The Glory After Rebirth [ɇÇ”Ÿä¹‹Å°Šè£] Chapter 292- 294

Chapter 292: An Uncle-Nephew Talk

Ling Zhaowu had quieted down and closed his eyes. Both the acupuncture treatment and the pill that Mr. Mu had given him had served to help him calm down and fall asleep, because this was the only way to have Ling Zhaowu stop digging deep into his memories.

Ji Yin put down Mr. Mu, who was too anxious to adjust his robes, took the medicine chest and fished out the needles again.

…

Two hours later, Mr. Mu walked outside and said wearily, “Since this place was familiar to him, the stimulus he was exposed to this time was more intense than any of the previous ones. In a day or two, after his condition stabilizes, I’ll administer the drug to him and then perform acupuncture on him. Right now I need to go and get some sleep, and then I’ll start making preparations.”

Everybody felt a sense of relief. After solemnly expressing his gratitude to Mr. Mu, Ling Zhaowen personally led him to a guest room to rest.

“Fortunately Mr. Mu is with us. I didn’t expect that the painting on the screen wall would stimulate my father’s mind so dramatically,” said Ling Zhang in a deep voice.

Ling Xingzhong, who seemed to have aged a couple of years in the last few moments, explained, “That painting was finished not long after your birth. To your father, it’s the work of all three members of his family.”

This was the first time that Ling Zhang had heard about this story behind that painting on the screen wall. During the past so many years, he had never paid any special attention to that painting.

Ji Yin flicked a glance at Ling Zhaowu who was sleeping inside, inwardly sighing. It had been lucky of his daughter to have met a man so infatuated with her, but pity…

“I’m really sorry, In-law. This is the first time that you’ve come to visit us, but we failed to receive you with due ceremonial.”

At the sight of Ji Yin, Ling Xingzhong subdued his grief. This in-law of his was too young – so young that he virtually seemed to be his son’s age. Ling Xingzhong felt that this was somewhat unreal, a faraway expression on his face.

Ji Yin said, “That doesn’t matter. Currently, treating Zhaowu’s illness is the most important thing. We’ll have a lot of time to get to know each other after he recovers.”

Seeing Ling Xingzhong’s tired face, Ling Zhang also said, “Grandfather, how about I walk you back to your room to have some rest? The rest of us will keep a close watch on my father.”

Ling Xingzhong shook his head, rose from his seat and headed towards the bedroom. “I want to check on him one more time.”

Ling Zhang looked at Ji Yin, who said, “I’ll be having a walk in the courtyard. You may go.”

Ling Zhang gave a nod, followed Ling Xingzhong into the bedroom, moved a chair to the bedside and helped him sit down.

The very sight of thin, pasty-faced Ling Zhaowu lying in bed made Ling Xingzhong’s heart ache. “Your father has been lying like this for over ten years?”

Ling Zhang replied, “Back in that year, my father was severely wounded. The leader of the Millennium Pavilion saved his life by reviving his cardiac meridian but was unable to help him make a quick recovery. He could only use medication to nurse his wounds. In addition, at that time there was probably something troubling my father’s mind, something he couldn’t let go, so he’d been in a coma for many years, and Mr. Mu had been taking care of his health for the duration. He unblocked my father’s meridians on a regular basis, keeping him alive.”

Ling Xingzhong inclined his head. After quite a long time, he said, “In the past, I was actually very angry with those people, and I had some complaints against your mother as well, believing that they were the reason why my son lost his mind, ran away from home and remained missing for over ten years. For a time I even thought he was dead. But now, I don’t blame them any more. I’m grateful to them for saving your father’s life and allowing us to be reunited with him.”

Ling Zhang consoled him, “Everything’s going to be fine.”

Ling Xingzhong patted his hand and said no more, gazing at Ling Zhaowu.

Ling Zhang twisted his head aside to look in the direction of the courtyard. Given his maternal grandfather’s powerful internal energy, he definitely had overheard this conversation.

Ling Xingzhong sat there for quite a while. It was not until he was unable to sit there any longer that he rose to his feet. When he stood up, he staggered owing to the partially blocked blood supply to his legs. Fortunately Ling Zhang was supporting him, but he was still startled and hurriedly said, “Grandfather, let me slowly walk you back to your chambers to have some rest. My father is ill. I can’t afford to let anything happen to you.”

It was a few moments before Ling Xingzhong felt better and sighed, “I’m a useless geriatric now.”

Ling Zhang felt another twinge of sorrow at this remark.

He slowly guided Ling Xingzhong back to his courtyard house, used a wet towel to wipe his face and hands clean, helped him take off his overgarment and lie down in a deck chair. Seeing him resting, Ling Zhang let out a sigh of relief.

“You should go back to keep an eye on your father. Don’t worry about me. I have Lao Li keeping me company,” said Ling Xingzhong.

Butler Li said, “Young Master, I’ll be here watching over Old Master Ling. There’s nothing for you to worry about.”

Ling Zhang was indeed concerned about his father’s condition, so he gave Butler Li some instructions and then left. Originally he had wanted to consult with his elders about a lot of things after returning home, but now was not the right time to talk about those matters, so he had no choice but to wait until another day.

After entering his own courtyard house, Ling Zhang walked up to Ji Yin. “Maternal Grandfather, my paternal grandfather meant no offence when he said the first half of his words just now.”

Ji Yin smiled, “You worry that I might take offence?”

Ling Zhang nodded, looking at him earnestly.

Ji Yin softly let out sigh. “It’s okay. I’ve some time ago anticipated all this. If I were him, I would have grudges as well. Besides, your paternal grandfather could only complain when he couldn’t find us; I would have gone much farther than that if I were in his shoes. So his reaction struck me as exceptionally understandable. You may rest assured that your maternal grandfather is not that weak in the mind.”

Ling Zhang made no more remarks after hearing this.

Ling Zhaowu slept for over four hours and awoke at noon. Ling Zhang and Ling Maomao were watching over him at the bedside.

Ling Maomao had sharp eyes and was the first to notice Ling Zhaowu wake up. Pleasantly surprised, he called, “Big Brother, uncle woke up.”

With Ling Zhaowu awaking, the mood in the residence lightened significantly, though he forgot about everything as usual and was resistant to and scared of this alien environment.

As Ling Zhang was someone familiar to him and Ling Maomao was a child, Ling Zhaowu followed at their heels at all times, as though frightened of being abandoned in this strange place.

“Don’t be afraid, Father. I’m not going to leave.”

“This is where I live. How about I show you around? I’ve been living in this place since childhood. There are a lot of stories I’d like to share with you. Are you interested?”

Ling Zhaowu nodded vigorously. “Yes!”

Ling Zhang heaved a sigh of relief. From the moment Ling Zhaowu had woken up, he’d been observing him all along, fearing that something in this courtyard house might cause Ling Zhaowu to lose control of himself again. Fortunately nothing had happened. However, this was probably because this house was not very familiar to Ling Zhaowu, and he barely had any memories of it.

Ling Zhang collected his thoughts and, along with Ling Maomao, took Ling Zhaowu for a walk around the courtyard at a gentle pace.

At first Ling Maomao had been astonished by Ling Zhaowu’s behavior, but gradually he had become used to it, and now he could converse with Ling Zhaowu in a normal manner. “Uncle, those bamboos were grown by my big brother. When I was younger, I went to that bamboo grove to play very often. I also dug bamboo shoots there.”

Ling Zhaowu’s attention was immediately attracted. He followed them into the bamboo grove behind Ling Zhang’s house. It was from the Green Bamboo Mansion next door that Ling Zhang had transplanted these bamboos. Behind the Green Bamboo Mansion was a much larger bamboo grove. It covered a wide area. Ling Zhaowu’s eyes brightened at the sight of it. “Zhang’er!”

Knowing what he wanted, Ling Zhang, along with Ling Maomao, took him out of his courtyard house, through a winding passageway, and into the Green Bamboo Mansion next door.

The interesting part was that Ling Zhaowen had been following them all along, a nervous look on his face, as though ready to take action at any moment in case his big brother had another seizure.

What his uncle was doing struck Ling Zhang as somewhat poignant. He waved at his uncle and said, “Uncle, come and join us.”

Ling Zhaowen hurried over immediately, but he didn’t get too close, staying a couple of paces away from Ling Zhaowu. Having been seeing his face all the time for two days, Ling Zhaowu had become familiar with him and was not resistant to him approaching.

The four of them entered the bamboo grove behind the Green Bamboo Mansion. Ling Zhaowu and Ling Maomao crouched down to look for bamboo shoots, while Ling Zhang and Ling Zhaowen were standing there watching.

“What a silly boy. This is not the season for bamboo shoots,” Ling Zhaowen teased his son.

Ling Zhang remarked, “Maomao is just trying to make my father happy.”

Ling Zhaowen said, “Have you received any messages from Marshal Yuwen?”

The smile fading slightly from his face, Ling Zhang shook his head. “No.”

Ling Zhaowen asked him, “What’s going on exactly? Horrible news has been coming in from the capital city every few days lately. It seems that the situation there is chaotic.”

As what Yuwen Tong planned to do would turn this country upside down, Ling Zhang didn’t dare tell Ling Zhaowen the truth and just said, “It’s just there’s a lot to attend to, so he went back to help. After all, so many members of the Yuwen family are in the capital city, and they need a decision-maker.”

Ling Zhaowen sighed, “He’s just ceded half of his military powers. I’m afraid things will… will be quite tough for him in the future.”

Ling Zhaowen had been too worried about Ling Zhaowu to care about anything else since he’d met them two days ago, but he had hunches about some matters. “I want you to be honest with me. What’s His Majesty’s take on the Yuwen family exactly?”

Ling Zhang kept silent. Ling Zhaowen’s brows furrowed. “Is it very tricky?”

After a few moments’ silence, Ling Zhang chose to confide a small part of it in the knowledge that his uncle was now the pillar of the Ling family. “It is tricky, but… we’re working on it. To settle this matter was the very reason why Yuwen Tong went back to the capital city this time.”

“Settle? How? And how big is this trouble exactly?” Ling Zhaowen had an intuition that Ling Zhang was keeping the key part back from him.

“Even if the emperor doesn’t take action to eliminate the Yuwen family right away, he will do it in a year or two,” observed Ling Zhang.

His frown instantaneously deepening, Ling Zhaowen looked at him and demanded, “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? Even if you’d told me just before leaving for the Millennium Pavilion, I would’ve figured out a way to–”

“To break off my engagement to Yuwen Tong?” Ling Zhang stared at him.

Ling Zhaowen averted his gaze. “This could lead to the extermination of our whole family, and I cannot watch you walking towards the edge of a precipice.”

Ling Zhang said, “Uncle, I’m not going to abandon him. I know that if I marry him and his plan turns out to be unsuccessful, our family will be incriminated, which is why I’ve arranged an escape route for our family already – if we fail in the capital city, you are to leave Tanyang immediately with my father and grandfather and all the others and then go to South Xinjiang by boat.”

Ling Zhaowen looked at him in astonishment. “You…”

Then he lowered his voice and said, “What are you two up to? Do you by any chance want to–”

Ling Zhang interrupted him, “Uncle, we can’t sit awaiting our doom. Actually, no matter whether I marry Yuwen Tong or not, after all that’s happened, the emperor has long since regarded our family as no less of an enemy than the Yuwen family is, and under no circumstances would he spare us, so we might as well make a last-ditch effort with all our might.”

Ling Zhaowen was shocked and it was quite a while before he came to himself. “We need to have a good long talk about it after Mr. Mu administers the drug to your father and performs acupuncture on him in a day or two.”

“Okay,” Ling Zhang answered. Another talk about this matter was a must.

Ling Zhaowu had been crouching looking for bamboo shoots for quite some time, but he hadn’t found a single one so far. Annoyed, he rose to his feet. “I don’t want to do this any more.”

Somewhat worried, Ling Maomao looked at him, fearing that he would feel it very boring to stay at home. “Uncle, how about we go and see my big brother’s drawings? He draws beautifully. I can also take you to see Ada, our dog. He’s been suffering from loss of appetite over the past few days and doesn’t feel like walking. I don’t know what’s wrong with him.”

Ling Zhaowu’s attention was diverted away. “See drawings. See Ada.”

Face creasing into a smile, Ling Maomao took Ling Zhaowu’s hand and said, “Well, let’s go then.”

Chapter 293: Poisoning, Entry into the Capital City

Two days later, all of them gathered in Ling Zhang’s courtyard house. In the bedroom, Mr. Mu had had Ling Zhaowu ingest the pill given by the leader of the Millennium Pavilion and was now performing acupuncture on him. Everybody was waiting for Mr. Mu to come out and tell them things went well. Even Ling Maomao was sitting quietly, gazing in the direction of the doorway, a mixture of worry and anticipation in his eyes.

After about an hour, Mr. Mu walked out of the bedroom. He didn’t look very well, face full of fatigue.

Hearts of those waiting for him lurched at the sight of this, all of them somewhat afraid to ask him about it.

Eventually, Ling Zhang stepped up. “Mr. Mu, how’s my father’s condition?”

Mr. Mu answered, “Very stable. The pill is taking effect. Although he’s going to be asleep for two days, his mental trauma will be healed during the process and he won’t feel any pain. All we have to do now is wait for him to wake up in two days. Barring accidents, he’ll remember everything by then.”

Everybody heaved a sigh of relief at these words, their tension dissolving substantially.

“You look rather tired. Let me walk you to your room to get some rest.”

Ling Zhang also felt relieved. Knowing that Mr. Mu’s weariness was the result of performing acupuncture with rapt attention for too long, he offered to walk Mr. Mu to his room to rest.

Mr. Mu waved his hand. “Having a servant walk me there will do. You may go inside to see him, but don’t get too close, and don’t make any noise to disturb him.”

“Thank you, Mr. Mu. You’re really our savior.” Ling Xingzhong solemnly made a deep bow.

Mr. Mu hurriedly raised him. “There’s no need for such formalities, Old Master Ling. I’m just doing my duties as a physician.”

Ling Xingzhong was very grateful and thanked him again and again. After Mr. Mu talked with him for a while, Ling Zhaowen said to Ling Xingzhong, “Father, we should let Mr. Mu have some rest.”

It was only then that Mr. Mu was rid of the conversation and went to his room to rest.

And then they entered the bedroom to check on Ling Zhaowu in batches, strictly following Mr. Mu’s instructions, maintaining a certain distance away from the bed, not making any noises.

After checking on Ling Zhaowu, Ling Zhang said, “I’ll be here watching over my father. Paternal Grandfather, Maternal Grandfather, you both waited here for a long time and need to go have some rest.”

The two elders inclined their heads. In the knowledge that this was not the right place to talk, they took the lead and left the house, heading for the outer living room to sit.

Ling Zhang stayed, keeping an eye on Ling Zhaowu. He couldn’t help but wonder what he should say to Ling Zhaowu first when he woke up two days later. Ling Zhaowu would be a different person after recovering from his amnesia. When Ling Zhaowu had no memories of the past, Ling Zhang could talk to him in a relaxed way, but he couldn’t do the same when faced with a Ling Zhaowu who remembered everything. Actually, the two of them were almost strangers to each other… Furthermore, he still had a lot of questions the answers to which only Ling Zhaowu could provide.

…

Under the night sky, a rider on a fast horse streaked through the city gates of Tanyang just before the guards closed them. He galloped to the front gates of the Ling family and knocked.

Butler Li ran into Ling Zhang’s courtyard house in great haste, walked up to the door of the bedroom and reported anxiously in a low voice, “Young Master! Young Master! Something happened. Master wants you to go to the ante-room immediately!”

Ling Zhang was sitting at Ling Zhaowu’s bedside reading a book. On hearing Butler Li’s voice, he furrowed his brows, put down his book and went outside. “What happened?”

“Someone from the capital city delivered a message here. Something happened to the Marshal,” said Butler Li in anxiety.

With a twitch in his forehead, Ling Zhang instantly took to his heels.

He entered the ante-room and found that the messenger was Miao Shisan, a foreboding feeling rising in him. “What happened?!”

Miao Shisan was too concerned to pay his respects to Ling Zhang first before answering the question. “Childe Ling, the Marshal encountered some assassins on his way to the capital city and got some kind of poisoning. His life is in danger.”

Ling Zhang was momentarily winded by the shocking news. “How’s that possible? Who could hurt him?!”

Miao Shisan gave a minute account of what had happened.

Miao Shisan and other bodyguards who had been waiting in Wu City all along had set off for the capital city immediately after receiving Yuwen Tong’s message, and rendezvoused with Yuwen Tong before entering the capital city, but got intercepted and ringed by a large assassin group over a hundred strong, all of whom were top-notch kung fu experts and seemed to be lying in ambush waiting for Yuwen Tong to return for quite some time.

Each of Yuwen Tong’s bodyguards was powerful enough to handle ten assassins; also, Wang Dashan and the others had arrived in time and trapped a dozen enemies, so eventually they’d managed to fight off the assassins. They had thought that the crisis had been resolved, but when they’d returned to the capital city, Yuwen Tong had found himself unable to circulate his internal energy smoothly. Suspicious, he’d had his body examined and discovered that he’d been poisoned. Those assassins had poisoned their own clothes. Yuwen Tong had just accidentally skinned his palm during the fight, but the poison had actually gone into his body because of it. Since the poison had never caused any discomfort, he hadn’t noticed it until he’d returned to the city.

After detecting the poison in his body, he had immediately swallowed an alexipharmic pill, and Xie Shi had promptly set out to detoxify the poisonous substance for Yuwen Tong, but it’d never crossed his mind that he’d make things even worse by doing this!

The mastermind seemed to have some time ago come to know that Yuwen Tong had someone adept in detoxifying poison at his command, and they’d actually turned this to their advantage and laid a trap for Yuwen Tong.

Xie Shi had thought that he was detoxifying the poison in Yuwen Tong, but in fact at the same time he’d been activating another poison that was hiding deeper and also of a higher level of toxicity. Its name was Mrs. Pistil.

This was a poison created by Mrs. Pistil, a consummate Jianghu poison master living in the previous dynasty. The ingredients of it were very scarce, so the antidote to it was also very rare. On top of that, the reason why this poison was world-famous was not only because it was hard to prepare and hard to detoxicate, but also because it was barely detectable after entering a human body. Without coming into contact with a certain stimulus, it could incubate for a decade or even several decades, and once stimulated, it would take effect immediately. As it could infiltrate into a human body with other poisons and lurk behind them, common physicians were totally unable to detect its existence. If someone tried to detoxify the other poisons that Mrs. Pistil hid behind, it would instantaneously be activated and quickly started to attack the victim’s cardiac meridian, and once the cardiac meridian was shielded, Mrs. Pistil would target other internal organs. It was a very cunning poison.

Mrs. Pistil had specially created this poison to take revenge on her lover who had forsaken her. After her love for him turned into deep hatred, she had sworn to kill him, which she knew would be very difficult to do, given his superb kung fu and medical skills. As a result, she had created this poison and successfully taken her lover’s life with it in the end. After that, people in Jianghu had directly named this poison after Mrs. Pistil.

Yuwen Tong, after being informed that the poison inside him was Mrs. Pistil, had immediately shielded his cardiac meridian with his internal energy, but the poison had spread to his other internal organs, causing his bodily functions to deteriorate quickly. Xie Shi had had a pill that could detoxicate almost all poisonous substances, but it had only served to dampen the toxicity of Mrs. Pistil and couldn’t detoxify it.

Apart from telling Ling Zhang about the life-threatening danger Yuwen Tong was facing, Miao Shisan had also made this trip to ask Mr. Mu for help, because Yuwen Tong was now pinning his faith on Mr. Mu’s superlative medical skills. If even Mr. Mu was unable to rid his body of the poison, he would have no alternative but to risk giving up most of his plans and directly leading his army southwards to take the capital city as quick as possible. If things really came to that, he wanted Ling Zhang to immediately go to South Xinjiang with all members of the Ling family while the capital city was in chaos.

All the color quickly drained from Ling Zhang’s face. If that was really what the future held in store, it was only too obvious how Yuwen Tong and other members of the Yuwen family would end up!

“Mr. Mu, can you save him?!” Ling Zhang’s eyes immediately flashed at Mr. Mu.

Mr. Mu raised his hand and bobbed it several times, motioning for him to chill out and sit down. “I can. This poison named Mrs. Pistil was very famous in the previous dynasty, and my ancestors had done some research into it. There are two methods of detoxifying it. The first one is to find the antidote, and the second is to neuter it forcefully.”

“What is the antidote to it?” Ling Zhang immediately asked.

Mr. Mu shook his head. “To my knowledge, the kind of herb that is the most precious ingredient of the antidote has become extinct. The place where the imperial household of the Xia retreated to after losing the war was the only area in which that kind of herb grew. The three sides besieging the imperial household turned the whole place into an inferno, burning everything and everybody in it to ashes. What with the horrible bloodshed, no plant has ever grown in that place for hundreds of years.”

Ling Zhang clenched his fists. “Then what about the second method?”

“It is viable, but he could only live for another twenty years at the most.”

Ling Zhang was stupefied, his face utterly ashen. After a while, as though something had just occurred to him, he quickly fished out the medicinal jade pendant around his neck and looked at Mr. Mu with an expectant face. “What about this medicinal jade pendant? Could it detoxify that goddamn poison?!”

Mr. Mu exchanged glances with Ji Yin, who shook his head and replied, “One of the main ingredient of this poison named Mrs. Pistil is also very rare. It is rumored that the herb used to grow in South Xinjiang, but the species had already died out before the downfall of the Xia, which means that this kind of poison should’ve ceased to exist a long time ago. It’s so surprising someone still has it at their disposal.”

Ling Zhang held the jade pendant tightly, the gleam of hope in his eyes fading. “But isn’t this medicinal jade pendant capable of detoxifying all kinds of poisons?”

“Only a miracle drug could detoxify a poison the ingredients of which include another miracle drug,” said Ji Yin. “There’s only one kind of miracle drug in the Millennium Pavilion, and it’s exceptionally precious. This medicinal jade pendant doesn’t contain its active constituent.”

Ling Zhang was slightly astonished to hear this. “Does that mean…”

Ji Yin chuckled, “Yes. You have the antidote right in your hand.”

Overjoyed, Ling Zhang slumped into a chair, as though drained of energy, the look on his face suggesting how lucky he felt he was. “I was nearly scared to death, Grandfather, Mr. Mu. Why didn’t you tell me directly?”

Miao Shisan was somewhat confused. Originally he’d been having a heavy heart, believing that the Marshal might not be able to survive, but what was going on? It seemed that things had taken a favorable turn. But he still couldn’t understand.

Ji Yin’s face grew grave, his piercing eyes gazing at Ling Zhang. “But you need to take this seriously. It takes many years for the herb to yield a fruit. The Clan Leader has only managed to prepare a couple of pills during the past twenty years. This time, the Clan Leader made an exception and gave you two pills, dashing a lot of clan members’ hopes to pieces. There’s no way he would give you another pill. If you use the pill on Yuwen boy, it’s very likely that you would never be able to reach the twelfth layer for the rest of your life, so you must think this through!”

Ling Zhang felt that he didn’t need to think about it at all. In his eyes, the so-called “twelfth layer of the cultivation method” was nothing but a pie in the sky. All previous leaders of the Millennium Pavilion had been stuck at the eleventh layer, and that foreseer living in the time of the first emperor of the Xia had been the only one in recorded history who’d succeeded in reaching the twelfth layer. Given the probability of success, it wouldn’t take much thinking for one to know how difficult that was. Besides, he didn’t really want to achieve this goal that bad. When it came to a choice between a chance to reach the twelfth layer and saving Yuwen Tong’s life, of course he would choose the latter.

“I’ll go to the capital city with you,” Ling Zhang said to Miao Shisan without a second thought. “Wait here. I’ll start packing right away.”

“Maternal Grandfather, Mr. Mu, Paternal Grandfather, Uncle, please take good care of my father.”

His father had already taken the pill. With Mr. Mu treating him, he would no doubt make a full recovery. Although Ling Zhang would very much like to wait for his father to wake up, Yuwen Tong was in such dire danger that he had to go to his rescue right away.

Ling Xingzhong gave a nod and looked at Ji Yin.

Ji Yin said to Ling Zhang with a sigh, “Just go. We’ll watch over your father.”

Ling Zhang hurriedly left. Ji Yin and Mr. Mu appeared rather serious. After quite a while, Ji Yin let out another sigh.

Mr. Mu said, “Why didn’t you tell him that with the strong Force of Blood in him, he would without a doubt reach the twelfth layer if he takes the pill? Now it’s become uncertain.”

Ji Yin said, “To him, that Yuwen boy’s life is of greater importance. Besides, our clan leader wants to cooperate with Yuwen Tong, so naturally, it’s best if he survives.”

Mr. Mu gave a smile. “Also, he’s your grandson-in-law, right?”

Ling Xingzhong and Ling Zhaowen couldn’t quite understand, but Miao Shisan seemed to have faintly fathomed out part of the conversation.

Chapter 294: Retrieval of Memory

Ling Zhang hastily finished packing and then went to check on his father one last time. “Father, I need to pay a visit to the capital city. I hope you’ll understand and forgive me for leaving after you wake up. You and I still have so much to talk about.”

After taking his leave of Ling Zhaowu, Ling Zhang left Tanyang in great haste with Miao Shisan, galloping non-stop towards the capital city.

…

One day later. In the Ling family.

This was the day when Ling Zhaowu was supposed to wake up with all his memories recovered. All people in the Ling family were waiting.

Mr. Mu went into the room to feel Ling Zhaowu’s pulse every two hours. At noon, Ling Zhaowu who’d been in deep sleep all along finally began to show signs of awaking.

Ling Xingzhong, Ling Zhaowen, Fu Caiwei, Ling Maomao, Ji Yin and Mr. Mu were all standing at the bedside, gazing expectantly at Ling Zhaowu who was slowly opening his eyes after a twitch of his fingers.

Ling Zhaowen was the first to lose his composure and called in excitement, “Big Brother!”

Ling Zhaowu’s eyes were still somewhat glazed when he opened them, but gradually, emotions began to show in them, and the expression in them was no longer as vacant as a piece of blank paper. On hearing Ling Zhaowen’s voice, he turned his head around to look at him.

“Younger…Brother?” Maybe because he hadn’t used this form of address for too long, Ling Zhaowu sounded very inarticulate and even his voice was trembling. His eyes fixed incredulously at Ling Zhaowen and then slowly moved to Ling Xingzhong. “Father!”

“Big Brother!” Ling Zhaowen stepped closer in rapture. “You can remember? You remember us now?!”

Ling Zhaowu’s eyes quickly reddened, his lips quivering. “I never thought I’d be able to see you again. This is not a dream, right?”

“Stop the nonsense, Big Brother. You’re home now. Our family is reunited!” said Ling Zhaowen.

Ling Xingzhong also walked over and sighed in excitement, “Finally, you wake up, you unfilial son. You’re already a grown man. How could you be so reckless and make such a mess of yourself? All of us have been on pins and needles.”

With Ling Zhaowen’s help, Ling Zhaowu sat up, removed the quilt over him, struggled out of bed and knelt down before Ling Xingzhong, tears trickling down his cheeks. “Father, I failed you. I’m an undutiful son!”

After saying this, he started kowtowing repeatedly, making a loud bang each time his forehead hit the ground. This sight struck everybody else present as unbearably poignant.

Apart from anything else, Ling Xingzhong still loved his son. Seeing that Ling Zhaowu had skinned his forehead but still refused to stop, he reproached, “That’s enough. Stand up right away. Your body is still so feeble. Physician Mu had a hard job curing you. If anything else happens to you, how am I supposed to survive?!”

Ling Zhaowen conveniently supported Ling Zhaowu to his feet. “You should stand up and sit on your bed, Big Brother. You’ll need more rest and nourishment to make a full recovery.”

After being raised up, Ling Zhaowu was still a little unsteady on his feet. Tottering, he sobbed, “I’m useless. I’m so useless!”

Eyes red, Ling Xingzhong flared, “Sit down. Now!”

Ling Zhaowen helped Ling Zhaowu sit back onto the bed, two streams of tears flowing from his eyes. “Big Brother, you must take your health seriously. We cannot afford to let anything else happen to you.”

All three of them were quite emotional, which made the others feel it inappropriate to disturb them. After a while, when the three of them calm down somewhat, Fu Caiwei, bringing Ling Maomao with her, stepped over to introduce herself to Ling Zhaowu as a courtesy.

“Nice to meet you, Big Brother. I’m your sister-in-law.”

“Nice to meet you, Uncle. I’m your nephew.”

Ling Zhaowu hurriedly raised his hands and carelessly wiped the tears off his face with his sleeves. Eyes staring at Fu Caiwei and Ling Maomao, he hurriedly said, “Nice to meet you, too. Nice to meet you, too.”

Then he reached out his hand at Ling Maomao, who stepped up, held it and called him uncle once again.

Ling Zhaowu stretched out his other hand to stroke Ling Maomao’s cheek. Eyes red, he said, “Alas, my dear nephew, I finally meet you.”

This remark sounded somewhat weird. Members of the Ling family were too delighted to perceive the abnormality of it, but Mr. Mu and Ji Yin exchanged glances after hearing it.

“You’ve grown so much. It’s very useless of me not to have found a chance to meet you earlier,” Ling Zhaowu continued.

“Big Brother, our family is reunited now. We’ll never part again,” observed Ling Zhaowen.

Holding Ling Maomao in his arms, Ling Zhaowu looked up at his brother’s cheeks with his deep, affectionate eyes. Suddenly, he lowered his head and raised his hand to wipe the corners of his eyes. “You’re right. We’ll be together forever. Alas, this really feels like a dream, and I really fear that when this dream is over, I’d wake up and find that I’m still that…”

“What did you just say, Brother?” Ling Zhaowen didn’t quite hear the latter half of Ling Zhaowu’s mutter, looking at him in puzzlement.

Ling Zhaowu hastily shook his head. “Nothing. I just feel that this is kind of unreal, and I’m worried I’m in a dream.”

“It’s very easy to confirm whether or not you’re in a dream,” Mr. Mu said with a beam, took a step forward, suddenly took out a needle and stuck it into one of Ling Zhaowu’s acupoints.

Ling Zhaowu shuddered and gasped from pain, as though every nerve in his body tensed fleetingly. His mind instantly became clearer.

After Mr. Mu pulled the needle out of his skin, Ling Zhaowu’s eyes slowly swept across every face in the room with a mixture of incredulity, yearning and a strange inscrutability in them, as though he was thinking back to the distant past.

Eventually, his eyes rested on Ji Yin and he called, “Father-in-law.”

Ji Yin’s heart gave a lurch. “It seems that you’ve regained your memories of what happened half a year before.”

Ling Zhaowu released Ling Maomao, walked up to Ji Yin, knelt down and kowtowed to him. “Thank you for saving my life, Father-in-law.”

Ji Yin raised him to his feet. “Helping you recover is the best way to comfort my deceased daughter’s spirit. Also, I did this to pay back the debt I owe you.”

Ling Zhaowu shook his head, his eyes gazing at Ji Yin deeply. “No. I failed to take good care of her. It was all my fault.”

At the mention of Ji shi, Ling Zhaowen and the others were rather worried that Ling Zhaowu might become as bigoted as he’d been when he’d left home years ago, but to their surprise, they found that Ling Zhaowu appeared quite poised and there was no trace on him whatsoever of that fickle, intransigent man he’d been over ten years ago, as though he was a whole new person.

Then Ling Zhaowu knelt before Mr. Mu and expressed his gratitude to him for saving his life. After that, his eyes slowly raked everybody else in the room once again, as though they were some kind of treasure that he had previously lost and just recovered. This struck the others as a little odd, but they all believed that it was because he was having a sense of unreality after suffering from amnesia for so many years.

But most of them failed to notice that Ling Zhaowu’s clenched fists were shivering, as though he was trying very hard to subdue something.

“Where’s Zhang’er?” asked Ling Zhaowu. Having observed that Ling Zhang wasn’t present, he shifted his gaze to the doorway, expectantly waiting to see Ling Zhang show up.

The others exchanged looks and then Ling Zhaowen explained, “There’s an emergency in the capital city. Yesterday Zhang’er went back there on short notice to attend to it.”

“What happened?!” Ling Zhaowu persisted with his questioning, the worry and fear on his face manifest.

Ling Zhaowen told him about Yuwen Tong’s being poisoned. “Zhang’er went to the capital city to deliver the antidote. Originally he’d wanted to wait until you woke up, but that matter was great urgency, so he had no choice but to go there immediately.”

Ling Zhaowu slowly heaved a sigh of relief, but his eyebrows were still knitted, a deeply worried expression on his face.

In addition, the look in his eyes suggested that what was happening struck him as somewhat illusory, as though he was terribly baffled by something.

He had gradually recalled what had happened during the past half a year. Most importantly, his memories of the things that had occurred over the last month had come back to him. He remembered his son’s great presence and handsome looks, the way he’d called him father, how he’d held his hand and looked after him; he remembered Ling Zhang saying there was a lot of things he’d like to ask him about; and he also remembered Yuwen Tong…

But these memories seemed to be making Ling Zhaowu more bemused, surprise and bewilderment hidden in the depths of his eyes.

“Brother, your body is still feeble. Given that you’ve just regained your memory, it’s inadvisable for you to think too much. You should stay in bed and have some more rest,” remarked Ling Zhaowen.

Mr. Mu also said, “Lie down and let me examine you once again.”

With a somewhat faraway expression on his face, Ling Zhaowu walked to the bed, sat down and then looked up at Mr. Mu very earnestly, as though trying to find some kind of traces on Mr. Mu’s face. Mr. Mu was unsurprised. It seemed that he believed anybody who had suffered amnesia for a long time would act like this. “There’s no need to hurry. I know that you have a lot of questions. You may ask them one by one. Just now you felt the pain, so you should know that this is not a dream.”

Ling Zhaowu bobbed his head, his face growing more relaxed. He sat leaning against the headboard to let Mr. Mu feel his pulse and examine his body, his eyes looking over Mr. Mu at the others.

“What year is it? Ho–How long was I asleep?”

Ling Zhaowen told him what year it was and how long it had been since he’d left home.

The look in Ling Zhaowu’s eyes gradually became thoughtful. There was no telling what he was pondering about. After a few moments, he asked another two questions. “What happened during the many years that I was away from home? Is our family facing any trouble?”

Ling Zhaowen generally filled him in on the big events that the Ling family had been through during the past over ten years. Then he added, “Speaking of trouble, a few months ago we were indeed faced with some tricky issues, but we’ve got all of them handled already. Currently, we count as one of the most powerful families in Tanyang. Hardly anybody dares mess with us.”

The expression in Ling Zhaowu’s eyes changed at these words and with that he looked at Ling Zhaowen.

Seeing that he wanted to know the details, Ling Zhaowen gave him a minute account of what happened in Tanyang half a year ago, including Zhang Chong, the Jia family, Yuwen Tong’s arrival as well as the new configuration of Tanyang.

“We own three herb farms now. Doing my job in the yamen and managing the herb farms at the same time is driving me crazy. Now that you’ve come back, you’ll be able to replace me as the pillar of our family, and I’ll finally get some leisure.” Ling Zhaowen appeared to be greatly relieved at the prospect of someone sharing his burden.

Ling Zhaowu said in a guilty tone of voice, “I’m sorry to have put my part of the familial responsibility on your shoulder for so many years.”

While he was making this remark, there was some kind of gleam in the depths of his eyes.

After examining Ling Zhaowu, Mr. Mu said, “Okay. You two may find another time to continue your talk. You’ve just woken up and shouldn’t think about anything for too long. It’s best if you rest for another two days before talking about these matters with others.”

“Mr. Mu, how is my brother’s physical condition? He’ll never suffer from headache and amnesia again, right?” inquired Ling Zhaowen.

Mr. Mu inclined his head. “Rest assured, his illness is cured. With a rest cure and some tonics, he’ll be as good as new.”

People of the Ling family were overjoyed to hear this and thanked Mr. Mu again and again.

“You should get some rest, Big Brother. When you feel better, I’ll tell you everything you want to know,” Ling Zhaowen said to Ling Zhaowu.