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.

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.