Chapter 98 Succession

Walking on the verdant stone path of the palace, with a moon in the sky and two people under the forest, Fan Xian’s back was already all wet with sweat, and still felt a bit cold in this summer night. He spat out a mouthful of turbid air, still some fear, pat his chest, to the side of Haitang complained: “You guessed that the stone record is I …… wrote, how also do not say a word with me, so that I was previously nearly scared to death by your emperor.”

Haitang laughed and said, “Who told you to hide it from the world for so long.” Then with a twinkle in her eye, she said, “Why are you so intimidated? If it’s not the matter of your Duke Cao’s identity, then what are you afraid His Majesty will say?”

Fan Xian didn’t even think about it and said with a soft smile, “What do you think?”

The corners of Haitang’s lips curled up slightly and she didn’t say anything. Fan Xian inclined his head to look at her, seeing that her long eyelashes were tinted with a layer of silver halo, appearing to have a kind of clear and charming beauty, while the most outstanding eyes on her features appeared to be particularly bright in the night – the silver moonlight did have a kind of magic, that kind of hazy immersion that seemed to be able to make any woman with ordinary posture, change into a spirit of the human world.

Fan Xian, however, didn’t feel anything, but simply placed his hands behind his back, slowly shuffled forward, and said, “You’ve shaded me this time, and I’m not seeking retaliation, so you should know what’s going on.”

“You want me to do something for you.” Haitang smiled, “Although I’m not sure what it is, I think it has something to do with the south, that’s why an outsider like me is needed to help.”

“Not bad, you and I …… are actually hypocrites.” The corners of Fan Xian’s lips spread into a strange smile that was somewhat self-deprecating, “So when we speak, it seems like we can be a bit more direct. What I need you to do for me may or may not happen, in any case, when the time comes, I will send someone to inform you.”

Haitang glanced at him and suddenly spoke, “I heard that you are extremely in love with that prime minister’s illegitimate daughter, which is why even the eldest maid that Tanyuu’s grandmother pointed out to her has never been admitted to the room.”

“I don’t like you prying into my family affairs.” Fan Xian looked back and said seriously, “This topic ends here.”

Haitang smiled and nodded, saying, “Actually, I’m just curious as to what kind of people are happy when they see a woman and feel uncomfortable when they see a man, who think that an unmarried woman is a pearl and a married woman is a fish-eye pearl, who think that daughters are made of water and men are made of mud, who think that women are precious and men are inferior… …”

After the long string of words ended, Haitang stared into Fan Xian’s serene eyes and said softly, “I’m curious, how did Prince Fan come to have these views when all the world honors men.”

Fan Xian smiled and did not reply.

Haitang suddenly scopolamine bowed and said with a straight face, “Duo Duo thanked Mr. Fan for the women of the world for setting up a biography for the boudoir and fighting for the women.”

Fan Xian was silent for a little while, and suddenly opened his mouth and said, “I am different from the vast majority of people …… in this world.”

Out of the palace gate, Haitang was somewhat surprised to find that Lord Tai Fu was still guarding outside the palace, while Fan Xian’s face did not look any different when he saw that teacher of His Majesty the Emperor, so he thought that he had already known about it.

Haitang bowed to Taifu, then turned back to Fan Xian and said, “I’ll come to see your lordship off the day after tomorrow.”

Fan Xian understood the meaning hidden in her words and nodded, so he boarded Tai Fu’s carriage.

As she watched the three carriages before and after gradually disappear into the nighttime colors of the Upper Capital City, Haitang’s bright eyes suddenly fluttered for a moment as she thought about the last words of that handsome-faced young Southern Dynasty official. Different from the rest? Fan Xian was naturally different in the eyes of the people of this world, but he just didn’t know in what exactly he considered himself different.

The carriage stopped outside a quiet compound, and the forbidden soldiers in charge of the security of the mission realized that Southern Qing’s great talent Fan Xian’s last visit in Northern Qi turned out to be a visit to this great man. Thinking of the night banquet poetry fight that was rumored around the world, the crowd could not help but feel a bit uneasy, not knowing what exactly Fan Xian had in mind, but in a courtyard full of books like this one, the crowd naturally quieted down.

The tiger guards on the first carriage got off, their eyes staring at the tiger, guarding a few key gates.

Fan Xian walked down from the carriage hand in hand with the Northern Qi’s reigning tai fu, and although their attitudes weren’t necessarily cordial, there didn’t seem to be any hostility either. The crowd was a little more at ease, but they saw that the always righteous and upright Taifu had whispered a few words to Fan Xian, and then they pushed the door to enter.

Fan Xian waved his hand, signaling the tiger guards not to follow.

When they reached a room in the center of the courtyard, the Tai Fu bowed deeply to the room and turned back to Fan Xian and said calmly, “Mr. Fan, teacher has not been feeling well lately, so please don’t talk for too long.”

Fan Xian politely bowed to the great scribe, straightened his clothes, and gently pushed open the wooden door. At a glance, one could see an old man pinching a small brush and scribbling something on a piece of paper.

This old man was a great man of scripture and literature, his students were all over the world, the Northern Qi Tai Fu and the Southern Qing’s Shu Da Da Shi, were both his favorite disciples, before Fan Xian occasionally showed his sharpness, there was no one who could be comparable to him in terms of governance. Even after Fan Xian shamelessly Guo Jing Ming in the hall for a messy victory, no one would really think that, in addition to the way of poetry, Fan Xian in other aspects, also reached the other side of the realm.

Because this old man’s surname was Zhuang, and his name was Mo Han.

Inside the room, there were no subordinates, no servant boy, only that old man in his loose robe was constantly copying and writing, occasionally frowning, staring at the paper, turning the pages of the books around him, seemingly searching for some kind of proof. Compared to the previous year in Qing Guo, Zhuang Mo Han’s spirit seems to be much worse, a head full of silver hair although still tightly bound, but next to the two cheeks of the old man’s spot more and more heavy, showing some kind of inauspicious signs.

Fan Xian did not want to disturb him, gently walked behind him, cast his eyes on the case, but suddenly found that the book on the case, is Tanyu Bookstore out of the half idle Zhai poetry! And that poetry collection of blank pages, already do not know how many written notes. Could it be that this great literary figure of the world was actually writing notes for the collection of poems he had “memorized”?

Zhuang Mo Han’s dry fingers, pointing to the second half of the sentence “Once the ocean is difficult to water, except Wu Shan is not a cloud” in the collection of poems, kept pointing at the page, lips slightly open, some pain said: “Not, not, empty of the beauty of the rhetoric of the battle, the second half of the sentence does not make sense, really does not make sense, tell me, what is this? Tell me, what does this mean?”

After a little silence, Fan Xian’s soft voice rang out, “Wushan is a sacred mountain in the extreme south, year-round clouds, Dan for the morning clouds, twilight is the rain, but anyone who has viewed this view of this cloud, and then look at the world of any high sky and white mist, it will be too lazy to take the eyes of the world, this two words are the two sentences under the support, purely on the loyalty of the love.”

“I see so ah ……” Zhuang Mo Han smiled bitterly and pointed to a corner of the broad book case of a thick book: “The old man naturally can guess the meaning of this, just always looking for this canon, rummage through this book of mountains and seas general overview, also did not find the cloudy Wushan , which turns out to be a sacred mountain in the extreme south, no wonder I didn’t know about it.”

Fan Xian saw that he didn’t suspect that he was making things up, and knew that this old man was really a very gentle and tolerant character, so he smiled slightly and went forward to sharpen his ink for him, and watched as he copied his own explanation into the margins of the pages of the book in extremely fine lower case letters. Zhuang Mo Han’s regular script was also known throughout the world, its correctness and purity not to be discussed by a second person, but Fan Xian looked at it today with some sighs, the old man’s hand shaking a little too much.

“King Chen used to feast on Pingle, fighting wine ten thousand wantonly joyful banter …… What is this allusion?” Zhuang Mo Han did not look at him and continued to ask.

Fan Xian was embarrassed for a while, thinking that when he came out with his collection of poems, he had specifically deleted Li Bai’s song, General Jinjiu, so how come the old comrade came to ask himself again?

Zhuang Mo Han sighed and said: ”Since I was young, I have never forgotten my eyes and ears, so I can’t help but be a little self reserved, that day you spit out poems like a river and sea, so I can’t help but let the old man be a little self harmed ……” The old man laughed at himself, ”But thanks to this skill, the Only then did I remember so many of the verses you said, and then when the Half Leisurely Zhai Poetry Collection came out, I realized that there were many fewer of them, and I don’t know what this child of yours was thinking.”

Hearing Zhuang Mo Han call himself a child, Fan Xian’s heart had a strange feeling, and he coughed twice before explaining, “The King of Chen is a prince surnamed Cao, and in the old days, he used to have a big banquet in Ping Optimism ……”

“A prince surnamed Cao?” Zhuang Mo Han raised his head, a hint of disbelief in his cloudy gaze, “But …… for a thousand years, there is no dynasty whose royal family is surnamed Cao.”

Fan Xian sighed in his heart and persuaded, “The things that the late student made up, the old man doesn’t need to bother anymore.”

“That’s not good!” Zhuang Mo Han was, in some ways, really a bit stubborn, clattering through all of his own hand-copied poems, pointing to one of them and saying, “In the middle, Xiao Xie is again clearing his hair, and which Xiao Xie is this one?”

Fan Xian’s face was green for a while and white for a while, and after a long time he answered, “Little Xie is a scribbler who writes talking books, and although his writing is vulgar and fails to be passed down, he is still somewhat famous in the marketplace.”

“That ……”

I do not know how long, when Fan Xian felt that the rhetoric has been poor, uninteresting occasion, Zhuang Mo Han finally sighed, rubbed the corners of his eyes, threw the pen in the ink stone, slightly with a bleak said: “The oil is exhausted, can not be compared to the time to do the study.”

After entering the room, the two of them did not greet each other and threw themselves into this somewhat absurd task, until at this point, Fan Xian lowered his rolled up sleeves, bowed with great courtesy, and said, “I’ve met you, Mr. Zhuang, and I don’t know what the old gentleman has to say about summoning the late student.”

The room fell silent, and after a long time, Zhuang Mo Han suddenly trembled his withered old body and very reluctantly bowed deeply to Fan Xian.

Fan Xian was so shocked that he forgot to help him, what kind of character was this old man? He was the Beiqi Emperor’s senior grandfather, how could he come to worship himself.

Zhuang Mo Han had already straightened himself up, his face full of smiles radiating in his wrinkles, “Last year’s meeting in Qing Guo, it has been one year since then, the old man has acted with the highest regard for virtue in his life, and last year, he framed Lord Fan in Qing Guo, and has been upset to this day, so today, I invited Lord Fan to come here specifically to make amends for his sins.”

Fan Xian was silent, of course, he knew clearly that the reason why Zhuang Mo Han would be invited by the eldest princess, give up these decades of face, thousands of miles south to be a villain, for all the agreement of Xiao En’s release, this is the brotherly love – the thing that he lacked the most at the moment.

“Sean is dead.” Fan Xian looked at the old man in front of him, who had steeply appeared much more withered and thin in a year, and his thin lips slightly opened as he uttered these four words.

Zhuang Mohan smiled and glanced at him without saying anything.

Fan Xian also smiled, knowing that he was a bit redundant, the other party was after all an old-fashioned character who had fought in this world for decades, and had unknown deep roots in the country of Beiqi, so how could he not be aware of this great event.

“People, always die.” Zhuang Mo Han’s words seemed to be speaking to himself, but also seemed to be speaking to Fan Xian: “So live to live well, like my brother this kind of living, it’s really not much fun, he killed countless people, but in the end, he ended up in such a situation ……”

Fan Xian, however, somewhat disagreed with this statement, said, “This world, this is to kill and set fire to the gold belt, repair bridges and pave roads without corpses.”

Zhuang Mo Han shook his head, “You don’t want to be this kind of person.”

Not can’t, but very direct don’t two words. If any outsider stood in this room at this time, hearing the conversation between Zhuang Mo Han and Fan Xian, seeing their natural and not hypocritical demeanor, would be a little strange. These two people’s experience of life is too far apart, and the only time we met, or a conspiracy, but it is such two people, but can use the most direct words, to express their own attitude.

Perhaps, this is the so-called power of books.

“Why not?” Fan Xian’s brows chilled a little.

“I’m confident.” Zhuang Mo Han suddenly smiled, only there was some deeply hidden sadness in his smile, “I’m confident that I’m much more alive than that brother of mine.”

Fan Xian stared into his eyes, “But you should know that without Sean, perhaps you would never have been able to obtain the position you have today.”

Zhuang Mo Han stared back at his eyes, “But you don’t know enough, when death comes gradually, you will realize that what power and status and wealth are in fact just passing clouds.”

Fan Xian was very calm, very persistent, replied, “No, when death comes, you may regret this life, you have not experienced anything, you have not enjoyed anything …… you are only this life has already had the ordinary people can never be difficult to have things, so when the time when the old age of the year Hua Only then will you have these feelings.”

Zhuang Mo Han shook his head somewhat helplessly, “You’re still young, you haven’t smelled the deeper and heavier scent of death around you day after day, how would you know what you’ll be thinking about when the time comes.”

“I know.” Fan Xian repeated somewhat mechanically, “Trust me, I know that feeling.”

Zhuang Mo Han seemed a bit tired and didn’t want to continue this topic, turning to say, “I didn’t think that someone who could write such deviant words as the Stone Records would actually remain a turbid creature of his own pen.”

Fan Xian laughed bitterly, “I also didn’t expect something like rumors to fly a little faster than birds.”

Zhuang Mo Han suddenly revealed a hint of concern in his eyes and said, “Lord Fan, you need to be more careful after you return to your country, there are a lot of taboo breaking places in the Stone Records …….”

Fan Xian was silent. He was also clear about this, but when he was a teenager, he had a lot of frivolity, and he couldn’t bear to see those words lose their chance to appear in the world, so he casually wrote them. Now in the officialdom, naturally deeply understand, if people want to find insinuations from it, it is too easy. And this matter has a pile of Fan Xian himself feel shocked at the coincidence, so no wonder he is not cautious, just a pity that the Emperor of Beiqi is also a red fan, this matter naturally can not be hidden anymore.

However, Zhuang Mo Han should not be so concerned about himself, which is where Fan Xian is a bit puzzled.

Zhuang Mo Han seemed to guess what he was thinking and said with a smile, “Today, I invited Lord Fan to come, in addition to asking for forgiveness for consoling himself for this selfish thing, I also want to thank you.”

“Thank you?” Fan Xian frowned, he didn’t think the other party knew that he had once extended Sean’s life by a day.

“Thank you on behalf of the world’s readers.” Zhuang Mo Han looked at him with a smile, “When Lord Fan first joined the Supervisory Court, he uncovered the flaws of the Chun Exam in Qing, and this matter spread to the whole world, and His Majesty moved to rectify the imperial examinations. I don’t know how many students from poor families will be benefited by this action of your honor, and it will be a great success in the autumn. Your Excellency may not think of me as an old man, but as a matter of fact, I must say thank you on behalf of all the scholars in the world.”

Fan Xian smiled with a self-deprecating curl of his lips, “Uncovering fraud? It’s all a matter for the readers, do I need to thank you?”

Zhuang Mohan, however, did not smile, his cloudy eyes somewhat listless. This time Sean returned to the country, he did not make any great efforts, the most critical point is that he did not want to let the entire court fall into turmoil because of this matter. But he knew that this world was not all made up of readers, there were politicians, conspirators, and martial artists, and their methods of dealing with things would sometimes seem more direct and wild.

He glanced at Fan Xian and was about to say something, but when he thought that those were after all the internal affairs of Northern Qi, there was no need to say anything to him.

After a long time, Fan Xian left the courtyard where Zhuang Mo Han lived. Then for the rest of his life, he never came back.

The summer heat, although from the month, the hottest days of the year should have long passed, but Beiqi is located in the northeastern part of the continent, but the time of the autumn is particularly sultry, late spring and early summer is common in the leaking rain has long been gone, only the overhead that the white sun, frivolous and ruthless, forcing people to take off their clothes to can not be taken off again.

Outside the south gate of the capital city, a bright yellow carriage disappeared into the city gate. The greenish-gray ancient city wall immediately reemerged as the most conspicuous presence in the eyes of the crowds outside the city.

Fan Xian squinted his eyes at that spot, his heart so disturbed. His Majesty, the Emperor, had actually come to see off the Qing delegation in person, something that was out of order, and no matter how much the Northern Qi ministers tried to dissuade him, they still didn’t stop him, so a large number of high-ranking officials and powerful ministers clamored to come, and even Taifu came out of the city to see them off, giving the Southern Qing delegation enough face.

Earlier the emperor and Fan Xian holding hands and chattering family talk, read the stone book and other things, I do not know how many ministers attracted the eyes – it is not easy to this somewhat strange emperor invited back, at this time outside the city is only the North Qi officials and a should be the honor guard. Fan Xian scanned the area and saw Wei Hua, but not Marquis Changning or Shen Chong.

He felt that his back was already wet, and didn’t know if it was from that emperor or from the sun.

The auspicious time had not yet arrived, so the envoy could not leave yet. He glanced at the most gorgeous carriage directly in front of the group, the Grand Princess of Northern Qi was in the carriage at this moment. Earlier, he had only glanced from afar, and could vaguely make out that she was a beautiful noblewoman, but he didn’t know how her personality was. But Fan Xian is not too worried about the road back to the country, after the experience of Haitang things, Fan Xian for his own and women get along with the ability to more confident a few points.

A breeze swept by, instantly making Fan Xian relaxed, he pulled the extremely tightly buttoned coat, thinking to himself that in this hellish weather, there was actually this kind of gentle little wind? Turning his head to look, as expected, Wang Qinian was playing his fan curtly beside him, his face full of reluctance and sadness.

Fan Xian couldn’t help but let out a giggle and scolded, “It’s only a year’s time, what are you crying for? I will naturally take care of my wife and children at home, so don’t worry.”

The delegation left, Yan Bingyun naturally also want to follow the return of the country, so that the Qing State Supervisory Yuan in the territory of Northern Qi secret spy network suddenly there is no leading figure, so the internal resolution of the Supervisory Yuan, so that Wang Qinian to the Qing State Honglu Temple permanent resident in Northern Qi Jiuzhonglang’s identity to stay in the capital, temporarily on behalf of the command of the northern matters, and so on half a year after the hospital in the dark to send the officials to take over.

Fan Xian, as a governor, has a special status in the court, and things like this do not need to go through the formalities of the court in Kyoto at all, so it was simply settled. It was just that Wang Qinian did not expect that he would not go back with the envoy, and could not help but feel a little uneasy and disappointed, although he knew that this experience would be of great benefit to his future official advancement, he was still a little uncomfortable. “My lord, a day without listening to you, I will feel uncomfortable all over.” Wang Qinian looked at Fan Xian reluctantly.

Fan Xian smiled and said, “Don’t clash with the Northern Qi side, take care of yourself, and I’ll receive you in Kyoto a year from now.” In fact, he was also used to the existence of such a croupier beside him, the key was that Wang Qinian was his only close friend in the courtyard, but it was just a pity that he had no choice but to stay in Beiqi because he had to prepare for the silver money channel against the eldest princess.

In the middle of the conversation, suddenly from the city gate sailed out of a horse, look at the person on the horse is not what officials, dressed like a housekeeper, can not help but cause the attention of all the officials, thinking about the early cloth of the defense, this on the capital of the nine city Yamen how to put a people to here?

Fan Xian’s eyes were sharp, but he saw that Lord Taifu, who stood in the first place in the procession, had a gloomy face, with a sad look in his eyes.

The horse rode right up to the front of the group, and the guard on the horse rolled off the horse, whispered something in a sobbing voice into the ear of Taifu, handed Taifu a roll of cloth, and pointed to the city gates at the back.

Taifu’s body shook, not knowing what stimulation, looking at the carriage slowly coming at the city gate, shook his head somewhat sadly, looked back at Fan Xian, but there was some surprise in his eyes.

He took a deep breath, then walked towards Fan Xian. Fan Xian didn’t know what was going on, and somewhat apprehensively hurriedly dismounted and greeted him. Receiving that cloth scroll handed over by Lord Tai Fu, he somewhat nervously unwrapped it and saw that inside was clearly a collection of poems, with a few words written on the pages in that slightly meandering pale handwriting:

“Half Leisurely Zhai Poetry Collection: notes on Lao Zhuang.”

The Taifu glanced at the silent Fan Xian with some mixed feelings and said, “This was handed to Your Excellency by Mister.” Speaking here, his tone could not help but take on an extremely deep sad heaviness.

“Mr. Zhuang …… has gone.”