Chapter 1610 — Preparing for the Ice Palace

"Xiaoming, Yuyu really did turn up a lead on Tangtang, though we can't be sure yet whether this person truly is Tangtang... Look, he took photographs — I've asked you over to have a look!" Old Master Tang said.

"Oh! Where?" The moment she heard Old Master Tang's words, Third Concubine seemed to come alive again, her voice trembling with excitement. "Show me quickly..."

But almost at once she caught herself losing composure and hurriedly said, "Father, forgive me... I was too eager."

"Think nothing of it. Yuyu, hand your phone to Xiaoming." Old Master Tang had maintained a perfectly warm manner throughout; an old fox like him naturally played his part to the hilt, while Tang Yuyu's emotion was genuine in any case, so there was no need for him to put on an act.

"Third Concubine, please have a look..." Tang Yuyu passed the phone to her.

Third Concubine took the phone, glanced at the screen once, and let out a cry that nearly sent the device slipping from her fingers. Her eyes were locked fast on the photograph, her throat constricted so that no words could come, and the tears would not stop spilling down her cheeks...

It was a long while before she managed, in a voice too low to be heard, "Tangtang... is it you, Tangtang? It must be you..."

Old Master Tang and Tang Yuyu held their silence by tacit agreement. They both knew Third Concubine needed time to digest the news; anyone who failed to faint dead away with shock at such a moment could already be called strong. After all, when word of a daughter lost for so many years suddenly arrives, no heart can bear it without breaking a little.

"Yes! It must be! Father — the instant I saw her, something unnamed stirred inside me, as though she really were my daughter. It was the pull of blood. I am certain of it: she is Tangtang!" Third Concubine said. "Where is she? I am going to find her!"

"That..." Old Master Tang gave a bitter smile. "Xiaoming, don't be hasty. The matter is more complicated than it seems..."

"Complicated? She..." Third Concubine began, but thought better of it and fell silent, gazing at Old Master Tang with a mixture of hope and urgency.

"Xiaoming, do you know who she is now?" Old Master Tang sighed. "Her present identity is the Palace Mistress of the Ice Palace — an ancient sect!"

"What? An ancient sect? Palace Mistress of the Ice Palace?" Third Concubine was visibly shaken. Though she had been born into poverty, decades spent within the Hidden Tang Family had taught her something of the hidden clans and ancient sects; so to hear that the woman in the photograph was none other than the Palace Mistress of the Ice Palace left her frozen where she stood.

"That is precisely why Yuyu and I are still uncertain," Old Master Tang said. "The Palace Mistress of the Ice Palace — the distance between her and ourselves is simply too vast. How could an abandoned infant of the Tang family ever become mistress of the Ice Palace, one of the greatest of the ancient sects? It beggars belief... And moreover, according to Yuyu, she is a peak expert at the late Heaven-stage! I myself am only at the early Heaven-stage..."

Third Concubine gripped the phone white-knuckled and said nothing, her eyes fixed on the woman in the photograph, her thoughts unknowable.

Old Master Tang and Tang Yuyu, for their part, did not interrupt her.

It was some time before Third Concubine spoke again. "I feel it — she is my daughter. Truly she is..."

"Xiaoming, if you are certain, we shall go in person to the Ice Palace in the Ice and Snow Spirit Mountain. Whether it proves to be her or not, we lose nothing." Old Master Tang had already weighed the matter: going to claim kinship would not really be an affront to the Ice Palace. Unlike the Again-and-Again Tomorrow Sect, which played by no rules at all, the Ice Palace was the sort of power that often could not be bothered to quarrel with the weak. At worst they would make a mistake and be driven out — hardly a dangerous undertaking.

"May we really? Yes!" Third Concubine agreed without a moment's hesitation. She longed to lay eyes on her daughter sooner rather than later; never mind some Ice and Snow Spirit Mountain — she would go to the ends of the earth if need be!

"Then it is settled." Old Master Tang pondered for a moment before going on. "Say nothing of this to any of the servants. I will make the arrangements, and we set out within a few days."

"Understood!" Third Concubine nodded again and again.

Third Concubine might have been born poor and harbored no schemes, but neither was she stupid. With one swift leap of thought she saw that if her daughter Tangtang truly was that Palace Mistress of the Ice Palace, the future of the Tang family might be profoundly affected...

Yet — would her daughter be willing to acknowledge this mother of hers? At that thought, the light in Third Concubine's face dimmed a little...

Old Master Tang and Tang Yuyu took their leave swiftly. They had to arrange the family's affairs before departing for the Ice and Snow Spirit Mountain, and without arousing the suspicion of anyone else in the clan — which left a great many things yet to be settled...

…………………

Back at the resort, Wei Zhao finished his shower and then sprawled on the sofa chatting with Kang **.

"It honestly feels like a dream," Kang ** said, a note of wistfulness in his voice. "Thinking back to before, when you had just transferred here and clashed with Zhong Yongliang — it's all still vivid. And in the blink of an eye I've become the vice president of a company. What a change..."

Listening to Kang **'s reflections, Wei Zhao's own heart was no less full of them. Back then he had been nothing more than an ordinary little killer — or perhaps a little bodyguard; either way, he took on jobs not unlike those of a bounty hunter, living a rootless, drifting life.

And now — not only did he have a company of his own, but he possessed the strength to stand toe to toe with the great clans. That would have been unthinkable before! Back then he had merely been one of the humble escorts assigned to protect Yu Ning, the little princess of the Hidden Yu Family — he and Yu Ning had had something of the mythic Weaver and Cowherd about their station. But now, in the turn of a hand, he dared snatch a Qi-Gathering Pill from the very jaws of the Hidden Yu Family, dare grind their secular mouthpiece, the Secular Yu Family, beneath his heel, and even have the gall to demand they send him two concubines!

Life is like that — full of unexpected encounters and sudden turns. No one can foresee his own future.

"Kang **, have you thought about how you'll handle university?" Wei Zhao asked.

"Not yet, though roughly speaking I'll find some college with an economics program, just register a name and coast my way to a diploma. Right now I want to concentrate on running the company; when the time comes and I find my abilities really aren't enough, I'll go do a dedicated MBA in business management." Kang ** said. "In the meantime, though, I've had Xiaofen enroll in a night school so she can go study in the evenings and brush up her knowledge. She's different from me — she's strong in quality inspection. I'm planning to have her pick up some relevant certifications; we're going to need people like that in our company someday."

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