Joy of Life

Unable to sleep at night, he could hear the wind outside sing over the river.

Fan Xian gave up and opened his eyes. He whispered in the ear of the girl next to him, “What about being 20? Getting impatient?”

Hearing this, Sisi got angry and sat up in the bed. She bit a piece of hair near her lip and was so angry she couldn’t speak.

Fan Xian paused and quickly pulled her back down. He knew he had said the wrong thing. For Qing girls, most were married around 15 or 16. There were not many like Sisi, who was still a maiden at 20. Although Fan Xian always had thought that 20 was the perfect time to mature, in most people’s eyes, Sisi had already become an old maid.

Although everyone was polite to Sisi for the sake of old ancestors in Danzhou and Fan Xian, particularly in the Fan Manor, there was always talk going around. Since Fan Xian continued to not take her as a concubine, this further encouraged this atmosphere.

Thinking about this carefully, Fan Xian knew that he had not dealt with this matter well. He always thought that there was no rush, but he never thought about it from Sisi’s perspective. For a girl to be 20, even if in that other world it would be the same as a 30-year-old-virgin girl, no matter who it was, she wouldn’t be able to accept this tragic reality.

Sisi curled up her body. She ignored him and slept with a pained heart.

Fan Xian thought about it and then smiled. “Speaking of which, we haven’t lain in the same bed for two years.” Back when they were in Danzhou, although the two years elder Sisi would always sleep to one side, Fan Xian had long developed the bad habit of going to her bed to fool around for a while after getting up.

“The young master has grown up. Naturally you can’t always fool around with the servants.” Sisi buried her head into the blankets as her voice buzzed back.

“I want to fool around for a long time.” Fan Xian didn’t try to coax her, he just said warmly and gently, “With an ugly mug like mine, only you wouldn’t be disgusted with me.”

Sisi sputtered with laughter, “If you have an ugly mug, then how will all the girls under heaven survive?”

Suddenly the master and servant both fell silent. They were both thinking about how this line was Wang Xifeng’s self-disparaging comment from Story of the Stone. They slowly began to think of the times in Danzhou when each night one person would copy the book and the other would hold up the picture.

In those days, every time Fan Xian would use a delicate xiaokai to “copy” the Story of the Stone, Sisi would be beside him making ink, adjusting the light, lighting incense, and preparing a midnight snack. The two of them perfectly created the saying, “to copy books in the night with a red sleeve adding incense.” Speaking of which, Sisi was Fan Xian’s first reader in this world.

...

...

Fan Xian turned the girl’s body around and forcefully pulled her into his embrace and said, “Since you laughed, don’t cry again. Listen to me tell you the joke where a man is not even as good as an animal.”

Sisi curiously opened her eyes and waited for him to open his mouth and finish telling this famous joke. Finally, she couldn’t resist burrowing into his embrace and laughing. Mischievously she said, “Ah, so you are saying you weren’t even as good as an animal all these years.”

“Now that I think about it, that does seem to be a problem,” Fan Xian said, acknowledging his mistake. “I admit that these words are shamelessly hypocritical. Of course, most importantly is that I don’t know exactly what you were thinking.”

“What was I thinking?” Sisi was confused.

Fan Xian sighed in his heart and didn’t say anything. Suddenly Sisi understood what he was saying and was surprised, as well as moved. Although his thinking was indeed absurdly muddled, as to be prepared to consider how she felt, but...it did feel very warm.

“Young master, do you remember when we were little...and the time you hit Steward Zhou?”

“Of course I remember.” Fan Xian smiled. “That fellow, he dared to be impolite to you. See if I didn’t make him bloom with color.”

Sisi gathered the courage to look at his face and couldn’t speak for a while. After all, she was a girl; how could she say such intimate things? That day, Fan Xian had hit Steward Zhou until his face swelled, and that day, the plum flowers in Sisi’s heart also blossomed.

At that time, Fan Xian was only 12, and Sisi was no more than 14.

Fan Xian did not know what the girl was thinking and instead thought about the scene at the time. Involuntarily he said, “I really hit him hard that time.”

Sisi huddled in his embrace and laughed out loud, “You have strong hands.”

“Strong hands?” Fan Xian chuckled. His left hand lowered in the blanket and just happened to slap onto Sisi’s round, pert butt. The girl only wore light sleeping pants, and they were very thin. The palm made contact with the butt with a crisp crack.

Memories were always good, and flirting was always pleasurable. Master and servant played around like this and didn’t speak for a while. Only in the dark and quiet of the night, with the gentle fragrance of the blankets, the air started to warm up. Fan Xian finally began acting like an animal; his two hands had long been restless and began searching up and down.

...

...

“Lights—the lights are still on,” Sisi said with embarrassment.

At this moment, Fan Xian had entered the animal realm of primates and was as anxious as a monkey. Hearing those words, he stuck out his left arm and swung it back. He thought that this martial technique, the coffin-breaker, he had learned from Ye Ling’er, should be able to easily send out a breeze and extinguish that candle flame. However, he sent out the strike and the flame remained steady.

It was only then that he remembered all his zhenqi had dissipated, and he couldn’t extinguish a flame at a distance anymore. Muttering a few curses, he reached under his pillow for the small crossbow he kept in his sleeve. He turned around and pulled the trigger in a rush.

There was a soft hissing sound as the crossbow arrow flew through the flame and embedded itself in the wood of the cabin with a muffled thud. The flame immediately went out, and darkness claimed the cabin.

...

...

He had made a big mistake.

He hadn’t even had time to enjoy the sweetness of the darkness before hearing the wind whooshing outside. A number of masters gathered in a moment outside his room. He heard the sound of swords being drawn and crossbows armed.

When Fan Xian had shot at the flame, the sound of the arrow hitting the wood was light but had fallen onto the ears of these professionals and was alarming. Since there was a prince and commissioner aboard, the guards were extremely alert. From the outside came the sound of a Tiger Guard’s alert voice.

“Sir, is there a problem?”

Fan Xian rose in anger but also felt lucky that these loyal subordinates had not directly rushed into the room. He turned back to see the girl hiding a smile in the blankets and felt a great bitterness and indescribable frustration.

Not a word was said all night.

Fan Xian was up early the next morning. Today, he didn’t let Sisi help him brush his hair and put on his clothes. The girl was a little inconvenienced and could only continue resting on the bed.

Fan Xian brought in a bowl of porridge, a few pieces of cornbread, and some salted vegetables, and helped the poor girl have breakfast. Having completed what a man should do, he walked out of the cabin to the head of the ship. He gazed at the vast and mighty surface of the river and welcomed the chilly winter breeze. He felt energetic everywhere in his body and not a thread of discomfort.

After the morning fog retreated, the ship left Yingzhou. In reality, most of the people on the ship were still asleep. At this moment, Fan Xian turned his head back to look and saw that the pier had long disappeared behind a group of mountains and could not be seen.

“You rise early.” Su Wenmao spoke from the side respectfully, but his gaze flickered up and down Fan Xian’s body. The joke from last night already had spread. While no one dared say anything to his face, they all found it secretly amusing.

Fan Xian did not noticed his subordinate’s unfriendly gaze and casually exchanged a few words. His gaze shifted to the side and saw the Third Prince and Deng Zi Yue coming out of the cabin.

“Greetings, Your Highness.”

Fan Xian respectfully greeted the Third Prince, and didn’t hold back at all. He didn’t lose any discipline just because they were no longer in Jingdou.

The Third Prince had a childish beauty. He accepted this greeting with some embarrassment and didn’t move.

After Fan Xian had finished his greeting, he consciously, immediately straightened and stood steadily in front of the Third Prince without saying anything.

The Third Prince scratched his head and wrapped his hand around his fist. With much grievance, he saluted deeply to Fan Xian. “Student greets Sir Siye.”

The two of them were both beautiful but full of complicated thoughts, and their ages were far apart. After their strange ritual, they began their day aboard the ship. On this ship, other than Fan Xian’s usual subordinates, were a few tutoring serving woman from the palace and two eunuchs. They were all specially trained in the palace to serve the princes, but Fan Xian and his people were bold and forced these people to remain in the lower levels, not allowing them to come out.

On Fan Xian’s side, of the Eighth Bureaus, other than the Sixth Bureau who were responsible for the assassination security, he also had transferred two officials from the Second Bureau and Fourth Bureau. The Second Bureau official was responsible for maintaining the smooth communication of intelligence reports, and the Fourth Bureau official was responsible for communicating with the various Inspection Division officials of the Overwatch Council along the banks of the Jiangnan.

Fan Xian’s own teacher was from the Third Bureau and was now in control of the First Bureau. Thus, it meant that there was more than half of the Overwatch Council’s structure on board this ship. Although there were not many people, the different divisions worked smoothly together.

Life on the ship was boring. When this group had first left Jingdou, they were fascinated by the scenery along the river for the first few days but gradually became bored of looking. Adding to the fact that the wind on the river was very chilly, most of the people who were not on duty holed up and rested in their rooms.

Fan Xian and the Third Prince stood at the head of the boat, watching the oncoming canyon, and talked quietly about something. The Third Prince often nodded, and Fan Xian’s face appeared warm.

Su Wenmao stood behind and watched the commissioner with the prince, but he was thinking of a different matter. Why did the ship have to carry such a large chest of silver ingots?

Having finished talking, Fan Xian left the Third Prince at the head of the boat to imitate Jack and walked away.

Su Wenmao looked at the boy at the head of the ship and asked with a pained face, “Sir, if His Highness catches a cold, it will not be good.”

“I’m training his will.” Fan Xian had not been gentle to the Third Prince on this trip and maintained his distance. This not only surprised the people on the ship, but probably also struck the Third Prince as very strange.

“Sir, that chest of silver...” Su Wenmao probed.

Fan Xian shook his head, “Just guard it well. Since that woman has already seen it, just make sure no one else touches it.”

Su Wenmao acknowledged the order and didn’t continue to ask questions.

Fan Xian stretched and suddenly realized that he was sitting on a big ship with a chest of silver and was bringing a beauty to Jiangnan; it really did seem like the actions of a second generation. It was a pity that the weather was not very good, otherwise he could sunbathe and have some cold fruit juice. That would be even better.

“Guan Wumei has been locked up by us.” Su Wenmao furrowed his brows. “How can we let the head of the Jiangnan water bandits, Master Xia, know? We will arrive in Yangzhou in the afternoon. Should we inform the local official to get the message out?”

Fan Xian thought about it and shook his head. “No need, I don’t want him to know who I am for now. These criminals on the jianghu will only act carefully once they find that they can’t be sure of the other party’s inside information. What I want to see is how much he is willing to do for this matter.”

“Then...”

“Don’t let the Fourth Bureau spread the information.” Fan Xian smiled and said, “Last night, wasn’t there an aunt that was left by you in Yingzhou? Naturally, she will try to contact Xia Qifei.”

...

...

Today, the most terrified person in the Qing Kingdom was the aunt that Fan Xian spoke of.

The private ship at the Yingzhou pier had already left. The aunt stood dazed at the edge of the pier. She had a bag of not completely cured meats in her hand and didn’t even bother answering the occasional person who asked her for a price. She was a spy the bandits had placed in Yingzhou and usually was responsible for finding information. Yesterday, she was the first to figure out the situation with the chest on the ship.

It wasn’t a big deal that the ship had disappeared considering the way Sister Guan and this group of bandits did things. After they had killed the people and taken the goods, they would sail the boat away that night, beach it, and then burn it to remove all evidence.

Thus, when she saw the ship was gone this morning, she thought that Sister Guan and them had already succeeded. However, she had waited on the pier for half a day but there wasn’t any message.

Sister Guan hadn’t returned. Second brother hadn’t returned. No one had returned.

Just like that ship, all the bandits had disappeared without a trace and never appeared again. She waited all the way until dusk, but the pier remained as quiet as death.

It wasn’t until now that the aunt was sure something had gone wrong.

Her bottom lip quivered and she found it difficult to believe this reality. Even if the guards on the ship were too strong, there should have been sounds of a struggle and the officials should have reacted. How could there not have been a single sound at all? Was that ship a ghost ship that casually stole the lives of a dozen people?

That night, she changed her outfit and wrapped up her hair. She hid the valuables in her home and spent a large amount of money to rent a carriage. She traveled through the night along the difficult to traverse mountain paths heading downstream. She passed Yangzhou and did not stop, and she continued east until she reached the county that was about to enter Jiangnan Road.

This trip took her an entire two days. During the trip she only had a few sips of water and did not eat any food at all.

She was a lower-level personnel, and would have had great difficulty in meeting the master of Sister Guan, but perhaps her sunken eyes made the adviser responsible for receiving visitors believe her words. With a serious expression, he brought her to the back garden.

In the most forbidding back garden in the city, the Jiangnan water bandit, the big boss who was not yet 30, the man who was famous on the jianghu, Xia Qifei closed his eyes and listed to the aunt’s words. He slowly opened his eyes; they were cold and threatening.

“As long as that ship is still on the water, stop it.”

Ships were, naturally, always on the water.

The heroes of the Jiangnan waterways under Xia Qifei had countless ships. This order revealed a strong self-confidence as well as a faint anger.