Chapter 92 - Take Over
Yu Tang had to return home at once, and bought plane tickets that very day. He asked if Song Xiao would go with him.
How could Song Xiao let the emperor go back on his own at this time? He immediately said that he would return as well. After hanging up, he quickly called the president of the Angels Club to help him request a leave of absence from school. Song Xiao then said his goodbyes to Xiao Zhengqing and left by car to look for Yu Tang.
Yu Tang was at LA airport, and was silently sitting in the airport lounge. Dugu An was with him, and astonishingly, so was Butler Cao.
“It’ll likely be very chaotic in China for a while. His Majesty will definitely have his hands full, so just leave the household matters to laonuba,” Cao Gonggong quietly explained to Song Xiao. This was also the family head’s will.
Both the families in China had met with mishap, so the enterprise in China now lacked a leader. Seventh uncle’s son Yu Qi wasn’t good at business management, so Yu Tang had to go back to prop up all the power in China. Additionally, in case news of the deaths were confirmed, there would still be many funeral arrangements to make. There were too many things to deal with, and the family head felt distressed for his grandson, so he lent Butler Cao to him.
Song Xiao nodded and walked over to Yu Tang. Raising his hand slowly, he stroked Yu Tang’s bent head.
Yu Tang raised his head to look at him. He was as expressionless as ever, and there was none of the pain and anxiety Song Xiao had feared – just a profound look in Yu Tang’s eyes that didn’t give away his mood. It was as if he had gone back overnight to becoming that monarch who was p.r.o.ne to anger and never showed his feelings.
He had initially thought that in this world, with both his parents healthy and no siblings to fight for the throne, he could live a relaxed and free life, and could even be a little childish. In the face of this sudden change, Yu Tang, as an emperor who had lived two lives and seen everything, naturally couldn’t act dejected like an actual youth; he couldn’t continue to take things easy.
Looking at Yu Tang, Song Xiao felt somewhat distressed, and hugged him.
Yu Tang took the opportunity to bury his head in his empress’s embrace. “I thought he could live longer in this life.”
‘There were no fathers and sons in the imperial family’ – Yu Jintang and the previous emperor could be considered to have a pretty bad relationship in their last life. But Yu Jintang worked hard and was later bestowed the t.i.tle of crown prince, so father emperor still pampered him a lot. When all was said and done, however, they couldn’t be as close as a normal father and son – they were separated by too much power and too many schemes.
Yu Tang was born into an ordinary family of merchants in this life, and with no imperial concubines to interfere and no shu siblings to disrupt things, he finally experienced the affection between an ordinary father and son. Even though he had never said it, he was secretly delighted. The father whom he could only respectfully kowtow to, or gaze at the back of, in the past would now reach out to hug him, tutor him in his homework, and give him whatever he wanted.
But this happiness was too short-lived.
When the plane landed, Yu Tang rushed home right away.
A gloomy atmosphere enveloped the house. His mother was crying in the living room, Yu Miao was sitting silently in one corner, and Yu Lin was running back and forth on his short legs.
“Mommy, have the salvage team look again. Daddy will come back.” Little jug-eared Yu Lin grabbed the edge of his mother’s clothes and spoke in his milky voice.
“The salvage team has already gone out; there’s still no news.” Mother Yu wiped her tears and softly comforted her youngest son.
Yu Lin was very anxious and seemed about to say something, but didn’t dare to. When he turned his head and saw his travel-worn brother walk in, his eyes immediately lit up and he quickly threw himself at the latter.
Yu Tang looked at the little artillery sh.e.l.l hurtling toward him, and frowned slightly. He saw Yu Lin wink at him, so he bent down and picked up the little fellow.
Yu Lin drew close to his brother’s ear and quietly said something.
Yu Tang listened as he walked into the room, and expressionless, he lowered his head to meet his little brother’s eyes. “I got it.”
“Tangtangk2026;” When Mother Yu saw that her eldest son had returned, she couldn’t endure it anymore, and her tears started to fall. “It’s already been two days, and there’s still no news of your father.”
“The plane didn’t explode, and it had a lifeboat; there’s still a large chance that they survived.” Yu Tang threw his little brother to Cao Gonggong behind him and sat next to his mother. He then hugged the heartbroken woman and patted her. “Give me a list of the agencies you’ve already contacted, and leave the rest to me. Don’t worry.”
Yu Lin looked at Cao Gonggong curiously. This person seemed familiar, but he couldn’t recall where he might have seen him before.
Cao Gonggong stared at that pair of jug ears for a long while, then his eyes suddenly brimmed with tears of excitement. “Your Majesty, it’s laonuah.”
“Ssh —” Yu Lin’s eyes widened. He hastily slapped a hand over Cao Gonggong’s mouth and said through gritted teeth, “Do you have a death wish? My ge is still here, what ‘Your Majesty’?!”
After Emperor Jingyuan’s demise back then, Cao Gonggong had followed the new emperor and continued to act as his main steward, so he also called Yu Jinlin Your Majesty.
After crying for a while, Mother Yu finally calmed down. She raised her head to see the handsome butler who was carrying her youngest son. It was understandable that she could tell what Cao Gonggong’s profession was at a glance, since he still diligently wore the swallow-tailed coat of a butler, a pair of white gloves, and a neat bow tie.
“Butler Cao, why are you here?” Mother Yu recognised Cao Gonggong; after all, he was the great butler at the family head’s side.
Cao Gonggong walked over while carrying Yu Lin. “The family head was worried, so he had me come over.”
Mother Yu nodded and didn’t say anything else as she let out a deep sigh.
After calming his mother down and handing Yu Miao over to Butler Cao, Yu Tang carried his little brother to the study.
It wouldn’t be good for Song Xiao to follow Yu Tang back, and he could only return to his own home. Song Zicheng was highly surprised by his son’s sudden return, but when he heard that it was to accompany Yu Tang back, he understood. The thing with the Yu family had been the talk of the town recently, and there were daily reports in the newspaper.
Because the accident had involved a private plane, the country wouldn’t utilize its full power to deal with it, and merely dispatched a small search and rescue team. But the sea was vast; even if they sent out a fighter plane to patrol the waters, they might not necessarily find anything, to say nothing of this small helicopter search team.
Hearing that the eldest young master of the Yu family had returned, the people of A City stretched their necks out and waited for news.
Once the eldest young master returned, he mobilised three teams which specialised in search and rescue, and no one knew how he persuaded the higher-ups, but they really did dispatch the army to help.
China’s national broadcast station was also reporting on this matter. The Yu family was an aristocratic family that was over a century old; they were the first batch of wealthy Chinese businessmen to return from abroad, and now brought in investments from overseas, so this matter naturally had to be given wide coverage to reflect the value attached to the Chinese abroad.
Seven days pa.s.sed, and the search and rescue teams slowly began to withdraw, yet the media had yet to receive any news.
Song Xiao couldn’t contact Yu Tang for an entire day and was very worried. He could only call the Yu family residence.
“Your Majesty niangniang!” Cao Gonggong picked up the phone and said earnestly, “His Majesty just fell asleep. Is something the matter?”
“Why can’t I reach his phone?” Song Xiao’s lips couldn’t help twitching when he heard the word ‘niangniang’, but he wasn’t in the mood to bicker with Cao Gonggong about this as he opened his mouth to ask the question right away.
“Laonu isn’t too sure either. His Majesty just returned after being away for two days.” Cao Gonggong lowered his voice. “The mood at home isn’t very good; why don’t you come over?”
Song Xiao frowned. The Yu family was grieving right now, and it wasn’t appropriate for an outsider like him to go over and disturb them. However, he was also very worried about the emperor. After some consideration, he still chose to take a car over.
Cao Gonggong greeted him at the door. The living room was empty, and Cao Gonggong directly led Song Xiao to the bedroom upstairs.
It was extremely quiet in the s.p.a.cious room, and the light was dim. There was the clear sound of light breathing coming from the large, dark blue bed. After Cao Gonggong let Song Xiao in, he closed the door gently and indicated for Song Xiao not to worry as he would explain it to the madam.
Song Xiao walked over next to the bed and slowly sat down.
Yu Tang was fast asleep. There were heavy bags under his eyes; it was obvious that the past few days had been exhausting.
Raising a hand, Song Xiao gently stroked Yu Tang’s head. Eyes still closed, the person who was fast asleep dragged him into his embrace and hooked a leg over him in one smooth movement.
Song Xiao shifted around and heard Yu Tang grumble as the latter buried his face in the hollow of Song Xiao’s neck, his breathing still even. Song Xiao couldn’t help smiling despite himself. He toed off his shoes lightly and pulled off his coat so that the emperor could hug him more comfortably.
“Junzhu… I have to quit school…” Yu Tang’s voice was a little hoa.r.s.e.
Song Xiao pulled the blanket up to cover the both of them, then hugged him. “You didn’t need to go to school in the first place; it’s fine to withdraw.”
When Yu Tang heard that gentle and moving voice, his heart suddenly relaxed a lot, and he quietly replied, “En.”
After accompanying the emperor as they slept that night, Song Xiao got up early the next day to leave and avoid running into the empress dowager.
Butler Cao had already taken over all household duties, and the original butler had been reduced to becoming his a.s.sistant. At that moment, Butler Cao was standing in the courtyard and sorting out matters for today.
“The valets should pay attention to the time. Don’t organise any refreshments, just plain water will do…” Cao Gonggong handled each matter methodically. Seeing Song Xiao come over from afar, he spoke more quickly, and then dismissed everyone.
“Woof woof woof!” The husky that had been basking under the sun barked and rushed over when it saw Song Xiao.
“Zhang Xiaoren!” Cao Gonggong pointed at the dog and berated it. “You must not be rude!”
“Wu…” The husky pawed at the ground and drooped its head, and looked very unhappy
Song Xiao glanced at the dog before he ignored it and turned to look at Cao Gonggong. “Are there guests coming today?”
“News that the search and rescue operation has stopped has spread. There will definitely be many people visiting today.” Cao Gonggong said warmly, “You don’t have to worry, His Majesty will handle it well.”
Whether it was the great general or Butler Cao, they worshipped His Majesty the emperor blindly and believed that he could do everything well.
Song Xiao felt somewhat helpless about this fact, and could only ask Cao Gonggong to tell him immediately if something happened.
That day, A City’s media reported with regretful tones that the search and rescue operation had been called off — it was clear that the teams hadn’t returned with good news.
The next time Song Xiao saw Yu Tang was outside his own place a few days later.
“I’m going to the capital tomorrow.” Yu Tang stood under the dim streetlight, both hands stuffed into his pockets. It was very cold, and he breathed out a puff of white air when he spoke, which gave him an even more melancholy air.
“You…” Song Xiao opened his mouth, but didn’t know how to ask. Until now, the Yu family still hadn’t held a funeral. Even though everyone knew that it was already hopeless for those two people, Yu Tang insisted on not having a funeral, so no one dared to say anything.
“Zhen has to take up duties.” Yu Tang smiled and reached out to touch Song Xiao’s cold cheek. “Besides, this is a good opportunity.”
The Yu family’s enterprise in China was separated into two divisions which were controlled by Yu Fu and seventh uncle respectively. After the accident, these divisions were starting to show signs of integration. The Yinyu Building in the capitalhad become the Yu family’s general headquarters in China. Higher-ups from various corporations gathered in the capital as they waited for the new executive to be sent over from America.
The doors to the meeting room gradually opened. Everyone held their breaths and turned to look with rapt attention, only to widen their eyes in disbelief. “Tang… Tang shaoye!”
Little Theater
Board Member A: The talent show of a new chairman; what have you prepared?
Fish Tang: The weather has gotten cold; we should make the w.a.n.gs broke
Xiaoxiao: This novel doesn’t seem to have w.a.n.gs
Fish Tang: You have the cheek to doubt me!
Xiaoxiao: No… no…
Fish Tang: Very well, you’ve succeeded in attracting my attention
Xiaoxiao: …Don’t be troublesome
Baobao Notes
Me at the little theater: ???? There’s someone called the w.a.n.gs??? … Nope… It’s just Fish Tang being silly again…