Fang Zilan stood up suddenly, "What's wrong with Awan?"
"Miss Awan...is crying." Deputy General Cao touched the back of his head at a loss. Fang Zilan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I know, I'll go see her."
When Fang Zilan went to see Awan, she had already plucked out one of the flowers in the courtyard, from petals to leaves, not a single one was left.
Seeing this, Fang Zilan couldn't help but laugh. Before she could say anything, she saw Awan's hand reaching to the next flower, pulling off a few petals quickly and hard.
"A Wan, even if you plucked all the flowers in my courtyard, your master will still be punished, why bother?" Fang Zilan sighed longly, A Wan sniffed and said harshly: "I'm happy. "
"Oh." Fang Zilan responded perfunctorily, "Okay, you can pull it. After you pull it, remember to calculate the money with the housekeeper, and make it up to the accountant tomorrow, and have someone buy a new one to replace it."
"You..." Awan turned around and stared at me with red eyes, "You actually want to settle money with me?"
"Otherwise?" Fang Zilan raised her eyebrows, "The flowers in this courtyard were purchased with the help of King Yucheng when he moved to the palace. They are very valuable. Even if it is just for the sake of appearance, I have to provide them well."
"As an offering?" Awan sneered, "When you planted chrysanthemums before, didn't you just pull them out? I've never seen you treasure these flowers."
Fang Zilan coughed and changed her voice: "Why are you crying? Old Cao was shocked."
Awan curled her lips and said nothing. Fang Zilan took a petal from her hand and said, "If you are really worried about your master, you might as well go and visit."
"I have no face to see Master." A-Wan lowered his head and said, "I was the one who helped you to cover up your lies, and it was I who didn't intercede for Master. I really am not worthy of being Master's disciple..."
"Awan, you don't need to blame yourself." Fang Zilan said softly: "You are trying to protect yourself, and your master is also trying to protect himself. It's no different. Your master has hidden so much from you, does he have the nerve to see you? "
"What are you talking about? He is my master!" Awan retorted anxiously. Fang Zilan smiled and said, "It's good that he is your master, but he did not do what a master should do."
Awan was confused and frowned: "What do you mean?"
"You are by my side now. He knew that if the incident happened, you would be implicated, but he chose to hide it from you." Fang Zilan said with an indifferent expression: "As a teacher, it's enough if you don't protect your own disciples. How can you protect your own family?" What’s the point of pushing an apprentice into a pit of fire?”
Awan tilted her head in confusion and said, "You mean that master should at least inform me in advance?"
"Yes." Fang Zilan nodded, "If this matter only involves him, he will have nothing to say as a bystander. But since you may be implicated, you should have the right to know."
Awan lowered her eyes and thought for a moment, "Maybe Master didn't think so much? How did he know that I would be implicated? It's not like I didn't..."
"You were not punished because I left you out from the beginning." Fang Zilan shook his head helplessly, "With the young master's temper, even if he was suspicious of my words, he would not pursue it further in that case. .”
A Wan drawled unhappily: "According to your statement, how much more do I need to thank you for?"
"It's not necessary." Fang Zilan shrugged, "As long as you have the intention."
"You..." Awan was choked by Fang Zilan and was speechless. After a while, she said: "You are so thick-skinned."
Fang Zilan said thoughtfully: "Maybe. But your master didn't take care of you, probably because he entrusted you to me."
Hearing this, Awan suddenly remembered what the master said when he checked Fang Zilan's pulse that day. She lowered her head and said in a muffled voice, "Fang Zilan, do you think the master doesn't want me anymore?"
Fang Zilan was stunned, then reached out to cover the top of Awan's hair and rubbed it gently, "I won't let you go..."
"Who believes you?" A Wan raised her hand and waved away Fang Zilan's hand, saying angrily: "You clearly know that I am afraid, but you still leave me alone..."
The more she spoke, the softer her voice became, and the sound behind her was covered by sobs, making her almost inaudible.
Fang Zilan put her arms around Awan's shoulders, patted her back, and comforted her: "It's my fault."
Although she knew that Ji Ningtian's suspicion could be minimized by keeping A Wan behind, but she could not tell A Wan this reason.
Be it selfishness or extravagant hopes. She always hoped that Awan could be more carefree.
After an unknown amount of time, Fang Zilan stopped and chuckled: "Okay, don't cry anymore. People will see you later and think I bullied you."
"It is." Awan raised his head, calmed down his emotions, and asked tentatively, "Do you think, if I go to visit Master, will he be angry and kick me out?"
"No." Fang Zilan said resolutely: "Wen Ya has a very good temper. He will not chase you away. He will scold you for a few words at most."
Awan was so angry that she stamped her feet, "Can you comfort people?" She turned around and ran away.
Fang Zilan did not catch up, but just looked up at the sky. The stars were shining brightly and the moon was bright. It would be a good weather tomorrow.
*
For a whole month after that, Fang Zilan was busy organizing various official affairs in the government office, and she didn't even have a day to rest.
The end of the year is approaching, and the annual report from the southeast is about to arrive in Beijing, and the government office is very busy. However, at this juncture, King Yucheng sent out flower notes to rehearse the New Year's social drama.
Fang Zilan will not rehearse the New Year's social drama this year, but several new young men from aristocratic families in her office are among them, and they cannot shirk it.
Therefore, Fang Zilan had to rearrange his official duties and let the young masters from the aristocratic families go away for two hours every day. Fortunately, they were all sensible people and never neglected their duties on the pretext of rehearsing a social drama. They did a good job in the official duties at hand, so she let them go as long as a moment was lost.
However, her behavior of turning a blind eye still aroused the dissatisfaction of some elderly people in the government office. In desperation, she beat them with kindness and power. First, let’s talk about how the new little adults never cheat and how well they handle official duties. Then, let’s talk about the hard work of the elders. As the new year is approaching, everyone should work together to ensure that the coming year goes smoothly...
After struggling like this for several times, the government office was finally at peace, and Fang Zilan could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Occasionally she would think that when Zhuge Yu was still in the government office, he didn't seem to have so many things going on. She heard that after he went to the Ministry of Personnel, he had been pushing for reforms in the administration of officials, and she didn't know how it was going.
In the afternoon of that day, Fang Zilan sent away several young adults who came to greet her and went to rehearse the social drama, and planned to find last year's farmland records to compare with this year. Unexpectedly, as soon as she walked to the door of the treasury, she heard someone chatting inside.
"Have you heard? The daughter of Prime Minister Fang's family is getting engaged again."
"Which daughter, second lady or third lady?"
"As I said, of course it's the second young lady. The third young lady is a concubine, how can she get engaged before the second young lady?"
"But I heard that the third lady is frail and sick, so she vowed not to marry. She will serve the Bodhisattva in the future."
"Who knows, this second young lady is also unlucky. She was engaged to Fang from the Fang family before, but she ran away from the engagement. This time it's with the Pei family again..."
"Pei family? Who is it?"
"Who else can it be? Of course it's the one who was in our government office before and has a maid hidden in his house."
"Why did the second Miss Fang fall in love with him? Do you think it was because the eldest daughter of the Fang family was destined to marry so hard that she suppressed the marriage of the two younger sisters? That's why..."
Hearing this, Fang Zilan coughed, walked over, and said solemnly: "I don't know, you two adults are so gossipy?"
