After coming out of the small temple, there were three people following Fan Xian all the time. He didn't know if it was Jin Yiwei's spies or the people in the palace, but no matter which side it was, Fan Xian would not allow anyone to follow him today.
After pulling out the three nails, Fan Xian confirmed that no one was following him, and only then began the next step. After exiting the alley, he didn't take the carriage, because any chance of contact with people might leave clues that the Northern Qi side might find. On the wet street, there were gradually more pedestrians. Under the cover of the crowd, Fan Xian lowered his head and walked silently among the people of foreign countries.
According to the Overwatch Council's anti-stalking rules, he should look for a cloth shop or something at this time, then go through the back door, and go through several turns before he can reach his destination. But Fan Xian did not adopt this method. Firstly, he was confident that no one would follow him. Secondly, he thought that there were too many turning points and too many people in contact, so it would be easy to be discovered by others, so he just sneaked into a place very carefully on the way. The official mansion, I don't know what to do.
Coincidentally, at this time, the sky in Shangjing began to rain again. The rain was silent but visible, effectively covering his whereabouts.
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Near the Jiaofang in Nancheng, Shangjing, there is a civilian-inhabited area called Zhangjiadian. Dragons and snakes are mixed here, and people are chaotic, but the security has been pretty good these years, and the cost of living is cheap, so it has gradually become lively. Those small traders who didn't have much capital also began to muster up their courage, save their spare money, set up some shops on this street, and started a land-based business.
This place is no different from Silk Street, as it sells daily necessities. The price is cheap, and the quality is naturally not too good. The third shop on the east side is such an unusual place. This shop sells oil. The oil is overseas palm oil shipped from Dongyi City. Although the price is cheap and the taste is good, the color is not very good, especially in winter, there will always be a layer of white flocs, so generally wealthy households with a little money would rather use the rapeseed oil produced in Qidong.
Fortunately, there are always the majority of people who have no spare money, so this oil shop that doesn't even have a signboard can survive. However, I didn't dare to invite more people. Apart from an old shopkeeper, I only hired a helper and buddy.
It has been raining several times today, and there are not many pedestrians here in Zhangjiadian, and it seems a bit empty today. But the business of the oil shop has nothing to do with the weather. Whoever runs out of oil will come naturally, so the old shopkeeper of the oil shop is not in a hurry. Yusi was in a daze.
Maybe the shopkeeper is really old, and the young guys in the store feel that the shopkeeper has been in a daze more times this year than before.
"Shopkeeper, I want to buy oil." A man stood at the door of the oil shop, blocking the dim skylight outside the shop. The old shopkeeper waved his hand, signaling him to go in by himself.
The man lifted off his rain hat, showing a very plain face, smiled, walked into the shop, and said to the yawning guy, "Young man, I want to buy oil."
The guy smiled and said, "What kind of oil do you want? Besides palm oil, our shop also has a new batch of rapeseed oil from Qidong." Of course the people in the market are buying oil, isn’t that just nonsense
The man said, "Give me half a catty of palm oil."
The clerk responded bluntly: "Okay." He quickly poured oil on the scale, and then found that the man's hands were empty, so he couldn't help but patted his head: "My guest, what are you using?"
"Do you have a jug here?"
"Yes, three pennies for a wooden pot." The man was very happy to make an extra business.
The man did not speak after taking the oil pot, as if he was still thinking about something.
The man asked curiously, "What else do you want?"
"Is there any sesame oil?"
"Is there any sesame oil?" The words were soft and not too loud, but the withered right hand of the old shopkeeper sitting outside the shop trembled slightly, propped on the bench.
The clerk in the store said unhappily: "We don't have such good products in this store. Who in the whole Zhangjia store can afford sesame oil?" Just as he was talking, the old shopkeeper walked back to the counter slowly, and waved his hand to signal the clerk to leave. Looking at the guest with a smile on his face, he explained: "Sesame oil is too expensive, and no one buys it except for use when offering sacrifices to the heavens. There is still more than half a year to go before the festival, so the store has not yet purchased."
The man smiled and said, "In addition to offering sacrifices to heaven, offering sacrifices to people is also possible."
The old shopkeeper smiled more and more respectfully, and said, "Then tell me about the quantity, our store can order for customers."
The conversation reached a critical point, so the voices of the two of them became quieter, but that person must have a good memory, so he can clearly and unequivocally say the following batch of slips: "I want to buy Seven catties, three hundred and ninety-nine cents and four cents... palm oil."
The old shopkeeper cracked his calculations, and then said with embarrassment, "There is something wrong with the price, this merchant, let's talk in the inner room."
"That's fine."
The old shopkeeper ordered the clerk to watch outside, and then led the guest into the back room. Only then did the clerk realize that the man was not here to buy oil, but to sell it. He stuck out his tongue and thought to himself Fortunately, I didn't offend the boss of the sesame oil business just now.
※※※
The sesame oil merchant was naturally disguised by Fan Xian. He followed the old shopkeeper into the back room, only to find that this place was completely different from the place he had imagined. The sky was clear and bright.
There was no tea, no greetings, the old shopkeeper stared into Fan Xian's eyes, with a hint of prudence in his old cloudy eyes, and said, "The guest is from the south?"
Fan Xian nodded.
The old shopkeeper made a gesture of invitation. Fan Xian sighed in his heart, thinking that the procedure that Yan Bingyun created was a bit cumbersome, so he had no choice but to report another number that he had firmly remembered.
It wasn't until this time that the old shopkeeper confirmed the identity of the other party, and the whole person relaxed. He tremblingly dug out of his sleeve for a long time, and put a poisoned knife at hand. Fan Xian understood that if the person who came was a spy from the Qi State, the old shopkeeper must kill him immediately.
This is why Yan Bingyun always felt humiliated after being captured alive.
The old shopkeeper looked at him and said, "What is your lord's position in the Overwatch Council?"
Fan Xian shook his head and said, "I think the current situation does not allow us to be wordy."
The old shopkeeper smiled bitterly: "It's been a year, and I haven't received any news from above for a whole year. After the boss's accident, the imperial court has not sent anyone to take over. I thought the imperial court was planning to let us enter a period of silence."
The so-called silent period means that once there is a gap in the spy system lurking in the enemy country, all operations will be stopped immediately to avoid exposure. This period may be only one month, or it may be... ten years.
Fan Xian frowned. The capture of the big boss Yan Bingyun was originally the most unlikely thing that would happen in the spy war between the two countries, because Yan Bingyun himself didn't need to carry information back to China to inquire about these dangerous things himself. But the Eldest Princess played this trick, which paralyzed the entire northern network of the Overwatch Council.
Yan Bingyun has always been in the hands of the Northern Qi people, and the imperial court and the Overwatch Council naturally dare not take the risk of contacting these downlines, which is why this year's window was created.
"I hope that after a one-year pause, everyone's bodies will not rust."
"Please don't worry, my lord." The old shopkeeper knew that since the person in front of him could come to take over the duties of Lord Yan, he must be a great figure in the courtyard, and he could faintly smell the blood on the other person's body, so the old shopkeeper replied very carelessly. , "My lord, please give the order."
"Three things, urgent and slow." Fan Xian looked at the old man in front of him, knowing that the other party and the unknown number of spies in the courtyard below must have had a very difficult time this year, as if they were drifting away and had nowhere to go home. He is like an orphan, so he deliberately softened his words: "The most urgent thing is to find out where Xiao En is locked up immediately. The second thing is to find out the real reason for the rift between the empress dowager and the emperor."
This was something Fan Xian had never understood. The young emperor seemed to be overfed.
The old shopkeeper's expression remained unchanged. Although he knew that either of these two tasks would be extremely difficult, he just quietly waited for the adult in front of him to issue the third order.
"Check Shawn's affairs quickly, and the affairs of the palace can be slow." Fan Xian pondered: "As for the third order, I think you should be clear that the inner treasury has been smuggling northward for these years."
The old shopkeeper narrowed his eyes, and for the first time there was a strange brilliance in his eyes: "That's a problem with Xinyang, my lord, the courtyard has finally decided to take action?"
Fan Xian shook his head, and said softly, "Check... check it out for me, but don't touch them, but control all the joints that can be controlled. In the future, if the yard wants to do something, you Make sure you have enough to hunt this route completely."
"Understood." The old shopkeeper knew that this was a long-term task, so he could take his time.
Fan Xian was thinking about other things in his mind. He didn't know whether the matter about Mr. Cui was because his mother-in-law was deliberately testing him, or if the other party was asking for something from him, so he forbeared for the time being. Although Xinyang did not know that Fan Xian was responsible for the matter of Yanzhi and Guangxin Palace, the conflict in the lobby of the Ministry of Punishment gradually brought the conflict between him and the eldest princess to the surface.