Chapter 43 – Snow Outside the Building, Thoughts in the North

“No need.” Fan Xian shook his head and sighed, “Having lost my son in old age, I’m afraid that this super expert will go berserk in the building and slaughter the royalty in this building, so how am I going to answer to His Majesty at that time?”

Everyone in the room’s heart thumped, hearing the implication of Fan Xian’s words, these people were Fan Xian’s inner circle, of course they knew what kind of tough and gloomy heart was under Lord Tiji’s gentle appearance, so naturally they would not think that he was making a wisecrack. Yan Bingyun finally couldn’t suppress her inner shock and raised her head to ask, “It needs to be like this?”

Fan Xian calmly nodded his head, his index finger still rubbing between his eyebrows, as if he wanted to rub away all the gloom of these days, “Tanyuzhou is good, but Kyoto is difficult, and since the two sides will end up being a game of death for you and death for me at the end of the day, I’m personally accustomed to making the first move myself.”

Of all the people in the room, Fan Si Zhe was closest to Fan Xian, but he was too young to listen to his elder brother-like figures discussing someone’s death or life in such a naked manner, and was a bit unable to react, while the others didn’t dare to question Fan Xian’s order, and only Yan Bingyun remained adamant, “It’s not a good thing to break out early.”

Fan Xian shook his head and explained, “It won’t break out early, the matter of my assassination, his majesty will surely find a way to turn it into something favorable to the court, but it will only fall short of being beneficial to …… the courtyard.”

Another slightly said a few words later Kyoto as well as the Supervisory Yuan matters, this greenhouse secret meeting will end, now Chen Pingping basically no longer see the matter, the Supervisory Yuan in the eight departments of those old heads are very calmly get out of the way, Fan Xian and Yan Bingyun discussion, basically can determine most of the matters.

Wang Qinian and Deng Ziyue went out first and began to prepare for the things that the Lord of the Tishek had explained down, in terms of Bingyun when he went out, but he couldn’t help but turn back and frown and say, “Killing Yan Xiaoyi’s son …… is certainly a very serious warning, but it will also drive a fierce tiger crazy, and the Lord wants to think that there is something else in his mind that he has calculated without telling the truth.”

Fan Xian was silent for a little while before saying, “That’s right, I won’t hide this from you. As a superpower on the ninth rank, Yan Xiaoyi is the force and military power that the other side can rely on the most, and even if I will pay the price of eunuchism, I will still strive to weed him out ahead of time.”

He did not fully confess his thoughts.

Yan Xiaoyi was not the same as the Ye Qin families, this person was not in a relationship of cooperation with the Elder Princess, but rather a relationship of allegiance, and would eventually become a roadblock on Fan Xian’s path, and Fan Xian was not like the Emperor of Qing, who possessed that kind of perverted self-confidence-hence, he had always had a very marvelous feeling about Yan Xiaoyi’s arrows, and he had always felt a bit of palpitations.

Before the big bang in the future, if he could destroy this divine bow of the northern part of the Qing Empire, Fan Xian felt that his life would be much happier.

Killing Yan Xiaoyi’s son would only make that supreme powerhouse go crazy, while killing this supreme powerhouse would surely make the Eldest Princess go crazy.

Fan Xian loved this kind of exceptionally exciting and risky endeavor, and even though this matter might bring about many variables, and might cause the emperor’s mind to shift in a split second, he was still madly eager to try it out.

He wanted to erase the shadow of that arrow in his heart.

Yan Bingyun looked at Fan Xian like a madman, and sighed after a long time, ”Yan Da Dudu’s cultivation is amazing, where is this good to kill, even if the whole courtyard, there is no way to find someone who can deal with him …… Even if you are not injured, you can’t possibly assassinate him with a sword, not to mention the fact that you are injured nowadays …… The other thing is, the dean must not have this kind of crazy arrangement.”

“No.” Fan Xian shook his head, “The old cripple is presumably even crazier than I am, and I don’t want to die of his madness, so I have to be crazy even if I want to save this little life of mine.”

“Other than the two of you, I don’t want anyone else to know what I’m thinking.” Fan Xian patted Si Zhe’s shoulder and stared at Yan Bingyun, “What I said in the past in the hillock outside of Kyoto is what counts, if you want to follow me to create a big situation, there are times when I want you to use more of your heart towards me and not just towards the Procuratorate and the court.”

Knowing that he was talking about the topic of the way of the powerful officials and the joy of the world, Yan Bingyun sighed, his brows finally showing worry, and went downstairs.

Pushing open the street window on the third floor of the Moon Embracing Building, the two Fan Xian brothers looked at the snowy scene in the street through the railing and remained speechless for a long time.

Snowflakes slowly drifted down from the sky, gently landing on people’s hats, shoulders, umbrellas, and the roofs of carriages. Kyoto more solemn, in dark colors, especially today the street in front of the embracing the moon building, all the Supervisory Yuan black carriages, the car inside and outside the car is the Supervisory Yuan officials deep black rainproof snow lotus clothing, looks more dark and heavy piece.

Fortunately, there is not enough snow, slightly remove the gloomy meaning, pure white snowflakes embellish the all-black world, forming a clear and beautiful picture.

Fan Xian squinted his eyes and looked down below, Wang Qinian and his entourage had left, Deng Ziyue had left, Yan Bingyun had finally exited the building and also left, and the officials and spies of the Supervisory Yuan on the street had instantly disappeared without a trace.

He couldn’t help but smile, nowadays these own subordinates are surrounded by at least a dozen capable hands, in the imperial court, in the official world, who dares to disrespect these few little Lord Fan’s beloved? And these capable confidants have also woven a bigger power net for Fan Xian, making his position in Qing Guo more and more solid and noble.

The so-called system is stacked up layer by layer in this way, only today’s such scenery is not something that could have been imagined when the teenage boy who first entered Kyoto was confusedly organizing the Qi Nian group.

“Don’t tell father what you said today.” Fan Xian inclined his head to look at his younger brother and said gently, “I don’t want his old man to bother for us latecomers.”

Fan Si Zhe hmmm’d, and laughed hehehehe, “Brother, it’s useless to talk about it, Lord Father is a good hand at taking care of the treasury, but if you want to talk about killing people, you won’t be able to help you with anything, where is it like your Supervisory Court that is so powerful.”

Fan Xian smiled.

The imperial family habitually escort used eighty tiger guards, can be said to be in addition to the forbidden army guards in addition to the most powerful force, even if it is not possible for everyone to be up to that kind of strong with a sword, but seven tiger guards can be defeated by the begonias …… this eighty, how horrible it is?

The serious and simple father of his brothers and sisters had secretly trained so many masters out for the royal family, and with Fan Xian’s understanding of his father’s temperament, it would be completely impossible if he hadn’t retained some formidable characters for the Fan family itself.

Such a Minister of the Household, who had long since separated himself from the power of a Minister of the Household, killing people? Fan Xian looked at his brother and shook his head, did not say anything, want to think of the year a country’s abbot, the empress dowager’s own brother, is to be cut by our father with a knife …… Who dares to say that he does not know how to kill?

Just the father is used to stoicism, used to calmly stay out of the way and watch things happen, so not many people know his ruthlessness, only like Chen Pingping, Lin phase master such old foxes know the real power of this household minister.

It was just that Fan Xian didn’t want his father to steeply change his style of behavior because of what happened to him.

“Have you seen Ruo Ruo in the Upper Capital City?” Fan Xian lightly changed the topic, it was better to let his father retain that solemn and pedantic image in his younger brother’s mind, it was just that since Ruo Ruo had been practicing her art under Bitter Lotus, it was just that there had been some letters to Jiangnan earlier, and then there had been no news.

Although through the relationship between Haitang and the small emperor of Northern Qi, Fan Xian knows very clearly that his sister certainly did not happen anything, but brother and sister love, always some hanging.

“I’ve met with my sister a few times.” Fan Si Zhe said with a smile, “She’s following the Bitter Lotus State Master in learning the art of medicine, and she’s very somewhat famous in the Upper Capital City, it’s just that this second half of the year, I’ve heard that she went to the Western Mountains to collect medicines, and she’s purifying in the mountains, and hasn’t been back.”

Fan Xian laughed coldly, scolded: “Bitter lotus this old bald donkey is really shameless to the extreme, when the agreement on my side but not a penny worse them, actually just teach Ruo Ruo to learn medicine? Why do you need to learn medicine from him? With me or Mr. Fei, which is not better than him …… just don’t want to pass the supreme heart method of the Heavenly Path to my little sister, but found such reasons.”

He said the annoyance, Fan Si Zhe but listen to some horror, although this kid is also a fearless, only afraid of brother big feet of the scourge of the role, but in the North Qi lived for a long time, early by the North Qi people on the bitter lotus master of the gods in general respect for the infected, at this time listening to his brother a mouth a bald donkey shouting, although I do not know bald donkey is what allusion, must be hard to listen to the words … … … can not help but some fear, thought brother really is the most courageous under the sky, the bottom of the most full of characters.

Although Bitter Lotus was hiding something, this exchange of foreign students program was originally an accessory to the original escape, Fan Xian did not expect his sister to be taught by Bitter Lotus to become the second number of Haitang Duo Duo, coupled with the fact that the supreme heart method of the Heavenly Dao had long since been secretly given to Fan Xian by the Duo Duo girl who had her arm turned outward, he stopped verbally humiliating the untrustworthy Beiqi executives and instead turned to frowning and said:

“Those masters you recruited in Beiqi, the dossier I have checked for you, although the family is clean and always hidden in the grass, but …… you must be more careful, I see that the royal family of Beiqi must have planted a few nails in your side.”

The so-called family innocence, refers to Fan Si Zhe nowadays beside those wear curved sword of Northern Qi experts, there is no official or brocade guard background.

Fan Si Zhe nodded, although his face was still smiling, his eyes were flashing a chilling light: “Big brother don’t worry, I’ve already found out who it is, if the Beiqi imperial court doesn’t send someone by my side, they definitely won’t be at ease, so this person I still have to use, as a free bodyguard, and won’t be cleared out in a short period of time, it’s just that I’ll be avoiding those important things. ”

Fan Xian was stunned, not thinking that his younger brother had actually noticed these subtleties long ago, and couldn’t help but pat his back appreciatively, “This body and bones are sturdier, and thinking about things is much more subtle, it seems that exile to the north has really made a difference.” He then laughed: “Do not worry too much, now Northern Qi also count on you as a young businessman for them to purchase goods in the internal warehouse, easily will not offend you.”

The Moonlight Building was empty, and the characters who stood in the corner of the street were also pulling their hats and disappearing without a trace. Fan idle stood at the edge of the bar watching this scene, the corner of the lips floated up a trace of quite elusive weird smile, all the forces in Kyoto are staring at the embracing the moon building, he is too lazy to avoid anything, everyone knows he will retaliate, are guessing how he will retaliate in the absence of real evidence …….

Let people go to guess it.

“There’s a matter of details you can tell me about.” Fan Xian’s eyes were still fixed on the snowflakes outside the window, his head did not turn back, and he asked softly.

Fan Si Zhe said curiously, “What is it?”

“The story of that sword.” Fan Xian bowed his head slightly, his tone calm, unable to hear what was on his mind, “Where did Wang Qinian get this sword?”

Fan Si Zhe’s heart trembled, not understanding why his elder brother had doubts even about his most beloved, but he did not dare to say anything more, just repeating the story that he had learned about in the Upper Capital, the sword came out, the purchase of the sword, and the delivery of the sword, all were arranged by Wang Qinian, there was nothing unusual about it.

But Fan Xian smelled a hint of something fishy in the story, he smiled bitterly and glanced down at his waist, which was empty, and that Emperor’s Sword of the Son of Heaven given back by the Emperor was very inconvenient to carry around.

“Listening to you, there is a detail that is interesting.” He shook his head and sighed: “The wind came out so many days, Wang Qinian even if you have your silver help, it is impossible to let him a South Qing people to buy this sword …… a few tens of thousands of taels of silver, but it is not enough to compare with the blood of the people of Northern Qi, this is the Great Wei’s Son of Heaven Sword, how can the Royal Family of Northern Qi let him buy it into his hands? The old king has a peaceful life, just too much like to kiss my ass …… how did not think of this section?”

Fan Si Zhe’s eyes rolled a few times, curiously saying, “What brother means is that …… this sword is a deliberate wind released by the Northern Qi Imperial Family, passed on to you through Lord Wang’s hands?”

Fan Xian nodded.

Fan Si Zhe said in disbelief, “Why is that?”

Fan Xian turned around and patted his brother’s shoulder, and the two brothers sat back down at the table and took two sips of tea before he explained, “Centrifuging with the sword, although it won’t do much now, and the Northern Qi side won’t want me to lose my position in Southern Qing right now, it’s a gesture and ambush, and as the days and months pass by, it will one day reach a certain tipping point ……”

He scoffed, “The young Emperor of Northern Qi is not simple, these two years have silently taken the power from his mother step by step, and has yet to cause any major shocks in the Northern Qi dynasty and field, this imperial mind trick is not much worse than our Majesty. Against someone like me, he certainly has a long term plan in mind, and this sword is just the beginning.”

Sowing discord has never been a historical trail, but it is also a tried and true trick, because of the suspiciousness of the human heart, the emperor’s heart of that blackened epidermal veins, but also engraved with a dense number of question marks and exclamation points, the sword of the son of heaven of the Wei dynasty that came from the Northern Qi, by the side of Fan Xian is itself a great taboo, if he did not dispose of it properly, and started to send the sword into the palace very quickly, who knows how the Emperor of the State of Qing would have felt in his heart.

Fan Si Zhe tsked and sighed: “Politics this thing is really complicated enough …… By the way, although I left Shangjing City in secret, but before I left, that Emperor of Beiqi called me into the palace and asked me to bring you a sentence, I think he also knows that I will make a trip back to the country.”

Fan Xian was stunned and asked with a frown, “What word?”

“Doesn’t it seem to be an ordinary color, thick or thin by his ice and snow.” Fan Si Zhe looked at his brother’s handsome face and said enviously, “It’s these two lines of poetry, it seems that that emperor’s great love for the stone book is really not a lie, whenever he enters the palace, he always circles the topic towards his brother, unspeakably fond of respect.”

Fan Xian lost his smile, these two verses are the red plum section in the Dream of Red Mansions, which is not outstanding in itself, but the little Emperor of Northern Qi has come a long way to present the poem to him, the hidden meaning of which is quite elusive.

He looked sideways at the snow and wind outside the window, shook his head and laughed: “The northern country has snow and ice, I also have the Southern Qing, this invitation or exempt it.”

The topic came to an end, only Fan Xian’s heart welled up with faint hidden worries, that the little Emperor of Northern Qi somehow had such a green eye for himself, knowing that he was the illegitimate son of the Emperor of Southern Qing, but still not forgetting to turn the other side, this kind of seemingly impossible task, why would he let that little Emperor be so jubilant about it? Could the other party really guess his own mind, the story of that year, the situation today, and thus preemptively stand at the city gate to welcome himself with a smile?

Fan Xian returned to the house himself can not help but be father again scolded a pass, and Si Zhe’s safe return home, but let Liu’s overjoyed, tears, Fan Shangshu although again angry at the audacity of the two sons, strictly ordered Fan Si Zhe is not allowed to go out of the house, at the same time to let the people in the House of the silence, but between the eyebrows of the wipe comfort, but can not be hidden from the eyes of the Fan Xian.

A little while after hugging the moon building, Fan House immersed in warm emotions, the Supervisory Yuan has already acted. Yan Bingyun in the courtyard meeting coldly stated the valley sniping investigation, although there is no specific target of suspicion, but unapologetically pointing to the military, thus requesting that the whole courtyard of the force, began to comb the past two months, Dingzhou and Cangzhou direction of the personnel transactions.

This proposal is a bit strange, in the absence of His Majesty’s express decree, the Supervisory Yuan has no power at all over the military hierarchy, Yan Bingyun’s proposal seems to be just a pure desire to make the apparently peaceful life in Kyoto a bit more lively, but Xiao Yan Gongzi has the strong support of Chen Pingping and Fan Xian, and with the help of a few great lords, coupled with the fact that all of the court’s officials and spies hold a grudge over the valley sniping, they naturally won’t oppose it.

Wonderfully, the palace didn’t say anything either.

Wang Qinian, on the other hand, returned to the Qinian group, did not immediately take over Deng Ziyue’s position, his people and those subordinates then disappeared into Kyoto, do not know what to do.

Only the one place that Fan Xian was still in charge of for the time being appeared to be relatively lively. A full year and a half of Operation Brightness had made the position of one of the magistracies in Kyoto less awkward, and the people of Kyoto had gradually gotten used to reading the notices on the wall outside one of the magistracies.

For example, which corrupt official was arrested yesterday, and today a worm of so-and-so department was uncovered, this kind of internal and private matters of the court, after Fan Xian’s rectification of one of the government offices, they were posted openly, and the people of Kyoto tended to read them as if they were reading a legendary crime solving novel.

On this day, the old notices on the wall were suddenly torn off, and after washing them with snow water, Mu Tie, the temporary head of a place with a face as dark as iron, personally brushed the paste and pasted a new piece of paper on the wall.

The people curiously gathered over, only to see that it was not a case on it, but just a few witty remarks.

“Thirteen Lang ah, are you hungry, if you are hungry, speak to that girl and the girls will make noodle soup for you.”

The people looked at each other in disbelief, thinking to themselves that the Supervisory Court, or rather the young Lord Fan who had just been assassinated, what kind of game was this playing?