A Clash of Gods - Chapter 53
Chapter 53 The Way He Looked at Her
Lying in bed, Yang Ning was tired but he couldn’t fall asleep.
Duan Canghai had temporarily fixed the internal power issue for Yang Ning, but the assassination tonight had left Yang Ning thinking deeply.
Apparently, the assassination tonight was elaborately arranged. The man behind this was very familiar with Yang Ning’s schedule, and the assassinating process was also elaborately planned.
If Yang Ning hadn’t seen through the servant in black, Yang Ning might have drunk that cup of tea. According to the test Zhao Wushang had performed after the accident, the tea was extremely poisonous.
Apparently, the assassin was planning to poison Yang Ning at first, but he didn’t expect Yang Ning to be so sharp seeing through the assassin, so the assassin adopted the second assassinating plan.
Now thinking about it, if it was the real earl, being careless, he would be easily taken down by that assassin
As to the man behind the assassination, the first man came to Yang Ning’s mind was the older man in gray, who was dressing like a eunuch.
One of the comments made by Zhao Wushang was correct. The assassin must be very familiar with the structure of the villa of the Loyalty Cemetery, so he must be someone who had studied the villa. The older in gray looked like someone from the palace, and the villa was a royal project. Therefore, it was highly possible that the older man was very familiar with the villa, since he knew people from the palace.
If the older man in gray had seen Yang Ning through, but dared not to reveal Yang Ning’s identity to the public, arranging an assassination would be a good option.
Yang Ning knew one thing very well. Under any circumstances, people must have motives to do things. Assassinating a son of a marquis was surely something big, so of course, they were planning something big. Therefore, the most probable suspect was the one who would benefit most from the assassination of the earl.
Yang Ning was quite angry now, since he almost died here tonight.
In fact, Yang Ning was not a complex man. He had a very simple bottom line dealing with people. He would always requite favors and seek revenges.
He would not attack unless he got attacked, and if he got attacked, he would certainly counterattack!
The assassination was aimed at the earl, but Yang Ning was the one who almost died, so Yang Ning was faced with a real threat now. Before this assassination, Yang Ning was thinking about whether to sneak away and abandon the thorny identity of the earl, but now Yang Ning was thinking about tracking down the guy who was trying to kill him.
Yang Ning almost died, so he certainly wouldn’t watch the killer get away.
Besides, Yang Ning was also anxious about what Duan Canghai had warned him. Because of the Skills of Six Directions, Yang Ning had sucked the internal power from many people. According to Duan Canghai, now the flow of strength inside Yang Ning’s body was as powerful as a master of third grade. Yang Ning didn’t know exactly how powerful was that, but he knew one thing for sure, that was he would always be in a dangerous situation if he didn’t fix the problem of the flow of strength inside his body.
Duan Canghai said he would figure out a way to help Yang Ning fixing this problem, and now Yang Ning was really counting on him. While finding the solution, Yang Ning had to continue faking himself as the earl if there were not too many obstacles.
For the whole night, Yang Ning had been tossing and turning in bed. By the next day, someone knocked on the door just at daybreak. The cortege left for the Loyalty Cemetery in the early morning.
Funerals in noble families were very complicated, and there were many rules. Yang Ning didn’t have to do any manual labor, but he had to go along with all the rites for a whole day.
In addition to the burial of Qi Jing in the Loyalty Cemetery, they had to pay respects to the elder Marquis of Honor and perform a sacrificial ceremony for him, since the tomb of the elder Marquis was also in the Loyalty Cemetery.
It was really a rare case where both the father and the son could be buried in the Loyalty Cemetery of the Southern Chu State, and this showed that the Marquis of Honor had its glory days in the past.
All the rite got completed until midnight, but the funeral of Qi Jing wasn’t finished at this time. According to the custom, after the cortege got back to the Mansion of the Marquis of Honor, they had to perform a sacrificial ceremony which would last for seven days and nights, and the ceremony was called the requiem ceremony. The funeral would be finished when the requiem ceremony got completed.
The cortege didn’t stay too long in the Loyalty Cemetery. After a long day, everyone was kind of exhausted, so they decided to have a rest for the second half of night outside the Loyalty Cemetery. By the next day, they left for the capital just at the daybreak. It was late when they arrived at the Mansion of the Marquis of Honor, and Gu Qinghan had already arranged everything in the mansion, so the requiem ceremony got started at that night.
For the first three days, none of the people in the mansion could leave. As the eldest trueborn son, Yang Ning couldn’t take a step away from the ceremony, and he had to do it for three days. Since the body he was using was young, he was worn out after these three days.
Luckily, after these three days, family members could leave as they wished, and the Taoists would continue the ceremony in the main room, which was specially arranged.
Getting over with these days, Yang Ning felt itchy all over his body. After a long bath, he fell asleep in his soft bed. He slept like a baby. By the time he woke up, he didn’t know how long he had slept for, but he felt energetic after waking up. He jumped off the bed with only pajama trousers on, and he threw some punches topless, feeing much stronger than before.
Yang Ning looked outside the window. It was gleaming outside, and he couldn’t figure out whether it was at dusk or dawn. He felt hungry and was about to ask someone to bring food for him, then he heard a voice behind him, “Ning, you are awake?”
Yang Ning was in shock. He turned and saw Gu Qinghan was in the room. He didn’t know when she got in. Gu Qinghan was wearing a fancy purple dress, which was impeccably tailored and made of the finest material. She was reclining in a large chair, propping her head with one hand, a string of silky hair lingering near her face. Her curvy body was wrapped in the purple dress. As the candle was burning on the table, her dress slightly sparkled in the candlelight. She looked like a mermaid lying on the shore.
She seemed to be woken up just now, and her pretty face looked a little bit lethargic. She got up and stretched a little. Since she had slender limbs, the stretching made her breast even bustier, like it was going to pop out of her dress.
Yang Ning’s heart skipped a beat, and he felt his face was a little burning, which was rare. Yang Ning knew Gu Qinghan had a curvy body when he saw her in a mourning dress. Now, as she had changed into another dress, her beautiful bottom and breast could be seen more clearly. It turned out that her body was sexier than what Yang Ning had expect it to be. She was especially charming as a young married woman.
According to the custom, after the first three days of the requiem ceremony, family members should change their mourning clothes into regular clothes, otherwise it would bring bad luck.
“Third Auntie, you…why are you here?” Yang Ning was topless, so he picked up a coat randomly and covered his body.
Gu Qinghan darted a loot to the outside of the window, then she said with a smile, “It’s almost dawn. Ning, I will have someone bring food for you.” Then she explained, “The day before yesterday, Canghai told me that you were almost assassinated in the villa of the Loyalty Cemetery. I was worried, so I came here for several times. I wanted to know if you are fine, but you had been sleeping. When I came here last night, you were still deeply asleep, and you were mumbling something. I thought you might be hungry when you woke up, so I waited here for you to be awake. I didn’t expect that I would also fall asleep…!”
Yang Ning turned and stepped forward, seeing feebleness showed on Gu Qinghan’s beautiful face. He knew that the big mansion of hundreds of people was all relying on such a delicate woman. Especially after the death of Qi Jing, the mansion was faced with both internal threats and external challenges. Dealing with all those issues, Gu Qinghan was more stressed than before. It was not a piece of cake for her to hold her position until now.
In such a big family, men were all idling about, while such a delicate woman was taking care of everything. Yang Ning felt sorry for her and said in a gentle voice, “Third Auntie, did you not have a good rest? Don’t wear yourself out.”
“Now Ning knows about caring others.” Gu Qinghan gently smiled and said, “Don’t worry about me. You see, I look healthy, and I can get over with all kinds of things.”
“Now that the funeral is about to be finished, you just have some rest in the next few days. If there is anything I can help with, just let me do it,” Yang Ning said, “I am a grown man, and I can’t just sit around doing nothing. If I act like that, I will be the same with them.”
Gu Qinghan was shocked, and pleasure showed in her beautiful eyes. She said gently, “Ning, you are really a grown man now. If the General got to know this, he would be gratified.” Then she held Yang Ning’s hands and scanned him from head to toe. She frowned and said, “Ning, are you injured? Do you feel unwell?”
It was the second time for Yang Ning to feel Gu Qinghan’s delicate, smooth and soft hands. He smiled and said, “Don’t worry, Third Auntie. I am really fine. That assassin was lousy, and it was not a piece of cake to take me down.”
“How dare you joking like this.” Gu Qinghan padded at her chest, and her chest bounced. She glared at Yang Ning, scolding, “How come you don’t understand how serious this is? You must be more careful in the future. You were kidnapped not long before, and now you have experienced an assassination. Ning, there are many evil people, and you need to take precautions.”
Smelling the faint scent of Gu Qinghan’s body, Yang Ning felt a slight fluttering inside. He saw Gu Qinghan frowning and saying, “The staff in the villa must be punished. They couldn’t even protect you, so punishment is inevitable for them. But…who on earth would want to take you down?”
“Take it easy, Third Auntie. No matter who was behind the assassination, I will track him down and figure out everything.” Yang Ning said with a sneer, “I certainly won’t let him get away with it.”
“You want to track him down?” Gu Qinghan said with a smile, “What kind of facts would you find out?”
Yang Ning said on purpose, “Third Auntie, are you still looking down upon me? Am I really a useless person in your eyes?” Then he pretended to be frustrated.
Gu Qinghan hurried and said, “I was wrong, and the comment I just made was wrong. Ning, you are the heir of the Marquis of Honor, and of course you are not useless. You will have big achievements in the future.”
During the past days, Yang Ning had changed a lot, and he was much smarter than before, which made Gu Qinghan very gratified. In her mind, Gu Qinghan agreed with Duan Canghai that Yang Ning was stimulated by the kidnap, so she was afraid that her words might blow to Yang Ning’s confidence.
“By the way, did they send the money from Jiangling yet?” Yang Ning suddenly asked, “It has been long overdue, and our pawnshop is still pledged in the private bank.”
Gu Qinghan frowned and said, “I don’t know what has happened, but I haven’t heard anything about it yet. I hope that there wasn’t any accident on way here. It has been late before, but not as late as this time. I have already sent someone to Jiangling for information, and we will figure it out in several days.” Gu Qinghan smiled, charmingly, and said, “Ning, now that you can really help me dealing with all kinds of issues, I shall be much less stressed in the future.”
Seeing the gorgeous smile on her beautiful face, and the delicate, pink lips shivering like ripe cherries, Yang Ning’s heart skipped a beat, and he got astonished for a while. Seeing Yang Ning was staring at her and was trying to say something, Gu Qinghan got a strange feeling and her heart also skipped a beat. With her pretty face slightly burning up, she quickly took back her hands, saying, “I…I will get you some food.”
Yang Ning also found that he was acting weird, so he smiled embarrassedly and turned. Gu Qinghan also turned and stepped out of the door. As she looked back at Yang Ning, she found that she was blushing.
For all these years, she had been taking Yang Ning as a child. But just now, she found that Yang Ning was looking at her in a totally different way. It was the way a man looked at a woman. She had experienced things like this, so she could be very sensitive. Getting out of the room, she raised her hand and touched her face, thinking, “Ning is a grown man now, sometimes…sometimes we shall be more careful. The way he looked at me…!” Then she though, “Since Ning has grown up, it’s natural that he started to wonder about women. It’s time to arrange a marriage for him. Su Zhen was so odious to break the engagement. Shame on him…!”