“Then it’s settled,” Ling Zhang smiled.
It was natural that the general storekeeper had agreed, since Ling Zhang was not only the owner of the herb farm that had been in business cooperation with the Jiang’s Drugstore Chain for years, but also had Yuwen Tong at his back. The general storekeeper would never say no to an opportunity of having their acquaintance develop further, as long as he still had his senses.
…
After enjoying tea and the beauty of the sea of flowers with the general storekeeper of the Jing’s Drugstore Chain at the teahouse in the herbal garden, Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong decided to return.
Ling Zhang rose to his feet and looked around, an awkward expression on his face. Since he had drunk a lot of tea, he needed to go to a privy to answer the call of nature.
Fortunately, the waiter of the teahouse was very observant. Since this was a teahouse, the occasion when a customer needed to use a privy was a frequent occurrence here.
Ling Zhang said to Yuwen Tong in embarrassment, “I’ll be back soon.”
Yuwen Tong gave a smile. “Just go.”
They had been here for several hours, but this was the first time that the general storekeeper of the Jing’s Drugstore Chain had seen Yuwen Tong’s face soften and have a smile on it, which made him even more surprised. ‘Yuwen Tong and Ling Zhang really have feelings for each other. Does this mean that I did the right thing by making a decision to cultivate a closer relationship with Ling Zhang?’
Thinking about this, the general storekeeper couldn’t help but get excited, but he didn’t show any signs of it on his face.
Ling Zhang, led by the waiter, went downstairs. Liu Yi followed in their wake.
The privy was not far away from the teahouse. It was clean and the surroundings were pleasantly quiet.
Ling Zhang walked inside and Liu Yi waited at the doorway.
There were lanterns still ablaze in the teahouse ahead and a babble of voices was emanating from it, making it even more uproarious than many nightclubs in a city.
Liu Yi took a few glances at the place and then lowered his eyes, calmly waiting for Ling Zhang to come out, but right at this moment, some faint, unusual sounds were heard. He abruptly opened his eyes and the sound of something swishing towards him through the air came from behind!
Liu Yi hurriedly sidestepped. A steel saber brushed downwards past him. Had he sidestepped a single instant later, he would have died to the saber.
“Who is it?!” Liu Yi whipped out his sword fastened to his belt, quickly turned around and swung it at the assailant.
The assailant, who was in a black night suit and a white mask leaving only his eyes showing, dodged the blow just as quick.
After his first strike missed the target, Liu Yi came at the attacker and launched another attack. The moment he engaged the opponent, his brow corrugated. ‘This guy’s no common kung fu practitioner!’
To make things worse, another assassin in black jumped out of the dark and hurtled towards the privy.
Liu Yi hurriedly went to the doorway of the privy, blocked the path of the two assassins and fought them.
There was nobody else around, and the teahouse ahead was all astir. If he waited for anybody to notice this fight and come to his help, it might be too late.
The expression on Liu Yi’s face changed and with that, as if his wrist grew more flexible, his sword moves switched to another style. His swordsmanship, which had been merely average so far, instantly became swift and fierce. Caught off guard, the two men in black were fought off.
At the same time, he raised his left hand, put two fingers into his mouth and with that a shrill whistle of alert issued from his lips.
Seeing this, one of the two men in black immediately launched a more ferocious attack with an attempt to kill Liu Yi. Meanwhile, the other one tried to get into the privy sparing no efforts!
At this moment, Ling Zhang in the privy heard the sound of fighting, quickly finished, hurriedly put on his pants and intended to rush out to help.
Hearing the footsteps, Liu Yi hastily yelled, “Stay inside, Young Master! There are two assassins here. I can only hold them back. Wait for the Marshal to come!”
Ling Zhang’s brows were furrowed. ‘Two assassins? Am I the target?’
Not having the time to think it through, he hurriedly looked around, walked to the exit and vigilantly watched, guarding against the possibility of extra assassins showing up.
“Step aside or meet your end.” Unable to overpower Liu Yi any time soon, the assassin wearing a night suit and a white mask threatened him.
Liu Yi sneered, “Bring it on if you are really capable of that!”
He held his ground at the entrance and his sword strikes became quicker and more powerful. The two opponents couldn’t even get a single pace closer to the privy!
In the teahouse, Yuwen Tong, who had grown somewhat restless shortly after Ling Zhang left, was just about to rise to his feet and leave when suddenly a shrill whistle was heard. His face changed drastically.
“It’s Liu Yi!” Yao Yi’s face also changed.
“Let’s go!” instructed Yuwen Tong. He directly leaped down from a relatively spacious area of the second floor, landed on the ground and swished in the direction of the source of the whistle.
Yao Yi hotly followed in his wake.
Countenance of the general storekeeper of the Jing’s Drugstore Chain also changed. In the realization that Ling Zhang must have been in some kind of danger, he immediately had a waiter of the teahouse inform the owner of the herbal garden telling him to take some men to the outhouse.
Yuwen Tong was the first one to arrive at the scene. As he saw that Liu Yi was struggling against two men in black and Ling Zhang was standing behind Liu Yi in anxiety, his face instantly went cold. In mid-air, he raised his hand and aimed a palm strike at one of the two men.
The heavy blow hit the target, who involuntarily spewed out a mouthful of blood with a puff and yelled, “Retreat!”
The two men quickly got clean away. Clearly, their lightness skills were excellent.
“You want to escape?!” Seeing this, Yao Yi, who had just arrived, immediately pursued them and soon disappeared as well.
Yuwen Tong landed on the ground and walked up.
Liu Yi sheathed his sword and made way for Yuwen Tong.
Ling Zhang walked out of the privy and asked with a sullen expression on his face. “Elder Brother Liu, are you hurt?”
Liu Yi shook his head. “I’m okay. It’s just that my Qi is churning inside me. It’ll be fine after a few moments’ Qi circulation.”
Ling Zhang was relieved. “I’m glad to hear that. If it weren’t for Elder Brother Liu, I would probably have died to the sabers of the two men.”
Ling Zhang had been observing the fight all along. Sabersmanship of the two men in black were pretty good, and they also possessed internal energy. If it weren’t for the fact that Liu Yi had suddenly switched to some kind of powerful swordsmanship he had never seen before, he might not have successfully held back the two attackers.
Ling Zhang believed that Liu Yi probably had learned this swordsmanship from that kung fu expert he had once mentioned. On that day, Liu Yi told him that it was inconvenient for him to perform this swordsmanship in front of outsiders.
But on this day, in order to save him, Liu Yi used this swordsmanship, which was a clear indication of his allegiance to him. Ling Zhang was very grateful.
At this time, Yuwen Tong walked to the front of Ling Zhang, sized him up, felt his pulse and heaved a sigh of relief in the knowledge that Ling Zhang was indeed unharmed.
Ling Zhang had been out of his sight for only a short while, yet these people had taken advantage of it and attempted to assassinate him!
Yuwen Tong was consumed with anger at the thought of this, his face sullen.
Naturally, Ling Zhang, whose wrist was held tight by Yuwen Tong, felt his anger. “I’m okay. Let’s get out of here first.”
Yuwen Tong inclined his head and looked at Liu Yi.
Liu Yi immediately informed him, “It was shortly after young master went inside that the two men showed up. At that time, there was nobody else around here. They must have been stalking us for quite some time and decided to assassinate young master with a surprise attack when he was alone. Both assailants were wearing black night suits and white masks. The sabers they used were common steel sabers and there was nothing special about them, not that I could tell, but their sabersmanship gave me this feeling that they were not common Jianghu (the martial arts world) kung fu practitioners. On top of this, the way they cooperated with each other in attack and defense was pretty efficient, which is something that could only be acquired through years’ training.”
Eyes as icy as snow water, Yuwen Tong inquired, “Did they make you feel that they had a military background?”
Liu Yi was stunned. After hesitating for a few moments, he replied, “Sort of, but the feeling they gave me was different from the one given by you and your bodyguards. They didn’t have any smell of blood about them, and their moves were more defensive than offensive, too.”
Having trouble finding the right words to give an accurate description of that feeling, Liu Yi appeared somewhat anxious.
Yuwen Tong raised his hand and gestured him to calm down. “I’ve got a shrewd idea of their identity.”
“Really? Who are they?” queried Ling Zhang.
Yuwen Tong responded, “Think about it –who will try to kill you in these circumstances?”
Ling Zhang thought for a while and then replied, “Surely they are not Zhang Chong’s surviving minions?”
Since the attackers seemed to have a military background, the only foe he could think of was Zhang Chong. Although Zhang Chong was dead and most of his henchmen had also been eliminated, it was possible that some of them had escaped unpunished.
Yuwen Tong shook his head. “No. Zhang Chong is dead. His subordinates are not really that loyal to him. Even if there are any of them who managed to escape, they would stay hidden instead of exposing themselves to life-threatening danger of their own accord. To say the least, even if those people wanted to take revenge, they would have tried to kill me first, because, after all, I was the one Zhang Chong hated the most.”
Ling Zhang was confused. ‘Whom could they be if they are not Zhang Chong’s men?’
At this time, Liu Yi interposed, “It was unmistakable that the two men were targeting young master. Even their intention of killing me was not very strong.”
‘I was their only target?’ Ling Zhang’s eyebrows were furrowed.
‘The possibility of them being Zhang Chong’s men has been excluded, but surely they were not sent by Jia family?’
“Jia Zhong had managed to hire that old man good at disguise. Is it possible that some other forces are trying to avenge his death?”
“It is crystal clear that that old man is a mere Jianghu kung fu practitioner,” replied Yuwen Tong.
Ling Zhang really couldn’t think of who else could have hired the two attackers.
Yuwen Tong let out a sigh. Ling Zhang had failed to guess the answer. He didn’t know whether he should feel relieved or worried.
At this time, the two of them arrived at the teahouse and happened to see that the general storekeeper of the Jing’s Drugstore Chain, along with the owner of the herbal garden, followed by a lot of security guards, were heading in their direction. Both sides were surprised to see each other.
“Childe Ling, are you okay?” the general storekeeper hurriedly asked.
Ling Zhang replied, “Thank you for asking. I’m okay.”
“Exactly what happened out there?” The owner of the herbal garden was somewhat perplexed.
“Two assassins suddenly showed up. They have escaped,” responded Ling Zhang.
Since he and Yuwen Tong had come to this place on a whim, he believed that the owner of the herbal garden was not the mastermind who had been plotting against him behind the scenes. After all, there had never been hatred between them.
‘That’s right. I came to this herbal garden on a whim, which meant it must be in the courier station that the two assassins came to know Yuwen Tong and I left for this place.’
Ling Zhang quickly looked at Yuwen Tong. In the knowledge that Ling Zhang had thought of something, Yuwen Tong gave a bob of his head, a grave look on his face.
Ling Zhang’s face immediately went cold. None of those working in the courier station harbored any resentment towards him, so it was more likely that someone among the group was responsible for this.
All his own men were trustworthy, and Yuwen Tong’s men more so, which meant that the only possibility was…
‘Is there anybody else who wants me dead apart from Zhang Chong and people of Jia family?
Those who don’t want me marrying Yuwen Tong and wish me dead are just like those who added to the misfortunes of my family in my last life!
Who on earth is this person? The emperor?
Both Zhang Xi and those palace guards work for the emperor.
But it doesn’t make any sense. This attack was too suspicion-prone an approach to have been ordered by the emperor, because Yuwen Tong would have instantly regarded him as the most possible culprit. Under current circumstances, directly falling out with Yuwen Tong will undoubtedly be detrimental to his reign, so it couldn’t be him who has done this.
Then who is this person?
Palace guards, Zhang Xi… Of course it’s also possible that I got this wrong…’
Ling Zhang exhaled deeply, hoping that Yao Yi could catch up with the two men, so that he wouldn’t have to rack his brains guessing any longer.
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