Chapter 136 – The Wigwam
Obviously still the first few hours, in the usual, those red firecracker confetti is still flying in the snow, those slightly pungent firecracker odor is still in the street behind the house wonderful, everything is through a lively and festive atmosphere, however, for the officials of the people of Kyoto, celebrating the twelfth year of the Spring Festival is really a little bit unsatisfactory, not only unsatisfactory, more than some of the bleak.
Yesterday is the seventh day of the New Year, the first day of the opening of the ministries and Yamen, in this day, the Kyoto He sent officials were assassinated, blood woke up countless people are still a little drunken mind. And today, martial law has begun near the imperial city, hearing that the imperial court finally found out who those evil people who dared to assassinate the ministers in the first place of Kyoto are, and launched a pouncing operation near the imperial palace.
I heard that many people died, and it seems that the little Lord Fan, who was stripped of all his official positions by His Majesty the Emperor, was also involved in the incident, and there were even rumors that there were many Beiqi and Dongyi people among those incredibly sinister assassins.
Countless soldiers walking in the streets and alleys of Kyoto, the Supervisory Board, the Ministry of Justice, the thirteen Yamen, the inner court, the Da Lisi, the thirteen city gates, the Kyoto guard division, the huge state apparatus of Qing has been fully activated, cold and heavy footsteps echo in the snowy Kyoto, searching for those who escaped from the net of the assassin, and Kyoto’s gates have been tightly blocked up.
Under such a formation, no matter how terrifying the assassins were, it was thought that it would be very difficult for them to easily escape from Kyoto.
A team jointly formed by the Supervisory Court and the Inner Court had already surrounded the Fan Mansion, and there were even a lot of soldiers outside the mansion working on the blockade, while the search of the Fan Mansion had already been carried out three times, and there was still no sign of Fan Xian.
Another search team led by Yan Bingyun personally, after rushing chaos in the square in front of the palace, they swooped down to the west city in the first time, swooped down to the most secretive contact point of Qinian’s group, which was exactly the small courtyard that Wang Qinian spent one hundred and twenty two taels of silver to buy back then, and this courtyard was supposed to be the secret of Qinian’s group, however, looking at the heavy blow suffered by the old subordinates of Xilang Road’s Supervisory Court, one can imagine that His Majesty the Emperor must have planted a secret at Fan Xian’s side had planted spies and found out the meeting place of the Qinian team.
However, this small courtyard was still lonely and clear, the paper and pen resting on the table, the ink in the inkstone had long since frozen into black prongs, and the bucket at the mouth of the well outside the house tilted feebly, so I didn’t know how long it had been since anyone had come, and naturally, Fan Xian wasn’t here either.
Yan Bingyun stood at the entrance of the small courtyard frowning slightly, secretly thinking, where is the dean hiding at this time? Although nowadays Xiao Yan Gongzi was the Dean of the Supervisory Academy recognized by the Qing court, in fact, like most of the officials in the academy, he himself always subconsciously still placed Fan Xian in the position of the Lord of the Supervisory Academy.
Kyoto had been under martial law for a long time, and the Kyoto government had mobilized all the li li zheng and some people who were able to take charge of things, turning it into a big net spreading on the streets and alleys. Of course, everyone knows how many hidden spots the Supervisory Yuan has hidden in Kyoto, coupled with Fan Xian’s ability to appear and disappear, no one dares to hope that this kind of pursuit can really catch him, but today’s situation is a bit different. First of all, the hidden spots of the Supervisory Yuan were no longer a secret to the imperial court, and the most crucial thing was that Yan Bingyun had already known that Fan Xian was seriously injured today, and had long since lost the courage of his former self, and that if there was no one to take over, I was afraid that it would be difficult for him to recover from his injuries, and that he wouldn’t be able to get away at all.
However, where exactly was Fan Xian? The manhunt had already passed for half a day, and under the strong mobilization, the whole Kyoto had been turned over once, and with the thirteen city gate divisions holding all the gates, all the adults in the court of Qing concluded that Fan Xian could not possibly get out of the city.
Yan Bingyun’s frown grew tighter and tighter as he puffed out a mouthful of warm air and patted his somewhat tired cheeks, trying his best to make the ups and downs of his inner emotions a bit calmer and less noticeable, gently waving his hand, allowing the officials of the Supervisory Court to continue to disperse.
The hunt continued until late at night, the residences of ministers who had some relationship with Fan Xian in the past were also searched, even Prince Jing’s residence and Duke Liu’s residence weren’t left out, but still no one had found Fan Xian’s whereabouts. All of them felt a chill, if this great man really survived this time, escaped Kyoto alive, and really betrayed Daqing, who knows what kind of changes he would bring to this world?
Yan Bingyun returned to the Zi Cheng Juefu with a tired body, he didn’t go to greet his father, but directly returned to his room, ate two mouthfuls of the hot meal brought over by the cook, took the hot towel from his wife’s hand, vigorously wiped his eye sockets twice, and sat down on the chair in a daze.
“What’s wrong?” Shen Wan’er looked at the worried color between his brows and asked softly.
Yan Bingyun’s usual cold as ice frost face, a slightly bitter smile floated up, and after a long time of silence, he said, “Speaking of which, I really admire him, I heard that before he killed the square, he had already been knocked unconscious by His Majesty, and it was absolutely impossible for him to recover in a short period of time, and that in order to attract those masters’ pursuit, he hardened and detached himself from the assassin’s brigade …… seriously injured body, alone, how but hard to find?”
“Where are the other assassins?” Shen Wan’er asked with a slight frown.
“Not a single living mouth was captured, just killed a few, all of them are counted under the sky as experts ……”
Yan Bingyun sighed, at that time, he was not in the square in front of the palace, it was obvious that although His Majesty trusted himself, in the middle of the ambush to kill Fan Xian, His Majesty was not willing to let the Supervisory Court intervene. And he also knew that if it wasn’t for the tactics of the mysterious assassin who had the wrath of a heavenly god descending upon him, I’m afraid that those people of Fan Xian would have died long ago, so how could they possibly take advantage of the chaos to kill out.
After saying this, Yan Bingyun realized that his wife’s face looked a bit strange, he was slightly startled and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Shen Wan’er was silent for a long time and forced a smile, “Nothing, it’s just that when Twilight went to greet Lord Father, it seems that his old man is not there.”
Yan Bingyun’s body stiffened slightly and did not make any movements for a long time. His father, Yan Ruohai, although he had long since retired from his position as one of the four organizers of the Supervisory Court, was actually an extremely powerful figure, this was something he naturally knew well as a son, the problem was that he knew even better that his father-sama was the most traditional official of the Supervisory Court, and that his loyalty was more to Chen Pingping, and to Fan Xian, rather than to His Majesty.
“Probably went out for a stroll.” Yan Bingyun tugged at the corners of her lips and smiled with some difficulty, saying nothing more. When Dean Chen was lynched to death in the early fall, Yan Bingyun had been very worried about whether his father would have some kind of drastic reaction, however, to his great surprise, his father, apart from getting drunk that night, returned to his usual self, and spent the entire day just serving the family’s wigwam garden.
Yan Bingyun was clear that his majesty was looking at his loyalty and not making things difficult for his father, however, today, his majesty officially broke with Fan Xian and killed him from the palace to the outside, Fan Xian naturally wanted to avenge Dean Chen, with his father’s ability, he would surely be able to know about this matter, and if he knew about this, what would he do?
“Just stay in the house and don’t see anyone.” Yan Bingyun’s brows were slightly furrowed, and he gave his wife a silent reply, “I’ll go and check on father.”
Not much farther to the west, and about to walk past the surprisingly large wigwam in front of the porch, Yan Bingyun arrived in front of his father’s room, and entered with a respectful outcry. First Viscount Yan Ruohai, whose hair was white on both of his maids, did not seem surprised by his son’s arrival, and said directly: ”He didn’t come to the mansion. He wasn’t so foolish as to throw himself into your net.”
After a long silence, Yan Bingyun said, “This is the affairs of the house, my son cannot show favoritism.”
Yan Ruohai glanced at him and said, “Whether or not the mansion can hide people, you know best.”
Yan Bingyun saluted and greeted him, taking his leave. While passing by the surprisingly large rockery in front of the porch, he stopped in a daze, his eyes looking at the slightly dried moss and some remnants of snow on top of the rockery, he suddenly thought of some strange rules from his childhood home, and always felt that he seemed to have missed out on something, omitted something.
Luckily, it was winter, this dark room was not very humid, however it was still gloomy. The meridians in his body were riddled with holes, those red-hot wires were still running through his meridians, and endless pain stabbed into his mind like tens of thousands of fine needles, making him want to howl in pain from time to time. This kind of pain, this kind of injury, made it impossible for him to mobilize the Snowy Mountain Qi Sea behind his waist, and he couldn’t even mobilize last week’s Heaven’s Small Circulation, and wanting to use Heaven’s Road’s natural true qi to repair his meridians had actually turned into a luxury at this moment.
He could only rely on time to slowly cultivate it, or hope on that magical pamphlet to draw those precious Yuan Qi from this seemingly empty heaven and earth to slowly fill his empty Qi sea. However, the yuan qi in the air was so thin, if he relied on this speed to recover, I’m afraid that after twenty to thirty years, he would still be an invalid.
Fan Xian half leaned on the wall of the chamber padded with woolen blankets, using his strong mind to control his breathing, his instincts made him breathe a little sharply and loudly at the moment, although the night was deep and quiet at the moment, he was deep in the middle of a heavy siege and had to be careful.
His body has been bandaged up, very expensive and effective injury medicine is not money to use, and the ground beside him, put a lot of food and water used to replenish the spirit, although the secret room is small, inside the preparation of things is extremely complete.
The cracked sternum began to ache again, his brows wrinkled, thought of the Emperor’s fist, and remembered the sound of the gunshot. From the earlier panic in front of the palace to the extremely tight and effective search and seizure by the imperial court later, he confirmed that the emperor’s old man did not die under the gun, a fact that did not disappoint him too much, but only began to calculate what exactly should be the road ahead.
When the muffled sound of the strike outside that day struck the first deep hole in the imperial city, Fan Xian had awakened, his eyes narrowed slightly as he looked in the direction of the eastern side of the imperial palace, the first of the more than ten thousand people on and off the city to react and clearly determine the shooter’s bearing, for in this world, he was most familiar with that voice, and knew that box best.
Three years ago Uncle Five Bamboo left Kyoto to go to a distant ice temple to find the ultimate answer to who he was, and from that day on, the box left Fan Xian’s side. Fan Xian had always thought that Uncle Five Bamboo had taken the chest with him, so he didn’t have the slightest bit of regret because he knew that the enemy that Uncle Five Bamboo would be facing was a supreme being that was even more unfathomable and cold and unfeeling than His Majesty the Emperor.
But it did not occur to him that the chest turned out to be still in Kyoto, just not by his side. Just as His Majesty the Emperor had confirmed before he passed out, Fan Xian also knew that it must not be Uncle Five Bamboo who had moved the chest today. If Uncle Five Bamboo really came back, regardless of whether he would use the chest or not, but for sure he would definitely see all those over ten thousand elite soldiers of Qing as scarecrows, still holding the brazier in his hand with the same indifference, and kill directly into the imperial palace.
Who exactly was the person who fired the shot? Fan Xian guessed for a long time, but still did not think of it, even if he thought of a few people, but he could not believe it, he can only be sure that the person who fired the shot must have an extremely close relationship with himself, otherwise Uncle Wu Zhu would not dare to deliver his life in the hands of the other party.
This heavy sniper shot from beyond the sky was not in Fan Xian’s plan. The exit of his original plan was actually still in the palace, but he just hadn’t expected that both Northern Qi and Eastern Yi had come, making the last gaping hole to capitalize on His Majesty’s heart close up. Even more horrible, he did not expect, he comprehended not long, very strong between the fingers of the sword qi, in the end was His Majesty’s finger will be broken, and his own meridians are all messed up, in the form of a waste of man, simply can not go close to that exit!
But this was good, at least Hong Zhu didn’t have to take this huge risk.
When Fan Xian and his party took advantage of the chaos and killed their way out from the square in front of the palace, they still encountered great obstacles, although there was that assassin who was able to inflict the divine punishment of the Heavenly Strike, although the Third Prince stood up to the head of the palace and tried to use his own skinny shoulders to seek a way out for Fan Xian, but His Majesty’s decree had been given earlier, and how could those more than 10,000 soldiers and soldiers watch these foreign assassins get away with it.
The exact process of escaping, Fan Xian did not know, because he once again fell into a coma. When he woke up, this group of people had already turned into rabbits being hunted down and killed, originally all of them were some strong and powerful people of the world, however, they were injured and died, and in the end, there were only five of them left, running wildly in Kyoto, and there was no possibility of escaping from the city in any way.
Fan Xian knew that he was already a drag at that point, so he left in an unusually cold and strong manner. Having arranged to meet Haitang and the others at the usual place, a Sword Lodge disciple paid with his life to send him to the perimeter of this mansion, and then Fan Xian took advantage of the chaos and slipped in, finally foraging for a chance to rest.
The four Sword Lodge ninth-grade disciples, one of whom had fallen in the rain of arrows, and two more who had died in the aftermath of the escape for Fan Xian’s survival, especially the last one, the seventh senior brother who had cut down more than a dozen Southern Qing masters with his sword, and who had still died under the crossbow arrows in the end, had died in the moment when Fan Xian had turned the corner of the alleyway, and Fan Xian had been able to see his eyes.
Thinking about the light that came out of those eyes, Fan Xian’s heart was incomparably heavy, he knew that his debt was even greater than it had been in the past, and if he could survive this time, he couldn’t possibly be hidden, and he would inevitably have to do a lot of things to pay off his debt.
Fan Xian meditated on one side and toned his breath on the other, the chamber was dead silent and dark. Now that his true qi was exhausted and his eyesight was not as good as usual, he groped for the fresh water beside him. However, when his fingers just touched the water pot, he froze.
He raised his head and quietly looked at the dark walls of the chamber, seemingly sensing that just beyond this wall, there was a pair of eyes that were also looking at him in such a quiet manner.
The extremely well-maintained armature was coated with a lot of slippery oil, and when the door of the chamber was opened, it did not make a single sound, as if it were a silent mime. Faint light filtered in from outside the chamber, illuminating Fan Xian, who was pale inside but whose eyes were calm.
Fan Xian quietly looked outside, the dim light making the familiar figure outside the secret room appear dark.
“I thought that if you found it, you should break it with a hammer.” Fan Xian looked at Yan Bingyun and said with a smile.
Standing at the back of the wigwam, quietly looking at Fan Xian inside the secret room, Yan Bingyun’s heart was filled with mixed feelings. With just one glance, he knew that at this point, Fan Xian was no longer capable of resisting in any way. After a moment of silence, he said, “Don’t forget that I grew up in this garden after all, and even though my father has strictly forbidden me from climbing on this fake mountain since I was young, you also know that children are always curious, so how could they not climb it.”
“This wigwam is too big, when I first entered your house back then, I felt that there was something strange, and I told your father about it a few times, but he always didn’t believe me.” Fan Xian coughed twice and laughed softly, “As expected, if I can find something wrong here, of course you can too.”
Fan Xian was the one hiding in the wigwam of the first class Viscount Chenghai’s mansion, no matter how stormy it was in Kyoto, but he was hiding in Yan Bingyun’s home, so who could have thought of this? If Yan Bingyun hadn’t had a whim and tried to open up the room where he hid in his childhood, I’m sure Fan Xian would have been able to get through this most tense part of his life in peace with the help of Yan Ruohai.
“Father doesn’t know that I know the secret of this wigwam.” Yan Bingyun bowed her head slightly and said, “Otherwise, he would have chosen a more proper place for you to hide.”
“Alright.” Fan Xian let out an incomparably tired sigh and said, “I told you that I’ve been so lucky in my life that I don’t feel like a human being, and that there should always be a time when I’m unlucky, but it turns out to be in this fake mountain.”
Yan Bingyun was silent for a long time and then said, “Earlier and father said, this is the affairs of the court, can’t discuss personal feelings, especially …… it’s you, my lord. For the sake of my Great Qing Dynasty, I cannot let you go to Northern Qi.”
“I’m not going to Northern Qi, I’m just traveling to the temple. Can we have a discussion?” Fan Xian showed his teeth and asked softly.