwen Zhi back to this residence, the latter’s cold had indeed been quite severe, but with the medicine prescribed by the physician and the constant care provided by the servants, his cold symptoms had been alleviated considerably and should have been able to get out of his sickbed to walk a couple of days after that. Him lying in bed for so long was totally needless.
No. Actually his father’s symptoms seemed to be exacerbating as he stayed abed. Naturally, Yuwen Feng was fully aware of what was really going on. His father was unwilling to go back to the Court Prison or be sent into exile, so he had been faking his illness. However, his cousin was no fool and would undoubtedly send a court physician here to examine his father sooner or later, given how long his father had been lying in bed at home, and when that happened, his father’s little game would inevitably be exposed. His cousin had warned his father several times, but the latter, who was quite an intransigent man, had refused to budge an inch and stubbornly got involved in a spate of troubled situations which he totally could have stayed out of, despite the fact that his deeds would very likely lead to deaths of all his family as well as his own. He was so selfish that he didn’t care about other people’s lives at all.
Having been made the Marquess Huaiwen (AKA the Marquess of Moderation) and appointed as the Minister of Rites, he did wield enormous power within the imperial court, and nobody dared discomfit him. Even his cousin had never picked on him. He was now indeed one of the most powerful courtiers. He was fully aware of what kind of person Yuwen Tong was. By delegating such power to him knowing that he had a troublesome family situation, Yuwen Tong had made it very clear that he had no intention to hold him responsible for his father’s doings. Yuwen Feng was not an ungrateful man. He knew very well what Yuwen Tong meant, and he knew just as well that Yuwen Tong needed him to stake out his position. He must tackle this issue in an entirely impartial fashion.
By sentencing his father to exile, Yuwen Tong had actually spared his father’s life. If he refused to see reason and do what he was supposed to do, all the glory of the Yuwen family would have nothing to do with him or the other members of his family. Yuwen Feng didn’t want to be consigned to mediocrity for the rest of his life. He had his own aspirations and discernment. The fortunes of the Yuwen family had clearly taken a turn. Why shouldn’t he seize this opportunity? Why should he give it up?
As a result, by making those remarks a moment ago, he had actually been putting out feelers and also trying to send his father a message, telling him that it was no good pretending to be ill, that if he refused to cooperatively receive treatment, he would only end up being carried to the place he was to be exiled to, and there was a very high probability that he would die halfway there due to lack of intensive care.
And that flicker of his father’s eyelids had unmistakably confirmed Yuwen Feng’s suspicion that his father had been pretending.
With a flash of anger surging inside him, Yuwen Feng, who had walked far away from the front gates, suddenly came to a halt, spun around to look at the courtyard house and then started to backtrack, striding along.
…
“This is bad, Master. His Lordship is coming back.”
A servant controlled by Gu worms hurried into Yuwen Zhi’s room to report, his face etched with anxiety.
Yuwen Zhi was also startled and hastened to lie back onto his bed. The servant, along with the Gu master, helped Yuwen Zhi adjust the bedding, trying their best to make it look the same as it had been a while ago.
They had just finished when Yuwen Feng strode inside.
“Your Lordship,” chorused the servant and the physician, paying their respects to him.
“Leave us,” instructed Yuwen Feng.
The servant was somewhat scared. The physician gave his arm a pull and with that the two of them walked out of the room together.
Yuwen Feng stepped to Yuwen Zhi’s bedside. After he cast an appraising glance at the bedding and Yuwen Zhi’s clothes, a cold look flashed across his eyes and he began, “Father, I know you’ve woken up. Since you’re unwilling to open your eyes, I won’t make you, but Father, if you keep acting like this, you’ll only end up getting yourself in deeper trouble. You’re sentenced to exile, not death. There’s still room for maneuver. As long as you nurse yourself back to health, we will have another chance. I’ll send some men to secretly follow you along the journey to protect you, and they will stay in South Xinjiang keeping you safe during your stay in that place. You’re a Yuwen, His Majesty’s uncle. Although you did something wrong, as long as His Majesty doesn’t want you dead, nobody would dare hurt a hair on your head. You’ll find your life quite comfortable in South Xinjiang. That place is far from the capital city, and if I pull some strings, you won’t have to labor in a mine or graze animals like the other exiles do, and neither will you ever find yourself short of food. You’ll be covertly installed in a residence there, and there will be servants, too. You may end your days in comfort, and you might even be allowed to return to the capital city after His Majesty cools off. In that case, you’ll live here as His Majesty’s uncle, and nobody would dare trifle with you. I promise I’ll do everything within my power to get you back here.
Isn’t this a pretty good way of handling it, Father? South Xinjiang is not really that horrible. On the contrary, you’ll be able to do whatever you want. As long as you don’t step out of line, everybody would be turning a blind eye to it and wouldn’t tattle on you to His Majesty. It’s best for you, for me, for my little brother and for His Majesty. It’s best for everybody, isn’t it? I don’t understand what it is that you’re dissatisfied with. Why are you trying so hard to stay in this troubled city, stooping so low as to fake an illness? What good could it possibly do to lie in bed all day, not being able to do anything? Tell me, Father, why are you doing this?”
Yuwen Zhi in bed was clearly infuriated, his chest heaving violently. Eventually, he failed to restrain himself, opened his eyes which were red with rage, glared at Yuwen Feng and railed, “You arrogant, unfilial son! How dare you!”
Yuwen Feng was totally unsurprised to see him open his eyes.
Yuwen Zhi propped himself up, pointed at Yuwen Feng and spat, “If you really care about me, you should be seeking to have me stay in this city, rather than sending me to South Xinjiang to suffer! I’ll be able to do whatever I want there? I’ll be under constant watch and won’t be able to do anything I want! I don’t care whether there will be servants waiting upon me or not. I’ve been waited on all my life! You’re seriously expecting me to see that as a favor I should be deeply grateful for?! Ridiculous!”
