Ling Zhang had just returned to the Infinite Fortune Palace when a white ball of fur jumped at him. Quick of eye and deft of hand, he immediately caught the ball and gave it a couple of strokes. “Haven’t I told you enough times? Don’t suddenly jump at me like this. Look at your paws. They’re so dirty. Where the hell have you been messing around?”
Whitie the fox, who had grown a little bigger, gave a soft cry, placed his two front paws onto Ling Zhang’s shoulder and instantly climbed onto it. Crouching on his shoulder, Whitie rubbed himself against Ling Zhang’s cheek.
Ling Zhang raised his hand and patted Whitie’s little head. “Okay, okay, that’s enough. I have to go outside the palace in a few moments.”
Whitie let out a howl and started acting cute, crying in a faintly urgent way, as though requesting Ling Zhang to take him out of the palace.
Ling Zhang glanced at the paw prints of dirt on his clothes and said, “Later I’ll bathe you, and I’ll take you out if you promise me you’ll behave yourself.”
Whitie hastily gave a cry, rubbing himself against Ling Zhang.
Seeing that he agreed, Ling Zhang returned with Whitie on his shoulder and changed, and then, accompanied by Wang Dashan and some others, left the palace and went back to the Ling Mansion.
He came back to this place because there was something he needed to consult with Ling Zhaowu about, something about the drugstore.
Ling Zhang had a drugstore in his name in the west of the city, but he planned to secretly establish a network which consists of drugstores, variety stores, etc. He wanted to open stores in the capital city, Cangzhou, Jiangzhou, Tanyang, Haizhou, Youzhou, Shengzhou, Jingzhou, the south-west, even the Wan Kingdom, the Luohai Kingdom and the Fangcun Kingdom, speculatively reselling medicinal herbs and all kinds of sundry goods. He also intended to build trade caravans the routes of which would gradually cover all the four countries, covertly collecting intelligence in the name of commercial activities.
It would be an intelligence network of his own, independent of any force.
Soon his identity would be different. Not only was he going to gain a foothold, he would also help Yuwen Tong, which meant that an intelligence network was a must.
But this intelligence network must not be under his name. He couldn’t overtly ran this network. It had to be set up by stealth. Originally Ling Zhang had thought that he wouldn’t be able to get a chance to talk about this plan with anybody any time soon, but unexpectedly, Ling Zhaowu stated that he could make it happen.
“As for the drugstore in the west of the city, you’ve publicly shown your face in that place, so everybody out there knows you’re the proprietor. In order to weaken people’s impression of this and blur their images of you as a merchant, you may pick a time and openly transfer that drugstore to the Ling family. And then, after a year or two, people’s attention would shift away from the drugstore, and they’ll gradually stop linking you with any trading activity. Both opening new stores and building caravans could be performed covertly. On the surface, this network will have nothing to do with you or the Ling family, but it will be under your de facto control. There’s not much I can do for you, but helping you establish a commercial network covering the four countries’ territories is within my power,” observed Ling Zhaowu.
“Father…” Ling Zhang was astonished at these words of Ling Zhaowu’s, because Ling Zhaowu appeared very poised and confident while saying this, and to his knowledge, his father didn’t really have the required skill set or aptitude in this regard.
“If you have any misgivings, you may wait for a few days and see how things develop before making a decision,” said Ling Zhaowu. Seeing the quizzical and confused expression on Ling Zhang’s face, he didn’t gave any explanations and just said that he would prove it through action.
“I’m not doubting you, Father. I’m just quite surprised,” said Ling Zhang. “You’ve never told us anything about you engaging in trade, and as far as we know, you’ve never been in business before, but I believe right now you’re telling the truth. There’s something between the two that strikes me as contradictory and puzzling. Can you explain it to me, Father?”
Ling Zhaowu kept silent for a few moments, looking at Ling Zhang, a distant and faintly significant expression in his eyes. “This question has been in your mind for quite some time, I suppose?”
Ling Zhang inclined his head and explicitly expressed his thoughts.
Ling Zhaowu began, “Of course, the version of me you know was never a businessman. Just like you, I’ve been keeping secrets, too. Your grandfather and your uncle watched you grow up, but they don’t really know everything about you. What I’ve been keeping back from you is the same as what you’ve been keeping back from them.”
Ling Zhang started and instantly sprang to his feet, gaping at Ling Zhaowu in shock, his mind racing feverishly, all the questions that he had been having since he’d found Ling Zhaowu exploding in his head.
How had his father come to know about his uncle’s son when he had been in a coma for over ten years and nobody had ever told him about it?
Why had his father cared so much about that “dream” which he’d mentioned to his uncle, and had that inscrutable expression on his face when asking about it?
Why had his father been acting like an entirely different person since he’d woken up, someone poised and unhurried and not bigoted at all as though nothing could surprise him, someone who could quickly get the key points of so many matters as if he had years of experience in them when in fact he should’ve never had any acquaintance with any of them?
Why was his father utterly unsurprised at the fact that Yuwen Tong was about to succeed in taking the throne? And why was he, who was clearly just a commoner, not in awe of the imperial authority or enormous wealth at all and instead appearing apathetic about it?
Why had his father from time to time forgotten about him being a common person and acted like he were a kung fu expert before the long coma?
Apart from these, there were also some other details. These questions had accumulated one by one in Ling Zhang’s head, and he frequently had this feeling that a flash of inspiration crossed his mind, that he was about to fathom something out, but all the times he had been disappointed. In fact, it hadn’t been because the flash of inspiration slipped away but because he subconsciously felt that this conjecture was too absurd to be true. That kind of thing happening to him alone had struck him as incredible and astounding, and until this day, he still occasionally suspected that he was living in a dream. How was it possible that his father had also been through the same thing?
“I know it is very difficult for you to believe this to be true, because it was for me. Being able to see you alive again has been a godsend for me. I don’t dare ask for anything more. I’ll do everything I can to keep you safe, whatever the cost may be,” said Ling Zhaowu.
Ling Zhang was thunderstruck for a long moment and then these words of Ling Zhaowu’s jogged him back to his senses. He gave a sudden start, slumped back into his seat and gaped squarely at Ling Zhaowu. “Father, you… Why did you… Is this a dream or reality?”
“Reality,” replied Ling Zhaowu, fixing him with a look, a gentle and affectionate gleam in his eyes which was so full of fatherly love as though it would spill out of them. “This is undoubtedly a miracle.”
Ling Zhang was unable to speak for a long time. Then his eyes quickly reddened, stinging from tears, and his throat slightly moved. An aggrieved feeling hidden fathoms deep which even he himself didn’t know about surged up and flooded over him. He was sad, incredulous and aggrieved, lips pressed tightly together.
Ling Zhaowu could tell what kind of indescribable grievances Ling Zhang was nursing. Being gazed by his son’s reddish and stubborn eyes which were glinting surprisedly and delightedly, Ling Zhaowu for an instant had trouble breathing, and his eyes inevitably reddened as well. In a deep voice, he said, “I failed you, Zhang’er.”
On hearing this, Ling Zhang twisted his head aside to look away and blinked his eyes several times. His back was still straight but the overwhelming emotions inside him were on the verge of getting out of control. “I don’t understand. What is going on exactly?”
Ling Zhaowu responded heavily, “I don’t know either. I can guess the reason why it happened to you, but I don’t have a clue why it happened to me. I thought that my life of misery and self-accusation was finally coming to an end, but unexpectedly, I was given a second life. When it came to my knowledge that you’d been through the same thing, I didn’t dare tell you about it, because it hadn’t been easy for me to see you again, who was safe and sound, and I feared that you might hate me and leave me, but I didn’t dare keep it back from you for too long either. If I was to do something for you, I would inevitably rouse your suspicions, which was something I had to face up to. Right now all I ask is that you give me a chance to do something for you.”
Ling Zhang remained silent for quite a while, his mouth a thin line. Then he inquired, “Where were you when it happened?”
Ling Zhaowu, who knew what he was referring to, recalled, “I was still in a coma. It was half a year after… after that thing happened that I came to. Your grandfather besought the Clan Leader, got the miracle drug and healed my injury. Then he and I left the mountains and returned to Tanyang…”
Ling Zhaowu’s voice gradually grew low, deep and pained as he related his experiences. “I’m not supposed to recollect those things in detail. Also, now is not the right time to give you a blow-by-blow account of what happened. I’ll tell you everything after you and Yuwen Tong get married and the political situation stabilizes.”
Ling Zhang raised no objections. He just asked one last question. “Did those people die?”
“They died. All of them.” Ling Zhaowu’s tone fell apathetic and disgusted.
“I’m glad to hear that,” said Ling Zhang. There was something in his mind that had been bothering him all this time. Although he had been reborn and changed the fate of the Ling family, what he had experienced in his last incarnation was also real. Who would mete out punishment to those foes of his who had lived in his past?
But now Ling Zhaowu told him that all those people were dead, which gladdened his heart.
“I think your marriage with Yuwen Tong is probably preordained. He’s a nice guy. I could relax safe in the knowledge that you’re with him,” Ling Zhaowu suddenly said.
Ling Zhang looked at him, bemusement in his eyes.
“I was comatose for half a year and missed a lot of things. When I and your grandfather returned to Tanyang, Zhang Chong and those people of the Jia family had already died. They’d died at Yuwen Tong’s hands,” confided Ling Zhaowu, eyes on Ling Zhang.
Ling Zhang looked at him in astonishment. “How come?”
“As far as I know, at that time he was in the north-west, and it was Zhang Chong’s rising in rebellion that attracted his attention. Your paternal grandfather once did the Yuwen family a favor, so he looked into the matter of Tanyang. Afterward, Zhang Chong and those people of the Jia family all died at his hands. He disowned all other members of the Yuwen family, stayed in a border city and never went back to the capital city. The emperor tried to have him killed several times and threatened him with Yuwen Zhi’s death, but he was indifferent. Yuwen Zhi died during a political struggle between princes. All his family were incriminated and died as well. Yuwen Tong stayed in the north-west defending the border and never married, and the emperor didn’t dare do anything about it. The north-west was under his sole dominion. Before my death, the north-west was in peace, but I don’t know what happened afterward,” responded Ling Zhaowu.
For quite a while, Ling Zhang remained silent, unable to recover himself from shock.
“It seems you and Yuwen Tong were predestined to be together. As long as you two stay safe, I’ll have nothing more to ask for,” said Ling Zhaowu.
Ling Zhang slightly lowered his head, his eyes burning. It was a long moment before he collected his thoughts and said, “I–I want to go back to the palace.”
