The sky was gloomy, and the whole of Kyoto was shrouded in this gloomy and chilling atmosphere. The autumn breeze was gone, and the cold rain that lasted for three or four days not only washed away the dust in the tile eaves above the houses, but also washed the bluestone roads on the ground. It was washed cleanly, and at the same time brought the first chill of autumn in the fifth year of Qingli.
Fan Xian rubbed his hands, sitting on the second floor of Xinfeng Building, looking through the layers of rain curtains outside the window, looking at a yamen across the street. Looking further over there, it was the yamen of Dali Temple. Compared with the two yamen, one side seemed much quieter, but the officials of the Overwatch Council who came in and out looked calm, and they were no longer the same as before.
The rectification has been going on for some days. Of course, Fan Xian didn't think that just chanting a few slogans and reiterating the regulations would win the minds of all the court officials back, so the secret self-correction and investigation were going on all the time. After ruthlessly dismissing some people from their duties, and at the same time sending some officials to the Seven Branches for trial, the mood in the whole One Branch was finally reversed, and the delicate instrument-like yamen finally began to operate effectively.
Fan Xian was not used to sitting in one place, so he rejected Mu Tie's idea of vacating the room. Instead, he booked a quiet room facing the street on the second floor of the famous Xinfeng Pavilion in Beijing directly across the door. Sit here and eat some snacks to pass the time, and at the same time, you can guarantee that if something happens in one place, you can react immediately.
There is a steamer on the table in front of him. There is only one steamed bun in the steamer about the size of two palms. It can be seen that this steamed bun is covered with eighteen pleats, and the size is indeed not small. Oily, it makes people feel a little greedy. He blew lightly on the bun, and used chopsticks to push away the longan formed by the folds of the bun, revealing the new oily broth inside.
Fan Xian took a tube of wheat straw, tilted his head and asked, "Do you want soup?"
"hot."
Fan Xian smiled, poked the eye open with chopsticks, picked out the meat stuffing that had been soaked in the soup for a long time and put it in the bowl of the person next to him, coaxing: " Dabao is the most obedient, the soup is hot, but the meat is not hot, but you still need to blow it up."
Dabao was very obedient, puffed his cheeks, and blew desperately at the meat in the bowl—tiger! Tiger! Tiger!
Ever since Lord Yuezhang resigned and returned to his hometown, the Lin Mansion has become deserted. When Fan Xian was in Northern Qi, Dabao spent most of his time in the Fan Mansion. After he came back, he didn't find Dabao for several days, so he couldn't help feeling a little puzzled. After asking Wan'er, she found out that she thought that he had just returned to China, so she sent Dabao back to Lin's residence. Fan Xian was a little unhappy when he heard this. Although others would not dare to make things difficult for the Lin family because of his own face, those servants in the mansion are the most cunning characters. How can you rest assured that my son's distant cousins are looking after her
Unexpectedly, after he took over one place, he was busy for many days in a row, and he didn't have time to take care of this matter. Taking advantage of the rain today and the capital being fine, he asked Deng Ziyue to pick up Dabao from the Lin Mansion, and sit with him in the Xinfeng restaurant, try the most famous Baozi in this restaurant, stay for a while All the way home.
"Stop bragging, you can eat." Fan Xian looked at his uncle with a chuckle.
I don't know why, Dabao, whose IQ is like a child, especially listened to Fan Xian's words, quickly lowered his head, and swallowed that piece of minced meat in one gulp. Seeing his eagerness, he didn't know he could taste it. No.
Looking at this scene, Fan Xian couldn't help but think of Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit, and couldn't help laughing again.
Deng Ziyue sat at another table, watching this scene, he couldn't help but feel a little strange in his heart. There were more than 30 people in the Qi Nian team following Fan Xian, and they were divided into four teams to provide close protection for him. After Deng Ziyue took over Wang Qinian's duties, he never left Fan Xian at all, so these days Fan Xian did What, he knows best. He thought to himself, the Master Tisi he was following was really a person that people couldn't see clearly. After rectifying the atmosphere, he didn't give specific instructions for a long time, but just ate good food in this Xinfeng restaurant every day. , listening to Xiaoquer——as Fan Tisi, he was a little surprised and admirable for being so caring about his demented uncle.
There was a sound of footsteps downstairs, and Deng Ziyue immediately woke up from his idle thoughts, holding the simple knife by his waist tightly in his palm, staring at the stairs with his eyes like eagles.
The person who came was Mu Tie. These days, he was in charge of investigation work in the department every day. He had to review those subordinates who had doubts, at the same time he had to comfort and maintain everyone's morale, and he also had to deal with the task that Fan Xian secretly entrusted. He was so busy that he didn't even have time to go shopping, his eyes were sunken, and there was an unhealthy gloomy look on his dark face.
Mu Tie lifted the rain hat off his head, untied the raincoat, and threw it in the corner next to the door of the room, carefully took out a cylinder from his arms. Waterproof because the roll he pulled out of it didn't get a little wet.
Fan Xian took it and looked at it line by line carefully, but gradually his eyebrows furrowed and his face became gloomy. At the beginning of his return to Beijing, he asked Deng Ziyue to check whether the ministers related to His Highness the Second Highness had any relationship with the Cui family. Later, he took over one, and this task was directly handed over to Mu Tie, which can be regarded as a kindness to him a test.
There seems to be no strong evidence on the scroll, which is what he expected. The hands and feet of the other party must be extremely clean, but it seems a bit too clean. Could it be that the Cui family, as a big family, has not treated that person all these years? The Minister of the Ministry of Officials, who Qin Tianjian made some confessions? Something abnormal must be a demon, Fan Xian sighed inwardly, and asked, "Is everything here?"
Mu Tie nodded.
Fan Xian asked again, "Have you asked anything from the Second Office?"
Mu Tie glanced at him and shook his head: "The Second Office is very cooperative now, and they only thought it was a court order. I don't know it's the meaning of the chief minister. Please rest assured, sir, I can guarantee that no one will know."
"Is there any information from the Second Office?" Fan Xian realized that he was still holding the chopsticks in his hands. Knowing that he was really nervous about this matter, he smiled self-deprecatingly, and put the chopsticks on the side of the steamer. His biggest enemy now is the eldest princess who is far away in Xinyang. No one knows that the eldest princess will return to the capital one day, so he must confirm, after the crown prince and the eldest princess drift away, what will happen to the princes in the court? Who is it, and the eldest princess is all the way!
Mu Tie's tone was still respectful, but he was a little more confident: "As for the surveillance in Central Beijing, although the second office is in charge of intelligence work, the source is not as good as our first office. Don't worry, my lord."
Fan Xian nodded, indicating that he could leave.
After Mu Tie left, Fan Xian looked at the densely packed small characters on the case file and fell into deep thought. The above records are Cui’s bribery targets over the years, the time, the reason, most of the capital officials in the court are involved, and there is no trace of the second prince’s faction, which makes him feel very headache, and the intuition in his heart tells him There are problems, but I can't find something really useful from these complicated information.
Fan Xian is actually very clear that his strengths lie in assassination, holding power, and building momentum—in the final analysis, under the surface of gentleness, he has the heart of an assassin, not a man who is good at controlling and kneading. The king of people's hearts is not a strategist who is good at analyzing information and judging strategies - he knows his weaknesses and uses his strengths. This is how Fan Xian employs people and analyzes himself in this way.
Thinking of the meticulous planning in the capital city of Northern Qi, he couldn't help but sigh, and began to miss Wang Qinian, who seemed funny but actually helped him with many ideas. Of course, the real manipulator of that plan was Yan Bingyun. Fan Xian also planned to tie him around his belt after returning to Beijing. For one thing, it has become a difficult task to squeeze Mr. Xiaoyan's intellectual strategy from the official face.
He glanced at Dabao, and found that his uncle was making the final onslaught against a bowl of miscellaneous sauce noodles. He couldn't help but smile, picked up the white bread crust that had no meat filling in the steamer, stretched it into his bowl and wiped it randomly. He took some meat sauce, stuffed it into his mouth very quickly, and chewed it with big mouthfuls.
Dabao was taken aback for a moment, and found a hand passing by his bowl. It took him a long time to react. He slowly raised his head and glanced at Fan Xian who was full of complacency. He shook his head resentfully, then lowered his head and started eating noodles.
※※※
The rain was still pouring outside the Xinfeng Hall, the rain was extremely heavy, and after landing, it formed countless clouds of rain and fog, which gradually blurred people's eyes and blurred the buildings around the street. A wave of chill fell in the capital along with the raindrops, blowing on the group of people at the entrance of the Xinfeng Pavilion, trying to sneak in from their necks and borrow someone to keep warm.
Fan Xian put a windbreaker on Dabao's body, fastened the buttons around his neck carefully, and made sure that the cold wind would not get in, then he patted him on the shoulder reassuringly, and said, "Xianxian To do something, Dabao will go back to the mansion to play with Wan'er, okay?"
Dabao was chewing an apple, nodded indistinctly and said, "My sister is too fierce... I... Fan... Xiaopang is playing."
Fan Xian understood what he meant, and laughed, thinking to himself, if all the officials, courtiers, merchants, prostitutes, and poets in the world could have such a simple and peaceful heart as Dabao, maybe his life would be much simpler and easier.
After carefully explaining a few words to Teng Zijing, Fan's carriage returned to the mansion after Uncle and Young Master. Deng Ziyue glanced at Fan Xian, and asked in a deep voice, "My lord, where are you going at this time?"
"Go to Yanfu."