After a period of undercurrents, Danzhou Port quickly returned to calm. No one paid attention to the relationship between the roasted vegetable vendor Lao Ha and the other corpse in his building. As for the cause of the fire, the government did not give any explanation, and the ignorant populace showed no interest in the reason.

Danzhou Port had always been well-managed. Under the strict control of the Simin Baojia system, criminals and adventurers wandering in the northern Qing Kingdom had no way to gain any benefit here. In addition, because Emperor Your Majesty shifted the focus of trade southward, he exempted the taxes of the seven adjacent counties near Danzhou. Although it could not make the people rich immediately, it could at least ensure that every household had some surplus grain, and there would never be a repeat of the famine-induced riot thirty years ago.

Moreover, although Danzhou City was close to the sea, it was not tainted by the sea's unpredictable and violent nature. The residents of the city were very gentle, so when facing the most honorable family in the city – the Earl's Mansion – they always showed appropriate respect and caution. Even though everyone knew that Fan Xian was just an illegitimate child, they still called him Young Master Fan, trying to suppress the slight contempt that might have always existed in their hearts.

This was Fan Xian's pain.

In this life, except for showing off his talent as a纨绔子弟 (wan ku zi di - good-for-nothing son of a wealthy family) slightly in front of the ill-fated Steward Zhou, he never had the opportunity to play this role again. Walking on the streets of Danzhou Port, some people were kind to him, some people respected him, but no one came to provoke him.

The internal Zhenqi (true energy) slowly accumulated, making his meridians exceptionally strong, but most of the Zhenqi that flowed to the Xue Shan (Snow Mountain) at the back of his waist was quiet, and he didn't know what use it was there.

In this life, Fan Xian had always played the role of a steady, sensible young man, but after a long time, he always felt a little suffocated. And knowing that his level could kill an assassin, he was even more eager for things like acting chivalrously, upholding justice, and rescuing beauties to happen.

But Danzhou Port was too peaceful, too peaceful.

...

...

The study was filled with the soothing scent of incense, which was very comfortable. Fan Xian held a delicate writing brush in his hand and carefully wrote on Xuan paper cut to about the size of four palms. Nowadays, there are Jinwen (Modern Script) and Guwen (Ancient Script) schools in the literary world. There are also two types of pens: quill pens and毛笔 (Mao Bi - writing brush). From the point of view of convenience, quill pens may be better, so now the departments of the capital generally use this type, including Fei Jie when he taught in Danzhou.

However, the craftsmanship of sharpening quill pen tips requires a truly skilled teacher, and the pen tips are prone to deformation after a long time, so it is not easy to truly promote them.

Fan Xian prefers毛笔 (Mao Bi - writing brush) because he feels that since the world happens to still use square characters, the characters written with毛笔 (Mao Bi - writing brush) must be more beautiful. He decided to practice calligraphy well so as not to be too embarrassed in the future.

On the other hand, he believed that the story he was "writing" right now must be slowly copied with毛笔 (Mao Bi - writing brush) and extremely graceful small regular script to show that respect.

Si Si, the personal maid, held the ink stick with her slender fingers, slowly and evenly grinding it in the inkstone clockwise. Her eyes fell on the paper in front of the young master, and she saw the following written on it:

"... I saw that Zhi Neng was alone in the room washing tea bowls. Qin Zhong ran over and hugged her and kissed her. Zhi Neng stomped her feet anxiously and said, 'What is this! If you do this again, I will shout.' Qin Zhong pleaded, 'Good person, I am dying of anxiety. If you don't agree today, I will die here.' Zhi Neng said, 'What do you want? Unless I get out of this prison pit and leave these people, I will agree to you.' Qin Zhong said, 'That's easy, but distant water can't quench present thirst...' "

Si Si glanced at the indecent content written on it, and her cheeks turned red. She spat and said, "How shameless is this Zhi Neng?"

Fan Xian heard the maid's reproachful voice in his ear and curiously looked up, asking with a smile, "Why does elder sister say Zhi Neng is shameless?" In the room or in places where others didn't pay attention, he always called a few of the older maids "elder sister." This habit started with Dong'er and continued. The maids couldn't resist him, and the old lady didn't care, so they had to let him go. They had long been used to hearing it over the years and didn't think it was strange.

The blush on Si Si's face spread out, like a morning cloud, very beautiful. She hesitantly explained, "That nun... her words and actions are too frivolous and reckless... But young master, what is a nun? What is Mantou (Steamed Bun) Nunnery?"

Fan Xian chuckled, thinking that when he writes about Qin Zhong's and Zhi Neng's affair, you'll probably think it's really reckless. But hearing Si Si ask what a nun was, he remembered that there was no Buddhism in this world, so naturally there were no monks, and no female monks.

He scratched his head with his empty hand, not knowing how to explain. After a long time, he blurted out a sentence: "A nun is like an ascetic monk, and Mantou Nunnery is similar to a temple."

Si Si was startled when she heard his explanation: "Young master, you can't write nonsense. Temples are in the ethereal place in the sky, always compassionate to the world, and do not interfere with worldly affairs. How can they be such dirty places?"

Fan Xian didn't explain to her, and said with a smile, "I know, I'll be careful when I write."

After writing a few more sentences, he thought of something, so he asked Si Si to leave, lest the maid see the underage content later and report it to the old lady. When he was a child, he often scared Dong'er by telling stories. Dong'er always thought it was taught by the tutor, and later really complained to the old lady, causing Fan Xian to copy books for several days.

Si Si carefully gave a few instructions, put down the ink in her hand and pushed the door out. The graceful posture as she left really made Fan Xian's heart warm slightly.

Fan Xian took up his pen and pondered, thinking that copying *Dream of the Red Chamber* was indeed much more complicated than plagiarizing the poems of past worthies. He started writing a year ago, and has only written to the fifteenth chapter. Fortunately, his mind is now strangely clear, and the memories of his previous life are not different at all, but even clearer. Thanks to this, he can remember Cao Xueqin's beautiful but difficult-to-remember prophecies and dreams.

It's just that the backgrounds of the characters in the book are always slightly different from this world. He doesn't know if others will be able to understand it after seeing it in the future, so some important places still need to be changed slowly. But Fan Xian has great confidence in his *Dream of the Red Chamber*. A cow, when led to Beijing, is still a cow - *Dream of the Red Chamber*? Put it in this world, it is still *Dream of the Red Chamber*, still a big cow.