“Why did you make those remarks just now?” inquired Ling Zhang in the horse-drawn carriage.
Yuwen Tong replied, “Shan Congwen is not really a fool, and neither is anybody in the imperial court of the Wan Kingdom. The ruler of any country is wary of subordinates whose personal prestige threatens to exceed his or hers. Of course those people of the Wan Kingdom knew that a proposal to contract an alliance by marriage would one way or another be rejected by the emperor. They made it anyway only to drive a wedge between me and the emperor, deepening the emperor’s wariness of me. There’s no doubt they will make a further move. I cannot let them seize the initiative and reduce me to a passive position.
Besides, given that the Wan Kingdom specially waited until I returned to the capital city to make the proposal, they’re definitely confident that they can make trouble for me with their next move. I’ll upset their plan first and then find out exactly what it is that they’re up to.”
Ling Zhang inclined his head. Although those remarks that Yuwen Tong had just made in the palace sounded arrogant and domineering, they had kept envoys of the Wan Kingdom from saying whatever it was that they’d planned to say next. If the Wan Kingdom had still insisted on having their princess marry into the Great Yue after Yuwen Tong put it that way, it would be a reproach to not only Shan Congwen but also the whole Wan Kingdom. It was just that the intention of the Wan Kingdom was still unknown.
Seeing the two of them return to the Ling Mansion, Wang Dashan and others, who had been in deep concern because this was the first time that Ling Zhang had visited the imperial palace, heaved a sigh of relief.
“Young Master, how’s everything going at the banquet in the imperial palace?” Li Sicai walked over and took the cape Ling Zhang had just unfastened.
Li Sicai had been designated butler in this residence after arriving in the capital city with Ling Zhang. Xia Feng and Wang Qing were assistant butlers. Li Sicai had been teaching Xia Feng on the journey to this city all along in the knowledge that Ling Zhang thought much of and also had high expectations of Xia Feng. Though he was the chief butler now, he had given Xia Feng a free hand in many affairs in the residence and had also been offering him directions. As regards Wang Qing, he knew very well why he had been assigned to the capital city. He just offered some assistance and never interfered in these things.
“Not bad.”
At the banquet in the imperial palace this night, Ling Zhang had matched those officials of different ranks to the names and information he had been told. Thanks to Yuwen Tong, he had witnessed several interesting occurrences this night, which had helped him come to a preliminary understanding of the situation in the capital city.
“Did you meet those people of Yuwen family?” Li Sicai inquired of him in a low voice.
Ling Zhang gave a bob of his head and noticed that Yuwen Tong, Yao Yi and a couple of others, though looking in other directions, actually had pricked up their ears. He inwardly gave a cold snort and then gave Li Sicai and others a sketchy account of his confrontation with Yuwen Zhi at the banquet. Then he exhorted them, “Today I thoroughly offended Yuwen Zhi, so there will no doubt be some trouble in the future. You have to be careful. If anybody of Yuwen family comes here to make trouble, you don’t have to be forbearing or conciliatory, but you do need to have a sense of propriety. Don’t let them get anything on you.”
Li Sicai and others nodded, their faces solemn.
In fact, before coming to the capital city, they had also predicted that people of Yuwen family, which was a noble family of high social status, might look down upon their young master, but because of Yuwen Tong, they had been very well disposed towards other members of Yuwen family, believing that even if they thought little of their young master, they wouldn’t stoop to such ungrateful things, but now it came to their knowledge that they had been mistaken, that Marshal Yuwen’s uncle and his family didn’t welcome their young master. For Li Sicai and others, their young master’s origin was indeed not as noble as that of people of Yuwen family, but he was the best master in their eyes, and they wouldn’t let anybody bully him.
“You may rest assured that we will never let those people bully anybody in this place, Young Master.” Wang Dashan patted himself on the chest. All security guards behind him threw out their chests and patted them, promising that they would never allow people of Yuwen family to bully their young master.
Yuwen Tong, who had been listening with his ears pricked up all along, was speechless.
Yao Yi and others, having mixed feelings, looked at their marshal. In their eyes, there were sympathy, reproach and also anxiety… Anyway there were many different meanings contained in that look, which they didn’t know whether their Marshal would be able to understand or not.
…
Shortly before bedtime, Ling Zhang washed, changed clothes and planned to go to bed. Outside, Yuwen Tong wanted to enter but Li Sicai standing at the doorway stopped him.
“Marshal, our young master is going to bed. It’s pretty late. If your business is not urgent, please wait until tomorrow.”
Yuwen Tong was speechless.
‘What a moron. Isn’t it obvious enough that the reason why I’m here at this late hour is because I want to sleep with Ling Zhang? We have finally left Tanyang, and there are no other eyes watching us here, and I have good reason to spend the night in the Ling Mansion. This guy expects me to give up this opportunity of sleeping with my wife and go back to sleep in a cold bed alone? I’m no fool,’ Yuwen Tong thought.
However, Li Sicai looked Yuwen Tong in the eyes and didn’t move an inch, standing solidly at the doorway.
“I have an urgent business to consult with him.” Yuwen Tong had no choice but to make a decent excuse.
Li Sicai asked respectfully and politely, “Must it be handled tonight?”
Beneath Li Sicai’s gaze full of sincerity and trust, Yuwen Tong found it difficult to keep lying. After a few moments, he replied, “Not really.”
“Then please wait until tomorrow morning.” Li Sicai’s voice was still respectful and courteous.
After hearing the conversation, Ling Zhang inside the room had already guessed Yuwen Tong’s intention. He directly sat down, waiting to see whether Yuwen Tong would be able to get over this hurdle of Li Sicai.
At this time, Yuwen Tong outside the room also came to realize what was going on. During the day nobody had tried to stop him from getting into this room, but now at night, Li Sicai refused to let him in. Obviously, after Yuwen Zhi and Yuwen Qi deliberately picked on Ling Zhang at the banquet earlier this night, these servants of Ling family had grown more protective of their young master, and Li Sicai was doing this to remind him of it. ‘No wonder Old Master Ling assigned Li Sicai to come here with Ling Zhang. This guy’s far smarter than Xia Feng,’ Yuwen Tong pondered.
“Okay, you made your point. I’ll figure out a way to have my troublesome uncle and his family change their attitudes, and before it’s done, I won’t take your young master to the residence of Yuwen family where he might be subjected to unkind treatment. It’s just that you shouldn’t underestimate your young master. I don’t think there are any circumstances in which my uncle can get the best of him.”
Li Sicai smiled, “That’s very reassuring, Marshal. Although we don’t have the numbers, we’ll never let our young master be wronged by anybody.”
Finally, Li Sicai made way for him. On entering the room, Yuwen Tong saw that Ling Zhang sitting in a chair was leisurely watching him. Clearly he had been listening to his conversation with Li Sicai all along.
“Why did you come to my place at this late hour of the night instead of sleeping?” Ling Zhang cocked an inquisitive eyebrow at him.
As if he were doing this as a matter of course, Yuwen Tong replied, “That’s the very thing I came here to do –sleep.”
Ling Zhang lightly gave a sneer, “This is my house.”
Yuwen Tong walked up to him, drew him to his feet, held him and said, “Your house is my house. Everybody knows about our relationship now. Is it really necessary to make it clear what’s yours, what’s mine?”
Both the warm embrace and the faint fragrance were familiar. Ling Zhang, who was very sleepy, couldn’t help but relax completely in Yuwen Tong’s arms, like a weary bird in its nest that it returned to after a long journey. He felt so comfortable that he involuntarily heaved a sigh. “You’re so shameless.”
‘How could face compare to sleeping with my wife in my arms?’ Yuwen Tong, who had very keen senses, heard distinctly Ling Zhang’s soft sigh of comfort and couldn’t help holding him tighter. In a lowed voice, he remarked, “You mean much more to me than face does. Are you sleepy?”
Ling Zhang lightly uttered “Um”. The ends of Yuwen Tong’s hair were tickling the tip of his nose, and he subconsciously rubbed his face against Yuwen Tong’s neck.
The rub quickened Yuwen Tong’s breathing and also brought a change of look to his eyes. With that, he scooped up Ling Zhang and soon the two of them were in bed.
Yuwen Tong lowered his head and gave him a kiss. Ling Zhang, whose eyes were almost closed, opened them after being kissed. With an admonitory expression on his face, he looked at Yuwen Tong and said, “Don’t do that again. Sleep.”
“I’ll sleep after I have my share of kiss.”
After saying this, Yuwen Tong gave him another kiss, which lasted quite a long time.
The feeling of lips and tongues rubbing together was indeed intoxicating. Originally Ling Zhang had wanted to push him aside, but spontaneously, he put his arms around Yuwen Tong’s neck.
“Whh–” Suddenly, a thin soft cry came from beside their ears.
Ling Zhang instantly sobered, pushed Yuwen Tong aside, looked at the inner side of the bed and saw a ball of snow-white fur wriggle its way out of the quilt. It twisted its fluffy head around and curiously stared at him and Yuwen Tong with its sparkling black eyes.
The two of them fell speechless.
They had forgotten about this white fox cub. Seeing the pure look in the fox cub’s eyes, Ling Zhang felt as if he and Yuwen Tong were setting a bad example for a child. He immediately withdrew his hands and gave Yuwen Tong a dirty look. “Get out of my way. Now.”
Yuwen Tong had inwardly cursed the white fox cub numerous times. ‘If it weren’t for this white fox cub, I would be able to kiss him a while longer and maybe I would even get to kiss some other parts of him. This guy’s definitely a Fox Demon.’ With a sullen face, he lifted the white fox cub, got out of bed and walked towards the door.
Ling Zhang also hastily got out of bed and followed him. “What are you doing?!”
Yuwen Tong replied, “Finding it someone else to sleep with!”
In his hand, the white fox cub cried waving its legs around frantically in an attempt to grab something. It looked at Ling Zhang with a beseeching expression in its liquid black eyes, the thin soft cry from its throat making Ling Zhang’s heart ache. “Whh–Whh–”
Ling Zhang, who didn’t have the heart to let Yuwen Tong take it away, caught up with him like the wind and snatched the white fox cub from Yuwen Tong’s hand. “If Whitie is to leave my room, you’ll have to leave as well.”
Yuwen Tong was speechless.
With a displeased countenance, he secretly clenched his teeth as he looked at the white fox cub which had already wormed its way into the crook of Ling Zhang’s arm curling with its head against his chest.
“This white fox cub has grown a lot bigger now. You’ve got to stop letting it sleep in your arms every day. A child will never grow up if parents refuse to wean them. In border areas, eagles always push their young out of the nests to let them learn to fly. It’s time this little white fox learned to be independent of you.”
Yuwen Tong poignantly made these remarks, feeling that Ling Zhang was pampering this white fox cub like his own child, which, of course, he disapproved of.
Ling Zhang briefly paused and then replied in a disbelieving tone of voice, “Those are eagles. Whitie is a fox. You are not comparing like with like.”
“In this regard it’s the very same case. You’re spoiling it. If you don’t stop this and it ends up becoming a fox that is unduly dependent on you and cannot live on its own, you’ll be the one to blame,” observed Yuwen Tong seriously.
Ling Zhang wondered in uncertainty, ‘Is that really the case?’ Watching the little fox in the crook of his arm, he really didn’t have the heart to let it go.
“Even if you don’t like the idea of it sleeping with someone else, you’ve got to let it sleep alone,” added Yuwen Tong hurriedly as he saw that Ling Zhang seemed to have been swayed somewhat. Ling Zhang would definitely disagree with having the fox cub sleep in another room, but he might find it acceptable to let it sleep in its own box.
“Well, okay,” Ling Zhang inclined his head reluctantly.
The box of the fox cub, which had been expanded considerably, was soft, warm and very comfortable.
After a few moments’ thinking, Ling Zhang put the white fox cub into the box and exhorted, “Sleep in your den. Don’t take the liberty of climbing onto my bed again.”
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