Chapter 2786 — News from the Tang Family

"All right, we should be going out now—everyone's waiting for us at the door!" Zhong Yongliang said.

"Right away, Senior Brother Kuanglong!" Patriarch Kuangniu nodded in assent. He had fully accepted Zhong Yongliang's identity now.

"From now on, just call me Brother Liang. I'm still used to that name." Zhong Yongliang's own consciousness had retained the larger share; Patriarch Kuanglong's primordial spirit was simply too weak, and having arrived later, it could hardly match the strength of Zhong Yongliang's original soul. After the fusion, it was Zhong Yongliang's personality that held the dominant position.

"Fine, I'll call you Brother Liang, then." Patriarch Kuangniu did not mind at all. So long as his senior brother had returned, what name he was called by made no difference.

Over the days that followed, Zhong Yongliang began the long road of rebuilding his cultivation. His own body was far too weak. Besides taking Foundation Establishment Pills, the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow Sect had contacted the Mystic Pill Gate and ordered a Marrow-Washing Bone-Refining Pill. Zhong Yongliang also began soaking his body daily in medicinal baths. It could be said that every cultivation resource the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow Sect possessed was poured into Zhong Yongliang. Though Patriarch Kuanglong's body had changed, at bottom he was still Patriarch Kuanglong, the leader of the Tomorrow Upon Tomorrow Sect. The two most authoritative figures in the sect were now his disciple and his junior brother, so with him monopolizing the cultivation resources, naturally no one raised any objection.

Gao Xiaofu, trailing after Zhong Yongliang, picked up no small benefit as well. The medicinal baths Zhong Yongliang had soaked in had lost much of their potency, but bathing in them in turn sent Gao Xiaofu's physical constitution improving by leaps and bounds.

He might never reach any great height, but with rare treasures of heaven and earth to support him, becoming a Heaven Rank expert was no problem—his combat ability would simply be somewhat inferior.

……………………

Mother Tang told Tang Zhi and Tang Jucheng about Tang Yuqi's matter. Tang Jucheng had no opinion of his own; they both deferred to Tang Zhi's judgment. After all, in the Snow Valley, such matters still had to be decided by Tang Zhi.

Tang Zhi thought it over and made her decision. Tang Yuqi was her cousin, so of course she had to see him, but he could not be allowed to come to the Snow Valley, nor could anything about the Snow Valley be told to him. They would have to find some excuse to put him off.

As for her parents, there was no problem there—they could be sent back to Donghai City to meet Tang Yuqi once. That way, nothing would be implicated: Tang Zhi would not appear, there would be no contact with Wei Zhao, and the matter would still be resolved. Two birds with one stone.

That evening, Gu Mengyao finally received the call from Mother Tang. Gu Mengyao first expressed her gratitude; Mother Tang had been a great help during Wei Zhao's trip to the Snow Valley. Without her, Wei Zhao's journey there might not have been unsuccessful, but it certainly would not have yielded so much.

"Auntie, is there any word on Tang Yuqi's matter?" Qiu Lingshan was pressing urgently on her end, so Gu Mengyao was eager to produce a result as quickly as possible.

"About Tang Yuqi—Yunyun says she wants her father and me to go back for a visit after a while and acknowledge the kinship first, but Yunyun herself can't come back," Mother Tang said. "Tell Tang Yuqi that our family is doing business elsewhere, that the work is rather confidential and hard to disclose, but that we'll come back to see him in a few days."

"That's wonderful!" Gu Mengyao breathed a sigh of relief at once. This was the very thing she had been most worried about. Tang Yuqi went to Qiu Lingshan every day asking for the latest news, and Qiu Lingshan was already finding it hard to hold him off. If no word came from Tang Zhi's side, Qiu Lingshan really would be in a tight spot.

After all, Tang Yuqi was always inviting Qiu Lingshan out to dinner. Even if she made excuses, she could not put him off every single day, and so the more she said, the more likely she was to let something slip. Qiu Lingshan, too, was waiting for this result.

The two of them did not talk long. Though Tang Zhi ran roughshod over the Snow Valley, making a phone call still required going to a designated place. She had no satellite phone of her own, and there were other disciples nearby, so she could not say too much.

After hanging up, Gu Mengyao immediately called Qiu Lingshan and told her the good news in detail. Qiu Lingshan was thrilled as well, and that very night she got through to Tang Yuqi.

Tang Yuqi had already returned to his hotel to rest. Receiving Qiu Lingshan's call, he felt a surge of delight and excitement!

"She's finally taken an interest in me—is she going to ask me out?" Tang Yuqi murmured to himself as he picked up the phone. His purpose in coming to Donghai City had indeed been to find Tang Jucheng's family, but now that he had met Qiu Lingshan, he felt this trip to Donghai had been well worth it. He had not yet found his kin, but he had found his future other half.

Over this period, Tang Yuqi's impression of Qiu Lingshan had grown quite favorable. First, Qiu Lingshan was beautiful and well-figured—that was his first impression of her. And Qiu Lingshan was, in a sense, half a colleague of his; both of them worked at solving cases, so they had plenty of common ground.

Of course, most important of all, Qiu Lingshan was actually a cultivator too—and an Earth Rank cultivator at that, with strength comparable to Tang Yuqi's. So Tang Yuqi favored her all the more!

Still, Tang Yuqi did not rush to confess his feelings. Instead, under the pretext of searching for his second uncle Tang Jucheng, he frequently sought out Qiu Lingshan and invited her out to eat, hoping to deepen the bond between them.

In truth, if Qiu Lingshan set aside her guard against Tang Yuqi, her impression of him was not bad at all. At the very least, the two of them could become good friends, since they were both in the same line of work and both cultivators, with plenty to talk about.

Qiu Lingshan, for her part, often deliberately steered the conversation toward the solving of cases, so as to avoid the topic of Tang Jucheng's family as much as possible.

Tang Yuqi was a detective by nature. Though Qiu Lingshan shifted the subject with skill, she could not fool him. But Tang Yuqi knew and said nothing, happily following her lead and letting the conversation continue along her chosen course.

Today was the first time Qiu Lingshan had ever taken the initiative to call him so late, and it left Tang Yuqi exhilarated. Earlier, when he had invited her out to eat, she had refused on the grounds of a meeting. Tang Yuqi had never expected that she would contact him of her own accord once the meeting was over.

Did this not mean that their relationship could take a step closer?

"Lingshan, are you done with your meeting?" Tang Yuqi asked with a smile.

"Yes, it just ended. I have something to discuss with you," Qiu Lingshan said.

"Great, shall I come pick you up at the police station now?" The hotel where Tang Yuqi was staying was not far from the police station where Qiu Lingshan worked, so he could get there quickly.