The white fox cub became the star of the group. Not only Ling Zhang but also everybody else came to regard the white fox cub with special esteem, feeling that this was unmistakably a highly intelligent creature!
Nobody dared to trifle with the white fox cub, neither food-wise nor accommodation-wise. All of them were trying their level best to make sure that the white fox cub enjoyed its life to the full.
Yuwen Tong had also no longer felt the white fox cub an eyesore, which had been a rare change of attitude, considering what kind of man he was. ‘It turns out that this little guy could be rather useful at a crucial moment.’
…
“Your Lordship, we lost contact with our men in the Wu City!”
“How did this happen?!”
In the residence of the Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Works, Peng Fang’s face changed drastically with alarm when he was informed that they had lost contact with those dispatched to the Wu City.
“I’m afraid something bad happened. So far, there has been no news about Ling Zhang being poisoned from the Wu City. Your Lordship, what should we do?!”
“This can’t be happening. Our approach was of extreme covertness. How was it possible that Ling Zhang managed to detect the colorless and odorless poison?!” Peng Fang didn’t believe that his plan had failed.
“But, Your Lordship, there has indeed been no news about Ling Zhang being poisoned from the Wu City so far. We need to think of another plan immediately!”
Ling Zhang had not been poisoned, and they had lost contact with the men dispatched there. Under these circumstances, the only plausible explanation was that their doings had been exposed!
After anxiously pacing up and down for a few moments, Peng Fang instructed, “Go and inform the Third Prince of this right now. Beseech him to figure out a way.”
His subordinate hesitatingly swallowed back the words on the tip of his tongue. Seeing this, Peng Fang stared at him and queried, “What do you want to say?”
“Your Lordship, we gave the Third Prince a written guarantee promising him that we would get this job done. Now it was botched up. I’m afraid the Third Prince…”
With a sullen look on his face, Peng Fang no longer insisted on asking the Third Prince for help. After thinking for quite a while, he remarked, “There are two things I need you to do. First, send someone to the Wu City to make some inquiries. I want to know exactly what happened in the Wu City. Second, I need you to…”
Peng Fang lowered his voice and whispered quite some arrangements in the ear of his subordinate, who, after hearing them, inclined his head and replied, “I’ll do it straight away.”
After his subordinate left, Peng Fang’s face abruptly fell venomous.
“Even if they’ve really found out, what could they possibly do about it? I can still get away!”
In the Wu City.
The caravan resumed their journey after a day’s rest. It was just that every one of them was much more vigilant than before.
They would reach the capital city in merely two days. Those who intended to take action would definitely make another attempt.
However…
Ling Zhang looked at the veil hat he was wearing, shifted his gaze to the white fox cub in his left arm, and then glanced at his right hand that was being held. He couldn’t help but ask, “Is it really necessary to wear this hat?”
Yuwen Tong gave a backward glance at him and, with an approving look in his eyes, replied, “It’s better if you keep wearing it, so that nobody will recognize you.”
“Who on earth would be able to recognize me?! Actually it surprises me why you are not wearing a hat, given that we are so close to the capital city now and there are so many people who can recognize you,” remarked Ling Zhang in indignation.
Yuwen Tong stroked the beard that he had stuck to his face. “I’ve got a beard here.”
Yuwen Tong had disguised himself as an upstart master. He was wearing not only sumptuous clothes but also quite some jewelries, and there was a thick beard stuck to his face, which was an image bearing no resemblance to his true appearance. Ling Zhang, who found him somewhat an eyesore, was fairly unwilling to walk side by side with him who insisted they stay hand in hand.
Compared with Yuwen’s disguise which was offending the eye, this hat indeed seemed to be rather more acceptable.
However, this white over garment he was wearing was made of very light material. Added to this the veil hat, it was quite difficult for people to tell whether he was a man or a woman. He had already encountered several men whose eyes had appraised his figure and stared at his veil hat.
And he was carrying a white fox cub in the crook of his arm, too. The white fox cub looking like a ball of fur was napping in the crook of his elbow, which had attracted the attention of numerous passers-by.
This was giving Ling Zhang headaches. “Are you sure this is the right way to hide our identities?”
‘Aren’t we making ourselves more obtrusive?!’ he wondered.
“Everything will be fine as long as nobody find out who we really are. Do you not want to walk around and see this place? We’ll never be rid of worry if we travel with the others,” observed Yuwen Tong. He was very satisfied with how things were going currently. There was no shadow whatsoever, just the two of them, and they could do whatever they felt like doing!
“Are you hungry? Let’s go to that tavern at the front and get something to eat first.”
Ling Zhang fell speechless with embarrassment.
‘It’s been only a short while since we departed! We haven’t even walked out of the downtown of the Wu City!’
However, Ling Zhang was still drawn into the tavern by Yuwen Tong. After entering a private room, Ling Zhang, indignant, reached out his hand to take off the veil hat.
“Yo, wait a moment, darling. You may take it off after the dishes are served. If by any chance anybody else beholds your matchless beauty, I’ll be suffering a great loss.”
Yuwen Tong grabbed Ling Zhang’s hand and stopped him.
It happened that a waiter walked in to deliver the menu. On hearing this, he couldn’t help but gaze at Ling Zhang.
“What are you looking at? Withdraw your eyes right now or see them gouged out!” Yuwen Tong said, feeling his tone possessive enough.
Beneath his ferocious gaze, the waiter hurriedly took his eyes off Ling Zhang and didn’t dare to look at him again. After respectfully taking their order, he immediately left.
However, no sooner had he walked out of the door than he uttered “Bah” and murmured that a fresh flower had been stuck in a heap of cow-dung, that the moral degeneration of the world was getting worse day by day and the God was turning a blind eye to it.
Inside the room, Yuwen Tong and Ling Zhang were sent speechless by his words.
Originally, Ling Zhang had been rather angry with Yuwen Tong after being addressed as “darling”, but on hearing the waiter’s words, his anger instantly dissolved. “He’s referring to you, cow-dung.”
Yuwen Tong gave a smile typical of that of a lecher, reached out his hand and pinched Ling Zhang’s chin with the veil between his fingers and Ling Zhang’s skin. “Little flower, you are such a delicate beauty.”
Face full of embarrassment, Ling Zhang abruptly slapped Yuwen Tong’s hand aside. “Don’t touch me. You look like a hooligan. Shame on you.”
He had almost forgotten that Yuwen Tong was indeed a hooligan. ‘It was so stupid of me to have agreed to come out with him bringing no attendants.’
Soon, the dishes were served. While Yuwen Tong was not paying attention, the waiter, on his way out, contemptuously and disdainfully gave Yuwen Tong a dirty look.
Seeing this, Ling Zhang sitting on the opposite side fell speechless but quite amused.
The waiter’s jaw would probably sag with shock if anybody informed him that the man he had just scorned was Yuwen Tong.
“Can I take it off now?”
Yuwen Tong inclined his head. “Go ahead.”
Ling Zhang rolled his eyes, took off the veil hat and put it aside.
Then he placed the white fox cub on his lap and said, “I’ve got to get something to eat for Whitie. We can’t let it suffer from hunger.”
Yuwen Tong flicked a glance at the white fox cub which was comfortably lying on the lap of Ling Zhang. In a somewhat envious tone of voice, he replied, “Just wait for a few moments. I’ll have the tavern-keeper get something for it later.”
In fact, there was some food prepared for the white fox cub right in the traveling bag beside Yuwen Tong, but it was solid food. Since they were not in the wild, Yuwen Tong believed that they should get some fresh food for the white fox cub.
Ling Zhang gently stroked the white fox cub and said, “Whitie, you seem to have become thinner.”
The white fox cub gave a soft, faint cry.
Yuwen Tong stared at it for a while and remarked, “I don’t think it’s thinner, not that I can tell. It’s right in the period of life when it grows the quickest. And the food we’ve been feeding to it lately is fine and nutritious. It has grown a lot.”
“Really?” Ling Zhang was very skeptical.
Yuwen Tong was reduced to an embarrassed silence.
“Let’s just eat. The dishes are getting cold.”
Ling Zhang inclined his head. It was a little early for lunch, but they wouldn’t be able to find another tavern as good as this one to enjoy this kind of high-quality food after leaving downtown area.
“Ouch!”
Suddenly, a pained cry came from outside, followed by a babble of voices.
“You damn old man. Are you blind? How dare you bump into me!”
“Why are you being so unreasonable, young man? Clearly it was you who bumped into me –an old man. You not only didn’t apologize but also are being so domineering!”
“This is such a broad road. Why didn’t you walk on the other side of it? If you answer back again, I’ll beat you to death!”
“What did you just say?! You…”
Ling Zhang put down his chopsticks, scooped up the white fox cub, walked up to the window and looked down.
In the street down below, a lot of people gathered around an old man and a youngster. The old man, who was lying on the ground propping himself up on his hands, seemed to have trouble rising to his feet. The youngster was standing there hurling abuse at the old man.
Lookers-on around them were pointing and discussing, accusing the young man of being undignified and ignorant, but none of them dared to come to the old man’s help.
The young man had a couple of attendants behind him and his attire seemed rather sumptuous as well, which indicated that he was probably a childe from some rich family in this city.
Feeling this unacceptable, Ling Zhang turned around, took a chopstick from the table, shot it downwards and hit the childe squarely on the foot with which he was about to kick the old man. The childe let out an anguished cry. “Ouch! What the hell is this?”
Ling Zhang had already accumulated some internal energy inside him, which had made his strength considerably greater than before, so that shooting chopstick had definitely been quite a heavy blow.
However, compared with that of Yuwen Tong, Ling Zhang’s strength was still not great enough. Had it been Yuwen Tong who had shot that chopstick, it would have gone straight through, if not shattered, the foot bone of the young man.
Attendants of the childe were instantly on the alert and looked around trying to find out who had attacked their master. One of them saw the chopstick on the ground and informed his companions. With that, all of them twisted their heads around to look at the tavern on the side.
Yuwen Tong had quickly put the veil hat back onto Ling Zhang’s head, feeling that that good-for-nothing, domineering playboy down there was totally unworthy of laying eyes on Ling Zhang’s looks.
Originally, Ling Zhang had had a rather cold expression on his face, but after Yuwen Tong did this, he felt somewhat resigned and stared at him.
People down below soon noticed Ling Zhang standing beside a window, who had a graceful figure and was carrying a little white fox in “her” arms. The white veil hanging from the brim of the hat was flying gently in a breeze, making “her” seem like a fairy maiden who had descended to the mortal world!
“A fairy maiden!”
“Wow, she’s so beautiful!”
Ling Zhang fell speechless.
‘What the hell has got into these people?’ he wondered.
That domineering childe was no longer angry. He leered fixedly at Ling Zhang for a while, then turned around and aimed a kick at the attendant standing behind him. “Wh–What are you standing there for? Go upstairs right now and invite the fairy maiden down here! All of you!”
The childe had conveniently shown a total disregard for Yuwen Tong who was standing beside Ling Zhang, as if he weren’t there.
Yuwen Tong’s face darkened. A sulky look appeared in his eyes.
Before long, a couple of men were thrown out of the tavern one after another, all of whom were attendants of the childe. After landing onto the ground, each of them spat out a mouthful of blood. One of them heavily bumped into the childe, leaving him half dead.
“Ouch!”
Pained cries escaped from the lips of those men non-stop.
This sudden change sent a ripple of exclamation through the crowd around the scene. Fear gleaming in their eyes, they tossed a glance at Ling Zhang and then none of them dared to stare at him any more.
The old man, who had just been raised to his feet from the ground, said to Ling Zhang, “Thank you for your help, kind lady.”
Ling Zhang: …
“Don’t mention it,” he replied after a while.
All people on the street were instantly thrown into a stunned silence. ‘That’s a man?!’
The childe who had been knocked half dead spat out a mouthful of blood and blacked out.
All lookers-on cleared off with disappointed faces. “What makes this guy think he needs a veil hat to prevent people from being attracted to him? He must be going soft in the head!”
These people were discussing while leaving and Ling Zhang heard them distinctly. The corner of his mouth involuntarily twitched with awkwardness several times.
But the old man gave no special reaction. He added, “I was mistaken. Thank you for saving me, Childe. And please forgive me for my incorrect use of form of address just now.”
“There’s no need for you to apologize for that, old gentleman. Are you hurt? Maybe you should go and see a physician,” said Ling Zhang.
“Alas. I’m a quite robust old man. I sustained no injury, but I do feel a little hungry…” While saying this, the old man looked at Ling Zhang with meaningful eyes.
Neither of them said anything in the next few moments. Eventually, Ling Zhang responded resignedly, “Please come upstairs, old gentleman.”
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