Chapter 81 – Something’s up
In the middle of the night, he couldn’t sleep, and the river breeze outside the cabin was singing.
Fan Xian simply opened his eyes and smiled in the girl’s ear, “What’s wrong with twenty? Anxious?”
Si Si was truly made anxious by these words, and sat up from the comforter, biting a strand of hair on her lip and saying nothing in anger.
Fan Xian froze and hurriedly wrenched her body down, knowing that this was the wrong thing to say. Qing Guo women, where fifteen or sixteen years old to be married, like Si Si already twenty or yellow flower girl is indeed rare, although Fan Xian always thought that twenty years old is just the wonderful hour of maturity, but in the eyes of the general public, Si Si has become an old girl.
Especially in the Fan Mansion, although the people look at the old ancestor of Tanyu State and Fan Xian’s face, to Si Si is very polite, but in front of people behind the scenes there is always some gossip, especially Fan Xian has not been accepted into the room, but also contribute to this kind of atmosphere.
Thinking carefully, Fan Xian knows that he did not deal with this problem well, he always felt that there is no need to rush, but did not stand in the position of the girl Si Si think about it, the girl twenty, this is to be converted into that world, it would have to be a spinster of thirty, who is on the shelves, but also can not accept this tragic reality.
Si Si curled up and ignored him as she fell asleep sadly.
After Fan Xian thought about it, he smiled and said, “Speaking of which, it’s been two years since we’ve laid in the same bed.” During his time in Tanyou, although Si Si, who was two years older than him, slept on one side of the bed, Fan Xian had long since developed the bad dude habit of getting up and going to her bed to hang out for a while.
“Young master is older, so naturally he can’t keep hanging out with his subordinates.” Si Si buried her head in the quilt and answered in a muffled voice.
“This is going to take a long time.” Fan Xian didn’t coax her, just said gently, “Only you don’t mind a burnt roll like mine.”
Si Si let out a giggle, “If young master is a burnt roll, how can the girls in this world live?”
The master and servant suddenly fell silent at the same time, both thinking that this passage was Wang Xifeng’s self-depreciation in the Stone Records, and then they leisurely recalled the image of the time in Tanyu State when one person was copying a book and one person was waiting for him every night.
In those days, when Fan Xian was “copying” the Book of Stone in very beautiful lower case, Si Si was at the side grinding ink, dialing lamps, lighting incense, preparing the evening meal, and the two of them perfectly practiced the saying of “the red sleeve adds fragrance to the night copying book”. In fact, Si Si was Fan Xian’s first reader in this world.
Fan Xian turned the older girl’s body around and took her in his arms domineeringly, saying, “Since you’ve laughed, you don’t need to cry anymore, listen to the young master tell you a joke that is worse than beasts to listen to.”
Si Si curiously opened her eyes and waited for him to speak, and after hearing that famous joke, she finally couldn’t help but bury herself in his arms and laugh, and urged, “So young master is saying that he’s been worse than a beast all these years.”
“Now that I think about it, naturally, I have this problem.” Fan Xian honestly admitted his mistake, “Of course, the key thing is that I don’t know exactly what you think, and of course, I admit that there’s some shameless hypocrisy in that statement.”
“What do think?” Si Si was confused.
Fan Xian sighed mentally and didn’t say anything else. Sisi suddenly understood what the young master meant by what he said, and while she was surprised and unexpected, she was flatly touched, although the young master’s thoughts were indeed too absurdly confusing, and even seemed to be ready to look at her own thoughts, but …… there was still some warmth, ah.
“Young master, still remember when you were a child …… you beat the steward Zhou that time?”
“Of course I remember.” Fan Xian laughed, “That guy, actually dared to give you a face, see if I don’t beat him full of peach blossoms.”
Si Si gathered enough courage to look at his face, half a day but did not say anything, after all, she was a maid, how could she say those words of love and affection? That day, Fan Xian beat Butler Zhou’s face full of peach blossoms, and the peach blossoms in Miss Si Si’s heart also bloomed at that time of the year.
Fan Xian was only twelve years old at the time, and Si Si was only fourteen.
Fan Xian didn’t know what was in the heart of the eldest maiden, pondering the scene at that time, and subconsciously said, “That slap went down really hard at that time.”
Si Si shrank in his arms and laughed, “Young master has a strong hand.”
“Strong hands?” Fan Xian heatedly laughed, his left hand in the bedding is down, just hit Si Si’s rounded buttocks, the girl fell asleep wearing a piece of single blasphemy pants, thin hard, palm and buttock surface a touch, issued a snap of crisp sound.
Memories are always beautiful, flirting is always pleasurable, master and servant two so embraced, half a long time without words. It was just that in the dead of night, with the mattress having a warm fragrance, the air began to be ambiguous and warm, and Fan Xian also finally began to be beastly, and his two hands had long ago dishonestly begun to seek up and down in Xiu Yuan’s path.
“The light, the light is still on.” Si Si said sharply and shyly.
Fan Xian at this time has been promoted into the primate beast realm, monkey anxious, sniffing out his left arm back a chop, all thought his style Xi from Ye Ling’er at the big chop coffin, can easily break the wind and chopping, will be on the table that candle fire blowing out, didn’t expect to …… palm out, that candle on the fire is still firm.
He just thought, his own true qi all scattered, where can also be able to destroy the candle in the air, the heart can not help but feel great annoyance, once found that the true qi burst the body of the biggest disadvantage is this, grunted and cursed a few words, reached under the pillow to touch out the sleeve crossbow, turn back to messy and anxious to pick the trigger.
Only heard a snorting sound, the crossbow arrow through the candle and shot into the cabin board, issued a muffled sound, the candle flame immediately extinguished, the cabin returned to the darkness.
He had made a big mistake.
Before he had time to enjoy the sweetness of the darkness, he could only hear the sound of several gusts of wind outside the cabin, and he did not know how many masters had converged outside the room in a few moments, and he could only hear the sound of long knives coming out of their sheaths, and the sound of crossbows being cocked, which were intertwined and resounded.
Earlier Fan Xian used the crossbow to extinguish the candle, the arrow into the wood sound although light, but fell in the ears of those professionals, but it is extraordinarily alarming, especially there is a prince on board, a Lord Tisch, the night watchman do not know how vigilant. Only a tiger guard’s alert voice could be heard from outside the cabin.
“My lord, there is a situation.”
Fan Xian got up in a great rage, and was glad that these loyal men didn’t just barge through the door, and turned back to look at the girl who was snickering in the bedding, aching and depressed.
The night is silent.
The next day early in the morning, Fan Xian got up, today did not let Si Si help himself comb hair and dress, the girl is a little inconvenient, had to lie in bed to continue to rest.
He brought a bowl of porridge and a few corn buns and pickles into the house, served the poor girl with breakfast, Fan Xian did what men should do, then walked out of the cabin door and came to the bow of the ship. Looking at the vast river, facing the cold winter wind, feeling refreshed, without a trace of discomfort.
After the morning fog receded, the ship left Yingzhou. Most of the people on the boat were still sleeping, and when Fan Xian looked back, the pier had long since disappeared behind the mountains and could no longer be seen.
“Your Excellency got up early.” Su Wenmao said humbly from the sidelines, but his gaze drifted around Fan Xian’s body. The jokes from last night had long been spread around the ship by now, and no one dared to joke about anything to his face, but in their hearts, they all felt amused.
Fan Xian did not notice his subordinate’s unscrupulous gaze and casually said a few words, and with his gaze averted, he watched the Third Prince and Deng Ziyue both walk out of the cabin door.
Fan Xian bowed to the Third Prince in a very disciplined manner, meticulous, not at all diffident because he was outside of Kyoto at this time.
The Third Prince, with his childish face, accepted the salute with some embarrassment and did not move his body.
After Fan Xian finished his salute, he consciously straightened up and stood steadily in front of the Third Prince, not saying a word.
The Third Prince scratched his head, holding his small fists in aggravation, and bowed to Fan Xian and performed a large salute, “Student has met Lord Siye.”
The two beautiful-looking people with complex minds and vastly different ages began their day on the ship after the odd ceremony. Nowadays, on this ship, in addition to the group of subordinates that had always followed Fan Xian, there were also a few more palace teaching sisters and two small eunuchs, that were transferred from the palace to specifically serve the emperor’s son, but Fan Xian, who was hard-hearted and bold, rigidly kept these people on the lower decks and did not allow them to come up.
Fan Xian side, the Supervisory Yuan eight departments, in addition to six of the swordsman responsible for assassination of the security of the job, but also transferred the two departments and four of the two officials accompanying the trip, the two officials responsible for maintaining the smooth flow of information, four officials are responsible for the center of the liaison trip to Jiangnan, the Supervisory Yuan along the coasts of the Inspection Department of the officials.
Fan Xian’s own teacher is from the three departments, now in charge of one, so that is equal to this ship has half of the structure of the Supervisory Yuan, although the number of people is not much, but the division of labor with a very smooth.
Boat life is quite a lot of boredom, from Kyoto out of these people, the first few days there is interest in enjoying the river scenery, but gradually see the boredom, coupled with the river wind bitter cold, these days in addition to have a job in the body, the rest of the people are nestled in the room to rest.
Fan Xian and the Third Prince stood at the bow of the boat, looking at the scenery of the oncoming canyon, not knowing what they were whispering. The Third Prince was all Nuo Nuo, and Fan Xian had a gentle expression on his face.
Su Wenmao stood at the back, looking at the Lord Tisch and that prince, but in his heart, he was thinking about another pile of things, why did the ship have to be loaded with such a large box of silver ingots?
After delivering the matter and letting the third prince stand at the bow of the ship to learn Jack, Fan Xian walked back.
Su Wenmao glanced at the boy at the bow of the boat and asked with a bitter face, “My lord, it’s not good to tell His Highness when he freezes and gets sick.”
“Exercise the heart.” Fan Xian had not been gentle with the Third Prince along the way, keeping his distance, which was not only unexpected by the people in the boat, but thought it made the Third Prince himself feel extraordinarily odd.
“My lord, that box of silver ……” Su Wenmao asked tentatively.
Fan Xian shook his head, “Just keep an eye on it, and since that woman has already seen it, don’t let anyone else touch it.”
Su Wenmao responded, not continuing to ask questions.
Fan Xian stretched his waist, suddenly thinking that he was traveling down to Jiangnan in a big boat with a box of silver and a beauty, he was really a bit of a second-generation ancestor, it’s just a pity that the timing wasn’t very good, or else it would have been even prettier if he had taken a sunbath and drank some frozen fruit juice.
“Guan Feminine is locked up by us.” Su Wenmao frowned and said, “How can we let that Xia Dangjia from Jiangnan Water Village know? When the boat arrives in Yangzhou this afternoon, do we need to notify the local court officials to put out the news?”
Fan Xian thought about it and shook his head, “No need, for the time being I don’t want him to guess who I am, these fierce people who mix with the jianghu will only become a bit more cautious once they realize they can’t figure out the other side’s bottom line, what I want to see is just how much he’s willing to pay for this matter.”
“Then ……”
“Don’t let the people around spread the news.” Fan Xian smiled and said, “Wasn’t there a third sister-in-law who was left behind by you in Yingzhou last night? She will naturally find a way to inform Xia Qufei.”
On this day, the person who felt the most panic in the entire country of Qing was the third sister-in-law that Fan Xian spoke of.
The civilian ship on the pier in Yingzhou had already sailed away. Third Sister-in-Law stood at the edge of the pier like a fool, carrying a bag of bacon that hadn’t been fully smoked in her hand, not even bothering to greet the occasional person who came to ask for a price. She is the eyes and ears of the mountain bandits in Yingzhou city, and is responsible for spying on the news on weekdays, and she was the first one to find out the situation of the silver chest on that ship yesterday.
The boat disappeared, not a big deal, because according to Sister Guan’s style of behavior of this group of mountain bandits, after killing and robbing the goods, they would drive the boat away overnight, go downstream to the beach, and then burn the boat to extinguish the traces.
So she saw that the boat was gone this morning and thought that Sister Guan and the others had succeeded, but she didn’t expect that after waiting for half a day on the pier, she didn’t hear anything back!
Sister Guan didn’t come back, Second Brother didn’t come back, all of them didn’t come back!
Just like that ship, all the mountain thieves had disappeared without a trace and never appeared again, all the time she was made to wait until twilight, the dockside was still equally dead calm.
It wasn’t until this time that Third Sister-in-law finally confirmed that something had happened.
She shivered her lips, some can not believe this fact, even if the ship guards are strong, but last night should also hear the sound of killing, the government should also have a reaction is, how can there be no wind at all – is that ship is a ghost ship, easily seized more than a dozen people’s lives?
She changed her attire overnight, wrapped her hair, hid her family’s belongings, spent a lot of money to hire a carriage, and traveled downstream along the difficult mountain road overnight, passing through Yangzhou without stopping, and continuing eastward, all the way to the large county that will enter the Jiangnan Road.
It took her two whole days, and she only drank some water on the way, and didn’t eat any food.
She was a member of the lower ranks, and it would have been extremely difficult for her to meet that master of Sister Guan’s, but perhaps it was her deep-set eye sockets that made the master in charge of the reception believe what she had said, and with a heavy countenance led her into the back garden.
In the state city’s most guarded back garden, that Jiangnan Water Village’s big leader who was not more than thirty years old, the famous Xia Qufei in the Jianghu, with his eyes closed, listened to Third Sister Guan’s reply, and slowly opened his eyes with a chilling look.
“As long as that boat is still on the water, stop it.”
The boat, naturally, was always on the water.
Xia Qufei’s men commanded the heroes of the Jiangnan waterways, with countless ships, and this statement was permeated with powerful confidence and hidden anger.