I am a prince in Zhutian Films

Chapter 43 Missing
The next day, it was near noon.

A horse-drawn carriage drove slowly and stopped in front of the main store of a restaurant.

As soon as I got off the bus, a woman holding a child came running over to promote the Red Mansion.

Li Chengzong shook his head and without saying a word took his younger brother, Fan Wujiu and Zhao Huai'en into the restaurant.

Seeing several people coming in, Lu Jun immediately left the counter and came over to greet them, "Your Highness, the Second Prince is upstairs."

A year ago, those who went to seek revenge on the Feng family all took refuge in the palace. Most of these people went to farm in the farms outside the city. There were not many people left in Kyoto, and Lu Jun was one of them.

Like Fan Wujiu, he wanted to take the imperial examination and become an official.

But the difference is that Lu Jun did not plan to take part in the Spring Examination until he was completely sure.

Most of the time he reads books with Fan Wujiu in the palace, and occasionally comes to the restaurant to help out. He happened to be there today.

"Then Xiao Si and I will go take a look and have a meal. You guys can do whatever you want."

Li Chengzong's principle is to never spend money if he can get something for free.

I brought my younger brother to the private room on the third floor, and there was no one guarding it, so I just pushed the door and walked in.

Li Chengze was seen eating hot pot, while his personal bodyguard Xie Bian was standing beside him holding a sword. His face was no longer as cold as before, but filled with surprise.

Because he only sensed one person just now and did not sense Li Chengzong's breath, which means that Li Chengzong is more powerful than him.

Xie Bian restrained his expression and saluted: "Greetings, Third Prince and Fourth Prince."

"Xie Bian, long time no see."

Li Chengzong casually greeted him, looked at Li Chengze who was just eating hot pot and said with a smile: "Second brother, how come you have time to take care of my business today?"

Li Chengze, who was blanching vegetables, warmly invited Li Chengzong and Li Chengping to sit down and said with a smile, "Third brother is always smart. I wonder why second brother is here?"

Upon hearing this, Li Chengzong immediately understood what the second brother meant.

Shit, didn’t Fan Xian go to Yishiju? Why did he come to my restaurant?

Originally he wanted to watch a show, but Qin Yu made him emo last night, and he doesn't want to see Fan Xian at all recently.

He had come to his own restaurant specially for dinner, but he didn't expect to run into her. He was really impressed.

"It seems that Third Brother has thought of it."

Looking at his two brothers who were playing dumb, Li Chengping was a little confused: "Second brother, third brother, what are you talking about?"

"Your third brother and I were talking about Fan Xian."

"Fan Xian, the illegitimate son that Si Nanbo raised in Danzhou?!"

Li Chengping was shocked and asked, "Is this Fan Xian very powerful? I've heard about him in the palace. I heard that he is going to marry cousin Wan'er and take over the financial power of the inner treasury. Is that true?"

"I don't know if he is very powerful, but it is true that he wants to take over the financial power of the inner treasury."

Li Chengze looked at Li Chengzong who was eating and drinking, and said meaningfully: "Speaking of which, your majesty really trusts the Fan family. He handed over the national treasury to the Fan family, and now he has arranged a marriage between Fan Xian and Wan'er, preparing to let them take over the inner treasury. Your majesty is going to hand over both the national treasury and the inner treasury to the Fan family."

Li Chengzong swallowed the food and said with a smile: "Second brother, you actually want to ask me why I value that illegitimate child so much, right?"

"As expected, nothing can be hidden from Third Brother. You went to the Qing Temple with His Majesty yesterday. Did His Majesty talk to you about this matter?"

Li Chengze took a piece of food with chopsticks and put it into Li Chengzong's bowl, and continued, "I can understand that your majesty values ​​the Fan family, but Fan Xian is just an illegitimate child. Why would your majesty hand over the inner treasury to him? I don't understand, and it's not just me. I'm afraid the entire court can't understand this."

That's true. Except for a few people who knew Fan Xian's true identity, no one in the court could understand Emperor Qing's actions.

How can an illegitimate son who is not even qualified to enter the ancestral hall be qualified to marry a princess, let alone control the financial power of the inner treasury.

Without knowing the truth, it is indeed ridiculous to look at such things.

Li Chengzong shook his head and laughed, "I don't care about what happens in the court, and I'm too lazy to ask. Even if I did, do you think the old man could tell me? I didn't see Fan Xian yesterday, so don't ask me about him. But Second Brother seems to be very interested in him."

"Of course I'm interested. After all, he's my future brother-in-law and will take over the financial power of the inner treasury. So I came here today to see what kind of person he is."

"Second brother, third brother, from what you said, Fan Xian is coming to the restaurant today, let's go and take a look together."

While the three brothers were chatting about Fan Xian, Fan Xian also arrived outside the restaurant.

"There is a restaurant with an interesting name."

Fan Ruoruo smiled and said, "There is a restaurant that is open all over Kyoto Prefecture. This is the main store, the best restaurant in Kyoto. Since Sizhe is the host, let's go to this restaurant. Consider it as an apology to my brother for offending him yesterday."

Fan Xian was stunned and said in surprise: "This is a chain hotel!"

“What is a hotel chain?”

Fan Xian opened his mouth but couldn't say anything. Looking at the restaurant, Fan Sizhe couldn't help but said before him, "Sister, isn't this a little too expensive?"

"You want to host it yourself, no one is forcing you."

"No, sister. I can actually pay a little more, but we have never been here before, so they may not treat us well. It would be very embarrassing then."

"Don't worry, I have a VIP card."

Familiar words that shouldn't belong to this world made Fan Xian stunned again: "VIP card?"

Fan Ruoruo nodded, "There is a main restaurant that only entertains dignitaries and wealthy merchants. They generally do not receive first-time guests. They need recommendations from regular customers. Guests who spend a certain amount of money in the restaurant will be given a VIP card. All consumption in the restaurant can be discounted. Moreover, only guests with VIP cards can order private rooms. The higher the level of the VIP card, the better the private room and the better the service."

"Or is it a tiered membership system?"

"Brother, what does this hierarchical membership system mean?" Fan Ruoruo asked again.

Fan Xian said excitedly, "This is not important. What is important is who is the owner of this restaurant?"

"His Royal Highness the Third Prince of our dynasty."

Teng Zijing, who had parked the carriage, walked over with a hint of respect in his tone.

"It really is this Third Prince."

Fan Xian smiled.

Last night he and Fan Jian talked about the court affairs and why he wanted to marry Lin Wan'er to take over the inner treasury. Fan Jian specifically mentioned Li Chengzong.

From some of the things Fan Jian mentioned, he actually guessed that the Third Prince might be the same as him.

Traveler!
Today, I heard about the rules of a restaurant, and I knew in my heart that the restaurant should be owned by the third prince.

It can be said that he is now 90% sure that the Third Prince is a time traveler, and he just needs to wait to meet him to confirm it.

"Let's go in and take a look."

Just then, the woman selling books came over. "Want some books?"

"Is this book business also run by the Third Prince?"

Fan Ruoruo shook her head: "I've never heard of it."

Fan Xian nodded, and then started communicating with the bookseller.

Then, he asked Fan Ruoruo and the others to go up first, while he went to find someone who was doing the books business.

"Master Fan, please come in."

"Do you know me?" Fan Sizhe was a little confused.

"When the head of the family first opened his residence, he met Master Fan once."

If you call him the head of the family, then he is a retainer of the royal palace.

You know, in certain situations, when the head of the family is not around, the retainers can represent him, and their status is higher than his, the legitimate son of Si Nanbo.

Fan Sizhe's attitude immediately became much more polite: "Meet the shopkeeper, my sister has a VIP card, can we get a private room?"

"Miss Fan's VIP card should be given by the old lady. She can go directly to the top floor."

"No, we'll be fine on the second floor."

Fan Ruoruo shook her head. Thinking that these people didn't know Fan Xian and were afraid that he would be stopped outside, she added, "By the way, my brother will be here soon. Please let me know when he comes."

"I have memorized the image of Master Fan and will not stop you. Please go upstairs!"

Fan Ruoruo was a little surprised, but didn't say anything and followed the waiter upstairs.

When ordering food, Fan Sizhe subconsciously touched his purse and his face changed.

It’s too expensive, he can’t afford it.

He was about to open his mouth to persuade him to order less, but then he suddenly remembered that his sister had a top VIP card, and he felt relieved.

I went straight to the corridor facing the street, stood by the railing and watched the people selling and buying books on the street.

After the wine and food were served, the three waited for a while before Fan Xian walked into the restaurant holding a copy of the Dream of the Red Chamber left by Wang Qinian.

"Is your boss here?"

"Here I am."

"I want to see him."

"This... Master Fan, wait a minute, I'll go ask."

"It's troublesome."

Fan Xian went upstairs to the private room facing the street and asked Teng Zijing to guess who the book seller was.

Naturally, there was some small talk, and when the restaurant owner came down, he happened to hear Fan Sizhe reciting "Guankou".

"Look at this book. It's in very average condition. The printing and plate-making costs less than 3.2 cents, not counting the labor. For every book we sell, we can make a net profit of 7.68 cents. We've sold eight or nine books in just a short while. If we spread out more people, we can sell at least a hundred books a day."

"Well, I say..."

Fan Xian opened his mouth, but Fan Sizhe ignored him and continued, "For one hundred books, we can earn seven hundred and sixty-eight taels. If we manage the time well and publish one volume every fifteen days, that will be eleven thousand five hundred and twenty taels. After deducting the labor cost, we can calculate it at one-third, and we can get a net profit of eight thousand and sixty-four taels. If you publish twelve volumes, that will be ninety-six thousand seven hundred and sixty-eight taels."

"..."

After Fan Sizhe said that it was very simple, the restaurant owner knocked on the open door and said with sincere admiration: "Master Fan is worthy of being the son of Si Nanbo. When it comes to planning, I'm afraid no one in the world can match him."

"The shopkeeper is so impressed."

“I really admire you.”

The shopkeeper shook his head, bowed to Fan Xian and said, "Master Fan, my master said he doesn't want to see you."

"not see?"

Fan Xian was stunned for a moment and asked, "Why?"

"This...I don't know."

Fan Xian thought about it and realized that he seemed to have taken it for granted before.

He guessed that the Third Prince was a time traveler, but the Third Prince didn't know that he was also a time traveler, so it was normal for the Third Prince to not want to see him.

After all, he is a prince, and he is just the illegitimate son of an earl. The difference in their identities and status is too great. If he meets everyone who wants to see him, then the third prince will be very busy.

Thinking of the key point, Fan Xian said directly: "Shopkeeper, please wait a moment. Please make another trip and tell him that I wrote Dream of the Red Chamber. I believe he will be willing to meet me."

"Brother, the Third Prince knows that you wrote Red Mansions."

"Ok?"

Fan Xian turned his head and looked at his sister, his face full of confusion: "He knows?"

Fan Ruoruo hummed, "Not many people know that Red Mansions was written by you, but the Third Prince's biological mother, Concubine Qin, likes to read Red Mansions. She often summoned me to the palace in the past two years, and I told her that you wrote Red Mansions. Although the Third Prince was not there at the time, I am sure that the Third Prince knew about it from some of Concubine Qin's words later."

"Since he knows that the Red Mansion was built by me, why doesn't he want to see me?"

Fan Xian seemed to be asking someone else, or perhaps he was asking himself, and finally murmured, "Could it be that I guessed wrong?"

"Master Fan, do you have anything else to do? If not, I will leave."

Fan Xian came back to his senses and said, "Sorry to bother you, boss. Go and get busy."

After the shopkeeper left, Fan Xian asked again, "Ruoruo, have you met this Third Prince?"

Fan Ruoruo shook her head: "I haven't seen him. This Third Prince rarely shows up and never attends gatherings of famous family children. He is a bit like you, brother. But when he opened his mansion a few years ago, he invited Fan Sizhe, and Fan Sizhe has seen him."

Fan Xian said "oh" in disappointment, with no intention of asking Fan Sizhe at all.

This made Fan Sizhe, who was waiting for him to ask and show off, angry on the spot.

"No, Fan Xian, what do you mean?"

Fan Xian had no time to pay attention to him, because at this moment there was a sudden commotion on the street, so he ran over to join in the fun.

As a result, he found that the melon was eaten by his own head.

(End of this chapter)