Chapter 124 – There is Blood in Beijing and Jiangnan

Jiangnan residence, not easy, Jiangnan snow, how deep? South Qing court’s successive secret decree, let the whole Jiangnan are in chaos, that a not big snow to thousands of people added countless coolness. All the big merchants, have felt the pressure from the Kyoto, killing, Lingnan Xiong family, Quanzhou Sun family has always been good friends with the Fan system, but under the pressure of the court, they do not dare to move, as for those who have been in the imperial court under the protection of the nobles, in the side of the seam of the world’s wealth of the salt merchants, began to want to move up.

The change in the way of investment in the inner treasury has fundamentally struck down the power of Fan Xian, about which anyone can see clearly, especially as Fan Xian’s spokesman in Jiangnan, Xia Qufei, the current master of the Ming family, feels the imminent danger. Of course, he believes that the influence of the Ming family in Jiangnan, the key is the survival of the Ming family will affect the livelihood of the people in Jiangnan, will let the court in the beginning of some scruples, at least will not be in the eleventh year of the Qingli directly to the death of the Ming family, the Ming family, if the really scattered, the court can not get what benefit.

Just such a trend has been set, the situation and so on, in a few years, the Ming family will gradually be marginalized, by the court to support the other dozens of Jiangnan merchants gradually engulfed. Xia Qufei behind the life and death of tens of thousands of people, can not help him not to be vigilant and serious, and Jiangnan Governor Xue Qing that night with him a long talk, but also pointed out the court’s requirements for him.

After that night, Xia Qufei was in deep thought, he had to choose a side between Little Lord Fan and the court. It was because of this very agonizing contemplation that he did not choose to sneak into Kyoto to meet Fan Xian at the first opportunity after he received the notice from that Qinian team, not that he had already begun to waver, but because he knew that Fan Xian had asked him to enter the capital just to assess his loyalty, and the current situation did not give Xia Qufei the time to show his loyalty, the situation in Jiangnan was too dangerous, so he just went to Fan Xian and sent him a handwritten The situation in Jiangnan was too dangerous, so he just sent Fan Xian a handwritten letter expressing that he would do as he always did.

If other merchants, in the court and has lost power between Fan Xian choose, is not an extremely difficult thing, businessmen by profit, their own does not have to be able to influence the situation of the real strength, they must take the initiative or forced to cast to the more powerful party, this is the natural attributes of the merchants, even if Xia Qifei now abandoned Fan Xian to go, think will not let too many people surprised and not ashamed.

However, Xia Qufei is not a businessman in the ordinary sense, which is precisely the reason why Fan Xian chose him as the spokesman of his own Jiangnan, this Ming family’s illegitimate son has a very similar life trajectory with Fan Xian, he drifted in the rivers and lakes since he was a young boy, is the leader of the Jiangnan water village, in the businessman’s natural bloodline, more points of the righteousness of the people of the rivers and lakes.

Xia Qufei is clear, if there is no little Lord Fan, he could never return to the Ming family, let alone regain control of the Ming family, to avenge his mother, this great kindness, Xia Qufei dare not or forget, and even more unwilling to betray Fan Xian.

The Ming family has been operating in Jiangnan for countless years, and even when Fan Xian went to Jiangnan, he was also struggling, but now under the leadership of Xia Qifei, he started to resist the pressure from the Jiangnan Governor’s Office and the secret decree from Kyoto, and the whole of Jiangnan panicked for a while.

At this moment, Fan Xian and Xue Qing, the Governor of Jiangnan, who had cooperated with Fan Xian, but was not very visible, stood up, and this extremely high-ranking official of the Southern Qing court indifferently began to suppress the Ming family, and extremely surprisingly, once again put the fourth master of the Ming family on the stage.

This was originally a trick that Fan Xian had used back then, and now Xue Qing had simply followed suit, but had achieved very good results. The Ming garden itself is divided into several factions, the old Ming family although the number of shares in hand is not much, but after all, is the Ming family inside the people, now the differences between the two sides are on the stage, Xia Qifei again want to maintain the interests of Fan Xian in the south of the Yangtze River, it will seem extremely difficult.

However, Xia Qifei is still insisting, with the strong support of the Merchants Bank, turning money into power, penetrating the entire Jiangnan officialdom from bottom to top, and obstructing the real implementation of the court’s decree at all costs. The Ming family master of the house is very clear, the momentum can not be blocked, small Fan Lord is just waiting for something in Kyoto, they need to do is to try to save his power, so that he can continue to wait in Kyoto. But the question is, just how long do we have to wait? How long do they have to stay up so desperately to get to the end?

Not long. The Qing court obviously lost patience with the Jiangnan gentry and merchants for not cooperating, just the third day after the end of winter tea party held in the inner treasury transit department, in the tea party against the inner treasury bidding new rules of the master of the Ming family Xia Qifei, was assassinated outside of suzhou city!

The assassins of Xia Qifei’s black-clothed men actually exceeded five hundred people, and no one knows how these murderers passed through the South Qing’s strict internal security and came to the outskirts of Suzhou, not to mention where these fierce swordsmen with military colors came from. Why was the reaction of Suzhou Palace and Jiangnan Governor’s Office so slow when Xia Qufei was assassinated? Why hadn’t any of the murderers been caught in the aftermath of Jiangnan Road’s tens of thousands of state troops?

Five hundred black-clothed criminals engulfed Xia Qufei’s caravan like a tidal wave, although Xia Qufei is the lord of Jiangnan water fortress, and there are countless good men under his hands who are willing to fight for him, however, in front of such a surprise attack that could not have been foreseen, after throwing all their heads and spilling all their blood, the defense circle was finally broken through.

Jiangnan water fortress new offering to fight and die, back to suzhou to help deal with the affairs of guan flattery also died in this assassination, xia qifei was not fortunate, however, in this critical moment, an inconspicuous ming family servant back after he was seriously injured, relying on the hands of a cold sword, in the middle of the siege, kill will come out, will be xia qifei back to ming family!

The Ming garden is closed, not open for three days.

And when the state army rushed to the assassination scene, in addition to the Ming family of those lying on the ground outside the body of the guards, nothing to find, those black-clothed murderers actually did not even leave a corpse.

That night in the Jiangnan Governor’s Mansion, Governor Xue Qing and the two masters looked at the information in their hands and began to ponder. The imperial court, in spite of the shock of the world, was also going to make a bold move, it was already a desperate move, his majesty the emperor in Kyoto no longer wanted to play those vain things with Fan Xian, he had already lost his patience, however, just under such a thunderous strike, Xia Qufei actually survived, this fact made Xue Qing feel a slight disappointment. Now that the Ming Garden had been sealed, it was always impossible for the imperial court to break the Jiangnan Ming family’s garden in open flame.

Returned intelligence, that back Xia Qufei drifting away from the sword hand, attracted Xue Qing’s attention, facing hundreds of Qing elite soldiers, actually can still kill out of the heavy siege, can have such ability of martial arts, must be a bit of the ninth grade of the strong, and the world of the ninth grade of the strong in total there is not much, can always lurk in the side of the Xia Qufei, in the end to save the ripples in the person, but also may only be Fan Xian! …… Sword Lodge disciples sent over.

Jiangnan things did not stop there, in this rain of blood, the assassination of the master of the Ming family is just a lead. When the Ming family closed their garden, the Jiangnan Water Village’s Shazhou general helm began to deploy good men, ready to rush to Suzhou’s aid. However, halfway through the journey, this team of aid to the Ming family was intercepted and disarmed by the imperial court’s state army.

And stationed in Shazhou Jiangnan sailors, is to take advantage of the Jiangnan water fortress inner belly of the empty opportunity to carry out the most cold cleaning work, the lake surrounded by the Jiangnan water fortress was a fire, do not know how many people died, the fire burned three days and three nights, has not yet stopped, and want to that lake water burned dry, the reed root burned into the long incense used to pay tribute to the ……

The court purge Jiangnan water village, there can be countless reasons, however, Xue Qing and then feel disappointed, Jiangnan water division is too ruthless, and the road intercepted under the group of water village man dead dead injured, captured people are also extremely hard item, there is no one willing to open, and so want to the Ming family and Jiangnan water bandits involved in the intention of the forced to stop here.

The third day of the Ming Garden sealed garden, the Ming family four young master died in the well, rumored to be guilty, suicide by throwing himself into the well, followed by the Ming family’s old faction of manpower began to gradually wither, dead too many relatives and brothers of Xia Qufei, began a brutal counterattack, at least for the moment, the Ming Garden is finally stabilized under his iron-blooded tactics, in the East Barbarians City, under the help of the strongest people.

The court used this kind of means to deal with the Jiangnan giant merchant Ming family, the impact is too bad, it is very easy to cause Jiangnan people’s heart turmoil, it will also make the rest of the merchants have a sense of mistrust of the court, and don’t forget, Xia Qufei now also has an official identity, his Supervisory Academy Jiangnan Supervisory Department identity has not been withdrawn, so of course, the Governor’s side refused to admit that this matter is related to the official government.

Under the Ming family’s angry accusation, in the Kyoto Supervisory Yuan Headquarters’ questioning either with or without, with the Jiangnan Governor’s Office as the leader, the officials of several states began to unite and work hard to carry out the investigation of Xia Qifei’s assassination, but of course, anyone can figure out that this investigation will never have any result.

It was amazing that no one, whether it was the officials or the Ming family, mentioned the Jiangnan Water Village that perished in the fire, as if that jianghu power that had once been so scenic in Jiangnan had never existed.

With the Cangzhou city outside that inexplicable battle, the red mountain pass that a decision on the direction of history, compared to the turmoil and killings in Jiangnan is not how blinding, the deaths are not as many as those two places, the impact does not seem to be as big as those two places, Kyoto’s rich and powerful citizens are only vaguely aware of the Jiangnan has a very rich family seems to be living in the recent past is not very good, however, Jiangnan’s contest, in fact, is the real contest! However, the competition in Jiangnan is actually the real competition, because it bears a great share of the tax source of Qing, one-third of the people live and work in peace and happiness.

And Jiangnan has always been happy, even if Fan Xian that year a mess in Jiangnan whole, but also extremely careful to control the storm within a certain range, although caused a Jiangnan scholar on the streets of the movement, but after all, did not let Jiangnan mess up. And this time Jiangnan is really messy, if not Xia Qufei lucky to survive, and with more ruthless means to appease their own sad heart, perhaps Jiangnan has all fallen into the control of the court. On this point, it could only be said that Fan Xian had been truly lucky in his life, and that those he had chosen as his close subordinates had wagered their trust in him in returns that had been completely exceeded.

The cold war between His Majesty the Emperor and Fan Xian had turned hot in three important places in the world, and in addition to those three places, something had also happened outside of Yingzhou City, only that it hadn’t attracted much attention. Being deprived of his official position by the imperial court and escorted back to Kyoto to be tried, Su Wenmao, an official of the Supervisory Yuan and the chief official of the Internal Treasury Transit Division, passed through Yingzhou, and when the prison caravan team had just stepped out of the city of Yingzhou, they encountered a group of mountain bandits attacking them, and it was the day that the officials of the Ministry of Criminal Affairs, who were responsible for escorting the offending officials, were killed and injured, and Su Wenmao had one of his arms chopped off raw, and his whereabouts were unknown at the end of the day, as his life and death were unknown.

Qingli ten years the waxing moon twenty-eight, the Jiangnan intelligence finally through the way to hold the moon building to the Fan House, Fan Xian looked at the hands of the intelligence silence for a long time, said: “Jiangnan water fortress has long been secretly recruited, Hangzhou will be the center of gravity has been in the Yingzhou, that year, after the dyke of the river after the tragic scene has long since disappeared, and today’s governor of the Yingzhou is I personally pick good officials, how can it be another whole out of so many mountain thieves Come.”

Fan Xian laughed, but his smile was a bit forlorn, he looked back at Lin Wan’er and said, “You and I have been tossing and turning for so many years, but it turns out to be nothing compared to His Majesty’s unreasonable blind hacking and killing.”

Back then, Fan Xian traveled down to Jiangnan and passed by Yingzhou, and found that people’s livelihoods were difficult here, and then the inner treasury was rejuvenated, and the imperial treasury was full, and the inner treasury was plentiful, and within the first hour, the Hangzhou Association presided over by Lin Wan’er began to put silver into the poor states and counties on both sides of the river, and at that time and age there was a pressure of Fan Xian’s fame and that of the Chen county princess, and there was the eerie supervision of the Supervisory Academy, and there were not many officials who dared to fish for silver from it, and now people’s livelihoods in Jiangnan should be a bit better than they were back then. It’s a bit better than back then.

“The Sword Lodge sent a total of six people down to Jiangnan, I left three inside the inner treasury because it’s the top priority there, and there are three others who are mainly responsible for the safety of Xia Qufei and Su Wenmao, I don’t want all these people who follow me to die.” Fan Xian said with an expressionless face, “That’s it, or something has gone so wrong, I hope Wenmao can survive.”

Lin Wan’er looked at him quietly from the side, knowing that there were many bitter pressures in his heart. Fan Xian bowed his head in contemplation for a moment, then slowly raised his head, and a flame seemed to start burning in his eyes. This flame was like the fire that had been burning in the lake for three days and three nights, and there seemed to be countless wronged souls struggling and wailing and crying and howling in this fire.

The situation in Kyoto was also full of bitter winds and rain, Yan Bingyun was still in Dingzhou dealing with the matters of the Great Battle of Qingzhou, even though he had already left Dingzhou at this time, he still had to be delayed on the road for a while. It is also in this period of time, the Academy took the opportunity to start the pressure on the Supervisory Yuan, now the Supervisory Yuan has two presidents of the death of one abolished, to say Bingyun can not get the Supervisory Yuan from the heart of the obedience of the group of dragons is the headless, with the connivance of His Majesty, under the door of the cooperation of the Central Committee, the Academy of the Imperial Historian, began to He Zongwei’s leadership, the Supervisory Yuan initiated the most brutal cleansing.

The first to bear the brunt is a place, just three days, there are more than thirty officials of the Supervisory Yuan was arrested and jailed, caught into the Da Lisi, those seemingly moderate civil officials rarely have the opportunity to take action against the Supervisory Yuan, naturally will not be polite, the prison of all kinds of torture instruments at this moment began to play a role.

Defeated, Fan Xian defeated. He was defeated again and again, defeated to the ground. Fan Xian knew that he was wrong, His Majesty the Emperor was like the Great Eastern Mountain, even if he created countless more storms in the world, as long as this mountain didn’t fall, the court of the Kingdom of Qing wouldn’t be in turmoil, and the storms would still be cold.

And the very secretive news that came out of the palace today was like the last straw weighing on Fan Xian’s heart, forcing him to make a choice right away. A showgirl who had been chosen to enter the palace was said to be pregnant with a dragon’s seed – hearing this news, Fan Xian couldn’t help but sneer, it seemed that such effects as celery-eating to kill sperm really didn’t have much of an effect on monsters like the Great Master.

“It’s tough for Xia Qufei over in Jiangnan, if I don’t make a move, he won’t even be able to defend himself, let alone stand up for me.” Fan Xian narrowed his eyes slightly and said, “The more my power dissipates, the more ruthless His Majesty’s tactics will be, it’s a complementary thing. At first he will take his time, but the less and less power I have to fight back, the less and less he has to worry about, and his methods will become more and more crazy …… until he finally turns me into a loner.”

“The court’s initiative in Jiangnan …… is actually very unwise.” Lin Wan’er said softly, “Anyone with a discerning eye knows what’s going on with the Ming family’s predicament, the imperial court did it too obviously this time, and the means used were too bloody, I’m only afraid that the merchants in Jiangnan will be centrifuged from now on.”

“More than unwise, it can be called stupid, but it’s clear that His Majesty doesn’t care about that, he only cares about using the shortest amount of time to completely crush me and shatter any flukes I have.” Fan Xian’s expression was wooden, “I don’t know why, but it seems as if he’s in a bit of a hurry as well.”

Lin Wan’er looked at him, her heart trembling slightly, although the husband and wife did not explicitly say anything, yet with just a look, she knew what was going through his mind, especially in such a situation, such an expression on his face was enough to prove his thoughts.

Just like this two lines of tears flowed out of Wan Er’s eyes, she looked at Fan Xian in a daze and said in a trembling voice, “But what can you do?”

Fan Xian was silent for a long time, then gently swept over her body, holding her as tenderly as he would a child, and said softly, “Though I have lost again and again, and seem to be powerless, I have actually proved one thing I’ve been dying to know.”

“His Majesty is getting old after all, he’s no longer as patient as he was back then, stoic and cold to the point of being terrifying, not giving a damn.” Fan Xian lowered his head and said in his wife s ear, “After taking off that dragon robe, His Majesty is more like an ordinary person, and this …… might be my chance.”

The time turned and the situation shifted, Fan Xian had no time to wait for that loved one who was covered with a piece of black cloth to come back from the icy world, if he really continued to wait like this, even if His Majesty had been holding back from killing him, even if he waited for Uncle Wuzhu’s return, but at that time, all of the people that he cared about were only going to be dead, just like those in the water village in the south of the Yangtze River, Guan Charming, Su Wenmao, and those officials in the Supervisory Yuan.

He must fight back, and it is true that he still has secrets in his hands that the emperor has never known. He knew that once the counterattack on the inner treasury started, there would be no room for maneuver between the forces of Fan’s family and the palace, and the entire country of Qing would be thrown into turmoil, and if Fan Xian lost, he would be afraid that countless people would have to die behind him.

Fan Xian was not confident that he could defeat his own emperor, so when he bravely stood up with his life, he had to keep the back roads for his loved ones and friends that he cared about. After that autumn rain, he didn’t care about his own life and death anymore, but still cared about the lives and deaths of his bystanders.

In order to this back way, after the twenty-eighth day of the lunar month after the Fan House quiet for a long time, the atmosphere is very depressing for a long time, that is, the two little grandparents seem to have discovered the father’s unusual mood, no longer dare to shout loudly what.

After an extremely tasteless New Year’s Day, he casually ate some dumplings, and Fan Xian shut himself up in his study for seven days, until the seventh day of the lunar month, when he came out of the study.

The whole family was waiting outside the study, Lin Wan’er was looking at him worriedly, and Si Si brought a bowl of ginseng soup to him.

Fan Xian took a drink of the ginseng soup and said with a smile, “Of the four great maids of Tanyuzhou, your soup is still the best.”

Si Si’s heart thumped, suddenly feeling some ominous omens, but she tightly bit her lips and did not utter a sound, she believed that the young master whom she had watched grow up was not a person of the mortal world in the first place, and that no matter what kind of predicament she was facing, she would solve it with ease, just as she had done in the past twenty years.

Today, on the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, the Imperial College opened. After washing up, Lin Wan Er organized his clothes for him and sent him to the main entrance of the mansion, her hands trembling slightly along the way.

The early morning daylight broke through the cold clouds that had blocked off Kyoto for so long, and coldly sprinkled down. Lin Wan’er looked at Fan Xian’s good-looking side cheeks in fascination, not knowing if she would be able to see them again in the future, and suddenly saw a white hair sprouting from Fan Xian’s temples, shining back in the morning light, and couldn’t help but feel a twinge of soreness in her heart.

She asked as calmly as she could, “After thinking for seven days, have you figured anything out?”

Fan Xian sighed, reverting back to the tiredness and helplessness he felt when he first entered the capital, and said with a smile, “Thinking for seven days hoping to think of a great master, do you think I’m not a bit too delusional?”

Lin Wan Er covered her lips and laughed, “Truly delusional.”

“The words I asked Eunuch Dai to pass into the palace years ago have returned, and His Majesty asked me to enter the palace this afternoon.” Fan Xian glanced at his wife compassionately and said, “His Majesty has always loved you, plus he is getting older, I think he won’t make things difficult for you, if you don’t feel comfortable in Kyoto, go back to Tanyu State, His Majesty always has to look at grandma’s face.”

Lin Wan’er still covered her lips and asked with a smile, “I’m too lazy to leave, I’ll just wait for you at home, it’s you, can you really think of any methods?”

Fan Xian shrugged his shoulders and said like a rascal, “What kind of law is there? His Majesty has no empty doors …… all over his body ah, come to think of it, a person surnamed Xiong said that since there are no empty doors all over his body, he as a person is an empty door.”

“Joking again.” Lin Wan’er covered her lips and laughed so hard that she was about to cough up tears in general.

“It was originally a joke.” Fan Xian lowered his head and gently kissed Wan Er’s forehead, then got on the carriage without looking back.

Watching the carriage drive towards the direction of the Imperial College on Dongchuan Road, the smile on Lin Wan’er’s face suddenly turned into desolation, she put down the sleeve that covered her lips, there were two spots of blood stains on her white sleeve, she had had a hard time in these seven days and was very saddened by the recurrence of her old illness.

“Kong said to become benevolent, Meng said to take righteousness, but it is righteousness, so benevolence. Read the book of the Holy Kin, what things …… are learned are not ashamed. Since ancient times, the aspirant, want to believe in the world of righteousness, not to success or failure of profit and dullness to move its heart ……”

Calm to even some cold voice in front of that small lake in the Taixue resounded, more than a hundred students of the Taixue quietly listened to the teaching of Lord Little Fan. Many people felt the emotional strangeness of today’s Lord Little Fan, because today he seemed to like to crack some naughty jokes, and on the contrary, those naughty jokes weren’t very funny. Many people sensed that Lord Fan had something on his mind.

Grandmaster Hu quietly watched the scene from under a large tree, comforted by his old heart, comforted by the fact that he thought he knew what was on Fan Xian’s mind. Today was the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the first lesson of the Imperial College opening its doors, while in the afternoon, His Majesty would summon Fan Xian to the palace. The upper echelons of the Qing court knew that this visit to the palace was at Fan Xian’s invitation, so Grand Maester Hu naturally assumed that Fan Xian had conceded defeat under His Majesty’s successive strikes and before the great battle results achieved by the Qing state.

When he thought of the future Qing Kingdom where kings and ministers were of one mind, fathers and sons were united, and the world was united in harmony, Grand Maester Hu felt immensely comforted, and didn’t even pay attention to listen to the specifics of Fan Xian’s lecture today.

“Kong is not pretending to be Wang Leehom’s nine holes, not shaking the fan Kong Ming, and even more unlikely to be the meaning of hitting the eye. Meng …… well, I don’t like this person much, because this guy likes debating too much, and I’m somewhat similar.”

Fan Xian to the poolside more than a hundred students of the Imperial College smiled and spoke, he also does not care about these too students can not understand, this world does have the scripture, history and son collection, but not Confucius Mengzi to many sons, benevolence and righteousness say there, but very few also like Kongfuzi speak so understandable.

“Sacrifice life and righteousness this kind of thing, occasionally or do do, but …… I am not this kind of person, I have always been afraid of death.”

When these words came out, all the students of the Imperial College laughed, feeling that in Lord Fan Jr.’s chaotic lectures today, there was finally a joke that was understandable to listen to.

“But!”

Fan Xian’s expression was suddenly cold, and after the surrounding area was quiet, he said word by word: “How many people are different from the beasts, and the only ones who emphasize righteousness? Do not see …… human instincts, tend to life to avoid death, however, people’s honorable, lies in a certain time can generously go to death. Why do you want to die? Naturally, this world has something more important than life and death.”

“This still has nothing to do with me.” He laughed, yet there was a silence around him, everyone felt strange, all the eunuchs stared at him by the pool in a daze, and not a single person laughed out loud.

“I always thought that nothing in the world was more important than one’s own life or death, but then I realized that one’s longing is a remarkable thing, and that one’s having the right to choose is a remarkable thing.” Fan Xian said after a moment of silence, “Since we always have to die, then we have to choose a way to make our deaths more enjoyable, and although words like no regrets are a bit vulgar, they are still very real words after all.”

“How should one spend one’s life?”

Fan Xian looked around and asked this question. Naturally, no one answered, and after a moment of silence, his voice echoed in the quiet Imperial College.

“I’ve thought about this question all my life but I haven’t figured it out, copying a lot of books, earning a lot of money, marrying a lot of wives, having a lot of children …… uh, seems to have done it all, then I thought about it for a long, long time, and I probably came to the conclusion that it’s, spend your life how you want to spend your life, as long as you live it in peace of mind. ”

“This, by and large, is what I want to say today.”

After saying these words, Fan Xian left the Imperial College and got on the lone black carriage, leaving behind a field of young Imperial College students who did not know what to do, who were puzzled and looked at each other in disbelief, as well as the senior scholar Hu, who had finally understood what Fan Xian was saying, and whose complexion had changed drastically.

Hu left the Imperial College in fear, and rushed toward the direction of the palace. It was still early in the day, and Fan Xian would not be able to enter the palace until the afternoon, so he hoped that he would still have time to say something to his majesty, to persuade him to do something, and to stop something from happening.

Fan Xian’s speech in the Imperial College was spread out in the shortest possible time, and without the need for anyone to push the envelope, in fact, the entire Kyoto, those sensitive people, had been waiting for the reaction of this Kyoto idler.

Unlike the haste and tension of all these people, Fan Xian was calm, and as it was still early enough for him to enter the palace, he came to the New Wind Pavilion and began to enjoy a rare, perhaps final, treat in the winter–those several cages of steaming, picking up tangled buns, and Dabao, who had a bun face beside the table.