Chapter 173 – You Are My Little Cotton Coat

Regarding this night, what Chen Pingping, who was sitting on the wheelchair, said to His Majesty the Emperor, who was sitting on the dragon chair, remained a mystery until many years later, as no one was qualified to listen in, not even Eunuch Yao, who did not leave His Majesty’s left and right.

This conversation, in fact, was similar to the two conversations outside the Imperial Study Room within a year, where the words came out of the king’s lips and entered the minister’s ears, and were not passed on to a third person. But now the Kyoto, has long been known for months of things, all from His Majesty and President Chen’s secret arrangement, the ruler and the ministers only waiting for the enemy hidden in the dark will jump out, and then a net into a capture – Qing emperor and President Chen, really seems too powerful, actually able to the entire Kyoto in the dark for up to half a month.

It was only at this point that people thought of the fact that many years ago, Dean Chen had begun to accompany His Majesty in his great endeavor of unifying the world, that old man in a wheelchair had saved His Majesty several times, and His Majesty had given the other party the utmost trust and glory, the older generation had never doubted Chen Pingping’s loyalty to His Majesty, a fact that history had long since proved, and was only manifested once again in the present day.

There were many speculations in the minds of the people of Kyoto regarding this conversation.

That night, when Fan Xian left the palace and headed for his residence, he did not put his mind on the conversation in the imperial study, nor did he think about whether or not this conversation would have anything to do with himself, because he guessed that His Majesty was just a little lonely, and that Chen Pingping was going to play the role of a loyal subject and temporary friend.

The truth was not far from his conjecture. Because in a way, Fan Xian and his Emperor’s old man were just too much alike. If Emperor Qing was the best actor in the world, concealing the world for twenty years, then Fan Xian was naturally the second best actor, hiding his thoughts in his heart and concealing them from Emperor Qing.

This was an unprecedented struggle between acting powerhouses, and the fight was about the heart. Fan Xian lifted the curtains of the carriage, staring blankly at the silent and restless Kyoto night streets outside, thinking slightly gloomily, now that he is considered to have gained His Majesty’s absolute trust, this fight is another victory for himself, however …… why bother to fight? How to fight in the future?

The worry and anxiety on his face, is not to play out, but really from the depths of the heart, especially between the eyebrows of the extremely complex joy worry bewilderment, completely expressed his mood at this time.

As he brushed past the wheelchair, Fan Xian bowed his head and saw the gentle and congratulatory look in Chen Pingping’s old eyes. He immediately realized that Si Si had indeed been picked up by the dean, and since he had already returned to the capital, Si Si had naturally returned to the mansion as well, he just didn’t know if he had given birth yet, and whether it was a boy or a girl.

A thought of this, where he still have the mood to think about the conversation in the imperial study, the whole heart has returned to the Fan House, urging his subordinates to whip the steed pulling the car. Just these days too many people died, so even if you know that you may have become a father, Fan Xian also only light satisfaction, but not much ecstasy. Wan’er was in the center of the mansion at this time, wounded by the death of her birth mother, and really didn’t know how to deal with it when she returned to the mansion.

The carriage didn’t stop at the main entrance of the Fan Mansion, but went straight in from the side alley and stopped at the corner door of the back garden. Not waiting for the carriage to stop, Fan Xian already jumped down from the car, smiled and glanced at the daughter-in-law of the Tujia family who greeted him at the door, and then walked towards his own mansion. After only a few steps, his smile was restrained.

It is not that he deliberately make a show of it, really in today’s bloody rain and wind all the parting of the Kyoto, the arrival of a new life, really can not wash away that many deaths bring the smell of blood.

Walked through the flower hall to the east room, not surprised to find the light is still slightly lit, father and Liu’s two are waiting for their own room. The dim light shone on Fan Shangshu’s face, illuminating his wrinkles, and the joy in his wrinkles. Fan Shangshu was looking at a baby in Liu’s arms, and although he was barely maintaining the appearance of a solemn lord, he couldn’t hide the pleasure in his eyes.

Fan Xian entered the door and first bowed to his father and Liu, but without a glance at the baby in Liu’s arms, he directly cast his gaze to the bedside and saw Wan Er sitting on the edge of the bed, holding Si Si’s hand and whispering something.

Wan Er’s eyes were red and swollen, like pink peaches, and she looked pitiful, and her face had lost a lot of weight, emaciated and gaunt, but she forced a smile and made small talk with Si Si who was lying on the bed. Fan Xian slightly stunned, then walked over, also do not care about the two elders in the room, directly sat to the side of Wan Er, full of smiles looking at leaning on the pillow and leaning on the Si Si, looking at this year’s big girl, said: “are when the mother of a person, how so night still do not sleep?”

Si Si is about to give birth to this month, although suffered some shock, but there is a monitor to protect the hospital, was Chen old cripple with in Kyoto in the four fields of travel, did not let her suffer from the wind and cold, the movement is more than the general maternity to come, so it looks like the spirit of maternity than the general to come to some better, coupled with the girl since childhood with Fan Xian grew up, was also born out of a few points of the intention of the spontaneity of the heart, broad-minded, and did not due to the birth of the fetus emaciated, the face of a few additional touch of plumpness, the face of a few times. She was not haggard due to the birth of the fetus in her womb, but rather her face had gained a few touches of plumpness, making her more and more like a lovely young woman.

“Young master, you’ve been sleeping during the day, so how can you sleep.” Si Si was still used to calling him young master, her eyebrows were filled with joy and the complacency of being a first-time mother, but her words were strongly suppressed. Though she is sparse in nature, she is not a heartless fool, knowing that too many things have happened in the capital and that the young granny is grieving in her heart, how could she not be willing to show too much at this moment.

But as she watched the young master enter the house and come to the bedside without even looking at the baby in Liu’s arms, Si Si’s heart began to wonder if it was possible that she had given birth to a daughter, which made the young master unhappy. The eyes then dimmed a trifle.

Even though Fan Xian had a seven-knuckle heart, he still couldn’t quite figure out the small minds of the women in the backyard of the family house. Looking at the girl’s expression, he thought that she was sad because she had no one to be with her during the labor, so he smiled and was ready to open his mouth to say a few words of relief.

He did not understand, but Lin Wan Er will not not understand, Liu will not not understand. As she watched Liu carry the child towards this side of the bed, Wan Er smiled faintly and gave Fan Xian a wink, saying softly, “Quickly look at the little girl and go.”

Fan Xian was stunned, and when he looked back, he watched Liu look at himself with a faintly reproachful expression before he realized what the problem was. Smiling bitterly to himself, he took the baby from Liu’s arms and carefully held it in his hands, fixing his eyes on it and realizing that the swaddled baby ……

This little baby girl looks really not good-looking, not to say that it is not up to his own appearance, that is, compared to Si Si’s big eyes and love is also a lot worse. Looking at, he couldn’t help but laugh, feeling that he was really a bit confused – a newborn baby naturally can’t talk about good-looking, as long as it’s healthy, it’s good.

Liu’s three women saw him furtively take the baby, but bluffed, did not react, looking at him nervously, afraid that he would not be able to hold the baby, Liu was even more ready to reach out to snatch it back. However, he didn’t realize that Fan Xian’s left elbow was slightly bent, supporting his neck with his arm, and his right hand was patting lightly, but he was holding the baby in a decent manner.

Watching this scene, everyone sighed in relief, including Fan Shangshu, who looked at Fan Xian with astonished gazes, and Wan’er, who had been depressed for a long time, couldn’t help but sneak a smile. Fan Xian was only concerned about his daughter at the moment, so he didn’t care about the eyes of the others, and didn’t think that in this world, men who were willing to hold a child, especially in a big family like theirs, were few and far between, and the fact that he was so familiar with it, and looked like an old grandmother, made everyone’s jaws drop even more.

Fan Xian hugged the child, to Si Si said gently: “Recently the situation is unstable, also is bitter you …… but you know me, into the house does not look at the child, is not not like daughter, just in my eyes, small children are always less important than adults, you can be safe is the most critical. ”

Liu’s and Wan’er’s secret reproach, Fan Xian naturally clear Si Si’s previous gloomy because of why, smiled and explained a couple of sentences, not for the intention, but did not think of these words fell in Wan’er and Si Si’s heart, each have different feelings.

Si Si heart a burst of sweetness, then remembered that when I was a child, the young master was also a muttering, child birth is the most bitter mothers, boys and girls are the same and such nonsense. Although her heart sweet, but did not dare to show too much in front of Wan Er, because she knows that the young grandmother has always been extremely generous to themselves, and in these two years want to have a child, but has always …… been.

This kind of thought, SiSi fell Fan Xian behind the two words missed the past, small intention to look at the head down and gentle smile of the young granny, somehow the heart of a mournful, but for the young granny heart sour up.

On the other side of the room, the women’s thoughts were complicated, but Fan Xian was holding his daughter and watching her carefully, the more he watched, the more he was happy. Earlier, when he entered the house, he only cared about Sisi’s body and Wan’er’s emotion, and did not take this daughter seriously, until now he was holding her, feeling the softness and tenderness of this small body through the cloth, looking at the wrinkles on his daughter’s forehead, and watching his daughter’s lips pursing from time to time, and his heart was getting softer and softer.

The biggest difference between a man and a woman is here, a woman carries a baby for ten months before giving birth to a child, and has already cultivated ten months of feelings, coupled with the pain of hard work and pain, naturally born to a child with a strong and indescribable warmth, while a man’s feelings need to be watched, hugged, and experienced, and only then will it grow stronger and stronger.

Especially like Fan Xian such as the world’s first busy person, Si Si pregnant basically are not around, the child naturally does not have too strong feeling. Just hugging and hugging, this feeling will come, Fan Xian hug more and more carefully, staring blankly at the little girl in his arms, thinking, could this be his own daughter? The future will be very beautiful, the future will be very spicy, the future …… of this pair of tightly closed small eyes, will also grow bigger and bigger, the more beautiful.

The tip of the heart in the soft, gradually sweet and sour, for some reason, Fan Xian feel a little nose blocked, just this emotion is too complex, that is, he himself do not know what words to describe, he only know one thing, his own disaster, but also extremely lucky twice life, finally in this world to be continued.

At this moment, he thought in his heart, even if he died on the spot now, but always left something in this world. Unlike looking at the rows and rows of books in Kyoto Prefect Sun’s house, this feeling is stronger, more vivid, and more touching inexplicably.

After holding the child for a while, Wan Er, who was watching from the side, under Liu’s guidance and Fan Xian’s demonstration, picked the child up and held him in her arms heartily.

According to the rules of the world, this was also considered her child, so this kind of heartache was real. Fan Xian smiled at the pity and curiosity in his wife’s eyes, and then it occurred to him that his wife wasn’t too old, and under his own care, she wasn’t really too different from a young girl. However, looking at Wan Er holding the child, seems to slightly go to some of the grief in the heart, his heart is also much better.

At this time the night is already deep, everyone is a little tired, just the first life of the third generation of the Fan House, so that all the people are a little excited, that is, Fan Shangshu also did not avoid suspicion to stay in this room, happily watching this scene, refused to go to rest.

In the end, it was Liu who joked a little, letting the old maids and nannies who had been waiting in the outer room to come in and hold the baby to the side, and then urged all of them to rest early.

When Fan Shangshu left, he suddenly thought of something and was ready to call Fan Xian to the study to ask about the situation in the palace today and His Majesty’s mood, but then he thought that the boy was already exhausted these days, and it was not easy for him to have a happy event, so why bother, so he did not open his mouth.

Instead, when the two elders left, Fan Xian happily opened his mouth and asked, “Father, when I was in Jiangnan, I asked you to pick a name, and I still don’t know what name to give this girl.”

He asked happily, but Fan Shangshu glanced at Liu, his gaze was a bit complicated, and then he said calmly, “Daughter’s family, there is no hurry to take a name, first take a little name and call it.”

“Fan Xiao Hua.” Fan Xian smiled and said, “The nickname was thought of long ago.”

As soon as he said this, Lin Wan’er and Si Si were both a bit dissatisfied, thinking to themselves how did they get such a vulgar name for a family of this caliber. However, Si Si did not dare to speak in front of the crowd, but Wan Er noticed the look on the family’s face, and was stunned, but did not say anything.

Fan Xian and Wan Er exchanged a glance, and then remembered something, his face was a little less good. Only after Fan Shangshu and Liu went out, he couldn’t help but shake his head and sigh, looking at his daughter in the arms of the old ma’am to the side and saying, “Can it be that this little girl’s name will have to wait to be bestowed by the palace as well?”

When Si Si heard this, she was startled, thinking what kind of argument is this? Immediately thinking of the young master’s other identity, she hurriedly pursed her lips, not daring to make any comments.

Lin Wan Er looked at him and said softly, “I heard the master say that back then, your word …… was also taken from the palace. I see more than just the name, at the latest the day after tomorrow, His Majesty will let you carry the child into the palace. Giving a name is a toon thing, and the palace will only send a group of old sisters and nursemaids for you to pick from.”

Fan Xian raised his eyebrows slightly and said with a cold smile, “The old groceries in the palace …… can come if they want to, and they’ll just raise the child alone.”

Now he speaks naturally have this bottom, even the dowager dares to slap the person, let alone those old fish eyeballs. However, the moment he said this, his own sister who was holding the baby girl in the east room became scared, and the nurse behind her even lowered her head, not daring to utter a sound in the air.

Fan Xian glanced at them and said calmly, “It’s always hard work for you to take care of the young lady on weekdays, but there’s no need for the nursemaid, tomorrow young granny will go and talk to madam.”

Lin Wan’er gave him a puzzled look, thinking to herself, what is Sangong doing? Why are you kicking the nursemaid out? Only to see Fan Xian sit back on the edge of the bed and ask Si Si with a smile, “Do you have milk?”

Si Si was slightly shy and nodded. Fan Xian smiled and said, “Then it’s over. The child has to be raised on its own, what’s the point of asking a nurse to milk the child.”

Fan Xian thought to himself, “You people don’t know the importance of breastfeeding, how much does colostrum cost in the world? The doctor said that the mother’s breastfeeding has a psychological impact on the baby,…… He knew that no one in the world could understand these things if he said them out loud, so he didn’t discuss them with the two women, and made a very arbitrary decision.

The next side of the nanny lowered his head did not dare to say anything, secretly slander nanny how? Your old Fan family can make a fortune, is not because the old ancestor of Tanyuzhou milked the royal family a few children. But the old grandmother of the family heard something else, and looked at the young master with jaws agape, thinking, is the young master going to let the aunt raise the young lady herself? This is a big rule, so I’ll have to talk to the master and wife tomorrow.

Fan Xian didn’t know what was in the wife’s mind, and didn’t really care. He had been working hard in the world for twenty years, and if he had to ask people to tell him how to raise his own daughter, he would have lived in vain.

Sitting next to Si Si said a few words, found that this girl sleepy up, strong eyes to speak, some can not bear, Fan Xian said with a smile: “Hurry up to sleep, in the past years in Tanyu state, you are lazier than me.”

Looking at Si Si’s appearance of wanting to speak, Fan Xian laughed: “Come to the capital for a few years, really over you confused, when I was a child, I said that having a boy and a girl is the same, although it is not a national policy, but it is also a family rule.”

When he returned to the master bedroom, there was a rough maid who rubbed her sleepy eyes and called for hot water, ready to serve the two masters to sleep. Fan Xian waved his hand and drove them out, helped Wan’er to sit on the edge of the bed, looked earnestly into her eyes, and said, “I know the rules of the great house, and that children born to aunts have to live with the great house.”

Lin Wan Er had tears turning in her eyes twice, but they did not flow down. In the past few days, she didn’t know how much of a blow she had suffered, and how much sadness she had in her heart, but she had nowhere to pour it out. Today, when Si Si came home, although she remembered that the baby girl was Fan Xian’s flesh and blood and was happy in her heart, and was vaguely thankful to Si Si, her emotions were ultimately complex and incomparable.

Especially Fan Xian and vaguely through the meaning of not letting their own participation, several mixed emotions, so that Wan Er can not stop sadness. She had a noble birth, a strange life, a nature like ice and snow, and a cleverness that had been hidden in the midst of her simplicity, but in the end, she was a woman, and wherever there were women, there was always a woman’s delicate mind.

Fan Xian quietly looked at her, knowing that the death of the eldest princess, the death of the second prince, the royal blood, so that his wife has been difficult to burden, with as soft a tone as possible, said: “Thinking crooked is not? I just don’t want those milkmaids to defile our child …… This child is always ours, but Si Si is after all her real mother, can’t just carry it over.”

Lin Wan Er sighed, looked at the face of her husband in front of her knees, and said softly, “You don’t have to be so petty in front of me, I know you are worried about me.” She smiled somewhat reluctantly, “But that being said, sometimes it does seem a bit tasteless, like what you and Si Si sometimes say, I can’t quite understand, what with the state policy and family rules.”

Fan Xian helplessly smiled, Si Si is after all, along with his own people grew up, as with the sister who grew up with the education of letters that, naturally some belonging to that world of sharing. He held his wife’s hands, said softly, “In the future ah …… I have something to say to you, only we know, other people want to know ah …… hey, but also partial not to tell him.”

After he paused, he held his wife’s hands tightly and said with a smile, “What horse carriage sedan chair, automobile and cannon, I tell you.”

Lin Wan’er listened in confusion, thinking that the carriage and sedan chair were known, and what is an automobile and cannon? But also know that he is in the small intention to coax their own, then forced to cover the face of the sad color, slightly lowered his head and said: “I do …… want a child. Look at my brothers nowadays, I do not know what will happen in the future, there is a child, there will be more hope.”

This is said lightly, but let Fan Xian’s heart sour up, especially looking at Wan Er at this time slightly thin cheeks, than two years ago I do not know how much reduction, and the compartment of the Si Si compared to, but it seems that she has just given birth to a loss of the body in general, add more pity. He knew his wife’s thoughts, and the development of that medicine should be almost there, the heart has eight points of confidence, with a sense of teasing said: “Of course the child is to be born, let’s give the little flower again a younger brother, this family can be lively.”

Wan Er only thought that he was coaxing herself and smiled, not saying anything. Fan Xian, however, looked at him with thieving eyes and said, “But giving birth to a child, it seems like there are many steps to be done, speaking of which, we haven’t made out for half a year.”

Lin Wan Er laughed and spat at him, then thought that Xiang Gong was deliberately teasing himself, and thought of his benefits and attentiveness, but instead added a bit more sadness. Fan Xian was only joking, so many people died in the palace, how could the couple be in the mood to do this, he stood up, brought the basin of slightly warmed water over, placed it in front of the bed, and directly took off Wan Er’s shoes and socks, which bluffed her.

“Wash your feet, running around the palace and outside the palace these days, you must have suffered a lot.” Fan Xian lowered his head and placed his wife’s pair of bare feet into the basin, lifting the hot water and gently rubbing them.

Lin Wan’er looked at his hair and felt the slight warmth coming from her feet, her nose turned sour and she cried silently. Fan Xian lowered his head, without looking up he knew that she was crying, he knew his wife’s sorrow, but he could not find any words to comfort the other party, he could only wash her feet in silence, and his heart could not help but be filled with countless more sorrows.

The sound of water gradually rested, Fan Xian, who had labored for countless days and was mentally exhausted, held Lin Wan’er’s bare feet with both hands, leaned on her knees, and just like that, he sank into a deep sleep, sleeping peacefully, just like a child. Lin Wan’er compassionately gently stroked his face, the tearstains at the corner of her eyes gradually drying up, and said softly, “It’s not bitter with you.”