“I’ll go back to Tanyang with you,” said Yuwen Tong.
Frowning, Ling Zhang maintained in a firmer tone of voice, “No. You need to return to the capital city. I’ll go there immediately after my father gets better.”
Yuwen Tong also knitted his brows. He was unwilling to let Ling Zhang go back to Tanyang alone. Moreover, this was an opportunity to bond with his future father-in-law, and he didn’t want to miss it.
But Ling Zhang was very insistent. “You must go back, because you told me some day you’d take me to the top of the hierarchy. You’re not breaking your word.”
Yuwen Tong stared unblinkingly at him for quite a while. Eventually, he let out a sigh and put his arms around Ling Zhang. “I don’t want to part from you.”
Ling Zhang hugged him back. “Our business in the Millennium Pavilion has been settled. I can handle the rest of it on my own. Besides, I have my grandfather by my side, so you don’t have to worry about me. If it weren’t for the fact that I have to bring my father back to Tanyang, I would definitely return to the capital city with you. I don’t want you to face all that single-handed. I haven’t been able to do anything for you. If you accompany me back to Tanyang, I’d have a terrible conscience about it. I feel so useless.”
Yuwen Tong cuddled him tighter and sniffed, “What nonsense is this? With our relations, do we really have to be so mindful of our personal gains and losses? What do you take me for?”
“Then go back to the capital city. Do you not trust me to be capable of handling the matters in Tanyang by myself?” Ling Zhang retorted.
Both of them kept silent for a while. Ling Zhang was not trying to anger Yuwen Tong intentionally. His hands on Yuwen Tong’s waist slid up to Yuwen Tong’s back, gently stroking it, his voice softening. “Do it my way, okay?”
Yuwen Tong’s back tensed for a brief moment and then slightly relaxed. He lowered his head to look at Ling Zhang, who looked squarely back at him.
“Promise me you won’t get me to worry about you. You must stay safe and take good care of yourself at all times.”
“Okay, I promise. I’ll eat my meals on time, practice kung fu on time and sleep on time every day, and become fair-skinned and chubby.”
“Well, you may skip that ‘fair-skinned and chubby’ part. That’s what a pig looks like.”
Ling Zhang took his hands off Yuwen Tong and gave him a glare.
The corners of his lips lifting, Yuwen Tong scooped up Ling Zhang, supporting him with his hands on Ling Zhang’s hips, looking him in the face. “Even if you turned into a pig, you’d still be mine, and I wouldn’t allow anybody to glance at you.”
Ling Zhang had to put his legs around Yuwen Tong’s waist, which struck him as quite an awkward posture…
“It’s you who’s a pig!”
“Then we make a perfect match.”
…
After convincing Yuwen Tong to agree to go back to the capital city, Ling Zhang felt a slight sense of relief, but before dark, he got a message that brought a frown to his face.
Some serious events had taken place in the capital city. The first one was that something had happened to the Zhongxin Marquess. Somehow, Wang Cai had found some proof, the authenticity of which was unknown, and alleged that the Zhongxin Marquess had secretly taken huge amounts of bribes, that he’d been pretending to be righteous and honest when in fact he was just a despicable fraud, a greedy kleptocrat having no regard whatsoever for the law. The emperor, in his shock and wrath, had ordered the Dali Temple (the Supreme Judicial Court in feudal China) to comb the entire residential compound of the Zhongxin Marquess. The Zhongxin Marquess had argued that he was wronged, but the emperor had refused to believe him and even forbidden him to leave his house. Afterwards, the Dali Temple had ascertained that the Zhongxin Marquess had indeed taken bribes, but the amount hadn’t been as large as Wang Cai had claimed to be. The Zhongxin Marquess had pleaded that someone framed him. After expressing his willingness to use his death to prove his innocence, he had directly bumped his head onto a column at the court meeting. Fortunately the General Zhongwu (AKA the General of Loyalty and Valor) had promptly given him a pull, and the Zhongxin Marquess had merely hurt his head instead of killing himself. Jiang Shennian had tried to persuade the emperor to hold a further inquiry into the affair, but the emperor had rejected the request, directly stripped the Zhongxin Marquess of his title of nobility and taken away all his powers. Even Ji Feng’s father and uncles had been incriminated. All members of the Ji family had suffered.
The Zhongxin Marquess had fallen ill after that meeting and been lying in bed for four days.
Ling Zhang had been jumpy all along while listening to the news. If the Zhongxin Marquess failed to make it through, how heavy a blow it would be to Ji Feng!
“Did the Zhongxin Marquess really take bribes?” Ling Zhang was skeptical, but the Dali Temple had indeed found concrete evidence.
Yuwen Tong said, “What the Zhongxin Marquess had was real power, and the emperor trusted him very much during the few years following his enthronement. As such a powerful official, he undoubtedly had a stream of visitors every day who came to him with gifts to seek help, so I can’t be absolutely sure that he never took any bribes, but ever since he took office, he’s been assiduous and looking out for the people’s best interest all along, and he’s also one of the few courtiers who dare use blunt words to remonstrate at a court meeting. With him going down, there’s one less person who could restrict the emperor’s authority, which is definitely not a good thing for the imperial court, given the circumstances. These officials have always been obsessed with taking sides and contending for power to better serve their respective masters, and only very few care about the people’s well-being. If the likes of Wang Cai continue to gain strength, I’m afraid the political situation would get even worse.”
Ling Zhang’s brows furrowed. “I wonder how Ji Feng is doing. For people of the Ji family, the Zhongxin Marquess’ going down must be like the sky falling in.”
Yuwen Tong said, “As long as the Zhongxin Marquess pulls through, the situation in the Ji family wouldn’t be that dire. Ji Feng is no longer a child, and it’s about time he shouldered some responsibilities.”
The second severe event was no smaller than the first. In a sense, its severity was even greater – there had been another insurrection in Cangzhou, and it’d been of a larger scale than that of the last one. Most of the officials of Cangzhou were new, and many important posts were still vacant. After the outbreak of this rebellion, Cangzhou had instantly been thrown into chaos and confusion. To make things worse, some officers of the Cangzhou Prefecture Guards had been found involved in corruption, and some other horrific truths had also been brought to light. For a time, the rebellion in Cangzhou had been picking up steam, and by the time of the arrival of the army sent by the imperial court, the insurgents had built a rebel army of a considerable number of members and had taken control of one third of Cangzhou. The rebel army tens of thousands strong had engaged the army sent to suppress the uprising by the imperial court, and hitherto, the revolt still hadn’t been put down yet.
“The commander of the army is Dai Cheng who’s just returned from Tanyang. This is really a thankless task for Dai Cheng. It’s said that apart from men, there are also female members in the insurrectionary army. These people have deep hatred for the imperial court and refuse to surrender on any account. Killing those women is different from killing enemies on a battlefield. I think Dai Cheng has probably been having trouble sleeping.”
With a darkened face, Yuwen Tong relayed the message he’d just received, all the others listening with furrowed brows.
“How did such a great uprising come to break out? Theoretically, almost all the guilty officials of Cangzhou should have been put into prison and the new ones are still unfamiliar with their duties and haven’t hit their stride yet.” Ling Zhang was confused.
Yuwen Tong explained, “With the dismissal of the many guilty officials, a lot of posts fell vacant. Some were filled by inferior Cangzhou officials, and others by officials from other cities who wanted to help their masters line their pockets. These people didn’t learn lessons from their predecessors, and some of them are even more corrupt. On top of that, the last incident in Xiang City that had cost a lot of innocent people’s lives had sowed the seeds of hatred in Xiang City residents’ minds. There were multiple reasons for the outbreak of this rebellion in Cangzhou, but the most important one was the extreme exploitation of Cangzhou people.”
The truth sent a chill to Ling Zhang’s heart. “Those bureaucrats are monsters. They must’ve lost their minds!”
“It’s their masters who are crazy,” remarked Yuwen Tong flintily.
“The worse part is that the emperor didn’t make any efforts to appease the rebels but ruthlessly ordered Dai Cheng to kill them on sight, which gave new fuel to the indignant rebel army, and even old people joined the rebellion. This is why Dai Cheng and his troops still haven’t wiped out the insurrectionary army.” Yuwen Tong’s face was growing colder.
“It never crossed my mind these were such unpeaceful times.” Mr. Mu kept shaking his head after hearing these words.
Ji Yin, however, had a bland face, giving no particular response to it. In his sight, this world had always been divided and never really been peaceful, and in his heart of hearts he despised the emperor of the Great Yue. Furthermore, having been living a secluded life for so many years, it was very difficult for him to feel any sympathy for the people in the outside world again.
“The emperor must have a death wish,” observed Ling Zhang resentfully.
Yuwen Tong said, “Cangzhou is very close to the capital city, and the emperor believes that Cangzhou residents, instead of revolting, should be grateful to him for bringing more than half of the previous Cangzhou officials to justice, which was why he sent an army to suppress the rebellion. Pity he’s the only one seeing things that way. The situation in Cangzhou is quite grave. Although Dai Cheng still have enough troops and will no doubt exterminate the insurrectionary army in the end, the seeds of hatred have been sowed, and I’m afraid this won’t be the last time that an insurrection breaks out.”
Everybody lapsed into silence. Ling Zhaowu, who was the only one unable to understand, was sitting beside Ling Zhang with glazed eyes.
Yuwen Tong continued, “Things have always been complicated there, but the problem is that this matter triggered another round of strife in the imperial court. Previously, the Jiang family had been the leading force in Cangzhou for the longest time. Although many of their subordinates in Cangzhou have been thrown into prison, those local inferior officials that have been promoted to fill the vacancies more or less had some dealings with the Jiang family. This time around, in order to help the Crown Prince shift the responsibility for recommending the wrong person, the Gu family threw all the blame for the revolt in Cangzhou on the Jiang family. Naturally, the Jiang family refused to be the scapegoat, and Jiang Shennian did his best to fight back, but unfortunately for him, Jiang Chengfeng has been removed from office, and the other members of the Jiang family couldn’t be of much help. In addition, the Jiang family has never taken sides, and courtiers in the Crown Prince’s faction assisted the Gu family to squeeze the Jiang family. The Jiang family is on the losing side already. If Jiang Shennian is to help the Jiang family survive this, he and all the other officials in his family would have no choice but to resign.”
Ling Zhang was taken aback. He’d never expected to hear any of these. Jiang Shennian was the emperor’s uncle, and he actually couldn’t even keep his job?
Yuwen Tong made a conjecture. “The vendetta between the Jiang family and the Gu family has been there for a very long time. As the Crown Prince ascending the throne will do the Jiang family no good, I’m afraid Jiang Shennian has already secretly taken sides, though on the surface he hasn’t, which was why the Gu family launched such a ferocious attack on the Jiang family, trying so hard to bring down Jiang Shennian.
So this time I’ll have no alternative but to return to the capital city.”
The last remark was the point Yuwen Tong had been trying to make. They’d been away for less than a month, but such serious events had happened in the capital city. Yuwen Tong must go back.
Thinking about the complexity of the situation in the capital city, Ling Zhang was distinctly careworn.
“Let Donglin and Chaofang go back to the capital city with you,” Ji Yin suddenly said.
A slight frown creased Yuwen Tong’s brow. “They need to stay here to protect Brother Zhang and Uncle Ling.”
Ji Yin fixed him with an earnest gaze and said, “Your business is of greater importance. Besides, the reason why the Clan Leader sent Donglin and Chaofang here in the first place was that he wanted them to offer you help. He asked me to tell you not to forget the agreement between you two.”
“Bring them with you,” Ling Zhang also immediately said. There was no doubt Yuwen Tong would encounter dangers after returning to the capital city. With more people protecting Yuwen Tong, he would be less worried.
