Chapter 65 – Fish Intestine

Ten miles out of the capital, the caravan stopped for a short while, and Yan Bingyun got down from the carriage, no longer seeing him off. Looking at this little Yan Gongzi’s faraway figure, Fan Xian smiled gently, thinking that since the courtyard had already caught He Zongwei with a handle, the Kyoto side should be in no harm’s way.

Fan Xian would not look down on He Zongwei, he very much believed in the eyesight of the Emperor’s son, he knew that He Zongwei definitely had his ability in, only in front of the Supervisory Yuan, the ability of He Daoshi often appeared to be a bit insufficient power, so he appeared to be more relaxed in his attitude in dealing with this issue, and as for whether this relaxation was a sufficiently correct attitude, it would depend on the course of events later.

Mu Feng’er rode his horse to the side of the car window, thinking about the intelligence he had just received, and secretly feeling surprised in his heart, as the temporary head of the Qi Nian group, he was very clear about all of Lord Fan’s private affairs, but the things mentioned above in this intelligence were a part of the world that even he had never come into contact with.

What exactly was it that made Lord Little Fan so cautious? Mu Feng’er swallowed a mouthful of water, moistened his somewhat dry throat, and lowered his voice to say, “Fishgut Reply.”

What the fish intestines were referring to, Mu Feng’er didn’t know at all, but in these two years, Lord Little Fan and the Fish Intestines had passed three letters, which not only took the highest grade of postal routes in the courtyard, but also the people who sent the letters along the way were all core members of the Qiyi Nian group. But even these core members, also do not know the letter in the end in the end is sent to the hands of whom.

Where are the fish guts? What did the fish guts refer to? Mu Feng’er’s mind was filled with endless doubts, but since Lord Titus didn’t say anything, he couldn’t guess, didn’t dare to guess.

Fan Xian was about to lower the curtains on the car window at this time, and after hearing this news, he smiled and said softly, “Where’s the letter?”

Mu Feng’er whistled, and all the secret agents and swordsmen of the Supervisory Court beside the carriage spread out, respectively controlling the directions around the official road, as well as in the woodland, surrounding the black carriage Fan Xian was in the center.

Fan Xian took the letter, and after a brief scan, he remembered the words clearly. The words on the letter were all very unusual, and the meaning of the combination was also very unusual, but only the person who wrote the letter and the person who received it knew the true meaning of it.

He suddenly felt a slight itch along the top edge of his ear, and couldn’t help but scratch it as his palms came together, kneading the entire letter into a crumbled snowflake. This was a way of destroying the handwriting that he had long since gotten used to, and he had also seen once in a while that His Majesty the Emperor seemed to have this habit as well.

Presumably those who had learned Hegemonic True Qi had too much of it to use as a human-sized shredder.

Fan Xian’s head was suddenly filled with these rather absurd and lovely thoughts, and a faint and quiet smile surfaced on his face. It could be seen that he was in a rather good mood at this time.

Mu Feng’er didn’t know why he was in a good mood and hesitantly asked, “My lord, is it the same way forward?”

“No.” Fan Xian’s expression was slightly astringent, and he said with a straight face, “You guys go to Dong Yi City on your own. I will meet you outside the city.”

Mu Feng’er was slightly startled and didn’t dare to respond to the order, saying, “The dean had a strict order to never allow your lordship to act alone again.”

“I’m the dean nowadays.” Fan Xian looked at him with a smile.

Mu Feng’er was slightly embarrassed, and then he remembered that before leaving the capital, His Majesty had already sent an explicit order to the world that young Lord Fan had officially taken over Dean Chen’s position, becoming the second Dean of the Qing Kingdom’s Supervisory Academy, and no longer the former Lord of the Tisch.

The black caravan gradually left, Fan Xian stood in the middle of the woods, looking at these loyal subordinates, secretly thinking that he was responsible for the lives of too many people, which might also be a headache.

South of Kyoto is Weizhou, the state city on the banks of the Weishui River, subject to the radiation of the splendor of Kyoto, and is the place where dignitaries and wealthy merchants must pass through when they go down to the south of the Yangtze River, so although the city is not very big, it is still extraordinarily prosperous.

But wherever the prosperity of the place, there must be green house casino, so we state city also no exception to open a hold the moon building. And in the far diagonal side of the hold the moon building, is the Wei Zhou City, the largest, is also the most luxurious casino – thousand gold pavilion.

That said, the name Thousand Gold Pavilion really makes people think in the direction of a youth center. Fan Xian, who was disguised as a merchant, looked up at the three big words on the signboard of the Thousand Gold Pavilion and couldn’t help but smile.

The casino had long been filled with people. Despite the fact that there was a large-leafed ventilation fan produced by the inner treasury that was constantly functioning under the operation of the drudges, however, the mixture of human odors, the smell of incense and powder, and the smell of alcohol were still a bit unpleasant, and Fan Xian couldn’t help but cover his nose.

Looking around, he confirmed that the person he was looking for must not be waiting for him on the first floor, so he took a step towards the second floor, but unexpectedly, he was stopped by two steward-like people at the entrance of the second floor.

Fan Xian was slightly taken aback, but then he realized what had happened and couldn’t help but smile to himself. With his Fan Xian’s identity, of course no one in this world would dare to stop him, and he was used to that, so he had actually gone straight upstairs in such an undisguised manner, without realizing that today’s him was nothing more than an ordinary businessman’s look-alike.

Thousand gold pavilion of the second floor, is really a throw of money where, to play here people are not rich that is, even if the occasional fight of will, but also are each have a sense of propriety, so the publicity is very good. It was just that such a place always needed a threshold, and Fan Xian’s outfit was obviously not enough to step over that threshold.

“If this gentleman has the pleasure, why don’t you take a look downstairs first?” Although the steward stopped Fan Xian at the entrance of the building without giving face, he spoke more gently, seeing that the management of the Thousand Gold Pavilion was really good.

Fan Xian smiled and said, “I’ve come to find a friend.”

The steward was slightly surprised, and after a few moments of deliberation, he asked softly, “I wonder what is the name of the friend you are looking for, sir? If there is an emergency, we can inform on your behalf.”

“My friend’s surname is Guan.”

Hearing the word Guan, the steward’s expression changed, and he immediately bowed slightly, but was extremely careful not to attract the attention of the gamblers on the first floor, extending a hand and very respectfully guiding Fan Xian up to the second floor, placing him in a very chic room, then lowering his voice, he said, “Wait a moment, sir.”

Fan Xian sat in the room, and it didn’t take much time before he heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming from outside, and a young woman with a charming face walked in with a slight hint of nervousness.

The steward also accompanied this young woman as she walked in and reported, “It is this gentleman who is looking for a friend surnamed Guan.”

“Go out. You know what to do.” The young woman was extremely respectful and made a slight bow towards Fan Xian before saying to the steward.

The steward answered and pushed the door out, only in his heart he still couldn’t stop being shocked, thinking that there was actually a character in this world that made Big Sister Guan so afraid, and wondering who this merchant-like person really was.

Fan Xian and the young woman were the only two left in the room, and the young woman immediately resumed her salute, kneeling down in front of Fan Xian, and said with great respect, “Subordinate Guan Charming, I pay my respects to Mr. Tiji.”

Because she was missing an arm, Guan Charming did not kneel steadily, and because of the fear that never faded from her heart, her voice trembled a little.

Fan Xian looked at her and sighed inwardly. One of this woman’s arms was broken in her own hand, so it was no wonder she was so afraid of herself. Nearly five years had passed since Fan Xian first traveled down to Jiangnan, Xia Qufei had recaptured the Ming family, and this cousin of Xia Qufei, a famous female bandit in Jiangnan back then, had successfully inherited the Jiangnan Water Village.

With the strong support of the new Ming family, coupled with the secret assistance of the Supervisory Board, Guan Feminine had established a supreme position in the Jianghu without much effort. As the old saying goes, the jianghu is only a genus of the jiangshan, and with Fan Xian behind Guan Feminine, even if she were to become a gangster bearer, what would be so hard about it?

“Get up and speak.” Fan Xian looked at her and said as gently as he could, “By the way, there’s still Tsubaki, I’ve officially taken over the Supervisory Court, so don’t call me Tiji anymore.”

Guan Feminine was a peripheral member of the Supervisory Yuan, and the decree from Kyoto hadn’t had time to be proclaimed to the four wilds, so when she suddenly heard of this news, she couldn’t help but be stunned, and then in a split second, the consternation in her eyes turned to joy.

In her heart, she had never held a grudge against Lord Fan, even if the other party had chopped off one of her arms. Because Lord Little Fan had avenged her cousin’s death and reclaimed the Ming family, and more importantly, she knew what kind of person she was, holding a grudge against Lord Little Fan? She didn’t even think about it like that. So this joy was from the bottom of her heart, after all, survival in Jiangnan was ultimately dependent on Fan Xian’s position in the imperial court, and in the last two years, she had been hearing that the Supervisory Court was being suppressed in Kyoto, and the people of Jiangnan were a bit foolish, and today, when she learned that Fan Xian had become the head of the Supervisory Court, Guan Charming felt a great sigh of relief.

“Have the Xiong family in Lingnan and the Sun family in Quanzhou loosened their grip or not?” Fan Xian directly asked the purpose of this trip. In these three years, he had been secretly hiding from everyone in the world, in a secret cause, just this cause is too waste of money, although his hands control the inner treasury, but after all, the inner treasury is the imperial court, smuggling proceeds of foreign water money, the big head are filled into the imperial court desperately needed in the river embankment relief matters, for a time actually some do not take advantage of the hand.

Even if Xia Qifei presided over the Xia Mingji, is now the new Ming family, in the dark to give Fan Xian the maximum degree of support, and even the north of the younger brother Fan Sicheng, but also in the north of the royal family of Qi under close surveillance, to the south side of the remittance of a large number of silver cheques, but Fan Xian still feel poor money.

Little Lord Fan would be short of money? If this were to spread outside, it would become a big joke. But it was true, and it also showed that the business that Fan Xian had been secretly doing for the past three years was a huge black hole that consumed countless amounts of silver.

Guan Charming had already stood up and carefully glanced at Fan Xian, she and Xia Qufei both knew that Little Lord Fan had spent a lot of silver in the past few years, but they never knew where the silver had actually been spent, and the first two years were fine, relying on the people under Fan Xian’s command, they were barely able to support them, but two days ago, they suddenly got the news that this year they wanted a large amount of silver, which had made it a bit too late for them to raise it.

The amount of silver is too large, even if you give Xia Qufei, Fan Sichou enough time, I’m afraid it is not raised.

“The news came too late, only had time to notify the Sun and Xiong families, but due to not being able to explain to the other side, what exactly this silver was used for, their masters in charge, refused to let go.” Guan Charming was slightly nervous and responded, “Those two masters in charge, are now in Shazhou, the distance from Weizhou is not far, do you want to see them, my lord?”

“No need.” Fan Xian shook his head, “This matter must be done in a secretive manner, but now that I have to ask Sun and Xiong to transfer the silver, I’m afraid I can’t hide it for too long. It’s my fault for being too hasty, I’ll have to think about it again.”

Guan Charming breathed a huge sigh of relief, to be honest, so much silver in the dark transfer out, even with the help of Lord Fan, but to conceal the supervision of the imperial court, but it is indeed also a very difficult thing. What scares Guan Flattery the most is that Lord Fan is spending so much silver and hiding it from the court, is it possible that he is secretly organizing a private army and preparing for a rebellion? Otherwise, with Lord Little Fan’s current position, he would never do such a thing.

“Let Xia Qufei and Sun Xiong’s two families talk, or don’t move me out.” Fan Xian frowned slightly and said, “Let’s say that there was a problem with the smuggling lines in the north of the line, and the court of Northern Qi suddenly got down to business and detained all the goods, and that the Ming family wanted to return the silver to the inner treasury and had to have running water out of the accounts, and that it was too late to do it in a moment, so they needed a large amount of silver support from these two families.”

This is a very good excuse, nowadays the power that can make the Jiangnan Ming family suddenly lose a large amount of silver, there are only these two courts in the north and south. Guan Feminine, however, frowned and asked for advice, “It’s just that the court has an extremely large number of scouts in the north, and even though the lines of the Supervisory Yuan can be concealed, there are always other channels of intelligence that will be fed back, and there’s no movement at all on the Northern Qi side ……,” she sighed with some bitterness, and said: “Unless we get the Northern Qi court to cooperate with us in a play.”

After saying these words, she also couldn’t help but laugh to herself, South Qing and North Qi have been at loggerheads for a long time, and Little Lord Fan’s close relationship with the North has also been completely broken because of last year’s Battle of Xiliang, coupled with the fact that the whole world is now aware of the matter of the belonging of Dongyi City, the people of North Qi even more hates Fan Xian to the bone, so how could it be possible for them to cooperate with him to put on a play.

“Acting is good.” Fan Xian said with a smile, “I’ll let the little Emperor of Northern Qi accompany me to put on this play, hide it from the court, and then give the two Sun and Xiong families a convincing reason, what do you think of this?”

Guan Charming was shocked in her heart, feeling more and more unable to see through Lord Little Fan’s depths, and actually, as if he was teasing, said that he wanted the Emperor of Northern Qi to cooperate with him in his play.

“I’m going to stay in Weizhou for one night, and you entertain the two Sun and Xiong families who came first.” Fan Xian picked up his teacup.

Guan Charming excused herself and left. However, the room was not quiet for long, a person dressed in black appeared in the corner of the room like a ghost, behind him was an extremely long knife, the knife was in its sheath, the murderous aura was restrained, but the feeling that he gave off was exceptionally dangerous.

Fan Xian gently put down his tea bowl, looked up at him, and said, “Why do you suddenly need so much silver?”

The black clothed swordsman still stood in the shadows of the corner, and said with a slightly sandy voice with a smile, “When construction reaches its later stages, it always spends money extremely quickly …… This is the original words of Lord Shangshu.”