The sky was a bleak, dark expanse, engulfing the entire capital in an atmosphere of somber austerity. The crispness of autumn was nowhere to be found. Instead, a relentless, chilly rain had been falling for the past three or four days, scouring the dust from the tiled roofs above the residences and cleansing the flagstone pavement below. With it, came the first breath of winter in the fifth year of the Qingli era.

Fan Xian rubbed his hands together, sitting on the second floor of the Xinfeng Pavilion. His gaze pierced through the layers of rain outside the window, focused on a government office across the street. Beyond that lay the Dali Temple. Compared to the other, this side seemed much quieter, but the officials of the Supervisory Council who went in and out wore solemn expressions, no longer displaying their earlier demeanor.

The rectification had been underway for some days. Of course, Fan Xian did not believe that merely shouting slogans and reiterating the regulations would be enough to win back the hearts of all the council clerks. So, clandestine self-examination and investigations had been ongoing. After relentlessly removing some individuals from their positions and, with even more ruthlessness, sending certain officials to the Seventh Office for interrogation, the atmosphere within the First Office finally underwent a significant shift. The intricate, clockwork-like government body finally began to operate effectively.

Fan Xian wasn't accustomed to holding court in the First Office, so he rejected Mu Tie's offer to vacate his room. Instead, he directly rented a quiet, street-facing room on the second floor of the famed Xinfeng Pavilion, directly opposite the First Office. He spent his days there, sampling snacks and passing the time, all while ensuring that he could react immediately should anything occur at the First Office.

On the table before him sat a steamer basket, about the size of two palms. Inside, lay a single bun. It was evident that this bun had a thin skin and generous filling, with eighteen pleats. It was indeed quite large, the white dough hinting at the delectable oily richness within, making it quite tempting to look at. He gently blew on the bun and used chopsticks to pry open the pleats, revealing the fresh, oily broth inside.

Fan Xian picked up a wheat straw and tilted his head, asking, "Want some broth?"

"Hot."

Fan Xian smiled and used his chopsticks to pierce the opening, carefully selecting a piece of the meat filling that had been soaking in the broth for a long time, allowing it to absorb the flavor. He placed it on a small plate and then into the bowl of the person beside him, coaxing, "Da Bao is the best. The broth is hot, but the meat isn't as hot. Still, blow on it some more."

Da Bao was very obedient, puffing out his cheeks and blowing on the meat in the bowl with all his might - "Hoo! Hoo! Hoo!"

Since his father-in-law had resigned and returned to his hometown, the Lin residence had become rather desolate. When Fan Xian was in Northern Qi, Da Bao spent most of his time in the Fan residence. After he returned, he didn't see Da Bao for several days, and he couldn't help but wonder where he was. He asked Wan'er and learned that they thought he had just returned home, so they sent Da Bao back to the Lin residence. Fan Xian was a little unhappy when he heard this. Although others would certainly not dare to make things difficult for the Lin family because of his position, the servants in those houses were the most cunning and wicked of all. Now that only Wan'er's distant relatives were taking care of the Lin residence, how could he rest assured?

It just so happened that after he took over the First Office, he was busy for many days and had no time to take care of this matter. Taking advantage of the rain today and the quiet capital, he asked Deng Ziyue to bring Da Bao out of the Lin residence and sit with him in the Xinfeng Pavilion to taste the most famous Jie Tang steamed buns in this food shop, and then return to the mansion together later.

"Stop blowing, you can eat it now." Fan Xian chuckled as he looked at his brother-in-law.

For some reason, Da Bao, whose intelligence was like that of a child, listened to Fan Xian very well. He quickly lowered his head and swallowed the meat filling in one bite, and looking at his anxious appearance, it was impossible to tell if he had tasted it.

Fan Xian looked at this scene and couldn't help but think of Zhu Bajie eating ginseng fruit, and couldn't help but laugh.

Deng Ziyue sat at another table, watching this scene, feeling a little strange in his heart. The Qinian team following Fan Xian had a total of thirty people, divided into four shifts to protect him closely. And after Deng Ziyue took over Wang Qinian's position, he stayed close to Fan Xian, so he knew best what Fan Xian had been doing these days. He thought to himself that this Director of Investigation Department he was following was really an unfathomable person. After rectifying the atmosphere of the First Office, he hadn't given any specific instructions for a long time, but just ate good food and listened to music in this Xinfeng Pavilion every day - with Fan Director Fan's status, it was somewhat unexpected and admirable that he could be so attentive to his mentally challenged brother-in-law.

Footsteps sounded loudly from downstairs. Deng Ziyue immediately woke up from his reverie, his palm tightly gripping the broadsword at his waist, his eyes like an eagle, staring at the staircase.

The person who came was Mu Tie. These days, he was responsible for investigating the office every day, reviewing those subordinates with doubts, while also comforting and maintaining everyone's morale, and also handling the task secretly entrusted by Fan Xian. He was so busy that he didn't even have time to visit brothels, his eyes were sunken, and a unhealthy gray appeared on his dark face.

Mu Tie took off his rain hat and untied his raincoat, throwing it casually in the corner beside the room door. He carefully took out a cylindrical tube from his arms. The tube was made of some unknown material, but it was obviously waterproof, because the scroll he pulled out from inside was not wet at all.

Fan Xian took it and carefully examined it line by line, his eyebrows gradually furrowing and his face becoming gloomy. At the beginning of his return to the capital, he had asked Deng Ziyue to investigate those ministers related to the Second Prince to see if they had any relationship with the Cui family. Later, after taking over the First Office, this task was directly handed over to Mu Tie, which was also regarded as a test for him.

The scroll didn't seem to have any strong evidence, which was what he expected. The other party must have done things extremely cleanly, but it seemed a little too clean. Could it be that the Cui family, as a large clan, hadn't offered any gifts to the Minister of Personnel and the Director of the Imperial Observatory all these years? Something abnormal must be a demon. Fan Xian sighed inwardly and asked, "Is everything here?"

Mu Tie nodded.

Fan Xian asked again, "Did the Second Office ask anything?"

Mu Tie glanced at him and shook his head: "The Second Office is very cooperative now, and they only think it's an order from the council, and don't know it's Director Fan's intention. Please rest assured, sir, I can guarantee that no one knows."

"Is there no information from the Second Office either?" Fan Xian then realized that he was still holding chopsticks in his hand, knowing that he was really a little nervous about this matter. He smiled self-deprecatingly and put the chopsticks on the edge of the steamer. His biggest enemy now was the Princess of Xin Yang, who was far away in Xin Yang. No one knew which day the Princess would return to the capital, so he had to confirm which of these princes in the court were on the same path as the Princess after the Crown Prince and the Princess had gradually drifted apart!

Mu Tie's tone was still respectful, but with a hint of confidence: "For the surveillance of the capital, although the Second Office is responsible for intelligence work, the source is not as good as our First Office. Please rest assured, sir."

Fan Xian nodded, signaling him to leave.

After Mu Tie left, Fan Xian looked at the densely packed small characters on the file and fell into deep thought. What was recorded above were the Cui family's bribery targets over the years, the time, the reason, and most of these capital officials in the court had entanglements, but there was no trace of the Second Prince's faction, which made him feel very headache. His intuition told him that there was a problem, but he couldn't find anything really useful from these complicated pieces of information.

Fan Xian actually knew very well that his strengths lay in assassination, wielding power, and creating momentum - in the end, beneath the gentle surface, he only had the heart of an assassin general, and not an emperor who was good at controlling and manipulating people's hearts, nor a strategist who was good at analyzing intelligence and judging strategies - knowing his weaknesses and using his strengths, this is how Fan Xian used people and how he analyzed himself.

Thinking of the meticulous plan in the capital of Northern Qi, he couldn't help but sigh and began to miss Wang Qinian, who seemed comical but actually gave him a lot of good ideas. Of course, the real mastermind of that plan was Yan Bingyun, and Fan Xian originally planned to keep him tied to his belt after returning to the capital. Who knew that the council would actually send Yan Bingyun to the Fourth Office, and let him take charge of the First Office. It had become an easy thing to squeeze the intelligence and strategies of the little Lord Yan from an official perspective.

He glanced at Da Bao and found that his brother-in-law was launching a final assault on a bowl of Zhajiang noodles. He couldn't help but smile, picked up the white bun skin without meat filling from the steamer, smeared some meat sauce on his bowl, and then quickly stuffed it into his mouth, chewing it in large mouthfuls.

Da Bao was stunned, and after discovering that a hand had skimmed over his bowl, it took him a while to react. He slowly raised his head and glanced at Fan Xian, who was full of smugness, shook his head with some resentment, and then lowered his head to continue eating noodles.

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The rain outside the Xinfeng Pavilion was still pouring down, and the rain was so heavy that it bloomed into countless clusters of mist after landing, gradually blurring people's eyes and obscuring the buildings around the street. A chill fell on the capital with the raindrops, brushing over the group of people in front of the Xinfeng Pavilion, trying to burrow into their necks and warm themselves by borrowing their bodies.

Fan Xian draped a windbreaker over Da Bao's body, carefully fastening the clasps on his neck to make sure that the cold wind would not blow in, and then patted him on the shoulder with peace of mind, and said, "Xianxian has to do something, would Da Bao like to go back to the mansion to play with Wan'er first?"

Da Bao was chewing an apple, nodded vaguely and said, "Sister is too fierce... I... Fan... Fatty play."

Fan Xian understood what he meant, laughed loudly, and thought to himself, if the officials, subjects, merchants, peddlers, prostitutes, poets of this world could all have a simple and peaceful heart like Da Bao, perhaps his life would be much simpler and easier?

After carefully entrusting Teng Zijing with a few words, the Fan mansion's carriage took the young master back to the mansion. Deng Ziyue glanced at Fan Xian and asked in a deep voice, "Sir, where are we going now?"

"To the Yan residence."