Chapter 465: 465
Chapter 465: Returning To The Ancestors
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Just like the people in Baoyue Brothel once said, Jingdou had been peaceful for a year . The biggest reason was because Fan Xian had been exiled to Jiangnan for an entire year .
Following Fan Xian's return to the capital, the peaceful Jingdou was no longer able to maintain its appearance of calm . For one, he was caught at the clashing point of a number of different powers . For two, his way of doing things was completely at odds with his appearance as an immortal poet . In fact, his way of doing things was much more vicious than that of most of the nobility .
The attack in the valley, the nighttime assassinations in Jingdou, some people's quiet deaths, some official's humiliating incarceration…each of these incidences made the nobility in Jingdou deeply realize, once again, Fan Xian's power and determination . It made them understand that after spending a year in the warm spring sunshine and charm of Jiangnan, it did not soften his personality much at all .
After Fan Xian returned to the capital, shocking things happened one after another .
In the most recent incident, the Northern Qi court had shamelessly come forward and expressed their care toward Fan Xian as well as criticized the Qing court with strange disgust for not properly protecting Sir Fan junior's safety .
The entire capital found it absurd and was angry .
Putting it another way, this was the internal politics of Qing Kingdom . When was it time for corrupt Northern Qi scholars to comment? However, the Northern Qi people had commented and done so strangely loudly .
Immediately, Fan Xian was pushed into the center of the struggle . Although the clever people did not believe that he had any kind of shady collusion with Northern Qi because this trick of Northern Qi's was too childish, the nobility and commoners of Qing Kingdom were still discomfited, very discomfited . The gazes being tossed toward the Fan manor were somewhat complicated .
Before this matter had even been called down, two days later on New Year's day, another matter involving the Fan Manor made the entire Jingdou fearful .
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There was not a glimmer of light in the sky .
Fan Xian sat on the carriage and rubbed his irritated eyes . He thought to himself, Did the ancestral worship have to be so secretive? Last night was New Year's Eve . The whole family had played mahjong through the night . After Fan Sizhe and Lin Wan'er had divided up the entire family's wealth, the game topped . However, the entire family had immediately got into the carriage and driven out of the manor .
All along the way, the carriages from the other branches of the Fan family gathered together . Although each branch was silent, the spread of such a long group of carriages did seem rather large .
Fan Xian faintly felt happy and nervous . It was his first time going to honor the ancestors, so he didn't know the worship began right before dawn . During the ancestral worship last year, he had stayed with Wan'er in the garden . He faintly remembered that it should be in the afternoon .
He glanced at the deeply asleep Sizhe beside him and couldn't help but smile and shake his head . Presumably, no yamen in Qing Kingdom dared to be so bold as to dare to search for Sizhe, a wanted criminal, in his own carriage .
Thinking of the fact he would finally enter the ancestral temple, the smile on Fan Xian's face could not be removed . He didn't know how his father negotiated with the Emperor . In the end, it was clear that the Emperor had no choice but to give his consent . The empress dowager also maintained her silence .
Speaking of which, since the royal family could not give him a name, did they want him to through his entire life without a reliable family name?
Fan Xian smiled coldly . He could actually guess the results of his father and the Emperor's negotiation . In his eyes, the Emperor granting him the title of Duke of Danbo was already enough of an explanation . Furthermore, looking at the situation at hand, the Emperor did indeed need Fan Xian to clarify his identity to prevent his sons fighting over the family property becoming even more complicated . The weakening of the Overwatch Council's power was not enough . If Fan Xian wanted to continue walking down the path as a powerful official, the first thing he had to do was remove himself from the group of princes .
The carriage traveled for an indeterminable amount of time and waited for a while by the city gate for it to open . It then drove out under the inattentive gazes of the soldiers, who were familiar to this sight .
Following the official road all the way west, they finally entered the country estate Fan Xian had been to once . The Fan family ancestral property .
Thirty-odd carriages stopped in order on the square outside the ancestral hall . There were already people from the estate who were coming forward to welcome them . It was like this every year, and things were done with a practiced ease now . The bamboo canopy provided for the women to temporarily sit under had already been erected . Lady Liu, Wan'er, Sisi, and the wives of a few other branches were all taken into the yard to rest .
The current head of the Fan clan, the Minister of Revenue Fan Jian, stood below the stone steps of the ancestral hall . He wore tri-colored formal clothing and looked at everything calmly . Yet, a feeling of warmth and joy surged in his heart .
He had raised a son for the Emperor and had finally made him his own son . Could this be considered the most successful day in his life?
The leaders of the other branches of the Fan clan had all already disembarked from the carriage and were standing in order of seniority outside the ancestral hall . They stole glances at the leader at the front . Each of them felt complicated emotions in their hearts . Thirty years ago, the Fan clan was already one of the largest in the capital . Fan Jian's branch had only been a side and weak branch . If it had not been for that elder who had raised the current Emperor and King Jing . How could it be possible for Fan Jian to currently be the head of the clan?
However, after Fan Jian became the clan head, he was very strict with the members of the clan, and his own position had become more and more powerful . No one dared to disobey . Furthermore, the Fan manor now had an extra person, Fan Xian .
They each put on the necessary clothing for worshipping ancestors and lit the incense . The sacrificial items had already been prepared . The monk who lived in the ancestral temple respectfully rolled out a mat and slowly pulled on the great doors of the ancestral hall .
With a creak, the black wooden doors were pulled open . A gust of cold air rushed out from inside as if the ancestors of the Fan family were gazing coldly at their descendants .
Hundreds of men from the Fan clan lowered their heads and stood in ranks .
A carriage behind the group opened its door . Fan Xian, wearing cloth clothing, silently walked out and slowly walked forward between two rows of males . He followed his father's hand gestures as he stood below the stone steps .
The atmosphere before the ancestral hall was solemn and respectful . The men of the Fan clan didn't even breathe loudly in fear that it would wake the spirits of their ancestors . However, when they saw the man who walked out from the carriage, they still couldn't help but stare in shocked surprise and utter countless shocked gasps through wide-open mouths .
The little teenage boys at the very back were greatly terrified after seeing Fan Xian . There were the poor little tyrannical boys that had their legs broken by Fan Xian outside Baoyue Brothel and had their bottoms beaten black and blue by Lady Liu in the Fan manor .
Fan Xian had also come to worship the ancestors . The legs of these little tyrannical lords of the Fan clan shook in fear .
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Fan Xian calmly walked forward and gradually neared the stone steps of the ancestral hall . He saw that his father seemed to be arguing, in a low voice, with some of the elders about something below the stone steps . Fan Xian had seen those elders before and knew they were elders of virtue and prestige . It seemed that he had to call one of them great-uncle [JW1] .
The great-uncle of the highest seniority in the Fan clan wore a worried expression and said quietly to Fan Jian, "By virtue…this is not appropriate . "
Fan Jian smiled and said, "Second Uncle, what is not appropriate about it?"
The great uncle's eyes were full of fear as he lowered his voice, "This child…this child…" He suddenly closed his mouth and refused to speak . Was he going to say, to the head's face, that his son was not his true born? He was still fearful . The seniors of the Fan clan around him were also fearful . They had not thought that there would be such a battle at this year's ancestral worship . This was completely because the manor had quietly brought Fan Xian .
Everyone began to speak . Although they didn't speak openly in front of Minister Fan, they faintly expressed the worry in their hearts . However, they didn't dare to raise their voices too much in fear that they would wake their ancestors in the ancestral hall .
Everyone refused to accept it in their hearts, thinking, He wasn't a son of the Fan family, so why should he come to worship the ancestors? What they were more afraid of was that Fan Xian was the child of the Emperor . If he joined the Fan family today, would the empress dowager and Emperor be unhappy?
Fan Xian did not give these elders an opportunity to debate . He had already walked to his father's side . He first bowed respectfully toward the elders and then stood beside his father .
Fan Jian smiled and pointed to a spot in the middle of the rows, "Your place is there . "
Seeing that the head was not listening, no one dared express their objection further . These elders in the Fan clan were actually more afraid of the aura around Fan Xian .
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