Chapter 91: What is the meaning of leisure?

“Isn’t the spring night bitterly short?”

“Too long is also bitter.”

“I’ll take one of the toothbrushes …… you made.”

Fan Xian froze, not expecting her to actually make such a request, and smiled bitterly, “As far as I know, they’re also sold on Xiushui Street.”

Haitang smiled, “It’s not as good as yours.”

“Thanks for the compliment.”

“I didn’t think that you, the son of a powerful noble, would actually be willing to put your heart into these places.” Haitang looked at Fan Xian as if she was trying to reexamine this person.

Fan Xian slowly closed his eyes and said, “You obviously don’t know enough about me.”

Haitang was silent for a moment before saying, “But I only understand that after the Empress Dowager’s birthday, you’ll be returning to your country, what about the things you promised me?”

Fan Xian didn’t even bother to lift his eyes for a moment and said, “When I’ve had a good night’s sleep, I’ll come and talk to you.”

Haitang frowned and said, “That’s very good.”

Fan Xian suddenly opened his eyes and said, “I’m not in a good mood today, so I don’t want to chat much.”

“Farewell.” Haitang saw Fan Xian display this coldness for the first time, but did not react in the slightest, leaving the room cleanly.

Fan Xian lay on that large bed, clearly sleepy, but never able to sleep, his expression seemingly calm, but his mind was in chaos. Without enough time, he was simply unable to digest what he had heard and felt last night. With his bright eyes open, he looked at the embroidered tent on top of the bed, his gaze seeming to want to penetrate through the roof of the room, piercing through the clouds of the nine heavens and projecting to the farthest reaches of the sky.

Since it was confirmed that Fan Xian had stayed in the mission, the Northern Qi side would naturally think, who was the one who had tried to save Sean on top of the Yan Mountain wall? This query was naturally brought up.

Wolf Peach, Daoist He, and Shen Chong sat on three chairs, their brows all furrowed. Of these three, naturally Shen Chong had the highest official position, but while Wolf Peach was the first disciple of Bitter Lotus and was also the martial arts teacher of the Junior Son of Heaven, so he had the highest status, Daoist He appeared to be somewhat silent.

Yesterday, during the day, after the two of them teamed up to force Fan Xian and Sean off the cliff, the Brocade Guards began to conduct a secret search outside of the Upper Capital, but unexpectedly a day and a night’s worth of work had passed without any semblance of success. And in the morning, when the people finally couldn’t help themselves and asked for help from the palace to force their way into the legation, they were surprised to find Fan Xian sitting properly on his bed!

“Could it be that it’s not Fan Xian?” Daoist He’s pale face grew whiter and whiter. The poison infecting his thighs had been removed, but he had also lost a lot of his true qi.

Wolf Peach closed his eyes and said, “That person must be Fan Xian, specializing in poison, needles, and small tricks. Who else is there besides him?”

Daoist He frowned, “But that person doesn’t look like Fan Xian.”

Wolf Peach opened his eyes and said, “People can be disguised.”

Wolf Peach’s identity was special, so when he spoke out, the crowd couldn’t afford to be more skeptical. But the fact was that Fan Xian was in the legation at this time in a good way, so if he was the one who fell off the cliff, how could he keep his body intact? Unless he was an immortal.

At this point, Shen Chong could not help but somewhat begin to doubt Wolf Peach’s judgment, but on the surface, he still looked like a rich old man with kind brows, “The biggest possibility is Fan Xian, because the one who colluded with Uesugi Tiger was a Southerner, and only a Southerner would know this matter so clearly, it can’t possibly be one of those masters of Dongyi City.”

Seeing Daoist He shake his head disapprovingly, Shen Chong laughed, “Of course, it could be someone else.”

“Who else could it be besides Fan Xian?” Wolf Peach said in a deep voice, he originally did not like to deal with these secret service heads, if it was not for the fact that this time the matter involved Sean, he would not have come out of the palace to help the Brocade Guards at all.

Shen Chong glanced at Wolf Peach and said with a smile on his face, “Lord Wolf Peach, there are also many masters in Nanqing, as for the issue of maneuvers …… I think that the adults should have heard of it, Chen Pingping’s side, there has been an assassin called Shadow, only that no one has seen him, and no one knows about his maneuvers and acting style. Since Fan Xian is the Tiji of the Supervisory Yuan, there should be some correlation between him and that Shadow’s methods …… In that case, the one who struck by the wall was not Fan Xian, but could have been that Shadow as well.”

The Shadow was Chen Pingping’s personal guard, and although no one had seen it, as the head of the Northern Qi secret service, Shen Chong naturally knew that such a person existed.

“It doesn’t matter who it is.” Daoist He exhaled a mouthful of turbid air, “The most important thing now is to confirm whether Sean is dead or not.”

“Sean is dead.”

Wolf Peach said flatly. When the fully black-clothed Fan Xian attacked out to save him, he turned back and poked a curved blade into Xiao En’s chest and abdomen, he was very confident that the forceful qi held on the tip of the blade had cut off Xiao En’s vitality in that instant.

Shen Chong smiled and said, “So good, the State Master and the Empress Dowager will be very satisfied, Shen Mou here to thank the two adults.”

The sun was once again about to sink down the western wall of Shangjing, just like every day for the last thousand years, the slightly summery winds wrapped around the somewhat wilted leaves of the trees, rushing towards the various mansions in Shangjing, whirling and drifting past people’s bodies, and skimming past those silent tree trunks.

After nightfall, the wind would gradually cool down.

Fan Xian, clad in a single coat, stood beside a tree in the backyard of the mission, his eyes narrowed slightly as he watched the first star appear in the sky. In this time of day, there was no need to add a singlet, but his body was overly tired, so he was a bit wary of the cold.

He carefully folded the letter paper in his hand, not using his palm power to shake it into a piece of broken snow as usual. Because this letter was not a secret letter from the courtyard, it was just a somewhat ordinary family letter.

The letter was written by Wan’er, and although news from home had been constantly traveling to the north, this was the first time Fan Xian had received a letter from his wife. It was thought that she had waited at home with some anxiety, the chancellor’s father-in-law had stepped down, Dabao had received the Fan residence, Ruoruo was as light as usual and did not seem to have been disturbed by the rumors of the marriage, and her father was busy with the imperial government, which were all in the letter from the family.

At the end of the letter, there was nothing written about love, no urging someone’s journey, just a few loose lines: “The wind also stops on summer nights, tossing and turning, the dream is hurt. I know that you will not return in a few days, and your green silk will grow longer. I’ve been thinking about you for three days now, and I’ve been thinking about you for a long time. I’ve been thinking about you for three days now. Bury my head in a book.”

“I miss you like three days, yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Fan Xian smiled faintly, feeling the faint remembrance in the letter, and the woman’s rare spacious mood, slightly comforted. These days he was busy with many conspiracy matters, he could not help but somewhat dilute the thoughts of the woman at home, and occasionally remembering, he felt a little guilty.

He and Haitang had arranged to meet the day after tomorrow, for some reason, at this time, he was somewhat looking forward to this meeting.

This was definitely not a problem between a man and a woman, it was just a very pure expectation. Fan Xian wanted to find someone to talk to, or more accurately, after experiencing the conversation with Sean, he needed to talk …… but had nowhere to talk to.

This very odd and marvelous feeling had been lingering in his heart.

On that rainy night in Kyoto, Qing Kingdom, after that chest had been opened, Fan Xian had thought that he wouldn’t be lonely anymore in this world, after all, there was that woman’s ubiquitous scent and traces in this world. But at this moment, he truly felt that he was still lonely, because after all, that woman was nowhere to be seen.

“Sean is right, I am indeed a heartless person.” Fan Xian thought in his heart that he was a friendless person, shook his head, and headed for the chamber.

There were only three people in the chamber, Fan Xian, Yan Bingyun, and Wang Qinian, and this was the last meeting within the Supervisory Court in Shangjing. Yan Bingyun quietly looked at Fan Xian and said, “Lord Fan, did you ask?”

This was a situation that Fan Xian had already thought of, he had utilized all the power of the Supervisory Yuan and Xinyang to obtain that exquisite “dead realm”, as officials of the Kingdom of Qing, the people naturally wanted to know what the secret in Sean’s mouth was very urgently.

He frowned, “I was late in striking, Sean died.”

Yan Bingyun’s eyes flashed with a strange look, immediately returning to normal, shaking her head and sighing, “It’s a pity that the plotting took so long but never bore fruit.”

Fan Xian laughed slightly sarcastically, “The old cripple has been messing around for twenty years and hasn’t even asked, do you think I’m a god?”

From time to time, in his conversations with Yan Bingyun, he deliberately called Chen Pingping an old cripple, which was a very reckless, and even clumsy maneuver to intimidate, but against an icy character like Yan Bingyun, often this very reckless maneuver worked better.

He turned back to Wang Qinian and said, “Prepare the matters for the return journey.”

Wang Qinian answered in a deep voice, “Yes.” After a slight pause, he frowned and asked, “My lord, what about the impostor left in the room yesterday?”

Fan Xian knew that he meant to kill and silence him, and with some discomfort in his heart, he said, “Naturally, I’ll take it back.”

Yan Bingyun shook his head disapprovingly, “What if the Northern Qi people find out?”

“What if it’s discovered?” Fan Xian stared at Yan Bingyun’s face and said mockingly, “Of course it’s cool. Even if they find out, what can they do? You’ve been locked up for a year, and this guts has gotten a lot smaller.”

Yan Bingyun and Wang Qinian glanced at each other, realizing that Fan Xian’s mood today was somewhat questionable, so they tacitly shut up and didn’t say anything. Fan Xian glanced at the two of them and suddenly sighed, “You think Haitang didn’t see it? It’s just that she can’t do anything about me.”

Wang Qinian went on to ask for instructions on the schedule for returning to China, and after a slight silence, Fan Xian slowly said, “Once the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet is over, we’ll depart immediately, I …… am a little homesick.”