Chapter 60 Love Letter
The mansion beside Deep Zheng Road in Kyoto had always not had too many people residing in it, and the main task of this room was to be responsible for transmitting Fan Xian’s orders and receiving the news handed over by Wang Qinian in the northern Shangjing. Si Li Li’s brother and the others, all lived in the compartments, and the room reserved for Fan Xian’s errands naturally did not have the habit of building fires.
Today, although he knew that Mr. Tishi was coming, someone had already built a stove in advance, but the room contained a lot of cold, and for a while it was still not able to spread out. Fan Xian sat in his wheelchair, feeling the cold in the room, couldn’t help but heave his hands, and laughed bitterly, “Even a stove can’t be bothered to build a …… courtyard is it poor enough to be like this?”
Deng Zi Yue is baking ink stone on the stove, and shouted subordinates to get some hot water to the frozen brush run open, listening to the words of the adults, said with a bitter smile, “adults these days many things, and injured, the following did not prepare for today you come over.”
It was not easy to toss and turn almost, Fan Xian propped up his head and watched Deng Ziyue take the ink block and grind it to death on the warmed ink stone, blending it with warm water, just like sharpening a knife after a long time of straining, finally grinding out some juice.
Fan Xian nodded with satisfaction, the water grinding skill of his new beloved seems to be no worse than that of the Imperial Doctor. After moistening the open brush into the ink stone, dipped it into some ink, and wrote a few words on the snow white paper …… Damn, the ink actually froze and condensed again!
“What the hell kind of weather is this!” Fan Xian was furious and threw the charred wood-like brush onto the table, scolding, “How come I didn’t see the cold like this at home?”
Deng Ziyue only felt a cold wind blowing around the room, and cautiously replied, “The furnace in the mansion is much better, when this courtyard was first purchased, it wasn’t stocked with these, and even the kang didn’t have time to warm up.”
“I don’t sleep here.” Fan Xian said in annoyance, “You a, old Wang a, are stingy dead main …… At first gave Wang Qinian a thousand taels of silver, he insisted on spending only one hundred and twenty taels, bought such a broken courtyard …… want to freeze to death I do not? ”
Deng Ziyue somewhat sympathize with far away in North Qi, but also by the Tisch Lord daily reprimand of the predecessor, small intention to persuade: “Win in the quiet.”
“It’s more than quiet.” Fan Xian glanced at him and said hatefully, “It’s called clear and cold! If those ministers in the capital see it, I’m afraid they’ll really think that our Supervisory Yuan is a clear water government office.”
He has a few important letters to write today, can’t care so much, still barely using the brush, but in the end still can’t be smooth. After a few tosses and turns, he finally gave up and slapped the desk and droned, “Give me that pen!”
Deng Ziyue dawdled for half a day, and finally took out a pen from his personal shirt, and when he was about to hand it over to Fan Xian, he said with a cautious look on his face, “This one is very expensive, and I heard that there isn’t much stock in the inner treasury, so your honor should save it for your own use.”
Fan Xian snatched it and looked at him with contempt, thinking, “It’s just a pencil, what’s the point of being so expensive? Waiting to go to Jiangnan and then find a few graphite mines, the inner library of the pencil business can naturally get up again, to that time, I shouted to the inner library to make two baskets for you to carry, a basket for you to write to death, a basket for you to throw along the street to play!
The pencil glides on the snow-white paper, like a beauty’s toes dancing on the smooth ice, occasionally scraping up a few ice flakes and snow traces.
Deng Ziyue knew that Lord Tiji was writing a secret letter, and retreated out of the room with early knowledge of the opportunity. In the cold study, only Fan Xian a person captured the broken pen in writing, mouth spit out the fog, in the paper, look very some eerie.
The content of the letter is also very weird, although it is the secret letter of the Supervisory Yuan, but the letter is too big, and the pencil handwriting can be erased, so Fan Xian is not too assured, with more obscure words, and the matter of time and other important sentences, are used in code words.
The letter was sent to Wang Qinian, and it was about the Cui family. Cui family, because of the great persecution in Kyoto, in order to help the second prince with Xinyang side to raise silver, forced to transfer a large number of smuggled goods, to the northern Qi, but the channel over there has not been opened, so the phenomenon of accumulation of goods.
Currently on the line as well as in the northern treasury, the Cui family transferred from Xinyang, accumulating goods, able to account for about one-sixth of the amount of the annual production of the inner treasury!
From this ratio, we can see that the Princess has been holding the inner treasury all these years, and her guts have grown to such an extent that she is not hesitant to seek personal gain.
The current situation is Fan Xian and Yan Bingyun spent a few months to combat the second prince, squeeze Cui’s to create, he waited for this time, to eat each other cleanly, even the bones are not spit out a out.
The letter to Wang Qinian ended with a sentence: Dinner is served.
Fan Xian sat in the wheelchair, slightly inclined his head, gently rubbed the chest above the wound, where it had been wrapped with a ligature, some itchy. After writing a letter, the hand has frozen a little stiff, suddenly began to miss the time in Tanyu state, Si Si every day to help himself copying books, and when he copying books, this girl will put his hand in her arms to warm up, touching the hands of the plump, the feel is really good.
Heart slightly swing, put pen to paper and write again, this second letter is written to Haitang DuoDuo, just when he wrote the letter, the heart holds a debauchery heart, the words on the letter is also unrestrained a little bit, occasional flirtation.
Since the return of Northern Qi, he and Haitang’s correspondence has not been broken, but also used to the north of such a pen pal, after all, the two sides as the strength of the younger generation of the two big countries, to maintain open channels of communication, is very necessary, but also for the future of a very good thing.
The letter chatted about some of the recent gossips that happened in Kyoto, Qing Kingdom, and of course the Hanging Temple incident was among them. Although the assassination of the Qing emperor shocked the world, the Northern Qi capital has been reported in detail, but he as a party, tell this story, certainly than the storyteller to move a lot.
The latter also said something else, and in the words and phrases secretly point out that he is ready to make a move on the Cui family, so that she and the little emperor who does not know men and women to cooperate with him. At the end of the letter he copied a poem to prove that he was still as talented as ever.
“I have come to Moss to wish to repay the points of kindness, and the deed is not all profit and glory. Ancient people have died for the sake of their soulmates, but I am afraid that their frozen bones will be buried in the border garden. The old man in the Chinese dynasty does not miss me, heavy furs and thick shoes floating tassels. I have heard that it is even colder in the north, and I don’t know how the people there can survive.”
These were the last lines of Sima Guang’s bitter cold walk. Fan Xian read it over with some complacency, rubbing his somewhat stiff hands, thinking that the poem he had copied was really too appropriate, and that the compassionate meaning between the lines would make Miss Haitang think back for a long time – cheating a little girl to death was exactly what he liked to do.
After confirming that nothing was missing, he sealed the envelope and pressed the fire paint. Suddenly, his heart stirred, always feeling as if his desires had not been fully satisfied. To the ordinary-looking girl at the end of the letter paper, swaying like a village girl, he always felt that he was facing an old friend, and for a while he fell into silence.
Then he spread out a sheet of white paper, and, after a little meditation, put pen to paper and wrote:
“Duo Duo, how are you, the previous letter is considered official business, this one is a casual chat. Today, the first snow of the fifth year of the Qingli calendar fell in Kyoto, and it came a little earlier than in the past. I think the snow in Shangjing is even bigger, the sky is even colder, the other day in your vegetable garden I saw a few branches of plums at the corner of the hedge, I don’t know if those branches of waxed plums can blossom reddish dots, moisturizing the monotonous face of white snow.”
“Well, how are those ducks you raised? Be careful, don’t freeze to death …… My side is quite normal, small yellow small black small white are raised in the field village outside the capital, I heard that the fellows there put these three big fat cats are like ancestors, how can they raise problems.”
“I’m all quite well, eating and sleeping, sleeping and eating, the house is quite quiet. For the past two days my sister has been busy in the Imperial Hospital, I heard that it has become a rare sight in Kyoto, Wan Er went back to the Lin Mansion today, and my lovely great-uncle is about to be a little bad-tempered because he has been given the cold shoulder lately. I wonder what you are doing at this time?”
Fan Xian wrote casually, as if talking in a loose manner, purely writing wherever he thought of.
“By the way, that student of mine surnamed Shi has opened a green house, business is good, especially the food is very exquisite, one day if you travel to Qing, I’ll accompany you to have a seat. Ah, suddenly thought, the name of that restaurant in Shangjing I have forgotten, but still remember that day’s wine is good, and you said a lot of nonsense, also do not know how much you still remember.”
“That said, your first few letters I have read a few times, always feel sour and intolerable, you a hallowed saint daughter, don’t learn the style of those great ladies, always like to clip some poems in the letter and so on, although I pretend to have a poetry fairy’s name, but there is no interest in correcting the composition.”
“Last time you said that Si Li Li is now living well …… Well, this kind of thing will not chat more in the future, I have always had a grudge on this matter in, and for some reason, especially headache to hear her news from your mouth.”
“Duo Duo, come to Qing Guo to play, my wife is also very curious about you …… In addition is by the way to ask a question, your Heavenly Dao’s gong method can be passed on to outsiders? I’ve suddenly become a lot more interested in your practice methods lately.”
This seemingly natural questioning profoundly revealed the shamelessness and duplicity deep within Fan Xian’s heart.
“The snow outside the window seems to have gotten heavier, and that young man outside the house is still chopping wood; young people are always hot-blooded. But now although I am still shallow in years, but I don’t know why, the heart is showing some old age, looking at the personnel around me, it is always extremely difficult to bring up interest, tired of boredom, uninteresting …… outside the snow and wind is whistling, perhaps urging me to put down the pen, then, well, it’s here, the room’s stove is too broken, the temperature has not been able to rise, although I still want to talk with you , but always felt there was no need to make a match with the coldness of God …… Also, please take care of him for me, thank you, and all the best.”
The letter was natural, but it still had too much useful information mixed in. He read the letter again, then added a sentence at the very end of the letter, “Wang Qinian, if you dare to peek again, I’ll let Mu Tie his nephew go peek at your daughter’s bath!”
“Why is there one more letter than usual?” Deng Ziyue’s eyes widened as he looked at Fan Xian and counted the letters in his hand, “There are two for Miss Haitang?”
“Why do you ask so many questions?” Fan Xian said, “It’s the same old rule, escort the entire journey to Shangjing.”
Deng Ziyue nodded and walked outside the house, handing several letters that had already been sealed to the Qiyian team member who had been waiting outside for a long time, and that buddy counted the letters in his hand and issued the same question, “How …… are there two?”
Deng Ziyue looked at him, the corners of his lips twitching somewhat unsightly twice, and sucked in a breath of cool air, “What’s the point of asking so many questions?”
The two looked at each other, nodded, and stopped talking, thinking in their hearts that it is really a bit extravagant for the Lord Tisch to send …… love letters by the top secret mail route of the Supervisory Yuan.
Fan Xian sat in the wheel of Qi out of the small courtyard of the deep Zhengdao, got on the carriage and went to the Lin House, ready to pick up Wan Er and Dabao back to the house. In the carriage, he suddenly asked, “Is there anything fishy about the position of the Secretary of the Imperial College ……? There is also the fact that I have long been out of the Taishang Temple, why did you promote me to be the young secretary of the Taishang Temple this time?”
Deng Zi Yue first explained the latter one, “There are two lesser secretaries, Ren lesser secretaries as the main, the adults as the deputy …… However, this is a virtual position, and do not need to go every day. The Secretary of the Imperial College is in charge of the seven gates, both positions are on the fourth rank.” He reminded, “My lord, although you can no longer serve as a court official after you take over the position of the portable division, in the end, the court did not send an invented decree to remove these two positions from you, and this time, His Majesty’s decree appointing you to these two imaginary positions must only be to show his holy favor, and does not necessarily have any other meanings.”
Fan Xian shook his head, these two posts are the last two in the emperor’s holy decree, he did not take it seriously at first, but then the more he thought about it, the more wrong it was, the emperor this person has a profound mind, will never take the official position as a bun with.
“Are these two positions …… anything …… more special?” He frowned and organized his words.
Deng Zi Yue thought for a long time after, some uncertainty back: “The position of the young secretary is common, and there is nothing special, except that it is the Taishang Temple is in charge of the clan and temple chores, and it is more convenient to go to the palace …… Taishang Secretary of the Department of Education has not appeared in these years, and there is no appearance, and several times after the new government, the official positions are somewhat chaotic ……”
He suddenly slapped his thigh and said happily, “Come to think of it, in the past, the Secretary of the Imperial Academy had to enter the palace to give lectures for the Emperor’s son, and was the assistant to the Imperial Master.”
Fan Xian froze, his mouth wide open, half speechless. He finally understood what the emperor was doing by arranging these two positions for himself, with the Young Secretary of the Taishang Temple plus this Secretary of the Imperial Academy, wouldn’t he be turning into a teacher for the imperial sons?
To be more precise, would he not be responsible for teaching that little bastard Lao San?
A thought of this, he was shocked, scolded: “I do not have the free time to enter the palace every day …… is not going down to the south of the Yangtze River? How to still arrange this kind of terrible thing for me to do?”
Cackle, the carriage seems to be scolded by him to stop, the curtain slightly lifted, in the pattering snow, but saw the carriage front was a eunuch led a few palace guards to stop.
Yao eunuch looked at Fan Xian in the carriage, shivered his eyebrows in fear of the cold, and said in a trembling voice: “Adults, call the lackey a good find …… quickly follow me, His Majesty declared you to enter the palace.”