A Clash of Gods - Chapter 61

Chapter 61 The Daffodil
After King Shu’s heir and his people left, the crowd scattered gradually. Then Xue Lingfeng asked Yang Ning, “Your Excellency, don’t you know King Shu’s heir?”

Yang Ning replied carefreely, “Why should I know him? Those whose courses are different cannot lay plans for one another. Even if I know him, I won’t make friends with him.”

Xue Lingfeng smiled. “Your Excellency, you and General are much alike in character.” Mentioning Qi Jing, Xue Lingfeng showed a gloomy expression in his eyes and continued before Yang Ning replied, “The city is heavily guarded recently. If you don’t have something important, please try not to go out.”

Yang Ning was clear that Xue Lingfeng said that to do good for him and thought the Tiger God Camp was the resource left by the Marquis of Honor. He nodded. “Thanks for your concern, uncle. I will keep that in mind.”

Xue Lingfeng looked relieved and didn’t say more. Then he led his men to leave.

As soon as Xue Lingfeng went away, Lei Yonghu stepped forward and was more respectful than before. He saluted. “Your… Your Excellency, Madam can’t stay here for long. She said she would come to your mansion to thank you later.”

Yang Ning had found that the woman left with the child and laughed. “It’s nothing. Don’t bother.”

“It’s a big deal,” Lei Yonghu responded seriously. “That was King Shu’s heir. If he injured our young master, he… he probably wouldn’t get punished.”

As soon as Lei Yonghu finished his words, Yuan Rong’s voice was heard. “Brother, you have offended King Shu this time.”

“What? Yuan, are you scared?” Yang Ning glimpsed at Yuan Rong and thought this guy must have shrunk because he feared King Shu. He stated crossly, “King Shu’s heir horsewhipped you in public, but I could see that you didn’t mind at all. You are so broad-minded.”

Yuan Rong was certainly aware of Yang Ning’s sarcasm. He just laughed and didn’t say a word.

Lei Yonghu bowed, expressing his thanks to Yang Ning repeatedly and then left with his men. Yang Ning couldn’t help but ask Yuan Rong, “Which family does Lei Yonghu work for?”

“I have never seen him before.” Yuan Rong shook his head. “But he led the servants in the Capital Bureau. He either works for the magistrate’s family or should be related to the Ministry of Penalty.”

“Oh?” Yang Ning thought there were officials everywhere in the capital city, and he might help or offend an official by accident.

Suddenly he thought of something and looked around. Yuan Rong found Yang Ning seeking something and asked wonderingly, “Who are you looking for?”

“I… I seemed to have bumped into somebody, a lady perhaps…” Yang Ning watched the passers-by coming and going on the street and frowned. “I didn’t see clearly. But I should apologize to her.”

Yuan Rong couldn’t help laughing. “Now you are not like a member from the mansion of Marquis of Honor but from the Ministry of Rites. You just forced King Shu’s heir to apologize in public and now want to apologize to somebody. If my grandpa knows, he would highly praise you.”

“By the way, what’s the background of King Shu’s heir? How he dares to be so arrogant in the capital city?” Yang Ning furrowed his brows. “And what kind of person is Mr. Ximen?”

In fact, he was more curious about Mr. Ximen than King Shu’s heir. Mr. Ximen had thrown him several meters away easily and was a great martial arts master. He must be a big shot.

Yuan Rong explained in a low voice, “King Shu is the king in the west region. In the past one hundred years, the Li Family has controlled the west region, and the current King Shu was the fourth generation of the family, but…the current King Shu, Li Hongxin, is a king granted by the imperial court while each of the last generations just made himself king.”

Yang Ning asked with a frown, “So Li Hongxin is the king of the west region?”

“It’s just between you and me. Although the west region is our country’s territory, Li Hongxin is the local despot there.” Yuan Rong lowered his voice. “Speaking of Li Hongxin, there’s a long history of animosity between him and your family.”

“A long history of animosity?” Yang Ning was interested. “Why did you say that?”

Yuan Rong laughed. “It seems that you know little about your family’s glory in the past. After Chu Country and the Northern Han State ruled the south and north respectively, the west region became a headache of the imperial court. More than twenty years ago, the old Marquis of Honor was still alive. Li Hongxin’s father had just passed away, and the situation in the west region was not stable. The imperial court transferred one hundred thousand soldiers led by the commander, the old Marquis of Honor, and prepared to attack on the west region.”

“My grandpa led the army, and of course they would be invincible.”

“Sure.” Yuan Rong smiled. “The old Marquis of Honor overcame all the difficulties in the way. Although it was not as easy as splitting bamboo, everything went smoothly.”

“In that case, how can the Li Family in the west region still exist till now?” Yang Ning frowned. “How can the family be the local despot there?”

Yuan Rong responded, “Li Hongxin was still praying for his father beside the coffin. As soon as our army arrived, he transferred soldiers. The Li Family is deeply entrenched in the west region and managed to find ten thousand of soldiers to resist. There are many high mountains and lofty hills as well as dangerous places in the west region. At that time, Li Hongxin was young, but he was good at military tactics and transferred soldiers to guard every strategic point. It was said that the Li Family had taken out all the gold, silver and jewelry they had saved for several generations and encouraged the army to resist the enemies. When the old Marquis of Honor attacked in the central region, it was more difficult to defeat them.”

It was harder to go to the sky than to walk on the way to Chuanshu. The Chengdu Plain in the west region was surrounded by mountains. When they were inside, it was not easy to come out to attack, but with the natural defenses, it was also challenging for the enemy to enter.

Yuan Rong continued slowly, “Both parties suffered great losses in the battle of the west region. But if the west region wanted to turn against Chu, they were just daydreaming. If they continued to fight, the old Marquis of Honor could have settled down the region. The imperial court was determined to conquer the west region. The old Marquis of Honor resorted to arms in the west region for more than half a year and approached Chengdu gradually. Chengdu would have been defeated sooner or later, but the people from the Northern Han State helped the Li Family a lot then.”

“The Northern Han State?”

“Right. Seeing that our country had a fight with the west region, the Northern Han State thought it was a good chance and transferred soldiers to the south.” Yuan Rong laughed. “Our country arranged the army on the Huaishui River. As far as I know, the imperial court didn’t want to give up the victory within reach over the west region because of the Northern Han’s intrusion and planned to guard on the Huaishui River first, trying to dispatch the main force to the north after defeating Chengdu. But Li Hongxin was at his wits’ end and suddenly ceased fire, surrendering to the imperial court. The battle on the Huaishui River was fierce, so the imperial court agreed with Li Hongxin and made him King Shu before transferring the soldiers to the north.”

Yang Ning finally understood what had happened. “I see. But Chuanshu wasn’t cleaned up in the end.”

Yuan Rong whispered, “So the Li Family in the west region doesn’t like your family. In the battle of the west region that year, our army killed many family members and relatives of Li Hongxin, and their army injured many generals and soldiers of the old Marquis of Honor. Since then, your family and the Li Family dislike each other.” He looked around and lowered his voice. “Xue Lingfeng from the Tiger God Camp was a subordinate of your father’s, and his father followed the old Marquis of Honor to attack the west region and was wounded with one eye getting blind. Do you think Xue Lingfeng would be polite to the Li Family?”

Yang Ning was suddenly enlightened. No wonder Xue Lingfeng protected him today while Mr. Ximen was alert to Xue Lingfeng. It turned out that they had animosity since long ago.

Yuan Rong wanted to explain more but abruptly saw Yang Ning focus his eyes on somewhere. He couldn’t help but follow Yang Ning’s eyes and found that he was staring at a flower shop diagonally opposite the street. He knew that there were flower shops everywhere on the street and Yang Ning couldn’t be attracted by the shop. He watched carefully and found a lady in green enjoying flowers outside the shop. Her dress was ordinary, and she was not fair-skinned, but she had the unique disposition of a beautiful girl from a lower family.

Yuan Rong laughed immediately and whispered in Yang Ning’s ear, “Do you take a fancy to that girl? You have great insight. She is pretty.”

Yang Ning rolled his eyes at Yuan Rong and then walked over quickly. Yuan Rong expressed hurriedly, “Why are you so anxious? Ning, you can’t be straightforward when pursuing a girl. I will teach you first.” Then he asked, “Aren’t you going to the mansion of Marquis of Martial Arts? Shall we go?”

Yang Ning ignored him and crossed the street. When he reached the door of the flower shop, the flower fragrance came into his nose and it was refreshing. This shop was the same as any other flower shop, and there was a flower trellis standing in front of the door with flowers blossoming. The seller was an old man, and the wrinkles on his face were like the soil in the flowerpot, as if he had passed through all the vicissitudes. Seeing Yang Ning come over, the old man stepped forward and greeted, “Your Excellency, would you like to buy some flowers? They are all top-grade famous flowers. Please check carefully.”

Many people had seen the conflict between Yang Ning and King Shu’s heir, so a lot of people had known his identity. As it happened in the neighborhood, the old man was one of the onlookers. Seeing that Yang Ning came, the old man was joyful. But there were countless high officials in the capital city and a great many young masters from noble families walking on the street. Although Yang Ning was the heir of the Marquis of Honor, people in the capital city were not surprised to see him.

“I will have a look.” Yang Ning smiled and walked to a flowerpot only several steps away from that girl. He looked her up and down and found that she was elegant and pretty and seemed to be only fifteen or sixteen years old. She wore simple clothes, which were matched with her pure face without a bit of makeup.

“Your Excellency, we have all kinds of flowers. Here is the purple peony, and there is a plant of crape myrtle inside, the treasure of our shop.” The old man introduced attentively. “If you like any of these, I will have somebody to send it to your mansion. It will be beautiful in your mansion. Just give me some money as you see fit.”

Yang Ning replied, “Okay.” He thought the seller was good at naming flowers. Such flowers with good names could attract anybody.

The old man explained patiently. The purple peony had purple flowers with golden rims. This plant had petals layer upon layer. Another plant had white and pure flowers, trying to present its beauty and fascination. Unfortunately, Yang Ning knew little about flowers. When the old man spoke, Yang Ning just nodded as if he understood, but he didn’t know which one the other party was talking about. He stole a glance at the girl and saw that she was watching a plant with fresh flowers of golden buds but white petals.

“Sir, how much is this daffodil?” The girl raised her head all of a sudden and peered at the old man and found Yang Ning standing next to him. It happened that Yang Ning was glancing at her. Their eyes met, and the girl got nervous, lowering her beautiful face instantly.