Fan Xian didn't know how to bargain, but in his previous life, that beautiful nurse often chatted with him and told him that when girls bought clothes, they would bargain from a third. Fan Xian wasn't as smart as the young girl, so he cut the price by two-fifths.
But the shopkeeper glared at him, as if annoyed at this young man's lack of knowledge. He coldly closed the box and prepared to take it back to his room. Fan Xian panicked and opened his mouth to call him back so they could discuss the price. Unexpectedly, Wang Qinian, who had been silent all this time, gave Fan Xian a meaningful look. Fan Xian followed him out suspiciously.
"It's only worth four hundred taels."
Wang Qinian respectfully said to him, "Sir, let me ask." Having said this, he walked back into the shop without a signboard. After a while, he came out again, this time with a verdant snuff bottle in his hand. Then he took the four hundred taels of silver from Fan Xian and handed it to the shopkeeper, whose face was ashen.
...
...
Once in the carriage, Fan Xian quietly said, "Don't use your position to bully the good people." He touched the snuff bottle in his belt and couldn't help but laugh. "But it's not bad to bully these profiteers once in a while."
Wang Qinian smiled. The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes bloomed like chrysanthemums. After all, he was a man in his forties. He carefully explained, "He's not a profiteer. It's just that this snuff bottle only costs three hundred taels at most. We're not bullying him by offering four hundred taels."
"Oh?" Fan Xian looked at Wang Qinian in surprise. "Could it be that Sir Wang is well-versed in antiques? How else could you tell the real price at a glance? You should know that there's a lot of foam in this trade."
Wang Qinian laughed again. "Sir, have you forgotten what I did for a living before I was admitted to the academy?"
Fan Xian suddenly understood. He laughed out loud and said, "So, when you were a lone thief, you learned this knowledge along the way." Wang Qinian was embarrassed. "I was peddling in those small kingdoms by myself. I didn't dare ask for help, so I had to sharpen my eyes." With such an expert in the antique world, it was no wonder that he could cut down the price of the snuff bottle so easily.
Returning to the main gate of the Fan manor, Wang Qinian's small group withdrew, leaving the Fan manor's own defense forces to handle. At the same time, the fans that Fan Xian had ordered from another shop arrived at the front door. The servants hurriedly took them in, but when it came time to pay the bill, the cashier said to Fan Xian with a pained expression, "Although these fans are good, they are too expensive. Young Master, you bought five of them at once. It will be difficult for me to report to the second wife."
At that moment, Lady Liu had just walked into the accounts room. Hearing what the accountant had said, she looked at Fan Xian with a smile that was not quite a smile. She nodded and said, "Enter the account."
Fan Xian smiled and saluted his aunt, "Hello, aunt." The current situation between the two of them was too awkward. They couldn't be considered close, and their hatred had yet to erupt into hostility. Fan Xian was a bit puzzled about something. He frowned and asked, "Aunt, I think this fan is cool and comfortable to put in the hall. But why haven't I seen anyone else using it?"
Madam Liu smiled and shook her head, "Regarding this matter, you will understand it better than anyone else in the future. It's all because the price of that shop is too high that no one is willing to buy it. Summer is only a few days away, so even if we dig an icehouse, it won't be much more expensive than that fan."
Fan Xian was quick-witted, and understood immediately. "This is … the palace treasury's business?" Lady Liu nodded. Fan Xian sighed. "How could it be so expensive? Any peddler could learn this craft. Why aren't there others selling it? "
Lady Liu smiled. "Although no one says it openly, everyone knows that this is the emperor selling the palace treasury's business. Who would dare to copy it? The Overwatch Council can just give it a name, and it's a crime punishable by imprisonment or exile. "
Fan Xian shook his head, feeling that something was wrong. Lady Liu asked curiously, "Why did you buy five of them all at once?" Fan Xian explained gently, "One in the Flower Pavilion, one in my father's and aunt's room, and the other three are to be given away. One to King Jing's manor, one to the Prime Minister's manor … and one to the duke's manor."
Lady Liu's paternal family was also a large one in the capital. Within three generations, there had been a duke, so whenever the duke's manor was mentioned in the Fan manor, it was the Liu family — Liu Heng, the Duke of Hongyi.
Lady Liu was a little surprised. She hadn't expected this handsome young man to be so thoughtful, and she hadn't expected him to take the initiative to show her goodwill. For a moment, she didn't know how to respond. She smiled absentmindedly and left the accounting room.
In fact, after seeing Lady Liu, Fan Xian had occasionally thought of returning the relationship between him and Lady Liu. If he wanted Fan Sizhe to stand firmly by his side in the future, and to avoid the family fights that he disliked, then he had to ensure that Lady Liu wouldn't do anything... that would make it impossible for the two sides to reconcile.
Small favors and small gifts naturally wouldn't have that kind of effect, so he had to take things one step at a time. Fan Xian was confident that Lady Liu's heart was divided into three parts. One belonged to Count Sinan, Fan Jian, and the other to Fan Sizhe. As long as they could mutually benefit from each other, Lady Liu shouldn't have too many objections. As for the assassination attempt when he was 12... Fan Xian frowned and forced himself to control his emotions. He convinced himself that the empress and the eldest princess were his true enemies.
— — —
In the Prime Minister's manor, Lin Ruofu gently stroked the snuff bottle in his hand. "This is polished from the finest emerald," he said softly. "The stopper is very clever. Although it's painted on the inside, and the work is good, it seems a little redundant." Yuan Hongdao listened to the side. He knew that the Prime Minister was referring to something. He smiled. "A new son-in-law pays his respects to his father-in-law. It's only right that he bring some gifts."
Lin Ruofu smiled and stood up. With one hand, he opened the scroll on the table. It turned out to be a painting of an old man fishing alone by the river. The river flowed without end, and the entire painting was covered in ice and snow. Next to the painting was a poem.
"A thousand mountains of birds fly, ten thousand paths of people disappear. An old man with a straw hat on a lonely boat, fishing alone by the cold river. " Lin Ruofu softly recited the poem on the painting and sighed. "Although the painting is ordinary, and the calligraphy isn't extraordinary, this poem is good. I've always heard that Fan Xian was famous for his poems, and it seems so. But with this poem, do you still think that he only brought the proper meaning between a father-in-law and son-in-law?"
Yuan Hongdao smiled bitterly. He thought that this young master Fan was really strange. He knew that the old man had just lost his son, and that his heart had not yet calmed down, and yet he had brought such a sad poem and painting. After a moment's thought, his eyes brightened. "Sir, look here." He pointed to a spot in the painting.
That spot of white ink was right beside the mountain peak. On the side of the cliff, one could faintly see two extremely thin and light ink lines in the snow, swaying and swaying, like a stalk of grass struggling to straighten its back in the snow.
"This is …?"
"This is a dot of green on the snowy cliff of the cold river," Yuan Hongdao explained with a smile.
Lin Ruofu looked at the extremely difficult to find grass in the painting, and his expression gradually softened. "It seems that even you like this young man called Fan Xian."
Yuan Hongdao was not afraid of anything. He smiled. "Young Master Fan comes from a good family, is talented, and has an excellent temperament."
"From what you say, he sounds like a perfect person." Lin Ruofu smiled and shook his head. "If Chen 'er can be happy when she marries him, then of course that's good." Suddenly, he lowered his voice. "But about that matter, are you really sure?"
Yuan Hongdao answered very seriously. "The matter at the foot of the Cang Mountains has already been confirmed. I heard that Fei Jie is currently negotiating with Dongyi."
"Yes." Lin Ruofu half-closed his eyes. "I think so too. In truth, I don't care about Fan Xian's talent or family background. I only care about his temperament and methods. As long as his temperament is good and his methods are ruthless, after I die, if he can protect the Lin family and my only son and daughter, then that's good enough."
After Lin Gong's death, the Prime Minister was actually somewhat disheartened. His eldest son was an idiot, and he couldn't see his daughter for many years. But he still had to think about his officials and his clansmen, so the kind of person Lin Wan 'er would marry was the most important thing in his mind.
"How is it outside?" Lin Ruofu asked with a gentle expression.
"Very good. It's even better than what you and I had imagined."
...
...
"Why is the sky blue?"
"Because the sea is blue."
"Why is the sea blue?"
"Because when light enters the sea, it turns blue... Hmm, don't listen to me. I don't know much about these things. I'm basically just talking nonsense."
"Why is the water in the pond clear and not blue?"
"Because the water in the pond is shallow."
"Ah?"
"Hmm?"
In the garden, Lin Wan 'er's eldest brother sat on a rattan chair. His fat body seemed to take up the entire chair. He asked Fan Xian curiously. His eyes were pure and innocent like a child's, but his eyes occasionally showed a bit of dullness.
Fan Xian knew that the eldest son of the Prime Minister's manor wasn't in good health, but he didn't realize that Wan 'er's eldest brother was actually an idiot. For some reason, the Prime Minister didn't want to see him. Fan Xian stayed in the back garden, but coincidentally ran into his brother-in-law, so he could only chat with him. He smiled and thought to himself, I wonder if this chubby idiot would occasionally get angry and beat me up.
"What's your name?" Fan Xian smiled as he looked at his idiotic brother-in-law. After chatting for a while, he realized that his reaction was actually a bit slow, like a child a few years old. He was a bit adorable, at least more adorable than the accountant, Fan Sizhe.
His brother-in-law pursed his lips, making his chubby cheeks look even rounder. Two wrinkles appeared on the sides of his lips. "My name is Da Bao. My brother is called Er Bao. Er Bao hasn't been home for a long time."
Fan Xian's heart trembled. He thought of the dead Lin Gong. In the blink of an eye, he looked at his idiotic brother-in-law in front of him, not knowing what to say.
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