Chapter Fifteen: News from Kyoto

  The sky above the city of Tang suddenly turned gloomy, with dark clouds hanging low and heavy, like wet cotton balls or burnt sugar canes, suspended above people's heads.

  However, people living by the sea had long been accustomed to this weather and knew that it would be a while before the rain came, so they didn't panic at all. Unlike some years ago, the handsome illegitimate son of the Viscount's house in Sanbao always liked to run to the rooftop of the Sanbao courtyard before the typhoon arrived in summer, shouting loudly to the whole city: "It's going to rain, everyone hurry up and collect their clothes!"

  "Master Fan, why haven't you been calling out for people to collect clothes recently?" The vendors on the only main street of Danzhou Port, which was lined with food and trinkets, joked as they watched the handsome young man walk through the crowd.

  Fan Xian smiled shyly and didn't say a word, holding Da Yuerong's hand as he walked towards another courtyard, with a piece of tofu in his other hand.

  Everyone knows that the illegitimate son of the Earl's estate is different from ordinary noble young masters, and he likes to help the servants with their work, especially helping the maids with their work. They have long been accustomed to it, so they are not surprised at all.

  At this time, it had been nearly six years since Fei Jie left Han State, and Fan Xian had grown into a handsome young boy with a calm and steady temperament.

  Returning to the mansion, he first had the servants bring the tofu to the kitchen, and then went to pay his respects to the elderly lady who was not feeling well. He casually slipped a piece of paper from beside her into his pocket. Only after that did Fan Xian return to his study. He took out the letter from Kyoto that his sister had sent him and placed it next to the paper, and his expression suddenly became radiant.

  This year, the Emperor of Qing Guo suddenly changed his mind and changed the era to Qing Li, with the same name as the country. It feels a bit strange all the time. Although the officials and nobles in Kyoto did not dare to have any opinions on the surface, they would always mutter a few words in the corner where no one was present. Especially those pedantic scholars, whether it is the modern faction or the ancient faction, whether it is the old masters of the National Education Institute or the family that drinks porridge, they all started to mention their opinions in the articles submitted to the Eighth Bureau of the Censorate for review.

  The sequel to the change of era was the implementation of new policies, but the new policies seemed to have no new ideas, and were only about rectifying governance. The only thing that made the people of the world feel very novel was - in the first year of Qingli, a sudden edict was issued from the imperial palace, and the inner court began to publish newspapers.

  Newspaper? Nobody knew what it was until the Imperial Court actually printed out the first newspaper, and then everyone exclaimed in surprise, after which nobody took it seriously again.

  Because this newspaper is a product exclusively controlled by the imperial palace, and every day's sample must be personally approved by the emperor before it can be printed, so it is impossible to publish any articles that will bring trouble to the imperial rule.

  After several consecutive issues of the newspaper costing as much as a silver coin were bought by people in Kyoto who loved to try new things, some wealthy families couldn't help but wonder if they had been deceived by the emperor, and whether the imperial palace was planning to build another new garden recently.

  On that thin sheet of paper, there was no valuable content at all, only descriptions of scenic spots and biographies of historical figures. The largest section, however, was filled with flowery borders along the edges, recording the private lives of many officials in Kyoto, such as how the head of the military institute was brutally beaten by his wife, why the commander-in-chief of the Kyoto guard had lost a front tooth, and so on.

  There were also some gossip news involving the neighboring countries of Northern Qi and Eastern Yi, but the officials of Qing Guo only paid attention to their own affairs. At first, they could still laugh and joke about it, but when it came to themselves, they realized the taste of losing face. They wanted to find trouble with that newspaper, but unfortunately, its backing was the emperor, so they had no choice but to swallow their anger.

  The newspaper had a very small circulation, and there were only two copies in all of Port Tatham, one of which was reserved for the Earl's estate.

  When Fan Xian snuck out of his grandmother's room with the newspaper that everyone was gossiping about, he hastily scanned it and couldn't help but control his facial expression, his mouth agape, as if he wanted to stuff his fist in... What era is this? There are actually tabloid newspapers... And they're officially sanctioned!

  ……

  ……

  Another new policy is that the royal family promulgated the "Postal Decree", now the postal road is unobstructed, so the two siblings can secretly communicate with each other without fear of being known by others.

  Fan Xian furrowed his brow, staring at the newspaper in front of him. He had already heard many rumors about the new policies from passersby during this time. In his opinion, these were purely the whimsical creations of His Majesty the Emperor. However, everyone under heaven knew that this Emperor was not a person who acted on whims.

  Fan Xian was not in the mood to change the world, nor did he have an interest in changing the world. However, when certain aspects of this world became somewhat similar to his previous one, he naturally wanted to know what lay behind these events.

  After this convoluted train of thought, he still hadn't figured it out. With a bitter smile, he pushed the newspaper aside and thought to himself in self-mockery: Could it be that there's another person who has crossed over from somewhere else, and what's more, someone with grand ambitions?

  But these had nothing to do with him, while the letter next to the newspaper was closely related to him.

  In Fan Xian's memory, Fan Ruoruo was that poor little sister who had a bit of a blood relationship with him, and many years ago had stayed in Danzhou City for a short period of childhood, tall and thin, not as beautiful as his own skin.

  It's been many years since they last met, and he has no idea what that little girl looks like now, whether the few sparse yellow hairs on her head have turned black or become beautiful. Fan Xian had almost forgotten whether his sister should be called Fan Ruo or Fan Ruoruo.

  "It's really not worthy of being an older brother." He thought to himself, although there was a strange soul that had lived for two lifetimes in his body, but in his blood, he was still Fang Ru's older brother. Usually, he didn't show much concern. After Fang Ruo started school two years ago, she often sent letters from school to Danzhou Port, while Fang Xian was busy practicing the tyrannical true energy every day, undergoing blind man Wu Zhang's harsh training, and reviewing the toxicology book left behind by Fei Jie teacher, so he rarely replied.

  It works out that Fan Ruo Ruo should be ten years old this year. I don't know why, perhaps the impression of childhood ghost stories was too deep, but this legitimate big sister of the earl's mansion is very dependent on her brother who is far away in the sky. She often comes to ask for news, and in the first half of the year, the letters usually express her nostalgia for her grandmother and memories of life in Danzhou. In the second half of the year, however, she only occasionally talks about things at home, and most of it is about the boring days spent in the Kyoto mansion.

  Fan Xian's fingers lightly brushed across the letter paper, a hint of worry on his handsome face.

  The letter was written in my sister's somewhat childish handwriting, and it described her recent life in Kyoto, where she had entered a school for young women from noble families, and everything seemed to be going along the track that people like her were supposed to follow in this world.