Chapter 58: King Fu's Courtyard
Translator: DavidT Editor: celllll
Looking from afar, King Fu’s courtyard looked like a black shadowy ruin. However, when Ling Tian and group approached it, they collectively sucked in a breath of cold air.
Firstly, this courtyard of King Fu occupied a space that was large beyond imagination. Based on Ling Tian’s estimates, it should be more than one hectare in length, bigger than the current Ling Residence by at least two times. Secondly, was the damage caused to the courtyard. It had long exceeded even Mister Qin’s ‘it just needs a bit of refurbishing, following which it can be used’ estimates! Broken tiles were strewn everywhere, and more than half of the walls had already collapsed, with weeds overgrowing the entire place. Whatever spare materials that could be used for rebuilding had long disappeared, to the point that even the glazed roof tiles had been totally scavenged off….
Occasionally, one could see a beggar dressed in rags, appearing from the ruins with a hair looking like reeds. They would all stare that the group of high-ranked nobility in fear, and would quickly duck back into the ruins with a ‘swoosh’ sound, never to show their faces again.
As everyone followed Ling Tian to walk on the original alleyway which was now unfit for people to walk across, a nauseating stench assailed their noses. Ever since people stopped showing interest in this King Fu’s Courtyard, it turned into a temporary shelter for the refugees and beggars. Furthermore, it was obvious from a glance that excrement lay all over the place.
A look of embarrassment and shame appeared on Mister Qin’s face. Not only him, the remaining bodyguards, including Ling Yi and the Blood Iron Warriors, all furrowed their brows. This broken down land disgusted people at a glance, making people want to take a detour instead of walking through it. There seemed to be no value in this land at all!
Ling Tian however remained passive, striding amongst the ruins of the courtyard, sizing up every corner, as if he did not smell the fishy stench which was vomit inducing. What he looked at was not this scenery of defeat and desolation, but rather the prototype and design used in the previous construction of the entire courtyard. "On the left, there seems to have been plans to erect a library there. The front should be the main residence of the King, and seeing the supports on the right, with the random placement of the artificial hills, it should have been a garden. The back palace hall seemed to be slightly higher than the main, with around three storeys. Looks like King Fu also had a daughter? This delicately designed building was obviously a embroidery room!"
What made Ling Tian happiest was that all the way at the rear of this plot of land was a empty plot of land, with an obvious separation from the palaces. Right now, it was overgrown with weeds, with no former semblance, yet in Ling Tian’s eyes, this should have been a martial arts practice ground! It would be the perfect place to drill any soldiers!
At the front of King Fu’s Courtyard, greenery as well as the river circled around it like a belt, and one could see a willow tree grove from afar. The courtyard was situated directly beside Mount Victory. While the mountain was not particularly towering, its rear was filled with steep and precipitous cliffs. Other than coming in from the front where the mountain had gentle slopes, those who tried going from the rear only had one ending — Death no matter man or beast. There was no possibility of getting up even by a rope, which made for an exceptionally good protective screen. Looking at this position, Mount Victory was likely to be considered inside the territory of King Fu’s Courtyard. With mountains on one side and a river on the other side, this was indeed an ideal place to stay at.
The more Ling Tian observed, the more satisfied he was. While restoration and renovation would be quite a hefty sum, it would definitely turn into the most exceptional base of operations one could have once it was repaired. Thinking up till here, Ling Tian could not help but feel surprised. "I’m not the only one in the city who has foresight, so why has nobody made inquiries regarding this place?"
Seeing that the sky had gotten dark, with the sun already setting, Ling Tian decided to rush back through the night to the Ling Residence. This time, his enemies were not aware of the existence of the Blood Iron Warriors, and thus suffered a disadvantage. Were they to organize another counter-attack, it would be unlikely for his men would not be able to get out alive.
After checking out King Fu’s Courtyard, Ling Tian was pleased. If he intended to secretly train up a group of elite soldiers, this would be the best place to do so. First was that this place was easy to defend and hard to attack. Secondly, this place was less than twenty miles away from the capital, not too far away from his own Ling Residence. As for the problem of silver, it seemed like Ling Tian was not too concerned about it, as though his own assets were being thrown out like flowers blossoming.
The only problem was that he could not attract anyone with ambitions over here. Furrowing his brows, Ling Tian thought of half a day before finally laughing wickedly to himself. Looks like he had to ask his grandfather to abuse his official authority for his own private interests, and build another Ling Family Courtyard.
Since his actions would never be low-key, then, might as well blow the whole matter up! If he were to secretly construct such a huge courtyard residence, this would bring about suspicion as well as criticism. However, if he were to brazenly do so, there would instead be nobody gossiping. For the Ling Family’s current position, building another courtyard was no big matter. However, he had to trouble his grandmother again, and this might let to her unearthing more secrets about him. The only difference now was that Ling Tian was no long scared since he had a baseless Master behind the scenes to fall back on. No matter what it was, he could just to push everything to that Master.
Ling Tian was finally free from worries. Taking a look at his people, he found all of them wrinkling their noses, and could not help but smile and ask, "Is the smell that bad?"
Ling Yi seemed like he was going to wrinkle his nose and eyes together, and replied with a bitter face, "Young Noble, this smell is not the best one can sniff. This smell is thicker than the latrine in the army camps!"
Feng Mo held his nose, and spoke approvingly, "That’s right, the smell here is more complex."
Ling Yi was astounded, "Complex?! Don’t tell me the latrine smell is pure and clean?!"
Hearing those two fellows actually start debating about the smell of the latrine, the audience felt their stomachs rolling. A few of the Blood Iron Warriors as well as the bodyguard started to verbally abuse them.
Ling Tian guffawed in laughter, before making his way out, saying, "You guys can slowly discuss, the rest of us will move out of here first."
Who would want to stay any longer in this type of place? As such, the group all followed Ling Tian, rushing towards the outside like a swarm of bees.
Just as they were about to step out of the courtyard, Ling Tian suddenly halted in his steps.
On his left, a tiny and frail silhouette staggered out in front of the crowd’s eyes. With her head lowered and waist bent, as though searching for something on the ground.
As the sun had just set, there was still a thread of light to be seen. Everyone saw clearly that it was a roughly seven to eight year old skinny little girl, with an emaciated body almost bereft of strength. She swayed as she dug around the piled up snow, holding on to a sharp piece of roof tile in her hand.
Ling Tian could guarantee that this little girl was searching for wild roots that could sate her hunger, from those few grasses she was clutching in her right hand. He drew in a deep breath, at this current freezing weather, how could there still have wild vegetables?
In that moment, Ling Tian felt as though he was reliving his past life! It was the two years after being crippled, where he was expelled out of his house. He who was full of injuries had not a penny to his name. While he tried to find work, trying to eke out a living, he was always rejected. It was only later on that he found out, Ling Chao had actually warned all the businessmen that if anyone were to help Ling Tian, they would receive the aftermath of the Ling Family’s fury! Under such circumstances, who would be willing to help him? The only person who had pitied Ling Tian and given him three steamed buns, that old man had his legs broken!
Later on, Ling Tian was filled with vengeance in his heart. Spurred on by it, he chose to beg in order to survive to get his revenge! However, even when he was begging, the surrounding beggars also came to disrupt him, banishing him from that area. Furthermore, Ling Chao and his men came every few days to humiliate him, to scold and beat him. That two years, there was not a single day where Ling Tian’s wounds ever healed!
In the end, Ling Tian’s hunger know no bounds, in order to survive, he behaved like a tramp, huddling in a corner of a market, enduring the criticism and disdain of people, to collect those thrown away vegetables to allay his hunger. This kind of lifestyle, he actually lived for two years!
Seeing this little girl, it was as if he was looking at a mirror image of himself in his past life! Ling Tian stood there in a daze, his eyes full of unshed tears.
Everyone just saw Ling Tian suddenly stopping, dumbly staring at that little girl. Their faces all revealed expressions of sympathy and could not help but accompany him silently. All of them were thinking, "To think this domineering Young Master would actually have his moments of compassion?"
Ling Tian sighed, before saying, "Bring the little girl over."