Three marriages were merely three short interludes, it seemed. No one knew the worries in Fan Xian's heart. The mere thought of that faint possibility sent a chill down his spine, rendering him speechless. Far away in a foreign land, Uncle Wu Zhu, the only one he could confide in without reservation, was as if missing. There was simply nowhere to voice this concern.

Everything can be told to others, except for this.

In the eyes of others, Lord Fan seemed very happy, already beginning to prepare the mission's journey back to the capital. The officials thought that Lord Fan was hurrying back to prepare for his younger sister's wedding, and at the same time, wanted to seize the benefits in the post-wedding interest arrangements in the court. Who knew that beneath Fan Xian's calm and even joyful exterior, he had long escaped the initial shock and begun to do certain things step by step, as he had planned long ago.

Yan Bingyun's words were helpful to Fan Xian. Fan Xian believed that this Lord Yan was right in some ways—why think so much about the impossible—but at the same time, he said to himself in his heart, if Ruo Ruo was willing to marry, he, as her elder brother, would naturally let her marry with pomp and circumstance, happily and blissfully. Even if Li Hongcheng was caught up in the Second Prince's struggle for the throne, he would protect the Jing Wang manor's tranquility for Ruo Ruo's sake.

Of course, if Ruo Ruo didn't want to marry, then it would be a completely different story.

Having figured this out, Fan Xian regained his composure, or at least, a superficial composure.

...

...

These days, entering the palace twice was mainly to handle the first intermarriage since the establishment of the two countries. It was a major event, and no one, including Fan Xian, dared to be negligent. And what made Fan Xian feel somewhat gratified was that, under the strong pressure of the inner palace, Shen Zhong and Marquis Changning finally lowered their heads. The special agencies of the two countries had a preliminary concept on the distribution of benefits and specific measures for the abnormal channel import of northern goods in the coming year. In this plan, Fan Xian, an important figure who concurrently held the positions of the Supervisory Council and the Inner Treasury, would naturally receive the greatest benefit.

In fact, what Fan Xian was gratified about was not this matter itself, because although his future plans naturally required financial support, the profits from smuggling were actually not as great as what Fan Xian sought. What really made him happy was that since the channels were going to be changed, the output of goods from Xinyang would definitely be compressed, and the income would definitely be reduced, and the power of Princess Chang would presumably be weakened.

Fan Xian also understood that the reason why Princess Chang sat idly by while this was happening was that he had promised Xinyang to cooperate well with Shang Shanhu to rescue Xiao En, who was hiding a shocking secret—it seemed that this showed that Princess Chang still placed the interests of the Qing Kingdom court above her own interests, and this somewhat self-sacrificing approach surprised Fan Xian.

It was also during these days that the patient Yan Bingyun's coordinating ability was maximized. When Fan Xian took the case file, he could not help but exclaim in admiration. Yan Bingyun's method was very simple, but it was the safest and most appropriate means, maximizing the safety of Qing Kingdom's hidden forces in the north.

Qing Kingdom's spies were divided into many types. What Yan Bingyun controlled were the hidden spies, like the oil shopkeeper and those servants lurking in the princes' mansions, and even some officials. There was also the type of open spies, such as the bosses on Xiushui Street, and the merchants from various southern counties. They were mainly doing business, but traveling all over the world, they naturally had to feed useful information back to Qing Kingdom. In the past few days, the overt and covert agents in various places began to exert their strength, and the intelligence system that had been hibernating for a year began to awaken, immediately showing a strong investigative ability.

Everything was ready, waiting for Shang Shanhu to make his move.

Fan Xian and Yan Bingyun were sitting in the mission, drinking leisurely. Fan Xian glanced at the extremely indifferent Yan Bingyun and said, "Lord Yan, you are my subordinate after all, can you not always show me a bad face?"

"I am not a flattering subordinate," Yan Bingyun retorted coldly.

Fan Xian smiled slightly, knowing that this person who had been lurking in Northern Qi for four years had many different faces. Back then, who could have guessed that Yun, the talented scholar who frequented the homes of various princes and nobles, the young son of a maritime merchant, was actually the head of Qing Kingdom's intelligence. Such a person must be very good at socializing, a skilled and resourceful figure. The reason why he was so cold to him now was because he was his superior, not the target he wanted to deal with.

"Northern Qi is indeed very stupid," Fan Xian took a sip of tea and said, "They actually released you so early, and let you stay in the mission so peacefully for so many days. If it were me, I wouldn't exchange you for ten divisions." This was a quote from Fan Xian's previous life, so Yan Bingyun naturally didn't feel anything from it, nor did he feel any sense of gratitude.

"Perhaps they think that the court is willing to use Xiao En to exchange for me, which is already stupid enough." Thinking of this matter, Yan Bingyun was still somewhat depressed, "However, the Northern Qi people exchanged for Xiao En, but they don't use him much, and they are still thinking of ways to kill him, which is even more stupid."

Fan Xian sighed and said, "Someone once said a word, a country is like a person, it can never be a perfectly running machine, and it often changes with the mood of the ruler. The Northern Qi royal family itself has differences of opinion, but Ku He's brilliance is too great, so they will re-imprison Xiao En. If Shang Shanhu was not Xiao En's adopted son, I don't think anyone would dare to provoke the royal family's decision."

"What about you?" Yan Bingyun frowned and said, "All the way north, you clearly had the opportunity to kill Xiao En, but you let him go. Now that the other party is already in Shangjing, you want to save him, and after you save him, you want to... it's really inexplicable."

Fan Xian smiled. He wouldn't tell anyone about the secret on Xiao En. That was precisely why the process of this matter gradually seemed somewhat ridiculous and laughable.

He thought for a while and explained to Yan Bingyun, "It's like playing chess. Although in the end we all want to checkmate the opponent's general, the process and routes we use to move our troops and pawns are different, and the benefits we get from it are also different."

If he had killed Xiao En on the Mist Ferry, not to mention whether the pawn that Fan Xian was prepared to abandon at the time could still return to the country alive, Fan Xian would never know—where the Temple actually was. And this time, he used all the power of the Supervisory Council in the north to rescue Xiao En, Fan Xian just wanted to set up a common checkmating scenario on the chessboard, hoping to obtain benefits that Chen Pingping had not obtained after going around so many detours.

"If Xiao En doesn't break out of prison, the Embroidered Uniform Guard won't be able to kill him easily, after all, Shang Shanhu has a very high reputation in the Northern Qi military."

"That old ghost Xiao En is really living a pitiful life," a voice sighed, "He's old after all, not what he used to be."

"I don't recommend you take action yourself," Yan Bingyun looked at him coldly, "If Ku He really puts down his arrogance and takes action, how will you survive?"

Fan Xian was silent. He didn't dare let anyone else hear the secret in Xiao En's mouth, so he had to risk taking action himself. He tapped the coffee table slowly, closing his eyes and imagining himself as a chess player, somewhat clumsy and inexperienced, moving the chessboard. On both sides of the chessboard were of course cunning and deep-thinking people, Ku He and Princess Chang, the Empress Dowager and Shang Shanhu. Compared with these people, Fan Xian was really nothing.

But the mischievous kid didn't have any other skills, but he had the courage to overturn the chessboard.

——————————————————————

All the administrative work was completed, and the mission and the Northern Qi court breathed a sigh of relief at the same time, and began to indulge in banquets, and Fan Xian was no exception. In the peaceful Shangjing City, the only thing that seemed a bit strange was that along the banks of the Yuquan River, several suspicious murders occurred, and accompanying these murders were particularly terrifying arson attacks. For several days in a row, the firelight reddened the river water that the Northern Qi people loved so much.

Fan Xian was clear about what was hidden behind these murders. When the Qing Kingdom intelligence personnel who had been hibernating for a whole year began to act, Shen Zhong, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard garrison, must have smelled something, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard, rooted in the Shangjing population, began to make fierce but measured responses.

Yan Bingyun's dark posts, which he had set up himself back then, were estimated to have lost a part in these murders. After all, being in a foreign country, wanting to do such a big deal under the opponent's nose without alarming them was impossible. However, the entire intelligence network set up in the north was divided into several pieces, so he wasn't worried that too many strongholds would be dug out by the Northern Qi Embroidered Uniform Guard.

So Yan Bingyun's expression became more and more gloomy. The Supervisory Council's Fourth Bureau only had seventeen secret agents in Shangjing, and now they had paid such a high price for the sake of Princess Chang and Xiao En, so he couldn't help but be angry.

Fan Xian didn't comfort him, nor did he say much, just kept drinking, seeking pleasure, making merry, and calling prostitutes.

...

...

June 6th of the Great Qi Tianbao's sixth year, three sixes in a row, a very auspicious day. Fan Xian didn't believe the Western saying about demons in his previous life, so his fingers were extremely steady when fastening the cloak's collar, showing full confidence.

He carefully classified and put away his personal weapons and medicines. Part of it was in his belt, part of it was in his close-fitting underwear, and the dark crossbow that could fire three crossbow bolts at the same time was tied to his left forearm. The Supervisory Council's Third Bureau's secret smoke powder was placed in the finger-sized throwing pouch on his right wrist.

Fan Xian squinted his eyes at the metal box illuminated by the dim light on the table. After the box was opened, there were three pills, red, blue, and white, which looked a bit strange, always reminding people of some very strange things.

The red pill was not small, but the medicinal smell was already a bit faint, and he couldn't smell the specific material inside. This was what Fei Jie had given him many years ago, worrying about the domineering true energy left in his body. Fan Xian thought for a while and still hid this dragon eye-like thing in his belt.

Looking at the remaining pills, Fan Xian smiled bitterly, but still overturned his initial idea and took them all in. He might meet that Grand Master, so it was better to have as many life-saving things as possible.