Second Master Fan had never accomplished anything in his life. He was always more hindrance than help—insufficient to succeed but more than sufficient to ruin things. If you had him become an official, he didn’t have the capability. If you had him manage estates and shops at home, he felt such mundane matters weren’t for someone as noble as a master of the Fan family to do. He was too high for low positions and too low for high ones. But in the end, he was her blood brother.
Fan Liangdi couldn’t speak for a very long time. She sat dazedly on the couch in a stupor until Nanny Fang carefully came over to cover her with a thin blanket. Only then did she react and turn her head to look at Nanny Fang for quite a while before shifting her gaze to Nanny Qi and asking in a daze: “Then, then Father and Mother, what did they say?”
Nanny Qi pulled out a letter from her bosom, and along with the letter came a seal. Fan Liangdi gestured for Nanny Fang to receive it. She unfolded the letter and looked through it once. Her face, which had already lost its color, became even more ghastly pale. In the letter, her parents said that only Fan San had returned. According to Fan San, Second Master Fan’s face had been slashed beyond recognition and left in the wilderness. They planned to send someone to bring Second Master Fan back. He was surnamed Fan after all—they wanted to bring him back to the ancestral graves in Xingyang for burial.
The hall was shockingly silent. Both Nanny Qi and Nanny Fang held their breath and restrained themselves, looking at Fan Liangdi without daring to say half a word more.
The wording and phrasing in the letter was actually quite polite, but Fan Liangdi’s eyes turned red reading it. Not red from sadness, but red from fury. She tightly gripped the paper, crumpling the letter into a ball, hostility suddenly arising between her brows.
She had already written repeatedly urging Father and Mother, saying not to have Second Brother go, that Second Brother wasn’t the material for this kind of work. But her parents insisted on having their own way and insisted on having him go.
If this matter had been given to Big Brother or Third Brother instead, it absolutely wouldn’t have been this result. Second Brother had ruined things for her, botched her affairs, and then lost his life due to his own stupidity. Yet her parents were confused enough to put the blame on her head.
They even said something about going to Yangquan to retrieve Second Brother’s body? She laughed coldly. To what degree of stupidity had they reached to think of sending someone to Jinzhou again? What time was this? That side’s Lai Chenglong and Ye Jingkuan probably couldn’t wait for them to throw themselves into the trap.
Where did they truly want to go to Yangquan to search for him? This was their way of trying to control her. The expression on her face suddenly changed. She let out a long breath, then instructed Nanny Qi: “Go back and relay my words—no one is permitted to go to Yangquan.”
Nanny Qi knew Fan Liangdi’s patience had reached its limit. She lowered her head without daring to make a sound, submissively agreeing, then asked Fan Liangdi: “Don’t need to write a letter back?”
Fan Liangdi stood up, feeling somewhat short of breath. She walked back and forth in the hall several times, but her chest still felt somewhat stifled and painful. She slowly shook her head: “No need. Have a reliable person relay my verbal message back—it’s the same. Tell them to think more about Big Brother.”
Big Brother Fan Shikun was still in Fujian right now, at a critical time. If the Fan family caused some incident at this time, the first to suffer misfortune would be Big Brother, who was currently at the height of his career. Father and Mother shouldn’t be that foolish. Even if they truly were that stupid, Sister-in-law wouldn’t allow them to be foolish. At least the family still had Sister-in-law as a sensible person.
After Nanny Qi left, Fan Liangdi leaned by the window for a long time without moving, her head resting against the window, watching the swaying palace lanterns outside somewhat absent-mindedly. To say her heart wasn’t sad would be a lie. Although Second Brother was useless, in the end he was her second brother. They had grown up together as children—blood is thicker than water, there was always some family affection. But beyond this bit of sadness, what filled her heart more was disappointment and fury. Originally it wouldn’t have come to this. Originally, originally Zhou Weizhao might have already died.
Nanny Fang came over to persuade her to rest: “It’s already getting late. Don’t stand in this drafty place—be careful not to catch a chill from the wind.”
Fan Liangdi turned and went to the washing room to clean up. She lay in bed but tossed and turned, unable to sleep. This matter wasn’t so easily finished. She knew the capabilities of Ye Jingkuan and Lai Chenglong. One was a cunning fox, the other a shrewd poisonous snake. The two of them together helping Zhou Weizhao—they were simply Zhou Weizhao’s left and right arms.
When it came down to it, Emperor Jianzhang’s favor and trust in Zhou Weizhao was excessive. Even these two people could be assigned to his command without hesitation. She was unwilling to accept this. Not only had she failed to do anything to Zhou Weizhao this time, she had even lost her second brother’s life.
This matter absolutely couldn’t just end like this. She slept through the night with a throbbing headache. When she got up the next day, she had a headache, but this headache was nothing compared to what she would have to face next—if Zhou Weizhao had died, that would have been fine. Once dead, that would be that. No matter how angry the Crown Prince was, he wouldn’t make a fuss. He would only have Zhou Weiqi as his one remaining son, and the Fan family was an indispensable sharp blade for him. But Zhou Weizhao was still alive—this was a troublesome matter. Even if only to give an explanation to this son who had successfully quelled the rebellion and had quite a bit of favor before His Majesty, the Crown Prince would have to make some gesture.
Zhou Weiqi hurriedly entered from outside the hall, his expression even worse than Fan Liangdi’s. He sat in the seat below Fan Liangdi’s, looking at her, unable to conceal the disappointment and anxiety on his face: “Huangjue Temple sent word saying the matter failed.”
He had never expected the matter would actually fail. After all, Huangjue Temple’s people were the death warriors from under Prince Duan’s command back in the day. These people killed without batting an eye. This time Huangjue Temple had already mobilized all the people they could. Mother Consort had also arranged pawns there beforehand. How could it have failed?
Fan Liangdi patted Zhou Weiqi’s hand with her pale pretty face, as if to comfort him, and smiled at him: “He has Lai Chenglong by his side, and the Prince Consort helping him. Jinzhong is also the Cui residence’s territory. This also can’t be helped.”
If only Zhou Weizhao had died under that poisoned arrow from Ma Yuantong, the events afterward wouldn’t have happened. All in all, it was still Second Master Fan who couldn’t judge people well and didn’t know how to use them. Having lost the initiative before taking action, the other side was already on guard.
“What do we do now?” Zhou Weiqi’s complexion was very unsightly: “Father won’t discover it, will he? After all, that chamberlain went out from the Chamberlain’s Office. He also previously, previously did things for us.”
Fan Liangdi didn’t know what the Crown Prince’s thoughts were at this moment either. It was still that same point—if Zhou Weizhao had died, even if the Crown Prince discovered the matter, there would be nothing to say. But in the current situation, this was what truly gave one a headache.
She was worried, but facing her son, some words couldn’t be spoken clearly. Fan Liangdi glanced at her son and only felt her heart becoming increasingly uncomfortable.