Joy of Life

After hearing Fan Xian’s analysis, Haitang felt reassured. As long as he was sure of this point and had the secret indulgence of the Qing Emperor—combined with their thorough and detailed plan, and arrangements for secrecy—then the collapse of the Ming family was only a matter of time. No matter how tyrannical the other party, or deep-rooted the local grand family, they were still the weak egg next to the rock faced with the powerful machine of the state.

“This year’s goal is to take the Ming family’s money into our account,” Fan Xian said. “The palace treasury bidding needs the pressure of the Ming silver. After the bidding, we need to leave the bottom four-tenths amount. In this spring opening, I will have people compete with the Ming family for bids and raise the price to heavily bleed the Ming family so they won’t have the ability to compete with me for the places the Cui family left. At the same time, it will bring in some quick silver to be sent urgently to the national treasury.”

“How high are you going to raise the prices?” Haitang asked.

Fan Xian smiled and said, “As high as possible. You know I am a very greedy person.”

Haitang furrowed her brows. “Since you don’t intend to clash with the Ming family openly, you can only use the matter of the opening bid to attack the other party. With something like raising the price, it’s not like they are yelling prices into a dice tube in the bidding room. What if you raise the price too high and just stole it directly from the Ming family? Sixteen items of the three large workshops of the palace treasury, four-tenths silver in reserve...you can calculate how much silver that is. How will you bring that out?”

“It’s an open bid,” Fan Xian explained. “To stop officials and merchants colluding, the palace treasury spring opening bid has always used open bidding. since things are all done in the open, this gives me the perfect opportunity. Naturally I will...” He thought about it and didn’t continue to hide anything. He said in a light voice, “I will have Xia Qifei mark out an appropriate price and then let the Ming family know.”

“Xia Qifei?” Haitang was surprised. “The boss of the Jiangnan water bandits? A famous figure on the jianghu? How could he listen to your arrangements against the Ming family? You must know that he is a Jiangnan person born and bred.”

Fan Xian would not continue to discuss Xia Qifei’s past. After he made clear that Xia Qifei was his man, he explained the problem of the silver. “It is as you say. The silver in our hands it is nowhere near enough to take all 16 items of the palace treasury. Some will be left to the Ming family. For one it is to comfort the other party and, for another, it is to use that giant amount of cash to sink the Ming family into Jiangnan so they are unable to escape.”

Haitang asked, “How are you sure that the Ming family won’t just cut their losses? They have earned too much money these years, and everyone knows that you have come to Jiangnan this time to defeat them. If you have Xia Qifei call out a shocking price, what if one of the old Ming masters dusts off their hands and stops playing? Wouldn’t you have suffered a sorry loss? If you can’t bring out the deposit, the Qing court is sure to make Xia Qifei suffer.”

Fan Xian smiled coldly. “Even if the Ming family has to vomit blood, they will certainly win the palace treasury bid. So what if their family has vast and fertile lands? In the end, they are all dead objects. How can they compare to the live income of the palace treasury in amount? Furthermore, it involves the interests of major members of the royal family. The Ming family needs to send out silver to protect the interests and face of the Eldest Princess. They must continue to have a stake in the palace treasury.”

He watched the black smoke slowly rising from the other side of the trees and narrowed his eyes. “In the end, merchants are just puppets. The Ming family produces their own pirates to steal the goods of the palace treasury, and then turns around to take money from the court. Their methods are ruthless. Once they let go and stop, and the people in Jingdou stop receiving tributes, in a rage of humiliation, how could they let the Ming family go? At that time, I won’t even have to raise a hand and they will collapse.”

Thus, the Ming family had to, no matter the cost, hold the majority of the selling rights to the palace treasury products this year. They had to get through these two years safely first and then they could see what the situation was like in the extremely sinister but bloodless battle in Jingdou.

“That silver, you’re going to transfer it to Xia Qifei?” This was a question Haitang was interested in.

Fan Xian nodded. “A part of it. Father has prepared some for me. Bu, with the opening of the palace treasury, the eyes of everyone in the world are on me and the storehouse of the Ministry of Revenue. The Eldest Princess has probably long since guessed this source of my money. If I really used the reserve silver in the Minister of Revenue to fight the Ming family...one careless move would probably cause me to lose everything.”

He smiled self-deprecatingly. “Mobilizing the silver in the national treasury is a crime that would result in the beheading of my entire family. I’m too much of a coward.”

Hearing him name himself a coward, Haitang did not comment and shook her head. In a quiet voice she asked, “But to use the Taiping money house to transfer money behind the Taiping money house in Dongyi, are you not afraid they will notice something?”

Fan Xian glanced at her and said slowly, “This is the arrangement of your Emperor. Perhaps even you didn’t know about it. Since the month after the Niulan Street incidence the year before last, the silver of the Northern Qi palace treasury began to be funneled slowly, as to not to attract any notice, into the Taiping money house through a dozen routes. Who knows how many turns there were in the middle before the silver was transferred into Jiangnan.”

Haitang was stunned speechless.

Fan Xian continued. “I have the help of the Overwatch Council and Ministry of Revenue, and I didn’t even notice the movement of these dozens caches of silver. Although the amount of silver was enormous, it was not particularly noticeable when put into Taiping money house, the greatest one in the world. I don’t think Dongyi noticed anything.”

Haitang shook her head in disbelief. “Wait...wait. You are saying this cache of silver was moved by the Emperor, starting two years ago, into Jiangnan? How is that possible? I only learned of this matter in September last year, and there hasn’t been a whisper in Shangjing.”

“Correct.” A tread of approval and warning flashed through Fan Xian’s eyes. “I began to investigate the beginnings of the clues anew after you and I had put all our cards on the table. In the end, I didn’t find anything for sure, just a faint trace that the time these dozen caches of silver had entered the Taiping money house was about two years ago.”

“Two years ago?” Haitang furrowed her brows. “You had just entered the capital. How could the Emperor guess that after two years you would control the palace treasury? How could he know that he would ally with you after two years and swallow whole the selling rights of the palace treasury?”

Fan Xian smiled self-deprecatingly. “At that time I was just a no-name illegitimate child in Count Sinan’s manor.”

He faintly sighed. “Perhaps the Niulan Street incidence allowed your young Emperor to confirm that the Eldest Princess wanted to kill me and determined from various intelligence reports that I would control the Qing Kingdom palace treasury. As for the matters afterwards, perhaps it is all his deduction. Since it was impossible for the Eldest Princess and me to cooperate, then I would have to cut off the Eldest Princess’ arms. The Cui family? The Ming family? No wonder we were able to defeat the Cui family so smoothly together.”

Fan Xian furrowed his brows. “But your Emperor...how could he guess I would use this method to defeat the Ming family? If he could calculate to this extent, then I can only gift him one sentence.”

Haitang had not yet shaken off her surprise. She had not expected for the young Emperor, who had grown up with her and often called her master aunt, to be able to plan so well. He had to have begun laying out a plan to deal with Fan Xian or any other possible changes two years ago.

Hearing Fan Xian speak, she instinctively asked, “What sentence?”

“The Emperor is so clever. He is almost no different from a devil.”

Fan Xian said in a soft voice, “He began to plan two years ago, and the world has developed in much the same way he had guessed. Even if my Emperor had not used me to tidy up the palace treasury...not the me that is trusted by Northern Qi...he probably still had a way for this silver to change their appearance and participate in this opening bid of the palace treasury.”

It was not until now that Fan Xian finally gloomily admitted that he had indeed underestimated the young Emperor in the North. As the Qing Kingdom had always tightly guarded the brilliant, eye-catching golden chicken that was the palace treasury, the other countries had never succeeded despite the decades of trying to steal their crafts and other such things. Who would have thought that the Emperor of Northern Qi would come up with such a creative plan and used this method.

For the Northern Qi Emperor, being a thief he wouldn’t be able to steal the jewels, and being a bandit he couldn’t win against the guards. He would instead change into a no-name capitalistic merchant and participate in the process of the jewels being sold. Although he wouldn’t be able to get the first bite, at least it would be the leftovers. However, Fan Xian, a variable who surprised the Northern Qi people, later appeared in this world encompassing arrangement, so the Northern Qi Emperor became all the more generous and steady.

Fan Xian sighed. There were many intelligent, astute, and circumspect people. In comparison, as an internationalist, he carried too much idealism.

“Are you angry?” Haitang watched his expression and asked probingly.

Fan Xian smiled slightly and shook his head, “If your Emperor had hid this from me the entire time, I would of course be angry. Since he must work with me, there is nothing for me to be angry about. It’s as if he is using all of the money as a hostage and handed it to me. This is enough to exchange for my trust in him.”

Haitang sighed and said, “You’re not one to trust others easily.”

Fan Xian lowered his head and said slowly, “The trust is mutual. I am just curious as to why your Emperor trusts me so much? You know, if our two countries become hostile, or if I develop other intentions, then I could take all of his silver at any time and cut off his source of wealth. He would not have a single chance to turn the tables.”

He lifted his head and looked at Haitang”s bright and clear eyes. He said in a quiet voice, “I am a little bit suspicious of such a sudden and large amount of trust.”

Haitang thought for a while and then suddenly smile brightly. “When I mentioned this silver to you in the letter, I think it was right as rumors of your past had just emerged.”

“Hm?” Fan Xian looked at her in confusion. “How is that connected?”

Haitang smiled slightly. “Perhaps from the Emperor’s perspective, since you are a descendant of the Ye family, then you will certainly not be content with being a powerful official of the Qing Kingdom. Your ambitions would not be limited by the borders of countries. What the Qing Kingdom can give you, so can Northern Qi. I’m afraid that the Emperor might also have other intentions...”

She didn’t finish speaking, but Fan Xian already understood what she meant. He shook his head. “Thank your Emperor for his kind intentions, but I don’t want face a thousand pointing fingers with a cold scowl.”

Haitang smiled. “It’s rare you are in the mood to make poetry.”

“I am not willing to bend my head to serve others selflessly,” Fan Xian said lightly, “Furthermore, your Emperor must have known later that I am an authentic, if not recognized, Qing Kingdom prince.”

“There are many princes in this world, but for the descendant of the Ye family, there is only you,” Haitang spoke lightly and softly, but clearly demonstrated Northern Qi’s meaning.

Fan Xian smiled and did not continue this subject. He was at the height of his popularity in the Qing Kingdom. Although there were a few women in the Royal Palace and two princes in Jingdou difficult for him to defeat, the kind fatherly role the Emperor was playing right now was pretty good. He couldn’t find anything persuasive enough to consider Northern Qi’s invite.

...

...

“Let’s go back to the start,” Fan Xian said. “Why can you not like me? Why can I not like you?”

Haitang was a little dumbfounded and angry. Why is he always going on about this matter? In a cold voice she said, “I have never cared about the romance between men and women. My emotions are all in one realm and not differentiated by size, although there are highs and lows. I do wish to be heartless, but I will also not consider this question.”

Fan Xian understood that she was expressing the meaning of putting the tens of thousands of common people first. He gently mocked, “To put the worries of the world first? Wouldn’t that make life too boring? At least your Emperor has a hat to play with.”

He didn’t say what color that hat was. He suddenly broke out into a broad grin and said, “Duoduo.”

“Hm?” Haitang stopped her steps and turned to look at him, but was blinded by warm smile on Fan Xian’s delicate face. Unable to resist, she sighed and asked, “What is it?”

“It is possible for the Hu to not kill people,” Fan Xian seriously.

Haitang knew he was talking about what she said earlier to block Sisi’s words. She couldn’t help feeling angry but replied quietly, “Is that so? I suspect neither people of Northern Qi or the South Kingdom would believe it.”

Fan Xian said softly, “Of course the Hu would not be able to kill others if we turned them into dead people.”

Haitang was surprised and laughed involuntarily.

Fan Xian said quietly, “By the same logic, it is possible for me to like you, and it is also possible for you to like me.”

Haitang mocked, “When we are both dead?”

“No,” Fan Xian explained seriously. “When everyone else in this world is dead.”

Haitang was helpless. “Everyone is dead, and there is just us left in the wind by the river?”

Fan Xian raised his head and thought for a while before nodding. “Indeed it does not seem very interesting.”

He took his hands out of his pockets and held Haitang’s hands. Under the shocked gaze of the girl, he rubbed them gently and smiled warmly. “Since it is not an interesting matter, then don’t think about it anymore. The weather is still cold, and you are wearing a serving girl’s clothes. You’re hands are going to freeze.”

Their four hands were clasped together, determination and gentleness blended harmoniously in the warmth. Behind the two of them came the rolling of the carriage wheels.

There was a trace of an amused smile in Haitang’s eyes. She did not pull her hand away. On the contrary, she tilted her head slightly and looked at Fan Xian. “Are you letting other people see on purpose?”

Fan Xian half lowered his head and blinked. He replied in a quiet voice, “To convince my Emperor to trust that I have brought you to Jiangnan for a reason, and for your Emperor and me to have a more solid foundation of mutual trust, we must be a bit closer.”

Haitang looked at him with a not-quite-there smile.

Fan Xian finally said, “Of course, your hand is very comfortable to hold. You often do farm work, but you have no calluses.”