"Are you not afraid that Si Qi will find out if you carry me out like this?"

"She sleeps so soundly these days, I don't even need to use sleeping incense. I doubt she'd wake up."

"But... but... I still feel a little embarrassed."

"Just looking at the stars, that's all."

"Can I believe what you say?"

"Then what are you going to do, Wan'er?" Fan Xian looked at her face with a wicked smile. The moonlight outside the tent wasn't bright, so Lin Wan'er's face looked particularly hazy and beautiful.

Lin Wan'er wrinkled her nose, pretending to sigh, "Having promised myself to a big lecher like you, who kidnaps people in the middle of the night, what can I do?"

Fan Xian also sighed, "I'm worried about sneaking around like this. What if I forget how to use the door and can't get into our bedroom after we get married? What should I do then?"

Lin Wan'er spat at him, afraid that his mind would really wander down that path. After all, it was late at night, and they were alone. If he really wanted to... do something, she wouldn't be able to stop him.

Fan Xian didn't know what the girl was thinking. If he knew that Lin Wan'er had already thought of the words "unable to stop him," he would have pounced on her long ago. As the saying goes, it's not that he can't, but that he chooses not to. In Fan Xian's mind, once a woman thinks about being unable to stop him, it actually means she's already prepared not to resist.

The two of them lay on the soft cushion, the tent flap pulled open a crack. Looking up from inside the tent, they could see a strip of starry sky. The moon was faint tonight, so the stars seemed particularly bright, tenderly watching all the lovers on earth in the dark blue night.

Lin Wan'er leaned against Fan Xian's chest. Fan Xian could smell a faint fragrance, and his chest and abdomen were pressed against the girl's soft and supple back and buttocks. In the summer, the young man's blue shirt was thin, as if there was no fabric between them. There was no doubt that a man who didn't react at this point, whether he was sixteen or sixty, had fallen below the level of beasts. So Fan Xian nervously tightened his arms, bringing their bodies closer together, leaving no distance, and feeling every bit of the touch and elasticity from her body in a daze of bliss.

Fan Xian started performing magic tricks. His right hand, which had been holding Wan'er's hand, somehow ended up inside the girl's thin clothes on her chest.

The tent was incredibly quiet, even the slight lapping of the waves on the lake seemed shy.

After a long time, a few shy sounds and a young man's intoxicated voice came from the tent: "Some things in this world are indeed not what they seem. It's really hard to grasp... very hard to grasp."

……

……

Lin Wan'er's ears were red. She hummed twice, twisting her body to escape Fan Xian's clutches, but how could she resist the outburst of a virgin? Her body was becoming softer and softer from his teasing. In desperation, she coughed twice, forcing out a bit of weakness.

As expected, Fan Xian was stunned, thinking she had caught a cold. He quickly recited the Qingxin Pushen mantra several times, suppressing his desire, straightening her clothes, and covering her with a blanket. Lin Wan'er, still shy, felt a little amused and touched. Afraid that he would transform again, she changed the subject with a turn of her eyes: "During the day... I saw you making all those new things. If you sell them, I'm afraid you can sell a lot, right?" She was referring to the barbecue seasonings and the tent they were staying in.

Fan Xian was a little unsatisfied at this time, and said with a hoarse voice: "Why is a dignified princess worrying about such small money? Come on, let's kiss again."

Lin Wan'er was both ashamed and anxious, and said: "You're opening a bookstore and making tofu, people will think you like doing business."

Fan Xian thought that making tofu was okay, but he really liked eating tofu. He replied with a bitter face: "I have to prove that I can make money. Only in this way will our Emperor Uncle feel at ease when he hands over the inner treasury to you and me to manage." After entering the capital, he worked hard to do business and make friends with Qing Yu Tang, all for this matter.

The two of them, who had been burning hot, finally cooled down a lot. They hugged each other, looked at the stars, and chatted. Somehow, they talked about Fan Xian's visit to his father-in-law's residence, the prime minister's house, a few days ago.

"Father... is he still well?" Lin Wan'er asked with concern. She rarely saw her father, but she was still very concerned about him. Seeing her silly older brother today, and thinking about her second brother Lin Gong's early death, she thought her father must be very sad to be alone. As a daughter, she couldn't serve by his side, which was really not right.

Fan Xian knew what she was thinking and comforted her, "He's doing well. After we get married in the future, we'll take care of him together. That'll be better than now... By the way, the Prime Minister really agreed to our marriage..."

The voices of the two became lower and lower, gradually becoming inaudible, disappearing into the quiet night scene by the lake. As for what else happened that night, we'll talk about it later.

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The next day, when the sunlight came in through the window, it was impossible for the two of them to still be in the tent. Otherwise, if the guards and maids knew that their mistress and future master had been passionately affectionate outside all night, this matter would definitely become the most sensational gossip news in Kyoto within a month.

Fan Xian and Lin Wan'er opened their eyes, rubbed their eyes, turned over, smiled, reminisced, and stretched lazily in their respective rooms.

After everyone got up, they began to eat at separate tables, with maids and servants busy. Lin Wan'er sat beside the round table, gently putting shredded pickles into Da Bao's clear porridge, without even glancing at Fan Xian. On the other side, Fan Xian smiled silly as he blew on the heat of his sister's bowl, looking like a very affectionate brother.

Fan Xian and Lin Wan'er didn't look at each other, but a certain emotion rippled in their eyes, causing the entire hall to exude a feeling called happiness. Sensitive like Ye Ling'er and intelligent like Fan Ruoruo exchanged suspicious glances, then tacitly looked away.

It was still early. After eating, Fan Xian was preparing to find a secluded place in the woods to exercise and maintain his daily practice when Ye Ling'er walked up to him with a serious face, cupped her fists, and asked him to give her some guidance.

After Ye Ling'er returned to the residence, she told her father about the competition outside the royal courtyard that day. After Ye Zhong carefully questioned her, he greatly praised Fan Xian's response, saying that this Fan gongzi was indeed extraordinary for having survived that assassination and dissected Cheng Jushu. After hearing her father's words, Ye Ling'er finally admired Fan Xian a little, but adhering to the martial arts Ye family's philosophy, she seized the opportunity to sincerely ask Fan Xian for advice.

This so-called asking for advice actually only proved that Ye Ling'er's admiration hadn't penetrated to the bone.

Fan Xian rarely sparred with others. In Danzhou, he was basically a poor guy who was violently hammered by Uncle Wu Zhu, so he was a little unexpectedly happy to be qualified to guide Ye Ling'er, who was a seventh-rank master. His words of guidance were also practical, but Wu Zhu was not a good teacher, and neither was he. He could only say how this punch should be straight and how this dodge should be effortless. He could only start from the superficial externals and couldn't summarize a complete theory.

The so-called small tricks were Fan Xian's current set of killing techniques, but it was a little inconvenient to teach others, especially a beautiful little girl with bright, jade-like eyes. Moreover, Fan Xian wasn't an honest person who would reveal his innermost thoughts to anyone he met, so Ye Ling'er couldn't learn the essence of Wu Zhu's killing skills, but she still made some progress.

Fan Xian smiled. Today, he finally saw the Ye family's Flowing Cloud Scattered Hand completely. It turned out that such a simple pair of hands could evolve so many attack methods. Even if Ye Ling'er used it, it had the power of breaking wind and killing gods. If Ye Zhong or Ye Liuyun personally used it, the great coffin-splitting technique would be enough to break open a stone tomb, and the scattered hands were like dead branches, always causing the opponent's movements to freeze and be unable to dodge!

After a series of fist winds and palm strengths, Fan Xian was very satisfied with the flexibility of Ye Ling'er's body, but the way he looked at the girl's slender waist always seemed a little strange. Ye Ling'er didn't notice his gaze, otherwise she might have been furious. She was still immersed in the feeling of the perfect combination of the trajectory angle and power of Fan Xian's previous move, and was deeply shocked.

In short, this deal was not a loss.

After a long time, a cry of pain came from the woods. Fan Xian walked out, rubbing his wrist. Behind him, Ye Ling'er walked out, covering her nose, and finally became completely honest.

———————————————————————————

In fact, for everyone in this world, daily life is like a ledger, just one step after another, repeating day after day, inevitably a little boring. But power and wealth seem to guarantee that some fresh numbers will occasionally appear on the ledger.

Da Bao and Fan Sizhe were kicked by Fan Xian to the back mountain to ride horses and shoot arrows. They had guards to protect them and maids to serve them, so there was no need to worry too much. Now, there was only him, a man, plus Wan'er, his sister, and Ye Ling'er, three girls, in the summer resort.

Sitting peacefully in the courtyard, sipping tea and listening to music, watching a few pretty girls sing softly, Fan Xian smiled, thinking that power was a really good thing. If the princess wanted to listen to music, she could immediately call someone from Kyoto to sing. This singing girl was a true singer, traveling among the mansions of princes and nobles in Kyoto with her good voice, and she was also a somewhat aloof person.

Only at this moment did Fan Xian have the awareness of being a man of Qing. He had to seek power or wealth for the people around him and for himself. If he wanted to maintain a seemingly happy and peaceful life and not be reduced to a bandit on the border or a coolie in a brick kiln, perhaps some things were worth giving up.

He was a selfish person, and he often reminded himself of this.

Before the mountain hall, the girl named Sang Wen had a clear voice that mixed with the breeze, went through the hall, and lingered around the beams.

"Several villages before and after winter, both sides of the stream covered with frost, atop and beneath trees a lonely mountain. Where does the cold wind bring the fragrance? Suddenly meeting a figure in white silk. Awake from wine, cold startles the dream, the flute grieves, spring is broken, faint moon dusk."