"Adopted orphan?" Everyone was shocked.

Fan Xian calmly responded, "It's just been a long time. After Xiao En was captured, Northern Wei was destroyed, and the world was in chaos. Shangshan Hu happened to emerge at that time." The Supervisory Council naturally had other evidence, otherwise, it would not have reached this conclusion. However, one of Fan Xian's tasks in this trip to the north was to confirm Shangshan Hu's teacher.

"No wonder Shangshan Hu is so eager to rescue Xiao En."

"This is a big problem for the Northern Qi court." Fan Xian stopped after saying this, frowning slightly. Haitang wanted Xiao En to die, the Emperor wanted to imprison Xiao En to force out the location of the Temple, and Shangshan Hu purely wanted the old man to have a happy old age. The three most powerful forces in Northern Qi, because of Xiao En alone, had become three completely different forces. It would be a real spectacle to watch.

Of course, Fan Xian also wanted to know the secrets of the Temple, so he couldn't just be a spectator.

It was late, and everyone was tired from the journey, so they began to arrange for rest. As for tomorrow's arrangements, relevant officials would naturally draft the procedures. Lin Wen just reported the important matters to Fan Xian. The most important thing tomorrow was to enter the palace to meet the Emperor, and then negotiate the exchange of prisoners at the Honglu Temple.

Fan Xian thought for a while and said, "Entering the palace is in the morning, as for the Honglu Temple in the afternoon..." He turned to Lin Jing and said, "I will have to trouble Vice Envoy Lin."

"Your Excellency?" Lin Jing looked at the Chief Envoy Fan Xian in confusion, thinking that the Chief Envoy should be present at such an important occasion as the exchange of prisoners and tribute.

Fan Xian lowered his eyes slightly and said quietly, "This official has more important things to do." There were two pieces of paper for the exchange agreement, one white and one black. Fan Xian valued the black one more. He had already handed over Xiao En and Si Lili, so he naturally wanted to immediately confirm Yan Bingyun's whereabouts.

…

…

Fan Xian sat in the carriage heading to the Northern Qi Imperial Palace, yawning constantly. He was not a delicate person who was picky about beds, but he really didn't sleep well last night. Looking at Gao Da and Wang Qinian beside him, they also seemed to be tired, so it was not difficult to imagine that the delegation members collectively had insomnia last night.

It turned out that just as he was about to go to bed last night, Wei Hua, the Vice Minister of the Honglu Temple, came again. Although he did not enter the backyard, several geishas and beauties, carrying a gust of fragrant wind, ran into the rooms of the Southern Qing lords, shocking everyone.

Fan Xian didn't know that Northern Qi actually had such a rule of accompanying guests to sleep, and was greatly frightened. Although the girl kneeling at the foot of the bed looked beautiful, with a pair of big, watery eyes that were extremely seductive, Fan Xian still couldn't bring himself to do such an absurd thing on his first day in Shangjing, so he had to ask her to leave.

After this commotion, naturally few people slept well. However, one geisha entered Lin Jing's room and never came out.

At breakfast, Fan Xian noticed that Lin Jing's complexion was not very good. Lin Jing was a little surprised and explained with a smile that the Honglu Temple had arranged it this way even when the Northern Qi delegation went to Kyoto.

…

…

Fan Xian rubbed the corners of his eyes and found that there was a lot of sleep in them. Looking at Wei Hua, who was full of energy in front of the team, he couldn't help but cursed in his heart, guessing that the other party was probably deliberately causing trouble.

Being an envoy is actually similar to being on a business trip in his previous life... Fan Xian thought to himself. The carriage was moving very steadily. He greedily opened the car window and looked at the scenery on the street. He had finally come to Shangjing in Northern Qi, but he had not even glanced at the street scene and was about to enter the palace to kowtow, which was really annoying.

After getting off the carriage and entering the Imperial Palace, he put on a smile, clasped his hands lightly, and stepped into the deep doorway. Suddenly, he saw a piece of light. In the light were layers of eaves, thousands of halls, and most of the buildings in the palace were black, with a hint of fresh ancient style in the solemnity.

Fan Xian was slightly stunned and stopped in place. Looking at the palace in front of him, just like when he first arrived outside Shangjing City, he was a little lost again. The Northern Qi Imperial Palace was indeed very different from the Qing Kingdom's Imperial Palace. It did not win by its vastness, but was layered on top of each other, looking beautiful and tranquil. It seemed that every black beam was telling the story of what had happened in this palace, and every long wooden corridor was telling the visitors how many great figures of ancient times had once walked through it lightly.

The members of the delegation fell silent. The seven Tiger Guards, because they carried long sabers, naturally could not enter the palace with them, so they stayed outside. Besides Lin Wen, Lin Jing, and Wang Qinian, who were following Fan Xian, there were also some officials from the Ministry of Rites, which were essential for the delegation.

They didn't know how long they walked, passing through long corridors, passing by flowing water by the corridors, and gradually went upwards. Finally, they arrived at the main hall of the Northern Qi Imperial Palace.

The imperial guards in front of the hall stood upright with a stern look, and it was clear at a glance that they were at least seventh-rank masters.

Outside the heavy wooden door, the head eunuch was waiting with his body half-bent.

Everyone slowed down and came to the front of the hall. The head eunuch opened his eyes, glanced at these southern barbarians weakly, flicked the duster in his hand, and shouted in a duck-like voice, "The Southern Qing envoy has arrived!"

The eunuch's voice was not loud, but the two wooden doors behind him slowly opened in response, revealing the true face of the northern power center of this continent to the guests.

…

…

The main hall of the Great Qi Imperial Palace was extremely grand, with a huge interior space. The heavy eaves above were all made of extremely expensive glass, so the sunlight penetrated into the hall without any obstruction, blowing away the gloomy atmosphere that palaces often had, making it clear and cool.

On both sides of the palace were round pillars made of some unknown material to support it. The pillars were painted black with gold patterns, and each pillar had a picture of a coiling dragon entering the clouds, which looked exquisitely beautiful.

Behind the pillars were layers of gauze curtains, and faint figures flickered behind them, not knowing whether they were palace maids or eunuchs.

As Fan Xian entered the hall, the first thing that caught his eye and impressed him deeply was the long, straight path in front of the door. On both sides of the path were actually two pools of clear water!

Under the guidance of the eunuch, the delegation moved slowly along the straight path. The Qing Kingdom officials, who were entering this palace for the first time, were inevitably shocked in their hearts, just like Fan Xian - the straight path under their feet was actually made of green jade! It was covered with gorgeous carpets, and the feeling of the soles of their feet landing on it was exceptionally gentle.

And the clear water on both sides of the straight path was even more unexpected to everyone. Such a large palace actually had two pools of water! The pool water was extremely clear, and golden fish were swimming freely in the water. If one had sharp enough eyes, like Fan Xian, one could also see that in the deepest part of the clear pool, there were two large fish, one black and one white, gracefully swinging their tails and lying on the white sand.

Vice Envoy Lin Jing looked at the scene in front of him and couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "Such a luxurious palace is enough to show the national strength and wealth that Northern Qi possesses after inheriting the inheritance of Northern Wei, the largest country back then. It is a pity that it is precisely because of the extravagance of the royal family that it has fostered the decadent atmosphere and weakness of Northern Qi, which has led to repeated defeats at the hands of our country."

After the long path was the place where the Northern Qi officials stood in court. Behind them, the water lightly rippled, a faint breeze rose in the hall, and the ground was paved with sandalwood boards, a scene of solemnity and solemnity.

In the front, high above, was the dragon throne. The Northern Qi Emperor was now watching the approaching foreign envoys with great interest.

The envoy knelt on the floor and paid homage to the enemy emperor with the etiquette of a subject, calling him "Long live."

"Rise." The Northern Emperor smiled slightly, seemingly finding it very comfortable to have the Southern Qing subjects prostrate at his feet.

Fan Xian secretly exhaled a breath and stood up, only to find a pair of eyes fixed on his face. He was a little surprised and looked back, only to find that the young emperor on the dragon throne was looking at him with a somewhat ambiguous gaze.

This young emperor of Northern Qi had only been in power for two years and should only be seventeen years old this year, the same age as himself. His literary teacher was the second son of Zhuang Mohan, and his martial arts teacher was the eldest disciple of Master Ku He, resulting in him being neither good at literature nor martial arts. This person did not like women, similar to the Emperor of Qing, was a bit playful, and mostly rewarded rather than punished his officials.

Hmm, this young emperor seemed to still believe in things like love.

These were the many pieces of information that immediately came to Fan Xian's mind when he saw the slightly immature face of the Emperor. But he immediately knew that he had been rude. When the ruler of a country was looking at him, he, as a subject, had no reason to look back at the other party.

So he quickly lowered his head slightly and stood silently to the side, but he was puzzled by the ambiguous gaze he had seen earlier.

Lin Jing's sonorous and powerful voice rang out beside him. As the Vice Envoy, he reluctantly took on all the complicated etiquette and official duties in the extremely lazy situation of the Chief Envoy Fan - what he was reciting at this time was the national letter personally drafted by the Emperor of Qing.

Fan Xian listened casually to the side, knowing that it was just some grand words, that the friendship between the two countries would last forever, brothers for generations, these lies that even Dong'er, who sold tofu in Danzhou, could not be deceived by, yet they still had to be solemnly recited.

Sure enough, the young Emperor of Qi was constantly nodding slightly, expressing his approval of his counterpart from the South.

Fan Xian sneered in his heart, but smiled respectfully and self-possessed on his face, seemingly already intoxicated by the friendly atmosphere between the two countries. Immediately afterwards, the officials of the Ministry of Rites of Northern Qi came forward in turn, and according to custom, a series of beautiful articles were uttered, and the matter was initially concluded.

But Fan Xian still felt very uncomfortable, because at this time he discovered that, in addition to the young Emperor, there were many more eyes watching him. No matter how stable his mind was, he began to wonder.

In fact, it was the Northern Qi officials who were wondering. Everyone knew that the Chief Envoy of this Southern Dynasty delegation was the poet Fan Xian, so everyone was very interested. They wanted to know what the young and romantic figure who had caused Zhuang Mohan to return to his hometown in depression looked like. Today, in the hall, this Fan Xian had remained silent, entrusting even such an important matter as reciting the national letter entirely to the Vice Envoy.

The officials could not help but become more interested in this incredibly handsome young celebrity.