Having arrived at the chosen location for the bookstore on Dongchuan Road, Fan Xian and his party took a good look around and found that the location was indeed quite good. It was conveniently located near transportation and not too far from the Imperial College. Students from all over Qing, who were preparing to take the imperial examinations in the capital, basically passed by here every day. Most importantly, this place was not too bustling, which would make it easier for the princesses from various royal residences and the daughters of officials to send their personal maids to buy books.

Fan Xian nodded and walked inside with Fan Sizhe. They were greeted by the gentlemen retained by the family. He cupped his hands in greeting and said, "Mr. Cui, thank you for your trouble."

Mr. Cui smiled wryly and said, "I say, young masters, how much money can a bookstore like this make in a year? It's really not worth spending so much effort on it."

Fan Xian knew that these former officials who had once been in charge of the Ministry of Revenue would not care about a business with a turnover of several thousand taels of silver. He smiled and explained, "Since my younger brother likes it, let him play with it." He didn't expect to be able to hide this matter from Count Sinan, so he asked the gentlemen in the family to help. Since his father allowed Mr. Cui to help, it was equivalent to tacitly agreeing to the two sons' mischief outside the mansion.

The group spoke in a room in the back hall. Fan Sizhe was gnawing on a penholder, calculating something. Once he had an account book in front of him, this guy would devote himself to it, forgetting everything else. As they were talking, the manager from Qing Yu Tang also arrived. This manager had a loyal face, and his eyes were not sharp, but clear. As the saying goes, "With upright eyes, the person is upright." Fan Sizhe was quite satisfied and went to discuss the bookstore's affairs with him.

Fan Ruoruo had already given Fan Sizhe the manuscript of the first sixty-odd chapters of *Dream of the Red Chamber*. Mr. Cui had been sending people to watch the printing at Wan Song Tang, so there shouldn't be any problems. Fan Sizhe was still urging Fan Xian to give him the later manuscripts, planning to make a big splash in the capital. However, Fan Xian had not been in the mood to copy books these days, so he kept putting it off.

After agreeing on the bookstore's opening date and confirming that the approval from the Eighth Office of the Supervisory Council could definitely be obtained, everyone in the room found that there was nothing else to do. They would get some classics and historical texts from Wan Song Tang, and use *Story of the Stone* as the main attraction. It seemed like they were just waiting to collect money. As for the shop assistants, they were all handled by the manager of Qing Yu Tang, so the Fan family didn't have to worry about it.

Fan Xian was a little curious as to why everyone trusted Qing Yu Tang so much. When he finally had a chance to be alone with the manager, he asked in a gentle voice, "What is your honorable surname, Manager?"

The manager replied with a smile, "My humble surname is Ye."

Fan Xian's heart trembled, and he repeated, "Ye?"

The manager seemed to notice his abnormality and replied in confusion, "Yes. All seventeen managers of Qing Yu Tang are named Ye. This is common knowledge in the capital, Young Master Fan?"

"All named Ye?" Fan Xian frowned and asked, "What is your relationship with the Ye family from twenty years ago?"

The manager was slightly surprised. He looked at Fan Xian a few times and felt a sense of vicissitude. "So many years have passed, I thought the young people of today had long forgotten about the Ye family. That's right, we are all the managers of the Ye family from back then. Later, the Ye family had some problems, and all the property was confiscated by the palace. We should have left and found our own way, but for some reason, the imperial court did not allow us to do business ourselves. So now we are in such an awkward situation. We can only be responsible for managing businesses for others, but we cannot invest ourselves. That's how Qing Yu Tang came to be."

Fan Xian looked at the manager again, knowing that the other party was his mother's former subordinate. He couldn't help but feel a sense of closeness. He asked curiously, "After the Ye family had an accident, the imperial court didn't..." He didn't finish his sentence, but the manager understood what he meant. The so-called "uproot the weeds," since the imperial court had even seized the Ye family's property, there was no way they would leave these old people alive. For some reason, the manager also felt that this young master of the Fan family was very kind. He thought for a moment and replied, "We also felt strange, so we have been very afraid all these years. The imperial court doesn't allow us to leave the capital, so we are very afraid of what might happen one day."

"Take me to Qing Yu Tang to have a look one day." Fan Xian suddenly found a place in the capital that was related to his mother's past, and he couldn't help but be pleasantly surprised. He grabbed the manager's shoulder and said, "I have many, many things I want to ask you."

...

...

After returning to the Fan residence, in his father's study, Fan Xian told him about what he had encountered today and asked curiously, "Is Qing Yu Tang really made up of the old people from the Ye family back then?"

"Of course." Fan Jian stroked his short beard, seemingly recalling the past, and said slowly, "These people are actually not simple. Back then, they were all the chief managers of the Ye family stationed in various states. It's just that your mother offended some powerful people back then and suffered misfortune. You also know how glorious the Ye family was back then. The imperial court was also a little flustered for a time. If the Ye family fell, I'm afraid this Qing country would be in chaos for several decades. So in the end, they came up with a compromise: first, the Ye family was taken over by the royal family, at least in name cutting off the possibility of officials below taking the opportunity to extort money, and then..."

Fan Xian interrupted him and asked, "How did the enemy who killed my mother finally die?" This was a question that he had always been confused about.

Fan Jian looked into his eyes and said coldly, "You are young, you probably don't remember what happened in Qing fourteen years ago."

"I remember." Fan Xian frowned and said, "Fourteen years ago, it seemed that someone intended to change the sky, wanting to pull His Majesty down from the throne. So in the end, many things happened. Kyoto was killed for a whole month, and the original nobles were killed almost completely. Blood flowed like oars, and the heads of the nobles were placed on the city walls for a whole mile. This is the so-called 'Kyoto Bloodshed Month.' Although I didn't experience it, Teacher Fei has told me about it many times."

"That's right." Fan Jian said coldly, "It was in this cleansing that all those who had participated in the plot to harm the Ye family back then were killed by us."

Fan Xian noticed the word "us" in his father's words and asked cautiously, "Who is 'us'?"

"Naturally, it's me and Chen Pingping." Fan Jian smiled, "This is probably the most successful operation in the twenty-odd years that we have followed His Majesty."

"The Fan family also rose up because of this incident, and the Supervisory Council firmly established its influence among the officials because of the terrifying role it played in this incident." Fan Xian sighed, "So, the cause of this upheaval was actually my father and Lord Chen avenging my mother."

"What happened later?" Fan Xian was asking about the Ye family.

"As I said before, the Ye family's property was transferred to the Imperial Treasury. This was the best way to stabilize the government at that time. No official could offer a more effective suggestion." Fan Jian explained, "The problem is those chief managers. They were all taught by your mother. Although they are far inferior to your mother's natural intelligence, if they were left alone, who knows if a second Ye family would appear? So His Majesty decided to concentrate them all in Kyoto, let them retrain some people, and take over those businesses, but they were not allowed to own any real property. That's how the famous Qing Yu Tang came to be."

"It's a good idea to find them if you want to do business."

Fan Xian said sadly, "These managers were forced to be trapped in Kyoto for more than ten years for such a reason. It's really miserable... Father, if we use all these managers, will it attract the attention of the imperial court?"

Fan Jian shook his head, "Using the managers of Qing Yu Tang is originally the most popular method used by the private industries of the various royal residences. The imperial court won't care about these things. However, it doesn't seem necessary to gather all seventeen managers of Qing Yu Tang."

"If the imperial court really has scruples about these things, why didn't they kill all these managers in the first place?" Fan Xian asked his question.

Fan Jian looked at his son and explained with a smile, "When your mother had an accident, I was fighting in the west with His Majesty, and Chen Pingping went to the border between this dynasty and Northern Qi to carry out a secret mission. He only realized what was going on halfway through and returned to Kyoto, so that's why this kind of thing happened. If we had both returned to Kyoto and still allowed these people to be killed, you would be underestimating your father's power too much."

Liu Clan knocked on the door from outside. The father and son stopped talking, and Fan Jian let her in. Seeing the bowl of fruit syrup in Liu Clan's hand, Fan Xian realized that it was already late at night and it was time for his father to go to bed. He stood up to say goodbye. However, Count Sinan waved his hand to let him stay and told Liu Clan to go and rest.

Before Liu Clan left, Fan Xian caught a glimpse of a trace of worry in the woman's eyes. He knew that she was worried about her husband's health and couldn't help but frown, thinking that this woman probably had some genuine affection for his father, but it was a pity that she was too cruel and had done such a thing back then. He knew that since his father wasn't letting him leave, he must have something important to tell him, so he listened attentively.

"Tell me about the recent situation in the imperial court." Count Sinan Fan Jian picked up the warm fruit syrup and drank it slowly, "I know you still resent the fact that Liu Clan sent someone to poison you four years ago."

Fan Xian was stunned. He didn't understand what the situation in the imperial court had to do with Liu Clan, and he didn't expect his father to bring this matter up so bluntly. So for a moment, he didn't know what to say.

"The two things are actually related." Fan Jian knew what his son was thinking and said calmly, "The reason why Liu Clan took action four years ago was, on the one hand, because Sizhe was getting older, but he was becoming more and more unserious. And I had never made her the official wife, so she couldn't help but feel a little desperate and made that decision in a moment of confusion. But the more crucial reason was because she had entered the palace once at that time and received someone's guarantee that once you died, Fan Sizhe would definitely be able to inherit everything from the Fan family in the future."

"Entered the palace? Whose guarantee was it that could make her disregard even Grandma's life?" Fan Xian said coldly.