The two of them left together. An eunuch who had been covertly keeping watch on them immediately reported it to Zhang Xi.
“Gonggong (Gonggong is a respectful form of address for an old eunuch whose rank is higher than that of common eunuchs), they went to the nearby woods.”
Zhang Xi raised the curtain of the horse-drawn carriage he was sitting in, glanced out of the window and saw that Yuwen Tong and Ling Zhang were very close to each other, casually walking forward while talking, and there was nobody else around them. He let down the curtain, took a sip of the hot soup and mumbled, “Yuwen Tong is taking this seriously?”
…
An hour’s time was up and the group resumed the journey.
At dusk, they arrived at a county-level courier station and decided to spend the night there.
A palace guard told Zhang Xi, “Gonggong, we are still in Tanyang after traveling for almost a full day. If we keep going at this pace, it might take us half a month to get to the capital city. Should we talk to the Marshal and advise him to give the order to pick up speed?”
Zhang Xi replied with an awkward expression on his face, “Uh… I saw four jars of wine and a lot of other things on the carriages of Ling family. I’m afraid it’s very difficult for them to speed up. How about Commander Zhao go and sound the Marshal out about it?”
The last remark brought an involuntary twitch to the corners of the mouth of Commander Zhao of the Palace Guards. With a forced smile on his face, he responded, “I think we might as well wait for another couple of days and then decide.”
After Commander Zhao left, Zhang Xi uttered “Bah!” and then muttered, “Asshole.”
“Gonggong, why did Commander Zhao give up his intention of making the suggestion?” asked a young eunuch.
Zhang Xi aimed a kick at him. “You moron. Why do you think he came to talk to me? He but wanted to use me and have me offend Yuwen Tong. It’s going to be an offensive thing. You tell me why he decided not to do it.”
The young eunuch conveniently rolled on the ground after being kicked. Then he picked himself up and replied, “I was being stupid. Please don’t get angry, Gonggong.”
Zhang Xi gave a cold snort and remarked, “I’m not going to be tricked into taking this kind of offensive course of action. His Majesty only instructed that Yuwen Tong depart for the capital city within three days after receiving the imperial edict, but he didn’t impose a deadline for his return to the capital city.”
‘Besides, even if there were a deadline, what could I possibly do about it provided Yuwen Tong intentionally tries to delay the return? Though Yuwen Tong has been acting courteously so far, it is merely because he’s willing to save my face for the moment. If by any chance someday he’s no longer willing to do so…’ Zhang Xi’s face suddenly fell cold, as if something had just occurred to him.
In a procession like this, nothing could escape the notice of Yao Yi and his men.
After Zhao Si of the Palace Guards talked with Zhang Xi, information about this matter soon reached their ears.
Yuwen Tong and Ling Zhang were having supper when Yao Yi walked inside the room and reported this to them.
Ling Zhang looked at Yuwen Tong. Yuwen Tong replied in a casual tone of voice, “Never mind. Since they didn’t come here, we might as well pretend to be unaware of it.”
“Yes, Martial.”
“Do you think they will eventually fail to forbear to come here and make the suggestion?” Ling Zhang asked him after Yao Yi left.
“They won’t.”
‘How does he come to be so sure?’ Ling Zhang cocked a confused eyebrow at him.
Yuwen Tong explained, “The emperor merely wants me to leave Tanyang as soon as possible. He didn’t impose a deadline for my return to the capital city. Otherwise he would have had Zhang Xi inform me of it. Since they didn’t say anything on that day, now it’s even more unlikely that they’ll get a chance to do it.”
The light dawned on Ling Zhang. It meant that Zhang Xi and those palace guards had no choice but to put up with the situation even if they were not willing to.
“You want to go for a walk after supper?” Yuwen Tong asked.
Ling Zhang couldn’t help but chuckle, “You are really taking this for a sightseeing tour?”
Yuwen Tong didn’t at all see why he shouldn’t be doing this. “Why not? I mean, it’s not like we are in a hurry or something.”
Ever since Ling Zhang suffered an injury on that day, the chef of Ling family had been preparing highly nourishing food for him each and every day for quite a long time. In order not to get fat, after recovering from the injury, he had been working very hard on fist techniques, and had even been making steady progress in developing proficiency the breathing exercises taught to him by Yuwen Tong. And he even involuntarily breathed according to the pattern when he slept at night. His constitution had become significantly stronger than before.
Though having spent a full day on horse back, he didn’t feel tired at all.
“All right. Let’s do it.” Ling Zhang agreed. “But where should we go? There’s a certain distance between this courier station and the county seat.”
This place was called the Cheng County, which was under the jurisdiction of Tanyang. In fact, the County Magistrate of the Cheng County had been among the group of officials who had gone to the city gate to see Yuwen Tong off. Whether he had returned or not was unknown.
“It’s not far,” replied Yuwen Tong.
‘It seems that he intends to go to the county seat.’ Ling Zhang thought for a few moments and informed him, “If my memory serves me well, there’s a pretty distinctive herbal garden in the Cheng County, which is located between this courier station and the county seat. People grow some kind of medicinal herbs with a unique fragrance in there, and the flowers of the herbs are very beautiful. This is the exact season when the herbs blossom. A lot of people will specially come to this county to enjoy the scenery at this time of the year. It’s just that I don’t know how the view is at night.”
The herbal garden was a manor covering a rather vast area. He remembered that there was an inn in it, but he had only been to that place once with his uncle when he had been a young boy, so he wasn’t sure about it.
Yuwen Tong merely wanted to go for a walk with Ling Zhang, and he didn’t really care where they were going.
As a result, the two of them left the courier station after supper, heading for the herbal garden.
“Where are the Marshal and Childe Ling going at such a late hour?” A palace guard was confused when he saw them.
“They are going out for a walk. It helps digest the food.” Wang Dashan, who happened to be walking past, heard the question, gave an answer to it and then left.
This reply sent the palace guard speechless.
‘Going for a walk to help with digestion when it’s pitch-dark?’
Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong were not going on their own. Yao Yi and Liu Yi were following in their wake.
The herbal garden was indeed not far away from the courier station. Distantly, they caught sight of a manor. The big lantern overhanging the front gate of the manor was very bright, and there was also a road lamp about a hundred paces away from the gateway where a lot of horse-drawn carriages had been parked. Some people happened to have just got off their carriage and were entering the manor when they arrived at the gateway.
It had not been long since it got dark. The night was still young.
“It seems that they are still receiving visitors,” said Yuwen Tong.
Ling Zhang secretly felt a sense of relief.
The four of them walked over to the front gate and, unsurprisingly, there were a couple of receptionists, all of whom were briefly stunned when they saw that the four of them not only had come to this place by foot but also looked strange.
“May I ask where you are from, my guests? You don’t seem like locals,” asked a man at the front gate.
“The courier station,” replied Ling Zhang.
The man at the gateway, as if light had just dawned on him, smiled, “Oh, I see. You must have come here to participate in the Tea and Flowers Party as well, I guess? This way, please.”
‘Tea and flowers?’ Ling Zhang’s eyes slightly lit up. ‘It seems that our timing is perfect.’
After exchanging glances with each other, Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong went inside first.
Yao Yi and Liu Yi followed in their wake.
They entered the manor and were greeted by a large garden, inside which there were unconventionally shaped flower nurseries where the medicinal herbs Ling Zhang had mentioned were grown. At this time, all the herbs were laden with purple blossoms. There was a road lamp beside each flower nursery, so the garden was well-lit.
Ling Zhang took a sniff. “This is the exact fragrance I remember.”
It was precisely the same as the scent he had smelled when he had been here in his childhood.
But this place had become far prettier than the one in his memory. Back then when his uncle had taken him here, there had not been these arrangements.
They walked across the garden and arrived at the front of an inn and a teahouse, which were two-story buildings standing side by side.
The teahouse was very uproarious, as if all visitors were in there.
“You want to check it out?” Ling Zhang inquired of Yuwen Tong.
Yuwen Tong bobbed his head and the two of them walked into the teahouse.
The moment they entered, a waiter greeted them and offered to lead them to available seats.
Though this teahouse was a two-story building, it was rather spacious. In the middle of it, there was a large courtyard, looking up from which they could see the second floor.
There was a dome above the courtyard, and at the center of the courtyard was a platform one step higher than the ground. A woman wearing a veil was playing qin (a seven-stringed plucked instrument in some ways similar to the zither) on it.
When they entered the teahouse, all people’s eyes were almost instantly drawn to them, since their presence was out of the ordinary, especially that of Yuwen Tong.
It was because the two of them were strangers to them that nobody had accosted them so far.
Ling Zhang didn’t really mind those people’s gaze. A moment ago, when entering this place, he had noticed that the second floor had no walls to block the view of the sea of flowers in the garden. As a result, he asked the waiter, “Are there any seats available upstairs?”
The man answered with an awkward look, “Uh… I’m afraid most of the seats on the second floor have been booked.”
A regretful expression appeared on Ling Zhang’s face. “Then we’ll sit on the ground floor.”
The waiter was just about to lead them to available seats when someone on the second floor called, “Hey, guests downstairs, you are welcome to come up here and share a table with us if you want.”
Ling Zhang raised his head and his eyes met a man’s, who was standing beside the balustrade looking down. That was a middle-aged man dressed like a merchant. ‘He’s…’
“It’s you, General Storekeeper.”
The man folded his hands in front at Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong as a gesture of friendliness, respectfully bowed his head to Yuwen Tong and then replied, “Yes, in the flesh. Would Childe Ling care to come up here and share the table with me?”
This man was the general storekeeper of the Jing’s Drugstore Chain which had been in cooperation with Ling family’s herb farm in doing herbs business all along. Back at the time when Zhang Chong’s men detained Ling family’s herb farmers, this man came to their help in the woods.
Yuwen Tong also had a vague memory of this person.
Ling Zhang looked at Yuwen Tong, who then inclined his head.
“Sure. A chance meeting like this is far from a daily occurrence,” Ling Zhang said to the storekeeper.
The general storekeeper walked to the bottom of the staircase and led them upstairs. The table happened to face the sea of flowers in the garden and the view from it was excellent.
Surprisingly, the general storekeeper was the only one occupying the table.
The general storekeeper said to Yuwen Tong in an undertone, “After you, Marshal.”
Yuwen Tong bobbed his head and took a seat.
Ling Zhang politely suggested that he and the general storekeeper sat down at the same time. Then he observed, “It never crossed my mind that General Storekeeper might also be in such a good mood for presenting yourself in this herbal garden for the beauty of flowers.”
The general storekeeper gave a smile. “This must sound like a frivolity to you, Childe Ling. I happen to be on a visit to this herbal garden consulting with the owner about herb business. I saw this tea party going on here and decided to come and check it out. Are you on a journey to the capital city with the Marshal and passing by?”
They were a certain distance away from nearby tables and other customers wouldn’t be able to overhear their conversation, so Ling Zhang didn’t remind the general storekeeper not to address Yuwen Tong as “the Marshal”.
“Yes. We just checked in at the courier station. When I was young, I came to this herbal garden once, so I decided to come and take a look. This tea party is a pleasant surprise to me.”
The general storekeeper flicked a glance at Yuwen Tong who had been silent all along. Seeing he seemed to have no problem with letting Ling Zhang do all the talking, the general storekeeper was secretly startled and his attitude towards Ling Zhang became even more respectful.
“You don’t come here often enough, Childe Ling. Actually, in this season when the herbs are in blossom, a tea party at night is a near daily occurrence here.”
Light dawned on Ling Zhang and he gave a smile. “Oh, I see.”
Though this was a mere chance encounter with the general storekeeper of the Jing’s Drugstore Chain, Ling Zhang sitting here came up with a business plan.
He intended to open a drugstore in the capital city, and the Jing’s Drugstore Chain had long ago located a branch in the capital city, which he had heard was of a pretty large scale.
He believed that he might be able to get some very useful information if he consulted this man about it.
“General Storekeeper, may I ask when you’ll go to the capital city?” Ling Zhang asked.
The general storekeeper was somewhat surprised by this question. After thinking for a while, he responded, “It happens that I’ll deliver a batch of medicinal herbs to the capital city in half a month.”
“Great. I’d like to pay you a visit when you are there. May I ask if it would be convenient for you, General Storekeeper? There’s something that I want to consult you about,” said Ling Zhang.
“You are being too courteous, Childe Ling. With our acquaintance, I’ll never hesitate for a single moment about paying you a visit myself if you need any help. How about this? I’ll go to the capital city half a month later, and we’ll meet immediately after I get there,” replied the general storekeeper.
