Niao Ni
Chapter 268: Eunuch Dai's Brilliant Decision
Ye Ling'er replied, "I'm going to your residence to see Wan'er." After saying this, she glanced at the Miss Shen beside him, snorted, and said nothing.
Fan Xian disliked the touch of arrogance in her otherwise carefree nature, and her tendency to judge others based solely on her own opinions. He remained silent. He put on the airs of a master, which Ye Ling'er oddly respected. After a year of acquaintance, she knew that Fan Xian was a person who paid particular attention to detail. She smiled and said, "Don't be angry. I know you're a rising star in the Overwatch Council now. But even if you wanted to keep a mistress, you wouldn't bring her out on the street."
Fan Xian smiled without saying anything. At this moment, the congestion ahead seemed to ease up a bit. The Ye family's carriage moved ahead first but then stopped, as if Ye Ling'er had found something interesting to watch.
Fan Xian waved to signal his carriage to move forward. After arriving behind the Ye family's carriage, he got down wearing a raincoat, followed by Deng Ziyue and several other members of the Qinian Group.
Ye Ling'er, from inside the carriage, saw them wearing those gray-black raincoats and walking in the rain. Only then did she realize that Fan Xian wasn't just passing by the Lantern Market but had come specifically to conduct business.
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Dai Zhen of the Vegetable Inspection Office at the Lantern Market spent his days waiting for his subordinates to bring in vegetables and fruits from outside the city. He would then grade them, allocate them to different markets for sale, and also handle the daily vegetable supplies for the inner court and the various royal and noble residences. To be precise, he was just a helper for the chefs of the Qing Kingdom's aristocracy—except that the scope of this helping was quite broad. A stalk of celery wasn't worth much, but a hundred stalks of celery were worth something. One chicken egg wasn't worth much, but a hundred chicken eggs were enough to buy a good meal at the Shi Yi Ju restaurant.
The Vegetable Inspection Office couldn't be considered a proper yamen. It had no official rank, and since it supplied so many places, it didn't even have a direct supervising yamen. Perhaps it was because officials felt that there was no profit to be made from sending vegetables into the capital, so they didn't pay much attention to it. However, Fan Xian knew that this phenomenon was closely related to the New Policies that had been implemented and abandoned repeatedly over the years. With His Majesty playing around, the institutions below were naturally chaotic and redundant.
As the head of the Vegetable Inspection Office, Dai Zhen had been making a steady income from eggs and vegetables for years. He thought that only he knew how much profit was hidden in these seemingly insignificant items. He often laughed secretly in bed at night. Even his favorite concubine, who constantly urged him to ask his uncle for an official position, couldn't convince him.
*Beautiful*, he thought, *selling vegetables to the point where I'm at, I'm the number one person of all time.* Dai Zhen couldn't help but compliment himself in his heart.
But today he couldn't feel any joy, nor could he laugh. In this autumn rain, the officials of the Overwatch Council's First Bureau had directly sealed off his pitifully small yamen and blocked the accounts office in Datong Ward—Datong Ward was full of vegetable vendors, supplying one-third of the capital's daily vegetable needs.
With a livid face, he rushed to the accounts office, looked at those grim figures in black clothing, and patted his cheeks twice to make his smile appear more gentle. He said, "So it's the gentlemen from the First Bureau! I was just thinking, now that autumn is deep, there are some rare fruits and vegetables in the ward. I should pay my respects one of these days..."
Leading the investigation for the First Bureau today was Mu Feng'er. He knew that today's operation was a demonstration that Supervisor Fan was going to make in the capital, so he dared not be negligent in the slightest. He looked at Dai Zhen coldly and said, "Master Dai, please come with us."
The officials of the First Bureau had long been familiar with sealing the account books and had begun to identify the people listed in the records, bring them out of the ward, and escort them onto the carriages outside.
The autumn rain continued to fall, and Dai Zhen's heart grew colder. He said with a forced smile, "I wouldn't dare call myself 'Master.' Master Mu, you must have misunderstood something." He habitually slipped a silver note into Mu Feng'er's sleeve.
Mu Feng'er glanced at him, feeling a bit sorry for the man. Didn't he even hear that Supervisor Fan was in charge of the First Bureau? Two emotionless officials of the Overwatch Council stepped forward, ruthlessly kicking Dai Zhen in the back of the knee, knocking him to the ground. They took out a specially made rope from behind his waist and tied an extremely difficult knot around his hands. Their movements were unusually clean and efficient, suggesting that the First Bureau had done this sort of thing quite often in the past.
Dai Zhen fell to the ground, his mind in chaos, his wrists in intense pain. He was both ashamed and angry, and finally couldn't help but shout, "What are you doing!"
Mu Feng'er touched the means in his arms, thought about it, but didn't take it out. He said, "We are acting on orders to investigate. Please cooperate, Master Dai."
Dai Zhen panicked. His eyes darted around, and he shouted loudly, "Help! The Overwatch Council is extorting money and murdering people!"
When the Overwatch Council's First Bureau's squad rushed into the Vegetable Inspection Office in the pouring rain, the Qing Kingdom's people, who loved to watch the excitement, had already gathered around. But they were afraid of the dark black that permeated the Overwatch Council, so they didn't dare get too close. Now, watching Master Dai, who was usually arrogant, being captured so dismally, they felt uneasy in their hearts. And those thugs that Dai Zhen had secretly hired used this shout as an excuse to cause a commotion and block the Overwatch Council's path.
With his hands tied, Dai Zhen's mind was racing. He knew that when the Overwatch Council took action, they never stopped halfway. He desperately howled, "The Overwatch Council is extorting money and murdering people!" Actually, he was panicking in his heart. He couldn't think of any plan for the moment, so he just grabbed onto the words "extorting money and murdering people" and shouted blindly, hoping that his uncle in the palace would receive the news as soon as possible and find a way to get him out before the Overwatch Council locked him up in that terrifying prison.
Seeing the crowd that had been stirred up, Mu Feng'er frowned, took out a document from his arms, and read Dai Zhen's crimes aloud to the people.
Most of the common laborers in the capital deeply believed in the officials, and they actually believed him. After all, everyone knew that Dai Zhen's hands weren't clean. But the crowd had gathered around, and it wasn't easy for them to disperse. The First Bureau had brought too few people today, and they had to carry the account books and relevant witnesses, so they seemed a bit strained.
Seeing this scene, Mu Feng'er was furious, but he caught a glimpse of Supervisor Fan being guarded by several unfamiliar colleagues from the Overwatch Council in raincoats beside two carriages outside the crowd, coldly watching this. A burst of panic rose in his heart, and he shouted, "Let's go!"
Dai Zhen's hands were tied, but he knew that the hell that was the Overwatch Council was really not a place for officials. His face flushed red, and his voice hoarse from crying, he desperately sat on the ground like a child, refusing to go down the steps.
And his confidants also stirred up a commotion and surrounded them, preventing Mu Feng'er's party from detaining him.
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In the heavy rain, Fan Xian coldly watched this scene on the steps not far away. In his mind, he had already marked Mu Feng'er as someone who couldn't be entrusted with important tasks. Then he heard Ye Ling'er's curious voice from the carriage behind him: "Master, your Overwatch Council is really acting a bit absurdly now. Doing this in broad daylight, brawling with a small official... what kind of conduct is this? What will the people think? Where is the face of the court?"
Raindrops beat against the brim of Fan Xian's hat, making the edges droop further, obscuring half of his face.
"If officials don't want face themselves, then the court doesn't need to give them face," he said calmly. "Ling'er, don't think this official is small. He can skim more than five thousand taels of silver a year from the palace's expenses. As for the benefits he's gained from Datong Ward over the years, they're countless."
Ye Ling'er leaned half her body against the carriage window. Rainwater wet a strand of hair on her forehead. Her clear eyes were filled with interest. She had gone to the Fan residence to play today but didn't expect to run into Fan Xian on the road, and followed him to watch this scene. Only then did she realize that even such a small official could embezzle so much silver.
At this moment, Mu Feng'er and his group finally fought their way out of the Vegetable Inspection Office with great difficulty and arrived in front of Fan Xian. Dai Zhen was being dragged along by them, having been dragged through the rain, looking extremely miserable.
Those thugs also surrounded them, but they seemed to have recognized the power and influence that these two carriages represented, and didn't dare to act rashly. As for the people of the capital, watching Fan Xian and Deng Ziyue's group dressed the way they were, they seemed to feel a coldness emanating from the bodies of those wearing raincoats and subconsciously retreated.
Dai Zhen really was a brazen little official. His official robes had long been completely stained with sewage, and his hair was scattered around his round face, making him look disheveled. But he was still cursing fiercely: "You people from the Overwatch Council, you eat ours, you drink ours, and you still haven't had enough? ...You want to arrest this official and torture me for money!"
Hearing him speak like this, the ignorant people around him couldn't help but show an expression of sudden understanding.
Fan Xian lowered his eyes slightly, looking at the official in front of him who was lying in the rain, kicking his legs incessantly like a pig struggling before death. He wasn't in a hurry to shut his mouth because, in the hearts of the world's scholars and commoners, the Overwatch Council had long been an extremely dark image. Even if Dai Zhen cursed a few more times, it wouldn't affect the overall situation. And today, he was just hitting a small cat. The key point was that he wanted to see how capable his subordinates were.
Looking at Mu Feng'er, who had a look of guilt and a trace of annoyance on his face, Fan Xian shook his head and asked, "Why didn't you choose to take him from his home in the middle of the night? Even though it's raining today, you also know that there are many people in Datong Ward, and it's easy for trouble to occur."
Mu Feng'er was stunned. He thought, "In the new and detailed regulations, you wrote very clearly that, from now on, investigations should be conducted as openly as possible. That's why I chose to arrest him at the yamen, wanting to do it cleanly and make a name for myself—if it were the past, if the Overwatch Council really wanted to arrest an official, they would naturally do it in the dead of night, catch him at his home and take him away—how has this become my fault again?"
Fan Xian didn't wait for him to defend himself and said, "Even if you wanted to come during the day, you could have sealed the accounts office and left immediately... With your means, couldn't you have gotten Dai Zhen to return to the Council quietly? What are you saving those means for? And why read out some official documents and crimes? Did you think you were a judge of the Court of Judicial Review? Do I have to specially hire a scholar to follow you and proclaim the sage's teachings?"
Hearing these sharp and sarcastic words, Mu Feng'er complained repeatedly. On one hand, Dai Zhen's backer was indeed strong enough that using violent methods might cause trouble. On the other hand, he was also worried that Supervisor Fan was a great talent and might disapprove of them doing those shady things.
...Hearing Fan Xian's sarcasm, he realized that, although Supervisor Fan had the reputation of being a poetry immortal, he didn't seem to object to the dark methods of the Overwatch Council, and perhaps was even more enthusiastic about them than he was.
At this time, Dai Zhen was still howling in the rain, and through the mud obscuring his eyes, he saw Mu Feng'er reporting to someone. He knew that it was an important figure in the Overwatch Council and couldn't help but feel afraid. He didn't recognize Fan Xian, but he did recognize Ye Ling'er in the carriage behind him—as the only daughter of the Kyoto garrison commander, Ye Ling'er had liked to ride horses on the streets of Kyoto since she was a child, and there were few old Kyoto residents who didn't recognize her.
Dai Zhen immediately cried out to the woman in the carriage, "Miss Ye, please do justice for this humble official..."
Ye Ling'er glanced at Fan Xian's unusually calm expression and dared not say anything. With a *whoosh*, she pulled her head back inside.
Dai Zhen knew that he was done for today and finally used his trump card, shouting loudly, "Do you know who my uncle is? How dare you arrest me! My uncle is..."
Receiving a look from Fan Xian, Deng Ziyue knew that the master didn't want to hear the name of Eunuch Dai. He swung a knife sideways and slapped it across Dai Zhen's mouth!
Only now did Mu Feng'er understand. Somewhat ashamed, he took out a small wooden stick with a rope attached to both ends from his arms and rudely jammed it into Dai Zhen's mouth. The wooden stick was extremely hard, tearing the corners of Dai Zhen's mouth, and two streams of blood flowed down. Naturally, he couldn't speak anymore.
The surrounding crowd gasped in unison. Fan Xian turned a deaf ear and only said to Mu Feng'er, "I don't care who his uncle is. I only care about who your uncle is. Do your work efficiently, and don't embarrass Mu Tie."
Mu Feng'er responded in shame, threw the blood-faced Dai Zhen back into the carriage, turned around, and led his subordinates to arrest several thugs who were hidden among the onlookers. Not giving them any chance to resist, he directly used the steel cudgels that were commonly kept in the Council to smash them to the ground.
Seeing that they were fighting, the onlookers were all frightened and scattered in all directions, but then stopped at the corners of the streets and looked back curiously.
In the heavy rain, several Overwatch Council spies wearing raincoats were seen swinging clubs and beating the men on the ground with gloomy expressions. Perhaps due to the long-standing prestige of the Overwatch Council, those men didn't dare to fight back much.
The scene was a bit bloody.
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Fan Xian looked at the onlookers in the distance and shook his head almost imperceptibly, but surprisingly didn't return to his own carriage. Instead, he took off his hat and directly entered Ye Ling'er's carriage.
Ye Ling'er was startled, wondering why a big man would squeeze into her carriage.
Fan Xian pretended not to realize this. Looking at Ye Ling'er's slightly damp hair, he paused, took out a handkerchief from his arms, and handed it to her. Ye Ling'er took it and wiped her wet hair. Smelling the faint fragrance on the handkerchief, she thought it was Wan'er's and smiled. Then she began to ask what exactly had happened earlier.
Fan Xian smiled wryly and explained Dai Zhen's actions to her. Ye Ling'er asked curiously, "How could such a trivial matter qualify for you to personally oversee it?"
Fan Xian sneered and said, "The waters in Kyoto are deep. Don't think that Dai Zhen is just an official in charge of selling vegetables, but he embezzles a lot. The reason he has so much guts is because he has a good backer. His uncle is Eunuch Dai in the palace. The reason I came here personally to oversee the situation is because I'm afraid my subordinates will act too slowly and alert Old Dai. If I don't show up, the First Bureau really won't be able to deal with this palace person."
Ye Ling'er opened her bright eyes: "Father once said that palace affairs are the most complicated and told us siblings to avoid them as much as possible. Master, you're really brave."
"He's just an eunuch," Fan Xian smiled, thinking to himself that eunuchs had no human rights to begin with.
Ye Ling'er shook her head in disagreement and said, "Don't underestimate these eunuchs in the palace. They also have masters. If you make them lose face, you're not giving face to those concubines in the palace."
Fan Xian was slightly stunned. It seemed that he had only thought of this problem at this moment. After a moment, a sunny smile returned to his face, and he said, "Then what's there to be afraid of? I don't like Wan'er going to the palace as a persuader. If those concubines cause trouble for me, this fake imperial son-in-law can just take a beating according to palace rules."
Ye Ling'er tilted her head slightly, looking at this fearless guy, wondering what he was thinking.
The carriage arrived at the gate of the Fan residence. The two got out of the carriage. Teng Zijin was already waiting outside. Fan Xian instructed him to have his wife settle Miss Shen into the residence in the back street, and then led Ye Ling'er into the residence. He didn't forget to ask for the handkerchief back from Ye Ling'er's hand.
The handkerchief was stolen from Haitang, and Fan Xian was reluctant to give it away.
Eunuch Dai was a favorite in Noble Consort Shu's palace, and Ye Ling'er was about to become the Second Prince's consort, which meant that Noble Consort Shu was Ye Ling'er's future mother-in-law, and Ye Ling'er would soon be half of Eunuch Dai's master - the reason Fan Xian had chatted with Ye Ling'er earlier was for this relationship. He couldn't bear to give away the handkerchief, but he still had to use it where it could be used.
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The rain in Kyoto fell continuously for a day, and finally lessened a bit at dusk. Eunuch Dai, who had received the news, rushed out of the palace in a rage.
He was a popular figure in the palace. Because Noble Consort Shu was talented in literature and often helped His Majesty copy some articles, he, as the close attendant of Noble Consort Shu, also had the important task of delivering imperial edicts to various residences. Just like when Fan Xian first received an imperial decree and was awarded the title of Assistant Secretary of the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, it was this Eunuch Dai who delivered the decree. Delivering decrees to various residences naturally brought many benefits, and now no one dared to say a word when he violated the rules and went in and out of the palace.
Eunuch Dai stood at the gate of the Vegetable Inspection Office with a flushed face, looking at the mess inside, listening to the cries of pain around him, and was extremely angry. Pointing at the men who were his nephew's subordinates, he scolded in a shrill voice, "I've told you long ago! You can ignore other yamen in Kyoto, but you must serve the Overwatch Council well!"
One person, covering the half of his face that had been beaten swollen, cried and said, "Grandfather, we've been sending benefits all the time! Today, this grandaddy even gave a silver note. That official from the First Bureau also accepted it, but who knew they'd still copy them all the same."
Eunuch Dai trembled with anger and screamed, "Who dares to be so disrespectful! Which little bastard is leading the team? I'll go find that black-faced Mu Tie... how dare they touch my Dai family's seedlings!"
He was an eunuch in the palace. The Overwatch Council couldn't control him, so he did have the confidence to say this. In a fit of old-age rage, he went to the First Bureau in a sedan chair to demand the release of his nephew. Although his nephew Dai Zhen was useless, he had still sent a lot of silver every year. He couldn't just watch him be tortured half to death by those punishments in the Overwatch Council - everyone in Kyoto's officialdom knew that once you went to that kind of place in the Overwatch Council, even if you could come out alive, you'd probably be missing a few parts!
When the sedan chair arrived at the gate of the First Bureau's yamen, Eunuch Dai became suspicious and, with extra caution, first sent his little attendant in to inquire.
After a while, the little attendant came out and whispered a few words in his ear. Eunuch Dai's face immediately changed. After hesitating for a long time, he gritted his teeth and said, "Return to the palace."
The thug who was covered in injuries, watching his ancestor's sedan chair about to return to the palace, panicked and, not caring that he was right in front of the First Bureau, directly shouted, "Ancestor, you must uphold justice for us!"
Eunuch Dai was indeed worthy of being a native of Yuyao, Zhejiang. His experience in delivering imperial decrees had trained his mouth to perfection. A mouthful of phlegm flew out, landing squarely on the man's face. He cursed in a trembling voice, "This servant is an eunuch! Not justice!"
After saying these words, he curled back up in the sedan chair, feeling extremely uneasy. The little attendant had inquired clearly earlier: the person leading the team today was actually Master Fan!
Only now did Eunuch Dai remember that His Majesty had assigned Supervisor Fan to concurrently manage the First Bureau... But why had this Master Fan taken a fancy to his nephew? Eunuch Dai knew that, even if his nephew was greedy, he was really just an ant compared to those Beijing officials in the court.
How could he have known that Fan Xian was just trying to train his troops and make an opening sale? He thought of himself, and thinking of the Fan family's soaring power today, Eunuch Dai couldn't help but feel cold in his heart.
The thug under Dai Zhen, watching the sedan chair speeding away, stupidly wiped the disgusting phlegm off his face, still not understanding who Eunuch Dai was afraid of.
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In the following days, Eunuch Dai found an opportunity to mention this matter in front of Noble Consort Shu, hoping to get his nephew out and also to inquire about the situation. Unexpectedly, Noble Consort Shu had already known about this matter in advance from somewhere, and was very clear about her nephew Dai Zhen's actions, and was so angry that she severely reprimanded him.
Only then did Eunuch Dai realize that that Master Fan had already cut off his retreat through some means. In shock and fear, he finally gave up his old face and ran to Consort Yi's palace, shamelessly flattering her, and through Liu's relationship, quietly sent a thin silver note to the Fan residence.
On the other side, Mu Feng'er, who was in charge of handling this case, was also scratching his head. Looking at Dai Zhen, who hadn't been transferred to the Heavenly Prison, he felt a burst of anger in his heart. It was this despicable fellow who had made him lose face in front of Supervisor Fan, but Supervisor Fan had ordered him not to use torture on this minor character. Why? He touched the generous silver allowance that had just been issued in his waistband, and couldn't help but wonder.