Chapter 15: Letter from Kyoto

The sky in Tanyu City was suddenly overcast, and the dark clouds overhead were heavy, like dirty cotton that had been dampened, or cotton candy that had been over-fired, and just hung over people’s heads.

But the people living by the sea had long been accustomed to this kind of weather, and knew that there was still a long time before the rain came and the wind came, so they didn’t panic in any way, unlike some years before, when that beautiful illegitimate son of Earl Sinan’s Buyeo’s family always liked to run to the roof of the Buyeo’s yard before the arrival of a typhoon in the summer, shouting at the whole city, “It is going to rain, so everyone hurry up and collect your clothes. ”

“Young Master Fan, why haven’t you been yelling for everyone to collect their clothes lately?” The only main street in Tanyu Port was filled with food and trinkets all around, and the vendors looked at the pretty boy who walked through the middle of the crowd and joked.

Fan Xian smiled shyly and didn’t say anything, holding the hand of the big maid beside him as he walked toward the Buiefu, holding a piece of tofu in his other hand.

Everyone knew that this illegitimate son of the Count’s private residence was different from the usual noble young masters, and that he liked to help his subordinates, especially the maids, and had long since gotten used to seeing him, so he wasn’t surprised.

It had been nearly six years since Fei Jie had left Tanyu, and Fan Xian had already grown into a beautiful young man with a calm and steady demeanor.

Back to the mansion, first let the subordinate to bring the tofu to the kitchen, and to the old lady whose body is a little bit unsettled to greet, and by the way, the old lady side of a piece of paper into the bosom, Fan Xian returned to the study. He felt out the letter sent by that sister in Kyoto in his bosom and placed it next to the piece of paper, and the expression on his face suddenly became wonderful.

This year, His Majesty the Emperor of Qing Guo suddenly surprised everyone by changing his name to Qing Lixi, with the year number being the same as the name of the country, which always felt a bit odd, and although those civil officials and aristocrats in Kyoto didn’t dare to have any opinions on the surface, they would always mumble a few words in the corners of the room where no one was around. Especially those sour literati, nowadays, no matter whether it is the modern literature school or the ancient literature school, no matter whether it is the old man in the national education institute or the novelist who drinks congee, they all began to submit to the eighth division of the Supervisory Yuan for examination, they can’t help but mention their opinions in the articles.

The follow up of the change of the Yuan Dynasty was the implementation of the New Deal, but the New Deal seemed to be nothing new, just fixing the rule of officials, and the only thing that made the world’s subjects feel that it was very new and wonderful was – just in the first year of the Qingli reign – a decree suddenly came out from the palace that the inner court started to run a newspaper.

Newspaper? No one understood what it was, and it wasn’t until after the inner court actually printed the first newspaper that everyone let out a whoop in unison, and no one took it seriously anymore.

Because the newspaper was a product of the palace’s exclusive control, and because the daily proofs had to be approved by His Majesty the Emperor himself before they could be printed, it was impossible to publish anything that would cause trouble for the empire’s rule.

After several consecutive issues of the newspaper, which cost as much as one silver coin, were bought by people in Kyoto who loved to taste the freshness of the newspaper, some powerful and noble families always felt that they had fallen for His Majesty’s trick, and that the palace was preparing to build some new gardens lately, right?

On the thin paper, there was no valuable content, just the scenic spots and biographies of the past dynasties, and the biggest side of the page, along the surrounding area, there were some lace like clouds, recording the private life of many officials in Kyoto, such as the military court master was beaten by the family’s wife, the head of the Kyoto guard division lost an incisor, and so on and so forth.

There are also some lace news involving the neighboring North Qi and Dongyi City, but the officials of the State of Qing only pay attention to their own these things, the beginning can also be cheeky, and then turn to their own head, only to know the taste of shame, would like to look for that newspaper trouble, but how to find the backstage is the emperor, so have to be displeased with the end of the story.

There were only two copies of the newspaper in the whole of Tanyu Port, one of which was dedicated to the Count’s residence.

When Fan Xian stole the newspaper from his grandmother’s room that the underlings were talking about, and hurriedly scanned through it, he really didn’t have any way of controlling his facial expression, and opened his mouth so wide that he couldn’t wait to stuff his fists into it……. What era is this? There are actually gossip newspapers …… or supervised by decree!

There is also a new policy, is the royal promulgation of the Decree of the Postal Service, nowadays the postal routes are open, so that the brother and sister can quietly communicate without fear of being known by other people.

Fan Xian frowned as he looked at the newspaper in front of him, during this time he had already heard many things from passersby about the new policy, in his opinion, it was purely a product of His Majesty’s nonsense, but everyone in the whole world knew that His Majesty had never been a nonsense person.

Fan Xian was not in the mood to change this world, nor was he interested in doing so, but when there were certain aspects of this world that became similar to his own previous world to a slight degree, he was naturally curious to know what was hidden behind these things.

After this very awkward thought process, he still didn’t get it, bitterly smiled and pushed the newspaper aside, mockingly thinking to himself, could there be another person under the sky who traveled over, and still have the kind of ambition.

However, these were none of his business, but the letter next to the newspaper had nothing to do with him.

In Fan Xian’s memory, Fan Ruo Ruo was that poor little sister who was somewhat related to him, who had spent a short period of her childhood in Tanyu City many years ago, and who was dark and thin and not as beautiful as her own skin.

It has been some years since I saw her, and I don’t know what that little girl has grown into now, and whether the few sparse yellow hairs in her hair have turned black and become beautiful. Fan Xian had even somewhat forgotten whether his sister should be called Fan Ruo, or Fan Ruo Ruo.

“One is truly an incompetent elder brother.” He laughed to himself as he thought, although he was an eccentric soul who had lived two lifetimes in his body, he was always that girl’s older brother in his bloodline, and he really cared a little less on weekdays. After Fan Ruo Ruo started going to school two years ago, she often sent letters from school to Tanyu Port, while Fan Xian was practicing that overbearing true qi every day, undergoing the bitter training of the Blind Man’s Five Bamboos, and reviewing the book of Poisonous Substances left behind by Teacher Fei Jie, so he seldom replied to the letters.

Counting, this year Fan Ruo Ruo should be ten years old, I don’t know why, perhaps the ghost stories of her childhood were too deep an impression, this rightful young lady of the Earl’s House was very dependent on her brother who was far away in the sky, and often wrote letters of greetings, and while the first six months of the letters were often expressions of longing for grandma as well as recollections of life in Tanyou State, these six months of the letters were filled with only occasional stories of the family’s affairs, and most of the letters talked about the Most of the letters were about the boring days in the Kyoto residence.

Fan Xian’s fingers gently crossed the letter paper, his pretty face slightly worried.

On the letter paper was his sister’s slightly childish script, writing about her life in Kyoto recently, entering a school that only girls from noble families could enter, and it seemed that everything was just like the trajectory that every person like her in this world should follow.