Ling Zhang lowered his head to look at Ling Maomao, who raised his head to stare at his elder brother.
Maomao pursed his lips and looked at Ling Zhang in anticipation. “Big brother…”
Ling Zhang cleared his throat lightly. He raised his head to look at Fu Caiwei. “Why not allow Maomao to stay with me for a few days?”
Fu Caiwei’s face turned serious. “No, he still has a lot of homework to do.”
Ling Zhang lowered his head again and gazed at Ling Maomao. While Ling Maomao directly hugged Ling Zhang’s leg, “Big brother, I want to be with you, please take me with you.”
Ling Zhang sighed. He didn’t have the heart to turn down Ling Maomao’s request, so he tried to convince Fu Caiwei again. “Let me help Maomao with his homework. Before we leave, I will drop by his school and talk to his teacher.”
Fu Caiwei looked at Ling Zhang for a while, then turned to Ling Maomao, whose eyes were expectant. She said to Ling Zhang, “You indulge him so much that he always tries to take advantage of you.”
Ling Zhang smiled. He only had one younger brother, and of course he would love Maomao. “Don’t worry, aunt. I will make sure he works out with me every morning. And I will make sure he completes his homework as well.”
Some light flashed in Fu Caiwei’s eyes. She lowered her head and found that Ling Maomao was giving her a puppy dog eyes. She said, “Fine, take him with you. Just remember to bring him along in your morning workouts.”
“Got it.” Ling Zhang said.
Clueless about the difficulties that awaited him, Ling Maomao cheered happily and ran out to pack his luggage.
The two brothers departed after they finished packing their bags. They got on the road with two carriages and an entourage consisting of two servants, Supervisor Wang Qing, twelve Guards and Ada.
They dropped by Maomao’s school first, where Ling Zhang requested a leave from Maomao’s teacher. Once the leave was approved, they went into a discussion about Lin Maomao’s homework in the next few days. After everything was settled, they set off toward the south of the city.
It would take half a day to travel from Tanyang city to the Herb Farm. Someone had already rushed ahead to the Herb Farm to prepare for Ling Zhang and Ling Maomao’s arrival. On the road, Wang Qing began explaining the situation at the Farm to Ling Zhang.
“We have already got a buyer for a batch of newly harvested herbs. The buyer is Jiang’s Herbs. They have been cooperating with our Herb Farm all this while. In the past two years, Jiang’s managed to expand their business to the Capital. This new batch of herbs they ordered from us this time is meant for their new branch at the Capital. This is the order they placed, Young Master, please have a look.”
Ling Zhang took the order form and studied the list thoroughly, taking note of the order details (herb types, prices, quantities). After he had gone through the list, Ling Zhang found himself having a better idea of how to handle the transaction. “When will Jing’s people come?” Ling Zhang asked.
“Tomorrow morning. The herbs have already been prepared and ready for your inspection, Young Master,” Wang Qing answered.
Ling Zhang nodded. “Who will they be sending over?”
“The shopkeeper will come in person. I heard that this time he is also responsible for transporting the herbs to the Capital.” Wang Qing answered. He detailed the situation of this main shopkeeper. “This main shopkeeper of Jiang’s Herbs is a distant relative of Jiang Family. He came to Tanyang to take charge of the herbal business for two years. He is a man in his forties who does things briskly; it is easier to get along with him. The two years he cooperated with our Herb Farm were quite smooth. Besides, in addition to their cooperation with our Farm, they also cooperated with Lu Family and Liao Family.”
Lu Family and Liao Family were also close to Ling Family, especially Lu Family.
When it came to Lu Family, Ling Zhang’s eyes turned cold. He couldn’t help but think of the tragedy that the Lu Family was slain overnight in the previous existence.
This life the extermination of Lu Family absolutely mustn’t happen again; Ling Family couldn’t be framed again, either.
“Show me the ledger,” Ling Zhang restrained his emotion and said to Wang Qing.
Wang Qing hurried to hand the Herb Farm ledger to Ling Zhang, and told Ling Zhang some of the points. Ling Zhang made clear the ledger easily after keeping the points in mind.
There was only the sound of Ling Zhang flipping through the ledger for a time. Wang Qing quietly waited for Ling Zhang’s inquiry. He didn’t interrupt Ling Zhang’s work but observed Ling Zhang secretly. Wang Qing was one of the managers of the Ling family whom Ling Zhaowen trusted. That was why Ling Zhaowen had assigned the business at the Herb Farm to him. He was in his thirties and there were old and young at home. Their whole family served Ling Family. In other words, their fate was closely connected to Ling Family.
Therefore, Wang Qing pretty much watched Ling Zhang grow up. So Wang Qing could perceive the changes in Ling Zhang during this period of time. He clearly understood that many of the changes that had taken place in the Ling Family were hosted by Ling Zhang. He knew that Ling Zhang was no longer what he had been before.
This Young Master’s shrewdness had shown, with even some trace of decisiveness and sharpness revealed. He was by no means a man to be trifled with.
Before they left, Ling Zhaowen had ordered Wang Qing to help Ling Zhang wholeheartedly in dealing with the mattes of the Herb Farm, so he knew what responsibility to take this time.
Meanwhile, some doubts came into his mind as Wang Qing looked at the twelve Guards outside. He didn’t know Ling Zhang’s purpose of asking the twelve Guards to accompany him. But he guessed that it was probably related to the frequent dismissal of the Guards in recent days.
Ling Zhang, who was reading the ledger, clearly knew that Wang Qing was observing him quietly, but he didn’t care. Ling Zhang’s status in Ling Family had changed a lot. Those two bodies wrapped in white cloth not only shocked the people in his yard, but also other servants in Ling Family. Moreover, servants in Ling Family were frequently dismissed recently. Those who relied on Ling Family to make a living now all realized that their destiny was in the hands of Ling Zhang.
Anyone with a clear mind would know what to do and what not to.
In addition to read this thick ledger, he also had to check the Herb Farm in person. Neither of these things would be done in a short time.
And he planned to take advantage of the remote geographical location of the Herb Farm to try the Trap and Kill Formation of Twelve, which was why he took these twelve guards with him.
Before Xiafeng’s background check of these twelve guards was clearly done, Ling Zhang wouldn’t tell them anything about the formation. He intended to first test the mere form of it. He would only start training these twelve when Xiafeng’s letter came and confirmed that their background was all clean.
For this matter, Ling Zhang almost didn’t sleep last night. He kept deducing the tactic in his mind and thinking about how to get the twelve guards to cooperate well.
“Big Brother,” Ling Maomao’s voice pulled Ling Zhang out of his thoughts. He looked at Maomao, who just woke up from sleep. “You finally woke up.”
“How long will it take to get there?” Ling Maomao was very excited when he got on the carriage, but soon he became too bored to doze off.
“We’re almost there, half an hour at most,” Ling Zhang answered. He lifted the curtain and looked at the scenery outside.
“Okay.” Maomao laid his head on the window, watching the scenery moving slowly backwards. He asked, “Brother, where is Ada?”
“It is following behind. It is so naughty that it can’t sit quietly in the carriage,” Ling Zhang answered.
At this moment, Ling Maomao also saw that Ada was running wildly behind the carriage. “Ada, get up here, don’t run!”
“Don’t you remember that it bit your Wooden Monkey?” Ling Zhang asked.
Ling Maomao said, “I am broad-minded and I have already forgiven him.”
Wang Qing burst into laughter.
Ling Zhang turned to Wang Qing and said, “Please tell them to pull over, Steward Wang.”
Wang Qing took the commands then lifted the thick curtain to deliver the order.
“Maomao, later you should get off the carriage and urinate,” Ling Zhang said.
Ling Maomao giggled, not a bit surprised why his big brother knew that he wanted to pee.
After the carriage stopped, Ling Maomao immediately jumped out of the carriage to pee. Ling Zhang also got off the carriage for some stretches to relax his muscles.
This place was not far from the place where the Prefecture Guards were stationed. Through the woods, they could see the outlines of the tents in the distance.
Although the encampment of Prefecture Guards occupied quite a large place, Zhang Chong still wanted to expand the area. Would the court really grant his request? Expanding the station almost meant that he would recruit more soldiers. However, the number of soldiers for each prefecture was strictly regulated. Zhang Chong repeatedly broke this rule under the pretext of Tanyang’s serious bandits. How far on earth was he going to expand his army?
This was no longer a matter of occupying his family’s herbal farm, but a much more serious issue. It was no exaggeration to say that Zhang Chong had the condition for rebellion. Why didn’t the Court stop him?
Ling Zhang frowned, looking in the direction of the Prefecture Guard’s encampment with a cold and disgusted look.
In his previous life, he couldn’t see through this matter. But after the overnight slaughtering of Lu Family in previous life, he was clever enough to see through the plot behind the serious bandits of Tanyang.
The whole Lu Family was destroyed overnight, followed by the Ling Family being wronged. At that time, the bandits were rampant. However, instead of wiping out the bandits, Zhang Chong was in such a haste to frame Ling Zhang’s family. All this seemed to be planned by Zhang Chong.
What did it mean? Delving deep into matter would easily notice some horrifying fact.
Ever since Ling could see the outlines of the encampment of the Prefecture Guards, he began to lift the curtain to look in that direction from time to time when he got on the carriage, pretending like he was just checking the view. He counted how far he had gone from being able to see the encampment’s outline to the moment when it disappeared, and then estimated the rage of the encampment.
Ever since the encampment of the Prefecture Guards had been stationed there, the area had been completely off-limits to the ordinary people. No one knew how much it had been expanded over the years.
“Big brother, what are you looking at?” Ling Maomao was particularly clever, and soon found Ling Zhang gazing at something. He approached Ling Zhang and followed his gaze out of the carriage window too.
Ling Zhang, considering that Wang Qing was here too, put down the curtain in a clam manner. “I haven’t been to the farm for a long time, so I am just trying to remember the scenery along the way. You can have a look too.”
Neither Ling Maomao nor Wang Qing doubted his words. And Ling Maomao stared outside for a long time with interest.
It was an open plain. Ling Family’s herb farm occupied half of this plain.
On the periphery of the plain were several other families’ herb farms, as well as the fields of ordinary farmers.
“Here we are. Don’t run around the village. I will show you around when I am done with my work,” Ling Zhang warned Ling Maomao.
“I see.” Ling Maomao leaned out of the window, looked at the small plain and cheered with joy. It was also his first time to this herb farm.
Just as they arrived at the Farm, a fast horse entered Tanyang City from the north gate and went straight to Ling Family.
