Chapter 297 - Failure of the Plan to Sound Him Out

Xie Shi told Ling Zhang, “Don’t worry, Childe Ling. The Marshal still has inside his body some residual active ingredient of the antidote you provided. No poison could do him any harm for the moment. Yao Yi and I will accompany the Marshal to the palace, and we’ll make arrangements for some men to stand by outside, too. If things go south, we’ll charge inside to rescue the Marshal immediately.”

“I’ll be careful as well. Given that the rebellion still hasn’t been suppressed yet, the emperor and the Crown Prince wouldn’t dare let anything happen to me in the palace unless they have reason as ‘good’ as the one they had the last time. Otherwise my troops in the north-west would rise in revolt, and they’d have a hard job to quash it.”

Yuwen Tong had changed into the outfit prepared for the banquet. It was almost dusk now, and officials were supposed to arrive at the palace early when invited to a banquet held by the emperor.

This time, apart from Yuwen Tong, the emperor had also invited a lot of courtiers of all descriptions, including Yuwen Zhi who had been demoted by three ranks.

…

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At night, Yuwen Tong went to the imperial palace. Ling Zhang, who had barely eaten a bite of his dinner, stayed in his room alone, worrying about the situation in the palace.

At this moment, there was a semblance of harmony in the imperial palace. All courtiers were chatting and laughing, as though none of them had sensed the looming tempest.

Yuwen Tong had been the focus of numerous people’s attention from the moment he went through the palace gates till he sat down in the banquet hall. Everybody was sizing him up. As Yuwen Tong hadn’t tried to hush up the attempted assassination of him, it seemed to have come to the knowledge of all of them.

Apart from these people’s appraising look, what he was receiving more frequently was the emperor’s and the Crown Prince’s searching gaze, both of whom were trying to gauge whether or not he was poisoned!

There were a lot of delicacies and soup placed in front of Yuwen Tong. He had neither the power to foretell the future nor the ability to tell whether a course had been poisoned or not, but fortunately for him, he was now literally immune to all poisons. Even the poison named Mrs. Pistil couldn’t harm him. Given how rare and precious Mrs. Pistil was, Yuwen Tong believed that even those people didn’t have any more of it at their disposal.

“I heard that a few days ago some assassins made an attempt on you. Was it true?” With this sudden question from the Crown Prince, the banquet hall fell so quiet that people inside could hear a pin drop.

“That did happen, Your Highness,” answered Yuwen Tong calmly.

“Did you get hurt, Marshal? If you did, I’ll have a court physician treat you,” said the Crown Prince.

“Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness. The bunch of assassins were no threat to me. I beheaded each and every single one of them on the spot. Their heads have probably already been consumed by dogs and worms,” replied Yuwen Tong as calmly as usual.

All others in the hall appeared a trifle sick at these words.

The Crown Prince’s face also took on a rather disgusted expression. “It’s hard to imagine that those assassins were actually bold enough to try to assassinate a marshal of the Great Yue. You were showing them mercy by merely cutting their heads off.”

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Then he added, “At that time, you only had a couple of guards protecting you. If you are wounded, you must not keep it back from us. My father and I would be very upset if anything happens to you.”

Yuwen Tong said, “That’s very nice of you, Your Highness. I’m indeed unharmed. If you don’t trust me and suspect that I’m lying to you, you may have a court physician examine me right now.”

The Crown Prince’s countenance slightly changed again. “You’re overreacting, Marshal. I’m just worried about you, but since you’ve brought this up, we might as well have some court physicians perform an examination.”

A group of court physicians arrived very soon, which made people in the hall wonder whether or not they’d been waiting outside quite some time for the Crown Prince’s order to come in to examine Yuwen Tong. Some relatively shrewd ones had already had a sniff of something out of the ordinary, their faces growing rather inscrutable.

“Your Majesty, Your Highness, the Marshal is indeed unharmed and in good health,” said a court physician after the examination.

Of course arrangements had been made beforehand for these court physicians to come. The tea served to Yuwen Tong a while ago contained the antidote to the concealment poison. Had the poison named ‘Mrs. Pistil’ was still inside his body, it would undoubtedly have taken effect by now, and the court physicians would’ve detected it. However…

The Crown Prince and the emperor unnoticeably exchanged glances. Although they both looked relieved on the surface, they themselves were the only ones aware of what they were actually thinking.

“It turns out that my worry was unnecessary, but you being healthy is a blessing for the Great Yue, Marshal. Someone fill the Marshal’s cup with wine. I’d like to toast the Marshal personally,” said the Crown Prince, rising to his feet.

Naturally, Yuwen Tong also stood up, watching a young eunuch filling his wine cup, an impenetrable look in his eyes.

…

After the banquet.

A teacup was heavily thrown to the ground and smashed to pieces.

“Are you sure that cup of wine was poisoned?!”

“Please turn from your anger, Your Highness. I did poison that pot of wine. Afterwards the Marshal even drank almost half of it. If you don’t believe me, you may have a court physician check that pot of wine.”

“You piece of shit! Since when do you give me orders? Guards, drag him out and cut his head off!”

“Mercy, Your Highness! Please have mercy on me!”

Consumed with anger, the Crown Prince eyed the lackey fixedly as he was dragged out of the room. In the knowledge that Yuwen Tong had come to no harm whatsoever after drinking so much poisonous wine, he couldn’t help wondering whether or not there’d been something wrong with the poison he’d given to his subordinate!

“Father, what do you think is the reason for it?” The Crown Prince looked at the emperor sitting in the seat of honor.

With a darkened face, the emperor replied, “We underestimated Yuwen Tong.”

“But how’s that even possible? That bottle of ‘Mrs. Pistil’ was the last bottle of it in the world. Nobody alive today knows how to detoxify it, and even if someone does, there’s no way they could get the rare ingredient required to prepare the antidote. How come Yuwen Tong was utterly unaffected by it? I… I really couldn’t understand.” The Crown Prince’s face was full of annoyance.

The emperor said, “Although the Yuwen family was not one of the families that assisted the founding emperor, it dates back to times before the establishment of our country, witnessing the rises and falls of two dynasties. It started as a family of civil officials and later became one of military officers. Maybe… they happen to have the antidote to this rare poison.”

How Yuwen Tong had remained totally unaffected by it couldn’t be explained otherwise. Under no circumstances would the emperor believe there was any truth in the speculation that Yuwen Tong was immune to all poisons or had an indestructible body.

The emperor continued, “Yuwen Tong survived the poison, but there’s no doubt he’d be more vigilant after the attempted assassination. Given how hard you pushed him in the banquet hall tonight, I’m afraid he’s already become suspicious. Suspend all plans. Put the North-western Army under closer surveillance and intercept their correspondence with Yuwen Tong. At the same time, figure out a watertight plan to eliminate Yuwen Tong once and for all as soon as possible. Otherwise this tiger might really get out of control.”

The Crown Prince nodded. “Yes, Father. I’ll figure something out to share your burden after I return.”

…

Yuwen Tong left the imperial palace. On their way back, Yao Yi told Yuwen Tong, “Marshal, just now I saw Second Master get into the King Duan’s carriage at the other end of the alley.”

Yuwen Tong frowned. “Are you sure it was him?”

“Yes. I saw him distinctly,” replied Yao Yi.

After a brief moment’s silence, Yuwen Tong asked Yao Yi, “Has our contact in the palace found anything out about that venomous snake?”

“I was just about to report this to you, Marshal. It was ascertained that that venomous snake went into the cold palace after detouring around the utility room.”

The cold palace? The first names that popped into Yuwen Tong’s head were those of the Concubine Shu and the Concubine De, and with that he felt a bucketful of ice cascade into his stomach. Was Yuwen Zhi in league with those two women, by any chance? Had Yuwen Zhi played a part in the attempted assassination of him?

Yao Yi, as though aware of what Yuwen Tong was thinking, soon added, “That snake’s destination was not the Concubine Shu’s or the Concubine De’s place. It went to the north-west corner of the cold palace. All those who live in that area are imperial concubines sentenced to imprisonment in that place a long time ago. One of them even used to be the emperor’s favorite. She’s been in there for seven or eight years now. Oh, incidentally, it’s rumored that she was very young when she was thrown into the cold palace and was the darling of the emperor shortly before her sentence, that the reason why she was suddenly sent there was because she said something that the emperor found offensive.”

An imperial concubine sent to the cold palace seven or eight years ago? Yuwen Tong was confused. “Is there any connection between her and Yuwen Zhi?”

On hearing Yuwen Tong call his uncle by his full name, Yao Yi came to realize that Yuwen Tong was very disgruntled at him. He gave a soft cough and replied, “Yue Qi looked into it and found that she had no dealings whatsoever with any of your family members before her entry into the imperial palace and was a complete stranger to Second Master. Right now Yue Qi is digging deeper. Also, our contacts in the palace are trying to gain access into the cold palace to investigate. Unlike other places, the cold palace is relatively easy to get in, so there should be an outcome very soon.”

It was best if they could manage to infiltrate into the cold palace to conduct an inquiry into the affair, for it would allow them a chance to directly find out whether or not that imperial concubine was involved.

Yuwen Tong said, “Tell them to be cautious.”

“Yes, Marshal,” responded Yao Yi.

…

“How was it? Did anything happen?”

Ling Zhang had been waiting in the front yard all along. On seeing Yuwen Tong return, he hastened over to him, studying his countenance and sizing him up.

Yuwen Tong took his hand and drew him towards the courtyard house, saying, “Everything’s fine. Xie Shi has examined me already. I’m in perfect health.”

When he had given Ling Zhang a general account of what had happened in the banquet hall, the two of them had entered the courtyard house.

Ling Zhang let out a sigh of relief after hearing it. “I knew it was their doing. No. We need to figure out a way to prevent them from summoning you to the palace again. If every two or three days they call you to the palace to test you, it’d be an unbearable torture.”

“Don’t worry. They should have known that what they did today has roused my suspicions and wouldn’t take any further action for the moment. Besides, soon they’ll be too occupied to find any time to deal with me.”

Ling Zhang looked at him. “What do you plan to do?”

Yuwen Tong leaned over and whispered something in his ear.

Eyes widening, Ling Zhang immediately grabbed Yuwen Tong’s hand. “You… But what if–”

Yuwen Tong swept him into his embrace and observed beside his ear in an undertone, “There’s no ‘if’. I must do it. We’ve got to get ourselves out of passivity.”

Ling Zhang held him tight. After quite a while, he said, “Then do we need to leave the capital city first? Even staying in that manor would lower the risk of raising suspicion.”

Yuwen Tong replied, “There’s no hurry. Given the circumstances, it’d be more advantageous to us if we stay in the capital city.”

Hugging him, Ling Zhang stood motionless for quite a while. Eventually, he said, “Okay. I’ll be by your side no matter what lies in store for us.”

Yuwen Tong gave a smile, kissed him, scooped him up, carried him into the inner chamber and said, “Wait here for me. I’ll take a quick bath to rid myself of the strong smell of liquor.”

Ling Zhang gave him a dirty look and with that Yuwen Tong went to have a bath, a beam on his face.

Ling Zhang stood in a daze for a long moment. At the thought of what Yuwen Tong was going to do, a worried expression appeared on his face.