Chapter 60: Yuwen Tong’s Doubts
Ling Xingzhong couldn’t help but sigh with emotion after hearing Yuwen Tong’s words, “The elder Lord overpraised me. I just did what I should for my duty.”
“It is no easy thing to keep this good character. Right?” Yuwen Tong said.
His words obviously touched Ling Xingzhong, which immediately eased the tension between them.
Ling Zhang had no prejudice against Yuwen Tong at the moment. The old days must have been very important to his grandfather. The fact that Yuwen Tong could remember all about his grandfather’s past started to change the way he viewed Yuwen Tong a bit.
After all, he didn’t even know these things.
After dinner, Ling Xingzhong asked Ling Zhang to accompany Yuwen Tong to take a walk in the garden.
Ling Zhang happened to meet Yuwen Tong’s eyes as he looked at Yuwen Tong. Lowering his gaze to dodge the eye contact, he said, “Brother, let’s go for a walk then.”
Ling Maomao wanted to go with them, but was stopped by Ling Xingzhong’s harsh look.
That didn’t escape Ling Zhang’s eyes, which made him feel complicated.
What did grandfather want? Did he think that they could fall for each other after some simple walk?
“Lord Ling is hale and hearty, and a nice person to talk with,” Yuwen Tong said.
“Since my Grandfather retired, he inevitably feels a little lonely and boring at home. But you’ve just had a lot of fun talking to him about border affairs and the past, which made him feel happy again. Thank you,” Ling Zhang expressed his heartfelt thanks to Yuwen Tong.
Since Yuwen Tong had long been aware of Ling Zhang’s strong feeling for his family, he was not surprised by that. “As an old saying goes, elders are treasures. I learned a lot from talking to your grandfather, too. You don’t have to thank me.”
At night, except for the lights in the hallway, all other places were dark, including in the garden. However, many lamp posts were installed in the garden this day, probably because of Yuwen Tong’s coming.
After walking into the garden together with Yuwen Tong, Ling Zhang felt a little uneasy.
“My grandfather died on the battlefield a long time ago, so did my grandmother. Maybe it’s because I haven’t talked to an elder in years,” Yuwen Tong said.
That reminded Ling Zhang of Yuwen Tong’s story that he had heard of some time ago. He couldn’t help asking out of curiosity, “What about other elders in your family?”
“I have a granduncle but he doesn’t live in Yuwen Mansion. I can only talk to him when I go back to the Capital every a few years,” Yuwen Tong answered.
So there was no elder in Yuwen Mansion. And he heard that Yuwen Tong’s parents pa.s.sed away, too.
At this point Ling Zhang suddenly realized it might not be a good idea to talk about family with Yuwen Tong, so he changed his topic. “Why don’t you agree to break off the engagement?”
Yuwen Tong stopped, asking, “I hear you don’t have anyone you like. Why you want to break off this engagement in such a hurry?”
‘Of course, to keep your Yuwen Family from humiliating Ling Family again.’ Ling Zhang’s face turned cold as he thought about this.
Yuwen Tong could obviously feel the enmity from Ling Zhang at this moment. He was lost in deep thought, wondering why Ling Zhang’s att.i.tude towards him changed at every mention of the engagement. And it seemed Ling Zhang’s animosity was specifically toward him. But that was even weirder, which led him to wonder if he had done anything notorious that he himself didn’t know about.
“Have I ever done anything wrong to you?” Yuwen Tong didn’t like to equivocate, so he asked directly.
Ling Zhang was stumped by his question. Yuwen Tong hadn’t done anything yet in this life, and the thing was he couldn’t tell Yuwen Tong what happened in previous life either.
“I have been garrisoning the border all the year round, and I seldom come back. I don’t think we have met before,” Yuwen Tong continued.
Yuwen Tong’s words aroused some thoughts in Ling Zhang’s mind that vanished before he could catch.
“Well, please answer me. This marriage was decided a long time ago, so why haven’t you said anything for all these years?” Ling Zhang blurted out but immediately regretted as it sounded like he was complaining.
A slight grin showed on Yuwen Tong’s face, as expected. Just as Ling thought Yuwen Tong was going to start ridiculing him, he heard something quite unexpected, “Sorry, I didn’t know about this engagement. If I had known about it, I wouldn’t have been out of touch with you for so many years.”
“You don’t know?” Ling Zang froze, asking in a daze, “How come?”
“My grandfather arranged this engagement for me, then he died suddenly on the battlefield. So he didn’t get the chance to tell me a lot of things. Later my parents died too. At that time, I was too young to know these things. Maybe there are other elders in my family who know about it, but I rarely go back to the Capital and never care about my marriage, so I never ask about it. Fortunately, I happened to meet your butler on my way back to the Capital. Now you are an adult, and it is not too late for me to know about our engagement,” Yuwen Tong explained.
‘What did he mean by not too late?’
No, that was not what Ling Zhang was trying to ask.
Ling Zhang just didn’t expect that Yuwen Tong also didn’t know about the existence of the engagement.
‘What was going on in previous life?’
Ling Zhang didn’t understand why Yuwen Tong’s att.i.tude towards this matter was so different between this life and the previous life. The only difference was, in this life, he learned about the engagement a lot earlier.
Ling Zhang looked at Yuwen Tong with doubts. Then it hit him. In the previous life, he had a tattered reputation that everyone would be scared away, let alone Yuwen Tong.
But now, he was still blameless.
A scowl formed on Ling Zhang’s face again. His att.i.tude towards Yuwen Tong became colder. “Really?”
Yuwen Tong frowned slightly as he couldn’t understand why Ling Zhang was still so cold after listening to his explanation. His distinct told him that there must be a misunderstanding between him and Ling Zhang. But he couldn’t figure out what it was.
There was an awkward silence between them. Ling Zhang made it clear that he didn’t want to speak anything, while Yuwen Tong looked at him thoughtfully.
Yuwen Tong was arranged in the Green Bamboo Mansion, which was a quiet yard next to Ling Zhang’s. Noticing that Yuwen Tong brought a lot of subordinates, Ling Xingzhong specially warned the Ling Family’s servants not to disturb him in Green Bamboo Mansion. He just arranged a few servants on watch outside the yard in case Yuwen Tong needed them in an emergency.
“Marshal, they are so smart,” Yaoyi said.
They could do whatever they want without being disturbed there.
Yuwen Tong hummed, “Yaoyi, send a letter to the Capital. Ask Yue Qi to investigate if there are people in Yuwen Family who know about my engagement with Ling Zhang and deliberately hide it from me. And find out whether these people have ever made trouble for Ling Family.”
“Got it,” Yaoyi said. “Marshal, you think they’ve done something on this matter?”
“Only some suspicion,” Yuwen Tong said.
Yaoyi coughed, “Marshal, do you really want to marry Childe Ling?”
Yaoyi couldn’t hide his desire to gossip about Yuwen Tong.
Yuwen Tong shoot him a glance, “Ask those who investigate the encampment of the Prefecture Guard to report to me as soon as they return.” With that said, he walked straight into his room.
Yaoyi looked at Yuwen Tong’s back in disappointment. He was really so curious about it!
Ling Zhang was wide awake in the yard next to Yuwen Tong’s. And it would be strange if he could fall asleep at this moment.
Ling Zhang was preoccupied with his own thought, tossing and turning in the bed. Then he took a coat and went out to the yard, which startled the servant keeping vigil.
“I just want some fresh air. You don’t have to be afraid,” Ling Zhang said lightly.
“Yes,” the servant said, daring not to disturb Ling Zhang.
Ling Zhang glanced at the Green Bamboo Mansion, recalling what Yuwen Tong said during the day.
Even such a person like Yuwen Tong can’t tell right from wrong? Did Yuwen Tong begin to avoid him just because of some rumors?
Well, whatever. Just let it be. Anyway, he had made up his mind to cancel this engagement. It didn’t matter even if Yuwen Tong didn’t agree, because he would surely find a way to persuade Yuwen Tong.
What he should consider now was what means Yuwen Tong would use to deal with Zhang Chong. He must remove the source of the trouble once and for all, or there would be serious counterattacks waiting to destroy he and the whole Ling family. Since Yuwen Tong had intervened in this matter, Ling Zhang would never allow him to give up halfway. Zhang Chong must die!
“Marshal, they’re back.” The light was lit up in the Green Bamboo Mansion at the deep night.
Yuwen Tong got up, took a coat and went out. After sitting behind the desk, he said, “Come in.”
Yaoyi opened the door and came in, followed by a few others in black who greeted upon seeing Yuwen Tong, “Marshal.”
“You’ve had a long journey! What did you find?” Yuwen Tong asked.
He had personally sneaked into the encampment of the Prefecture Guard during the day and had got a rough condition about it. But there were some details that needed to be further explored.
“Marshal, this is the map of the encampment of the Prefecture Guard that we made. Please check it,” a man said.
Yuwen Tong looked at him with appreciation. He took the map, spread it out and read it carefully. Then he nodded repeatedly in approval.
“In addition to Zhang Chong, there are four deputy commanders taking office in Tanyang’s Prefecture Guard. They are Dou Li, Bai Jun, w.a.n.g Ming and w.a.n.g He. Under them were…” The man who came in just now gave a rough account of the main persons in charge of the Prefecture Guard and what they were responsible for. Besides they wrote down the gist of what they had heard from the soldiers, and gave a general idea of their character.
“Beyond that, we find out the route and the scope of their patrols. Marshal, please have a look….”
In addition to the number of soldiers, even the scope of their encampment, the army provisions and the horses are far beyond that permitted by the Court. The daily training of these people is also different from the Prefecture Guard elsewhere. They…”
“We also found their secret weapons camp.”
Yuwen Tong thought as he listened carefully to what his subordinates had found.
Yaoyi, who was listening, felt shocked. After the man finished, he said, “Marshal, this is far beyond what is allowed by the court. Are they doing this to rebel?”
Yuwen Tong sneered, “Obviously, they are not doing this for fun .”
“But Tanyang is far from the Capital. If they want to rebel, it’s hard to get to the Capital quickly,” Yaoyi said.
Yuwen Tong said nothing. After a while he said to Yaoyi, “I need a map of Tantang.”
Yaoyi hurriedly took the map out and spread it out on the desk.
Yuwen Tong glanced around the encampment of the Prefecture Guard on the map, as if thinking about something. Finally, he pointed at somewhere on the map and said to Yaoyi, “Fetch me the maps of Cangzhou and Yanzhou.”