Chapter 65 - Trouble at the Gate (1/2)

“What happened?” Ling Zhang quickened his steps.

Yuwen Tong followed closely after and, with good eyesight, already got a clear view of what was happening.

There were four men and four women in costly raiment kneeling at the gate of Ling Mansion and kowtowing. They seemed to keep shouting something like, “Young master Ling, please let go of our son.” The Ling Mansion’s servants tried to drive them away, but this group of people still lingered around and wouldn’t go. The servants couldn’t drive them away by force but only prevented them from entering. Ling Zhang frowned when seeing the stalemate.

After approaching, Ling Zhang heard and saw who these people were.

“It’s them,” Ling Zhang sad with a scowl.

“Who are they?” Yuwen Tong asked.

“They are the parents of the four people who had conspired with Jia Yuanling to frame me. Jia Yuanling, the ringleader of the affair, was sentenced to exile; the four men, each of whom being punished differently, are now in the prison of the Prefecture Yamen,” Ling Zhang said.

Their sentence had been announced for long ago. Why did their parents suddenly show up here at this time and act as disgusting rascals?

Ling Zhang walked over with a cold face, “Are you looking for me?”

As soon as Ling Zhang appeared, these people immediately surrounded him. As if some fresh meat thrown towards a pack of hungry wolves. Ling Mansion’s servants quickly stood in front of Ling Zhang to prevent him from getting hurt.

These men knelt on the ground with a thud.

They cried, “Please give my son a break! My son was drunk; he wasn’t in his right mind, which was why he did something shameless. Young master Ling, please put a word for my son and let Lord Tao show mercy!”

“Young master Ling, please! Please forgive my son! I’m willing to do anything for you!”

What happened in front of the Ling Mansion attracted many onlookers.

Seeing this, Ling Zhang’s look turned colder.

“If I kill them and ask for your forgiveness, will you forgive me?”

“What do you mean? Young master Ling, why do you want to kill my son?” a man shouted.

“Then why should I forgive them? Just because you kneel down to me and beg my pardon? Get them out of here! If they refuse to leave, go to the Prefecture Yamen and call the Yamen runners. Tell them that some people here are trying to break into the Ling Mansion, they act insanely as if they are going to do violence,” Ling Zhang said.

“Got it!” a servant said.

w.a.n.g Dashan came with the guards, planning to drag them away.

“Ah…they are trying to kill us, the Ling Family’s people want to kill us! There is no justice at all!” This man who was dragged by w.a.n.g Dashan kept talking nonsense, which attracted a lot of onlookers.

“That’s enough. There is no time to waste. Sue them,” Ling Zhang said.

w.a.n.g Dashan nodded then sent someone to notify the government in a hurry.

“Ling Zhang, on what ground are you suing us? My son just got drunk and made a small mistake, why did you ruin him? You are so cruel. Now you want to put us in jail, too? We have no crimes and you can’t do that. Do you want to bully us because your uncle is a government official?”

“Young master, this…” w.a.n.g Dashan frowned.

“Ignore them,” Ling Zhang said.

“Ooh, my G.o.d. The Ling Family’s people are so unreasonable. We didn’t do anything wrong, we just ask for forgiveness here. But they not only refused our apology, but are trying to put us in jail and kill us. They want us dead!”

“The Ling Family wants to misuse their power to oppress us. They flout the law themselves, though they keep telling everyone to obey it. They think they can look down on us, just because someone in their family is an official.”

They were going too far and there were more and more onlookers. Funny thing was, the onlookers blindly sympathized with those who looked weak. No matter what the truth was, they were already gossiping about Ling Family.

Ling Zhang looked at their charade with a cold look. If this happened in the past, he must have panicked. As for now, he had become very composed. What could these people do except gossiping? They wouldn’t make any difference. Everything would come to light after going to the court.

No matter how loud those people shouted, Ling Zhang didn’t care. However, Ling Family’s servants could not help but worry because these shameless guys redoubled their efforts to slander when seeing the servants not taking any measures at the behest of Ling Zhang.

Though there were more and more onlookers, the Ling Family’s people still stayed perfectly cool, calm and collected. These people were shouting even harder, louder and more outrageously.

Those gossips gradually quieted down. Especially after Yuwen Tong, who was behind Ling Zhang, unleashed his powerful aura. Many people here were silenced by his imposing temperament.

These people were beginning to lose patience when they saw that the head constables of Yamen were about to coming. One of them tried to break free from the guards and rushed to a pillar in front of Ling Family’s gate, but was caught before he could break through and pinned to the ground.

“Indecent a.s.sault…”

Her shouting came to sudden stop as a stone hit the woman’s mute acupuncture point.

Ling Zhang pretended not to see anything, though he clearly saw the stone shooting from behind him. This was obviously done by Yuwen Tong.

The woman looked pale when she found herself suddenly speechless. She tried to break free, but failed.

Ling Zhang had seen through the tricks of these people already. What they wanted to do was to make some trouble so as to turn Ling Family into the target of public criticism.

More importantly, Ling Zhang’s uncle would be promoted to left Tongzhi in a few days. If something bad happened at this critical moment, the promotion of his uncle would come to nothing.