Joy of Life

In the capital, Gong Dian was widely regarded as one of the strongest fighters. Throughout his life, he had experienced countless life-or-death scenarios. Never had he imagined he would encounter an opponent of such a caliber here, next to the temple, in the heavily guarded capital.

While the aura of the figure behind him was not particularly powerful, it did blend in seamlessly with the surroundings. Up until this moment of Gong Dian’s life, he had only seen his own master accomplish this feat—he and the Commander of Defense studied under the same master, who was none other than Ye Liuyun of the Four Great Grandmasters.

Gong Dian couldn’t comprehend the fact that someone the level of a grandmaster would disregard their identity and appear behind his back like an assassin!

The room was silent for a long time.

Gong Dian’s left pinky twitched slightly; he knew he couldn’t keep the thing frozen as they were. A cold light shown through his eyes!

Without any warning, he released his zhenqi. As if having turned into a grey dragon, he kicked back with his left foot and hooked with his right hand. With a clear “clang”, his blade sliced through the air, turning into a fearless slash aiming at whoever it was behind him.

With a grunt, his blade hit empty air. The mysterious grandmaster was nowhere to be found.

He had been too forceful with his inner energy. After putting all his might into that slash, there was no way for Gong Dian to immediately return to a calm state. It was as if his chest got struck my lightning. With streams of heat rushing to his head, he began bleeding from both of his nostrils.

Staring at the empty room, there was no fear in Gong Dian’s eyes, only a hint of confusion. The opponent had clearly demonstrated the ability to easily kill him, so why did they leave at the last moment?

Suddenly, he remembered the youth from yesterday as well as the boy’s methods, methods similar to his own. Gong Dian guessed that, whoever this grandmaster was, perhaps they had some connection with his master, and therefore spared him.

After a brief period of rest, he came out of the hiding room with a somewhat dejected expression, ready to return to the mansion.

Why didn’t Wu Zhu kill Gong Dian? It wasn’t because of Wu Zhu’s relationship with Gong Dian’s master, obviously. It was a fact that Wu Zhu was a beast who would go after even Ye Liuyun. The real reason was simple: Yesterday, Gong Dian made Fan Xian cough up blood, so today, Wu Zhu had come to return the favor.

———————————————————————————

It was still early when Fan Xian returned to the mansion. Fan Sizhe was still in the study room tinkering with his supposedly lucrative business. Ruoruo was off visiting some other household. In the whole courtyard, there were only maidservants paying their respects. Even though some of those maidservants were quite pretty, Fan Xian was currently in a bad mood, and what’s more, it wasn’t the right place, so he wasn’t in a joking mood.

Drinking tea with a frown, he thought: “Who was that at the temple today? What were they doing by themselves? Let me guess... That girl in white had a family member waiting for her?”

As he thought of this possibility, his chest began to heat up. But then he remembered Wu Zhu’s warning and immediately cooled down. If he were to think in the same vein, : Wu Zhu would not care about the flirty stuff; he would not give a warning unless it was something serious.

Changing into a lighter shirt and tightening the sash at his waist, Fan Xian walked into his father’s study room. To his surprise, Count Sinan was there.

“The bureau wasn’t that busy today.” Fan Jian had his son sit down, saying quietly, “You’ve been in the capital for a few days already; you shouldn’t spend all your time messing around outside. About what happened at the restaurant, I heard. Conflicts like those, avoid them as much as you can in the future. Don’t be like your failure of a younger brother.”

Fan Xian could only give a forced smile; he didn’t want to explain too much. Suddenly, he remembered something and asked, “Father, when could I go see that Miss Lin?”

As if shocked by the youth suggesting something like this, Fan Jian laughed: “After your marriage, you get to see her every day. Why the rush now?”

Fan Xian returned a cheeky grin: “That’s after marriage, though. Not knowing what the bride looks like up until we get to the bridal chamber? I don’t want that.” He thought about it a bit and laughed: “Look at my younger sister, that Ye Ling’er, and Princess Ruojia. They are often outside, what’s the big deal?”

“Young men and women, seeing each other one time isn’t too much to ask, of course.” Fan Jian explained with a smile. “But you must know that Miss Lin’s background is rather special. Although her family name is Lin, she doesn’t have too many connections with the prime ministers. Growing up in the royal palace, she was adopted by his majesty the emperor. The emperor wanted to save face and also wanted the eldest princess see her daughter all the time. While Miss Lin is a princess, she is different from that Ruojia girl.”

Fan Jian’s voice was somewhat held back: “even if there are only a few people in this world who knew she is the daughter of Eldest Princess, knew she is the daughter of Master Lin, but... no one dares to say it, neither would anyone dare admit it. Living in the palace for so many years, not many people got to see her. She didn’t move out until earlier this year, and this was because of the marriage and her bad health..”

Fan Xian sighed: “It was precisely because I heard she has bad health that I wanted to go see her. Maybe I could help out with something.”

Fan Jian knotted his brows: “you only spent a year and a half with Fei Jie, and now you’re claiming to know more than the royal doctors? Young man, you must learn to be more modest.”

Fan Xian halfheartedly replied with a “yes,” but was still unsatisfied, “But still, you have to let me see what she looks like, right?”

“You are not marrying her for her, but for the things she represents.” Fan Jian looked at Fan Xian coldly. “You must throw away all those impractical thoughts, and smash any stale feelings you have to pieces.”

Fan Xian frowned, mildly in disgust: “I feel like what you just said was stale in its own right.”

Fan Jian was slightly angry. “Excuse me?”

Fan Xian grinned and took on a respectful attitude: “as I’ve said before, I’m not easy to keep in check.”

“Don’t you want to take back everything that was yours?” Fan Jian calmed down, as if he just thought of something.

Fan Xian blanked out for a moment in surprise, then said in a serious tone, “In truth, I learned a lot while in Danzhou. I believe I am able to obtain things worthy of my abilities. If it’s to take back mother’s property, of course I will not object. But it all depends on my desire. If I want to, I would do it. If I don’t want to, I wouldn’t do it. It’s that simple.”