Lying on the fragrant bed, Fan Xian unconsciously stroked the smooth silk surface, still digesting what his father had said earlier. Although he knew that he would encounter some troubles after coming to Kyoto, he really didn't expect things to be so troublesome.

He had originally intended to ask his father about the incident four years ago when the Liu family sent someone to poison him, but on second thought, the dirty things in noble families were often hidden beneath such cosmetics. There was no point in forcibly tearing them open. After all, in the previous conversation, he could feel that this father, whom he was meeting for the first time, had some genuine affection for him.

It seemed that sending him to Danzhou back then was because the enemy who killed his mother was still in Kyoto.

Thinking of this, a wry smile appeared on the corner of his lips—was he really going to marry that sickly woman? It seemed that he was the one using tricks and schemes against that Miss Lin.

She seemed like a very pitiful little girl.

He decided to find an opportunity to see Miss Lin. Having made this decision, his gaze fell again on the narrow box casually placed in the corner of the wall. He wondered where the key might be.

True Qi flowed slowly. The cultivation that had been stopped for dozens of days due to the journey began silently again. In the moment before entering meditation, Fan Xian thought of his father whom he had just met, and countless questions welled up in his heart.

While Fan Xian tossed and turned in the Fan residence in Kyoto for the first time, Count Sinan, Fan Jian, was also spacing out in his study. This was the first time he had seen Fan Xian in sixteen years. Seeing that clean and handsome face, Fan Jian fell into some kind of memory, unable to extricate himself for a long time, murmuring, "Xiao Ye Zi, your child has grown up. Sure enough, just like you were back then, young, yet as if he knew everything… Chen Pingping is still against him coming to Kyoto, so I took advantage of his vacation to call Xian'er back to Kyoto. Someone has guaranteed that the Ye family's assets will definitely return to his hands…"

The lamplight shone on the middle-aged man's stern face as he said softly, "Don't worry, within Qing Yu Nian, no one dares to hurt him."

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The sunlight filtered down through the clouds, sometimes bright, sometimes dim. The old trees on both sides of the road sprouted new branches, swaying gently in the wind. It was late spring, and small lotuses in the lake at the foot of the mountain were just beginning to show their faces, a vibrant green.

The Fan residence's carriage moved slowly along the road, followed by guards, giving it quite a bit of presence.

The carriage was very quiet. Fan Xian had his eyes half-closed while Ruoruo carefully peeled the thin skin off a loquat and then brought the slightly sweet and sour flesh to her brother's lips.

Fan Xian opened his mouth, swallowed it in one gulp, and quickly swallowed a few mouthfuls of saliva because of the sourness.

Fan Sizhe looked at this scene with disbelief and horror—his fifteen-year-old sister, proficient in chess, zither, calligraphy, and painting, with a great reputation in Kyoto's upper class, had always held her head high, as unyielding as an iceberg, causing countless talented men and nobles to sigh in despair—actually… actually serving that guy named Fan Xian so attentively, actually peeling loquats for him with her own hands!

Fan Ruoruo didn't know that her adoring gaze at her brother had completely fallen into her younger brother's eyes. She just instinctively wanted to make her brother more comfortable because she thought that her brother had suffered a lot in the remote border region of Danzhou for the past ten years or so. He had finally entered the capital, but was immediately going to marry that Miss Lin—in the little girl's eyes, there was no woman in this world who was truly worthy of her brother, let alone the fact that Miss Lin's health was in such a state.

Although the Fan family's eldest daughter's talent had spread far and wide in Kyoto, in her own heart, she was still that little girl who listened to ghost stories in the other residence in Danzhou. Only she knew that her brother had ten thousand poems and books in his heart. As for the excuses in the letters about Cao Gong and Su Weng… Fan Ruoruo smiled slightly, looked at her brother in front of her, and thought, "You are obviously full of talent, why won't you let me tell others?"

Fan Xian also enjoyed the warmth of his siblings. With his eyes half-closed, he also knew that his sister had long guessed that the articles like *The Story of the Stone* were "written" by him, but he was thinking about other issues.

The situation of the Fan residence in Kyoto was somewhat different from what he had expected before entering the capital. At least, the Liu family seemed to have learned a lesson to some extent from the incident four years ago, so she was very well-behaved now. And that rumoredly arrogant and unruly younger brother also seemed to obey Ruoruo's discipline and didn't make him feel particularly unbearable.

The family was quite happy.

……

……

Fan Sizhe was now curiously looking at Fan Xian's face. He admitted that this half-brother was much better looking than him, but he still strongly believed in his heart that he was the only legitimate young master of the Fan family, and this person in front of him was just an outsider.

But thinking of his sister, that sister who had always been as pure as a chrysanthemum, the sister he had always admired so much, actually admired Fan Xian so much, Fan Sizhe was a little puzzled, thinking, "Could it be that this Fan Xian really has something remarkable about him?"

"No one dares to provoke me on this street." The proud Fan Sizhe looked at the guy who was four years older than him and said with full arrogance, "You just came to Kyoto, I'll take you around for a couple of days."

Fan Xian lazily leaned back on the soft cushion and chuckled when he heard this. He originally wanted his sister to take him to see the sights of Kyoto, but he never expected that Fan Sizhe, this "younger brother," would come uninvited and insisted on staying in the carriage.

"Hey, I said little guy, why do you have to follow us?" he asked Fan Sizhe.

Fan Sizhe shouted, "Don't call me little guy, I am the legitimate young master of the Fan family."

Fan Xian curiously said, "Don't you think that you sound very uncultured when you shout like that? Even if you're afraid that I'll compete for your family property, you should play some underhanded tricks..." He touched his younger brother's head, smiled and continued, "Or learn more from your mother."

Fan Sizhe looked at the slightly shy smile on that handsome face and, for some reason, felt inexplicably scared. He shrank back, hid behind Fan Ruoruo, and thought, "This guy is too strange. Why does he speak so recklessly?"

As they were talking, the carriage arrived at a lively place in Kyoto. It was noon, there were many pedestrians on the street, and the restaurants on both sides of the road opened their doors to welcome guests. The shouts and the aroma of food came in through the curtains, tempting Fan Sizhe to clamor for food.

Teng Zijing went into the restaurant to book a table. Fan Sizhe and Fan Ruoruo, under the protection of several guards, went to the food stalls on the street to buy dough figurines. Fan Xian, however, squatted down and looked at the patterns on the columns below the restaurant, marveling. These patterns were gorgeously executed, gilded and painted, and exceptionally colorful, completely different from what he had seen in books in his previous life.

Two guards were some distance away from him, secretly watching their surroundings.

At this moment, a middle-aged woman in ordinary clothes, holding a baby, sneaked over like a thief and asked in a low voice, "Do you want books? They are all ones that the Eighth Bureau didn't approve."

This scene made Fan Xian feel very familiar, very warm, very touched, and very much at home. He raised his head and asked with infinite tenderness, "Are they Japanese or Western?"

……

……