The garrison of Jiangzhou started moving north. While waiting for the up-to-date report, Ling Zhang received an invitation. It was from Xun Huo.
Ling Zhang had a placid expression on his face as he gazed at the invitation on the table, but the look in his eyes was not so calm.
Xun Huo hadn’t contacted him since they’d seen Ji Feng off on that day, so he was greatly surprised by this sudden invitation and thought a lot about it in spite of himself. Seeing as how sensitive the Ling Mansion’s status and his identity were in the capital city, he couldn’t help but wonder why Xun Huo had chosen to renew acquaintance with him at this point in time.
“Apart from you, the Xun family also sent invitations to the Zhao family, the Xie family and the collateral branch of the Yuwen family. All the couple of friends of yours and Childe Ling received his invitations,” said Miao Shiba.
Whenever anybody sent an invitation to the Ling Mansion, they always ascertained the ins and outs of what it was about.
“Childe Ling, Xun Yi keeps a very low profile and seems not to be in league with any force, but I fear that’s only a spurious impression created by him. Given the current circumstances, you need to be extra careful if you decide to accept the invitation,” added Miao Shiba.
Miao Shiba was actually more inclined to try to dissuade Ling Zhang from going there, for the capital city was now a very dangerous place.
“Has any of the others made a reply?” asked Ling Zhang.
Miao Shiba shook his head. “Not yet.”
Ling Zhang gave a smile. “It would seem they’re all waiting for me to take the lead. Send him a reply. Tell him I’ll be there.”
Miao Shiba hesitated for a moment. “Childe Ling, if by any chance they’re up to something…”
“I don’t want anybody to regard me as a coward,” said Ling Zhang. Xun Huo hadn’t been in touch with him for quite some time, and now he’d suddenly made contact with him at this juncture and also invited so many others. Considering this, even Ling Zhang himself wouldn’t believe it if he told Miao Shiba that Xun Huo was not up to anything, but he couldn’t shy away from it because of the potential dangers.
After Ling Zhang’s reply was delivered, Yuwen Jin, Zhao Jiusi, Zhao Turui and Xie Qing, one after another, also had their replies delivered to the Xun family.
The time of the appointment was the next morning. Ling Zhang and the other invitees happened to arrive at the Xun family’s residence at the same time.
Xun Huo had been waiting for them at the front gates. At the sight of them coming, he gave a smile. “It’s such a coincidence that you guys arrived all at once, which spares me the long waiting.”
“Xun Huo, have you been busy hatching eggs lately? We haven’t seen you for ages.” Yuwen Jin was the first to speak, and his voice was as jokey as always, sounding as though they were still on the same terms as they used to be.
“Yeah, we’ve all been worried about you, Xun Huo. All our servants delivering our letters to you told us that you were otherwise engaged and didn’t have the time to meet us,” Zhao Turui also said.
Looking at the couple of them, Xun Huo chuckled and then shifted his gaze to Ling Zhang and said, “Let’s go inside first and talk later.”
Ling Zhang bobbed his head. “Okay.”
Xun Huo cast him a smile and then led the four of them into the residence. In the courtyard house Xun Huo lived, they took seats.
“My father is not in, and my mother went to a Buddhist temple to pray for blessings, so there are no elders here today. You guys may make yourselves at home,” said Xun Huo.
Ling Zhang glanced around Xun Huo’s courtyard house and observed, “This courtyard house of yours is not big but the layout is comfortable and exquisite down to every detail. It’s a pretty nice place.”
Xun Huo said, “All I did was make this place less of an eyesore. It stands no comparison with the Ling Mansion.”
Xun Huo personally brought them teacups and started making tea. For a few moments, the five of them just sat around the table, saying nothing.
Ling Zhang was in no hurry. Given that Xun Huo had invited them over, he would tell them his intentions sooner or later.
When the tea was ready, smelling the aroma, Ling Zhang took a sip and made a couple of remarks in praise of the tea, as though he were here for the tea.
Seeing this, the others all started enjoying the tea, as if this were really just a tea party.
Of all five of them, Xun Huo had always been the relatively taciturn and reserved one. After Ling Zhang and the others drank some tea, he began of his own accord, “Actually, this time around I invited you guys over simply to do some catching up. The current political situation in the capital city is complicated. Although my father is must a low-ranking official, he’s still in it. As his son, I have no alternative but to obey him. I fear that we might not have another chance to sit together enjoying tea, so I presumptuously invited you guys here at this point in time. What with Ji Feng’s leaving the capital city, Ling Zhang’s long absence from here, and the spate of serious unforeseen events, we haven’t been in the mood for catching up with each other for quite some time.”
After Xun Huo finished these words, all the others lapsed into silence. In fact, the only sentence that mattered in these words was “We might not have another chance to sit together enjoying tea.”
The meaning of this remark was quite explicit, and there was no need for any of them to check with the speaker.
Ling Zhang slowly took a sip of his tea, put down the teacup and looked at Xun Huo. “Are you serious?”
Xun Huo looked back at him. “I wouldn’t have invited you guys around if I’m not serious.”
With a calm look on his face, Ling Zhang nodded. “It’s too boring to just drink tea. We should be drinking wine. Carpe diem. Let’s make some good memories.”
Xun Huo’s countenance slightly changed. Yuwen Jin suddenly threw his arm around his shoulders and said, “That’s true. Xun Huo, you won’t really let us walk out of your home with only tea in our stomachs, will you? Because that would be so not cool.”
“Alas, Xun Huo is never stingy. He might not be a consummate rider, but other than that, he’s a pretty nice guy, and his tolerance to alcohol is not bad, too,” said Xie Qing.
Xun Huo beamed, willingly letting Yuwen Jin rest his arms on his shoulders. “Then let’s have a couple of drinks, but be forewarned, it’s pretty windy today, so don’t drink too much.”
Ling Zhang tossed a thoughtful glance at him. “Okay. We all know where the limit is.”
Since Xun Huo had already stated clearly his stand, they naturally wouldn’t try to dig deeper into the matter. All the topics of their conversation were about the funny things that they’d been through together, most of which had happened in the Imperial College. Eventually, when each of them had had three or four cups, they stopped drinking.
The reason why Xun Huo had become close friends with them previously was because Xun Yi, a councillor of the Ministry of Penalties, had been keeping his head down, but now the political landscape had changed, and Xun Yi, low-key as he was, had to pick sides, so Xun Huo had to make a choice as well.
“I’m sorry I can no longer be by your side,” said Xun Huo, gazing unblinkingly at Ling Zhang.
Ling Zhang replied, “You have nothing to be sorry for. We all have our own positions and have to make our own choices. Now that we’ve already drunk this wine, what we had in the past shall be left in the past. From now on… we’ll have to take care of ourselves.”
“Okay,” said Xun Huo, a solemn look in his eyes.
They had barely stayed in the residence of the Xun family for two hours when they took their leave. Before leaving, Zhao Turui stared at Xun Huo for quite a while and then got into the carriage with Zhao Jiusi, a gloomy expression on his face. The two of them had known Xun Huo since childhood, so they had stronger bonding with him and were also more upset.
Before getting into the carriage, Ling Zhang asked Miao Shiba to send some men to keep an eye on Zhao Jiusi and the others lest any accidents happen.
Back then when they’d been in the residence, Xun Huo had told them to beware of the windy weather, which struck Ling Zhang as some kind of hint.
Predictably, after Ling Zhang’s horse-drawn carriage left the residence of the Xun family, they were ambushed. There were a lot of assailants, all of whom were pretty good at kung fu.
But before they approached the carriage, Wang Dashan and the others suddenly showed up, trapped them all in a formation and disposed of them. The fight lasted less than the time a man needed to finish a pot of tea at leisure.
“Keep moving.” Ling Zhang dropped the carriage curtain.
The carriage resumed proceeding, followed by Wang Dashan and other security guards, leaving over twenty bodies lying on the street.
A man hiding in the shadows looked at those dead men on the ground, recalling how those people had killed them just now, his hands quivering.
When he had returned to the Ling Mansion, Ling Zhang said to Miao Shiba, “Tell me when the others arrive home safely.”
“Yes, Your Lordship.”
“You were ambushed?” Ling Zhaowu walked out, appraising him with a concerned face.
“There were over twenty of them. Wang Dashan and the others handled them. Their kung fu skills were pretty good, but not good enough. The mastermind was probably just putting out feelers,” said Ling Zhang.
Ling Zhaowu inclined his head. He didn’t ask any questions about how his appointment had been, for he had come to know the answer when he’d been informed of the ambush.
After a short while, Miao Shiba came in to report to Ling Zhang.
“The couple of childes have all returned home unharmed.”
Ling Zhang heaved a sigh of relief. It seemed that that word of warning from Xun Huo had been meant for him alone.
Recollecting the couple of cups of wine he’d drunk in the residence of the Xun family, Ling Zhang just inwardly sighed in sentiment for a few moments and then calmed down.
After this meeting, he had one less friend in the capital city, but considering the big picture, he had no choice but to leave these aside, for giving them more thought wouldn’t do any good. Xun Huo had done him a favor by giving him a word of warning, and if some day they were on opposing sides and had to cross swords with each other, he would return the favor, and that would be all.
However, because of this meeting with his friends, he couldn’t help but think of Tao Yi. Like Xun Huo, Tao Yi also hadn’t contacted him since the day they’d seen Ji Feng off, but unlike with Xun Huo, he hoped that Tao Yi would see reason and choose not to stand on the opposite side, because after all, his friendship with Tao Yi was deeper than the one he had with Xun Huo.
As a result, he had been waiting all along, but considering the imminent conflict with Fang Quan, if Tao Yi didn’t…
“Childe Ling, there’s a letter for you.”
As Ling Zhang thought of this, his train of thought was interrupted by Miao Shiba’s voice, who walked inside with an envelope.
With a hunch, Ling Zhang took the envelope and opened it. Unsurprisingly, it was Tao Yi’s handwriting. Tao Yi didn’t invite him to meet him but had drawn a picture for him.
The picture depicting a kind of medicinal herb. Tanyang abounded with medicinal herbs, some of which were connected with allusions known to nobody but locals. On seeing the picture, Ling Zhang exhaled deeply and smile finally reappeared on his face.
“You look in a good mood, Childe Ling. It seems that Childe Tao didn’t let you down,” commented Miao Shiba.
Ling Zhang chuckled, “He has some sense of perspective. I’ll give him that. Still, see as it took him so long to decide to send me this picture, I’m afraid the situation in his family is also somewhat complicated and he’d been faced with a difficult choice all along.”
“Childe Tao’s teacher used to be very much in the former emperor’s confidence, and this time around he would probably take the Eighth Prince’s side. Now that Childe Tao has chosen to side with you, things would be quite difficult for him if he stays in the Oriental Rite Academy,” said Miao Shiba.
Ling Zhang thought for a while and then said, “Let him stay there. Except for his relations with his teacher, he has no involvement with any faction in the capital city. No matter what happens, innocent students in the academy wouldn’t suffer any serious harm.”
However, whatever Ling Zhang had expected, it wasn’t that Tao Yi would come to him for shelter, carrying his baggage with him.
Early the next morning, when Miao Shiba told him that Tao Yi came to see him with baggage on his back, Ling Zhang was briefly stunned and then quickly went to meet him.
“Wow, what is wrong with your front gates? Why can’t I see them? I thought a ghost was haunting this place or something. This is so creepy!”
He was still a distance away when he heard Tao Yi marvel at the amazing changes to the front gates of the Ling Mansion.
