An official document, along with a man sent by Zhang Chong to covertly follow Jia Yuanling, came back by a fast horse of the courier station. Originally, the man had intended to wait until Jia Yuanling was escorted to the destination to rescue him. Unexpectedly, Jia Yuanling halfway.
“Are you sure it was unaccustomed climate that he died of?”
“Positive. I’ve already examined Jia Yuanling’s corpse covertly. I’m a-hundred-percent sure. On top of this…” “Go on.”
“Commander, that kick you gave Jia Yuanling in Prefecture Yamen on that day seriously wounded his heart and lungs. As a result, Jia Yuanling had severe internal injuries, which the local post-mortem examiner concluded was the root cause of his death after performing a post-mortem examination. The official document brought back by people of the courier station made this very clear. Jia family probably have already been informed of it by now.” “What?”
Finally, the look on Zhang Chong’s face changed. “You moron! Why didn’t you stop them?”
“I beg your pardon, Commander, but the courier station delivered the document to Jia family very urgently and I didn’t have enough time to stop them.”
Zhang Chong smacked his palm onto the table in rage. Originally it had been a mere trifle, but the death of Jia Yuanling, the root cause of which was that hard kick he had given him, had just complicated this issue.
“Get horses prepared. We’re going downtown right now.”
“Commander! Jia Yin requires an audience with you.” ‘So soon? The dawn has just broken yet Jia Yin has already arrived?’
Zhang Chong had intended to go into the city immediately to appease people of Jia family. Unexpectedly, Jia Yin came to his encampment so soon, which reduced him to a passive position.
Face dark with rage, Zhang Chong thundered, “What’s the problem with Jia Zhong? Why didn’t he stop Jia Yin? Or did he come here as well?”
“Commander, word has it that last night, County Magistrate Jia took some men and went to that town to bring the body of Jia Yuanling back to Tanyang.”
“Son of a bitch!” Zhang Chong cursed in fury. “Let Jia Yin in!”
Jia Yin was led into the hall. On the sight of Zhang Chong, he pointed at him and shouted, “Zhang Chong! Give me my son back!”
“What do you mean, bro? I don’t understand.” Zhang Chong played dumb.
“My son died on his way to the frontier all because that kick you gave him caused him severe internal injuries. You’re so cold-blooded. As the man my son called godfather, you not only didn’t try to help him in Prefecture Yamen on that day but also kicked him. Now he’s dead because of you!
We sold all our ore to you. We trusted you and supported you. But you! This is how you treated us in return?!
Mark my words, Zhang Chong. From this moment on, I, Jia Yin, will be your mortal enemy! I will avenge my son’s death!
You are not going to get a single ore from our mine ever again!”
Jia Yin blushed scarlet as he cursed loudly on and on, which made Zhang Chong’s face as black as the bottom of a wok.
“Bro, there’s something you need to know. Under the circumstances on that day, if I hadn’t gone through the motions, that issue would never have been resolved. Besides, that kick I gave him was merely a gesture I made to convince others present. I didn’t mean to cause Yuanling any harm. It was the absence of due care that caused him to die of illness, for which those Yamen runners should be held responsible. In the final analysis, people of Ling family are the real culprits who got Yuanling killed. Instead of hating them, you came here to blame me?” “Bullshit! People of Ling family are scum. You are no better than them!”
“How dare you talk to Commander like this!” yelled a bodyguard standing beside Zhang Chong.
“Why should I be afraid to say this? Zhang Chong ungratefully refused to save my son. Instead, he got him killed. Am I supposed to be thankful for his ‘kindness’?!”
“As far as I can remember, I have never, ever, treated Jia family shabbily. Surely you are well aware of how Jia Zhong got the position of County Magistrate, aren’t you? If it weren’t for me, Tao Feng would have skinned each and every one of your family members alive some time ago!” But this kind of words were far from convincing enough to sway Jia Yin, since he had been harboring grudges against Zhang Chong all along because of his previous refusal to help Jia Yuanling, and now, to make things worse, Jia Yuanling had died due to that kick given by Zhang Chong. Even Jia Yin’s eyes were blood-red with rage.
Jia Yin kept venting his fury on Zhang Chong in the Prefecture Encampment for quite a long time. At first, Zhang Chong patiently tried to reason with Jia Yin, but eventually, he lost his temper and had his men force Jia Yin out of the encampment.
“Commander, if Jia Yin keeps doing this, will the mine of Jia family continue providing us with ore?”
“A mere Jia family dared to be so bold as to threaten me? I showed him respect but he threw it away to my face. Only when the mine is in the hands of Jia family is it called Jia’s Mine. When it’s not in their hands, Jia family is just an expendable pawn that I can give up at any time I want to!”
“So Commander’s plan is…”
With a sepulchral look in his eyes, Zhang Chong observed, “Since Jia family has gone out of control, let’s eliminate them!”
…
In Tanyang.
All those who knew that Jia Yin had headed for the Prefecture Encampment were waiting to see how he would return from the encampment, and Ling Zhang was no exception. He had sent Xia Feng to the southern part of the city to wait for news to come in.
“Young Master, all of us have thought it through. By no means should we give up so easily. We must improve our proficiency in this formation and retrieve the reputation of Young Master!”
After a night’s thinking, all security guards had cooled down. They seemed to have regained their morale.
Zhou Xiang added, “We promise we’ll master those arrays one by one and we won’t get impulsive again.”
“Good. This is all I can ask for. In a few days, I’ll invite one of Lord Yuwen’s bodyguards here to spar with you. If you can keep him in the formation for the duration of drinking a pot of tea (approximately 10 minutes), I’ll begin to teach you the second array.”
All guards were very excited to hear this and promised that they would do their level best to trap the opponent.
Seeing that they were still confident and enthusiastic about learning the formation, Ling Zhang was relieved. After working out in the guards’ yard for two hours, he headed for his dwelling. As he passed by the gateway of the Green Bamboo Mansion, he caught sight of Zhang Liu.
‘He came back at this time of the day. It seems that he has already finished forging the account book.”
Ling Zhang turned and walked into the Green Bamboo Mansion.
“Childe Ling.” Zhang Liu greeted Ling Zhang as he saw him.
“Your clothes are sweat-soaked. Why didn’t you change first? You might catch a cold.” Yuwen Tong flicked a glance at him. Seeing his clothes wet with sweat, he knitted his brows and walked up to him.
“I saw that Zhang Liu had returned, so I came here to ask if the account book had been successfully forged,” said Ling Zhang after wiping off the sweat on his sideburns.
Seeing this, Yuwen Tong turned around, picked up a clean handkerchief from the desk and began wiping Ling Zhang’s face with it, saying, “It’s done. I’ll have him deliver it to Yao Yi in a while.” “To Yao Yi? Isn’t Yao Yi still in the Grand Mang Mountain? Why send it there?” Ling Zhang was puzzled and also somewhat uneasy. Yuwen Tong was wiping the sweat off his face in such a natural manner that he felt that it would be weird if he dodged aside, but standing on the spot letting Yuwen Tong help him wipe his face, beneath the curious gaze of Zhang Liu, he could feel his cheeks burning, even though sweat had just been wiped off them.
“Yao Yi is going to the capital city. He’ll bring the account book to the emperor.”
Though talking in a serious tone of voice, Yuwen Tong was also secretly observing Ling Zhang and none of his subtle movements and minute changes of his expressions escaped his notice. Seeing that he faintly flushed with embarrassment but could not dodge aside for fear of being deemed impertinent, Yuwen Tong felt that he was a sight so pleasing to the eye that flushes of delight were sweeping through him.
“If he departs today, it will take him at least seven days to get to the capital city, right?”
“It might be shorter than that. This is an opportunity to try the route that Zhang Chong prepared. If things go smoothly, he’ll reach the capital city in two days.” Too concerned to consider whether this would be an unnatural reaction, Ling Zhang blurted, “Isn’t the route guarded by bandits on the Grand Mang Mountain? It’s too risky!”
“His lightness skills are pretty good. Under the cover of night, getting through the Grand Mang Mountain unseen by those bandits shouldn’t be a problem for him.
Get back and change. Or… ” Yuwen Tong stooped down and whispered the rest of his sentence into Ling Zhang’s ears.
The color of Ling Zhang’s face alternated between red and normal. Eventually, he shot Yuwen Tong a dark glance, turned around and left.
‘I thought that Yuwen Tong had converted to a decent man. I was terribly wrong!
It is such a humiliation for the Great Yue that a man like him occupies a position as important as the Grand Marshal of the North West Army.’
Ling Zhang returned to his dwelling in anger and quickly changed while wiping his sweat-soaked hair. When walking past the full-length mirror, he paused, looked into it and saw that there were pink flushes on his cheeks, which made him seem rather shy…
Ling Zhang felt a twitch of disgust and believed that he must be hallucinating. Angered by this, he called Yuwen Tong names again.
Due to the frivolity of Yuwen Tong, Ling Zhang forgot that there was something he wanted to ask Yuwen Tong about. It was not until he changed into clean clothes and walked out of his room that he recalled this.
He quickly calmed himself down and was just about to go and pay another visit to the Green Bamboo Mansion when someone showed up.
“Young Master, there’re visitors requiring an audience with Old Master, but Old Master happened to have gone to Lu family. Second Mistress is occupied in the backyard and is not available for the moment.”
“I see. I’ll go and see. Who are they?” “They look strange to me. I think they are outsiders. They came with a letter of introduction.”
“A letter of introduction?” Confused, Ling Zhang quickly walked to the ante-room.
‘Though they have a letter of introduction, it was very inadvisable for them to show up here so abruptly. They’re so ignorant of formality,’ Ling Zhang thought.
“May I have your names?” Ling Zhang entered the ante-room and saw two middle-aged men sitting in there, one fat and the other thin, both of whom did seem strange to him.
On the sight of Ling Zhang, the two men hurriedly rose to their feet. “You must be Childe Ling. I’m Zhang Huan. This is my cousin Zhao Xiangrong. We came here from Jiangzhou to visit Old Master Ling. Originally, I meant to bring a visitor’s card here, but I worried that I might not be let in if I did that, so I directly showed them my letter of introduction. Please forgive me for my impertinence.” “It turns out that you’re from Jiangzhou. Since you specially came here to meet my grandfather, may I ask what it is about?” Ling Zhang also skipped usual pleasantries and directly asked them what they wanted.
These two people said that they were from Jiangzhou, but for some inexplicable reason, Ling Zhang kept feeling that he was missing something.
“I’m from a commercial family. By a stroke of fortune I acquired a couple of antiques in the north, and I wonder if I could trouble Old Master Ling to help me verify their authenticity,” the fat one said politely.
But Ling Zhang was transfixed with shock on hearing these words. ‘Jiangzhou… antique authentication… ‘
It suddenly struck him what it was that these two men had come here for!
In his last life, his grandfather went to Jiangzhou to help two people verify the authenticity of a couple of antiques, but afterwards, news suddenly came that those antiques were fakes. The commercial family in Jiangzhou specially sent some men to Ling family, who made quite a scene. That matter came to the knowledge of all residents of Tanyang. His grandfather was disgraced and, for quite a long time, suffered from depression, frequently found mumbling to himself that by no means could he have made that kind of mistakes.
At that time, people of Ling family demanded that those antiques be authenticated again publicly, but those people in Jiangzhou flatly refused. They affirmed that Ling Zhang’s grandfather was a liar and insisted that his grandfather compensate them for their losses.
‘How dare these people come here again in this life!’
Ling Zhang’s countenance fleetingly froze and soon returned to normal, but those who were familiar with him could tell that the look in his eyes had become much more apathetic.
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