Tanyang was also very quiet on this night. Since a burglar intruded into the Prefecture Yamen and even threatened Lord Tao a few days before, all residents in Tanyang were left afraid to go outdoors at night. All doors and windows were tightly closed, and those of Ling family were no exception. Only few rooms had oil lamps still ablaze.
“Young Master, please go to sleep. It’s getting late.” Xia Feng tried to persuade Ling Zhang.
There was a candle still on in the room. Ling Zhang was not sleepy at all. According to Yuwen Tong’s deduction, Yao Yi should lead the army back to Tanyang on this night. If the army managed to get over the Grand Mang Mountain, their plan would be smoothly carried out. If the army got stuck in the Grand Mang Mountain, he and Yuwen Tong would be thrown into grave danger in Tanyang.
“Young Master?” Seeing that there was no reaction, Xia Feng called Ling Zhang once again.
Ling Zhang rose to his feet. “I can’t sleep. You may leave and hit the sack. I’ll take care of myself.”
Xia Feng intended to make another attempt to convince him, but Ling Zhang started walking towards the door. He hurriedly followed in his wake and asked, “Young Master, it’s cold out there. Where are you going?”
“Next door,” Ling Zhang answered without turning his head back.
Next door? With a slightly weird look on his face, Xia Feng halted.
Ever since he saw Ling Zhang and the one living next door hugging and also presumably… Xia Fen, though a rather poised man, had been somewhat in confusion about where he was supposed to stand with these two men. On such occasion when his young master went next door to meet Lord Yuwen at such a late hour of the night, should he dissuade him or wink at it?
After dithering for a few moments, he made a choice, hurriedly went back into the room, found a cape after some fumbling, ran outside and called, “Young Master, it’s cold. You should put on this cape.”
Ling Zhang had walked far away some time ago. Hearing Xia Feng trying to catch up with him, he didn’t pause but directly walked out of the courtyard gate, took a turn and headed for the Green Bamboo Mansion.
A guard on duty in the Green Bamboo Mansion was somewhat surprised to see him. “Childe Ling? Are you here to meet Marshal?”
“Yeah. Has he gone to sleep?” Ling Zhang paused and asked.
The guard shook his head and answered, “Not yet. He’s waiting for the message to come. Please come in, Childe Ling. I’m sure Marshal will be very glad to see you.”
Ling Zhang fell speechless.
Ling Zhang let out a cough in embarrassment and grunted, “Um.”
As expected, after entering the house, he saw that Yuwen Tong was reading something wearing what he usually wore during daytime, as if he was ready to leave at any moment.
“You can’t sleep?” asked Yuwen Tong at the sight of Ling Zhang.
“I’m a little worried. Have you had any news from Yao Yi?” said Ling Zhang.
Yuwen Tong put down the pamphlet he had been reading and looked at him meaningfully. “I thought that you would show some concern for me first, given the late hour.”
Ling Zhang was sent into a brief trance. ‘This guy is still in the mood for joking!’
“I’m here to talk with you about something sensible.”
But Yuwen Tong replied in a very serious tone of voice, “What I’m talking about is also sensible. Your concern means a lot to me.”
Such was the explicitness of Yuwen Tong’s last remark that Ling Zhang was left at a loss for words for quite a while. What he found weirder was that he was unable to recall why he had come here in the first place after Yuwen Tong steered the conversation away.
“There has been no news from Yao Yi so far, which means that everything is going as planned, so we might as well just wait. There’s no need to get anxious.”
Eventually, it was Yuwen Tong who, after seeing Ling Zhang remaining silent for quite a while, curved the corners of his mouth and changed the topic.
Hearing this, Ling Zhang collected his thoughts and looked Yuwen Tong in the eye. Surprisingly, his cheeks burned somewhat. A moment ago, he had just criticized Yuwen Tong for being frivolous, but now it turned out that he himself was the one whose mind was wandering. ‘No. It’s all Yuwen Tong’s fault. If it weren’t for that remark of his… Forget it. In the final analysis, I’m too easily distracted by Yuwen Tong’s words.’
Trying hard to get these miscellaneous thoughts out of his mind, Ling Zhang asked, “Aren’t you ready to go out at any moment? I mean, you’ve already changed clothes.”
“Preparedness averts peril. Besides, I’m a kung fu practitioner. It takes me only a few moments’ meditation and Qi circulation to recover from fatigue,” commented Yuwen Tong.
“Is my young master in there?” At this time, a faint voice came from outside. It was Xia Feng speaking to the guard.
Ling Zhang looked in the direction of the doorway.
Before long, Xia Feng walked inside, a cape in his hands. Seeing that Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong were just sitting there talking, he inexplicably felt a sense of relief. He gave the cape a shake unfolding it and then walked towards Ling Zhang. “Young Master, it’s cold at night. You should put on your cape.”
In the knowledge that Xia Feng was doing this out of his concern for him, Ling Zhang gave a bob of the head.
Xia Feng hurriedly walked up to Ling Zhang and put the cape on him.
Yuwen Tong glanced at the cape Ling Zhang was wearing and then cavalierly cast a look at Xia Feng.
Xia Feng sensed Yuwen Tong’s blithe gaze, which was somewhat putting him under pressure, but for the sake of his young master, he still steeled himself and ventured, “Young Master, Lord Yuwen, it’s getting late. Health is the most important. Please go to sleep.”
Not having detecting any undertone in these remarks, Ling Zhang said, “Okay. You may go back first. I’ll return and hit the hay in a short while.”
“If you’re tired, just sleep here. It’s late. Why bother walking back?” offered Yuwen Tong.
Before Ling Zhang could make a reply, Xia Feng immediately responded, “Thank you for your kindness, Lord Yuwen, but I’ll wait outside and carry the lantern for Young Master on his way back.”
Ling Zhang nodded.
Yuwen Tong watched as Xia Feng turned around, walked outside and stood waiting in the corridor. Then he said to Ling Zhang, “This servant of yours is somewhat being overprotective. Does he fear that I’m a monster capable of swallowing you?”
“Xia Feng is merely worried about me.”
“But what is it that’s causing his worry? Is he worried that you might encounter any danger in my place? Just sleep here if you’re tired. The bed is broad enough.”
‘Is he inviting me to sleep with him?
I have my own bed. Why would I stay here?’
Ling Zhang cleanly rose to his feet. “I’ll keep my sleep light tonight. If there’s any news, have your guard inform me. I’m going back.”
He wondered what had got into him when he decided to come here and have this stupid talk with Yuwen Tong.
Yuwen Tong watched as Ling Zhang walked outside and left the mansion. It was not until Ling Zhang completely disappeared from view that he withdrew his gaze, sitting still on his seat.
‘Was he unaware that it was very provocative of him to come to my room with so little clothes at such a late hour of the night? His thin inner shirt couldn’t even conceal his clavicles, which looked partly hidden and partly visible. In the candlelight, they seemed smooth and tender, as if sparkling. I could barely forbear to touch them.’ thought Yuwen Tong.
A moment ago, when Xia Feng put the cape on Ling Zhang and fastened it up, Yuwen Tong did feel that Xia Feng was a nuisance. If it weren’t for that he still had his senses, he would have directly sent Xia Feng flying out of the room with one blow. And that cape was of dark color, which provided a perfect foil for Ling Zhang’s skin and left Yuwen Tong unable to move his eyes off him…
Leaning against the back of the chair, Yuwen Tong was too distracted to resume reading the pamphlet. The scene of the beauty sitting in the candlelight replayed itself in his mind again and again.
Meanwhile, it was not until Ling Zhang returned to his room that he noticed that the cape he was wearing was a red, silk one. After a brief trance, he asked, “Why did you give me this one?”
“This cape was aired just a couple of days ago and was put on top of others. I worried that you might get a cold and was in a hurry to catch up with you, so I took this one,” answered Xia Feng. Concerned that Ling Zhang might be angry with him, he gave a very detailed explanation.
Ling Zhang was not angry but just a little surprised. After hearing Xia Feng’s explanation, he let this matter go, took off the cape and asked Xia Feng to put it away, but then he said, “Wait. Leave it here. Don’t put it away yet. I’ll need it when I go out tonight.”
“You’ll go out again?” Xia Feng was amazed.
“Yeah. I have some trouble sleeping tonight.” Ling Zhang gave a simple explanation and said no more. After all, this was a matter of the utmost importance, so he wanted to keep it secret for as long as he could.
As a result, this dull-red cape was not put into the bottom of the case but temporarily hung on the screen.
What Ling Zhang didn’t know was that Yuwen Tong living next door was reliving the scene of him in this cape.
At last, Yuwen Tong had to raise his hand and knead his forehead to get rid of the headful of fantasies.
He had never expected that he would some day be in this kind of situation as well. When he had been in the army camp, he had never tried to stop his soldiers from going to brothels to satisfy their sexual needs, but he himself had been rather uninterested in this kind of thing all along. No girls, however beautiful they were, had ever made him feel aroused, let alone those rugged soldiers. The main reason why he had come to Tanyang was that he wanted to rid himself of those troublesome issues in the capital city. How could he have expected that he would fall for Ling Zhang at first sight? And he also couldn’t help but begin to have all kinds of eager anticipations of the matters that he used to think were boring.
‘I’ve got to burn more Zhiqian (paper made to resemble money and burned as an offering to the dead) in front of grandfather’s grave,’ Yuwen Tong couldn’t help thinking.
‘I had thought that I would be single for the rest of my life, but unexpectedly, by a strange twist of fate, God sent such a beauty to the front of me.’
“Ha,” Yuwen Tong chuckled.
Ling Zhang returned to his bed and had been trying to prevent himself from drifting into deep sleep, for fear that he might not be able to wake up in time when Yuwen Tong’s guard came to deliver a message, but it turned out that nobody living in the Green Bamboo Mansion had come, and he slept the whole night.
The moment dawn broke, Ling Zhang, bursting with impatience, hurried to the Green Bamboo Mansion.
“Is there still no news from Yao Yi?”
“No.”
Yuwen Tong flicked a glance at him. Seeing that he had changed out of the clothes he wore the night before that had made him an attractive sight, Yuwen Tong felt somewhat regretful.
‘No news means that everything is going as expected. Yao Yi has successfully led those men into the den of those bandits!’ Ling Zhang thought.
“They should have found everything they need by now. All we have to do is wait for them to get out of the Grand Mang Mountain. It won’t be long before Zhang Chong finds out about this. What’s coming next is a real, tough battle,” remarked Yuwen Tong.
Ling Zhang sat down. “I’m not afraid. I’ve been waiting for this day to come for a very long time.”
‘As long as there’s a chance to eliminate Zhang Chong, any risk is well worth taking!’ Ling Zhang thought.
“Young Master, Young Master! Comman–Commander Zhang of Prefecture Guards and Lor–Lord Tao suddenly came here together!”
All of a sudden, a servant’s anxious and flustered voice came from the courtyard next door. Unaware that Ling Zhang was in the Green Bamboo Mansion, the servant had gone directly to Ling Zhang’s place.
“What happened? Why did Commander Zhang and Lord Tao suddenly come here?” Xia Feng’s voice was heard.
“I have no idea. But Commander Zhang and Lord Tao brought a lot of people here. Second Master has been informed and already gone there!” replied the servant.
Ling Zhang exchanged glances with Yuwen Tong and immediately stood up. “I’ll go and see.”
But Yuwen Tong said, “I’m going with you.”
“You…” A possibility suddenly struck Ling Zhang. “Are you saying that the news might have spread here?”
Yuwen Tong nodded. “Let’s go there together and check.”
“All right!”
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