Jiang Suizhou looked at him, somewhat stunned and speechless for a while. Qi Min showed him no mercy, and after a glance at him, he flicked his sleeve and said, “How can Your Highness give away the efforts of your colleagues in the Ministry of Rites for the sake of your dignity?!”
After saying that, he stalked off without a backward glance.
Jiang Suizhou returned to his senses.
…He did not expect that the speculation he deduced in the courtroom just now was actually true.
Although Jiang Suizhou seemed to be just an idle prince, those silent ministers in the court imperceptibly regarded him as their backbone. Qi Min’s rebuke totally confirmed his suspicions.
Seeing that Qi Min was about to walk away, Jiang Suizhou took two steps to catch up with him and hurriedly spoke.
“Does the Minister of Ceremonies think that I only did that for my own dignity?” he countered solemnly.
Having confirmed this, Jiang Suizhou knew that at this moment, he definitely couldn’t stay silent or do nothing.
All ministers who joined factions had purposes. They secretly gathered under his command, and even got Qi Min involved in the muddy water. Eight out of ten, their goal was to fight against Pang Shao.
Jiang Suizhou still had three years to spend with these people. If he didn’t pacify them, he would die in the court battle before Huo Wujiu could chop his head off.
So…
What he had to do now was to fool them.
Take this Qi Min for example. Although he was a three-dynasty veteran minister and the respected Minister of Ceremonies, in the end, he was only an official in charge of the rituals of the ancestral temples. This kind of high-ranking official, though high in position, had no real power. If he conducted himself upright, he should not have engaged in any power struggle to secure personal gain.
People like him were quite scary.
Sure enough, Qi Min paused when he heard Jiang Suizhou’s words and slowed down.
Seeing this, Jiang Suizhou sneered and put on an unfathomable tone.
“The Grand Minister over the Masses openly manipulated His Majesty in the court today to compete with me. Do you think he isn’t capable of doing other tricks in the future?” He said, “The construction of the ancestral hall concerns the clan ancestors. If something happens here, this is not something you and I can afford.”
As expected, Qi Min did not make another sound.
Jiang Suizhou gave a faint smile, quickened his pace, and brushed past him. “Minister, my plan isn’t to save my dignity,” Jiang Suizhou said. “Rather, it’s to protect all your lives.”
——
He left such a meaningful sentence and walked away without looking back.
After all, leaving the rest unsaid and giving him room to ponder and speculate would bring out the best effect.
Not to mention he was still a conservative old man.
When Jiang Suizhou got on the carriage waiting outside Kaiyang Gate, he secretly peeked back and saw Qi Min standing in front of the Zhengyang Gate, looking solemn and pensive.
…He truly fooled him.
Jiang Suizhou couldn’t help but smile a little.
Although he was now at a dead end with wolves in front and tigers behind, he found pleasure in this adversity…It was pretty exhilarating.
For example, he bluffed to the famous loyal minister and let the old man go. The minister probably wouldn’t eat well for several days because of Jiang Suizhou’s ambiguous words.
This feeling was quite marvelous.
Although he originally chose to stay in school just to try to be an idler disguised as a high intellectual, studying history was his hobby.
After all, his family had been chaotic since he was a child. His father relied on what little money he had to change wives more frequently than changing cars. There were not only many children in the family, but each also had their own mothers. Those children had cherished their childhood, but Jiang Suizhou was rather miserable. He was too quiet and uncommunicative.
Whenever his father’s other children played court schemes at home, Jiang Suizhou hid in his room alone to read books.
But when all was said and done, books were books and were nothing more than words. Now, he could see those characters in history books thousands of years ago, walking to and fro in front of him. It seemed… quite intriguing.
Jiang Suizhou has always been very good at finding the silver lining in things.
So he put the curtain down in high spirits and sat back.
As the carriage set off, he looked at the scenery outside through the floating brocade curtain while devising plans deep within.
He must not neglect the main ministers of the dynasty, but above all, there was still Huo Wujiu in his manor. He has traveled from the future and had read enough ‘spoilers’ to know that no matter how much they fought against it, the dynasty would still perish, and the country would be destroyed after three years.
Since this was the case, there was no point in fighting Pang Shao to death. Therefore, Jiang Suizhou just needed to appease and fool them enough to get through these three years.
The carriage rocked as it wandered through the wide streets of Lin’an, turned around Qinghe Square and finally stopped in front of Jingwang Manor.
Jiang Suizhou got off the carriage and headed to Anyin Hall where he was staying.
He was an idle official, and he also didn’t have to go to the government office to work today after attending the Grand Court Assembly. He wanted to rush to Jingwang’s study to go through the letters and folders in his room to get a better understanding of everything.
But at the entrance of Anyin Hall, a sobbing maid stopped him.
“…Your Highness!” The maid looked exquisitely dressed and must have been someone’s personal maid.
“Madam Gu was wronged this morning and is crying at this moment. Please be the judge, Your Highness!”
Jiang Suizhou was stunned.
…Who’s Madam Gu?!
He frowned and asked solemnly, “…What happened?”
The maid answered, “This morning, the new Concubine Huo moved courtyards and happened to run into My Lady. My Lady just casually chatted with him, but he raised his hand against her. He injured My Lady!”
Jiang Suizhou’s relaxed expression stiffened little by little with the maid’s report.
…He did not expect that the original owner had other concubines in the harem in addition to marrying Huo Wujiu.
It was even more beyond his imagination that a man would fight a woman in his manor.
