“Are you sure you still don’t want to tell me?” Yuwen Feng looked flintily at Yuwen Qi, the expression in his eyes heavy with apathy.
Yuwen Qi let out two guffaws of unbridled arrogance. “I am. What are you going to do about it, my loving big brother? Kill me? Then do it!”
“Yuwen Qi, you’re literally incorrigible,” observed Yuwen Feng.
“I’m incorrigible? How noble do you think you are, Marquess? Yeah, you’re Yuwen Tong’s bitch now, and he’d made you a marquess. With this fancy, awe-inspiring title, you think you’re better than me now, don’t you? You’ve been like this since childhood. Whenever you look at me, your eyes seem to be saying I’m something filthy and repulsive! You didn’t do anything when Yuwen Tong forced our mother to take her own life, and neither did you do anything when he forced our father to break my legs. You’re no brother to me. The way I see it, it’s Yuwen Tong who’s your blood brother!” reprimanded Yuwen Qi.
Yuwen Feng was consumed with fury, veins throbbing horribly on his forehead, his eyebrows flickering uncontrollably. It was true that he had been disgruntled at Yuwen Qi all along, but that was merely because he felt that his little brother had become arrogant, willful and domineering owing to the indulgence his mother had shown to him, and he had been stern to his little brother only because he wanted him to be a better person.
“Fine. Fine,” muttered Yuwen Feng, his vision going dark intermittently. A skinny pallid-faced man, he was on the verge of passing out from rage. “Since you no longer see me as your big brother, I have no intention to prolong this conversation. If you want to live to see another day, tell me the cause of the two guards’ deaths!”
“Faugh!” Yuwen Qi spat at Yuwen Feng, his saliva staining Yuwen Feng’s robe. “Why should I tell you that? So that you could tattle on me to Yuwen Tong, huh? Let me tell you something, Yuwen Feng. You’d better release me as soon as possible and let me see our old man. Otherwise there will be consequences!”
“You’re really not going to tell me?” persisted Yuwen Feng through gritted teeth, eyeing Yuwen Qi coldly, a mixture of extreme anger and disappointment on his face.
“I’m not! Let me go!” snarled Yuwen Qi.
A dark look in his eyes, Yuwen Feng stared at him for quite a while before he instructed aloud, “Guards! Take Second Young Master away and interrogate him. Do not let him out until he makes a confession!”
“Yes!” Two guards wearing armor immediately walked inside, making towards Yuwen Qi with wary eyes, their faces sepulchral.
Two guards had died earlier this day because of Yuwen Qi, and so far nobody had been able to identify the cause of their deaths, so these two guards naturally harbored grudges against Yuwen Qi and wouldn’t be nice to him.
“Don’t you dare, you flunkeys! I’ll kill you where you stand if you dare lay a finger on me!” spat Yuwen Qi.
The two guards paused and looked over their shoulders at Yuwen Feng.
With a cold, sulky face, Yuwen Feng said, “Take him. Be careful not to get hurt by him.”
The two deceased guards had been either stabbed or slit by Yuwen Qi before they died. Both of them had wounds on their bodies. Although the wounds bore no signs of poisoning, there was no doubt that the cause of their deaths had something to do with their injuries. Otherwise Yuwen Qi wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of wounding the two guards.
Both these two guards were among those who’d examined their companions’ bodies. After hearing Yuwen Feng’s words, they resumed closing in on Yuwen Qi.
Yuwen Qi’s face slightly changed. “Stop, both of you! Are you really so anxious to die?!”
The two guards disregarded Yuwen Qi’s yells. They just kept a weather eye on Yuwen Qi in case he suddenly drew a knife or something pointy on them. Each of them was holding a club.
Angry as Yuwen Qi was, he was a cripple and there was not much he could do to resist. Soon the two guards overpowered him.
“Take him away. Make sure he’s securely bound,” ordered Yuwen Feng.
“Yes!” chorused the guards. Nothing had happened to them after they restrained Yuwen Qi, which showed that Yuwen Qi did have to wound people first before he could kill them. The two guards both felt relieved, gagged Yuwen Qi who was bellowing furiously and escorted him out of the house, bringing him elsewhere to be interrogated.
After Yuwen Qi was taken away, Yuwen Feng glanced around Yuwen Qi’s chambers and then summoned some servants to conduct a search. The servants combed the chambers but didn’t find anything suspicious. Yuwen Feng knitted his eyebrows and personally scoured the chambers but still couldn’t find anything. His face darkened further.
This meant that Yuwen Qi was still carrying with him whatever it was that had caused the deaths of the guards.
“Tell them to search Yuwen Qi and see if he’s carrying anything with him. Remind them to be careful,” instructed Yuwen Feng after leaving Yuwen Qi’s courtyard house. “And there’s another thing. I want all those who’s contacted Yuwen Qi recently found and interrogated one by one.”
“Yes, Your Lordship!”
…
Intelligence about the events in Yuwen Feng’s residence was immediately delivered back to the imperial palace.
Both Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong were kept posted about what had happened in Yuwen Feng’s abode.
“The truth should be revealed soon. Tell them to keep closer watch over that house lest they overlook anything,” said Yuwen Tong.
“Yes, Sire,” answered Miao Shiba.
After Miao Shiba took his leave, Ling Zhang said, “Yuwen Qi had been under house arrest for so long before he suddenly took action. Do you think it’s possible that he got that weird deadly thing only recently?”
Yuwen Tong inclined his head. “Probably. On top of that, the one who provided him with that thing should be still in their residence.”
Ling Zhang was startled. “Who do you think it is? Is it Yuwen Zhi’s subordinate? But your men have been staking out that place ever since Yuwen Zhi was brought back. If anybody suspicious moved into their abode, you should’ve been informed of it.”
Yuwen Tong replied, “The one hidden in the dark definitely has some underhand methods of covering his tracks. Otherwise Yuwen Qi wouldn’t have got something that peculiar from that person. Still, given what Yuwen Feng has just done, that person would probably do something, and when he does, he might accidentally leave some tracks behind. I told Miao Shiba and the others to keep close watch on that place because I wanted them to find out who’s been hiding there.”
Ling Zhang remarked, “What a nuisance.”
Yuwen Tong raised his hand to knead Ling Zhang’s neck. “I’ll handle it. You may go and do what you need to do.”
Ling Zhang shook his head. “I’m going to face this with you, no matter how troublesome it is. I want this to be over as soon as possible. Right now it’s Yuwen Feng that I’m worried about. After all, Yuwen Zhi is his father, and Yuwen Qi his brother. Things between you two will never be the same after the deaths of the two of them. He’s the only one you’re close to in your family.”
Yuwen Tong smiled, “I’ve got over this some time ago. There are indeed circumstances in which kinship doesn’t mean anything.”
Although Ling Zhang had been through a lot of hardships and misfortunes, familial love was never absent from his life. After his father had left home, his grandfather and his uncle had both been very loving and protective to him, and the bonding between his family members had perfectly exemplified the saying, ‘Blood is thicker than water.’ His grandfather, Ji Yin, whom he had found afterwards, had also been treating him as though they’d never been separated. As a result, Ling Zhang had a very firm belief in familial bonding that not all outsiders could understand. The very reason why he had forgiven Yuwen Zhi and Yuwen Qi again and again had been because he didn’t want Yuwen Tong to lose the last few family members he had left. Yuwen Tong’s grandfather had died on the battlefield, and his parents had died in succession as well. Also, he had no siblings. Every time Ling Zhang compared himself with Yuwen Tong, he couldn’t help but feel that fate was being too cruel to Yuwen Tong. Therefore, he had once considered letting go of his resentment towards the Yuwen family, thinking that as long as Yuwen Zhi, Zheng shi and Yuwen Qi were willing to turn over a new leaf, he would be more forgiving of their deeds. However, now things had still come to this, which made Ling Zhang feel rather upset.
Yuwen Tong, who knew him well, naturally was fully aware of what he was thinking about. He gave it some thought and then said, “Yuwen Zhi and I were never really close. He had a grudge against my grandfather and was disgruntled at my father, too. They always seemed very distant in their dealings with each other. In fact, though they were living in the same residence and bore the same surname, most of the time they were like strangers to each other. In addition, it was mostly my grandfather who brought me up, and I used to live in the borderland all the year around. Afterward, my grandfather and my parents passed away one after another, and I was in the borderland alone, but my uncle barely showed me any affection. It was not until I got promoted for my wartime exploits and wielded great power in the military that the two of us were sort of back on speaking terms, but even so, we were constantly at odds with each other. At first I tried to reason with him, but afterward I found that he was very opinionated and didn’t care what other people thought at all. Every time I returned to this city, we had parted in discord. We’ve long since stopped seeing each other as family. If it weren’t for the fact that my father had told me to take good care of them on his deathbed, and some members of the Yuwen family had to stay in the capital city, I would have disowned them some time ago. Before things came to be the way they are today, I gave them several chances, but they disappointed me again and again. Now I’m done with giving second chances.
As regards Yuwen Feng, it all depends on what attitude he’ll take. If he really couldn’t come around, we’ll have no choice but to let him be.”
Ling Zhang exhaled deeply and replied, “You have a point. Nothing forcibly done is going to be agreeable.”
What was the point of begging familial affection from kinsmen like them? If Yuwen Tong had no family members left, he would be Yuwen Tong’s family, and he would be by Yuwen Tong’s side for the rest of his life. Besides, Yuwen Tong still had his granduncle’s branch of the family. It was not like the Yuwen family really had nobody else left. In fact, Yuwen You was a close relative of Yuwen Tong’s. Come to think of it, the Yuwen family was still a large family. Yuwen Chi’s two sons were both married and had children. Currently, there were quite some young kids in the Abode of the Marquess Fuan (AKA the Marquess of Fortune and Peace). Yuwen Si’s eldest son had also got married, and his wife was pregnant as well, and the expected date of confinement was drawing near. Apart from them, there was also Yuwen Jin… There was no telling how much larger the Yuwen family would be in a couple of decades.
As these ideas crossed Ling Zhang’s mind, the look in his eyes became somewhat contemplative.
He thought of himself and Yuwen Tong. It was true that the Marquess Fuan had a growing family, but what about him and Yuwen Tong?
Their wedding was very close. The reason why neither he himself nor anybody else had brought up that issue was because they didn’t have the time, and the others also didn’t have the guts to mention it. But after some time, things might change. It was time to start considering how to tackle this problem.
…
In Yuwen Feng’s residence.
Yuwen Qi had been taken to an interrogation room to be interrogated. The guards had searched Yuwen Qi on Yuwen Feng’s orders and eventually found a bizarre round silver perfume container. This kind of things were typically carried by women. Why was Yuwen Qi carrying something like this with him?
On top of that, the moment Yuwen Qi saw the guard take that perfume container away from him, he went berserk and railed, “Give it back to me! You cheap flunkeys!”
It struck the guard that the container was suspicious, so he immediately went to report it to Yuwen Feng.
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