Great Song Super Scholar

Chapter 402 Mansion Expansion
Fan Ning came out from the bamboo grove and said with a smile, "I said last night that I like your words the most. Good news always makes people happy."

Zhu Pei's pretty face flushed, but she didn't know where she was thinking?
She lightly pinched Fan Ning's arm, and said excitedly: "Just now the housekeeper told me that the mansion next door is going to be sold!"

This news made Fan Ning very happy. The layout of his house is beautiful, but it is not practical. The main reason is that it is very inconvenient to go upstairs and downstairs, and the back house is too small. It is inconvenient, let alone relatives and friends, who can only live on the side of Furong Lane, and it will be criticized after a long time.

He has long wanted to buy the next door. The next door is Consort Wu's house, but it is not the main house. It is basically closed and covers an area of ​​ten acres, which is two acres larger than his own house. The building can be directly transformed into an inner house.

This news really cheered people up, and Fan Ning quickly asked, "Where did the news come from?"

"Their butler came today. The butler came here to send a message. If we want to buy it, we can sell it to us first."

"Then how to contact, did you tell me?"

"Their housekeeper is still there, why don't we go and have a look together."

Fan Ning nodded, and happily said, "Go and see!"

The couple brought sword plums and came to the gate next door. The door was ajar. Fan Ning opened the door. Like their house, there was a wall of screens facing them, but it looked ordinary, with only four engraved words of "Drinking Water and Thinking of the Source". I don't know what the meaning of this big character is. I guess it's part of gratitude for the emperor's kindness. It's the son-in-law's house!

"Is anyone there?" Fanning asked aloud.

After a while, a middle-aged man in his fifties came out from behind the screen wall. Judging by his attire, he should be the housekeeper.

"It turned out to be Fan Zhiyuan, please come in quickly!"

The news from the Wu family was fast enough, and he had only been in office for a few days, and they shouted smoothly. Fan Ning nodded with a smile, "I heard that the mansion here is intended to be sold, so let's take a look."

"You're welcome, my master said that as long as Fan Zhiyuan likes it, the price is negotiable."

"Then trouble the compound."

Fanning entered the gate, Jupe took her husband's arm, and they walked around the screen wall to the courtyard.

Concubine Wu's mansion is exactly the opposite of Fan Ning's mansion. It is a standard three-entry plus side courtyard structure, with very little open space and many houses, basically no two-story buildings.

There is an old apricot tree in the atrium, which has a history of at least a hundred years. The trunk is thick and the body is vicissitudes of life. .

Fan Ning stepped forward and patted the Taihu Stone, feeling a little disappointed in his heart. At first glance, he knew that it was a man-made Taihu Stone, and the traces of chiseling were still faintly visible.

Fan Ning shook his head secretly, if this house is bought, the blue coral can stand here.

"Husband, let's go to the inner house to have a look!"

Fanning smiled and led Jupe to the inner house.

The inner house of the Wu Mansion also has no special features. There are only three yards, covering an area of ​​about three acres. Each yard has a small landscaped garden. The whole house is about [-]% new and needs a little repair.

"It seems that no one lives here?" Fan Ning turned around and asked the housekeeper.

"Ten years ago, we lived here in the Yamen. Later, they bought a house and moved to the inner city. This place has been vacant."

Fan Ning nodded, "Please go back to the compound and tell your master that I have decided to buy this house and ask him to quote a price. If there is no objection, we will close the deal."

"Okay! I'll tell the master when I get back."

Fan Ning left the Wu Mansion with Zhu Pei, and Zhu Pei asked, "Is your husband interested in this house?"

Fan Ning couldn't help laughing, "I didn't fancy this house, but this piece of land. I'll find a master house builder and ask him to think about how to put these two houses together?"

"Don't look for it now, you have to pay the money. After the house belongs to us, we will make a fuss."

Zhu Pei asked again: "How much does my husband think this house is worth?"

"I guess it won't be higher than [-]."

"No way! I heard that the price of houses has risen rapidly in the past two years, especially this kind of big houses, which are at least [-] yuan or more."

"That's the price in the inner city. We're in the outer city. Besides, people call me Fan Zhiyuan. Do you think the Wu family will still sell it at a high price?"

"You mean, the Wu family gave us favors?"

"A little bit. Of course, I guess they need money themselves. Selling to others is also selling. Selling to us requires personal favors. We don't take advantage of the Wu family. We will pay whatever the market price is."

As soon as the two of them walked back to the gate of their house, the housekeeper came up to her and said, "Officer, an official surnamed Li came to look for him and said he was your subordinate."

Fan Ning immediately thought of Li Weizhen, he nodded, and then told the housekeeper, "Go and have a look, buy a copy of today's "Chaobao" and "Taboli"."

"I'm going right now!"

Fan Ning walked into the mansion, walked through the woods, and saw Li Weizhen. He was standing in front of Cuiyun Peak admiring the No.1 stone in the capital.

Fan Ning stepped forward and smiled, "Why isn't Li Jiansi resting at home today?"

Li Weizhen smiled wryly, "I was resting at home, but I just got a message and rushed to inform Zhiyuan."

Li Weizhen lowered his voice and said, "Xue Zongru is dead!"

Fan Ning was taken aback, "What's going on?"

"Last night, he hanged himself in prison, and Dali Temple concluded that he committed suicide in fear of crime."

Fan Ning frowned, and asked again: "Do you think it's possible?"

Li Weizhen sneered and said, "Xue Zongru was a well-known playboy when he was young. He was greedy for life and afraid of death. He would not commit suicide. Besides, it's not a serious crime. He came back after a few years of exile. If Ouyang Xiu told him I don’t believe he committed suicide, and I heard that he recruited Jia Changchao and Zhang Yaozuo during his interrogation yesterday.”

Fan Ning knew in his heart that Xue Zongru should be silenced, and it is estimated that the emperor will not pursue it any more, and the case is over in this way.

"Any news from the Tabloid?" Fanning asked again.

Li Weizhen nodded, "It is said that the "Tabolo" accepted a fine of [-] guan, but it is determined not to apologize. It is understandable, how could the Qian family apologize to Ouyang Xiu."

This result was within Fan Ning's expectation. The Tabloid is trying to blackmail Ouyang Xiu these days, not because the Qian family supports King Langya, but because the Qian family has a grudge against Ouyang Xiu. When Ouyang Xiu compiled the history of the Five Dynasties, he commented on the harsh punishments imposed by the Qian family in Wuyue. The harsh laws and cruelty to the people aroused great dissatisfaction from the Qian family, who believed that Ouyang Xiu was fabricating facts and distorting history.

There is even such a record in "Spring and Autumn of Ten Kingdoms" that Ouyang Xiu once loved a prostitute very much, but this prostitute was occupied by Qian Weiyan, which made Ouyang Xiu deeply hate Qian.

In fact, Ouyang Xiu offended quite a few people. He promoted literary reform and offended a large number of conservative literati. The disciples of these conservative literati all lost their names because of Ouyang Xiu taking several imperial examinations.

Even the relationship between Bao Zheng and him is bad. Ouyang Xiu has always criticized Bao Zheng for his lack of talent and learning, and only relying on fame to get promoted. Although Bao Zheng and he both support Zhao Zhongshi, their relationship is very cold.

This is the main reason why Ouyang Xiu was framed by the censor Xue Zongru this time, while Bao Zheng, the censor Zhongcheng, looked on coldly.

So with the arrogance of the Qian family, how could they apologize to Ouyang Xiu.

"I know about this matter. We have a clear conscience. This case is closed. You can go back and rest! We will sort out other cases tomorrow."

"Farewell to that humble job!"

Li Weizhen saluted and left in a hurry.

Not long after, the housekeeper walked into the atrium with two newspapers and handed them to Fanning, "This is the newspaper that just came out today, please have a look at it!"

"Thank you!"

Fan Ning took the newspaper and walked towards the inner house. The first thing he opened was "Chao Bao", which was more serious and orthodox, and generally reported the important government affairs of the court that happened yesterday.

The news on the front page was that Liu Yun, the left servant of the Ministry of Officials, was demoted. This was indeed a major event, but the newspaper did not discuss the reasons for his demotion in detail. There was no mention of Ouyang Xiu, or even Xue Zongru.

Fan Ning searched for a long time, and only found the news that Xue Zongru was imprisoned and interrogated on the bottom of the second page. It only mentioned Xue Zongru's dereliction of duty, the impeachment of Ouyang Xiu was false, and he was imprisoned by Dali Temple for interrogation.

Finally, Ouyang Xiu was mentioned, but only in a very small place, but the specific content of the impeachment of Ouyang Xiu was not mentioned.

Fan Ning felt an ominous feeling in his heart. Even the more orthodox "Chao Bao" used an ambiguous method to correct Ouyang's name, so can "Tabao" still count on it?

Fan Ning opened the "Tabloo" again, and sure enough, today's "Tabloo" no longer mentioned Ouyang Xiu, but was talking about the top ten famous prostitutes in Tokyo, but he searched all the pages of the newspaper, and there was no news about Ouyang Xiu's redress .

Therefore, how unwilling the Qian family was to rehabilitate Ouyang Xiu. The emperor asked them to correct Ouyang's name, but he didn't say which newspaper they should correct their name in. So they chose "Chao Bao", which had fewer readers, and used a Ouyang's name was corrected by a vague and covert method.

But there was absolutely no apology. They chose to accept a fine of [-] yuan.

"What is your husband sighing for?" Zhu Pei asked from the side.

"I'm lamenting how powerful the manipulation of public opinion is."

Fan Ning shook his head and said to his wife, "Let's go to the third grandfather's house in the afternoon!"

"What are you going to do with him?" Jupe asked puzzled.

"I want to talk to him and see if he can run a newspaper."

(End of this chapter)