Chapter 169 – The Catcher in the Rye

Dark blood spurted onto the purple grapes, dripping and drooping towards the ground, dampening the lamp-lit ground. The Second Prince had his head lowered, his mouth half-open, his jaw a bloody mess, and his eyes lowered, not looking at Fan Xian, but directly raising his hand to stop him from walking over.

“The moment you entered the mansion, I took the medicine.” The second prince squatted on the chair, his head hanging extremely low, and said quietly, “I know that you are Fei Jie’s student, but the toxin has already entered the heart, and you always can’t be saved …… I don’t want you to either. You know that although you are powerful, but you can’t always stop me from dying.”

As long as a person has a death wish, no matter what methods are used, it is impossible to save his life, Fan Xian understood this and calmly looked at the other party, his heart was empty and devoid of any thoughts, but he still wasn’t prepared to stand by and watch, not because he had a trace of brotherly feelings for Lao Er, but he couldn’t let the other party die in front of him.

“Don’t worry about anything, I have already written a suicide note earlier, the palace won’t blame you, no one will think that you hemlocked me.” The second prince lowered his head, his blood-stained hand fumbled for a letter in his bosom and gently placed it on the table.

It had not occurred to him that when he was dying, he had actually thought of even what Fan Xian was worried about, and Fan Xian’s heart froze slightly, knowing that the other party was truly as Ling’er had said, and had also been ruthless to a certain realm towards himself, cutting off any hope of survival.

The second prince raised his head and gave Fan Xian a very envious look, vomiting another mouthful of black blood. He wiped his lips haphazardly with his sleeve, and with his two long, thin fingers, he carefully broke off the bunches of grapes that had been stained by the poisonous blood, leaving a small, clean half, and reintroduced it to his mouth.

The sweet and juicy grapes were chewed to pieces in his mouth. With a blah sound, the Second Prince spat out the grape seeds onto the ground, still carrying black blood.

After eating the grapes, he wiped his hands clean on his body, sighed, and looked at Fan Xian, who had been silent and hadn’t done much, and said quietly, “I don’t want to continue living as a joke.”

Fan Xian nodded, indicating that he understood his thoughts.

“Actually, you’re also a joke.” A layer of deathly gray gradually appeared on the Second Prince’s face, his gaze somewhat lax, not knowing what he had remembered, he said, “There are quite a few people in this Kyoto who want to kill you. It’s true that the one who made the first move was me, but how much tenderness do you think Chengqian had for you? The Qin family didn’t kill you in the valley, and he was so angry that he jumped on his feet all night in the Eastern Palace …… But why?”

He stared into Fan Xian’s eyes, “Why is it that …… your attitude towards Cheng Qian is completely different from that towards me?”

Fan Xian himself couldn’t figure this out. The Second Prince’s words pierced straight to his heart. Why had he been so tolerant and gentle with the Crown Prince, but was stalking the Second Prince at all costs?

The second prince’s eyes drooped breathlessly, his voice extremely low: ”You don’t like me, from the very beginning you don’t like me. Of course, I also don t like you …… The two of us are too much alike, only that I have never possessed such good luck as you. Anyone who would not allow another self to exist in the world would subconsciously rush to remove the other.”

His gaze was chilly and helpless, “If you were the Jia Gongzi in the Rong Guo Fu, I would only be the Zhen Baoyu in Jinling City, never able to fish for a few appearances in the books …… But I’m the real one, I’m the real one!”

The second prince coughed up blood as he spoke, and the blood coated his front lapel everywhere, looking very miserable.

Fan Xian looked at the scene in front of him, his body a little stiff, unable to make any reaction. The second prince raised his head for the last time, stared at Fan Xian’s face, and said with some difficulty, ”I have always thought that Chengqian was the most cowardly amongst my brothers, but it was only until I was about to die that I realized that I was also cowardly. I would rather die and humbly leave Ling Er and mother than have the guts to face …… them.”

“After I die, you take care of Ling’er for me …… As for mother, her best end is probably to be sent to the Cold Palace, so please take care of it for me.”

The second prince’s chest at a burst of violent undulation, as if something is about to rush out, staring at Fan Xian’s eyes, forcibly finished these words, did not give Fan Xian any opportunity to speak, opened his mouth, puffed out a large spread of black blood, and then no longer breathe.

The dead second prince remained crouched in his chair, his left hand resting on his knee, his handsome face with a touch of deathly gray, and a moment later, his body fell off the chair with a thud, only that pair of eyes never refused to close, staring wide open.

Fan Xian looked at the corpse of the second prince with a numb face, suddenly feeling how this early fall night could be so cold.

He shivered, his mood was very complicated, he didn’t know what kind of exclamation he should make to this body in front of him, perhaps silence at this time is the best attitude? The second prince, the real prince, had already died, how should he continue with this fake soul in his own body?

His face was a bit ugly, not because the second prince committed suicide in front of his own face, nor because of those piercing words that Lao Er said before his death, but in the end, Lao Er explained that he had to take care of Ling’er and Shu Guifei for him.

Not even giving himself the chance to open his mouth and refuse? Fan Xian thought in his heart, his expression despondent. When the eldest princess died, she gave Wan’er to herself, and the crown prince, knowing that he would surely die, entrusted the families of those rebel generals and ministers to himself ……

Why? Don’t you know that I am your undying enemy? Did I not cause your deaths? Why do you throw so much baggage at me before you die? Do you want to crush me to death? You bet I’ll help you?

You dead people! If you want to die, why do you want me, a living man, to live in discomfort?

He lowered his head, wooden, his body gently trembling, walked over to the second prince’s body, took a look, picked up the thin hair letter on the table, put it into his bosom, and walked out of this gloomy room.

Traveled to the royal mansion back garden bedroom, under the cold light of the green lamp, Ye Ling’er is still sitting woodenly, do not know what actually happened after the garden. Fan Xian sighed in his heart and walked directly behind her, slamming his palm down and knocking her out without giving her any chance to react.

If he didn’t knock her out, once she learned of the news that the second prince had taken poison and killed himself, he was afraid that she would go along with it, so Fan Xian could only use this more direct method to drag things out.

Gong Dian greeted him. Fan Xian bowed his head and thought for a moment, handing him the suicide note in his arms, as well as handing him Ye Ling’er, who was carried on his shoulder, and whispering something. Gong Dian received the unconscious Ye Ling’er, already greatly shocked, and listening to the news of the second prince’s death, he frowned even more deeply.

“Eldest wrote a suicide note, His Majesty won’t blame you or me.” Fan Xian sighed, then said with a straight face, “Before the crown princess wakes up, bind her hands and feet before telling her the news. If she refuses to eat, you’ll give me rice soup …… no matter what, make her drink it!”

These last two sentences had been roared out through clenched teeth, grimly incomparable. Gong Dian was stunned, thinking that indeed there is only this method, but did not notice Tanya Gong’s disorientation, and after another moment of reflection, said helplessly, “But the young lady’s nature is like a fierce fire, can’t tie her up for a lifetime.”

“Fire isn’t scary, it comes and goes quickly, it’s not as bad as an icy pile of thorns like yourself and Lao Er.” Fan Xian thought in his heart and lowered his voice, “In a few days, when things die down a bit, I’ll come back to persuade her.”

After the matter of the royal residence was dealt with, the night in Kyoto had gradually receded, and the time had reached the early hours of the morning, with a touch of fish-belly white peeking through in the distant east. However, Fan Xian did not have the means to go to rest, he still had too many things that needed to be done, and after making a trip around back to the Fan Mansion from the Royal Mansion, he went directly to the Imperial Palace.

Although Minister Fan had said that these matters should be handled by the Taishang Temple of the Ministry of Rites, there was no way that Fan Xian would forget his status as the Supervisor of the State and pretend that these things had never happened, not to mention that he himself was now also the Junior Secretary of the Taishang Temple, and it was not known if Ren Shao’an, the Head Secretary, had survived after His Majesty’s trip to the Eastern Mountains to sacrifice to the heavens.

He stood side by side with the eldest prince, looking at the three black and black coffins in front of him, the two brothers were silent.

Only a day ago, the two of them were still standing on top of the imperial city worrying about the safety of the palace and the world of Qing, who could have expected that at this moment, the victory and defeat had been divided, and that the characters who wrote the history of the world had already changed their names, and who could have imagined that, at the time when the imperial city was in peril, the black coffins that Fan Xian had stepped on under his feet had begun to accommodate the skins of the losers.

The Eldest Princess and the Second Prince were lying quietly in their coffins at this time, and there was another coffin that was empty, not knowing who the person lying in it immediately afterward was.

“Unbecoming of etiquette.” The Grand Prince’s expression was heavy, and he struggled to keep the sadness from flowing out from between his brows. The eldest princess was fine, but the second prince Li Chengze’s brotherly feelings with him could not be faked, although during these two years, the two brothers had drifted apart, but at this time, looking at the scene in front of him, thinking of the person in the coffin, the eldest prince still had a pain in his heart.

Fan Xian nodded with some fatigue and said, “The officials of the Ministry of Rites are all scared away, it seems that His Majesty does not return to the capital for a day, the six ministries are always unable to get together, and there are not a few people in the Taishang Temple there, they are only temporarily placed, after all, the face of the heavenly family should be taken care of, and can not just stop in the house.”

The great prince sighed, did not say anything else, turned around and walked towards the imperial city, with the side of the forbidden army escort coffin team, the back looks extremely depressed.

Fan Xian quietly looked at him and shook his head, knowing that in front of the heavy pressure and the news of the deaths that were gradually coming in, the Grand Prince was already about to be unable to hold on. It was only at this thought that Fan Xian felt a burst of exhaustion coming from the deepest part of his body, and his eyelids were about to be unable to lift. Frowning and slapping his cheeks, he spoke to the subordinate beside him, “Return to the residence.”

Returning to the mansion four times in one night without a single moment of peace, Fan Xian counted carefully, from the preparations before the sudden palace, he had not slept for two days and two nights, his injuries had recurred, the ephedra pills had all passed away, and he did not dare to take them again, and his entire mental and physical strength had indeed reached its limit.

After returning to the mansion, looking at everything in the dark, Fan Xian did not go to see the Wan Er who lived at Liu’s place, lowered his head and sat in silence on the bed for a short while, kicked the black box into the bottom of the bed, and without taking off his clothes, he presented himself as a big eight, lying down.

Obviously already tired to the extreme, but could not sleep, he opened his bright eyes, looking at the dark roof.

Didn’t sleep for long before waking up, after all, Kyoto is still in chaos, as the supervisor of the country, it is impossible for him to leave himself too much time to rest in sadness and confusion. After getting up, he ate something haphazardly, used a hot towel to burn his face, and forcibly recovered his spirit.

As he left the house, he subconsciously glanced under the bed. That fateful box, that box that always stays in the dust, just like that quietly lying under the bed, just like Rapunzel and Lao Er quietly lying in the coffin, no one will ever bother. Whether it’s a box or a person, perhaps only to become an inconspicuous existence, placed in an inconspicuous place, in order to obtain real peace.

As he left the mansion, he subconsciously glanced towards the mansion. After coming back from the Taiping Special Courtyard, he had yet to see Wan’er, and wondered how his wife’s mood was now. Thinking about this section, a trace of gloom surfaced on his face.

As he entered the palace, he subconsciously glanced towards the palace gates. The vermilion palace gate was littered with traces of fire and smoke, and some cracks caused by weapons grinned, revealing the wood shavings inside. And those copper nails that had been knocked down had long since been cleaned up, leaving only countless unsightly sores on the door.

In this instant, Fan Xian confirmed certain things-this palace, this city, this land, was after all the place where he had lived for twenty years, and he had developed deep feelings for it. Even though this palace was that cold, even though this city had failed so many people, even though this kingdom had made so many mistakes, it was still his kingdom.

He had always viewed himself as a member of the Kingdom of Qing, and until a lot of things had been investigated and clarified, he didn’t mind doing his best to maintain the peace of the people in this kingdom while living a good life himself, just as he had been doing all these years.

So many people had died, all the more reason for him to live well. Unless …… some people don t want him to live.

Please ask the two bachelors of Hu Shu to return to the residence for a while. These two ministers have been in the imperial study on behalf of the imperial approval has been a night, Qing some important zhangzhang finally be cleaned out a rough, but the two university scholar after all is not an iron man, than Fan Xian’s spirit is even worse than the extremely far, successive shock, and have not slept, has long been exhausted.

Fan idle sitting in the empty imperial study, can not help but shake his head. In the past, when the emperor was around, although this imperial study was as quiet as ever, it was always filled with a different flavor. Was it majesty? Or was it something? Anyway, it was completely different from the Imperial Study he felt at this time.

He didn’t know how the emperor’s old man came down from the Great Eastern Mountain alive, but he knew that his performance would definitely satisfy His Majesty. It seems that the position of a powerful minister can sit firmly, just …… thinking about the unification war that will kick off the curtain in two or three years, Fan Xian felt his mouth a little bitter.

The so-called gentleman does not deceive the dark room, but Fan Xian is not a gentleman, at this time he was sitting alone in the imperial study, looking at the piles of medals on the short platform, looking at the soft couch, thinking that the emperor has always been the one who manipulates the entire dynastic government of Qing Dynasty there.

He stood up and quietly looked at that place. Tilting his head slightly, he thought about how it would feel if it was himself sitting on it. However, he immediately afterward shook his head, his thin lips curling slightly, revealing a hint of self-deprecation.

After a day and a night of being the Supervisor, he was nearly exhausted into a big yellow dog in the summer, and then looking at the woeful appearance of Hu Shu’s two university professors who were being supported by the eunuchs just now, Fan Xian confirmed that the emperor’s job must be even more laborious than the Yellow Emperor who had been a daily imperialist for a number of women.

Or that old saying, there are only three kinds of people in the world, men, women, and emperors, but anyone who can be a real king is …… not a person.

“Invite the Third Highness over.”

Fan Xian smiled and spoke to the small eunuch outside the imperial study, then he thought of how Hong Zhu and some of the characters involved in the rebellion were all still being held in the Cold Palace, and wondered how His Majesty would deal with the matter when he returned. However, in the eyes of outsiders, Hong Zhu basically did nothing and should not be in any serious trouble.

It did not take long for Third Prince Li Chengping, who had gradually grown into a teenager’s appearance, to arrive outside the Imperial Study Room accompanied by an old Sister and a few eunuchs. Fan Xian glanced at the old Sister, waved his hand for them to retreat, and held the Third Prince’s hand to the front of the desk where the zhangzhi were stored.

Li Chengping’s hand was a bit cool, and the gaze he looked at Fan Xian with was somewhat not quite the same as when he was in Jiangnan, appearing a bit in awe.

Fan Xian’s afterglow had already noticed this scene and did not care much. Respect and awe, but no more feeling of detachment. He knew that his own performance this day and night had left too deep an impression on this imperial brother, and he was afraid that he would never be able to get rid of such traces.

This was a pedagogical problem that no one in the world understood except Fan Xian. To cultivate a prince who dared to open a brothel and kill people at the age of nine to become a benevolent king, pure moralizing was simply not enough to accomplish the task, and it was necessary to make the youngest third son understand that many things in the world could be achieved with more honorable means.

The third prince needed a role model, so from the beginning of the Jiangnan trip, Fan Xian had set himself up as a role model in the other party’s mind, because he was a poetic immortal, he was a strong man, he was a powerful official, he was Lao San’s savior, and in the minds of most of the people of the country of Qing, he was …… a good man.

Fan Xian hopes that in the future, the emperor of Qing Guo will also be a good person, just like the …… crown prince?

“Sir …… heard that Father ……” Li Chengping looked at Fan Xian with some trepidation.

Fan Xian smiled, “The temple is above, His Majesty has his own heavenly destiny to protect him, and those small and petty people, naturally, cannot hurt him.”

“Oh.” A hint of joy also surfaced on Li Chengping’s face, although he knew that if his father died, he would become the next emperor of Qing Kingdom under the protection of his sir and elder brother, but he was still just a teenager after all, and his mind was not as ruthless as this.

Fan Xian appeared to be unconcerned, but he carefully paid attention to the change of emotions in Li Chengping’s pupils, thinking that he had not been wrong.

“In the future, probably His Majesty will often allow His Highness to come to the Imperial Study Room to listen.” Fan Xian was stunned after saying this, and slowly spoke, “Your Highness should familiarize yourself with the place first.”

The Third Prince had been to the Imperial Study, and knew that the Crown Prince’s brother, Second Brother, Eldest Brother, and even Mister, used to listen to his father and ministers’ deliberations within the Imperial Study after the court meeting had dispersed, only that after today, I’m afraid that this Imperial Study would be quite empty.

“There are many words that probably no one dares to say to your highness in person.” Fan Xian pondered for a moment before calmly saying, “But I must speak to you.”

His Majesty the Emperor would be returning soon, and Fan Xian had to give his own account to Lao San, as he was well aware that the boy’s mind was actually incredibly delicate, so while he had previously been addressing the other party with Your Highness, at this moment, he was referring to you directly.

“Your Highness is naturally good at martial arts, and in the future, you will eventually be sent to station at the border.” Fan Xian’s face sank slightly as he used his own words to relate His Majesty’s future arrangements, “He is naturally straightforward and will never take the initiative to do anything that would hurt his brotherhood, so on this point, you should rest assured and not be paranoid.”

The Third Prince’s hand trembled for a moment as he looked at Sir’s face, wondering why he suddenly said this.

“As for me, I will always have to leave in the future, this world is so big, I will always have to visit the ends of the earth and the cape to make this life worth living.” Fan Xian smiled slightly, “So you shouldn’t doubt me either, even when you grow …… up.”

The Third Prince opened his mouth wide, somehow feeling a hint of fear.

“This is not what one should say as a subject.” Fan Xian restrained his smile and said calmly, “But I want to say it to you. Twenty years into this life, I’m tired of guessing and testing my intentions with each other, and regardless of whether you still believe in these words when you grow up in the future, please remember these words.”

As he said, such words had already violated a major taboo in the house of the Son of Heaven, let alone coming from the mouth of a courtier, yet Fan Xian had chosen to say it so calmly, so naturally. Li Chengping looked at the gentleman’s face, which was originally very handsome, but today was somewhat haggard, and subconsciously nodded his head.

It has been three days, Kyoto has been pacified, and the three horsemen once again entered the capital, announcing to the world the news of His Majesty’s return from the heavenly sacrifice. The shocked people of Kyoto rejoiced, but Fan Xian, who stood on top of the Imperial City, wondered what they were rejoicing about after suffering so much.

His Majesty the Emperor was three days late in his scheduled return to the capital, and during those three days, the Dingzhou Army’s military intelligence bulletins were sent sheepishly through the channels of the military and the Supervisory Board to the capital, and Fan Xian had his fill of supervising the country, holding His Majesty’s traveling seal in both hands and stamping it haphazardly.

On this day, the news finally came. Fan Xian led the third prince, together with the eldest prince, together with the surviving royalist ministers, walked through the streets that were still traces of soldiers and swords, walked out of the gate of zhengyang, and stopped at a place ten miles away.

Thousands of people densely kneeling, the official road can not stand, many people are directly kneeling in the wheat fields on both sides of the road. At this time the fall harvest has not yet arrived, the golden wheat ears over the trampling of war horses, with heavy harvest in the breeze swaying in both directions. The moods of countless people were as agitated as the ears of wheat, watching for the bright yellow imperial chariot traveling in the distance.

Fan Xian retracted his gaze from the wheat field and smiled at the tense and joyful Third Prince beside him.