Chapter 26: A chilly outfit
What these eccentric officials of the Third Branch of the Supervisory Yuan meant when they said that Fan Xian had a good figure was that Fan Xian’s figure was standard, just enough to be able to fit with the fittings that the Third Branch had developed without needing to be resized, and the meaning was as simple as that.
Fan Xian put on the piece of clothing and frowned, remembering the night when he was five years old, when Teacher Fei Jie felt his way into the bedroom, he seemed to be wearing the same kind of clothing, which was particularly tear-resistant.
Head Cold explained, “The fireproof efficacy is there, but it’s not strong, it can effectively mitigate the killing power of sharp weapons, but if your opponent is holding a mountain-opening axe, you’d better duck and cover, Little Master.”
Fan Xian laughed bitterly, spreading his hands out, realizing that the style was the current model in the capital, only that there was an additional hidden hood at the back.
“Remove the concealed crossbow.” With a glance, Leng Jiemei recognized the crossbow on his left arm.
Fan Xian sighed and somewhat reluctantly put the crossbow that had accompanied him for four or five years and rarely left his body onto the table.
Cold Leader looked at the thickness of his arm, opened a box on the table, took out a small style crossbow, painted black, and carefully planted it in his sleeve, debugged it for a bit, and then took a look at the crossbow that Fan Xian had just removed, frowning, “What kind of crap is this, a seven year old model that you’ve actually been using as well.”
Fan Xian smiled bitterly, “It’s good enough, I’m content.”
Head Leng explained the construction and firing principle of the dark crossbow carefully to his senior brother, “…… This is a continuous crossbow, but it’s too small, so it can only hold three branches, and these three branches are topped with A4 poison, senior brother should understand.”
Fan Xian understands that the three A IV poisons are the venom of the Golden Melon Kudzu, which seals the throat at the sight of blood, and with a slight movement of his pinky finger to test the feel of the trigger, he frowned and asked, “I need a distance of three zhang.”
“Can only guarantee one zhang, three zhang distance, can not guarantee to shoot the eyes throat or scrotum.” Cold Leader said calmly, “As for your dagger, it’s Master Fei’s favorite short weapon, it’s incredibly sharp, so there’s no need to replace that one. There are some partial weapons here, and some aids as well, and since I don’t know what aspects of your mission you need to carry out this time, you can pick and choose for yourself.”
Fan Xian knew that this selection would have a great impact on his actions in Northern Qi, so he looked at them very carefully for a long time, and finally picked a few things, but did not choose a type of wall-climbing claw that could be catapulted ten feet high.
A Third Division official was a bit curious and said, ”Lord Titus, although my humble servant doesn’t know the specific mission. But I think it is always unavoidable to go into the Northern Qi Palace to stroll around, to see what some good things to fish back by hand, that the walls of the Northern Qi Shangjing Palace, not shorter than our Kyoto Imperial City.”
This is said in a very naive and innocent way, very much in the style of Wang Qinian’s cupped jokes, causing Fan Xian to laugh, he took a look at that exquisitely designed iron claw and shook his head, not explaining anything – the people in this world who can climb better than him have not yet appeared.
“Things like poisons, Master Fei said that your talent is far above the personnel of the three divisions, so we didn’t prepare for it.” Head Leng scrutinized the equipment on Fan Xian’s body again and nodded with some satisfaction.
Fan Xian drooled and said, “But I’m short on materials.”
Head Leng became interested, “Poor in what?”
“Cat Button, Arsenite, Strychnine, and Nanhai Camphor.”
“Cat Button Seed is too bitter, and it doesn’t match your plan this time.” Cold Leader said curiously, “Arsenite and strychnine are both very common.”
Fan Xian laughed bitterly, “With my current status, it’s not really convenient for me to ask someone to buy this kind of thing on my behalf, it’s easy to attract attention.”
“Then, let’s organize some more grosvenor’s fang. Teacher only tested it out the year before last, and it’s a very effective psychedelic.” Cold Leader said excitedly, “It’s better than strychnine.”
Fan Xian became even more excited and nodded his head repeatedly, “But arsenic stone must be, I tried it once when I was in Tanyu, it works well and reacts faster than arrow poison.”
The master-brother duo began to become professionally exuberant as soon as they talked about something like poison. The officials of the three divisions around the duo were all of the same kind, so they gathered around and started a heated discussion, arguing about which poison could make people die the slowest and most painful death, and which ecstasy could make the widows living under the pagodas immediately turn into the most ferocious animals on the River of Flowing Crystals.
In short, the Third Division of the Supervisory Yuan was a perverted department where a group of perverted people lived.
After coming out from the three departments, Wang Qinian found that today s Lord Fan Tisi was far less calm than usual, with a hint of exuberant light red on his clear face, rather like he had done some …… things.
Fan Xian said with a furrowed brow, “It’s so hard to pretend to be a talented person every day, or it’s happier to discuss practical techniques of life in a place like this.”
Mr. Fei Jie, the perverted old patriarch of the perverted third division, was currently holding a cup of tea, smiling and laughing at the end of the long corridor, looking at his young student with a slight hint of satisfaction.
“Or else you can stay in the Third Division.” Fei Jie walked forward with his student and said softly, “Don’t go to Northern Qi, don’t need to be a court official, don’t take care of the inner treasury, and it’s not bad to live out your life quietly.”
Fan Xian was silent, knowing that his teacher was worried about himself.
“You were very quiet as a child, but knew exactly what you wanted.” Fei Jie’s eyes were a bit cloudy, and the light brown color appeared a bit sedimentary, “After entering the capital, your heart’s defenses were even stronger, but this kind of thing, power, is something that can easily make you get lost, are you clear about what you want or not?”
Fan Xian slightly pondered for a while before respectfully saying, “Student is clear.”
Fei Jie suddenly rattled and laughed, “If you want to go that way, you need to learn to kill, be willing to kill, and enjoy killing.”
Fan Xian said bitterly, “It’s not like the student is a little pervert.”
Fei Jie blinked his somewhat tired eyes and coughed twice before saying, “This world is perverted, if you’re not perverted, how are you going to play through it?”
Fan Xian, in front of Fei Jie, always felt that he was still the small child holding the porcelain pillow, sweetly smiled and said, “Playing is also divided into many kinds of well …… By the way, teacher, why did the dean of adults sigh when he saw me earlier.”
“Well, maybe there is some disappointment that you are not as …… arrogant as Miss was back then?”
Fan Xian said sadly, “Good men don’t compare with women.”
After saying this, he took his teacher’s hand and headed to Yishi Residence, he was sure to get drunk today, anyway, the whole Kyoto already knew about his relationship with the Supervisory Yuan, so why avoid anything. Just bitter behind Wang Qinian, panting holding a large pile of files, know that these files are top secret information, which dare to slow down, more dare not follow to a stone house drinking and pleasure, only to hurry to call their subordinates of those spies to come to the careful guard, full of anxiety in the carriage to Fan House.
His Royal Highness the Crown Prince sat in the East Palace with a gloomy face, holding the wine glass in his hand and constantly exerting himself, his fingers slightly trembling, after a long time, only to spit out a sentence from the gap between his teeth: “Why are these women in the palace, never learn to be peaceful?”
Taishang Temple Xin Shaoqing didn’t dare to interject, he knew that His Highness the Crown Prince was in a particularly bad mood today, the things that had happened in these days had really made the entire Eastern Palace feel exceptionally angry and irritated, even the always gentle Lord Taifu had lost his temper a few times.
First of all, the spring exam malpractice, in fact, the East Palace is the malpractice in the loss of the smallest party, more than a dozen arrested officials, really belongs to the East Palace, only a few. Although the Minister of Rites Guo Youzhi’s downfall, in the eyes of the officials, is an unbearable loss on the side of the Prince, but after the last night banquet, the Prince found that Guo Baokun even vaguely listen to the words of other people, and gradually realized that the original Guo family is the grasshopper on the side of the Princess.
So this time Fan Xian will Guo Youzhi down, the prince not only not angry, but some hidden comfort.
“No one would have expected that young Lord Fan would actually be the Tisan of the Supervisory Court.” Xin Qimo frowned slightly, he drank with Fan Xian many times, how could he not have expected that the gentle-faced Fan Xian was a high-ranking person in that secret service organization.
Crown Prince Li Chengqian shook his head, the grimness on his face still not gone: “Fan Xian is a man who knows his place, and his uncovering of the fraudulent case is mainly a matter of duty, and it’s only right that he didn’t communicate with this palace beforehand. Just look at the matter, Fan Xian gave enough face to the palace, I will not blame him too much, not to mention that day Wan’er sister made a special trip to the palace, Fan Xian’s handwritten letter handed over, I believe that he is not intentionally targeting the palace.”
Xin Shaoqing befriended Fan Xian, and of course preferred that the Eastern Palace could have such a strong assistant as Fan Xian in the Supervisory Court, and nodded his head repeatedly in agreement, “Not bad, although Fan Tisi did not say anything beforehand, he did enough remedial work afterward……. It’s a pity that he’s about to go on a mission to Northern Qi, or else my humble servant should be able to step in and arrange for him to pay his respects to the Crown Prince.”
The Crown Prince chimed, heavily resting his wine glass on the table, and said angrily, “Now even if we have to meet, does Fan Xian still dare to push his heart against this palace? The matter at the Ministry of Criminal Affairs has caused a storm in the city, and although the Chancellor and Minister Fan have made no moves now, don’t they know about Han Zhiwei’s relationship with this palace? I’m afraid the Fan family can’t even wait to hate this palace, let alone defect.”
Xin Shaoqing was speechless, knowing that the Crown Prince’s handling of this matter could truly be described as dignified and wise, but no matter what, there were two masters of this Eastern Palace.
A master and a minister is not willing when, suddenly heard the eunuch outside loudly announced: “Empress arrives!”
Xin Shaoqing glanced at the Crown Prince, signaling with his eyes that His Highness must control his emotions, and then grabbed the first to kneel to one side, saluted His Highness the Empress who pushed the door in, and retired out of the palace.
The Empress, who was born with a pair of danfeng eyes, quietly gazed at her son and remained silent.
The crown prince sat on the side with a smile on his face, but refused to say anything first.
The Empress bit her lower lip, a hint of disappointment and sadness flashed in her eyes, and suddenly raised her hand, and slapped her across the face!