Chapter 114 – Yes, Your Majesty

Taking a deep breath, it was not yet late fall, inside the Imperial Study Room of the Deep Palace, the dark-colored heater had already begun to emit warmth, and the air was slightly dry, from the mouth and nose straight into the lungs and lobes, it was even a little bit vaguely painful. Fan Xian looked at His Majesty’s face in front of him, and suddenly thought of many things, many people.

The storm in Qing Dynasty started decades ago, and as the dust gradually settled, the only ones who were still in the eye of the storm were probably this pair of father and son.

Fan Xian’s attitude towards the emperor was actually very elusive, and even he himself could not clearly explain it. From Tanyu State to Kyoto, the Qing temple rubbing shoulders, Taiping courtyard next to the bamboo tea store, from the marriage to the Supervisory Board, know that the portrait in the palace, in fact, Fan Xian than anyone else’s guesses are a little earlier, will guess his real life.

Whether it was Fan Shen in his previous life, or Fan Xian in this life, he was actually fatherless and motherless, but when he landed in Qing, he had a mother named Ye Qingmei, and later found out that there was also a father – it was just that this bloodline was physically inherited, and for Fan Xian to really regard this emperor as his father was something that he simply couldn’t do at that time.

At that point in time, Fan Xian had been acting, acting beautifully, because no one knew that there was a completely different soul within him, so he was able to hide it from anyone, even the emperor before him.

Time slowly evolved, Fan Xian gradually began to have doubts about the bloodshed in Taiping courtyard, naturally, for the emperor on the dragon chair, a few more wary, even fear, so he acted more calm and cautious.

But after all these years, if Ye Qingmei in Fan Xian, is that has been hidden in the history of the connected soul, an existence with a natural sense of closeness, she used the breath of every thing around her to remind themselves, and thus gradually really with the image of the mother as one. Then His Majesty the Emperor, with so many years together, favor, trust, means, realm, step by step, approached Fan Xian’s life, making him begin to wander.

One had to admit that the Emperor had bet on a trust and tolerance for Fan Xian that was extremely difficult to show in his life. In the very beginning of the battle to seize the throne, perhaps the emperor was still just watching this illegitimate son of his grow strong, and to a greater extent, he was still utilizing him, however, gradually, the emperor’s attitude towards Fan Xian shifted, especially after the seventh year of the Kyoto rebellion in the Qingli calendar, Fan Xian was able to have the position and strength he had today in the Qing dynasty’s courtroom folk, and it had to be said that the emperor’s favor towards him had already far exceeded what he had done to the crown prince or second prince back in those years. The Emperor had favored him far more than he had favored the Crown Prince or the Second Prince back then.

The father and son of this pair of monarchs and ministers often deliberated in the palace and had casual conversations in the imperial study, and Fan Xian was hiding something, so he was still putting on a show, but while he was doing so, he could clearly feel what kind of attitude the emperor had towards himself.

So in these three years, in the three years after knowing the truth about the Taiping Buyeon back then, Fan Xian had been suffering hard. Although he had been making preparations in certain areas, he hadn’t been able to really settle down. For one thing, he knew that His Majesty was like the great snowy mountain in his dreams, which simply could not be easily toppled, and for another, he asked himself every time late at night, what kind of light would come through this crevice he was in? How should he choose?

He wanted to choose a third way that does not see bloodshed, so he has been working hard for the King’s Herald, for the court of the Great Qing Dynasty, busy, completely against his nature to manipulate, he only hoped that anything, there can be a relatively calm and bright end.

He wanted Chen Pingping and his father to be able to return to their old age peacefully.

As a result, all of this had become a mirage.

Fan Xian was disappointed, even a little desperate, a little heartbroken, and a little tired. He somewhat did not want to act anymore.

After very carefully reading the several dossiers on the case, Fan Xian gently coughed twice, thinking that the previous deep breath, the restraint of forcibly suppressing the emotions in his heart, had already caused his unhealed lungs to re-generate a certain painful affliction.

His Majesty the Emperor looked at him in silence and also coughed gently twice. This pair of strange fathers and sons had the recognition of each other’s strength, but also had that complex emotion, that is, even the injury, also came together in one place to tell the two of them, in fact, the two of them were really very much like two people.

According to Chen Pingping’s plan, perhaps Fan Xian should show a look of disbelief, trembling, angry and confused, and then yell at His Majesty, I don’t believe it, I don’t believe it was the old dean who did this, why did he do this? His Majesty would then gently and coldly explain to him what purpose Chen Pingping had lived for in the last decades of his life, what deep-seated hatred he had for the Li Clan, and how all the good things that this old black dog had done for you in the past were in fact nothing more than hypocrisy, and that he wanted to let the Kingdom of Qing be destroyed by the turmoil, and by the scourge caused by your father’s and my son’s rebellion.

Then Fan Xian will act still unbelievable, even angrily rebuked the emperor, all this is your forgery, Chen Pingping is not that kind of person, and then angrily left the imperial study, returned to his house, contemplated for many days, and really understand the emperor’s pain, Chen Pingping’s insidious, so on and so forth, whoosh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah ……

This is the formal court drama, this is the dramatists need a big twist, emotional conflict ultimately because of the irony of the facts, and succumbed to the mutual trust between the emperor and the ministers, father and son from now on to release all the former suspicions, the curtain opens, the silk and bamboo yellow bells ringing, brilliant Ranch Dynasty on the stage of history.

However.

Fan Xian did not have any expression, he just put those volumes back on the case, slightly lowered his head, did not say a word, seems to be thinking about something what is extremely important, but also seems to be just too tired, so tired that today into the palace has exhausted all his energy.

The emperor quietly looked at him, his eyes gradually narrowed with an extremely slow speed, his eyes gradually brightened and gradually dimmed, the color of disappointment emerged, and then turned into a kind of calm or indifference.

“So …… you have always known this.” The emperor looked at his favorite illegitimate son, said indifferently, “I have always been also a little strange, the shadow has been following you, this kind of thing should not be hidden from you, you should have long known that the things of the Hanging Temple is that old dog did. I have also been thinking, if you really act on the things presented in these dossiers, once you ask why Chen Pingping betrayed me, I really don’t know how to open my mouth.”

Fan Xian’s fingertips trembled slightly, very keenly aware that the emperor’s old man’s state of mind had undergone a great transformation at this time, yet his expression did not switch in the slightest, raising his head and looking straight at the other party, his voice slightly sandy, “I actually knew it all along.”

The emperor’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at him, and a cold light appeared and disappeared in his eyes.

Fan Xian pursed his somewhat dry lips, suppressed the ups and downs of his heart as much as possible, and calmly said, “And I have been working hard, working hard to not let the blood of the past consume what already exists today. From the moment I made this determination, I knew that it was a naïve and childish choice to the extreme, it was only three years ago when I fought a life and death battle with Yan Xiaoyi that I figured out that, in one life, one always has to try hard to do something, and even if one is laughed at for being naïve, one always has to try silently.”

“Of course, things that are naive are always prone to failure, but ……” he said as he looked at the emperor, “Doesn’t anything great, in the very beginning, seem extraordinarily idealistic and naive to the shameful the point of being laughable? For example, back then, Your Majesty, you and Mother, and the oath they made on the seashore of Tanyuu?”

The emperor remained silent as he looked at him, his eyes growing brighter and brighter. From the moment Fan Xian opened his mouth and said that he knew, said that he had endeavored, he knew clearly what this son he loved the most, what exactly he had wanted to achieve over the years, and for some reason, the emperor, who had grown accustomed to the ice coldness, suddenly felt a trace of warmth in his heart, which was perhaps a good thing, only that this warmth tended to fade a little too quickly.

“He’s all gone, he’s all done thinking about that year, why do you ……” Fan Xian looked at the emperor somewhat woodenly, and said in a sandy voice, “Why do you have to . . want him to die?”

This sentence naturally said Chen Pingping, Fan Xian did not cry out, did not angrily rebuke, just filled with a wave of sadness and helplessness, as well as and did not cover up the resentment. He looked at the emperor’s eyes woodenly, the emperor also looked at him calmly like this, after a long time of silence, the emperor smiled, the smile was a little chilly, a little disappointed, a little harsh.

“Oh ……” the emperor narrowed his eyes and said, “I killed him?”

The emperor slapped his palm on the case table beside him, not slapping this wooden case into pieces, but the force was enough to make the papers on the case table fly, he looked at Fan Xian, slightly angry and low reprimanded, “I am the most furious with this point, I gave him a way to live, if he doesn’t come back from Dazhou, I might just pretend that the previous things had never happened, however . . he came back alone after all.”

“He forced me to kill him.” The emperor’s eyes were as cold as snowy mountains, “I had to do as he wanted. I have been standing in the world for decades, I have never trusted anyone, so I once believed in him, I even thought that I might be able to see him as a friend, I even gave him a chance until the end, but …… he didn’t give me any chance.”

His Majesty the Emperor took a deep breath, calm tone filled with palpitating indifference, “The lackey is after all a lackey.”

Hearing the word “lackey” in these words, as well as the resentment and contempt that he couldn’t hide, Fan Xian’s eyes seemed to suddenly flash back to that old cripple sitting in a black wheelchair, and he stared at the emperor, his voice as cold as a knife, and said through clenched teeth, “The faults of the world are the faults of the other people, and of course Your Majesty is wise and mighty, but I’ve always been unclear about how my poor mother died back in the day. …… exactly how she died.”

The emperor indifference face, simply to Fan Xian this put to death words did not have the slightest reaction, just slightly narrowed his eyes disdainfully looked at him, said, “Including that old dog, all of my Daqing’s enemies, probably look forward to today’s imperial study within this scene to happen, you …… did not let them down, just make me Somewhat disappointed, stupid as you are, unteachable.”

Fan Xian closed his eyes, then opened them, his eyes had returned to calm, and said, “It’s just that there are a lot of things that I can’t always figure out.”

“Don’t think about things you can’t understand.” The emperor’s tone was indifferent, but it was obvious that he was a bit disappointed with Fan Xian’s performance today, as for that last sentence of pursuing the cause of Ye Qingmei’s death, it was subconsciously suppressed by his majesty in the deepest part of the ocean of consciousness, not allowing it to pan out, as he looked at Fan Xian and said indifferently, “In front of me, you’ve always been a minister, and if you think about it more than you want to, I’m naturally not going to allow you to continue thinking about it any further. ”

This is not a threat, just a very simple statement of fact, just as the eldest princess evaluated Fan Xian back then, Fan Xian this person seems to have a cool nature and cold temperament, but in reality, he is sentimental, and there are too many destinies to be grasped, except that back then when Kyoto was in rebellion, the eldest princess’s wish had become finalized, and she didn’t even care to grasp Fan Xian’s destiny, and in today’s Kyoto, it’s not a very difficult thing for His Majesty the Emperor to pinch Fan Xian to death.

Hearing these cold and harsh words, Fan Xian stood up straight and said with a directness that he had never shown in front of the Emperor’s old man, “Your Majesty has treated me extremely well over the years, and I know it in my heart ……”

Inside the imperial study today, father and son did not act, both were saying what they wanted to say the most, especially Fan Xian, for the first time firmly stood up straight, slowly said what he had been doing with his majesty all these years, one by one, and when he said that in all seriousness, the heaters in the imperial study seemed to sigh, the smoke distorted, seeming to not be able to bear to see this father and son’s duel.

Emperor Qing’s good to Fan Xian, only Fan Xian himself knows, if today stood in front of Emperor Qing to say these words is the crown prince, the second prince, or other sons of the Li family, I’m afraid that would have died, but Fan Xian is still alive, perhaps Emperor Qing himself is a ruthless person, treating Fan Xian does not see how the depth of love and affection, but comparatively speaking, he gave Fan Xian’s emotions, is the most.

Listening to Fan Xian’s calm recollections, the emperor also gradually sat up straight, and then somewhat wearily waved his words, saying, “I will not kill you, not that I cannot bear to kill you.”

The emperor closed his eyes, silent for a moment and then said, “The things of that year, I do not want to explain anything in front of you as a junior, but I think, those people may have been watching me in the sky, and you are the son of me and your mother, perhaps you are like a pair of eyes that they left on this earth …… I do not kill you. Just want to prove to you, and those who care about you, I …… am right.”

He opened his eyes and said indifferently, “And they, they are all wrong.”

Fan Xian ricked his body, bowed deeply, and responded, “I will honestly stay in Kyoto and watch Your Majesty’s majestic endeavors.”

He didn’t thank the emperor for not killing him, because there was no need to do so. Since the emperor had let him live, he would naturally live well, with these eyes open, watching on for Ye Qingmei, for Chen Pingping, and for many people back then.

“You will be honest?” The emperor looked at his son and suddenly laughed out loud, then the laughter suddenly converged and said icily, “I don’t believe it, and you won’t believe it either, but I have never thought that your dishonesty is a shortcoming, I just hope that you won’t be dishonest to the extent that I won’t be lazy enough to tolerate it anymore.”

“Just stay in Kyoto.” The emperor glanced at him and suddenly said somewhat wearily, “It would be good to just teach in the Imperial College, and don’t touch the matters of the Supervisory Yuan and the Inner Treasury, I don’t want to spend too much effort on you anymore.”

Words to this point, has said can not be more thorough, the emperor gave Fan Xian last chance to live, if …… he is willing to be honest. Even though this was a threat to his life, Fan Xian somehow had a trace of confusion in his heart, because he hadn’t expected that the emperor’s old man would actually make such a decision in the end.

The emperor looked at Fan Xian’s complicated eyes, suddenly his heart dimmed, remembering the Tanyu seaside, Fan Xian blurted out that father, and after a moment of silence said: ”In the future, nothing can still come into the palace to ask for peace, and when you’re alone, I …… will allow you to call me … … father.”

At this time, there was no one else in the imperial study, it was quiet, Fan Xian’s body stiffened slightly, and he earnestly answered, “Yes, your majesty.”

No one knew what had been said between the Emperor and Fan Xian within the imperial study, but at least Fan Xian walked out of the imperial study with his body intact and had not turned into a wisp of a ghost, a fact that caused the vast majority of the people in the palace to breathe a sigh of relief.

His Majesty did not issue a decree for Fan Xian to be reinstated to his official position, nor did he even hint at some implicit reward; instead, at almost the same time that Fan Xian walked out of the imperial study, several decrees that had already been prepared were sent out. The government also sent out, at the same time sealing Yan Bingyun as the dean of the Supervisory Yuan’s will, more preemptive step out of the palace.

Obviously, this was something that the inner court had prepared for a long time ago, and His Majesty saw Fan Xian as a son who was too penetrating, and even though he refused to kill him, he had enough methods to trap Fan Xian in Kyoto, not daring to move lightly and not being too dishonest.

As for whether or not those messages Fan Xian had sent around through the Qiyan group could end up being bargaining chips with the Emperor, it depended on whether or not His Majesty had that kind of sensitivity, as well as a strong power of action, beforehand.

And in fact, regarding these two points, there should be no one in this world stronger than His Majesty the Emperor.

Fan Xian walked towards the outside of the palace with a sullen face, and Hong Zhu, who had escorted him out of the palace, followed him with caution and a slight sense of fear.