Given the circumstances at the time, Chu Lan couldn't easily trust anyone, even Yuan Zhengqin, the magistrate, Chu Lan couldn't entrust himself to him.
Compared to that, Fan Chengxu was somewhat more trustworthy.
Because Fan Chengxu was more of an outsider, Chu Lan didn't know what Fan Chengxu's family, the Fan Family, was planning, but Fan himself was an anomaly. From their school days, he was someone who spent all day thinking about how to make money.
Although Fan Chengxu studied with many princes, he never got close to any of them, preferred not to get involved in any conflicts, and was not close to Chu Lan either.
There was a time when Chu Lan, Fan Chengxu, and the other princes who went to school together played a game of riddles, each using a pseudonym. Cuiping was the pseudonym Fan Chengxu used at the time, and Zongyu was Chu Lan's.