His Peasant Wife : Yao Ling

"Not possible. I even have the information on the three kingdoms’ deepest secret on my hands and I always sold them to the highest bidder," The old man answered easily. He always had everything under his control --- except for his son. He was accidentally checking the teahouse to look at his son’s behavior, otherwise, he rarely visited this teahouse.

"If you have such a good information network, why don’t you save your son on your own?" Lin Jian asked skeptically. This sounded a bit weird to him.

"I know who the employer is, but my ability is also limited to collecting information. My power is information, but others... I am not so good at it because I’m only a scholar." He shook his head and continued, "I still need to count on other organization for protecting my network, but I can’t use their help at the moment."

The old man looked down sadly.

"Why?" Yao Ying asked out of curiosity.

"Because the employer is from that organization and I’m pretty sure that he knows that one of the scholars is my son, but he still let my son jump into the pit!" The old man gritted his teeth in anger and his expression showed the quartet how hurt he was.

"It seems like someone is trying to replace your position in the organization?" Yao Ling asked softly. Otherwise, why would the other organization suddenly target this man’s son out of nowhere?

The old man nodded. "The other organization wants to devour my information network!" He exclaimed sadly.

Lin Jian suddenly recalled something. "What... What’s the name of your information network?" Lin Jian asked, feeling excited all of a sudden. He had heard about this information network before, but he thought that it was only a legend. Only a handful of important people was able to buy the information from this network and they met with the owner by accident! Was it that organization?

"A Thousand Words," The old man answered.

When Lin Jian heard the organization’s name, he almost choked on his tea!! He was correct!!

It was really A Thousand Words!!

A Thousand Words was a mysterious organization who had control over the information of the three kingdoms. There was nothing that they couldn’t find out --- the old man didn’t exaggerate this thing for one bit. Just like the old man said, the organization worked along with another powerful sect that had a strong martial arts background. They were the one who protected A Thousand Words and both organizations reaped mutual benefits.

Both organizations had always worked together hand in hand. It amazed him that this organization indeed existed! A lot of people thought that this organization was only a myth!!

Their main base was unknown and they only had a handful of customers --- including the emperor of the three kingdoms. Yes, they were that powerful. They were a neutral organization and didn’t choose a specific kingdom. Thus, their reputation was always good.

Even Mi Hui couldn’t hold a candle to this organization! Mi Hui only searched information that benefited the princes, but rarely touched unimportant news. Unlike A Thousand Words which cleverly covered all kinds of news.

They always asked for a weird payment for the information. There was a rumor that sometimes they would ask for precious herbs, another quest, another information, and sometimes money, of course. That was depended on the mood of the owner. The owner was said to be very wise, because he wasn’t greedy and always kept the balance between three kingdoms. He wouldn’t sell information that could lead to the destruction of the kingdoms.

Was this old man really the owner?!

It seemed like there was a power struggling brewing between the two organizations, but why? Both organizations had been built for more than fifty years and their foundation had always been solid. Or was the power struggle had always been there but never escalated to this level? Lin Jian couldn’t help but feel curious.

Lin Jian asked excitedly, "Are you the owner?"

The old man nodded confidently. "Yes, I am. Have you heard about the organization?"

"Yes... I thought your organization is only a legend!" Lin Jian exclaimed.

"Oh... we are the real deal..." The man said.

"How can we know that you are telling the truth?" Yao Ying asked. Lin Jian once told him about this organization when they chatted back at Lin Fu, so he knew the significance of this organization. Lin Jian once said that no one knew whether this organization indeed existed, but it actually really was!

The old man pulled out an emblem from his sleeve. The emblem was made of pure gold and there was ’zhi’ word carved there. What made the emblem stood out was the animal symbol there --- ’boy of the white crane’. That symbol meant as a messenger of the gods who helped heroes. A bit over the top but it was definitely the organization’s emblem.

They saw themselves as a messenger who helped the three kingdoms to prosper and help to keep the balance between the three kingdoms.

Lin Jian saw the drawing once --- it was a bit look alike the emblem that the old man showed to them and in one glance, they knew that this emblem was hard to be replicated. Thus, they believed the old man’s claim.

"If you are able to help me, I will give you three free information that you want to know and you don’t have to use it right away," The old man offered. "I will give you a way to contact me, so don’t worry! I won’t run away from my part of the bargain."

Yao Ying saw that this was a chance for him to find out about Yao Ling’s background and himself too. If they used Mi Hui, it would alert too many people and become suspicious of their background too. Besides... A Thousand Words’ network was several times bigger than Mi Hui. Their information was more various because Mi Hui was solely focusing on the princes’ benefits --- not exactly for the greater good.

"By saving your son, is your intention to have us kill the employer?" Yao Ying asked.

"Yes..." The old man answered hesitantly. "That’s the only solution that I can think of."

"We need to know who that person is and also his current position," Yao Ying asked. Then, he hesitantly added, "We have something to do here for the moment, so if the employer is in this city, we can eradicate him as fast as possible. But if he isn’t, I’m afraid that it will take a little while."

Lin Jian murmured his agreement. "Yes, it’s true. We need everything in details."

The old man could see the determination in their eyes and feel relieved. It seemed like his bargaining chips worked --- people always needed information. That’s why he had the power to control people, but he was also a man of his words and he would also fulfill his own part.

"Fortunately, he’s currently in this city," The old man sighed. That man was following his move for the past few weeks so he knew that he wouldn’t stay far from him. "We need to act indifferently when we meet next time because he’s spying on me. I don’t want to arouse any suspicion. For now, we can just pretend that we enjoy talking to each other and I only show my gratitude to my new friends."

"Then why are you asking for our help so openly like this?" Yao Ying furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. The old man kept contradicting himself.

"If we meet in a broad daylight, there’s nothing to be suspicious about. He would only think that I’m thanking you for saving my son. That’s all!" The old man grinned mischievously.

"That seems pretty reasonable..." Xiao Fang finally said. She was too confused with the sudden information, but she knew that it was important for the trio. Was this organization that important? She had never heard of this organization before.

However, judging from Lin Jian and Yao Ying’s expression, it seemed like that they knew about this organization. Xiao Fang was actually a spoiled daughter and his father never let her experience any difficulties and hardship. That’s the reason why she was so innocent and didn’t know any political matter. Not only her father but her brother was also the same. They were too overprotective toward her.

If this marriage alliance didn’t involve Han Xiang, she wouldn’t stubbornly beg his father and even ran away from home. She felt a bit guilty because it gave the second branch to send assassins to kill her, luckily... she met with the trio or else she would be killed already. Xiao Fang needed to ask her father to compensate them after all of this finished.

Yao Ling stared at Xiao Fang and saw her confusion, but she didn’t see any malicious intention in Xiao Fang’s expression and she felt relieved. Yao Ling only saw pure adoration toward them. She hoped that Xiao Fang could be trusted, after all, they had only known each other for two days. This deal had something to do with her best friend, so Yao Ling didn’t feel too worried about it. If she wanted to save Han Xiang from the trouble with the scholars, then she would definitely join them.