Chapter 14 Inside and Outside the Control Yuan

  He grabbed a clerk passing by, looked at the other's dull face, and Fan Xian felt a little nervous for some reason, but also a bit familiar, as if he had found the unique flavor of Fei Jie Lao, smiled sweetly and greeted: "Hello."

  The owner of that gloomy face also looked at Fan Xian with a very strange gaze, just like the others in the Supervisory Department building. After a while, he finally said: "Hello."

  These two words sound a bit awkward.

  Fan Xian swallowed a mouthful of saliva and smiled: "It's really presumptuous, but... why does everyone keep staring at me?"

  The man burst out laughing, revealing his pale teeth. He found the young man with a faint smile quite interesting and asked in return: "If in a place where no stranger has ever entered, everyone suddenly discovers a stranger, wouldn't they stare at him?"

  Fan Xian suddenly enlightened, then again puzzled, asked: "Isn't this the Supervisory Office? A government agency, has there never been a stranger coming to handle official business?"

  He pointed outside the door and kindly explained: "Look over there."

  Fan Xian took a glance and found that there was no one at the entrance of the Supervision Bureau, and those pedestrians were also detouring to the other side of the street from afar.

  That man burst out laughing, his smile looking somewhat terrifying, the old skin on both cheeks wrinkled together: "People from Kyoto have always been avoiding our yamen, as for official business, our Supervision Office has never handled official business, only handled office affairs. And according to Your Majesty's edict, office affairs are not allowed to be interfered with by other six ministries, so we and other yamen have never had much contact."

  Fan Xian sighed and said: "So that's how it is, I really am a reckless intruder."

  "That person curiously asked: 'Don't you know what our Supervisory Commission does?'"

  Fan Xian replied: "I roughly know a bit." After all, he was the third disciple of Fei Jie, the master of the Third Department of the Imperial Censorate, and had some understanding of the duties of the Imperial Censorate.

  "You still dare to barge in like this." The man shrugged, "Ordinary people would consider this place a purgatory for humans."

  Fan Xian couldn't help but laugh and said: "Maybe I saw Yan Luo when I was very young?"

  The man burst out laughing and patted his shoulder: "Great, great."

  Fan Xian's skin under his right shoulder had some small goosebumps, and he felt that the way this person spoke was similar to those guys on Sun Erniang's clapboard.

  "Is there anything I can help you with?" The man smiled.

  Fan Xian suddenly felt that the other person had turned into a restaurant waiter from his previous life who spoke in a foreign accent. He shook his head, dispelling this untimely distraction, and slipped a small piece of silver from his sleeve into the waiter's hand, asking politely: "Excuse me, is Mr. Fei here?"

  That person was stunned, opened his mouth, but didn't say a word for half a day. Then, Fan Xian discovered that the other's expression was no longer as carefree as before, but had turned into a mixture of respect and fear: "Are you looking for Lord Fei?"

  As he spoke, he flicked his finger with incredible beauty, sending the silver bullet that Fan Xian had shot back into Fan Xian's sleeve. Fan Xian raised an eyebrow, knowing that this move seemed simple but was actually very impressive, at least requiring more than a decade of practice to achieve such accuracy, and only then did he realize that this seemingly ordinary inspector was actually a deeply hidden master.

  Fan Xian nodded and acknowledged that he was looking for Fei Jie, then noticed that the man was vigorously wiping his right hand which had patted Fan Xian's shoulder.

  "Master Fei is not here." The man replied politely, taking a few steps back and creating some distance between himself and Fan Xian, "Master Fei has gone to the border county for inspection."

  Fan Xian slapped his forehead, only to remember that he had heard from Tong Zi Jing that the head of the Supervision Bureau would need at least three months to return home for a family visit. With Fei Jie's lazy temperament, as long as his superior was not around, he would naturally slip away too.

  He told that person to stop bothering him and prepared to leave. Before leaving, Fan Xian suddenly smiled and asked: "What's your name?"

  "This humble official is Wang Qinyuan." The inspector, Wang Qinyuan, seeing the young man with a slightly embarrassed smile dare to come to the Inspectorate alone and even address him directly by his name, thought that he must not be an ordinary person, so he referred to himself as "this humble official".

  Fan Xian knew that the other party had heard him mention Fei Jie, so he subconsciously associated himself with poisonous and dangerous things, which was why he wiped his hands and retreated. He smiled at Wang Qi Nian: "If Lord Fei returns, please inform him that... his student has arrived in Kyoto."

  Fey's student? Wang Qiniang had an urge to cut off his own right hand at this time, secretly scolding himself for his fondness for being indecisive and hesitant. He coughed twice before responding.

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  As he walked out of the Supervision Institute's gate, the sunlight from above filtered through the tall trees on both sides of the road and cast down, with countless leaves' shadows wrapping around Fan Xian's entire body. He walked west for a while, sat down by the railing beside the flowing water, propped his hands against his body, and watched as people came and went in the street, unsure where to go at that moment.

  He didn't want to return to the Fan residence, although there was a gentle and lovely younger sister there. But thinking of Madame Liu, his father, and that little fatty who should be happily studying every day but was now forced to compete with him, his heart felt somewhat uncomfortable.

  Something that belongs to him, he dares to fight for it and won't give up.

  But Fan Xian was actually still unclear, in this world, what things truly belonged to him. After all, he had once experienced another life, and there was always a sense of distance from this world.

  He went to the Supervisory Institute to find Fei Jie, hiding it from his father. Although his father naturally knew that Fei Jie was his teacher, he always felt that Fei Jie seemed even more trustworthy. This might be due to the familiarity brought about by following Old Man Fei around to examine corpses soon after arriving in this world.

  Fei Jie's teacher was unexpectedly not in Kyoto, this fact gave Fan Xian's pre-entry arrangements a small problem. So he was thinking, what should he do next.

  As he thought about these things, he had already jumped down from the railing and started walking back and forth unconsciously. When he passed by the entrance of the Procuratorate again, he noticed that the pedestrians on the road were indeed walking along the right side of the street, avoiding the gate of the Procuratorate, as if they were afraid of the gloomy atmosphere that was seeping out from inside the building.

  He narrowed his eyes and looked towards the entrance of the building, the thin clouds in the sky suddenly dispersed, and the clear sunlight poured down, but his eyes were dazzled by a flash of golden light.

  He rubbed his eyes and looked towards the golden light, only to find that at the entrance of the Supervision Institute, there was a wide stone tablet, like a crouching tiger, squatting on the ground. The material of the stele was made of stone, with some words written on it.

  Fan Xian furrowed his brow, feeling that these few sentences looked somewhat familiar, as if he had seen them somewhere before. He racked his brains, but couldn't figure out where they came from. His gaze moved down, and then he saw the signature.

  That somewhat unfamiliar yet extremely intimate name.