"What is going on?"Lin Liushui shook his head at Qin Feng"s question, and held up a hand for silence. Then he quickly checked to make sure that none of the Snow Swallow Mountain disciples were close by before he answered.
"I don"t know for certain until I see these so-called Lin Family representatives that are heading over to cause trouble. But I am sure that this is a misunderstanding at worse. We have never bothered any of the other families here in the Yang Empire," the handsome fellow protested in a quiet voice.
"But these women seem very certain that it was your Lin Family! And I don"t think that they are the only ones who will be supporting the ... What was that family that was being oppressed? Did they mention it? I don"t remember."
Qin Feng"s questions drew a blank from the pair. But Lin Liushui waved them aside after a brief pause. "So long as the women are willing to accept us, we can get that bit of information from them later. Right now, I am more worried that those idiots that I had beaten up were actually part of the group heading up here to cause trouble."
"That seems unlikely. They didn"t mention anything like this after taking that beating earlier, so it doesn"t seem like they know about this. Besides, you mentioned that they were all cousins from the distaff lines, didn"t you? So even if they are, you would be able to press them down and make them hand back the girl, wouldn"t you?"
The Second Ducal Prince was quick to point that out. Which had Lin Liushui shaking his head again. "The fact that they dared to use our Wuyang Lin Family"s name is the issue here. None of those families with ties to our Main House would dare to do that. So this is definitely aimed at us!"
Then the handsome man sighed, and waved his fan at Li Changhai. "Do you remember why I had to head over to the Shu Kingdom, and become a guest at your father"s Palace? I told you about that once, if I remember correctly."
"Ah. You did. But I wouldn"t mind hearing it again. And Qin Feng here hasn"t any information regarding that. So it might be best if you told us directly."
Qin Feng nodded in agreement quickly. "I am largely ignorant of the situation here in the Yang Empire. And I know less about your family than our friend in the heavy armor here. Why are you calling it the Wuyang Lin Family?"
"Well, you should know that Lin is one of the most common surnames here in the North. In fact, it is one of the five most common surnames in all of the Three Empires and Seven Kingdoms. So we started using the place of our origin, Wuyang, to differentiate ourselves from the other Lin Families in the Yang Empire.
"That became significant after we became more influential within the Martial Circles, and our family started to get a little too large. Hence the talk earlier about distaff lines and such."
Lin Liushui waved his fan back in the direction of the women, who were already at securing a spot where they could talk. Which probably meant that they did not have too much time, and that he was going to gloss over some of the details, Qin Feng thought.
"In any case, some of my ancestors started to stick their fingers into too many pies, and the political situation in the Yang Empire was one of them. In particular, the Succession. While that has resulted in our Wuyang Lin Family rising to prominence every few generations, it has marked us as one of those players that need to be addressed, every time the Yang Emperor has to name an Heir.
"Needless to say, the Imperial Princes were getting rather sick of our interference after a while. Something that my ancestors were more than aware of, after one particularly messy Coronation Ceremony. Sixteen Imperial Princes lost their lives, including the one that we had supported."
Qin Feng scowled at that. Didn"t that mean that they were backing the wrong horse? And wouldn"t that lead to the whole lot of them being slaughtered? That was the way that the Empires did things, wasn"t it?
So why wasn"t the Lin Family eradicated?
"Well, it is a rather complicated tale, full of twists and turns. And I doubt that I have time to tell it to you two plainly, much less spice it up. So I will simply give you the highlights:
"One of our Lin Family girls married the new Emperor as a concubine and so saved us from being killed off completely. The Wuyang Lin Family also made sure that we did not play around with the Yang Imperial Line any further. After all, we were now related to the same."
Then Lin Liushui sighed. "But you know us big and powerful families just can"t keep our hands off other people"s affairs, and we started to dip our fingers into the martial societies and such. As a result, we started to build up our influence in martial circles. And that brings us to where we are today."
He paused then, and pointed at Li Changhai again. "I was one of those scions who were sick and tired of having to watch myself as I was growing up, and had slapped too many faces of the affiliated families and groups. So my father decided to send me out of the Yang Empire, "to gain experience", as they say.
"Honestly, I think it was more so that he could repair the bridges that I had started to kick apart. And to use me as an example, to point out that he would exile his own son, rather than let me go on creating problems for the family. That was the bit that I didn"t care for, to tell the truth."
Qin Feng"s frown deepened when he heard that. He caught a hint in that last bit. Which would also explain how Lin Liushui could go out and bash his lesser cousins and far relations like what he had done earlier, when they first crossed into the Yang Empire.
But he could not help but ask:
"If your father had to worry about the good name of the family, that would mean that he is a rather significant figure in the whole Wuyang Lin Family. Just who are you, Brother Lin? And just what is your position in the family?"
The look on the Second Ducal Prince"s face also made it clear to Qin Feng that he had not been told that particular bit of information either. Or that he had forgotten? But that wasn"t likely, was it? Li Changhai was a Duke"s son, so he would not miss something like that!
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"Well, I am only the fifth son, you understand? And I am in rather bad odour with my father. In fact, I have been on bad terms with him for almost all my life. If not for the fact that I am a favorite of my aunt, who happens to be the current Yang Empress ...
"To put it simply, I am one of the sons of the Lin Family Patriarch. The only son of his third and youngest wife, in case you want to know."
* * *