Dinner was lavish, but Luo Ziling was the only one with a good appetite.
Ling Mingrui and Xie Enhua were getting on in years, and were quite particular about what they ate; they wouldn’t eat a lot, much less wolf things down.
Ling Ruonan’s appetite was never big to begin with, and her emotional ups and downs just now left her with no desire to eat.
As a result, more than half the dishes on the big table ended up in Luo Ziling’s stomach.
After they finished dinner, Ling Mingrui called Ling Ruonan and Luo Ziling into the study to talk.
Xie Enhua tactfully didn’t go in and disturb them; using the excuse of helping the housekeeper clear the dishes, she went off to busy herself.
Once they entered the study, Ling Mingrui asked Luo Ziling point-blank, "The moment you got back, Lin Zeping came looking for you?"
"Yes!" Luo Ziling nodded. "Not only did Lin Zeping look for me, Wang Zhengqiang also reached out to me. My guess is, they figured that as soon as I got back I’d come to see you, Grandfather, so they wanted to see me before I came to visit you, and have me pass on a few words of concern to you on their behalf."
"Tell me the details," Ling Mingrui said as he sat down on the sofa.
Ling Ruonan made tea for Ling Mingrui and Luo Ziling, poured herself a glass of plain water, and then sat down beside Ling Mingrui.
Before Luo Ziling started talking about Lin Zeping and Wang Zhengqiang, she spoke first: "Dad, during this period Lin Zeping and Wang Zhengqiang have been contacting me very frequently. If I’ve guessed right, both of them are going all out, each wanting to push the other down, even to the point of toppling him. I feel what they’re doing is quite dangerous; it’ll bring turmoil to the whole upper echelon."
Ling Mingrui nodded lightly, but didn’t express an opinion.
Luo Ziling then quickly recounted how Lin Zeping had met with him and how Wang Zhengqiang had called him.
While Luo Ziling was talking about these things, Ling Mingrui didn’t interrupt, just listened quietly.
After Luo Ziling finished, he still didn’t immediately comment, instead sinking into thought.
He thought carefully for a while, then asked Luo Ziling again, "Lin Zeping was really that explicit?"
"Yes!" Luo Ziling nodded. Other than not mentioning that both Lin Zeping and Wang Zhengqiang had promised to push Ling Ruonan into the position he was currently in, he told everything else, especially the demands Lin Zeping had made directly, and the benefits he was willing to offer, in more detail.
After listening to what Luo Ziling said, Ling Mingrui let out a sigh. "Ruonan’s right. If we let them keep fighting like this, things will blow up. Later a few of us will put pressure on them, even give them a clear hint, tell them to stop all this back-and-forth and not make such a big scene. As for what you two need to do, it’s still the same as before: when they invite you, you go and chat with them; some of the things they ask for, you can agree to. In the end they’ll realize they only managed to stay undefeated because they came to you. For them, that’s already a huge success."
When he heard the first part of what Ling Mingrui said, Luo Ziling thought he meant something else entirely.
He hadn’t expected that this would be the conclusion Ling Mingrui was leading up to.
He couldn’t help wanting to laugh.
Lin Zeping and Wang Zhengqiang would definitely have been busy all for nothing, yet in the end they’d think they’d achieved a tremendous success.
Wasn’t that a bit too much of a joke?
Still, Luo Ziling immediately understood that sometimes, not losing is a kind of success.
There are countless kinds of success: being able to keep everything you already have, being able to keep walking the same path as before, being able to come out of a struggle with your opponent without losing anything—these are all forms of success. And often, success has to be viewed from different angles.
Success and failure in political struggle can be very cruel at times.
If you fail, you might lose everything; you might even lose your freedom, and your life might come to an end.
Though Ling Mingrui’s words were a bit convoluted, after thinking them over seriously, Luo Ziling found himself agreeing.
Ling Mingrui didn’t say much more about Lin Zeping and Wang Zhengqiang; his meaning was already very clear—that he was encouraging Luo Ziling and Ling Ruonan to stay in contact with them, and to find ways to secure greater benefits when dealing with them.
In Ling Mingrui’s eyes, whatever benefits Ling Ruonan and Luo Ziling obtained from Lin Zeping and Wang Zhengqiang were benefits for the Ling Family.
So he hoped Ling Ruonan and Luo Ziling could extract benefits from Lin Zeping and Wang Zhengqiang.
In fact, from another angle, having close dealings with Wang Zhengqiang and Lin Zeping would also make others look at them with new eyes.
After all, in many people’s eyes, Lin Zeping and Wang Zhengqiang were the Boss and the number two. If someone could maintain close relations with both of them at the same time and receive their special attention, then in many people’s minds, this person would be someone who could go straight up to The Heavens, someone incredibly formidable.
Isn’t it common to see some people hang their photos with certain big shots in the most prominent place, to show everyone how impressive they once were, how they had been in the same frame as those leaders? In reality, many such photos are nothing more than a moment during an inspection tour by those big shots, where they just happened to be in the same frame with someone, yet that person cherishes the photo like a treasure and uses it to brag to others.
And in the eyes of those who don’t know the inside story, anyone who can have a photo taken with those big shots must be quite something, and they unconsciously look at him with greater respect.
A single photo might bring someone enormous benefits, let alone people like Ling Ruonan and Luo Ziling, who could frequently meet and chat with the Boss and number two, and have a very close relationship with them.
By having Luo Ziling and Ling Ruonan interact more with Lin Zeping and Wang Zhengqiang, Ling Mingrui also hoped their influence would further expand, that more people would take them seriously and be wary of them. He also hoped others would believe that he himself had very close relationships with both Lin Zeping and Wang Zhengqiang.
If everyone thought that way, then his prestige and his say in matters would increase.
After discussing Lin Zeping and Wang Zhengqiang, Ling Mingrui asked about Yang Yuanshan.
When he heard that Yang Yuanshan’s health had basically recovered and that the trouble from the tumor had more or less been eliminated, Ling Mingrui chuckled. "Old Sir Yang is still somewhat wise—he didn’t insist on going all the way down a dark road. If he’d been as stubborn as Chen Ruchang, he’d probably be lying in a hospital right now as well."
Luo Ziling suddenly thought of something and couldn’t help asking Ling Mingrui, "Grandfather, that time when Yang Yuanshan suddenly fell ill during his visit to Tanzhou, was what happened ever clarified? Was it a coincidence, or was there human involvement?"
"We pursued it for a long time and didn’t find anything unusual. I’m afraid in the end we still won’t be able to get to the bottom of it. With many things, even though everyone knows something’s off, without evidence there’s no way to make things clear; even if everyone believes it, you still can’t formally characterize the incident." When he said this, there was something rather meaningful in Ling Mingrui’s tone.
Luo Ziling understood what Ling Mingrui was getting at, so he didn’t probe further.
He knew that matter had become another unsolved case, just like Chen Jiahai’s death.
In this world, many things don’t follow the rule of "unless you do nothing, no one will ever know." There are far too many things whose truth can never be known.