The crown prince tilted his head, dodging his mother's slap, and grasped her icy wrist in his own hand, quietly looking at her.

The Empress had not expected such sharpness in the eyes of the usually timid crown prince. She subconsciously trembled slightly, pulled her hand back from her son's grasp, and slowly said, "Do you really think your mother was wrong?"

The crown prince frowned slightly and softly said, "Your son would not dare."

The Empress suddenly raised her voice and said, "Don't you know that Fan Xian met with the Second Prince at the pleasure boat?"

The crown prince suddenly raised his face, looked directly into the Empress's eyes, and quietly said, "Could Your Majesty allow your son to handle these matters himself? Fan Xian, as a renowned poet, meeting with the Second Brother is quite normal."

The Empress was both anxious and angry, unsure of how to speak to this son, who was both timid and possessed a hint of ruthlessness.

The crown prince glanced at her and softly said, "Mother, I often wonder if you could not be so sensitive. You will only drive the officials who might become my support to the other princes."

The Empress gritted her teeth and said, "I am the mother of the nation. If I slightly punish a minor official, does he dare to hold a grudge?"

The crown prince faintly mocked, "Mother, you shouldn't have let Minister Han act that day. You couldn't have really killed Fan Xian anyway. Why offend the Fan family and the Prime Minister? I think Minister Han will soon lose his footing in court. There are not many powerful officials willing to be close to the Eastern Palace, yet you insist on cutting off one of your own fingers. I really don't know what you're thinking."

The Empress frowned and said, "Han Zhiwei is, after all, a current minister of the court. He was acting under imperial decree and according to the law. How could the Prime Minister and Fan Jian do anything? With the Eastern Palace protecting him, His Majesty will surely give you, the crown prince, some face."

"Don't forget that Fan Xian is the Head of the Supervisory Council, and His Majesty has always admired him." The crown prince exhaled a breath of turbid air and shook his head, sighing, "Minister Han has offended too many powerful people this time. You should know that rectifying the examination corruption was His Majesty's intention. I can't possibly step forward to protect him."

The Empress coldly said, "Don't forget how many officials in the capital Fan Xian has offended. Moreover, the Censorate is also involved this time. Although your aunt is far away in Xinyang, her influence in court will surely not stand idly by."

"Don't mention Aunt." The crown prince seemed somewhat disgusted with the Eldest Princess. "In the past two years, she has been too strange. She is actually colluding with the Northern Qi. Her audacity is too great. Where has she placed Qing's face? As for the Censor Guo from the Censorate, he is just a gigolo she played with years ago. Even if he is assassinated by the Supervisory Council, she wouldn't bat an eye."

The crown prince was, after all, the heir apparent. Although the Eldest Princess and the Eastern Palace had always been very close in recent years, after Fan Xian's memorials were scattered throughout the capital like snowflakes, the crown prince also became somewhat wary of the Eldest Princess. Of course, there were other reasons as well.

The Empress said with heartache, "We have no other support. We can only rely on the Eldest Princess."

"I will rely on Father." The crown prince replied calmly. Only at this moment did the crown prince, who usually seemed somewhat weak, finally show the innate political sense and judgment of the imperial family.

The Empress slowly closed her eyes and said, "In any case, I don't like Fan Xian. Find a way to kill him."

The crown prince angrily slapped the table and roared, "Kill? Have you forgotten that Fan Xian is Chen'er's husband! Don't listen to Aunt's advice in everything. That woman is a madwoman, a madwoman, do you understand? Do you also want to become a madwoman and be driven out of the palace?"

The Empress was furious, trembling all over, pointing at the crown prince's nose, and saying in a shaking voice, "What do you know? What do you know? What do you know? You... what do you know?" Perhaps the crown prince's words had touched the Empress's years of pain, and in her anger, she repeatedly asked, "What do you know?" four times.

...

...

The eunuchs and maids had long since hidden far away. In the Eastern Palace, only the mother and son remained. After a very long silence, the Empress stood up, but her body seemed somewhat weak, and she swayed. The crown prince quickly rose and supported her, apologizing with some helplessness.

The Empress looked at her son, feeling incomparably desolate. Wrinkles had already appeared beside her beautiful phoenix eyes. She said faintly, "Throughout the dynasties, the position of crown prince is the most difficult to sit on. You have to guard against those in front of you and those behind you. My family has no one. You probably have no memory of the turmoil twelve years ago, but I remember it clearly. If you don't fight for it yourself, then what originally belongs to you will be taken away by others."

The crown prince softened his voice as much as possible and softly said, "Your son understands. Mother should return to the palace to rest first."

The Empress shook her head: "You don't understand, you don't understand… These days, I always have some ominous premonitions, and this feeling is very strong… just like many years ago, when that woman entered the capital."

"Which woman?" the crown prince asked curiously.

Just then, the heavy wooden doors of the Eastern Palace were suddenly pushed open.

"Who?!" the crown prince frowned and scolded.

An old eunuch walked in, hunched over, and said extremely respectfully, "This old servant is Hong Si Yang. Upon the Empress Dowager's order, I invite the Empress to Han Guang Hall for a casual chat."

A trace of panic flashed across the Empress's face, which was immediately replaced by a smiling face. With a dignified manner, she followed the hunched Hong Si Yang towards the palace of the true mistress of the imperial palace, supported by a maid.

The crown prince frowned slightly. Although he extremely disliked the old dog's rudeness, he knew that the other party was the grandmother's closest eunuch, whom even his mother was unwilling to offend. He naturally would not do anything more.

The palace candlelight gradually dimmed. The crown prince Li Chengqian thought about the ridiculous farce above the Ministry of Justice that day, and his heart was even more depressed. He really couldn't understand why his mother listened to the Eldest Princess so much. When he thought of that young and charming aunt, the crown prince's heart warmed, his face flushed with shame, and a trace of fear appeared. But in his eyes, a sense of desire gradually emerged.

—————————————————————————

Spring had arrived, the flowers were blooming, the birds were singing. Yang Wanli and the four newly promoted officials went to Fan Manor again, wanting to bask in the spring breeze of the esteemed Lord Fan. Unexpectedly, the esteemed Lord Fan was still not in the manor today. Even more troublesome for Hou Jichang was the news that the esteemed Lord Fan was currently carrying out a certain mission and would be leaving for Northern Qi tomorrow.

Second-class scholars from the Imperial Examination were not admitted to the Hanlin Academy. According to the rules of previous years, they would be sent to local areas to serve as officials in one area. Seeing that the Ministry of Personnel's dispatch was about to begin, except for Shi Chanli, the other three naturally wanted to hear Fan Xian's opinion. After all, the three of them had relied on Fan Xian's strength to get to this point in this year's Spring Examination. They naturally thought that Fan Xian would definitely need them to do something in the local areas.

But they didn't expect that Fan Xian wouldn't meet with them. He only left them two letters, one for the three new officials who were about to leave the capital, and one for Shi Chanli, who was preparing to return home and compete again.

The four sat in the study of Fan Manor, somewhat tastelessly drinking the good tea served by the servants. They didn't bother to avoid suspicion and opened the two letters left to them by their mentor.

The letter for Hou Jichang and the other two was a blank piece of paper, with only two very simple sentences written on it.

"Be a good person, be a good official."

At the end, there was a single sentence left for Hou Jichang. Fan Xian wrote in the letter, "Jichang, don't be too afraid of your wife."

This was a cold joke that Fan Xian had just understood. The three scholars naturally didn't understand what it meant. They only focused their attention on the first two sentences. Be a good person, be a good official. The more the three of them thought about it, the more they felt that these simple words contained extremely practical道理 (dàolǐ, principles). To learn to be an official, one must first learn to be a person.

But this sentence also had another layer of meaning. It was unknown which of them had figured it out - to be a good person is not to be a "good" person, and to be a good official is not necessarily to be a "good" official.

...

...

After reading this letter, Yang Wanli naturally became very interested in the letter in Shi Chanli's hand. He wondered what esteemed Lord Fan had written in the letter specially left for Shi Chanli. After all, among the four, only Shi Chanli seemed to have a somewhat bleak future.

Shi Chanli opened the letter in the somewhat apprehensive gaze of his three friends. After looking at it carefully, he saw a few broken sentences and almost laughed out loud.

"Until old age, one knows that things don't go as planned, three parts depend on man, seven parts depend on heaven. Don't worry that there are no friends under the umbrella, just play around and wait idly."

The last three words 只等闲 (zhǐ děng xián, just wait idly) naturally meant to wait for Fan Xian to return.

———————————————————————————

At this time, Fan Xian was sitting in the house he had bought back then, slightly frowning. His fingers stroked the empty waistband, touching the pellet that Fei Jie had given him when he was a child. At that time, the teacher said that if something went wrong with the overbearing true energy (霸道真气, bàdào zhēn qì) in his body, he would have to rely on this pellet to save his life. However, after entering the capital, the overbearing true energy in his body had always been extremely obedient, and he had somewhat forgotten about this matter. It was only when he was organizing his equipment today that he remembered it. However, so many years had passed, and he didn't know if the medicine that Fei Jie had concocted had expired.

Wang Qinian was sitting opposite him, respectfully replying, "The person has already been found." He hesitantly raised his head. "He does look somewhat similar, and Head Supervisor is proficient in the art of makeup and disguise. With a little embellishment, it's likely that ordinary people wouldn't see through the flaws from a distance. However, there are always some shortcomings."

"What shortcomings?" Fan Xian said in a slight daze, "Didn't you say he looked quite similar? He's been raised for a month, and his skin tone is close."

Wang Qinian softly replied, "Among these crude men, it is already difficult to find someone as handsome and dashing as the Head Supervisor. Even if he resembles him in appearance, it is really difficult to imitate the Head Supervisor's innate suave temperament, scholarly demeanor, and poetic grace."

Fan Xian was stunned for a moment, immediately understood, and laughed and scolded, "You sidekick, your flattery is becoming more and more outrageous, more and more unrestrained, and more and more wonderful."