The scale of the princess's mansion far exceeded Chu Fan's expectations. Just the endless stream of servants made him unable to recognize them all for a while.
Su Yang, the attendant on the side, introduced: "Your Majesty, the one you love most is Your Highness the Princess, so you have made preparations for Her Royal Highness's marriage very early. In addition to this Princess's Mansion, there are two manors outside the city. A forest farm for hunting and three horse farms.”
Chu Fan nodded silently.
What he cares about now is not these, but Zhu Guo, which is closely related to his life.
The shorter the lifespan shown in Liuli Zhong's body, the worse his physical condition, and the previous outbreak in the school grounds only exacerbated this.
He didn't show it on the surface, he just didn't want people to see his physical weakness.
In the next few days, he continued to attend various banquets and almost became the most dazzling and eye-catching figure in the capital.
This is of course not because of his status as the top military scholar, but because he is about to marry Princess Longguo, become the consort, and become a member of the royal family.
In Daqian, there is nothing more noble than being a member of the royal family.
In addition to attending to banquets, Chu Fan was also secretly collecting red fruits and various weapon refining materials.
As soon as the news came out that he had won the martial arts championship, the boss of Hengtong Bank personally sent every penny of his winnings to the princess's house.
A congratulatory gift was also included.
The three hundred gold dragon tickets he bet on had become more than a thousand after he won the first try.
In the palace competition, Xia Ying is generally favored by the outside world, and even Cheng Hu and Lu Guanjie are slightly inferior.
As for Chu Fan, no one thought he could win the championship, so Chu Fan's odds were frighteningly high.
So when he won the first prize in the palace and became the number one scholar in martial arts, his bet of more than 1,000 yuan instantly turned into 70,000 gold dragon tickets.
Although 70,000 gold dragon tickets are a huge amount of money, it is obviously not enough to buy a red fruit on the black market, and Chu Fan is not prepared to actually spend money to buy it.
However, as time passed and the wedding day was approaching, the seller in the black market suddenly disappeared.
In the study.
Chu Fan rested his chin on his hand and thought to himself: "That red fruit probably came from something wrong. The other party didn't expect that I could really win the martial arts competition and become a member of the royal family, so they shrank?"
The source of the red fruit is the red fruit tree in the palace, so all the red fruits flow out of the palace, and the one on the black market is no exception.
And those who have access to the red fruit are either rich or noble.
Most of the ministers who are not members of the royal family will not sell Zhu Guo privately, so the seller behind the scenes in the black market is likely to be someone from the royal family.
If the buyer is just an ordinary person, the seller, who is a member of the royal family, does not need to worry too much. However, if the buyer is also a member of the royal family and has the qualifications to approach the emperor and report to the emperor, then the seller will naturally have to weigh it carefully.
After all, Chu Fan is a warrior. It is normal for him to buy Zhu Guo. Even if he buys it on the black market, it is easy to be forgiven. However, if a member of the royal family resells Zhu Guo, the crime is different.
"I was negligent..."
Chu Fan sighed secretly.
He should have expected this before and found out the identity of the seller in advance.
Now that the black market has lost all clues, his only hope is the red fruit that the emperor will reward him on his wedding day.
After calming down his irritability, he took out his notebook and started recording.
'The lifespan shown in the glass seed is only three days left...'
'Although my physical fitness has dropped by about half, I can still bear it. The most troublesome thing is the decline in energy. It is getting harder and harder for me to concentrate now, and I often feel inexplicably in a trance...'
'Maybe this is the true feeling before dying...'
'A sense of urgency that I have never experienced before is growing in my heart, and my irritability and anxiety are becoming increasingly difficult to suppress...'
'I hate this situation...'
After stopping writing, Chu Fan silently closed the notebook.
The feeling of approaching death made him realize a lot, and made him realize his own insignificance and the importance of cultivation.
Dong Dong...
At this time, there was a knock on the door outside the study.
Chu Fan said: "Come in."
Su Yang opened the door and walked in, reporting: "Sir, someone from Zhenbaofang has been sent to ask you when you are free to take a look."
Chu Fan thought for a while: "Now!"
Not long after, Chu Fan came to Zhenbaofang.
After the two parties exchanged pleasantries, the shopkeeper of Zhenbaofang took out an exquisite wooden box, slowly opened it, and then carefully handed it to Chu Fan.
After just one glance, Chu Fan's eyes narrowed: "Sinking water beads!"
Because it was a weapon-refining material that he had spotted before, he recognized the black bead in the wooden box as a 'sunken water bead' at just one glance.
It is said that ‘sunken water beads’ are produced from a very rare clam essence in the sea. The value of the beads varies depending on the year.
Generally speaking, the larger the volume, the older it is and the higher its value.
The 'sunken water bead' in front of Chu Fan is not small in size, as big as a baby's fist, so it can be regarded as a top-quality weapon refining material.
Therefore, even though Chu Fan was always calm, his face could not help but show a strange look.
The shopkeeper, who was the best at observing words and expressions, narrowed his eyes and smiled: "It seems that the number one scholar is very satisfied!"
Chu Fan didn't have much patience at the moment. He directly put away the wooden box and said, "I want the things. You can give me a price."
After pondering for a moment, the shopkeeper stroked his beard and said: "The shop should have offered it to both parties for what the Number One Scholar wanted, but for this bead, a lot of people were lost, so..."
Chu Fan said coldly: "Make a price!"
Seeing that Chu Fan was really impatient, the shopkeeper quickly said: "Fifty thousand gold dragon tickets, no, forty thousand gold dragon tickets."
Chu Fan glanced at the shopkeeper.
The shopkeeper's heart immediately trembled, and he smiled and patted his forehead: "I remembered it wrong, I remembered it wrong, 30,000 gold dragon tickets are enough."
"Give him forty thousand!"
Chu Fan gave instructions to Su Yang beside him.
Su Yang immediately obeyed the order and handed over the 40,000 gold dragon tickets to the shopkeeper.
Chu Fan then said: "You'd better get the other things I want as soon as possible for me!"
The shopkeeper beamed: "Don't worry, the shop will do its best!"
Chu Fan said no more, turned around and left Zhenbaofang.
Like this 'sunken water pearl' in the wooden box, if it were in the Jiuzhou world where weapon refining is popular, it would be a marketable and priceless treasure.
Not to mention Chu Fan, even the elders and deacons of Zhenwu Sect have to try their luck if they want to get one.
Therefore, Chu Fan didn't even need to consider the price of tens of thousands of golden dragon tickets. The reason why he paid 40,000 was because he wanted Zhenbaofang to work harder and collect several other qi refining auxiliary materials that he needed.
arrive.
After leaving Zhenbaofang, Su Yangcai, who had been silent just now, whispered: "Sir, I bought this little bead with a total of 40,000 gold dragon tickets. Is Zhenbaofang trying to blackmail us?"
Chu Fan smiled rarely in the past few days: "I hope there will be blackmail like this every day."
