Joy of Life: I'm really not a saint

The direction of public opinion changed unconsciously and gradually became unfavorable to the prime minister Lin Ruofu.

And the court of Qing Kingdom gradually became very interesting and intriguing in this storm!

······

The prime minister’s residence, the Lin Mansion.

"If I wanted to take action against Wu Bo'an's family, how could I let that woman enter the capital alive? How could the means of revenge later be so simple!"

Lin Ruofu is over fifty years old and has passed the age of knowing the destiny.

Now, in the mansion, many affairs were in turmoil, and his frown could not be calmed for a long time. He became haggard and old, no longer as vigorous as he was in his youth.

"Perhaps those disciples guessed what the Prime Minister was thinking and acted in this way." Yuan Hongdao's expression was indifferent, even a little wooden. He frowned slightly and responded absentmindedly.

"Haha, are you trying to guess my thoughts?" Lin Ruofu laughed angrily, his expression amused, his eyes fixed on Yuan Hongdao and never left, "Does it take a risk on your career to guess my thoughts, and do you need to kill the person? Do you need to assassinate the witness in the street to eliminate future troubles?"

"Your Majesty is right. This method is very despicable. In essence, it all depends on your Majesty's attitude."

"hehe!"

Lin Ruofu smiled slightly, stood up, looked directly at Yuan Hongdao, and spoke slowly after a long while: "I'm afraid that's what Your Majesty is thinking. Let me take over and wait for the next generation, hahaha!"

Yuan Hongdao stood aside respectfully, remaining silent and not responding.

"You arranged for people to do all these things?"

Yuan Hongdao was about to say something else, but Lin Ruofu just waved his hand coldly to stop him and looked at him quietly.

The room suddenly became quiet. After a long while, Yuan Hongdao replied in a low voice: "Not bad."

"how so?"

Lin Ruofu was puzzled.

He and Yuan Hongdao had come a long way, from being a commoner to being the head of an official. They had known each other for half a lifetime and could be considered the closest people who understood each other best.

He trusted Yuan Hongdao very much.

Thinking back to the past, I had proposed more than once to help Yuan Hongdao enter the official career. With Yuan Hongdao's own ability, it would not be surprising if he sat in his current position one day. However, all of this was rejected by Yuan Hongdao.

This is also the reason why Lin Ruofu trusts Yuan Hongdao so much.

After all, if a person spends half his life helping another person, the other person will indeed be grateful. Moreover, I was still a commoner at that time. If Yuan Hongdao was sent by someone else, what would he want from me?

"I promised someone that I would help him get you out of power when he needs it."

Yuan Hongdao sighed suddenly, looking at the familiar study, and said softly: "I have been hiding beside you for so many years, just for this day. I originally thought that if the Prime Minister didn't find out, I would return home with him, and we could play chess together for a while before dying."

"But now, I can't do that."

Lin Ruofu raised the corner of his mouth as if thinking of that day, and shook his head slightly: "Are you the eldest princess's man?"

Yuan Hongdao remained silent, which made his old friend, who had been with him for so many years, feel strange.

Lin Ruofu couldn't see through it. He didn't understand what his old friend was thinking, but he didn't get angry. Instead, he sighed and said, "Tomorrow I will go to the palace to resign to His Majesty."

Yuan Hongdao's head hung even lower.

As for who sent him, does it matter?

Chapter 142 Dialogue.

The entire prime minister's residence became busy because of the conversation between the two. Preparing for a rainy day has always been an excellent quality of Prime Minister Lin.

It was not until night fell that the servants packed up their things. The most valuable items were not gold and silver, but some books and scrolls. These alone filled two carriages.

Yuan Hongdao also packed his own bag and walked out of the prime minister's residence silently.

The moment he stepped out of the door, it closed tightly and no sound was heard anymore.

What followed was a court official's carriage, which slowly stopped in front of Yuan Hongdao under his cold gaze.

"As one of the witnesses, please go to the Dali Temple tomorrow to testify, Mr. Yuan!"

The Censor of the Censorate did not get off the carriage, but just went about his routine work indifferently.

Yuan Hongdao first adjusted the package on his back, touched the big black umbrella sticking on the ground, and sneered, "No need. The Prime Minister will go to the palace to resign tomorrow, and this matter ends here!"

The censor's eyes flashed with anger, and he shouted angrily: "Lin Ruofu has reached a dead end, does Mr. Yuan want to follow him?"

"If I remember correctly, Minister Lin seems to be your master, right? It's fine if you don't care about the favor you gave me back then, but you're taking advantage of my misfortune so quickly. You're really short-sighted!"

Yuan Hongdao did not get on the carriage, but walked towards the south city on his own, saying lightly: "Your Majesty will not investigate again."

"As for my fate, don't worry about it. I only follow orders from Xinyang!"

He walked while shaking his head, as if he felt pity for the censor behind him, and as if he felt sorry for himself and Prime Minister Lin.

The censor was already filled with fear, thinking that he had made a mistake. It turned out that Yuan Hongdao was the eldest princess's man?

After the hour of Chou, Yuan Hongdao got on a carriage and left the south city gate, heading for Xinyang without stopping. He was secretly wondering what would happen to him if he went to the princess' place, since he was no longer valuable.

Deep down in his heart, he still had feelings for Lin Ruofu. It was impossible to say that he didn't feel a bit guilty. After all, the two had come this far for so many years, working together seamlessly and stirring up trouble. They had experienced life and death, and had been hiding for so many years, doing all kinds of glorious and dirty work.

When the carriage slowly stopped after traveling more than 20 miles, Yuan Hongdao suddenly realized what was happening and secretly grasped the black umbrella and asked, "Are you here to kill me?"

After a long silence, the driver slowly shook his head.

"The dean asked me to tell you that you have worked so hard over the years!"

The driver had a blank expression on his face, but kept talking, "Let's get back to business. After this incident, I believe the princess will completely trust you. Sir, you are going to Xinyang for a new mission."

Seeing that Yuan Hongdao remained silent for a while, the driver asked, "Sir, are you in trouble?"

Yuan Hongdao just shook his head, his calm tone making people inexplicably crazy: "I'm just a little tired."

"Everything is for Qingguo!"

The driver said something abrupt and inexplicable. He thought Yuan Hongdao would respond by saying that everything was for the sake of Qing Kingdom, but he just sneered with a ridiculous look on his face.

······

Five days later, the news reached Fan Xian, the director of the Supervisory Council.

"why?"

Fan Xian thought it was absurd, while Li An thought Fan Xian was naive.

"Why?" Li An chuckled and reminded objectively: "You can find out if you put yourself in my shoes. If you were Emperor Qing, after a son named Fan Xian brought up the matter of Guo Youzhi, would you take the opportunity to weaken the power of those civil servants from different factions?"

The Qing Kingdom's officialdom and military power, except for the Black Cavalry and the few hundred Tiger Guards under Fan Jian's command, are actually all controlled by Emperor Qing. The power of the civil officials is different, and this is also the power that all the forces in Kyoto are fighting for.

As for why they did not fight for military power, was it because they could not reach that far? No, it was just that they did not dare to do so.

This is Emperor Qing’s bottom line. There was a previous example where the crown prince was confined for several months because he was exposed to palace etiquette.

"Don't you know best how big Emperor Qing's appetite is?"

Li An analyzed indifferently.

"The case is strange. My future father-in-law is not that kind of person." Fan Xian shook his head and stopped dwelling on the details of the matter. He just sighed and said, "There must be a spy around!"

Ang Lee did not continue the conversation and instead talked about other things.

"Yan Bingyun has arrived at your house."

"That's right." At this point, Fan Xian had even more questions. "Don't worry, he walked to the inn by himself. Although he was seriously injured, according to him, he didn't reveal anything."

"That's good. You should check the accounts these days. You don't have to wait until you return to Qing to start the smuggling business. You can arrange it now. At least, you can do the preliminary preparations first."

Li An poured Fan Xian another cup of hot tea. Looking at the scenery in the garden, he still lamented the coldness of the northern country.

Although he has long been immune to cold and heat.

Fan Xian raised the cup and drank it, exhaled a breath of hot air, clicked his tongue and said, "This tea is not good."

He gave Fan Xian a blank look, thinking that this was the palace in the fairyland.

It’s good to have something to drink!

"There's no rush to check the accounts. I still have to keep an eye on Yan Bingyun's injuries over the next two days. The doctor accompanying the delegation is not very reliable."

Fan Xian asked the question in his mind: "Smuggling is beneficial to both you and me. But I don't understand why this kind of transaction requires a favor from you."

What he meant was that although Fan Xian did not have any real power at this time, the two favors he had left were still very valuable. Even if he could not meet some of the requests, he still had Uncle Wu Zhu's support behind him. If he used it well, he could be a peak combat force!

Why would Li An have to sacrifice his own favor for this matter?

"Haha, if you don't use it now, won't it be invalid when you and I become enemies in the future?"

Seeing Fan Xian in silence, Li An did not say anything nonsense about different positions. He just explained: "This favor must be used. You will find out in the future that you will face countless obstacles just for smuggling - the crown prince, the eldest princess, the second prince, the Ming family, and even Emperor Qing!"

"With this favor, you will have to hesitate again and again if you want to give up compromise in the future. This is considered to be using this favor well!"

Ang Lee's explanation did not ease the heavy atmosphere.

Until Gundam walked into the garden excitedly.

"My Lord, today's fight was so exciting!"

As he spoke excitedly, he walked to the stone table in the pavilion, raised Fan Xian's teacup and drank it all in one gulp, not treating himself as an outsider at all.

"Your Excellency is indeed very powerful! The warriors in this city were very angry because of our entry into the city two days ago. Today, many people came to the mansion to issue a challenge!"

At this point, Gundam was still gesturing with his hands, his excitement showing no sign of fading.

Li An also found it interesting when he heard this.

Thinking that Gundam's personality would be compatible with that of the eldest disciple, they should be allowed to communicate more.

Only Fan Xian said to Li An with an apologetic look on his face: "I didn't expect them to follow us to Wanshizhai. This has caused trouble for Brother Li."

"That's nothing." Li An shook his head and advised: "You can leave these trivial matters to the Tiger Guards and Wang Qinian, and don't be idle. Finish the things at hand as soon as possible, so that I can have time to see Ku He!"

Fan Xian was shocked. Imperial Master of Northern Qi?

Chapter 143 ends with going out.

"Golden God, who is taking your place outside to deal with those martial artists? Go to the inn in the city first and bring Guo Baokun back. He is no longer useful as bait."

Gao Da was better off not listening to the conversation between the two. Although he was arranged by Fan Jian himself, Fan Xian didn't want to reveal too much information to others.

"Brother Qinian is dealing with it temporarily."

Gaoda held the long sword in his hand, clasped his fists and saluted, then went out from the back door to pick up Guo Baokun at the inn in the city.

It's not like Fan Xian has been doing nothing these days.

He had secretly contacted He Daoren. The other party said that he owed Chen Pingping a favor and would help Fan Xian to pay off the debt. After Fan Xian handed over the token, he gave Fan Xian the information of the shops and people who concealed their identities in Shangjing City, so that he could restart the spy network in Northern Qi.

In this way, Taoist He has repaid the favor.

With Li An's intervention, Fan Xian's mission was basically successfully completed. As for Sean's affairs, they were all handled by Li An.

"In that case, I will hurry up and check the accounts these days. Once this matter is settled, I will also return to Qing Country."

Fan Xian told his next plan. A few days might not be enough. After all, he had to check the account books openly and arrange the spy affairs secretly. He thought that he would leave in about ten days.

"But I am very interested in the bitter lotus you mentioned." Fan Xian coughed twice and said with a smile on his face.

"You don't have to leave in a hurry. In half a month, it will be the birthday of the Queen of Northern Qi. When you finish your work, you can attend the banquet and then return to Qing Kingdom."

In response to Fan Xian's unexpected statement, Li An casually said, "As for Ku He, he is just a stubborn old man. However, after you reminded me of this, I remembered two things!"

"Oh?" Fan Xian perked up and listened carefully.

"The first thing is actually nothing big." Li An took a sip of tea and spoke carefully.

"Emperor Qing and Chen Pingping have been setting up a trap for more than ten years. They made Sean think that you are his grandson, and used the opportunity of a diplomatic mission to Northern Qi to make him reveal the secrets of the temple to you."

Looking at Fan Xian's dazed face, Li An continued, "I have actually told you all this before. Just pick out what you can say when you go back."

Li An was about to say the second thing, but was interrupted by Fan Xian: "Where is the exact location of the temple?"

"Arctic."

Li An told Fan Xian all this according to the previous arrangement, but he did not tell Fan Xian the conjecture in his mind: there might be more than one entrance to the temple, or that entrance might be movable at any time. But no matter what, he would go to the underground of Taiping Villa in the future!

Seeing that Fan Xian looked calm, as if he had already guessed it, he continued to talk about the second thing:

"Although the Northern Qi royal family agrees with this deal in principle, we still have to play it safe. Maybe, I mean maybe! It's possible that Ku He will send someone to kill Sean, and it will definitely make things difficult for you. You have to give some strength and help deal with it when the time comes."

"what?"