After a long while, Ruo Ruo finally raised her head, displeased but speechless, and said, "But what about Father?"

Fan Xian frowned and said, "I'm here in Kyoto to take care of him. You can enjoy yourself for two years."

"But... will this really cancel the engagement?" Fan Ruo Ruo was still a little disbelieving.

"Ku He's face... is worth more than that eunuch emperor of Northern Qi," Fan Xian said with a smile. "Even His Majesty of Qing Yu Nian will give him some respect. Besides, you becoming a disciple of Ku He is only nominally postponing the marriage for two years, which is also a way to explain to Prince Jing's mansion."

Fan Ruo Ruo shook her head: "It's not that simple, is it?"

Fan Xian bit his thin lips in a headache. Of course, he couldn't tell his sister about the Prince and the court struggles. Otherwise, given his sister's outwardly cold but inwardly warm nature, once she heard that he was going to stir up so much trouble to "break the engagement" for her sake, she might really grit her teeth and marry him!

"The key is that you're only sixteen!" Fan Xian said righteously. "Sixteen! A little girl who hasn't even matured yet, and you're already getting married? This is blatant persecution."

Fan Ruo Ruo's complexion changed from snow-white to bright red, so ashamed that she punched him: "How can an older brother talk like that?" She mumbled for a long time, then mustered up the courage to retort: "Besides, when Sister-in-law married you, she wasn't even sixteen yet, was she?"

Fan Xian rolled his eyes, nearly fainting.

...

...

"Brother, actually... if I could really leave Kyoto and see the world, I would be very happy," Fan Ruo Ruo's eyes were filled with longing for freedom. "It's just... the thought of leaving your side makes me feel a little flustered, a little scared."

Fan Xian smiled and said, "Silly girl, everyone is always afraid before they learn to be truly independent, just like when we first learned to walk as children."

Fan Ruo Ruo covered her mouth and laughed: "Is that so? But I heard from the people in Danzhou that you learned to walk faster than anyone else when you were a child, and as soon as you learned to walk, you started running around everywhere, not afraid at all."

Fan Xian thought to himself, I'm a freak, ordinary people can't learn from me.

"Alright, I was just asking for your opinion. Since you're willing, leave this matter to me." Fan Xian stroked his sister's head and said with concern, "I will naturally handle it well. You are the unique sister of Fan Xian, and of course you must become a unique woman in this world."

Fan Ruo Ruo nodded, touched, but didn't promise anything. Suddenly, thinking of the Grandmaster Ku He accepting a disciple, she thought of that Haitang girl, and that there seemed to be something... between her brother and that girl. She couldn't help but giggle, got up and left, saying, "Sister-in-law has something for you, I'll go call her in."

Fan Xian was stunned, and watched his sister's figure disappear at the door.

Fan Ruo Ruo walked in the empty and quiet back garden, and couldn't help but look up at the sky. The thick clouds in the sky were gently pushed eastward by the wind, revealing a patch of light gray sky and the sun, which looked like it had fuzzy thorns, making people feel uncomfortable.

She reached out and stroked the neat wintergreen tree tops in the back garden, thinking that next year she might go to a foreign country, could get rid of the sticky, almost suffocating air in Kyoto, could get rid of the boring poetry gatherings of those noble ladies, could get rid of the marriage that she really couldn't imagine, her heart felt a burst of joy, but then a sudden burst of emptiness and powerlessness.

The girl's fingers clenched subconsciously, but were scratched by the thorns on the edges of the leaves, causing a slight pain. Thinking that her master had said that she must cherish these hands, she retracted her hand with lightning speed, incredibly fast. She thought to herself, whether to go north or not, let's wait for Master to come back and ask again.

———————————————————————

"What were you and Ruo Ruo talking about?" Wan'er watched her little sister-in-law walk away, tiptoed into the room, and asked mysteriously.

Fan Xian replied mysteriously: "...Can't say."

Wan'er was annoyed, sat in front of the dressing table, and reached for a comb to start combing her hair. Fan Xian walked forward with a smile, took the comb and helped her comb her hair. The wooden teeth of the comb glided smoothly through his wife's long hair, without any hindrance.

Fan Xian said strangely, "Your and your sister's hair is pretty good."

Wan'er smiled and said, "It's all thanks to the set of tools you made in Danzhou, Husband. It's convenient to wash your hair, so it's naturally well maintained."

Fan Xian didn't believe it, leaned closer to smell it, and found that it really was a faint fragrance, with no peculiar smell. Wan'er was annoyed and pretended to hit him: "This shows that you haven't been attentive when you're close to me on weekdays."

Fan Xian stood behind her, focusing his gaze on his wife's chest, passing through the slightly open collar, and saw a touch of whiteness. His heart fluttered, and he said teasingly, "Closeness doesn't necessarily mean being attentive, you can also use your eyes."

Lin Wan'er heard the meaning in her husband's words, and tied her collar in annoyance. She didn't dress casually at home, but she didn't expect that her pervert husband would be so clever as to occupy the best terrain.

Fan Xian hugged his wife in his arms, deeply smelling her scent, took a few deep breaths, and said with a bitter face, "These past few days, I always feel like I'm extremely eager for something, but I can't find the source."

Lin Wan'er thought he was talking about that kind of shameful thing, spat, and wanted to break free from his embrace, but couldn't break free from his iron arms. Fan Xian giggled and said, "Don't be petty, I can't tell you about the things I discussed with my sister yet, you will naturally know in the future."

Lin Wan'er opened her curious eyes: "So cautious?"

Fan Xian looked bitter: "It's more like the biggest mess in the world." He remembered what his sister had said earlier, and couldn't help but ask curiously, "My sister said you had something for me, what is it?"

Lin Wan'er gritted her teeth in anger: "That little traitor, I wanted to see how you've been performing recently before deciding whether or not to give it to you."

Fan Xian chuckled and said, "Anyway, it's for me, please reward it to me, Princess."

Lin Wan'er pouted her fleshy mouth: "I won't give it."

A mischievous smile gradually appeared on Fan Xian's face, and his hands groped around her soft and greasy waist, twisting and rubbing. After a burst of flustered screams, Wan'er finally gave in, panting, and took out something from her arms and threw it at Fan Xian's face, saying, "Here, let me down quickly!"

A fragrant breeze blew over his face, and a handkerchief covered his face. Fan Xian subconsciously loosened his hands, pulled it down, and was stunned.

A handkerchief embroidered with a pair of mandarin ducks swimming in the blue waves.

The cloth was good cloth, the palace tribute, the world's best presented by the Jiangnan weaving factory.

The thread was good thread, whether gold, yellow, red, or green, you could see the texture of the thread, which must have been carefully selected in Suzhou Prefecture.

The meaning was also good, mandarin ducks in pairs, rippling blue waves, and a peach branch hanging over the water, with two or three pink flowers blooming.

It's just.

...

...

This needlework is really... not that great!

You could see the stitches jumping back and forth, and the dense small holes next to the threads clearly proved that the embroiderer had regretted countless stitches. Even so, the embroidered lines were still crooked, with no roundness at all, forcibly embroidering this pair of mandarin ducks, which should have been peaceful, into ridiculous-looking strange water birds, and forcibly embroidering those few pink peaches into post-modern deconstructionist color clusters!

Fan Xian widened his eyes and looked at the embroidered handkerchief - that wave of blue water was actually just a few flat water lines, which were embroidered well, but why was yellow thread used?

Could it be that this is a deformed water bird group in the Yellow River?

Bearing it again and again, Fan Xian looked at it again and again, and finally couldn't help but burst into a series of hearty laughs!

...

...

The laughter spread throughout the entire mansion. Wan'er, who was very self-aware, had already shyly hid in her little sister-in-law's room, but hearing this humiliating laughter, courage rose from her gall, and she mustered up her heroic courage, strode back to the room, put her hands on her hips and pointed at Fan Xian's nose, scolding, "Don't laugh!"

Fan Xian looked at his wife's puffed cheeks, laughed so hard that he couldn't stop, quickly covered his mouth with one hand and his stomach with the other, leaning back and forth on the chair like a tumbler.

Lin Wan'er was both ashamed and annoyed and wanted to laugh. She rushed forward and tried to snatch the embroidered handkerchief from Fan Xian's hand. How could Fan Xian let her? He grabbed it and pulled it back into his arms, and finally stopped laughing. He said seriously, "Good Wan'er, this is the first thing you embroidered for your husband. Since you gave it away, you can't take it back."

Lin Wan'er was born into a noble family and grew up in the palace. She had always been served by nannies and palace maids, and had never done needlework. Therefore, thinking that his wife had embroidered a handkerchief for him, although the needlework was really rough, the deep affection contained in it really moved Fan Xian.

He took his wife's hands with distress, looked at the red dots on the tips of her fingers, and blew on her white scallion fingertips with distress, saying, "Don't embroider next time, I'll embroider for you. I learned it for a few days in Danzhou when I had nothing to do."

Lin Wan'er felt extremely warm in her heart when she saw his concerned expression, but she was extremely depressed when she heard these words, and muttered, "I married a husband who is even more beautiful than myself, and you can even do needlework, so meticulous..." She pouted her mouth, almost crying, "Fan Xian! Do you want me to live or not?"

"Little fool," Fan Xian pinched her soft cheeks affectionately, and said, "If you don't want to live like this, then I think all the young ladies in Kyoto will commit suicide collectively. Who can you compare with? Comparing with a genius like me, you must know that your husband can break generals in martial arts, compose poems in writing, be bold enough to make a big fuss in officialdom, and sit quietly to embroider when he's quiet... Who am I? I am an unparalleled genius."

Listening to him bragging and putting on a disgusting narcissistic look, Lin Wan'er burst into tears and smiled, poked his brow with a finger, and said, "Look at how proud you are."

Fan Xian raised his eyebrows, indescribably cheap: "I can marry you, of course I have to be as proud as I can."

Lin Wan'er suddenly froze, and reached out to touch his arms.

Fan Xian stretched out his hand to protect his virginity, and said in a panic, "You said you would give it to me, why are you still snatching it?"

A look of triumph suddenly flashed in Lin Wan'er's eyes: "I'm not snatching mine, I'm snatching yours."

Fan Xian was stunned, and watched Lin Wan'er take out a floral headscarf from her arms, which he had stolen from Haitang's head when he left Shangjing. Lin Wan'er looked at him with a bright smile: "Since you want mine, then I'll keep this one."

Fan Xian's mind buzzed, and he realized that the reason why his wife endured the pain in her fingers and kept secretly embroidering this handkerchief was actually... because she was jealous! Although he and Haitang didn't have any romantic relationship, he was speechless at this moment with the evidence in hand, and didn't know how to defend himself. He could only stammer, "Wan'er, you misunderstood. I told you before that Haitang is very unremarkable. How could your husband fall for her?"

Lin Wan'er snorted from her nose and said, "Your taste has always been different from others. I always thought it was strange when you praised me for being beautiful every day, but I just thought you were sweet-talking and coaxing people. Who knew that I learned from Ruo Ruo later that you really think I'm... beautiful! It can be seen that your vision is different from others, who would believe you."

Fan Xian pretended to be angry and said, "Who dares to say that my wife is not beautiful?"

Lin Wan'er shrugged his shoulders, imitating his usual behavior: "No one has ever thought I was beautiful."

Fan Xian scratched his head and asked cautiously, "Could it be... that there's really something wrong with my vision?"

Lin Wan'er covered her mouth and smiled, and suddenly said seriously, "Don't interrupt." She waved the Haitang's floral headscarf in her hand and said triumphantly, "This one is mine, you have no objection, right?"

Fan Xian said with a bitter face, "No objection, no objection."

Lin Wan'er smiled and walked towards the door. When she got to the door, she suddenly turned around and said, "Either bring that Haitang girl into the house, or give up this idea. A real man keeps a handkerchief as a memento every day, without any courage. Even I, as your wife, am embarrassed for you."

Fan Xian waved and gave her a flying kiss, and ridiculed, "This shows that I am much purer than you."

Lin Wan'er spat at him.

Fan Xian suddenly thought of something important and asked nervously, "Wan'er, I remember you just had your birthday, so you should be sixteen when we got married, right?"

Lin Wan'er opened her big eyes curiously and nodded.

Fan Xian patted his chest and said, "That's good, that's good."

...

...

The next day, outside the Fan residence, in a carriage.

"Sir, where are we going?" Shi Chanli asked his teacher with some headache, because his teacher had a smile on his lips today, looking very sinister, and he didn't know what he was planning in his heart. Kyoto is not very quiet now, doesn't the teacher still want to stop?

Fan Xian looked at the embroidered handkerchief in his hand, and smiled to himself as he looked at the deformed water bird on it, but his heart was a little painful. The headscarf from Haitang's head, that was a ninth-rank expert! He took such a big risk to steal it, and as a result, it was confiscated by his wife all at once.

He raised his head, looked at Shi Chanli and Deng Ziyue's questioning eyes, and then came back to his senses, bit his teeth, and said hatefully, "Go! Go to Bao Yue Tower to see... This official's family is not going well, I want to relax, and by the way, discuss the art of embroidery with the girls in the building."