Chapter 27: Surprised to Hear of the Words of the Northern Kingdom

Fan Xian was too late to explain and ordered with a smile, “I’ll say it, you memorize it.” He couldn’t sharpen his ink in time, so he casually picked a quill pen, dipped it in some of the ink left in the ink stone, and handed it to his sister, then closed his eyes tightly and began to recall the complex distribution of palaces and courtyards and the direction of the roads inside the palace.

The more Fan Ruoruo wrote, the whiter her face became, and Fan Xian’s face became whiter and whiter because of the memory drain, turning the brother and sister into two big white faces. It was not easy to draw the route map in the palace, Fan Ruo Ruo finally couldn’t help but shout out in a low voice: “Brother, do you know that this is a major crime of treason.”

Fan Xian relaxed, sitting on his butt in the chair, not speaking for half a day. Having spent half a day in the palace today, both talking and gossiping with those nobles, memorizing the complicated paths, and finally engaging the eldest princess mentally for a long time, it was just too draining, and he couldn’t slow down his energy for a while.

He was naturally familiar with the Qing Laws, and knew that the palace was a building that absolutely did not allow drawings, this was to prevent people from trying to sneak into the palace to do those treacherous things. And Fan Xian needed this drawing because he had already set a plan, and in that plan, that night, it should be himself sneaking into the palace to find the key.

He could have asked Lin Wan’er about the paths in the palace, but that would have been too risky, and the paths that the masters of the palace walked on, and the paths that Fan Xian had planned with all his heart were again two completely different concepts, even if the Five Bamboos had told him about them – things like those hideouts behind the wigwams, and the sight-blind spots in the bushes of the flowers, if you hadn’t walked one of those paths yourself, you would not have been able to make a plan that you were very satisfied with, like If he hadn’t walked one of those blind spots himself, it would have been impossible to make a map that he was very satisfied with, as he did today.

Fan Xian stood up, walked to the table and picked up his sister’s drawing, realizing that although he was in a hurry, his sister’s penmanship was still meticulous, he couldn’t help but happily pat his sister’s head and said, “It’s done. I invite you to eat sea food at the One Stone Residence.”

Fan Ruo Ruo got angry and snatched the map back, saying, “And things came true? What thing has come true! Do you know what a big deal this is? No, I’m going to tell father.”

Fan Xian laughed bitterly, thinking that the concept of the inviolability of imperial power had really penetrated the hearts of the people, but of course, he also understood that his sister was mainly worried about her own safety and the children of the whole house, and that if it was known that she had drawn the map of the Imperial Officials in private, I was afraid that with the Fan House’s love affair with the Royal Family, it would be miserable in a very serious way.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take a break later and immediately memorize this map and burn it, no one will know.” Fan Xian smiled and comforted his sister.

Fan Ruoruo anxiously had tears in her eyes, “Why did you draw this diagram?”

Fan Xian sighed, looked down gravely into his sister’s eyes, and said word for word, “Because there’s something I want in the palace.”

“You’re going to the palace to steal …… it?” Fan Ruo Ruo wanted to scream in surprise and hurriedly covered her mouth.

Fan Xian said seriously, “Not bad. But it’s not stealing, because that thing, originally, was mine.”

Fan Ruo Ruo got out of her shock and immediately returned to her usual calm and intelligence, judging the truth of the matter, and lowered her slightly trembling voice and said, “Wasn’t it something related to …… Aunt Ye?”

Fan Xian smiled and said, “This matter must not be hidden from you.” It was a very simple few words, but it was full of the sentiment of knowing and believing between brother and sister. He then smiled and said, “It doesn’t matter, what kind of person is your brother? He punched a seven-year-old child and kicked an old man in his seventies. Standing on the chaotic graveyard roar, disobedience to my stand out, the result is hard no one dares to say anything. Haha.”

Ruo Ruo laughed with some difficulty, feeling that her brother’s joke was really not funny, still worried, but knowing that Fan Xian was a person with a pretty and gentle appearance, but in reality, his heart and soul were extraordinarily hard and icy, and he could not be persuaded to say anything, so he had to let him be, and he himself prayed every day at home.

“I’m actually very selfish.” Fan Xian looked at the sadness on her brow, and suddenly said in calm introspection, “Whenever there’s something that’s extremely difficult for me to bear alone, I’m willing to tell you, on the surface it’s a matter of trust, but in reality perhaps it’s just a matter of wanting to find someone to share the pressure with. But but always did not think, in fact, this kind of pressure for you, is a kind of greater pain, at least I still have you can confide in, and who can you say to go? For example, my mother is the matriarch of the Ye family, for example, I’m about to go to the palace to steal something.”

Ruo Ruo glanced at him with a slight hint of sadness, “Trust and pressure, both cancel each other out, I still rejoice that brother is not hiding anything from me.”

Negotiations were still going on, the work of redrawing the border was going very hard, originally, with the support of the analyzed case files handed over by Fan Xian, the officials specifically responsible for the negotiations at the Honglu Temple of Qing were exceptionally tough, and a few times, they came close to forcing the Beiqi legation to draw a pledge on the paperwork, but for some unknown reason, perhaps because of what was happening within Beiqi, the Beiqi legation had been brazenly or even hysterically dragging their feet, as if they were trying to wait for something.

This smell of conspiracy was immediately sniffed out by the experienced Honglu Temple’s Young Secretary Xin Qiji. That afternoon, after a negotiation that had gone nowhere, he held a small teapot and glanced at Fan Xian, signaling him to follow him out. Along the way, there were officials saluting the two ambassadors, and when they managed to find a quieter place, Xin Shaoqing sighed a bit tiredly and said, “Lord Fan, do you feel that anything is a bit unusual?”

Although Fan Xian held the correct attitude of observing and learning from this negotiation, after all, he was involved in it from start to finish, and Fan Xian also felt that the attitude of the Northern Qi delegation had changed somewhat strangely. But if the other party has recently obtained what can rely on the chips, then at this time should also be put out, not to the negotiation table nearly rogue-like drag.

He thought about it and suddenly frowned: “I’m afraid that Bei Qi is now trying to find a way to obtain certain bargaining chips to use on the negotiation table.”

Xin Shaoqing looked at him and nodded, “I think so too, so tonight I will go to the palace to meet with the saint, and ask the saint to issue a decree to have the Procuratorate go around assisting the Honglu Temple in its work, and without finding out exactly what the Northern Qi side is thinking, I’m really a bit uneasy.”

Fan Xian leaned against the railing, narrowing his eyes in contemplation, thinking to himself, “What are the Northern Qi thinking of acquiring? Without reason, a flash of light came to his mind, and he thought of the spy network that the Supervisory Academy had set up in Beiqi, and he thought of that Duke Yan Bingyun Yan, who had been lurking in Beiqi for four years.

Not knowing what he was thinking, Xin Shaoqing said in a harmonious voice, ”I entered the palace this night, but after all, there is less to gain by going out in the open. Vice-Envoy Fan, at this time, you can no longer hide.”

Fan Xian smiled bitterly, thinking that the other party must have thought that the last dossier was obtained with the help of his father’s secret forces, but heaven knows, those forces that his father secretly took care of for the Emperor, even he himself had never touched. After thinking about it though, he felt that he really needed to go and ask, at least to ensure the safety of Yan Bingyun on the Northern Qi side.

That night, in the middle of that hidden courtyard, Fan Xian summoned Wang Qinian and told him about his concerns with Xin Shaoqing. Wang Qinian’s face reacted in a way that gave Fan Xian some ominous omens.

“It has been eight days since the courtyard received an invitation from the crows.” Wang Qinian’s brows furrowed extremely tightly.

“This kind of news shouldn’t be known at your level.” Fan Xian smiled and shook his head, “But I’m not going to ask you how you know, I just want to remind the courtyard through you to pay attention to the safety of the Northern Qi side.”

Wang Qinian interjected and shook his head, “It’s all a single line of communication, if it’s broken, it’s hard to renew it back. Not to mention that Mr. Yan is the Chief Head of the Northern Qi Secret Spy Day, if something happens to him all the time, contacting again won’t help.”

“In any case, remind him to stay safe.” A hint of coldness flashed in Fan Xian’s eyes, he didn’t like to give up on anyone because of the country’s interests, especially that Yan Bingyun, who, as the son of a high ranking official, had sacrificed a lot by lurking around for four years. Nowadays, Fan Xian had long since viewed himself as a part of the country of Qing, a part of the Supervisory Academy, and naturally, there was a kind of reverence for Yan Bingyun, whom he had never met.

Fan Xian remembered another matter and calmly looked at Wang Qinian, “I have a mission, but it can’t go through the academy, and I was hoping to seek your help.”

Wang Qinian looked at his lord with some confusion.

“It cannot be reported to President Chen for knowledge.” Fan Xian’s tone was calm, but Wang Qinian could hear the chilliness mixed within.

“Yes.” With the exit of this word, Wang Qinian knew that he had already staked his life, his family’s life, all on this seemingly gentle, but actually ruthless young adult. As for the courtyard, Dean Chen just instructed himself to listen to all of Lord Fan and did not hand over anything else.

That night, the unfortunate news was finally confirmed, the network of secret spies that the Qing State Supervisory Academy had structured around in Northern Qi was fortunate enough to save the vast majority of them, but to everyone’s surprise, as the head of the secret spies, Mr. Yan Bingyun, was captured alive by the Northern Qi’s great inner experts in the silk house in the Northern Qi’s upper capital!

For this kind of incident, generally by the lower level to open a breakthrough, and then traced up, rarely appear this kind of capture the highest level of the spy network things. In this case, there is only one possibility, that is, within the Ministry of the Qing Dynasty, the top, someone in the foreign country.

The news of Yan Bingyun’s capture of course could not be spread, that would cause a certain blow to the reputation of Qing, but even more inconsistent with the interests of North Qi, North Qi is the need to use such a leader in exchange for the corresponding benefits, not just to combat the morale of the enemy country just.

As for the Qing officialdom, the Supervisory Yuan four organizers Yan Ruohai Lord’s eldest son, four years ago has died, no one knows, he was sent by the court to North Qi.

In the past few days, everyone who knew about this matter did not sleep well.

In the most secretive room of the Honglu Room, Xin Shaoqing closed his eyes and handed the piece of paper in his hand to Fan Xian. Fan Xian took it and looked at it, it was a painting of a thin cloud drifting and traveling high above the ice field. This piece of paper was secretly handed over to Xin Shaoqing by an unassuming figure in the Northern Qi delegation during today’s negotiations, and the look on that person’s face almost caused Xin Shaoqing to pull out his guards’ swords and slash them.

The painting has the word Bingyun hidden in it, it seems that the mission of Northern Qi has also gotten the news and is ready to open the price.