Leaving the pleasure boat, it wasn't quite dawn yet. The Heir Apparent was still embracing Miss Yuan Meng in the room, fast asleep, so Fan Xian didn't say goodbye. He was in a hurry to leave because he hadn't been in Kyoto for long, and it wasn't convenient for him to be caught spending the night with a prostitute. Moreover, he figured the Guo family would probably be raising a ruckus soon, so he planned to return to the Fan residence to watch the show.

The reason he hadn't actually done anything with that Lili girl the night before wasn't because Fan Xian was some kind of moral paragon; it was purely a matter of mental and physical cleanliness. He found it difficult to accept a woman who had been touched by other men, and from his previous life, he'd seen too many sex education posters on the streets and had a deep fear of venereal diseases. This world didn't have condoms, so visiting a brothel was fine, but actually doing anything was a bit too risky.

But there were consequences. Fan Xian looked down at the unsightly bulge in his clothes and sighed sadly, regretting that he hadn't developed things further with Si Si back in Danzhou. When the sedan chair reached the side entrance of the Fan residence, the master and his three servants furtively called for the gate to be opened, snuck inside, and ordered the guard who opened the gate not to make a sound. The guard, seeing that it was Teng Da and the young master from Danzhou, didn't dare to cause trouble and went back to sleep.

Fan Xian went back to his room and caught up on some sleep. When he woke up, it was already broad daylight. He dragged his wooden clogs to the front courtyard and heard a lot of noise. He guessed what had happened, but pretended to be completely oblivious.

That morning, Mei Zhili, the magistrate of Kyoto, was dozing off in his study when he heard a rapid drumbeat. He was quite annoyed, thinking, "Where did these troublemakers come from, daring to disturb my rest?" But court rules were in place, and he didn't dare to neglect his duty. After taking his seat in the courtroom and a series of shouts of "Silence!", the clerk handed him the complaint.

When Mei Zhili saw the complaint, he trembled inwardly. Both the plaintiff and the defendant were not ordinary people. The plaintiff was Guo Youzhi's only son, now a compiler in the palace and a man of some talent, Guo Baokun. The defendant was Fan Xian, from the household of Fan Jian, the Vice Minister of Revenue. The charge was that last night Fan Xian had committed assault and battery on the road, created a disturbance, and beaten a court official in the street.

Seeing these two surnames on the complaint, Mei Zhili had second thoughts. The court was now divided into two factions, one supporting the Crown Prince, and the other, though inconspicuous, was subtly led by the Second Prince. Guo Youzhi, the Minister of Rites, had been the Crown Prince's tutor, so he naturally belonged to the Crown Prince's faction, while Fan Jian, the Vice Minister of Revenue, although outwardly neutral, had always been on good terms with Prince Jing's residence, and Prince Jing's heir was known to be in the Second Prince's faction.

This case looked simple, but if handled poorly, it might provoke a major conflict between the Crown Prince and the Second Prince's factions. Thinking of this, Mei Zhili secretly cursed the reckless Fan Xian. Fan Xian's reputation was gradually becoming known in Kyoto, and officials knew that he was the illegitimate son of Count Sinan, who had been raised in Danzhou all along. Mei Zhili thought, "You stayed in the remote borderland of Danzhou, how could you know the dangers in Kyoto? You actually dared to commit assault and battery in the street. I really don't know how to clean this up."

But the complaint was clear, with witnesses and evidence, so Mei Zhili couldn't delay. He frowned at the complaint and issued a warrant to the Count Sinan's residence to arrest the person. On the other hand, he secretly sent someone to the Ministry of Revenue to inform Vice Minister Fan Jian as soon as possible.

What Fan Xian saw was the scene of the yamen runners from Kyoto Prefecture coming to arrest him. You have to know that the Fan family has close ties with the Imperial family. For the past ten years, they have only arrested people, how could they be arrested themselves? So a dozen wooden sticks had already been raised, and the servants and guards were putting on a loyal and protective posture, glaring at the poor runners.

At the front gate of the Fan residence, the runners were completely helpless. They had no choice but to say nice things, thinking that the arrest was the magistrate's intention, and no matter how powerful your Fan residence was, you had to let that person go to the official yamen.

Fan Xian smiled and was about to step forward and respond when he unexpectedly heard a young voice shouting, "Where did these lackeys come from? Beat them out of here!" The one who dared to say he would beat the government officials was naturally none other than our ill-tempered young master, Fan Sizhe.

When the servants and guards heard the young master's words, they roared and bravely rushed forward with their sticks, but thinking that the other side were government officials, they didn't really hit them, but just smashed the ground to scare them away. The runners were really miserable now. They knew that the other side was not easy to deal with, so they didn't bring any of those glaring things like chains, but they didn't expect to end up in such a miserable state.

"What are you doing?" At this time, Liu Shi finally walked out gracefully from inside, frowned at the runners, instructed people to invite them in for tea, and then looked at Fan Xian almost imperceptibly.

Fan Xian shrugged innocently.

In the flower hall, several runners looked at the madam somewhat uneasily. With their status, they would never normally receive such treatment. They also understood why the dignified Fan family was being so polite, but precisely because of this, the tea was not very tasty. If the other party got angry, how would these little shrimps survive in Kyoto?

After clarifying the ins and outs of the matter, Liu Shi frowned and said, "There's something wrong with these words, right? Our eldest young master has been reading at home ever since he returned from Prince Jing's poetry gathering yesterday. Niulan Street is very far from our Fan residence, how could our eldest young master have gone to beat the Guo family's son?"

The runner said with some embarrassment: "But this was personally identified by Master Guo, and besides..." He said somewhat incredulously: "Did Young Master Fan really stay in the mansion all day yesterday?"

Liu Shi's gentle gaze suddenly turned into two small knives, staring fiercely at the runner: "Could it be that our Fan family would lie?"

The runner was shocked, and quickly shut up, but he would not retreat, after all, the plaintiff was still waiting in the court. Fan Xian sat aside quietly and calmly, but he was a little surprised, not knowing why Liu Shi would speak for him. In fact, he did not understand the high-ranking families of this era. No matter how fierce the internal strife, once an external enemy came in, these clans would temporarily put aside all internal disputes and work together against the outside world.

Liu Shi took a sip of tea, knowing that these runners were helpless, and it was useless to embarrass them. She smiled slightly and said, "The Guo family said we beat them, so we beat them? Everything in the world is nothing more than reason and human affection. We can't just go obediently to their complaint after they hand in a complaint, even though our Fan mansion is not very rich, but we still have some face in Kyoto. I'm just curious, who filed the complaint in the government office today?"

"It's the Guo family's steward." The runner thought to himself, "Your Fan family is not rich and noble, there are really not many rich and noble families in Kyoto," and quickly replied.

It would have been better not to say anything, but as soon as she heard that it was just a steward who filed the complaint, Madam Liu raised her eyebrows, slammed the table, and scolded: "Calling a steward to file a complaint, and then asking our people to respond, what kind of reasoning is this? Didn't they say that Master Guo was beaten? What did he look like after he was beaten? If you want to sue, go sue yourself. Otherwise, I'll have my family's steward file a complaint at your yamen every day, suing Guo Baokun for bullying others and seizing men and women, and no matter whether my complaint is justified or not, you have to let Guo Baokun wait for you in your yamen!"

Before she finished speaking, Liu Shi had already ordered in a loud voice: "Steward Xu."

Steward Xu stood up knowingly and responded, "Yes."

Liu Shi said in a cold voice: "Tell Mr. Zheng to quickly write a dozen complaints, and from tomorrow on, our family will run to the Kyoto Prefecture every day. Even if we don't scare the Guo family to death, we will exhaust the Guo family." This was not the end of it, she still smiled slightly and explained to the runners: "Mr. Zheng is a guest on the mansion, but I heard that he also worked as your master's criminal name clerk for a few years, so writing complaints should not be a problem."

The runners thought, this is not a way to scare the Guo family to death and exhaust the Guo family, it is obviously preparing to scare Kyoto Prefecture to death and exhaust Kyoto Prefecture, and begged for mercy helplessly: "Madam, please spare the small ones, this matter... we really have no choice."

After a long speech, Liu Shi felt a little dry in her mouth, reached out to take the teacup, but found that Fan Xian had already handed over the teacup with a smile, the two's eyes met, and then quickly separated.

The runners spread their hands and begged: "Then what do you say?"

Liu Shi pondered for a moment, knowing that this matter always had to have an end, and it was not a solution to spend time here all the time, and said: "If you want to say that beating people, there is absolutely no such thing."

Fan Xian added: "There is absolutely no such thing."

Liu Shi said again: "Our Fan family does not understand very well, why does the Guo family want to wrong our family's people."

Fan Xian pretended to be thinking: "A few days ago, there was some conflict in the restaurant, and that Master Guo suffered a small loss. It's my fault."

Liu Shi said in surprise: "There is such a thing? That's your fault, but... could it be that Master Guo held a grudge because of this, so he came to falsely accuse you?"

Fan Xian frowned and replied: "Probably so."