Yuwen Tong had never mentioned to Ling Zhang anything about his intention of adopting children, which was why Ling Zhang was now quite surprised, but he felt that it was indeed the best solution.
Ling Zhaowu suggested that Ling Zhang do his best to bond with the children. Ling Zhang said, “I know what you mean, Father, but it’ll take time.”
Although Yuwen Tong had had the adoption planned out, it was still too early to talk about it, given the current circumstances.
This matter could wait. After all, right now he didn’t even know how to take care of children. If Yuwen Tong really brought a baby to the palace straight away, he wouldn’t be able to give it the care it needed, so there was no hurry about it. Children were not objects, and if he was to adopt some, he must be responsible for them.
There was, in addition, another matter. Presently he was a little unaccustomed to the idea of adopting children, faintly against it, actually.
Ling Zhaowu, who knew his son well, didn’t make him start to learn parenting skills right off. He just reminded him, “Although this matter is not urgent, it won’t be long before you have to face it. Both Yuwen Feng’s and Yuwen Qian’s wives have been pregnant for several months. Their babies would be born next spring.”
People didn’t have to specially make some inquiries to get information about the situation in the Abode of the Marquess Fuan (AKA the Marquess of Fortune and Peace) or the Abode of the Marquess Huaiwen (AKA the Marquess of Moderation), so Ling Zhaowu, who was Ling Zhang’s father and had been paying attention to the activities of the various forces in the capital city, naturally was aware of what had been going on in the two families.
There was a moderate amount of time before next spring.
Ling Zhang said with an inclination of the head, “I know.”
All members of the Ling family had been privately informed of Yuwen Tong’s decision. Ling Xingzhong and Ji Yin were both very pleased with it. From the perspective of Ling Zhang, this was the best solution.
…
With Ling Zhang’s return to the Ling Mansion, he and Yuwen Tong became like two “separated” lovebirds once again. For them, each day without seeing each other felt like a year.
Every night, Yuwen Tong still went out of the palace and to the Ling Mansion, had a good night’s sleep with Ling Zhang in his arms and then returned to the palace before daybreak the next day.
As the wedding ceremony drew closer, people in the Ling Mansion were getting even busier. It was as though everybody had an endless list of things to do.
Ling Zhang, however, had got a lot of leisure. Seeing he was becoming an idler, Ling Zhaowu, who happened to be going to the drugstore to meet the leader of the Fangcun commercial fleet, shooed him out of the residence, intending to bring him to the drugstore.
The moment Ling Zhang left the Ling Mansion, Miao Shiba, Wang Dashan and some others followed him overtly, while some secret bodyguards followed in his wake covertly, forming a safety net by stealth.
If it weren’t for the fact that Ling Zhang was sitting in a horse-drawn carriage and pedestrians couldn’t see him, there would definitely have been even more guards escorting him.
The carriage reached the drugstore in the trading center located in the west of the city and then directly drove through the back gates. Ling Zhang and Ling Zhaowu entered the store and went straight upstairs.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Young Master.” Wang Qing was very excited to see Ling Zhang, for he hadn’t seen Ling Zhang for a long time.
“How’s business?” Ling Zhang asked him. Lately his father had been in charge of all the matters in this store.
Wang Qing handed the account book to him and started filling him in on the recent transactions.
After getting a general idea of it, Ling Zhang came to know how things stood, returned the account book to Wang Qing and inquired, “When will Luo Sang be arriving?”
“We agreed to meet here at Si Hour (9:00 a.m.). He should be here soon,” answered Wang Qing.
Ling Zhang said to Ling Zhaowu, “Maybe it’s best if I go and sit in the cubicle. Luo Sang’s trading fleet has dealings with the government of the Fangcun Kingdom, so it’s inconvenient for me to meet him now.”
Ling Zhaowu inclined his head. “Have Wang Qing get you some snack.”
Ling Zhang said, “That won’t be necessary. I’m not a kid any more.”
But Ling Zhaowu insisted and had Wang Qing deliver some food and drink to the cubicle. Ling Zhang accepted it resignedly. The cubicle was a small private room where people could rest. It was separated from the main part of the room by wooden boards covered with sculpted reliefs. There was a soft couch, a table and some chairs in it.
Wang Qing put the food and drink down onto the table and then took his leave. Luo Sang would soon arrive, so he went downstairs to take a look.
Ling Zhang had sat in the cubicle for only a short while when Luo Sang walked upstairs with Wang Qing. His voice was the same as it had been the last time Ling Zhang had met him. “Mr. Ling, have you made a decision about the matter we discussed a couple of days ago?”
Luo Sang wanted the Ling family’s drugstore to be his only buyer. Every year there were a lot of Fangcun commercial fleets arriving in the Great Wen, but only a limited few were as large as Luo Sang’s. Moreover, Luo Sang’s commercial fleet worked for the mayor of Wantao City and had dealings with Fangcun government. The last time Luo Sang had come, Ling Zhang had become the Marshal’s fiancée, and because of that, Luo Sang had agreed to sell all his shipments of one of the most important medicinal herbs to the Ling’s Drugstore. At that time Luo Sang hadn’t thought that the Ling family would soon become the emperor’s in-laws, which was a huge change of identity. If he didn’t take advantage of this opportunity to further his partnership with the Ling family right now, who knew whether or not he’d get another chance?
Also, Luo Sang was not the only one who saw things this way. His master, the mayor of Wantao City, was very supportive of him doing this, hoping that Wantao City would be the Ling’s Drugstore’s only supplier of herbs. Luo Sang had frankly told this to Ling Zhaowu a few days ago, but at that time Ling Zhaowu hadn’t given him a definite reply, saying he needed some time to think about it.
Luo Sang was worried that some other commercial fleet would poach the contract from him, so he came here promptly at Si Hour, the time they’d agreed on two days ago, anxious to find out about Ling Zhaowu’s decision. Theoretically, by doing this, he’d put himself at a disadvantage, but at this point in time, striking a deal with Ling Zhaowu was the most important thing for Luo Sang.
All merchants had a certain kind of sharp, innate, commercial intuition, especially Luo Sang, who only did block trade and had better access to all kinds of intelligence. Judging from the information he’d got from various sources, Luo Sang believed that if he didn’t seize this opportunity to forward his cooperation with the Ling family, he would undoubtedly regret it in the future!
“There’s no hurry, Captain Luo. Please take a seat. We have plenty of time to talk this out,” said Ling Zhaowu.
On hearing that he wanted to talk it out, Luo Sang felt there was still hope, so he sat down immediately.
Listening to the movements in the room next door, Ling Zhang in the cubicle came to know that there was a very high chance Luo Sang would almost certainly accept Ling Zhaowu’s terms this time.
There were two reasons why Ling Zhaowu had said that he needed some time to consider. Firstly, he’d indeed had to think it through before making a reply; secondly, he’d wanted to whet Luo Sang’s appetite. In fact, this time around the Ling family had the inclination to accept the offer of cooperation that Luo Sang had made. Luo Sang’s commercial fleet was affiliated to Wantao City and he had the mayor of that city as his backer, so he would be able to get all the herbs that the Ling family wanted to purchase. In addition, of the many Fangcun commercial fleets, Luo Sang’s was one of the largest and was relatively reliable. Last but not least, Ling Zhaowu himself also believed that establishing a long-term association with Luo Sang’s commercial fleet, who had been a faithful partner all along, was a good choice, for the Fangcun Kingdom was an island country far away from the continent and had fairly abundant resources. Also, its political landscape had been quite stable for many years, and there wouldn’t be any unrest in the next two decades or so.
…
Just as Ling Zhang had expected, Luo Sang accepted all Ling Zhaowu’s terms, and a cooperation agreement was soon signed by them.
Ling Zhaowu didn’t push down the prices too much. Instead, he left some leeway for both sides, feeling that it was beneficial to the stability and sustainability of the partnership.
Apart from several kinds of fairly special medicinal herb that Luo Sang could provide, many Fangcun specialities also took the Ling family’s fancy. In the Fangcun Kingdom, there were some rather unique items of rarity that only the government had enough manpower to obtain, and Luo Sang had access to these things. Aside from the drugstore, the Ling family would surely be running some other stores in the future, so these things would prove useful some day.
Both of them were sincere, so they naturally were both happy about how things had turned out. Before leaving, Luo Sang presented a box of very rare deep-sea pearls to Ling Zhaowu, and invited him to attend a private party initiated by many leaders of commercial fleets, which was scheduled for a couple of days later. People needed personal recommendation to be allowed to attend this kind of personal parties. These commercial fleets had formed an exclusive circle. By attending a personal party of theirs, Ling Zhaowu would be able to get information about a lot of things he had no knowledge of.
Ling Zhaowu, who was very interested in that party, accepted Luo Sang’s invitation.
After Luo Sang left, Ling Zhang walked out of the cubicle. He had never heard about any personal parties of those commercial fleets’ leaders before this day either. Furthermore, apart from leaders of Fangcun commercial fleets, there would also be some leaders of Wan commercial fleets and Luohai commercial fleets attending that party.
“Father, how do you plan to attend this party?” asked Ling Zhang.
There was a reason why he was asking about this. After all, the Ling family had now been labeled as in-laws of the emperor and had the most direct relationship with both the emperor and the imperial court. The backgrounds of those miscellaneous merchants were quite complex, and they wouldn’t necessarily welcome Ling Zhaowu to the party. It probably wouldn’t be easy for Ling Zhaowu to worm some information out of them.
Ling Zhaowu said, “I’ll just go there and be who I am. I don’t expect to get any useful information from any of them, given that it’ll be the first time I attend a party of this kind. On the contrary, it’s about what kind of useful information I could offer them. It’ll take time to gain their trust, get them to talk to me and establish a long-term association with them, so we’ll have to show some patience.”
“Offer them some useful information?” asked Ling Zhang. This meant that his father would put a bait out on the wire and wait for those people to bite it. In order to have them take the bait, his father would have to give them something really useful. Ling Zhang wondered what kind of useful information his father would offer them.
Ling Zhaowu said, “Apart from anything else, I’m a man who’s risen from the dead, and I have knowledge of many things unknown to all others. I don’t think anybody in this world knows about business better than I do. Although the course of the future has changed, the developments of many things wouldn’t be very different from how they’d been in my last incarnation, so don’t worry. I got this.”
Ling Zhang came to understand what Ling Zhaowu meant and felt a sense of relief. Indeed, his father had more knowledge than all other members of his family combined.
Ling Zhaowu was very confident. Ling Zhang felt that since he had already put his father in charge of the drugstore, he should have faith in his father. Moreover, he indeed didn’t compare with his father in this regard.
“Pity the time for the party Luo Sang mentioned is too close to my wedding day, and I wouldn’t be able to extricate myself. Otherwise I would go there with you to check it out,” said Ling Zhang.
He was quite interested in that private party initiated by the leaders of those commercial fleets.
“There’s no hurry. You’ll have a lot of chances. Besides, this is my first time being invited. I don’t think they’ll allow anybody I bring there to join their conversations,” said Ling Zhaowu. He was very familiar with this kind of occasions and fully aware of what the situation would be like at the party.
Ling Zhang felt less regretful at these words. “I’ll wait for another chance, then.”
The father and son stayed in the drugstore for another few moments and then went back home together.
Meanwhile, Luo Sang, after leaving the Ling’s Drugstore, hurriedly paid a visit to a courier hostel to meet a member of the Fangcun diplomatic corps who was also a henchman of the mayor of Wantao City, and told him about the cooperation agreement he’d reached with Ling Zhaowu earlier this day.
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