Chapter 108: Priceless
“I’ve never seen any formation as ingenious as this one before,” observed the guard in excitement.
Seeing that Yuwen Tong’s guard seemed to be very interested in the Trap-and-Kill Formation, Ling Zhang suddenly recalled that pamphlet hidden by him.
He believed that Yuwen Tong probably could grasp the secret of the couple of formations within a very short time, given his good memory and excellent comprehension.
Now that he had already confirmed that Yuwen Tong was not the one responsible for the annulment of their engagement for marriage in his last life, he believed that this Yuwen Tong in front of him was trustworthy.
“What are you thinking?” asked Yuwen Tong as he saw the absent-mindedness on Ling Zhang’s face.
“I want to show you something.” Ling Zhang snapped out of his trance. “Let’s go back.”
A little curious about what Ling Zhang intended to show him, Yuwen Tong returned to his abode with him.
Ling Zhang took out the pamphlet that he had been hiding and handed it to Yuwen Tong. “Seldom will I have the chance to use any of these formations. Since you are a master of formations, I think they would prove helpful to you in case of a battle. Take a look.”
Surprised, Yuwen Tong took the pamphlet, opened it and started reading it.
The Trap-and-Kill Formation of Twelve was already ingenious enough, but the formations in the pamphlet were even more ingenious and more powerful.
Moreover, they were also formations that Yuwen Tong had never seen before. They were elaborate and suitable to use in a battle. Yuwen family had been renowned as a family of prominent military commanders since the previous dynasty. Though Yuwen Tong had grown up in a family with such a long and rich history, these formations were still strange to him.
Most importantly, only those with full knowledge of the power and value of these formations could understand how precious these six sheets of paper were, and Yuwen Tong was one of them.
“Why are you offering these to me?” Yuwen Tong gazed fixedly at Ling Zhang.
Feeling somewhat uneasy beneath his gaze, Ling Zhang turned his head aside and replied, “I hope these will bring you more victories.”
Yuwen Tong silently stared at him for quite a while. Perplexed, Ling Zhang twisted his head back to look at him. “What’s wrong? Are they useless?”
“Of course not. They’re priceless.”
“Then why don’t you say something? And you look fairly unhappy.”
“Because you’re too silly.”
Ling Zhang stood speechless.
‘Why did he criticize me for no good reason? Does he really think I’m a pushover?’ he thought angrily.
“It was silly enough of you not to get mad at me when I peeked at the Trap-and-Kill Formation of Twelve. And now you’re handing me these formations on a silver platter. Aren’t you worried that I might turn against you after taking them?” observed Yuwen Tong.
With a serious face, Ling Zhang looked at him and said, “I trust you.”
Yuwen Tong heaved a sigh, solemnly put the pamphlet into his inner pocket and then replied, “I won’t betray your trust, but you should never easily show this kind of thing to anybody else again. These formations are very powerful. Even I have not seen any of them before. They’re extremely precious and must be of uncommon origin. Misfortune might come if you show them to the wrong people.”
These had crossed Ling Zhang’s mind before. It was because he had trust in Yuwen Tong that he had given this to him. “I understand.”
“I’m very glad.” Yuwen Tong looked deeply at Ling Zhang. Such was the preciousness of this trust that he decided to store it at the depths of his heart and cherish it forever.
Ling Zhang gave a soft cough. “Okay, then. This is it. You may go and do what you’ve got to do.”
Of course Yuwen Tong was not the kind of man who could be dismissed with a single remark. Since they were having such a good moment, he would be a fool if he didn’t make full use of it.
“When will you tell your grandfather we’re going to the capital city together?” Yuwen Tong naturally sat down beside Ling Zhang and had him sit down as well.
It was after sitting down that Ling Zhang reacted, making a response. “I’ll tell him after these issues are handled. There’s no hurry.”
“How about we take your grandfather with us? There should be some old friends of Lord Ling in the capital city,” Yuwen Tong offered.
Ling Zhang thought for a while and declined. “My grandfather is a man of advanced years. He’s no longer in a fit state to have a long and tiring journey. Besides, there’s nothing there that my grandfather would deem worthy of a visit – you’re aware of what happened when he left the capital city back in that year, I suppose. And he never mentioned he had any old friends there either.”
Naturally, Yuwen Tong had heard about what happened to Ling family in the capital city in that year. He did want Ling Xingzhong to go with them, since it would be more convenient to confer with him about their wedding, but if Ling Xingzhong would feel uneasy in the capital city, then it wouldn’t be necessary.
“I want to teach six arrays to Elder Brother w.a.n.g and the others before I leave. I think that will spare me some worries when I’m away from home. So I might need some more time. How much longer can you stay in Tanyang?” asked Ling Zhang. Now that the matter of going to the capital city had been brought up, he told Yuwen Tong his considerations.
“It depends on when the imperial edict arrives. His Majesty won’t let me stay in Tanyang for long. If the imperial edict is urgent, I won’t be able to delay leaving for more than five days.”
With whip and spur, it would take a courier seven days to travel from the capital city to Tanyang, which meant that he still had at least half a month.
After thinking for a while, Ling Zhang came up with a general plan. “Okay.”
“w.a.n.g Dashan and his group have already learned the first array, so it won’t be difficult for them to master another five within this amount of time, but I’m afraid the other twelve men in the herb farm wouldn’t be able to do the same,” observed Yuwen Tong.
“I plan to take the twelve of them to the capital city with me,” replied Ling Zhang.
Yuwen Tong was not surprised by his decision. “All right. You do need some men to protect you.”
“Think it through and see if there are some others that you want to bring with you apart from those twelve. Living conditions won’t change much when we arrive in the capital city. Beside my place, there’s also a courtyard house that has stood unoccupied for a long time. Your men may live there. n.o.body’s going to disturb them.”
It had never crossed Ling Zhang’s mind that Yuwen Tong had already had his accommodations planned out. Originally, he had meant to live elsewhere, but now he was too embarra.s.sed to tell Yuwen Tong.
“What’s the matter? Is there a problem?” asked Yuwen Tong as he saw Ling Zhang keeping silent.
“I’d like to live somewhere else. I don’t want to live in the mansion of Yuwen family,” replied Ling Zhang.
“It’s safer to live in the mansion of Yuwen family. My place is pretty far away from those of others, and there’s also a wood in between. n.o.body dares to go there without my permission, so there’s no need for you to worry that anybody will bother you,” said Yuwen Tong.
Ling Zhang did dislike living with other members of Yuwen family. It would make him feel very uncomfortable.
But after he heard Yuwen Tong’s words, living there struck him not bad.
“Then I’ll make a decision when we get there.”
Seeing that he had already been swayed somewhat, Yuwen Tong nodded. “Okay.”
He was going to marry Ling Zhang, so of course he wanted Ling Zhang to stay close to him. How could he allow Ling Zhang to live far away?
Several plans instantly crossed Yuwen Tong’s mind. He was a-hundred-percent sure that Ling Zhang would live in the mansion of Yuwen family after he entered the capital city.
Apart from these, Yuwen Tong also asked Ling Zhang many questions about his living habits. Though a lot of them had already come to his knowledge after his observation, there were still some he was unaware of.
Ling Zhang’s mind was brought to perplexity. “Even if I decide to stay in Yuwen family, somebody else is going to take care of these things. Why bother asking?”
“I’m more comfortable with taking care of your needs myself,” replied Yuwen Tong with a natural face.
But this remark made Ling Zhang’s heart flutter. He twisted his head aside and said, “Well, we can talk about these after we get to the capital city. There’s no need to make a decision right now. If you’ve got anything to deal with, just go.”
“Okay, then. Remember to inform me when you’re ready to tell Lord Ling.”
“I will.”
Bursting with impatience, Ling Zhang quickly saw Yuwen Tong out of the courtyard. Then he hurried back to his room and gulped down a cup of tea which had already gone cold. And with that, the weird feeling was finally allayed.
Yuwen Tong returned to the Green Bamboo Mansion and fished out that pamphlet. He read it carefully and then closed his eyes, replaying every detail of the six formations one by one in his mind. After confirming that he had lodged them firmly in his memory, he burnt the pamphlet.
Its existence meant a higher risk of leak.
Ling Zhang trusted him, but he couldn’t afford to put Ling Zhang in danger.
“Guard.”
“Marshal.”
His bodyguard showed up at the summons.
“Are there any messages from those responsible for finding out where Ling family got those formations?”
“Negative, Marshal.”
Yuwen Tong knitted his eyebrows. ‘Is it really so difficult? There has to be someone who taught Ling Zhang these formations. They couldn’t even get any information about the ident.i.ty of this person?’
“Keep me informed of any developments.”
“Yes, Your Lords.h.i.+p!”
…
After daybreak, servants of Lin family, after quite some inquiries, finally managed to find out what happened in Jia family the night before. It turned out that Jia Yin had been bitten by some poisonous bug and his body was covered with red, swollen, festering and extremely terrifying blebs. The illness had once been suspected to be smallpox, which brought all people of Jia family into horror.
Mrs. Lin’s spleen was dissolved considerably after hearing that people of Jia family had nearly been scared to death. She stealthily said to Lin Yuan, “I wonder how Childe Ling managed to do that.”
Lin Yuan replied, “Since Childe Ling avenged our sufferings, all we need to do is keep this favor in mind. How he did it is not something we are supposed to dig into.”
In embarra.s.sment, Mrs. Lin gave a nod of agreement. “You’re right, my dear.”
“Master, Mistress, I’ve also heard some other news,” the servant said.
“What is it?” Mrs. Lin asked him.
“It is rumored that last night Cao Dong, who’s responsible for managing the mine of Jia family, got drunk at a brothel. In front of a great many prost.i.tutes and guests, he openly claimed that Jia family was not afraid of Zhang Chong, that Zhang Chong had been secretly purchasing ore from Jia family’s mine and all transactions were recorded in an account book, that Jia family would hand the account book over to the authority if Zhang Chong dared to cause Jia family any harm,” replied the servant.
Mrs. Lin was struck dumb. Lin Yuan was astounded as well. “Did he really say that?”
The servant responded, “I think so. There are a lot of discussions about this matter out there. Incidentally, when I was making inquiries at the residence of Jia family, I saw a Yamen runner go there to deliver a visitor’s card. It seemed like Lord Tao was going to pay a visit to Jia family.”
Mrs. Lin said in a displeased tone of voice, “Jia family a.s.saulted you, yet Lord Tao still intended to go and check on Jia Yin?”
“No. It must be because of that account book that Cao Dong mentioned last night,” Lin Yuan observed. “I wonder if this matter has come to Lord Ling’s knowledge. Lee, go to Ling family and inform them what you’ve heard.”
The servant answered, “Yes, Master. I’ll see it done.”
The servant was a quick runner. He hurried to the residence of Ling family and required an audience with Ling Zhaowen, but Ling Zhaowen had gone to Prefecture Yamen, so it was Ling Zhang who came out to meet him.
After hearing the servant’s remarks, Ling Zhang gave a smile. “Please tell Supervisor Lin I’m grateful to him for his kind word of warning.”
Ling Zhang had Xia Feng tip the servant of Lin family and the servant happily took his leave.
“Young Master, since even people of Lin family have heard about this matter, the news must have spread across the whole Tanyang. I think it will come to Zhang Chong’s knowledge very soon,” observed Xia Feng.