It had been a rough night, and when Ling Zhang finally returned to the Infinite Fortune Palace, Yuwen Tong was still not back, occupied with tackling the aftermath.
Ling Zhang raised his hands to knead his temples, then closed his eyes and quietly sat there for quite a while.
He was not really a good Samaritan, and he knew that the loss of innocent people’s lives was inevitable on the path to supremacy, that in order to consolidate dominion, some difficult choices would have to be made. However, right now he was unable to find complete peace of mind, for there were miscellaneous thoughts racing through his mind, which he couldn’t dismiss.
Miao Shiba walked inside and saw Ling Zhang sitting there, massaging his temples. Mistakenly believing that Ling Zhang was experiencing some kind of discomfort, he hurriedly asked, “Are you not feeling well, Childe Ling? Do you want me to send for a court physician?”
Ling Zhang put his hands down and shook his head. “No. I’m just a little tired. Maybe it’s because of the tough night. I think I’ll be fine after sitting here for a few moments.”
Miao Shiba silently flicked a glance at Ling Zhang’s countenance, opened his mouth, paused briefly and then ventured, “Childe Ling, are you… in a bad mood?”
“No. It’s really just because of the interruption to my sleep. Don’t worry. I’m fine,” replied Ling Zhang.
Miao Shiba stood there for a while. Seeing Ling Zhang didn’t want to say anything more about it, he said, “Then maybe you should go and catch up on your sleep. There’s still some time before daybreak.”
Ling Zhang inclined his head. “You may leave and go where you’re needed. I can take care of myself.”
“Okay.” Miao Shiba walked out of the imperial bedchamber, his face etched with apprehension.
“What’s wrong?” asked a guard on duty outside the doors.
“Childe Ling doesn’t seem in a good mood. I wonder if what happened tonight affected him,” replied Miao Shiba.
The other man kept silent for a while and then said, “Childe Ling is soft-hearted.”
“How about we tell Childe Ling about the Marshal’s plan?” suggested Miao Shiba.
The man shook his head. “It’s best if Childe Ling hears it from the Marshal. Right now what he needs is some quiet.”
Miao Shiba sighed, “Okay.”
After Miao Shiba took his leave, Ling Zhang didn’t change out of his clothes to go to bed. He was still sitting there. For quite a while he was silent and motionless as though in a trance.
He didn’t think he was a tender-hearted man, and neither did he think he was totally blameless, but now that he had chosen to reign over this country with Yuwen Tong, he’d have to accept responsibility for half of the bloodshed and loss of lives that came with the achievement of dominion. ‘Never mind. Fretting about it won’t help. What’s done is done. I have to move on,’ he thought.
After forcing the last bit of turmoil out of his mind, Ling Zhang rose to his feet, changed and went to bed.
…
The sky was beginning to brighten when Yuwen Tong returned after handling everything. Miao Shiba saluted him with the other guards and said in a low voice, “Marshal.”
“Is Brother Zhang asleep?” asked Yuwen Tong.
Miao Shiba hesitated for a brief moment and then replied, “Childe Ling seems to have trouble sleeping. I’ve been hearing him tossing and turning in bed for quite a while.”
Yuwen Tong cast a glance into the imperial bedchamber. “What’s the matter?”
Miao Shiba told Yuwen Tong about Ling Zhang’s being in a foul mood.
Yuwen Tong inclined his head. “I see.”
He walked into the imperial bedchamber which was very quiet, took off his overgarment and then entered the inner chamber. Ling Zhang was indeed in a very light sleep. On hearing Yuwen Tong’s footsteps, he opened his eyes and asked, “You got everything done?”
Yuwen Tong stepped closer to stroke Ling Zhang’s forehead. Seeing the weariness on his face caused by bad sleep, he said, “Why were you sleeping so badly? Something’s bothering you?”
Ling Zhang didn’t want to tell Yuwen Tong about his thoughts which might put needless stress on Yuwen Tong, so he replied, “We watched the show for a whole night, and my mind is full of images of those people, which is keeping me from sleeping well. I was just thinking of lying here for a while. You want to join me? You’ve been bustling around all night.”
“I’m not sleepy,” said Yuwen Tong, stretching out a hand. “How about you get up?”
Ling Zhang gave a bob of the head, took Yuwen Tong’s hand and sat up. Then he subconsciously wanted to raise his hand to knead his temple, but his hand had just moved when he realized it and stopped.
Yuwen Tong flicked a glance at Ling Zhang’s hand but didn’t say anything about it. “Get dressed and go out there to practice kung fu. You’ll feel less sleepy after working up a sweat.”
“Okay,” answered Ling Zhang, getting out of bed with the intention to change his clothes.
Yuwen Tong got him some clothes suitable to wear for kung fu practice. While helping Ling Zhang change into them, Yuwen Tong asked, “Are you having a guilty conscience?”
Ling Zhang paused. “What?”
“There’s no need for you to feel guilty. I’m not going to kill them. I just need them to change their identities,” said Yuwen Tong.
Ling Zhang looked at him in astonishment. “H–How do you know I’m… But if you don’t want to kill them, why did you let them leave the city?”
It was after helping Ling Zhang change into the clothes that Yuwen Tong responded, “If they stay in this city, they’ll always be princes of the former imperial family. Children are innocent, and I don’t need the deaths of two kids to secure my throne. It’s their identities that I intend to kill.”
Ling Zhang gawked at him. “You…”
Yuwen Tong adjusted the skirts of Ling Zhang’s coat for him, making him look sharp and handsome. When he raised his head, he saw the stupefaction on Ling Zhang’s face, smiled, took Ling Zhang’s cheeks in his hands and gave him a smack on the forehead. “Why are you looking so dumb?” he asked.
Ling Zhang jerked out of his trance and huffed, “I… Why didn’t you tell me this sooner?! I couldn’t sleep all night, and the headache’s been killing me!”
‘Now he’s telling the truth,’ thought Yuwen Tong, chuckling. “There were too many things going on, and I didn’t have the time to tell you until now.”
In fact, Yuwen Tong had originally meant to wait until his plan succeeded to disclose it to Ling Zhang, because after all, right now the two princes were still in those killers’ hands, and the whole thing was fraught with uncertainties. However, he couldn’t bring himself to keep concealing it from Ling Zhang when he saw Ling Zhang so blue.
And now, Ling Zhang’s confiding his true feelings to him had set his mind at ease.
“Let’s go and start practicing. Haven’t you been looking forward to making a breakthrough to reach the third level? I think you’ll probably get there when all this is over,” said Yuwen Tong.
Ling Zhang drew abreast of him and replied, “My grandfather told me that as long as I kept accumulating experience at this pace, I’d naturally achieve a breakthrough when the time came, that I shouldn’t be too anxious to get quick results.”
“Mr. Ji had a point.”
…
In a wilderness about a hundred miles away from the capital city.
“Finally we shook off those nuisances. It surprises me that Yuwen Tong’s subordinates are pretty good at this. They actually followed us for a hundred miles.”
The thirty killers abducting Fang Quan and the others had split up into two groups and eventually managed to lose their pursuers. At this moment they were having a breather in the wildlands. Kung fu experts as all these killers were, they were still panting heavily after running a hundred miles without respite. For Fang Quan and the others who had no kung fu skills, the journey had been even more of an ordeal, and they would probably have breathed their last from fatigue already if nobody had carried them along the way.
“You need to bandage my son’s wound right now!” piped the Concubine Jin.
“His Highness’ wound is very shallow, and a scab has formed already. It’ll heal spontaneously over time. There’s no need to bandage it, and neither is there any need for Your Highness to lose your temper,” said the ringleader.
Naturally the Concubine Jin also knew about this. She was just using it as an excuse to vent her anger. The frantic bumpy long ride had almost killed her, and now they were in the heath which was teeming with mosquitoes, bugs, rats and ants. To make things worse, the only food they had was dry, hard pancakes, and she couldn’t even have a bowl of hot soup. In her eyes, this place was utterly unfit for anybody to stay.
“Who are you exactly? And where are you taking me and my son? Lord Fang, Concubine Jin, what on earth do you want to do?” demanded the Concubine Liu.
Unlike the Concubine Jin, the Concubine Liu, after being put down, immediately ran to her son as fast as she could and held him in her arms, comforting him and crying. Seeing Zhou Mingyun’s horrified face, she hugged him so tight as though she would never let him go. Then her eyes resentfully swept across those around her before resting on Fang Quan and the Concubine Jin.
At the sight of the Concubine Liu, the Concubine Jin’s temper began to fray. Instead of answering the question, she started reprimanding the killers, “I made it very clear that she had to die. Why did you bring her and her son out of the city as well?!”
Face hardening, the Concubine Liu cuddled her son tighter, fixing the Concubine Jin with a stare so menacing as though she was only too anxious to flay the Concubine Jin alive and eat her flesh.
“Don’t be mad, Your Highness. We but did what we were paid to do. Our employer didn’t say anything about killing them. In fact, he said that he’d double the payment if we could rescue the two of them in passing,” said the ringleader.
“What?!” Fang Quan’s countenance changed drastically. “If that’s the case, why did you promise me you’d kill them back when we were in the Court Prison?”
The ringleader responded, “Because I wanted Your Lordship to stay in a good mood and be cooperative during our operation, of course.”
“You!” Fang Quan went ballistic and was just about to spring to his feet when the two courtiers beside him stopped him. In an effort to calm him down, one of the courtiers said in a hushed voice, “Easy, Lord Fang. We still rely on them to get to Jiangzhou in one piece.”
Fang Quan’s face changed several times, and eventually he coldly gave a snort of indignation.
The Concubine Liu, holding her son, felt as though her insides had turned into ice. She looked in the direction of the killers and offered, “Since my son and I are of little significance, please let us go, mighty warriors. I’ll pay you double the money your employer promised you!”
The ringleader shook his head. “Like I said, credibility means a lot to us.”
The Concubine Liu lapsed into despair. The Ninth Prince, who sensed that there was something wrong with the atmosphere, kept burrowing his face deeper into the Concubine Liu’s chest. “Mother.”
The Concubine Liu could do nothing but embrace her son tighter.
The Concubine Jin disgustedly looked at the Concubine Liu and her son and sniffed impatiently, “Spare us the loving mother act. You both should feel lucky they saved your asses.”
The Concubine Liu looked back at her flintily. “I’m not like you. All I want is for my son and I to live in peace for the rest of our lives. My father has already requested Yuwen Tong to allow my son to sever all his relations with the Zhou family and change his name. We were only one step away from freedom, but you ruined everything!”
“Don’t kid yourself. You think Yuwen Tong’s going to let you walk away? Stop dreaming,” contradicted the Concubine Jin.
The Concubine Liu icily stared at her, hatred glinting in her eyes.
Fang Quan looked up at them and with that his eyes roved and a vicious plan formed in his mind.
After a while, Fang Quan put on a genial face and said to the Concubine Liu, “Your Highness, now that we’re all in this together, why don’t you cooperate with us to take back the throne that rightfully belongs to the Zhou family?”
The Concubine Liu gazed at him, making no reply.
Fang Quan stood up and was just about to make towards her when the ringleader stopped him. “Your Lordship, if there’s anything you want to say, just say it where you stand.”
“I just want to talk some sense into her. What do you think I could possibly do?” said Fang Quan, affecting an air of nonchalance, but the ringleader didn’t relent, so he had no choice but to sit down. Then he really started trying to persuade the Concubine Liu.
He rambled on for quite a while about things like the destiny of the nation, wealth, status and fame, but the Concubine Liu was entirely unswayed. “All I want is for me and my son to have an ordinary life. I have no interest in any of these things.”
Fang Quan was unconvinced and resumed his effort to make her see reason, sounding quite sincere.
At dusk, Fang Quan had moved from his original position to a spot very close to the Concubine Liu and her son. In the beginning the ringleader had warned him not to approach them several times, but all Fang Quan had been doing was merely try to convince her, so the ringleader had gradually lowered his guard.
