Niao Ni
Chapter 36: Spring of the Fourth Year of the Qingli Era
The skin exposed beyond the black cloth on the blind Wu Zhu’s face didn't appear old, but it was always ice-cold, rarely showing any emotional expression, and it was even harder to see expressions like fear, sadness, or grief.
And certainly no smiles.
So when he recalled the past when he first arrived in the capital of Qing with the Miss, the corners of his lips twitched upwards, appearing somewhat awkward and unfamiliar. But even so, someone who seemed to never smile, occasionally revealing tenderness, was like a snow lotus flower of incomparable beauty suddenly blooming amidst the millennia-old unmelting ice on a cliff.
Incredibly tender, incredibly beautiful.
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With great difficulty, he recovered from his reverie. Wu Zhu had already returned to normal, answering calmly, "Not many know the Miss's name was Ye Qingmei. The others just called her Miss. But the name Ye Qingmei, even now, should be...quite famous in the capital."
"Is that so?" Fan Xian opened his eyes wide. He felt that Wu Zhu's words were somewhat contradictory. If not many people knew his mother was called Ye Qingmei, why was the name Ye Qingmei still quite famous? The reason he thought this was because he didn't know about the inscription in golden letters on the stone tablet outside the Supervisory Council's entrance, nor the signature beneath it.
"Tell me about my father," Fan Xian said, his eyes flickering, thinking about something.
"I only promised to talk about the Miss."
"Hmm, you're very slippery, Wu Zhu classmate."
"Before you were born, I had a serious illness and forgot many things."
Fan Xian covered his mouth and chuckled. "Uncle, you're even more shameless than me... Well, never mind, let's talk about something else... What did... my mother look like?"
Wu Zhu thought for a moment and said, "Very beautiful."
Although the tone of his voice didn't contain too many complex emotions, Fan Xian always felt that Wu Zhu seemed very sincere when he said those three words. He smiled slightly, rubbed his hands, and sighed, "So, she was a very beautiful girl."
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Although Wu Zhu's storytelling skills were extremely poor, Fan Xian could still sense from the simple words the rich and colorful story that the woman's life must have been in the capital. A very strong urge arose in his heart. He had to go to the capital. He absolutely had to go to the capital.
Wu Zhu made a gesture, signaling Fan Xian to stand up and follow him.
Fan Xian stood up with some curiosity and walked to the back of the room. He watched Wu Zhu gently press a few spots on the stone wall. Suddenly, a slight sound came from the wall, and then it split open, revealing a secret chamber inside!
Fan Xian followed Wu Zhu inside in surprise. There was nothing in the secret chamber, a thin layer of dust covering the floor. A box was placed casually in the corner.
Because there was nothing else in the secret chamber besides this box, it was very conspicuous. It was a black leather box, about the length of an adult's arm, not very wide, so it looked rather slender.
"No one knows that before the Miss and I went to the capital, we stayed in Danzhou for a while. This box was left behind by the Miss. I've been keeping it safe for you until now. You keep it yourself from now on."
Fan Xian's heart stirred slightly. He stepped forward, brushed away the dust on the black leather box, and looked at the mouth of the box, where he found a lid that looked like brass, covering the lock.
He was very curious about what his mother had left him, but after searching for a long time, he found that the lid wouldn't budge at all. There was no way to open the box.
"No key," Wu Zhu said, seeing him busy and reminding him.
Fan Xian said dejectedly, "You should have said so earlier. What's the use of giving me a box that can't be opened?"
"Before bringing you to Danzhou, in order to make some people believe that you were dead, the key was left there."
Fan Xian thought that this plot was too old, raised his eyebrows, took out the slender dagger that he always carried with him from the scabbard beside his thigh, aimed it at the top of the leather box, and tried to see where it would be easy to start.
"Don't try. This box is much more sturdy than you think."
He could tell that Uncle Wu Zhu was very opposed to him opening it by force. Fan Xian smiled and stopped moving, put away the dagger, patted the box, and shook his head, sighing, "Maybe there are hundreds of thousands of taels of silver inside. What a pity, what a pity."
Then he picked up the box and tested its weight, finding it quite heavy, which inevitably made him even more curious.
"Where's the key?"
"The capital."
Another very broad answer.
Wu Zhu turned around, preparing to leave the secret chamber. Seeing that he wasn't paying attention to him, the incorrigible Fan Xian rolled his eyes a couple of times, bent his right elbow slightly, and slammed a palm down on the top of the box. This palm contained all his power, domineering and forceful, cutting through the air.
With a muffled "bang," the sound echoed in the secret chamber, stirring up dust that obscured most of the light from the oil lamp.
Wu Zhu turned around coldly, looking at Fan Xian.
Fan Xian was now staring blankly at his palm, while the black box, apart from some dust, didn't have a single mark on it.
It seemed that to open this mysterious box, he had to go to the capital.
Fan Xian thought silently, planning when he could leave Danzhou. Surely his father in the capital wouldn't want him to stay by the sea "retiring" all the time.
At this time, he didn't know that the people sent by Earl Sinan to pick him up were already on their way.
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In the spring of the fourth year of the Qingli era, Teng Zijing sat in the only tavern in Danzhou Port, wiping the sweat from his forehead, looking at a wall in the tavern.
On that wall, a piece of paper was mounted with fine materials. The paper was of good quality, densely covered with many characters written in small regular script. The handwriting clearly came from the great calligrapher Pan Ling of the Literary Records Pavilion, with an elegant and spirited style, upright and pure.
If it were placed in the capital, a work of this size by Master Pan Ling would sell for at least three hundred taels of silver. Danzhou Port was remote, so it was not surprising to carefully mount it and display it on the wall like an idol.
However, the content written on it was not very suitable for decorating a shop.
Because it was full of all kinds of messy news. Yes, this was the legendary newspaper. The entire Danzhou Port had only two newspapers. The one belonging to the local official was naturally placed in the government office. The one that the tavern owner had obtained was secretly bought at a high price from a servant of the Earl's residence.
Ordinary people couldn't see this novelty, so they found it particularly magical. In addition, it was handwritten by Master Pan Ling, so after buying it, the tavern owner hung it on the wall as his treasure.
But he didn't know that this newspaper was stolen and sold by Young Master Fan of the residence, and that Young Master Fan had already sold more than twenty copies to wealthy merchants in the city, making a good amount of ill-gotten money.
And Teng Zijing was about to meet this Young Master Fan.
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