Chapter 1143: Visit

According to custom, one did not go out on the first day of the Lunar New Year. Although there were no elders living in the King’s Residence, Qi Haoran still planned to follow this rule and stay at home for a day so that he could take the opportunity to relax.

However, Fan Zijin had no such plans. After breakfast, he brought his two children over to visit.

Knowing that he was avoiding Fan Siwen, Qi Haoran was happy to receive him. However, he couldn’t help himself from speaking sarcastically. When he welcomed Fan Zijin in, he couldn’t help but say, “Fortunately, Ah Ling made a lot of food last night and there’s quite a lot of leftovers. Otherwise, I really wouldn’t have any food to entertain you with.”

Fan Zijin was speechless. “I really didn’t know that you were going to abide by the rule of not killing on the first day of the Lunar New Year and eating the leftovers from the New Year’s Eve. Why don’t I leave now?”

Qi Haoran hurriedly pulled him back and said with a cheeky smile, “I’m just joking with you.”

“I don’t have a daughter and am a miser who doesn’t spend much money. Is that a joke too?” Fan Zijin asked angrily. “If you hadn’t brought up the topic of money, I would have really forgotten. How am I stingy? If I’m stingy, would I be your personal treasury? Would I lend you so much money? Also, why are you assuming that I don’t spend much money simply because I don’t have a daughter?”

Initially, Fan Zijin had wanted to question him after today, but he could not stand Qi Haoran’s foul mouth and thus decided to question him on the spot.

Seeing that Qi Haoran was sweating profusely, Fan Zijin snorted and walked in with a flick of his sleeves.

Qi Haoran hurriedly grabbed Little Bear, who was about to enter too, and asked in a low voice, “How did your Uncle Fan know about what happened this morning?”

Little Bear looked at his father sympathetically. “Tiger Head and the others were comparing their New Year red packets with Little An and Little Fu. They sent a messenger pigeon with a message saying that you gave them a fat red packet, thus accidentally leaked the news.”

Qi Haoran was furious. “Why are these two brats telling everyone everything? What a waste of my two big red packets. Moreover, is this how a messenger pigeon is used? Why are they using a messenger pigeon to send messages when it’s only a few streets away!”

Little Bear continued, “Just now, Little An told me that Uncle Fan and Grandpa Fan looked very grumpy early in the morning. That’s why Uncle Fan brought Little An and Little Fu to our house.”

Fine, so he had bumped into the muzzle of the gun and happened to become a punching bag.

Qi Haoran scratched his head and finally nudged his eldest son. “Go and ask your mother for the Xifeng wine stored in the cellar. Tell her that I’m treating Uncle Fan to a drink. Hurry!”

There were only two jars of Xifeng wine in the cellar. Confiscated from the Great Jin palace, these wine were 20 years old. Xifeng wine that was 20 to 30 years old was the most mellow, fragrant, and strong. There were only a dozen jars that were preserved in top-notch condition in the Great Jin palace. The other jars, which were either old or not as well-preserved, were distributed to the meritors on the spot by Qi Xiuyuan.

Of the remaining jars, Qi Xiuyuan kept three jars for himself and gave two jars to Qi Haoran, two jars to Zijin, and the rest to General Yuan and the others.

Not long after Fan Zijin got his hands on the two jars, Qi Haoran finished them all. However, he kept his own two jars preciously and could not bear to drink them.

Mu Yangling had thought that he would only be willing to drink it when the wine reached 30 years old. When she heard Little Bear say that Qi Haoran was asking for it, she even looked at him suspiciously. Only when she confirmed that this kid wasn’t planning to secretly drink it himself did she take the key and personally go to the cellar to retrieve the wine.

“Why is your father so generous today? Did he anger your Uncle Fan?” Mu Yangling wondered how big a mistake he had made to be willing to take out these two jars of wine.

Little Bear chuckled and told her about what happened this morning, not at all minding that he was exposing his father for having private savings in the interim. He didn’t think that his daddy could hide the fact that he had private savings from his mother.

As expected, Mu Yangling didn’t pay attention to the private savings at all. She only asked curiously, “Why did Tiger Head and Little Lion say that? Your Uncle Fan is usually quite generous to you guys. What does spending money have to do with having a daughter?”

Smiling, Little Bear said, “Uncle Fan has the title of the Jade-faced King of Hell in the Imperial Court now. They say that he’s rich but stingy and keeps a tight leash on the Ministry of Revenue’s money. The amount requested by the various departments was always rejected. In the end, it’s already good enough if the departments can receive half of the amount asked for. In fact, they won’t appeal if they receive at least one third of the amount. It’s really too difficult to get money from Uncle Fan.”

Mu Yangling laughed out loud and was very happy for a while. Then, she said to Little Bear seriously, “Your Uncle Fan is not stingy. If there’s anyone in the world who knows the most about commodity prices, it’s your Uncle Fan. He’s involved in all kinds of industries and is an official of the Ministry of Revenue. Since he didn’t reimburse them the exact amount they asked for, it means that those people’s declarations are exaggerated.”

“Speaking of which, your Uncle Fan is much more tolerant than your father. Based on how he refuted one-half or even two-thirds of the claims, it can be seen how bloated those figures are. If it were your father…” He would probably order to have them killed before dispensing any funds.

“That’s why you’re not allowed to say such things again. Be careful that your father finds out the reason and beats you up.”

Little Bear didn’t expect there to be so many twists and turns. He couldn’t help but frown. “Then if the auditor isn’t as brilliant as Uncle Fan, wouldn’t he be fooled by those officials?”

Mu Yangling said with a smile, “Not everyone can audit these things in the Ministry of Revenue. The Ministry of Official Personnel Affairs and the Imperial Censorate are not to be trifled with either. They’re just not as stringent as your Uncle Fan.”

When Mu Yangling personally delivered the wine to the two of them, Fan Zijin was drinking tea with his legs crossed. Qi Haoran was sweating profusely as he explained that he really didn’t teach the children to say those things. As for why Tiger Head and Little Lion said that, he really didn’t know.

Fan Zijin snorted and calmly expressed that he was petty, so he asked Qi Haoran to repay the debt he owed. After a while, he asked Qi Haoran, “Why can’t I spend money just because I don’t have a daughter?

Seeing that their father’s forehead was sweating, Tiger Head and Little Lion felt sorry for him and ran forward to explain, “My father said that he needed to prepare a lot of dowry for our younger sister. Every year, he spends a lot of money to buy things and store them.”

“My mother said that families with daughters do this. They have to prepare dowry for their daughters since they were young.” Little Lion added, “Half of our family’s money has to be used to prepare dowry for Sister.”

“Second Uncle, since you don’t have a daughter, you don’t need to spend money, so you probably hide all your money under the blanket. Considering you’re so petty, how can you bear to give the money to my daddy?” Qi Haoran didn’t have time to cover Tiger Head’s mouth and could only look at Fan Zijin in frustration.

Completely dumbfounded, Fan Zijin looked at the good-natured Tiger Head in a daze and suddenly felt that this kid was too similar to the silly Qi Haoran from more than 20 years ago.

Fan Zijin’s mood instantly improved. He looked at Qi Haoran sympathetically and patted his shoulder. “So he takes after you. In that case, you have a hard time ahead of you.”

With that, he turned around to leave.

Mu Yangling was carrying a wine jar in. When she saw this, she smiled and said, “I’ve already asked the kitchen to prepare food and wine for you. If you leave now, won’t I have worked for nothing?”

Fan Zijin thought about how he didn’t have anywhere else to go anyway, so he turned around and followed Mu Yangling to the reception pavilion.

Qi Haoran had already snapped back to his senses. He glared at his son and followed behind the two of them angrily.

Tiger Head and Little Lion were confused. They quickly pulled Little An, who was also about to leave. “What does your daddy mean?”

Little An looked at Tiger Head sympathetically and said, “My father said that you’re as silly as your father. For your father to raise you into a sensible adult, it’s a massive task, and the path is difficult and long.”

Tiger Head was sad. “I’m not silly. Does my father think I’m silly too?”

Little Lion immediately comforted him. “I’m sure he doesn’t. Daddy was just expressing his indignation. Uncle Fan said that you take after Daddy. Do you think Daddy is silly?”

Tiger Head tilted his head and felt that what Little Lion said made sense. He snorted and said, “I’ll become a great general like Daddy in the future and prove Uncle Fan wrong. Hmph, can a fool become a great general? Can a fool read and write like me and be brilliant in martial arts?”

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