Chapter 60 - Yuwen Tong’s Doubts (1/2)

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?”