The content of Haitang's letter was simple, and the wording and sentence structure weren't ancient at all, but rather followed the contemporary style of Fan Anzhi's understated approach. The entire text is copied below.

"Is Anzhi well?"

"The previous letter has been received. Your country's postal service is indeed incredibly convenient. A month's journey actually took only ten days. Counting backward, you said that it was the first snow in Kyoto when you wrote the letter. Here in Shangjing, it has snowed several times already, and it hasn't stopped, making the weather bitterly cold and tiresome."

"I have a strange quirk. Others might get sleepy easily in spring and autumn, but I like to get sleepy in winter. Not for any particular reason, but just because the snow outside is heavy, and all the green is covered by the monotonous white. There's no beautiful scenery to please the eyes, no branches to break off to make a wreath, no small flowers to get close to and smell. Although there are a few plum blossoms in the garden, this year the Qi Dynasty is colder than usual, and those few crimson buds are blooming miserably. Frozen by the ice and snow, they have no spirit at all, and I can't bring myself to appreciate them."

"That donkey you saw has already been sold. Don't worry, the little ones are still helping to pull the stone mill. Anyway, there aren't many soybeans, so they only need to turn it about fifty times a day. I used the money from selling the donkey to buy some bamboo charcoal. You said that if the house isn't well-ventilated, it's easy to get poisoned, so I made a chimney according to the drawing you sent. I have to say, the air in the house is really much better."

"The chicks have already grown up, but I'm still worried about them getting cold, so they're all kept inside the house. Naturally, the smell isn't very pleasant, but as you know, I have a servant now, so they clean and tidy up every day, and it's still manageable."

"Lord Wang has visited the garden a few times, saying he wants to invite me to dinner, but you said he can't drink alcohol. After thinking about it, I refused. After all, you know I like watching people drink, especially watching people get drunk."

"Half a year ago, at the Songju Restaurant, I really liked that little verse you hummed after you got drunk. It was the judgment from *The Story of the Stone*, 'Leave Qing Yu Nian.' A few days ago, I sang this judgment to my teacher, and he liked it very much too, saying that Qiao Jie's child's life was pitiful, with hidden delights in it, worth pondering. That day, the wind and snow outside were heavy, and the cold invaded the house. I sat with my teacher, drinking tea and laughing about affairs of state. It was quite pleasant. I don't know why, but I thought of the days I spent traveling with you in Shangjing a few months ago. It was all pure and natural, and it felt extremely beautiful, as if I was seeing you see that bright moon, that small temple, that field ridge, you running from inside the ridge to outside the ridge in a miserable state."

"Oh, there's news that surprised me. I heard that the remains of Lord Xiao En have been found in the cliffs of West Mountain. Although they have already been buried, I thought I should tell you since you once traveled to the North with this old man, so that you can be at peace."

When Fan Xian read this, he only felt a bit strange. It seemed that the village girl was hiding many secret meanings in her words. He was shocked by his younger brother's pitiful life as a beast of burden, so he laughed silently and didn't notice. Immediately afterward, he was pleasantly surprised by Haitang's words. Could it be that she was really willing to pass on the Heavenly One Dao's mental cultivation method to him?

Therefore, he hadn't yet guessed the real information that Haitang wanted to convey, but he tasted it again and finally smelled a bad omen in the words "Xiao En's body was found," "Ku He discussed me," and "riddles."

Especially the sentence, "Qiao Jie's child's life was pitiful, with hidden delights in it!"

He frowned and reread it, finally focusing his gaze on the sentence about the bright moon, small temple, and field ridge. The appearance of this sentence was really a bit abrupt and didn't quite fit with the previous or following text. This sentence was talking about the most embarrassing scene in Fan Xian's life. After being drugged with aphrodisiacs, he ran out of that small temple in a mess, pulling up his pants. At that time, frogs were croaking, and the field mud was wet.

This... should be what Haitang wants to tell me.

"Running from inside the field ridge to outside the field?"

Fan Xian frowned. A flash of inspiration struck his mind. He discarded the three useless words "bright moon temple before drinking" and only looked at the last sentence. For Fan Xian, this kind of word puzzle seemed very simple. Running out of the field, that was naturally an ancient character.

No, it was the character 叶 (Ye)!

……

……

The 叶 (Ye) of lotus leaf, the 叶 (Ye) of lotus leaf... the 叶 (Ye) of Ye Qingmei!

Fan Xian's face was full of shock. The fingers holding the letter trembled slightly. Thinking of the secret meanings in the letter, such as "life experience," he immediately understood what Haitang was trying to tell him.

Ku He knows that I am a descendant of the Ye family!

———————————————————————

He took a deep breath, rubbed his somewhat stiff cheeks, and forced himself to calm down, so as not to be thrown into disarray by this sudden news.

The meaning in Haitang's letter was very clear, and since she was secretly informing him, it meant that Ku He, who had already grasped the secret of his life experience, already had a plan to release this news. That was why she was in such a hurry to tell him, so that he could make preparations as soon as possible.

At this time, he didn't have time to guess where that Grandmaster had gotten the ability to judge his relationship with the Ye family. The most important problem facing Fan Xian was: how should he face the situation that followed!

Judging from the time, the news from the Northern Qi side that he was a descendant of the Ye family would spread like wildfire, at most a few days slower than the Overwatch Council's intelligence lines. Within ten days at the latest, this news would surely be circulating in the streets and alleys of Kyoto, and everyone would be gaping in shock behind his back.

Originally, in theory, no one would be able to obtain any real evidence, and no one would be able to definitively say that Fan Xian was a descendant of the Ye family. At most, the Northern Qi side would just spread some rumors. But Fan Xian himself knew that the lethality of rumors was extremely high. Once the incident occurred, people would deliberately and extremely dig into some of the strange things that had happened to him since he entered Kyoto because of this rumor, thereby gradually believing this fact.

What's more, this was originally the truth.

The human heart is a very strange thing. Before anyone thought of something, they naturally wouldn't associate Fan Xian with the Ye family for no reason. But once someone opened this door, this seed of suspicion would be planted in the heart, gradually taking root and sprouting, occupying the entire heart, thereby turning a rumor into a universally recognized cognition that no one dared to speak out.

And for those people of that year, those people in the palace, the people who had conflicts of interest with him... the fact that he was a descendant of the Ye family would definitely make them suddenly realize and feel as if the clouds had parted and the moon was shining brightly. They were the ones who would believe this matter the most.

He just didn't know how the other party would use his life experience.

……

……

Fan Xian's lips were a little dry. He turned back and picked up the teapot on the table, gulping down two mouthfuls. The tea had been refilled by Shi Chanli later, so it was a little hot, scalding him so much that he shivered. After a moment of daze, he threw the teapot to the ground fiercely, cursing a few times.

With a bang, the porcelain teapot fell to the ground and shattered to pieces, porcelain shards splashing everywhere.

It wasn't that he hadn't thought about his mysterious life experience, that there would always be a day when it would be exposed. Moreover, he was even more looking forward to the half about the Ye family. One day, he would shout it out loud in front of the people of the world—that he was Ye Qingmei's son.

However, it shouldn't be this kind of situation.

Before Fan Xian was fully prepared mentally and action-wise, this shocking news would spread throughout Kyoto, bringing him unpredictable dangers and strong shocks. No one could know what would happen. Fan Xian hated this passive feeling, and he was even a little afraid that the situation was out of his complete control for the first time.

That was why he felt helpless anger.

His feet stepped over the broken porcelain shards, and he walked expressionlessly to the open glass window, looking at the cold snow and north wind outside. He remained silent for a long time, taking deep breaths countless times, finally calmed down, and began to prepare to face this sudden situation.

At this time, the maids who had heard the sound from his room rushed over. They were frightened by his ugly face and were too afraid to enter the room to clean up.

Fan Xian shook his head and waved for the maids to retreat. He picked up the stack of letters again, preparing to destroy them all. As usual, he put his palms together, wanting to rub the letters into powder, but the letters were rubbed into a scroll, but they didn't break.

He was slightly stunned, and a wry smile appeared on his lips. Haitang's letter had given him too much shock, so much so that he had forgotten his pitiful state of having no true qi in his body.

————————————————————————

Bypassing the corridor, he came to the quietest room in the manor. Fan Xian didn't knock, but directly pushed the door open. Although he had no true power, he had brute strength. The door frame creaked and broke crisply.

Fei Jie, who was carefully preparing medicinal pills in the room, raised his somewhat tired face, looked at his student, and coughed, "...What's wrong? Why are you so flustered?"

Fan Xian glanced at his teacher and said directly, "Teacher, something big is going to happen."

Fei Jie was shocked. He wondered what could make this little monster so panicked. After Fan Xian told him about the news that Haitang had risked sending, Fei Jie also panicked immediately, rubbing his hands full of medicinal powder, twisting strands of his messy hair as if competing with himself, unable to say anything for a long time.

Looking at this scene, Fan Xian couldn't help but sigh secretly. He knew that coming to his teacher in a moment of desperation was not a good idea. Fei Jie's skill in refining poison and killing people was at the Grandmaster level, but when it came to making decisions in the face of events, scheming against enemies, it was really not his forte.

"I'm going down the mountain immediately."

"I'm going down the mountain immediately."

The teacher and student said at the same time, looked at each other, and immediately understood each other's meaning. Fei Jie narrowed his eyes, and a murderous intent arose in his brown eyes: "I'll go to Chen Garden, you go find Lord Shangshu, and we'll proceed separately."

Yes, as the situation developed into this, the teacher and student simultaneously thought of the two old foxes in Kyoto. Fan Xian bowed with a somewhat headache and turned to order his subordinates to arrange for a carriage.

Just as he was about to leave, Fei Jie suddenly said, "Don't be afraid."

Fan Xian turned his head in astonishment.

Fei Jie said in a shrill voice, with a sinister, mocking tone, "Don't be afraid, little guy. The things of more than ten years ago won't happen again. If we teachers and students poison tens of thousands of people and then kill our way out of Kyoto, who can stop us?"

Fan Xian shivered, thinking that his teacher was indeed wholeheartedly on his side, but he was afraid that he didn't have his teacher's ruthless heart.

……

……

Without having time to say hello to the ladies in the manor, only saying hello to Sisi, who was embroidering, Fan Xian and Fei Jie rode in two carriages separately and went down the Cangshan Mountains along the difficult mountain snow road. Along the way, the wheels crushed countless pieces of ice, stirring up a few strands of cold mud.

The guarding guards were divided into two groups, half of the swordsmen from the Sixth Bureau followed the two down the mountain, while Gao Da and the other Tiger Guards were carefully left on the mountain by Fan Xian.

At dusk, Fei Jie's carriage, under strict defense, entered the manor in the suburbs of Kyoto that was more luxurious and refined than the imperial palace.

"Elder Fei?" The old servant guarding the gate looked at Lord Fei getting out of the carriage with a face full of coldness, and couldn't help but feel a little puzzled, not knowing what had happened.

Before long, the lights in the garden were brightly lit. Fei Jie and Chen Pingping, who was in a wheelchair, left the garden gate with gloomy faces and got into the carriage under the protection of the accompanying guards.

"Enter the palace." Chen Pingping said in a cold voice, but as soon as he finished saying this, his face suddenly softened, and he said softly, "I thought it was a big deal, that it was worth you two old and young being so flustered."

Fei Jie rubbed his hands in surprise and said, "If this isn't a big deal, then what is?"

Chen Pingping gently stroked the smooth armrest of the wheelchair and mocked, "You old fellow soak in medicine all day long, it's okay if you can't figure it out for a while. But Fan Xian has greatly disappointed this old man. With just a little care, he would know that this matter is harmless... well, well, he's just a child, this matter has been pressing on his heart for too long. Once it's exposed, it's inevitable that he'll be a little frightened."

The carriage drove toward Kyoto City with a *da da da* sound. Before long, it entered the city gate. The city gate had not yet been closed at this time. Of course, even if it had been closed, the Kyoto Garrison Qin family would not dare to stop the Director of the Overwatch Council from entering Kyoto.

When the carriage was about to reach the imperial palace, Chen Pingping opened his eyes, which had been closed to rest, and said lightly, "This is not a bad thing, it's a good thing."

Fei Jie shook his head, "I don't care anymore, I'm going to the Council now to have the people from the Eighth Bureau prepare."

The sound of unlocking keys came from the palace gate. Chen Pingping had the exclusive right to enter the palace at any time to report matters, and his position was detached. The old man listened to this familiar sound, expressionless, and said, "After the news spreads to Kyoto, let them suppress it for two days first. At least this kind of superficial effort has to be made for people to see. As for Fan Xian's life experience... it will be revealed one day. This time is the best time."

Inside the study of the Fan residence, Fan Jian, the Minister of Revenue of the Qing Kingdom, was sipping *suan jiang zi* while looking at Fan Xian in front of him, a mocking smile on his lips: "I've finally seen you looking anxious. As a father, I always thought your heart was made of ice and snow."

Fan Xian smiled wryly, "Father, why are you still joking at this time? When the news spreads to Kyoto, what exactly should we do?" He looked into his father's eyes and said faintly after a long silence, "Since you've been hiding this matter from the world for so many years, it must be that someone doesn't want me to appear."

Fan Jian gazed at his son with clear eyes and said softly, "But the reality is that you have already appeared, and you have appeared very beautifully. Your relationship with the Ye family can't be hidden forever. If we have to choose a time to reveal it, as a father, I think the present... is the best time."