Joy of Life

These days, the Overwatch Council was under Commissioner Fan’s wise lead and Yan Bingyun’s command. They worked their hardest to unceremoniously tear the second prince’s party to shreds, from the officers in his employ and all aspects of his economic beneficiaries. They took advantage of recent events, such as the Bao Yue brothel incident and the assassination outside of the capital government building. They took the battlegrounds to courts and did all they could to bring down his business, digging deep into the swamp of his soul and conspiring as best they could to make the second prince relent.

The first thing, as everyone expected, was for Xie Bian – one of the eight guardians of the second prince – to die in the capital government prison. This created an excellent portal of opportunity for the Overwatch Council’s joint committee to send three decrees to the palace. The capital prefect Tian Jingmu’s career was brought to a standstill while he was thoroughly investigated.

The stupid way in which the second prince sought to save himself made the Overwatch Council able to remove the pillars of support he had, one by one. Yan Bingyun had also started to use another method as well to successfully control the cut-off point for Xinyang to support the capital. It forced the Cui family to worry about a big amount of money they would be losing every day, so they had to use the money from Jiangnan to buy off a route to the north that was stopped because of Shenzhong’s death. Because of all this, the second prince’s income saw a steep decline.

On the other hand, it would be a big disadvantage for the second prince’s party. Although there were people who were pretty good at playing mind games in his manor, they were no match to the professionals of the Overwatch Council. Compared to the advocates of the Overwatch Council, the people that the manor sent out to restaurants did not really have the power to bewitch others. Although the Overwatch Council was known to be cruel and their image was quite menacing, the populace stood firmly in Fan Xian’s court. They were of the mind that the second master of the Fan family was now little more than a scapegoat for the second prince. This is why they thought that Fan Xian would strike back.

And Hongcheng... that poor crown prince of King Jing; his reputation was now low enough for others to view with disgust. Who told him to have a relationship with Yang Meng? Everyone in the capital knew that in the spring of next year, Li Hongcheng was supposed to marry the lady of the Fan family. But he employed Fan Sizhe, a fourteen year old boy, to open a brothel and make him shoulder the homicides of murdered prostitutes... Who in this world could be so obscene as to use the brother of his brother-in-law in such a manner?

Now, it did not matter if you were in the field of politics or not; you could see that the second prince and his party were being beaten badly. Their morale was at an all-time low, and they lacked the necessary power and cunning to fight back effectively. The only thing they tried to do was make use of the Imperial Censorate, which was something that the eldest princess controlled. But the efforts of those censors were all wasted. Everything that the Overwatch Council did was done under the jurisdiction and realms of authority they had been granted. Try as they did, there was nothing illegal they could find. And in regards to the nighttime assassination of the three witnesses, it was a dead-end case. Even though people could guess that it was most likely done by the Overwatch Council, there was no evidence to prove this assumption.

The Overwatch Council’s stance on that assassination was made quite clear, however. Those three people were delivered to the capital government’s Yamen by Commissioner Fan’s family. If people said there was a problem, the ally of the second prince, prefect Tian Jingmu, is who would look the most suspicious.

As to how everything had turned out so far, Fan Xian was very pleased. It would be impossible for Fan Xian to remove the second prince from the capital entirely, but the damage done to his reputation could not be any worse. If he could weaken the second prince’s power and authority to the point where he could not threaten or retaliate, and make him speechless in retribution for the damage he had done to the Fan family, Fan Xian was willing to call it even.

At this time, the scary strength of the Overwatch Council was only glimpsed upon.

The reason why this operation went well was because Chen Pingping bestowed complete authority of the Overwatch Council to Fan Xian. What was most important to note, however, was that Fan Xian’s arrangements and deeds now began their conception when he was still in the north in Shangjing. At the start of autumn, Fan Xian and Yan Bingyun had already done much preparation. They delivered a decree that made mention of the relationship between the second prince and eldest princess. The Emperor ignored it, though. But this time, because of what happened with the Bao Yue brothel, Fan Xian used his anger as fuel for the advancement of his schemes.

He was like a gale force wind striking a thin wisp of cloud. If the Overwatch Council did not win this battle, Fan Xian feared Chen Pingping would leap out of his wheelchair to yell at all the little bastards for tarnishing the reputation of the organization.

...

...

The palace had been strangely quiet recent, the second prince’s mother Shu Guifei and the eastern palace’s prince included. Even the Empress in the palace and all the nobles around looked as if they were both blind and deaf. They were being extremely cautious, not saying much of anything out of fear. They were all waiting to see what stance the Emperor himself would take regarding this affair.

What was the Emperor doing?

News came from the palace saying that the Emperor had hired a troupe of actors from Jiangnan to visit the palace and enact certain dramas. The capital was in chaos, yet the Emperor had the time to spend the day with the Empress Dowager to watch theatre? Who knew how much money he tipped the actors, but the Emperor had been visibly happy and relaxed.

When he finally took notice of the situation of higher priority, though, he thought little of it. He didn’t think the matters were worth getting involved in, and he thought they were the petty issues of youths squabbling in the capital; it was nothing new, he believed. It wasn’t as entertaining as the dramas that were played for him, either way.

The people viewed this situation clearly. The officers who had stayed neutral the entire time used their heads and uncovered the truth. The Emperor cared for Fan Xian an incredible amount. After all, who was the opponent of Fan Xian? It was the second prince, his son. The Emperor was willing to sit there and let all this happen due to an unbelievable amount of favoritism.

Those people would not dare to offend the second prince, either. So they had to walk a tightrope so as not to displease either side of the battle. Like a really strong blade of grass that was unwilling to bend to the forces of the wind.

This truth made the second prince exhale countless breaths of cold air, knowing that the power he had built over the many years in the palace was slipping away. And to make matters worse, his father was turning a blind eye. This made him start thinking that Fan Xian had selectively picked a fight with him ever since his return from the north, and was it possibly at the request of others in the palace? But the second prince was an evil person, and he knew the situation was so bad that he had been pushed into a corner and he was unable to step back any further. Although he could let go of his pride as a prince and attempt to parlay and call for peace with Fan Xian, he didn’t think he would accept. And the Emperor’s lack of care towards the entire affair disintegrated the resolve of the second prince, making him fear the possibility that if he was not able to bring Fan Xian down, then he’d have no choice but to sit there and await his imminent doom. It was exactly as he said in the tea shop.

Under this great pressure, the second prince still managed to strike out again. The Imperial Censorates censors worked to try and impeach Fan Xian once more. And this time, the crime they could use was a real one and the evidence they had to incriminate him was solid. It was related to Fan Sizhe and even the Ministry of Personnel’s shangshu Fan Jing. The snow-white decree was being delivered, bypassing the Ministry of Punishment and Supreme Court as it should not have. They asked the Fan’s father and son to quit their jobs for the crime they were targeting them for. The situation that was being created was of one of a final spar. Both sides would have to go all-in to decide an outcome where either the second prince won or Fan Xian.

Today, a few dozen officers joined the movement to impeach Fan Xian. It was a greater turnout than last time. They all kneeled in front of the palace gate, but there was no rain on this day. The few dozen blue uniforms stood out far more in the palace alongside the blue stone floor, and it made the officers who were walking towards the gate shake their heads and move away; they did not want to get involved.

By the Qing Kingdom’s law, the officers who were being tried for impeachment had to defend themselves. Now, the Fan family’s father and son had to go the palace and present a defense before the Emperor and the people present in court. But inside the court, the second prince’s party still made up the majority. It would be difficult for the Fan family’s father and son to debate.

The Imperial Censorate’s censors were all confident, waiting for Fan Jing and Fan Xian to appear. They thought that these biggest, most corrupt officers would surely fall and be struck down by them. This was different from the last time, though, because now they had strong evidence provided by the second prince himself. It was enough to prove that the Fan family and possibly even Liu’s family had a connection to the horrible Bao Yue brothel.

The censors remained kneeling, awaiting the arrival of Fan Xian and Fan Jing. Even though the Fan family had sent away Fan Sizhe, sold off the Bao Yue brothel and had the Emperor already absolve them of their crimes, the evidence they now available would mean the Fan family would have to pay a grievous price. And so, they waited for the cocky Overwatch Council commissioner to show up and admit his crimes and lower his head in guilt and shame before them.

It wasn’t only the Imperial Censorate’s censors who had come to watch this either. A lot of others had shown up. While the Fan manor and Overwatch Council were really popular, how were they going to face this menacing order of impeachment? The officers wanted their level of reputation, but if they were to be pinned-down by the Imperial Censorate, it would be an embarrassing thing indeed. Everyone knew Fan Xian was a person who took reputation seriously, so the officers who had come to watch were quite interested in seeing how Fan Xian would react. Even Shu Wu, the Big Scholar, was present and full of evil thoughts. He could not wait to see Fan Xian’s face turn to one of scorn and shame.

...

...

What no one expected, however, was Fan Xian and Minister Fan not showing up at all. This father and son was incredibly deft and tactical, though, and so what they did was use an obscene move. It was called the “sick leave”.

Hearing this, the second prince was the first to freeze. He did not expect that the Fan family to be as wily as foxes as they were ferocious as a wolves. He did not expect them to be so shameless as to not show up and grant the second prince a chance of earning back his reputation.

The Great Scholar Shu Wu, who was hiding in the corner drinking tea in the forum like usual, spat out a mouthful when hearing the news. That day, he went to the Imperial College to have a few matches of chess with Fan Xian, he had told him, “Okay”. Then, he brought chaos to the capital. And now he said he did not fancy consuming all the pawns. Scholar Shu had been tricked by the polite-on-the-surface, evil-on-the-inside Fan Xian. He was hoping to see payback justly delivered upon him today, but he did not expect for the kid to say he was sick and not even show up; the old scholar was fuming with rage.

The news about them both being sick was delivered to the palace. The Emperor, who was looking at the decree, was shocked as well, though he simply furrowed his eyebrows and did not say anything further.

The ladies in the back of the palace soon learnt about this too. They giggled to themselves about how Fan Xian was a really troublesome person, and how he did not know how to make the Emperor worry about him less. They also questioned why Wan’er took him to be her husband. In the beginning, he looked like a polite and talented person...but now? Now he looked like an obscene man.

The most disappointed people had to be the censors who were kneeling at the gate. If they said they were sick and not coming, it did not matter how strong the atmosphere was, there was no point in them remaining. Their hearts were all swiftly emptied. They each looked towards the ground and mournfully disbanded. Even their uniforms looked to be disappointed, clinging to their bodies with no care for the wind that wished to flag their clothing.

Humans eat grain to grow up; they are not superhuman. No one was immune to sickness, but the Fan’s father and son had both become sick at a most opportune time, and the “illness” had brought them down quite quickly. People were actually saying they were bed-ridden, which was a little strange, especially since Fan Xian was Fei Jie’s student. Although he was not an official doctor, even the royal doctors in the palace knew of their methods; so how could he get sick all of a sudden?

It wasn’t just the officers in the court who did not believe it, but the civilians as well. The ladies in the palace, and even the Emperor on the throne didn’t believe it. So, when the court disbanded, guards and royal doctors were led out following Eunuch Hong. He rarely exited the palace, but here he was now, leading all these people to the Fan manor. They were going to deliver the Emperor’s regards and observe what sickness they were suffering from.

There were a lot of spies from the palace following this group as well, because everyone just thought they were truly sick. They believed that the Fans would not want to embarass themselves and also offend the Emperor, as it was a crime to lie to him. That would be a really stupid move.

The second prince did not understand the motive for their actions either. He was a prince, and he had grown up in the palace; he knew what Eunuch Hong would do. You could not hide anything from that man, and he would be sure to confirm whether or not the Fans were indeed sick.

...

...

Fan Xian was really sick.

This intel was confirmed by Eunuch Hong. The Emperor did not need to punish them in any capacity, and this news was spread to every corner of the capital. No one doubted whether or not Fan Xian was pretending to be sick anymore. Although Minister Fan had just gotten a cold, Fan Xian truly was bed-ridden, his body being extremely weak.

While the Overwatch Council was having an important fight with the second prince, , Fan Xian had unfortunately and suddenly fallen ill.

This news brought a lot of people emotion. They were thinking about whether or not the situation in the capital would change now because of it. After all, a similar occurrence cropped up in history. Back in the day, the reason why the general of the Northern Wei Kingdom succeeded was because the famous general Zhan Qingfeng had an unfortunate case of diarrhea for three days.

Although it may sound ridiculous, this was a real nugget of historical truth.

...

“Don’t worry about anything.” Fan Xian furrowed his eyebrows and looked at Mu Tie who was near the bed, appearing restless. He continued, “Just listen to what Yan Bingyun tells you and everything will be fine.”

Ever since Fan Xian had returned from the capital government, he had been somewhat sick. Although it wasn’t too threatening, the zhenqi inside him had become uncontrollable ever since his battle with Xie Bian. The zhenqi was messed up inside of him, and it had forced him to meditate more often, in order to quell the forces inside him. The pale face and strange pulsing had successfully tricked the smart Eunuch Hong.