The Glory After Rebirth

88 - 90

C88: Send for a Physician. Don’t Let Him Die

“…Steward He is interrogating him. Steward Li is also there. The two stewards sent me here to report this to Young Master and request his instructions. Will Young Master go there himself or…”

Outside the courtyard of Ling Zhang’s dwelling, Xiafeng was standing at the gateway. After hearing the servants’ words, he replied with a cold look on his face, “I’m informed about this matter. Young Master is too busy to be distracted by this. Go back and tell the two stewards to keep the man alive for the moment. Young Master might want to go there and interrogate him himself when he finds the time.”

“Yes.”

“Did you inform Second Master and Second Mistress of this?” Xiafeng recalled something and asked.

“Not yet. I came here to report to Young Master first,” responded the servant.

Xiafeng cast a meaningful glance at him and told him, “That’s very thoughtful of you, but the next time this kind of occurrence arises, inform Young Master and Second Master at the same time. Do not report to any of them sooner than the other. Understand?”

“Yes.” Uncertain about whether this was a compliment or a criticism, the man was somewhat alarmed and didn’t dare raise his head to look at Xiafeng.

“Now go and tell Second Master and Second Mistress,” ordered Xiafeng.

“Yes,” the man responded and hurriedly left.

Xiafeng returned to the courtyard and entered Ling Zhang’s room. He looked around, unsure as to whether he should go inside and report this to Ling Zhang right away.

At this point, Ling Zhang was taking a medicated bath with Yuwen Tong behind him trying to unblock his meridians with his internal energy. Compared with the previous two baths which had been agonizing and torturous, the third bath was much more bearable. Though he still felt miserable, the pains were much less intolerable and he could also spare part of his concentration for something else.

After unblocking his meridians twice, he found that his hearing had become much more acute than before. At night when all was still, he could even hear sounds from the gateway of the courtyard. This time, though he hadn’t distinguished the contents of the conversation between Xiafeng and that servant, he was well aware that someone had come to talk with Xiafeng, that Xiafeng was now pacing the floor outside the bathroom.

“Xiafeng, what’s going on?”

Ling Zhang abruptly called Xiafeng’s name, which took Xiafeng aback. Then he realized that his pacing up and down outside had come to the knowledge of the man inside, so he stopped dithering and replied immediately, “Young Master, Steward He just caught a greedy servant who intended to provide an outsider with inside information about Ling family in exchange for money. The name of the servant is Wu Er’niu. He’s an odd-job man in the kitchen. It is said that someone delivered a note to him via a firewood seller offering to buy intelligence about the identity of the kung fu expert hiding in Ling family.”

The kung fu expert hiding in Ling family? Ling Zhang’s heart lurched.

“It seems that someone has noticed something,” said Yuwen Tong. Then he raised his voice and asked Xiafeng, “What else did he say?”

Xiafeng was not surprised to hear Yuwen Tong’s voice. Having heard no further questions from Ling Zhang, he realized that this was also what his young master wanted to know, so he answered, “The one who made an offer to buy intelligence also intended to find out how many kung fu experts there are in Ling family as well as whether it was the day Young Master went to the herb farm that they entered Ling family.”