Chapter 293 - Poisoning, Entry into the Capital City (1/2)

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 antic.i.p.ation 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 s.h.i.+san, a foreboding feeling rising in him. “What happened?!”

Miao s.h.i.+san was too concerned to pay his respects to Ling Zhang first before answering the question. “Childe Ling, the Marshal encountered some a.s.sa.s.sins 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 s.h.i.+san gave a minute account of what had happened.

Miao s.h.i.+san 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 a.s.sa.s.sin 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 a.s.sa.s.sins; also, w.a.n.g Dashan and the others had arrived in time and trapped a dozen enemies, so eventually they’d managed to fight off the a.s.sa.s.sins. 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 a.s.sa.s.sins 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 s.h.i.+ 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 s.h.i.+ 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.