The Glory After Rebirth [ɇÇ”Ÿä¹‹Å°Šè£] Chapter 58- 60

Chapter 58: A Small and Narrow Carriage

Yuwen Tong gazed at Ling Zhang for a while. Right at the instant when Ling Zhang couldn’t help but feel uneasy beneath his gaze, Yuwen Tong said, “This carriage is sure to be spotted when we pass by the station of Prefecture Guard. There’s a high risk that my identity will be exposed if I follow you on horseback.”

Ling Zhang’s brow corrugated in a brief frown. Indeed, Yuwen Tong couldn’t afford to be exposed, given the circumstances. Though eager to have him get off the carriage, Ling Zhang forbore from doing so eventually and bade the driver depart. “Let’s go.” The driver raised his horsewhip, gave an order to the wheelers and the carriage started moving.

Ling Zhang was very uneasy with Yuwen Tong’s presence. Not only was the whole carriage filled with Yuwen Tong’s breath, but also he took up half of the room, which made physical contact inevitable. Ling Zhang’s body involuntarily tightened, and his nerves went tense as well. All his attention was concentrated on this small, narrow space.

“Elder Brother?” Ling Maomao, who was leaning against Ling Zhang, also felt uncomfortable after Ling Zhang tensed his muscles. With his mental acumen, the little boy sensed Ling Zhang’s unusual reaction, looking at him with a puzzled face.

Ling Zhang lowered his head and flicked a glimpse at him, saying, “What’s wrong?”

Ling Maomao directly stretched out his hand and stroked Ling Zhang’s body, curling his lip. “Uncomfortable.”

Ling Zhang understood and his muscles went even tenser, because he distinctly heard Yuwen Tong chuckle.

“It’s hard,” Ling Maomao added.

Ling Zhang softly slapped Ling Maomao’s little butt and said, “Sit by yourself.”

Ling Maomao pouted and reluctantly moved aside to sit by himself, but Yuwen Tong stretched out his long arm, put it around Ling Maomao and drew him over.

Ling Maomao widened his eyes in surprise and soon discovered that Yuwen Tong’s chest was broader, thicker than that of his elder brother and more comfortable to sprawl in. As if having just found something amazing, he delightedly leaned against Yuwen Tong’s chest and said, “Thank you, Elder Brother Yuwen.”

Ling Zhang was very unhappy to see Ling Maomao gladly let Yuwen Tong hold him. “Maomao, don’t be impolite. Come here.”

Ling Maomao was just about to stand up after hearing this when Yuwen Tong pressed his hands on Ling Maomao’s shoulders and said, “It’s okay. Just sit with me. I don’t mind.”

Without any hesitation, Ling Maomao sat back.

Ling Zhang darted an angry glance at him.

Ling Maomao, who happened to be looking outside scratching his head, didn’t see this.

But Yuwen Tong did, a meaningful smile in his eyes.

Ling Zhang’s expression briefly froze and he withdrew his gaze.

Fortunately, Yuwen Tong merely rested his eyes on Ling Zhang’s face for a while. He made no other remarks to irritate him further.

The horse-drawn carriage progressed along the path. When they were crossing the woods outside the station of Prefecture Guard, Ling Zhang specially raised a corner of the curtain to look outside. As expected, he saw someone on a watchtower staring in his direction. And then someone went down the watchtower, probably heading for Zhang Chong’s place to report.

The look in Ling Zhang’s eyes went sullen.

“Commander, Ling Zhang’s carriage is going back to the city.” In the station of Prefecture Guard, someone immediately reported to Zhang Chong.

“This is too soon. Send some men to Ling family’s herb farm and check. See if Ling Zhang really left,” Zhang Chong said coldly.

“Commander, should we continue arresting Ling family’s herb farmers if he’s already left?” asked the Deputy Commander.

Zhang Chong said with a chilly face, “Once he returns to the city, it won’t be easy to lure him here again, but even if we can’t kill Ling Zhang for the moment, we can make life difficult for people of Ling family. Stick to the plan. I don’t believe Ling family will keep standing by after problems arise.”

“Yes,” answered the Deputy Commander.

The carriage jolted along the way for a long time. Eventually, Ling Zhang couldn’t hold it any longer. He relaxed his tense muscles, leaned against the inside of the carriage and stealthily moved his hands to his back, gently massaging it.

Yuwen Tong suddenly raised Ling Maomao to put him down into the seat beside him and then said to Ling Zhang, “I’ll be back in two hours.”

With that Yuwen Tong left.

The moment Yuwen Tong left, that intense aura about him disappeared. Ling Zhang involuntarily felt relieved and all his muscles also fully relaxed.

“Where did Elder Brother Yuwen go?” Ling Maomao opened the curtain to look outside out of curiosity and was amazed to discover that Yuwen Tong had disappeared in the blink of an eye.

Ling Zhang had no idea where Yuwen Tong had gone either. That man had superb lightness skills and was able to appear out of nowhere and disappear into thin air, which was really horrifying.

“Forget about him. Be careful. Don’t crane out of the carriage,” said Ling Zhang.

However, while making these remarks, he couldn’t help wondering where Yuwen Tong was heading.

That extremely faint scent left by Yuwen Tong still lingered in the carriage. This scent was not that of some kind of incense but an inexplicable smell, which was still affecting his thoughts.

He couldn’t understand. Given what had happened in his last incarnation, Yuwen Tong wasn’t supposed to be in Tanyang. How come the butler so coincidentally encountered him…

Wait… In his last life, the butler didn’t go to the capital city, which meant that by no means could Yuwen Tong have met the butler even if he went to the capital city at that time!

Ling Zhang’s face briefly changed. He suddenly realized that maybe his breaking off the engagement ahead of schedule was the exact reason why the butler met Yuwen Tong, which caused him to change his mind and come to Tanyang.

So it was his decision which led to all this?

While Ling Zhang was annoyed with himself, Yuwen Tong quietly returned to the station of Prefecture Guard after leaving the horse-drawn carriage. Ling Zhang had told him that Zhang Chong had been purchasing ore. He decided to come here and see it with his own eyes. Around the station of Prefecture Guard was vast emptiness, and the top of that hill in the herb farm of Ling family was the only spot suitable to observe the station.

Standing on the hilltop, he could see the whole station of Prefecture Guard. There was a forest of tents in it, along with several large-scale drill fields. As he saw the defense disposition in its main areas and the large quantity of troops walking around, the look in Yuwen Tong’s eyes went cold. Every year, local authority of Tanyang submitted reports on bandit suppression to the Imperial Court, which contained the number of casualties Prefecture Guard suffered. Zhang Chong requested additional fresh soldiers to supplement his army in every report. There must have been some dirty tricks. Were the casualties really that heavy? Not necessarily. The scale of this station was far larger than that of the station of any other army in any other prefecture. It was almost as large as the one in Sheng Zhou. Sheng Zhou was a border city, so its Prefecture Guard deemed a defense line. But why were there so many troops in Tanyang?

It was merely because of some people’s ulterior motives.

But he had fought so hard to defend this country. He wouldn’t allow those people to steal the fruit.

…

After two hours, the carriage returned to Tanyang.

Before they entered the city, Yuwen Tong suddenly materialized again and sat back into the carriage.

“Wow, your kung fu is so good, Elder Brother Yuwen.” This time, Ling Maomao saw Yuwen Tong come back by performing lightness skill, his eyes wide open with amazement.

“This is lightness skill. Do you want to learn it?” Yuwen Tong said.

“Yes!” Ling Maomao answered aloud in haste.

Ling Maomao’s reaction gave Ling Zhang a headache, who then rubbed his temples to ease it. Seeing that Ling Maomao was fixedly staring at Yuwen Tong with expectant eyes, Ling Zhang couldn’t help thinking, ‘This brat doesn’t worry that Yuwen Tong might be a bad guy. He’s bold enough to agree to anything.”

The carriage slowly entered Ling Family where Ling Xingzhong and Ling Zhaowen had already been waiting in anxiety.

In the morning, Yuwen Tong told them that he was going out for a walk, but he disappeared in the blink of an eye, which terribly scared them. Fortunately, Yuwen Tong was thoughtful enough to send a man back to tell them his whereabouts. Otherwise the two of them would have searched the whole Tanyang.

But after being informed of Yuwen Tong’s whereabouts, they had their hearts in their mouths.

There was a wide range of choices open to him. Why did he have to go to the herb farm?

Yuwen Tong must really have a plan for Zhang’er, didn’t he?

While Ling Xingzhong was considering the possibility of Yuwen Tong and Ling Zhang working together, Ling Zhaowen had begun to worry about Ling Zhang. As the only one who knew about the dreams that Ling Zhang had been having, Ling Zhaowen was well aware of Yuwen family’s attitudes in Ling Zhang’s dreams, so he was not at all as optimistic as Ling Xingzhong was.

The carriage stopped in front of them. Yuwen Tong was the first one to get out of it. Then they saw Ling Maomao jump off. Ling Zhang was the last one to get off.

Chapter 59: Call Me Brother

Ling Zhang was stopped by Yuwen Tong before he could get off the carriage. He glanced at the crowd and found they were looking at him and Yuwen Tong with strange eyes. So he withdrew his anger and stared at Yuwen Tong. “I can get off the carriage by myself.”

Yuwen Tong put his hand back and stood there looking at Ling Zhang.

Ling Zhang “…”

Just as he was ready to jumped off the carriage, an unknown thing hit his knee, which weakened his foot.

Then he was immediately caught before falling and carried down from the carriage!

Ling Zhang swore that he heard the gasps of the people around.

“You!” Although Ling Zhang didn’t know what hit him, his instincts told him it was Yuwen Tong’s trick!

But Yuwen Tong looked at him with a questioning look, “What’s wrong? I saw that you were falling, so I give you a hand. Why are you so angry?”

He was a master of disguise. Angry as he was, Ling Zhang couldn’t find any evidence to prove it to himself. He gnashed his teeth and said, “Let go of me!”

Yuwen Tong put him down readily.

“Zhang’er, don’t be rude to His Excellency,” Ling Xingzhong reproached.

“Never mind, he is joking, don’t take it seriously.” Yuwen Tong explained for Ling Zhang.

But Ling Zhang didn’t want to appreciate his kindness, and said to Ling Xingzhong, “Grandfather, I am fatigued with the journey. Let me to change my clothes first.”

“Hurry up!” Ling Zhaowen said first before Ling Xingzhong spoke.

Ling Zhang looked at his uncle with grateful eyes. Then he went back to his courtyard with Ling Maomao.

Ling Xingzhong was embarrassed to apologize to Yuwen Tong. He said, “I am so sorry. Zhang’er has always been polite. He must be tired with his journey, so he acted so impolite just now.”

“I see. Forget it. How about we find a place for some chat first?” Yuwen Tong said.

Ling Xingzhong said in a hurry, “Right, right. This way please, my lord.”

Before Yuwen Tong left with Ling Xingzhong, there was a gleam of joy in his eyes when he looked at Ling Zhang’s back.

Ling Zhaowen didn’t follow them, but told the servant to prepare dinner. To be precise, he went to Ling Zhang’s yard.

“Zhang’er, what’s going on? Why did he go to the herb farm? You…” Ling Zhangwen couldn’t help but aske Ling Zhang after entering the room.

Ling Zhang answered quickly, “We are fine! Nothing happened between us!””

When he finished, he felt that he had overreacted. At first he was a little annoyed, but he calmed down as he spoke. “Something happened there, and Yuwen Tong happened to show up.”

Hence, he told his uncle that the patrols detained the farmers and Yuwen Tong helped them out of the trouble.

“That’s outrageous!” After hearing this, Ling Xingzhong burned with rage. He said, “Zhang Chong expected you to arrive the Farm and was trying to trick you into the encampment. In fact, he was trying to kill you. But luckily, you didn’t take the bait.”

“I was trying to stall the time and send someone back to Tanyang to inform you. I have even thought of a more extreme way to save the farmers. But I didn’t expect Yuwen Tong would suddenly appear and deterred the patrols.”

Ling Zhaowen said, “We really need to thank him. Just now he…”

“He was joking. Uncle, don’t worry about it,” Ling Zhang said.

Ling Zhaowen nodded, “It seems that he is not like the kind of ungrateful person who looks down on people.”

Ling Zhang’s eyes glinted, “Who knows? We can’t judge a book by its cover.”

Ling Zhaowen patted Ling Zhang on shoulder and said, “Anyway, he saved you. If he is really as bad as the rumors stated, I will cancel this engagement for you.”

‘But what if he is not a bad guy? Would uncle let him marry Yuwen Tong?’

“Uncle, no matter what kind of person he is, I think we can’t match their family. So it is better for us to…”

“Bullshit, you are so perfect. Why do you think you can’t match him? Don’t belittle yourself!” Ling Zhaowen said harshly.

Although Ling Zhang was very moved when he heard his uncle’s words, he really didn’t want to marry such a dignitary. At this moment, self-mockery was a wise approach to save himself.

“Uncle, Yuwen Tong…”

“Young master, Old Master told you to be quick.”

He had hardly finished when he was interrupted.

“I think your grandfather appreciates Yuwen Tong.” Ling Zhaowen’s words really shocked Ling Zhang.

“Didn’t he arrive only this morning? Why did Grandfather appreciate him so soon?” Ling Zhang asked with a puzzled look.

“It is difficult to break off the engagement, as you are now an adult. And your grandfather always wants to help you facilitate this engagement as soon as possible. Moreover, he is the best Marshal of Great Yue, a man of many merits that is hard not to be appreciate by your grandfather,” Ling Zhaowen said.

What he didn’t mention was that if he didn’t know in advance what happened in Ling Zhang’s dream, he would now be satisfied with Yuwen Tong, too.

As soon as Ling Zhang thought of how Yuwen Tong teased him many times today, he felt that Yuwen Tong was not a reliable person. What advantages did he have to make Grandfather like him so much?

“Change your clothes, and I should go first,” Ling Zhaowen said. Meanwhile he called Maomao, “Maomao, let’s go.”

Ling Maomao answered and followed his father obediently.

Ling Zhang freshened up and changed his clothes. He pondered how to change his grandfather’s mind while walking towards the front hall.

Before he reached the front hall, his grandfather’s bright and clear laughter spread out. Ling Zhang had not heard his grandfather laugh so happily for a long time.

He paused, not wanting to interrupt his grandfather’s laughter. Didn’t he survive from the purgatory to make his family live well?

Ling Zhang wondered what on earth Yuwen Tong said to his grandfather.

“Zhang’er, come over here.” The happy voice of Ling Xingzhong came from inside.

Ling Zhang walked in and said, “Grandfather.” Then he greeted to Yuwen Tong in a cold voice, “Lord.”

“Don’t be so stiff. In the view of the relationship between our two family, you’d better call me brother,” Yuwen Tong said. Little brother Zhang? Big brother Tong? What the fuck? Ling Zhang’s face froze.

Ling Xingzhong interrupted Ling Zhang’s silence with a frown, “Zhang’er, what are you waiting for?”

“Grandfather, I was shocked by the Lord. I dare not to call him like this.” Ling Zhang gnashed his teeth on the sly.

“Brother Zhang, you are overcautious. Don’t be punctilious. What are you afraid of?” Yuwen Tong said.

Brother Zhang, brother Zhang, were you crazy? Ling Zhang stared at Yuwen Tong.

“Cough, Zhang’er?” Ling Xingzhong said.

Having noticed that a dark look formed on his grandfather’s face, he had an unspoken grievance. Alright, alright, I was just going to call him brother, for goodness’s sake! There was nothing to lose.

“Brother,” Ling Zhang said with his teeth gnashed.

Yuwen Tong’s eyes were brightened then he said, “Since you call me brother, any business of yours is mine too. I will protect your forever as long as I am alive.”

Ling Zhang looked at Yuwen Tong in surpise after hearing his words. Everyone knew that Yuwen Tong was a man who acted on what he said. So it was a promise he made, not a joke. But why, why did Yuwen Tong made this promise? Ling Zhang was confused at this moment. He really didn’t understand why Yuwen Tong did this.

Ling Zhang was very confused.

“Zhang’er, why don’t you appreciate the Lord?” Ling Xingzhong frowned. ‘Ling Zhang is by no means an absent-minded boy. What’s wrong with him?’

“Never mind, brother Zhang must be tired,” Yuwen Tong said, keeping staring at Ling Zhang.

Ling Zhang looked down and said, “Thank you, brother.”

Whether he meant it or not, just as he himself said, it just depended on what he did.

So Ling Zhang told himself not to be rash and not to disappoint his grandfather.

After a while, Ling Zhaowen and Fu Caiwei appeared with Ling Maomao.

Since Yuwen Tong had already met Fu Caiwen in the morning, Fu was not strange to him.

He knew that Ling Family was a small family without many rules like other large families. He also knew that Ling Zhang’s aunt, Fu Caiwei, was also very important to Ling Zhang.

“It’s all home-made food, please don’t mind,” Ling Zhaowen said.

“How very kind of you! Uncle Ling. I like home-made food. When I was in the border military camp, I ate the same home-made food, too. On the contrary, I am not accustomed to the food of wealthy family,” Yuwen Tong said.

Yuwen Tong could please whoever he wanted to. Ling Zhangwen immediately had a good impression on Yuwen Tong after hearing Yuwen Tong call him uncle and his polite words.

The difference between the aggressive Yuwen Tong, who was majestic in the woods during the day, and the amiable one, who was talking happily with his grandfather and uncle, was too big. Ling Zhang had mixed feelings when he thought about this.

The topic soon changed to what happened at the border. Even Ling Maomao and Fu Caiwei were totally absorbed in the story. Seeing this scene, Ling Zhang felt the meal in his mouth was almost insipid.

Yuwen Tong glanced at Ling Zhang, and spooned a meatball into Ling Zhang’s bowl.

Others didn’t notice what Yuwen Tong had done, because their attention was still focused on what Yuwen Tong had said. Ling Zhang stared at the meatball in his bowl for a long time before he reacted. He suddenly turned his head at Yuwen Tong.

How did Yuwen Tong know his taste?

This meatball was made by his aunt, so this dish suited his taste; the only dish he could taste even when he was absent-minded.

Yuwen Tong noticed Ling Zhang’s gaze, so he gave Ling Zhang a questioning look, “Is it not enough?”

Ling Zhang withdrew his eyes from Yuwen Tong. He looked at the meatball in his bowl, feeling ambivalent.

“What’s wrong with you, Zhang’er? Why don’t you eat?” Fu Caiwei asked. She noticed Ling Zhang was staring blankly at the meatball in his bowl. Ling Zhang hurriedly pretended to be all right and said, “I was fascinated by what you were saying.”

“Ha-ha-ha,” Ling Xingzhong laughed, “I am really looking forward to such a life when I heard you talking about border affairs. It is a pity for a man who didn’t go to the battlefield to defend the territory and make no contributions.”

“Oh, Lord Ling, you shouldn’t have! A man doesn’t have to go to the battlefield to defend their territory. As long as it is for the welfare of the people, it is also helping to defend the country. I have heard from my grandfather that you made extraordinary achievements in benefiting the people when you held the post of Shilang (Vice Minister).”

Really? That he didn’t know. Ling Zhang couldn’t help but turn to his grandfather.

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 passed 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 attitude 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 attitude 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 attitude 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, Wang Ming and Wang 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.”