"What's Banxian (Half-Leisure) Studio?"

"It's this study. Father said this study is solely for your use after you get married. I've already asked Shopkeeper Qi Ye at Lao Heng Ju to make a horizontal inscribed board with the name 'Banxian Studio.'"

Fan Xian sensed something was amiss and pressed, "Then what's the 'Banxian Studio Poetry Collection'?"

"Hmm? It's the collection of poems you recited in the palace that day, which has been compiled by the Taixue (Imperial Academy) scholars. His Majesty intended to have it printed under the name of the Wenyuan Pavilion, but I begged Father to take over the task."

After the Xishan Paper Mill was robbed, those imperial merchants were dismissed and investigated, and hadn't recovered their vigor for a long time. In addition, the Internal Treasury received a warning from the palace and dared not target Danbo Bookstore anymore. Danbo Bookstore finally recovered and naturally prepared to expand its grand plans. Both Shopkeeper Qi Ye and Junior Shopkeeper Sizhe immediately set their sights on this imperial poetry collection. The palace allocating funds was one part, and the palace allowing it to be sold privately after printing was a big money-making opportunity.

Who wrote the poems? Fan Xian. Who is Fan Xian? Fan Xian is the behind-the-scenes owner of Danbo Bookstore. Whether it was Shopkeeper Qi Ye of Qing Yu Tang or Fan Sizhe, who was smirking behind the shopkeeper, neither would concede profits to the imperial court in this profitable business. Fan Sizhe had always resented his brother for refusing to hand over the last ten chapters of *Dream of the Red Chamber* (石头记, Shitou Ji), so now that he had the poetry collection, he wouldn't let it go.

Fan Xian wrote the five characters "Banxian Studio Poetry Collection" on paper, and then wrote his name, but he was smiling bitterly in his heart. That night, in order to conceal his whereabouts in the second half of the night, he pretended to be drunk in the palace, which resulted in a burst of madness and he couldn't control his mouth. There were countless allusions in these poems that couldn't be explained clearly. If he wanted to explain these allusions clearly, he would have to write countless books of historical stories.

The Four Great Classical Novels must be complete, right? *A New Account of Tales of the World* (世说新语, Shishuo Xinyu) must be acquired? *The Analects*? *The Book of Songs*? Hey, don't think it's too little, a fictionalized *Zizhi Tongjian* (资治通鉴, Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government)? A transmigrated *Records of the Grand Historian* (司马史记, Sima Shiji)? No one would object to writing them all out.

At the thought of this workload, Fan Xian shuddered with fright. If it really expanded like this, perhaps this Danbo Bookstore would really become the disseminator of advanced culture from his previous life, fulfilling his grand wish in Danzhou. He said, "The Wenyuan Pavilion's editing won't do, you have to bring it back. I'll re-edit it myself. I drank too much that day, who knows what nonsense I said."

He had made up his mind that he would muddle through whatever he could. If it really didn't work, then he would have to reluctantly cut off the meat and delete everything under the pretext of being drunk. Anyway, people who drink too much easily suffer from amnesia the next day.

"This is a limited edition," Fan Sizhe shook his head. "I think in five years, if you say you don't write poetry and the buzz dies down, you can make a comeback to the poetry scene again, and it'll probably be a lot of money."

Fan Xian smiled and shook his head, his gaze suddenly falling on the pink paper in the corner of the study, and he asked curiously, "What's that?"

Fan Sizhe said, "A gift list."

Fan Xian was slightly stunned. Only then did he remember that his wedding day was approaching, but so many things had happened recently. Undeniably, his mood was now subtly different from that at the Qing Temple. He and her mother were ultimately incompatible. The current emperor could still control everything, but once His Majesty didn't want to control it, the Eldest Princess would definitely kill him.

Or rather: he would definitely kill the Eldest Princess.

The long-awaited wedding was gradually approaching, but Fan Xian felt some unease and sorrow in his heart.

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In the following days, the "Banxian Studio Poetry Collection," the main product of Danbo Bookstore, finally came out. This time, Danbo Bookstore obtained the printing rights, and Fan Xian personally and drastically deleted a lot. He thought he was relieved, but unexpectedly, the bookstore held a ceremony, using Fan Xian's name to invite the Heir Apparent of Jingwang (Prince Jing), Xin Qiwu, Vice Minister of the Honglu Temple, and others.

Fan Xian was taken aback, only allowing his talented younger sister, Fan Ruoruo, to show her face as the brand ambassador and start selling it in a lively manner, while he himself used the excuse of maintaining the mystique of a generation of poets to hide in the royal villa and go on dates with Lin Wan'er.

The Eighth-Rank Assistant Musical Attendant spewing out a hundred poems on the spot, shocking the grand master Zhuang Mohan into vomiting blood and fleeing, this story had already spread throughout the Qing Kingdom. Although some of the poems had already circulated among the people, this poetry collection was touted as the author's personally proofread edition, so it was naturally extraordinary. Sure enough, as soon as the poetry collection was released, paper in Kyoto became expensive, and Fan Xian's reputation immediately soared to a new level.

The autumn wind returned last night to the little building.

Fan Xian looked tenderly at his fiancée and said with a smile, "The method you mentioned doesn't work."

Lin Wan'er frowned, her lips pouting cutely: "I haven't gone out for many days."

In fact, this young girl also knew about the recent events in Kyoto. Although she had grown up in the palace since she was a child, the imperial concubines all held her in the palms of their hands. On the one hand, it was because she was weak and gentle and could not cause harm to those imperial concubines. On the other hand, it was because His Majesty the Emperor seemed to be particularly fond of her.

She naturally hadn't seen those "discourse papers" about the Eldest Princess, but gradually she had also heard some rumors. Later, before the Eldest Princess left Kyoto for Xinyang, she had come to the villa and the mother and daughter had sat opposite each other for a while in a somewhat unfamiliar manner, and then the Eldest Princess had boarded the carriage and left Kyoto.

Although Lin Wan'er didn't know what relationship there was between Fan Xian and her mother's departure, her sensitivity still made her feel that Fan Xian's mood was not as relaxed and happy as before, so she suggested finding a day to go out and enjoy the autumn scenery, the red leaves in the West Mountains of Kyoto were very famous.

But hearing the words West Mountains, Fan Xian thought of the paper mill that monopolized paper in Kyoto, and he thought of the Eldest Princess behind the paper mill who seemed to be looking at him with fear.

Fan Xian was clear that the most fundamental force behind the Eldest Princess's departure from Kyoto was still His Majesty the Emperor. His "discourse papers" were just giving the Emperor a reason to persuade himself and persuade the Empress Dowager.

Here's an explanation. Nowadays, the Qing Kingdom's court and public all call the leaflets that flew like snowflakes that day "discourse papers," because they believed that it was a way to express their grievances after there was no other way for the people to seek justice.

During this period, Kyoto actually repeated this "discourse paper" distribution action several times, making the Supervisory Council nervous for a while. One of them, after being caught, discovered that it was actually the coolies from the Taiyuan Road copper mine who had come to Kyoto to file a complaint with the emperor, but they couldn't even get into the Dengwen Institute, so they learned such a method.

The Supervisory Council traced the roots and actually found that the people providing paper to these coolies were still from the Xishan Paper Mill!

However, the people who helped these coolies write their grievances could not be found no matter how hard they dug. They only knew that the extremely soft and smooth handwriting came from the hand of a fortune teller next to the Qing Temple. However, when the Supervisory Council went to the Qing Temple to search, they discovered that there was no fortune teller in this place at all - except for the high priest in the temple who seemed to have never come out in his entire life.

The copper mine affair was naturally handed over to Department One, and soon a string of officials from Taiyuan Road were arrested and brought back to Kyoto, waiting to be beheaded a month later. It was just that the imperial court could no longer tolerate this kind of discourse paper action, and strengthened the management of paper. However, Director Chen of the Supervisory Council did not punish those copper mine coolies. In the eyes of the officials, Director Chen seemed to have become much softer.

He came back to his senses, looked at Wan'er who had a slight worried look, smiled and walked forward, gently stroking her round chin, and said gently, "What are you thinking about? The Eldest Princess has returned to Xinyang, and we will have a chance to visit after our marriage."

This was naturally a lie. Fan Xian hoped that he would never go to Xinyang in his life, and hoped that the Eldest Princess would grow old and die in Xinyang from now on. Of course, he also knew that before he truly shook the power of the Eldest Princess and that mysterious partner, His Majesty the Emperor liked to play the trick of luring the snake out of its hole, and the Eldest Princess would always return one day.

Lin Wan'er smiled reluctantly and said, "Look, yesterday I entered the palace, and you also know about these recent events in Kyoto. The imperial concubines are fine, but the Empress Dowager's body seems to be a little uncomfortable, and His Majesty is not as affectionate to me as he used to be."

Fan Xian sighed in his heart, thinking that the emperor was having a headache about which prince was colluding with your mother, how could he still be like he used to be.

The two chatted a little more, and suddenly heard the sound of a nanny coming upstairs. Fan Xian, as a conditioned reflex, gracefully jumped and clung to the windowsill, preparing to climb out of the window. Lin Wan'er burst out laughing and said, "You're really used to it, huh?"

Fan Xian smiled a little awkwardly, looked at Wan'er's slightly pale face, and his heart filled with tenderness. He stepped forward and hugged her in his arms, and said in a low voice, "Don't tire yourself out before the wedding. As for illness and other things, don't be afraid, you have me for everything from now on."

The lush green branches outside the window stubbornly maintained their fresh color in the autumn wind, trying to prove that no matter how bleak the external environment, it still had a yearning for beauty.

At the corner of the stairs, the first maid Si Qi looked at the young master and young lady embracing each other, and couldn't help sticking out her tongue playfully, thinking that Master Fan was a talented man of his generation, but he was still so shameless.

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With the wedding imminent, the entire Fan residence sprang into action. Since the Eldest Princess was not in Kyoto, the arrangement work on that side was secretly guided by Consort Shu. Besides feeling honored, the entire Fan residence was even more cautious, fearing that something would not be meticulous enough and would not conform to the rules in the slightest.

But the rules themselves were extremely difficult. Lin Wan'er's status as a Junzhu (郡主, county princess) only had an effect in the palace. In the world outside the palace, her status was still the illegitimate daughter of Prime Minister Lin, and she was only forced to recognize her by His Majesty at the beginning of the year. Therefore, whether to use the etiquette of marrying a *Junzhu* or the standard of a normal marriage between the children of ministers for this wedding had always been uncertain.

Liu Shi entered the palace again and finally received clear instructions from the Empress Dowager. Although the Empress Dowager extremely disliked the Lin family being involved in her precious granddaughter's marriage, she still had to bow her head to the world's moral principles and acquiesced to the Lin residence's involvement. At the same time, she announced that the wedding would no longer be conducted according to the etiquette of marrying a *Junzhu*.

Although the senior old women of the Fan family who knew the inside story were a little disappointed, thinking that it was a marriage with the Prime Minister's family, it was also a very honorable thing, so they happily prepared again.

It was just that no one expected that the splendor of Fan Xian and Lin Wan'er's wedding would be more worthy of everyone's remembrance for many years to come than the scene of a princess and consort getting married.