Chapter 74 – Murder in the Alley

“Emotionless may not be true heroes, how can a compassionate son not be a husband?” Haitang slowly repeated, spinning her face back to that usual smile as she led Fan Xian to step through the wooden door of the small temple.

“Lord Fan.” Si Li Li scopolamine salute, Fan Xian face with a gentle and distant smile, arching his hand to return the salute, “Si girl when into the upper capital.”

“Thanks to the blessing of adults, three days ago into the capital, a safe journey, thank you adults to remember.” Si Li Li slowly lowered her curtains, she was still wearing the lake green light shirt from her journey, at this time it was already hot, naturally she was not afraid of catching a cold.

Fan Xian spoke softly with her again.

Haitang was calmly watching from the sidelines, but her eyes flashed a hint of a smile, the strangeness that these two made on their faces, how could they escape her gaze. Fan Xian’s heart was also a bit strange at this time, why would Haitang bring herself to the temple where Si Li Li was staying, and where had those palace sisters who had been serving Si Li Li gone? Could it be that Haitang didn’t realize that as a foreign minister, he should keep a distance of 3,000 li from the woman the Emperor of Northern Qi wanted at this time to be appropriate?

“This is where I live.” Haitang explained the doubts in Fan Xian’s mind, “Li Li is not conveniently in the palace now, so His Majesty asked me to take care of her for him.”

Fan Xian let out a bitter laugh, then he remembered that Si Li Li had once said that these two girls beside him were handkerchief friends in the Northern Qi palace in the first place, and something suddenly occurred to him, could it be that Bitter Lotus was also living in the palace? Although the temple is remote, but Fan Xian is still a bit scrupulous, just idle a few sentences, then said to Haitang: “I will wait for the girl in the outer room.” Without waiting for Haitang and Si Li Li to reply, he actually went out the door and waited outside in the patio.

After waiting for him to go out, Haitang quietly glanced at Si Li Li, and after a long moment of silence suddenly said, “I brought him to have a look at him with you, you don’t have anything to say to him?”

Si Li Li raised her head, a trace of confusion flashed across her charming face, and said softly, “I said, I don’t want to see him, and I guess he doesn’t want to see me either, and at this moment, he is outside the door, and he still doesn’t know how to complain about you. Haitang, you are too nonsense, even if you are Bitter Lotus’s disciple, this kind of taboo offending thing is still less to do.”

Haitang quietly and softly smiled and said, “Just taking a look is nothing to be afraid of, that His Majesty of ours is not a careful person.”

Another elegant and clean small room, wisps of fragrance gradually diffuse Zen room, a few clear tea and home furnishings amber color a mix, let a person look and feel very serene.

“Why exactly did you bring me to see Siri Li Li?” Fan Xian sat cross-legged on the other side of the coffee table, frowning, that clear, uncluttered face finally more troubled. Regarding Sean, he was struggling to make arrangements, but Si Li Li was a hot potato.

“Earlier, I said Yan Bingyun.” Haitang smiled and said, “I wanted to see if Lord Fan is the same as the general turbid things in the world.”

“The expression turbid thing is novel and absurd.”

“Could it be that Lord Fan hasn’t read the Book of Stones?” Haitang seemed a bit surprised.

Fan Xian gave a thump in his heart and didn’t respond to these words, but only smiled bitterly and said, “Miss Haitang, have you misunderstood something? Miss Siriri is just a major criminal that I escorted all the way, just a subject matter in the agreement, and I have nothing to do with her.”

“Your Excellency has misunderstood me as well.” Haitang said softly, “Today, I invited your lordship to come to the humble abode to sit down for a while, there is really a matter that needs your lordship’s help.”

“What is it?” Fan Xian spoke directly.

Haitang smiled and said, “It’s actually the matter that His Majesty agonized over last time when he left Lord Fan in the palace.”

Fan Xian glanced at her, realizing that the girl’s usual, unexceptional countenance could easily bring out a sense of intimacy, and asked curiously, “Obviously at that time, His Majesty didn’t want you to know about his distress.”

Haitang used her left hand to gently pull up the sleeve of her right hand, two fingers holding a small teacup to her lips, and took a sip, saying, “It is true that his majesty did not want me to know in the beginning, but his affliction with me is a good friend who has had a love affair for many years, and there are not many people in the Daqi dynasty who would be willing to help him with this affliction, other than me. ”

“I’ve always been puzzled.” Fan Xian of course guessed at this time what the young prince of Northern Qi was agonizing over, and said with a smile, “Since there is such a great opposition to Si Li Li’s entry into the palace in the dynasty, why is your emperor still bent on having his own way? Looking at this current situation, since Si Li Li can only temporarily reside in Miss Haitang’s residence, I think the Empress Dowager will not allow her to enter the palace.”

“Lord Fan is suspecting that there is a hidden agenda behind this matter?”

“Not bad, I’ve never believed that there’s such a thing as so-called feelings in an imperial household.” For some reason, Fan Xian was somewhat vaguely unpleasant, and his speech became much more caustic.

Haitang was stunned, her eyes staring at him silently, and after a long time, she said, “Emperors are also human beings, and how can you say the right thing about men and women?”

Fan Xian shook his head, thinking of the emperors of that previous world, perhaps Tang Xuanzong was considered an alternative, but in the end, didn’t Yang Guifei still turn into a fragrant soul at Mawei Slope?

“Lord Fan is already married.” Haitang said as if she had no intention of doing so.

Fan Xian was slightly stunned, then remembered his wife at home, remembered that first encounter in front of the Temple of Celebration’s incense case, and could not help but let a smile full of happiness float on the corner of his lips.

Haitang paid attention to his facial expression, sighed in her heart, and said with a smile on her face, “I’ve heard that Lord Fan’s husband and wife are extremely close, if someone were to stop the two of you from being together, what would you do?”

Fan Xian raised his eyebrows and didn’t answer, but if someone in this world really dared to get caught between himself and Wan’er, they must be asking for their own death, and gradually, he seemed to somewhat understand the emotions of the young emperor in the palace – but thinking that the object of the other party’s admiration was Si Li Li, Fan Xian still felt a little strange in his heart –though in his agreement with Si Li Li, it was only a relationship of mutual utilization.

What Haitang had requested was actually what Fan Xian wished for, and if Si Li Li could not enter the palace, the only thing he would lose would be the Qing State’s Supervisory Court. He just couldn’t guess why the other party would think of looking for himself.

Haitang said, ”No one in the court is willing to help His Majesty welcome Si Li Li into the palace, and Your Excellency should be well aware that there are some problems with Li Li’s identity in the south. And after all, I am confined to my status and have little say in this matter.”

Fan Xian laughed coldly, “She was working for your Northern Qi.” Then he asked, “Could it be that I have any say in this? I’m just a foreign minister, and this matter should have nothing to do with me after Misty Crossing River.”

Haitang smiled and said, “His Majesty and I only meant to use your wisdom, Lord Fan.”

Fan Xian was dumbfounded and gently used his fingers to flatten the flying hair on top of his head, saying, “Miss Haitang really cares for me.”

Haitang calmly said, “Lord Fan was originally a nobody, but in just a year’s time, he has become the world’s attention of a generation of poetic immortals, the real power of the Southern Dynasty, if I say that Lord Fan doesn’t have wisdom, no one in the world would believe it.”

“I will think of a method, but I don’t know if it will work.” Fan Xian took a sip of the leftover tea on the table and coldly said, “The key is still the empress dowager, if the empress dowager is unwilling, no method will succeed.”

Haitang stood up and owed slightly, “Thank you in advance.”

“It seems that the girl’s love affair with Siriri is indeed not shallow.” Fan Xian bowed and quietly said, “If I have any help for you in the future, I still hope that you will remember the friendship between you and me today.”

Haitang replied expressionlessly, “As long as it doesn’t involve my country’s government, I’ll do whatever I can.”

Fan Xian said, “Don’t worry, what I want to ask you to do may never happen, and if it does, it’s only a problem within the country of Qing, and you don’t have to go against the natural way that you’ve been seeking all your life.”

“That’s good.” Haitang’s heart relaxed a bit.

Fan Xian, as the Southern Dynasty’s official envoy, all his actions in Shangjing had to be under the surveillance of the Northern Qi court, which was a tacit agreement and custom in the diplomatic affairs of both sides, so it was extremely difficult to have the opportunity to act completely freely. But today is an exception, because Fan Xian is walking with Miss Haitang, Miss Haitang obviously dislikes those rats in the brocade guards to follow, so all the way to the umbrella walker, seemingly walking leisurely, but will be those dark tails all thrown off, I believe that those brocade guards do not have the guts to express the obvious hostility in the Haitang, but still dared to follow the two people.

After coming out of the marvelous little temple that housed the two girls, Fan Xian stretched his back, and realizing that there were no familiar brocade guards at the corner of the street, a happy smile appeared on his face, and he lifted his steps toward an alley at the corner.

There was no sunshine after the rain, and only the clear wind blew the occasional dewdrops falling from the branches, grazing his cheeks and sliding past.

When he thought of Siriri and the Emperor, Fan Xian was still a little confused, but the topic that Haitang had just mentioned made this seventeen year old man’s mind go back to Kyoto, back to his wife and sister’s side, and homesickness began to flood his heart, and a warm feeling began to fill his chest.

Occasionally, pedestrians passed by at the entrance of the alley, and some laborers were pushing their carts to take a shortcut to the stores where they worked. Fan Xian wore a gentle, sunny smile on his face as he slowly walked towards the entrance of the alley.

A plate cart was pushed from behind him, and when it was about to pass by, Fan Xian flipped his wrist, and the black dagger that he had been pinching in his palm stabbed horizontally!

With a muffled sound, the dagger plunged into the throat of the secret agent dressed as a laborer, the cold blade penetrating into the flesh, and the man died on the ground.

In the next moment, Fan Xian had already stepped on the overturned cart and floated to the end of the alley like a shadow, his fingers holding a poisoned needle, piercing into a person’s chest acupuncture point, and his left hand strangely pierced out from his right armpit, firing three crossbow arrows, and nailing the other person, who was in a state of shock, to death.

With a backhanded slap, he chopped the cervical vertebrae of the man whose entire body was paralyzed and unable to move, Fan Xian took off the clothes on his body, flipped it over, covered his head and face with a rain hat to hide his sunny smile, pulled the crossbow from the dead man, and walked out of the entrance of the alley.