Chapter 127 – A Single Sword in Cloth Toward the Son of Heaven (I)

The winter snow falls on the green stone floor and quickly melts, extremely difficult to accumulate, but the snow flakes falling on the bright yellow glazed tiles are frozen in shape by the cold wind, looking like countless broken clouds waiting calmly in the golden sunrise rays.

Fan Xian withdrew his greedy snow gazes, put his hands on his back, and followed behind Eunuch Yao, peacefully and quietly walking around the quiet and swinging palace walls, surrounded by those vermillion colors of blood and red, towards the depths of the palace. Behind the two of them, a dozen or so guards carefully followed, at this time Fan Xian was not bound, and the decree has been set inside the name of the rebel, the guards are very worried, if the little Lord Fan in the forbidden palace suddenly rise up to the challenge, these people of their own and what ability can stop him.

But obviously, Kyoto today died many officials, Fan Xian is even in the imperial city root ordered the world shocked in public to kill the door under the Chinese scholar, but he did not have in the palace in a big fight interest, perhaps he knows this seemingly quiet palace, with endless masters, perhaps because he knows that the palace that His Majesty the emperor is a mountain, in the mountain before the fall, in the palace again how to make trouble also does not have any meaning.

The corner of the flying eaves of the Taiji Palace moved along with people’s steps on the high palace wall, and after walking through a small door and walking past a snowy plum, a group of silent people came to the front of the imperial study.

Fan Xian waited quietly outside the study, Eunuch Yao looked at him with a complicated expression, went up and spoke in a low voice with Hong Zhu who was guarding the entrance to the imperial study, his face slightly different, turned back and said in a lowered voice, “His Majesty is waiting for you in the small building.”

“The small building?” Fan Xian was slightly stunned, his gaze did not fall on Hong Zhu’s face, much less risk asking with his eyes before the crowd, but instead smiled somewhat reluctantly and said, “Then go.”

With a wave of his hand, Eunuch Yao stopped the dozen or so inner court guards outside the round stone archway, and alone, he led Fan Xian into the harem. Behind the two of them, the guards could hardly hide the nervousness and suspicion on their faces, while Hong Zhu, who had been standing honestly at the entrance of the imperial study, looked at the back of young Lord Fan, who was walking into the deep palace, and his eyes suddenly welled up with an uncontainable sadness, and he hurriedly lowered his head for fear that he would be seen by others as being different, except that this lowering of his head was again like a send-off for Fan Xian.

After the snow, the inner palace was very quiet, and occasionally, one could hear a few laughter sounds coming out of the deep palace. Fan Xian’s ear was so good that he could even hear the sound of mahjong balls falling to the ground from somewhere. He couldn’t help but smile, thinking that today those things in Kyoto must not have spread into the palace, everyone is quite happy, just the palace in the past does not seem to have this kind of lively, I think that those who entered the palace a few months of the showgirls, nowadays the concubines, really is the youthfulness of life, diluted the loneliness.

Fan Xian likes this, lest the palace is always cool, gloomy.

Palace for him is very familiar, like home familiar, His Majesty the emperor in the small building waiting for him, he naturally know the road, still like a Confucian like negative hands, not in a hurry, not slow toward the northwest corner of the palace, Yao eunuch but instead fell behind him.

Already at this time, it is useless to be in a hurry, I think His Majesty the Emperor will not be in a hurry. It so happens that the palace place is big, the air is cold, the winter trees and small lakes have snow on the wigwam, it is much more beautiful than the winter scenery in the palace, Fan Xian can also just look at two eyes, just he walks steadily step by step, in the eyes of the eunuch Yao behind him, but it is more than a few other flavors.

Eunuch Yao sensed that the young Lord Fan in front of him was regulating his breathing, allowing his realm to advance into some kind of sensitive and abundant level by virtue of his body’s correspondence with his surroundings.

Eunuch Yao’s head lowered even more, he knew what Lord Little Fan was walking slowly step by step, tuning his breath, for.

After walking through the Winter Tree Garden, around the rockery, and up the wooden stack on the cold lake, he was about to cross the cold lake and pass the Snow Pavilion, the Snow Pavilion where he had a long talk with His Majesty in a snowy day, but Fan Xian suddenly stopped his steps, and his eyes narrowed slightly.

Under the snow pavilion, several eunuchs and palace maids were accompanying a noblewoman to enjoy the snow, and the pavilion might be warmed by a stove, but the noblewoman was still wearing a very expensive and warm sable coat. After being stunned, Fan Xian smiled and continued to walk towards the pavilion, he didn’t think that in such cold weather, he would actually bump into a concubine in the palace.

Today into the palace, he will not go to see Yi Gui concubine, also will not go to see the cold palace Ning Cai Ren and Shu Gui Fei, and even some deliberately avoid, so will choose the cold lake above this trestle, I did not expect still bumped into a. He naturally will not go to hide, and Fan Xian smiled and continued to walk towards the pavilion. He naturally will not go to hide, and Yao eunuch followed behind him, naturally do not dare to voice out to let him choose another road.

Once the two entered the pavilion, those in the pavilion ate a shock, obviously they also did not expect this moment, actually there are outsiders into the palace. The sharp-eyed palace maid saw Eunuch Yao with his head bowed behind Fan Xian and hurriedly bowed in a half crouch, secretly guessing the identity of the young scholar in front of her.

Fan Xian stood in the pavilion, his heart was also surprised, secretly thought not a few months, how the palace palace maid changed a set of children, actually even do not recognize themselves? With this in mind, his eyes subconsciously fell on the concubine sitting in the center and refused to leave for a long time.

This concubine about fifteen or sixteen years of age, the appearance is still green and beautiful, just today wear hairpin and ring, make-up show face, dress gorgeous, hard to bake out a few points of nobility and arrogance. This consort’s eyes with a suppressed proud meaning, looking at Eunuch Yao asked: “His Majesty available lunch or not?”

Eunuch Yao didn’t respond, but only smiled, thinking that playing the favor scene at this time was really not a good choice. These people in the pavilion immediately felt something strange, especially after noticing the gaze of that young scholar, they felt incomparably angry, secretly wondering where such an asshole had come from.

Fan Xian looked at the concubine’s slightly bulging belly, and although she was wearing heavy furs, she could still see it clearly, and he knew right away that the noblewoman sitting in front of him in the pavilion, enjoying the snow, was the Mei Concubine, who was now in favor, and it was this woman who was pregnant with His Majesty’s dragon seed.

Inside the pavilion, there was dead silence, and Fan Xian quietly looked at Princess Mei’s belly for a long, long time, with a complicated look in his eyes. However this kind of nakedly gazing at His Majesty’s woman, especially looking at this position, was really quite rude.

“Where did that bastard come from, where are those thieving eyes looking?” A palace maid, who was also not very old, stared at Fan Xian and rebuked him in a shrill voice, looking like she was ready to step forward and slap him right away. This palace maid was the maid that Princess Mei brought in from outside the palace, these days, the master follows the son, the servant follows the master, she was so arrogant and proud in the palace, that is, the lady in the Shufang Palace also greeted her with warm words, and she had developed an arrogant temper, where had she ever seen such a man like Fan Xian in the palace.

Fan Xian’s eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at the courtesan who came over with an angry face, making no move. Eunuch Yao’s heart was flabbergasted, he had been following His Majesty these days, and hadn’t cared much about things in the harem, and really hadn’t thought that Princess Mei’s subordinates were so domineering and eyeless to such an extent nowadays.

With a crunching slap, Eunuch Yao floated forward and slapped the courtesan to the ground, then swiftly retreated back behind Fan Xian, lowering his voice and saying humbly, “Little Lord Fan, His Majesty is still waiting for you.”

Fan Xian looked at him with a smile and said, “Why are you so nervous? Afraid I’ll kill her?”

Eunuch Yao laughed nervously and did not say anything, thinking to himself, “This step by step, your body’s murderous intent has long reached its peak, sealed in the body without a trace of leakage, if you really want to touch a citation, the casual anger of this ninth-grade powerhouse is not something that anyone can withstand.

The courtesan was directly fanned to the ground, a trace of blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. The air inside the pavilion seemed to condense, Princess Mei looked at this scene with a dumbfounded look, so angry that she was even a little confused, how could she not understand why Eunuch Yao, the head eunuch of the inner court, was doing this, who on earth was this young man, who actually had the guts to not kowtow even to himself, and also had the guts to stare at himself with such impoliteness!

Only those few eunuchs and palace maids who were serving by the side heard clearly the identity that Eunuch Yao had purposely pointed out with his conversation, and they finally realized that this young scholar who had entered the palace single-handedly turned out to be the young Lord Fan that the seniors in the palace had always reminded and admonished, and they suddenly bowed their heads nervously, not daring to look at each other directly.

Fan Xian calmly looked at the furious Princess Mei and said after a moment’s pause, “It’s freezing cold, so it’s better to go back to the palace and play mahjong. Freezing and getting sick here is not good for the child in your belly …… Don’t think that if His Majesty looks at you in the snow pavilion, he will find you three times more beautiful, and don’t expect him to love you more. Living in this palace is actually very simple, just be honest.”

His gaze fell back to Concubine Mei’s stomach, and he couldn’t help but shake his head with a bitter smile, thinking that this is still a short period of time, how can it already show the pregnancy, it seems that the Emperor’s old man is really powerful in every way, I just don’t know if what’s in this stomach will be another brother or sister of his own.

“I hope you can give me a sister out, I don’t have one yet.” Fan Xian blessed Consort Mei very seriously and sincerely, then bypassed the crowd under the snow pavilion and walked up the wooden stack on the other side of the lake, heading towards the northwest corner of the palace.

Concubine Mei had an exceptionally hard time keeping herself from crying out, anger and helplessness piling up in her heart as she subconsciously glanced back at Fan Xian’s back and couldn’t help but shiver. After all, she was only a fifteen or sixteen year old girl, and after hearing the identity of the other party from the last sentence, she was involuntarily afraid. Ever since she had gotten pregnant with His Majesty’s Dragon Seed, she had been proud on one hand, but on the other hand, she had been afraid, because she knew that the child in her womb would mean something to the one in the Shufang Palace, and to the “foreign minister” whose surname was Fan. She knew what her baby meant to the one in Shufang Palace, to this “foreign minister” named Fan.

She didn’t think that Fan Xian’s last sentence was a blessing, she only heard it as a warning, but didn’t realize that Fan Xian truly hoped that she would give birth to a princess, after all, if she gave birth to a prince, she was afraid that after that, her whole life would be plunged into the darkness, and she would never be able to float back to the surface again.

Concubine Mei looked at the back of that disappearing in the light snow with a slight sense of fear, the fear in her eyes gradually turned into unwillingness, into resentment.

Emperor Qing was not in the small building, he was in the northwest corner of the palace in front of that large deserted palace, watching that small building. This place has been sparse, winter garden is quiet, also has a rockery, but has long been broken, seems to be many years have not been repaired, compared to the other side of the cold palace but also more cold some.

In a barren long grass before, Yao Gonggong quietly retreat. Fan Xian alone, looking at the bright yellow figure between the small building and the long grass, quietly walked over, slightly behind a position, just like in the year on the seashore in Tanyu state, accompanied him to look at the small building in silence.

This pair of monarchs and fathers did not remain silent for too long, the emperor with his hands behind his back, quietly looking at the small building, his thin lips slightly opened, and he blandly asked, “Did you see Princess Mei earlier?”

“Yes.” Fan Xian’s hands were also behind his back, and when he heard His Majesty’s question, he answered calmly.

“Did you say whether it’s a boy or a girl in her womb?” The emperor asked. The feeling between the scene at this time was marvelous, the father and son duo had been in a cold war for months, while the heavens knew how many people had died because of the cold war between the two of them, and on the other hand, when they met today, there was no anger or reprimand as outsiders would have expected, but they just casually chatted about the sky.

“It should be a princess.”

“Oh? I have always known that you are learned through the heavens, but I didn’t know that you would still know these mother-in-law’s set of things.” The corners of the Emperor’s lips curled slightly as he sneered.

“I can’t talk about learning about the heavens, but I still have some understanding of the medical arts, and the most crucial thing is that the one in Princess Mei’s abdomen can only be a princess.” Fan Xian respectfully responded.

“Well ……,” the emperor’s brows gradually frowned, coldly said, “In your opinion, I can not raise a more accomplished guy than the oldest three?”

“Can’t.” Fan Xian responded very dryly, “Because Concubine Mei is inferior to Concubine Yi.”

The emperor was silent for a moment before saying, “That makes sense, but it’s just that the bloodline of the Heavenly Family is thin, and it’s always good to have one more imperial son.”

“If Your Majesty has mercy, it would naturally be good for Daqing to have more emperors in the future.” Fan Xian did not explicitly say what mercy was, but instead slightly lowered his eyes and directly said, “Otherwise, if there is an extra Chengqian or Chengze, it would be meaningless.”

This words, the emperor’s face quickly sank, Fan Xian mentioned the crown prince second prince, although these two emperor’s miserable end are his hand manipulation, however, it must be said, his majesty the emperor at first for the cultivation of his sons, in fact, completely walked a too cold-blooded and wrong road, about this point, has been gradually aging in the emperor’s heart if say there is not a trace of feeling, that is absolutely false.

Fan Xian stood at the back of the emperor’s sullen figure, calmly paying attention to every subtle change in his majesty, discovering the hidden pain at the bottom of the other’s heart, and couldn’t help but let out a sigh in his own heart, no one in this world is a true god, even if he is as powerful as the other party, he is gradually moving towards the path of an unusual old man after stepping down from the dragon chair.

Emperor Qing’s changes over the years had always fallen in Fan Xian’s eyes, and it was because he knew this that he had the courage to come to the palace today and say these words to the other party.

These words were like knives, cutting into the emperor’s heart, and then after all, His Majesty was not He Zongwei, and only moments later, his face was transformed back into the unchanging eastern mountain wall of a thousand years, as gentle as jade on the outside, but jagged and sharp in reality, disdainful of stormy winds and rains.

“He Zongwei is dead?” The emperor slowly opened his mouth and asked.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

“You have been thinking hard in the mansion for seven days and seven nights, I was thinking that you could come up with some means to move me, but I didn’t expect that it would turn out to be this nonsense after all.” The emperor shook his head and said mockingly, “You are really disappointing me.”

Fan Xian smiled shyly and responded, “If your majesty has the East Mountain, a thousand years of wind and rain won’t be a hindrance, I’m just a mortal after all, and no matter how much I think about it, I can’t possibly come up with a means to create something out of nothing. Human imagination is ultimately limited, what does not exist in the world in the first place, no matter how much you think about it, you cannot come up with it.”

These words were said with sincerity, and they were indeed Fan Xian’s words from the bottom of his heart. Facing a figure like His Majesty, who was so ambitious and powerful, how easy was it to find a way to defeat the other side? Indeed is also this world does not exist the possibility of it ……

“After thinking for a long time, I couldn’t come up with any method, so finally I figured out that I’ve perhaps been immersed in the Supervisory Court since I was a child, and am accustomed to taking everything into consideration, and only striking when I’m sure of what I’m going to do.”

Fan Xian suddenly tilted his face up, a heartwarming sheen on his clear face, and said, “However, this time is different, I can never find a way to be sure …… Since I can never think of a good way, why not use the simplest method?”

The simplest method, very simple six words, but contains a very deep meaning. What is the simplest method in the world? Naturally, it was biting with teeth and tearing with claws like a wild beast, engaging in the most primitive and bloody physical combat.

The words that Fan Xian said, this was a breakthrough after a heartfelt frustration, a raw and spicy ruthlessness, a mixed energy full of care that he had never shown before, was on full display.

His Majesty suddenly calmed down, turned around and quietly looked at his son, as if to find out something not quite the same from this familiar face, a moment later, the emperor laughed loudly, laughter surprisingly more than a few points of appreciation.

However, the laughter was restrained for a moment, and His Majesty’s voice was extraordinarily cold: “Killing ministers in public and treating the Qing Laws as if they were nothing, this is recklessness, not heroic means.”

“His Majesty is a bright ruler, and He Zongwei is a traitor, so He Zongwei must die.” Fan Xian suddenly laughed, calmly speaking words that neither he nor the emperor would believe, “The ones who died today were all He faction officials, but I think that if the news were to spread out of Kyoto, the shock to the world would not be small. However, He Zongwei was benevolent and moral on the surface, but secretly he was a thief and a whore, your majesty is wise and godly, once he discovered this person’s bad deeds, for the sake of the ten thousand years of foundation of Daqing, he used thunderous means to get rid of the traitors and punish the evils, such a hero’s means, how could it be limited by the laws of Qing?”