chapter 76 – a joyous occasion

“How should I reply to Your Excellency?”

This is a very crucial point, Fan Xian is not clear on how Yan Bingyun contacted these undercover agents under his command in the first place, so he didn’t dare to act rashly, and only said softly, “There should be no specific executives to come up to the capital within two months, but I’ll temporarily assign a person to be in charge of liaising with you.”

The old shopkeeper’s face was slightly worried as he said, “Please be cautious, my lord, although in the twenty years since Sean was captured, the Jin Yi Wei of Northern Qi is far from being able to compete with the Tee Cavalry of Northern Wei back then, but being in an enemy country, the subordinates always have to think of those children below them.”

Fan Xian nodded, which was precisely why, a year late, the Procuratorate didn’t dare venture north to contact these “orphans”, and said softly, “Don’t worry, the person I’m looking for is the least likely to be tracked down by anyone in the courtyard.”

There was no doubt that he was talking about Wang Qinian, the strange talent who had only stalked others all his life but had never really been dropped out.

He couldn’t stay in this place for much longer, and after saying a few words, Fan Xian was ready to get up and leave, and before he left, he suddenly said, “Change the code word for the joint.”

“Yes, my lord.” The old shopkeeper stooped slightly.

“One, three, one, four, five, two, seven, seven, seven.”

“Yes, my lord.” The old shopkeeper repeated this seemingly irregular number again without the slightest error.

Fan Xian nodded, somewhat satisfied, then went back to the front hall, arching his hand in farewell to the old shopkeeper like a merchant, not forgetting to carry the two jugs of tung oil in his hands. After seeing this merchant go out, the little fellow chimed in and said, “Owner, are you ready to buy fragrant oil so early?”

The old shopkeeper looked at the only fellow in the store and said with a smile, “Yes. There is a big business.”

The fellow thought to himself, “This lousy oil store of ours, can it be like those oil merchants in Dongyi City, doing big business for several ships and several ships? A few hundred pounds of business was called big business, and the lad couldn’t help but somewhat despise the old shopkeeper’s lack of progress.

On the road Fan Xian very carefully dispose of the oil in his hand, do not dare to gift to the beggars on the street, do not dare to throw away, because the code of conduct of the inspectorate secret agent, a very key one, is not to underestimate the enemy’s ability. Although Shen Chong, the Commander of the Northern Qi Brocade Guards, didn’t seem to act how powerful he was in that rainy night at the green house, Fan Xian knew that it was definitely just a camouflaged façade.

After disposing of the oil pots very cleanly, Fan Xian set off on the road back to the delegation, at this time the sky was already dark, the road pedestrians gradually thinned out, passing through the arch bridge over the Yuquan River in Shangjing, Fan Xian rubbed his hands on his face a few times within the awning, wiping off all the lipstick and rouge he had stolen from the lady’s house, squeezing it into a small mass of yellow and red dirt and powder in his palm.

His palm in the stone arch bridge lions gently touched, palm powder clusters fall, silently and the river under the bridge mixed into a piece, no one can no longer find the slightest trace.

When he turned out from the side of one of the houses, Fan Xian had already regained his original appearance, taking off his rain hat and flipping over his long coat, just like when he had just parted ways with Miss Haitang, with a clean and elegant face and a clear and elegant demeanor.

He swaggered back to the mission. The brocade guards, who had been drinking tea for many days across the street from the other courtyard, looked at him in a somewhat strange light. Fan Xian was clear that the news of the death of those three nails must have already reached Shen Chong’s ears, but the Brocade Guards on their part could only eat this boring loss. As for when they could retaliate back, that was out of Fan Xian’s consideration.

In the quietest courtyard of the compound, under the long eaves, Yan Bingyun was half lying on a short couch, which was piled high with soft brocade quilts. Although Fan Xian had treated his wounds, it was impossible to recover in a short period of time from the torture he had suffered over the past year, and the wounds his body had sustained in all directions couldn’t bear to be touched vigorously, so Fan Xian thought of a way to bury him inside a pile of cotton, and it was good to see that the weather hadn’t been too hot lately.

Though he knew that this cold Northern Spy Big Head was now physically and mentally exhausted and desperately in need of rest and recuperation, Fan Xian was still a little ashamed to have to disturb him, as he had to borrow Yan Bingyun’s means for these last days in Beiqi.

After a brief exchange of words regarding today’s situation, Yan Bingyun looked at Fan Xian’s eyes somewhat somberly and said softly, “I hope that Your Excellency hasn’t shown any traces, or else if all these people under me are plucked up, even if you are the Tishee of the courtyard, I will definitely have to senate you.”

Fan Xian shook his head, “I know that you have far more power in your hands than just this one line, a single line of contact is safe but too inefficient, and you will have to find a way to move in several other areas as well. But I probably don’t have the time to deal with it, I’m going to hand it over to Wang Qinian for liaison, I don’t know how you feel about this proposal.”

A trace of color flashed in the eyes of Yan Bingyun, the youngest senior official in the courtyard in front of him, his performance these days could only be described as moderate, his biggest advantage was that he was good at listening to his own opinions, but today he would actually break the network of the North in a single word, it seems that the other party does have some ability.

“Wang Qinian I’m relieved ……,” he said after a moment of deliberation, “The earliest group of people in the courtyard who lurked in the north, Lord Wang is one of them.”

Fan Xian was slightly stunned, not having thought that Wang Qinian had even done this in the first place, and then listened to Yan Bingyun say, “In accordance with Your Excellency’s plan, we’ll cooperate with Uesugi Tiger and dig out where Sean is, but I don’t want the Yard’s manpower to get too deeply involved.”

Fan Xian agreed to his request, knowing that he did not want the manpower lurking in the north to pay too many sacrifices due to the internal strife in the court, and promised, “Don’t worry, I will be measured.”

Yan Bingyun frowned and said, “Uesugi Tiger is a lion, but unfortunately, he could not find a place to lend his strength in the deep sea of Shangjing, which is why he sought the help of the Eldest Princess. As subjects, it is only natural for you and I to do things in accordance with the Elder Princess’ wishes, but you must master the situation …… I believe that the time when Uesugi Tiger makes a move to save Sean will also be the day when the Empress Dowager and Shen Chong purge the military of its power.”

Fan Xian knew that this outwardly aloof official of the Supervisory Yuan guessed what he wanted to do, and wouldn’t say a word more, but only said softly, “This is exactly what I wish to see, I won’t underestimate Shen Chong’s ability to monitor the upper capital …… by letting them go and fight it out, anyway, for us, the Kingdom of Qing, there isn’t a trace of damage.”

Leaving the backyard, Fan Xian found Wang Qinian and distributed the task, Wang Qinian remembered that string of numbers clearly, knowing that in the days to come, he would have to take on this dangerous and important job.

“For a lifetime I love money money money.” Fan Xian smiled, in the Tanyu State’s vernacular, the pronunciation of money and seven were extremely similar.

The old owner of the oil store had been doing good business for the past few days, and after selling a few more barrels of oil, a message lurking in the darkness began to flow through the spy lines of the four northern divisions of the Procuratorate, which had been silent for a year, and it didn’t take long for the spies, who had been disguised as all sorts of ordinary people from Beiqi, to receive their first assignments after a year.

Intelligence began to be fed back through various channels, summarized through several breakpoints on the line, and finally sent to the oil store in Zhangjiajian.

At the same time, the Southern Qing Mission held several banquets, and the amount of alcohol used increased a lot, so naturally, the Sheng shopkeeper in Xiu Shui Street made several trips to the Mission’s compound, kissed Ambassador Fan’s ass a few more times, and I believe that he got the information that Xinyang and Uesugi Tiger had been wanting very much from Fan Xian’s hands.

The person who handled a lot of information in the middle, and selected useful information to analyze, and finally came to a relatively precise conclusion, was Yan Bingyun, whose coughing sound was often heard in the backyard in the past few days.

Fan Xian didn’t have much to do, after all, he was the main envoy of the mission, drinking and ushering people around was the right thing to do, and on this day, he entered the palace in the company of Miss Haitang, who had told him the other day that the Empress Dowager had invited him to the palace to discuss important matters.

Drinking was a happy thing for Dry Fan Xian, and drinking with the Empress Dowager, who was still in her enemy’s charm, was not a bitter thing. But when Fan Xian returned to the mission, all the officials and subordinates knew that he was in a rather bad mood today, but no one knew why.

In his room, Fan Xian looked coldly at Lin Jing and asked, “This mission, am I the proper ambassador or is your honor the proper ambassador?”

Lin Jing was so uneasy that he nervously responded, “Why would Lord Fan say that? The mission naturally looks up to Lord Fan.”

“Good good.” Fan Xian laughed twice and scolded, “Then Lord Lin come and tell me why, when I entered the palace today, that empress dowager actually said that the grand duke of Northern Qi was going to marry the grand prince of this dynasty, which is such a big deal! Why is it that this ambassador has not known about this matter so far? You in Honglu Temple Taichang Temple these days all the things of the Princess to get married arrangements, I just realized that I have to send the bride on the return trip!”

Lin Jing breathed a big sigh of relief, thinking that this is how it turned out to be, smiled and said back, “Sir, this you can not blame the subordinate and Lord Lin Wen, the mission just forwarded a letter from the Empress Dowager’s handwritten letter to the Empress Dowager of Northern Qi, how do we as subordinate ministers know that, actually, the two women’s family members in the letter to set up the marriage of their own sons and daughters. When this matter is rumored from the palace, what can we say? This matter was meant to notify His Excellency, but His Excellency was often absent from the mission some days ago, so he missed some time.”

Lin Jing’s eyes rolled, knowing that this young lord was a bit angry, he smiled and handed over a letter, “The official state letter will arrive soon. This is a secret letter from the court, showing the attitude of His Majesty and the Empress Dowager, of course, willing to accomplish this marriage …… In fact, there are also two piles of joyful events, and my humble servant would like to congratulate Lord Fan.”