bookbashuk Chapter 73 Chen Pingping in Action
Chapter 73 Chen Pingping in Action
Three days later, Fan Xian got married.
The Fan residence was decorated with lanterns and colorful streamers, and red silk ribbons were hung high.
This day was extremely important for many officials in the capital. Although Fan Xian made it clear that this was a family banquet, they could skip the banquet in person, but they had to present their gifts.
Otherwise, if Fan Xian were to settle scores later, claiming that he didn't remember who gave him a gift but knew exactly who didn't, wouldn't that be the end of us?
In addition to the relationship between Si Nanbo and the royal family, and the bride's status as a princess, they will not only have to bleed money this time, but they will have to bleed a lot.
At the entrance of the Fan family mansion, the groom, Fan Xian, began to get busy, beaming with joy as he greeted and saw off guests at the gate, creating quite a lively scene.
Russell, unusually, didn't meditate today, but stood beside Fan Xian, ready to share in the joy.
This was the first time he had ever seen a wedding in ancient times; it was quite novel to him.
"The floats are here!"
"What a beautiful float!"
Not far away, excited shouts of children came from a street corner. Russell and Fan Xian looked up and saw a brightly decorated carriage parading through the city. Four maids stood outside the carriage, scattering flower petals in all directions as it made its way towards the Fan residence.
This spectacle, this style...
"Trouble has come knocking." Fan Xian looked at the slowly approaching carriage, which resembled a moving flower garden, from afar, and the forced smile on his face collapsed.
The person who came was the eldest princess, the craziest woman in the entire Daqing Dynasty.
If she weren't Wan'er's biological mother, he would have killed her long ago.
With his wedding imminent and the control of the imperial treasury about to fall into his hands, it remains to be seen what kind of trouble his future mother-in-law will cause.
"It's hard not to agree with you," Russell said, arms crossed, nodding in deep agreement.
Li Yunrui is known as the world's number one brother-obsessed, number one yandere, and number one psychopath in the novel "Joy of Life".
With a face as beautiful as a peach blossom and a heart as venomous as a snake, she is the quintessential version of Ah Zi from the novel "Joy of Life".
Fan Xian suddenly turned his head and made eye contact with Russell.
Fan Xian: "(≖_≖)"
Russell: "(￢_￢)"
I understand. Everything is understood without words.
In just a short while, the float stopped in front of the Fan residence. Li Yunrui reached out from the window and waved to Fan Xian. Fan Xian sighed and got into the carriage.
In just a few words, Fan Xian got off the carriage carrying a box.
"What is this?" Russell asked.
"The Imperial Treasury's ledgers," Fan Xian said with a headache, "the general ledger and detailed accounts for the past three years. I'll bet a copper coin that she's going to cause trouble for me in these."
"I'll bet you damn it." Russell refused without even thinking.
Given Li Yunrui's personality, even if he hadn't seen the original plot, he wouldn't fall for it.
"Forget about gambling," Fan Xian muttered, then carried the box to the Supervisory Council.
With so many accounts, he definitely couldn't manage them all by himself; he'd need to find help.
Before noon, news of a deficit of 20 million taels of silver in the Imperial Treasury spread like wildfire throughout the capital.
Twenty million taels of silver may not seem like much at first glance, but the annual fiscal revenue of the Qing Kingdom is only a little over five million taels. If converted into military expenses, it would be enough to feed 333 million soldiers for a year.
Russell couldn't even imagine that if this fell into the hands of Zhuge Liang, the "Milk Dragon" of the new Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao and Sun Quan would have to turn a blind eye to it at night.
This news was naturally leaked by Li Yunrui, who wanted to see how Fan Xian would fill this bottomless hole.
What no one expected was that on the afternoon of the day after Fan Xian's wedding, another piece of news that would shock everyone even more came out.
Fan Xian's biological mother is Ye Qingmei, and he is the illegitimate son of the current emperor!
With this news, all claims of internal inventory losses pale in comparison.
For a time, everyone in Kyoto, from high-ranking officials to ordinary citizens, was talking about it wildly, with all sorts of speculations, analyses, and rumors flying around.
Most importantly, the Imperial Palace and the Censorate were completely unresponsive, as if they were dead.
This signifies the royal family's tacit approval.
……
The Fan family's backyard.
Russell and Fan Xian sat facing each other, Fan Xian's brows furrowed, his eyes full of confusion.
This is not what they planned. According to them, it would only expose that his mother is Ye Qingmei, and then lure out the temple envoy. How come the prince's identity was also exposed at the same time?
And the fact that such a big commotion could be caused in the capital was largely due to the instigation of the Censorate.
But he didn't understand why Chen Pingping would do that.
When he went to the Censorate to see Chen Pingping this afternoon, Chen, who had always been almost always there for him, surprisingly chose to avoid him.
"The people of the capital are really enjoying this gossip." Although they also couldn't guess what Chen Pingping was planning, that didn't stop Russell from watching the drama unfold.
"Heh." Fan Xian twitched the corner of his mouth, staring blankly at the beams and pillars on the roof. He no longer had the energy to retort; he was simply exhausted.
In this world, there is too much scheming and too little sincerity. He can't tell the difference, he really can't!
"No, we can't wait any longer. We'll leave first thing tomorrow morning and head to Cangshan." After calming down for a few minutes, Fan Xian made a decisive decision without further hesitation.
Starting in the morning, from officials of various departments to the Crown Prince's protégés, everyone was acting like madmen, sending him their visiting cards.
Avoiding them all the time wasn't a solution. In the spirit of "if you can't afford to offend them, you can at least run away," Fan Xian immediately decided to run away, hoping to give the officials in the capital a chance to calm down.
Russell calmly took a sip of tea: "Alright, I'll take care of things tonight."
"There's no need to rush. Let's wait until she leaves the capital."
"Don't worry about me handling things."
Fan Xian gratefully pounded his left chest, said no more, and went to find Wan'er to discuss the trip to Cangshan.
Once Fan Xian's footsteps faded into the distance and the study returned to silence, Russell put down his teacup and said calmly to the empty room, "Come out."
As soon as the words were spoken, a figure tiptoed out from behind the huge landscape screen on one side of the study.
Without saying a word, he first bowed deeply with his hands clasped in front of him, and then said, "Young Master Luo, please listen to me first."
"Is it really necessary? I'm not a bloodthirsty person." Russell found it quite amusing to see Shadow looking so alarmed and invited him to sit down.
Nonsense! The murderous aura emanating from you is so strong I can't even bear to look at you.
Shadow inwardly grumbled, but seeing that the tone was calm and there was no anger, his tense nerves relaxed a little. He sat down in front of Russell and said, "After all, we didn't give any prior notice, so it's always good to be respectful."
He was referring to the matter concerning Fan Xian.
In the past, he could scheme against Fan Xian and that was that. But things are different now. Fan Xian has found a much stronger backer.
He came here purely to gamble with his life, since Russell had made it clear during their last meeting that he didn't like being schemed against and didn't want them to appear in front of him again.