Chapter 67 Fan Quan
When Lu Songli arrived at the main courtyard, she told her father her guess.
"Fan Quan?" Lu Desheng slapped his thigh, fearing that this was it!
"The emperor knows this Fan Quan." He didn't take this matter seriously at the time, but now it seems that he was careless.
Lu Songli raised her eyebrows. How could Fan Quan report to the emperor so quickly?
Jiang listened for a while and saw that the father and daughter were discussing important matters in the hall and did not move to the study, so she took a basket and sat outside the gate, doing needlework, and guarding the door to prevent eavesdropping.
It was winter, and Chang'an was already very cold. The corridors of the Lu family's several residential courtyards were hung with straw curtains to block the wind. Plus, there was a fire pot at her feet, so she didn't feel very cold sitting in the doorway.
Just then, Chen Rong brought in the collected information.
Money talks, and what Lu Songli ordered wasn't difficult. Furthermore, this debate was held in the public eye, and as the champion of four consecutive contests, Fan Quan's every word and action attracted the most attention. His brilliant arguments and novel perspectives naturally prompted others to record his words and actions. While compiling them into a book would take some time, Lu Songli and his daughter didn't mind looking at the original manuscript.
The more Lu Desheng looked, the more his brows furrowed.
Lu Songli read faster than her father. She finished reading it for the first time very quickly, and then read it for the second time. By the time she finished reading it, she could basically see the problems in it.
"Dad, look, doesn't Fan Quan's defense have the style of your early years?"
Her father was a master of sophistry. When impeaching others, his angles and directions were always strange and unexpected, always using the right approach to achieve victory. Fan Quan was like a junior version of Lü Desheng.
"Yes, that's it. I was wondering why this argument didn't look right." He also felt something was wrong when he saw it. After his daughter reminded him, he realized that it was the familiar feeling that came over him.
Family members know their own business, if he hadn't really accepted any disciples. Fan Quan's style of arguing was exactly the same as his own, and he thought this was his own disciple. In fact, it's not that no one has come to surrender over the years, but for some reason, Lu Desheng subconsciously didn't want to accept him. He originally thought he was afraid that the apprentice would starve to death. Later, his daughter analyzed with him the simplest and most effective way to bring him down, and he came to his senses. Why was he so reluctant to accept a disciple in the first place? Because if he accepted a disciple and taught him, he would be courting death.
"Dad, there's something really wrong with Fan Quan. Our speculation should be correct."
Lu Desheng also thinks so.
Whether Fan Quan was able to perform so well on the Hongsheng Restaurant debate stage, whether by imitation or stealing, it at least showed that he understood his father very well. And to emulate his father, one must have a model. Information on his father is difficult to gather, given the vast time span. Fan Quan's ancestral home is Longquan, a small town outside Chang'an. He wasn't even from Chang'an, and the Fan family was just an ordinary gentry family. He shouldn't have been capable of such skill.
This information really confirmed her suspicions. Fan Quan's sword dance was aimed at her father, the Duke of Pei.
Just as Lu Desheng and Lu Songli were about to continue the discussion, Lu Mingzhi came in.
"Dad, Mom, Second Sister, I'm back."
Lu Songli asked him to sit down, and then asked him, "Mingzhi, do you know your senior brother named Fan Quan?"
Lu Mingzhi blurted out, "He is intelligent and knowledgeable, has strong thinking ability, is very eloquent, and has profound knowledge."
"Anything else?"
"His ancestral home is in Longquan Town, and his family is quite well-known locally."
The information collected by Chen Rong also mentioned this point.
"Oh, Dad, Second Sister, Senior Brother Fan said he wanted to come visit Dad." When Lu Mingzhi noticed that his father and second sister were looking at him after hearing this, he was startled and said quickly, "But I refused."
You big breather!
The father and daughter looked at each other, and sure enough, this was one step closer to their guess.
"Mingzhi, don't you admire your Senior Brother Fan? Why did you refuse him when he wanted to visit you?"
Lu Songli could clearly sense that Lu Mingzhi had expressed admiration for his senior brother, Fan Quan, before going on the date. Logically, his request wasn't excessive, and her brother should have agreed. But he didn't, so she became curious.
He didn't know how to answer his second sister's question. It was common for fellow apprentices to visit each other's homes, but Lu Mingzhi couldn't explain why he felt a strong resistance. But the other party kept pestering him, asking indirect questions several times, and the others followed suit. He got impatient and asked, "Why?" The two of them parted ways unhappily. But the rest of the story is needless to say; it was embarrassing.
In fact, his temper is not that good. He is very serious about certain issues. He is more restrained in front of his family and rarely puts himself in a difficult position outside.
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After hearing her brother's inner thoughts, Lu Songli sighed. He had inherited their father's beastly instincts. She had unraveled the mystery, relying on her calm mind to discern the issues surrounding Fan Quan and the Hongsheng Restaurant. Meanwhile, her brother relied on his intuition to avoid danger. What a remarkable inheritance!
What Lü Songli didn't know was that later in the novel, after the original owner died, Lü Desheng realized something was wrong and was gathering information to avenge her when Fan Quan appeared. Her brother Lü Mingzhi admired Fan Quan very much, and Fan Quan also said that he admired Censor Lü very much and wanted to pay him a visit. Her brother then introduced him to his father.
In the original novel, Lü Mingzhi wasn't that perceptive. This can only be described as the butterfly effect.
The father and daughter continued their discussion. Lu Mingzhi did not leave but sat beside them. The two of them did not say anything and wanted him to participate, even if it was just to listen.
At this time, the father and daughter speculated on the next actions of the Xie and Zhao families based on the method she had proposed to get rid of her father's political enemy.
The fire between these two families was so fierce that Lu Songli estimated that the preparations were almost complete and they were very close to making their move.
According to what she had reminded her father before, her father had already reached a preliminary consensus with Emperor Kang Cheng in private that he would not be promoted and would keep him in the position of fifth-rank censor.
In fact, if Emperor Kangcheng really wanted to promote her father, it was not impossible. The position of Chief Censor in the Censorate was very good. He was still a Censor, but his rank was one level higher.
If Zhou Chengzhong knew about this, he would definitely cry out, "Who did he offend? His position would be in jeopardy."
She thought so, but Lu Songli felt that Emperor Kangcheng would not do so. The Imperial Censor was the head of the Imperial Censorate, and Emperor Kangcheng knew her father's character. One such Imperial Censor was enough for the court. If there were more, the emperor would probably have a headache.
So, their plan to remove her father from the position of Censor was no longer feasible. Now, they had to deal with Fan Quan, the "knife" prepared by the Xie and Zhao families. They had already passed this hurdle.
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