Yuwen Tong cast the two of them a glance and replied, “We cannot let any harm come to the two princes, for they’re both still young. First we have to find out what Fang Quan wants, and the safety of the two princes takes precedence over anything else. Now let’s not waste any time and get going right away. We may continue our talk on our way there.”
The two old lords exchanged looks and came to know what each other were thinking about. They both felt relieved but were also inwardly sighing. That remark of Yuwen Tong’s made it inappropriate for either of them to say any of the words they intended to say. Yuwen Tong had said that the safety of the two princes took precedence of anything else, which meant that there was no need whatsoever for the two of them to try to persuade him. They were inwardly sighing because this incident was happening at the worst possible time. The two old lords had waited at the gateway of the palace for quite a while, along with a group of other courtiers, and they’d both come to know that the rescuers were from Jiangzhou. The two of them were fully aware of the situation in Jiangzhou. Previously Jiangzhou had picked the wrong side, and there was no doubt some day Yuwen Tong would make them pay for it. And now those people in Jiangzhou conspired with Fang Quan and did this. It was only too obvious that they were simply trying to take advantage of the two princes to make trouble.
If truth be told, both the two old lords had quite mixed feelings about this matter. Their allegiance belonged to the Zhou family, which was the former imperial household, but the former emperor had been fatuous and incompetent, and he had done a myriad of stupid things. The people of Cangzhou rising in revolt was only the beginning of the fallout, and more popular uprisings would have followed on the heels of it had someone not successfully saved the situation. In that case, the Great Yue would descend into civil strife and the people would still be the ones who suffered. Currently, Yuwen Tong had put the overall situation under control, and his method of taking the throne had been quite moderate – abdication, which had been a move that almost nobody had foreseen. For the Zhou family, it had been a catastrophe, and it might prove detrimental to Yuwen Tong’s future reign as well, because there was no telling whether or not the surviving members of the Zhou family would seek to take revenge. However, for the people of this country, it was absolutely a good thing. A smooth transition between the old dynasty and the new one, to the greatest possible degree, allowed things to stay the way they were instead of making anything worse. Many of the decisions that Yuwen Tong had made during the past few weeks had been very favorable for the people’s restoring their lives, and they would be put into action one by one after his enthronement. Thinking from the perspective of the people, the two old lords actually preferred Yuwen Tong to accede to the throne.
However, Lord Hu and Lord Pei also wanted to help the two young princes survive. After all, they used to be very much in the former emperor’s confidence. If they failed to save the deceased emperor’s sons, they would be living in guilt and shame for the rest of their lives.
But unexpectedly, Yuwen Tong seemed to have some time ago fathomed out what the two of them had been thinking, and at the very beginning of the conversation, he made them hold back their words.
It struck them that Yuwen Tong was too clever.
…
Martial law had been imposed when they reached the street, but there were still a lot of lookers-on on the sides of the street. Predictably, they had all been woken up at this late hour of the night.
All soldiers standing on the sides of the street were holding lighted torches, and the torches on the gate tower were also ablaze with light. The whole street was well lit as expected.
Ling Zhang unnoticeably gave a little cough. Had he not been informed of the secret orders given by Yuwen Tong, he would really have mistakenly believed that the soldiers had lit these torches of their own accord.
The group of killers, who abducted the two young princes, had thought that Yuwen Tong would soon come to see them. It had never crossed any of their minds that Yuwen Tong would wait until almost two hours later to show up. Even that fake prison guard, who had always appeared to be the most composed one of them, had a rather sulky face.
A scab had formed at that long thin wound in the Eighth Prince’s neck, and the Ninth Prince was so exhausted from crying that he could barely stand on his own. The abductor restraining him had had no choice but to scoop him up, and after such a long time, his arms were terribly sore, but in order to save face, he had to tough it out, showing no sign of his tiredness.
The Concubine Jin was on the verge of losing her temper and would probably have started hurling abuse had Fang Quan not been trying his best to keep her from doing it.
“It took you so long to come here, Marshal Yuwen. You’re indeed a quite poised man,” remarked the fake prison guard. From the vantage of the present, he should be the leader of this group of killers.
“Who are you? Why did you abduct the two young princes?” demanded Yuwen Tong.
“We’re just a group of people who do what people pay us to do for a living. As long as you let us leave, I promise we won’t harm the two young princes. After all, their lives are worth a lot of money. We also don’t want things to get ugly, because we’ll lose our payment if that happens,” responded the leader of the killers.
“How dare you?! They are both princes. The value of their lives cannot be measured by money. Let the princes go and surrender yourselves right now!” bellowed a courtier.
Ling Zhang thought scathingly, ‘This guy really thinks blustering will do any good?’
Unsurprisingly, the leader of the killers didn’t even glance at that courtier. He just looked at Yuwen Tong and added, “So what’s your decision, Marshal Yuwen? Let’s not waste any more time. As long as you give the order to let us go, I’ll have my men take the swords off the princes’ necks. Then we’ll deliver the two of them to our employer. After that, you may do whatever you want. There’s no need to make things awkward for you and me at this point in time.”
“Who hired you?” asked Yuwen Tong.
The ringleader said, “I can’t tell you that. We have to keep the identity of our employer secret.”
“How am I supposed to get the two princes back if I don’t know where they’ll be taken? And why would I let you leave if I won’t be able to get them back?” said Yuwen Tong.
The look on the ringleader’s face flickered and with that he replied, “Stop sniping, Marshal. Are you not afraid that we’ll kill the two princes if you don’t let us leave?”
Yuwen Tong knitted his eyebrows, a sense of power radiating from him.
“Marshal, please calm down,” said Lord Hu, stepping forward. “Rescuing the two princes is the most important.”
Yuwen Tong tossed him a glance. “Then tell me, what do you suggest we do to rescue the two princes, Lord Hu?”
Lord Pei walked out of the crowd and said, “Please allow me to give it a try, Marshal.”
Yuwen Tong made no reply, which the old lord took as tacit permission. Lord Pei pivoted around to face the ringleader, his eyes raking Fang Quan, the Concubine Jin and the Concubine Liu before finally resting on the two men restraining the two princes. “However much your employer promised you, we’ll pay you double if you let the princes go.”
“That does sound an appealing offer, but credibility means something to us. Now that we’ve struck a deal with our employer, we have to honor it. So, old lord, if you want to rescue these two princes, you may wait until we deliver them to the employer to make a deal with us. I promise I’ll get them back to you safe and sound,” said the ringleader.
What? Fang Quan and the Concubine Jin looked at the ringleader in disbelief. “You–You can’t do that! Have you no shame?!”
The ringleader twisted his head around and said, “Your Lordship, we’re just contract killers, and we do the bidding of whoever pays us enough money, but you may rest assured that we’ll keep our end of this deal.”
“Fang Quan! Are you insane?! The Eighth Prince is your grandson, and the Ninth Prince is only two. Where do you want to take them?!”
Fang Quan’s reaction aroused a lot of courtiers’ suspicions, and one of them started to rebuke him.
“Enough of this nonsense! You’re wasting time,” reprimanded the ringleader flintily.
Fang Quan had originally wanted to snap back at those people on the other side but was interrupted by the ringleader and had to hold back the words on the tip of his tongue.
“This is taking too long, Marshal Yuwen. It’s a simple choice – do you want these two young princes to live, or do you want them to die?” said the ringleader.
“You need to think carefully, Marshal, and please make sure the two princes live.”
“You must not do that, Marshal. These people are killers. They can not be trusted.”
“That’s true, Marshal. You must not be soft-hearted at this point in time.”
“Marshal…”
There were two kinds of opinions. Only very few were in favor of accepting the offer to save the two princes’ lives, and all of them were those on good terms with Lord Hu and Lord Pei. The other courtiers, headed by the Right Prime Minister, all insisted that they do not let the killers leave.
Watching them arguing with each other with red faces, Ling Zhang wondered whether they would ever get tired.
“That’s enough,” said Yuwen Tong drily, looking at the ringleader, an icy expression in his eyes. “I’ll let you go, but you must promise you won’t hurt the two princes. If any harm comes to either of them, I’ll track you down and make you pay for it, whatever the cost may be.”
The ringleader grinned, “Since you made such a sensible decision, we naturally will keep our promise. Now, please give the order for the city gates to be opened so that we can leave.”
“Marshal!” implored the Right Prime Minister. “If you let them go and they by any chance use the two young princes to do evil, there would be yet another political disaster.”
“Your Lordship, you’re asking the Marshal to betray his moral code!” spat Lord Hu.
“Are you done quarreling?” said the ringleader, looking sulky. “Marshal Yuwen, you’re not going back on your word, are you?”
Yuwen Tong flicked a glacial glance at him and then commanded the soldiers guarding the city gates, “Open the gates. Let them leave.”
“Yes.”
The soldiers guarding the city gates always obeyed Yuwen Tong’s instructions unconditionally. The moment Yuwen Tong gave the order, they immediately opened the city gates, despite the fact that the courtiers were still arguing heatedly.
The ringleader gave a sneer and quickly went through the city gates with his men, abducting the two princes and Fang Quan and some others.
The Right Prime Minister and many other courtiers were sighing in disconsolation. Lord Hu and Lord Pei had mixed feelings, but no matter what, from a moral point of view, there was nothing wrong about Yuwen Tong’s handling of this matter.
“Guards, follow them and find out where they’re going exactly. If they mean the two princes harm, take immediate action and rescue them,” ordered Yuwen Tong.
“Yes, Marshal,” Miao Shisan answered, fell out with some men and hurried out of the city to pursue the killers.
Watching the receding figures disappear from view at the city gates one by one, Ling Zhang thought, ‘Yuwen Tong’s allowing the killers leave is actually a fairly risky move. What if they really successfully bring the two princes to Jiangzhou?’
Still, if Yuwen Tong had refused to let them leave, things would still have been quite thorny. Yuwen Tong had just chosen the lesser of two evils after weighing up the pros and cons.
This incident that had happened in the middle of the night had come to the knowledge of everybody, and those in the Ling Mansion were no exception.
Ji Yin walked into Ji Yanlai’s courtyard house. “It’s done, Clan Leader.”
Ji Yanlai inclined his head. “Since Fang Quan intends to kill the Ninth Prince, create an opportunity for him to do it. The other one is the least of our concern, for his Vitality Star is dim and lusterless, which means his fate has been sealed.”
“Yes, Clan Leader.” Ji Yin bobbed his head.
“Yuwen Tong acted pretty quick. Those gongs and drums awoke me in the middle of the night and rendered me unable to sleep,” complained Ji Yanlai.
Ji Yin chuckled, “It’s over. You may go back to sleep now, Clan Leader.”
Ji Yanlai rolled his eyes upwards and said, “Sleep my ass. Never mind. You may leave. I could use a little quiet.”
“Yes, Clan Leader.” Ji Yin nodded and left.
Ji Yanlai lapsed into silence and looked up into the night sky at the stars. Two of the stars were unnaturally bright, their radiance so brilliant that they overshadowed all those around them. “It seems that Father’s right. The momentum of a great destiny is unstoppable.”
