If Shan Congyi was still alive, he wouldn’t be able to stay in hiding forever. Besides, given the severity of his injury, there was no doubt he would have to go through hell if he was to survive.
Feeling that Yuwen Tong had a point, Ling Zhang finally relented, deciding to leave this matter aside for the time being, have the Jiang family’s men continue their search in Cangzhou, and at the same time send some men to the Wan Kingdom to hide there and keep their eyes peeled for traces of Shan Congyi.
After a separation of so many days, both of them wanted to make out to their hearts’ content, but the current situation in Jiangzhou was urgent. Yuwen Tong had just finished confiding to Ling Zhang how he was going to lure the enemy when a secret bodyguard of his came to report.
“Master, Childe Ling, a messenger exited the checkpoint. We intercepted him and got the letter after he entered the city.”
With that the bodyguard handed a letter to Yuwen Tong.
Yuwen Tong took and then opened the letter. In it were some code words. Yuwen Tong had seen hundreds – if not thousands – code words people used to convey information in wartime, so it took him only a few moments to decode the letter.
Wang Xiangxin wanted Mu Rongfeng to join hands with him to launch a concerted attack on the Haizhou garrison and Pingtao City in three days, saying that he would lure away the troops stationed at the port for Mu Rongfeng on the morning of the fourth day.
“In three days. It seems that Wang Xiangxin is indeed very anxious,” said Ling Zhang.
It wouldn’t be easy for Mu Rongfeng to elude the navy and get his men ashore in three days.
Why was Wang Xiangxin so sure Mu Rongfeng would agree?
“Sending out a message is no easy job for Wang Xiangxin in these circumstances, so Mu Rongfeng has to agree. The longer he stays on the sea, the more unfavorable the situation will be for him. Those pirates will draw our navy away, so getting his men ashore within a short time wouldn’t really be a problem for him,” said Yuwen Tong.
Ling Zhang knitted his brows. “Then how is Wang Xiangxin going to lure away the troops stationed at the port?”
Yuwen Tong replied, “By creating disturbances. There are not many soldiers at the port. They’re mainly doing security work there. As a garrison is stationed outside Pingtao City and there’s also a navy force out there, hardly anybody dares make trouble at the port. So actually the soldiers at the port are not difficult to deal with. It doesn’t matter much whether they’ll be lured away or not. All Wang Xiangxin needs to do is draw their attention away from the port. His men will exit the checkpoint to create chaos beforehand, which will naturally distract the soldiers. After all, in their eyes, neither the army sent by the imperial court nor the navy could’ve foreseen that the Luohai Kingdom would get involved in this battle.”
Ling Zhang said, “They’ve got a lot of balls. Even if Mu Rongfeng manages to get his men ashore, once the navy finds out and catches up with him, he’d be under attack from two sides. Is he really that confident of defeating two forces at once?”
“The best move is to prevent the navy from getting ashore, or at least delay their landing by making trouble for them; then they destroy the Haizhou garrison together before turning around to take care of the navy,” observed Yuwen Tong.
“Prevent the navy from getting ashore?” Ling Zhang was confused. “How are they supposed to do that?”
“Blowing up the port, sabotaging nearby landing sites, putting up barricades – they could stall the navy by doing any of these,” responded Yuwen Tong.
All these were delaying tactics chiefly aimed at buying them some time.
Yuwen Tong had checked all the main ports and landing sites in nearby areas. Lately a lot of people had been seen sneakingly wandering around in these places, and their intentions were very obvious.
Ling Zhang remarked, “It seems they’d go to any length to achieve their ends.”
“There’s no way I’m letting them blow up any of the ports or landing sites. Once they come ashore, they’ll be on our turf,” said Yuwen Tong.
He handed the note back to his secret bodyguard. Some of his secret bodyguards were good at imitating people’s handwriting, and what they needed to do right now was write a fake letter and change the time from three days to two days.
Yuwen Tong planned to first trick Mu Rongfeng and his men into coming ashore, dispose of them in one fell swoop, and then take care of Wang Xiangxin. Even if Wang Xiangxin got wind of it, he wouldn’t have enough time to take any countermeasures.
After tampering with the message, they waited for Mu Rongfeng’s reply.
While waiting for Mu Rongfeng to send a reply, Yuwen Tong filled Ling Zhang in on the situation in the capital city. When he’d finished relating it, he asked, “What did your father say in the letter he had me send you with mine?”
“It’s about a secret passage connecting Jiangzhou and Haizhou.” Ling Zhang told him about the shortcut on the hill behind that sect in Haizhou. “I could tell that the sect leader was nearly scared out of his wits, and he was racking his brains trying in vain to figure out how I came to know about the existence of that shortcut on the hill behind his sect. I think he’d be overcautious about it from that day on.”
Ling Zhang still felt somewhat guilty as he recalled the astonished and complicated expression the sect leader’s face had taken on at the sight of them showing up on the hill behind that prestigious sect. He worried that he might have scarred the sect leader in some way.
“A secret path like that is passable for only a limited few, so it’s no threat to anybody, and the imperial court won’t do anything to his sect. Why did he panic?” said Yuwen Tong.
“This is their secret. Think about it – if a total stranger finds out about the hidden passageway in the imperial palace which is meant to be your escape route, and that stranger’s identity is very special, wouldn’t you panic as well?” replied Ling Zhang.
Yuwen Tong said, “I’ve never seen any hidden passageways in the imperial palace.”
Ling Zhang, “…”
He was just drawing an analogy. Besides, maybe there was indeed a secret passage in there, and maybe some day he’d scour the imperial palace and find it.
“On top of that, since they’re a martial arts sect, their foes are probably all kung fu practitioners. Why is he afraid of us?” Yuwen Tong continued.
Ling Zhang thought, ‘Why shouldn’t he be afraid? If I were him, I would be concerned as well.’
He wondered how his father had come to discover their secret in his last life. That shortcut was indeed very secluded. Had his father searched that sect, by any chance? Or had he had a bad history with them? As this thought occurred to him, it struck Ling Zhang that he needed to ask his father and get to the bottom of it after returning to the capital city.
If members of that sect had really committed evil, Ling Zhang naturally wouldn’t let them off.
If they hadn’t… well, it wasn’t a bad idea to have them bear in mind some imaginary fears which would serve to deter them from doing wrong.
Ling Zhang stroked his head, feeling that it wasn’t really surprising Yuwen Tong was fairly nonchalant about this matter, given that even he himself was seeing it this way.
“Incidentally, is anybody of the Millennium Pavilion still in Pingtao City?” inquired Ling Zhang.
Yuwen Tong inclined his head. “Yeah. Ji Xiaocong’s father. The two of them look very much alike. Recently they’ve been scouting that island all along. It’s said that they’ve found a safe maritime route to that island, that they’re here waiting for their clansmen to come.”
Ling Zhang asked, “Was it him who sent the message?”
“Yeah,” answered Yuwen Tong with a head bob.
“I wonder how my grandfather’s been doing these days,” said Ling Zhang.
“Transferring the whole Millennium Pavilion without anybody noticing will take a lot of doing. There will be at least half a year or even a whole year before they get the job done. In addition, they’ll have to transform the island and deploy some defensive formations. I don’t think they’ll be able to settle down there until three or even five years later. The tough part hasn’t even started yet,” commented Yuwen Tong.
After hearing these words, Ling Zhang was even more worried about his grandfather.
“My grandfather told me he’d return to the capital city after handling the matter of the Millennium Pavilion. Now it seems he wouldn’t be able to fulfill his promise until several years later.”
Yuwen Tong kept silent for a moment before consoling him, “It doesn’t necessarily have to take that long. After people of the Millennium Pavilion move onto that island, they’ll have plenty of time to finish the construction work. Ji Yanlai will be there, so your grandfather won’t have to stay on that island. I’m sure he’ll return to the capital city when the situation stabilizes.”
Ling Zhang gave it some thought and said, “When this is over, I’ll ask Ji Xiaocong’s father to take a message to my grandfather for me and see if there’s anything I could help.”
Yuwen Tong said, “This time around the Millennium Pavilion offered me some assistance, so I’ll give them a hand if they need any help. You don’t have to concern yourself with it. There are many capable men in the Millennium Pavilion. I don’t think there’s anything they couldn’t handle.”
Then he immediately added, “Well, enough talking. You’ve come a long way. The living conditions in this encampment are not very good. I’ll help you wash your body, change clothes and then you may have some rest.”
A few moments before, Yuwen Tong had only wiped Ling Zhang’s face and hands before he ate. Ling Zhang lowered his head to sniff at his clothes and then lapsed into silence, hastily rising to his feet to walk a few paces away from Yuwen Tong.
Yuwen Tong was baffled. “What’s wrong?”
“I stink of stale sweat.”
Yuwen Tong chuckled, “It doesn’t make me any less fond of you. Come back here.”
Ling Zhang refused, waiting for water to be delivered into the tent so that he could wash, unwilling to get close to Yuwen Tong.
Resigned, Yuwen Tong had no choice but to send a soldier to give those preparing water a prod. When the water had been brought to the tent, he had all the others leave and then drew Ling Zhang to the basin, insisting on helping Ling Zhang wash.
“Only one of my arms is wounded. The other one is okay.”
“How are you going to take off your clothes? How are you going to wring out your towel? And how are you going to get dressed?”
“I’ll be able to manage it if I do it slowly.”
“Then what’s the point of having me by your side?”
“…”
That made a lot of sense.
Ling Zhang obediently let Yuwen Tong peel off his clothes. Yuwen Tong was literally “peeling” him like peeling the shell off a boiled egg. One by one, his clothes were removed, revealing Ling Zhang’s fair-skinned body.
Yuwen Tong, who hadn’t seen his love for a long time, was instantly turned on at the sight of his marriage partner’s seductive body.
Ling Zhang could tell from the look in Yuwen Tong’s eyes what he was thinking. He hurriedly warned him, “I reek! Help me wash right away! And don’t you dare do anything other than that!”
“Sex first!” Yuwen Tong tossed the towel into the basin.
Ling Zhang demurred, “No! Bath first!”
“We’ll have to bathe after sex anyway. I don’t mind the smell.”
“But I do. You want to get your lips covered with dirt after kissing me?! Black dirt, and it stinks! If you rub your hand against my skin, you’ll find small beads of dirt beneath your palm!”
“…”
With a sullen face, Yuwen Tong walked back to the basin, wrung out the towel, stared at Ling Zhang and said, “Come over here!”
Ling Zhang stared back at him. “Promise me you won’t do anything else!”
It was not that he didn’t want to do that thing. He was just not inclined to let Yuwen Tong hug him when he stank of stale sweat, for that would… terribly spoil his enjoyment.
Gazing at him with burning eyes, Yuwen Tong said, “Come over here right now. Don’t make me say it thrice.”
It was only then that Ling Zhang walked up to Yuwen Tong, who grabbed him and started washing him in a seemingly rough but actually gentle way. When Yuwen Tong was standing behind him, he couldn’t see Yuwen Tong. “I can bathe you in return if you want.”
While washing him, Yuwen Tong gave a little snort and then said, “If I take off my clothes, you won’t be able to stand here any more.”
Ling Zhang, “…”
“Don’t worry. I’m quite clean. You won’t get your lips covered with dirt,” added Yuwen Tong, “and you won’t get any beads if you rub my skin.”
Ling Zhang blushed. “I–I didn’t say you’re that dirty. Besides, even if you were, I wouldn’t mind.”
Yuwen Tong’s voice said beside his ear in a dangerous tone, “Are you implying I mind your smell?”
Ling Zhang hastened to explain, “That’s not what I meant. D–Do you want to continue or not? The front part of me still needs washing.”
Yuwen Tong snorted again and then gave Ling Zhang a spank. “Wait.”
“Ouch!” Ling Zhang let out a muffled cry. “Why did you do that?!” he hissed, lowering his voice for fear of attracting anybody’s attention.
